Comparison and Contrast of “The Most Dangerous Game” and “The Child by Tiger” Essay

Thesis: In these two stories we observe some of man’s darker nature. We observe two seemingly normal people with dark sides to each of them and will explain how each one is similar and also very different from one another. I. The protagonist, General Zaroff is the main focus of the essay, because of his darker nature and his motivations. A. At first, General Zaroff comes off as welcoming and kind in nature for taking Rainsford in. He gives Rainsford food, clothing and shelter after being lost at sea. B. The man explains to Rainsford that he has been a hunter his whole life and is good at what he does, but he has grown bored of hunting animals. C. He then comes to conclusion that he hunts man because of their strength, courage, and reason. D. Eventually he then forces Rainsford to participate in the game as Zaroff’s game. E. In the end, Rainsford finds his way back to the house and kills Zaroff, leaving him a s â€Å"food for the hounds† II. In the story, â€Å"The Child by Tiger†, Dick Prosser is the main character of the story. A. At first the story comes of praising Dick, almost making him seem perfect. He is a â€Å"deeply religious man† that was very talented in the things he did, and the Shepperton family believed there was nothing he could not do. B. He seems kind at first willing to help in any way he can with the family. Although, throughout the story they explain that there is something off about him. How he moves quietly like a cat, and even though he was deeply religious it seemed very dark and strange. The motivations are unclear from the character and almost unpredictable from the beginning of the story. C. The town wakes up in a panic one night, with word going around that Dick Prosser is on a rampage and has killed several people. D. Town starts a mob that tracks him down through the woods and past the creek. He kills a few more men and runs out of ammunition. He then throws his gun to the side and moves towards the creek. E. The mob shoots him down, over 300 times according to a man who is boasting about it later on in the story. III. General Zaroff and Dick Prosser are both similar in that they both had come off as seemingly normal people, and yet they both had a dark and twisted side to the both of them. A. Dick Prosser comes off as a gentle soul who the children of the Shepperton all trust and gives off the belief that he is a good person. B. General Zaroff at first comes off as a normal man who likes to live in solitude and enjoys the finer things, even being warm and welcoming by inviting Rainsford into his home. IV. They differ more than they compare, even though they both share the same twisted, dark nature. A. General Zaroff seems to live in almost his own mind where he has convinced himself that hunting other human beings as being completely normal. It has become an exciting game and there is nothing that you can see about him that has â€Å"snapped† or has â€Å"gone crazy† He simply wants to hunt something more exciting, whether it is morally wrong. B. Dick Prosser is a colored servant for a white family back in the set time where everything is very racially segregated. He works for a wealthy white family and seems to come off as a goodhearted man who is of good use to the family. Then one night it seems as though he has â€Å"snapped† and unleashes his inner demons on the town, killing many innocent victims. At the end, when the Sheppertons’ go into his room and find the chapter that he has left the Bible on shows that this was most likely pre-meditated. V. In conclusion, although both character came from two different backgrounds and the stories were both very different, they were alike in the fact that they both had darker sides of them that had been unleashed. A. Both stories portray how easy it is for mankind to be dark in nature and to become something monstrous. B. Whether it be planned and turned into a game or on a whim of the dark demons inside of them letting out, they both lived lives of corruption, which in turn, led to their inevitable deaths. Thesis: These two stories show the darker side of human nature, and although someone can seem perfectly normal, they may have a darker side to them that no one would ever expect. In the two stories, â€Å"The Most Dangerous Game† and â€Å"The Child by Tiger†, these two seemingly normal men come off as almost kind hearted and good natured people in the beginning of both stories. Later on, we realize that this is not so, and these two both have more in common than they are different. General Zaroff seems to be very hospitable and helps a man in need when Rainsford comes to his door after being lost at sea. He takes him into his home and feeds him, gives him clothing, and a nice comfortable place to sleep in. In the other story, Dick Prosser comes off as a kind and gentle man who the Shepperton’s claimed was their â€Å"best negro man they’d ever had.† In the beginning of the story, it seems that they have nothing negative to say about him and â€Å"there is little that Dick Prosser could not do.† Dick would teach the boys of the family how to play football or would teach them other handy things, coming off as a role model to the children. Dick Prosser was also a deeply religious man and would read his Bible every day, the children started to notice something odd about him. The way he moved was very quiet and unnoticed, and although he was religious, there was something dark and strange about it. General Zaroff explains to Rainsford that hunting big game animal has become boring to him and he wanted something more exciting of a hunt for him. As he goes on explaining his new quarry, Rainsford discovers that Zaroff is talking about hunting humans. Zaroff explains it is exciting because humans have â€Å"courage, cunning, and reason.† They can think logically and make it a harder hunt for Zaroff, thus far making it more exciting. He then tells Rainsford he want him to be his new quarry and gives him a three hour head start for the hunt. Throughout the three days of hunting down Rainsford he comes across three different types of traps that Rainsford has tried setting up to trap him. Each one fails to trap General Zaroff, but he finds this more amusing then anything and throughout the story he seems to enjoy these traps more because they make it a more exciting game for him. In the story his dark nature is revealed at the beginning with his conversation with Rainsford. The moment Rainsford figures out what Zaroff is speaking about, you see that there is something much darker about him. He is not the normal hunter with good hospitality skills that the story first initiates. He is now a twisted and dark murderer who finds amusement out of hunting down human beings. Throughout the story, Dick Prosser starts coming off as more increasingly strange and almost scary as it progresses. A man in the village hits the Sheppperton’s car and angrily punches Dick in the face. Everyone notices his eyes turn red but he does not hit him back. The gun that he warns the children not to speak about until Christmas morning sends off another warning sign that something is not right. Why would he be wanting to hide that from the family if there was an innocent reasoning behind it? When the sirens go off in the village and everyone is awoken to the warnings that Dick Prosser is on a murderous rampage, the town starts to panic. By that time in the story he is claimed to have already killed six people. The town forms angry mob that chases him down to the creek. Eventually, they catch up to him and he has run out of bullets. He then calmly walks down to the creek, takes off his shoes and sets them aside and gets down on his knees. The mob of angry men shoot him well over three hundred times even though the first shot had likely killed him immediately. Both of these men share the characteristics that they each had a darker, more evil side to them then first expected. The differences between them is that General Zaroff simply had grown bored and wanted something more exciting to hunt. Out of his own selfish needs for entertainment he had decided to start killing human beings for sport. Dick Prosser is a little harder to understand. At first he seems like an all-around good Christian man who wants nothing more than to be of great help to the family. It’s hard to say whether he did it because he had it planned all along from the beginning and he was more evil than good, or if he had simply snapped after a buildup of emotions and went on a murderous rampage. In the story, after running out of bullets, he takes his shoes off and sets them neatly aside, then stands up and accepts his fate. It seemed like this was his plan all along, to do his evil deed then go out with his religious mindset. The family later on finds the Bible left open on Psalm 23:4, â€Å"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Whether he believes that God would have been forgiving of him after what he had done is a mystery. Both of these stories portray that as humans we have a good and evil side and if that balance is upset and evil takes over it can have terrible outcomes. Both of these characters chose the evil side of their good and evil balance and because they lived their lives in corruption, it resulted in their inevitable death. Resources Connell, R. (1924) â€Å"The Most Dangerous Game† Wolfe, T. (1937) â€Å"The Child by Tiger†

Current issue in government contract Essay

The issue is focus on the financial aspect in the company operations. The law is so strict enough in the budget allocated for any accounts which are voluntary. Below is the issue accordingly; auditing the company’s accounts on a voluntarily basis: â€Å"A request from the Secretary General of the Department of Finance to audit, the annual accounts of Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Ltd. I agreed to audit the company’s accounts on a voluntary basis pending the enactment of legislation to put the company and its operations on a statutory footing. The audit, which was completed in June 2001, covered a period from the date it commenced operations on December 10, 1999 to the end of the year 2000. Almost ? 2 million was allocated from the Department of the Taoiseach’s Vote to meet the costs of the company in the initial period. The committee will see from the accounts that something around ? 560,000 of that went to fitting out the offices which were rented in Blanchard town, ? 400,000 went to pay for executive services for the last four months of the year 2000 and ? 313,000 or so went on consultants’ fees (Purcell. http://www. irlgov. ie)†. Corporate governance arrangements, tendering for executive services, fee levels for executive services, credit card expenses and the tax status of the company. I can expand on the specific issues during the course of the examination if the committee so wishes. The main activities of the company during the period of the accounts were developing an architectural and environmental scheme for the company, devising the structure of a competition for the provision of the various facilities on the site and latterly organizing a competition for the provision. In my own opinion of the issue, I could rather say, if the provision issue provides the enhancement of the development of the company’s progress then it is so much advice able to adopt the audit more profoundly. Then continuous monitoring of the results of the issue to the point of view of the rest of the people concerned to either it resulted to a positive outcomes or not. If it has positive outcomes then it would be better to enhance such auditing issue just for the good of the company and all the concern as well. Other Issues â€Å" 1.) A person’s children or other lineal descendants such as grandchildren and great-grandchildren, it does not mean all heirs, but only the direct bloodline. Occasionally, there is a problem in determining whether a writer of a will or deed meant issue to include descendants beyond his or her immediate children. While a child or children are alive, issue refers only to them, but if they are deceased then it will apply to the next generation unless there is language in the document which shows it specifically does not apply to them. This issues looks unfair to the new generation to which no how on how comes they are a part of the problem for infact they just come in existing. 2) n. any matter of dispute in a legal controversy or lawsuit, very commonly used in such phrases as â€Å"the legal issues are,† â€Å"the factual issues are,† â€Å"this is an issue which the judge must decide,† or â€Å"please, counsel, let us know what issues you have agreed upon. † In these issues, as long as it is following the legalities it has to be abided. The judge is the one to promulgate laws that was agreed upon standards. So if it is in my case I don’t need to argue at all though it hurts to accept facts but facts must prevail. 3) v. to send out, promulgate, publish or make the original distribution, such as a corporation selling and distributing shares of stock to its initial investors. I will rather agree to this statement, this is for the reason of visibility to everybody of what was going on the promulgation. There should be participation to everybody’s concern. 4) n. the shares of stock or bonds of a corporation which have been sold and distributed (â€Å"Issue†. http://legal-dictionary. thefreedictionary. com)†. A Problem in Contracts Assurance contracts are a financial technology that facilitates the private creation of public goods and Club goods in the face of the free rider problem. The free rider problem is that there may be actions that would benefit a large group of people, but once the action is taken, there is no way to exclude those who did not pay for the action from the benefits. This leads to a game theoretic problem: all members of a group might be better off if an action was taken, and the members of the group contributed to the cost of the action, but many members of the group may make the perfectly rational decision to let others pay for it, then reap the benefits for free, possibly with the result that no action is taken. The result of this rational game play is lower utility for everyone. â€Å"Assurance contracts operate as follows: In a binding way, members of a group pledge to contribute to action an at least N-1 other members also make the same pledge. If N members sign the pledge (perhaps by a certain expiration date), the action is taken. If the quorum is not reached, the parties are not bound to carry through the action (â€Å"Assurance Contract†. http://en. wikipedia. org)†. â€Å"The binding mechanism may be a contract enforced by a government, a contract enforced by a private organization (e. g. a mediator, a protection agency in an anarcho-capitalist society, etc. ), an escrow organization (in such cases, the â€Å"binding contract† is â€Å"signed† by depositing funds in advance, which are later either disbursed according to the contract, or refunded), etc. Many economists argued that the central planning and bureaucratic directions are necessary to produce public goods. There is at least some types of public good can be produced privately by profit seeking entrepreneurs. A new and more powerful form of assurance contract and discusses, without making rigorous is called a dominant assurance contract. This was contracts that exhibit on the goods or product. There are two problems involved in the production of public goods, the preference revelation problem and the contribution problem. One focus we have for sure is on the contribution problem, how to get agents voluntarily contribute to providing the public good. This will limit the analysis of good, which naturally comes in lumpy quantities, or goods for which we can deduce into an efficient size. If a bridge or road or light house is to built we can probably estimate the efficient size from the information about preferences and technology (Tabarrok, Alexander. March 6, 1996. http://mason. gmu. edu)†. Under this issue we can include the government contracts which were brought to news for publicly seen. A recent decision by the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has potentially momentous consequences for bankrupt government contractors and their creditors. â€Å"That court, with jurisdiction over the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D. C. , the primary place of business for many government contractors, has held that the debtor/contractor filing for reorganization of the Bankruptcy Code is not automatically entitled to continue performing its federal contracts. Instead, the government can obtain permission from the bankruptcy court to immediately terminate such contracts (Government Contracts. 1999. http://www. hklaw. com)†. This decision may result in contractor being forced into liquidation proceedings, with little remaining for its creditors. In my own opinion it is inhuman to say getting all proceeding of the debtor on which nothing left for her living. This means that, the same saying killing the debtor for not paying all the debts. It’s too much contract not giving any pardon to debtor itself. If I were to judge I have to see to it that I can make adjustment prior to both the company and the debtor. There must be equal distribution. Government Contract Commitment to the client and the promise of innovative solutions is the core of Government Contracts Consultants. Government Contracts Consultants is organized as a small woman-owned, SBA certified HUB Zone company organized to meet the ever-growing needs of business by providing creative information technology, administrative and acquisition management support services and training to government and commercial clients. Our areas of expertise included. â€Å"M3 Federal Contract Practice Group, LLC. (M3) works on behalf of Prime contractors, Subcontractors, and International companies doing business with the U. S. Government. M3 is a highly recognized U. S. Government contract consultant firm comprised of subject matter experts that focus on and comprehend every element of the federal procurement field from business development, writing winning proposals, contract management, contract closeout, and claim resolution. M3 Federal is the only company within the federal procurement field that provides an all encompassing teaming solution for any company willing to get into the federal procurement field or that has been in the federal field and has complex procurement issues to resolve. M3 Federal Contract Practice Group specializes in all areas of government contracting and federal procurement including (â€Å"M3 Federal Contract†. http://www. m3federal. com): †¢ Contract Claims †¢ Preparation †¢ Submittal †¢ Resolution †¢ Audits †¢ Qui Tam Actions †¢ Fraud †¢ Bid Protests †¢ Proposal Development DoD Facility Clearances †¢ DoD Personnel Clearances †¢ Intellectual Property Rights †¢ Export Regulation & Compliance †¢ Commercial Contracts †¢ Joint Ventures/Teaming Agreements †¢ Contract Administration †¢ GSA Schedules This are all gives us the background of what covers the entire contract. The overview of this contact will focus on business. Business will be better off if it follows a standard to avail. Conclusion: We have dealt with five issues that differ in many ways. Issues has an act by the Government that goes beyond the terms of a Fixed Price Contract, Cost Type, Cost Plus Award Fee, Research & Development Contract, etc. or any contract termination that has a consequential ripple effect upon the entire contract and/or Contractor, impose a substantial risk to the Contractor and require immediate action by the Contractor to ensure no financial denigration to reputation. In the sense of Government contract it is legal and purposely design to make progress not only the company but also the people at large. It is properly impose so that everybody will understand the agreement agreed upon. But in the case of problem issues it is focusing more often to the people who have not agreed to to their previous contract or might be things they fail to do and the other parties tends to claim and will sewed the debtor for example. Also problems sometimes will come out to be in the case of agreement which was not abided. If I will to make sure that agreement should complied I have see to it , that my opponents could make a written not just verbal agreement to whom I can claim even if problem arise. Reference â€Å"Assurance Contract†. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Assurance_contracts â€Å"Issue†. http://legal-dictionary. thefreedictionary. com/issue Government Contracts. 1999. http://www. hklaw. com/Publications/newsletters. asp? ID=70)† â€Å"M3 Federal Contract†. http://www. m3federal. com Purcell. http://www. irlgov. ie/committees-02/c-publicaccounts/020321/Page1. htm Tabarrok, Alexander. March 6, 1996. http://mason. gmu. edu/~atabarro/PrivateProvision. pdf Sovereign acts by the Government, such as dictating to the Contractor, orally or through un-priced or unsigned modifications are a manifestation that you are working to defective specifications and/or performing added scope work. If any of the following conditions apply to your contract, you may be experiencing lost funds and may be entitled to additional mo whether or not the end item meets contract requirements. Any change in this methodology, not covered by a modification, is a delay to the contract and in many cases is considered added scope work entitling the Contractor to be monetarily Contractor must be aware that a rejection, not supported by a specific contract citation is improper, and that a Contractor is not obligated to perform the work until a citation is given or a modification is made to the contract.

Critically Assess Geert Hofstede’s Use of Cultural Dimensions

ABSTRACT: Along with the trend toward globalization, communication across cultural and national boundaries has a significant effect on business. The Dutch management researcher Geert Hofstede’s work of culture dimensions is regarded as an approach to measure inter-cultural differences to business for scholars and practitioners. However, such a significant work does not escape criticism. Even though his theory consummates to six dimensions based on varies datum and is widely applied by many academics, McSweedney and many specialists assert his work as an absolute assumption.INTRODUCTION: Nowadays, the country boundaries are shaped by the spread of global communication networks and the development of transportation. Because of globalization, countries are tied closer than ever before. Since the beginning of 1970s, scholars such as Geert Hofstede started to notice the importance of cultural differences for many aspects of business life, in particular, when business related to com municate between people with different cultures. Hofstede (http://geert-hofstede. com/dimensions. html) claimed that â€Å"Culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy.Cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a disaster. † Such conflicts are determined by the people’s perception which is partly the product of culture. Therefore, in order to avoid the conflict caused by culture, it is important to recognise cultural differences under global business environment. Hofstede’s cultural framework provides a guideline to recognize the differences between cultures and may improve the inter-cultural communication in business area. However, his work is critiqued by scholars and researchers as an unreliable framework.This essay firstly outline Hofstede’s cultural framework briefly and then apply his theory into practical situation to access whether it can improves the inter-cultural communication in the workplace. Afterwards, it will criti que the limitations based on the literatures opposite to Hofstede’s viewpoint. HOFSTEDE’S MODEL: Geert Hofstede’s work is ground-breaking and he himself is considered as the pioneer and pathfinder in inter-cultural study(Bond, 2002 and Sondergaard 1994). He described his significant research result based IBM employees’ attitudes and work-related values around the world.In the past 30 years, he persists to refine his theory from the previous four to six dimensions: Power distance, Individualism versus Collectivism, Masculinity versus Femininity, Uncertainty avoidance and Long-term orientation, and Indulgence versus Restraint (Hofstede et al, 2010). In his book, each country is evaluated by scores on every dimension, thus people can take an insight into the cultural differences by comparing countries’ scores. Power distance (PDI) is defined as that, to what degree people can perceive the unequal power distribution in a society.PDI scores, deriving fr om value of the less powerful people, indicate the level to which members accept power inequality. A low score demonstrates that members of the society prefer equality; whereas a country has a high PDI score means that people accept large power differences. Individualism versus Collectivism (IDV) is the dimension relating to how people ties to others within the community. Individualism pertains to societies whose members tie loosely and concern about themselves and their immediate family. On the contrary, in collectivistic countries people belong to strong and cohesive group.Masculinity versus Femininity (MAS) refers to whether emotional gender roles are distinct or overlap. In masculine societies men are supposed to behave ‘assertive, competitive and tough’, on the contrary, women are supposed to be ‘modest, tender, and concerned with the quality of life’ (Hofstede, 2010: 140). Uncertainty avoidance (UAI) related to extent to which members handle anxiety w ith ambiguous and unknown situations. Strong UAI Countries maintain â€Å"rigid codes of belief and behaviour and are intolerant of unorthodox behaviour and ideas†.Countries exhibiting weak UAI encourage practice than principles with a more relaxed attitude. Long-term versus Short-term orientation (LTO) deals with which kind of value is fostered. This dimension is based on Bond’s World Values Survey on â€Å"Confucian dynamism†. Long-term oriented countries foster virtues such as perseverance and thrift for future rewards, whereas short-term orientation focuses on rewards in the present and the past, which means particularly ‘respect for tradition, preservation of ‘face’, and fulfilling social obligations’ (Hofstede, 2010: 239).Indulgence versus Restrain is linked to happiness. An indulgent society permits ‘relatively free gratification of basic and natural human drives related to enjoying life and having fun’ (http://geert -hofstede. com/dimensions. html). On the contrary, restraint countries use strict social norms to control gratification of needs and regulates. Application As the world becomes globalized, to remain competitive and minimize conflicts which are the result of ignoring cultural differences, companies should not adopt an ethnocentric management mode to different cultural staff.To minimize these conflicts, many scholars and practitioners utilize Hofstede’s work of cultural dimensions as a means to narrow the cultural gap in business. One reason why his framework is widely adopted is that his data are collected from varies companies and the fifth dimension is based on ‘Confucian dynamism’. Thus, to access its practical applicability to decrease the negative aspect of cultural differences and to elevate cross-cultural communication level, it is important to apply Hofstede’s work into real cases.Since the late 2009, the famous Japanese auto-maker Toyota struggled into an unprecedented crisis due to pedal quality problems which led Toyota to its historical largest recall in the world. The Economist (Feb. 6, 2010) commented that safety recall is a common issue in vehicle manufacture but Toyota changed the order. In the process of managing crisis, Toyota acted according to Japanese culture without taking the American cultural values into account. It can be said that one reason deteriorates the normal recall cars to a crisis is the ignorance of cultural differences.Some literatures analyse the cultural aspect affecting the crisis and group them into two main points (Feng, 2010, Huang, 2010). Firstly, the Japanese management mode and organizational behaviour is different from American. As a result of the Japanese organizational culture, Toyota responded slowly after the accident. It is reported that on American time 28th August 2009, a Lexus ES 350 caused a fatal crash due to the gas pedal was stuck and the car was out of control (Los Angeles Tim es, Oct. 25, 2009). Yet Toyota did not respond to the accident immediately.US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said that documents show that Toyota knew of the problem in late September but did not give response until late January, moreover, â€Å"they knowingly hid a dangerous defect for months from US officials and did not take action to protect millions of drivers and their families† (Thomas, 2010). The second reason is the different communication behaviours between Japan and the U. S. A. In the American hearing and variety interviews, Akio Toyota, the president of Toyota Motor Corporation, spoke implicative, tactful and modest with a large number of modest words without any directly answers (Huang, 2010).In addition, Akio Toyota’s behaviours are understood as hiding the truth by American people. According to Hofstede’s framework, Western culture, represented by the U. S. A. , and such Japanese Eastern culture have significantly differences. The magnitude of the differences has been directly described in ways. See from the figure 1. 1. Figure 1. 1 Japan and the U. S. A It is obvious that there exist large differences between Japan and the United States. One of the most telling to explain the crisis can be the collectivist versus individualist dimension.The fundamental issue related to IDV is the extent of connection between individuals and the group (Hofstede, 1980). From the data provided by Hofstede, Japan, at a score of 46 on a scale of 1 to 100, is a collectivist society, whose group allegiances are strong, cohesive and invoke higher authority. The individuals adhere to the entity and preserve harmony. Thus the Toyota North American office was been called a â€Å"little safety deaf† by LaHood (CBC news, Feb, 2010). The North American office need invoked by the highest authority to handle the accident and the applicable proposal must pass through the whole company.Nevertheless, this system is not adaptable in handling probl ems in America. According to Hofstede, Toyota needs to handle the problem immediately rather than make a long-term agreement. Meanwhile, the high power distance (Japan 54) can be used to analysis the slow response. Japan is a more centralized decision country, and it is therefore all the command should be endorsed by the president of Toyota Motor Corporation, Akio Toyoda. Because only the CEO can respond to the allegations, the response to the event was hauled in respect to the stakeholders living in a country that has only 40 in the index.As mentioned before, the official recall and apologize came four months later after the car accident has been reported. Yet the stakeholders demanded immediate response to the accident from Toyota regardless from the CEO or other representative. Moreover, during the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, in response to why Toyota responded so slow, Toyoda claimed that do not answered directly but reiterates his plan to set up a g lobal commission to address complains more quickly (CNN Politics, Feb. 24, 2010).This phenomenon can adopt Hofstede’s fifth dimension, long- term versus short-term orientation to demonstrate the inevitability of this divergence. Hofstede himself defines long-term orientation as ‘the fostering of virtues oriented towards future rewards' (Hofstede 2010: 239), which means that high long-orientation scores countries (Japan 80) pay more attention to the things that will benefit the future whereas low score countries tend to focus on nearby benefits or rewards. Jealous writes, â€Å"In America, we ultimately judge people on what they are doing today for tomorrow, not for what they did yesterday. (CNN Politics, Feb. 24, 2010). In the hearing, American part were expected that Toyota undertake their obligations by providing continuous plans to the stakeholders. Akio did not account for this and responded indirectly to the solution to the current accident therefore caused Americ ans the disgusted and suspected feeling. Consequently, if Toyota can notice the cultural differences and adopt Hofstede's theory to handle the problem in their American market in the bud, the common recall would not exacerbate American people and became a crisis which will threaten its reputation. CRITIQUE:Culture is deeply rooted in many aspects of business life when people must interact with the people such as suppliers, buyers, employees or stakeholders. The case of Toyota crisis demonstrates that Hofstede’s framework of cultural dimensions is practical to uncover these conflicts in cross-cultural communication. If people could realize the cultural differences concluded by Hofstede and take proper communication style and management mode, the fate of Toyota might be changed. However, the framework cannot act as a textbook to interpret the whole cultural gap even in the case of Toyota crisis.Many intercultural researchers criticized Hofstede’s theory for not providing valuable guiding intelligence or regard it as absolute assumptions. Hofstede did not mention the impact of linguistic on the communication. Different languages and contents have objectively impact on the understanding of the conversation. Take the US-based 3M Company as an example. The company earns $7 billion per year in their overseas market, it become the â€Å"forefront of language instruction by sponsoring an in-house Language Society that provides linguistic and cultural support† to 3M (Frey-Ridgway, 1997).Freivalds (1995) said that the French firm Bull adopted the 3M model to train its employees in the competition of global marketplace and still in success. Language plays an irreplaceable position in the inter-cultural communication. Different types of body languages cause misunderstanding as well. In japan, apology needs humility, in order to be forgiven, Japanese usually avoid eye contact stands for rudeness, offend and provocation, but it would be decoded as disint erest, dishonesty and cunning in western countries (Huang, 2010, Dahl, 2004).Gudykunst and Nishida (1994:2) said that misunderstanding between Japan and American people often â€Å"stem from not knowing the norms and rules guiding each other’s communication†. In hofstede’s model, the data come from the English-speaking company IBM and it is aim to evaluate work attitude and value, this led his theory ignore linguistic and body language difference. Moreover, in the process of communication among Akio Toyoda and the American interlocutor, the stakeholders, the Congress representatives or the media people, misunderstanding occurred continually.As mentioned above, Toyota responded euphemistic to the problem (Huang, 2010). Akio repeated the apology several times and declined to give pithy answers to undertake the obligation and to interpret the information and plan for the stakeholders in the hearing (Clark ; McCurry, 2010). The answer type can be derived from the pa tterns of Japanese communication. Lincoln (1995) studied Japanese and found that due to the politeness cultural they reluctance to say â€Å"no† directly. Hall (1976) separated communication into High-context and low-context.The United States is a typical low-context communication country while Japan belongs to high-context communication. Low-context communication refers to the patterns of communication use explicit verbal to convey meanings, whereas high-context pattern draw heavily on context. This cultural difference is raised by Hall instead of Hofstede. Michael (1997) claim that literatures are lack of specific details and are concluded in broad behavioral terms. Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1997) classified cultures has seven value orientations which is more than Hofstede’s six dimensions and has somewhat different perspectives.Additionally, Dahl (2004) criticizes the theory is the result of very little data, especially from specific companies with limited num bers of questions. This indicates that culture can be separated into more dimensions and those national scores and ranks are not the exclusive guide to improve inter-cultural communications. From Hofstede’s (1980) research, Japan ranks in the middle level of Individualism versus collectivism dimension. Yet Japan is widely stereotyped as a harmonious society.Woodring (2010 cited in Jandt, 1995: 163) used the original Hofstede’s questionnaire to study Japanese students and found that students scored lower on power distance whereas higher on individualism comparing with Hofstede’s original sample. Woodring explained that the different scores might be the result of age; that is means, students may praise more on individualism and equality than the whole Japanese society. About 1990, youths 25 years old and under were named as shin jin rui (literally â€Å"new human beings†), who were described as â€Å"selfish, self-centered, and disrespectful of elders and tradition† by older Japanese.In the description from Hofstede suggested that the Japan is a group oriented and hierarchical country. However, there are evidences to show that the young generation seeks for egalitarian and individualism. This demonstrates that Hofstede’s research can lead to stereotype and this ought to be avoided. Furthermore, this study shows that cultural value is dynamic. Holden (2002) criticizes the â€Å"relative reliance† on Hofstede’s paradigm in the workplace. He points out that the data is outdated as it was collected before 30 years.Hofstede attempts to set a certain form of culture for people to understand specific cultures and he (Hofstede, 2010: 34) states that â€Å"cutlures, especially national cultures, are extremely stable over time†. This has been criticized as â€Å"functionalist ambition of measuring largely unquantifiable phenomena† (Gray and Maloory, 1998: 57). Hostede himself stated, â€Å"There is no such thing as objectivity in the study of social reality: we will too often to be subjective, but we may at least try to be ‘inter subjective’. As His data are come from the questionnaire made by a group of western people, as a result of this, the question are tend to reflect western culture which means Hofstede’s theory has its cultural bias. Meanwhile, there is a debate about what level of analysis is practical for the term â€Å"culture† to be a viable tool. McSweeney (2000) questions the classification of culture in Hofstede’s theory. Hofstede (2010: 10) stated that people are shaped by â€Å"certain cultural trains† from the same country. Although general cultural dimensions can be established at a cultural level, ndividuals may not necessarily reflect the national culture they belong to. Hofstede (1980, 1991) admits that using data from the level of country to analyze the individuals is not appropriate, and labeled it â€Å"ecological fallacy†. He (1991:253) affirms that national cultural level reflects â€Å"central tendencies (†¦) for the country†, it is, not practical to analyze and predict specific individual behaviors or events. Conclusion: Generally overview the assessment, Geert Hofstede’s use of cultural dimensions provides a measurable paradigm to attract people’s attention to cultural differences and contribute to the inter-cultural study.For those people who are involved in international commerce, culture is important for many aspects of business life, thus, if people go into another country to communicate with local company, changing the management process and practices to meet their values is essential. Concluding from the case analysis of Toyota crisis, Hofstede's cultural model indeed provides an effective reference to support better cross-cultural communication as it uncover the reasons of cultural conflict for people to apply appropriate method to minimize its nega tive influence.However, cultural dimension theory functions limited in small space as it is not perfect. It regards culture as a fixed concept and separates it by national boundaries is improper. The data is collected in several decades years before even it has been updated in recent years based on questionnaire in a specific group in international companies from a perspective of western people. Moreover, it narrows culture into six dimensions may potentially disturb the derived value prediction as certain context influences on the individual respondents.The inter-cultural communication conflicts exist no matter how much understanding goes both ways. In conclusion, Hofstede’s work of cultural dimensions is a supplement for supporting better inter-cultural communication, the bilateral respect of culture and positive attitude are the core to successful inter-cultural communication. Bibliography: Bond, M. H. (2002). â€Å"Reclaiming the Individual from Hofstede's Ecological Ana lysis- A 20-Year Odyssey: Comment on Oyserman et al. † Psychological Bulletin, 128 (1): 73-77 CBC news (Feb 2, 2010), â€Å"Toyota slow o react: LaHood- US Transportation Secretary criticizes automaker†. Available at (13 May, 2012) Clark, A. & McCurry, J. (2010). â€Å"Toyota boss offers ‘sincere regrets' for faulty accelerators†, The Guardian, Thursday 25 February 2010. Available at < http://www. guardian. co. uk/business/2010/feb/25/toyota-akio-toyoda-congress? INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487> (13 May, 2012) CNN Politics (Feb 24, 2010). â€Å"Toyota president testifies before Congress†. Available at < http://articles. cnn. com/2010-02-24/politics/toyota. earing. updates_1_toyoda-inaba-national-press-club? _s=PM:POLITICS > (13 May, 2012) Dahl, S. (2004). â€Å"Intercultural Research: The Current State of Knowledge†. Middlesex University Discussion Paper No. 26. Available at < http://papers. ssrn. com/sol3/papers. cfm? abstract_id=658202 > (13 May, 2012 ) Feng, Y. (2010). â€Å"Toyota crisis: management ignorance? – a swedish case of consumers perceptions†. Available at < http://hh. diva-portal. org/smash/record. jsf? pid=diva2:349746> (13 May, 2012) Freivalds, J. (1995). â€Å"Learning languages†. Communication World, December: 24-7.Frey-Ridgway, S. (1997). â€Å"The cultural dimension of international business†. Collection Building, 16(1): 12 – 23 Gudykunst, W. & Nishida, T. (1994), Bridging Japanese-North American Differences, Communicating Effectively in Multicultural Contexts Series, Thousand Oaks: Sage, p. 2 Hofstede’s website, available at < http://geert-hofstede. com/dimensions. html > (13 May, 2012) Hofstede, G. (1980) Culture’s Consequences:International Differences in Work-related Values Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Hofstede, G. (1991). Cultures and Organizations: software of the mind, 2nd Ed.New York: McGraw-Hill Hofstede, G. , Hofstede, G. J. & Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures an d Organizations: software of the mind, 3rd Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Holden, N. (2002). Cross-cultural management: a knowledge management perspective. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall Huang, Z. (2010). â€Å" —— â€Å" â€Å" † (From the perspective of inter-cutlural communication to see Japan-America cultural differeces—analysis Toyota â€Å"recall†). Journal of Huaihua University,29 (6) Jandt, F. E. (2009). An Introduction to Intercultural Communication: Identities in a Global

Contracts Covered by the Statute of Frauds Case Study

Contracts Covered by the Statute of Frauds - Case Study Example The first payment shall be paid on or before June 1, 2007 In consideration thereof, Promisee agree to give Promisor a lawn mower (John Deere Model #1334), valued at approximately $2,500.00). The respective rights and duties arising pursuant to this Agreement shall continue in effect until June 1, 2008, unless terminated prior thereto either pursuant to the Cancellation Clause of this Agreement or by full performance by the parties. If the event that Promisor fails to make a timely scheduled payment, Promisee shall be entitled to declare the entire Agreement breached, and shall be immediately entitled to payment of the debt in full. If Promisee fails to deliver the subject lawn mower to Promisor on or before July 1, 2007, Promisor shall be entitled to declare the entire Agreement in breach, and shall be entitled to repayment of any and all sums paid by Promisor to Lower Case as well as liquidated damages of $2,500.00.. In either case, the party declaring that the breach has occurred shall give written notice of such breach to the other party at the appropriate address shown below. This Agreement shall be interpreted by the laws of the State of California and any suit filed by any party hereto shall be filed and determined before the courts of California and in accordance with the laws thereof. Any dispute arising under this Agreement shall be subject to compulsory arbitration and shall be heard and determined by an arbitrator who is a current member of the American Arbitration Association (AAA). Any notices required to be made pursuant to this Agreement shall be made to the following: PROMISOR: PROMISEE: Joe Smith Mary Doe 123 Anyplace 4321 Anytime Streetwise, CA 95677 Happyface, AZ 85233 (213) 555-1212 (602) 555-2121 In the event of a dispute arising pursuant to this Agreement, the prevailing party in such an action shall be entitled to recover reasonable attorney's fees and court costs from the losing party. If any portion of this Agreement is determined to be invalid, the remaining portions of the Agreement which are valid shall continue to be enforceable and in full effect. ______________ __________ __________________ _________ Joe Smith Date Mary Doe Date AGREEMENT In consideration of mutual performance of the duties and promises outlined further herein, Joe Smith (hereinafter referred to as "Promisor" and Mary Doe (hereinafter referred to as "Promisee"), the parties agree to become bound as follows: Promisor agrees to marry Promisee on or before July 15, 2007. In consideration thereof, Promisee agree to marry Promisor by said date. Promisor also agrees to immediately give Promisee an 18 carat gold engagement band and at the time of marriage, give Promisee one diamond and 18 carat gold ring. If Promisor fails to give Promisee the aforementioned, promised wedding ring on or before July 15, 2007, Promisee shall be entitled to declare the entire Agreement breached, and shall be entitled to retain the engagement band and shall be entitled to recover liquidated damages in the amount of $2,500.00 from Promisor and would not be required to marry Promisor. If Promisee fails to marry Promisor on or before July 15, 2007, Promisor shall be entitled to declare the entire Agreement in breach, and shall be ent

Employee Training in Domtar Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Employee Training in Domtar - Research Paper Example Their training would enhance them with skills in the way that they can make efficient strategic goals and how to implement the goals. The employees should be organized according to their levels or ranks in the company. The different groups should be trained differently (Bari, 2000). The learning objectives in Domtar Company would be to cut costs. The costs will be cut if the processes of the company are efficient. The other objective would be to maintain a positive customer relationship. The customers should be considered before the company makes any decision and their satisfaction should be the source of any decision made. The other objective of the training should be to make feasible decisions that will ensure the prosperity of the business.The organizational constraints that may be incurred in the learning process may include; finances. The learning process is an expensive process, hence the cost factor must be considered. The company may not be willing to invest a lot in employee training and that should be avoided. The other constraint may be the time constraint. In the course of the training, the operations of the company must also continue, that means that time available will be minimal. The learning should be organized in a way that the sessions will be accommodated in the normal working schedule of the company. The other constraint that may exist will be resistance from employees. The constraints can be addressed by the employees been told the importance of the training. The other way the constraints can be addressed would be by the company providing resources that are useful in the training.

Hills like White Elephants Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Hills like White Elephants - Essay Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that most common aspect of Ernest Hemingway’s writings is extraordinary complexity. He presented the themes in a very complex manner, for instance, we can notice the underlying story â€Å"Hills like White Elephants†. In the story, several themes are used such as stressful romance, undesired pregnancy, communication collapse between the couple that further became a cause of the pregnancy abortion (tragedy) and symbolism (hills, elephants etc.). Hemingway utilized numerous literary devices to communicate the themes of the story but here I am going to analyze three out of those: imagery, dialogue and narrative style used in the story. The simplest form of imagery used in the underlying story. Simplicity is reported because Hemingway did not use the complete form of imagery to elaborate the stylistic themes of the story; rather he drew the beauty by incomplete imagery. Hemingway illustrated that unsaid is more influential compared to what is expressed especially in the fiction writing. The writer has described that the hills were white but he did not express the reason for this color: whether the hills are white because of winter season snow or the rocks were naturally white? He left the imagination over the readers accordingly. This implies to the implicit complexity in the story. In the same way, it can be derived that hills are denoted as the curved in a woman that is., breasts and swelled belly of the woman because of pregnancy.

HRM (a joint venture ) Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

HRM (a joint venture ) - Coursework Example rces strategies executed by Sainsbury with regard to the methods through which employees are incorporated in the formulation of policies as well as decision-making processes together with the mechanism that are put in place to ensure he overall performance of the company is always kept on check. The report addresses the primary economic drivers in the United Kingdom where Sainsbury is based as it makes and in-depth analysis of the economy through the PESTLE framework. Conversely, the report makes a comparative analysis of the human resource situation in the United Kingdom about the overall systems in the rest of the world. That notwithstanding, the organizational issues that influence the formulation and implementation of human resource strategies at Sainsbury have been explored extensively as well as the national factors in the United Kingdom that have influenced the same over the past five years. The objective of this report is to formulate a human resource strategy for Sainsbury Plc. That will enable it to enter into joint ventures with other organizations in its global expansion programs. The report has made an in-depth analysis of the retail sector in the United Kingdom together with the general overview of the industry from a global perspective for it to recommend the course of action. Retail industry in the UK has been robust over the past five years with some ramifications shaping the industry. Ideally, there has been a strong sales momentum that has driven the volume of sales that retail outlets are making with Sainsbury being ranked second behind Tesco based on sales volume. High sales volumes experienced in the industry were fundamentally premised by a steady rise in spending that culminated from a period of deflation that has been experienced in the second quarter of 2015. The period of deflation meant the consumers had more disposable income thus they were willing to spend more money on goods and services. Ideally, the deflation that was announced in

The Book of Nehemiah Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Book of Nehemiah - Research Paper Example The setting for the book of Nehemiah is originally the court of the king in Persia. The people of Israel are still captive in Babylon. Some individuals have returned to Jerusalem with the King’s blessing to rebuild the temple. But nothing has been done to the city walls, gates and other defensive structures. Nehemiah is granted permission to travel to Jerusalem to rebuild the defenses of Jerusalem while the work on the temple continues. In Jerusalem, there is an assortment of Jews that remained behind from the initial captivity, enemies such as Amorites and Arabs, and other Jews working on the temple. Many of the Jews in Persia still had dreams of returning home while others were becoming acculturated. All of this was happening at some time between 450 BC and 400 BC. The Book of Nehemiah follows a narrative for much of the length. It was written as a history of the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem and as a witness of God’s reward for diligent effort. The book begins with Nehemiah receiving word that the construction of the temple was going as planned but was dangerous because there were no walls to protect the workers and the inhabitants of the city. This troubles Nehemiah to such a degree that King Artexerxes can tell that something is troubling Nehemiah, his steward. Nehemiah courageously tell the king what is on his mind. The king grants Nehemiah permission to rebuild the walls and provides tools, equipment and food. Nehemiah arrives and finds much of the city in ruins. Great breaches have been knocked in the walls, many gates and towers are burned and streets are impassable. Nehemiah announces his plans and immediately become an object of scorn and contempt. Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite and Gehsem the Arab were his main detractors. They said the work could never be completed. Work does begin on the walls and progresses at a very rapid pace. The enemies of Israel are amazed. They begin to issue threats against the effort to r ebuild the walls. Nehemiah records that the work continued, that half of the people stood guard while the other half worked on the construction. These threats were just one of the challenges Nehemiah needed to overcome during the reconstruction of the walls of Jerusalem. Soon, a division among the local Jews arises. Many families are concerned that they need to support the workers on the walls and that the construction is taking away sons and daughters that are needed in the fields to grow crops. They threaten to stop giving to support the work of the walls and to withhold their labor. Nehemiah convinces them that this is not the right course of action. He encourages them to first of all, forgive the debts that exist within the community. That way no one needs to fear for losing his or her land. Once the locals agree to do this, they also see the wisdom in completing the walls. They continue to sacrifice to keep constructing the walls. With the construction of the walls complete, Ne hemiah makes lists of the families living in the town surrounding Jerusalem. He takes a census according to town and family, making special note of any Levites that can officiate in the temple. In the middle of the book, Ezra takes over, the narrative stops and there is a long account of how the people of Israel are taught from the books of Moses and reestablish temple worship once again in Jerusalem.

International business DISCUSSION Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

International business DISCUSSION - Essay Example While they are out, HR professionals should contemplate on how much the expatriates rely on them and the impact of their personal touch they have. Organizations should invest in global awareness training and educate employees who are involved in global operations at all levels. The HR should give achievable expectations and be clear about post-assignment obligations. The role of the HR professional is to make the expat understand what the assignment, he/she is going to undertake. Expatriates should get predeparture assistance and consultations for expats and their families. It will be a good practice if basic language skills and intercultural training be provided to the expatriates (Tyler 98). Providing good strategies for expatriates such as a reasonable budget and a selection of support services would be a good approach. It spends employers’ money intelligently, and their families would confide in the business as they think the company recognizes the challenges the families go through. HR professional ought to enable mentor relationships amongst expatriates and establish systems to give incentives to mentors. Carl says, "Some of the expats I worked with had terrible times coming back; there was nothing available to them" (2006). Getting an expatriate home safely is an important cause to the expatriate, his/her family and the sponsoring organization (Tyler 100). An expatriate will experience emotional and professional challenges that deter an unbroken return and can result to their resignation. HR professional(s) has a mandate to make the expats feel lucky to have their job at the

Introduction to Management, Information Systems and Organisations unit Essay

Introduction to Management, Information Systems and Organisations unit - Essay Example Red Rose Entertainment is a video shop which was established in 2000 in Queens Town, Australia. Since its inception, the shop mainly relied on catalogue cards when issuing videos to the customers. However, the organisation has underscored to expand its operations and penetrate other areas but this requires it to adopt a new computerised system as well as hire more employees in order to improve on efficiency. In order to meet the changing demands of the environment to be more flexible there is pressure from the workers who want to be developed and trained to play a part in decision making in areas that affect them and their work. Leadership is defined as the ability to influence a group of people towards the achievement of organisational goals (Robins S.P., Odendaal A.& Roodt G. 2001). Basically, leadership is concerned with the vision of the organisation and it should be noted that leading is a function of management where a leader instigates change that is aimed towards the achievement of the organisational goals. The leadership and the employees ought to work hand in hand in order to achieve the vision of the organisation which has underscored to expand its operations. A leader often takes a leading role in developing and inspiring staff to improve on their performance which in turn leads to increased productivity in terms of offering satisfactory products and services to the customers with the aim of achieving organisational goals. A leader should always display positive traits that can be emulate by the juniors in the company. Basically, leadership is mainly concerned with taking a long term perspective of the organisation where a leader seeks to motivate the members of staff through developing relationships of trust among the workers (Bates et al 2005). In the case of Red Rose Entertainment, democratic, participatory leadership style is more ideal as

Choice a good one Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Choice a good one - Essay Example Through their pieces of advice, I also learnt that honesty resulted to a peace of mind (Masud 2). For instance, they claimed that majority of the dishonest people live in fear, and as a result lose their mental peace. Thus, it is evident that honesty eradicates all types of fear alongside enhancing an individual’s calmness as well as establishment of the peace of mind. Through what I have experienced in life, it is also evident that a stable and peaceful mind makes amicable decisions. Thus, honesty is the contributing factor for the making of good decisions as well as living quality life (Masud 3). Although they advocated good results in school, they insisted on production of honest results. In addition to promoting goodwill, my parents also claimed that honesty resulted to the emergence of society respect. This is convincible; all people in businesses as well as organizations work best with honest people. It is also evident that liars find it hard to lead a good life because of the promotion of negativism around them. To lead a success life, I ensure that I have practiced and portrayed this value (honesty) in my

United States Essay Example for Free

United States Essay My life is different today than what it was seven years ago. Seven years ago, I lived in my home country, Bangladesh, and now I am currently live in the United States of America. First of all, In Bangladesh, I was in middle school. Attending middle school wasn’t too hard. It was actually a bit fun. In middle school, I had less homework to do, and it was fairly since I did not have many responsibilities. Now I am in college, attending Macomb community college. I am getting really stressed out and having many types of difficulties. I am struggling to keep good grades and have lots of homework to do daily. I had many friends during my days in high school, but as I attended college, friends grew apart; now I am stuck with just a few. Secondly, I did not have any responsibilities seven years ago. But as an adult, now I have to learn to take care of many responsibilities and give my all to live successfully. I did not know how to even cook at the age of 15, but now I know how to cook pretty much everything. Finally, in Bangladesh, I did not need to drive since everything in my town was close. Living in America, on the other hand, I am forced to have transportation to get around. Therefore, I had to get my license to accomplish each day’s task. Many changes have occurred in the last seven years in my life; however, these changes made me live up and the face world daily.

Fischer Esterification of Isopentyl Acetate

Fischer Esterification of Isopentyl Acetate Brendaliz Bonilla Chemistry Department Susquehanna University Abstract Esters are prepared in many ways and one of which is through Fischer Esterification. Using this method, esters are produced by refluxing a carboxylic acid and an alcohol in the presence of a concentrated acid catalyst.1 The purpose of reflux is to heat a reaction mixture at its boiling temperature to form products, without losing any of the compounds in the reaction flask. To exploit Le Chateliers principle and shift the position of the equilibrium to the right, an excess of one of the reactants were added to the reaction mixture.1 The reaction mechanism involves initial protonation of the carboxyl group, nucleophilic attack by the hydroxyl, proton transfer, and loss of water followed by loss of the catalyzing acid to produce the ester.2 The process is thermodynamically controlled yielding the most stable ester product. Typically, only primary and secondary alcohols are used in the Fisher method since tertiary alcohols are prone to elimination.3 In this lab, a Fisher Esterification w as performed to synthesize isopentyl acetate from isopentyl alcohol and acetic acid as seen in figure 1. Figure 1: Reaction scheme of the preparation of isopentyl acetate by Fischer Esterification. Experimental Instruments Used: A Nicolet IR 100 FT-IR was used in this experiment. Procedure and Observations: A mixture of 5.0mL (4.111g) of isopentyl alcohol, 7.0mL of glacial acetic acid, and 1mL of concentrated sulfuric acid was added to a 25mL round-bottomed flask.   The round-bottomed flask was hooked to the reflux apparatus and the mixture was brought to a boil for an hour. The mixture was cooled to room temperature, placed into an ice bath, and put in a separatory funnel with 10mL of water.   The funnel was shaken vigorously and vented several times.   The bottom layer was drained from the separatory funnel into a beaker.   5mL of 5% sodium bicarbonate was then put into the separatory funnel.   The separatory funnel was shaken and vented several times.   The bottom layer was drained into the same beaker.   5mL of saturated sodium chloride was added to the contents of the separatory funnel.   The separatory funnel was shaken and vented several times.   The bottom layer was drained into a differen t beaker.   The mixture that was left in the separatory funnel was transferred to an Erlenmeyer flask with 1g of anhydrous sodium sulfate.   The flask was corked and was left to sit for 10 to 15 minutes.   The mixture was transferred to another Erlenmeyer flask and .503g of anhydrous sodium sulfate was added.   A distillation apparatus was assembled with the receiving flask immersed in an ice bath.   The mixture was transferred into a round-bottomed flask and attached to the distillation apparatus.   The product that was now in the receiving flask was then weighed.   The percent yield was determined and an IR was done on the product. Results and Discussion At the end of the experiment, a successful esterification was performed from the starting acetic acid, using isopentenyl alcohol to make the product of Isopentyl acetate. The reactants were heated using a reflux apparatus so that the product would not be lost, helping serve as a catalyst in the reaction.1 Any remaining water left over from the esterification process was dried using anhydrous sodium sulfate. The ester, isopentyl acetate was synthesized, which had the smell of bananas. In this experiment, 3.99 g of isopentyl acetate was formed by the direct esterification of acetic acid with isopentyl alcohol, as seen in table 1. The sulfuric acid was used as a catalyst in the reaction. Table 1: The weight of the final product collect, percent yield, and result of the IR spectrum. Weight (grams) 3.99 g Percent yield 61.8% IR Peaks (cm-1) 2954, 1747, 1231, and 1056 cm-1 An excess of isopentyl acetate was used to shift the reaction to the right so that esterification could occur. During isolation, the excess acetic acid and isopentyl alcohol was removed with sodium bicarbonate, and the isopentyl acetate was further purified after through drying with anhydrous sulfate and through distillation. The excess acetic acid was used in order for the reaction to favor esterification. An excess of isopentyl alcohol could have been used instead to form isopentyl acetate; however excess acetic acid is easier to remove from the products than isopentyl alcohol because isopentyl acetate and isopentyl alcohol are similar in structure and therefore, prefer to be in the same layer of the solution. Since sodium carbonate is a base, it is used in the extraction of acetic acid because it turns acetic acid into a conjugate base or sodium acetate which is more soluble in water. The equation for this acid-base extraction is: CH3COOH+NaCHO3à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢CH3COO-Na + H2CO3 . The percent yield of the isopentyl acetate was 61.9 % (as seen in table 1) with a theoretical yield of 6.44g. In the experiment, the acetic acid was in excess and the isopentyl alcohol was the limiting reagent, therefore, the reaction depended on the amount of isopentyl alcohol available. This experiment was successful because the smell of bananas was achieved along with the percent yield attained of 61.9%. Some of the errors that might have occurred included not properly/fully draining the aqueous layers after the reflux, and that the solution may have not completely dried with anhydrous sodium sulfate. For the IR spectrum data, the -C-CO 2R stretch characteristic of an ester is visible in the pure isopentyl acetate IR spectrum in the 1735-1745 cm -1 range. The -C-H stretches are visible just below 3000 cm -1, and the -C-O and -CO 2 stretches appear as several peaks in the 1050-1300 cm -1 range, which can be seen in Appendix E. The product resulted in major IR peaks at 2954, 1747, 1 231, and 1056 cm-1. These results indicate that our isopentyl acetate product is very pure, as the peaks are nearly identical to the expected peaks. The peak at 2954 indicates the C-H bond. The peak at 1747 indicates the aldehyde (C=O). The peak at 1231 indicates methyl group. The peak at 1056 indicates residual acetic acid (R-Cl), which can be seen on Appendix D-G. Conclusion The major product that was formed from the Fischer Esterification of isopentyl alcohol and acetic acid was isopentyl acetate. This is because the ester formed is the equatorial position, which makes the compound more stable than cis-4-tert-butylcyclohexanol. Based on the experiment that was conducted the synthesis of isopentyl acetate from a carboxylic acid and an alcohol could be done by a Fisher Esterification reaction, and the percent yield of the product is about 61.9%. References Experiment 4 Background. Experiment 4 Background. Web. Accessed: 15 Feb. 2017. http://www.reed.edu/chemistry/alan/201_202/lab_manual/Expt_banana_oil/background.html. Mutual Solubility of Water and Aliphatic Alcohols. Mutual Solubility of Water and Aliphatic Alcohols Journal of Chemical Engineering Data (ACS Publications). Web. Accessed: 15 Feb. 2017. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/je00037a019. Alcohol Reactivity. Alcohol Reactivity. Web. Accessed:17 Feb. 2017. https://www2.chemistry.msu.edu/faculty/reusch/virttxtjml/alcohol1.htm. Appendix A: Finding the Limiting Reagent Grams X 1 mol / molecular weight = moles of reactant Glacial Acetic Acid: 8.5 mL X ((1 g/1 mL) X 1 mol) / 60.05 g/mol = 0.142 mol Isopentyl Alcohol: (4.37 g X 1 mol) / 88.15 g/mol = 0.0459 mol Appendix B: Calculating Theoretical Yield of Isopentyl Acetate (Moles of limiting reagent X molar ratio X molecular weight of product) / 1 mol = theoretical yield (0.0459 X 130.19) / 1 mol = 6.44 g Appendix C: Calculating Percent Yield (Actual / theoretical) X 100% = percent yield (3.99 g/ 6.44 g) X 100% = 61.9%

U.S Attitudes Towards Transgender People

U.S Attitudes Towards Transgender People In the United States, there are unassigned â€Å"rules† and standards of which people are expected to conform to, gender being one of them. Throughout history people have only known two types of sex, female and male, but what about other gender identities?   People tend to develop attitudes about those who identify themselves as the opposite gender. These attitudes are influenced by a variety of factors: religion, morals, political ideology, just to name a few. I wanted to see what really influences the attitudes the nation holds towards transgender people. The articles I discuss address U.S. attitudes towards those individuals and provide insight of why they feel have those attitudes. The article, â€Å"Heterosexuals’ Attitudes Towards Transgender People: Finding from a National Probability Sample of U.S Adults,† by Aaron T. Norton and Gregory M. Herek, introduces a study that describes the correlations of men’s and women’s attitudes towards transgender people. They surveyed 2,281 participants, and the survey focused on five hypotheses, each hypothesis focusing on different aspects that contribute towards heterosexual men and women attitudes towards transgender people. The first, â€Å"heterosexuals’ attitudes toward transgender people are positively correlated with their attitudes toward sexual minorities† (Norton & Herek, 2012, p.5). The participants attitudes were measured with a series of feeling thermometers, and the participants were told, â€Å"using a scale from zero to 100, please tell us your personal feelings toward each of the following groups†¦ The warmer or more favorable you feel toward the group, the higher the number you should give it,† vis-versa. (Norton & Herek, 2010, p. 6). If the participant felt neither warm or cold toward the group, they would rate it 50 (Norton & Herek, 2012, p. 6). The participants were also told to use a 5- point scale, ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree, for Attitudes Towards Lesbians (ATL) and Attitudes Towards Gay Men (ATG) (Norton & Herek, 20102, p.6). The higher the scores indicated higher levels of sexual prejudice. The results for this hypothesis show that transgender people are highly correlated with the four sexual minority groups: gay men, lesbian women, bisexual men, and bisexual women, and they are also negatively correlated with the scores of the ATG and ATL. (Norton & Herek, 2012, p.7). Like the first hypotheses, the four-other focus on similar aspects that correlates towards the negative attitudes people have towards transgender people. The second hypothesis states, â€Å"they [attitudes] are more negative among men than women,† was proven to be true (Norton & Herek, 2012, p.4). According to the study heterosexual man have more negative ratings to all â€Å"men† targets (Norton & Herek, 2012, p.8). Men also scored higher than women, meaning greater prejudice on both the ATG and ATL scale. Hypothesis three stated that â€Å"to the extent heterosexual respondents endorse a binary, conception of gender, their attitudes toward transgender people are more negative† (Norton & Herek, 2012, p.4). 46.5% agreed that â€Å"there is not enough respect for their natural divisions between the sexes,† while 19.5% disagreed, and 34.0% reported they were â€Å"in the middle.† In all the results concluded that attitudes towards transgender people w ere correlated with endorsement of gender binary beliefs (Norton & Herek, 2012, p.8). â€Å"Transgender attitudes are correlated with the same social psychological variables that have consistently been observed to correlate with heterosexuals† attitudes toward sexual minorities, is what the fourth hypothesis stated† (Norton & Herek, 2012, p.4). This hypothesis looks at four different correlations: authoritarianism, political ideology, religion, and personal contact with sexual minorities of attitudes toward transgender people. I focused on three of the four, political ideology, religion, and personal contact with sexual minorities. 48.2% described their political ideology was moderate, while 26.5% were liberal and 30.7% were conservative (Norton & Herek, 2012, p. 9). The conservative respondents gave lower thermometer rating (25.39%), followed by moderate (32.18%), then liberals (39.23%), thus meaning that conservative individuals had more negative, prejudice attitudes toward transgender people (Norton & Herek, 2012, p.9). The second of the four correlations I focused on was religion. It was found that women who have â€Å"a great deal† of religious guidance in their day-to-day living, had transgender ratings that were significantly more negative (Norton & Herek, 2012, p. 9). The results also concluded that prior contact with gay or lesbian people meant that thermometer scores were higher, less prejudice, than respondents who had lacked such contact (Norton & Herek, 2012, p.9). The fifth and last hypothesis that the survey tested was, â€Å"men’s attitudes toward both groups are linked I similar ways to the variables specified in hypotheses 3 and 4 If sexual prejudice is controlled, between those variables and men’s transgender attitudes should be reduced to no significance consistent with previous findings.† (Norton & Herek, 2012, p. 4). While hypothesis five had little support, it concluded that heterosexual menâ€⠄¢s attitudes toward transgender people and their political and gender beliefs reduced when their attitudes toward gay men were statistically controlled (Norton & Herek, 2012, p. 110). It also concluded that with ATG scores controlled, women’s attitudes were predicted by â€Å"authoritarianism and anti-egalitarianism,† and so were men’s; showing gender differences in the psychological roots of transgender attitudes were not observed (Norton & Herek, 2012, p.11).  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Aaron Norton and Gregory Herek’s article about the attitudes heterosexuals have about transgender people was very interesting, I found that the study focused on some of the main aspects that influence heterosexuals’ attitudes towards transgender people in the U.S. I also gained knowledge about why people may have such attitudes. I feel that the content included throughout this article is very relevant with some of the topics we have discussed in class, such as, ‘ethic, religions, and sexuality’, and gender identity as a whole. The article included many finding that I agree with. One being that, â€Å"attitudes towards transgender people were more negative among heterosexual men than heterosexual women† (Norton & Herek, 2012, p.1). I believe that to be true, statistics prove it, but also though out the community I live in. I have observed the attitudes and stigmatizations transgender people face in my community, and I have witness more negative attitu des coming from the heterosexual men that I have contact with. I also agree that being exposed to more sexual minorities, leads to people having less sexual prejudice toward transgender people. I have found that by having contact with those who identify as lesbian or gay, makes me more accepting of transgender people. I believe that the survey as a whole helps readers gain more knowledge about the prejudice attitudes people, especially heterosexuals, have towards transgender individuals within the Unites States. The article, â€Å"Boys Don’t Cry’ or Do They? Attitudes Toward and Beliefs About Transgender Youth,† by Hogler Elischberger, Jessica Glazier, Eric Hill, and Lynn Baker-Verduzco present a survey study that examines the attitudes U.S. adults have toward transgender children and adolescents. There were 281 individuals (128 male, 152 females, and 1 missing information) that participated in the survey and reported that had â€Å"generally favorable attitudes toward transgender minors† (Elischberger, Glazier, Hill, Verduzco, 2016, p. 199). The survey first assesses the attitude adults had toward transgender people by asking a series of questions. It then assesses their behavior intentions with two hypothetical situations. The study concluded with the ‘presumed causes of gender atypicality, where the participants were asked to indicate how strongly biological (nature) and environmental (nurture) cause affect atypical behavior (Elischberger et. al., 2016, p .203). The article, â€Å"Boys Don’t Cry’ or Do They? Attitudes Toward and Beliefs About Transgender Youth,† by Hogler Elischberger, Jessica Glazier, Eric Hill, and Lynn Baker-Verduzco presents a survey study that examines the attitudes U.S. adults have toward transgender children and adolescents. There were 281 individuals (128 male, 152 females, and 1 missing information) that participated in the survey and reported that had â€Å"generally favorable attitudes toward transgender minors† (Elischberger, Glazier, Hill, Verduzco, 2016, p. 199). The survey first assesses the attitude adults had toward transgender people by asking a series of questions. It then assesses their behavior intentions with two hypothetical situations. The study concluded with the ‘presumed causes of gender atypicality, where the participants were asked to indicate how strongly biological (nature) and environmental (nurture) cause affect atypical behavior (Elischberger et. al., 2016, p.203).      The survey first assesses the participants attitudes, with a series of attitude statements. The participants used a 10-point Likert type scale ranging from 1, completely disagree, and 10, completely agree to see rate their attitudes toward the list of statements provided.   The statements given included â€Å"Personally, I view this gender atypical behavior as a problem because Six of these statements were provided that differed in terms of the reason cited for the disapproval: it is against my morals, it contradicts my religious views, Bit will hurt the child’s [teenager’s] current relationships with their peers, Bit will be a bad influence on other children [teenagers],it may have an effect on the child’s [teenager’s] sexual orientation it goes against nature. A seventh option, the child’s behavior is not wrong for any one specific reason, it is just inappropriate† (Elischberger et. al., 2016 p.201). These statements allowed the participants to express their attitudes without giving a specific reason. The attitudes result for this part of the survey, although relatively low, showed that attitudes were less positive in the participants who had religious affiliation, conservative social-political views, and stronger conformity to certain traditional gender norms; however, the endorsement level of participants was highest (7.34 out of 10) with the statement, â€Å"I do not find the behavior a problem† (Elischberger et. al., 2016, p. 202). Thus, meaning that the majority of participates did not have a problem with transgender people. The second part of the survey consisted of how participants might act in two hypothetical situations that involved a gender-atypical child or adolescent. The scenarios were (a) using the restroom appropriate for their gender opposed to sex, and (b) sharing a cabin/room on a school trip with peers of the same gender (Elischberger et. al., 2016, p.203). The participants were asked to put themselves into the positions of the: parent of the nonconforming child, the parent of one of the child’s peers, the child’s teacher, and a school administer (Elischberger et. al., 2016, p.203). The response ranged on a 1(lowest and 10 (highest) possible scores, with higher numbers indicating a â€Å"stronger intent to limit gender expression in each scenario† (Elischberger et. al., 2016, p. 203). On average, all the average results ranged between 4 and 6. In the restroom scenario, the results indicated that if the participant was the parent of the transgender child they would more than likely want their child to use the restroom of which they identified with, however, if they were in the administrator position they would be less likely to want that child to use their assigned restroom (Elischberger et. al., 2016, p.203). In the third part of the survey was ‘Presumed Causes of Gender Atypically.’ This part consisted of asking the participants to indicate how strongly they believed different factors cause gender atypical behaviors. The participants determined whether biological (nature) causes genetics, hormones, and brain development, or, environmental (nurture) cause: mother, father, media, and other environment caused gender atypicality (Elischberger et. al., 2016, p. 203). The results showed that on average the participants agreed that environmental factors played more of a role in gender atypicality than biological factors. It shows that the participants believed other environmental factors and media were the highest causes of gender atypicality.   I find the research done in the â€Å"Boys Don’t Cry’ or Do They? Attitudes Toward and Beliefs About Transgender Youth,† to be very interesting. I believe that I am, and am becoming, more open to allowing transgender people express their gender identity. I agree that the media and environmental factors play a key role in gender atypicality, but I also believe that it comes from within. This article includes some stuff that we have discussed in class, but we have yet to go into depth about transgender people, so I am not able to find a lot of connections between the class content specifically. Discussing the research that is found in this article would be beneficial for a larger population because it assesses the attitudes of people who believe that they are â€Å"okay† with transgender children and adolescence, and determine if they actually are. Overall, both articles included information that was accurate to how the U.S. populations feel towards transgender people. They both state that being more religious and having more conservative values correlate to people having more prejudice attitudes towards transgender people. If I were able to conduct my own study or include a category, I would include children’s point of view. I know they would not fully understand all the factors that go into nonconforming or transgender individuals, but I believe it would be interesting to do a study that focused on how their mindset changes over the years about the topic and what, if any, biological and environmental aspects contribute to their attitudes.   References Elischberger, H. B., Glazier, J. J., Hill, E. D., & Verduzco-Baker, L. (2016, March 22). Boys Dont Cry-or Do They? Adult Attitudes Toward and Beliefs About Transgender Youth. Retrieved March 23, 2018, from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-016-0609-y Norton, A. T., & Herek, G. M. (2013, June 01). Heterosexuals Attitudes Toward Transgender   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   People: Findings from a National Probability Sample of U.S. Adults. Retrieved March 22, 2018, from https://www.scholars.northwestern.edu/en/publications/heterosexuals-attitudes-toward-transgender-people-findings-from-a

Free Billy Budd Essays: Billy Budd as Christ :: Billy Budd Essays

Billy Budd as Christ In this novel, Billy Budd, Melville acts as a "Creator", in that he gives Billy Budd certain superhuman qualities, which allows him to posses the traits of a servant of God. Billy Budd appears Christ-like, because of his peace-making abilities. Although, he is a peacemaker whom will fight for what he believes in and to keep peace. In the beginning of the novel, when Red Whiskers gives Billy Budd problems, he strikes him with a powerful blow and does not have any more problems with him or the crew again. Melville then foreshadows how Billy will use the same tactics the next time he runs into a bully like Red Whiskers. It seems ironic of the names of the ships as we go along in the story. Billy Budd goes from the Rights-of-Man to Bellipotent, it seems then he makes a change like a minister being ordained to a Bishop. Bellipotent signifies a good ship, in that belli- means kind, and -potent means strong and powerful. Melville seems to want his audience to think of the ships as Christ-like symbols also. As in another story, Young Goodman Brown by Hawthorne, a young man is too eager to meet his destiny. Billy Budd is not at the least hesitant, when Lieutenant Ratcliffe wants him for service to King George Ill. Billy Budd goes from a peaceful merchant ship, to a ship at war, full of guns and military discipline. Me lville is suggesting here that Billy will most like endure many problems and hardships entering this service. Billy Budd acts as the foretopman on this ship, which leads the audience to wonder is he doing it out of the grace of God, to make a change on the ship, or is he toying with fate. At the time this novel took place, wars were going on, which was later called the Great Mutiny (a time when sailors rebelled against their own). That explains most of the story Melville is attempting to display. Melville introduces Captain Vere as a dedicated officer who only permits obedience to duty and is very strict with discipline. The author has already foreshadowed many things for the audience. He lets us see how Billy is bound to run into a confrontation with at least one shipmate, and may possibly be accused of mutiny, since the thoughts are already on many officers' minds.

We Must Work Together to Reduce Domestic Violence Essay -- Violence Aga

Domestic violence is an act of crime which occurs in domestic household units. It is also known as as spousal abuse or family violence. Domestic violence is not only related to physical abuse but also emotional, sexual, financial, mental and verbal threats. According to ( Human Right Watch, 1995) cited from Macionis, John J., 2008. Domestic violence is defined as bodily harm, usually accompanied by verbal threats and harassment, emotional abuse or the destruction of property as means of coercion, control, revenge, or punishment on a person with whom the abuser is in intimate relationship. Besides that, according to an article by Women’s Aid, the government defines violence as any incident of threatening behavior, violence or abuse (psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional) between adults who are or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality. Domestic violence can happen and may happen to any individual despite th eir gender, social class or status, life style, age, family background, race, ethnicity or place of living. Any individual can be a victim of domestic violence. Based on an article titled Physical Violence against Women the World Health Organization reported that 40 to 70 percent of women were murdered in the United States, Canada, Australia and Israel by their husbands or male partners. Domestic violence can be categorized into different categories. Firstly, is physical violence. Physical violence is physical abuse whereby the abuser will hit, kick, burn, punch, slap, smack and perform any action using body or objects that will hurt and bruise the victim’s physical health. An example of physical abuse is severe burns on the body due to cigarette burns. Secondly is emotional abuse. Emotional abuse is just opposite of physical abuse because the abuser will use harsh, vulgar and negative words to emotionally abuse the victim. The implication of verbal abuse such as yelling, isolation, name-calling and shaming also falls in the same category of emotional abuse. For example, shouting out vulgar words is a form of emotional abuse. Emotional abuse can cause severe depression and also lack of confidence. Besides that, it can also cause decrease of self worth and independence. Thirdly is financial abuse whereby the abuser will financially torture their victims who ar e usually their spouse or... ...d the news via online sources such as electronic mails (e-mail), facebook, twitter and etc. We can use these social webs to spread awareness regarding domestic violence and help public to prevent them from being a victim. The public must learn to speak up whenever they encounter domestic violence or abuse instead of keeping quiet and suffering. They should not hesitate and must be brave enough to lodge a complaint. As a conclusion, every individual must play their part in order to stop domestic violence from occurring or getting worse. Domestic violence will not only hurt and harm human beings but also affects the country and nation. We should be more cooperative and work together to overcome domestic violence and abuse. We must show more love for each other, be more concern, understand each other feelings and the rights of being a human being. Therefore, we must live together in happiness, peace and harmony. Works Cited Macionis, John J. 2008. Social problems, 3rd edition, Pearson Prentice hall: New Jersey.

I Love Yous Are for White People Essay

In the book â€Å"I Love Yous Are for White People† Lac’s quest for acceptance takes him through an intense journey to acquire self love and acceptance. The author Lac Su navigates through his childhood and adolescence seeking an extraordinary desire for love, acceptance and belonging he has been deprived from by his family. During his journey, Lac attempts to gain acceptance by friends and family, no matter what the consequences are. Lac Su’s upbringing was without much love and nurturing. His father was abusive, physically and mentally. For seemingly menial issues Lac would get a beating, one of those examples would be when he would get homework answers wrong. His father would grab anything that he could get his hands on to beat him. Lac stated that his father would grab â€Å"the plastic rod from the mini blinds, a spatula, a rice bowl, a fishing rod, my notebook, a radio antenna, a wooden yard stick, and a broom handle before settling on an extension cord as his weapon of choice. † (p62). Lac clearly was beaten often; his home life did not include any love, rather physical assaults and degradation. The impact of the blows grow dull and impersonal; I feel less of each new layer he adds to the wounds. † (113) Due to the horrid amount of beatings Lac Su would have to endure, he created a surreal world when it came to his home life. He learned to cope with the pain and impersonalize it in order for him to make it through the mental and physical abuses. Lac really had no other way to cope with the abuse be sides impersonalizing it. He disassociated himself from his pain both physically and internally due to the psychological absence from his family. Being a human being and needing some sort of approval, he sought after the love and attention he desperately craved for outside of his home. Outside of his home, Lac was able to exercise his other faculties which eventually made him feel more human, more loved and accepted.. He compensated the lack of feeling numb; therefore, he took the necessary consequences to feel more alive. Trying to gain a friend was one way to fulfill Lac’s need for acceptance and love. Lac’s desperate desire for a friend had him take drastic measures such as stealing. He would steal money from his parents’ piggy bank even though he knew that they were financially struggling. He was isolated from his family and the real world; therefore, he attempted to buy his way into a relationship: â€Å"I think I’m almost there. Last week, Javi brought me over to his house to show me his basketball card collection. His mother even made me a bean burrito and homemade horchata. I’m also hanging out with him at school every day. Javi lets me cut in line at lunch, and he always picks me to be on his team when we play socco – and his team always wins. After a long cold winter of solitude it feels like things are warming up – it feels like I belong. † (108) The acceptance of Lac from Javi gave Lac a sense of belonging. He felt belonging when he would be picked by Javi to be on his team and also due to Javi hanging out with Lac at school. Before Javi, Lac had no friends at all to hang out with, he felt like a looser. Javi provided Lac with his friendship; however, this came at a price. Lac could care less. â€Å"When I have money, we’re playing Spy Hunter. I don’t mind because Javi’s reliance on my money gives the impression that we’re tight. (94) The sense of belonging even if it pertained to Lac’s money was much more than the lack of love and respect Lac was receiving at home. To Lac the only important thing was gaining a friend who somehow portrayed a sense love and belonging. In this case, Javi would hang out with Lac at school, take Lac to his house, pick him to be on his team al l in return for Lac’s funding of his games. Lac also made friends with a boy whose street name is Frog. Frogs older brothers are in a gang called the Kingsley Street Gang. The Kingsley Street Gang intimidates Lac; however, their acknowledgement of Lac makes him feel accepted. Despite my insecurity, nothing bad ever happens to me when I’m around them, except for the occasional racist jokes aimed in my direction. But even the teasing makes me feel accepted. † (85) Lac’s insecurities came from not being able to adapt with the American norms. His family did not help him to adapt; instead, they made him feel isolated by not being there for him. His father did not validate Lac which caused Lac to have to deal with his insecurities on his own. Lac knows that the Kingsley Street Gang boys are intimidating for numerous reasons. Their tattoos, their macho ttitude and outfits; however, even being around these people does not stop Lac to be friends with them due to their acknowledgement of Lac. Since Lac was unable to get the acceptance of his father, he finds a substitute in the Kingsley Street Boys. Their acknowledgement gives Lac a sense of acceptance, love and fulfills some of his desires. The reason he also likes hanging out with the Kingsley Street Gang is because of some form of protection Lac is trying to have. The Kingsley Street Gang is consisted of boys who look tough and act as if they are not scared of anything; they somewhat resemble Lac’s father. Lac could be seeking protection from these boys in the gang due to the physical and mental abuse he has to go through on a daily bases. In some ways these boys gave Lac the opportunity to feel accepted; however, Lac was never able to open up to these boys and have a close relationship with them. This was because they did not have many commonalities culturally. They did not understand where Lac was coming from, instead of being there for him; they would make racist jokes due to not understanding what Lac was really going through. â€Å"I can’t believe it; Dragon Head is actually talking to me. He is approaching me because of the one thing I’ve never done in public—speak Vietnamese. † (139) Dragon Head is a leader of a gang called the Street Ratz. Lac immediately bonded with Dragon Head due to their similarities. They both are Vietnamese, speak the language and have the same background. It was only natural that Lac would try to be a part of the Street Ratz due to the commonalities he had with them and for the acceptance he desperately was searching for. â€Å"The Street Ratz have treated me like family, even though I’m not a member of their graffiti gang. It’s comforting to have peers with the same interests. (156) The Street Ratz understood where Lac was coming from culturally; therefore, the way they interacted with Lac was more common to Lac and this made him fit in. In some ways they knew what his family life was like and they too sought after love and acceptance, and the way they found it was by from forming a gang and being there for each other. Due to their commonalities the bond Lac shared with boys especially with Dragon Head was very strong. â€Å"I don’t even know where to begin telling Dragon Head what keeps me up at night. But I sense he understands me anyways. (162) Both Dragon Head and Lac understood each other clearly, no words needed to be said. They both were going through similar issues. Through the Street Ratz Lac was able to escape his physical and mental abuse. He felt like that for once he truly fits in and that others understand where he is coming from. This also came at a price, the Street Ratz had bad reputations. For the acceptance, Lac was battling between being a part of the gang or doing the right thing and getting out. He was unable to escape from the love and acceptances the Street Ratz were providing him with. This was the reason Lac was involved in a few vile crimes which he was unable to get out of due to his emotional connection and acceptance from the Street Ratz. Not only did Lac try to seek acceptance outside of his home but also, he tried to be accepted by his father. â€Å"The real poverty is inside my house – where I go to bed hungry most nights, where I’m starved for affection, and where my father’s unpredictable anger has us walking on eggshells. † (81) The lack of affection from Lac’s father was making Lac crave it even more. He needed the assurance of his father, the love and affection from him; however, he never got it. Instead he would get beatings due to his father’s unstable stage of mind and his unawareness on how to be a father. â€Å"I don’t know quite what being smart is in his eyes, but I want to be that for him. †(62) Lac clearly tried to be exactly what his father wanted him to be. Being abused by his father clearly had nothing to do with what Lac was doing. He tried to be a good boy, he tried because he wanted to fulfill the emptiness he was feeling due to the lack of emotional connection he had with his father. Lacs father’s physical and mental abuse was the root cause of Lac’s low self esteem and for his desire to belong and to be accepted by others. If Lac would have received the affection he deserved as a child, his intense journey to acquire self love and acceptance would not have led him to befriend people who were bad influences in his life. Lac would have thrived in school and in life without having to make painful mistakes. Like many abused children, Lac Su may live his life always trying to please others for acceptance and love which he was lacking in his childhood.