Current Market Condition Analysis

Current Market Conditions Competitive Analysis Karon Kanadjian ECO/365 April 10, 2013 Current Market Conditions Competitive Analysis Apple is probably one of the most recognized companies in the world when it comes the designing, development, and marketing of cutting edge technology with products that everyone wishes to own. Apple Inc. (Apple) was founded and incorporated in 1977 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniack, making headlines with the release of the apple I computer.According to â€Å"Reuters Edition U. S. † (2013), â€Å" The Company's products and services include iPhone, iPad, Mac, iPod, Apple TV, a portfolio of consumer and professional software applications, the iOS and OS X operating systems, iCloud, and a variety of accessory, service and support offerings† (para. 1). With two decades of predominantly manufacturing personal computers, including the Apple II, Macintosh, and Power Mac Lines, the company began facing rocky sales and low market share.With a combi nation of low sales, high pressure demands on the staff, and continued struggles regarding the company’s direction between Jobs and Sculley his CEO, Jobs surprisingly was ousted from the company in 1985. Siegel (  2011), â€Å"A power struggle erupted between Sculley and Jobs. In the spring of 1985 Apple's board sided with the CEO, removing Jobs from his command of the Macintosh group† (para. 1).He however returned with the greatest comeback in 1996 after the procurement of NeXT by Apple. Steve Jobs shortly was appointed interim CEO where he inspired a new corporate philosophy of recognizable products and simple designs. Today Apple has established itself as a leader in the consumer electronic and media sales industries and has surpassed Google and Microsoft combined in sales with $156 billion in 2012 (Edstrom & Holt, 2012) .In an extremely competitive trade, companies are trying to invent continually ways to retain their current customers and continue to have an edg e to appeal to the new growing market of customers, especially in these very tough times economically, where people face even tougher decision making choices about the phone they purchase and the type of service they select. With the transition from 3G’s to 4G’s, companies are staging a bid to their existing customers as well as the new customers promising excellent service and plenty of extras bonuses to lure them into their clutches.They recognize customer loyalty is a thing of the past with the longevity of merely two years for an average customers contract before making a switch to another provider. This accelerating trend has become a main factor in companies raising the bar in quality while dropping their prices especially for smartphones. With the rise in blogging, a potential customer can obtain reviews of cell phones and the differences of the product features. They can determine the advantage or disadvantage of a particular phone offered as a bonus with a con tract commitment.Even You Tube has search sites that allow you to watch various video reviews (â€Å"Effects Of The Emerging Competition Of Cellular Phone Companies,†Ã‚  2012). As mobile phones become a vital, and integral part of most individuals everyday living, cellular phone companies have had to continue to target the demands of this implausible market. Many telecommunication companies give cell phones as a bonus to their packages, but the unrelenting predicament they face is, which phone do they offer that will beat out the competitors, take a larger share of the market, and still manage to be profitable.With this fierce competition among the cell phone providers, some companies have turned to consolidation with other providers. Merging together has offered their talents to pool and offer top-notch phones and services. For example, Google purchased Motorolla in 2011 enabling them to compete significantly with Apple in both the software and hardware division. The same go es for Microsoft, who partnered with Nokia in producing the Windows Smartphone (â€Å"Effects Of The Emerging Competition Of Cellular Phone Companies,†Ã‚  2012).If the predictions hold true, the next few years will see more mergers allowing companies to remain in the game. One issue affecting Apple is the competiveness from other cell phone companies such as Samsung having somewhat identical features on some of their products at a lower price. Apple simply faces a vastly improving competitive threat with game changing capability. The advantage of other companies is the ability to cover a whole variety of products – phones, smartphones, tablets, TVs, and domestic goods like fridges (Shaughnessy, 013). Through the years Apple has created expensive devices that customers are willing to pay over $600 for a phone, but they need to create a market in the lower price categories of smartphones to compete with some of their competitor’s like Samsung who has created a cla mor for quality products at a relatively inexpensive price range that fulfills customer requirements and requests, and thereby potentially overlook an expensive Apple device for a Samsung product (Shaughnessy, 2013).On the contrary, Louie Partners, and a former member of TiVo’s board, says â€Å"Apple is the one company in the world that’s powerful enough to take on monopolies and force them to change. † Apple products have created their own following of customers who will wait outside their stores in the rain to get the newest product and their items demand is considered relatively elastic. Either way it is examined, it could imply Apple shows a potential for both demand elasticity and demand inelasticity (s3hrlich, 2012) (Murray, 2012).The costs to stay in the game are staggering. Apple has variable costs such as raw material costs, packaging, and labor, which are directly involved in the company’s manufacturing process of phones. The â€Å"A Tale Of A pple, The IPhone, And Overseas Manufacturing†Ã‚  (2012) website  gives an unsettling look at Apple and offers an exhaustive report by Keith Bradsher and Charles Duhigg of the New York Times. The report based upon numerous interviews with current Apple employees as well as former employees concerns the iPhone production and the practice of abroad manufacturing.It also includes excessive, oppressive, and illegal overtime hours, hazardous conditions, inappropriate, and sometimes forced labor of 16-18 year-old student â€Å"interns† on night shifts with wages so low that 64 % of workers claim their pay does not cover their basic needs (Eisenbrey, 2012). American’s are quick to criticize Apple for its facility in China employing 230,000 people, six days a work week, 12- hour shifts, and many of the workers earn $17 per day or less. More than one fourth of the employees live in dormitories considered deplorable to American standards.Through the efforts of the manufac turing plant in China, Apple can stay ahead of the game. An example given was concerning the CEO Steve Jobs in 2007, shy of a month before the new scheduled iPhone was to show up in stores. Jobs was furious with the prototype he was carrying in his pocket a few weeks prior along with his keys, as the front glass screen was majorly marred. He gave them only one solution, to use glass that was unscratchable, and he wanted it perfect in six weeks!With an assembly line overhauled in a Chinese factory and new screens arriving shortly at the manufacturing facility, before midnight a supervisor woke up 8,000 workers at their company’s dormitories and within an hour they began a 12-hour shift fitting the new glass into the devices. According to  Ã¢â‚¬Å"A Tale Of Apple, The Iphone, And Overseas Manufacturing†Ã‚  (2012),  Ã¢â‚¬  Within 96 hours, the plant was producing more than 10,000 iPhones a day a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. †Ã‚  (para. 1-3). If Apple needed 3,000 people overnight, it was accomplished in the factories of China.Could you see 3,000 people in a U. S. plant being hired overnight? With cheap labor and production speed as shown, it is a big incentive for Apple. According to  Ã¢â‚¬Å"A Tale Of Apple, The IPhone, And Overseas Manufacturing†Ã‚  (2012),  Ã¢â‚¬Å"The entire supply chain is in China now,† the article quotes a former high-ranking Apple executive as saying. â€Å"You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That's the factory next door. You need a million screws? That factory is a block away. You need that screw made a little bit different? It will take three hours† (para. 1-3). The U. S. ould not compete with the speed of a company in China taking 15 days to assemble 8,700 industrial engineers to oversee employees amassing the iPhone. The average U. S. company would take as long as nine months to be ready to commence work. This depicts a vibrant picture of how companies in China wo rk versus companies in the U. S. The cost structure for the iPhone is divided as 15 dollars to manufacturing cost, $207 to major components, $89 to other costs, making a profit of $319. Apple’s profit per phone is more than 20 times the labor cost, according to Ross Eisenbrey.Apple has changed the world with its technological innovations being responsible for nearly 50,000 American jobs, but it is not enough. It needs to rebuild American manufacturing of the past where employees worked reasonable hours and a decent wage was the standard. Most of the phone components are assembled in China or Asia however, on the bright side, the glass for the iPhone manufactured in Kentucky is reviving a Corning factory. It has grown to more than $700 million a year, employing close to 1,000 Americans supporting the emerging market.As the market has continued to expand so has the glass manufacturing plants extending to Japan, and Taiwan. Most of Corning’s customers are in Taiwan, Korea , Japan and China, making it profitable to build and produce their glass factories next door to the assembly factories overseas (London,  2012). A major factor affecting cellular phones in the current market conditions are fixed cost. Some major providers are offering consumers a flat monthly rate to ensure they sign their current mobile contract, but mid-way through the contract, the carriers are silently raising the prices customers are currently paying.Of the four major networks, three have reportedly either raised their rates or discontinued their current monthly deals. The planned hike in prices help the networks counterbalance the high costs of the mobile Web, the delivering of apps, and mobile video. The demand for faster networks and upgrades are estimated to cost the industry a whopping $50 billion a year (â€Å"Cnn Money†,   2011). During 2012, Apple fell short of being the top brand for cell phones although Samsung’s sales soared (Muller, 2012). However, Apple continues to improve their products as people tend to want the latest upgraded phone to have minimal problems. Apple will increase its U. S. smartphone share and possibly increase its profit margin per phone as well with its new iPhone 4S, according to multiple industry analysts† (Palenchar, 2011, para. 1). Possessing more shares available gives Apple more room to grow and make changes to their product. The Apple app store alone has 500,000 apps while the Android store carries 45,000 (Warren, 2011). A large amount of the profit comes from the app store. The Apple app store has thousands more apps than the Android market. Developers should continue creating apps for Apple to help increase profits.Apple is a very popular cell phone. To increase their profits they should decrease their price making their supply and the demand increase for their brand. With technology so advance, maybe the next big thing for Apple is a built in mind reader in out cellular device! References Muller, R. (2012). Mobile phone sales. My broad brand. Retrieved from: http://mybroadband. co. za/news/gadgets/64760-most-popular-cellphone-brands-in-the-world. html/attachment/mobile-phone-sales Palenchar, J. (20111). Apple Seen Raising Share, Maximizing Profits With iPhone 4S. Twice. Retrieved

Oil and Gas Problems in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan's Oil Supply Chain Management Challenges Kazakhstan is endowed with rich oil reserves, which provide an important source of revenues for stable economic growth and improvement of the country's living standard. This paper addresses the challenge the Republic of Kazakhstan faces in managing its oil supply chain. The country's capacity for refining crude oil is minimal and a substantial portion of that refining capacity is outside the Republic; added to that, most of the pipelines and refineries to export oil to international markets are jointly managed by the Republic and multinational corporations (MNCs).Thus there are political, technological and financial risks for the republic's oil supply chain. 14 Jay Nathan, The Peter J. Tobin College of Business, St. John's University As in other oil producing nations, Kazakhstan's oil industry revenues directly depend on the worldwide prices for oil and oil products, based on supply and demand; and revenues depend on the cost of pro duction and transporting the final product to customers (Rasizade, 1999). For Kazakhstan's oil supply chain, the physical distribution infrastructure connecting supplies of crude oil to refineries and to the world markets through pipelines, has been challenging and costly.Moreover, currently Kazakhstan is equipped with only a few ; refineries and therefore the major portion of Kazakhstan's crude oil is being refined in Russia. Recently, China has invested heavily in the construction of pipelines across the Republic of Kazakhstan to supply the increased demand for oil in China. Thus Kazakhstan has to manage political, technical and financial risks in the integration of her oil supply chain (Gaudenzi and Borghesi, 2006; Lockamy and McCormack, 2004). In the era of rapid technological development and globalization. It is imperative that every nation adapts to such an environment.Supply chain management has become an important means for sustaining competitive advantage for all successful industries and businesses (Magretta, 1998). The objective of every supply chain, including the global oil industry, is to maximize the overall value generated. The value a supply chain generates [to an organization, or to a nation] is the difference between what the final product is worth to the customer and the effort the Introduction Kazakhstan has considerable deposits of oil; however, the country faces a serious disadvantage of not having any direct access to the open sea, as the Caspian Sea is landlocked.While her oil industry's upstream cost, i. e. , the cost for exploration, development and production of crude oil, may be similar to that of most other oil producing nations, its downstream cost, i. e. , transportation of crude oil to the refinery, refining and transportation to markets in particular, is more costly (Sridharan, Canines and Patterson; 2005). For Kazakhstan to transport the oil to world markets, the industry has to depend on pipelines (Cavenagh, 1999) through ot her countries. Also, maintaining such an operation requires a large number of skilled workers, but Kazakhstan does not have enough of them.Kazakhstan's Oil Supply Chain Management Challenges 15 supply chain expends in filling the customer's request. For most commercial supply chains, value will be strongly correlated with supply chain profitability, the difference between the revenue generated from the customer and the overall cost across the supply chain (Chopra and Meindl, 2003; Lee, 2002; Cavinato, 2002). The Republic of Kazakhstan will do well to monitor—especially to sustain growth — the overall value of her oil supply chain in the coming years. because of refinery gain {www. gravmag. com, 2006).It is important to note that greater economic rewards can be gained only with well-integrated global oil supply chain management. Oil Production Sharing Agreement and Risks in Kazakhstan The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of Kazakhstan and the Ministry of Fuel an d Energy of Russia, periodically set quotas for Kazakhstan's oil flow through Russian territory. For example, on December 25, 2000 the quota for Kazakhstan was set at 17. 3 million tons. The memorandum between Kazakhstan and Russia of October 9, 2000 sets the principle of â€Å"a single route,† whose sole operator is the Kazakh Oil Company.Annual quotas depend mainly on the political relations between the two nations. Besides politics, there is also a technical risk factor, i. e. , the high degree of pipeline wear and deterioration, which may hamper the effectiveness and quality of services provided to exporting countries. In addition, the lack of proper maintenance of these oil pipelines does exist primarily due to the fact that a large number of well-trained local technicians and engineers who are required are not available to day (Doing Business with Kazakhstan, 2004).Kazakhstan's oil pipeline systems were built in the '70s {more than 60 percent of oil pipelines of the Wes tern branch, to be exact) and the rest in the '80s {75 percent of the Eastern branch). Thus, at the end of the year 2000, Oil producing countries and global supply chains Energy makes the wheels of global supply chains go round (Bud La Londe, 2006). A typical oil supply chain begins with the crude oil producer, next, the oil moves to the refiner, the transporter, the retailer and finally to the gas pump where a customer receives the product.The top world oil producers are Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United States, Iran, Mexico, China, Canada, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Norway, Kuwait, Nigeria, Brazil, Kazakhstan and Iraq. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) controls major crude oil supplies to the world. OPEC influences the price of crude oil by setting production quotas. The values {revenue opportunities) are added by processing and chemically changing the crude oil, which is called â€Å"refining. A 42-gallon barrel of crude oil makes about 19 1/2 gal lons of gasoline, nine gallons of fuel oil, four gallons of jet fuel and 11 gallons of other products, including lubricants, kerosene, asphalt and petrochemical feed-stocks to make plastics. This adds up to more than 42 gallons Supply chain management has become an important means for sustaining competitive advantage for all successful industries and businesses. Kazakhstan's Oil Supply Chain Management Challenges 16 55 percent ofthe pipelines were 10 to 20 years old and 12 percent had been used for more than 30 years.Only 1 percent has been used for less than 10 years. As time goes by, those pipelines are getting even older and that means not only the risk and cost of maintaining them would be larger, but also the situation presents serious technical problems as well for the Republic of Kazakhstan {Petroleumjournal. com, 2006). form of joint ventures, production sharing agreements and exploration/field agreements. Oil is recovered from 55 fields. The largest of these fields are: Ten giz (some one billion tons of predicted oil reserves); Karachaganak (340 million tons in oil reserves, more than 1. billion tons in gas condensates and more than 1. 3 trillion cubic meters of natural gas); Uzen (with over 1. 5 billion tons of geological hydrocarbon reserves, of which more than 200 million tons are extractable) and Kumkola (with 350 million tons of oil reserves, of which 80 million tons of oil and 75 billion cubic meters of natural gas are proven). The Caspian and Aral Sea shelf also contain significant reserves. Currently, there are only three major refineries in Kazakhstan: Atyrau, Shymkent and Pavlodar (see Exhibit 2). Kazakhstan's Oil Fields and ProductionMangistau and Atyrau oblasts (provinces) are the main oil producing areas in Kazakhstan (see Exhibit 1). They account for more than 70 percent of the total oil extracted in the Republic. The other three extracting regions, Aktyubinsk, Kzylorda and Zapadno Kazakhstanskaya, account for the remainder. International oil projects have taken the Exhibit 1: Production (in thousand tons) by regions 1998 Crude oil, thousand tons Aktubinskaya Atyrauskaya Zapadno-Kazakhstanskaya Kyzylordinskaya Mangistauskaya 23,818. 7 2,640. 8 11,135. 1 3,007. 8 7,035. 0 1999 26,735. 8 2,326. 7 12,359. 3 3,928. 8,121. 7 2000 30,647. 9 2,701. 1 13,422. 0 13. 5 533. 8 9,173 2001 36,060. 0 3,405. 3 15,589. 5 49. 4 6,172. 8 10,843. 0 Source: National Statistics Agency of Kazakhstan, 2005 Kazakhstan's Oil Supply Chain Management Challenges 17 Exhibit 2: Design and Delivery Capacities of Major Refineries Plant Design Capacity m In. tons Actual Deliveries min. tons Per month Design thousand tons Actual thousand tons Per day Design thousand tons Actual thousand tons Shymkent Oil Refinery PavlodarOil Refinery Atyrau Oil Refinery 6. 5 3. 6 2. 3 590 326. 8 189. 5 245. 4 19. 7 22. 6 14 10. 9 6. 3 7. 5 4. 677 418 2. 7 8. 2 Source: National Statistics Agency of Kazakhstan, 2005 †¢ Pavlodar (a foreign investor was given a man agement concession in 1997; the plant has been under government control since summer 1999) processes mainly light crude from Siberia and supplies the northern region of Kazakhstan; †¢ Atyrau belongs to Kazakhoil, processing heavy domestic oil and supplies the western region; †¢ Shymkent was mostly sold (95 per cent) to private investors in 1996. It processes dedicated crude from the region (Kumkol, Aktyubinsk, Turkmen fields) and supplies the south, particularly Almaty.Kazakhstan's Oil Production and Distribution Costs A multitude of different schemes exist for dividing oil revenues between the host country and the foreign partner. The usual target for distribution of revenue from production to market is about 85 percent to the host country and 15 percent to the oil company. This ratio can be construed in a variety of different ways with different types of contractual forms; it also depends on the host country's laws and preferences, but in general oil companies target thi s ratio.This number has varied over the years. For example, in Saudi Arabia the ratio is much higher in favor of the Saudis due to huge reserves and tower production costs. In the Caspian, the ratio is likely to be lower due to additional transport costs of getting the oil out of the region, i. e. , pipeline construction costs and transit fees and political risks in the area. Part of the problems with signing contracts with Caspian nations has been the nations' unwillingness to recognize the economic necessity of decreasing the ratio (Feiveson, 1998).The upstream breakdown of costs is about 10 percent for exploration to find an economical field (odds are about one in 10 holes drilled will hit a commercial-sized field), 80 percent (or higher) to develop the find and 10 percent in continued on pg. 20 The benefits an increased number of properly educated personnel would befar the proper management of the entire supply chain activities are enormous; it is a strategic necessity for the R epublic of Kazakhstan to leverage and sustain future oil revenues. Major Oil Pipelines and their Routes MapHere are the various Kazak pipelines and their routes: Kazakhstan's Oil Supply Chain Management Challenges 18 Exhibit 3: Map of Major Pipelines Oil ptpalin «a Existing) prundw eonsiruClioR A Maior Ott nekl RBfinoty  » Planntd wunott †¢ †¢ confl ruction 0 Mil « 200 Km 400 Oil Pipelines Infrastructure in Central Asia Source: Adapted from Kazakhstan Oil and Gas International Conference Proceedings, 2002 The major pipelines are identified by the Kazakhstan Ministry of Power, Industry and Trade as the projected priority export routes for oil in the following order: 1.Atyrau-Samara pipeline: The possibilities for oil exports along the AtyrauSamara oil pipeline are restricted by its throughput capacity and by the quota set by Russia. This is a constraining factor for the growth of both crude oil production and export supplies. To increase the throughput capacity from 1 0 to 15 million tons per year, a series of technical measures in Kazakhstan and Russia are being taken at a cost of 22 million dollars; Kazakhstan's Oil Supply Chain Management Challenges 2. Tengiz-Novorossisk oil pipeline: The Caspian Pipeline Consortium's (CPC) oil export pipeline project is a short-term priority westward.This project ensures an independent outlet for Kazakhstan's oil exports to the Black Sea and opens up opportunities for the attraction of foreign investments in the oil-and-gas sector. The necessary agreements for the project participants have already been signed and operations initiated; 3. Trans-Caspian pipeline: Planned to follow a route through the Black Sea to Turkey, the Trans-Caspian oil pipeline project is considered to be a priority. The oil pipeline will stretch from Western Kazakhstan to an outlet on the Mediterranean (the Turkish port of Ceyhan) via the Caspian Sea.The territory of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey creates risks for the project due to th e complicated mountainous terrain and water barriers and the need to cross confiict-prone zones; 4. Kazakhstan-China pipeline: Since 2004, in the Kazakhstan section of the Caspian Sea, the volume of the crude oil production has increased. The export oil pipeline of the CPC alone cannot meet the demand for oil transportation infrastructure. Preliminary engineering and economic calculations have shown that an oil pipeline eastward to China is a promising and economically favorable project.The Kazakhstan-China oil pipeline project can, simultaneously, meet Kazakhstan's national security interests and provide an outlet to meet China's growing demand for oil. The oil pipeline's route will pass over the territory of Kazakhstan and China will guarantee the project funding. The downside of the project is that the People's Republic of China can potentially control the price paid for the oil; 5. Persian Gulf-Iranian oil pipeline: The Persian Gulf-Iranian oil pipeline provides another possible oil pipeline route to the south.However, severe competition from OPEC countries can bring about a reduction in the price paid for oil from the Persian Gulf. Consequently, a reduced load on the oil pipeline may occur at some time in the future due to low profitability in that market. No terms for investment mobilization for this project have yet been defined; 6. Arabian Sea-Trans-Asi an oil pipeline: The Trans-Asian oil pipeline via Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan to an outlet in the Arabian Sea is politically highly risky, since it passes over the territory of Afghanistan.Currently, consideration is being given to the basic question of how the funding will be organized for the project. Kazakhstan's Oil Supply Chain Management Challenges 20 Exhibit 4: Comparison of Transport Costs per barrel of Kazakh Oil Route Cost to Port $1. 42 $1. 42 $1. 42 Black Sea Tanker Second Pipeline Final Tanker Cost $1. 23 Total Tengiz Novorossiysk Samsun Ceyhan NovorossiyskBosporus Bypass T urkmenistan – Kharg Source: KazakhOil Report, 2005 $2. 65 $3. 46 $3. 17 $2. 50 $0. 40 $0. 40 $0. 88 $0. 59 $0. 76 $0. 76 $0. 93 $1. 57 operating costs to produce the oil.Exploration costs are cash expenditures, which include payments for exploration licenses to the host countries. Development costs are capital costs depreciated over time and operating costs pay for themselves with the sales of crude oil production. Downstream costs include transportation of crude to the refinery, refining, transportation of products to market and marketing. If one were to examine the cost breakdown of a gallon of gas {called petrol in some countries) averaged around the world, from ground to market, the distribution would be approximately: †¢ 2. percent for exploration †¢ 12. 5 percent {or more) for production and development †¢ 20 percent to the host government †¢ 2. 5 percent for transportation to a refinery †¢ 7. 5 percent for refining †¢ 2. 5 percent to trans port to market †¢ 2. S percent for marketing †¢ 50 percent in taxes to the consumer at the pump For example, the costs per barrel for export of Tengiz oil are: lifting costs (the costs to get crude oil extracted from below surface and bringing it to the ground level) $2, pipeline costs $1. 2, transit fee $3, shipping by oil tanker {including other means) $1. 23. The total comes to $7. 65. Kazakhstan's Oil Supply Chain Management Challenges In Kazakhstan the preferred contract form is a joint venture between a foreign firm and a state enterprise, generally KazakhOil, which is the state oil company. In a joint venture both the state enterprise and the foreign venture invest stated amounts of capital, which can take various forms, including physical assets and rights to land. Risk is shared in proportion to capita! nvested. The amount of control the foreign firm has is usually limited and in some cases joint ventures are little more than contracts for procurement. The usual t arget for distribution of revenue from production to market is about 85 percent to the host country and 15 percent to the oil company. Kazakhstan's Oil Supply Chain Management Challenges 21 Kazakhstan has two separate pipeline networks: a crude oil pipeline from Western Siberia supplies Pavlodar and Shymkent, while Atyrau runs solely domestic crude from northwest Kazakhstan.The current pipeline system is fragmented and does not link the east and the west of the country, nor does it move petroleum from oil producing fields in the west of the country to the Pavlodar or Shymkent refineries located in the north and the east. The domestic pipelines capacity will not cope with the anticipated significant volume increases the Republic hopes to be producing in the years to come. At present some of Kazakhstan's production is exported by means of barges to Baku, Azerbaijan, where it is fed into the Azerbaijan pipeline network system and sent to world markets (Rasizade, 1999).The existing pipe line networks will require large investments, if Kazakhstan is to develop its crude oil and gas potential to the fullest. Kazakhstan's major oil ports are: Atyrau and Aktau ; major oil export pipelines are: Tengiz-Novorossiisk (Russia); Uzen-AtyrauSamara (Russia); the Kenkyak-Orsk (Russia) line that transports oil from the Aktyubinsk fields to the Orsk refinery; and the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) that transports oil from Western Kazakhstan to the Black Sea at Novorossiysk (Baker and McKenzie, 2002).Even though the Republic has upgraded its overall educational system, especially the post-secondary curricula, degree offerings and the academic rigor modeling after the Western-type system, there is still a paucity of engineers and technicians to maintain and to sustain the growth of the oil industry. The benefits an increased number of properly educated personnel would be for the proper management of the entire supply chain activities are enormous; it is a strategic necessity for the Republic of Kazakhstan to leverage and sustain future oil revenues. Current Issues in Global Energy MarketIn recent years, demand for energy has surged. This unrelenting increase has helped fuel global economic growth, but placed considerable pressure on suppliers augmented by geopolitics and other disruptive factors. On the demand side, increased energy security and environmental concerns may lead to changes in consuming countries' energy policies. These uncertainties have been reflected in the market through volatility and high prices (Birol, 2006). Daniel Yergin of Cambridge Energy Research Associates Inc. (CERA) during a symposium on â€Å"The Economics and Geopolitics of Russian Energy† at Georgetown University in Washington D. C. n October 29, 2007, forecasted that oil prices are becoming increasingly decoupled from the fundamentals of supply and demand (Yergin, 2007). Policy Implications for the leadership in Kazakhstan Kazakhstan is not a major player in geopolit ics. OPEC member states and Russia have political clout in the global energy market. Russia, Kazakhstan's northern neighbor, not only has huge oil reserves on her own, but also Energy makes the wheels of global supply chains go round. Kazakhstan's Oil Supply Chain Management Challenges 22 controls the refining capacities, as well as some of the flows of refined oil from Kazakhstan to world markets.However, for the young republic, the rich deposit of oil is a blessing; at the same time, it can easily be squandered by mismanagement and bad public policy. Fortunately, in today's global world — armed with first-class business know-how and with lessons learned from other oil producing nations — it is possible for the leadership of Kazakhstan to take a long-term view of proven crude oil deposits in the Caspian Sea and within the sovereign republic of Kazakhstan. 7. Feiveson, H. (1998). â€Å"The Problem of Caspian Energy. † Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University. 8. Gaudenzi, B. and A. Borghesi. (2006). Managing Risks in the Supply Chain Using Ahp Method. † International journal of Logistics Management, vol. 17, pp. 114-136. www. gravmag. com 9. Lee, Hau L. (2002). â€Å"Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Differentiation. † California Management Review, pp. 105-119. 10. Lockamy, A. and Kevin McCormack. (2004). Linking SCOR planning practices to supply chain performance. International journal of Operations & Production Management, vol. 24, pp. 1192-1218. 11. National Statistics Agency of Kazakhstan, 2005. www. petroleumjournal. kz References 1. Birol, F. (2006). â€Å"World Energy Prospects and Challenges. The Australian Economic Review, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 190-195. 2. Bud La Londe. (2006). â€Å"Energy Problem Cries for Decisive Action. † Supply Chain Management Review, Vol. 10, Issue 6, pp. 6. 3. Cavenagh, A. (1999, February 24). â€Å"Caspian Oil Project Has a Slov^ Road to Syndication. † Project Fin ance International, pp. 50-51. 4. Cavinato, J. (2002, May June). â€Å"What's Your Supply Chain Type? † Supply Chain Management Review, pp. 60-66. 5. Chopra, S. and Meindl, P. (2004). SupplyChain Management (Second Edition). New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. 6. Doing Business with Kazakhstan. (2004). Edited by Marat Terterov.London, England: Kogan Page Publishers. 12. Rasizade, A. (1999). â€Å"Azerbaijan, the U. S. and Oil Prospects On The Caspian Sea. † Journal of Third World Studies, vol. XVI, No. 1, pp. 29-48. 13. Report of Baker and McKenzie. (2002, November). CIS Energy Notes. 14. Report of KazakhOil (2005). 15. Sridharan, U. , Caines, R. and C. Patterson. | (2005). â€Å"Implementation Of Supply Chain Management and its Impact on the Value Of Firms. † Supply Chain Management, Vol. 10, pp. 313-318. 16. Yergin, D. (2007). â€Å"Oil Market Fever as Prices Near $100. † Pipeline & Gas Journal, Issue II, pp. 97-97.

Why Islamic Financial Institutions in Need for Corporate Governance Essay

Why Islamic Financial Institutions in Need for Corporate Governance Legal Framework - Essay Example Islamic finanical systems were particularly sucessful in the pre-colonial era but were methodologicaly replaced by conventional financial institutions during the colonial era. However over the last thirty or so years, Islamic financial institutions have been making a formidible comeback. Today Islamic financial systems have not only been established in Islamic states, but also internationally. Moreover, a number of conventional banks are also offering Islamic financial services evidencing the global acceptance of Islamic financial institutions. According to the World Bank, Islamic fiancial services are offered globally via 284 financial institutions in 38 countries which are Islamic and non-Islamic states. Like any financial institution, good and effective corporate governance is necessary for the effective and efficient functioning of the institution and for the protection of stakeholder interests. The stakeholder insterest are not always monetary in nature and can include ethics, values and/or religion. For Islamic financial institution, the amin interests of stakeholders is that the institution offering Islamic financial services comply with Shariah principles. Thus Shariah-compliant functioning in an Islamic financial insitution is the key component of corporate governance in Islamic financial institutions. ... However over the last thirty or so years, Islamic financial institutions have been making a formidible comeback. Today Islamic financial systems have not only been established in Islamic states, but also internationally. Moreover, a number of conventional banks are also offering Islamic financial services evidencing the global acceptance of Islamic financial institutions.1 According to the World Bank, Islamic fiancial services are offered globally via 284 financial institutions in 38 countries which are Islamic and non-Islamic states.2 Like any financial institution, good and effective corporate governance is necessary for the effective and efficient functioning of the institution and for the protection of stakeholder interests. The stakeholder insterest are not always monetary in nature and can include ethics, values and/or religion. For Islamic financial institution, the amin interests of stakeholders is that the institution offering Islamic financial services comply with Shariah p rinciples. Thus Shariah-compliant functioning in an Islamic financial insitution is the key component of corporate governance in Islamic financial institutions.3 The challenge for Islamic financial institutions in formulating good and effective corporate governance constructs is reconciling Shariah-compliant principles with the interests of all stakeholders.4 The stakeholder relationship in Islamic financial institutions is different from conventional financial institutions because profit and risk sharing principles change the nature of the stakeholder relationship.5 Moreover, the definition of property also changes the Islamic financial institution’s perspective on corporate

Developmental Changes in Preschool Children Essay - 3

Developmental Changes in Preschool Children - Essay Example Emotional development is the process of learning to recognize and express one’s feelings as well as learning to establish one’s identity and individuality. Social development is the process of learning to interact with others and to express one self to them. Both emotional development and social skills are essential as they prepare the child for school and adult life. These ensure that a child is able to pay attention to an adult figure (authority), ensure an easy transition from one activity to another as well as the ability to cooperate with other children. From the ages 1 to 3, children learn new things through observation and imitation. They acquire skills in sharing, showing affection etc from parents and/or primary caregiver. Through these experiences, they learn how to interact with others outside the home. The play has an important role in child development. Social-emotional skills gained by playing with others and their parents give them the self-confidence needed to build loving and supportive relationships throughout their lives. At about 1 year of age, children generally start to exhibit rebellious behavior, negativism (doing the opposite of what they are told), they express feelings of happiness and sadness, calmness and stability and inner peace. They are self-centered but begin to learn that some desires may never be met. They become increasingly frustrated because of their inability to perform certain tasks that they see older siblings and adults performing with ease of feeding themselves or writing hence the incidents of temper tantrums. As a child approaches age 2, there is generally an improvement in their speech and motor skills, which relieves some of their frustrations. They are able to respond to others talking and also follow simple instructions. They are increasingly able to express themselves through speech and seek approval from their peers and parents. There are fewer emotional outbursts.  

The impact of digital technologies on young children's learning in Research Proposal - 1

The impact of digital technologies on young children's learning in Saudi kindergartens - Research Proposal Example However, these INGOs have been reported to face ethical challenges when executing their operations in different countries due to various reasons. This paper explores one of the ethical dilemmas these INGOs encounter. To achieve this goal, the paper utilizes scholarly works on human rights and humanitarian INGOs that are currently available. Some of the ethical dilemmas encountered by the human rights and humanitarian rights INGOs include: the ethical limits of raising funds, decision to collaborate or not to collaborate with governments, the decision to expand or limit their mandate in different territories, and conflicts that arise between local cultural norms and human rights (Bell & Carens, 2004, p. 303, 309,320, 324). For the purpose of this paper, the conflict between human rights and cultural norms is discussed in detail. Bell and Carens (2004, p. 303) observed that the majority of the humanitarian and human rights INGOs have their central location in western nations. It is from these headquarters where they coordinate most of their operations across the globe. Due to the limited knowledge on the culture, economic standing and language these INGOs have on the people they are to serve in some of the distant countries, they are faced with difficulties on how to effectively structure their typical operations and organizational management to meet these people’s needs without creating a conflict of interests (Bell & Carens, 2004, p. 303-304). Tolerating clashing beliefs, challenging local cultural norms, and revisiting the basic roles and practices of the Human Rights INGOs are some of the mechanisms that Bell and Carens suggest to help resolve this dilemma. Tolerating Clashing Beliefs. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), described by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the procedure that entails removal of part or whole female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for

More Help for Agent Orange's Victims Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

More Help for Agent Orange's Victims - Essay Example And apparently, America did not learn from the tragedy they had brought about, as they used another, equally destructive weapon against civilians during the Vietnam War, where history yet again repeated itself in the form of the biological weapon known as Agent Orange. While not nearly as infamous as its earlier use of nuclear weapons against Japan, this act on America's part unsurprisingly drew condemnation from various sectors. And considering how the Vietnamese in particular continue to suffer as a result of Agent Orange, such condemnation is at least partly justified - which makes the lack of restitution on the part of America rather confusing and, indeed, maddening. Though weapons may come in all shapes and sizes, there is rarely doubt that these are meant to be used against armed targets. However, as demonstrated by the terrible, terrible damage wrought by Agent Orange on the Vietnamese people, this is not always the case. This paper thus aims to explore the plight of the Agent Orange victims, first by examining what happened on that fateful day. The idea is to spell out to the American government the consequences of what they did - and from there, convince them to make the necessary reparations to the Vietnamese people. ... Whether from deprivation of food due to the herbicide-induced destruction of food crops, or from poverty brought on by forced draft urbanization, the Vietnamese people as a whole suffered as a result of Agent Orange (Kolko 144). In fact, Agent Orange was known to have directly resulted in 400,000 deaths, while also causing 500,000 more children to be born with birth defects (York and Haley, â€Å"Last Ghost of the Vietnam War†). This is not unlike the aftereffects of the aforementioned bombings, which claimed millions more through the side-effects such as radiation, leukemia and others. Unfortunately, the US Military has always had a reputation for being good at what it does, and Agent Orange was no different. Taken in this light, the use of anthrax and other chemical weapons by terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda may be considered as karmic retribution - or, for extra irony, even directly inspired by - the Agent Orange used by the United States at the time. From what has transp ired since, it can thus be said that their chemical warfare operation was one that had gone horribly right. Indeed, no less than the Red Cross of Vietnam estimates that Agent Orange has had at least a million victims, all of whom continue to feel the effects of a weapon used against their parents and grandparents decades ago (King, â€Å"US in first effort to clean up Agent Orange in Vietnam†). Tragically, yet unsurprisingly, it was the children who suffered the worst of it, developing multiple health problems and abnormalities as a result (York and Haley, â€Å"Last Ghost of the Vietnam War†). The breast milk of expectant mothers became saturated with abnormally

Single European Payment Area Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Single European Payment Area - Essay Example The Single Euro Payment System an electronic payment system in the euro zone countries. The banking industry in the European Union came up with the idea having the first Single Euro Payment Area products launched in January 2008. The Single Euro Payment Area, simply called SEPA, is an electronic system that eases the electronic payment all across the Euro zone by the use of credit cards, debit cards, bank transfer or direct debit. The electronic system will make it easy for tourist from and within the European Union, access their money as if they are in their domestic country (Anamaria and Ghiba, 2). The Single Euro Payment Area is highly supported by the EC and ECB. This is because of its significance to financial institutions and their client. The European Payment Commission, which represents the European banking industry, the European Central Bank and the European Commission all have a common vision and goals in the execution of the SEPA. The European Payment Commission uses the industry’s self-regulations to improve and promote the Single Euro Payment Area. This is done by defining common positions for core payment services within a competitive market place. The EPC is also accountable for providing strategic guidance for standardization and provide or in some cases formulate the best practices and support while monitoring the implementations of made decisions (Anamaria and Ghiba, 2). The EPC has fabricated new product schemes for direct debts and credit transfers and a structured framework for payment cards. The EPC represent the whole European financial industry as the members are from banking associations and banks from the EU member states. This assures that all the credit institution, regardless of its size, within the European market has a say in the implementation process of SEPA. The European Central Bank played a substantial role in the implementation of

Annotated Bibliography on Mark Twain's The War Prayer

On Mark Twain's The War Prayer - Annotated Bibliography Example John Trombold is a multiple contributor, and uses this essay to attack the American concepts of Manifest Destiny. The work is a public plea calling for Americans to educate themselves as to the reasoning behind constant war waging. The source is recent, published in 2006, and poignantly reviews historical facts from the American World Wars up to and including our current military occupation in Iraq, and Afghanistan. This resource would not be a significant contributor to an essay on Mark Twains work, "The War Prayer." The majority of the content is given to out of date American political policy as it was created by Theodore Roosevelt. Trombold attacks Roosevelt for openly lying to the public about the need for a war and for using the American peoples trust to futher his own financial gains. The source neither supports nor weakens Mark Twain's "The War Prayer." The essay asks the American reader of 2008 to think instead how our foreign policies should differ from that of Roosevelt's traditional war hungry America. In this critical analysis of Mark Twain essays, author David Zmijeski details how Twain was commissioned by the American Government as a political, and literary advocate in favor of America's attempts to annex and acquire the Sandwich Islands. The article gives a detailed account of exactly how/why/when Mark Twain openly supported the idea of increasing trade and acquiring land from Hawaii, and mainland China. This article is scholarly in nature, written exclusively for the Hawaiian Journal of History, and republished with permission in 2007. The Journal began in 1967 and publishes articles and essays exclusively about the history and legacy of the Pacific Islands. Zmijewski bases his essay on factual correspondence written by Mark Twain to the American government about the Polynesian and Sandwich Islands. Mark Twain is quoted often as adamantly advocating for less military and political American presence around the world, yet Zmijewski displays for the reader multiple correspondences in which Twain supports the opening of free trade with the Hawaiian Islands and calls for an American Military presence of some sort. The Hawaiian Journal releases the records and Zmijewski uses Twain's own writing to contradict his longtime opposition of American foreign involvement. This particular article would be of great interest and support to a paper on Mark Twain's the War Prayer. It is one of the few works that documenting the hidden dichotomy between what Twain privately believes in and what he asks the American public to believe. The great American master is caught denouncing Westward Expansion on one hand while simultaneously calling for financial and military support to acquire Hawaii on the other. Caplan, David. "That Grotesque and Laughable Word": Rethinking Patriotism in Time of War." Virginia Quarterly Review 83 (2007): 139-51. November 20th 2008. This journal article by David Caplan

Kinship and marriage from a cross-cultural perspective Essay

Kinship and marriage from a cross-cultural perspective - Essay Example According to the research findings it can therefore be said that the Kinship as a word has different meanings and mostly used in contextual manner however, from the perspective of anthropology, it represents a web of social relationships which are required by a person to live in a society. It also outlines the affinity between different entities based upon some or all of the characteristics which are focused and studied. From the perspective of Anthropology, it is also important to understand that it signifies the study of patterns of social relationships within different human cultures or the patterns of social relationships within themselves. The patterns of relationship defined in kinship are either related by descent or by marriage. Relationships which arise as a result of the marriages are called affinity and are viewed differently from the relationships emerging as a result of descent. There has been however different social changes which have relatively altered the kinship nor ms within the society. The modernization and urbanization combined with the industrialization has actually weakened the affinity especially in terms of extended kinship. The recent theory on Kinship has actually redefined the way the overall concept is being viewed. There has been a critical change in the basic assumptions of kinship theory and more focus has been on understanding as to how to view kinship along with other social theory. This paper will discuss as to how various authors have actually defined the social change in the kinship in specific settings with special reference to government laws and recent globalization changes which are taking place globally. Social Change in Kinship Norms There has been a tremendous change in the way the overall literature on the social change in the kinship norms have changed over the period of time,. Lewis Morgan defined kinship as a form of social organization and focused upon defining it from the perspective of structures and functions. This approach was mostly focused upon defining how the various relationship structures actually emerged during the kinship including residence patterns, mating strategies etc. There has been a consistent evolution of the kinship and it started to shift from paternal to maternal source of power and prestige. Since mother was actively involved in the rearing of the children therefore in certain societies, these trends started to change. In some societies, the transfer of property and its ownership was also dependent upon the mother-child link. (Levine, 2008) D. Schneider however provided a critique of the same and suggested that kinship differs from culture to culture and kinship actually encompass different other domains of social life also include economic and political. His critique was important in the sense that it attempted to identify and root kinship into the broader perspective of cultural and social norms. It is also critical to note that he critically associated the symbol s and what meanings can be driven from these symbols. It is however important to understand that most of the Schneider’s work has been focused upon North America and Great Britain. For Schneider, America was a single system of kinship with symbols having same meanings to both the males as well as females. (Peletz, 1995) Carsten defined kinship from the perspective of culture of relatedness and suggested that the biological relationships are socially constructed. She argues about the social construction of the biological relationships and specially the intervention of State as one of the means through which biological relationships are defined. In countries like India, marriage and biological relationships are often based upon religious association of individuals and to which religious class they belong to. The biogenetic relatedness therefore may not be important as kinship can also be defined under the sexual preferences as well as the establishment of kinship based upon pos t-natal associations. Carsten therefore refutes the assumption of Schneider that there is a clear division between the biological and

Jewish American Literature Essay Example for Free

Jewish American Literature Essay Jewish American Literature holds an essential place in the literary history of the United States. It encompasses traditions of writing in English, primarily, as well as in other languages, the most important of which has been Yiddish. While critics and authors generally acknowledge the notion of a distinctive corpus and practice of writing about Jewishness in America, many writers resist being pigeonholed as Jewish voices. Also, many nominally Jewish writers cannot be considered representative of Jewish American literature, one example being Isaac Asimov. Beginning with the memoirs and petitions composed by the Sephardic immigrants who arrived in America during the mid 17th century, Jewish American writing grew over the subsequent centuries to flourish in other genres as well, including fiction, poetry, and drama. The first notable voice in Jewish- American literature was Emma Lazarus whose poem ‘The New Colossus’ on the Statue of Liberty became the great hymnal of American immigration. Gertrude Stein became one of the most influential prose-stylists of the early 20th century. The early twentieth century saw the appearance of two pioneering American Jewish novels: Abraham Cahans The Rise of David Levinsky and Henry Roth’s Call it Sleep. It reached some of its most mature expression in the 20th century ‘Jewish American novels’ by Saul Bellow, J. D. Salinger, Norman Mailer, Bernard Malamud, Chaim Potok, and Philip Roth. Their work explored the conflicting pulls between secular society and Jewish tradition which were acutely felt by the immigrants who passed through Ellis Island and by their children and grandchildren. More recent authors like Nicole Krauss, Paul Auster, Michael Chabon, Jonathan Safran Foer andArt Spiegelman have continued to examine dilemmas of identity in their work, turning their attention especially to the Holocaust and the trends of both ongoing assimilation and cultural rediscovery exhibited by younger generations of American Jews. Arguably the most influential of all American- Jewish novels was Leon Uris Exodus. Its story of the struggle to create the modern state of Israel translated into Russian became the inspiration for hundreds of thousands of Russian immigrants to Israel. Modern Jewish American novels often contain (a few or many) Jewish characters and address issues and themes of importance to Jewish American society such as assimilation, Zionism/Israel, and Anti-Semitism, along with the recent phenomenon known as New Anti-Semitism. Two Jewish- American writers have won the Nobel Prize, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Saul Bellow. Bernard Malamud is considered one of the most prominent figures in Jewish –American literature. BERNARD MALAMUD ( 1914-1986). Malamud’s stories and novels, in which reality and fantasy are frequently interfaced have been compared to parables, myths and analogies and often illustrate the importance of moral obligation. Although he draws upon his Jewish heritage to address the themes of sins, suffering, and redemption, Malamud emphasizes human contact and compassion over orthodox religious dogma. Malamud’s characters, while often awkward and isolated from society, evoke both pity and humor through their attempts at survival and salvation. Sheldon J. Hershinow observed: â€Å"Out of the everyday defeats and indignities of ordinary people, Malamud creates beautiful parables that capture the joy as well as the pain of life; he expresses the dignity of the human spirit searching for freedom and moral growth in the face for hardship, injustice, and the existential anguish of life. BIOGRAPHY Malamud was born on April 28, 1914, in Brooklyn, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrants. His parents, whom he described as â€Å"gentle, honest, kindly people,† were not highly educated and knew very little about literature of the arts: â€Å"There were no books in the house, no records, music, pictures on the wall. † Malamud attended high school in Brooklyn and received his bachelor’s degree from the City College of New York in 1936. After graduation, he worked in a factory and as a clerk at the central bureau in Washington, D. C. Although he wrote in his spare time, Malamud did not begin writing seriously until the advent of the Second World War and the subsequent horrors of the Holocausts. He questioned his religious identity and started reading about Jewish tradition and history . He explained: â€Å"I was concerned with what Jews stood for, with their getting down to the bare  bones of things. I was concerned with their ethnically –how Jews felt for they had to live order to go on living. † In 1949, he began teaching at Oregan State University; he left this post in 1961 to teach creative writing at Bennington College in Vermont. He remained there until shortly before his death in 1986. Starting in 1949, Malamud taught four sections of freshman composition each semester at Oregon State University (OSU), an experience fictionalized in his 1961 novel ‘A New Life’. Because he lacked the Ph. D., he was not allowed to teach literature courses, and for a number of years his rank was that of instructor. In those days, OSU, a land grant university, placed little emphasis on the teaching of humanities or the writing of fiction. While at OSU, he devoted 3 days out of every week to his writing, and gradually emerged as a major American author. In 1961, he left OSU to teach creative writing at Bennington College, a position he held until retirement. In 1967, he was made a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1942, Malamud met Ann De Chiara (November 1, 1917 March 20, 2007), an Italian-American Roman Catholic, and a 1939 Cornell University graduate. They married on November 6, 1945, despite the opposition of their respective parents. Ann typed his manuscripts and reviewed his writing. Ann and Bernard had two children, Paul (b. 1947) and Janna (b. 1952). Janna Malamud Smith is the author of a memoir about her father, titled My Father is a Book. Malamud died in Manhattan in 1986, at the age of 71. WORKS OF MALAMUD Malamud’s first novel, ‘The Natural’ (1952 ) ,is considered one of his most symbolic works . While the novel ostensibly traces the life of Roy Hobbs, an American baseball player , the work has underlying mythic elements and explores such themes as initiation and isolation. For instance, some reviewers cited evidence of the Arthurian legend of the Holy Grail; others applied T. S. Eliot’s ‘wasteland’ myth in their analyses ‘The Natural’ also foreshadows what would become Malamud’s predominant narrative focus: a suffering protagonist struggling to reconcile moral dilemmas, to act according to what is right, and to accept the complexities and hardships of existence. Malamud‘s second novel, ‘The Assistant’ (1957), portrays the life of Morris Bober, a Jewish immigrant who owns a grocery store in Brooklyn. Although he is struggling to survive financially, Bober hires a cynical anti-semitic youth, Frank Aloine after learning that the man is homeless and on the verge of starvation. Through this contact Frank learns to find grace and dignity in his own identity. Described as naturalistic fable, this novel affirms the redemptive value of maintaining faith in the goodness of the human soul. Malamud’s first collection of short stories, ‘The Magic Barrel’, (1958) was awarded the National Book award in 1959. Like ‘The Assistant’, most of the stories in this collection depict the search for hope and meaning within the grim entrapment of poor urban settings and were influenced by Yiddish folktales and Hasidic traditions. Many of Malamud’s best known short stories, including ‘The Last Mohican’, ‘Angel Levine’, and ‘Idiots First’, were republished in ‘The Stories of Bernard Malamud’ in 1983. ‘A New Life’ (1961), considered one of Malamuds most true-to-life novels, is based in part on Malamuds teaching career at Oregon State University. This work focuses on an ex-alcoholic Jew from New York City who becomes a professor at a college in the Pacific Northwest. It examines the main characters search for self-respect, while poking fun at life at a learning institution. Malamuds next novel, ‘The Fixer’ (1966), is one of his most powerful works. The winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, this book is based on the historical account of Mendel Beiliss, a Russian Jew who was accused of murdering a Christian child. With ‘The Tenants’ (1971), Malamud returns to a New York City setting in a contrast between two writers—one Jewish and the other African American—struggling to survive in an urban ghetto. Malamud further addresses the nature of literature and the role of the artist in ‘Dublin’s Lives’ (1979). In this work, the protagonist, William Dublin, attempts to create a sense of worth for himself, both as a man and as a writer. Malamuds last finished novel, ‘Gods Grace’ (1982), studies both the original Holocaust and a new, imagined Holocaust of the future. The novel is a wild, at times brilliant, at times confusing, description of a flood similar to that in the Bible story of Noahs ark. Malamud continued to place stories in top American magazines. Mervyn Rothstein reported in the New York Times that Malamud said at the end of his life, With me, its story, story, story. In Malamuds next-to-last collection, ‘Rembrandts Hat’, only one story, ‘The Silver Crown’, deals with Jewish themes. Malamud is also renowned for his short stories, often oblique allegories set in a dreamlike urban ghetto of immigrant Jews. Of Malamud the short story writer, Flannery OConnor wrote: I have discovered a short-story writer who is better than any of them, including myself. He published his first stories in 1943, ‘Benefit Performance’ in Threshold and ‘The Place Is Different Now’ in American Preface. In the early 1950s, his stories began appearing in Harpers Bazaar, Partisan Review, and Commentary. ‘The Magic Barrel’ was his first published collection of short stories (1958) and his first winner of his first National Book Award for Fiction. Most of the stories depict the search for hope and meaning within the bleak enclosures of poor urban settings. The title story focuses on the unlikely relationship of Leo Finkle, an unmarried rabbinical student, and Pinye Salzman, a colorful marriage broker. Finkle has spent most of life with his nose buried in books and therefore isn’t well-educated in life itself. However, Finkle has a greater interest – the art of romance. He engages the services of Salzman, who shows Finkle a number of potential brides from his magic barrel but with each picture Finkle grows more uninterested. After Salzman convinces him to meet Lily Hirschorn, Finkle realizes his life is truly empty and lacking the passion to love God or humanity. When Finkle discovers a picture of Salzman’s daughter and sees her suffering, he sets out on a new mission to save her. Other well-known stories included in the collection are: ‘The Last Mohican’, ‘Angel Levine’, ‘Idiots First’, and ‘The Mourners’. This last story focuses on Kessler, the defiant old man in need of social security and Gruber, the belligerent landlord who doesnt want Kessler in the tenement anymore. Malamud’s fiction touches lightly upon mythic elements and explores themes like isolation, class, and the conflict between bourgeois and artistic values. His prose, like his settings, is an artful pastiche of Yiddish-English locutions, punctuated by sudden lyricism. Writing in the second half of the twentieth century, Malamud was well aware of the social problems of his day: rootlessness, infidelity, abuse, divorce, and more. But he also depicted love as redemptive and sacrifice as uplifting. In his writings, success often depends on cooperation between antagonists. For example, in The Mourners landlord and tenant learn from each others anguish. In ‘The Magic Barrel’, the matchmaker worries about his fallen daughter, while the daughter and the rabbinic student are drawn together by their need for love and salvation. Malamuds third story ‘Rembrandts Hat’ collection is noteworthy for its consistently pessimistic tone and theme of failed communication in stories such as ‘My Son the Murderer’, ‘The Silver Crown’, and ‘The Letter’. ‘The volume The People’, and ‘Uncollected Stories’ contains an unfinished novel about a Russian Jewish peddler in the American West who becomes a marshal and is kidnapped by Indians. It also includes fourteen stories written between 1943 and 1985. LIST OF OTHER NOTABLE JEWISH AMERICAN WRITERS †¢ Aimee Bender — novelist and short story writer, known for her often fantastic and surreal plots and characters †¢ Saul Bellow, novelist that won the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts †¢ Bernard Cooper, novelist, short story writer †¢ E. L. Doctorow, novelist †¢ Richard Ellmann, literary critic, won National Book Award for Nonfiction †¢ Barthold Fles, literary agent and non-fiction writer †¢ Emma Goldman, anarchist writer †¢ Joseph Heller, author of Catch-22 †¢ Christopher Hitchens, literary critic and political activist †¢ Irving Howe, literary critic †¢ Roger Kahn. The Boys of Summer 1972 †¢ Jerzy Kosinski, author of The Painted Bird †¢ Emma Lazarus, poet and novelist †¢ Fran Lebowitz, author, known for her sardonic social commentary on American life through her New York sensibilities †¢ Seymour Martin Lipset, political sociologist. †¢ Reggie Nadelson, novelist known particularly for her mystery works †¢ Mark Obama Ndesandjo, author, half-brother of President Barack Obama †¢ Cynthia Ozick, short story writer, novelist, and essayist †¢ Jodi Picoult, novelist †¢ Ayn Rand, novelist and founder of Objectivism †¢ Lea Bayers Rapp, non-fiction and childrens fiction writer †¢ Philip Roth, known for autobiographical fiction that explored Jewish and American identity. †¢ Norman Rosten, novelist †¢ J. D. Salinger, author of The Catcher in the Rye †¢ Gary Shteyngart (born 1972) Russian-born writer †¢ Isaac Bashevis Singer, leading figure in Yiddish literature, won Nobel Prize †¢ George Steiner (born 1929) literary critic †¢ Daniel Stern, novelist] †¢ Leopold Tyrmand, writer †¢ Judith Viorst (born 1932) author, known for her childrens literature †¢ Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and author of 57 books CONCLUSION The situation and the position of the Jewish-American writer have always been different from that of the other ethnicities in America and still remain so until today. One difference is highlighted by a comparison with the African-American writers. The marginal position of black authors has disappeared on the book market in the United States, but the themes of alienation and anger will not vanish as readily from their works. Instead of integration into the Literary and artistic mainstream, black writers and artists wanted, especially since the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s, to arrive at their own forms of literary expression which would have direct relevance for their lives. They wished to answer the question of their relationship to white mainstream culture by implementing a multicultural strategy: their literature is not that of assimilation, but in many ways that of establishing difference, separatism, and cultural resistance. While with the African-American writers there is no sense of the success or even desirability of social and cultural integration into the predominantly white mainstream of American society, many Jewish-American authors felt it as necessary and desirable, and as a result even managed to acquire it. Indeed, a great number of contemporary Jewish-American writers such as Norman Mailer, Saul Bellow, Joseph Heller, Bernard Malamud, Arthur Miller, Philip Roth and others have had literary success. The language employed by these writers is standard American English, they are socially accepted, and their works are read by a wide Jewish and non-Jewish audience. For this reason it is widely considered that their texts form part of a recognized literary canon, and belong to the American literary center or mainstream, as far as this may still be defined today. As much as we agreed to this idea we cannot ignore several facts which underline the necessity to view Jewish American literary productions as shaped by strong ethnic forces, and Jewish American literature as both belonging to and standing out in the multicultural American landscape. BIBLOGRAPHY Books Sanford, Sternlicht Masterpieces of Jewish American Literature Cristina, Nilsson Jewish American Literature: Bernard Malamud, Philip Roth and Cynthia Ozick Websites http://en. wikipedia. org http://www. swiftpapers. com http:// Top of Form.

Coach Variables Effect on Motivation and Performance

Coach Variables Effect on Motivation and Performance An Experimental study of the Independent and Interactive Effects of ‘Coach Variables’ on the motivation and performance of Rugby ‘Forwards’ INTRODUCTION Rugby is a hugely popular international sport (UKRFU[1], 2006; USARFU[2], 2006). Two teams of 13 players each, play the sport by kicking, passing, or carrying a ball. In order to win a team must score more ‘points’ than its opponent. Points can be achieved by a ‘try’ (5 points) or a ‘goal’ (3 points). The former entails touching the ball to the ground beyond a line in the opponents half (more points can be earned by performing a ‘place kick’ or drop kick’ conversion). A goal involves kicking the ball over the opponents cross bar (in the form of a penalty kick or drop kick). It is essential that the players are motivated. Research has shown that player motivation is partly dependent on coach variables (Tammen, 1997; Allen Howe, 1998; Cumming, 2002; Reinboth et al, 2004). In particular player aggressiveness, an important aspect of rugby, is influenced by coach input (Abd-Aziz, 1998; Guivernau-Rojas, 2001). Certain coaches are better able to ‘drive’ their players to victory than other coaches, for example by providing better feedback, frequent praise and encouragement, tactical advise, and corrective information. How players perceive their coach is critical (Mavi, 2004). Social psychological on literature (Norman, 1976; Lui Standing, 1989; Aronson, 1995; Eagly Chaiken, 1993; Pornpitakpan, 2004) suggests that characteristics such as credibility, likeability, and trustworthiness, may significantly determine a coaches’ motivational effectiveness. For example, a likeable coach may be more effective at encouraging his ‘forwards’ (‘tight-five’/’front five’ and ‘loose forwards’) to achieve successful try’s and goals. A review of the relevant literature (e.g. ‘PsychINFO’, ‘Academic Search Premier’), revealed a paucity of rugby research in this area. AIMS/HYPOTHESES The study proposed here aims to evaluate the effects of coach variables – credibility, likeability, and trustworthiness – on the performance of rugby players, particularly the ‘tight-five’/‘front-five’ and ‘loose forwards’. Consistent with previous research on communicator variables (e.g. Pornpitakpan, 2004), the following hypotheses are proposed with respect to player/team performance: A credible will achieve more try’s/goals than a non-credible coach. A trustworthy coach will achieve more try’s/goals than an untrustworthy coach. A likeable coach will achieve more try’s/goals than a disliked coach. Interactions (two-way and three-way) between these coach characteristics will influence the achievement of try’s/goals. METHODOLOGY Setting The study will be set up as a field experiment. The setting will be the premises of several local rugby clubs. Design The study will be based on a between-groups experimental design. There will be three independent variables: coach expertise (high/low/placebo/no treatment control), likeability (high/low), and trustworthiness (high/low). This will translate into a 4 x 2 x 2 between groups factorial design, using multivariate analysis of covariance (Coolican, 1994). Thus, in effect, there will be 16 experimental conditions. The dependent variables will consist of players reported motivation (after a match) and the number of successful try’s and goals during a match. Attempts will be made to control for important background variables, including player experience, weight, height, and, baseline motivational levels, and score history. Sample The sample will comprise several different teams of rugby players, recruited from schools, universities, and clubs in the local area. The target (i.e. minimum) sample size is 160 players, with at least 10 players per factorial cell. Stimulus Materials Prior arrangements would have been made with team officials to substitute the original team coaches with a stooge coach. Players will be informed that a new coach will temporarily ‘substitute’ their regular coach, who is unable to attend due to a prior family engagement. Two or three stooge coaches will be used, one for each team. Manipulation of independent variables will occur as follows: (Expertise): players will be informed by the researcher that their new coach is an ex-rugby player with either ≠¥10 years coaching experience or a newly qualified coach with (Likeability): Each stooge coach will act in either a friendly fashion (e.g. smiling, encouraging players), or an unfriendly manner (frowning, denigrating players). (Trustworthiness): Players will be informed either that the stooge coach is getting paid a substantial amount of cash for this one-off job, or is working for free (Aronson, 1995, pp.80-81). (Placebo): Players will receive irrelevant information about the stooge coach (e.g. where they live and marital status), who will act in neutral fashion (i.e. neither friendly or unfriendly). (Control): No information will be provided about the stooge coach, who will try to act in a neutral fashion. A self-report questionnaire will be used to collect baseline data from players on the following: perceived expertise, trustworthiness, and likeability of the stooge coach, and background variables including prior rugby experience, weight, height and score history. This questionnaire will also be used to assess current (i.e. pre-treatment) motivational levels and perform manipulation checks for each coach variable (i.e. expertise, likeability, trustworthiness). The study will be carried out during a series of rugby matches played in the local area. A ‘Game Day Check List’ (USARFU, 2006) will be used to work out the most appropriate time to brief players. Prior to each match each participating rugby team will be randomly assigned to one experimental condition. Particular attention will be paid to the ‘forwards’ or ‘pack’ (i.e. players 1-8). Players will be asked to complete the baseline questionnaire, as part of a general survey on the profile and interests of rugby players in the UK. They will also be informed about the use of a substitute coach, and given the appropriate background information regarding expertise and trustworthiness. After each match players will complete the baseline questionnaire, and then be debriefed. Data will be analysed using a multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA), performed on SPSS (Field, 2002). Background variables will be treated as the covariates (i.e. control variables). A local Ethics Committee will review this project. It will conform to ethical guidelines of the British Psychological Society (BPS, 1993). Thus, the study will not involve any unnecessary deception, invasion of privacy, pain, injury, or discomfort, or violation of any legal requirements. Furthermore, all information collected from subjects will be strictly confidential. TIME SCALE The study will be conducted over a 12 month period. Month 1: Pilot study Month 2 to 3: Administration of Stimulus Materials Data Collection Month 4 to 5: SPSS Data Entry, Editing, and Analysis (MANCOVA) Month 6 to 8: Write Up Month 9 + : Dissemination of Findings DISSEMINATION OF FINDINGS Findings will be disseminated through conference presentations and Journal publications. It is planned that a paper will be presented at the 12th European Congress of Sports Psychology (4-7 September, 2007, Halkidiki, Greece). A paper will also be submitted to the Journal of Applied Sports Psychology or British Journal of Sports Medicine or International Journal of Sports Psychology, all of which are particular useful outlets for targeting academic audiences. REFERENCES Abd-Aziz, S.B. (1998) Aggressive tendencies in Malaysian youth soccer: an  examination of individual and contextual factors. Dissertation Abstracts  International: Section A:- Humanities and Social Sciences. 59 (5-B), 2480. Allen, J. Howe, B.L. (1998) Player ability, coach feedback, and female adolescent  athletes’ perceived competence and satisfaction. Journal of Sport Exercise  Psychology 20, pp.280-299. Aronson, E. (1995) The Social Animal. New York: Freeman. BPS (1993) Code of Conduct, Ethical Principles and Guidelines. Leicester: British  Psychological Society. Coolican, H. (1994) Research Methods and Statistics in Psychology. London: Hodder   Stoughton. Cumming, S.P. (2002) A bio-psychosocial investigation of self-determined  motivation in recreational and travel youth soccer programs. Dissertation  Abstracts International: Section A:- Humanities and Social Sciences. 63 (5-A), 1765. Eagly, A.H. Chaiken, S. (1993) The Psychology of Attitudes. Fort Worth, TX:  Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Field, A. (2002) Discovering Statistics using SPSS for Windows. London: Sage. Guivernau-Rojas, M. (2001) The impact of motivational and moral variables on  aggressive tendencies in sport. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section  A:- Humanities and Social Sciences. 62 (6-B), 2990. Lane, A.M., Rodger, J.S.E. Karageorghis, C.L. (1997) Antecedents of state anxiety  in rugby. Perceptual and Motor Skills. 84, pp.427-433. Lui, L. Standing, L.G. (1989) Communicator credibility: trustworthiness defeats  expertness. Social Behaviour Personality. 17, pp. 219-221. Mavi, H.F. (2004) The relationship among dispositional, contextual variables, and  intrinsic motivation in high school teams sports. Dissertation Abstracts  International: Section A:- Humanities and Social Sciences. 65 (3-A), 876. Norman, R. (1976) When what is said is important: a comparison of expert and  attractive sources. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 12, pp.294-300. Pornpitakpan, C. (2004) The persuasiveness of source credibility: a critical review of  five decades’ evidence. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 34, pp.243-281. UK Rugby Football Union (2006) Play [online] RFU Official Site,  http://www.community-rugby.com/communityrugby/index.cfm/Fuseaction/Home.Home/StoryTypeId/98/SectionId/575.cfm [Accessed 31 July 2006] USA Rugby Football Union (2006) USA Rugby [online] Rugby Channel,  http://www.usarugby.org/collegiate/manage/gameDayChecklist.html  [Accessed 1 August 2006]. Tammen, V.V. (1997) Coach and athlete goal orientations: congruence of orientations  and affects on athlete satisfaction and commitment. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section A:- Humanities and Social Sciences. 57 (11-A), 4687. Footnotes [1] UK Rugby Football Union [2] USA Rugby Football Union

Freely Loving the Highest Good Essay -- Analysis, Augustines View

One of the inquiries that is often raised in the topic of the will is the account of humans not loving and turning away from the highest good. By this, I mean that there is a relation between the freedom of the will and human beings not having a rightly ordered love, that is, to love the wrong thing. According to Augustine’s philosophy, the chain of iniquity is self-forged by our divided will, also referred to as the divided house. In Book XII of â€Å"City of God† Augustine declares it pointless to look for the cause of the evil will. For the cause, he argues, is â€Å"deficient,† not â€Å"efficient.† In supporting Augustine’s view, I will provide my own examples and arguments in order to strengthen his claims. Before I can expostulate on the issues of the divided will, and the reward for freely willing to love the highest good, I will explain what Augustine means by â€Å"deficient† as opposed to† efficient† cause as the foun dation of the divided house. Deficient Cause vs. Efficient Cause Often times, actions are analyzed by rational explanation or causal explanation. Rational explanation attempts to construe an action by the aims a person might presently have in his mind. Causal explanation attempts to find the cause for that particular action. Augustine thinks it is absurd to locate the cause of the evil will. Perhaps, we should take into account Augustine’s view about â€Å"The First Sin,† when the defection of the bad angels was first encountered. â€Å"In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth†¦ And God saw that it was good† (NRSV, Genesis 1). If the Bible states that God created everything good because He is good, then evil, according to Augustine, is the absence of good and does not have any positive being--- defective and lack ... ...ents, love God above all and love your neighbor as yourself, indicate that we should love the most what is objectively the best. Pride is a perverse kind of self-love and a feature of the will. Pride was the deficient cause of Satan freely choosing himself over God and continues to be a relevant cause for humans as result of â€Å"The Original Sin.† In redemption, Jesus Christ, a model of humility, was the Second Adam who because of grace sacrifices Himself to bear and forgive humans of sin. I believe that we can choose to will good or to will evil. To freely will the love for the ultimate good means to willingly love God above all. Although our nature is subject to pride and is deficient in goodness, we can still choose what is good. By having this rightly ordered love , we choose the highest good. As a reward, God gives the gift of true happiness in the afterlife.

The Great Gatsby :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, was born on September 24, 1896. He later became one of the world known authors by having his books translated to different languages and printed.. He was often described as the drunken author, or the ruined novelists at the time. Yet, his books attract attention of people who have read his books that he has written. Fitzgerald used the American Dream, past relationships with love, and the people in his life, to create The Great Gatsby, that became one of the best books written during the Jazz Age.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  First of all, The Great Gatsby introduces more of the American Dream and hope of wealth. For example, when Fitzgerald was a youngster, he fantasized that he was rich and had a life of ease (Oxford 44). Fitzgerald’s dream for wealth and happiness was something that meant a lot to people of that time. He sees it as the key to his future, making life for him better. In addition, Fitzgerald’s omen was the loneliness of Gatsby pursuing his impossible dream (Kazen K2). Gatsby was rich, but his life wasn’t complete, he was missing something in his life. Soldiers of past wars enjoyed The Great Gatsby because of Gatsby’s dream and will. All in all, Fitzgeralds use of the American Dream was very successful.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Secondly, Fitzgerald used this experience with love to create emotion in his books. For instance, Fitzgerald was determined to win the heart of a young lady named Zelda (Oxford 46). He used this in The Great Gatsby to show the devotion of Gatsby’s love for Daisy. By doing so Fitzgerald creates a romantic theme in the story. Later in time, Fitzgerald found that Zelda was having an affair with another man (Oxford D7). Once he found out, his life was not the same anymore. He became an alcoholic full with problems in his life. I believe this is where Tom Buchannon’s relationship with Daisy became a reality to him. To sum it up Fitzgerald felt love and pain and expressed it in his works of literature.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Finally, Fitzgerald experienced influences throughout his life, which changed his future. Particularly, Father Sigourney Fay was the one who gave advice and wisdom to him (F. Scott Fitzgerald 679). Father Fay was someone who watched Scott and told him what was right and what was wrong in life. His advice and help gave Fitzgerald the sense to achieve high goals and dreams. In addition, he was successful as a novelist, but was corrupted by his lifestyle (F. Scott Fitzgerald 683).

An Annotation of Anne Bradstreets In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet :: Memory My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet

An Annotation of Anne Bradstreet's In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet This poem is a firsthand account of how Anne Bradstreet was feeling when she experienced the loss of her granddaughter, Elizabeth. Although Bradstreet's attitude on Elizabeth's death seems to reflect her belief in God's plan, the diction suggests otherwise. In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet, Who Deceased August, 1665, Being a Year and Half Oldby Anne Bradstreet 1 Farewell dear babe, my heart's too much content, Farewell sweet babe, the pleasure of mine eye, Farewell fair flower that for a space was lent, Then ta'en away unto eternity. Blest babe, why should I once bewail thy fate, Or sigh thy days so soon were terminate, Sith thou art settled in an everlasting state. 2 By nature trees do rot when they are grown, And plums and apples thoroughly ripe do fall, And corn and grass are in their season mown, And time brings down what is both strong and tall. But plants new set to be eradicate, And buds new blown to have so short a date, Is by His hand alone that guides nature and fate. Bradstreet begins the poem by describing how she felt for her granddaughter, and this is seen in the way she describes Elizabeth as a "babe" and "flower." In phrases such as "my heart's too much content" and "the pleasure of mine eye," it is quite clear that she felt deeply for the little girl. It is obvious that a grandmother would be deeply saddened by the loss of her grandchild. However, the poem shifts focus from what Elizabeth meant to her grandmother to how Bradstreet sees this death. The repetition of "farewell" emphasizes the tragedy of the situation and solidifies the fact that she is gone. She continues to say goodbye as though this little girl died before she should have. This declaration continues when Bradstreet describes her as a "fair flower that for a space was lent." In using the word "lent," it sounds as though the girl was robbed of the fullness of life and never had the opportunity to live. But who decides who gets to live? God. What Bradstreet is really saying is that God didn't let her granddaughter live, and, resultantly, she is marking his decision as a mistake by complaining about it. This is not characteristic for one of such alleged concrete beliefs in God. The fact that Bradstreet mentions that she should not complain of the loss because she is in "an everlasting state" questions her religious sincerity.

The Death of the Moth Analysis

Life is a constant struggle against the ever present chill of death. Fear, betrayal, and cowardice all stems from life’s distaste of death. Human beings naturally rebuke the unknown, so it is only logical that people fight the inevitability of death. However, most people are ignorant of the reality of one day dying, prompting writer Virginia Woolf to write the essay, â€Å"The Death of the Moth†, in order to convey the frailty of life whilst also showing the awesome might of death.In the essay, her main purpose is to show that the moth embodies the human race, and that death is an inevitable fact of life no matter how much the human race struggles to stay alive. Woolf is able to get her purpose across by utilizing her unique style of writing. This is achieved by sympathizing with the moth throughout the essay, switching the narration between her internal personal struggles and external struggles of the moth, and changing the entire tone of the essay when the different t hemes of life and death are explored.Using her distinct writing style, Woolf delves into the wonders of life, and the ever present battle against death. One of the techniques Woolf uses in her writing style is employing empathy within the readers. She strives to create an emotional connection between the reader and the subject of the essay. In this case, Woolf directs her use of empathy with the main character of the story, which is the moth. Even before delving into the life of the moth, Woolf begins to refer to the moth as â€Å"he† instead of â€Å"it†, suggesting that the reader relates to the moth on a more personal level, rather than viewing him as just another insignificant bug.This creates a personal bond between the reader and the moth, resembling that of a companionship. Instantly, Woolf has been able to get the audience interested and emotionally invested in her essay by simply referring to the moth as a â€Å"he†. Furthermore, she proceeds to observe this moth closely, refusing to divert her attention to the happenings around her. As the moth lives his carefree life by vibrantly flying around, Woolf cannot help but pity the insignificance he has in the grand scale of things. ‘â€Å"One could not help watching him. One, was, indeed, conscious of a queer feeling of pity for him.The possibilities of pleasure seemed that morning so enormous and so various that to have only a moth’s part in life, and a day moth’s at that, appeared a hard fate, and his zest in enjoying his meager opportunities to the full, pathetic’† (Woolf 1). She continually pities the fact that the moth continues to make the most of his desperate and futile situation. No matter his frailty and impending doom, the moth continues to carelessly dance around the windowpane, either because he is unaware that he will soon die, or because he chooses not to care about his demise.However, Woolf begins to realize that the moth’s stre ngth is failing him, and she comes to the cold conclusion that he is at death’s door. Not soon after that, the moth senses that his strength is failing him, but even upon knowing his inevitable death, the moth continues to fight. Woolf’s heart goes out to the insect. ‘â€Å"It was superb this last protest, and so frantic that he succeeded at last in righting himself. One’s sympathies, of course, were all on the side of life (Woolf 2)’†. She resolves to root for the moth, and applaud his final protest against death.By the use of her writing style, Woolf has caused the audience to root for the moth’s final efforts along with her. By getting so emotionally invested in this moth, the audience realizes that no matter what happens, death will win, which saddens the readers. Their fellow comrade will fall, and it alerts everybody of the harshness of the situation. In reality people fight to live, but everyone will die just like that moth, and by creating an emotional attachment between the readers and the moth, people begin to understand the frailty of existence through this insignificant moth.In addition to creating empathy, Woolf uses a beautifully poetic method in getting her purpose across, which is exploring the external struggles of the moth while employing those struggles to her own personal demons. She is able to switch the narratives between external and internal conflict without the audience even realizing it. Through the use of her vivid imagery and lucid writing style, Woolf achieves this double narrative story without the readers even consciously aware of it.This use of story-telling gives the readers multiple sides of the story, and is able to relate the tragic happenings of the moth to the even more tragic workings of Woolf’s mind. At first she explores the failing strength of the moth, which is the entire basis of the essay. ‘â€Å"After perhaps a seventh attempt he slipped from the wooden ledge and fell, fluttering his wings, on to his back on the windowsill. The helplessness of his attitude roused me†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (Woolf 2). However, she begins to directly correlate these outside and physical experiences to the internal conflict and drama she’s been feeling.‘â€Å"But, as I stretched out a pencil, meaning to help him to right himself, it came over me that the failure and awkwardness were the approach of death. I laid the pencil down again’† (Woolf 2). Upon trying to help the moth, she soon sees how her actions would only prove to be futile, causing her to give up trying to help. This leads internal conflict within her, because she questions the use of fighting to stay alive when death will happen anyways. This causes her to pity the moth, who continually attempts to live, even though there’s no use. The internal trauma Woolf feels comes to a climax when the moth succumbs to death.‘â€Å"Just as life had been strange a few mi nutes before, so death was now as strange. The moth having righted himself now lay most decently and uncomplainingly composed. O yes, he seemed to say, death is stronger than I am’† (Woolf 3). Woolf is amazed at how quickly and easily death came, and how death was an endless wave of mystery. In the end, she comes to terms with the fact that death will always triumph life, no matter how much people fight to live. By using both internal and external conflict to express this ongoing battle, the reader completely grasps the theme of inevitability of death by seeing multiple examples presented to them.The last technique used by Woolf in her particular style is the use of tone and the words she chooses to employ throughout the entirety of her essay. In the beginning of the essay, the tone is light, having a congenial feel to it. The words used by Woolf flow very smoothly, and through the use of the happy and flowing words, she conveys the joys of life. She is basically celebr ating the life and energy of the moth. ‘â€Å"Nevertheless the present specimen, with his narrow hay-colored wings, fringed with a tassel of the same color, seemed to be content with life.It was a pleasant morning, mid-September, mild, benignant, yet with a keener breath than that of the summer months’† (Woolf 1). Woolf was renowned for her colorful language and the constant flow of the text. However, once the idea of death is introduced, the essay begins to take a morbid turn. A sense of foreboding is introduced into the mix, and the style of the writing changes. Instead of the flowing writing style and beautiful imagery, Woolf switches to longer sentences that contain different literary devices and the use of words is choppier rather than flowing.‘â€Å"When there was nobody to care or to know, this gigantic effort on the part of an insignificant little moth, against a power of such magnitude, to retain what no one else valued or desired to keep, moved o ne strangely. Again, somehow, one saw life, a pure bead’† (Woolf 2). Woolf doesn't utilize just words, but emotions in helping us to understand the full impact of death. Upon the introduction of the death of the moth, the demise of Woolf’s usual flowing writing occurs as well. By using different writing styles within the same essay, Woolf is able to achieve her purpose by creating a sense of dread within the reader.The theme of the inevitability of death is portrayed so skillfully by Woolf’s use of imagery and tone. Woolf’s skillful writing style is used to convey the absoluteness of death in a way that no other author is able to accomplish. By using empathy through the moth, conveying internal and external conflict, and using different tones and writing styles within the essay, Woolf was able to accomplish her purpose of showing the frailty of life, and how death will always triumph, no matter the struggle against it. People usually ignore this har sh fact, but Woolf was able to convey it through emotions rather than words, so people easily understood.