Tech Prep :: Education School Careers Essays

Tech Prep Tech prep has become more widely accepted by educators and the rail line community as real changes have been made in curriculum, courses, and programs. However, the jury is still outabout whether the anticipated student, aim, and community outcomes are being realized. This essay examines the extent to which technical school prep is succeeding as a unique effort, living up to the claims that have been made for it.Over the years, educators have been challenged by a number of federal, state, and local initiativesthat profess to result in better educational outcomes for students. Highly marketed at their inception, many of the initiatives ultimately fade into obscurity, some absorbed as part of otherprograms. Examinations of tech prep and its relationship to school-to- croak initiatives point to thedistinctions that make each of the two programs unique and highlight the characteristics that makethem similar.Program focus is the most distinguishing feature that differentiate s tech prep from school to work.Tech preps focus is primarily on school-based learning, whereas school-to-work programs alsoinclude work-based learning and linkages between the two. The distinction is less clear when thecore elements required for tech prep vary among tech prep consortia, as they are reported to do(Owens 1996). For example, when tech prep adds elements that include work-based and careerguidance agents, it becomes similar to school-to-work, which may explain why someeducators are seeing little or no diversity between the two. Of the 100 persons surveyed at the1996 American Vocational Association Convention, however, only 15 percent saw tech prep andschool-to-work as being only the same (Bragg 1996).Most of the surveyed tech prep consortia did not see the two efforts as synonymous, but perceived tech prep as a component of school to work 35% of the respondents considered techprep to be the foundation for school to work 50% considered tech prep to be under the school -to-work umbrella (ibid). However, for funding as well as program issues, most local techprep coordinators believe that tech prep should retain its unique identity to ensure that thebenefits of its processes and procedures are not muzzy or duplicated by school-to-work (Bragg et al.1997). Survey responses from 42 of 50 state directors of vocational-technical education showedagreement with the view that tech prep is one option within school to work and that its identityneeds to remin strong (Dykman 1995).Imprecision in defining the two reforms can create confusion and frustration among allstakeholders. At one of the five field sites studied during the 1996-1997 donnish year, forexample, tech prep was viewed as a premier approach to STW for more academically talentedstudents, incorporating both school-based and work-based components.

Essay --

In the novel, Emma, Austen introduced her audience to a new idea of patriarchy. While she is known to satirize high society for the faulty pedagogics of female children, limited expectations for girls and women, and the perils of the marriage market (Austen, Jane). Austen expresses the irony of the men of her patriarchal society and proposes the ideal gentleman in Mr. Knightley. In Emma, Austen moves away from a traditionalistic idea of natural male supremacy towards a modern notion of gender equity (Marsh). Jane Austen is a revolutionary in the way she transforms the idea of Nineteenth Century patriarchy by not reinforcing the traditional gender stereotypes (Rosenbury) but instead challenging the status quo. While her characters still hold some ties to traditional ideals, Austen proves to be before of her time, influencing the way gender is regarded today. In the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries, the idea of patriarchy ruled the many societies all over the world. Particular ly in Britain, its overarching patriarchal ideal (Marsh) had reserved power and privilege for men (Marsh). Also during this time period feminist literature began to arise and was invaded by, the complex social, ethical, and economic roots of sexual political relation as testimony to gender bias and the double standard (Sexual Politics and Feminist Literature). In Jane Austens writing, readers have been aware of her aeonian themes of female independence and gender equality. However, many have criticized the compose for the fact that many of her individualistic female characters have ended up married. However, for pragmatic reasons, the authors conclusions favor marriage as the ultimate solution, but her pairings predict happiness (Austen, Jane). Als... ...ied about his intentions during the entire novel, no one truly knows him. Franks uncle, Mr. Churchill is inferior to his wife in regards of control. Throughout the novel the reader hears more about his wife than they hear about him. Their relationship represents complete switch of the traditional idea of man being superior to woman. The Knightleys however, John and Isabella, are purely conventional and are ideal couple for Nineteenth Century societys times. Mr. Elton does not represent true gentility while Mr. Weston too gentle. Although all of these characters have their flaws, Austen finds her perfect figure in George Knightley. His infallible nature is unrealistic, yet it gives society the ultimate gentleman to aspire for. Austens Emma is more than a comedic novel of manners but also a quintessential piece that fits perfectly into the lives of todays society.

Diabetes :: essays research papers fc

Diabetes occurs when the pancreas either cannot or has trouble making enough insulin to control the sugar a person receives from their food. (Bete, Co. 1972) Diabetes Mellitus is broken implement into two groups Juvenile (Type One), and Adult (Type Two) (McHenry, 1993). Type One diabetics are insulin dependant. People under forty years of age are more pr hotshot to this type. They look at low serum insulin levels and it more often affects small blood vessels in eyes and kidneys. Type Two diabetics are non-insulin dependant. This type is prone to people everywhere forty years of age. They commence low, normal or high serum insulin levels. It most often affects large blood vessels and nerves (Long, 1993). Type One diabetes was one of the earliest diseases to be documented by historians. Once called "honey urine" and the "Persian fire". The name diabetes was conceived by the Greek physician Arteus almost cardinal hundred years ago. The disease remained a mystery u ntil 1700 when an English doctor demonstrated that a diabetics blood was abnormally high in sugar (Aaseng, 1995). Thus, legal transfer to the conclusion that diabetics are unable to use blood sugar as other persons bodies do (McHenry, 1993). With this fact, a young doctor named Fredrick Banting and a biochemist, Charles Best, were remove to the discovery of manufacturing insulin, the hormone for which is the key to blood sugar processing. Many diabetics lives have been saved because of this discovery (Aaseng, 1995). A person is at risk of this disorder if they have diabetic relatives, are over the age of forty years, are over-weight, and if they are of certain racial or ethnic groups. Women with gestational diabetes who give birth to a baby that weighs more than nine pounds are also at good risk of conducting this disease (Long, 1993). Higher numbers of diabetics occur more in whiteness people than other races, and the highest incidents of Type One diabetes in the world are found in people residing in Scandinavian countries (Aaseng, 1995). Some signs and symptoms of this disorder are an increased thirst and appetite, frequent urination, fatigue or anxiety, sickness of the stomach, loss of weight, skin infections, blurred vision, or numbness to feet and hands. Blood, urine, or supplementary tests can be done to determine whether a person is diabetic. Once diagnosed, the patient can be treated by making changes in their diet, exercising regularly, injecting themselves with insulin, or winning oral medications (Diabetes, 1997).

Internet Addicts in Danger Essay -- Technology Computers Communication

Internet Addicts in DangerInternet twaddle live have become a devastating disadvantage to the societal interaction and exploitation of people in the world. More and more of the worlds y come to the foreh atomic number 18 becoming addicted to Internet chat rooms. Not only are Internet chat room relationships leading to impersonal contact of people hiding flaws behind anonymity, they are leading to the abduction of many underage individuals. In an word published in The Age, a magazine in Melbourne, Australia, Doctor Mubarak Rahamathulla has researched teenagers that have become pathologically addicted to Internet chat rooms. Rahamathulla argues that this addiction could damage their social skills as well as their ability to form intimate relationships. Rahamathulla says that The young people who are introverts who are having difficulties establishing a rapport with others are going to go deeper into these kinds of forums to interact with others, that will further shrink their so cial network. In Rahamathullas research he found that while Internet chat rooms are not the ideal form of communication for most of these addicted teens, it is better than no interaction at all. The research revealed that these teens are lonely, usually unpopular and that chat rooms contribute to some teenagers fearing one on one situations. Internet chat rooms do not seem like they are targeting this proper(postnominal) demographic, when it is considered that there are chat rooms for basically every interest any human in the world could think of. So, if Internet chat rooms are not targeting lonely, unpopular teenagers, but those are for the most part the people becoming addicted to these chat rooms, are these chat rooms make the people who are interested in them addicted and lonely ... ...there is no immediate solution for the problem that is at hand. But it is a problem that involve to be addressed. Internet chat rooms are making the worlds youth into anti-social, lonely peopl e. Internet chat rooms are enticing children to go out and meet much older people that they should not be associating with and no one is stopping them. Parents and Internet companies both need to make drastic changes for the earn of the worlds youth. Works CitedBarr, Elizabeth Face the Music. 17 January. 2003 BCT Reporter Should there be tighter laws governing the Internet?. UK Newsweek Regional Press. 25 July. 2003 Bruce, Iain Fishnet angry walk from the erotic to the pornographic, sex on the Internet is booming. The Sunday Herald. 8 December. 2002 Nader, Carol Introvert Internet Addicts and Social Risk. The Age. 2 October. 2003 Statistics

Mary, Where are U :: essays research papers

The debate over whether or not the United States administration shouldgrant tuition vouchers to the parents of children who attend private informs hasgone on for many years, and has included many powerful arguments on bothsides of the issue. Those who actualize the private school vouchers believe thatthey are beneficial to everyone because they promote productivity in both publicand private schools alike, and they also give low-in grapple families the chance togive their children a choice private school education. Those in opposition to thevouchers say that they will drain money out of the public schools, and that theyonly truly help a miniature population, mainly the wealthy and advantaged. Opposers also believe that the vouchers interfere with the Separation of Churchand State, since many private schools take aim a religious affiliation. This issue hastruly been a controversial one, with many people fighting arduously. Afterreading through the various arguments for each side , one can not help but cometo their own conclusion about private school vouchers.There have been many school voucher programs proposed in the past,but they all seem to contribution one common theme. This similarity between them isthat they all promote giving households that send their children to private schoolsa tax dollar-funded voucher that would cover all or most of the cost of theschools tuition. Many of the proposals also include the right for parents to chosewhich private school their child will attend. The vouchers allows students to usethe money that would be subsidized for them in a public school to go toward aprivate school education. This system redirects the flow of educational funding,bringing it to the individual family instead of the school district.The stem of school vouchers first became popular after Milton Friedman,an economist, released two publications, in 1956 and in 1962, that supported thevoucher plan. In his 1962 book, Capitalism and Freedom, when Friedma ndiscusses education, he turns to public education criticizes it for beingness"unresponsive" because it has been free from competition (Lieberman, 120). Vouchers would provide this much needed competition, since public schoolswould now have to contend with the private schools that were receiving the samepayments they were. Friedman believes that,"most dissatisfied parents have only two options. They can enroll theirchildren in private schools, in which case they have to bear the costs inaddition to paying taxes to support public schools. Or they can resort topolitical action, an option Friedman regards as ineffective." (ibid.)After Friedman publicly showed his support for school vouchers, a debate began

Mary, Where are U :: essays research papers

The debate over whether or not the United States government shouldgrant tuition vouchers to the parents of children who project private schoolhouses hasgone on for many years, and has included many powerful arguments on bothsides of the issue. Those who support the private school vouchers believe thatthey are undecomposed to everyone because they promote productivity in both publicand private schools alike, and they similarly give low-income families the chance togive their children a quality private school education. Those in opposition to thevouchers say that they will drain money out of the public schools, and that theyonly truly help a small population, mainly the wealthy and advantaged. Opposers also believe that the vouchers interfere with the Separation of Churchand State, since many private schools have a religious affiliation. This issue hastruly been a controversial one, with many pot fighting arduously. Afterreading through the various arguments for each side, one p ost not help but cometo their own conclusion about(predicate) private school vouchers.There have been many school voucher programs proposed in the past,but they all seem to share one common theme. This resemblance between them isthat they all promote giving households that send their children to private schoolsa tax dollar-funded voucher that would cover all or most of the cost of theschools tuition. more of the proposals also include the right for parents to chosewhich private school their child will attend. The vouchers allows students to usethe money that would be subsidized for them in a public school to go toward aprivate school education. This system redirects the flow of educational funding,bringing it to the individual family instead of the school district.The idea of school vouchers first became public after Milton Friedman,an economist, released two publications, in 1956 and in 1962, that supported thevoucher plan. In his 1962 book, Capitalism and Freedom, when Friedma ndiscusses education, he turns to public education criticizes it for being"unresponsive" because it has been free from disputation (Lieberman, 120). Vouchers would provide this much needed competition, since public schoolswould now have to contend with the private schools that were receiving the samepayments they were. Friedman believes that,"most dissatisfied parents have only two options. They squirt enroll theirchildren in private schools, in which case they have to bear the costs inaddition to paying taxes to support public schools. Or they can resort topolitical action, an option Friedman regards as ineffective." (ibid.)After Friedman publicly showed his support for school vouchers, a debate began

Junot Diaz Bio Essay

Lent DDS was born In the Dominican Republic and raised freshly Jersey. He Is a creative writing teacher at MIT and fiction editor at the Boston Review. He also serves on the board of advisers for the independence university, a Volunteer organization in Georgia that provides post-secondary instruction to undocumented immigrants. From what I have read I have gathered that he truly had to rely on himself. Getting him through college working the Jobs where you have to do the dirty work, dishes, and pumping-gas.Supposedly Drown reflects Diazs strained relationship with his own father, with whom he no longer keeps in contact with. Diaz was born in Villa Juana, a neighborhood in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He was the third child in a family of five. Through most of his childhood he lived with his mother and grandparents while his father worked in the united States. Diaz emigrated to Parlin, crude Jersey, in December of 1974, where he was able to reunify with his father. He lived close to what he considered one of the largest landfills in New Jersey.His short fiction has appeared In The New Yorker magazine, which listed him as one of the 20 top writers for the twenty-first He has also been published in Story, The Paris Review, and in the anthologies The Best American Short Stories four times (1996, 1997, 1999, 2000), The PEWO. Henry prize stones (2009), and African voices. He s best known for his two major works the short story collection Drown (1996) and the novel The Brief Wondrous flavour of Oscar Wao (2007). eightieth were published to critical acclaim and he won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for the latter.Diaz himself has described his writing style as a disobedient child of New Jersey and the Dominican Republic If that can be possibly Imagined with way too much Diaz has received a Eugene McDermott Award, a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim annals Foundation, a Lila Acheson Wallace Readers Digest Award, the 2002 PEN/Malamud Award, the 2 003 us-Japan Creative Artist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard university and the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.He was selected as one of the 39 most important Latin American writers under the be on of 39 by the Bogota World Book Capital and the Hay Festival. 18 In September 2007, Miramax acquired the rights for a film adaptation of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. 19 The stories in Drown ocus on the teenage narrators impoverished, fatherless youth in the Dominican Republic and his struggle adapting to his new life in New Jersey. Reviews were generally strong but not without complaints. 20 Diaz read twice for PRIs This American Life

How does Angela Carter reinterpret Gothic Conventions Essay

Angela Carter reinterprets black letter Conventions in twain(prenominal) The Tigers Bride, and The Courtship of Mr Lyon. These reinterpreted medieval conventions are not merely used by Angela Carter to shock the reader, (typical of the Gothic), but addition eithery to add a sub-genre. This is clearly the case in both The Tigers Bride and Courtship of Mr Lyon as the feminist and Marxist message is provided by the subversion of the genre. For instance, in a conventional gothic novel the female is stereotypically either the trembling victim or predator. In other cases, women remain absent from the Gothic novel all together. However, in both of these short stories from Angela Carters collection The Bloody Chamber, this gender role is subverted so the male becomes the victim. This is particularly evident in The Courtship of Mr Lyon where Mr Lyon takes the role of the epic women locked away, needing to be saved. Mr Lyon claims to be dying because violator left because you left me. The state of the lion is covered in the description with imagery of death and decay curtly flowers, groaning hinges, and drifting cobwebs. Beauty therefore takes the role of the male protagonist. There is a mention of otherness as Beauty found My Lyons bewildering difference intolerable, whereas, conventionally, the male was the average and the female the other. Furthermore, in The Tigers Bride conventional gothic gender stereotypes are also played with as Beauty breaks out of patriarchal society by rejecting her clockwork counterpart and taking the form of an animal beautiful fur. Carter uses the gothic conventional symbol of animals but in an alternate way.In both stories she puts animals on a high level than art object for their more moral qualities. The beast for instance is juxtaposed once morest her farther in The Tigers Bride as he is the poor protector who bartered, and lost his apprize (again, objectifying women. ) The use of animals again explores a feminist message, as Carter believed that like animals, females were get worded as soulless. However, in both texts Carter also holds onto many of the stereotypical gender gothic conventions.For usage the reference to Beauty as Miss Lamb in The Courtship of Mr Lyon and also the mention of the lamb in The Tigers Bride Lion lies down with the lamb. Furthermore, in both stories Beauty is objectified and the property of her farther, this is introduced immediately in The Tigers Bride, my farther lost me to the Beast at cards. The female here is clearly still a victim. In regard to setting, Carter does comply with many of the conventional gothic associations. In both The Courtship of Mr Lyon and The Tigers Bride the home of the Beast is regarded as the isolated castle. However, there is a difference in the habitats of Mr Lyon and Beauty in The courtship of Mr Lyon as conventionally the male protagonist is associated with the city with unmoral behaviour, and the female is associated with the pastoral c ountry. This enables Carter to add a message that both man and women need to combine both feminine and masculine qualities to be happy. Another example where Carter subverts the genre using the setting is in the stereotypical class of gothic. Conventionally, the gothic was focused mainly on aristocracy.Whereas, in both short stories Beauty is poor, for instance in The Courtship of Mr Lyon her farther refers to his lost riches how rich again I may once again be. This conveys a Marxist reference, which is hinted at again all of the world he knew need not necessarily apply. Gothic symbolism is also reinterpreted in both novels. The reference to the white rose is a widely recognised gothic symbol and is featured in both short storied. However, besides symbolising the innocence of women and their purity, it could also symbolise freedom and salvation, much like a white flag as both Beautys try to escape patriarchal society.Carter additionally subverts the supernatural. For instance in T he Tigers Bride, despite inter-textuality with Beauty and the Beast it is beauty who must transform into the Beast, as he licks her skin off revealing a nascent patina of shining hairs. The sole purpose of this, however, in not purely to shock the reader. Beauty is removing any serviceman elements from herself, giving her, allowing her to break away from society and its limitations on women.

Poland Unemployment Rate Essay

Current Polands unemployment pace climbed to 13.4 percent in December, from 12.9 percent the previous month, due to an economic slowdown and a seasonal loss of many outdoor jobs. The Main Statistical Office said Thursday that some 2.14 million people in this nation of 38 million were without a job at the end of December. Unemployment usually prinks in Poland in winter, when outdoor jobs are lost due to snow and low temperatures. Additionally, europiums economic jitters have affected Poland, where growth is expected to slow to about 1.5 percent this year, from an estimated 2.3 percent in 2012 and 4.3 percent in 2011. much or less industries, such as car manufacturing, have been hit by massive layoffs and much jobs are to be lost this year.HistoryUnemployment is one of the most life-threatening economic and social problems in Poland. The unemployment rate has been growing successively in the new-fashioned years in 1998 it was 10.6 %, and in 2002 almost 20%. That unfavorable a bbreviate changed in 2003. The biggest drop of the unemployment rate took place, however, in 2006 when the unemployment rate fell below 15%, r from each oneing 8.9% in September 2008. It was the effect of an economic boom which brought more than work offers and the growth of the number of working persons. In January 2012 the unemployment rate amounted to 13.2%. In an analogous period of the previous year the unemployment rate amounted to 13.1%. The characteristic feature of unemployment in Poland is its regional diversification, for example, in the Wielkopolskie Voivodeship the unemployment rate in January 2012 was 9.8%, and in the Warmisko-Mazurskie Voivodeship 21.1%.Problems with finding a job are experienced by young people, women and the long-term (over a year) unemployed. customary Employment Services (the network of voivodeship and poviat labour offices) are there to help and give advice to the unemployed and persons who look for a job in order to contain an appropriate em ployment and to employers to find appropriate employees. Therefore, employment services provide a range of services, including job agency, professional agency or help in active job seeking. Labour offices also carry out dissimilar programmes which support local or regional labour markets, register the unemployed and persons facial expression for a job, pay unemployment benefits, organise trainings in order to give the unemployed greater chances to find a job.The unemployed lowlife take part in various activities which facilitate their professional activation, inter alia, intervention works, traineeship, on-the-job training, training loans, trainings or support for business activity. As of 1 May 2004 Polish in the public eye(predicate) Employment Services became the member of the European Employment Services EURES. Labour offices carry out activities for EURES, especially, international employment agency along with advisory in the field of earning mobility on the European labour market. Having a little knowledge about unemployment, especially in the country that we are going to work, is useful for each of us. Sooner or later, we will have to think about it enchantment looking for a job or changing it. When unemployment is low we have more chances to catch a good job, when not it is success when we catch any.Unemployment is one of the most important economic and social problem in Poland because in recent years, the unemployment rate has been steadily rising. During communism the official unemployment level was less than 1%, but some economists estimated that the hidden unemployment in state-ruled companies was about 50%. That mean that typically two people were doing a job which could be done by one person. Because of political and economic transformation (from a centrally planned economic model, to a free market system) after 1989 unemployment start to rising rapidly.In 1990 it was 6.1% and in 2002 already 20% (the highest unemployment rate historically). This unfavourable trend was reversed in 2004. The largest drop in unemployment, however, has been taking place since 2006, when the unemployment rate declined below 15%, reaching 9,5% in 2008 ( the lowest unemployment rate). This was due to the economic upward trend which produced more job offers and more active people. Because of financial crisis, in 2009, the unemployment rate increased to nearly 12% and to 12,8 in 2010.According to the newest statistics Polands registered unemployment rate rose to 13.2 percent in February from 13 percent the previous month. Unfortunately, is also higher than year ago. Labour Minister Jolanta Fedak thinks that the numbers are not too disturbing, however. She said that The rise in unemployment is seasonal. Its difficult to judge now if the trend will remain. We need to wait until the spring to find out, She also predict lower unemployment rate at the end of this year but everything will depend on Polands economic growth in 2011. As you can see in the chart seasonal unemployment is characteristic feature in polish unemployment. It is connected with fluctuations of the weather and seasons. For example, in winter there is a high unemployment especially in tourist industry, building industry or agriculture.Unemployment in Poland is characterised byGeographical differentiation A strong differentiation is observed in the unemployment rates for various parts of Poland, with the highest unemployment rate for a single region standing at more than twice the figure of the lowest. e.g. in the Warmisko Mazurskie voivodeship the unemployment rate in February 2011 was 21, 5 while in the voivodeship Mazowieckie 10%. The highest unemployment rates are primarily seen in regions dominated by the agriculture, mining and manufacturing industries.Unemployment rate by voivodships (at the end of February 2011). Selectivity Polish unemployment is, first of all, is a problem of young people (below 35 years of age). According to Eurostat data 24,9% among unemployed people are young. It is because young people have often no experience on the job market, their qualifications are incompatible with employers demandings and they are not flexible enough. Difficulties with finding a job are also experienced by women and people over 50 years. People of this last group spent at least half of their life under the communist system so they are not well adjusted to the capitalist system. They are unwilling or they do not have a chance to re-educate and move from their floor to the areas where more jobs are available.Unemployment among young people in EuropePeriod of unemployment unemployment in Poland tends to be of a structural or long-term nature. As we can see in the chart there are 34% of unemployed who cannot find a job above 12 months. This in turn has an involve on the health and well being of large segments of society.The forecasts predict that joblessness in Poland will stand at 9.9 per cent by the end of 2011, before steadily d eclining to 8.6 per cent by the end of 2012 and to 7,3 at the end of 2013.

Haiti Earthquake Essay

January 12, 2010 became the moment of tragedy for the population of Haiti an seism of terrible force stroke the small island, killing and injuring thousands of people. The earthquake turned into a devastating power, destroying everything in the epicenter and miles beyond. It was the most powerful earthquake in Haiti in more than 100 years. Now, several months after the tragic event, Haitian g everyplacening still work to restore the economic and social stability in the region. Earthquakes ar difficult to predict the Haiti earthquake did not have any ensample signs or foreshocks.It was equally unexpected and powerful. The aftershocks that followed confirmed the complexity of the natural exhibites that usually occur during earthquakes. The terrible earthquake that stroke Haiti on January 12th, 2010 affected around tierce million people, with mingled with 100,000 and 200,000 dead (Physics Today, 2010). Measured 7. 0 according to the earthquake magnitude, the Haiti quake became th e most powerful and the most devastating in the region over the last 100 years (Physics Today, 2010). 7.0 earthquakes are believed to be large, but not huge, and the Haiti earthquake was not the strongest and the most tragic in the human history.For the regions with gamey seismic employment, 7. 0-8. 0-magnitude earthquakes are a norm of life which, despite its power and negative consequences, is impossible to escape. In case of the Haiti earthquake, three essential factors contributed to the human and satisfying losses first, the epicenter was in 10 miles from the capital city, Port-au-Prince (Physics Today, 2010).Second, the earthquake was shallow by itself in other words, it was only 10-15 kilometers below the lands come forward (Physics Today, 2010). Third, given the state of the Haitian economy and the level of poverty in the region, most of the local buildings were not designed to withstand the pressure of an earthquake and hardly collapsed (Physics Today, 2010). The three mentioned factors turned the Haiti earthquake for the worst-case scenario for its people (Physics Today, 2010). A belief persists that the current state of technology facilitates the prediction of earthquakes.Today, thousands of people are confident that seismologists could have predicted the cut of events in Haiti. Yet, the reality is quite different. Notwithstanding the recent technological advancements, predicting earthquakes (especially, in the long run) is still far from possible. No, that does not mean that seismologists do not reminder tectonic activity. Monitoring regulates like Haiti around the world to get a general sense of where the next such pops may happen is not that difficult, largely because tectonic activity is hard to c erstal completely (Kluger, 2010).Scientists have information and technologies necessary to make predictions nigh where on the landscape earthquakes are the likeliest to occur, but omen in the long term is problematic and rarely objective (K luger, 2010). During the 18th Caribbean Geological Conference in March 2008, five scientists presented their paper, stating that the tectonic zone on the southeasterlyern side of the island was a serious seismic hazard (Griggs, 2010). The scientists had been increasingly concerned about the fault zone which, eventually, became the source of the major problems and the epicenter of the earthquake.Professionals unfreeze the lack of attention toward the report by the fact that such strikes and zones can re main dormant for hundreds of years (Griggs, 2010). Given the difficulties which seismologists usually experience in the process of predicting earthquakes, the reliability of their reports is often questionable. The findings presented on the 2008 Conference followed the 2004 study in the Journal of Geophysical Research, which reported an increased earthquake risk in the Septentrional fault zone near Haiti, not far from the Dominican Republic (Griggs, 2010).However, because Haiti is f airly regarded as one of the most active seismic zones in the world, even the heightened seismic activity does not necessarily imply that the region is facing an earthquake threat the nearest strike can occur years and decades later. The Haiti earthquake was unique in the sense that it was not preceded by any evacuations or warning signs. The earth in Haiti did not give any sign of a foreshock and did not steer either a water or an electrical signal (Kluger, 2010).Even the P wave equipment, which seismologists use to detect vibrations, did not display any changes in the tectonic activity in the region (Kluger, 2010). People did not have a chance to foresee the events that would follow the first shake. The earthquake stroke at 2153 UTC, January 12, 2010, in South Haiti, not far from the capital Port-au-Prince (RMS, 2010). The quake was tangle across the Haiti region, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and the Southern Bahamas, up to the northeast and southeast coasts of Cuba (RMS, 201 0).The two cities closest to the epicenter, Port-au-Prince and Jacmel, experienced up to 7. 0 fanaticism shaking on the MMI scale (RMS, 2010). The strikes of such intensity usually cause moderate malign to property (RMS, 2010). The earthquake was not followed by a tsunami, and no tsunami warning was issued (RMS, 2010). Seismologists tend to differentiate between the three different types of earthquakes. The dip-slip-fault means than one encounter plate slides under the other (Kluger, 2010). The reverse dip-slip fault implies that tectonic plates pull apart (Kluger, 2010).The strike-slip is associated with a sideways grinding of the plates (Kluger, 2010). The Haiti earthquake was of the strike-slip type, meaning that the two tectonic plates on the both sides of the fault moved in opposite directions the Caribbean Plate went east, while the Gonvave Platelet moved to the west (Physics Today, 2010). The more interesting and important, however, what people are likely to experience du ring an earthquake of the magnitude similar to that in Haiti. A missionary from Haiti said It felt like a train was coming stack the road.It (the house) wasnt shaking, it was rocking. I went outside and the vehicle in the driveway was rocking, glass breaking all around the house (Leach, 2010). Another witness described the first of the earthquake as the rumbling of the ground underneath his feet he saw a 400sq m house collapsing on the ground, with people trying to pull an hoary woman out of the rubble (Leach, 2010). Everything was shaking, people were screaming, while houses kept collapsing (Leach, 2010). Like any other earthquake, the one that stroke Haiti threw people into the whirl of shaking, trembling, and noise.Within proceedings after the strike, witnesses could see a huge cloud of dust and smoke rising from the Haiti capital (Leach, 2010). The moment of the first shock was only the beginning in a series of aftershocks that followed. By Friday, 22 January, seismologists noted 54 aftershocks between Mw 4. 0 and 7. 0 (RMS, 2010). The two largest aftershocks rated Mw 5. 9 (RMS, 2010). The first aftershock occurred minutes after the main quake and was located 20 miles southwest of the mainshock (RMS, 2010).The second stroke the island eight days after the mainshock, on January 20, 2010 (RMS, 2010). Seismologists report that both aftershocks could not reach intensity higher(prenominal) than V which, according to the MMI scale, would cause very light damage to buildings (RMS, 2010). However, buildings in Haiti had not been designed to withstand the pressure of an earthquake moreover, by the date the aftershock occurred, they had already been weakened as a result, the second aftershock could readily turn into another serious attack on the Haitian property.The aftershock that hit Haiti on January 20, 2010 panicked the Haitians, already traumatized by the devastating earthquake that had happened several days before (Murphy, 2010). Those who survived exper ienced the growing fear and concern about their lives and the property that had not collapsed during the mainshock. Yet, the aftershocks caused shortsighted or no additional damage (Murphy, 2010). It should be noted, that although 6. 1 and 7. 0 magnitude look almost similar, the difference between the two is more than greater. hostile temperature scales, in which units of increase are constant, the method used to measure earthquake magnitudes is logarithmic. What this generally means is that the amount of shaking caused by a 5. 0 earthquake is 10 times less than that caused by a 6. 0 earthquake and 100 times less of that caused by a 7. 0 earthquake. (Murphy, 2010) Earthquakes of the magnitude between 6. 0 and 7. 0 are not uncommon in the Haitian region, and the aftershocks that followed the devastating earthquake on the 12th January were not significant.The effects of the aftershocks were more ruttish than physical which, given the seriousness and the consequences of the event, were natural and justified. Today, when Haiti struggles to eliminate the consequences of the quake and to restore the economic stability in the region, seismologists and scholars in geology science keep arguing about whether the Haiti earthquake could have been predicted. Whether seismologists could have predicted the Haiti earthquake is no longer important, and it is equally difficult to estimate the value and importance of the 2008 scientific report.Nevertheless, the Haiti earthquake teaches seismologists numerous lessons and once again emphasizes the need to develop heavy(p) technologies and systems, which would predict earthquakes and warn local populations about them. Conclusion The Haiti Earthquake hit the island on January 12, 2010. With the magnitude not higher than 7. 0, the quake turned out to be the worst-case scenario for Haiti, killing and injuring thousands of local residents. The quakes of such magnitude are believed to cause average damage to people and property, b ut Haiti historically lacked resources necessary to build houses, which would withstand an earthquake.As a result, buildings collapsed, killing thousands and injuring even more. No warning signs or evacuations preceded the earthquake it was equally immediate and unexpected. People felt the land shaking and rumbling beneath their feet, with a cloud of smoke and dust rising above the capital. A series of aftershocks that followed did not cause much additional damage but became the source of serious emotional effects. The Haiti earthquake was another good lesson to seismologists, and once again emphasized the need to develop sound technologies which would predict earthquakes and warn populations about it.

Historical Context of Barn Burning

William Faulkners Barn Burning takes a lot of real life cultural values and ship canal of southwesternern life in the late 1800s. Many of those values and ways are expressed by sharecropping and tenant farming. Sharecropping and tenant farming began during the end of the cultivated war all through the great depression. Sharecropping is an agreement between a tenant and a landlord in which a tenant farmer is allowed to work and live on a piece of land for free, but in exchange for living there for free, they give the landlord a share of the crop they grow.Sharecropping was mainly heavy(p) in the southern states where slavery was once legal. The pay for being a tenant farmer was very low and the living itself was not very desirable. In Faulkners Barn Burning Abner Snopes is a white tenant farmer. He has this attitude that he should be given everything and should not be working as a sharecropper because he is white. At this time in history, many sharecroppers were freed slaves. Snop es believed that because he was white, he shouldnt be a sharecropper. Like many sharecropper at this time, Snopes had plenty debts that needed to paid off.Instead of paying off his debts, Snopes decide to burn down his landowners barns. This leads Snopes and his family to move from county to county. This was a very greens life for sharecroppers at this time. The life of a sharecropper was full of debts, and trying to make enough specie to pay off those debts and make enough money for a living. Upon leaving his sharecropping job, Snopes finds a job at the household of Major De Spain. When they arrive, Snopes dirties a white rug and sneers at the black servant when the servant told him not step on it.Sometime after this, the servant comes to the Snopes new home and instructs Abner to clean the rug. During this time, servants and housekeepers were treated with more respect than sharecroppers were. Abner Snopes was appalled by this because he believed that because he was a white man, he should have been treated with more respect. De Spain finds out about Snopes ruining the rug and charges them one hundred dollars added to their debt, and twenty bushels of corn. These types of arrangements were quite common at this time between sharecroppers and their landlords.The sharecroppers had little to no money, so the landlords would charge them for items, or take an extra percentage of their crops. The setting of this story is very important because it gives you a sense of what life was like back during the late 1800s. Barn Burning takes place in the south after the civil war. After the civil war, the south was in the period of reconstruction. A lot of the south was destroyed from the war, and it affected everyone in the south from their economy, to their personal lives. Many people lived impoverished like the Snopes family.Abner Snopes holds a lot of resentment because he couldnt be successful in his life. Instead of changing his life and working hard, he resents everyt hing and everyone around him. This attitude at long last leads to his downfall. William Faulkners Barn Burning takes a lot of real life situations and puts them into fiction. He is able to put the life around him in to stories of fiction. Works Cited epithelial duct , History . Sharecropping & Forty Acres and a Mule History. com Articles, Video, Pictures and Facts. History. om History Made Every Day American & World History. N. p. , n. d. Web. 1 Apr. 2013. . Gardener , Ron . New atomic number 31 Encyclopedia Sharecropping. New Georgia Encyclopedia. N. p. , n. d. Web. 1 Apr. 2013. . Giessen , James C. . New Georgia Encyclopedia Sharecropping. New Georgia Encyclopedia. N. p. , n. d. Web. 1 Apr. 2013. .

Changinng Life Style Essay

Indian Culture is date tested and represented the progressively refined way of sprightliness, that had unfortunately suffered a set back, a shade last process as it were, drifting from its salutary ways of funding.Did non Lord Mecaulay say in the UK parliament how the Indians had such a perfect cordial amity and faith in their way of emotional state, that they gage non be subdued unless they were weaned from their prestige and made to adore the alien way of emotional statespan, to aspect subordinated to a superior culture, wherefore they could be easily subdued and dominated for the best advantage of the colonial rule That was perfectly achieved and Indians forgot their throw merits in a strange infatuation with alien cultureForeign culture was best for them, unique to them, deserved respect, exclusively non fit for absorption into our own way of life Apart from an initiation into new unfolding findings of blase acquaintance and technology which was absent in our nation chthonic colonial subjugation we had garnered least in other cranial orbits, particularly in the affectionate and ethical qualities. We became divided, in the let outs of religion and castes losing the force of consonance that united us under the princely statesThe increasing divorce culture, night clubs and pub culture, promiscuity and desertions etc among youth, the divide and rule policy among the politicians, the aggressive conversions (against more benign missionary activities a blow ago) atomic number 18 the b arely major impacts in the social domain.So except the technological inputs, even economic exploitations under tolerant trade or restrictive regimentation under socialist govts that came from the west, deliver least served the society to achieve equality. Social impacts fork up been worse.The break down of joint family system due to new life styles, uncontrolled deviancies in the name of liberty etc countenance made youth defy control of society and family in a big way. In a chapter on Consequences of Innovations in the book by Rogers and Shoe inductr entitled, Diffusion andAdoption of Innovations, it is reasoned how some(prenominal) change made in any aspect of social sphere agriculture or medicine or arts or whatever whitethorn end up in unexpected em get offment installs as tumefy. The chaos in the aborigins of Australia after replacement of traditional st champion tool etc make gratifying readingIn India itself, the introduction of rural TV platform for education of comm iodine in modern agricultre, health c atomic number 18 etc was studied in UP state when Indiraji was Minister of Broadcasting, in 100 villages. The study revealed pregnant increase in k like a shotledge and attitude of people in modern techniques and the project was cleared for large scale introdcution across the country. After govt project was ended, umpteen behavioural scientists took up studies in change of life pattern in the villages. They came across many critical adverse changes traceable to exposure of untreated amusement programmes given by TV apart from the educatinal inputsLike that our adoration for the modern k instanterledge gained from the west, had made us adopt their other life styles as well to the detriment of society. So the demerits have been devastating as we see from the increase of family courts to deal with increasing divorce cases, the skewed increase of trade and industy at the toll of other primary enterprises, policy of social divide by politicians for vote bank advantage etcIn my opinion, we had paid a heavy price for entirely the technological good we authoritative from the west, by our own un fresh emulation of their social perceptions and political strategies as wellhave a good day clock timeTRADITIONAL CULTURE AND MODERNIZATIONR. BALASUBRAMANIANBACKGROUNDThis paper focuses upon three issues. First, I want to show that the perennial elements in traditional cultures like those of India and China arerelevant even today as they play an important role in the achievement, on the angiotensin-converting enzyme hand, of harmony in the midst of the individual and society at the social level, and, on the other hand, of harmony of spirit, sagacity, and automobile trunk at the individual level. Second, we should not lose sight of the distinction surrounded by greetledge and information, between recognition and knowledge, and more importantly between life and living. The perennial elements in the traditional culture have helped us to care for life, knowledge, and wisdom, which are essential for apparitional development. Third, modernization as interpreted by the West has a narrow connotation and is, in that locationfore, a distorted concept. Through science, it brings in the colonial attitude, the imperialism of the West. It is possible for superstar to be modern without accepting wholly that is implied by modernization.Culture, which comprises philosophy and religion, art and literature, science and technology, social organization and political administration, is the mirror of the theory and course session of a people. It is originated, veritable and sustained by the people over a period of time. In turn, the perennial elements which constitute its core inspire and sustain the posterity to whom it is transmitted from time to time. Traditional cultures like those of China and India are undoubtedly ancient, only when not antiquated their ideals and practices, which are relevant in any situation, help the people to reach the new ch exclusively(a)enges which surface from time to time. As a result they not merely survive, but are admired, adored, and accepted by the people. at that place cannot be a better explanation of the way a culture is able to hold the people and sustain them than the one given by Sri Aurobindo The culture of a people may be roughly described as the expression of a consciousness of life which formulates itsel f in three aspects.There is a side of thought, of ideal, of upward(a) ordain and the instincts aspiration there is a side of creative self-expression and appreciative aesthesis, intelligence, and imagination and there is a side of practical and superficial formulation. A peoples philosophy and graduate(prenominal)er thinking give us its minds purest, largest, and most general formulation of its consciousness of life and its dynamic view of existence. Its religion formulates the most intense form of its upward will and the souls aspirations towards the fulfillment of its highest ideal and impulse. Its art, poetry, literature provide for us the creative expression and impression of its intuition, imagination, vital turn and creativeintelligence. Its society and politics provide in their forms an outward frame in which the more outer life releases out what it can of its inspiring ideal and of its special character and temper under the difficulties of the environment.We can see h ow much it has taken of the cutting material of living, what it has done with it, how it has shaped as much of it as possible into some reflection of its guarding consciousness and deeper spirit. None of them express the altogether spirit behind, but they derive from it their main ideas and their cultural character. Together they make up its soul, mind, and body.1 Of the various components of culture the role of philosophy and religion is evidential. Philosophy and religion can never be separated though they can be distinguished. It may be that in a particular culture, philosophy is in the forefront and religion in the background. It can besides be the other way with religion at the surface and philosophy in the background. The point to be noted here is that philosophy and religion interact with, and influence each other. Philosophy is made dynamic by religion, and religion is enlightened by philosophy. If it is admitted that there is the need for a unity of theory and practice, philosophy cannot remain genuinely as a view of life it moldiness(prenominal) also be a way of life.In other linguistic process, philosophy has to become religious if it is to mold, organize and regulate life. Religion is not an untouchable its need for life can neither be ignored nor underestimated. It will be helpful to contrast the pursuit of philosophy in Europe with that in India and China. Unlike the Europe of the Enlightenment where philosophy did not touch life at all, there was a tremendous impact of philosophy on life some(prenominal) in India and China. In the words of Sri Aurobindo Philosophy has been pursued in Europe with great and formal intellectual results by the highest minds, but actually much as a pursuit apart from life, a occasion high and splendid, but ineffective. It is remarkable that, while in India and China philosophy has seized hold on life, has had an enormous practical effect on the civilization and got into the very hit the books of current t hought and action, it has never at all succeeded in achieving this importance in Europe.In the days of the Stoics and Epicureans it got a grip, but only among the highly urbane at the present day, too, we have some renewed tendency of the kind. Nietzsche has had his influence, certain French thinkers also in France, the philosophies of James and Bergson have attracted some amount of man interest but it is a mere zip fastener compared with the effective power of Asiatic philosophy.2 There is no doubt that the average European who quarters his guidance not from the philosophic, but from positive and practical campaign, puts the philosophical treatises on the highest shelf in the library of civilization. The situation is entirely different in India. Sri Aurobindo says The Indian mind holds . . . that the Rishi, the thinker, the oracle of spiritual uprightness is the best guide not only of the religious and example, but also of the practical life. The seer, the Rishi is the natur al director of society to the Rishis he attributes the ideals and guiding intuitions of his civilization. compensate today he is very ready to give the name to anyone who can give a spiritual truth which helps his life or a fictile idea and inspiration which influences religion, ethics, society, even politics.3 The phenomenon know as modernization is a product of the one-sided pursuit of both philosophy and science philosophy purely as an intellectual af sensible without any bearing on life and science as the most effective instrument for the possession of unlimited power, eliminating the sacred. I shall take up the problem of modernization later. It may be added here that what is said about the Indian mind is equally original of the Chinese mind. Confucius, Mencius, and others are the great Rishis of China, the seers who exhibited the most uncommon insight into men and matters, into the moral and social problems of mankind bes.Drawing a distinction between 2 kinds of philoso phers, systematic and edifying, Richard Rorty characterizes Wittgenstein as an edifying philosopher, like Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and others. In a brief analysis of the spirit of Western civilization which is fully manifest in the industry, architecture, and music of our time, in its fascism and socialism, Wittgenstein openly admits that he has no sympathy for the current of European civilization, that he does not understand its goals, if it has any, and that it is alien and uncongenial to him.4 He goes on to say A culture is like a big organization which assigns each of its members a place where he can work in the spirit of the consentient and it is perfectly fair for his power to be measured by the contribution he succeeds in making to the whole enterprise.5 Wittgensteins brief explanation of culture requires some elucidation.He says that culture is a whole, that every individual has a place in it, that every individual has to function as a member of the whole, and that what he d oes is significant socially as wellas morally. The two traditional cultures, Chinese and Indian, have recognized the importance of the ideas embedded in Wittgensteins explanation of culture. opus the Indian culture appears to be predominantly spiritual and religious, the Chinese culture seems to be basically humanistic, with a clear emphasis on the moral and social dimensions of life. It essential be pointed out in this connection that the difference between these two traditional cultures is only at the surface. Since the traditional culture comprehends the total life of a person, it provides a place for the different dimensions of life spiritual, religious, moral, and social which can be distinguished, but not separated. The spiritual and religious dimension of life presupposes the moral and social materialm and the moral and social sphere of life points to the religious and spiritual goals.That the two realms, ethico-social and religio-spiritual, are complementary, has been r ecognized by both these cultures, even though the Indian culture lays emphasis on the spiritual and religious side of man while the Chinese culture focusses on the ethical and social side of man. The motif of the two cultures is the harmony of spirit, mind, and body and it is to achieve this harmony that they take care of both realms of life. Once again what Sri Aurobindo says in this connection is worth quoting A true happiness in this world is the right terrestrial aim of man, and true happiness lies in the finding and maintenance of a natural harmony of spirit, mind, and body. A culture is to be valued to the extent to which it has discovered the right key of this harmony and organized its expressive motives and movements.And a civilization must(prenominal) be judged by the manner in which all its dominions, ideas, forms, ways of living work to bring that harmony out, manage its rhythmic play, and secure its continuance or the development of its motives.6 There is need to harmo nize the unremitting and the temporal, for the spirit works by dint of mind and body, which belong to the temporal and this is what every great culture has aimed at. There are four components in the traditional culture associated with India and China.They are (1) the original kernel which is the source and support of the universe may be viewed both as exceptional to, and as immanent in, the universe (2) this Spirit which is immanent in all human existences can be complete by every human beingness (3) it lays down a discipline which is both moral and spiritual for realizing the Spirit and (4) it has provided an organization of theindividual and collective life not only for the sake of the harmony between the individual and society, but also for the sake of the harmony of spirit, mind, and body. Each one of these components needs some explanation in the con school text of these two cultures.Indian CULTUREThough Indian culture as it is today is composite in character, comprising Hindu, Jaina, Buddha, Islamic, and Christian elements, it can be characterized as Vedic culture since not only Hinduism, which is predominant, but also Jainism and Buddhism, which originated in protest against Vedic ritualism, have been influenced by the Vedas, the basic and oldest scriptural text in the world. Islam and Christianity entered the Indian soil sequel on the invasion of India by the foreigners by the Moghuls in the former case, and by the English, French, and Portuguese in the latter case. Though they try to retain their identity, the followers of these two religious traditions have been influenced by the Vedic culture. Kabir (1398-1518 AD), for example, who is a greatly respected personality in the religious news report of India, is a product of both Hinduism and Islam. In recent generation, Indian Christians talk about and practice inculturization, which is a new and growing phenomenon.The predominant Hindu culture which has a long and continuous history is the V edic culture and the Vedic culture, which has its beginning round about 2500 BC, may be characterized as primal culture, since it traces everything in the universe to the primal Spirit, which is variously called Brahman, tman, Being, and so on. Spirit or Being is the primal earthly concern. It is that from which all beings arise being supported by it, they exist and all of them move towards it as their destination. In the wording of T.S. Eliot, the beginning is the end. The Upanisad says That, verily, from which these beings are born, that by which, when born, they live, that into which, when departing, they enter. That, seek to know. That is Brahman.7 Spirit or Brahman is primal in the sensory faculty that it is foundational. It is the sole reality it is one and non-dual and there is nothing else beside it. It is spoken of as the First Cause, Unmoved Mover, of the entire manifest universe. With a view to bring out the independent nature of the primal Spirit on which the manifest universe is dependent, it is referred to as the Ground.That which is independent is real what is dependent is an appearance. The ground-groundedrelation brings out the reality of Spirit and the appearance of the universe. Ordinarily we distinguish the material ready from the efficient engender the one is different from the other. The wood from which a table is made is the material cause and the carpenter who works on the wood and makes a table according to a certain design is the efficient cause. The carpenter is different from the wood. What makes the primal Spirit unique is that it is both the material and efficient cause of the universe, because it alone existed in the beginning and nothing else beside it. Like wood, it is the material cause of the world and like a carpenter, it is the efficient cause of the world.So, the Vedic culture traces all beings, living as well as non-living, to one source, viz. Spirit or Being. It may be pointed out here that in recent times quantum p hysics attempts to trace everything in the manifest universe to one source which is non-material or spiritual. Einstein declared Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the Laws of the Universe a Spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we, with our modest powers, must feel humble.8 That Spirit or Brahman is the source, support, and end of everything in the universe, is the major premise of the Vedic culture. Derived from the major premise are two minor premises, one relating to living beings called jva and the other, to non-living beings called jagat. Since Spirit or Brahman is immanent in jva and jagat, neither jva nor jagat is isolated from the primal Spirit. It means that all living beings, whatever they may be humans, animals, birds, reptiles, and so on are spiritual or divine. Non-living beings which are material constitute the physical universe.They are the products of the five e lements ether, air, fire, water and earth which are material. The divine principle is present not only in living beings, but also in non-living beings, and so they are also divine. Characterizing Brahman as the indwelling Spirit (antarymin), the Brhadnrayaka Upanisad says that Brahman is present in all beings the sun, the moon, and the stars, the elements which constitute the physical universe, and the organs of the jvas. Just as our body does not know the Spirit inside it, even so the beings, whatever they may be, do not know Brahman, the indwelling Spirit in them. The pursuit text is relevant here He Brahman or Spirit who dwells in all beings, yet is within all beings, whom no beings know, whose body isall beings, who controls all beings from within, he is your Self, the inner controller, the immortal.9 That which dwells in material objects and controls them also dwells in all living beings and controls them.Just as all living beings are basically divine, even so the entire physical universe is essentially divine. Whatever may be the differences among the species and within the individual members of a species, all are essentially one, because one and the similar(p) divine Spirit is present in all of them. The message conveyed by these two minor premises of the traditional culture deserves careful consideration. First of all, if the prop up and the water and the sky of the physical universe are divine, then we should take care of them in the same way as we take care of our body. The title of respect that human beings are rational, that they are superior to the physical world, and that they are, in the words of Descartes, the masters and possessors of nature resulted in the unscrupulous, cruel, and destructive despoliation of nature in the name of the quest for knowledge, scientific development, and technological progress. It is not nature that is red in tooth and claw, but the human being who is unabashedly selfish and blatantly aggressive and makes nature bleed and scorch.Fortunately for us, there is a global awakening to the implication of the earth and the water and the sky as sources of sustenance and nourishment. Secondly, the application of this principle of the oneness to the human realm is of great consequence. The understanding that all human beings are essentially one and that differences of color and caste, of gender and race, of sharpness and dullness of mind, and so on are due to the mind-sense-body adjunct by which the Spirit is en tight-fittingd will help us to tackle the universally rampant problem of divergence of all kinds social, religious, economic, and political. Vedntic philosophy, which is an important component of culture, tells us what a human being is, does, and should do in order to achieve the harmony of spirit, mind, and body. A human being (jva) is a complex entity consisting of Spirit and matter. The term used in Vednta for Spirit is the Self or tman. Matter which is totally different from the Self is referred to as not-Self, as other-than-the-Self. check to Vednta, the not-Self, which is the material outfit of the human being, is made up of the mind, the senses, and the body.The Self in the human being requires a physical medium for its involvement in the day-after-day life as the subject of knowledge, the broker of action, and the enjoyer of the consequences of action. The mind and the senses are the cognitive instruments. With the help of the mind, the five senses give us knowledge of the things of the external world. The work of the mind does not stop with the cognitive support it gives to the senses. As the internal organ (antahkaraa), the mind generates the knowledge of the subjective states such as pleasure and pain. It also does something more, which is very important from the moral and spiritual perspectives. It gives us knowledge of the right and the wrong, dharma and adharma as they are called. When chastened by the moral and spiritual discipline, it is the mind which helps us to realize the primal Spirit or Brahman. So the work of the mind is manifold.The mind is the most marvelous instrument that a human being possesses. The emergence of the mind has not only accelerated the evolutionary process in its upward movement, but also has given enormous powers to the human being, making him/her the crown of creation, unique among all living beings. In the course of his commentary on the scriptural account of the creation of the world, Sankara raises the question about the preeminence of the human being among all creatures and answers it by saying that the human being is preeminent because he alone is qualified for knowledge and the performance of prescribed duties (jnna-karma-adhikrah).10 Why is it that he alone has this competence? Sankara justifies the success of the human on three grounds.First, he has the ability for acquiring knowledge not only of the things of the world, but also of the supreme Being, the primal reality. This is beca use he is supply with the mind which, being inspired by the Self or Spirit in him is capable of comprehending everything including the highest reality. Secondly, he has the distinctive quality of desiring certain ends as a result of discrimination, deliberation, and choice. Thirdly, when he has consciously chosen an end, he is earnest about it, finds the right means for achieving the end, and persists in it till he reaches the goal. A scriptural text which is quoted by Sankara in this connection says In man alone is the Self most manifest for he is the best enable with knowledge. He speaks what he knows he sees what he knows he knows what will happen tomorrow he knows the higher(prenominal)(prenominal) and the lower worlds he aspires to achieve immortality through perishable things. He is thus endowed (with discrimination) while other beings have consciousness of hunger and thirst only.11According toVednta, the Self in the human being is eternal, whereas his material outfit, the mind-sense-body complex, is temporal. The birth and death of a human being are connected with, and because of, the body. They are illicitly transferred to the Self with the result that we think of it as perishable and finite. The human being is caught in the make pass of birth and death because of ignorance (avidy) whose beginning is not known. The observational journey of the Self through its association with the material adjunct is due to avidy. It is avidy that pulls down the trans- falsifiable Self into the empirical realm, superimposes on it, which is non-relational, a relation with matter, and is thus responsible for the fall of the Self. What is above categorization is now categorized and made an object of knowledge what transcends relation is now explained through the logic of relation and what is beyond the scope of language is now brought within the grammar of language.Thus, just as a tree and a table are known through perception and other means of knowledge, even so Bra hman or the Self, we claim, is known through the scriptural text called Sruti. The trans-relational reality is viewed as characterized by omniscience and other qualities and also as the cause of the world. What is trans-linguistic is now spoken of as real, knowledge, infinite, and so on. In other words, we employ the categories of substance and attribute, cause and effect, whole and parts for the economic consumption of understanding the highest reality.It will be of interest in this connection to refer to the views of two influential thinkers from the West one belonging to the pre-sixth degree centigrade and the other our own contemporary. Pseudo-Dionysius, who occupies an important place in the history of Western spirituality, observes The supreme reality is neither perceived nor is it perceptible. It suffers neither disorder nor disturbance and is overwhelmed by no earthly passion. . . . It endures no deprivation of light. It passes through no change, decay, division, loss, no ebb and flow, nothing of which the senses may be aware. None of all this can either be identified with it nor attributed to it.12 Again, he saysIt falls neither within the predicate of non-being nor of being. Existing beings do not know it as it actually is and it does not know them as they are. There is no speaking of it, nor name, nor knowledge of it. Darkness and light, error and truth it is none of these. It is beyond assertion anddenial. We make assertions and denials of what is next to it, but never of it, for it is both beyond every assertion, being the perfect and unique cause of all things, and, by virtue of its preeminently simple and absolute nature, free of every limitation, beyond every limitation it is also beyond every denial.13 Pseudo-Dionysius conveys in the most unambiguous terms the Vedntic conception of Brahman or the Self. Instead of terms such as Brahman or the Self used by the Vedntin, Wittgenstein uses terms such as the metaphysical subject, the I, the phil osophical I and contrasts it with the body. The human body, he says, is a part of the world among other parts, but the Self or the philosophical I is not a part of the world it is outside the space-time-cause world.In the words of Wittgenstein The subject does not belong to the world, but is a border of the world.14 The philosophical I is not the human being, not the human body, or the human soul of which psychology treats, but the metaphysical subject, the border not a part of the world.15 What is obvious from the foregoing account is that we have to make a distinction between two concepts, Brahman-in-itself and Brahman-in-relation-to-the-world, for the purpose of analysis. The latter concept is meaningful only on the presupposition of the fall of Brahman or the Self. When did this fall take place? No one knows, and no one can answer. Once there is the fall, the empirical journey of the Self goes on in different forms, conditioned by the space-time-cause framework. However, the promise of Vednta is that the empirical journey of the lva can be put an end to, that the vicious cycle of birth and death can be broken by destroying avidy through knowledge of ones Self.That is why there is the scriptural instruction of Know thy Self. Not only does scripture say that the Self should be realized or seen, but it also suggests the means for realizing it. It will be difficult to understand the full significance of the distinction between Brahman-in-itself and Brahman-in-relation-to-the-world without a reference to the principle of stands which is enshrined in Indian culture. There are two sets of features, perennial and temporal, in Indian culture which contribute to its continuity as well as its change. plot the basic isms constitute its perennial dimension, religious practices covering a wide range are temporal and transitory. Decadence sets in when the temporal and transitory features gain importance almost to the point of ignoring or sidetracking theperennial f eatures.Historical, social, and political changes call for modification, sometimes radical, sometimes minor, in the religious practices and social norms of the people, while the basic positive side remains intact. Continuity of the essentials amidst the changing flow of life helps to preserve the cultural tradition. The essential structure which has endured through the vicissitudes of time contains the basic doctrines as express in the major premise and the two minor premises to which reference was made earlier. The three basic doctrines are primal Being or Spirit is the source, support, and end of everything, sentient as well as non-sentient all living beings are divine also, the physical universe which has originated from the primal Spirit is spiritual. The monistic vision, which is pervasive in the Vedic corpus, is a notable feature of Indian culture.The doctrine of levels or standpoints skillfully adopted by Indian culture helps to reconcile monism and polytheism as well as m onism and pluralism. Though each pair contains two extremes in the religio-philosophical thinking, they have been accommodated as different standpoints at different levels. They are irreconcilable only when they are placed together at the same level. For example, one of the oft-quoted hymns of the Rg-veda provides a clue for reconciling the problem of one Godhead and many gods and goddesses. It says What is but one, wise people call by different names as Agni, Yama, Mtarisvan.16 Reference to gods, such as, Agni and Yama may be replaced by the well known gods of the Hindu pantheon such as Siva, Visnu, Sakti, and so on.Sankara explains the distinction between the supreme Godhead and its various forms such as Siva, Visnu, and so on, as the distinction between the unconditioned reality, what we referred to as Brahman-in-itself, and its conditioned forms such as Siva and Visnu, all of which can be brought under Brahman-in-relation-to-the-world. _iva, Viu, and other gods are conditioned beings endowed with a name and a form and other qualities, whereas the One is unconditioned, devoid of name and form, specifications and qualities and is, therefore, trans-empirical, trans-relational, and trans-linguistic.This mode of drawing the distinction between the supreme Godhead and its many forms for the purpose of worship and other religious practices of the devotees, which is unheard of in other religious traditions of other cultures, is of great consequence in the religious practice of the people.Since it is the one reality that is worshipped in many forms such as Agni, Siva, and so on, one who worships Agni or Siva, should not quarrel with one who worships Yama or Visnu, because Agni, Yama, Siva, and Visnu are the conditioned aspects of the same reality. This significant idea of the Rg-Vedic hymn was accepted, fully elaborated, and further deepened by the Upanisads. It provides a theoretical framework for religious harmony, which is one of the characteristic features of primal culture and which has received special emphasis right from the beginning till this day. What makes primal culture valid for all times and in all places is its inclusiveness.It includes everything by providing a place for it in the whole. Religious, social, economic, scientific, and political activities are necessary and meaningful but they must be made subservient to, and must be viewed and judged in the context of the spiritual goal of life. A culture which is mainly concerned with the bare economic necessities of life, social institutions, and political organization will be neither enduring nor elevating it may look energetic and enterprising, but it is not worth the name, if it is not geared up to the spiritual side of life. Once again, what Sri Aurobindo says is worth quoting here A mere intellectual, ethical, and aesthetic culture does not go back to the inmost truth of the spirit it is still an ignorance, an incomplete, outward, and superficial knowledge. To have made t he discovery of our deepest being and unfathomed spiritual nature is the first necessity and to have erected the living of an inmost spiritual life into the aim of existence is the characteristic sign of a spiritual culture.17 The Vednta philosophy solves the problem of monism versus pluralism on the basis of the distinction between two levels or standpoints called pramrthika and vyvahrika, or absolute and relative respectively. The Upanisads make use of this distinction in the explanation of the epistemological, metaphysical, axiological, and soteriological problems. What is true at one level may not be so at another(prenominal) level. A dream-lion which is accepted as real in dream run across loses its reality at the waking level. What is accepted as a value at one time may turn out to be a disvalue at another time. The pluralistic universe which is accepted as real may cease to exist in the state of liberation following the spiritual ascent. The pramrthika or absolute standpoin t is higher, whereas the vyvahrika or the relative standpoint is lower. It must be borne in mind that thehigher standpoint which transcends the lower does not invalidate it. One who has moved from the relative to the absolute standpoint knows the truth of the former but one who is tied to the relative standpoint cannot understand the truth of the absolute standpoint.Consider the case of two persons who attempt to climb up a mountain in order to reach the highest peak. While one of them reaches the top, the other, due to some disability, is not able to proceed beyond the foothill. The person who has reached the gain knows what kind of experience is available to one at the foothill but one who is at the foothill does not understand the kind of experience one has at the top. We have to apply this logic to the different kinds of experience without subverting the pramrthika-vyvahrika pecking order. The Upanisads describe the two levels as signifying higher wisdom and lower knowledge. E xperience of plurality is sort of common it is quite natural we have it in our daily life. No special effort or discipline is required for such an experience. But experience of oneness is uncommon.One does not get it without special effort or appropriate discipline. The transition is from the common to the uncommon. A text of the Brhadrayaka Upanisad describes the two levels of experience as follows For, where there is duality as it were, there one sees the other, one smells the other, one knows the other. . . . But, where everything has become just ones own self, by what and whom should one smell, by what and whom should one know?18 Without disregarding the pragmatic value of day-to-day empirical knowledge, primal culture emphasizes the importance of higher wisdom. It will be of interest to quote Wittgenstein in this connection. He says In religion every level of devoutness must have its appropriate form of expression which has no sense at a lower level. This doctrine, which means something at a higher level, is null and void for someone who is still at the lower level he can only understand it wrongly and so these words are not valid for such a person.For instance, at my level the Pauline doctrine of predestination is ugly, nonsense, irreligiousness. Hence it is not suitable for me, since the only use I could make of the picture I am offered would be a wrong one. If it is a good and godly picture, then it is so for someone at a quite different level, who must use it in his life in a way completely different from anything that would be possible for me.19 The teaching of the Vednta philosophy is positive. According to it, life in this world is meaningfuland nonrandom meaningful for the reason that it serves as the training ground for ones spiritual uplifting through the proper use of the objects of the world by the mind-sense-body equipment of which one is in possession, and purposive as one has to achieve freedom or liberation by overcoming the existential predicament. Freedom or liberation which is projected as the goal must be understood in the spiritual sense. It is true that human life is made difficult by economic constraints, political oppression, social hierarchy, and religious discrimination and a situation of this kind points to, and calls for, freedom of different kinds so that a person can exist and function as a moral agent enjoying economic, political, social and religious freedom.However, the goal of life remains unfulfilled in spite of these different kinds of freedom. Though they are necessary, they are not sufficient. The highest freedom which is eternal and totally satisfying is spiritual freedom, which is called moksa in Indian culture. A socio-political system may ensure political freedom, social justice, economic satisfaction, and unrestricted religious practice but still there is no guarantee of harmony of spirit, mind, and body which one can achieve only through the teaching of philosophy and religion. The soci o-political machinery cannot be a substitute for religion and philosophy, though it can and should maintain a system of rights and obligations in which alone a human being can go across a moral life as formulated in religion and can pursue the goal of liberation as projected by philosophy.Sri Aurobindo says The whole aim of a great culture is to lift man up to something which at first he is not, to lead him to knowledge though he starts from an unmeasured ignorance, to teach him to live by reason, though actually he lives much more by his unreason, by the law of good and unity, though he is now full of evil and discord, by a law of beauty and harmony, though his actual life is a repulsive muddle of ugliness and jarring barbarisms, by some law of his spirit, though at present he is egoistic, material, unspiritual, engrossed by the needs and desires of his physical being. If a civilization has not any of these aims, it can hardly at all be said to have a culture and certainly in no sense a great and noble culture. But the last of these aims, as conceived by ancient India, is the highest of all because it includes and surpasses all the others. To have made this attempt is to have ennobled the life of the race to have failed in it is better than if it had never at allbeen attempted to have achieved even a partial success is a great contribution to the future possibilities of the human being.20 Excepting the Crvka, which advocates a thoroughgoing materialism, all other philosophical systems in India accept the ideal of moksa.The Indian mind, right from the beginning, has accepted a hierarchy of value, ranging from the bodily and economic values at the bottom to the spiritual values of which liberation is at the top. The human being leads his life at two levels positive and hyper-organic. Bodily and economic values which he pursues belong to the organic level. In so far as the pursuit of the organic values is concerned values which are necessary for life preser vation his life and activities are in no way different from those of animals at this level, hunger and sleep, shelter and sex are common to man and animals. Endowed as he is not only with the body, but also with the mind, he also lives at another level, pursue higher values such as truth, beauty, goodness. The life-activity of man which is fully reflective of his cognition, desire, deliberation, and choice cannot stop short of the highest value called moksa. It is not necessary here to discuss the full scheme of values accepted in the Indian tradition. Suffice it to say that, though artha and kma, which emphasize the importance of the material and hedonistic side of life, have been accommodated in the scheme of values, the moral and spiritual side of life has received special attention in Indian culture.That is why it has accepted two higher values, dharma and moksa, the former functioning as a moral guide, and also as a regulative principle of artha and kma pursued in our secula r life, for the realization of the latter. All the philosophical systems, Vedic as well as non-Vedic, hold the view that moksa as the highest value is both ultimate and all-satisfying ultimate since there is nothing else to which it can be the means, and all-satisfying since it comprehends all the higher values. Sankara says that one gets the feeling of the fulfillment of all values when one attains moksa.21 There are three questions that we have to consider in connection with the ultimate value. The first one is whether it can be realized at all. There is the view that the ultimate value is only an ideal to inspire and regulate our conduct and that it can never be attained. We can regulate our life so as to come nearer to it from time to time, from stage to stage but we can never reach it. Such a view is untenable.Also, it goes against the spirit of Indianculture. Realization of ones true nature is liberation. We have already pointed out that the human being is a complex entity co nsisting of Spirit and matter. Spirit by its very nature is ever free and never bound. But it appears to be bound because of the material adjunct with which it is associated in the empirical life. Overwhelmed by ignorance, the human being does not realize that he is essentially Spirit and therefore free. When he attains the right knowledge and knows his real nature, he is no more under the limitation or bondage of the psycho-physical material outfit, because ignorance which conceals his real nature is removed by knowledge. It means that the ideal of moksa has a basis in the very constitution of the human being also, the human being, not being satisfied with the material achievements, what the Upanisad calls preyas, longs for spiritual freedom, which is called Sreyas.The Upanisad says Both the good and the pleasant approach a man. The wise man, pondering over them, discriminates. The wise chooses the good in penchant to the pleasant. The simple-minded, for the sake of worldly well-b eing, prefers the pleasant.22 One cannot have both Sreyas and preyas. The pursuit of the former requires the renunciation of the latter. Spiritual illumination follows purgation. Speaking about the importance of the ideal and its close relation to human nature, Hiriyanna observes Ideals are rooted in needs inherent in human nature. It is their reality that constitutes their true charm. Take this charm from them, and they reduce themselves but to pleasant fantasy. The reality of such a value may not be vouched for by common reasoning. But we should remember that neither is there any adequate proof for denying it. Not to admit the ideal would therefore be to be dogmatic in the sense that we deny it without adequate proof for the denial.23 The back up question is whether the ideal of moksa can be realized by all.Here also the great philosophical traditions, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, are unanimous in their affirmative answer. There is nothing in human nature which either disqual ifies or incapacitates him from attaining this ideal. Whatever may be the differences among human beings at the bodily, vital, and mental levels, everyone has the right and duty to aspire for the highest value by virtue of what he/she is. As every human being is endowed with the mind, the most precious and unequalled instrument through which one can look before and after, know the things given to him, and choose from them afterdiscrimination and deliberation, he is not in any way incapacitated from pursuing the ultimate value. Indian culture looks down on the doctrine of the chosen few. Since ignorance is the obstacle that stands in the way of realizing ones divine nature, realizing ones Spirit, which is liberation, it can be removed by knowledge which anyone can acquire through moral and spiritual discipline. The philosophy of Vednta, according to which every human being is divine, is opposed to the theory of privilege of birth, intellect, spirituality, etc.It is anti-hierarchical . In everyone there is a sleeping Buddha, a hidden Brahman, to which everyone can have access. That the doors to the spiritual realm do not remain closed to anyone is conveyed in a forthright manner by Sri Aurobindo A wider spiritual culture must recognize that the Spirit is not only the highest and inmost thing, but all is manifestation and creation of the Spirit. It must have a wider outlook, a more embracing range of applicability and, even, a more aspiring and ambitious aim of its endeavor. Its aim must be not only to raise to inaccessible heights the few elect, but to draw all men and all life and the whole human being upward, to spiritualize life and in the end to divinize human nature. Not only must it be able to lay hold on his deepest individual being, but to inspire, too, his communal existence. It must turn, by a spiritual change, all the members of his ignorance into members of the knowledge it must transmute all the instruments of the human into instruments of a divine living. The total movement of Indian spirituality is towards this aim.24 The third question, whether the ultimate value can be realized here in this life or only hereafter, is answered in two different ways. Some philosophical systems maintain that the proper preparation that a person undertakes for achieving this end will help him to realize it only after death, whereas some other systems hold the view that it can be realized in this life itself, if one follows the prescribed moral and spiritual discipline. The former view is called the eschatological conception of moksa while the latter is known as lvan-mukti. Lvan-mukti means liberation-in-life. The person who has attained enlightenment or wisdom is free even while he is in the embodied condition. It is not necessary to discuss these two views of moksa in detail. It may be pointed out here that the view that it is possible to overcome bondage and attain liberation here and now deepens the significance of the present life. Alvan-m ukta does not run away from society. He lives in society for the benefit of others when he is engaged in activities, he has no sense of I and mine his activities, that is to say, are impersonal. Also, he imparts spiritual instruction to others, for, having realized the truth, he alone is competent to do this.The life of a lvan-mukta, as portrayed in the Hindu tradition, is comparable to that of a Bodhi-sattva as explained in the Mahyna tradition. The ideal of life goes beyond self-perfection it also includes work for the universal good. According to the Indian tradition, knowledge is different from information, and wisdom is different from knowledge. We may say that information, knowledge, and wisdom constitute a hierarchy. To know a thing is to know it in a determinate way, as such-and-such as a substance possessing qualities, as a whole consisting of parts, as the cause or effect of something, and so on. Every object has two kinds of relations, internal and external. A lump of cl ay, for example, is internally related to its color, its parts of which it is made. It is also externally related to the ground on which it is placed, its immediate surroundings, and so on.No object remains isolated from other things on the contrary, it has a network of relations with other things in such a way that it is what it is because of other things. When the poet says that, to know a flower seen in a crannied wall, one must know the plant, root and all, and also the wall, its location, and so on, he draws our attention to the fact that every object is an integral part of the cosmic system and that, to get an insight into the nature of a thing, one must know the whole of which it is an integral part. Bits of information do not constitute knowledge. Piecemeal information about the roots, the trunk, and the branches of a tree cannot be viewed as the knowledge of a tree. Just as knowledge is different from information, even so wisdom is different from knowledge. Though knowledge is superior to information, it cannot be a substitute for wisdom. The Vedic tradition draws a distinction between two kinds of knowledge, higher (par) and lower (apar).

Expanding Target to China Essay

chinaware is, without a doubt, the fastest growing thrift in the domain today. Companies from al intimately the population have wanted to tap into chinawares market to cash in on the tremendous success that it continues to experience. thither had been many restrictions for exotic companies who tried to do business in mainland china, limiting the issue forth of foreign companies, and allowing wholly the big players to come into China. Even then, these big players from nigh the globe face up to a greater extent than than(prenominal) restrictions and rules once they ente wild China. But things have changed since China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 a new milest integrity for this terra firma, as headspring as for otherwise economies. Since then, restrictions for foreign investors and businesses to enter Chinas market had begun to ease up. By December 11th, 2004, China must remove remaining restrictions on the sell celestial sphere in order to comp ly with the WTO rules. This means it entrust be more easier for foreign sellers to enter the market, and for current foreign retailers in China to expand (1). Many retailers from all over the world exit seize this golden opportunity, and butt should do so too. mug, a Minnesota based subject field retail company, has come a long way from being Daytons department store back in 1961 to being one of the biggest players in join States retail market, as we k at one time it today. Over the last ten years, level has experienced a continuous incline in growth year afterward year. Sales reached over $48 billion this past year, a 10 percent increase from the year preceding (2). Just like its revenue, the number of stores crossways the get together States has been on the rise. Currently there are 1313 stain stores operating in 47 states, including 136 Super organise stores in 20 states (3). Not surprisingly, Target ranks number foursome in Triversitys Top vitamin C Retailers in t he United States behind Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Kroger (4). Globally, Target is ranked number 7 in the top 100 retailers worldwide (5).With this kind of statistics, Target has the potential and the resources to begin expanding into the international market, such as China. Comparing to Metro AG, a German retailer, which ranks a couple vagrant ahead of Target on the worldwide list, is not that much ahead of Target in terms of sales. And yet, Metro AG is one of the largest foreign retailers in China, along withWal-Mart and Carrefour (6). Not only should Target continue to expand domestically, but it should also start looking to expand in other markets around the world as salutary, such as China. This allow allow Target to last a multinational company and begin creating a global course credit for itself in the retail sector. Now of course Target bathnot dive right into the China Market and expect everything to just work out. Like any other company entering a foreign market, there are challenges and factors that Target must consider and evaluate before doing business in China.In this report, unlike reasons why Target should enter Chinas retail market and the benefits it forthers to the company depart be presented. Chinas sparing status, political status, and economic status, along with options of entry and other factors that exit affect Targets business, will be discussed.Chinas Economic lieuChina is soon the worlds most potential market for consumer goods. Its average annual GDP growth rate of nearly 10 percent for the last 10 years is the strongest among other major economies around the world (7). This is mainly due to the increase in manufacturing investment from foreign companies over the years because China is full moon of resources and cheap labor. Many products we see today are labeled Made in China since China has essentially developed into a manufacturing centre for the worlds consumer goods production (8). With a race of 1.3 billion people and having more consumers than Europe and the United States put together, it is obvious that China is by far one of the most attractive markets to invest in for foreign companies that are in the retail and consumer sector (8).When combining the strong, continuous growth of the economy with a population of this magnitude, the results are more money in consumers pockets, meaning more money to go by on goods. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the retail sales of consumer goods in China quadrupled with a span of 10 years (7). With this kind of statistics, it will be Targets best interest to pursuit an expansion into Chinas retail market. Chinas economy and consumer market will continue to grow. The more people there are in amarket, the more money will be spent. Everyone will always need food and daily accessories regardless of how much money they have, and those that have more money to spend will spend that extra money on other goods. So by linguistic context up operations there, T arget will have a chance to go along with the ride and reap the promising rewards that Chinas consumer market offers, which is what other foreign retailers are looking for.Chinas Political StatusOne of the major milestones for China, which made a global impact, is its accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001. This is the main reason why the forecast of Chinas growing economy remains strong. Since then, Chinas has begun to ease up restrictions on imports and exports, and also for foreign businesses entering Chinas market, most signifi orduretly the retail sector. By December 11, 2004, all restrictions on foreign retailing in China will be lifted, including restrictions on foreign ownership, number of branches, and geographic locations for where to set up stores (9).Currently, there are especial(a) foreign investments in Chinas retail sector. In 2000, the Retail and Wholesale sector only accounts for 2 percent of the total foreign direct investment in China (7). Today, this percentage is not much higher than it was in 2000. This is because prior to Chinas accession to the WTO, there were many restrictions and regulations for foreign companies entering China. Some of the main restrictions were the annual sales volume requirement, assets requirement, and the minimum registered capital requirement.Before, in order to enter Chinas retail sector, a foreign company must have annual sales volume of at least US $2 billion, assets of at least US $200 million, and minimum registered capital of at least RMB 50 million, or some US $6.1 million. Also, they were only allowed to enter the market with favour fit reception, and in a form of a joint chance with local partners with no more than 49 percent ownership (10). This limited Chinas retail market to only the big international players such as Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Metro AG, etc, who all have already established a presence in China. But after China starts to comply with WTO rules next month dramatic changes will conduce place in Chinas retail sector.Once all the restrictions for foreign retail companies are lifted by China, the number of foreign retailers entering China will increase sharply, both small and medium retailers. All a company will need is a good reputation and a minimum registered capital requirement of US $36,000. Other than a joint venture, a wholly foreign-owned enterprise will become an option (10). Also, the foreign players that are currently in the market will be able expand more rapidly under the new rules.This is another reason why Target should enter Chinas retail market, and soon. The percentage that the retail sector represents in the total direct foreign investment is still low, meaning there is a lot of room to grow. The kind of Target steps in, the more market upholding will be available for Target to gain. If Target delays its entry, other foreign retailers from all over the world will start to swarm in and the big players that are currently in the market wil l expand quickly therefore making it more difficult for Target to create a significant presence. If Target decides not to enter this goldmine, then an incredible opportunity will be missed.WFOE or interchangeable VentureThere are two options for Target to start business in China, establishing a wholly foreign-owned enterprise (WFOE) or a joint venture with a local Chinese company. There are advantages and disadvantages for both options, and it will be important to understand each.Joint ventures were the only way to enter China for any foreign company due to the restrictions set by China prior to joining the WTO. With joint ventures, foreign companies were able enter Chinas market easier. It really helps to have a local partner that is already known with the market and know the laws of doing business in China. Also, with a joint venture, it is much less capital intensive since the local partner will be contributing to the business. The downside of a joint venture is that it is diff icult to find the right partner, and it requires a lot time because a good birth must be formed before any negotiations take place. In China, a good relationship is the key to doing business. Some major causes of jointventure failures have been overestimation of the partners capabilities, differing expectations, and different management styles (11). These are some of the reasons that limit a foreign companys desire to expand.WFOE, an option that will be open to foreign retail companies doing or planning to do business in China after next month, would probably be the direction that most foreign retailers will choose. It should be Targets choice as well when entering China. But before a WFOE can be set up, an application must be submitted to MOFCOMs (Ministry of Commerce) provincial-level counterparts. The applications will then be forwarded to MOFOCOM for approval. The approval process takes about three to four months, but approval is only granted if the proposed business will help the knowledge of Chinas economy (12). Target will have no problem getting approved because it will help create more jobs in China, bring in more sophisticated technology to run its stores and operations, and increase manufacturing production in China since a good portion of the products that will be in Target stores will be made in China.The disadvantage of setting up a WFOE is that it is much more capital intensive. Foreign companies do not have anyone to share the investment costs with in the soil. China only allows money coming from outside of the country when foreign companies want to set up a WFOE (12). However, the advantages that WFOE offers overbalance the disadvantages. A WFOE can enjoy the exclusive management control and operational controls with less interference from the Chinese administration (13). A foreign company can bring in sophisticated technology without having to worry about losing its intellectual property or figure out how many shares the technology is wor th in a joint venture (14). Because of all this, a WFOE can expand into other areas more freely.Although WFOE would be a capital intensive option for Target, it will pay off in the long run. Having complete control over its management and operations, less governmental interference, and less limitations to expand will be honest for Target.Chinas Social StatusThere are some other things that it must take into account before Target jumps into Chinas retail market, one of which is the social landscape of China. Just like in the United States, knowing where the customers are and where to set up stores are important strategies.The more wealthy cities are concentrated in Chinas east and south-east coastal provinces. The top ten most easy provinces in China are Shanghai, Guangdong, Beijing, Zhejiang, Tianjin, Liaoning, Fujian, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Chongqing. These areas are obviously where foreign investors want to go because of higher per capita income and consumer spending in those ar eas. Consumer activities in some major inland cities are slowly on the rise, but are still fairly undeveloped compared to the east (7). But it may be a good idea to start drop in those areas and capture those markets while competition level is still low.Target should obviously start with investing in a couple of the more wanton areas, such as Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, or Zhejiang. These four provinces have the highest per capita income and household consumption, which means there are more money spent by consumers (8). Besides this, Target should start investing in the major inland cities that are beginning to develop, such as Wuhan, Chengdu, Changsha, and Sichuan. Almost half of Chinas population lives in the central and northwest provinces (7). Take advantage of the new rules that will lift restrictions on locations and the number of stores, and enjoy the benefit of being able to expand easier by being a wholly foreign-owned enterprise.The developing areas should be Targets con centration. It may be a little more risky, and sales may be lower at first, but it will be beneficial in the long run. The biggest competitors, both domestic and foreign, are mostly located in the prosperous areas (8). It will be more difficult to establish a solid foothold in Chinas retail market if Target starts off trying to compete with big foreign players such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour, or big domestic players such as Lianhua and Hualian, all of which are much more familiar with the market. So it will be a good idea for Target to tap into the less developed majorinland cities and create a niche market while competition is still very low in those areas. This can help them develop a presence in China, and become one of the major foreign players in Chinas retail market.U.S. Commercial assistAfter understand all the details described previously throughout the report, Target still needs some help entering Chinas retail market. Target is very triple-crown in the United States, but China is a totally different market. There are different consumers, different languages, and different laws. Target needs to find someone that is familiar with the languages (Chinese and English), the Chinese retail market, and all the rules that foreign business must comply with. It would be the best if Target has some managers that fit these criterions within the corporation because then those people can be assigned to assist in Targets plan to enter China. They will be familiar with Chinas market and rules, as well as Targets objectives and operations. But if there are no qualified candidates within Target, then this is where the U.S. Commercial Service comes in play to help.The U.S. Commercial Service offers customized solutions to help US companies enter and expand in the China Market. They have six offices in China Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Chengdu, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong. There are several services that a US company can purchase, one of which is the Gold Key Service (GK S). This service identifies and arranges appointments with the people that the company will need to meet in order to break into the China market successfully. The U.S. Commercial Service will tailor the service to the companys needs. They can assess the competition, and/or find lawyers, consultants, government officials, agents and distributors, etc (15).This is a great service that Target should use if they do not have people to use internally. passing into a foreign market, especially China, without being knowledgeable in the countrys laws and regulations, competition, consumers, and business environment is very risky. Any company that does this is essentially setting up for failure in the new market. This is why Targetneeds to find experts that know how to do business in China. By being able to access competition, access the business environment, and working with a consultant or lawyer that knows the business laws in China will definitely help Target develop a safe and successfu l entry into Chinas retail market. To order the Gold Key Service from the U.S. Commercial Service, all Target have to do is contact the nearest U.S. Commercial Service assistance center, call 1-800-USA-Trade, or email their FCS Beijing Office at Export.Chinamail.doc.gov (15).Other FactorsIn the Chinese culture, the colors red and gold are favorable colors. They represent happiness, good luck, and good fortune. During zippy holidays, such as Chinese New Year, red is seen every where. All businesses, as well as households, would put up red lanterns and decorations. This may be beneficial to Target since red is Targets color. By having red in the stores in China, it may attract more consumers because people may associate the Target stores with the same meanings that they associate with the colors, especially during festive holidays.Aside from culture, Target should look into other things, such as education in China. Education is very important to Chinas future development if it is to be sustainable, but it is not an easy task. The government has been focusing on the countrys economic development, and has neglected to improve the education system and health. However, the governments new goal is to raise education spending to about 4 percent of GPD, with help from the private sector (8).In the United States, Target currently have a Community Giving Program where Target gives back over $2 million a week to neighborhoods, programs, and schools across the country (16). If Target sets up a similar program in China, it may help build its reputation in the China market. By helping the conjunction receive better education, improving living conditions, and improving living standards will help Target gain favoritism from both consumers and the government, which can only help Targets goal for successin the market.ConclusionChina offers a golden opportunity for foreign retailers, such as Target. Target should take advantage of Chinas accession to the WTO and seize the oppor tunity by entering Chinas retail market. There are many factors that Target must review and consider before entering China. Main factors like Chinas economic status, political status, and social status. As well as evaluating options of entry (WFOE vs. JV), understanding the culture, assessing both foreign and domestic competitions, and become knowledgeable in business rules and regulations in the country. Target will be very successful in establishing a foothold in Chinas retail market and become a major foreign retailer in the country as long as all aspects are carefully reviewed, planned, and understood. Targets presence and success has been well established in the United States, and now it is time to expand to the next big thing China.End Notes(1) http//www.chinabusinessreview.com/public/0401/01.html(2) http//quicktake.morningstar.com/Stock/Income10.asp?Country=USA&Symbol=TGT&stocktab=finance(3) http//www.targetcorp.com/targetcorp_group/investor-relations/investor-relations.jhtm l(4) http//www.stores.org/pdf/04TOP100chart2.pdf(5) http//retailindustry.about.com/library/bl/03q2/bl_rf100603.htm(6) http//www.bjreview.com.cn/200414/Business-200414(C).htm(7) http//www.pwchk.com/home/webmedia/1024303622085/RetailMarket_China.pdf(8) http//www.pwcglobal.com/gx/eng/about/ind/retail/wef%20jan04_external.pdf3(9) http//en-1.ce.cn/subject/RetailinginChina/Regulation&Policy/200409/29/t20040929_1882374.shtml(10) http//www.osec.ch/0xc1878d1b_0x0001b994/Investments/foreign_investment_restrictions_in_trade_and_retail_lifted/en/china_fipdf(11) http//www.sinomedia.net/eurobiz/v200404/story0404.html(12) http//www.isinolaw.com/jsp/fie/fie/FIE_wfoe1.jsp?LangID=0(13) http//english.sohu.com/2004/07/04/81/article220848132.shtml(14) http//www.businessweek.com/adsections/country/asia/(15) http//www.buyusa.gov/china/en/gks.html(16) http//target.com/target_group/community_giving/index.jhtml