Alcoholism and Theme Jake Doesn

The Sun Also Rises Quote Literary Element Commentary can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to ) conflict Jake is trying to explain that you can't find happiness by moving to another place. You have to find happiness within yourself wherever you may be in life. â€Å"l mistrust all frank and simple people, especially when their stories hold together† (12) theme Jake doesn't trust the ones who are upfront and real because he is so used to seeing everyone who is fake. â€Å"This is a good place,† he said. There's a lot of liquor,† I agreed. † (19) characterization From having a hard life, Jake has seem to fallen on alcohol to heal the wounds throughout his life. He is always drinking and being drunk during the story. â€Å"No, I don't like Paris. It's expensive and dirty. † (26) setting Here George explains to Frances how she doesn't like Paris for it is too expensive. Since this book Is placed In the sass's. Everywhere at this time was e xpensive because of WWW â€Å"l was a little drunk.Not drunk in any positive sense but Just enough to be careless. † (29) theme Jake refers to being drunk and he mentions It can be positive. The characters In this kook drink like it essential to living and that it is a great thing. â€Å"He looked a great deal as his compatriot must have looked when he saw the promised land†¦. He had that look of eager. Deserving expectation. † (29) characterization Cohn was looking at Brett because he thought she was absolutely stunning and he had hopes of being with her. â€Å"Couldn't we live together, Brett?Could we Just live together? † â€Å"l don't think so. I'd just trooper you with everybody. † (62) conflict Jake and Brett want to be together but Brett can't live with Sake's disability and she says that she would always cheat on Jake if they did live together. Never fall in love? † â€Å"Always,† said the count. â€Å"l am always In love. † (67) The count says he is always in love, this points out the fact that he is a hopeless romantic and it could also mean he Is not happy with himself so he seeks love to compensate. Friends,† said Mike. â€Å"l had a lot of friends. False friends. Then I had creditors, too. Probably had more creditors than anybody in England. † (141 ) theme Mike has lost all his money from having fake friends. HIS friends were only his friends because of his fortune and wealth. â€Å"Don't you know you're not wanted? † (146) Mike says this to Jake and It shows that Mike Is someone who has no filter on what they say. Whatever he thinks, he says. Under the wine I lost the disgusted feeling and was happy.It seemed they were all such nice people. (150) theme lake uses alcohol to mask his telling an like he wants to believe they are. That his trends aren't nice † ‘Oh, Jake,' Brett said, ‘we could have had such a damned good time together. ‘ ‘Yes,' I sa id. ‘Isn't it pretty to think so? ‘ † (251) conflict Brett and Jake wish that the could be together but they know they can't. If it wasn't for lake's impotence, then they could have a great life together.

College sports gambling Essay

With all of the controversy of gambling in college sports, why is the issue still an issue? The answer is money. There were actions taken towards this by Congress, but the problem is that it was never completely abolished. Congress had made the mistake of creating a way around it. It is now commonly referred to as â€Å"the Las Vegas loophole. † They outlawed the betting nationwide with the exception of one state, one state that is the capital of gambling, Nevada. This has caused few changes, with the exception of the ever-growing revenue that it generates. Another reason the legality still remains is one not frequently mentioned, but the question of the ban being constitutional. But no matter what the law, is there realistically ever going to be silence or content? To trace the tracks to the start of mending this problem, we need to go back to 1992. This is the year that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act took precedence. This law restricts gambling on amateur sports in 46 states and essentially leaves Nevada as the only state that can take bets on those games. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) and Rep. Lindsay Graham (R-S. C. ) are striving to get two separate bills passed, both of which are targeted at prohibiting gambling on amateur sports. The bills were introduced a year ago, and at the time, were heavily favored. The bills would legally put a stop to betting on NCAA games, the oh-so-notorious March Madness (the NCAA Tournament), and wagering on all college sports for that matter. Las Vegas casino lobbyist have turned offensive. Who wouldn’t, if there were possibilities of losing a $700 million cash cow, with approximately $70 million on March Madness? The money that is generated from sports betting both legal and not, is much too vast to be eradicated. Nevada is the tree trunk for which sports gambling is derived. The casinos are complete with giant electronic boards that offer information on daily events ranging from odds to player injuries. This is the basis of most sports wagering. Nevada generates $2. 3 billion a year on legal sports betting , where as, betting on college sports revenue in Nevada accounts for $650 million of the amount. This is far from the issue though. If betting on college sports in Nevada is made illegal, I find the impact to be very small considering that illegal sports gambling has been estimated at $80 billion to $380 billion a year. At the least, 40 times the legal revenue generated seems very minute. In addition, studies have shown that for every dollar bet on sports in Vegas, $100 is bet with bookies and on the Internet. Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-Nev. ), says that there is nothing backing up that legal gambling in Nevada is â€Å"in any way responsible for the illegal sports wagering that plagues our nation’s college campuses. † Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.), said that no problems would be solved by eliminating legal bets any more than â€Å"suggesting that outlawing aspirin would stop the sale of illegal drugs. † A poll done by Gallop from March 18-20 (between the first two weekends of this year’s NCAA tournament) found that Americans were divided on issue. The poll stated that 49% believe that college sports gambling should be illegal and 47% believe that it should not. Strikingly, college basketball fans are stuck on 48% on both stand-points. The possibility of abolishing gambling on college sports is not very likely nor does it hold much hope of bettering the problem. If the betting was banned, there’s no possibility of it just disappearing. The figures and dollar amounts of illegal gambling are much too high now, and it is still legal. What happens when Congress puts this law into effect and everyone ignores it? It surely does not say much about our society and its morals. Howard Shaffer, director of the Division on Addictions at Harvard Medical School, said â€Å"If we pass legislation that we cannot enforce, it will undermine authority in general and young people don’t need any more laws that nobody respects. † Shaffer added, â€Å"If it’s unenforceable, they will come to see other legislation as unenforceable and then we’ll have problems where we don’t necessarily have them today. People of all kinds are in agreeance that the impact of this law would hardly be worth the effort. John Shelk, vice president of the American Gaming Association, also stated â€Å"It’s not like Congress is going to pass a law that bans legal gambling, and students across the country will say, ? Oh my God, I can’t gamble anymore because it’s illegal. ‘† Sen. McCain, co-author of last year’s Senate bill, had countered his opinion to ESPN.com by saying, â€Å"I don’t think we have to choose between enforcing existing laws on illegal gambling and closing the loophole on legal gambling. † McCain added, â€Å"we can do both. † McCain and others claim that eliminating legalized gambling in Nevada would be â€Å"an essential first step† on stopping the college sports gambling. Critics disagree. They believe that the attempt to chip away at illegal sports gambling â€Å"isn’t a logical first step,† at all. The fact of the college sports gambling, is that there is too much publicity, popularity, and money surrounding this particular gambling sport. In the beginning there was a problem with popularity. From 1951-1974, there was a 10% excise tax levied by the Federal Government on the amount of sports wagers. The tax made the business unprofitable since the profit margin was generally 5% or less before the tax. In 1974, Congress was persuaded by the Nevada congressional delegation. From this persuasion, Congress ended up cutting the tax from 10% to 2%. From there, the boom took off. It took a little time but the pay off was great. Wagers on professional and college sports were totaling $1. 3 billion by 1988. After the new wave had taken off, professional sports teams and the NCAA became concerned. One outspoken supporter was Bill Bradley, a former basketball star and Democratic Senator from New Jersey. Bradley expressed, â€Å"state-sponsored sports betting could change forever the relationship between the players and the game, and the game and the fans. Sports would become the gamblers’ game and not the fans’ game, and athletes would become roulette chips,† he pleaded in 1992. Bradley and others apparently made quite an impact because Congress enacted the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which was noted earlier as the â€Å"Nevada loop hole. † Again, the conflict elevated from there on out. Realistically though, as much as the NCAA wants this legalization stopped, there is an issue that’s never discussed, but could legally keep the association from doing anything. It is another loophole that Nevada has found, and is a little more concrete. It is the 10th amendment, which delegates powers to the states not to the federal government. This means that if the bill becomes a law, the state of Nevada will definitely have grounds to contest it. The popularity of college sports gambling has continued to grow over the years. When the NCAA tournament begins to roll around each year, Nevada gets hard at work. March Madness, is virtually a madness. It’s a craze that is so very wide-spread, it would literally be impossible to get rid of it. Brackets and spreads are created, and almost anybody with vision can say that they have seen the NCAA tournament bracket. It is so popular now that some media devote entire sections of newspapers to the event. It’s inevitable that readers are able to find the bracket listed, and usually bold and in full color. You can even find the bracket displayed at bars, restaurants, and even work places. More popular is the office pool that seems to have grown so much that women and even non-sports fans find them selves anteing in at a shot on the pool. If this legislation is to pass, how are things like the office pools going to be regulated? Can any one realistically imagine the day that cops and or Federal agents busting bars and business environments for illegal gambling all over the country? The idea of the regulation is ridiculous. In addition to the casual gambling in offices and such, what about the vast expansion of gambling and sources of it on the Internet? The Internet is full of sites devoted to college sports and gambling of it. As far as the NCAA goes, it has what most would consider a hypocritical view on the situation. The NCAA claims to be firmly against the legal betting, but when it comes to the Tournament and other advertised events, one might think differently about the beliefs. In congressional testimony the NCAA says it â€Å"opposes all forms of illegal sports wagering. † Well, if anyone has heard of a little network called CBS, they might be able to recall a small tournament, in correlation with the network, called the NCAA Tournament. These two were in conjunction for this years tournament, but somehow the NCAA had no problem with CBS repeatedly pointing viewers to CBS. Sportsline. com, all throughout the broadcast. Additionally, CBS. Sportsline. com owns Las Vegas Sports Consultants. Some authorities estimate that over 80% of Las Vegas sports books subscribe to â€Å"the line,† set by this firm. During the tournament, this web site offered a free â€Å"Bracket Pool Manager,† in addition to odds, points, spreads, over/unders, and so on. You can’t gamble through the site, but what other purpose does a Bracket Pool Manager and other such emminities serve besides gambling. When you link all of these things together, it just doesn’t make any sense. There has to be an approval by the NCAA for all of this to have taken place, therefore, it is indeed to some extent, condoning this action that it claims to be so against. So what do you think that the NCAA can do or say? Would it be feasible for them to say â€Å"no, you can’t say that or broadcast our tournament anymore†? NO! CBS accounts for 90%†¦ yes, 90% of the NCAA operating revenue. I seriously doubt that the NCAA is so consumed with its beliefs, that it will just discard the whole money issue that goes along with it. The National Association of Basketball Coaches, Official Athletic Site believes that the NCAA has many problems that it needs to address and correct before jumping the gun to Congress. Marc Isenberg’s article on the site stated that, â€Å"The NCAA cannot even begin to educate athletes and other students-or even congress-until it does the following: 1. ) demand that CBS cut its ties with CBS. Sportsline.com and Las Vegas Sports Consultants, which are a major part of the infrastructure of gambling on college sports 2. ) prohibit corporate partners from using bracket promotions or contests connected to the outcome of games 3. ) refuse to credential media outlets who publish lines and accept ads from tout services 4. ) fund a gambling education program on college campuses that addresses the problem of gambling, not just shaving. Can the NCAA tear itself away from its ? Show me the money’ outlook to conduct such a campaign? † The answer is â€Å"No. † The truth remains, that nobody especially not the NCAA wants to go back to the unpopular, no money-making ways of the past. There is an undeniable problem with betting in college sports, mainly when it comes to students. This is the NCAA’s major concern, but namely, point shaving. In general, point shaving is done by players that intentionally miss shots to change the outcome of the game. The NCAA has a very justifiable reason for the abolishment in terms of this actual concern. Over the past view years, there have been many cases in which athletes got involved in the negative aspects of gambling. This would often times result in owing bookies so much that they would get sucked into the point shaving problem. One student made his mark when he got involved with his roommate, who was also a popular bookie that was being investigated by officials. The student was Teddy Dupay, a basketball player for the University of Florida Gators. Dupay had shared winnings with his friend Kresten Lagerman, 23, after giving him inside information about whether the Gators could cover point spreads. Florida had also endured a 2000-2001 season filled with injuries. There were also many instances of injured players returning much sooner than expected. Following this discovery, Dupay was dismissed from the team. Another student, a running back at the Northwestern University had become the school’s rushing leader. He had become involved in gambling so in-depth that he fumbled the football at the goal line to ensure his $400 wager on the point spread of his own game. These are the instances that are worthy of the abolishing desire. Still, the fact remains that these examples and 99% of sports gambling is done illegally or under the table. The truth of the matter is that, this is another back-and-forth issue (like abortion) that will never have silence nor contentment. There are serious problems with players and the ethics of the game, but no matter what, a ban on sports gambling will never solve one-single problem. The fact remains that 99% of all sports gambling is done illegally. Since it is currently legal, is there any truth to solving the problem by abolishing it? College sports gambling is truly not the real issue. There are too many other factors at play. When it comes to the players getting involved, I believe that they are able to make their own decisions. If they have difficulty doing that, there must be somewhat of a different issue- Ethics. Apparently, the NCAA should concentrate more on its players than Nevada. With the problem of these players, it doesn’t leave much meaning to the idea â€Å"may the best man win. † Bibliography Barlett, Donald L. and James B. Steele, â€Å"Throwing the Game,† Time, (September 25, 2000) Gillespie, Mark, â€Å"Americans Split on Whether Gambling on College Sports Should Be Banned,† The Gallup Organization, (April 1, 2002) Isenberg, Marc, â€Å"Gambling on College Sports: The NCAA’s Solution is Part of the Problem,† National Association of Basketball Coaches, Official Athletic Cite, (April 25, 2002) Jansen, Bart, â€Å"Big name coaches support ban on amateur sports gambling,† The Detroit News, (April 25, 2002) Pells, Eddie, â€Å"Complaint: Dupay received money for sharing info,† Slam! Basketball, (September 14, 2001) Rovell, Darren, â€Å"Congree could trump Vegas on college book,† ESPN, (March 15, 2002) Sauve, Valerie, â€Å"Issues Committee holds discussion on illegal sports wagering in NCAA,† The Daily Beacon, (March 5, 2002).

Six Sigma DMAIC Process Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4750 words

Six Sigma DMAIC Process - Essay Example There is, in turn, an increasing support for the view that a Six Sigma team can do its work better in process and product improvement if the project uses the DMAIC approach. This paper aims to gain a better understanding of the DMAIC process by dissecting the corresponding tools that make it such a widely accepted instrument for a Six Sigma quality improvement plan. The Six Sigma process is about organizational change and the six elements referred to in the term, which serve as its change agents, are: leadership, champions, sponsors, master black belts, black belts and green belts (Pyzdek online). The reference to karate cannot be helped because the concept was developed by the Japanese who took over Motorola in the 1970s when competition was driving the US operations of the Japanese company to the edge of bankruptcy. One of the main reasons was that Motorola, which manufactured the Quasar TV sets in the US, could not keep up with foreign competitors who were able to produce high-quality products at lower costs. The Japanese themselves are credited with the earlier conceptualization of total quality management in their tenacious search for quality improvement in the 1950s. This was adopted in the US in the 1960s and in Europe in the 1980s. TQM attacks problems on product or service efficiency based on the premise that all activities in an organ ization contribute to quality or lack of it. However, total quality management has lately come into disuse because of perceptions that quality improvement is an exclusive function of the quality department such that it is confined to the assigned quality circles and a few industrial engineers. Thus, it is concentrated on enhancing the organizational processes with the use of statistical methods and on defect reductions, with less consideration given to improving the bottom line (Das online). The Six Sigma method has a more expanded an all-encompassing focus. At Motorola, the Japanese carried out the first Six Sigma project by finding ways to make production better, faster and cheaper, using the same workforce, the same technology and designs but a different management approach (Pyzdek online). As a result, Motorola was soon producing with less than 1 percent of the number of defects noted before in its products and services. Both the complete Six Sigma principle and the Lean Six Sigma version, when put to use with the participation and commitment of all departments, have proven effective in realizing significant savings in operational costs, speeding up the product life cycle and reducing non-value added activities (George, 2002). The complete Six Sigma process may be applied to cost-cutting and reducing variations while the Lean Six Sigma version may be applied only to 3 or 4 operational areas, such as the human resource, production and service

Aviation Project Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Aviation Project Management - Essay Example Most players in the aviation industry has taken to modern principles and practices in project management and have correctly applied these to contribute to the successes that they have chopped. In this essay therefore, a detailed discussion is done on how contemporary practices and principles behind project management can be used to better the lots of the aviation industry. To this end, key areas and concepts such as the development and implementation of projects, how different functions interact and impact on project outcomes in the aviation sector, factors that are likely to promote or inhibit the success of particular projects in the aviation industry as well as practical foundation for managing projects in a typical aviation company shall be looked at. The later parts of the paper shall be a generalized review of whether or not project management has been of help to the aviation industry in general. How modern project management principles and practices have helped to develop the aviation sector Project management is not just a terminology. Indeed, it is the embodiment of several principles and practices (Anderson, Johnson and Reckers, 2004). ... opment stage of every project is one of the most important stages because it serves as the foundation point for starting the project (Arkin and Baumgardner, 2006). As with a contextual building that is being put up, any major problems that are started up at the foundation level is likely to affect the entire strength and appearance of the building. Project managers in the aviation sector therefore put in a lot of effort at the development stage of all projects to ensure that they enjoy an excellent start up. To do this, two major processes are explored. First has to do with project definition. Project definition as the name implies is the stage of the development phase of the project where the project manager labels the project that is to be undertaken (Armstrong, Stokoe and Wilcox, 1995). The project definition stage therefore gives the project an identity, that becomes an eventual reference point to all stakeholders taking part in the project as to what they are aiming to achieve a t the end of the day. It is therefore common that for a typical aviation company, there will be activities such as client communication, project brief, quality standardization and feasibility studies all taking place at the project definition stage (Arnheim, 2009). One other important application that takes place at the development stage of the project management process is planning. The planning could best be said to be the skeleton of the entire project. Without this plan, the whole project will merely be an embodiment of emptiness. It is not for nothing that the excellence of most project managers in the aviation sector is judged by the quality of their planners. Commonly, it is expected that the planning of the project will involve several activities, that include but are not limited to

Rhetorical Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Rhetorical Analysis - Essay Example region who tend to reside in the uptown Maryland and the Republican lawyers of the same area, who resides in the suburban parts of Virginia. If a lawyer of Maryland is asked to shift their dwelling to Virginia, they would just give an amazed look as if something strange and impossible has been proposed to them. The same thing would take place when an Interior decorator of West Hollywood is asked to move to Orange County. Similarly a barista belonging to owners from Athens named â€Å"In Georgia† would not find them fit for serving coffee to the American citizens. The same complaint can be seen everywhere. In the modern era of information and technology, the late author James Chapin noted a remarkable similarity between the different places and the inhabitants and in this context he said â€Å"every place becomes more like itself†. In the earlier days people used to consider those places suitable for living which includes lots of factory or other means of earnings, while now the same people look for places to reside which consists of people belonging to their culture. The author finds that the general people love segmenting themselves. According to him, the people are, â€Å"finding places where we are comfortable and where we feel we can flourish†. In this context the contrast nature of the United States has been put under limelight which often exhibits distinction between the institutions and blocks but as a whole they introduce themselves as a diverse nation. Mr. Brook states that diversity is often understood as racial unity. Many social reformers tried to incorporate this idea in their approaches towards a society without racial discrimination and it proved to be successful in the initial years. However the census data of 2000 reveals that racially integrated neighborhoods were found to rise during the 90s but due to some unknown reason the African families who were staying earlier with their

Oscar Wilde Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Oscar Wilde - Essay Example His father was a surgeon and his mother was a renowned poet and writer herself(Merriman, 2008). Due to this upbringing, Wilde was educated at the prestigious Trinity College in Dublin and then went to England to study at the Magdalen College(Merriman, 2008). At this latter school, Wilde studied classic literature and poetry. One of Wilde’s major influences while at school was Walter Parker who had founded the Aesthetic Movement which Wilde soon became a part of (Merriman, 2008). The Aesthetic Movement is a lifestyle known as â€Å"arts for art’s sake†(Merriman, 2008). Perhaps it was this movement that was responsible for Wilde’s eccentric personality. Wilde was not only eccentric, but also very talented, which came to light around the same time. During this particular period, Wilde wrote several award winning poems and began a life in London, England and published his first book of poems in 1881(Merriman, 2008). In 1884, Wilde married and had two children (â€Å"Oscar Wilde Biography†). He spent several years traveling around the western hemisphere and lecturing. Once he became a bit more settled with his family, he became the editor of a magazine known as â€Å"Woman’s World†(â€Å"Oscar Wilde Biography†).

Globalization and Labor Issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Globalization and Labor Issues - Essay Example On the other end, the developing world has made considerable improvement in cutting its poverty rate by a half. According to the most recent statistics, 21% of individuals living in the developing nations lived below or at $1.25 per day. That is down from 43% in 1990 and 52% in the year 1981. This is an indication that 1.22 billion individuals lived on less than $1.25 each day in 2010, in comparison to 1.91 billion in 1990, and approximately 1.94 billion people in 1981. However, there is a widening gap between the poor and the rich, and those who are capable of accessing opportunities. From the information, it is clear that the developing world is doing a considerable job in reducing its poverty line2. In regards to GDP, it does not mean that a nation with a good GDP have the best living standards. For instance, there are individuals living in poverty in the United States and other nations of the world including both the developed and developing nations. There is a huge deal of inconsistency among the areas of the world which concern with trends in unemployment. In addition, there is a general division between developing and developed regions. For instance, unemployment rates in the European Union region and Developed Economies remain above the historical levels (8.6% in 2012 compared to an average of 6.9% between 1998 and 2007). On the other hand, in developing nations, unemployment rates are below average compared to the decade before the crisis. The main reason for this divide is that the developing economies have considerably outdone developed economies in period of recovery in terms of their economic growth3. There is proof that stimulus packages implemented in the developing nations to mitigate the effects of the crisis were directed towards addressing weaknesses of the labor market. In contrast, the limited effectiveness of monetary and fiscal measures

System Analysis and design (case study) Case Study

System Analysis and design ( ) - Case Study Example However, in the recent years, a significant development was observed in the digital world with the introduction of new technologies, tools and approaches implemented by various business enterprises and organizations in order to make the work more effective. Conversely, technological implementations in the business enterprises have created various complex challenges in addition to the remarkable opportunities1. Besides assessing the past advancements in technology, the article also delivered certain forecasted information based on qualitative terms. For instance, the article argues that in the recent year, business enterprises will be able to implement technologies more effectively in their business activities, which will ultimately benefit the businesses as well as the consumers. It is also assumed in the article that the enterprises will be able to make efficient utilization of cloud computing system, software algorithms and robust API’s. Moreover, the article also demonstrates that Information Technology will be more effectively integrated into the enterprise that will help in establishing better coordination and integration throughout its operational network. However, the business enterprises of present generation are completely based on applications in order to perform various critical business processes. An application delivery chain is therefore used, which is a combination o f both hardware and software, in order to deliver these applications2. Furthermore, with an argumentative narration, the author has also stated the IT projects that used to take several months or years for completion now-a-days take only a few days or weeks to complete, which has been highly beneficial in reducing the wastage of time and resources. Moreover, the authors criticize that even though the integration of mobile applications in the business enterprises is becoming popular, they are not being

Disability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Disability - Essay Example The group was a family- a father, a mother, a three-year-old (an estimated age) girl they called Liza and an eight-year-old boy (another estimated age) they called Harvey. The father looked like he’s in his late thirties- quite handsome and tall. If he told me he was a lawyer, I would not be surprised because he had an aura of authority and intelligence. Harvey had blonde wavy hair. He looked like an active boy with the way he moved and talked. He ran immediately to the monkey bars. Liza stayed behind with her father, while her mother went nearby Harvey. The mother looked like in her late twenties, a beautiful brunette with kind eyes. She sat at a bench and started to read a thick book. Liza had her mother’s eyes and hair. There was something different with her that I could not understand yet. She seemed to be thinking about faraway images with that look in her eyes. Liza went to the swing, but she was not swinging it at first. When she did, she raised her hands to her ears, as if the swinging made her ears hurt. I could sense her anxiety from her scrunched-up face and tightly-closed eyes. She was making some screaming sounds I could not understand. I wanted to run and help her, but the father got to her first. Her father came to her and asked her what was wrong. She cried and pointed to her mother, and her father looked terribly confused. I was as clueless as Liza and her father. What does she mean when she makes these scratching sounds in her throat? I knew she was deaf because her father was yelling at her and she did not seem to be bothered by it. She has a listening aid too, though I doubt it helped her. She only looked anxious and angry as her father tried to communicate with her, asking her what she needs and what bothers her in a loud, upset tone. Her mother must have been engrossed in the book because it

Ethiopian Egyptian peasant Essay Example for Free

Ethiopian Egyptian peasant Essay I. Introduction In any civilization the peasants are always the backbone of the economy. They were the ones who produced the food needed for survival and commerce and lend labor to build great empires. By the sweat of their brow they toil and labor in the land unceasingly. The fruit of their labors not only sustain the economy but also enabled the ruling monarch or leaders to live, if not luxurious, then at least comfortable lives. However, in spite of the peasants’ backbreaking labors and the importance of their job in any civilized society, the royalty or appointed rulers did not reward their efforts accordingly but sadly down through the centuries subjected the peasants to so many abuses and neglect. This paper will specifically discuss the relationships existing between the rulers/ government to the Ethiopian and Egyptian peasants before the 1800’s. It can be seen that the relationship was more on dictatorship made possible through religious, physical and intellectual enslavement. Naturally, such a relationship subjected the peasants to poverty  Ã‚   and hardships. II. The Egyptians Peasants Like the rest of the ancient world, the Egyptian people lived an agricultural life. Such a life seemed so far removed from the common stories heard about Egypt; the glory of its treasures and pyramids. Egypt’s glorious past connotes an image of ancient Egyptians living more advanced, luxurious lives, as if all they do was to gather treasures   and eat in abundance; well, in some sense they are true, but only for their rulers, noble families, and priests. The rest of the Egyptian population of long ago, especially before the 1800’s, were poor peasants who have to rely on the predictability of the Nile flooding to plant and harvest crops. The peasants (fellahin) however, were very much connected to the glories of Egypt for it was their â€Å"constant, persevering, unacknowledged, often despised, and always ill-rewarded toil as tiller of the land that made possible all the achievements of Egypt ensuring for it a leading position among the nations of preclassical antiquity.† Needless to say, it was the sweat of the fellahin that   produced the great pyramids, jewelry and treasures to Egypt, that   provided the luxurious living of their Pharaoh and ruling families and that made possible all of   Egypt’s military conquest, commercial expansion and influence and prestige abroad( Donadoni 1). III. Relationship of the Fellahin to their Pharaoh / government The relationship of the Fellahin to the Pharaoh/ government was more of a dictatorship; a religious, physical and intellectual enslavement that was carried on for almost three historic centuries. Like other early civilizations, Egypt had their own specific class system. At the top of the class stood Pharaoh and his royal family, then directly next to him were the priests and priestess, and then below them were the nobles who fought Pharaoh’s war. A small percentage of merchants, artisans and scribes made up the next rank. Then occupying the bottom of the ladder is the majority of the population, the fellahin. In ancient Egypt, Pharaoh was regarded as both a god and leader. Belief in the Pharaoh’s divinity and immortality developed during the reign of Menes around 3100 B.C. who by then establishes the first dynasty of rulers. Since then providing for their Pharaoh’s present and afterlife increasingly became the business of his subjects. This belief had become a tool to religiously enslave the fellahin, who paid their taxes without much complaint and  Ã‚   were then always called upon to build tombs and pyramids for the next life of their Pharaoh. The fellahin of the past thought it rather unseemly to disobey their Pharaoh in view of his divinity (Perry 46). It is very amusing to note that the Egyptians correlate the Pharaoh’s divine power to the flooding of the Nile River. They believed that the Pharaoh had the power to control the flooding of the Nile, that it was him who was responsible for the regular floods that would water Egypt’s land and make it possible to have a prosperous agriculture. A prosperous agriculture increases the Pharaoh’s popularity among the fellahin for it  Ã‚   means that they have food to eat. No one then dares to anger their â€Å"divine† Pharaoh for it would mean famine (Butler 2007). Then to ensure that their Pharaoh will have a comfortable journey in the afterlife the fellahin built enormous tombs and pyramids for him (Perry 47). Some historians argued that the building of these enormous monuments was done through unpaid labor; others believed that they were paid in doing this task. Whichever is the case, it could not be denied that the Egyptian peasants were expected to perform the job during the time when Egypt’s land was flooded and the labor was exacted through a religious persuasion. In view of most ancient civilizations, leading the people to believe that their rulers were of divine origin was an effective way to make them obey their ruler’s rules, whether it was justifiable or not. It was a form of religious enslavement, taking advantage over the subjects fear or reverence of a Divine Being. After a religious enslavement, it would then be fairly easy to enslave the fellahin physically. For three historic centuries, the fellahin sustained the economy of Egypt. Practically from birth to death, they spend their whole lifetime in tilling the land irregardless of who the owners were (more often than not there was always a change in land ownership in certain periods of their life span). In theory, the Pharaoh owned all the land in Egypt but in practice he allowed them to be looked after by temple priests and landlords. Nevertheless, taxes were compulsory. The fellahin were assigned a plot of land from which to grow barley and wheat. Before harvest the season tax assessors would dutifully inspect the ripening crops. They would routinely measure the fields every year, comparing yields for each time interval. They would then calculate the area under cultivation, test the samples of the grain and based from the issue of the receipts of the seeds being utilized judge the quality of the crop, whether it yielded as was expected. The tax collector would then proceed to make an estimation of the outcome of the harvest and then imposed a 20% tax. With them using such technique, it would be impossible for the fellahin to fool them. And at the same time it provided an added pressure for the part of fellahin to attain such an expected calculated yield. When harvest time came, the winnowed grain was measured into baskets or sacks, and the scribes then enters the picture, ever ready and eager to count and record the quantity of the baskets or sack before they were stored in the granaries. Afterwards, the scribes and granary officials’ mathematical mind began to work by â€Å"calculating the capacity of a granary and hence the value of the grain stored within it, and the comparative values of bread and beer based on the cost of their ingredients†. Those who were unable to pay or were delayed in their payments were subjected to capital punishment. Such ancient information was gleaned by historians through the paintings on the walls of the tombs of the kings. Farmers were seen being beaten because of their failures to comply in taxation (Parson 1995). Another example of fellahin physical enslavement was attained through the corvee. While waiting for the harvest, the peasant men were expected to do the corvee. A corvee is â€Å"a system of forced, unpaid state service, exacted from the peasants for specific tasks such as construction and maintenance of roads, irrigation canals, dikes and sluices, the erection of large buildings, temples, pyramids, army duty, and mining or stone working in the quarries†( Parson 1995). Pyramid building was the most physically taxing of all for it involved the hard labor of excavating stone blocks, hauling stones to the site and setting them, masonry work, painting and sculpting (Perry 47). It is pretty obvious that the reason why it was easy for the rulers to religiously and physically enslave the fellahin was because of their illiteracy. In most, if not all civilizations, illiteracy was the greatest tool of the powerful rulers for intellectual enslavement for they were able to hide reality and truth from their subjects. The proof of the illiteracy of the fellahin can be observed by their inability to leave no written records of themselves; their thoughts, aspirations, cares and dreams. Knowledge about them were made possible only through the vivid portrayal of epigraphic sources such as paintings, reliefs and texts found in the walls of the tombs of their wealthy rulers or Pharaohs .Some passages that tell about their lives were written sometime in the Middle and New kingdoms in literary compositions of the scribes and also by classical authors such as Herodotus (Parson 2005). The teaching of reading and writing was exclusively reserved for the children of wealthy families who were expected to take on political responsibilities in adulthood. Most teaching was performed by scribes, whose work was hereditary (Perry 47). A prime example of intellectual enslavement can be illustrated by how the priest fooled the fellahin with their scientific knowledge. The priest knew that the year consisted of  Ã‚   365 and  ¼ days,   through it they can predict with accuracy the flooding of the Nile River. They hide this knowledge from the rest of the Egyptians, specifically the illiterate fellahin. They pretend to warn the fellahin of an impending flooding a few days before it actually occurred. The priest would then offer to perform certain rites (with payments of course!)   while the illiterate fellahin stood ready to temporarily remove their homes, equipment and cattle from the area that would be flooded. The priests must have a good laugh when the fellahin would admire them for their â€Å"divine powers†, of having the ability to know in advance the flooding of the Nile. The knowledge of the priest in science and the ignorance of the fellahin enabled the priests to exploit the illiterate peasants for three centuries (Perry 49). The plight of the ignorant fellahin was a good lesson to learn from through the eyes of history. Knowledge is indeed very important for it enabled the literate one to detect and avoid the pitfalls of  Ã‚   exploitation and abuses. III. Ethiopian peasants Like the rest of the ancient world, the economy of Ethiopia was based on subsistence agriculture, with an aristocracy that consumed the surplus. Due to number of causes (which is going to be discussed later) the peasants lacked incentives to either improved production or to store their excess harvest; as a result they lived from harvest to harvest. The Ethiopian peasants in pre-1800 were largely engaged in agricultural and pastoral jobs under a feudal landowner or nobility. The   poor plight of the peasants were being made   worse by the fact that their country was vulnerable to outside invasion, primarily because   Ethiopia is situated in the path of the Islamic and Christian conquest to Africa. Moreover, they had to contend with civil conflicts. As result, there life was not stable and development was virtually absent. Aside from arm conflicts, they were also faced to battle periodic droughts. Nevertheless, the peasants can be counted upon to support the state to battle any outside opposition even at the cost of their own lives. IV. Relationship of the Ethiopian Peasant to their Rulers / government Ethiopia’s long history of foreign and civil wars had established a tyrannical dictatorship relationship between the Ethiopian peasants and their rulers. Dictatorship was brought about by religious, physical and intellectual enslavement. Like most ancient civilization, the Ethiopian Empire emerged in the same way as the ancient empires throughout the world which was through feudalism or serfdom. In feudalism, landowners allowed peasants to work in their land and then exact tributes or taxes from them. The beginning of the Ethiopian feudalism was in 600 A.D upon the establishment of Aksumite Kingdom. The largest landowner of all was of course the imperial family, and then next to him were the high nobility, then down to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Extensive ownership of lands was also based on kinship or tribes (Lipsky 238). Peasants at times can claim lands but they were not recognized as its rightful owners. More often than not, the Emperor or rulers will confiscate these lands to be awarded to thousands of civil and military bureaucrats in gratitude to their loyalty and service (Marcus 3). Tributes and taxes were exacted by the wealthy landowners or nobility from the peasants on their estates. Payment of taxes was through in kind and in labor, as well as in gold and primitive money, such as cloth and salt. When the Emperor allowed the tribute or tax to be given to nobilities, the nobles in turn must pay the Emperor through provision of military aids. It was a known fact in the ancient world that an Ethiopian Emperor can gather a vast army out of the peasants (Pankhurst 179). In order to exercise a strong hold on the peasants the nobility burdened the peasants with debt that can only be repaid by forced labor. In this way, it can be literally said that the nobility controlled the lives of the peasants. Control can be described in such a way that the peasants cannot kill a cow (even though it is his own) unless he informs the landowner. Aside from that the nobles or landowners so ill-treat the peasants that the latter purposely did not maximize the production capabilities of the land. They only produce what was needed for survival. Still, the end losers were the peasants because thy continued to live in abject poverty while the landowners and nobles continued to live comfortable lives because of the never ending extraction of taxes and tributes (Pankhurst 230). The nobility retained also their strength by making it a duty for some men to enlist in his military service. This is especially crucial at times when the Emperor would seize his land to be given to another. In times of war, the taxes increased in order to support the needs for warfare. The taxes can be so high and unreasonable that they can be described as â€Å"taxing the peasants to death†. In other words, it is the peasants who had to bear the burden of the military activities. Ironically, in spite of their hard labors the Emperor or rulers had the guts to confiscate the land owned by the peasants in order to be given to thousands of civil and military bureaucrats.   This state of affairs continued for centuries, so that it was not surprising if thousands of peasants lost their land and subsistence. With the decline of the dynasty in the 1700’s, Years of the Princes sets in characterized by a very unstable political condition in Ethiopia. The nobility fought each other to claim the throne. At this time, in most countryside, most individuals could claim but not own land, and one’s holding depended on personal position, age influence, soil fertility, competing claims, and the political situation. If there was a smart noble who can could contrive a genealogy convincing enough to acquire land on the basis of descent, then the poor peasant would be in danger of losing his prized plots. In other words, there was no security for land tenure for the peasant. In view of the instability of the political system of Ethiopia at this time, even the nobles can lose their lands. The peasants were then plunged into much deeper poverty for neither peasant nor the nobles was willing therefore to invest or improve the land (Marcus 1986). Before 1800’s as Europe was on its way top building an empire through colonization, Ethiopia was forced to create modern army and transportation system to help deploy it. The costs associated with such improvements could only come from increased â€Å"tribute† from the peasants. Another dictatorship on Ethiopian peasants was achieved through religious enslavement. Religious wars between Moslems and Christians from 1300-1700 AD had placed the peasants in a very pathetic state, amidst a ruined country they were pushed back and forth across the land like pawns. The Ethiopians had always been proud of their ancestry of which they traced back to King Solomon, the King of Israel. They have always adapted a Christian religion some sixteen centuries ago, and this religion was safeguarded by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The clergy of this church had been careful to instill to the Ethiopians that they were the â€Å"chosen ones†. They have rallied the peasants to fight against any form of religious aggression, especially by the Islamic conquerors and even inspired them to subdue the Islamic neighboring countries. This could only mean of course that the peasants had to engage in military warfare. By their sweat and their blood they had to defend their religious causes. It is not hard for the Emperor or their rulers to enlist them to military service as they themselves were consumed of their supposed Messianic purposes. Because of ongoing external and internal conflicts, the peasants had come to place a high value on personal courage, independence, self-reliance and self-assertiveness; they were lead to believe that the man who possesses those virtues had a divine favor. It must be remembered however, that the peasant’s loyalties were based on personalities rather than in any form of political ideologies. They believed that at the highest political level all political authority â€Å"has religious sanction which endows the ruler with divine status. Government was only instrumental to back up their claim (Lipsky 323). The last tyrannical dictatorship was done through intellectual enslavement. Like Egypt, the inhabitants of Ethiopia comprise a group of illiterate individuals. For a pre-1800 Ethiopia, two reasons can be pointed out why this was so. First, there were many languages and dialects in existence in Ethiopia and for most of them they have no written alphabets. And aside from that the clergy and the nobility had tried to put them in the dark so they were not keen on educating the peasants lest they lose their religious and political hold on them (Lipsky 89). V.Conclusion The history of the Ethiopian and Egyptian peasants at the hands of their ancient rulers is a sad one. In spite of their loyalties and hard work, they were treated unfairly and taken advantage of. Instead of gratitude, the rulers opted to adopt a dictatorial attitude towards them. Dictatorship was effectively carried out through religious, physical and intellectual enslavement. In other words, because of their ignorance, the nobility tricked them into believing that they were divine and as a consequence it was only fitting for the mortal peasants to serve them by means of provision and labor.

Business case for Franchise of McDonalds

Business case for Franchise of McDonalds This business case is mainly designed for planning about the franchise of Mc Donald Company while this company has been franchise from 1955 and the franchise of this company brings the success in many times. Mc Donald considers franchise is one of the predominant ways of doing business. At present, the Mc Donalds franchise is one of the greatest food service retailers which have 30,000 restaurants placed in more than 100 countries. For purchasing Mc Donalds franchise I have to purchase existing restaurant of franchise. By purchasing this, I can save 15% of the cost because initially I have to come up with 25% costs for existing one where new one purchasing cost will be 40% that means the profit of 15% can be gained. Mc Donald never provides the financial support for franchise and fund must be gained from the non-borrowed personal source. And the statistical figure might be come up to about $3, 00,000. The key objectives of taking the plan of Mc Donald franchise to achieve profitability. Because the brand image of Mc Donald is already existed in market and it is more recognized. So, I can expand the market easily and profit can be achieved. Business opportunity: There is the opportunity to operate own individual or more than one store. For this reason, I choose the place for establish the franchise of Mc Donald i.e. in Ilford station. Near to this station, any branch of Mc Donald is not placed. Not only this, there is the potentiality of huge customers and highest profitability because the product or menu of Mc Donald are already recognized to the whole world. Benefits: For Mc Donald franchise, there is no need to think about new menu and the cooking employees are already extremely efficient and used with all tasks. In Mc Donald franchise, risk is reduced to set up my own business where division of labour and turnover intensity of fixed menu grants for appropriate economies of scale. Another benefit is that any new products are no need to develop and dont require to conduct any kinds of market analysis. And also no need to think about brand name or image. Costs: The franchise cost of Mc Donald might be  £3, 00,000 where I have to provide 25% of the worth which is considered as unencumbered finance and the rest 75% will be collected from the bank as a loan in order to favourable funding terms. Another cost is one-off franchise fee of  £30, 000 and franchiser training program fee is  £5, 000 which is returned after finishing the training program. Miscellaneous cost: rent which will be paid monthly on premises related to profitability and sales will 12%. A fee will be paid for use of the Mc Donald system-5% of sales. National marketing expenses contribution-4.5% of sales. Returns: in a year, a cash flow will be made where the cash inflow and outflow will about  £70, 000 to  £98,000 per year. But this statement will not certain because it will be made before debt repayment. The return can be more. The return on investment will currently about 10% which shows the profitability rate of this business. Implementation plan: Paid initial franchise fee: 26th March 2010 Franchiser training program: 27th March 2010 (start) Go down payment to Mc Donald: 28th March, 2010. Service providing will be started from 1st April, 2010. Task 2: 1.2 Literature review: The report is mainly done on the business plan of Mc Donald franchise. I take the business plan of franchise of Mc Donald, because of several reasons. Todays business world are very much competitive and its become tougher and tougher for successful in the business market. If a person want to start his business as an entrepreneur it may be impossible to become profitable in the business market. Because establishing the new business or enter the market as a new, it is quite impossible to set up his business or become successful. But if we take the plan of establishing the business as a franchiser then it will be easy to achieve profitability in our business. Because, in franchise business, a recognized brand is already existed and all thing are readymade in before. Just spend some money to buy it and start the business. Franchising can be defined as the exercise of using another companys brand image and their successful business model. Through this kind of business, we can avoid investment and liability over a chain. The key factors of adopting franchise the business are that we can get the business with a good track record of profitability and that business is easily imitated. Here, for making business plan, I adopt the Mc Donald franchise because I want to be my own boss in my business, can trade a well established and high quality of product, continuous support, benefits from national marketing carried out by Mc Donald and they receive excess to business forecast information. The best example of franchising is the brand franchising of Mc Donald. Mc Donald allows peoples to establish their own business as Mc Donald franchiser and grant the rights to set up their business. Under the Mc Donald franchise, the franchisee purchases the equipments, fittings and the permission to run the franchise for 20 years. All franchisees of Mc Donald use standardized branding, menus, design layouts and administrative systems of Mc Donald. The Mc Donald franchisees also use the same standards and operating methods or manufacturing and maintain the quality of products. Any company, when they bring new products or service in the market they have to consider about the customer demand and their choice. They have a huge number of options of spending their money and places to spend it. However, McDonalds places considerable importance on the improvement of their menu in order to customer need. For this reason a market survey are conducted for analysing the customer demand. Thus, customers demands change time to time. Therefore, Care is not only taken to impact negatively the sales of the option of one by recognizing the new option, which will cannibalise sales from the old one (trade off). McDonalds knows that items on its menu will vary in popularity. Action of marketing undertaken and the resources invested will be different depending on the stage a product as reached. For example, a new product launch will typically relate to television and other advertising support. In any time a company will have a products portfolio, where each in a different stage of its cycle. It is accepted that Big Mac are now in the stage of maturity where the options Mc Donald are increasing towards the popularity. Task 3: Information about market Mc Donald is recognized as the one of the best known brands around the whole world. Branding is the term which formulated an image of an organization, service or product. The image of the brand focuses on the customers view on the organization. Brand image is mainly used while an organization shows their loyalty towards their customer through their products or services. A brand can be recognized by marketing communication methods such as: promotion and advertising which is used for developing the designs, colours and images. Similarly, Mc Donald is popular by its most familiar logo- the Golden Arches. The brand image is a significant factor for franchising. Because without strong brand image, it is impossible to become successful in franchising business. Mc Donald faces competition from other forms of businesses in all its market. In addition, there are some factors such as: economic, legal and technological changes and social factors and many other ingredients may affect the success of Mc Donald. Mc Donald franchising marketing consists of identifying the needs and requirements of customers and tries to meet theses demand in a better way than its competitors and by this the company can get loyal customers. Mc Donald has some competitors which are Burger King, KFC, Subway, Star Bucks etc. But among them Burger King is the main competitor. And in my new Mc Donald franchising place, these entire competitors branch are existed. If we focus on Mc Donald and Burger King then we can see the first difference between these two is that the Big Mac and the Whopper. But both are concentrating on customer health and taste. Mc Donald creates the achievement place for children. From this sector, Mc Donald earns a get percentage of their profits. And it is seen that children are requested to their parents to take them to Mc Donald, while Burger King doesnt give any response to this. They are used to have a sad kids clubs with B-grade promotion, where Mc Donald shows promotional activities through the childrens hit such as: Mattel, Disney and Barbie. Another strategic difference between these two is adult advertising. Mc Donald mainly advertises their salads shows to pacify the mothers who bring their kids in the sign of Golden Arched restaurant where Burger King uses other promotional strategy that is the advertisement of Stacker Sandwich which is made with the layer of cheese and meats which is stacking up to four burgers high. Sub way provides 265 calories in its meal, while Mc Donald provides a gluttonous 1230 calories. Mc Donald promotes the healthy side of foods by providing salad and water; they are still promoting the Big Mac and Pounder, that doesnt really help the matter. On other hand, Subway promotes the fresh salad and 5 a day veg. Subway provides either sub with a cookie, crips and/ or drink. Where, Mc Donald provides small chips, medium chips, and large chips, drink and a salad which probably is not much healthier than the chips. Mc Donald which is treated as a fast food company also gets competition from Star Bucks. Though Mc Donald has the strong marketing growth in fast food business, but the intention of doing competition against Star Bucks carries some risk. It can shown from the research analysis that Mc Donald restaurant has the slow down services where the Star Bucks serves the customer speedy services. But on the other hand, because of slower marketing growth, Star Bucks stock has lost about half its value since last January. Chances of success: In case of Mc Donald franchising, I have to meet so many competitors like as: Burger king, Starbucks, Subway etc and may be there create tough competition in the fast food market. But as a Mc Donald franchisee, I can say that there is the possibility of huge success and can be got reasonable returns from this business because Mc Donald is already market recognized brands and it also famous for its healthy foods which bring child, young people in the Mc Donald store. Mc Donald franchise business is one that can be beneficial for both franchisor and franchisee. So, while the Mc Donald franchisor is benefited through the brand becoming more and more visible and gets franchise fees from the franchisee, the franchisee that is me, take advantage of working with recognized brand, on there chances of success will be more. Assignment 2: Task 1: Project resources: Mc Donald is mainly recognized for its delicious burgers and milk shakes. In annual, Mc Donald plan to continue expansion. It is considered as a more suitable place for franchising to own. For becoming successful in Mc Donald franchising, I have to take care about franchising business requirement that is its required resources such as: financial resources, human resources, business experience, ongoing fees, training, raw materials, considerations, growth, and equipment etc. These resources are described below: Financial resources: Mc Donald franchising headquarters fixed the financial franchise requirement which should be minimum $ 3, 00,000 of non- borrowed personal resources. It is also said that since the cost of each restaurant does vary, the fee of franchise would also different, but the 3, 00,000 is a standard requirement. Among this requirement, 25% is coming from the franchisee and 75% is coming from bank loan. Human resources: Mc Donald often wants to recruit high experienced people for joining its bandwagon. As a Mc Donald franchiser, I have huge business opportunities but for using these opportunities I need the high skilled and experienced people who are the efficient on managing or owning business units, low level workers who have the experience of serve the customer and also dealing with the customer. Store equipment: In case of Mc Donald franchising, franchisor has to be made a contract with Mc Donald for 20 years. And this contract indicates that building ownership consists the property used for example: equipments of kitchen, seats, decorator, fittings are all possessed by McDonalds and are carried on lease by the franchisee. So, there is no need to spend money on purchasing these equipments because these equipments are already provided by Mc Donald. Budgeting of Mc Donald Franchising Financial Requirements: Liquid assets: N/A Net worth: N/A Franchisee fee:  £ 30,000 Required owner capital: 75,000 (25%) Bank loan: 2, 25,000 (75%) Total investment: 3, 00, 000 Budgeting: Total investment: 3, 00,000 Franchise fee: 30,000 Training: 5,000 Rent: 72,000 Service fee: 30,000 Contribution to national Marketing spend 27,000 _________________________________________ Total cost:  £ 4, 64,000 Total sales per day: number of customer ÃÆ'- per day selling = 200ÃÆ'- 100 =  £20,000 Monthly sales=  £20,000ÃÆ'-30 =  £ 6, 00, 000 N.B: 5 of the 10 people average 50 sales a day, thats over 200 sales per day. If it converted into Pound it would be around  £20,000 in sales per day and  £ 6, 00,000. Here, rent is 12% of sales Service fee is 5% of sales Contribution to national marketing spend is 4.5% of sales. So, profit= total sales total cost =  £ 6, 00, 000- 4, 64, 000 =  £ 1, 36, 000 Task 2: Staff cost: Staff training and development: As a franchisee, I take the existing store of Mc Donald which is placed on Ill ford. So, there is need to train myself as a franchisee and for this purpose Mc Donald provides training to franchisee for being able to run the business efficiently. For becoming a franchisee, every franchisee has to complete a full time training program for which franchisee pays money to Mc Donald after completing the training program this money is refunded to franchisee. This program is lasting for nine months. It is very much important for a franchisee to start work with Mc Donald, wearing the staff uniform and learning all things from cooking and making food to serving customers and also learn cleaning. Training is held on regional training centre focuses on areas such as: leadership skill, team building, business management and handling customer enquiries. The franchisees will have to recruit, train and motivate their work force, so they must learn the skill of human resource management. At the end of the training program, they learn about stock control and ordering, profit and loss accounts and the legal side of hiring, and recruiting staff. As a result, no franchisee of Mc Donald would have to ask a member of his or her staff to do something that they couldnt do themselves. Knowing this can also be powerful motivator of the staff. Mc Donald is not only providing the training to it franchisee, it shows that the success and profitability of Mc Donald mostly connected to the success of the franchisee. An experienced and high skill full professional consultant team offers continuous support on all things from human resources to accounting and IT business controls. These field consultants may become valued partners of business and are a sounding board for ideas. In case of Mc Donald franchising, here for running business, I take the existing store of Mc Donald and in accordance to Mc Donald franchising business, in existing business there is no need to recruiting, selecting and hiring and train the employee. Because the old one store, there is already all staffs are recruited and trained. And these staffs are highly skill full for doing all types of restaurant jobs such as: customer service, cleaning and managing the store also. Because, Mc Donald, whenever recruit staff on its store they at first give 3 or 4 days training to new recruited person so that he will be able to do his work effectively and efficiently and he doesnt face any difficulty in sensitive work that is servicing the customer. Cost of staff training and development: I already mention that in case of old one store there is no need to recruit, hire, select and train the staff because on that store all things are available in readymade. Not only staff, equipment and store are also placed in right position. And there is the huge possibilities of achieving profit because the cost is only occurred from rent, service fee, franchisee training fee, contribution to national marketing spend. And franchisee training cost is: 5,000 and it is also refundable. Task 3: Sources of resources: Financial resources: An initial investment that is 40% of the total cost in case of a new restaurant and 25% for existing restaurant is needed to be paid to the company where rest of the money being paid in at least 7 years. In order to down payment, there also have to meet some specification. Mc Donald franchising financial resources are coming from non- borrowed and personal resources. It may be including of bonds, securities and debentures; cash in hand; real estate or business equity. In case of financing, Mc Donald doesnt provide any financial support though there is the possibility of getting the benefits of achieve loans at lower rates. In the time of franchise, Mc Donald has to be paid monthly rent and service fees. Source of financial resources: Obtaining finance for a new business is very difficult rather than obtaining funds for a franchising business. The key factors for easily getting funds for franchising business is previous track record of franchise business. Because brand and trademark is already established, therefore Mc Donald franchise is considered a lower risk investment. Franchise Bank Loan: A franchisee can get loan from commercial bank where this type of bank offer loan to franchise business with lower defaulter rate. In fact, most of the franchising industries expand by taking loan from commercial bank at an average rate of 10 to 12 percent per year. Mc Donald franchising is also expanding by taking loan. Here, as a Mc Donald franchisee I also take the loan from commercial bank. If a potential franchisor has enough capital and they think that they have the skill of operate the business successfully, franchisors will naturally assists with financing in any way that they can. Here, in franchising market, there is also seen that some of the franchisor provide loan application packages for helping the franchisee. A good number of franchisors offer financial help to the franchisee either by financing all or part of the franchisee themselves or by helping them in locating another lender. Other financial resources: I can also get financial help from limited partnership, taking loans from friends and family, and second mortgages on existing properties. In end, whatever means a franchisee motivates in financing their franchising, it is necessary to remember that they will need to pertain in making a detailed plan about a new business for showing to prospective lenders how the business will be run. Human resource: After considering about financial resources, I have to think about human resources that are about hiring, selecting and training employees. Without employees, a business operation cant run. Here, Mc Donald offer a limited scope for employee advancement to the level of management which may attract a few motivated persons, most of our work force will be young, inexperienced and just learning about job responsibility. High employee turnover must be expected as employees graduate from high school or college or move on to other work. Good management techniques can make a difference in keeping longer term persuade staff and present continuously. Assignment 3: Task 1: Implementation of the project: Before implanting my project that is Mc Donald franchising in Ill ford, there should be describe about leadership and motivation that is how Mc Donald leads and motivate employees to do their jobs. Leading and motivating employees on Mc Donald: Employees are considered as the most significant resources in Mc Donald. Basically, Mc Donald Company uses three different motivational techniques such as: financial encouragement, non- financial encouragement and social policy. These three factors are mainly described in Maslows hierarchy theory. According to this theory, all kinds of needs must fulfill one after another. The strategy and structure of Mc Donald Company represents that only the simultaneous fulfillment of employees needs will be enhanced an employees performance. In brief, for enhancing employees performance and companys productivity, Mc Donald uses effective motivational system. In order to present situation, Mc Donald administration staff use situational approach. On the basis of motivation theories, Mc Donalds administrators have used particular motivational techniques. Having using the procedure of assembly line in food preparation, Mc Donald has assures the standard of quality and high performance. Basically, ma nagers of different stores use different leadership management technique. But in Mc Donald store, every manager use their own management techniques, some managers are stiff and some are easy. And some use the both the hard and soft techniques of management. In fact, there is the mixture of lay back (laissez- faire) and autocratic styles leadership. Mc Donalds has achieved the status of one of the most recognizable franchises across the globe through a mixture of successful marketing, consistent service and product, and strong leadership. Mc Donald mainly uses the goal oriented and task-focused leadership styles that still exists in the corporation today. Project implementation: List of activities: Assess financial requirements. Meet the experience requirement as a franchisee. Fill up the franchise application form. Pay initial franchise fees and other fees. Make 20 years agreement with Mc Donald. Start the business. These activities are now shown on the critical path analysis: Task completion time Assess financial requirement 25.03.2010 Meet franchise experience requirement 28.03.2010 Fill up franchise application form 30.03.2010 Pay initial franchise fees 04.04.2010 Make 20 years agreement 10.04.2010 Start the business 15.04.2010 3 2 5 5 44 6 Task 2: Marketing strategy: Strategic groups: For becoming successful in Mc Donald franchising, there are some key factors which I have to consider. These key success factors are described below: Price: People can get the facility of food started from breakfast to meal in the price sector. Whenever any person feeds his family to Mc Donald, he first thinks about its cheap price with delicious and healthy items. In case Mc Donald franchising, it should be considered by a franchisor about its competitive price advantage. Quality: Mc Donald is one of the greatest food retailers that has reached new peaks at what can be achieved out of a global business market. The burger and French fries of Mc Donald are prepare to look, taste and smell very similar across the globe, despite all the variations in environmental differences. And in Mc Donald franchising, standardization of quality is also important. Location: Location is very important factor for set up the franchising the business. For selecting the location, any franchisor should have to consider its competitor, its marketing environment and consumer forms. For that reason, as a Mc Donald franchisee, I choose place of Ill ford, where the store of Mc Donald are already established and its marketing also going good. Opening hours: Generally, stores opening hour is very necessary for set up a business. But it depends on different stores and different place. Numbers of Mc Donald franchisee stores are 198 and these stores have different opening time and end time. In my Mc Donald stores, the opening time is 8 am. I think this opening time is better because it is the right time of taking the breakfast and on that more customers can come to the restaurant. In case of considering strategic group, Mc Donald is now in group 2 i.e. the main market food retailers- compete on price, offer better ranges and better customer services. Selected marketing strategy: There are several strategies such as: Strategy 1: all unnecessary attributes are removed, leading to lower costs Strategy 2: offer a range of products but change a lower price. Strategy 3: hybrid strategies; combination of differentiation and price based strategy. Strategy 4: the product must be differentiated in a significant way that buyers are prepared to pay extra. Among these strategies, I take the strategy 3 that is hybrid strategy. This strategy is already used in my Mc Donald store and this strategy includes: Successful use of price or differentiation strategy can lead to opportunities to develop other strategy. Superior cost advantage of Mc Donald, which generates profit that are invested in differentiation without destroying the cost advantage. Differentiation may lead to high sales volume, economies of scale, and lower cost. But in Mc Donald, differentiation leads to lower cost. Implementation of marketing strategy: Marketing strategy is basically planned by considering the basis of competition and the standard of quality. Different marketers such as: niche, leader and followers select and implement different strategies in different ways. As a market leader, Mc Donald may choose to consolidate their position in a number of ways to help them achieve competitive advantage. They may: Exploit their superior cost structure. Raise barriers through marketing expenditure, blocking access to distribution channels. Buy competitors and close down their capacity. Among these ways, Mc Donald use the first one that is exploit their superior cost structure. Marketing mix: Product; While providing the option of new menu item, the most necessary thing is to consider that the customer also have more option to choice their demanded product. Generally, they have a lots of options of their money spending and also spending place. However, McDonalds places considerable importance on developing a menu which customers want. Market research establishes exactly what this is. However, customers demands change time to time. The products which are now interesting, fashionable and attractive in present may be through away in future. Marketing continuously consider customers demand. For meeting these changes, McDonalds should bring new menu items and leave out old ones, and will continue to do so. Price Value of customers perception is an important factors of the price charged. What a product is worth customers draw the picture of product on their mind. A product is a physical item and it has psychological connotations for the customer. There are some difficulties of using products low price as a marketing tool is that the customer may feel that a low price is symptom of compromised quality. It is very much important when deciding on the price to be fully aware of the brand and its integrity Promotions It includes marketing communication such as advertising which is conducted on TV, radio, in cinema, online, using poster sites and in the press. Other promotional sectors are sales promotions, point of sale display, merchandising, direct mail, telemarketing, exhibitions, seminars, loyalty schemes, door drops, demonstrations, etc. Marketing communications skill is to develop a campaign which applies several of these methods in a way that provides the most effective results. Place: The most important element of the marketing mix i.e. price is not just about the physical location or distribution points for products. Price gives emphasis on the management of a range of processes involved in bringing products to the end consumer. Task 3: Monitoring controlling: Majority of the chain of franchising are controlling under both the outlet of company- owned and franchised. In previous, a manager was ran the business and in return he got the salary when the chain is the remainder of the profit. After the time change, franchisee keeps the profit after paying the applicable fees to the chain. Thus, when product is decentralized, then franchisee give incentives as a high amount which are very much significant for a large organization. As a franchisee, I have to monitor my franchise business because whether it is new or existing one business, every business should monitor by its owner, whether it is run properly or not, whether it gains profit or not, or whether it can satisfy the customer expectation or not. There also has the reason for monitoring the business. Such as: I have to see whether my business is going according to my plan or not also have to detect and react appropriately to deviations and changes to plans. As an owner of Mc Donald franchising, I have to monitor only its quality and its money. Because, other significant things such as: human resources, machines, materials, space, time, task etc. after monitoring these things, the output such as: progress, costs, job starts, completion, engineering or design changes and variance order also have to monitor. But in case of Mc Donald franchising, there is no need to monitoring the human resources or machines or materials these things. Because, in case of existing store franchising, there all ready all resources and material are ready. For my franchising business, I can visit the store from my head office on logically basis that means on the basis of specific reason. Monitoring technique: There are several techniques through which I can monitor and control the franchising business and these techniques are: Through meetings with clients, parties involved in project (contractor, supplier etc.) For schedule -update CPA, PERT charts, update Gantt chart. Using earned value analysis. Calculate critical ratios. Milestones. Tests and inspections.

Free Speech vs. Campus Security :: essays research papers

Free Speech vs. Campus Security As everyone in the world should know, the world isn’t clear-cut and simple to read. The world is not just black and white. There is no real absolute truth in anything because the issue of what is right and wrong can vary widely between one person and the next. This fact is what makes our world so dynamic; it is what enables us to grow and learn and change. However, because of this blur in what people perceive is right or wrong, or in what someone thinks is one thing and another person thinks is another, there comes conflict. This idea is poignantly illustrated with issues of free speech. Can one really define where one person’s right of free speech begins and ends? If one can, where is that point? And is that point the same for everyone, or does it change? Questions like there are being raised more and more since September eleventh, as can be seen by the case of â€Å"Free Speech vs. Campus Security† that is currently going on at the University of South Florida. In my opinion, Professor Al-Arian’s rights to free speech, as afforded to him by the first amendment to the constitution, would be infringed upon if the University would vote to let him go because of what he said.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Nothing has been decided as of yet, however, should the university decide to let Professor Al-Arian go, they would be violating his first amendment rights of free speech. The case goes something like this: Sami Al-Arian is a tenured associate professor of computer science at the University of South Florida (USF). On September 26, Al-Arian went on the Fox Network’s O’Reilly Factor where is it said that he appeared to be â€Å"sympathetic to the terrorist activity such as that which had devastated the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.† Following his appearance on the show, Al-Arian he received numerous threats on his life and of violence. In response to this, USF placed him on paid leave of absence sighting they could not guarantee his safety. Later on, the USF had a meeting called with the Board of Trustees. This is where the intention to fire Al-Arian was made by USF President Judy Genshaft. This action was made under the premise that Al-Ar ian’s continued presence â€Å"would lead to ‘disruption’ on campus that the university could not tolerate.† It seems to me that the university on not so much worried about his safety than they are worried about having a man with unpopular/un-American views on their campus.

More Than Meets The Eye Essays -- Literary Analysis, Shakespeare

Throughout history, individuals have notoriously been subject to higher powers.   This form of ownership of an individual exemplifies itself in slavery, indentured servitude, and even in the governmental systems that hold reign over the general population.   The ability of one person to rule over another arises from both moral and physical inequalities.   Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a prominent Genevan philosopher, attempts to uncover the origin of inequality.   In The Second Discourse, Rousseau systematically dissects the movement of humans away from their natural state and attempts to explain how inequality is derived.   Shakespeare’s The Tempest tells the tale of a usurped Duke, Prospero, who suffers a life of exile on a mystical island.   Overthrown by his own brother Antonio, Prospero seeks revenge.   In a series of carefully planned events, Prospero strands a group of European lords on his isle, one of whom is Antonio.  Ã‚   Using his knowledge of magic, Prosp ero succeeds at obtaining control over his kingdom of Milan.   On the surface, The Tempest appears unrelated to the work by Rousseau.   However, quite the contrary is true. The Tempest is inundated with many similar philosophical ideas discussed in The Second Discourse.   When comparing The Tempest and The Second Discourse, the themes of inequality versus equality, nature versus nurture, and savage man versus civilized man prevail.   As described in The Tempest, it is clear to identify that inequality exists amongst the island’s inhabitants. Shakespeare illustrates this inequality with reference to the character Prospero. After being dethroned as the Duke of Milan, Prospero and his daughter Miranda are exiled from the country and set to sea on a raft. With the aide of supplies and magic ... ...for food and shelter. Whether barbaric or civilized, the actions of both Caliban and Prospero combine in a most interesting manner.   Ã‚  Ã‚   The Tempest and The Second Discourse are inundated with the themes of inequality versus equality, nature versus nurture, and savage man versus civil man.   Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a prominent philosopher of his time and author of The Second Discourse, attempts to pinpoint the origin of inequality.   In doing so, he interestingly analyzes the differences between civilized man and natural man.   William Shakespeare, a prolific writer during the Elizabethan Era and author of The Tempest, draws attention to issues facing mankind.   While at first glance these two literary pieces appear to be unrelated, after analysis, they offer many similarities.   What is most central is that both pieces offer insight into authority, power, and equality. More Than Meets The Eye Essays -- Literary Analysis, Shakespeare Throughout history, individuals have notoriously been subject to higher powers.   This form of ownership of an individual exemplifies itself in slavery, indentured servitude, and even in the governmental systems that hold reign over the general population.   The ability of one person to rule over another arises from both moral and physical inequalities.   Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a prominent Genevan philosopher, attempts to uncover the origin of inequality.   In The Second Discourse, Rousseau systematically dissects the movement of humans away from their natural state and attempts to explain how inequality is derived.   Shakespeare’s The Tempest tells the tale of a usurped Duke, Prospero, who suffers a life of exile on a mystical island.   Overthrown by his own brother Antonio, Prospero seeks revenge.   In a series of carefully planned events, Prospero strands a group of European lords on his isle, one of whom is Antonio.  Ã‚   Using his knowledge of magic, Prosp ero succeeds at obtaining control over his kingdom of Milan.   On the surface, The Tempest appears unrelated to the work by Rousseau.   However, quite the contrary is true. The Tempest is inundated with many similar philosophical ideas discussed in The Second Discourse.   When comparing The Tempest and The Second Discourse, the themes of inequality versus equality, nature versus nurture, and savage man versus civilized man prevail.   As described in The Tempest, it is clear to identify that inequality exists amongst the island’s inhabitants. Shakespeare illustrates this inequality with reference to the character Prospero. After being dethroned as the Duke of Milan, Prospero and his daughter Miranda are exiled from the country and set to sea on a raft. With the aide of supplies and magic ... ...for food and shelter. Whether barbaric or civilized, the actions of both Caliban and Prospero combine in a most interesting manner.   Ã‚  Ã‚   The Tempest and The Second Discourse are inundated with the themes of inequality versus equality, nature versus nurture, and savage man versus civil man.   Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a prominent philosopher of his time and author of The Second Discourse, attempts to pinpoint the origin of inequality.   In doing so, he interestingly analyzes the differences between civilized man and natural man.   William Shakespeare, a prolific writer during the Elizabethan Era and author of The Tempest, draws attention to issues facing mankind.   While at first glance these two literary pieces appear to be unrelated, after analysis, they offer many similarities.   What is most central is that both pieces offer insight into authority, power, and equality.

Irony in Sophocles Oedipus the King Essays -- Oedipus Rex Essays

Irony in Sophocles' Oedipus In the play "Oedipus," irony is used frequently as and as eloquently by Sophocles to the reveal theme of seeking knowledge. Not knowing the King of Thebes, Oedipus, gives speeches on finding the murderer of the King of Laias and how wretched the poor soil will be when the truth is revealed. " Then once more I must bring what is dark to light†¦, whoever killed King Laios might- who knows?-might decide at any moment to kill me as well. By avenging the murder of the King, I protect myself, (Sophocles 1109). The speech shows how dedicated Oedipus in the pursuit of the murderer and not only the avenge of the King but to save himself. He will not be saving but adding down to his life. Oedipus doesn't realize he is in pursuit of himself. He continues his speech "Moreover: If anyone knows the murderer to be foreign, Let him not keep silent: he shall have his reward from him," ( 1112). With his own words he asks for the truth. But he can't handle the truth, for he has no idea what he is asking for or for whom he is searching for. He also states that he wants t...

History of Modern Philosophy Essay

1- How, and with what success, does Hume deal with the apparent anomaly of the missing shade of blue? In A Treatise of Human Nature, Hume attempt to rid 18th century moral philosophy of what he considered to be meaningless and vacuous concepts underlying our theory of knowledge – be it metaphysical arguments or hypotheses seemingly formulated from the mere imagination of many philosophers. Influenced by the emerging trend of empiricism and naturalistic science – like Newton and Locke, which Hume owed much of his basic principles from – Hume presented the Treatise as an attempt to introduce experimental methods of reasoning into the area of moral philosophy. In the first book of the Treatise, entitled Of the Understanding, Hume devoted the first part – Of the Origin of our Ideas – for explaining the basis of his philosophical system that appeals on the similar empiricist approach as that of Locke’s. However, curiously, Hume had cited an explicit counter-argument – the problem of missing shade of blue – that could invalidate his whole philosophical system that is based on this central principle. Even more puzzling is Hume’s complacency with this problem, and although he considers the problem as singular and exceptional, he fully admitted to this counter example and did not try to resolve it. Yet, this case merits a deeper investigation, and it is this essay’s attempt to see whether his apparent complacency with the missing shade of blue would have any effect on the strength of his philosophical system, and other attempts to render this problem irrelevant. The problem of the missing shade of blue by Hume is as follows: suppose a man who is well acquainted with colours for thirty years and has seen all the colours in the set of possible colour spectrum, except for one particular shade of blue. Then, he is presented with a full spectrum of the shades of blue, from the darkest shade to the darkest, all except the one particular shade in which he has not yet encountered. It is then conceivable that this man would be able to produce this single missing shade of blue. The problem of this lies in the basis of the empiricist doctrine at which Hume is following, namely, that all ideas must be preceded by experience, yet, in this example, it is demonstrated that it is possible for an idea to precede sensation experience, as the man is able to produce the idea of the missing shade of blue without having first encountered it through his senses. At this point, I would like to elaborate more on Hume’s theory of mind and the origin of ideas as that would clarify why this example is so damaging to Hume’s system. As stated before, Hume’s project can be put into a general label of empiricism, which is a belief that all knowledge comes from experience. Much of his line of argument resembles that of Locke’s, another prominent empiricist. Hume even borrowed Locke’s key terminology to a certain extent, with terms like ideas and impressions. Locke believes that ideas are whatever the mind perceives in itself, or is in the immediate object of perception, thought, or understanding, as when one perceives, thinks, or understands, the ideas are before the mind. This limits all ideas to be originated from experience (perception), and also shows the connection between thought and perception and their interchangeable nature. The ideas can be divided into ideas of sensation (touch, smell, sight, etc.) and ideas of reflection (fear, happiness, sadness, etc.), which can then be separated further into simple and complex ideas, where complex ideas are derived from simple ones. Hume follows this line of argument with some modifications. He claims he ‘restores’ the term ideas to its original sense by classifying the objects the mind is perceiving as perceptions, not directly as ideas as Locke have used, and from perceptions he then distinguished them into impressions and ideas, where they differ in degree, as impressions are more vivid and forceful before the mind, such when sees a colour, and the ideas are more faint, such when one thinks of a colour after having the impressions of it. Hume then makes the distinction of simple and complex ideas, and by introspection, Hume demonstrates that one can think of any simple ideas and then find corresponding simple impressions that are exact copies of each other, and one can do this with any conceivable simple ideas. Complex ideas are different in that they are composites of simple ideas. And with this experiment in introspection, Hume then postulates his first thesis, â€Å"†¦ That all our simple ideas in their first appearance are deriv’d from simple impressions, which are correspondent to them, and which they exactly represent.† We may call this the Copy Principle, as it simply states that every simple idea is a copy of a corresponding impression. One of the most important components of this thesis is the fact that it’s a genetic one in that it shows the origin of ideas as following from impressions – as impressions to be the cause of ideas. Again, this is proved by the constant conjunction of simple impressions preceding simple ideas, which one can do to every simple idea one may have. Another support Hume gives is that of a man born defective of certain perceptive organs, hence, missing certain impressions (e.g. sight or sound), one would not have any ideas of those corresponded with the impressions, for it is evident that deaf people also have great trouble speaking. The genetic component is important in that they validate the empiricism doctrine on the reliance of experience. Anyhow, now we can see how the problem seems to defeat the purpose of this thesis. Moreover, a counter example, from a logical standpoint, one counter example is sufficient to turn an argument invalid. So why did Hume not deal with this problem? We may try to take it as Hume claimed the problem to be – a singular case where it is not worth investing time on. Being a singular case, one may have to take the argument in closer inspection. Hume states explicitly that the man in question may have enjoyed the sights for thirty years and perfectly well acquainted with all the possible colours except one, and that may be the attempt by him to restrict this to some specific scenario. It is implicitly embedded in the counter example that the subject of this example must be well acquainted with all the colours, such that one can make up colours in one’s mind, much like how only musicians of a certain skill level can sight read music. Thus, it appeals to some amount of ‘experience’ such that one may be bound to experience, habits, or personal background. Yet, when given further consideration, this seems to be invalid as well, as these restrictions do not seem to hold. As far as experience go, a child who does not know what ‘turquoise’ mean does not necessarily have an idea of the colour ‘turquoise’. So this case is certainly not an exceptional case and Hume had not dealt with it satisfactorily. Yet, Humean scholars have tried to find solutions for this problem and some even disregard it as a problem altogether. Firstly, the first objection to this counter argument is that there is no way to test whether the person in question does in fact have an idea of the missing shade of blue before seeing the missing shade or not. There is a great difference between being able to spot a missing spot in a complete spectrum of blue, and being able to produce an idea of the shade of blue without first encountering the impression of it. If ones sees a constant change in shade from, let’s say blue-0 where it is darkest to blue-255 where it is the lightest shade, then if there is one shade of blue missing, it would be quite noticeable as the mind notices the jump in gradual and constant change, but it does not follow that one could create an idea of that missing shade. To test this is also impossible, as if one is to reproduce colour, it still does not follow that he produces the idea since he would only be mixing the existing colours to brighter shades, and thus, after finishing mixing the colour, one then has the idea of the colour following the impression. All other ways of testing is equally futile because they all involve exposing the subject to the missing impression one way or another. Alternatively, if we look at the thesis again, and instead of taking it as a genetic form of the argument that Hume meant it to be, and instead, modifies it slightly to a more analytical empiricism form. Hume’s thesis on the theory of mind, upon closer inspection, can be taken as a form of meaning empiricism, in the sense that ideas to him are the same as different thoughts, which are different kinds of concepts, which is linked to when one understands something in a linguistic sense one is linking the word with the meaning, or the concepts associated to the word. Hence, if we think of the initial genetic content of the thesis, that impressions strictly precedes ideas, we may relax it slightly in favour of the analogy to meaning empiricism and forget its genetic form and instead formulate the following thesis: that all simple ideas must have corresponding conceivable and encounterable impressions. By doing this, we are no longer faced with the problem of the missing shade, since it is perfectly possible that the subject would be able to encounter this particular shade. Lastly, from a personal view, I see the problem of the missing shade of blue as not a problem at all, but Hume’s mistake lies in classifying colours as simple ideas. It is true that the impressions of light blue might very well be different than dark blue, so to speak, but to use Hume’s method, it is possible to separate using our imagination the components ‘light’ and ‘dark’ from ‘blue’. Thus, it is the impression of ‘blueness’ which is a simple impression, combined with the impression of ‘light’ and ‘absent of light’ that combine to give this multitude of shades of colours. Take this example, suppose some neutral shade of blue, let’s number it blue 124, were put somewhere with light, you will be able to see blue 124. However, let’s say for some reason, the room becomes lighter, certainly, the shade of blue 124 would have changed to some lighter shade of perhaps blue 200. If we vary the light in the room from darkest to lightest, it is then possible to observe from the darkest to the lightest shade of blue likewise. One may argue that the colour can be calibrated to some objective criteria, perhaps the ratio of pigments of colour blue of some sort, yet, that does not matter since all that matters to Hume is indeed only impression. Furthermore, using this example, we can also say that perhaps the subject of the experiment may have in fact encountered the particular shade of blue sometime before without acknowledging it. Conclusively, although Hume’s treatment of the missing shade of blue is very limited and very complacent, it is perhaps Hume’s own mistake for considering such example a ‘problem’, rather than the problem itself being a threat to his theory of origins of ideas.