The Effects of One-Child Policy on Chinese Kinship

Burt Jiang Anthropology 331 4/22/2013 Term Paper The origins of Chinese civilization derive its roots from the Huang-he and Yangtze Rivers. Like other ancient river valley civilizations, these two rivers provided early Chinese settlers with the raw materials necessary to sustain culture and society. Burgeoning from small, scattered clans, autonomous groups of Chinese villages situated around the rivers would in turn become the building blocks of the ancient Chinese dynasties to the modern day, People’s Republic of China.The system of clans became an effective method of identifying one’s own lineage through the maintenance of a single surname throughout the clan. As the social structure of the clan grew, the complex interactions among clan and non-clan members eventually synergized to create China’s own form of kinship. Anthropologists have since come to classify Chinese kinship under the broader term of Sudanese kinship. The Sudanese, and by extension Chinese, ki nship is considered the most complex system with a separate designation for almost every one of ego’s kin based on generation, lineage, relative age, and gender.As observed, the Chinese kinship system already has a strictly defined scheme of kin identification, but the monikers only serve as an outline of China’s kinship system. The true backbone of Chinese kinship draws its source from Confucian ideals, ideals that have been deeply ingrained in Chinese dogma since the late fifth century B. C. Among his teachings of filial piety and ancestor worship, Confucius outlines for the Chinese people the five most basic interactions: interactions between ruler and subject; father and son; elder and younger brother; husband and wife; and between friends.Of the five interactions, the interactions between father-son, and husband-wife, have seen the greatest amount of development and change throughout to course of China’s history. As China exited the feudal age and entered t he modern world as The People’s Republic of China, the two interactions identified experienced considerable changes while maintaining their signature Chinese accent. Feudal China’s departure, and the advent of communist China, has brought forth rapid family reform and ultimately, the initiation of the One-Child Policy. Even in the face of rapid modernization and reform, the trong influences of Confucian ideals and an intrinsic patrilineal descent pattern still characterize Chinese kinship; however, the introduction of the One-Child Policy, and its ramifications, has put stress on the traditional Chinese family structures as well as possibly creating many more problems future generations must solve. Of all the pseudo-religious institutions that took hold in China, Daoism and Zen Buddhism, most notably, the concept of ancestor worship put forth by Confucius is by far the most ubiquitous in Chinese culture and kinship relationships.Defined by the nine agnates, Confucius t ook great efforts to outline the nuclear family as clearly as possible, three generations prior to the ego, the ego, and three generations after the ego. Within the nine agnates, ancestral worship and filial piety became the driving forces that perpetuated kinship interactions in China for generations. Thus forms the cyclical cycle of Chinese kinship, the younger generations are kept in line by the rules of filial piety while the older generation is kept in memory and reverence via ancestral worship.The importance of ancestor worship can be conceptualized and materialized through the complex mourning attire and rituals exhibited by the Chinese people. Much like the suru’ai of Kwaio, individuals in mourning must display no worldly attachment, must not be seen in public, must have abstain from sexual activity, and generally must live a life of detachment throughout the mourning period (Akin March 11). The mourning period is defined by the relationship of the mourner to the indi vidual that has passed away; consequently, the duration of this period can range from three months to three years based on the strength of the bond shared.During a time of mourning, individuals must also wear complementing attire to signify which stage of mourning he/she is in; hence the attire has evolved into the five degrees of mourning attire. Chinese mourning rituals were taken very seriously within the clans and the act of proposing to an individual exhibiting any stage of the five degrees of mourning attire was considered highly immoral and taboo. Rituals of ancestor worship, like mourning ceremonies and attire, serve to underscore the importance of the ancestors to the Chinese people.The sterility, and structure, of the mourning period is an excellent example of the reverence Chinese individuals hold for their deceased kin; to interrupt the transition from individual to ancestor is still considered highly disrespectful and taboo even in modern China. Ancestor worship provide s a broad blanket of allegiance for the Chinese kinship system. The importance of ancestor worship is to keep entire clans together, but the smaller familial units require a force more tenable and exact.Within the nuclear family, Confucius saw the wisdom to conceive of another ideal that complements the notion of ancestor worship, that idea being filial piety. Filial piety, in turn, provides the construct in which the five relationships, outlined earlier, can be practically maintained and perpetuated. Confucius’ relationship of father and son is kept constant by the power of filial piety. Younger generations are taught to respect and heed the advice of their forefathers. Consequently, this interaction creates an incredibly structured kinship system in which obedience is preferential to individuality.The rules defined by filial piety culminated in the written document known as The Great Qing Legal Code, introduced during the Qing Dynasty, 1644 to 1912. This document not only p rovided, in great detail, the laws and codes regarding kinship bonds on all five levels of relationship, but it also included the punishments if those bonds were broken or tested by crime (Jones 29). Criminal activity was therefore punished more severely if the crime committed was within the clan, and further intensified if the offence was committed against a higher ranking individual.The importance of upholding the kinship relations set forth by Confucius can be seen in the Code’s punishment for breaking the first and foremost relationship of ruler and subject. Punishment for breaking China’s most important bond resulted in what is known as: â€Å"The extermination of nine kindreds†. Any individual who commits treason against his/her emperor would be subject to the complete annihilation of his/her nine agnates, effectively erasing that individual’s bloodline (Jones 16).This incredibly overt punishment trickled down, with lesser severity, to the other fou r relationships, and ultimately underlined the importance of loyalty to kin and emperor. Filial piety’s significance is further stressed in the father-son relationship because of China’s early affinity to the patrilineal descent system, echoes from the country’s roots in the clan structure. Since only males can bear and preserve the family surname, loyalty of the son to the father became critical in a patrilineal descent system.In order to ensure the lineage’s continuation, carefully arranged marriages between families would rise as the forefront solution. Chinese kinship, like many other systems, relies on the institution of marriage as bridge between two bodies of people. Recognized in Confucian teachings, a married couple is considered the most basic social unit from which other relationships stem. In Chinese culture, marriages were generally arranged by a matchmaker who would bless the union. After the marriage, the wife would be incorporated into the husband’s family; thus resulting in the importance of the production of sons to keep the family surname.Throughout history, Chinese marriages and kinship revolved around the production of viable sons to carry the family name. Like Kwaio societies, fertility of the mother proved to be of paramount importance when evaluating a marriage relationship (Akin February 20). It is important to take note, however, that while monogamy was the accepted practice, polygamy gained prominence in imperial families that could not produce a healthy male heir, a problem solved also by nurture kinship (Akin January 23).Once married, divorce was possible only if the wife was proved to have engaged in one of these seven offences: failure to observe filial piety to the parent-in-laws, failure to bear a son, consistently vulgar or lewd, harbors jealousy, has a vile disease, gossips too much, or commits a theft. Although unusual to western societies, gossip is viewed as a poison to families and clans because of its inherent proclivity to hyperbole and fabrication. Patrilineal descent’s importance can be clearly observed in marriage rituals as divorce is only possible if the female fails to produce a son or commits other errs.There are, however, three distinct situations in which a wife is guaranteed immunity from a divorce, those three situations being: the wife has no family to return to, the wife has observed a full three year mourning period for her parent-in-law, or if her husband was poor during marriage and is currently wealth. In conjunction with ancestor worship, filial piety, and the structured marriage system, Chinese kinship has developed these three hallmark pillars to safeguard strong kinship bonds of father-son and husband-wife from one generation to the next.Although only briefly mentioned earlier, the wedding ceremonies themselves are a testament to the extravagance and importance of a decision such as marriage to the Chinese people. Categorized by the si x etiquettes, Chinese wedding ceremonies consisted of: the proposal, birthdates, bride price, wedding gifts, arranging the wedding, and the ceremony itself. Each of the six etiquettes involves a highly organized succession of events that would lead to marriage of husband and wife. The first two steps, proposal and birthdates, involve a matchmaker evaluating a potential daughter-in-law for marriage.If the divination rituals, Suan Ming, are positive and both sides of the marriage accept the terms, the next step would be submitting a bride price (Wolf 102). Bride price, or betrothal gifts, is then presented by the matchmaker to the bridegroom’s family completing the pre-wedding rituals. The actual wedding ceremony is somewhat austere in comparison to its preparation. It simply involves, in western society terms, the exchanging of vows and good blessings followed by paying respects to the Jade Emperor, other deities, and each family’s ancestors.Finally, the wedding banquet is the closing event in the marriage process and is often more lively and festive. Traditionally, the groom is responsible for the cost of the wedding invitation, pastries, the banquet invitations, and the wedding itself. Wedding banquets are elaborate and consist usually of five to ten courses, with ingredients such as  shark's fin,  abalone,  lobster,  squab,  sea cucumber,  swift nests,  fish roe  in soup or as decoration on top of a dish to symbolize fertility, and local delicacies (Wolf 88).Customarily, the father of the bride is responsible for the wedding banquet hosted on the bride's side and the alcohol consumed during both banquets. The wedding banquets are two separate banquets: the primary banquet is hosted once at the bride's side, the second banquet, smaller banquet, at the groom's side. While the wedding itself is often based on the couple's choices, the wedding banquets are a gesture of appreciation, to those that have raised the bride and groom, suc h as grandparents and uncles.Additionally, this gesture incorporates the ideas of nurture kinship, in which kinship persists and even thrives beyond the nuclear family. Grandparents, aunts, and uncles, of both sides of the family would often offer help in raising a family’s child in an attempt to establish nurture kinship bonds. These bonds would then be materialized through gift exchange during the wedding banquet and other important family occasions. The two banquets serve also to ensure the relatives on each side meet the relatives on the other side (Wolf 49).Thus out of respect for the elders, wedding banquets are usually done formally and traditionally, which the older generation is thought to be more comfortable with. As one can see, the six etiquettes of the marriage and its accompanying practices come together to create a single cohesive event meant to bring two families of different clan origins together as one. The traditions and conventions of Chinese kinship that have been examined have been kept constant for much of the nation’s history until the late 19th century and early 20th century.As political turmoil and growing dissatisfaction with the incumbent Qing Dynasty rose, the Chinese population made a push towards reform. After two decades of consolidation, dynastic China emerged from the feudal era as The Republic of China in 1912 headed by Sun Yat-sen. During the Nationalist era, Chinese kinship saw a slow movement towards modernity, a topic discussed in other sources but not focused on in this paper (See Hinton and Zarrow). The one exception to the evolution of kinship in China during this period was the residual influence of The Great Qing Legal Code.Although never referred to by name since the fall of the Qing, the collection of codes put forth by China’s forefathers manifested itself as a strict penal code during the Republic era, and would be re-adapted based on socialist law during the People’s Republic era (Jon es 229). Even when the governments representing China adjust to better fit its changing political landscape, the influences of Confucian teachings still resonate deeply in Chinese kinship and culture. Ultimately, the capitalistic ways of Nationalist China began to brew dissatisfaction among the classes as predicted by the rising popularity of Marxist theory at the time.The issues described by Marx, such as class conflict, were only exacerbated by China’s already enormous proletariat population. Eventually, and inevitably, The Republic of China was usurped by the communist oriented People’s Republic of China, headed by Mao Zedong in 1949. Mao’s rise to ascendancy and the subsequent initiation family reform policies such as the One-Child Policy has had tremendous consequences on traditional Chinese kinship structure and maintenance. The communist party’s policies regarding family and kin have persisted into the 21st century with some repercussions already a pparent, and others that have yet to be evaluated.The newly formed People’s Republic of China introduced itself to the modern world as a backward, unsophisticated nation of peasants led by a few intellectuals. Needless to say, the communist party saw prudence in creating a new image for itself. Family size and structure rose to the top of the communist party’s agenda as a target for transformation. In 1979, the Chinese government embarked on an ambitious campaign of market reform following the economic stagnation of the Cultural Revolution. The government saw strict population containment as essential to economic reform and to improvement of living standards.So championed by The State Family Planning Bureau, the One-Child Policy was introduced. In its execution, the Policy did everything the Chinese government hoped for by preventing roughly 100 million child births as of 2009 (Hesketh 1173). Although effective in containing China’s population growth, the One-Ch ild Policy proved to have meaningful impacts in other aspects of Chinese culture, particularly Chinese kinship. The Policy’s repercussions are in direct conflict with China’s oldest tradition of ancestor worship.A ritual that had been a driving force of Chinese kinship since the very beginning of feudal China is now at odds with the policies of modern China. Specifically, the One-Child Policy has created a conundrum known as the four-two-one (referred to as 4:2:1) phenomenon. The phenomenon is the estimated ratio of grandparents to parents to children currently existing in China (Hesketh 1171). Immediately, the most apparent issue is the imbalance of the ratio between grandparents to grandchildren, essentially for every one child there exist four grandparents.This many not seem like an issue to western societies, but China’s enormous population, a result of post-WWII baby boom trends, exacerbates the ratio to a breaking point. Traditional kinship bonds dictate t hat the younger generations must care and nurture for their elders. However with such an unbalanced ratio of individuals between the generations, China’s sons are failing to support their fathers while jeopardizing their own livelihood. Confucius’ signature relationship of father-son is now threatened greatly by the incurred financial burden of China’s youth.Changes in kinship structure and, to a lesser degree, family structure are driven by changes in fertility and mortality. The drastic reduction in fertility has substantially reduced the number of children born to each family, so that the extensive horizontal kinship ties of China’s past have essentially been curtailed (Jiang 128). However, improvements in mortality have brought unprecedented longevity to China’s elderly, and an overlap of generations that has made vertical kinship ties increasingly common (Jiang 129).Ancestor worship is at odds with China’s new agenda of population refor m and containment. The sudden reduction of horizontal kinship bonds and gross amplification of vertical kinship bonds forces China’s newest generation to pick between financially stability, through neglecting their elders, or supporting their elders, through draining their own personal capital. Similar to ancestor worship, the Confucian concepts of filial piety and marriage are also tested by the One-Child Policy.Starting with filial piety, the stipulation that families can only bear one child has put tremendous emphasis on patrilineal descent and the birth of sons. In feudal China, citizens were given the opportunity to produce as many offspring as needed and yet some families still failed to produce sons, and lineages were lost. Now, with only one opportunity, modern Chinese families have put an unprecedented level of importance to a mother’s ability to bear a male child. This in turn critically affects the father-son dynamic established by Confucius.Instead of overt ly obeying one’s parents, male children in China now understand the importance of their position, and exploit it. China’s newest generation of males have exhibited an unrecorded level of sexual, social, and media experimentation, generations of sexual and individual repression are just now starting to be shattered (Fong 1103). Additionally, the One-Child Policy has had mixed impact on the status of females and by extension marriage. With very limited contraception available for women, the One-Child Policy has forced families to prioritize the birth of males over females.This inevitably leads to the marginalization of the female gender in modern China and an incredibly imbalanced gender ratio. However, the results of the Policy on woman’s social status in China are not completely skewed to one, negative aspect. Those women who are kept by their families have just recently seen an unparalleled lift in their social positions and powers. Daughters empowered by the s upport of their parents, with no sons to favor, are able to defy detrimental norms while strategically using ones that give them advantages in the educational system and the job and marriage markets (Fong 1105).Furthermore, divorce rates have never been higher in modern China as a result of the empowered female gender. Women are more freely seeking new relationships and marriages, a notion inconceivable during the height of Confucian marriage practices. Modernity is an atypical force. Traditional kinship relationships and marriage practices of China are not necessarily broken by modern policies, like the One-Child, but they are certainly altered from their ancestral conceptualizations in feudal China. Chinese kinship is one of the most unique and complicated kinship systems ever examined.The kinship bonds established by the Chinese people may appear outwardly strict or even ascetic, but underneath the guise of structure, is an incredibly resilient dogma that still influences kinship in China today. Confucius’ ideas of ancestor worship, filial piety, and marriage all amalgamate to create a system of kinship that has withstood dynasties, regimes, and political parties. The recent challenges presented by the One-Child Policy have certainly put strain on traditional kinship relationships like that of father to son.Yet, the elevation of the female gender and increased fluidity in marriage rituals signify that Chinese kinship is not as stagnant as some anthropologists believe. No matter how much change is imposed on China’s kinship, the voice of Confucius will always permeate families, marriages, siblings, and children. Works Cited Directly used in paper: Akin, David. â€Å"Doubts, Critiques, and Revisions of Kinship Studies. † Anthropology 331. University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, 23 January 2013. Akin, David. â€Å"Totem, Taboo, and Identity (part 1). † Anthropology 331. University of Michigan.Ann Arbor, 11 March 2013. Akin, David.  "Marriage as Exchange. † Anthropology 331. University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, 20 February 2013. Fong, Vanessa L. â€Å"China's One-Child Policy and the Empowerment of Urban Daughters. †Ã‚  American Anthropologist  104. 4 (2002): 1098-109. Print. Jiang, Lin. â€Å"Changing Kinship Structure and Its Implications for Old-Age Support in Urban and Rural China. †Ã‚  Population Studies  49. 1 (1995): 127-45. Print. Jones, William C. The Great Qing Code. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1994 Hesketh, Therese, Li Lu, and Zhu Wei Xing. The Effect of China's One-Child Family Policy after 25 Years. †Ã‚  New England Journal of Medicine  353. 11 (2005): 1171-176. Print. Wolf, Arthur P. , and Chieh-shan Huang. Marriage and Adoption in China: 1845-1945. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1980. Print. Additional Research Hinton, William. Fanshen; a Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village. New York: Monthly Review, 1967. Print. Zarrow, Peter Gue. After Empire: The Conceptual Transformation of the Chinese State, 1885-1924. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 2012. Print.

A Separate Peace †Denial of Truth Essay

The novel A Separate Peace focuses mainly around a 17 year old named Gene Forrester and his psychological development. The story is set in a boys boarding school in USA during World War II. There are four main boys in the novel and they all undergo major character changes through the story. One of them goes crazy, and the others experience severe attitude changes. Gene is caught right in the center of these changes. He is very close with all of the other three boys, and thus all of the changes affect him very much. Due to all the tension occurring in this novel because of the war and events going on at the school, there is a lot of denial of truth happening. Three of the four boys mentioned earlier deny the truth at sometime in the story. This denying of truth sometimes ends with the person who committed the fault in a bad condition at the end of the book, and sometimes in good condition. So it can be said that there were both positive and negative results for each of the denials of the truth, but these will be explained more in-depth in the following paragraphs. Although it starts after half the book is finished, one of the major examples of denying the truth in the novel is Finny denying the reality of the war. Though it is disclosed at the end that Finny knew all along about the war, he succeeds, after a little time, in making Gene truly believe in the non-existence of the war (although Gene claims that he did not really believe the story, his behavior around his classmates and his actions say otherwise). The first result we see of this denial is Finny’s confession of his bitterness towards the world because of his loss. This destroys the image we have of Finny as a â€Å"perfect† person because it shows that he blames the world for his accident. It also stuns Gene so much that he begins to do pull-ups, even though he has never done even ten before. With Finny’s verbal help, Gene manages to do thirty. This solidifies the friendship between them. After this moment, Finny decides to take Gene into his confidence and tells him he wanted to go to the 1944 Olympics, but that Gene will have to go instead, and goes on to start training Gene. Finally, after many mornings of hard training, Gene finally â€Å"[finds] his rhythm†. Superficially, it can be said that due to Finny’s ruse about the war, Gene became very athletic. A deeper study shows that the incident is much more meaningful than this. It symbolizes Gene coming into his own. The author writes that Finny â€Å"seemed older that morning? he seemed smaller too. Or perhaps it was only that I, inside the same body, had felt myself all at once grown bigger†. It may also be said that on this morning Finny (a model of athleticism) became part of Gene. So, it can be seen that Finny’s denying the reality of the war was truly one of the more important examples of denial of truth in the novel because it resulted in, among other things, a greater bonding between Finny and Gene and shattered the image of Finny being truly composed and serene. Another example of denial of truth would be Leper. Leper, as is obvious throughout the story, continuously denies reality. He is very often be in his own ? dream world’, and when he isn’t he is shy and hesitant to show his true feelings. This was likely because he was â€Å"difficult not to make fun of†. For example, at the beginning of the book, when he claims Gene’s jump was better than Finny’s and is rebutted by Finny, â€Å"he didn’t argue or refuse. He didn’t back away. He became inanimate†. There are also many examples of his not being conscious of his surroundings. One of them is when Gene is thinking about him when he sees him on his way to clearing railroads. Gene recalls that while most of the boys are listening to the announcements, Leper â€Å"made little sketches of birds and trees in the back of his notebook†. Then, when Gene strolls up to talk to Leper, Leper comments about skiing paths. Someone choosing to ski over helping clear a major railroad in the middle of the greatest war of all time is quite odd. He is not even skiing anywhere in particular, just skiing to see nature. He also disagrees strongly with downhill skiing, because it takes away from viewing nature. He thinks that only nature matters and the entire world is as peaceful and going as slowly as he is. Later on, when Leper is considering joining the army, we see more of this denial of reality. He chooses to join a branch of the army that he once thought â€Å"ruined† skiing. He actually believes that when he enlists he will spend all of his time skiing down slopes. This shows that he does not truly understand the seriousness of the issue. Although the positive points of Leper’s denial of truth are much smaller than the negative ones, they do exist. Due to his denial of truth early on in the book, Leper went partially insane near the end of the book, but it can be seen at many points in the book that Leper finally gained some assertiveness and shed aside his timid personality. The next example of denial of truth is Finny’s denial of the evil in other people. Finny represents the goodness that is in human beings. Because he is so good, he has difficulty understanding how other people can have evil in them. This denial of truth gets him into a sorry state at the end of the book. There is an indication of his truthfulness early on in the book, when Gene comments that â€Å"Finny always said what he happened to be thinking, and if this shocked people then he was surprised†. Finny is the guy who is always calm and nice. He is so surprised when Gene confesses to him that he purposely caused Finny to fall out of the tree that he refuses to even believe Gene, and calls him a â€Å"damn fool†. Even prior to this, when Gene sees Finny in the school infirmary, Finny tells Gene about how he thought that there might have been some foul play up in the tree when he fell, then immediately apologizes to Gene for having that feeling without even waiting for Gene to check the legitimacy of this feeling. Afterwards, on the first day of the actual school year, Finny calls Gene to talk to him. When Gene claims that he was â€Å"crazy† and â€Å"over the falls†, Finny doesn’t refute this, and even goes as far as to apologize once again for thinking that Gene was perfectly serious. With his open, honest nature, Finny cannot truly accept that Gene, who he considers his best friend, pushed him off the tree. Finny’s reluctance here can also be compared to another incident in the book. After hearing about Leper going crazy, Finny says, â€Å"I guess I always knew [about the war], but I didn’t have to admit it†. Finny knows that Gene really had caused the accident, but he refuses to admit it and represses it so much that he literally forgets about it. Thus, when Brinker organizes the trial and it is proven (with evidence from Leper) that Gene did cause him to fall, it devastates Finny, and he rushes out of the Assembly Room, slips on the marble stairs, breaks his leg, and later, dies. However, if Finny had not denied the truth about evil in others and had openly challenged Gene, then the story would be much different, and Gene would not have gone through the serious mental development that he did. The final example of denial of truth in the story is Gene’s reluctance to acknowledge the evil in him. There are many examples in the story other than Gene pushing Finny out of the tree that show the evil in Gene. Gene feels a lot of resentment towards Finny for all the things that Finny gets away with. One of these things is when Finny wears his pink emblem to school classes. He is questioned by â€Å"the sternest of the Summer Session masters, old Mr. Patch-Withers†, but gets away with it. Gene even admits that Finny’s ability to get out of trouble makes him envious, but claims that it is okay to be jealous of a friend, but the next incident proves otherwise. Finny often wears ties to replace belts, but on the day of the term tea makes the mistake of wearing the school tie as a belt. When Mr. Patch-Withers sees this, Gene â€Å"[becomes] unexpectedly excited† because â€Å"[Finny] wasn’t going to get away with it†. When Finny does not get in trouble, Gene is disappointed and says, â€Å"Phineas was going to get away with even this†. Gene’s reluctance to acknowledge the evil in him is proven later in the book when Leper says that Gene â€Å"? always [was] a savage underneath† and Gene kicks the chair out from underneath him. Gene cannot accept the truth. In this way he is similar to Finny, although the reason why is completely different. Because Gene cannot believe that there is evil in him, he tries to tell himself that everybody else is evil and thinks that everyone is out to get him. Because he believes this, when Finny breaks the school swimming record, and refuses to tell anyone or do it officially, Gene says he is â€Å"too good to be true†. This is because Finny’s behavior contradicts Gene’s perception of Finny as having evil in him and it shocks Gene. Another time when Gene’s true viewpoint is shown is when he asks Finny if he would mind if he got the highest mark in the class. Finny replies, with obvious sarcasm, â€Å"I’d kill myself out of jealous envy†, but Gene takes it completely seriously, and hides his true feelings from Finny. Gene even acknowledges that he does not know everything that there is to know about him and that there are still hidden parts of himself. But he says that these parts could contain â€Å"the Sad Sack, the outcast or the coward†. Gene does not mention the possibility of evil in him here or at any other time before Finny’s death. The good and bad points for this denial of truth are very similar to the ones for the previous example. Although Gene does not suffer for his refusal to accept the evil in him, Finny does, but only when he breaks his leg, and not when he dies. All of these people react to their various crises in different ways. For example, Leper â€Å"[emerged] from a protective cloud of vagueness only to meet it? and so give up the struggle absolutely†, while Brinker â€Å"[develops] a careless general resentment against it†. It is interesting to note that all of the examples of denial of truth in the book end with the character in question facing a total attitude change. Leper becomes partially insane and much more assertive. Gene understands his feelings much better and is a changed person. It is like when Finny died some of his serenity entered Gene. Because he denied the war’s existence, Finny caused Gene to stay away from all their other friends (Brinker, Chet, etc. ) and only talk to him. With Finny’s denying evil in other people it is a little bit more complicated. With each successive fall, it was like Finny’s character fell too. For example, after the first fall, the bitterness in Finny was shown and he also knowingly lies to Gene about the war. After the second fall, however, there is a bigger difference. He attempts to hide his pain at the ? trial’, but after falling again, he can no longer mask his anger with Gene, and shows this when Gene comes to visit him in the night. He tries to attack Gene, but cannot get out of his bed to get near him. Finny has ? fallen’ from his state of perfection and is like a normal person. He does show, however, that he still has the ability to forgive when he sees Gene for the last time.

Psychological Analysis of “The Butterfly Effect” Essay

This paper revolves around the four main psychological aspects of the 2004 movie The Butterfly Effect which are memory retrieval in Evan, trauma in the characters, depression, and Evan’s therapy. In memory we will look through the protagonist’s, Evan, past and how he represses his memory and retrieves them back as adult. In trauma we will look at the different events Evan’s friend Lenny experiences and how it affects his life and gives him traumatic disorders. Next, we will examine depressive symptoms in the character Kayleigh. Finally, we will look at the different treatments Evan’s therapist uses on him and his reasons why. I will reveal each of the role these four aspects play and relate them to the characters and the movie. In the movie The Butterfly Effect a boy named Evan develops a unknown hereditary disease where he blacks out during very traumatic events. These blackouts eventually fade away when we moves away and he never experiences them again. One day, in college he reads an old journal from his childhood and all the old memories hit him like a brick. Within days he discovers he is able to actually go back in time and change those past traumatic events, which results in a series altered realities. In these different realities, not only do the events change, but Evan and his friends develop totally new idenities This movie mainly revolves around Evan’s memory, trauma and depression in some of the characters, and the therapy used to try to treat Evan’s illness. In that brief summary alone you are able to see that Evan’s memory is a large part of this movie. Throughout the movies Evan goes through periods of  memory repressions where he gets these uncontrollable blackouts, usually under times of heavy stress and trauma, and wakes up completely unaware of what happened. These blackouts occurred when he is participating in child pornography, killing a women and her baby, his father trying to kill him and watching his dog be burned alive. Repressed memories are â€Å"memories of actual events that were pushed into the unconscious because they are emotionally threatening (Kosslyn and Rosenberg 2011 p.183)†. That means although these events are emotionally charged they are forgotten not because they are pushed out of awareness but because the individual mentally put them into another place in their mind. Evan eventually moves away from this town leaving Lenny, Tommy and Kayleigh. After that we notice that these sudden blackouts disappear and when he goes to college he is able to live a normal life. Until, he reads one of his old journals and all the old memories come back to him and he is able vividly experience them through a process known as memory retrieval. He is even able to go back in time and change his actions. Although this obviously is not possible in real life, it is an example of a study that shows that, â€Å"as we try to recall something our brain works to match the brain state we had during the event we are remembering (DeNoon 2005)†, so when your brain state matches the state in your memory you’ll remember it a lot easier. This study is true in Evan’s case, because has he read through his journal entries he, in a sense, put himself into his teenage shoes and is able to visualize that exact moment he is reading. Therefore, a person’s emotion can affect a their memory retrieval. â€Å"(It is) much like when you try to remember where you put your keys last night, if you recall that you were washing dishes, that might trigger associated memories, leading you to remember that your keys are next to the sink (DeNoon 2005)†. Evan also develops implicit memories during his frat boy lifestyle reality. Implicit memories are memories â€Å"that cannot be retrieved voluntarily but rather predispose a person to process information or behave certain ways in the presence of specific stimuli (Kosslyn and Rosenberg 2011 p.169)†. In this altered reality Evan becomes the leader of a fraternity and one of the popular jocks, a totally different persona compared to his hardworking, shy  behavior in the first reality. Yet, even though it is still normal Evan switching through different realities he starts to involuntarily develop these habits the fraternity persona would do, like cheat on tests and bully younger students. These actions and personalities he developed is an example of a type of implicit memory known as habits. Cheating on his psychology test and yelling at one of his pledges was a well-learned response that is carried out automatically. The next topic the movie portrays is trauma in the character Lenny. Lenny is most affected by two traumatic events shown in the movie, the first is when he accidentally blows up a mailbox killing a mother and her baby and the second is when he kills Tommy during one of Evan’s interactive memory. After those experiences Lenny develops clear signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). According to the DSM-IV-TR, the diagnosis of PSTD is decided when three conditions are met. First, the person experiences an event that involves an injury or death and Lenny clearly experienced death through murdering the mother and baby, and killing Tommy. Next, the traumatized person responds to the situation with fear, which Lenny shows from the utter shock after the mailbox blows up and he becomes so afraid of what he has done that he collapses and ends up in hospitalized. Lenny shows â€Å"persistent avoidance of anything associated with the trauma (Kosslyn and Rosenberg 2011 p.420)†. This explains why Lenny, after so many years, was still in his room building model airplanes after Evan goes back home to him. Also, when Evan asks Lenny to described what happened during that event Lenny violently threatens him to kill him if he ever mentions it again. Model airplanes is a hobby he enjoys and it helps keep him distracted from all his thoughts, which is why his room contained over one hundred models. If he keeps himself preoccupied with the model planes, those thoughts of killing the mother will never cross his mind. Not only does Lenny and his model airplane hobby distract him from the trauma but it also show a very distinct relationship between dissociation and trauma. Constance J. Dalenburg conducted an experiment which shows â€Å"that there is strong empirical support for the hypothesis that trauma  causes dissociation (a perceived detachment of the mind from the emotional state or even from the body), and that dissociation remains related to trauma history when fantasy proness is controlled (Dalenberg 2012)†. After experiencing the two traumas Lenny enters a dreamlike state where he completely separates himself from the world by staying in his room all day and doing nothing else. Even when Evan comes to visit him in his bedroom or in the insane asylum he never displays any emotions, speak to him or even acknowledge he is there. During the dog blackout Lenny witnessed Tommy burning Evan’s dog alive and Tommy told him, â€Å"if you tell anyone, I’ll slit your throat†. Lenny was discharged from the hospital just before that occurred and before Evan called him out to play we can see Lenny was busy working on a model airplane. Therefore, we can conclude that Lenny makes these model airplanes, stays in his room all day and even keeps his room exactly the same (which we can see because he still race car bed) because he trying to distance himself from reality and mentally revert back to the exact time before he witnessed Evan’s dog being burned alive. The third topic faced in the movie is depression. Kayleigh and Evan go through periods of depression through three different altered realities of the movie. In the first altered reality Evan goes back to his hometown and finds Kayleigh working as waitress, in the next altered reality Kayleigh becomes a hooker after Evan goes back and accidentally kills Tommy, and in the last reality Evan loses his arms and legs along with the love of his life, Kayleigh to Lenny. The four main symptoms of major depressive disorder (depression) shown throughout these scenes were insomnia and tiredness, heavy sadness, feeling of hopelessness, and thoughts of suicide. In the first reality Kayleigh shows physical signs of insomnia and tiredness. Physically, you can tell by her sluggish movements and heavy bags under her eyes that she is not getting enough rest. She then goes on to shout at him saying, â€Å"nothing’s ever going to get better Evan, nothing ever gets better†. This quote and the fact that she is just a waiter shows the feeling of hopelessness and how she believes there is no real future and she will never be truly happy due to her traumatizing past. This feeling of hopelessness might have occurred after Evan moved away from her, causing her  to have no one else to rely on. That change can also cause depression because when change occurs, stress happens. â€Å"Significant levels of stress can result from any important life change, but people vary considerably in the ways they respond to change in their lives†¦ Their reactions depend on their resources and the contexts in which stress occurs. If you have the money, time, and friends to help you pick up and go on after a disruption, you will certainly fare better (Mcgregor 2006)†, all of which Kayleigh doesn’t have anymore, leading her to developed depression. Kayleigh also cries and yell at Evan for bringing up old memories, a potential sign of heavy sadness. Finally, Evan finds out the next day that Kayleigh committed suicide, (thoughts of suicide) which is the last symptom of clinical depression. In the second reality Evan finds Kayleigh in a run down motel room as hooker with a drug addiction. Kayleigh is portraying signs of worthlessness in her body because of the sexual acts she is involved in to receive money. Due the sexual abuse she received from her father she now feels her body is dirty or damaged making her believe she in unworthy of being treated as a normal person. This is a big contribution to her low self esteem and her drug abuse issue. Not only does she feel used but the abuse she suffered from her dad, the first true male role model in her life, leaves her to feel that people will always hurt her. You can see her environment plays a big role in her depression because in the final altered reality, she lives in a nurturing environment with her mother and is finally happy which leads her live to a normal happy life and a better career. In the final reality Evan loses his arms and legs after trying to save the mom and child from the explosion. During that scene Evan sees Kayleigh run up to Lenny and kiss him. You can tell from his facial expression he was feeling sadness and remorse over not being with her when he knows he could be. After losing his arms and legs, Evan realizes life for him is hopeless, and he can never amount to anything because he doesn’t arms or Kayleigh, so that sign of worthlessness is once again showing. Evan tries to drown himself in the movie, showing those thoughts of suicide. Evan shows a clear example of Aaron Beck’s â€Å"negative cognitive triads of depression†. â€Å"The  triad consists of: a negative view of the world, a negative view of the self, and a negative view of the future (Kosslyn and Rosenberg 2011 p.412)†. Evan views the world as unfair because of his missing limbs, his disability leave him to think his life pointless, and he know his future is nothing without Kayleigh and his limbs. Finally, there was some use of psychological strategies and therapy techniques Evan’s therapist uses to try to find a way to diagnose and solve this rare disease. The first treatment Evan’s therapist tried was hypnosis. The therapist tried to calm Evan, then told him to recollect his memory of that mailbox event and â€Å"play, rewind, and pause it like a movie†. Hypnosis did not work in Evan’s case, instead only causing nose bleeds and headaches . As a child, when his mom first realizes something is wrong Evan is given a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Scan to look for anything wrong in his brain structure. Yet, they were not able to find anything wrong with his brain. The most effective method used was asking Evan to keep a journal of his daily life. Journals are commonly used and is an example of one of â€Å"Beck’s cognitive therapy techniques† which is â€Å"the process of helping clients view their situation in a new light (Kosslyn and Rosenberg 2011 p.420)†. This method proves to be affective because it helps Evan solve the root of his black outs and realize he is able to go back in time during those blackouts and control his past body, preventing certain stimuli. In conclusion, you can see that The Butterfly Effect portrays a lot of psychological facts and disorders because of all the traumatic events these young children went through. The biggest aspect of The Butterfly Effect is the different types of memory Evan uses in the movie, like repression, retrieval, and implicit. The main idea of the movie is that one tiny change can completely alter the future and we clearly see that through the different identity each character goes through in the movie. In some realities Lenny is forced to live life alone and in fear under his extreme post traumatic stress disorder due to all the traumatic events. In two realities Kayleigh goes through symptoms of depression, like sadness, thoughts of suicide, insomnia, and feelings of hopelessness due to factors like her sexual abuse and hostile environment. Each event the characters went through plays a drastic role on how they turned out, which shows that a lot of our life is really not under our control.

Apple – the Best Global Brand

I. Introduction Hello everyone, my name is Tu? n from group 4: Bad apple. Though all of you seem quite tired after hearing a lot of presentations, we highly appreciate your attendance today. Firstly, let me introduce 6 members of our group: †¦. Have you ever heard about Apple. inc? I’m sure you all know about this as it’s so famous of high-tech products. So today, we're very pleased to be here to talk about a topic that we think very close to all of you : Apple- the best global brand. Which reason makes us talk about Apple it’s because Apple has a large market share and it is having lots of influence on technological revolution.We hope that through this talk, everyone will have a sufficient overview about Apple. Now, to make it easy for you to approach the presentation, let’s look over 4 main ideas in our talk. First, we’ll tell you about Apple’s history. After that, We’ll give you some information about its human resources. Next We’ll mention development strategies. And the final thing is achievements. We will represent it briefly so it's expected to take you about 30 minutes. We’d be glad to answer any questions at the end of our talk. Now let’s start with Nhung in section 1: Apple’s history. II. Body 1. historyAll of you must have known Apple and their products, right? But are you sure that you know Apple’s history? That bring me to my part of our presentation As you know, Apple Inc, originally Apple computer Inc is well – known as one of the most successful multinational companies. I’m sure that everyone here know it is engaged in designing, manufacturing. Apple is also famous for selling mobile communication, media services, personal computers, portable digital music players, computer software and a wide range of applications. Now, let’s take a look at the screen, I will show you a brief overview of Apple company.Dated  back to April 1, 1976, App le was established by three young men. Who are these geniuses? They are: Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. With their great efforts and  talent, they  have  built  Apple  into  unbeatable empire in technology world. The  world  corporate  headquarters are located in the middle of Silicon Valley in  Cupertino  California where hundreds of breakthroughs have been appeared. Now, I ‘d like to draw your attention to the next part of my talk. All of you may know the official logo of the company, an apple with a bite. So unique, right?But what I want to tell you is its history. Apple‘s first logo, designed by Ron Wayne, depicts Sir  Isaac  Newton sitting under an apple tree. However, it was almost immediately replaced by Rob  Janoff‘s â€Å"rainbow apple†. The logo was designed with a bite so that it would not be confused  with  another fruit. The colored stripes were conceived to make the logo more accessible and to repres ent the fact that second generation product, Apple II, could generate graphic in color. Since 2001 till now,  a version of monochrome logo has been used. So, that’s enough for background information of Apple.You must be surprised when know that Apple  has 393 retail stores in fourteen countries as well as the online apple stores  and  iTunes  stores today. It is the largest publicly – traded corporation in the world by market capitalization with an estimate value of $626 billion as of September 2012. The apple market cap is larger than that of Google and Microsoft combined. So, what are the factors contributing widespread success of Apple? What makes it become one of the most famous and valuable brand names? Please keep paying attention, find out the answer and welcome to the next part of our presentation!!! . human resource Yes, one reason for the success of Apple is human resource. That brings me to my presentation, human resource of Apple. It’s abou t Apple’s leaders and employees At first, I would like to give you some information about Apple’s leaders. Such a successful company like Apple certainly has many wonderful leaders. Board of directors now is: 1. Tim Cook- theCEO 2. Eddy Cue- Senior Vice President  Internet Software and Services 3. Crag Federighi-Senior Vice President  Software Engineering 4. Jonathan Ive- Senior Vice President  Industrial Design 5.Bob Mansfield- Senior Vice President  Technologies 6. Peter Oppenheimer – Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer 7. Philip W. Schiller – Senior Vice President Worldwide Marketing 8. Bruce Sewell – Senior Vice and General Counsel 9. Jeff Williams – Senior Vice President Operations Now I will bring to you some information about amazing CEO, Steve Jobs – a visionary leader of Apple. Steven Paul â€Å"Steve† Jobs ( February 24, 1995 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur. As you know, he is best known as the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Apple.Through Apple, he was widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution and for his influential career in the computer and consumer electronics fields. Therefore, his death in 2011 is a big missing in the field high tech and entertainment, especially Apple. Now I will move to the next part, the employee. Since the formation  in 1977, Apple Computer, Inc. has employed over 75,000 people worldwide. The majority of Apple's employees have been located in the United States but Apple has substantial manufacturing, sales, marketing, and support organizations worldwide, and some engineering operations in Paris and Tokyo.Let’s consider Apple jobs in US in more details. The number of Apple jobs based in the U. S. has more than quadrupled over the past decade, from less than 10,000 employees in 2002 to more than 50,250 today. That number is more than doubles again when we include vendors that empl oy more than 50,000 people who directly support Apple. These jobs require people with a wide variety of skills — including construction workers, component manufacturers, retail specialists, tech support representatives, salespeople, marketers, and the best hardware and software engineers in the world.How can these geniuses make Apple as success as today? Let’s find out in the next part of our presentation. 3. development strategies As you know, Apple has so many cults following all around the world. So, why can they become such a fame, such a phenomenon? That brings me to my part of presentation, development strategies. Development strategies of Apple is divided into 2 parts: marketing and competitiveness. Let me bring to you some information about marketing first. The first subject of marketing is logo. Let me go back to the logo history of Apple. As you can see, the bitten logo is very unique.It’s so remarkable that when people see it, they will think about Ap ple. The logo was designed with a bite so that it would not be confused as another fruit. Very interesting, right? The second thing I want to mention is Apple’s slogans. Apple's first slogan, Byte into an Apple†, was coined in the late 1970s. From 1997–2002, the slogan â€Å"Think Different†used in advertising campaigns, and is still closely associated with Apple. Apple also has slogans for specific product lines  Ã¢â‚¬â€ for example, â€Å"iThink, therefore iMac† was used to promote the iMac,  and â€Å"Say hello to iPhone† has been used in iPhone advertisements.The third but not less important subject is advertising. Let’s face it. Apple is a master at marketing. The advertising campaigns of Apple are amazing, diversified, and varied. They use mass media so effectively and perfectly such as: magazines, ads on TV, short films†¦. Apple is also well known for their genius ads, for the amazing ideals that memorize people so muc h. Here are some unforgettable advertising campaigns: think different, get a Mac, 1984, what’s on your PowerBook? , Switch, iPod. Now let me move on to the next part of my presentation, competitiveness of Apple.In mobile technology, Apple is not the only company. How can Apple be so successful as present? I want to talk about the competitiveness of Apple with 4 aspects: The first one is the superior features of products. Besides the spectacular design, Apple products are all designed with the user first, they are such a simple products that have a minimal number of buttons and just do what they’re intended to. Apple tends to avoid overcomplicating devices it builds and tries to make things as simple for the user as possible. Not only Apple’s products are amazing, but Apple support is also unbelievable.It’s wonderful that you generally get really good community support, and when that fails, Apple support is amazing. You are totally able to get support with out any form of warranty and just walk into an Apple store and talk to a genius if you have a problem. The next aspect is Apple’s application. I want to talk about the iTunes. iTunes is a free application for Apple products. It lets you organize and play digital music and video on your computer. It can automatically download new music, apps, and book purchases across all your devices and computers. And it’s a store that has everything you need to be entertained.Anywhere. Anytime. Have you ever once want to own an Apple product? I guess the answer is yes. In today’s Network World’s, there are more than 70% people asked want to purchase Apple products without knowing anything about the product. Amazing, right? That’s the power of Apple. They have lots of cult following all over the world. Whenever Apple releases a new product, billions of people pay attention to it. Apple is very successful in making belief in customers, and their products totally ga in the loyalty from customers. So, you see, Apple has been a very successful company.That brings us to the next part of our presentation, achievement. Please keep on listening. 4. achievement I’m Ngoc and I will bring to you the final information about Apple. inc. The final issue I’d like to focus on is Apple’s achievements. We’ll have a look at this section through 2 aspects: Apple’s products and its position. Firstly, Apple’s remarkable success lies in the company’s ability to create truly innovative products with vast customer appeal. Their products can call attention from all over the world. The reason is that Apple has opted for constant product innovation, resulting in fanatic consumer loyalty.Let’s consider this in more details. The first product I want to mention is the Mac. It comes with the latest technology. From the outside in, a Mac is designed to be a better computer. The Mac is applied for education and business as it gives students and businessmen the power to create amazing projects, and even more. The second one is the Ipod. The Ipod has evolved to include various models targeting the wants of different users. It is the market leader in portable music players by a significant margin. And the Iphone – a convergence of an Internet-enabled smartphone and iPod.It has a remarkably slim design and ultrafast wireless. Besides, it owns all-new headphones designed to sound great and fit comfortably. Finally, I’d like to bring you the Ipad, Apple’s much-anticipated media tablet. It offers multi-touch interaction with multimedia formats. In terms of education, iPad takes learning to a whole new level. For businessmen, it gives realtime information, and improves efficiency of common office activities. Now, let move on to another aspect: Apple's global market position. With a market capitalization of more than $ 500bn, Apple is among the most valuable and profitable companies in the world.Apple has been building up a very big reputation and a very strong brand, I suppose that Apple is within the most expensive brands on earth. Everybody associates automatically Apple with innovation, design, quality, difference, etc. Apple has positioned itself to a certain type of customer, wealthy people, innovators, people with good jobs, good lifestyle, etc. To make it clearer, let’s have a look at this chart. The chart illustrates Apple’s quarterly revenue by product category in a period of almost 6 years from 2006 to 2012. In general, Apple’s revenue increased with some slight decrease over the period.The Iphone generates almost two-thirds of apple’s profit while IPads likely contributes about 10-15% of its profit. In addition, Macs and Others likely account for just under 30% of the company’s revenue. That’s some information about achievement of Apple. Inc. III. conclusion Unfortunately, we seem to have run out of time, so we will move on to the end of the presentation. But before we stop, let me go through our mains again. Our presentation can be divided into 4 parts. First, we talked about history of Apple Inc. Next, we showed you some information of human resources. then, development strategies was brought to you.And finally, we talked about achievements of Apple. I think human resources is the key issue for the success of company. Apple had a great CEO. Yes, I think all of you know him – You-Know-Who. He is the genius with amazing strategies that promote Apple and their products so much. We’d therefore recommend that we should have some experience with Apple’s products. With them, we can study, work or entertain everytime, everywhere. To sum up, I believe Apple is the best global brand of the world in mobile technology. OK, I think that’s everything I wanted to say. Thank you all for listening . Now, we just have time for a few questions.

Thailand vs. Indonesia

I enjoy spending my summer vacation traveling. I have visited a lot of countries but here i am going to talk about two beautiful countries,Thailand and Indonesia. They both beautiful. They're very similar but different in some points. For me, the atmosphere in the streets of Thailand and Indonesia is very similar. Both streets are full of life. In Thailand, stalls fill it streets. You can find a lot of things accessories, books, movies and even clothes. Trees shade the roads, the smell of fresh air filling the place. I'd go out strolling by myself and lose sense of time.In Indonesia bazaars and food trucks are everywhere. The tropical rain forests there are just breathtaking . The sight of nature and stalls reminded me of Thailand. In spite of their similarities, Thailand and Indonesia are different in some points. Indonesia is an Islamic country. The number of big mosques there is 100,000 while the small ones are over half a million. There is no transportation other than cars; the t raffic is 24/7 which can waste a lot of time. There is a huge amount of Homeless people begging for food or money which is very sad and heartbreaking fact.On the other hand, there are 3,494 mosques in Thailand even though it's a Buddhist country. There are subways and metros that are very well arranged which saves a lot of time. The citizens there are financially stable, you seldom see people panhandling there. In my point of view I find the similarity and differences in both countries beautiful. Thailand and Indonesia are different in how developed they are, but they're also similar in nature and how energetic they are. I enjoyed both countries and I sure intend to spend my next vacation in one of these two beautiful countries again.

COMMUNICATION IN BUSINESS - case study format Essay - 1

COMMUNICATION IN BUSINESS - case study format - Essay Example IKEA is a European company and its business and organisational culture differs with Chinese culture. Hence, it has to face multiple hindrances in controlling the Chinese market. Besides, the government’s trade policies for MNCs are another major issue for IKEA in offering lower cost product and hence, it becomes difficult for the company to compete with other domestic furniture manufacturing companies. There are two major problems in IKEA for its China market that includes cross cultural communication gap and government policies. In this process, the primary aim of IKEA is to understand the core Chinese culture which must be blended with IKEA organisational culture. Understanding of local culture is inevitable for IKEA. Therefore, it should develop its internal organisation’s culture and communicational process by implementing integrated marketing communication model. It also needs to achieve higher efficiency of its multinational teams, and IKEA should try to increase the number of Chinese employees to understand and convince target consumer group. Besides, government’s support is also very essential for IKEA so it must increase its activities relating to corporate social responsibility. Introduction Globalization has brought significant changes in human activities and their lifestyles. It has led to accelerate the growth and development of entire world economies and societies. Trade and business activities are one of the most crucial areas that have experienced tremendous growth since last two decades. The increasing global exchanges enhanced the importance of international trade and policies. Besides, the business agreements and treaties have facilitated the international communication and business activities. These reasons have provided greater opportunities to business organisations and hence, they keep expanding their geographical boundaries i.e. in overseas market. However, in this process, multinational companies (MNC) have to count er certain hindrances that affect efficiency of management. Cross cultural diversities and communication gap are the major challenges for MNCs (DuBrin, 2008, p.66). This paper will attempt to analyse a case of a multinational company facing hindrances in managing its international division ion a culturally diversified country. This paper will analyse major factors behind such issues and will provide a relevant solutions and recommendations. Finally, the entire discussions, analyses and outcomes will be concluded. Terms of Reference This paper will provide a description and solutions of problems faced by IKEA in Chinese market due to political, social and business cultural differences. IKEA is a world renowned furniture manufacturing company and it has expanded its market in China. Currently, this multinational company is facing problems in its Chinese market and hence, it has asked to prepare a report addressing the major causes for such issues in China. The company also needs prope r strategic solutions and recommendations to counter these issues facing in Chinese market. Overview of the Situation Overview of Company IKEA (Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd) is a Sweden based, private holding multinational company and it is the largest furniture manufacturer in entire UK and Europe. The company was founded by Ingvar Kamprad during 1943. Initially, IKEA used to sell pens, tables, picture

Process Analysis Essay on the Language of Mordovia

Process Analysis on the Language of Mordovia - Essay Example This paper was also able to explain important aspects and developments which now seem to impact on the preservation and use of the Mordovian language. These details formulate part of this paper’s critical analysis. Such details provide links between societal changes and their impact on the language. The explanation of the writer is orderly and detailed. The essay was able to present a structured paper as it discusses the Mordovian language based on the contribution of their society and the Russian historical developments. The paper is highly substantive. In evaluating the content and substance of this paper, it has been noted that the author has concentrated his analysis on a historical context. Although this analysis process is helpful in evaluating the development of the language, it does not provide details in relation to development milestones which would also have impacted on the growth or the decline of the language. The content of the paper is also lacking in more speci fic details in terms of the Russian influence and in terms of the people’s acceptance of their language and changes in such language. The materials, as well as the discussions of the references chosen to support this study, are very much relevant and appropriate for this paper. They help provide support for the contents and for the substance of this topic, as well as provide clarity for some vague aspects of the subject matter. In effect, the topic for this essay is very much relevant because there are various changes being seen in the development of this language – changes which are contributing to the decline of this language’s usage in Mordovian society. The essay is highly informative in terms of presenting important aspects of the Mordovian language, its people, and its history. The discussion is not based on a unidimensional discussion, it is based on a dynamic and diverse perspective on the Mordovian language. The essay even made a clear pitch towards its discussion on the future of the language and its current prospects based on the contemporary global situation. The author tried to ensure that the paper was plagiarism free, however, there are gaps in the paper which seem to indicate that the statement being made are of the author’s own words, when in fact they come from a resource material. The paper needs to be improved in terms of summarization and paraphrasing in order to avoid plagiarism and to ensure that the author’s own words are not used as personal words for this paper. It would have been more appropriate for the student to use more words like â€Å"according to,† â€Å"in the book by,† â€Å"based on,† and similar words which indicate that the statement is not of the student’s own opinion or analysis. This essay is based on the APA format and the student made use of proper APA formatting. The reference page however is not properly formatted. The APA format is not supposed to be n umbered and the references must be placed on a hanging indent. The indents for each paragraph are also not based on the APA format. The flow of ideas from one paragraph to the other is mostly logical. For the most part, the links for the different paragraphs are based on the logical movement of ideas. However, there are some gaps in the flow with some of the paragraphs failing to provide links to the next paragraph.