Database Administrator Z/Os free essay sample

Sanders DB2 10 Exam 610 Practice Questions by Robert Wingate For certification test: DB2 9 DBA for z/OS (000-732) DB2 9 for z/OS Database Administration: Certification Study Guide by Susan Lawson and Daniel Luksetich DB2 10 DBA for z/OS (000-612) DB2 10 for z/OS Database Administration: Certification Study Guide by Susan Lawson and Daniel Luksetich For certification test: DB2 9 System Administrator for z/OS (000-737) DB2 9 System Administration for z/OS: Certification Study Guide: Exam 737 by Judy Nall DB2 10 System Administrator for z/OS (000-617) DB2 10 System Administration for z/OS: Certification Study Guide: Exam 617 by Judy Nall (due out in May of 2013) 2)Then there is the following free tutorial: For certification test: DB2 9 Fundamentals (000-730) DB2 9 Fundamentals certification 730 prep series at http://www. ibm. com/developerworks/offers/lp/db2cert/db2-cert730. html For certification test: DB2 10 Fundamentals (000-610) DB2 10 Fundamentals certification 610 prep series at http://www. bm. com/developerworks/data/tutorials/db2-cert6101/index. html 3)$30 IBM practice exams: For certification test: DB2 9

Crystel, a Study in Leadership

Crystel, a Study in Leadership Free Online Research Papers Leadership, as defined by Robert J. Shiver, chairman and CEO of New York City – based Aewav Holdings, Inc., is â€Å"the ability to motivate and guide people toward a goal.† Leadership includes influencing and enabling others to contribute to the successes of the company or team to which one belongs. A key point of leadership has to do with competency. The competency trait includes knowledge, skills, abilities, and values. (McShane Glinow 2005, p. 4) CrysTel, which is based out of Illinois, employs 2,500 people and has annual revenue of $200 million. Their company produces products such as: data cables, wireless solutions, and network development. With in the simulation it identified strong and weak areas within the organization and apply behavioral changes. This would build a culture that could maintain and continue change. When faced with the challenge of bringing on new products to the companies portfolio, in an effort to keep up with the demands of the market, it was essential to asses the areas that were not able and ready to handle this constant change. Some important aspects to consider in making these decisions are leadership quality, communication within the team, and motivation. After the evaluation, it was realized that the performance of any department has a direct relationship to the flow of communication, the kind of leadership, and the level at which the employees are motivated. Once the weakness was identified in each department, the company had to initiate activities that would help the departments change their weaknesses into strengths. When determining those activities, the company had to take into consideration the department’s resistance factors. Activities that were implemented included: constant communication with employees, creating a training calendar and appointing mentors, creating a conflict resolution forum, empowering teams to decide on targets and leaders, etc. â€Å"All organizational structures include two fundamental requirements: the division of labor into distinct tasks and the coordination of that labor so that employees are able to accomplish common goals.† (McShane Von Glinow, 2005, p. 446). CrysTel currently holds an organizational structure of centralization. â€Å"Centralization means that formal decision-making authority is held by a small group of people, typically those at the top of the organizational hierarchy. Most organizations begin with centralized structures, as the founder makes most of the decisions and tries to direct the business toward his or her vision.† (McShane Von Glinow, 2005, p. 451). CrysTel follows this organizational structure with top positions of Chief Executive Officer, Vice President of Technology Development, Vice President of Sales and Delivery, Vice President of Marketing, and Vice President of Human Resources. The individuals at these levels are considered experts of the business and understand the fitness manufacturers industry. Each one of these positions holds power, prestige, and great intelligence. CrysTel uses the functional structure in conjunction with the formalization structure. â€Å"Functional structure organizes employees around specific knowledge or other resources. Employees with marketing expertise are grouped into a marketing unit, those with production skills are located in manufacturing, engineers are found in product development, and so on. Organizations with functional structures are typically centralized to coordinate their activities effectively.† (McShane Von Glinow, 2005, p. 456). CrysTel’s departments of expertise consist of technology development, human resources, technology operations, sales and delivery and marketing. Within each of these departments, there are several levels of leadership: team managers, senior managers, and vice presidents. CrysTel has been continually going through changes with their products with rapid and frequent advances in the telecommunications industry that inevitably lead to new expectations which require new management changes. With the enormous amount of change that occurs in organizations, employees depend on information to reduce the level of uncertainty about what is about to happen next. The better CrysTel can cope with feelings of uncertainty among their employees, the better they can achieve their goals as a profitable, successful company. â€Å"Individuals and work units acquire power by helping the organization to cope with uncertainty. Coping includes any activity that effectively deals with environmental uncertainties affecting the organization.† (McShane Von Glinow, 2005, p. 363). There are three general strategies that help organizations to cope with uncertainty among their employees. They are: prevention, forecasting, and absorption. Prevention being the most powerful tool. Prevention is when the most powerful people in the organization can prevent environmental changes from taking place. Forecasting is the second most powerful tool. With forecasting it is expected that powerful people will try to predict environmental changes or variations. Absorption is when work units also gain power by absorbing the impact of environmental shifts as they occur. All three of these strategies must be practiced by CrysTel for employees to have a sense of certainty in the company. Additional ways to ease employees’ reaction to change is to create visibility and networking methods in the office and to ensure that these methods are known throughout the office. â€Å"Those who control valued resources or knowledge will yield power only when others are aware of these power bases, in other words, when it is visible. Even when someone’s legitimate power has no effect until employees are aware of the person’s position or status in the organization. One way to increase visibility is to take people-oriented jobs and work on projects that require frequent interaction with senior executives.† (McShane Von Glinow, 2005, p. 366). When visibility becomes part of the picture team members seem to be more open to upper management’s ideas and tend to have a greater incentive to be on board with the mission, decisions, and objectives that affect the whole company. Employees want to know what is happening and why, they want to know how it wi ll affect them. When employees know these things they become more apt to go along with the company. Networking is another method to manage reaction to change. Many good things come from networking such as building credibility and trust. â€Å"Networks consist of people who trust each other, which increases the flow of information among those within the network. The more you network, the more likely you will receive valuable information that increases your expert power in the organization.† (McShane Von Glinow, 2005, p. 367). â€Å"Leadership is the ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute to the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members.† (McShane Von Glinow, 2005, p. 416). CrysTel needs phenomenal leadership for them to grow and manage large initiatives. â€Å"Leadership isn’t restricted to the executive suite. Anyone in the organization can be a leader.† (McShane Von Glinow, 2005, p. 416). CrysTel must communicate this concept to all employees and bring them on board with the company. Leadership must take place in all levels of the company, from the cubicles on up to the CEO. They must be open minded to new ideas and embrace the thoughts of changing processes that can work more effectively and efficiently. Leadership style should be people-oriented with the seven competencies integrated. The people-oriented leadership style is a leadership style that is well liked. When a boss treats their employee like an equal and listens to their suggestions, they will respect them. trust them and want to work harder for them. Through this style of leadership a greater job satisfaction level, lower absenteeism, grievances, and turnover can be achieved. â€Å"Leaders with strong people-oriented style listen to employee suggestions, do personal favors for employees, support their interests when required, and treat employees as equals.† (McShane Von Glinow, 2004, p. 421). Using the path-goal theory of leadership would be the best. This theory of leadership would fit some situations better than using judgment calls based on the people-oriented theory. â€Å"Path-goal leadership theory is a contingency theory of leadership based on expectancy theory of motivation that relates several leadership styles to specific situational contingencies.† (McShane Von Glinow, 2004, p. 422). Through this theory leaders are able to strengthen the performance-to-outcome expectancy and valences of those outcomes. They are able to do so by ensuring that employees who perform their jobs well have a higher degree of need fulfillment than employees who do not perform well. (McShane Von Glinow, 2005, p. 422). Through the combination of the people-oriented theory of leadership for a foundation and using the path-goal leadership theory in practice, when the timing is right, would be the leadership methods best used for implementing a major initiative. These styles of leadership will work the best for CrysTel because of the people friendly feel they portray. Since, employees resist command driven leadership which results in lower job satisfaction, lower attendance and higher turnover. Each of those implications can be very costly to a company. Employees will work harder for management whom they fell respects them, one who treats them with integrity and shows equality, while making work enjoyable. Transformational leadership is also another great way to lead people and have them understand what the company is all about. The elements of transformational leadership are: creating a vision, communicating the vision, modeling the vision, and building commitment to the vision. Transformational leaders actually perform all of these tasks. They not only come up the vision, they also find effective ways to communicate the vision to the employees while modeling how to fulfill the vision. When the employees see the â€Å"vision maker† actually â€Å"walking the walk† and enacting the vision, naturally they will build commitment to the vision. Using this transformational leadership method to outline what the leaders hoped to accomplish, along with an explanation of what roles the company needed to be filled and what the roles would be doing, and working as a team to make it happen would help them in their pursuit. Together, this will build a commitment to reach the goal as a team and give everyone the drive to achieve the end vision. Recommendation of Measures to Monitor Progress After running the simulation of change management, I feel that the culture at CrysTel is not all positive. Within this simulation I was given the role of researching and analyzing which departments needed changes and which departments were resistant to change. I was also assigned the task of providing the information required to optimize flexibility, promote innovation, and sustain change. I had to identify strong and weak areas of the organization and apply behavior change techniques that would build a culture that would be able to sustain change. During these tasks, I received input from the organization’s perspective and upper management. There were five strong upper management employees who advised me along the way. There were several behavior restrictions that could be altered although I had to figured out what departments needed altering and by how much. Leading by example, employee and senior communication, empowering teams, risk-taking, resolving conflict, and mentori ng sessions were the behaviors I worked with. Certain departments were stronger than others but a few stood out as very weak. These were the sales, and delivery and marketing. The formalization organization structure and the functional organization structure are compatible structures that will work hand in hand. The formalization concept explains how the business is run in terms of organization structure of employees. The function structure describes how the business is structured in terms of functionality. These organizational structures will create a culture that will follow the upper management of greater power and modeling their behaviors. It will also create a more departmentalized structure that thinks about the effects on their department only and does not work in teams with other departments. The functional organization structure should be less about the goals of each department on their own, but more about the department and how it can work with other departments to find best practices, core competencies, and idea sharing. As I worked through the simulation and made decisions based on areas of weakness and resistance to change, I found apprehension among the employees when change occurred. â€Å"Organization politics are behaviors that others perceive as self-serving tactics for personal gain at the expense of other people and possibly the organization. While influence is sometimes beneficial to the organization, organizational politics is usually considered undesirable.† (McShane Von Glinow, 2005, p. 375). â€Å"People have referent power when others identify with them, like them, or otherwise respect them. Like expert power, referent power comes from within the person. It is largely a function of the person’s interpersonal skills and usually develops slowly. Referent power is usually associated with charismatic leadership.† (McShane Von Glinow, 2005, p. 362). This is a much more positive, effective way to use your power to win other subordinates over that you want to buy-into your changes and whom you want to gain respect from. This is an option that I wish I would have had control over in the simulation. When choosing to implement a change in a behavioral parameter, I wish I would have had the option to choose what kind of leadership style this change was implemented with. As our reading spelled out, there are several ways of using power in a negative way and too often, those ways are sometimes easier and take less work or time but do not result in true and genuine feelings from employees. Recommendation of Management Practices that Contribute to the Success of Change Process Change is the tidal wave of irresistible force that occurs in the workplace each day. Employees who try and deny change and expect it never to take place will end up on the outside of the company. There are ways that management can bring about change quickly and gracefully. In an article in KM World, Art Murray of Applied Knowledge Sciences discusses basic techniques to gain focused concentration on vision, mission, strategy and objectives. He points out that performance drivers, key people, processes and technologies can aid in complete transformation when a company practices repetition and the desired change becomes habitual (Murray, 2007). Murray points out three managerial practices that are sure to aid in the success of the organizational change: Focused concentration, relentless repetition, and living embodiment. â€Å"Change cannot occur if energy is misdirected. Vision and mission, strategy and objectives, performance drivers and key people, and processes and technologies must be closely aligned and in balance. Lack of organizational alignment means energy is being wasted in places not critical to the mission. Maximum transfer of energy comes from focusing your efforts only on those key areas having the greatest impact on mission success.† (Murray, 2007). Managers must constantly have the vision and mission in the front of their minds and always be looking for the gaps that are holding the team back. The goal should be to try to close the gaps one at a time. â€Å"Then look for hidden opportunities that can give you even greater results, using what you already have.† (Murray, 2007). Every company is aware of the importance for standard operation procedures and doing things the right way and playing by the rules. A business is efficient and effective when there are specific rules and standards in place for every day operations. These standards serve their purpose when everyone follows them each and every time. If these rules weren’t followed consistently and closely, they would do the company no good. â€Å"Complete transformation can only occur when the desired change in behavior becomes habitual, to the point where the employee no longer has to think about it.† (Murray, 2007). Something that often happens is after the new initiative is launched and all the new standard operating procedures are in place, new training has been done, execution doesn’t follow. The employees slowly begin to fall back to their old habits and get caught up in day to day operations â€Å"That’s where repetition comes in. As the leading change agent, a manager must continue to bang the drum relentlessly. And if the manager is not focused, the message will quickly get lost among the distractions. A clear theme, with a clear result, communicated many times over, will eventually take hold.† (Murray, 2007). The final concept is living embodiment, not just talking the talk but actually walking the walk. If the manager practices what he preaches to his team, the team is more likely to follow his actions. Not only does this aid in demonstrating to the team how the action is to be performed but is also shows the real belief and support the manager gives to the change. Murray also brings up a very simple concept of lessons learned that can save companies millions. â€Å"Lessons-learned can save the company money by eliminating the waste that comes from repeated mistakes. At the end of each task or activity, take some time to document what worked, what didn’t work and how to do it better. Uncover the root cause of the problem and correct it.† (Murray, 2007). This drill will often times uncover a gap in the process or inadequate controls that allow shortcuts or inappropriate standards. This short but important task could save the company time and money in the long run. As the world changes and the consumers change with it companies will need to follow suit. Those who do not follow suit will fall by behind and die out. CrysTel needs to get their employees on board and ready and willing to embrace change. Once they have embraced change have found the best form of leadership for their company they will be able to move forward with confidence that they will succeed. â€Å"Don’t even think about not practicing the change yourself. If you can’t stick to it, don’t expect others to. The real challenge is finding the balance in challenging work habits while delivering a measurable boost in performance.† (Murray, 2007). References McShane, Steve L Von Ginlow Marry Ann. (2005). Organizational Behavior: Emerging Realities for the Workplace Revolution. Retrieved from McShane, Steve L Von Ginlow Marry Ann, MMPBL/520 website. Murray, Art. (2007). The Future of the Future: Overcoming resistance to change. KM World, 16(19),Retrieved from kmworld.com/Articles/Column/Future-of-the-Future/The-Future-of-the-Future-Overcoming-resistance-to-change-39710.aspx University of Phoenix. (200?). Building a Culture for Sustaining Change [Computer Software]. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, Simulation, MMPBL/520 website. Research Papers on Crystel, a Study in LeadershipAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaThe Project Managment Office SystemOpen Architechture a white paperBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductResearch Process Part OneDefinition of Export QuotasPETSTEL analysis of IndiaTwilight of the UAW

Reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 27

Reflection - Essay Example In the course, one is required be very effective in working with project teams. The first thing that was done was that we were divided into three groups and each group was given responsibility for different parts. In the team that I was in, Eric was chosen to be the team leader. The primary responsibility of a team leader is to allocate tasks among the team members. However, a member could at times be allowed to choose to participate in areas they thought they were best suited for. Normally, I am not good in communicating the requirements, so the team leader wrote down the requirements of the tasks for me and if anyone had issues with it, we would discuss it out and find a neutral ground. This was a very efficient system in that if one were not able to cut the handgrip from a racket, we could help him/her. I am not good in writing, so the team leader helped me to fix the grammar. I, however, think that I have fully exhausted the purpose of the Senior Design Projects, which was â€Å"to utilize your knowledge, as a senior student to perform a major open-ended design project†. One of the main objectives of this project is to make the treatment methods of the patients better and more efficient. From the duration that I spent in the facility, I realized that I required much technical knowledge that I have not acquired yet. A notable example is that we need to design games and yet am not able to design a 2-D game. However, for the creation of 3-D games, I can easily handle since I had already acquired that knowledge from Miami University where I was taught to use Abacus CAE to design a model for the handgrip. I was also able to apply the knowledge from physics on how to cut the handgrip from the racket. Another requirement for the course is to gain experience from the capstone experience. It provided us with the chance of gaining experience on how a project is done in a real business environment. The

The Mississippi River Lab Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Mississippi River Lab - Assignment Example The two questions asked during the study are The subjects were also asked to give approximations of the length of the Mississippi River. Most of the respondents thought that the Mississippi River is 5000 miles. The summary of the length approximations of the Mississippi river as per the subjects is presented in table 2. It is rather conclusive from the results of this paper that many people think that the Mississippi river is longer than 840m miles. Many people as evident in the respondents also think that the Mississippi River is longer than 3840 miles. However, from the length approximations, we can speculate that most people do not know the actual length of the Mississippi River. Majority of the people thought that the river is 5000 miles as shown in table 2. The approximation is way above the length used in this study as a reference point. This study assumed that the length of the Mississippi River is 2340 miles long. In relation to the results from the subjects, the actual and real length of the Mississippi River is less than half the length approximated by the respondents. According to the National Park Service, the actual length of the Mississippi River is 2350 miles

Immigrants in detroit Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Immigrants in detroit - Research Paper Example tates and taking jobs from less fortunate Americans, which in all honesty those Americans are not willing to do those jobs anyways, but that still remains to be a huge debate. Americans get angry on immigration because if immigrants take the time to actually come to this country, they should take the time to become a legalized citizen of the US. Even if immigrants get the citizenship would Americans opinions change? Another problem associated with immigration is that it increases the population of the country and therefore, many look at immigration as a huge dilemma and in some eyes it is completely true. Detroit is one of the most exposed states of Michigan where immigrants visit to find jobs, socioeconomic status, etc. Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a major port city on the Detroit River in the Midwest region of the United States. Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south of Canada. Detroit is known as the world’s traditional automotive center and that’s why it has got two nicknames: The Motor City and Motown. From 1805 to 1847, Detroit was the capital of Michigan. The city assumed great importance after the mid-19th century as a shipping, shipbuilding, and manufacturing center, attracting migrants from around the world including Poles, Italians, Germans, Serbs, Croats and others. However, large number of migrants came from the South, especially African Americans who arrived in Detroit after 1900 as factory production increased rapidly. Detroit was the leading producer for the military during World Wars I and II. Industry spurred growth during the first half of the twentieth century as the city drew tens of thousands of new residents particularly workers from the Southern United States to become the nation’s fourth largest. At the same time, tens of thousands of European immigrants poured into the city. Social tensions rose with the rapid pace of growth. The color-blind promotion policies of the auto plants

Why Divorce Is A Good Thing

Why Divorce Is A Good Thing We owe all the wonderful aspects of modern marriage to one thing: divorce. You will hear just the opposite, of course. Religious fundamentalists and politicians will tell you that divorce is crumbling our society, ruining childrens lives, and weakening the moral character of the nation. Dont listen to them. They know perfectly well why divorce is a good thing, they just dont want you to ever find out. Divorce means choice. Divorce means that two people do not have to remain bound to each other until the grave, as society dictated until the 20th century. Divorce means that human beings can determine the path their life will take. And at its very root, divorce provides for that most crucial, most valuable of human experiences: happiness. Divorce is also the great equalizer, and the hallmark of a truly advanced society in terms of womens rights. No woman can ever claim to feel like property or subjugated by men where are there are equitable divorce laws in place. When we look back at ancient civilizations, the ones that stand out are the ones like ancient Egypt which provided equitable treatment for women and the accessibility of divorce as a way to end a legal marriage. Even in the modern world, the best countries for women are those that allow them to divorce freely and without social stigma. But the freedom to live your life how you please, without affecting how others live theirs, is something that a great number of people dont want you to have. Religions in particular seem devoted to making sure that you donà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢t live how you please, that your every action is analyzed and criticized and ultimately judged. Whether its a stern and moralistic God or a harsh and judgmental society you claim as your higher power, be aware that both of them have one central belief at their core: personal happiness is bad, and personal choice is worse. The Catholic Church, for example, maintains that if you marry someone while your first spouse is still alive, you are committing adultery and will go to Hell. You are not allowed to put aside one spouse and find another, no matter what the reason. They dont like the idea of your having sex with more than one person in your life, even if you want to marry each person that you have it with. Or do they? If your spouse dies they have put no such hex on you. Widows and widowers are given the full blessing of the church to marry again. The limit seems to be three marriages, although Im not sure how stringently this rule is applied. It may be that the widowed are allowed marrying as often as they wish. But even if the church absolutely forbids a widowed person from re-marrying more than twice, it still means that the church would rather sanction youà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢re having sexual relations with three people in your life, rather than let you be married to two if the first one is merely divorced from you. Its adultery and fornication if you divorce one spouse and remarry even once, but legitimate carnal relations if you marry three times because the other two died. This cant possibly indicate a desire to limit the number of sexual partners you have, or to stamp out the sin of sex. I couldnt understand this breach in logic. As much as I disagree with the premise, if youre going to claim that all sex outside the bonds of your first marriage is sinful, then surely you have to call the widowed fornicators too, as much as the divorced are. But the church doesnt. And for years, neither did the public at large. Widowed people were pitied but respected. Divorced people caused scandal, were looked down upon by respectable people, were shunned and considered morally bankrupt. Now I know why. Its a question of choice, of volition, a unique human quality. The church, and society, simply wouldnt allow you to exercise your volition beyond that first choice of partner you made a choice, by the way, that was often made for you by your parents and had nothing to do with what you wanted. Nothing would justify wanting to make another choice later in life. Only God could do that, it seems. If God took your partner away from you, you had no choice in that, and therefore, you were allowed to choose again. If God decided to take that spouse from you too, that wasnt your choice either. As long as you yourself werent thinking and choosing and making your own decisions about your life, the church would be lenient on you. The minute you decided to affect change in your own life, to undo something you regretted doing or something that no longer served a purpose in your life, you were branded a sinner. So for centuries, miserably married people could only find freedom in the grave. Many people killed their mates to be free of them. It was not uncommon for aristocrats, attempting to climb the social ladder, to arrange for their no-longer-advantageous spouses to fall down stairs or eat poisoned meat so that they, the aristocrats, could marry someone higher up in the echelon of the nobility. For those without the stomach for murder, there was no option. There may have been unofficial separations as there are today, but the medieval mind was so accustomed to accepting discomfort and sacrifice that most unhappily married people stayed together because they felt it was their lot in life to suffer. Its a sentiment that carried through to our grandparents, and even our parents to some extent, many of whom lived out lives of unhappiness and dissatisfaction, bound for life to someone that contributed to the misery of their life, all under the guise of respecting the sanctity of wedlock. It was only when people started believing that their happiness was more important than a vow to God, that they had choice in life and were free to make choices responsibly, that marriage was a voluntary, mutually agreed upon partnership of respect and love that could dissolve if that love and respect disappearedit was only then that people started seeing marriage as an expression of joy and started enjoying the marriages they had. There is nothing sacred about a loveless marriage. Whats sacred is having the freedom to enjoy the best kind of marriage possible, the kind freely entered into by two people who understand that it could end if they neglect or abuse their partner, or that it could last a lifetime if they both want it to. Whats sacred is knowing that a satisfying, happy marriage is always possible, no matter who you find yourself with at the moment or how many times youve tried to make it work and failed. Whats sacred is saying to yourself, and your children, that happiness in love is a crucial component of a healthy life, that sacrificing that happiness for some fuzzy morality is an insult to the human mind. People who divorce and remarry respect the institution of marriage, and respect themselves. As difficult as divorce may be, as painful and unpleasant as it may be, it is necessary to preserve the essential beauty of marriage. People are much more likely to respect and honor each other, to stay in love, when they know that if they dont earn their partners love and admiration, constantly, their marriage could end. People who are bound, inextricably, to each other for life have no incentive to be good to each other. Children and Divorce But what about the children? Its a cry we hear constantly, in protest against everything from adult sites on the internet to garbage dumps to government cutbacks. Future generations, it seems, are far, far more important than this one. But I digress. I will discuss the issue of children and their relationship to marriage in a later page. Yes, children are often hurt by divorce. Yes, it can be painful for a child to see his parents split up. But I believe it is far more damaging for an adult to have grown up in a household where love has disappeared from his parents marriage, and therefore the only experience he has with it is that its a doomed institution, a miserable partnership, something he never expects will give him joy. One of the biggest mistakes parents make in child rearing is in putting their marriage last. It is imperative that you put your marriage first, not only for yourselves, but also for your children. Show your children what a marriage is, what they can expect and look forward to when they grow up. Show them a couple who are deeply in love and committed to each other, show them a man and woman enjoying being in love, respecting each other, living with each other, loving each other. If they see this, they will want and expect this for themselves. They will know what a good relationship is, and wont get drawn into bad ones. So what happens if you arent that blissful couple? What happens if you dont love each other, if your marriage isnt good? Then is that something you want your children to emulate? Even if your partner is the best parent in the world, it will do your child a great disservice if the two of you fight and hurt each other and then turn around and behave sweetly to your child. It will make your child feel uncomfortable, like they are somehow usurping love from one of their parents. Children plainly understand that their parents are supposed to be in love. Its what assures them that when they grow up theyll be in love as well. If you dont have a loving model to show your children, you are doing them no favors by staying married. Divorce. Separate yourselves from each other, and continue to be good, if separate, parents. Marry again, choosing carefully, so that your children can see that it s alright to want happiness for yourself and to go after it. Show them its alright to leave one marriag e if its bad and start another one thats better. Give them some idea of what to expect for their own happiness in the future. Divorce isnt easy. And naturally a happy marriage is preferable to divorce any day. I dont blame anyone for being afraid of divorce or for not wanting their marriage to end. But if we really want to understand what makes free, unfettered, romantic marriage possible, we have to embrace that which makes it possible, and give it the quiet respect it deserves.

Apartheid in South Africa :: Apartheid South Africa Segregation Essays

Apartheid in South Africa Apartheid is the political policy of racial segregation. In Afrikaans, it means apartness, and it was pioneered in 1948 by the South African National Party when it came to power. Not only did apartheid separate whites from non-whites, it also segregated the Blacks (Africans) from the Coloreds (Indians, Asians). All things such as jobs, schools, railway stations, beaches, park benches, public toilets and even parliament. Apartheid also prevented blacks from living in white areas. This brought about the hated "pass laws". These laws required any non-white to carry a pass on him or her. Unless it was stamped on their pass, they were not allowed to stay in a white area for more than 72 hours. Despite the fact that the whites only make up just over 14% of the population, they own 86.3% of the land. However, it must be said that the Afrikaaners are entitled to the Orange Free State and Transvaal as they were first to use it after the Great Trek of 1836. The average South African White earns eight times as much as the average black man. Coloureds earn three times as much as black while colords earn well over half of what whites earn. During Apartheid, media censorship was at an all time high. People were even banned from showing Soweto on television. It was common to see a newspaper shut down, and then start again after being halted by the government. Up until 1985, mixed marriages were banned. This meant that a person of one race cold not marry a person of another race. Apartheid was not only used in theory, but also by law. Every person was classifed, just like an animal, as white, black or coloured. The system of Apartheid began to deteriorate in the mid to late 1980's. In 1985, mixed marriages were allowed, the Pass laws repealed, and a general weakening of petty segregation laws regarding parks and beaches. In 1994, the entire system collapsed after Pres. F.W. de Klerk gave non- whites to vote. Nelson Mandella was elected tooffice following his prison release in February 1990. GROUP AREAS ACT A Group Areas Act, froom 1948, set aside most of the coutntry for use by the whites. Smaller, and less desiracle areas called 'bantustans' were set aside for blacks. These areas are over crowded, un sanitory, and most of all, unhygenic. Soweto, a large bantustan, is the size of Brighton, yet has over two million peopl in it. Blacks were told to regard these desolate and unfertile areas as their 'homelands'. Over half of the black South African population lived, not in these batustans, but in the white areas of the country for cheap labour.

Scapegoating

Scapegoating, (v, act of singling out any party for unmerited, negative treatment) has been around since the biblical days, and still exists in many different forms today. Although there are many reasons a person or group of people may have for choosing a scapegoat, the bottom line is the simple fact that the â€Å"blamer† does not want to accept responsibility for their own actions or feelings.Whether fueled by hostility, aggression, frustration or jealousy, the scapegoat is singled out as the cause of those unwanted feelings, and for any trouble that may come up along the way. Scapegoating can happen anywhere from right at home within the family, right up the line to various issues within society and politics. Within the home, although most people view this to be their â€Å"safe place,† this may not be the case for some.There are many families that either knowingly or unknowingly pick one member of the family to be the scapegoat. This person will bear the brunt of mo st or sometimes all family members’ anger and frustrations. There are different factors that contribute to how this person is chosen, such as: being viewed to be weaker, they may have traits of un liked relative or friend of the family, or many other unknown reasons. Eventually, this person will begin to accept this to be their lot in life, and begin to accept the blame as reality.This will lead to emotional, behavioral, and social problems, as well as lead to low self- confidence and low self -worth. Another common place to see issues of scapegoating or bullying would be within society and politics. Some societies will place the blame for certain social problems on certain groups. There are places in the world that label specific tribes or ethnicities as the cause for what is going on. Countries will put the blame for government issues onto the President, or Prime Minister.The leader of these countries will then in turn use scapegoating to distract from more serious, underly ing issues by keeping the public busy blaming another person, country or group. The bottom line is that scapegoating, although it may seem convenient at the time, does not actually solve anything! It can lead to violence, hatred, segregation, and more serious issues. There are very rare instances of anything positive coming from scapegoating in a family setting, and even more within society and politics.

Women

Women have a significant importance in the society. They play the fundamental role in the improvement of a nation. In many societies, the place of women has been discussed for numerous times. Each society placed the women in their society variously. Their view of women had shaped according to their style of living, culture, laws, and religion. Even in the modern era, the place of the women is still not clear. It can be seen the level of development of a civilization by looking how women are positioned in that civilization. Although women sometimes lived in a state of liberty, they mainly have limited life. Almost every emerging civilization had set limits on women's freedom of expression and travel. Unfortunately, in much of human history, women had treated as they were the second-class citizen and women were expected to be submissive. Mostly, they were depended on their husbands or fathers. To give an example, in Ancient Greece, women did not have many rights. Women were not permitted to become a citizen of the Athenian city-state. Since they were not able to own their property, they were not able to hold full citizenship rights. Women actually had fewer rights than slaves because they were never allowed their own freedoms (GreekBoston.com). Also, Emory Adams Allen stated that Athenian women were always minors, subject to some male- to their father, to their brother, or to some of their male kin (444). There was even this saying in Ancient Greece time †The best woman is the one who never speaks† (Berktay 106) As a matter of fact, many examples can be given from history such as Romans, Ancient Egypt etc. Though, the point is that the women in many societies somehow suffered enough. Surely, the suffering of women is not only belonging to the past. Still, women are exposed to verbal abuse, violence, they are forcing into the marriage etc. It needs to point out that there is not only one homogenous and unchangeable woman concept. However, all the women regardless of their race, status, and religion had faced inequality at some point in their lives.The way women are perceived in societies has many factors. One of the greatest factors can be their culture. Since the roles and activities of men are determined by the cultural systems in the societies, the effect of the cultural factor is essential. Culture cannot be defined as a single concept. It covers many aspects such as the style of living, manners, customs, arts, values, morals etc. As anticipated, culture can differ from society to another one. For instance, Turks and Arabs are often confused to have a same cultural system just because they share the same religion. However, those cultural differences were even before the Islam. In pre-Islamic Arab culture, when someone has a daughter as a firstborn, it would be a shame for them. On the contrary for Turks, there were people who wanted Oghuz Lord's prayers to have a daughter (Gà ¶kalp 26). On the other hand, even after Turks' acceptance of Islam, there were great differences between Arabs and Turks such as the monogamy. Arabs have a polygamy culture rather than the monogamy. For this reason, even though both nations are sharing the same religion, the disparities can be seen effortlessly. After touching upon the effect of the culture briefly, now it should be mention another massive effect of perceiving the women, and that is the religion. This paper is an attempt to discuss how women perceived in Christianity and Islam.Before discussing the place of women in Christianity, it is essential to know about the main concept of the human beings in this religion. ‘How human beings are portrayed in Christianity?' The man is considered to be sinful and filthy. Therefore, when an infant comes into the world, (s)he will be baptized to purified from sins and filths. The reason for baptism is to get rid of the original sin which was Adam's and Eve's disobedience to God for eating a forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. It needs to point out that, according to Bible, Adam committed the sin because of Eve tempted him. Eve is portrayed as a seductive woman. Furthermore, Eve is considered to be the first human who fell into sin. As if she is the initiator of all the evilness. Eve is also responsible for the original sin because she tempted Adam. For this reason, women had linked with evil concepts such as wickedness, sin, and seductiveness. The view of women in Christianity has few problems. Church fathers, theologians, and authors have interpreted the bible to the extreme forms to create a widespread feminist literature. (Berktay 105) To give an example, Saint Augustinus, who preoccupied with an incomprehensible mystery of why God created the woman, states that a woman cannot be created only to be a companion for a man. Moreover, a woman simply cannot be created for helping a man because a man can perform this task better. Hence, Augustinus comes to the conclusion that woman has no value aside from child-bringing (Brundage 85). Another North African Christian theologian Tertullianus, who was an extreme misogynist, declared as: You are the gate of hell woman! You are the first to oppose the law of God; you deceived such a man that even the devil would not dare come close to him. You easily ruined the man who was created in the image of God. Because of your blame, even the son of God must die! (Ruther 157). The Christian Bible consists of two main parts, the first part is the Old Testament and the second part is the New Testament. Old testament almost has the same content in Tanakh which is the holy scripture of Jews. However, Tanakh is called Old Testament by Christians and they interpret Tanakh differently. The woman in Old Testament begins with Genesis 2:18 † The Lord God said, â€Å"It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.† It can say that loneliness is not good for the man so that God created a helper for the man, and the helper was Eve. The word of the man refers to Adam. Suitable partner that is in the verse can be defined as a fitting partner for a man. Being partner is also relative to marriage. Afterwards, Eve's creation is mentioned in Genesis 2:21-22 † So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.† According to David Guzik, who is a pastor, God used Adam's own body to create Eve to forever remind him of their essential oneness. Eve and Adam made from same substance. They are more alike than they are different (Guzik). The creation of the human race started in Adam. In Genesis 3:16 † To the woman He said, â€Å"I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.† This verse is the God's curse and punishment upon the woman. The Women were cursed with the severe pain. A woman has to be under the authority of a man, and a wife has to be under the authority of a husband. Man is to lead woman. A woman should be submissive and she must let him to rule over her. Genesis 19 is about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. However, the man who offers his two daughters to the men to rape them instead of two angles that comes to the Sodom is ultimately dreadful. †Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him. and said, â€Å"No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing. Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don't do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.† (Genesis 19:6-8). The low place of women is can be seen easily in these verses, Lot is willing to prostitute his two daughters. In Exodus 21:7-11 And if a man sells his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do. If she please not her master who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed. To sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her. And if he has betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. If he takes for himself another wife, her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage shall he not diminish. And if he does not do these three unto her, then shall she go out free, without money. During the ancient times, slavery was very common for both man and woman. However, when other male servants had right to walk out, female servants had no right to. As in the Cambridge Bible for Schools and the Collages book states that the reason for the different treatment of female slaves is to be found in the fact that a female slave was as a rule her master's concubine (Perowne). These verses refer that it was alright to trade women and female slaves, and undesirable female slaves can be released without money. In addition to that, polygamy was allowed.The distinction between having a male child and female child and it is consequences can be seen in Leviticus 12:1-5: Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, â€Å"Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If a woman has conceived, and borne a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her customary impurity she shall be unclean. And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. She shall then continue in the blood of her purification thirty-three days. She shall not touch any hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled. But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her customary impurity, and she shall continue in the blood of her purification sixty-six days. † These verses are about the ritual impurity after the child-bringing. After a male child comes into the world and circumcised on the eighth day, the woman will be unclean until the eighth day. As David Guzik's commentary on the main understanding of this ceremony is to understand the idea of original sin. Every birth another sinner was brought into the world, and the woman was here symbolically responsible for bringing a new sinner into the world. (Guzik). Moreover, as it seen the period of impurities is increased when having a female child, and the reason for this can be a female child will also give birth a sinner in the future. Leviticus 21:9 states that † And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by playing the whore, she profanity her father: she shall be burnt with fire.† Since the daughter of a priest represents the religion she needs to be careful about her behaviors and she has the responsibility of being a daughter of a priest. Therefore, they need to follow the religion accordingly. However, this verse states that if she dishonors of herself the consequences would be punished fiercely with burning. It is a massive punishment. It needs to emphasize that Why only the daughters of a priest are responsible to follow the religion properly and they are punished when they dishonor themselves but no sons? The sons of a priest are not even mentioned. The way the widows and divorced women were perceived in the Old Testament was not that positive. To give an example, in Ezekiel 44:22 † They must not marry widows or divorced women; they may marry only virgins of Israelite descent or widows of priests.† It is obvious that the priests were not allowed to marry a divorced woman or widows except a priest's divorced wife. Discrimination against divorced women and widows can be observed through this verse.

Introduction to Elasticity in Economics

Introduction to Elasticity in Economics When introducing the concepts of supply and demand, economists often make qualitative statements about how consumers and producers behave. For example, the law of demand states that as the price of a good or service increases, the demand for that good or service decreases. The law of supply states that the quantity of a good produced tends to increase as the market price of that good increases. While these laws are useful, they dont capture everything that economists would like to include in the supply and demand model; as a result, economists have developed quantitative measurements such as elasticity to provide more detail about market behavior. Elasticity, in short, refers to the relative tendency of certain economic variables to change in response to other variables. In economics, it is important to understand how responsive quantities such as demand and supply are to things like price, income, the prices of related goods, and so on. For example, when the price of gasoline increases by one percent, does the demand for gasoline go down by a little or a lot? Answering these sorts of questions is extremely important to economic and policy decision making, so economists have developed the concept of elasticity to measure the responsiveness of economic quantities. Types of Elasticity Elasticity can take a number of different forms, depending on what cause and effect relationship economists are trying to measure. Price elasticity of demand, for example, measures the responsiveness of demand to changes in price. Price elasticity of supply, in contrast, measures the responsiveness of quantity supplied to changes in price. Income elasticity of demand measures the responsiveness of demand to changes in income, and so on. How to Calculate Elasticity Measures of elasticity all follow the same basic principles, no matter which variables are being measured. In the discussion that follows, well use price elasticity of demand as a representative example. Price elasticity of demand is calculated as the ratio of the relative change in quantity demanded to the relative change in price. Mathematically, the price elasticity of demand is just the percent change in quantity demanded divided by the percent change in price: Price elasticity of demand Percent change in demand / Percent change in price In this way, the price elasticity of demand answers the question What would be the percent change in quantity demanded in response to a one percent increase in price? Notice that, because price and quantity demanded to tend to move in opposite directions, the price elasticity of demand usually ends up being a negative number. To make things simpler, economists will often represent price elasticity of demand as an absolute value. (In other words, the price elasticity of demand could just be represented by the positive part of the elasticity number, eg. 3 rather than -3.) Conceptually, you can think of elasticity as an economic analog to the literal concept of elasticity. In this analogy, the change in price is the force applied to a rubber band, and the change in quantity demanded is how much the rubber band stretches. If the rubber band is very elastic, the rubber band will stretch a lot. If its very inelastic, it wont stretch very much, and the same can be said for elastic and inelastic demand. In other words, if demand is elastic, it means a change in price will result in a proportional change in demand. If demand is inelastic, it means a change in price will not result in a change in demand. You may notice that the equation above seems similar, but not identical to, the slope of the mand curve (which also represents price versus quantity demanded). Because the demand curve is drawn with the price on the vertical axis and quantity demanded on the horizontal axis, the slope of the demand curve represents the change in price divided by the change in quantity rather than the change in quantity divided by the change in price. In addition, the slope of the demand curve shows absolute changes in price and quantity whereas price elasticity of demand uses relative (i.e. percent) changes in price and quantity. There are two advantages to calculating elasticity using relative changes. First, percent changes dont have units attached to them, so it doesnt matter what currency is used for the price when calculating elasticity. This means that elasticity comparisons are easy to make across different countries. Second, a one-dollar change in the price of an airplane ticket versus the pr ice of a book, for example, are likely not viewed as the same magnitude of change. Percentage changes are more comparable across different goods and services in many cases, so using percent changes to calculate elasticity makes it easier to compare the elasticities of different items.

1. Discuss the ways in which The Communist Manifesto uses literary Essay

1. Discuss the ways in which The Communist Manifesto uses literary means for political ends - Essay Example This spectre is revealed to be communism, and it captures the imagination at the very start. The second indication of quite sophisticated literary mechanisms at work is the way that the argument is built around a fundamental conflict. The â€Å"holy alliance† between what are described â€Å"reactionary powers† and â€Å"Communism.† The authors grab the attention of the reader by taking familiar politicians, such as Metternich, and other leading figures such as the Pope and the Tsar, and linking them with obviously evil individuals such as â€Å"police spies† in the same sentence (p. 2). This device recasts all these players as harmful opponents, and defines Communism in opposition to these elements as something positive and wholesome, as well as a worthy foe to these forces. A second literary device that is used repeatedly in the Communist Manifesto is the use of emotive description, often piled up in an exaggerated way, in order to add drama and tension to the political views that are presented. Examples of this are the description of Free Trade as â€Å"naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation† (p. 5) and that of the doctrines of German Socialism as â€Å"The robe of speculative cobwebs, embroidered with flowers of rhetoric, steeped in the dew of sickly sentiment, this transcendental robe†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (p.26). These above-mentioned devices make the text more elaborate, but at the same time more engaging for the reader, because they contain quite strong emotional content. The text switches from this elaborate language to a simpler style when key points are made. The authors make complex ideas simpler by using personification : â€Å"As the parson has ever gone hand in hand with the landlord so has clerical socialism with feudal socialism† (p. 23). They also split the text into sections with explanatory headings so that the reader does not mistake the key message contained in each section. There are recap phrases

International System of Justice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

International System of Justice - Essay Example Until recently, these atrocities and affronts to ideals of humanity went unpunished by national judicial systems and there was urgent need to put in place a system of justice that would protect the international human rights as enshrined in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration on Human Rights (Roht-Arriaza, 1995). The decade was marked by the creation of international criminal justice mechanisms and the application of a universal jurisdiction that would ensure that those who participate in crimes against humanity are held to account for their actions. Due to inherent obstacles in applying justice for such crimes, the mechanisms developed have continued to be marred with failure despite the numerous strides that have been experienced. After the Cold War period and the horrific acts that took place in the former Yugoslavia and the genocide in Rwanda coupled with the miserable failures of national courts of justice to bring perpetrators of crimes against humanity to account for their acts, major international actors including the United Nations (UN), a number of governments and international nongovernmental (NGOs) organizations came up to form international criminal courts. ... In1998, the United Nations adopted the Statute that would lead to the creation of a permanent International Criminal Court as a complementary to national courts of justice with the mandate to act in cases where the national courts are unable or unwilling to investigate and/or prosecute (Schabas, 2007; Schiff, 2008). It is important to note that the concept of international system of justice include standards governing rendering of justice to all on an international scale and the conduct of war and standards that define the fundamental human rights. Most of these requirements of have achieved a degree of recognition internationally over the past few decades in defining the types of criminal conduct by states against other states or against individuals or ethnic groups. In this regard, the varied definitions of violent crime between countries due to dissimilarities in both legal and statistics recording methods have made international comparisons problematic. The law of armed or violen t conflict has generally been applied to define conflict between states with little or no attention to internal armed conflict. However, there have been some developments in international law to especially through the Geneva Conventions to protect civilians during internal armed violence (Moir, 2002) International Criminal Court and Universal Jurisdiction With international criminal law infiltrating the legal systems of many states, the principle of complementarity, which stipulates the only subsidiary competence of the ICC vis-a-vis national jurisdictions, comes to be seen as one of the most important features of the ICC Statute (Schabas, 2007; Bellamy, 2009). The principle of