The Barnhouse Effect

Let me begin by saying that I don't know any more about where Professor Arthur Barnhouse is hiding than anyone else does. Save for one short, enigmatic message left in my mailbox on Christmas Eve, I have not heard from him since his disappearance a year and a half ago. What's more, readers of this article will be disappointed if they expect to learn how they can bring about the so-called â€Å"Barnhouse Effect. † If I were able and willing to give away that secret, I would certainly be something more important than a psychology instructor.I have been urged to write this report because I did research under the professor's direction and because I was the first to learn of his astonishing discovery. But while I was his student I was never entrusted with knowledge of how the mental forces could be released and directed. He was unwilling to trust anyone with that information. I would like to point out that the term â€Å"Barnhouse Effect† is a creation of the popular press, and was never used by Professor Barnhouse. The name he chose for the phenomenon was â€Å"dynamopsychism,† or force of the mind.I cannot believe that there is a civilized person yet to be convinced that such a force exists, what with its destructive effects on display in every national capital. I think humanity has always had an inkling that this sort of force does exist. It has been common knowledge that some people are luckier than others with inanimate objects like dice. What Professor Barnhouse did was to show that such â€Å"luck† was a measurable force, which in his case could be enormous. By my calculations, the professor was about fifty-five times more powerful than a Nagasaki-type atomic bomb at the time he went into hiding. Read aslo  The Professor is a Dropout.He was not bluffing when, on the eve of â€Å"Operation Brainstorm,† he told General Honus Barker: â€Å"Sitting here at the dinner table, I'm pretty sure I can flatten anything on earth—from Joe Louis to the Great Wall of China. † There is an understandable tendency to look upon Professor Barnhouse as a supernatural visitation. The First Church of Barnhouse in Los Angeles has a congregation numbering in the thousands. He is godlike in neither appearance nor intellect. The man who disarms the world is single, shorter than the average American male, stout, and averse to exercise. His I.Q. is 143, which is good but certainly not sensational. He is quite mortal, about to celebrate his fortieth birthday, and in good health. If he is alone now, the isolation won't bother him too much. He was quiet and shy when I knew him, and seemed to find more companionship in books and music than in his associations at the college. Neither he nor his powers fall outside the sphere of Nature. His dynamopsychic radiations are subject to many known physical laws that apply in the field of radio. Hardly a person has not now heard the snarl of â€Å"Barnhouse static† on his home receiver.The radiations are affected by sunspots and variations in the ionosphere. However, they differ from ordinary broadcast waves, in several important ways. Their total energy can be brought to bear on any single point the professor chooses, and that energy is undiminished by distance. As a weapon, then, dynamopsychism has an impressive advantage over bacteria and atomic bombs, beyond the fact that it costs nothing to use: it enables the professor to single out critical individuals and objects instead of slaughtering whole populations in the process of maintaining international equilibrium.As General Honus Barker told the House Military Affairs Committee: â€Å"Until someone finds Barnhouse, there is no defense against the Barnhouse Effe ct. † Efforts to â€Å"jam† or block the radiations have failed. Premier Slezak could have saved himself the fantastic expense of his â€Å"Barnhouseproof' shelter. Despite the shelter's twelve-foot-thick lead armor, the premier has been floored twice while in it. There is talk of screening the population for men potentially as powerful dynamopsychically as the professor.Senator Warren Foust demanded funds for this purpose last month, with the passionate declaration: â€Å"He who rules the Barnhouse Effect rules the world! † Commissar Kropotnik said much the same thing, so another costly armaments race, with a new twist, has begun. This race at least has its comical aspects. The world's best gamblers are being coddled by governments like so many nuclear physicists. There may be several hundred persons with dynamopsychic talent on earth, myself included. But, without knowledge of the professor's technique, they can never be anything but dice-table despots.With th e secret, it would probably take them ten years to become dangerous weapons. It took the professor that long. He who rules the Barnhouse Effect is Barnhouse and will be for some time. Popularly, the â€Å"Age of Barnhouse† is said to have begun a year and a half ago, on the day of Operation Brainstorm. That was when dynamopsychism became significant politically. Actually, the phenomenon was discovered in May, 1942, shortly after the professor turned down a direct commission in the Army and enlisted as an artillery private. Like X-rays and vulcanized rubber, dynamopsychism was discovered by accident.From time to time Private Barnhouse was invited to take part in games of chance by his barrack mates. He knew nothing about the games, and usually begged off. But one evening, out of social grace, he agreed to shoot craps. It was either terrible or wonderful that he played, depending upon whether or not you like the world as it now is. â€Å"Shoot sevens, Pop,† someone said. So â€Å"Pop† shot sevens—ten in a row to bankrupt the barracks. He retired to his bunk and, as a mathematical exercise, calculated the odds against his feat on the back of a laundry slip.His chances of doing it, he found, were one in almost ten million! Bewildered, he borrowed a pair of dice from the man in the bunk next to his. He tried to roll sevens again, but got only the usual assortment of numbers. He lay back for a moment, then resumed his toying with the dice. He rolled ten more sevens in a row. He might have dismissed the phenomenon with a low whistle. But the professor instead mulled over the circumstances surrounding his two lucky streaks. There was one single factor in common: on both occasions, the same thought train had flashed through his mind just before he threw the dice.It was that thought train which aligned the professor's brain cells into what has since become the most powerful weapon on earth. The soldier in the next bunk gave dynamopsychism its first token of respect. In an understatement certain to bring wry smiles to the faces of the world's dejected demagogues, the soldier said, â€Å"You're hotter'n a two-dollar pistol, Pop. † Professor Barnhouse was all of that. The dice that did his bidding weighed but a few grams, so the forces involved were minute; but the unmistakable fact that there were such forces was earth-shaking.Professional caution kept him from revealing his discovery immediately. He wanted more facts and a body of theory to go with them. Later, when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, it was fear that made him hold his peace. At no time were his experiments, as Premier Slezak called them, â€Å"a bourgeois plot to shackle the true democracies of the world. † The professor didn't know where they were leading. In time, he came to recognize another startling feature of dynamopsychism: its strength increased with use. Within six months, he was able to govern dice thrown by men the length of a barracks distant.By the time of his discharge in 1945, he could knock bricks loose from chimneys three miles away. Charges that Professor Barnhouse could have won the last war in a minute, but did not care to do so, are perfectly senseless. When the war ended, he had the range and power of a 37-millimeter cannon, perhaps—certainly no more. His dynamopsychic powers graduated from the small-arms class only after his discharge and return to Wyandotte College. I enrolled in the Wyandotte Graduate School two years after the professor had rejoined the faculty. By chance, he was assigned as my thesis adviser.I was unhappy about the assignment, for the professor was, in the eyes of both colleagues and students, a somewhat ridiculous figure. He missed classes or had lapses of memory during lectures. When I arrived, in fact, his shortcomings had passed from the ridiculous to the intolerable. â€Å"We're assigning you to Barnhouse as a sort of temporary thing,† the dean of s ocial studies told me. He looked apologetic and perplexed. â€Å"Brilliant man, Barnhouse, I guess. Difficult to know since his return, perhaps, but his work before the war brought a great deal of credit to our little school. When I reported to the professor's laboratory for the first time, what I saw was more distressing than the gossip. Every surface in the room was covered with dust; books and apparatus had not been disturbed for months. The professor sat napping at his desk when I entered. The only signs of recent activity were three overflowing ashtrays, a pair of scissors, and a morning paper with several items clipped from its front page. As he raised his head to look at me, I saw that his eyes were clouded with fatigue. â€Å"Hi,† he said, â€Å"just can't seem to get my sleeping done at night. He lighted a cigarette, his hands trembling slightly. â€Å"You the young man I'm supposed to help with a thesis? † â€Å"Yes, sir,† I said. In minutes he conve rted my misgivings to alarm. â€Å"You an overseas veteran? † he asked. â€Å"Yes, sir. † â€Å"Not much left over there, is there? † He frowned. â€Å"Enjoy the last war? † â€Å"No, sir. † â€Å"Look like another war to you? † â€Å"Kind of, sir. † â€Å"What can be done about it? † I shrugged. â€Å"Looks pretty hopeless. † He peered at me intently. â€Å"Know anything about international law, the U. N. , and all that? † â€Å"Only what I pick up from the papers. â€Å"Same here,† he sighed. He showed me a fat scrapbook packed with newspaper clippings. â€Å"Never used to pay any attention to international politics. Now I study them the way I used to study rats in mazes. Everybody tells me the same thing—'Looks hopeless. ‘ † â€Å"Nothing short of a miracle—† I began. â€Å"Believe in magic? † he asked sharply. The professor fished two dice from his vest pocket. â€Å"I will try to roll twos,† he said. He rolled twos three times in a row. â€Å"One chance in about 47,000 of that happening. There's a miracle for you. He beamed for an instant, then brought the interview to an end, remarking that he had a class which had begun ten minutes ago. He was not quick to take me into his confidence, and he said no more about his trick with the dice. I assumed they were loaded, and forgot about them. He set me the task of watching male rats cross electrified metal strips to get to food or female rats—an experiment that had been done to everyone's satisfaction in the nineteen-thirties. As though the pointlessness of my work were not bad enough, the professor annoyed me further with irrelevant questions.His favorites were: â€Å"Think we should have dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima? † and â€Å"Think every new piece of scientific information is a good thing for humanity? † However, I did not feel put upon for long.  "Give those poor animals a holiday,† he said one morning, after I had been with him only a month. â€Å"I wish you'd help me look into a more interesting problem—namely, my sanity. † I returned the rats to their cages. â€Å"What you must do is simple,† he said, speaking softly. â€Å"Watch the inkwell on my desk. If you see nothing happen to it, say so, and I'll go quietly—relieved, I might add—to the nearest sanitarium.I nodded uncertainly. He locked the laboratory door and drew the blinds, so that we were in twilight for a moment. â€Å"I'm odd, I know,† he said. â€Å"It's fear of myself that's made me odd. † â€Å"I've found you somewhat eccentric, perhaps, but certainly not—† â€Å"If nothing happens to that inkwell, ‘crazy as a bedbug' is the only description of me that will do,† he interrupted, turning on the overhead lights. His eyes narrowed. â€Å"To give you an idea of how crazy, I'll tel l you what's been running through my mind when I should have been sleeping. I think maybe I can save the world.I think maybe I can make every nation a have nation, and do away with war for good. I think maybe I can clear roads through jungles, irrigate deserts, build dams overnight. † â€Å"Yes, sir. † â€Å"Watch the inkwell! † Dutifully and fearfully I watched. A high-pitched humming seemed to come from the inkwell; then it began to vibrate alarmingly, and finally to bound about the top of the desk, making two noisy circuits. It stopped, hummed again, glowed red, then popped in splinters with a blue-green flash. Perhaps my hair stood on end. The professor laughed gently. â€Å"Magnets? † I managed to say at last. Wish to heaven it were magnets,† he murmured. It was then that he told me of dynamopsychism. He knew only that there was such a force; he could not explain it. â€Å"It's me and me alone—and it's awful. † â€Å"I'd say it wa s amazing and wonderful! † I cried. â€Å"If all I could do was make inkwells dance, I'd be tickled silly with the whole business. † He shrugged disconsolately. â€Å"But I'm no toy, my boy. If you like, we can drive around the neighborhood, and I'll show you what I mean. † He told me about pulverized boulders, shattered oaks, and abandoned farm buildings demolished within a fifty-mile radius of the campus. Did every bit of it sitting right here, just thinking—not even thinking hard. † He scratched his head nervously. â€Å"I have never dared to concentrate as hard as I can for fear of the damage I might do. I'm to the point where a mere whim is a blockbuster. † There was a depressing pause. â€Å"Up until a few days ago, I've thought it best to keep my secret for fear of what use it might be put to,† he continued. â€Å"Now I realize that I haven't any more right to it than a man has a right to own an atomic bomb. † He fumbled t hrough a heap of papers. â€Å"This says about all that needs to be said, I think. He handed me a draft of a letter to the Secretary of State. Dear Sir: I have discovered a new force which costs nothing to use, and which is probably more important than atomic energy. I should like to see it used most effectively in the cause of peace, and am, therefore, requesting your advice as to how this might best be done. Yours truly, A. Barnhouse. â€Å"I have no idea what will happen next,† said the professor. There followed three months of perpetual nightmare, wherein the nation's political and military great came at all hours to watch the professor's tricks.We were quartered in an old mansion near Charlottesville, Virginia, to which we had been whisked five days after the letter was mailed. Surrounded by barbed wire and twenty guards, we were labeled â€Å"Project Wishing Well,† and were classified as Top Secret. For companionship we had General Honus Barker and the State Dep artment's William K. Cuthrell. For the professor's talk of peace-through-plenty they had indulgent smiles and much discourse on practical measures and realistic thinking. So treated, the professor, who had at first been almost meek, rogressed in a matter of weeks toward stubbornness. He had agreed to reveal the thought train by means of which he aligned his mind into a dynamopsychic transmitter. But, under Cuthrell's and Barker's nagging to do so, he began to hedge. At first he declared that the information could be passed on simply by word of mouth. Later he said that it would have to be written up in a long report. Finally, at dinner one night, just after General Barker had read the secret orders for Operation Brainstorm, the professor announced, â€Å"The report may take as long as five years to write. He looked fiercely at the general. â€Å"Maybe twenty. † The dismay occasioned by this flat announcement was offset somewhat by the exciting anticipation of Operation Brain storm. The general was in a holiday mood. â€Å"The target ships are on their way to the Caroline Islands at this very moment,† he declared ecstatically. â€Å"One hundred and twenty of them! At the same time, ten V-2s are being readied for firing in New Mexico, and fifty radio-controlled jet bombers are being equipped for a mock attack on the Aleutians. Just think of it! † Happily he reviewed his orders. At exactly 1100 hours next Wednesday, I will give you the order to concentrate; and you, professor, will think as hard as you can about sinking the target ships, destroying the V-2s before they hit the ground, and knocking down bombers before they reach the Aleutians! Think you can handle it? † The professor turned gray and closed his eyes. â€Å"As I told you before, my friend, I don't know what I can do. † He added bitterly, â€Å"As for this Operation Brainstorm, I was never consulted about it, and it strikes me as childish and in insanely expensive. General Barker bridled. â€Å"Sir,† he said, â€Å"your field is psychology, and I wouldn't presume to give you advice in that field. Mine is national defense. I have had thirty years of experience and success, Professor, and I'll ask you not to criticize my judgment. † The professor appealed to Mr. Cuthrell. â€Å"Look,† he pleaded, â€Å"isn't it war and military matters we're all trying to get rid of? Wouldn't it be a whole lot more significant and lots cheaper for me to try moving cloud masses into drought areas, and things like that?I admit I know next to nothing about international politics, but it seems reasonable to suppose that nobody would want to fight wars if there were enough of everything to go around. Mr. Cuthrell, I'd like to try running generators where there isn't any coal or water power, irrigating deserts, and so on. Why, you could figure out what each country needs to make the most of its resources, and I could give it to them without costi ng American taxpayers a penny. † â€Å"Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom,† said the general heavily. Mr. Cuthrell threw the general a look of mild distaste. Unfortunately, the general is right in his own way,† he said. â€Å"I wish to heaven the world were ready for ideals like yours, but it simply isn't. We aren't surrounded by brothers, but by enemies. It isn't a lack of food or resources that has us on the brink of war—it's a struggle for power. Who's going to be in charge of the world, our kind of people or theirs? † The professor nodded in reluctant agreement and arose from the table. â€Å"I beg your pardon, gentlemen. You are, after all, better qualified to judge what is best for the country. I'll do whatever you say. He turned to me. â€Å"Don't forget to wind the restricted clock and put the confidential cat out,† he said gloomily, and ascended the stairs to his bedroom. For reasons of national security, Operation Brainstorm was carried on without the knowledge of the American citizenry which was paying the bill. The observers, technicians, and military men involved in the activity knew that a test was under way—a test of what, they had no idea. Only thirty-seven key men, myself included, knew what was afoot. In Virginia, the day for Operation Brainstorm was unseasonably cool.Inside, a log fire crackled in the fireplace, and the flames were reflected in the polished metal cabinets that lined the living room. All that remained of the room's lovely old furniture was a Victorian love seat, set squarely in the center of the floor, facing three television receivers. One long bench had been brought in for the ten of us privileged to watch. The television screens showed, from left to right, the stretch of desert which was the rocket target, the guinea-pig fleet, and a section of the Aleutian sky through which the radio-controlled bomber formation would roar.Ninety minutes before H-hour the radios announ ced that the rockets were ready, that the observation ships had backed away to what was thought to be a safe distance, and that the bombers were on their way. The small Virginia audience lined up on the bench in order of rank, smoked a great deal, and said little. Professor Barnhouse was in his bedroom. General Barker bustled about the house like a woman preparing Thanksgiving dinner for twenty. At ten minutes before H-hour the general came in, shepherding the professor before him.The professor was comfortably attired in sneakers, gray flannels, a blue sweater, and a white shirt open at the neck. The two of them sat side by side on the love seat. The general was rigid and perspiring; the professor was cheerful. He looked at each of the screens, lighted a cigarette and settled back. â€Å"Bombers sighted! † cried the Aleutian observers. â€Å"Rockets away! † barked the New Mexico radio operator. All of us looked quickly at the big electric clock over the mantel, while t he professor, a half-smile on his face, continued to watch the television sets. In hollow tones, the general counted away the seconds remaining. Five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . one . . . Concentrate! † Professor Barnhouse closed his eyes, pursed his lips, and stroked his temples. He held the position for a minute. The television images were scrambled, and the radio signals were drowned in the din of Barnhouse static. The professor sighed, opened his eyes, and smiled confidently. â€Å"Did you give it everything you had? † asked the general dubiously. â€Å"I was wide open,† the professor replied. The television images pulled themselves together, and mingled cries of amazement came over the radios tuned to the observers.The Aleutian sky was streaked with the smoke trails of bombers screaming down in flames. Simultaneously, there appeared high over the rocket target a cluster of white puffs, followed by faint thunder. General Barker shook his head happi ly. â€Å"By George! † he crowed. â€Å"Well, sir, by George, by George, by George! † â€Å"Look! † shouted the admiral seated next to me. â€Å"The fleet-it wasn't touched! † â€Å"The guns seem to be drooping,† said Mr. Cuthrell. We left the bench and clustered about the television set to examine the damage more closely. What Mr. Cuthrell had said was true.The ships' guns curved downward, their muzzles resting on the steel decks. We in Virginia were making such a hullabaloo that it was impossible to hear the radio reports. We were so engrossed, in fact, that we didn't miss the professor until two short snarls of Barnhouse static shocked us into sudden silence. The radios went dead. We looked around apprehensively. The professor was gone. A harassed guard threw open the front door from the outside to yell that the professor had escaped. He brandished his pistol in the direction of the gates, which hung open, limp and twisted.In the distance, a spe eding government station wagon topped a ridge and dropped from sight into the valley beyond. The air was filled with choking smoke, for every vehicle on the grounds was ablaze. Pursuit was impossible. â€Å"What in God's name got into him? † bellowed the general. Mr. Cuthrell, who had rushed out onto the front porch, now slouched back into the room, reading a penciled note as he came. He thrust the note into my hands. â€Å"The good man left this billet-doux under the door knocker. Perhaps our young friend here will be kind enough to read it to you gentlemen, while I take a restful walk through the woods. â€Å"Gentlemen,† I read aloud, ‘as the first superweapon with a conscience, I am removing myself from your national defense stockpile. Setting a new precedent in the behavior of ordnance, I have humane reasons for going off. A. Barnhouse. † Since that day, of course, the professor has been systematically destroying the world's armaments, until there is n ow little with which to equip an army other than rocks and sharp sticks. His activities haven't exactly resulted in peace, but have, rather, precipitated a bloodless and entertaining sort of war that might be called the â€Å"War of the Tattletales. Every nation is flooded with enemy agents whose sole mission is to locate military equipment, which is promptly wrecked when it is brought to the professor's attention in the press. Just as every day brings news of more armaments pulverized by dynamopsychism, so has it brought rumors of the professor's whereabouts. During last week alone, three publications carried articles proving variously that he was hiding in an Inca ruin in the Andes, in the sewers of Paris, and in the unexplored lower chambers of Carlsbad Caverns.Knowing the man, I am inclined to regard such hiding places as unnecessarily romantic and uncomfortable. While there are numerous persons eager to kill him, there must be millions who would care for him and hide him. I li ke to think that he is in the home of such a person. One thing is certain: at this writing, Professor Barnhouse is not dead. Barnhouse static jammed broadcasts not ten minutes ago. In the eighteen months since his disappearance, he has been reported dead some half-dozen times. Each report has stemmed from the death of an unidentified man resembling the professor, during a period free of the static.The first three reports were followed at once by renewed talk of rearmament and recourse to war. The saber-rattlers have learned how imprudent premature celebrations of the professor's demise can be. Many a stouthearted patriot has found himself prone in the tangled bunting and timbers of a smashed reviewing stand, seconds after having announced that the arch-tyranny of Barnhouse was at an end. But those who would make war if they could, in every country in the world, wait in sullen silence for what must come—the passing of Professor Barnhouse.To ask how much longer the professor wi ll live is to ask how much longer we must wait for the blessings of another world war. He is of short-lived stock: his mother lived to be fifty-three, his father to be forty-nine; and the life-spans of his grandparents on both sides were of the same order. He might be expected to live, then, for perhaps fifteen years more, if he can remain hidden from his enemies. When one considers the number and vigor of these enemies, however, fifteen years seems an extraordinary length of time, which might better be revised to fifteen days, hours, or minutes.The professor knows that he cannot live much longer. I say this because of the message left in my mailbox on Christmas Eve. Unsigned, typewritten on a soiled scrap of paper, the note consisted of ten sentences. The first nine of these, each a bewildering tangle of psychological jargon and references to obscure texts, made no sense to me at first reading. The tenth, unlike the rest, was simply constructed and contained no large words—b ut its irrational content made it the most puzzling and bizarre sentence of all. I nearly threw the note away, thinking it a colleague's warped notion of a practical joke.For some reason, though, I added it to the clutter on top of my desk, which included, among other mementos, the professor's dice. It took me several weeks to realize that the message really meant something, that the first nine sentences, when unsnarled, could be taken as instructions. The tenth still told me nothing. It was only last night that I discovered how it fitted in with the rest. The sentence appeared in my thoughts last night, while I was toying absently with the professor's dice. I promised to have this report on its way to the publishers today.In view of what has happened, I am obliged to break that promise, or release the report incomplete. The delay will not be a long one, for one of the few blessings accorded a bachelor like myself is the ability to move quickly from one abode to another, or from one way of life to another. What property I want to take with me can be packed in a few hours. Fortunately, I am not without substantial private means, which may take as long as a week to realize in liquid and anonymous form. When this is done, I shall mail the report. I have just returned from a visit to my doctor, who tells me my health is excellent.I am young, and, with any luck at all, I shall live to a ripe old age indeed, for my family on both sides is noted for longevity. Briefly, I propose to vanish. Sooner or later, Professor Barnhouse must die. But long before then I shall be ready. So, to the saber-rattlers of today and even, I hope, of tomorrow—I say: Be advised. Barnhouse will die. But not the Barnhouse Effect. Last night, I tried once more to follow the oblique instructions on the scrap of paper. I took the professor's dice, and then, with the last, nightmarish sentence flitting through my mind, I rolled fifty consecutive sevens.

Consider the marriages that take place during Pride and Prejudice Essay

Which is the most successful? Pride and Prejudice is a novel that deals primarily with the theme of marriage. Through the course of the plot, four weddings take place; between Lydia and Mr Wickam; Charlotte and Mr Collins; Jane and Mr Bingley; and Elizabeth and Mr Darcy. Some of these marriages are seen as more ultimately positive than others. Jane Austen’s society was one that declared marriage as the status all women should strive to achieve and the opening statement, ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.’ is therefore fitting (even if quite ironic). It also introduces the idea that aspects such as social class, property and money were extremely important in marriage, generally more so than love. During the 18th Century, connections needed to be respectable for one to have a chance of marrying well. This causes quite a predicament for the five Bennet girls who have an extremely vulgar, embarrassing mother and uncles residing in Cheapside, as well as no money to attract suitors. Because of this, they all have to rely solely on their charms and beauty for a decent marriage. The first marriage seen in the novel is that between Mr Collins and Miss Charlotte Lucas and is probably the most typical marriage of the time. As Jane Austen states in the novel, ‘It was the only honourable provision for well educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want.’ The marriage is not based on any physical attraction or true love between either party but different requirements from both sides. At twenty-seven and with little beauty or money to recommend her, Charlotte sees marriage as her best chance of securing a reasonable standard of living, good marital status and attaining financial security. ‘Miss Lucas accepted him solely from the pure desire of an establishment’ (page 103). As we had already learnt from Mr Collins’s proposal to Elizabeth, he only has three reasons for matrimony; he would like to set a good example as a clergyman to his parish, he is confident it would add to his happiness and Lady Catherine advised him that he should marry (‘twice’!). It is obvious Mr Collins does not care about beauty or love, since we are told Charlotte has little beauty and only three days before his proposal to Charlotte was his request of the hand of Elizabeth. The marriage is convenient to Charlotte and Mr Collins and the requirements of both are satisfied. It is therefore more of a business arrangement than anything else. Elizabeth’s earlier refusal of Mr Collins’ proposal illustrates that she will not marry in the same way as Charlotte simply for financial security. Mr Collins’s reaction shows he believed that because of his money and connections he wouldn’t be turned down even though he is ‘irksome’; this proves to him, like many other people status was more important than love. The reader finds out how Charlotte deals with the marriage through Elizabeth’s visit to her friend. Charlotte attempts to ignore her husband’s silliness, ‘in general Charlotte wisely did not hear’ and she also encourages him to do the gardening in order to keep him out of the way – this shows how she learns to cope with her husband. We additionally learn that she is tolerably happy in the marriage, ‘when Mr. Collins was forgotten there was really a great air of comfort throughout’ (page 131). At this point Charlotte could be compared to Mr Bennet. By reading alone in his library, Mr Bennet keeps apart from his barely endurable partner and obtains some peace just as Charlotte does by supporting Mr Collins’s gardening pastime. I feel that in many ways this marriage was successful because the couple fulfil each other’s requirements. Also they can be accepted in society, they are financially stable and, (especially in Mr Collins’s opinion,) they have good connections. The lack of love does not seem too important in this case because even before the union, Charlotte, not being particularly romantic, was not expecting this emotion to be part of the marriage equation. The next marriage to take place was that of Miss Lydia Bennet and Mr Wickam after their elopement. This is important in demonstrating how vital marriage was in those days. It is visible simply from everyone’s reactions to the elopement how awful it was to ‘go off and be alone with’ a man if you are not married to him. Whatever actually goes on, the worst is assumed and it was this problem that distressed Elizabeth and her family because as well as ruining Lydia’s reputation, it would ruin theirs’ too within society. This is especially perturbing to Elizabeth and the reader alike because in contrast to the rest of the Bennet family, they know Mr Wickam’s true character. He intended to elope with Miss Georgiana Darcy, because she has a fortune of thirty thousand pounds and he lied to Elizabeth and many others over the real nature of Mr Darcy. Then his affections for Elizabeth change to those for Miss King, when he learns she has just inherited a large fortune of ten thousand pounds. Elizabeth states correctly about Wickam after hearing news of the elopement, ‘he has neither integrity or honour. He is as false and deceitful as he is insinuating’ (page 230). The problem with Lydia is that she is foolish and reckless and sees nothing wrong in her elopement with Wickam. She acts in a way that will ruin her sisters’ chances of marrying well, in addition to causing society to shun her if no marriage takes place. Although the marriage has no foundation because Lydia and Wickam are not suited to each other, it is the best option in the situation. The alternative would result in the whole Bennet family losing any respect and status within society. Once they are married, the relationship between Lydia and Mr Wickam closely parallels that of Mr and Mrs Bennet; it was based on excitement and lust, not love, and what was there soon fizzled out. ‘His [Wickam’s] affection for her soon sunk into indifference; her’s lasted a little longer; and in spite of her youth and her manners, she retained all the claims to reputation which her marriage had given her’ (page 311). The main difference is that Wickam has no intention of marrying Lydia but has to leave Brighton because of his many debts and he takes advantage of Lydia’s willingness to join him. The marriage is only due to Mr Darcy (whose incentive is saving the Bennets the embarrassment) as he bribes Wickam into it with a large sum. The way the Wickams deal with their financial situation can also be compared to the Bennets – both couples were ‘heedless of the future’. We learn Lydia and Wickam were incessantly in debt and often moved from place to place, constantly squandering their money and primarily being sustained by the help of others. ‘Whenever they [the Wickams] changed their quarters, either Jane on herself [Elizabeth] was sure of being applied to, for some little assistance towards discharging their bills.’ This marriage is in no doubt the least successful because as well as owning a bad reputation, the couple have neither love nor money; at least with Mr and Mrs Collins each fulfil the other’s need for security and their financial situation is under control. The third marriage is probably the first genuinely positive one, giving a sense of happiness to the reader. After meeting both Miss Jane Bennet and Mr Bingley, it is instantly obvious that they are well suited to each other because they are both good, kind, optimistic people and as soon as they meet at the Meryton Assembly, he shows a lively interest in Jane, dancing with her twice. Throughout the novel it becomes apparent there is a base of true love (not lust) and affection between them. Jane is the perfect example of what a young woman was expected to be during the 18th Century; polite, rational, conservative, social and beautiful (in fact the most beautiful of the five Bennet sisters) and all this would have attracted Mr Bingley to her. What is special about this relationship is the simplicity of it. Although others see faults in it such as Mr Darcy, due to a misunderstood belief that Jane is indifferent to him, and Mr Bingley’s sisters disparaging view of Jane’s low connections, the strong affection between the couple is constant. When adversity faces the relationship and Jane and Mr Bingley are kept apart for many months, neither of them rush into another marriage and the other is never forgotten. Elizabeth notes how Jane seemed slightly different and obviously missed Bingley during this time, whilst later on he remembers exactly when he last saw her, ‘It is above eight months. We have not met since the 26th of November when we were all dancing together at Netherfield’ (page 214). This shoes true love and affection between the couple. Mr Bingley proposes to Jane almost instantly after he returns to Netherfield and we are told it was a happy marriage. I feel this was an exceedingly successful marriage because they both have the same optimistic and kind attitude towards everything and the couple are financially secure. You can be confident they will be sensible with their fortune when Jane reassures her father ‘imprudence or thoughtlessness in money matters would be unpardonable to me,’ (page 280). In addition, the marriage is acceptable to society and not as unusual as Elizabeth and Darcy’s because the economic and social gap is not as large – the Bingley’s had ‘new money.’ What lastly makes the marriage particularly successful is the way Jane and Mr Bingley manage to overcome an obstacle (being apart for so long) with love and affection for each other that should last throughout their relationship. The marriage is much more preferable to that with the false happiness of Mr and Mrs Collins. Probably the most successful marriage is the one between Miss Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy. At the beginning of the novel this union seems the most unlikely because Elizabeth has a sincere dislike towards Mr Darcy; this is reinforced when she hears what Mr Wickam has to say about the proud man. In the same way, at the Meryton Assembly Mr Darcy isn’t particularly keen on Elizabeth either, she is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me,’ (page 13). However, one could compare Elizabeth and Mr Darcy at the beginning of the novel to Shakespeare’s Beatrice and Benedick from the opening of Much Ado About Nothing. Although both Elizabeth and Beatrice claim to detest Mr Darcy and Benedick respectively and the same can be said for the men; similarly to Shakespeare, Jane Austen shows Elizabeth to be very conscious of Mr Darcy’s opinions and the reader knows this would not be the case is she truly despised him. What is so important about the relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy is the way they learn to respect each other. When Elizabeth finds out the truth about Mr Darcy (which differs radically to the story Mr Wickam offered) from his letter; and builds a different, improves picture of him from the housekeeper when she visits Pemberley with her aunt and uncle, the reader can see how she begins to love him. In the same way as Mr Darcy overcomes his pride against her family and connections which he had at the beginning of the novel, ‘and Darcy had never been so bewitched by any woman as he was by her. He really believed, that were it not for the inferiority of her connections, he should be in some danger.’ (page 46), Elizabeth realises her prejudice against him was wrong and looks at him in a new light. Both acknowledge their own errors, conquer their prejudices and recognize the truth about each other. In addition, Darcy’s protective attitude to Bingley (not wanting him to marry Jane because he thought she’s indifferent) is the mirror image of that of Elizabeth’s over Jane (upset about hearing from Colonel Fitzwilliam that Mr Darcy was boasting about his having rescued Bingley from an unsuitable match – Jane). They both share their temperaments, assumptions about life, and core values making them a good match. Also making the marriage successful is the fact that it is for true love. There are many situations during the novel that insinuate Elizabeth will only marry for true love. She turns down both Mr Collins and Mr Darcy when they propose, both of whom (in particular Mr Darcy) offer financial security and social acceptance yet Elizabeth refuses because she is not partial to either (- at the time anyway.) Elizabeth is perhaps mindful of her father’s mistake in marrying her mother – another reason why her only incentive for marrying may be love. The reader of the novel can tell that Mr Darcy too, wants to marry Elizabeth solely for affectionate reasons. One would expect him to marry a wealthy lady of high class, with many accomplishments, with excellent connections, etc. He has a large choice of women that would marry him yet explains to Elizabeth during his first proposal that he cares for her despite her awful family and the large drop in society. This shows he must truly love her. Society’s rules cause many barriers for Elizabeth and Mr Darcy and Lady Catherine De Bourgh specifically reproves of the marriage. She has difficulty accepting it, visiting Elizabeth in person and questioning, ‘Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?’ (page 288), thus implying Elizabeth and her connections are so low they will contaminate the wonderful building only fit for those of a much higher class. I believe that overall the marriage between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy is the most successful. When at last they are together they are financially secure and are accepted by most of society – eventually by Lady Catherine as well. The couple triumph over many original misunderstandings and conquer all their pride and prejudices against each other – in Mr Darcy’s case also against her social class. The victory over numerous obstacles seem to have brought them closer together and genuinely in love, ‘They were able to love each other, even as well as they intended.’ Elizabeth and Mr Darcy are both straightforward characters that are intelligent and honest as well as caring and loving and they make an extremely compatible couple. Additionally, they continue to have equality within the relationship (it was often common at the time for the male to have a more dominant role) and as Georgiana is astonished to find, the couple constantly get along, always having something to discuss, ‘she [Georgiana’ often listened with astonishment . . . at her [Elizabeth’s] lively, sportive manner of talking to her brother.’ This marriage turns out to be the strongest and Jane Austen leaves nothing that could be criticised about the union.

Ensuring Collegiate Success Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Ensuring Collegiate Success - Essay Example Although many people are gifted intellectually, there are also those that lack the natural mental ability. However, this does not mean that academic success in college would be elusive for these people. There are many ways by which students' mental ability may be enhanced so as to prepare them for the rigors of college. For instance, recent study conducted by ACT, a non-profit organization that issues the widely administered college aptitude test, shows that improving reading skills is strongly correlated with academic performance in college (Brand). In this regard, students, even in the early years of schooling, may acquire the habit of reading voraciously so that they may train themselves in focusing and absorbing the voluminous reading materials they would encounter in college. Such would aid in honing their comprehension skills and would enable them to have full grasp of lessons in college. Apart from cognitive ability factors, certain personality traits also consistently predict academic performance (Ridgell & Lounsbury). This means that collegiate success is not only determined by a student's natural abilities but more so by his/her attitude about studying. As posited by Barrick and Mount, the personality traits identified that students would have to imbibe include extroversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience. These traits are dubbed as the "Big Five" (Barrick & Mount). To illustrate how the "Big Five" figures in college life, it is vital to recognize that these traits hone students' mind frame in facing academic challenges. For example, extroversion in students helps them focus their interest on people and things. This makes it easier for them to be aware of the components of their environment and facilitate learning with an outward perspective. Similarly, emotional stability makes students more adaptive as they deal with the complexities brought about by college life. Emotionally stable students are better able to cope with the ups and downs of college and remain focus on the main goal of academic accomplishment. Another relevant trait that should be emulated by college students is agreeableness. This attitude enables them to innovate and discover means by which they could make studying conditions more conducive. In this regard, students possessing this trait aim to establish good study habits. Such may include going through lessons recently taken up so that new and difficult concepts may be easily absorbed even before major exams. Furthermore, they intend to read ahead of discussions so they could actively participate in, follow lectures, and be prepared for surprise quizzes. Aside from these, conscientiousness is also deemed significant especially during college. A conscientious student exerts great effort in fulfilling course requirements. Such student, who is geared for academic success, painstakingly ensures that he/she has accomplished homework, papers and projects, among others. Note that someone, who is conscientious, is not satisfied by merely completing these requisites. This is because conscientious students go beyond simple completion of requirements, rather they strive to meet the said requirements such that above average results are obtained. Openness to experience is also important for college students to succeed

Interview with a One-Year-Old Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Interview with a One-Year-Old - Assignment Example But the reaction of the child was as customary as it was in the prior and simpler questions. Since the beginning of the interview, when the child was asked about his night-time problems, it seemed that he was feeling little embarrassed and thus completely denied that to be a regular issue. He also overpowered his father referring him as ‘silly’ to ask such questions. Certainly, it was a better option for his father to change the topic and concentrate on the child’s issues with his mother. It also seemed that he had a few complaints regarding his mother’s attitude when the two were left behind at home, especially on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He accused his mother to be torturing on him on one day and getting annoyed on the other. However, he moved forth from the issues between him and his mother stating that on Fridays she is busy hitting the turtles even when there was no turtle in the house. Understanding that his son is ‘making up’, his father redirects the interview towards a more serious topic, focusing on the military actions of Pr esident Obama in relation to the capture of Osama-bin-Laden. With a remarkable gesture, the child agreed with the decision taken by President Obama which was quite an advanced comment but in a slightly impolite manner.

Film assingnment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Film assingnment - Assignment Example One of the most famous scenes in the film is the scene where Hoffman jumps into the swimming pool and sinks to the bottom. This is an extraordinary mise-en-scene which captures the heart of the movie, the story, and the character’s place in the world. The scene begins with Hoffman’s father building up suspense and talking to a group of friends gathered by a swimming pool in a suburban neighbourhood. The colours are bright, but generally pastels. Hoffman enters wearing a diving suit. Nothing can be heard of the people around him. Their mouths move, but he is unable to hear them. The mask and suit are isolating, separating him from others around him. He is alone and tired of the people he knows, people who are alien to him. His vision is also circumscribed by the mask which cuts off his peripheral vision. Clearly, the director wants the viewer to have the sensation that Hoffman is limited and separated from the world around him. He doesn’t belong and doesn’t yet understand his place in this world. The next part of the scene is where Hoffman falls in the water and is looking up at the world through the water of the swimming pool. He looks at his father through the mask. His father’s hand keeps reaching out, pushing him back into the water. Clearly, the father thinks this is all in good fun, but we get the sense that Hoffman is not enjoying this moment. The camera then pans out on Hoffman in his divers suit standing on the bottom of the pool. His suit is of no real purpose. He is not diving or hunting, he is just standing, doing nothing, while above his friends and family chatter on. The camera pans further out until Hoffman disappears in the murk of the suburban swimming pool. It is a brilliantly accomplished conclusion to one of the most famous scenes in American cinema. Throughout the scene, sound is very important. For example, Hoffman cannot hear anything except the sound of his own breathing. The voices of those around him a re silent, even though he can see they are talking. It is a lonesome perspective and one that is carefully achieved by the director. He is trapped in his head, trapped in his body, with no way of expressing himself to the outside world. Many of the themes of this film have been discussed at length over the numerous decades since it the Graduate was made. One of the most significant is clearly the generation gap. The 1960s marked a change in the demographics of America. The Baby Boomers, born after the Second World War, were finally coming into their own. These young men and women had very different ideas than many of their parents did. They were not shy about expressing these ideas, but they were often ridiculed and had trouble finding their place in the world. This is seen in how Hoffman, or Ben, has trouble relating to his parents, and in the desperate relationship he begins with Mrs. Robinson, played by the estimable Anne Bancroft. The corruption and boredom of suburban life are also important elements that are in play throughout the film. Deracination is very much a theme in the film. Mrs. Robinson, as much as Benjamin, appears to be isolated and unloved. She too has trouble understanding the world around her. She may seem less questioning and more confident than Benjamin but she too is a product of the post-war world and is very unhappy in it. The Graduate is a film for all seasons and repeated viewing brings out more and more elements worthy of discussion. However, the key scene is at the swimming pool as Benjamin in full, useless diving

The Concept of the Ecological Footprint Assignment

The Concept of the Ecological Footprint - Assignment Example At the same time, communities and society need to grow in their concern and understanding about the environment while providing more access to resources that provide sustainability and lower numbers in ecological footprints. There are several concepts and factors that are attributed to the ecological footprint. The main concept is based on the behaviors, social expectations, and trends that are within a culture. The amount of knowledge that one has about the environment also creates a different approach to the ecological footprint that is used. The first factor that determines an ecological footprint is based on the capacity that a human has to use different types of resources and how this directly impacts the environment. The main concept that has to be looked into is based on the amount of resource consumption that an individual uses per year. As economic growth continues to emerge and as rising material standards rise in demand are also problems with ecological deterioration. The more in which one demands to have specific resources available, the more it contributes to environmental changes as a use of resources on the planet (Wackernagel, Rees, 1996). Even though it is required that each individual uses a specific amount of resources, there is also a rising concern with the way in which these resources are impacting the environment. If the ecological resources that are available continue to rise, then it will create unsustainable communities. The first places that are affected are urban settings, which require substantial resources to work with agriculture and to produce resources for different nations. If this increases, then the percentage of resources needed also increase. At the same time, the environmental needs don’t match the number of resources that are needed within a community.  

Cinematic Portrayal of Iranian Women Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Cinematic Portrayal of Iranian Women - Essay Example The role of women in the Iranian society has greatly evolved and this evolution is easily noticeable through the significant number of changes that precipitated in the cinematic portrayal. Women all over the world have experienced immense amount of social pressures and obligations, in short simple words the plight of women has been the subject of countless literature and cinematic pieces. Iran is a highly patriarchal society since its emergence as a powerful empire to its establishment as an Islamic republic, a woman’s sole responsibility was to serve her husband and look after his well-being. Before the cinema had gained immense popularity, many literatures focused on the characteristics of a good woman and a bad woman and how a man’s fate depends on the character of his wife. (Donmez-Colin, 2004, p.155-170) Therefore, authors and poets seemed to hold the woman responsible for any sort of mishap that would befall her husband. The patriarchy was pretty evident but durin g the 30’s there were countless movies that showed a headstrong female lead but there role and discourse in the movie were especially when depicting sexuality. Women were not really treated as symbolic for sexuality; largely they played roles of young damsel in distress, however they shed significant amount of light on the strength of a woman’s to confront all her problems. The movies then followed a strict feministic theme and usually along with a female lead there were greedy and lustful antagonist that turned out to be the prime source of conflict in the movie plot. The commercial success of movies such as Dokhtar-e-Lor or the Lor Girl in 1933 showed the hardships and plight of a gypsy woman. Though the movie entailed strong factual errors and numerous directorial flaws but the heroic tale of Golonar, the Lor Girl became an instant success on an international front. The main protagonist was played by an Iranian singer and the movie propagated a progressive image of the Iranian society that the Shah wanted to establish. The plot of the movies largely revolved around the domestic problems of women and since their roles in the society was rather limited. (Lahiji, 2011) However, once the Islamic revolution had taken place the Iranian society became largely misogynistic in their practices. There was hardly any freedom given to the female population and at this point women’s participation in theater and films rapidly declined as it was compulsory for women to wear hijab and they were unable to step out of their houses without their â€Å"mahram’, which is a collective term for a woman’s male relative such as husband, brother or father. One of the main drawbacks that occurred as a result of this practice was prostitution, a problem that was further exacerbated by the Iran-Iraq war. (Donmez-Colin, 2004, p.155-170 & Dabashi, 2001, p. 7) Since most of the male members of the family had gone to war, women had no choice but to suppor t their families by resorting to prostitution. In a country governed according to religious guidelines, though prostitution dealings are done from behind a veil but all these elements are pretty rampant in Iran. Iranian women are the prime victims of domestic and marital violence. Not only on a domestic front but women have to endure great atrocities especially the criminal justice and correctional system for women is often labeled as being ruthless. Women prisoners live in awful conditions and are treated like animals. They are often subjected to brutal physical and sexual abuse, during the Khomeini era any virgin prisoner on a death row

Crime Scene Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Crime Scene - Research Paper Example In this case, we were presented with a homicide that appears to have occurred in the victims homes, where she was found dead, stabbed 13 times, on her kitchen floor. Given the information provided one can extrapolate a couple of different and plausible theories to solve this case. The Victim: The victim is lying on the kitchen floor. She has 13 stab wounds in her body. Stabs wounds of high numbers, excessive beyond just causing death, are sometimes identified as â€Å"emotional† attacks. Usually occurring when the attacker has a personal reason for attacking the victim. She has a knife near to her hand and she shows a number of bruises on her upper arms and broken finger nails. This would indicate that the victim fought back against her attacker. It is, also, means that there is a higher possibility of DNA evidence of the murderer left on her body or under her broken finger nails. As yet, there is no certainty if there has been sexual assault of any kind. Given that the victim is a sturdily built, above average height for female, and 140 pounds it is abundantly likely her attacker was a male; being that she is a larger than average for a female she would likely have an advantage over a female opponent. There are, also, a lot statistics to support the understanding that the homicide victims, who are women, the majority of their murderers are male, as opposed to other women (Brewer & Smith, 1995). The Scene: The crime scene itself has a lot to say about what might have happened here. The fact that the crime took place in the kitchen may have been chosen by the victim. She may have gone to the kitchen intentionally to get to the gun in the drawer or the knife on the counter. The house looks to be in turmoil, however, despite the mess, nothing was apparently stolen from the home. This pretty much eliminates that this homicide was incidental in the course of robbery gone wrong. Realistically this leaves two distinct options to consider. The first is that the crime was a premeditated act or a crime of passion. The fact, that there are no signs of forced entry or breaking and entering means that the victim either was comfortable opening her door to the killer or knew them well enough to invite him into her home. The knife on the floor may or may not be the knife used to stab the victim; knowing this would indicate whether the killer brought a weapon to the scene or used the knife from the victim’s kitchen. There is, also, the possibility that it was the victim who pulled the kitchen knife to defend herself. The family members, who were apparently not present at the time of the crime, are not specifically identified. It is fair to assume that the victim probably has no small children because most parents of small children do not keep loaded firearms in the kitchen drawers. If the victim’s family includes a husband, partner, boyfriend, or fiance then it will be necessary to further question her spouse or partner. In the majori ty of murders occurring among women, 30% or more, can be attributed to men whom they were presently or at some time intimate with (Marvell & Moody, 1999). The Family: When the family is informed one might want to watch the behaviors and actions of the family members. People behave in certain psychological ways when they receive heartbreaking information. The stages of grief are typical of human beings (Moldovan, 2009).So if someone’

NAFTA Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

NAFTA Case Study - Essay Example Nevertheless, this was required if Magma was to survive in the new business climate. In particular with the reduction in tariffs in the Mexican auto sector, how should Magma respond? To being with there are problems and opportunities. How should Magma respond to the problems is a good first question. The problem for its managers is that although there are very low wage employees available there, the Mexican infrastructure and business climate is not easy to work with. Plus, the employees may not cost much, but you get what you pay for (in some respects)—many are not highly skilled. The question facing Magma’s managers is whether it should follow many of the other manufacturers to Mexico. In some ways, this is not such a big problem. The sort of problems Magma foresees in Mexico are not so different than problems facing its competitors and its customers. Everyone is going to have the same limitations. All companies are going to invest in Mexico, but very few are going to jump in with both feet first. Magma should take a cautious approach and should especially review the history of Volkswagen starting up its factory in Mexico. Magma can’t avoi d having zero presence in Mexico, but it should not immediately put all its eggs in one basket. Shifting a small part of its business to Mexico during a trial period would provide managers with more information on which to base a later decision. Going it slow in the beginning is important, but Mexico offers a lot of opportunities to Magma. If predictions hold up, a lot of car manufacturing is going to be done in Mexico in the next few years. While there are a lot of initial problems, none of them are all that structural. The fact that employees are not skilled is a temporary one as is the problem of low-grade steel. It will take time for the market to adjust, but it will adjust, and Mexico will become more competitive. The

What skills of a leader does she possess Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

What skills of a leader does she possess - Essay Example According to Gallo, Mayer is an apt communicator who has a record of moving crowds with her strong oratory skills and presentation prowess. In her speeches, Gallo notes, Mayer tells stories and complements them with pictures. According to Gallo (2012), Mayer dedicates part of her time to employees in the office. Through this method, she would ensure that the employees felt close to the management and therefore more motivated. She makes employees feel the meaning in the work process. Gallo states that the course of the interview proved to him that Mayer was a very committed person to her work as Google vice president. Other sources indicate that Mayer’s commitment to employees surpasses many people. She is known to spend a lot of time travelling worldwide to meet various teams. She is known to trust in team building using a face to face approach. Mayer advocates for simple straight forward approach to solution designs. In this regard, she calls for solutions such as apps to be designed with users in mind. Using this style, Mayer has been accorded great respect by many users who admire her simplicity approach. Marissa Mayer is a person focused on mobile and design and prioritizing of the same. Mayer is known to be committed to this vision and usually reciprocates it in her seminars. By publicly stating her vision and keeping clearly focused on it, through the various referrals she makes to it, Mayer shows great leadership skills on commitment towards what one believes in. she exemplifies how a leader should lead others in focusing on their goals. In her leadership roles at the organizational level, Mayer has been known to allow employees to practice their skills at their best. This is a method that brings many employees associated to her line of command able to perform a lot. She does not believe in putting down a set of guidelines to be followed by the employees but lets the employees’ practice what is expected of them. The noted cases are

Four Poems by Derek Mahon Essay Example for Free

Four Poems by Derek Mahon Essay Four Poems by Derek Mahon INTRODUCTION Derek Mahon belongs to the same generation of Northern Ireland poets as Seamus Heaney. But, whereas many of Heaneys poems are rooted firmly in the rural landscape of Ulster where he grew up, Mahons poems reflect his childhood spent in Belfast. His familiar places were the streets of the city, the Harland and Wolff shipyard where his g-andfather and father worked, and the flax-spinning factory where his mother worked. Later on, Mahon would come to study at Trinity College Dublin and from there he spread his wings to travel and work in many different places, from France, Canada and America, to London and Kinsale in Co. Cork. , †¢DAY TRIP TO DONEGAL Tie shift, in both meaning and feeling, that :sxes place between the first and final lines of ~ s poem makes it memorable. The title :=e~s ordinary: Day Trip to Donegal suggests :- :~ :od days out at the seaside or even a school trip with classmates and teachers. ~~ opening stanza is conversational in tone. I : ,al at his seaside destination, the poet s n familiar surroundings. There were to be seen and as ever the hills a deeper green/Than anywhere in the : : seems at this point that we are r: r :: share a pleasant day at the seaside in Donegal with the poet. However, just as we . rev. ~~ comfortable with this expectation, -:::†¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ appears. We are disturbed by the 2. Deration in the final line and the image : ^reduces: the grave/Grey of the sea Me grwnmer in that enclave. : — : _s -rial line of the opening stanza , a similar scenario in stanza two. The poet watches the fishing-boats arriving back at the pier with their catch. This familiar scene is often described in attractive terms by songwriters and painters. But here Mahon startles us in the second line by describing the catch as A writhing glimmer offish. The word writhing is very vivid. The fish are seen as suffering and this notion becomes more intense in the concluding lines of the stanza where he sees them flopping about the deck/In attitudes of agony and heartbreak. A story is told about Mahon as an only child who spent a lot of time alone. His imagination had free rein and in the bicycle shed in the garden at home the Mahons also kept coal. Apparently the boy Derek Mahon suffered guilt when he went to the shed to get his bicycle. He felt pity for the coal which was, to him, imprisoned in that dark, cold, shed. His compassion was evident even then; he felt sorry for the coal! In Day Trip to Donegal we see that the poets day is changed by the sight of the caught fish. He feels compassion for them in their dying moments. In stanza three the return journey to Belfast is described. This poem is poised between two worlds — the seaside one in rural Donegal and the urban one in Belfast. Have you noticed how Mahon chooses to describe his arrival back in Belfast? We changed down into suburbs/Sunk in a sleep no gale-force wind disturbs. There is a suggestion here of a tamer world than the wild gale-beaten one of Donegal. The phrase changed down refers to the gear-change of the car, but it also shows how the poet is struck by the difference between the rural and the urban worlds he has experienced on that particular day. The sleeping suburbs seem slow and quiet after the drama of the Donegal landscape. Exam ; Career Guide 241 I t/2 _i O Z LU LU h-U LU U Nightmare Stanza four picks up again on the disturbing imagery of stanza two. There is an intense feeling of terror here as the poet recalls his dream after his day out at the seaside. In his nightmare, the sea is seen as a powerful force of destruction. We can be chilled by his description of the sea performing its immeasurable erosions — Spilling into the skull. The combination of words here is powerful: immeasurable erosions and the alliteration of spilling and skull. The choice of the word erosion is worth noting here. It suggests eating away at something — the action of the sea on the coastline over many years. Why does the poet draw a parallel between himself and the eroding coastline, at the mercy of the infinite onslaught of the sea? Could this be an oblique reference to the political circumstances in which he lived in Northern Ireland? We remember that Donegal was described in stanza one as a green enclave. He has travelled there from Belfast — another political entity to which he returns after his day across the border. In the nightmare he is the helpless victim at the mercy of the relentless sea. It mutters its threat — the poet does not enjoy a peaceful sleep after his day-trip to Donegal. Instead he has a kind of nightmare, a surreal vision which is frightening and sinister. The nightmarish journey continues into the final stanza. Now the sea has become a metaphor for the poets own view of his life. He is alone and drifting, has not taken enough caution to prevent this danger and feels surrounded on all sides by the vindictive wind and rain, i. . , the malevolent forces that control his life and which cannot be placated. The poem ends on a note of hopelessness and despair. There is no promise of rescue. His predicament recalls that of the fish described in stanza two — flopping about the deck/In attitudes of agony and heartbreak. †¢ ECCLESIASTES The title of this poem situates it immediately in the context of religion — Ecclesiastes being the title of a book in the Old T estament, used frequently by preachers in their sermons. The context of the poem is the Ulster of the religious preachers and the churchmen which Mahon knew very well, being an Ulster Protestant by birth. The opening three lines of the poem are full of feeling. We notice the repetition of God and the rhythm created by purist and puritan, and wiles and smiles. Mahon is imagining himself as a member of the preaching classes and he tries in this poer-look closely at his identity as an Ulster Protestant. There is self-mockery in h s _s= of the phrase purist little puritan. The preacher is narrow minded (little) and rigid his attitudes — a purist puritan would be 3 extreme version of an ordinary puritan *^ would have been very strict in religious :. -†¢ moral matters. There is mockery and contempt as he describes the preache (Ecclesiastes) as God-chosen and God-fearing. He sees himself as occupying tr-e high moral ground while at the same t~-= basing his morality on fear rather than genuine conviction. The world inhabited by the Ecclesiastes (preachers) is a grim one. The images in ine 4 and 5 convey this most powerfully. The choice of the word dank (meaning da-x sr damp and cold) for the churches and the tied up swings on Sundays paint a joyless picture. Sunday was a particularly gloorny ~ in Protestant Ulster as it was strictly designated for prayer and church-going. Pleasure of any kind was frowned on. Marc then contrasts this life-denying way of lrvrgt;f with the real life of the world — the heat i the world. He mentions how such a rigic code of behaviour allows those Churchmer to avoid the humanising interaction with women and the bright eyes of children. He continues with this train of thought in lines to 16. His tone is very critical. He sees tr-e preacher as using his public morality tc 2*c the real challenges of life — the call on eac of us to understand and forgive. The red bandana and stick and the ban? c referred to represent the antithesis of the preachers life. The red is a lively contrast n the dork doors mentioned before and the bandana and stick would be used on journe to brighter, livelier places than the dark r of Antrim which are washed by the cole January rains. This dark, cold place is the natural habitat of the preacher. He is following in the tradition of his forebears — the heaped graves of your fathers. Here he can close one eye and be king. This is an allusion to Erasmus, who once said: In the country of the blind the one-eyed man is King. Is this a reference to the closed mm and the bigotry of Mahons Ulster? The preacher can lord it over the ordinary peoc whose heavy washing flaps in the housing estates. They are credulous. But Mahons preacher has nothing to offer them. The ft imagery of the poem is filled with contemp 42 Exam ; Career Guide cts the preacher stiff with rhetoric forth to the captive audience yet lothing whatever to offer them — ng nothing under the sun. eamus Heaney writes about Ulster :es in the memory of The Forge, in scape of Bogland, The Harvest Bow and Mahon, on the other hand, has a vision of Ulster — and he shares gt;n with us in Ecclesiastes. It is a place ;tants and Puritans and Preachers. He :dges that this is part of his own oo, and we find that he has a very ew of the narrow, life-denying f the culture which formed him. IT SHOULD BE m, the mindset of another type of explored. This time it is that of the jrderer — who kills another man ie sees as a just cause. When ;ntions the Moon in the Yellow ire reminded of the Irish Civil War. :hat name was written by Denis ;et in 1927. Its story is of a man e who tried to blow up a generator ydroelectric station which was and was a symbol of the progress Irish Free State. Blake was shot by ;gt;f the Free State called Lanigan. The = officer of the Free State is the ir in this poem, as he justifies his nd even takes pride in it. : of Murder titeous tone is struck at the

Examining The Concept Of Lean Synchronization Information Technology Essay

Examining The Concept Of Lean Synchronization Information Technology Essay Lean manufacturing is an approach of continuous improvement that focuses on the removal of waste resources from a process so that the goods flow to the customer at determined rate with minimum inventory. It mainly focuses on eliminating resources that does not create value for the customer. Based on Toyota Production System, Lean concentrates on preserving value with less work. Lean synchronization is the aim of achieving the flow of products and services which is able to deliver exactly what customers want, in exact quantities, exactly when needed, exactly where required at the lowest possible cost (Slack et al, 2010). This report evaluates the utility and relevance of basic Lean principles and Management and applies the same principles in contemporary business environment. Executive Summary First part of the report talks about theoretical aspect of lean. The concept of lean synchronization is explained first. After this the principles of lean and benefits of using lean are described. Subsequently barriers to lean implementation are explained. Second half of the report accounts practical application of lean in context with healthcare industry. Firstly the need to apply lean in hospitals is determined. Basic need of lean in hospitals is to: Reduce patient wait time Reduce cost and increase savings and Improve staff efficiency. Lean principles are than applied on hospital operations. Analysis discovered that time creates value to the patient. After this, value stream was assessed and waste processes were identified in the journey of patients recovery and treatment. Further to this, wastes were identified and recommendations were proposed to eliminate those wastes. Important Identified Wastes are: Extra work done for simple and easy tasks. Investigations and tests those are not required. Patient waiting for tests and surgeries. Redundancy in treating a patient. Recommendations to eliminate such wastes: Avoid the use of complex equipments that makes the processes tedious and time consuming. Perform only those tests that are required for the treatment. Equipments must be ready before a patient comes to pathology lab and operation theatre so as to avoid waste of time. Things must be done in right way in first attempt so as to avoid repetitive actions. Concept behind Lean Synchronization The term lean came into existence post World War II when there was a huge shortage of resources in Automobile sector in Japan. Toyota Company developed the concept of achieving most with optimum resources, by continuous elimination of waste. Today this concept is well known as Lean Manufacturing across the globe and is not limited to manufacturing processes. Lean applies to the whole enterprise including supply-chain, new product development process and services. The concept of lean thinking was introduced to European world in 1991 by the book written by Womack, Jones, and Roos: The Machine That Changed the World. According to Slack et al (2009), lean synchronization is concerned all about: Elimination of waste in whole process Involving all the resources and Continuously improving the process Lean approach simply calls to work smarter rather than harder with value driven sense of purpose. Organizations that follow lean thinking understand customer value and focus the processes to increase it. The ultimate aim is to create a perfect value process for the customer with zero waste. Such contemporary approach creates processes that enable companies to respond to changing customer desires with high quality, high variety, and low cost with very fast throughput times. Lean Principles The main guiding principle of lean to create right value for the customer with minimum effort is compounded of five key principles: value, value stream, flow, pull and perfection. Value: The key principle is to identify the customers view point about what creates value to the customer. Value Stream: This is to identify all the steps in value chain and to eliminate all those that do not create value to the end product. Flow: In order to make a smooth flow of the product towards customer, the value-creating steps must occur in tight sequence. Pull: Make only what is pulled by the customer and creates synchronization between demand and manufacturing process. Perfection: Once the value is identified, value stream is specified with wasted steps eliminated and flow and pull are introduced, execute the whole process again and continue until perfection is reached in which perfect value is developed without waste. 5stepslean.gif Fig.1 Benefits of Applying Lean Traditional Approach: Traditional approach assumes that each stage is separated from the other stage by placing the output in an inventory. The next stage will take the outputs from the buffer inventory and will pass them to the succeeding buffer e.g. as shown in fig.2, outputs from stage A are stored in buffer inventory which feeds the system for Stage B. In this manner each stage of the operation acts independently and picks material from buffer inventory and processes it for the subsequent buffer. These buffers insulate each stage from its neighbors and operations of one stage do not hinder the next stage. Hence if operations at stage A cease due to some reason, stage B can still continue for at least one time. The condition of insulation of each stage that seeks to promote traditional approach is indeed the learning argument of this system. Problems: Inventory remains idle. Slow throughput times since items spend more time waiting in buffer. Lack of coordination due to insulation of stages. Problem solving responsibility will be centered on people working in that very stage. C:UsersVibhorDesktopUntitled.jpg Fig.2 Lean Approach: In contrast with the traditional approach, lean approach processes and passes items directly to the next stage, eliminating the buffer inventories, hence reducing the barriers between stages. This provides the required amount of input for each stage at the required time. In this approach, problems at any stage have different impact on the process e.g. in fig.3 if stage A stops its operations, than subsequent stages will immediately notice the issue and the problem is quickly exposed to the whole system. This helps in improving the quality by providing quick feedback at each stage. C:UsersVibhorDesktopUntitled1.jpg Fig.3 In the traditional approach, if one stage stops functioning the other stage may continue to process by the available buffer resources resulting in high capacity utilization. But generally this situation would not sustain for a long period of time and the whole process will come to halt once the buffer is empty. On the other hand, in lean approach each time there is a blockage in any stage of the process, the whole process will come to halt, reducing the capacity utilization initially. Therefore where traditional approach encourages efficiency by protecting each stage from disruption, lean approach motivates the whole system to solve the problem. Fig.4 Source: Slack et al, 2010 According to Wild (2002), following are the benefits of Lean synchronization. Also evident from the above differentiation: Reduced inventories and work in progress; Less use of space; Shorter throughput times; Increased employee motivation and participation; Smoother work flows; Increased productivity; Improved quality and customer service Barriers to Lean Synchronization Lean synchronization aims at managing the operations process in such a way that it achieves exactly what customers are looking from the operation. Pure lean synchronization intends smooth, continuous flow without any sort of delay, waste and imperfection. Following are the major barriers to achieve this ideal state: Failure to eliminate waste in all parts of the operation Failure to harness the contribution of all the people involved in the operation. Failure to establish improvement as a continuous activity. Source: (Slack et al, 2010) Waste Identification and Elimination: Elimination of waste is the basic part of lean thinking and identifying the waste is the first step towards its elimination. Any activity that does not add to value is called as waste. The wastes that hinder the streamlined flow are: Wait time worker wait time and machine wait time is waste. This is usually dependant on efficiency of machinery and workers. Conveyance Change in layout can bring processes closer resulting in reduced movements. Inventory Inappropriate quantity of production According to Toyota, supplying less or more quantity than required is the greatest source of waste. Delivery Time- Early delivery is wasteful. Therefore items must be delivered Just In Time. Variability- If quality varies according to customer expectations and customer considers to be inadequately supplied than the whole process is wasteful. waste-poster.jpg Fig.5 Employee Participation: Organizations following lean philosophy must encourage its employees to participate in problem solving activity. The intention to encourage the feeling of personal responsibility and ownership within the employees is referred as respect-for-people. Some basic factors in encouraging employee involvement are: Environment Safety safety standards and environment must be followed by everyone. Flexibility employees must be given authority to take decisions and restrictive practices must be removed. Equality each employee must be treated equally. Creativity each persons creativity must be utilized to improve the processes. Total people involvement- staff must be encouraged to participate in other activities like recruitment, supply chain and customer dealing. This improves the processes and benefits the company as a whole. Continuous Improvement: Kaizen: Kaizen is a Japanese term for improvement or change for better. In terms of Masaaki Imai, Kaizen is a continuous process of improvement in which each individual of an organization is involved to achieve a state of perfection. Three guiding principles of kaizen as explained by Hill (2005) are: Process reviews review of entire process from designing stage to delivery. People participation employees insights to improve the process. Constant need for change seeking improvement and implementing changes result in achieving perfection. kaizen.JPG Fig.6 Source: Archfield Consulting Group Deming Cycle: It is also called PDCA cycle which involve a team of people who continuously find improvements in an organization. Waters (2002) defined this cycle as: Plan review of existing processes, information gathering, finding alternatives and suggesting improvement plans. Do plan in implemented and performance data is collected. Check analyzes the collected data to check if expected improvements appear or not. Act- if improvements are visible, the operation is made permanent else lessons are learnt. deming cycle.png Fig.7 Applying Lean in Healthcare Industry Applying lean in healthcare industry is similar to its application in manufacturing. Lean manufacturing reduces waste from the set of operations that takes place in producing of items. Similarly lean can reduce waste and improve the services provided to the patients in hospitals. This may also help hospitals to manage issues like financial deficits, infections, waiting queues and capacity management. Why Lean in healthcare? Alike other industries, healthcare also face problems like safety concerns, capacity and waiting queue management, low level of efficiency and lack of staff motivation. To get rid of these issues and to deliver improved and timely patient care, it is important to base hospital processes on lean synchronization. Lean implementation in hospitals can also prevent hospitals acquired infections, avoidable injuries, death and less recovery time. Traditional practice in hospitals Major time of patients and hospital staff is wasted due to multiple trips made by the patients and the staff members. Once the tests are performed, patient is called for diagnosis after few days. Treatment for the illness may or may not start on the same day. This delay in treatment may cause deterioration in patients condition. Implementation of lean in hospitals will reduce the time taken in treating the patient. According to lean process, a patient must come once and all the processes must be done on the same day e.g. tests are done and the treatment is started soon after the diagnosis from the tests. The process mentioned in the figure consumes unneeded time of patients and hospital staff and this in turn increases the overall cost and risk to life. Avoiding such unnecessary trips eases patient care and reduces the workload on doctors. Lean eliminates waste processes and increases the overall throughput in hospitals. Untitled.png Fig.8 Untitled.png Fig.9 Source: NHS Confederation Principles of lean in healthcare Value: To ensure patient satisfaction, hospitals need to analyze the patients viewpoint as depicted in fig.10. Value is the perception of a patient and can be created when right consultation, test, diagnosis, communication, treatment and after care is provided to the patient. By eliminating waste processes and utilizing resources, staff will be able to concentrate more on patient care. figure3.jpg Fig.10 Source: JWA Inc. Value Stream: Value stream is the process of identifying all the steps that creates value to the patient and eliminating those that creates no value to the patient. Usually hospitals tend to group patients on the basis of clinical similarity. However lean focuses not on similar conditions but similar processes.Fig.11 shows various steps and processes taken to discharge a patient. Untitled.png Fig.11 Source: Flinders Medical Centre In a hospital a value stream is the end-to-end process of caring for a group of patients whose overall care process have enough in common for them to be managed together, irrespective of clinical diagnosis (David Ben-Tovim, 2006). Following are the steps that may not create any value to the patient and should be eliminated: Patients visit to hospital on different days for different tests. Time wasted when patient waits to be seen by the doctor. Unnecessary step of nurse checking the patient. Time wasted in collecting medical equipments and information. Repetition of processes such as diagnostic tests and paperwork. Time consumed in searching medical history of patients. Performing tests that are not required. Fig.12 The factors stated above signify that time is the most valued element for the patient as well as for the hospital staff. To eliminate this waste of time, we first need to identify the cause of this waste. Fig.13 shows the causes that increase the waste in waiting time. Cause and Effect 3.jpg Fig.13 Waste Identification: Waste is anything that does not create value to the patient. Inventory: Holding excess material to avoid unreliable supply is referred as inventory waste in hospitals. Eliminating such waste can reduce cost and time of both the patient as well as the hospitals. Extra Processing: Use of complex equipments to conduct simple tests makes processes large and inflexible and may cause stress to the staff. Overproduction: Unnecessary tests and investigations are referred as overproduction in healthcare industry. These tests must be avoided to save time and cost. Waiting: This is the patient wait time that created due to process or material waiting e.g. patients waiting for test or surgery due to equipment readiness. Transportation: Movement of patients and materials are considered as waste but these cannot be eliminated completely. Processes must be arranged in a manner that steps become sequential and easy to identify. Defects: Defects increase the processes and are caused due to wrong medication or infections. Doing things in a right way will reduce redundancy as well as defects in a process. Movement: Hospital layout must be in a way that it minimizes the repetition of movements by staff and patients e.g. in operation theatres, all equipments must be in reach of the operation table so as to ease the surgeon while doing surgery. Mapping Value Stream: The challenge in value stream is to map exactly the things that actually occur at each stage of patients journey towards recovery, as depicted in fig.14. Lean redesigns this flow to enable seamless movement of patients to the next step without unnecessary work or wait. Fig.14 Fig.15 shows an example of process mapping where it just takes one step on the process of tests and lists each step of work that is currently performed. Amount of time, distance covered and required amount of materials can be added to each such step. It is evident that huge amount of work is being done without creating any value. Involvement of staff during waste identification is usually advised so that the effect of one persons actions is visible to all. Fig.15 Flow: Flow is the process where every patient is worked with single unit at a time and passed to the next step without any delay. Following are few processes that can be redesigned in order to implement lean operations: Concurrent medical problems complicate patient care of an elderly patient who got fractured. Treatment is affected because specialists fail to communicate and coordinate with each other. This problem can be resolved by creating another department called Trauma Unit which creates a single team having all kind of specialists. A standard hand off process between each member will make it possible to identify and address treatment issues regardless of who is on duty. In hospitals, usually same type of operations is conducted on one day and another type of operations on other day. To increase flow through surgeries, it is suggested that few operations of each type should be performed each day. This will reduce waiting time for patients as well as burden on wards. In outpatient department, patients are usually called in the morning at same time say 9a.m. and it is highly likely that not all of them will be treated at the same time and some have to wait till noon. Hence patients must be called according to priority and severity of the problem. Samples are held back in pathology to process them in batches. This leads to increase in wait time for patients. Samples must be tested soon they arrive to the lab. Pull: To create value to the customer, services should be provided in line with the demand. If the demand is for 100 admissions a day, it implies that 100 patients must be discharged on that day to accommodate the demand. To achieve this demand in hospitals all the key processes and interfaces between them must be redesigned. The time required to spend on each activity to achieve output in line with demand is called as Takt Time. It is the time that identifies the speed with which work and materials flow within different departments. In pull system, each patient is treated as one unit at a time and passed to the next level without as soon as it is ready. Fig.16 shows a pull system where each stage of the process pulls the patient towards it. Untitled.png Fig.16 Source: NHS Confederation Perfection: After eliminating all the waste processes without compromising the quality of service, the whole operations process is repeated until perfection is achieved. To achieve perfection in hospitals, following aspects must be taken care of: After Lean Implementation Patient first Wait time unaccepted Reduced errors Existing resources Reduce waste Problems visible to all End to end process Before Lean Service provider first Wait time Errors New resources Reduce cost Problems not visible Functional management Perfection Fig.17 Perfection is achieved by continuous improvement of the operations process. It is therefore necessary to that all the staff members and the hospital management must commit to seek perfection at their level. By creating standard, visible and clear processes, we can develop the foundation of uninterrupted improvement, where every new improvement becomes a landmark or platform for future processes. Advantages of Lean in Hospitals: It is observed that implementation of lean in hospitals have increased efficiency from 15 to 20 percent with safer and improved services using the existing infrastructure, technology and staff. Hospitals across the globe, which have adopted lean philosophy, have benefited from its implementation. According to David Ben-Tovim of Flinders Medical Centre, Australia, the hospital was struggling to survive and was on the verge of meltdown. But after applying lean in their operations process, they managed to earn more profits and decreased the costs. Some important advantages of lean are: Reduction of wait time for patients. Reduced cost and increased savings. Reduction in physical floor space by 30%. Productivity increases from 75% to up to 125% in some cases. Good customer relations. Staff motivation and reduced stress levels. Untitled.png Fig.18 Conclusion The aim of this research was to understand the lean philosophy and to apply lean principles in healthcare industry. It is evident from the study that lean philosophy brings positive results. It improves safety, quality and morale of the staff along with reducing time and costs in the operations process. Lean when enforced in hospital operations can add value to patient care and improve efficiency. Lean principles are generic and can be applied anywhere. If lean principles are applied at each stage of the operations process than huge amount of time can be saved. These principles challenge the whole idea of batching, triage, economies of scale and de-skilling. Results of lean implementation are potentially significant. Lean acts as antidote to traditional approach of performance management. Its emphasis is to put the whole system in a valuable stream. Leans focus is to improve effort on things that weigh importance to patients and hospital staff. It opposes the external benchmarks whic h tend to express the things that are indirectly related to improve patient care. It is also evident from the data that hospitals that have adopted lean in their operations have improved in terms of patient care, costs and time. Hence it can be concluded that implementing lean in any industry will prove to be the best bet.

Nonverbal Use Of Gestures

Nonverbal Use Of Gestures People express themselves nonverbally with the use of gestures (Archer 80). For instance, doing an A-OK sign by making a circle with ones index finger and thumb is an expression of approval to most Americans. When former U.S. President Richard Nixon deplaned in Caracas, Venezuela in 1956, he flashed two A-OK signs with his fingers to a group of demonstrators and caused a riot to erupt. The former President was later briefed that the meaning of the A-OK sign to Americans was equivalent to raising the middle finger to Venezuelans (Moran, Harris, and Moran 63). Despite being a crucial tool in effective communication, the meaning of nonverbal signals or gestures that people apply varies across different cultures. Hence, gestures are often misinterpreted. The silent signals attached to nonverbal communication are revealing. They can tell us motives, emotions, and feelings such as indecisions, honesty, joy, frustration, approval, anger, and many more (Goman). Being able to catch the meaning of the tiniest gestures that people make is important in everyday interpersonal communication and especially in the business world. Knowing what offends and what does not, what is proper and what is not, is an edge that individuals must be equipped with if they are to succeed in this competitive world (Stolte). Now that we live in a globalized world, diversity is a reality that all face and cultural differences in gestures need to be understood if we are to promote harmonious and effective communication. This paper presents cultural differences in gestures and nonverbal signals that have been studied or revealed in literature. Different Gestures, Different Meanings Subtle nonverbal practices or actions need to be understood because they have the possibility of offending others. The use of fingers, hands, and feet The thumbs-up sign which equates to Great! in the U.S. has a different meaning in other countries. In Australia, Bangladesh and Nigeria, this gesture is considered insulting (Kohl). In South Asian countries, gesturing to someone to accompany him to where he or she is supposed to sit down should not be made using the index finger in order to point to the location. This gesture is applicable only to animals. The polite way to beckon individuals to their seats is to bow slightly and with the back of your hand, indicate the place which you wish them to sit (Goman). Hailing a taxi cab could get different results depending on how you raise the palm of your hand. When you hail a cab with the palm of your hand raised, Asian cab drivers will interpret it as an aggressive gesture. In order to hail a cab properly and politely, the back of the hand must be held at the thigh level (Jones 4). Another source of difference in interpretation is the use of fingers (Stolte). Generally, when one hold up two fingers in the air, this means two. While this may seem a universally true interpretation, it means differently in other countries. Germany and France interprets the holding up of two fingers as three; therefore, tourists who order beer using this gesture will always get three beers at a bar in Germany. In both countries, counting always starts with the thumb. Hence, when Americans and Canadian use two fingers to count (also to say Peace!), the Germans and French will count two by using their thumb and a finger (also interpreted as a gun). Australians indicate time to drink up by folding three fingers of the hand against the palm, leaving the thumb and little finger sticking straight up and out. The same gesture means six in China (Jones 4). Another source of confusion is how to use the fingers and hand to call the attention of someone (Moran, Harris, and Moran 64). For instance, calling the attention of a waiter or waitress is done differently in different countries. In North America, all you need to do is to say Miss, or Sir, raise a finger or tilt your head to one side to call attention. Snapping ones fingers is considered impolite and disrespectful. In China and other Asian countries, the same task is accomplished by clinking a cup or a glass with your ring or a spoon. In Middle Eastern countries, clapping hands achieves the same result. In Japan, calling attention requires extending your arm slightly upward, palm down, and fluttering your fingers. In Spain and Latin America, people extend their hands, palm down, and then rapidly open and close their fingers (Jones 4). Handedness is also a source of confusion. All Muslim countries and some Asian nations consider the left hand as dirty and sinister, hence, using the left hand in receiving or presenting objects is frowned upon. The left hands use is for toileting and hygiene and is hence considered filthy (Jones 4). When taking food or other materials, one must always use the right hand (Goman). In Muslim countries, meals are communal gatherings and people scoop ones food with flat bread from a bowl found on the center. People sharing the food always use their right hand in scooping viand from the bowl. In Asian countries, using the right hand is the polite way of interacting with others. It is so because the right hand is the more dominant and adroit hand. When presenting or receiving a gift or any material however, Asians generally use both hands to signal ones appreciation for the goodwill (Jones 2). Shaking hands does not have a universal meaning or interpretation. In fact, the shaking of hands is particularly Western (Kohl). When dealing with other cultures, the rule is to never assume that the person in front of you or beside you is willing to shake your hand. Another rule especially true in Islamic countries is to never shake a womans hand. Another rule is not to shake someones hand unless that person extends his or her hand first (Goman). This is why some Americans who offer to shake someones hand upon first meetings are considered invasive and arrogant (Early and Ang 21). There are also ways in which shaking hands must be performed. For women in Asian countries, shaking hands means touching each others hands in a gentle manner. Even among men, the bone-crushing grip that is used by Western men when they shake hands is frowned upon in Eastern countries and is considered aggressive. Men of the Middle East and Asia simply brush their palms, which most Western men may find effe minate but for the former constitutes superior breeding and proper manners (Jones 3). A pat in the head or in the back is not similarly interpreted in different countries. In the US, patting the head of a small child is interpreted as affectionate. This gesture would be frowned upon in Malaysia and other Islamic countries because they believe that the head, being the source of spiritual and intellectual powers of a person, should be untouched (Early and Ang 22). Moreover, how Americans slap each other in the back to express camaraderie, delight, or to offer congratulations is not proper in Asian countries. This gesture would be considered aggressive and improper (Jones 5). Gestures that use the foot also hold different meanings for different cultures. In most cultures, such as in Asia and the Middle East, the sole of the foot is filthy and should be covered. Exposing the soles of the feet is disrespectful and insulting. Arabs usually direct the sole of the shoe toward the floor and do not do the typical leg-crossing of Western men where the calf or ankle of the crossing leg rests on the thigh of the other leg (Goman). In addition, among the people of a Laos tribe, when a woman taps the tap of a gentlemans foot with hers, she is indicating her desire to have sexual intercourse (Jones 5). Eye Contact Eye contact is very important in the West. Avoiding direct eye contact as seen in the movies is one way of detecting whether someone is lying (Goman). Hence, in Western culture, anybody who fails to maintain good eye contact is considered suspicious (Kohl). Other interpretations of people who avoid direct eye contact are unfriendly, insecure, untrustworthy, inattentive, and impersonal (Moran, Harris, and Moran 63). Conversely, avoiding ones gaze is a gesture of respect and of knowing ones place in Asian culture (Jones 3). For instance, Japanese children are socialized in school to focus their gaze on someones tie knot or an Adams apple. In China and in Japan, adults lower their gaze when speaking to a superior as a gesture of respect. In Latin American cultures and some Africa cultures, such as Nigeria, prolonged eye contact from one individual of lower status is considered disrespectful (Moran, Harris, and Moran 63). Staring is considered very rude in America while staring in China and other countries just indicates mere curiosity over someone and is not considered impolite or disrespectful (Kohl). In England, people are taught to pay strict attention to a speaker, to listen carefully, and to blink ones eyes to indicate comprehension or that one is listening. Americans signal interest and comprehension by bobbing their heads or grunting. A widening of the eyes can also be interpreted differently. For example, take the case of an American and a Chinese discussing the terms of a proposed contract. Regardless of the language in which the transaction is carried out, the U.S. may interpret a Chinese persons widened eyes as an expression of astonishment instead of its true meaning of politely suppressed Asian anger. (Moran, Harris, and Moran 64). Touch Recent studies reveal differences across cultures on the amount of touch applied and whether touch is displayed in public or in private (Early and Ang 78). For instance, in Tonga, when couples or families are parted, they weave their arms around one another, pray, and chant. Europeans usually lock in an embrace or share a passionate kiss publicly. Koreans do not use touch publicly. Moreover, it is customary for Austrian men to kiss the hand of a lady recently met in a restaurant and to go far as walk her to her table. While some cultures may find this disturbing or offensive, this is considered polite manners in Austria (Kohl). Interpreting Gestures One of the most significant studies on gestural difference across cultures was conducted by Dane Archer in 1997. Basing his data on a documentary made on people from various parts of the globe taking U.S. English as a Second Language, he provided a detailed inventory of some of the most commonly misinterpreted gestures from cultures all over the world. While errors are almost always forgiven, misinterpretation of gestures often leads to irritation, annoyance, and frustration among persons communicating. Below is an inventory of the gestural differences (Archer 81): 1. Good-Bye = Come Here (Japan) 2. Good Luck (U.S.) = Screw You (Iran) 3. Good Luck (U.S.) = Boyfriend (Japan) 4. Screw You (U.S.) = I Dont Believe You (Uruguay) 5. Im Angry (Nepal) = You Are Afraid (Mexico) 6. OK (U.S.) = Money (Japan) 7. OK (U.S.) = Sex (Mexico) 8. OK (U.S.) = Homosexual (Ethiopia) 9. Killed/Dead (U.S. throat slash) = Lost a Job (Japan) 10. Homosexual (U.S.) = Henpecked (Mexico) Conclusion Globalization has also meant respect, tolerance, and understanding of diverse cultures. The use of body language, hands, eyes, feet, fingers, and touch mean something to one culture and differently to another. As communication becomes increasingly intercultural, the need to be informed of how nonverbal communication across cultures vary enable us to be careful of what we say, how we use gestures, and how we apply nonverbal cues in order to get our message across effectively.