Family and Culture - 1010 Words

â€Å"Family culture is a unique way that a family forms itself in terms of rules, roles, habits, activities, beliefs, and other areas† (â€Å"What is family culture?†, 2002). The perception of family is an aspect of family culture; this includes the interactions within the family and with others. Some of these perceptions can be defined as myths. A myth is a belief about someone or something that is believed to be true, but it is false, made-up, or exaggerated (S. Yu, Lecture). There are both positive and negative aspects of believing myths. Believing myths could be very dysfunctional; they can result in negative consequences that disrupt a family and they may also divert our attention away from widespread social problems that affect families. On†¦show more content†¦So, most families turn to financial aid for help. This doesn’t make the family a â€Å"bad family†. One more myth, the myth of the perfect marriage and the perfect family declares that after the â€Å"perfect wedding the perfect couple will have the perfect life†. Although families have always been view as always a good thing with all these happy people living in â€Å"one big happy family†, it has always been filled with conflict and tension. Difficulties in families are common. Arguments between spouses range from how the children should be raised to how the family finances should be budgeted. Husband and wives also often struggle with the lack of passion in their relationship beyond the first few years of their marriage, so they must maintain a relationship based on something other than passionate love. Parent-child conflicts often play a big role as well; parents attempt to assert their authority, while their children attempt to assert their independence, making conflict inevitable. Society places unrealistic expectations upon families. In reality, families arenâ €™t always perfect and blissful, since they can also be filled with conflict along with the rest of society. Stress and conflicts could be destructive to families, especially when it gets out of hand. They are often under constant stress, being pushed and pulled in many directions, often without the supportShow MoreRelatedFamily Culture : Family And Culture1262 Words   |  6 Pages Family and Culture I traveled to Germany last summer to visit my friend Janine I noticed many different behaviors in family life that differed from the culture home and family life.The family I stayed with seemed so connected compared to my own. The ways the families in Germany treat their guest is very different and far more hospitable than here in America. I was also surprised by how welcoming everyone I met from Janine s family. The biggest cultural shock thatRead MoreThe Culture Of The Family983 Words   |  4 PagesEvery family has a different culture. Whether the culture is about religion, or within the immediate family, every family has a different outlook. Laney and her family have discussed what their culture is. Culture includes what the family does on a daily basis and traditions. On a daily basis Laney keeps in touch with her family. She calls her parents daily to talk about what has happened in her life, and her parents also call her to catch up. Laney has 1 sister who she was very close with growingRead MoreFamily Culture1764 Words   |  8 PagesOften times when we hear the word culture, we think of the differences of different countries. That statement may be true; however, there are different cultures within the same country, even within the same city. No matter what culture we call our own, there are distinct differences between that of other cultures around us. One of the major differences occurs in the realm of family; family affection to be more specific. When talking about family affection, we should consider many different aspectsRead MoreInfluence Of Family Culture And Their Influence On Family, Culture, And Environment873 Words   |  4 PagesResearch has shown that a person is shaped by the influence of their family, their culture, and their environment. As far as I could remember my parents have always been there for me, always by my side cheering me on. I am lucky to have such wonderful parents because if it weren’t for their influence, I would not be the person that I am today. My father had a rough childhood growing up in New York. His family was poor and my grandmother was not very supportive, yet despite his living conditionsRead More family culture Essay1736 Words   |  7 Pages Often times when we hear the word culture, we think of the differences of different countries. That statement may be true; however, there are different cultures within the same country, even within the same city. No matter what culture we call our own, there are distinct differences between that of other cultures around us. One of the major differences occurs in the realm of family; family affection to be more specific. When talking about family affection, we should consider many different aspectsRead MoreThe Family Of Hmong Culture886 Words   |  4 PagesWith the centrality of the family in Hmong culture, having sons or a son is very important as they are the ones who will take on the last name and lead the future generation of the family (Cha, 2010). Cha states, â€Å"The clannish nature of Hmong society favors a son. A family that does not have a son is viewed as a burden to the clan and community, because such a family will not contribute much to the community,† (p. 24). In the culture, the son(s) will take care of the parents as the daughter willRead MoreCulture, Socialization, And The Family923 Words   |  4 Pagespeople especially young generation doesn’t have a choice, they have to learn how to interact with millions of cultures that is the main reason why I decided to choose this three ressources:Culture,Socialization,and The family First of all, talking about culture, it can be define as the totality of learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects, and behavior. In fact, culture is very important and I love it because it influences an individual s life in a variety of ways, includingRead MoreFamily Roles : Sioux And Their Culture Family 1430 Words   |  6 PagesSioux and their Culture Family Roles -Who’s in charge? Child independence? †¢ The family life of Native Americans today is defined as a nuclear family. This consists of the mother, father, and offspring. The parents are the leaders of the household and work together in making all major decisions. This leaves both the mother and father equally in charge especially when it comes to their offspring. As the child is growing up the parents take primary responsibility in directing their child’s life. WhenRead MoreFamily Of Origin And Our Family Culture Essay1681 Words   |  7 PagesThe term Family of Origin refers to the family that you grew up in - your parents and siblings, your original family. It may also include grandparents, other relatives, or other individuals who lived with you during part of your childhood. From our family we learn how to communicate, deal with our emotions, and get our needs met. We also learn many of our values and beliefs from our families. We often develop our sense of self in the context of our family of origin. Our f amily of origin or ourRead MoreA Mexican Culture Family975 Words   |  4 PagesI was born into a Mexican culture family where I was born and raised in Fort Worth. Both my parents are American citizens but something important to know about my background is my mother is from America and my father is from Mexico, which also means I have family who have come over from Mexico. I feel like a lot of where I come from defines me a lot in where I stand politically. I’ve taken many tests to see where I stand and in some I’m an independent, others I’m slightly democrat and others I’m

The Twilight Saga 4 Breaking Dawn 16. Too-Much-Information Alert Free Essays

string(67) " when the Cullens were gone___ want to stay with you, she told me\." 16. Too-Much-Information Alert I took off early, long before sunrise was due. I’d gotten just a little bit of uneasy sleep leaning against the side of the sofa. We will write a custom essay sample on The Twilight Saga 4: Breaking Dawn 16. Too-Much-Information Alert or any similar topic only for you Order Now Edward woke me when Bella’s face was flushed, and he took my spot to cool her back down. I stretched and decided I was rested enough to get some work done. â€Å"Thank you,† Edward said quietly, seeing my plans. â€Å"If the route is clear, they’ll go today.† Tillet you know.† It felt good to get back to my animal self. I was stiff from sitting still for so long. I extended my stride, working out the kinks. Morning, Jacob,Leah greeted me. Good, you’re up. How long’s Seth been out? Not out yet,Seth thought sleepily. Almost there. What do you need? You think you got another hour in you? Sure thing. No problem.Seth got to his feet right away, shaking out his fur. Let’s make the deep run,Itold Leah. Seth, take the perimeter. Gotcha.Seth broke into an easy jog. Off on another vampire errand,Leah grumbled. You got a problem with that? Of course not. I just love to coddle those darling leeches. Good. Let’s see how fast we can run. Okay, I’m definitely up forthat Leah was on the far western rim of the perimeter. Rather than cut close to the Cullens’ house, she stuck to the circle as she raced around to meet me. I sprinted off straight east, knowing that even with the head start, she’d be passing me soon if I took it easy for even a second. Nose to the ground, Leah. This isn’t a race, it’s a reconnaissance mission. I can do both and still kick your butt I gave her that one. know. She laughed. We took a winding path through the eastern mountains. It wasa familiar route. We’d run these mountains when the vampires had left a year ago, making it part of our patrol route to better protect the people here. Then we’d pulled back the lines when the Cullens returned. This was their treaty land. But that fact would probably mean nothing to Sam now. The treaty was dead. The question today was how thin he was willing to spread his force. Was he looking for stray Cullens to poach on their land or not? Had Jared spoken the truth or taken advantage of the silence between us? We got deeper and deeper into the mountains without finding any trace of the pack. Fading vampire trails were everywhere, but the scents were familiar now. I was breathing them in all day long. I founda heavy, somewhat recent concentration on one particular trail – all of them coming and going here except for Edward. Some reason for gathering that must have been forgotten when Edward brought his dying pregnant wife home. I gritted my teeth. Whatever it was, it had nothing to do with me. Leah didn’t push herself past me, though she could have now. I was paying more attention to each new scent than I was to the speed contest. She kept to my right side, running with me rather than racing against me. Were getting pretty far out here,she commented. Yeah. If Sam was hunting strays, we should have crossed his trail by now. Makes more sense right now for him to bunker down in La Push,Leah thought. He knows we’re giving the bloodsuckers three extra sets of eyes and legs. He’s not going to be able to surprise them. This was just a precaution, really. Wouldn’t want our precious parasites taking unnecessary chances. Nope,I agreed, ignoring the sarcasm. You’ve changed so much, Jacob. Talk about one-eighties. You’re not exactly the same Leah I’ve always known and loved, either. True. Am I less annoying than Paul now? Amazingly†¦ yes. Ah, sweet success. Congrats. We ran in silence again then. It was probably time to turn around, but neither of us wanted to. It felt nice to run like this. We’d been staring at the same small circle of atrail for too long. It felt good to stretch our muscles and take the rugged terrain. We weren’t in a huge hurry, so I thought maybe we should hunt on the way back. Leah was pretty hungry. Yum, yum,she thought sourly. It’s all in your head,I told her. That’s the way wolves eat. It’s natural. It tastes fine. If you didn’t think about it from a human perspective – Forget the pep talk, Jacob. I’ll hunt I don’t have to like it Sure, sure,I agreed easily. It wasn’t my business if she wanted to make things harder for herself. She didn’t add anything for a few minutes; I started thinking about turning back. Thank you,Leah suddenly told me in a much different tone. For? For letting me be. For letting me stay. You’ve been nicer than I had any right to expect, Jacob. Er, no problem. Actually, I mean that. I don’t mind having you here like I thought I would. She snorted, but it was a playful sound. What a glowing commendation! Don’t let it go to your head. Okay – if you don’t let this go to yours.She paused for a second. think you make a good Alpha. Not in the same way Sam does, but in your own way. You’re worth following, Jacob. My mind went blank with surprise. It took me a second to recover enough to respond. Er, thanks. Not totally sure I’ll be able to stop that one from going to my head, though. Where did that come from? She didn’t answer right away, and I followed the wordless direction of her thoughts. She was thinking about the future – about what I’d said to Jared the other morning. About how the time would be up soon, and then I’d go back to the forest. About how I’d promised that she and Seth would return to the pack when the Cullens were gone___ want to stay with you, she told me. The shock shot through my legs, locking my joints. She blew past me and then put on the brakes. Slowly, she walked back to where I was frozen in place. won’t be a pain, I swear. I won’t follow you around. You can go wherever you want, and I’ll go where I want. You’ll only have to put up with me when we’re both wolves. She paced back and forth in front of me, swishing her long gray tail nervously. And, as I’m planning on quitting as soon as I can manage it†¦ maybe that won’t be so often. I didn’t know what to say. I’m happier now, as a part of your pack, than I have been in years. I want to stay, too,Seth thought quietly. I hadn’t realized he’d been paying much attention to us as he ran the perimeter. like this pack. Hey, now! Seth, this isn’t going to be a pack much longer.I tried to put my thoughts together so they would convince him. We’ve got a purpose now, but when†¦ after that’s over, I’m just going to go wolf. Seth, you need a purpose. You’re a good kid. You’re the kind of person who always has a crusade. And there’s no way you’re leaving La Push now. You’re going to graduate from high school and do something with your life. You’re going to take care of Sue. My issues are not going to mess up your future. But – Jacob is rightLeah seconded. You’re agreeing with me? Of course. But none of that applies tome. was on my way out anyway. I’ll get a job somewhere away from La Push. Maybe take some courses at a community college. Get into yoga and meditation to work on my temper issues†¦. And stay a part of this pack for the sake of my mental well-being. Jacob – you can see how that makes sense, right? I won’t bother you, you won’t bother me, everyone is happy. I turned back and started loping slowly toward the west. This is a bit much to deal with, Leah. Let me think about it, ‘kay? Sure. Take your time. It took us longer to make the run back. I wasn’t trying for speed. I was just trying to concentrate enough that I wouldn’t plow headfirst into a tree. Seth was grumbling a little bit in the back of my head, but I was able to ignore him. He knew I was right. He wasn’t going to abandon his mom. He would go back to La Push and protect the tribe like he should. But I couldn’t see Leah doing that. And that was just plain scary. A pack of the two of us? No matter the physical distance, I couldn’t imagine the†¦ the intimacy of that situation. I wondered if she’d really thought it through, or if she was just desperate to stay free. Leah didn’t say anything as I chewed it over. It was like she was trying to prove how easy it would be if it was just us. We ran into a herd of black-tailed deer just as the sun was coming up, brightening the clouds a little bit behind us. Leah sighed internally but didn’t hesitate. Her lunge was clean and efficient – graceful, even. She took down the largest one, the buck, before the startled animal fully understood the danger. Not to be outdone, I swooped down on the next largest deer, snapping her neck between my jaws quickly, so she wouldn’t feel unnecessary pain. I could feel Leah’s disgust warring with her hunger, and I tried to make it easier for her by letting the wolf in me have my head. I’d lived all-wolf for long enough that I knew how to be the animal completely, to see his way and think his way. I let the practical instincts take over, letting her feel that, too. She hesitated for a second, but then, tentatively, she seemed to reach out with her mind and try to see my way. It felt very strange – our minds were more closely linked than they had ever been before, because we both were trying to think together. Strange, but it helped her. Her teeth cut through the fur and skin of her kill’s shoulder, tearing away a thick slab of streaming flesh. Rather than wince away as her human thoughts wanted to, she let her wolf-self react instinctively. It was kind of a numbing thing, a thoughtless thing. It let her eat in peace. It was easy for me to do the same. And I was glad I hadn’t forgotten this. This would be my life again soon. Was Leah going to be a part of that life? A week ago, I wouldve found that idea beyond horrifying. I wouldn’t’ve been able to stand it. But I knew her better now. And, relieved from the constant pain, she wasn’t the same wolf. Not the same girl. We ate together until we both were full. Thanks,she told me later as she was cleaning her muzzle and paws against the wet grass. I didn’t bother; it had just started to drizzle and we had to swim the river again on our way back. I’d get clean enough. That wasn’t so bad, thinking your way. You’re welcome. Seth was dragging when we hit the perimeter. I told him to get some sleep; Leah and I would take over the patrol. Seth’s mind faded into unconsciousness just seconds later. You headed back to the bloodsuckers?Leah asked. Maybe. It’s hard for you to be there, but hard to stay away, too. I know how that feels. You know, Leah, you might want to think a little bit about the future, about what you really want to do. My head is not going to be the happiest place on earth. And you’ll have to suffer right along with me. She thought about how to answer me. Wow, this is going to sound bad. But, honestly, it will be easier to deal with your pain than face mine. Fair enough. I know it’s going to be bad for you, Jacob. I understand that – maybe better than you think. I don’t like her, but†¦ she’s your Sam. She’s everything you want and everything you can’t have. I couldn’t answer. know it’s worse for you. At least Sam is happy. At least he’s alive and well. I love him enough that I want that. I want him to have what’s best for him. She sighed. I just don’t want to stick around to watch. Do we need to talk about this? I think we do. Because I want you to know that I won’t make it worse for you. Hell, maybe I’ll even help. I wasn’tborn a compassionless shrew. I used to be sort of nice, you know. My memory doesn’t go that far back. We both laughed once. I’m sorry about this, Jacob. I’m sorry you’re in pain. I’m sorry it’s getting worse and not better Thanks, Leah. She thought about the things that were worse, the black pictures in my head, while I tried to tune her out without much success. She was able to look at them with some distance, some perspective, and I had to admit that this was helpful. I could imagine that maybe I would be able to see it that way, too, in a few years. She saw the funny side of the daily irritations that came from hanging out around vampires. She liked my ragging on Rosalie, chuckling internally and even running through a few blonde jokes in her mind that I might be able to work in. But then her thoughts turned serious, lingering on Rosalie’s face in a way that confused me. You know what’s crazy?she asked. Well, almost everything is crazy right now. But what do you mean? That blond vampire you hate so much – totally get her perspective. For a second I thought she was making a joke that was in very poor taste. And then, when I realized she was serious, the fury that ripped through me was hard to control. It was a good thing we’d spread out to run our watch. If she’d been within biting distance†¦ Hold up! Let me explain! Don’t want to hear it I’m outta here. Wait! Wait!she pleaded as I tried to calm myself enough to phase back. C’mon, Jake! Leah, this isn’t really the best way to convince me that I want to spend more time with you in the future. Yeesh! What an overreaction. You don’t even know what I’m talking about So whatare you talking about? And then she was suddenly the pain-hardened Leah from before. I’m talking about being a genetic dead end, Jacob. The vicious edge to her words left me floundering. I hadn’t expected to have my anger trumped. I don’t understand. Youwould, if you weren’t just like the rest of them. If my â€Å"female sfu/T – she thought the words with a hard, sarcastic tone – didn’t send you running for cover just like any stupid male, so you could actually pay attention to what it all means. Oh. Yeah, so none of us like to think about that stuff with her. Who would? Of course I remembered Leah’s panic that first month after she joined the pack – and I remembered cringing away from it just like everyone else. Because she couldn’t be pregnant – not unless there was some really freaky religious immaculate crap going on. She hadn’t been with anyone since Sam. And then, when the weeks dragged on and nothing turned into more nothing, she’d realized that her body wasn’t following the normal patterns anymore. The horror – what was she now? Had her body changed because she’d become a werewolf? Or had she become a werewolf because her body was wrong? The only female werewolf in the history of forever. Was that because she wasn’t as female as she should be? None of us had wanted to deal with that breakdown. Obviously, it wasn’t like we could empathize. You know why Sam thinks we imprint,she thought, calmer now. Sure. To carry on the line. Right. To make a bunch of new little werewolves. Survival of the species, genetic override. You’re drawn to the person who gives you the best chance to pass on the wolf gene. I waited for her to tell me where she was qoinq with this. If I was any good for that, Sam would have been drawn tome. Her pain was enough that I broke stride under it. But I’m not There’s something wrong with me. I don’t have the ability to pass on the gene, apparently, despite my stellar bloodlines. So I become a freak – the girlie-wolf – good for nothing else. I’m a genetic dead end and we both know it. We do not,I argued with her. That’s just Sam’s theory. Imprinting happens, but we don’t know why. Billy thinks it’s something else. I know, I know. He thinks you’re imprinting to makestronger wolves. Because you and Sam are such humongous monsters – bigger than our fathers. But either way, I’m still not a candidate. I’m†¦ I’m menopausal. I’m twenty years old and I’m menopausal. Ugh. I so didn’t want to have this conversation. You don’t know that, Leah. It’s probably just the whole frozen-in-time thing. When you quit your wolf and start getting older again, I’m sure things will†¦ er†¦ pick right back up. might think that – except that no one’s imprinting onme, notwithstanding my impressive pedigree. You know, she added thoughtfully, if you weren’t around, Seth would probably have the best claim to being Alpha – through his blood, at least. Of course, no one would ever consider me†¦. You reallywant to imprint, or be imprinted on, or whichever? I demanded. What’s wrong with going out and falling in love like a normal person, Leah? Imprinting is just another way of getting your choices taken away from you. Sam, Jared, Paul, Quit†¦ they don’t seem to mind. None of themhave a mind of their own. You don’t want to imprint? Hell, no! That’s just because you’re already in love withher. That would go away, you know, if you imprinted. You wouldn’t have to hurt over her anymore. Do you want to forget the way you feel about Sam? She deliberated for a moment. think I do. I sighed. She was in a healthier place than I was. But back to my original point, Jacob. I understand why your blond vampire is so cold – in the figurative sense. She’s focused. She’s got her eyes on the prize, right? Because you always want the very most what you can never, ever have. You would act like Rosalie? You would murder someone – because that’s what she’s doing, making sure no one interferes with Bella’s death – you would do that to have a baby? Since when are you a breeder? I just want the options I don’t have, Jacob. Maybe, if there was nothing wrong with me, I would never give it a thought. You would kill for that?I demanded, not letting her escape my question. That’s not what she’s doing. I think it’s more like she’s living vicariously. And†¦ if Bella askedme to help her with this†¦She paused, considering. Even though I don’t think too much of her, I’d probably do the same as the bloodsucker. A loud snarl ripped through my teeth. Because, if it was turned around, I’d want Bella to do that for me. And so would Rosalie. We’d both do it her way. Ugh! You’re as bad as they are! That’s the funny thing about knowing you can’t have something. It makes you desperate. And.. . that’s my limit Right there. This conversation is over. Fine. It wasn’t enough that she’d agreed to stop. I wanted a stronger termination than that. I was only about a mile from where I’d left my clothes, so I phased back to human and walked. I didn’t think about our conversation. Not because there wasn’t anything to think about, but because I couldn’t stand it. I would not see it that way – but it was harder to keep from doing that when Leah had put the thoughts and emotions straight into my head. Yeah, I wasn’t running with her when this was finished. She could go be miserable in La Push. One little Alpha command before I left for good wasn’t going to kill anybody. It was real early when I got to the house. Bella was probably still asleep. I figured I’d poke my head in, see what was going on, give ’em the green light to go hunting, and then find a patch of grass soft enough to sleep on while human. I wasn’t phasing back until Leah was asleep. But there was a lot of low mumbling going on inside the house, so maybe Bella wasn’t sleeping. And then I heard the machinery sound from upstairs again – the X-ray? Great. It looked like day four on the countdown was starting off with a bang. Alice opened the door for me before I could walk in. She nodded. â€Å"Hey, wolf.† â€Å"Hey, shortie. What’s going on upstairs?† The big room was empty – all the murmurs were on the second floor. She shrugged her pointy little shoulders. â€Å"Maybe another break.† She tried to say the words casually, but I could see the flames in the very back of her eyes. Edward and I weren’t the only ones who were burning over this. Alice loved Bella, too. â€Å"Another rib?† I asked hoarsely. â€Å"No. Pelvis this time.† Funny how it kept hitting me, like each new thing was a surprise. When was I going to stop being surprised? Each new disaster seemed kinda obvious in hindsight. Alice was staring at my hands, watching them tremble. Then we were listening to Rosalie’s voice upstairs. â€Å"See, I told you I didn’t hear a crack. You need your ears checked, Edward.† There was no answer. Alice made a face. â€Å"Edward’s going to end up ripping Rose into small pieces, I think. I’m surprised she doesn’t see that. Or maybe she thinks Emmett will be able to stop him.† â€Å"I’ll take Emmett,† I offered. â€Å"You can help Edward with the ripping part.† Alice half-smiled. The procession came down the stairs then – Edward had Bella this time. She was gripping her cup of blood in both hands, and her face was white. I could see that, though he compensated for every tiny movement of his body to keep from jostling her, she was hurting. â€Å"Jake,† she whispered, and she smiled through the pain. I stared at her, saying nothing. Edward placed Bella carefully on her couch and sat on the floor by her head. I wondered briefly why they didn’t leave her upstairs, and then decided at once that it must be Bella’s idea. She’d want to act like things were normal, avoid the hospital setup. And he was humoring her. Naturally. Carlisle came down slowly, the last one, his face creased with worry. It made him look old enough to be a doctor for once. â€Å"Carlisle,† I said. â€Å"We went halfway to Seattle. There’s no sign of the pack. You’re good to go.† â€Å"Thank you, Jacob. This is good timing. There’s much that we need.† His black eyes flickered to the cup that Bella was holding so tight. â€Å"Honestly, I think you’re safe to take more than three. I’m pretty positive that Sam is concentrating on La Push.† Carlisle nodded in agreement. It surprised me how willingly he took my advice. â€Å"If you think so. Alice, Esme, Jasper, and I will go. Then Alice can take Emmett and Rosa – â€Å" â€Å"Not a chance,† Rosalie hissed. â€Å"Emmett can go with you now.† â€Å"You should hunt,† Carlisle said in a gentle voice. His tone didn’t soften hers. â€Å"I’ll hunt when he does,† she growled, jerking her head toward Edward and then flipping her hair back. Carlisle sighed. Jasper and Emmett were down the stairs in a flash, and Alice joined them by the glass back door in the same second. Esme flitted to Alice’s side. Carlisle put his hand on my arm. The icy touch did not feel good, but I didn’t jerk away. I held still, half in surprise, and half because I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. â€Å"Thank you,† he said again, and then he darted out the door with the other four. My eyes followed them as they flew across the lawn and then disappeared before I took another breath. Their needs must have been more urgent than I’d imagined. There was no sound for a minute. I could feel someone glaring at me, and I knew who it would be. I’d been planning to take off and get some Z’s, but the chance to ruin Rosalie’s morning seemed too good to pass up. So I sauntered over to the armchair next to the one Rosalie had and settled in, sprawling out so that my head was tilted toward Bella and my left foot was near Rosalie’s face. â€Å"Ew. Someone put the dog out,† she murmured, wrinkling her nose. â€Å"Have you heard this one, Psycho? How do a blonde’s brain cells die?† She didn’t say anything. â€Å"Well?† I asked. â€Å"Do you know the punch line or not?† She looked pointedly at the TV and ignored me. â€Å"Has she heard it?† I asked Edward. There was no humor on his tense face – he didn’t move his eyes from Bella. But he said, â€Å"No.† â€Å"Awesome. So you’ll enjoy this, bloodsucker – a blonde’s brain cells die alone.† Rosalie still didn’t look at me. â€Å"I have killed a hundred times more often than you have, you disgusting beast. Don’t forget that.† â€Å"Someday, Beauty Queen, you’re going to get tired of just threatening me. I’m really looking forward to that.† â€Å"Enough, Jacob,† Bella said. I looked down, and she was scowling at me. It looked like yesterday’s good mood was long gone. Well, I didn’t want to bug her. â€Å"You want me to take off?† I offered. Before I could hope – or fear – that she’d finally gotten tired of me, she blinked, and her frown disappeared. She seemed totally shocked that I would come to that conclusion. â€Å"No! Of course not.† I sighed, and I heard Edward sigh very quietly, too. I knew he wished she’d get over me, too. Too bad he’d never ask her to do anything that might make her unhappy. â€Å"You look tired,† Bella commented. â€Å"Dead beat,† I admitted. I’dlike to beat you dead,† Rosalie muttered, too low for Bella to hear. I just slumped deeper into the chair, getting comfortable. My bare foot dangled closer to Rosalie, and she stiffened. After a few minutes Bella asked Rosalie for a refill. I felt the wind as Rosalie blew upstairs to get her some more blood. It was really quiet. Might as well take a nap, I figured. And then Edward said, â€Å"Did you say something?† in a puzzled tone. Strange. Because no one had said anything, and because Edward’s hearing was as good as mine, and he should have known that. He was staring at Bella, and she was staring back. They both looked confused. â€Å"Me?† she asked after a second. â€Å"I didn’t say anything.† He moved onto his knees, leaning forward over her, his expression suddenly intense in a whole different way. His black eyes focused on her face. â€Å"What are you thinking about right now?† She stared at him blankly. â€Å"Nothing. What’s going on?† â€Å"What were you thinking about a minute ago?† he asked. â€Å"Just†¦ Esme’s island. And feathers.† Sounded like total gibberish to me, but then she blushed, and I figured I was better off not knowing. â€Å"Say something else,† he whispered. Tike what? Edward, what’s going on?† His face changed again, and he did something that made my mouth fall open with a pop. I heard a gasp behind me, and I knew that Rosalie was back, and just as flabbergasted as I was. Edward, very lightly, put both of his hands against her huge, round stomach. ‘The f – † He swallowed. â€Å"It†¦ the baby likes the sound of your voice.† There was one short beat of total silence. I could not move a muscle, even to blink. Then – â€Å"Holy crow, you can hear him!†Bella shouted. In the next second, she winced. Edward’s hand moved to the top peak of her belly and gently rubbed the spot where it must have kicked her. â€Å"Shh,† he murmured. â€Å"You startled it†¦ him.† Her eyes got all wide and full of wonder. She patted the side of her stomach. â€Å"Sorry, baby.† Edward was listening hard, his head tilted toward the bulge. â€Å"What’s he thinking now?† she demanded eagerly. â€Å"It†¦ he or she, is †¦Ã¢â‚¬  He paused and looked up into her eyes. His eyes were filled with a similar awe – only his were more careful and grudging. â€Å"He’s happy† Edward said in an incredulous voice. Her breath caught, and it was impossible not to see the fanatical gleam in her eyes. The adoration and the devotion. Big, fat tears overflowed her eyes and ran silently down her face and over her smiling lips. As he stared at her, his face was not frightened or angry or burning or any of the other expressions he’d worn since their return. He was marveling with her. â€Å"Of course you’re happy, pretty baby, of course you are,† she crooned, rubbing her stomach while the tears washed her cheeks. â€Å"How could you not be, all safe and warm and loved? I love you so much, little EJ, of course you’re happy.† â€Å"What did you call him?† Edward asked curiously. She blushed again. â€Å"I sort of named him. I didn’t think you would want†¦ well, you know.† â€Å"EJ?† â€Å"Your father’s name was Edward, too.† â€Å"Yes, it was. What – ?† He paused and then said, â€Å"Hmm.† â€Å"What?† â€Å"He likes my voice, too.† â€Å"Of course he does.† Her tone was almost gloating now. â€Å"You have the most beautiful voice in the universe. Who wouldn’t love it?† â€Å"Do you have a backup plan?† Rosalie asked then, leaning over the back of the sofa with the same wondering, gloating look on her face that was on Bella’s. â€Å"What if he’s a she?† Bella wiped the back of her hand under her wet eyes. â€Å"I kicked a few things around. Playing with Renee and Esme. I was thinking†¦ Ruh-nez-may.† â€Å"Ruhnezmay?† â€Å"R-e-n-e-s-m-e-e. Too weird?† â€Å"No, I like it,† Rosalie assured her. Their heads were close together, gold and mahogany. â€Å"It’s beautiful. And one of a kind, so that fits† â€Å"I still think he’s an Edward.† Edward was staring off into space, his face blank as he listened. â€Å"What?† Bella asked, her face just glowing away. â€Å"What’s he thinking now?† At first he didn’t answer, and then – shocking all the rest of us again, three distinct and separate gasps – he laid his ear tenderly against her belly. â€Å"He loves you,† Edward whispered, sounding dazed. â€Å"He absolutely adores you.† In that moment, I knew that I was alone. All alone. I wanted to kick myself when I realized how much I’d been counting on that loathsome vampire. How stupid – as if you could ever trust a leech! Of course he would betray me in the end. I’d counted on him to be on my side. I’d counted on him to suffer more than I suffered. And, most of all, I’d counted on him to hate that revolting thing killing Bella more than I hated it. I’d trusted him with that. Yet now they were together, the two of them bent over the budding, invisible monster with their eyes lit up like a happy family. And I was all alone with my hatred and the pain that was so bad it was like being tortured. Like being dragged slowly across a bed of razor blades. Pain so bad you’d take death with a smile just to get away from it. The heat unlocked my frozen muscles, and I was on my feet. All three of their heads snapped up, and I watched my pain ripple across Edward’s face as he trespassed in my head again. â€Å"Ahh,† he choked. I didn’t know what I was doing; I stood there, trembling, ready to bolt for the very first escape that I could think of. Moving like the strike of a snake, Edward darted to a small end table and ripped something from the drawer there. He tossed it at me, and I caught the object reflexively. â€Å"Go, Jacob. Get away from here.† He didn’t say it harshly – he threw the words at me like they were a life preserver. He was helping me find the escape I was dying for. The object in my hand was a set of car keys. How to cite The Twilight Saga 4: Breaking Dawn 16. Too-Much-Information Alert, Essay examples

Starbucks Supply Chain free essay sample

Many of the companys products are seasonal or specific to the locality of the store. Starbucks-brand ice cream and coffee are also offered at grocery stores. From Starbucks founding in later forms in Seattle as a local coffee bean roaster and retailer, the company has expanded rapidly. In the 1990s, Starbucks was opening a new store every workday, a pace that continued into the 2000s. The first store outside the United States or Canada opened in the mid-1990s, and overseas stores now constitute almost one third of Starbucks stores. The company planned to open a net of 900 new stores outside of the United States in 2009, but has announced 300 store closures in the United States since 2008. Buoyed by unprecedented success and focused on rapid expansion in the early 2000s, an efficient supply chain was not a top priority for the world-renowned coffee retailer Starbucks. But then the economic downturn set in, forcing Starbucks to re-engineer its supply chain. In 2010, the company removed more than $700 million (? 428m) from its supply chain costs, and used an innovative set of metrics to achieve remarkable results. Gartner research vice president, Kevin Sterneckert, discovered how it moved from a struggling supply chain to one of the best supply chains in the world. Starbucks began to examine every detail of its supply chain, and found that its organization had become very siloed and divergently independent. Performance metrics and objectives differed by organization within the supply chain. In some cases, this led to competing activities that created unwarranted complexity and performance deficiencies. For example, the organization was scheduling store deliveries without considering its warehouse capacity, so delivery trucks would routinely leave he distribution centre (DC) with less than the full order for a store. Starbucks faced four key issues: 1. It lacked a supply chain strategy focused on delivering enterprise value. 2. It lacked organization calibration of benefits. 3. It lacked focus on the right supply chain metrics. 4. It needed to increase investments in talent enhancement and acqu isition. Starbucks developed a strategic framework that it applied to all aspects of its supply chain strategy. It identifies the areas of focus for each division, as well as the level of maturity expected. Further, the company recognized that enhancements to the way it manages and acquires talent would return significant benefits. The retailer transformed its supply chain strategy to move from a traditional logistics mindset to an organization purpose-built to deliver value. The company wanted its supply chain to accelerate speed to market and enable sales growth. Starbucks management challenged the supply chain organization to compress its cost to serve and elevate its service, while obtaining, training and retaining the best talent in the business. Starbucks initiated a series of changes that aligned business practices with activities, as well as organizational changes that allow for a focus and direction to be placed on each, while avoiding the issues of silos of excellence. Starbucks learned through its transformational process that some metrics mattered. However, the company also learned that not all metrics mattered, nor could all metrics lead to improved decisions that would lead to improved performance A key metric for Starbucks is ‘on time in full’ (OTIF), which the company defines as the state when everything ordered is on time and complete as ordered. This metric fell to a very low score at the apex of Starbucks supply chain issues. Starbucks reports OTIF to be one of the single most important indicators of cumulative success. When this number moves down, a host of additional metrics will point to the source of the supply chains inefficiencies. As the number rises, so do the improvements to COGS. One world, one logistics system The creation of a single, global logistics system was important for Starbucks because of its far-flung supply chain. The company generally brings coffee beans from Latin America, Africa, and Asia to the United States and Europe in ocean containers. From the port of entry, the green (unroasted) beans are trucked to six storage sites, either at a roasting plant or nearby. After the beans are roasted and packaged, the finished product is trucked to regional distribution centers, which range from 200,000 to 300,000 square feet in size. Starbucks runs five regional distribution centers (DCs) in the United States; two are company-owned and the other three are operated by third-party logistics companies (3PLs). It also has two distribution centers in Europe and two in Asia, all of which are managed by 3PLs. Coffee, however, is only one of many products held at these warehouses. They also handle other items required by Starbucks retail outlets—everything from furniture to cappuccino mix. Depending on their location, the stores are supplied by either the large, regional DCs or by smaller warehouses called central distribution centers (CDCs). Starbucks uses 33 such CDCs in the United States, seven in the Asia/Pacific region, five in Canada, and three in Europe; currently, all but one are operated by third-party logistics companies. The CDCs carry dairy products, baked goods, and paper items like cups and napkins. They combine the coffee with these other items to make frequent deliveries via dedicated truck fleets to Starbucks own retail stores and to retail outlets that sell Starbucks-branded products. Because delivery costs and execution are intertwined, Gibbons and his team set about improving both. One of their first steps was to build a global map of Starbucks transportation expenditures—no easy task, because it involved gathering all supply chain costs by region and by customer, Gibbons says. An analysis of those expenditures allowed Starbucks to winnow its transportation carriers, retaining only those that provided the best service. The logistics team also met with its 3PLs and reviewed productivity and contract rates. To aid the review process, the team created weekly scorecards for measuring those vendors. There are very clear service metrics, clear cost metrics, and clear productivity metrics, and those were agreed with our partners, Gibbons notes. Although Starbucks has a raft f metrics for evaluating supply chain performance, it focuses on four high-level categories to create consistency and balance across the global supply chain team: safety in operations, service measured by on-time delivery and order fill rates, total end-to-end supply chain costs, and enterprise savings. This last refers to cost savings that come from areas outside logistics, such as procurement, marketing, or research and development. Earning the companys confidence Since Starbucks began its su pply chain transformation effort, it has curtailed costs worldwide without compromising service delivery. As a company, Gibbons says, we have talked publicly of over $500 million of savings in the last two years, and the supply chain has been a major contributor to that. In Gibbons eyes, the transformation effort has been a success. Today theres a lot of confidence in our supply chain to execute every day, to make 70,000 deliveries a week, to get new products to market, and to manage product transitions, new product introductions, and promotions, he says. Theres a lot of confidence that we now are focused on service and quality to provide what our stores need and what our other business customers need. To sustain that momentum for improvement and to ensure a future flow of talent into the organization, Starbucks recently began an initiative to recruit top graduates of supply chain education programs. Along with its recruiting program, the company plans to provide ongoing training f or its existing employees to help them further develop their supply chain knowledge and skills. The infusion of new recruits will allow Starbucks to stay focused on its supply chain mission of delivering products with a high level of service at the lowest possible cost to its stores in the United States and around the globe. Supply Chain Management For Starbucks

Wholeness and Alienation free essay sample

In this essay, I will show why his argument may be dated and no longer correct, that the desire for fame and having celebrity idols is not as alienating or detrimental as it once was, and that with the right mindset, it can actually be enriching to constantly challenge oneself, to try harder, and to reach out to more people. First, I will examine the theoretical perspective through which Stuart Ewen views celebrity culture, and I will further examine his theory of the â€Å"dream of wholeness† and why he believes it can be alienating.Next, I will briefly juxtapose Ewen’s theory to Karl Marx’s theory of the estrangement of labor, which will shed light on precisely what type of alienation to which I am referring in my argument. I will then provide a modern-day social context for these theories using statistics about celebrity culture and the demographics of those who follow it. We will write a custom essay sample on Wholeness and Alienation or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Finally, I will back up my argument with excerpts from and photographic portraits of seven interviews I conducted with students who have aspirations of becoming famous. The first part of Stuart Ewen’s theory suggests that the dream of wholeness begins with a dissatisfaction with the self.In advertisements, when we see â€Å"perfection† in the images of models, we idolize these figures and subconsciously relate them to ourselves. This is silly of us to do, first of all, because stars are constantly told what to say and their photos are edited to the extreme. They are then mass-produced, at which point, Ewen suggests, the â€Å"aura† or intrinsic value of the original images are lost (Ewen 1988, 93). Still, as a result of these images, we Simonetti 2 constantly keep a tab on the way we look, and we start to see ourselves as â€Å"objects† rather than â€Å"subjects† (Ewen 1988, 89).We become more and more uncomfortable with our own skin, and in a ver y capitalist way, we thus buy products to fix what now seem to be mistakes on our bodies until we live up to the â€Å"beautiful thinghood,† or the fake perfection, of the images we see (Ewen 1988, 89). Because of these perfect, air-brushed images in the media, he argues, we are essentially dreaming of perfection in our own physical image. And because this is impossible, Ewen says, we are essentially alienated from our true selves (Ewen 1988, 91). Next, Ewen continues to focus on how celebrities affect style.He says that the â€Å"style market capitalize[s] on something ‘hot,’ to turn popular desires into demographics† (Ewen 1988, 97). When the public seems to like the clothing style on a celebrity, manufacturers make sure the style is available for the public to wear. Ewen also cleverly observes that for both middle class citizens and celebrities, the primary expression of wealth is consumption, so celebrities become models of a seemingly attainable but ultimately ridiculous way of life for the middle class (Ewen 1988, 100).Celebrity lifestyle is portrayed in movies as lavish, unrestrained, and endlessly wealthy, so these ways of life modeled for the middle cla ss tend to be very gaudy and expensive. People then start to buy knock-offs to make up for styles they don’t have, become over-obsessed with their appearance, and so on until they grow even more alienated from their true selves. Moreover, according to Ewen, capitalist consumer culture, which provides compensation for nearly any request in exchange for a sum of money, gives us all the freedom to desire (Ewen 1988, 100).As examples, if we want to look a certain way, we can buy into that image; if we want to fix the problems in our lives, we can pay others or buy products to solve those problems; and of course, if we want to be â€Å"famous,† we have (or at least we think we have) the ability to become famous. At the same time, the media constantly feeds us with images of cultural norms Simonetti 3 that dictate what we should â€Å"want,† such as clothing styles, products, services, and lifestyles-specifically, the celebrity lifestyle.We are bombarded with the notion that anyone, if he/she plays his/her cards right, can become a celebrity if they work hard and develop enough of a following. However, Ewen suggests that â€Å"becoming ‘someone’ is a gift bestowed upon people by the image machine,† so only a select few are â€Å"discovered,† and it is not nearly as easy to achieve as the middle class sometimes pretends it is (Ewen 1988, 96). Ultimately, though, our capitalist culture almost inherently forces us to imagine our lives differently, or to dream of a more â€Å"whole† life, and to strive to change our lives based on those new possibilities with which we are presented. Later on, I will refute these and a few other of Ewen’s points by examining interviews with students from my generation who, as we will see, have slightly different views about fame. Ewen believes as well that because our society makes us all feel extremely alone and our voices are seldom heard, we have more of a â€Å"desire ‘to be somebody,’† but perhaps a skewed view of the process to becoming â€Å"somebody. † (Ewen 1988, 94). This is also one of the main themes in Charles Derber’s study, The Pursuit of Attention, the first sentence of which reads: â€Å"Psychologists have treated attention as a fundamental human need† (Derber 2000, 9).If we need attention, it’s only natural for us to want to become famous, as famous people receive plenty of attention without even trying. Ewen also alludes to the image of, for example, a concert where an audience is at the feet of a celebrity, which symbolizes the â€Å"extrication [of an in dividual] from a mass of unknowns† (Ewen 1988, 95). This is a common discontent among young middle-class Americans: the tragedy of being part of the crowd–a â€Å"nobody† (Ewen 1988, 95). Success stories of â€Å"lucky breaks† and â€Å"chance meetings,† he argues, lead many who will probably never be recognized to believe that one day they might (Ewen 1988, 96).He notes that to become famous, once must find a way to stand out in institutions that are structured and have Simonetti 4 little room for individuality. The example he uses is Babe Ruth, the famous baseball player, who by simply playing the structured game of baseball became an individual by topping charts and creating statistics (Ewen 1988, 96). In a similar way, a singer, for example, can become an individual and stand out in the structure of a theory-based music industry by having a unique voice and making excellent music.In addition to our freedom of desire mentioned above, Ewen refers to Jean-Paul Sartre’s Being and Nothingness, which presents a different way of thinking about freedom. Sartre believes that freedom is not simply being, but is maintaining â€Å"active, self-determine d engagement within the world† (qtd. in Ewen 1988, 102). Further, Ewen adds that the structures of work in America, which â€Å"are encompassed by acts which have little meaning in and of themselves,† can â€Å"fill a person with an †¦ insatiable hunger: †¦ to make meaning in one’s life† (Ewen 1988, 103).This notion that work is so dull that one becomes alienated from any meaning in one’s life is very similar to Marx’s theory on the estrangement of labor, in which he argues four key points: 1) In much of capitalist labor, man is alienated from the product of his labor because he is simply creating a product thought of by others, and being created for others. 2) In capitalist labor, man is alienated from the labor process because he is simply repeating the same actions over and over for the purposes of mass production. ) In capitalist labor, man is alienated from himself because â€Å"when he is working, [the worker] does not feel himself† (p. 3). 4) In labor, man is estranged from others in the labor process because he is working only as a means to happiness (for money, so that he can buy pleasurable commodities), instead of as happiness itself (for fun, to enjoy working with and for others) (Marx 1844). Marx’s theory of the estrangement of labor is similar to Ewen’s theory of the alienation of celebrity culture in that both labor and celebrity culture force us to aspire to a lifestyle that we do not currently have. Simonetti 5 However, Marx’s theory is about how man is alienated from his true self when he is making things for other men, while Ewen’s theory is about how man is alienated from his true self when he is consuming things made by other men. Put this way, it is a rather disheartening contrast because it implies that man is always alienated from his true self. Fortunately, though, I will show later on why Ewen’s argument may be considered slightly dated and thus no longer valid.Finally, Ewen finishes his argument about the dream of wholeness by referring to the â€Å"dream of identity† and the role of style in forming and expressing that identity. He goes on to make the connection that style fills the void described above that is created from meaningless work by providing some meaning in life through expression of one’s self (Ewen 1988, 106). He notes that â€Å"[s]tyle is a realm of being ‘exceptional’ within the constraints of conformit y,† so it ultimately acts as the expression of those who long for the wholeness that they believe would come with fame (Ewen 1988, 108).The last point Ewen makes is that as a result of our dreams of wholeness, alienation from our true selves, and overall discontent with the here and now, we are â€Å"caught between the polarities of doing and having,† which is to suggest that our competition for attention ultimately leads to consumption (Ewen 1988, 108). Now that I’ve established the theoretical basis of my argument, I will provide some information to help us see the modern-day implications of these theories and to show how dated and hyperbolical they can be in the context of today’s society.Being famous today is far different than it ever has been. If we like a musician, dancer, filmmaker, writer, or any other type of celebrity, we have the ability to follow every move they make with their lives’ increased coverage by â€Å"TMZ,† â€Å"Extra,† and other such entertainment news companies. According to Hall’s Reports, â€Å"entertainers and other celebrities appeared on the covers of nearly 40 percent of all American magazines in 2004†¦, while only 6 percent of covers were related to national Simonetti 6 affairs† (Altman 2005).In addition, â€Å"the percentage of pages in news magazines dedicated to celebrities and entertainment doubled from 1980 to 2003, while coverage of nation al affairs dropped from 35 percent of all pages to 25 percent† (Altman 2005). This alarming amount of celebrity coverage is a clear indication of how much more prevalent celebrities are today than they were when Ewen wrote his book. Further, a consequence of this prevalence is that we inevitably see more celebrity scandals and mistakes, which allow us to see them as they are: human. We are thus no longer alienated from them and we begin to see them as people, just like us. As well, the dream of becoming famous becomes less and less glorified as we see the lack of privacy and mystique that, in Ewen’s time, were so closely linked to the dream. Another consequence is that we start to see stories on celebrities that really are not important, such as meaningless gossip about which celebrities were with whom and when and where, etc. This can allow us to place less importance on and â€Å"see through† celebrity news as simply the desperate work of celebrity publicists.Comedian and pop-culture commentator Mo Rocca expands in Howard Altman’s essay, â€Å"Celebrity Culture†: â€Å"‘I have a strange faith in college students. They are both more optimistic and skeptical than everyone else. †¦ Essentially, students know it is all BS — they revel in the cheesiness of it. ’† According to Altman, celebrity gossip can bring people together: In a study published in March 2004, a group of British researchers found that gossiping about celebrities took up most of the social time of nearly one-third of a sample of 191 English youngsters ages 11 to 16.But these young people were far from being isolated; in fact, researchers found the gossiping children had a stronger network of close friends than their peers who were less interested in celebrities. Simonetti 7 Clearly, in today’s world, young people grow up very rationally, with most of Ewen’s illusions of celebrity culture exposed. When I was a preteen, for example, my mother told me her prediction of former superstar Miley Cyrus: â€Å"In a few years, she won’t have this much clout anymore. She’ll have grown up and moved on from stardom, just like her father. Sure enough, she was right. As a result of this common knowledge and long-term observation about celebrit y culture, today’s generation of college students have a better value system when it comes to personal success, in that they want less to be a â€Å"celebrity,† but more for their voices to be heard, whatever that may mean. Quite nobly, they care less about being famous and more about doing what they love: performing for others and expressing themselves. Most people with dreams of becoming famous also have celebrity idols.For the purposes of this paper, an idol is a figure in popular culture whom one has respected tremendously for a long time (i. e. , 5-6 years) and whom one will continue to respect after they are out of the public spotlight. Those who have celebrity idols normally have a standard for themselves to try to live up to those idols in some way. Whether they are trying to emulate their idols’ personalities or to sing, dance, write, or otherwise perform like their idols, the seven students I have interviewed all seem to be better people as a result of their idols. Josh, for example, who idolizes dancers Brian Puspos and Mike Song, thinks he would be a different person without them: â€Å"The way Brian and Mike are–they’re goofy. That’s why they’re so relatable and that’s why I love them. Even when they’re dancing, they’ll do a silly move which shows they love what they do. It shows me Josh, dancing like Mike Song Simonetti 8 that no amount of fame should change who you are, which has a big impact on my everyday life. † Next, Molly regards her idol, British actress Gemma Arterton, just as highly, if not moreso than Josh regards his: â€Å"She’s the person that I would like to be.She is a great role model figure for young women. I used to go to school for acting, and I was too afraid to do things because I thought I would fail so I transferred schools, but looking at her gave me the push to go forward with it and to do more with my life–to take more trips and chances. She also doesn’t take crap from anybody and is very eloquent, which are both Molly, admiring Gemma Arterton qualities that I need to work on. † Finally, Zack idolizes WWE wrestlers Ray Mysterio, John Cena, and C. M. Punk, not for their time in the ring, oddly, but for their contributions to charity and for their efforts in preventing bullying.

Here Are The Most Important Skills Needed For the Future

Here Are The Most Important Skills Needed For the Future For many decades now, people have been predicting the future of just about all industries: robots. And while that hasn’t quite come to pass, we’re already seeing automation and technology take over our working lives. More than ever, our work and communication are online, with fewer human touchpoints. Just look at email: if you were in the workforce 10  or 15  years ago, email was present, but not necessarily the driving force of office communication. And although we’re still a good way off from having a fleet of robots running our lives, it’s a great idea to start thinking about the kind of skills needed for the future.1. Technology Trends2.  Information Overload3.  Flexible Employees4.  Your BrandTechnology TrendsTechnology is the most obvious shift that will happen in all of our lives in the near future. After all, it’s only about 10  years ago that the iPhone was just a secret prototype kicking around Apple’s Cupertino campus. Cut to today: good luck finding people shuffling along a sidewalk and not gazing down at a smartphone screen.And while you’re not expected to be able to predict exactly what the hot new tech will be, you can make sure you’re aware of the cutting edge tech trends in your field right now, and think about where those might be going. For example, if you work in retail, POS (point of sale) software has really affected how salespeople work with merchandise and the public. Another example is office communication systems, like using Google’s Gmail, Gchat, and Hangouts to foster communication between people in the company.Regardless of your field, the trend is likely to be two-fold: a) bringing people together regardless of whether they work in the same office, state, or hemisphere; and b) finding ways to make manual processes, like payment or presentations, digital to free up resources for other tasks.If you’re the person who has 14  devices plus your fitness tracker linked up in one big web of efficient information harmony, great! You likely have the tools to be ready for whatever comes along, tech-wise. Keep an eye on trends in your field, like:New tools and software, especially ones that improve efficiency or customer service. What is your industry able to do now that it wasn’t able to do before?Social media. How is social media used by the movers and shakers in your industry?Security trends in your industry. How is customer or company data protected?Mobile technology, also known as the Internet of Things. Are there any particular apps or devices that are relevant to how your company (or your field) does business?Working to stay updated on trends can help you figure out where to target your attention as you move from one job to another, and can really help you flesh out your resume and/or your personal brand.If you’re not as tech-savvy as you would like, there’s nothing stopping you from fixing that! It just takes a little time and catching up, and then you’ll be ready to trendspot with the best of them. There are plenty of ways to bolster your tech creds:Take classesSites like Lynda.com offer online tutorials and classes that you can take at your own speed, on your own timeline. You can search for specific programs or general areas where you want to expand your knowledge. Also, productivity expert Steve Pavlina has a great to-do list for expanding your tech know-how: 10 Ways to Improve Your Tech Skills.Learn by doingFor example, if you want to learn coding to add it to your resume, all the online tutorials in the world aren’t the same as getting in there and figuring it out. Once you get a baseline sense of how to do things, either from research or a class you’ve taken, set time aside to get in there, play around with apps or programs, and really get a sense for how things work.Talk to expertsYou know what people really like talking about? Things they’re good at. Find people in your field (or your company), who really know their stuff, and ask them if they could walk you through their process for the skills you want to add to your own repertoire. BONUS: you also get to know people in your field, and build your network.Information Overloadâ€Å"Big data,† or using stats and information to make smart decisions about how to work efficiently, whom to hire, how to address new challenges, etc. will play a huge role in the workplace in the next ten years. Analytical skills and problem solving skills will come in very handy here. If these are areas you want to build, you can start now:Analytical Thinking: Why You Need It and How to Get BetterAmp up Your Career by Improving Your Analytical Skills6 Ways to Enhance Your Problem Solving Skills5 Ways To Hone Your Problem-Solving Abilities And Become An Expert In Your FieldFlexible EmployeesThe digital office looks less and less like the traditional one we all know, with a beehive of people typing away and gathering ‘round the coffee machine. With better connections and communication all the time, it’s less essential that everyone be physically in the same room to collaborate. As you move forward through your career, consider ways you might be able to adapt to that kind of changing office. Working remotely or working as a contractor are ways that your daily work life might change. Being open to flexible work arrangements can open up new opportunities that you might not have anticipated if you’re wedded to the idea of working 9 to 5 in a cubicle of office.Your BrandOne trend that doesn’t seem to be going away anytime is the one where you develop and live your own brand. Right now, this entails having clean, career-relevant social media profiles, and keeping up by creating new content that establishes you as a player in your field. Moving forward, the trick will be to keep pace with the hot social media trends of the time- you don’t want to be the guy on MySpace when everyone else has moved on to Twitter 2.0.If you are that guy (or gal) who’s a little behind the time, social media-wise, don’t fret- this is an easy fix! It just involves a little bit of legwork and spring cleaning.If you already have social media accounts:Make personal or social accounts private whenever possible, and untag yourself in those embarrassing photos of you doing a kegstand at Spring Weekend. Similarly, those posts about your hobby of making macramà © portraits of British royalty should be pushed behind the privacy wall as well. You want your career brand to float to the top of those search results.Expand your network. Start connecting with other people in your field- that way, you’ll be in a better position to start dialogues with influential people in your industry.If you want to increase your social media presence, Aaron Agius at Entrepreneur has some great tips for where to start building your brand:1. Choose sites that work well with your career and goals.For example: if you’re in an industry that values image and style, Instagram might be your best bet. If you work in a business that moves fast and values quick insights, Twitter might be the way to go.2. Keep posting content.A site with little traffic and nothing new to offer isn’t going to do much to help your personal brand.3. Leverage big voices.Follow (and engage with) people who are big fish in your industry’s social media pond. Depending on how big their following is, you may not get much one-on-one interaction, but retweets/sharing content shows that you’re active.4. Use marketing to your advantage by using campaigns and contests to get your brand out there.What it comes down to is this: none of us can predict the future, and no one should even try. What you can do is put yourself in a place where you have a base of skills, and the kind of flexible thinking that will allow you to take advantage of opportunities six months from now, or 10 years ago.

Bus/210 Week 8 Assignment Developing Good Business Sense

Name: Date: 04/28/2011 Course: BUS/210 Assignment: Developing Good Business Sense ? BUS/210 Week 8 Assignment Developing Good Business Sense There are three fast food restaurants that I chose as the businesses for this assignment; Sonic Drive-In, McDonalds, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. All three of these businesses are fast food restaurants. Sonic Drive-In is a curb side restaurant in which car hops bring the customer’s order to their car. McDonald and Kentucky Fried Chicken are both dine-in sit down restaurants that also offer a drive-thru window in car service. The three businesses have similar operations involved in their inputs. The main goal of the employees is to make high quality fast food. While Sonic Drive-In prepares their menu items as they are ordered, McDonalds and KFC precook there items and use heat lamps to keep the food warm. McDonalds and KFC organize their employees in a very similar manner, while Sonic Drive-In is slightly different. McDonald’s and KFC utilizes the cook stay to prep and cook all the food items, the front counter and drive through staff run the registers, take order prepare drinks, and sack or tray customers’ orders. Assistant Managers and managers help out in all positions and oversee all operations of the restaurant. Sonic Drive organizes their cooks and Managers in a similar way, the difference is that Sonic Drive-In does not utilize a front customer counter and register. Sonic utilizes a curbside menu’s and speaker system for customers to place their orders. Carhops replace the counter help normal seen at traditional fast food restaurants. The carhops deliver the orders to the customer’s car. Sonic Drive-In allows their customers to custom order their menu items any way the customer wants. They also offer over 350,000 different drink combinations. That is something that is not offer by any other national fast food chain. The OMM costs of these three restaurants are very similar. The all three of them have operating costs such as rent, utilities, inventory, franchise fees, royalty fees and labor. I found it surprising that all three restaurants actually do not own the property that they are on. All three of them own the restaurants but rent the land that there restaurants operate on. With all three of these restaurants, the time of years and the weather have a huge effect on their sales volume. The lower their sales volume the higher percent of operating cost that they have. During the winter, sales are at their low and in the summer they are at their high. Each restaurant experiences high profits during the summer months and low profits during the winter months. Operating cost such as inventory and labor are the biggest monthly expense from all three restaurants. Since all three of these restaurants belong to national franchise chains they are required to pay franchise fees and royalty fees each month. The manager at Sonic Drive-In stated that their franchise and royalty fees are determine by their net sales each month. They are required to pay 15 percent of their net sales for franchise fees and 10 percent of their net sale for royalties. The manager at Sonic Drive-in also Stated that they are doing very good if they can profit 15 percent of their sales each month after paying all the expenses, and the best way to do that is by controlling the inventory and labor expenses. The managers of McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken were unwilling to release any of their business information to me. While the manger of sonic Drive-In was willing to answer some question, they were very restrictive of the information they did give. The way McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Sonic Drive-In all three conduct their business is very similar. They are designed to produce quality fast food at a price that is considered a value to the customer. They each use the small batch operating system to make customized products. In all three case their own customized food for individual customer orders. KFC makes small batches of fried chicken that is to be sold to individual customers. Because the time it takes to make the fried chicken, KFC cooks batches throughout the day so that it is ready when the customer orders it. This reduces the waiting time for the customer. McDonalds precooks their hamburgers and makes the sandwiches when the customer orders to reduce the waiting time for their customers. Sonic Drive-In cooks the customer’s food when it is ordered, but states that none of their menu items take more than three minute to cook, therefore the wait time for the customer should not exceed three minutes. All three of these businesses focus on delivering fast quality food at an affordable price to keep their customers satisfied and insure they maintain repeat business. This is what keeps their sales value up and allows them to be a profitable business.

Structured bimanual actions and hand transfers reveal population-level Article

Structured bimanual actions and hand transfers reveal population-level right-handedness in captive gorillas - Article Example Studies conducted of a similar nature have shown that approximately 95% of the population that predominantly uses the right-hand show language control and development in their left hemispheres. Recent hypothesis have suggested that an initial evolutionary section of cognitive function has assisted in the emergence of a left hemisphere inclination for human beings conduct supported by well-structured series of actions. The human left hemisphere bias for language development and handedness has promoted a perception of human brain lateralization functions. Some of these studies have suggested that there exists a direct relationship between handedness and linguistic development, such as spoken word. Different studies have however shown contradicting results and significant debate. In the present study, the author sought to investigate the naturalistic impulsive conduct of a biological group of gorillas (Tabiowo & Forrester, 2013). Data compiled from the study involved the observation of 13 Gorillas of a biological family in the UK. The gorillas were housed at Port Lympne Park in the UK. The Gorillas were given access to a wide range of tools that were used in assessing them throughout the duration of the study. The tools included ropes, tree stumps, a pile of boulders, and a couple of climbing frames. Different types of feeds were administered to encourage the usual scavenging behavior. The Gorillas were observed, and their behavior recorded in a motion video founded on a focal-sampling model. The average focus time on each subject was recorded low at between 55-215 minutes. Low visibility prohibited desired focal follow periods. For the two observable elements, namely handedness and actions that were bimanual in nature, frequencies rates, and sizes were computed. Statistical measures were employed to establish consistency of the results across a wide range of mathematical preferences. In particular, rates an d sizes

History rock and roll Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

History rock and roll - Essay Example This was caused by the featuring of catchy grooves, hand-clapping, impulsive body moves and improvisational elements that swept all through. Sly& the Family Stone caught all lively and musical trends, resulting to a blend of Soul, Rock and Funk. The group has not only produce for, but also performed with black and white musicians just like Motown had incorporated white music into black radio stations. Sly and the Family Stone were driven by many cultural influences including Motown Sound among others. Sly had a short peak period, the least among its kind, falling both in value and critically. It was somewhat reported to be caused by rhythmically loose songs (Geels 1429). Brian Wilson postulates of his inspiration to make the record originating from the Beatles â€Å"Rubber Soul†, which presented the peak of his wave. Additionally, he successfully employed the use of inspiration from across to create a brilliant piece of amazing pop- Pet Sounds. Smiley Smile was a masterpiece, following suit like Pet Sounds- a contemporary classical that swept through, following the same

JC Penney Advertising Essay Example for Free

JC Penney Advertising Essay As time progresses, the world, in terms of business is rather contracting. There is growing communication, interaction and exchange between different parts of the world. Technologies that were once thought of as a far sighted notion are now being used like household commodities and communication mediums that were once considered luxuries available to few are now necessities needed to prosper. And as the world is becoming more integrated and countries are becoming more and more dependent on one another in terms of trade and business the concept of branding, advertising and promotion is becoming more prevalent and widespread. This paper will focus on the marketing of JC penny. It would elaborate on the print as well as online marketing. Moreover it would compare and contrast advertising of online and bricks and mortar companies. Discussion The demand for accountability of marketing is rising and also the pressure of having less absolute dollars to work with so there is utmost need to be sharper, more purposeful and more targeted with marketing. JC Penney is a general retail brand that specializes in clothing, accessories and home furnishing. It has been around for decades and has been catering the needs of consumers of all ages and backgrounds. JC Penneys main target audience at the present times is women as well as youngsters. JC Penney faced criticism for being a brand that accommodated only the high-end and older generation. However, they have been changing their brand image and have been successful in implementing an image that is portraying a more young and trendy vibe. It now focuses on providing products that have the characteristics of being conservative, traditional, modern or trendy. Fundamentally JC Penney has been escalated in the last years is through the fact that it has moved from mass marketing to a more targeted approach. The few reasons for this change is that JC Penney believes that when business is difficult there is a lot greater chance of success with getting the arms around the best customers and increasing frequency share of wallet and trips with the best customers then trying to recruit new customers in tough times that may not shopping the brand. JC Penney has managed to find ways to develop formats that allowed it to get more productivity out the money that is spend. It has also become more targeted in terms of customer selection through becoming much sharper about making sure the right customers get the right format in the right piece. (Fetterman, 2006) JC Penney is one of the brands that hold the significance of being a brick and mortar store as well as an online retailer. Hence, it follows branding through all of the sources of mass media. It publishes magazines and postcards for the promotion of its products. It also advertises it products and offers through newspapers, television ads and online ads. When comparing the online and print media usage it quoted by Mike Boylson the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of JC Penney that In the postcard you can deliver more of a sales message, or more of a discount message these postcards may drive the customers online to see the full assortment online where as the larger brand books of JC Penny show a much richer sense of the style that they have and they portray fundamentally completely different messages. The postcard includes the offer and a link to the website to go see the expanded content where as the book itself that goes out shows the product, the customer can then either come in the store or they can go online or place their order on the phone. Direct mail is very important because through versioning and through customer segmentation the company is able to send out more targeted messages that are highly accountable and are also able to track the results in direct mail to a degree that cannot be possible in a lot of the other traditional mass media used by JC Penney. JC Penney has been focusing a great deal over its brand image and has been trying to diversify and broaden its target audience. It has recently changed to a new brand motif; Every day matters along with the new tag line, the company has been working on enhancing its customers services and the opening of several temporary promotional stores. JC Penney is focusing on increasing the popularity of its brick and mortar stores as well as its online retailing through providing customers with latest offers, discounts and showcasing their product line online for ease of access. Sloan, 2007) As the world is advancing so are the technologies and the ease with which communication is possible among all parts of the world. With the advent of the internet and the upscale increase in its popularity, there has been almost nothing that is not available on the World Wide Web. The phenomenon of e-shopping emerged with the internet. The fact that customers could get what they want in the ease of their ho mes, increased the recognition of the internet and also of online shopping. There are numerous differences and similarities between online shopping and traditional shopping. But what holds more importance is the way the companies market their product online and how different it is from the marketing and promotion of brick and mortar companies. (Lowrey, 2008) Marketing over the internet is considered less costly, as it is holds a lower cost of distributing information on a global platform. More and more business are moving towards online retailing due to its outnumbered advantages in terms of cost, convenience and mobility of information over a great distance. One of the major focuses that companies including JC Penney is on the website. The success of online marketing is highly dependent over the outlook, design and the information provided by the website. Both the online companies as well as brick and mortar companies need to identify their target audience before they implement any marketing strategies. This lets them focus on the type of marketing tool they would benefit them. Brick and mortar companies offer a more traditional aspect of shopping and they also follow a traditional approach of marketing. This is mostly through mass media such as newspapers, television broadcast and magazines. With the passage of time, there are less and less companies that focus solely over brick and mortar business. Most companies are now available online as there is less overheads and larger audience prone to response through the internet. Conclusion In the end it is imperative to recognize the increasing importance of internet in business. Both, online retailing and brick and mortar companies hold their own set of characteristics that make them distinct. As the progress of online shopping is increasing there is still need for brick and mortar stores for traditional shoppers. Most companies, however, imply both the alternatives and hence, carry out their marketing accordingly.

Essay --

itle: The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles By: Padriac Colum Pages: 316 Sang Chung 7th period 1 Eng. RM.15 1/15/14 This book maybe retelling the story that has been told many times. No matter how many times you have heard or read the enchanting story of Jason and his quest to find the Golden Fleece, you will never discover a version more riveting than this one by Padriac Colum. If you have not yet to discover this rip-roaring adventure along with Jason and friends on his quest on the Argo to retrieve the legendary golden fleece. Will he succeed along with his allies? or will he fail and perish along with his allies? Read the book to find out! The obvious setting to this story would be Greek. To be more specific around the kingdom of Lolcus around a couple thousand years ago maybe even more. The setting to this story would be very important to itself because this story is a Greek myth. Where would a Greek myth take place? Hmm... I’d say Greek. If this story had not taken place in greek then obviously it wouldn’t be a Greek myth. The period of this story is also important to itself because this story was taken place in around the A.Ds.If it hadn’t it wouldn’t exactly be a myth. The main man, the most important character, the main character, and the protagonist whatever you want to call him is Jason. Jason, like Achilles and Heracles, was trained by Chiron the king and the best of all centaurs. Jason was brought to Chiron as a baby for him to train and foster until he was of age to fight and take back the throne of locus. Madea the daughter of the king Aeetes of Colchis went along with Jason after have been promised by Jason to be married to her and take her to Greece. Heracles the son of Zeus and Alcmene and gr... ...nce they reached Colchis, they met the king Aetes. Acting friendly at first but not wanting to give up the golden fleece, he tasked Jason and the Argonauts with an impossible task to plow the field with fire-breathing bulls and then to sow the field with the teeth of a dragon. Jason and the Argonauts managed to complete these tasks but the king quickly goes back on his word and has his army attack the argo at night. Madea knowing about the plan shows jason where the golden fleece is and sings the dragons to sleep. While Jason quickly seizes the fleece. Jason went back to lolcus with the fleece and won the respect of many men. Jason then got back his kingdom and marries madea. I think the artist wrote this story to teach kids about the story of the golden fleece and to pass it down. I would recommend it to people who like reading about greek myths and stuff like this.

History of West African dance, different type of dance and the drum Essay

West African dance reached the Americas during the slave trade. Slaves were often prohibited from dancing, but African-based movements found their way into European dance styles, quickly evolving into popular American dances. The influence of African dance can be seen in early American dances, such as the Ring Shout and the Cakewalk, and later dances such as the Jitterbug, and the Charleston. The influence is still visible in more contemporary styles of dance including hip-hop and jazz. West Africa is made up of 16 different countries containing multiple tribes and cultures, each with a different set of dance. Many dances are only known within the particular tribe they come from, but most share, the common element of drumming as the dancing music. Dancing in West Africa is a form of social interaction, where the whole tribe comes together. Different dances are also performed on different occasions, such as initiations, funerals and marriages. Adzogbo is an ancient ritual war dance originating in Benin. Dancers usually wear red and black when performing the Adzogbo dance. The Adzogbu is a dance of the Ewe people of Ghana and incorporates movements used in battle (throwing a spear, for example) into the dance. As with most West African dances, the Adzogbu is normally performed by a circle of dancers, and this particular dance has a very complex drum rhythm.†¨According to the California Institute of the Arts, Bawa is a traditional harvest dance of the Dagarthi people from Lobi, northern Ghana. The dance is performed as a ritual thanksgiving to the gods and ancestors, but also as an appeal for the success of next year’s crops. The Bawa incorporates many of the movements often seen in fieldwork, such as threshing and planting, in a stylized manner. The Bawa dance is performed by members of the community of all ages and sexes. The Mouwa dance is performed by the Minianka, Senufo and Bambara people of Mali. According to Kentucky Educational Television, the Mouwa is performed by those villagers whose are responsible for weeding the fields. The dance is a form of motivation that anyone initiates when the pace of work has slowed. It is also performed before beginning work, and during weeding the dance’s song is usually sung to help the work go faster.†¨The Gomba is a funeral dance of the Bambara people of Mali. The dance is taught over a period of seven years to members of the tribe, and the teaching is done in secrecy in the forest. The Gomba is not a dance performed in frivolity; rather it is undertaken in the utmost solemnity, to mark the seriousness of the occasion.†¨ Drums, played with hands and sticks, are a vital component of West African dance. The drum is the â€Å"language† that the dancer interprets. The drum patterns signify a dancer when to start or stop a certain move, and what moves to use. The dancer also challenges and directs the drummer through his or her moves. The drummer translates the dancers moves into rhythms. The drummer and dancer are interconnected. The largest of the three drums is dundumba, which has the deepest voice and typically plays phrases that accentuate the rhythm’s foundation and interact melodically with the sangban. The sangban, is the middle-size drum, is tuned to mid-frequency that matches the tone of the djembe, and often plays a lead role in creating the core identity of the rhythm, with specific calls and variations that communicate to the dancers. The smallest of the family is kenkeni, which has the highest voice best suited to keep the pulse, or downbeat, of the rhythm. Each distinct part played by dundumba, sangan, or kenkeni typically has a bell pattern related to the drum pattern.

Impact of External Environment to Business in China Essay

Introduction Nowadays, China is experiencing a rapid economic growth. By following the end of the eleventh National People’s Congress of People’s Republic of China recently, China is emphasizing to develop seven new strategic industries with the release of the Twelfth Five-Year Program. As China is achieving a low carbon economy, thus one of the new strategic industry, new energy is essential to the success of achieving the goal. Biomass energy is one of the new energy which generates electricity and biodiesel by burning agricultural straw, fruit, wood and animals waste (1). The following will be the analysis of Macro-environments for the China Light and Power Company Limited to enter the China market, and suggestions will be given at the end of the analysis. Company Background Champway Technology Limited is the only company who possesses an ‘Environmental Permit’ to recycle waste cooking oil in Hong Kong. Its primary objective is to recycle all local waste cooking oil and organic oil and grease into biodiesel. It contribute to save the environment by aiming at recycling all waste cooking oil in Hong Kong and stem the trend of re-using waste oil on the dinner table. It also committed to produce high quality biodiesel which is a clean and efficient fuel by using the collected waste oil (2). Macro-environment As China is a highly distinctive market, once foreign-invested enterprises want to enter the China market, there must be difficulties to be faced. However, there are still some favorable factors while they are entering such market, and they will be analyzed as follows. There are four macro-environments for Champway to enter the China market. Firstly, the Champway may benefit from the political and legal environment of China. During the release of the seven new strategic industries in the Twelfth Five-Year Program, the central government has put so much emphasis on the development of new energy, especially the development of biomass energy (3). Also, the State Forestry Administration has decided to reserve two hundred million acreage of forest land, for cultivating the plants that specifically for the extraction of biodiesel (4). As a result, the operation of Champway in China can benefit from the strong support and back up by the central government when entering the China marketing with biomass energy. Secondly, the Champway may benefit from the economic environment of China. As mentioned, China is experiencing a rapid economic growth with a GPD growth of 10.3 percent in January of 2011 (5). At the same time, Renminbi keeps appreciating against US dollar and Hong Kong dollar (6). As a result, the Champway may benefit from appreciating Renminbi, since Champway is operating business and selling energy for Renminbi in China. So the actual value of the profit gained is also appreciating. Moreover, refer to a speech of the Labor Department, the number of people seeking unemployment benefits rose by 26,000 to a seasonally adjusted 397,000 recently (7). This implies that the unemployment rate in China is rising. Thus Champway can also benefit from this circumstance as it can hire sufficient work people for their operation in China. Thirdly, the Champway may benefit from the social environment of China. As people in mainland China become more educated and more environmental conscious (8). They are more likely to support products with environmental friendly features like biodiesel. As a result, the Champway may catch this opportunity to market biodiesel and benefit from the increasing demand for biodiesel. Fourthly, the Champway may benefit from the ecological environment. China is rich in raw materials. However, most of them are not explicated yet (9). With a great depletion of raw material, it is insufficient to support the energy consumption of about 1.3 billion population. As a result, biodiesel is acting as a perfect substitute of raw materials like petroleum. So Champway may take the chance to market biodiesel and benefit from the great demand it. Difficulty As mentioned, there must be some difficulties when entering such distinctive market. So here is the discussion of those difficulties. There are four difficulties to be faced when the Champway is entering the China market. Firstly, the Champway has to face an unfavorable political and legal factor. As the central government is deciding to even the income distribution in China, a new labor protection policy of minimum wage will be established (10). This policy will increase the wage level of workers. As a result, it is unfavorable to Champway, since Champway has to hire a great number of workers for building and operating the facilities of energy generation in China, and the increased wage level of workers may leads to an increase in the operation cost. So it is more difficult for Champway to survive in this sector. Secondly, the Champway has to face an unfavorable economic factor. As the increasing popularity of biomass energy in China, agricultural product will become more valuable, since agricultural product is one of the inputs of biomass energy generation. Also, the market price of agricultural product has increased due to the inflation. As a result, the operation cost for Champway to run the business in China increases and it may be difficult for Champway to survive with this industry in China. Thirdly, the Champway has to face an unfavorable social factor. Although the central government has emphasized to develop biomass energy, there is still no clear and definite guideline for supply of input and quality standard (11). Also, there is an unethical business culture exists in the China society due to the lack of well education. As a result, there is a disorder in the biodiesel market. People are pretending the original biodiesel with a fake one (11). This phenomenon may create an unhealthy image for the industry and the industry will be negatively affected. Fourthly, the Champway has to face an unfavorable ecological factor. China is one of the most suffered countries in terms of natural disaster. According to the statistical figure from the United Nations, in the year 2008, China has the world greatest loss of 110 billion due to natural disasters, which is 60 % of the loss of the whole world (12). So there is a frequent lost of agriculture exists. As a result, there will be an unstable supply of input for the biomass energy generation, and the company may unable to survive in China market with this industry. Suggestion After the discussion of the unfavorable factors for Champway to enter the China market, some suggestions will be given to overcome the difficulties as follows. Here are three suggestions that Champway can apply to overcome those difficulties. Firstly, in order to overcome the unfavorable minimum wage and increasing market price of agricultural product, Champway is recommended to enter the China market through equity joint venture with a greatly financed or a state-owned biomass energy company like the Everbright International (13). So that it can spread and share the costs and risks with its partner. As a result, the difficulty of high operation cost can be overcome. Secondly, in order to overcome the unfavorable counterfeit, Champway is recommended to deal with the problem with a well designed distribution and place of the biodiesel. The company can develop and sell its original biodiesel through biodiesel filling station or biodiesel specialty store. So that people can easily recognize the genuine one and avoid buying the fake. This action can improve the company image by building confidence for customer to consume our product. Thirdly, in order to overcome the unfavorable unstable supply of biomass. Champway is recommended to deal with the problem with the use of multiple suppliers from different region in China. Since China is a huge land, natural disasters often occur only in a particular area. So by using multiple suppliers from different region, the company can immediately seek for supplies from other suppliers in other region, when some of them are unable to supply the company due to natural disaster. Conclusion To concluded that, Champway can benefit from four macro-environments when entering the China market. They are political-legal environment, which is the support and back up by the central government; economic environment, which is the appreciation of Renminbi and the large supply of labor; social environment, which is the increasing environmental consciousness; and ecological environment, which is the great depletion of raw material and the great demand for substitutes. However, Champway has to face four difficulties too. They are the minimum wage, the increasing market price of agricultural product, the counterfeit biodiesel and the unstable supply of biomass due to natural disasters. In order to overcome the four difficulties, three suggestions are given as the solution. They are the use of joint venture, the development of biodiesel filling station and biodiesel specialty store, and the use of multiple suppliers from different region.