The City Hall of Los Angeles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The City Hall of Los Angeles - Essay Example The pride of the nation is clearly manifested by the fact that the top of City Hall's tower was designed to resemble the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The City Hall of Los Angeles is another building that represents the pride of a powerful nation in the 21st century just as El Escorial stood as a sign of a great nation in the 16th century. These two structures served their purpose of showing to the world what the country they represent was capable of doing in terms of arts, engineering, and science and technology. There are several aspects where we can equate this two architectural figures against each other. We can examine as to their purpose and usability, the motive of its conceptualization, the approach and styles the structures were developed, and their respective contributions to the history of architecture and structural engineering. This essay digs down into the essence of these facts and would try to explain them. There maybe other landmarks in the United States and the world greater than the City Hall but once in recent history it brought pride to the nation because of its structural magnificence and proportion. Besides, this structure also represents the advancement of a nation in terms or economy, culture, and science and technology. ... The building of such enormous structure serves to remind the nation of its capabilities. Speaking of the structure as a show of economic might, the LA City Hall is built in a highly progressive city within an economically superior state which is part of a super powerful nation. It represented the government being the based of its management and operation. It was built from materials obtained from different parts of LA which clearly show that its creation is a pooling of everyone's pride. The building stood in a place where nature is so unfriendly LA being in a fault and a seismic hazard. Yet it rose to the top undaunted by this geologic challenge. The gamble could only be best when the sophistication of modern architecture combined with science and technology warrants more that fifty percent of survival. It indeed survived the challenge, proof to that is it still exists today. As further evidence to the technological advancement of its structural systems, the seismic retrofit at Los Angeles City Hall was selected as a winner in Buildings magazine's 2003 Modernization Awards among other awards and citations. One important culture of the people that pushed for the building of LA structure is risk taking attitude. Taking the challenge in a rational way and making use of creative thinking and harnessing available resources and good minds makes nothing impossible. For the creative developers some things are just difficult but never impossible. Added into its pride was designing the top of City Hall's tower to resemble the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Today with continuous upgrading and reinforcing the LA City Hall survived the challenges of times. Newer structures around the

Credit Card Essay Example for Free

Credit Card Essay Credit card has undoubtedly made our lives easy but it is important that you use credit cards in the right way so that you can make the most of it without getting caught in the credit trap. All you have to do is to keep a track of your purchases, remember you payment cycles, try to settle full credit card payments at the end of every month, avoid spending in excess and carry your cards cautiously. If handled properly, credit cards can serve to be very convenient but they can also lead you to a huge debt if misused. So just play carefully with the tiny plastic thing that is placed in your wallet.

Philosophical And Historical Foundations Of American Politics :: essays research papers

The Founding Father’s views on government were influenced by both the classical republican and the natural rights philosophers. The two groups of philosophers held very different views on how a government should run. The classical republicans believed that the individual should sacrifice his or her personal freedoms in order to gain the greater good. The natural rights philosophers, on the other hand, held that a person’s individual freedoms out to be preserved at all costs. The two greatest examples of historical precedent in republican government were the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, which both gave the people a great deal of power in the government by allowing them a voice. The natural rights philosophers favored the Greeks, while most classical republicans admired the Romans.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The theory of classical republicanism is that the best society is one that promotes the common good instead of individual interests. One of the ways that this is done is by limiting individual rights. This idea began in Rome in 509 after King Servius’ successor Tarquin the Proud behaved in such a tyrannical way that the outraged aristocracy ousted him. In response to the unspeakable treatment, the Romans changed the government’s job. The elite proclaimed themselves the protectors of Rome against tyranny. This mindset became crucial to the ideology through which they justified their political supremacy. From this point on, there would be intense suspicion of any individual who tried to turn popular support into personal power.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Numerous problems can arise in a society which emphasizes both individual rights and the common good because the two goals are often conflicting in nature. Everyone desires individual rights, but to protect the common good a social contract must be in effect. This means that some personal rights must be sacrificed for the good of the community. The natural rights philosophy considered the rights of the individual to be of primary importance, but classical republicans held that the community’s interests were more important. Classical republicans required that people care for each other in small communities, and shared similarities in finances and religion. This required an official religion and a single set of family standards had to be followed. Thus it was obvious that this would not work in America, since so many people had come here to escape their official religions and to seek economic opportunity.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The classical republicans stressed the need for moral education and homogeneity in order to protect the interests of society.

Lord of the flies by William Golding Themes Essay

Ralph says, â€Å"Why do things break up as they do?†. Explain why things went wrong on the island, and say what this tells us about human nature in general. Aspects of media throughout the world contain true meanings, in some cases general but in others unambiguous and very strong. These meanings are often shown clearly through books, sculpture, music and other consumable media. It is important for these meanings in connection with human nature to be shown through these means to represent the ‘real’ and ‘true’ things that relate to us as humans, also these meanings offer strong links between things showing that happenings in a microcosm relate to humans and show some similarities. The artists who create the media are often well known and respected for there clever but unadorned creations the public domain look for these links and usually publicise successful ones. The question posed gives students an opportunity to reflect there opinions and thoughts regarding the novel Lord of the flies. The question is open and allows for a range of answers, there is no specific model answer, however the response to the question should be focused directly on why things break up, showing links from the island to the rest of the happenings in the world, the response to the question needs time, as the answer could become too long and most importantly missing the point of the essay, there is a need for a balanced view and this should reflect in several points being raised within the answer. Golding is renowned for his imaginative and meaningful novels, all created to show strong links with Human nature in a specific scenario in comparison to Human nature in general, from this there is usually a message which is true and probably undertakes in an every day situation. From the beginning of Lord of the Flies there are signs of misjudgement and disrespect, as the novel continues these implications become much stronger consequently leading to an up rise in rivalry and jealousy, the first meaningful misjudgement in my opinion begins with the fact of the beast, jack says, â€Å"A snake-thing. Ever so big. He saw it.†, this shows exaggeration and misjudgement, in comparison to Ralph who says, â€Å"There isn’t a beast†, showing consideration for the little uns’ and offering reassurance. From the early encounters and ideas of the beast up to the very latter stages of life on the Island fear and horror loomed with uncertainty being the main feeling, this feeling of fear is one of the first signs of a break up, the little uns separate and change into scared and unsettled beings, the respect from the big uns was required and from the outset simply wasn’t. Ralph however along with a minority offered reassurance, this shows respect throughout the novel and this reflects his personality and character, this difference also adds to the reasons for the break up of Ralph’s society. The fire appears the next apparent reason, Ralph as chief says, â€Å"A fire, make a fire!†, from the outset this appears a good idea with the main purpose of signal being for rescue, a clever but original method of attraction used first by the Indians, this shows that Ralph can produce ideas which could have excellent purposeful results, however the fire is also a signal of misjudgement, with no true thought and planning going into the idea leaving devastating outcomes, the alleged opposition saw this as a weakness although they weren’t respectful themselves offering comments in the nature of, â€Å"he was only a little un anyway†, this whole compilation of disrespect and misjudgement all cluster together and yet again provide a reason for break up. Things could of been different if more rules and regulations were introduced from Ralph’s hierarchy, if rules and punishments were enforced more order probably would have been present within life in general, the behaviour represented from the big uns isn’t uncommon, there is a certain expectancy for some controversy and child play, in relation to the whole world boys on a daily basis will issue a sense of stubbornness. The absence of adults has led to a break up in communications and rather than everybody pulling together trying to formulate an escape plan a majority instead enjoy the whole experience and use the time to absorb freedom, this has been a disadvantage of the island scenario and again builds up to create another reason for the break up, piggy says, â€Å"no adults†, this shows that there is a realisation of absence, however in comparison to the current happenings in the world (within book) the adults suppress themselves just as bad, rather than been guiders they are destroyers after all they are fighting a war wiping out generations of people, so as the ‘war’ unfolds within the island environment as a mini scenario the adults who were respected as supreme change into beings ten times as worse fighting a large scale war, in context the adults or just as worse as the island inhabitants if not worse. Golding has created a perfect world within the island scenario, almost in comparison to Eden, with perfect tranquil surroundings and from the outset a smooth collection of objects to make life on the island so perfect, with provisions for eating and accommodation, consisting of different panoramic areas to suit the needs of different characters. Although life on the island was set up to be perfect, the attitudes exposed from the humans were in absolute differential comparison to the island, with obscene behaviour changing the surrounding area worsening as life carried by. The thought that the island inhabitants could have such an impact; showing total disrespect and selfishness for human nature, just as Golding had planned when he wrote the novel. When the humans arrived they participated in an act which is specific to human nature in general, at first things were fine just as in Eden, however as time advanced the destruction and disrespect followed, with an up rise in jealousy and rivalry, this being the result of freedom and sense of boredom. From this there is a strong link to the real world which proves against the actions from humans. As with the other strong meanings throughout the novel this joins to form a worrying concept, it shows that humans have no respect for nature and the surrounding environment, taking actions irrespective of the long term effects, the main theme therefore relates to selfishness and disregard. The three deaths on the island were drastic and devastating, with outcomes which were preventable. They were the result of rivalry jealousy and domination, all sharing the causes. The most significant death was that of Simon, his death was the result of carelessness and the obsession to kill. Ralph says, â€Å"that was murder†, piggy replies â€Å"what good are you doing talking like that?†, there is a mixture of emotions within the characters, some showing anger and retaliation with the others showing remorse and giving forgiveness for the opposition, from this a link between a happening and human nature can be established, showing that no matter how bad an action there will always be a sense of exoneration and mercy. The death of Simon was the most significant because of his characteristics, different, sensitive, wise and also introverted, this reflected through his personality consequently making him an outcast and excluding him from the others. His death was preventable, although blame cannot solely be burdened to jack as this shows selfishness and a sense of an easy route out of the scenario. The death of piggy was again preventable with the happenings being extreme and malicious. There was an urgency for jack to withhold power and authority, to the extent where protection and barricades had to be enforced. If power is so valuable and meaningful, why are outcomes of its effects so devastating? The death of piggy was the result of two people, jack and Roger, with jack indirectly offering his alternative to Ralph’s society, and roger directly carrying out the death, this shows in comparison to human nature that an event is not just the sole responsibility of a single human, instead there are indirect effects which link the action with other people. Power and authority made up to be a significant part of the break up, from the beginning of the novel there were early signs of conflict and rivalry, showing also jealousy and an urgency to withhold it. Ralph says, I’m chief!†, in comparison to jack who says, â€Å"Follow me, not him!†, this shows that there are leadership issues with jealousy being the main feeling from the oppositions point of view. Authority and power means respect and influence, allowing for somebody to rise above the rest and be noticed, in comparison to human nature some beings live from power and would be out of control without its presence. There are certain turning points within the novel and the necessity for power became much clearer, showing through characters actions and emotions. There were a number of beings throughout the novel who showed emotive actions seeking power, these included Jack, roger and piggy, all from the outset different in character although in some instances harsh and exploiting. From this there led to be a clear split between the group leaving the democratically elected chief with just a handful and the opposition with the majority. Power and authority can have devastating outcomes and results when used within the wrong context, consequently within the novel ending the life of an innocent opposition member, there are certain limits and extremes in which power should be used, this shows in comparison to human nature that power and authority should be respected and not misused as in some scenarios. The main and most revealing cause appeared to be that of the long and uprising rivalry between the two main characters Jack and Ralph, from the early encounters of island life an apparent clash of personalities was shown between the two members, starting from the initial meeting of the characters, up to the very latter stages of island life. There was a range of activities which uprooted a long and uprising feud, which was consequently going to lead to an all over split of the whole group. Ralph says, â€Å"I’ve been thinking†, in comparison to jack who says, â€Å"three blind mice†, this from the outset shows that Ralph from the beginning shows thought and respect for his fellow inhabitants, in contrast to jack who is more interested in criticising and himself, the two characters are of very different natures and consist of different mannerisms, in comparison to human nature this shows that every one is different and should be respected for their individually an d also for their own characteristics. Also in context the rivalry between two humans in a small scenario relates to rivalry within a big scale scenario for example jack Vs Ralph in comparison to contention between world leaders. Leadership was an important aspect of life for Jack and Ralph, this became clear when things started to go wrong and eventually leading to Jack taking over as the chief, the rivalry could be classed as a cause for the deaths with indirect effects. Golding used this idea of indirect killing and outcomes to create a suppressed atmosphere and to give the reader a much more enjoyable read. The differences between the wide range of characters personalities proved to be another cause, each individual offers different opinions and participates in different activities to each other, however there are some similarities amongst humans and this was shown through a simple means of mutual bonding, some characters naturally bond forming a strong relationship on the other hand some people do not bond and instead hold grudges and other similar feelings against each other. Jack says, â€Å"piggy!†, in context the comment seems harmless, just a remark expressing his surprise at the unusual name, however from between the lines there is more depth to the comment showing that he is horrified at his outset appearance, attitude and emotions, this simple comment led to hatred been displayed from a stronger character towards a much weaker one. A clash of personalities can consequently erupt to a much bigger scale, with more harmful and demoralizing effects. This shows that in relation to human nature, everybody is an individual with their own personal morals and emotions. In comparison to the world it shows that there will always be a group of people who’s personalities clash consequently leading to a much bigger dispute. The simple fact of boredom and isolation from the real world led to an up rise in misjudgement and unforeseen consequences which arose from actions which were that of an unformed decision. Within the island scenario there were a collection of beings that were under the influence of boredom and isolation, piggy says, â€Å"when are we going home?†, this question shows clear thought making it a valuable contribution, however there is another meaning to the statement, it shows boredom and also reflects that he and other island inhabitants are worrying about the return to normal civilisation, the separation from the real world allowed for signs of misjudgement and actions were taken from outside the beings conscious, this meant that emotions took control of their actions allowing for unusual activity, the worst outset scenario was the killing of Simon, in relation to human nature this shows that humans cannot always control their actions and instead undergo actions which are that of an unusual outcome. The title ‘lord of the flies’ suggests a leader of a small group, this shows that the title is meaningful and contains a link to the bigger world. Golding in comparison to other superior writers made his novel title significant, with a true meaning, Golding constantly throughout the novel tried to offer this image of a happening within a small environment links in context to a large scale meaning. The idea of a fly leader appears preposterous, but in relation to the real world the idea appears more explanatory, with clear motives and reasons, Golding was trying to portray an idea of a microcosm within the title also stating that all things must have a leader. The novel in general consists of many true and meaningful links between happenings within a small scale happening, in comparison to happenings within a large scale. Golding successfully transferred a wide range of human nature into a novel. The links within the island represent a small earth, technically called a microcosm, generally this shows that small things relate to big. The main reasons for the break up fall into certain themed categories; good Vs evil, authority Vs weakness, law Vs order and mentality Vs immaturity. Golding’s main strength shown in the novel is the use of irony showing how seemingly good events often lead to bad. There were a variety of reasons for the break up of Ralph’s society and they all have some meaning, Golding was a successful writer and his writing displays true significance with all of his wishes displayed clearly and thoughtfully.

How enduring were the changes created by the 1848 revolutions?

In 1848 Europe lived a time of uneasiness. Many revolts took place all over the continent, when the middle and working class istood upi. The only ones lucky enough to escape from revolution were England and Russia. France was under the power of Louis Philippe, a reactionary monarch who was against change. The Austrian Empire ruled by Metternich even though Ferdinand was the actual king. A lack of political change and social reforms bothered the people as the population increased. Education was available for more people but the economic system started to fail. revolutions took place in 1848 in Austria-Hungary, France and Germany. As a result the 1848 revolutions only left temporal alternations to the traditional system and ended up being a transfer of power. France as the most influential nation of all European nations had a strong liberal force, which opposed to the fact of being ruled by Louis Philippe. The French middle-class complained for the permanent rejection, and discrimination from the government, as they had no representation at all. After the army had killed 40 protestors, a crowd of discontent middle and working class was already on their way to the city, hours later broke Paris into open revolt. Noticing that it was already too late, Louis Philippe abdicated forcing the Parisians to create a provisional government. This short-term solution became an alliance between the middle class liberals, and the radical working classes. This coalition turned into a clear victory over the Monarchs, which wouldn't last long, before several problems aroused due to different interests and ideas each group held. What occurred was that the middle class, principally conformed by intellectuals, doctors, minor employers, etc, wanted several changes that were mainly based on their social interests, (e. g. the voting system, and the freedom of speech) above anything else. The working classes not only had the same interests, but also had others that extended to the economic side, which for the middle class wasn't as important. When the social interests from the middle class were partially reformed they didn't have much more to protests about, so they instead retired. This caused a huge discontent within the working classes that still expected other changes and weren't being supported by the middles class that had already achieved most of their purposes. Many changes took place in those first months the most important one was the instauration of the universal male suffrage that allowed men over 21 to vote. This increased the number of voters from 240,000 to almost 9 million. Other changes like the reduction of the working hours to 11 hours, and the opening of workhouses were made to help the unemployed. Thanks to these changes people from the provinces could get involved with what had being going around in Paris. The majority of the voters were people from the rural areas, and as a result the lections for the constituent assembly were in favor of moderate republicans or the conservative monarchs. The revolutionaries had won, in November 1849 during the second republic Louis Napoleon became president by popular election. Two months before the elections the 12 hour working day had been re-established, however the universal male suffrage still remained. In 1848 the Austrians heard form the revolutions in France and how successful they had been. Encouraged by this racial and social tensions as well as imperial repression of rights would influence revolts in the Habsburg Empire. Very similar to what happened in France forced by Ferdinand, Metternich who was in charge had to leave. Revolutionaries won but they had many disagreements between each other. What happened was that at the beginning both the middle class and the working class needed reforms. When these had been made middle class were satisfied but the working class felt that the Empire was still in debt with them. For this reason the unity came to an end. For the middle class the fact of having freedom of press, tax reforms, and an increase in freedom of religion was enough. The people still demanded to exclude non-Hungarian soldiers from the Hungarian army. This became possible once Ferdinand decided that Hungary should be an independent country. In Austria finally one of the constitutional changes established (the March laws) were approved, the nobility would loose their tax exemptions and the feudal system was abolished from the Empire. Due to the fact that the radicals and the liberals had very different interests there was also a nationalist conflict between certain groups amongst the empire. However the change that would endure the most after the civil revolt was the one that would eventually harm the revolution. This change had been dictated by the constituent assembly, and it was the abolition of serfdom (a member of the lowest feudal class bound to the land and owned by a lord). As a result the revolutionaries would be left without any real support from the peasantry, as they would have no cause to complain. Like the Habsburg Empire, Germany was also lead by the incidents that took place in France. In this case German States fell into a greater economic crisis than France. It seemed to be that reforms were simply one of the elements that the insurgents required and beside it came the acceptance of a concession which Prussia, Bavaria, Baden, and Wurttemberg agreed to. A meeting in Heidelberg (Vorparlament) was called to supervise the election to the German Representative Assembly. This assembly was formed not to impose their power, but to act upon the lack of it, a characteristic of March 1848. The assembly was mainly elected by the middle class, and one of the first measures that it took into consideration was the Universal Male Suffrage, with the support of one delegate for every 50,000 Germans. Germany had the urgency of finding someone appropriate to take control over all the state, and thought that the Habsburgs, a very important and well-known German family, lead by the Archduke John could be a good choice. In June the Habsburgs took control over Germany. For many working class Germans the poor less job that the Frankfurt Parliament had done to solve their problems didn't satisfy them. They thought that within meetings they could discuss many economic problems and find the appropriate solution to each one of them. Their requests were then brought up and demanded changes like: the limitation of the factory production, restrictions upon free economic and industrial growth, and the protection of the privileges for the old artisan guilds. The protests that took place afterwards were very big and in some cases the Parliament had to recruit Prussian and Austrian troops. Eventually the emergence of the of the national issue and the fear of working class violence, created the route to the re-establishment of the German Government, including the return of Friederich Wilhelm. The German troops helped by the Prussians and the Austrians were sent into Berlin. Once again Friederich Wilhelm was offered to wear the German Crown and he refused. Not accepting the German crown was enough to end with Frankfurt Parliaments big failure. Once the Austrian and Prussian delegates had left the Parliament it was dismissed by Prussian troops. At the end of the revolution some agrarian reforms still remained but in remark the liberal, constitutional revolution failed to succeed. We may clearly rely on A. J. P. Taylor who says: â€Å"There was merely a vacuum in which the liberals postured until the vacuum was pilled† Big revolutions took place in France, Austria-Hungary, and Germany in 1848. The government systems had been there for a very long time, each nation and the people wanted several reforms on those systems were becoming a huge pain. In France everything seemed to work fine, until Louis Napoleon declared himself Emperor. Terminating with the Universal Male Suffrage, which as other changes was thought to be enduring, but at the end it didn't result as expected. In Austria-Hungary even though problems weren't that bad, the fact that the results of the revolution in France had been successful, was enough for them to demand changes. The changes that took place were thanks to Lajos Kossuth and the â€Å"March Laws†. In Germany as discussed before, some say that the German disturbances cant even be considered as a revolution. At the end only Agrarian reforms survived out of the many changes expected. Many protestors didn't receive anything from the revolution that took me to the conclusion that it wasn't successful at all. Finally we can see how the 1848 revolutions failed, and how changes and reforms were not enduring at all. As Trevely says: â€Å"1848 was the turning point at which modern history failed to turn†. However France was in a much better situation than all the other countries, and like in 1918 at the end of the WW1 they were capable of surviving ahead from the others.

Five Key Steps to Working with Editors

Five Key Steps to Working with Editors For those writing a series, you’ll need to describe where the book fits into the series.  There are different ways to create lists; however Excel works well for me when preparing a timeline. I head the first three columns Character, Purpose, and Relationship to Protagonist. The fourth is labeled Chapter One, subheaded with the time and date. Below Character, I list primary and secondary characters as they appear in the book, then note something about their purpose under the chapter they appear in. The great thing about Excel is that it’s user friendly. You can easily manipulate rows and columns to insert or delete material.  You writers out there are probably groaning

Tips on Writing a Strong Personal Essay

Tips on Writing a Strong Personal Essay Tips on Writing a Strong Personal Essay If commenting on different essay types, one should definitely underline the issue of a personal essay. This is a free piece of writing where the author tells about his or her experience. Nonetheless, either narration or opinion style, the task is pretty complicated. There are certain things that belong to this type of essays. These are as follows: No search of official data is needed. No in-depth research is required. An author should write judging on his/her own experience and feelings. With the regard to the mentioned above statements, the writing process will be rather specific. The common structure (the introduction, main plot, and conclusion) will be kept. Nonetheless, there are several prompts you should keep in your memory for good. Our experts have collected the main guidelines to complete this specific piece of writing. In addition, you will learn some other smart tips. The sum of these recommendations and tips will help you craft a really impressive and correct personal essay. Begin with Engaging Opening Your introduction should be captivating and interesting. Use something unique and special. Write in a positive tone. You should get the attraction of your audience. Mind that your introductory part ought to present the fundamental question of your story. If you wish to write about your strongest trait, dwell upon this point and begin the story. Write from Your Personal Experience Commonly, all essays are dependent on the found information. Besides, it’s needed to stick to a definite writing style. Nonetheless, one of the most distinguished advantages of this particular assignment is the full freedom of thought. You have no restrictions on what to write about. This is up to you what events, personal traits or stories to reveal to your readers. You will write from your own experience and can choose any theme. In comparison to other essay types, you can likewise use any style you wish. Accordingly, this is a tremendous possibility to impress your readers and your academic supervisor with the fullest power of your originality. Therefore, be unique and creative. Stick to the Structure Though you are free to choose the topic and style, you cannot ignore the standard structure. Firstly, introduce your readers what your main aim is. Provide them with the thesis statement and start telling your story. Mind that you should describe the chosen topic from different angles. Don’t forget to mention all people or certain events that became the major influencers for your particular case. The real-life experience is supposed to flow smoothly. Write it naturally as if you were retelling it during a conversation with your friends. Be Honest One more essential point for this essay type is the truth. It should be authentic. Show your honesty and curiosity. Even if there are some events or personality traits you don’t really like, you are expected to reveal them. This is important because it makes your story full and real. Life isn’t perfect and there happen some misfortunes and black days. Therefore, uncover the hidden truth whatever its origin might be. Though it might be uncomfortable to reveal something sacred to other people, your honesty will be appreciated. It will show that you had fully depicted your private story and did not hide anything. Accordingly, your work will bring you the desired high grades. Useful Ideas You can likewise take into your consideration some smaller elements, which will help write a good personal essay. While composing your paper, consider the â€Å"to do† and â€Å"not to do† things. There are the next things you should do: Focus on personal aspects. Tell the truth. Select topics relevant to readers. Concentrate on positive concepts. Use originality and your own style. Use details. You should not: Be impersonal. Repeat the same statements. Tell lies. Choose boring topics. In the occasion, you still have no idea of how to compose this paper use samples. This is a dependable resource, which contains samples to understand this special essay better. Of course, you will receive only partial elements of a full paper. Nonetheless, you will get a better comprehension on how to fulfill each stage and section of your research.

Benefits of Having a Car in College

Benefits of Having a Car in College There are seemingly a lot of benefits to having a car in college. After all, who wouldn’t want to have access to wheels whenever they choose? And while there are some important cons to consider, there are certainly several key pros as well. You Can Leave Campus If and When You Need a Break Whether it’s heading to a concert somewhere in town, going out to dinner with some friends, or even just being able to take someone on a date, having the ability to get away from campus whenever you wish is certainly a luxury. You Can Help Friends Out If your friends are moving, needing to transport something too big to fit on the bus, or just need a ride to the airport, having access to your own car allows you to help them if and when they ask. It can feel good to know you’re helping someone out in a pinch or even helping support a fun event for someone special, like a celebratory birthday night downtown. You Dont Have to Worry About Transportation Around the Holidays Getting home – even if it’s a day or two drive – can be done on your own terms. You won’t have to worry about expensive flights, delayed trains, long bus rides, or other transportation woes. You can more or less leave when you wish. Additionally, as the owner of the car, you can also coordinate something fun, like a road trip toward your hometown that lets you drop off friends in their hometowns along the way. You Can Plan Road Trips Speaking of road trips, you can provide transportation for some seriously memorable road trips over things like Presidents’ Weekend or Spring Break. Having access to and use of a car both ensures you’ll get to go and that you’ll have some say about the itinerary. You Can Get an Internship or Job Off Campus Without a car, of course, you can also work or have an internship off campus, but having your own transportation definitely makes the logistics easier. Having a car can therefore open some additional professional doors, whether it’s a part-time gig at a company you’d like to work for after you graduate or an internship at an interesting museum in town. You Can Save Money by Shopping Around True, having a car on campus might cost a bit extra, but you can also save money in other aspects of your college life. When you’re stuck on campus, you’re quite limited in terms of where you can buy items, like groceries or school-related supplies. With a car, however, you can make the long trip for items at discount clothing stores, cheaper food options (think: Costco or Walmart), and other less-expensive retailers. Sure, buying in the campus bookstore can be smart for several types of purchases, but overall you’re likely to find better deals elsewhere. You Can Be More Flexible With Your Family Needs ​If you often need to help out with a family business, help take care of an ill family member or provide childcare for your family, having a car can cut down on the time it takes for you to get back and forth. This simple time saver can therefore provide you with more time to focus on your studies instead of commuting back and forth. Overall, the choice of having a car with your during your time in school depends heavily on the specific factors relevant to your situation. As with most things during college, however, it’s best to make an informed, educated decision about which choice seems the smart way to go.

International expantion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

International expantion - Essay Example On the other hand, AIU should take into account national culture which affects all international and export marketing activity. Of concern to the manager are the influences of the religious, family, educational, and social systems of a society. Often these are manifested in the values, attitudes, and motivations of people and can affect business customs such as personal manners, colors, advertising, 'gift' giving and receiving, and pride and status. The UK is a country with old traditions which include both conscious and unconscious national values, ideas, attitudes and symbols that shape employees behavior. The UK consists of four main parts: Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The combination of language and religion creates a unique culture and traditions. At its deepest level, however, British culture comprises a set of basic assumptions that operate automatically to enable groups of people to solve the problems of daily life without thinking about them. The influence of Christianity and other religions in the UK had always extended for beyond the comparatively narrow of organized and private ownership. Religious organizations are actively involved in voluntary work and the provisions of social services. The UK is a leading industrial country which has a great influence on international economics and politics. The country has a service-based economy and a large private sector. In contrast to other European counties, the UK has not yet adopted the euro currency. "A member of the EU, it chose to remain outside the Economic and Monetary Union for the time being" (The World Fact Book: the UK, 2006). The country has a population about 60,609,153 million who lives on 242,514 sq km. An average expectancy of life is 81 years for women and 76 years for men. GNI per capita is $33,630. GDP is $1.83 trillion. It is reported that GDP shows the lowest growth rates over the last 12 years. "GDP grew by 0.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2006, with growth unchanged from the last quarter of 2005. The level of GDP is now 2.2 per cent higher than the first quarter of 2005" (GDP Growth. The UK, 2006). 17% of population lives below poverty line. Demographics will help to analyze market potential, its perspectives, and segment the UK market. Demographic segmentation is based measurable characteristics of the population such as income, age distribution, gender, education, and occupation. A number of global demographic trends-fewer married couples, smaller family size, changing roles of women, higher incomes and living standards, for example-have contributed to the emergence of global market segments. In the UK, 17.5 % of the population are children from 0-14, 66.8% people from 15-64 year old and 15.8% - 65+. The majority of the population are white people - 54.85 million; people of Asian origin is about 2.38 million. Population growth rate is about 0.28%. In agriculture works about 1.1%, in industry - 26% and in service market - 72.9% (The World Fact Book: the UK, 2006). Cultural Concerns Need to Be Considered Great Britain is a country of old traditions and strong family values. Cultural preferences are quite apparent in food preparation and consumption patterns and habits. Taking into account the nature of the product AIU is going to market, these cultural preferences will play a core role in strategic planning. A solid understanding of food-related cultural preferen

Religion and Secularism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Religion and Secularism - Essay Example In one sense Secularism is understood as the case of absence of religion and in other sense as treating all religions equally. Thus, it is difficult enough to define secularism according to a single ideal and social, political and cultural conditions define the secularism in a particular context and area. The afore-mentioned aspect points out the origins of secularism from religion. As one of the concepts in understanding secularism is to oppose the religion in at least until some extent, the concept developed from religious context. Though the secularism has origins in religion, it is a political and social movement and retains a philosophical aspect. In many contexts, the philosophy is to oppose religion and this resulted in different type of applications of it in different situations. However, in any type of understanding the secularism a common opposition to supernatural and faith in god will exist. The concept of secularism and secularization differ as the secularization questio ns the role of religion in society and argues for sphere of knowledge. Thus in the course of questioning the religion, secularization opposes the presence of religious authorities and opposes their public authority. As a result, it catches criticism from the opponents of secularism or religious minded people. One of the important opposition is regarding favoring of explicitly basis for politics at the cost of another religion, which generally happens in developing countries like India, Pakistan and Gulf countries.

Has the level of protection for victims of domestic violence being Essay

Has the level of protection for victims of domestic violence being improved by the law - Essay Example This left the victim with the only solution of going back through the courts to request a power of arrest be attached to the injunction3. The 2004 Act has been extended to cover non married partners as well as married couples. The Act repealed s62(3) of the Family Law Act 1996 which laid down a requisite that the courts should take into account the non married status of cohabitants when making decisions regarding domestic violence incidents4. The new legislation also covers anyone who has lived in the same residence as part of a family. This encompasses same sex couples as well as parent and child relationships where either the parents are being attacked by their children or vice versa. Traditionally very few cases of domestic violence ever get prosecuted at court and there seems to be a consensus of opinion within society that most couples will be reunited before the case gets before the courts5. In an attempt to address this problem the criminal justice system has created a new fast track system for domestic violence cases. It has become a countrywide policy for most police forces to adopt the new fast track system with the effect that most cases are heard at court within 14 days of the incident occurring. It was felt by doing this that the courts could help support the victims better and to prevent the abuser from being able to convince their partner to discontinue the case against them. A further approach that has been adopted by the police is to proceed with prosecutions even when the victim has contacted the police to try to discontinue the case. When victims have retracted their original complaint the courts have declared them as a hostile witness and where necessary have subpoenaed them to attend court. It has been suggested that domestic violence victims often change their minds because of dissatisfaction with the way in which the police and the courts treat them as victims. There is a tendency within the police and the court system to

Personal Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Personal Theory - Essay Example , 1986, 115-31) Feminist theory takes the position that the portrayal of the damsel in distress has a profound view on the self-perception as children tend to emulate the characteristics of their favorite characters in children’s literature and attempt to subscribe to their respective character traits. (Zipes, 1989, 185-200) Feminist theory takes the position that the damsel in distress portrays a view of human nature that perpetuates an entirely sexist view of human nature.(Kramer and Moore, 2001) The underlying message is that the female in distress does not have the ability to cope on her own and is dependent upon a males assistance for relief. The view of human nature in this distinction between female and male characterization is exemplified in Cinderella where the damsel in distress is rescued by a Prince Charming who holds out the promise of marriage, status, wealth and happiness. The heroine is helpless and powerless and cannot find redemption without male interference. Sleeping Beauty and Snow White are similar in their respective approaches to this view of human nature in that the heroine is passive and dependant upon the strong, rich and powerful male for redemptive value. Beauty and The Beast puts forward the strong male/weak female view of human nature in a different way. In this fairy tale, the male is aggressive, cruel and punishing and is eventually tamed by the self-sacrificing, beautiful female victim. The female heroine eventually comes to the realization that the male’s cruelty and aggression were all facades for his underlying love for the female and his actual cruel and violent outbursts were merely manifestations of his love for her. (Coward, 1984, 189) Girls who read these Fairy Tales obviously form a distorted view of their perceptions of the female’s role in society. Feminist theory advocates that girls tend to idealize these feminine traits and strive to emulate them. The role of the councilor is to help women who have

Gender Language, images, and contexts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Gender Language, images, and contexts - Essay Example Transgender activists and gender theorists have been vocal in advocating for an abolition of gender to free the society from the bonds of arbitrary behavioural norms that define gender. The assumption of gender to be a system consisting of two exclusively opposite categories in which people are placed is simple and does not give the full definition of what encompasses gender. The difference between the art and nature of gender is transsexual and non-transsexual aspects of gender. Transsexual gender is the physical change of people’s sexuality to be who they feel they are. On its part, natural gender is the acceptance and appreciation of what the society defines us to be. Non-transsexual theorists are ignorant of the form that a transsexual person undertakes after going through the physical change. The femininity and the masculinity according to them are naturally the actual aspects of defining gender. The art of changing one’s sexuality does little in changing who one i s. They refer to the Godliness of the act and the creativity aspect of the whole process. To transsexual theorists, creativity is evident when mankind begin exercising power of creativity, the power to increase our vocabulary, power to change our environment, our clothing as well as our bodies. She acknowledges that both the art and the nature of gen der reside in an individual person. The author seeks to address the issue of gender from the inside of a person and how this affects a person’s acts and performances. By linking the soul to an individual’s performances, the politics of the body are inherent there in. The article shows that desires of the soul define exactly what gender a particular person belongs to. Analysis The author believes that gender is not naturally what the society has bestowed upon the individual, but the actions of the individual from desires of the soul. The soul is the centre of everything it generates the actions that a person is likely to fo llow subconsciously and determines the social performances that depict one to be either male or female. The biological characteristics do not have much influence on gender determinants. Raising the argument a notch higher, the article holds that acts, desires, and gestures give birth to an internal substance, which is produced on the outside surface of the body, although they never reveal but suggest the organizing principle of identity as a cause. Such signs, gestures, or enactments according to the article are performative, meaning that the identity that they claim to express are not original, but rather manufactured and sustained through corporeal signs among other means. This means that what is outwardly expressed is in fact from the inside, and that the outward signs are simply fabrications of the inner expressions. The argument that the inner truth of gender is a fabrication and that the true gander is nothing but just a fantasy instituted on the surface of the body, then gend er cannot be either true or false. For instance, being feminine is not a cultural tag placed upon the individual woman, but rather, the actins seen on the surface of a person that are characterized to be feminine are actually from within the soul. The Contemporary Transgender Movement Abstract The paper aims at examining what the existing social movement literature can teach on collective identities. Traditional community has classified gender in

Personal Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Personal Theory - Essay Example , 1986, 115-31) Feminist theory takes the position that the portrayal of the damsel in distress has a profound view on the self-perception as children tend to emulate the characteristics of their favorite characters in children’s literature and attempt to subscribe to their respective character traits. (Zipes, 1989, 185-200) Feminist theory takes the position that the damsel in distress portrays a view of human nature that perpetuates an entirely sexist view of human nature.(Kramer and Moore, 2001) The underlying message is that the female in distress does not have the ability to cope on her own and is dependent upon a males assistance for relief. The view of human nature in this distinction between female and male characterization is exemplified in Cinderella where the damsel in distress is rescued by a Prince Charming who holds out the promise of marriage, status, wealth and happiness. The heroine is helpless and powerless and cannot find redemption without male interference. Sleeping Beauty and Snow White are similar in their respective approaches to this view of human nature in that the heroine is passive and dependant upon the strong, rich and powerful male for redemptive value. Beauty and The Beast puts forward the strong male/weak female view of human nature in a different way. In this fairy tale, the male is aggressive, cruel and punishing and is eventually tamed by the self-sacrificing, beautiful female victim. The female heroine eventually comes to the realization that the male’s cruelty and aggression were all facades for his underlying love for the female and his actual cruel and violent outbursts were merely manifestations of his love for her. (Coward, 1984, 189) Girls who read these Fairy Tales obviously form a distorted view of their perceptions of the female’s role in society. Feminist theory advocates that girls tend to idealize these feminine traits and strive to emulate them. The role of the councilor is to help women who have

Unilever international finance and accounting Essay

Unilever international finance and accounting - Essay Example Unilever, United Kingdom, has just dropped Boursin as one of its business entities.Unilever ia a global business focusing on personal care, food and other consumer products. It has entrenched itself in the home as one of the trusted and reliable but reasonably priced products in the market today.Unilever has always been a staunch follower of all social responsibility laws. The social responsibility laws focus on many issues (Sluyterman 2005, 12).Further, one such issue is the payment of minimum salaries to its workers. Another such issue is the implementation of work conditions where environmental laws are taken into consideration. Another issue of social responsibility it the company's role of uplifting the lives of people in its community, the customers of Unilever and the world as a whole. In this regard, companies like Unilever are required to produce products that are not harmful to the customers and the environment (Dingman 2008). Unilever is an institution today because it had gone through many years of trials and errors with the aim of making profits without sacrificing its social responsibility to the community and other stakeholders. The following paragraphs explain Unilever's important place in the business world in terms of making profits, divestment of segments and its social responsibility.Unilever (United Kingdom) is one of the country units of Unilever world. The company has been producing popular household brands that are needed by homes, offices and work places around the United Kingdom alone. The company is an institution in the field of food, home and personal care products. Unilever (United Kingdom) has under its big belt over thirty five brands that include Cornetto, Bertolli, Cif, and Sunsilk. In the area of highest country revenue, the United Kingdom is next only to the United States. The company has started smoothly the rough working conditions in order to streamline its operations. One such financially correct move was to cut its manag erial positions by half during the year. Reference: www.finance.google.com/financecid=5763516 Further, the company has also innovated its company -wide sales and marketing operational strategy. The company has reduced operating expense in its United Kingdom branch by relocating its three departments to one single location. This financially rewarding move is currently the right time for the company continue its retrenchment of more than three hundred twenty line and staff employees until the year 2009. Its office is located in St. James Road, Kingston -Upon-Thames, KTI 2BA, GBR. Reference: www.finance.google.com/financecid=5763516 Unilever company is a financially stable company. The Income statement of Unilever UK for the year 2006 shows that the company generated in billions of pounds of revenues to the tue of 26,714. This shows a two percent decrease from the prior year revenues. The 2005 revenues generated 27,304.4.This represented a decrease of four percent over the prior year revenues. The 2004 revenues generated only 28,584.1. The 2006 cost of sales amounted to 13,540.3. This shows a four percent decline over the cost of goods sold of the prior year. The prior year cost of goods sold is 14,037.6. This is definitely two percent lower than the prior year cost of sales. The prior year sales amounted to 14,309.8. The company also generated gross profit of 13,173.7 for the year 2006. This is a seven percent decrease from the prior year gross profit. The prior year gross profit only reached of 14,274.4. Also, the gross profit ratio for the year 2006 is high at forty nine percent (13,171.7 /26,714). The gross profit ratio for the year 2005 is lower than the 2006 data at forty eight ;/100 percent (13,266.8 /27,304.4). The gross profit ratio for the year 2004 is high at fifty percent (14,274.43,171.7 /28,584.1). The company's operating income for the year 2006

Why the USA got out of Vietnam Essay Example for Free

Why the USA got out of Vietnam Essay Some describe the Vietnam conflict as a promise â€Å"to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia† (Martin Luther King), but instead Martin Luther King’s other description of the war as a â€Å"†¦cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on the TV screen as they kill and die together for a nation that cannot even seat them together in the same schools†¦Ã¢â‚¬  can be seen as more relevant. The US public carried a strong voice throughout this conflict and were able to change decisions and inevitably cause the withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam. The unpopularity of the war can be split into a number of sections. Unpopularity came about through the media coverage given to the actions of US troops and the barbaric acts that were being carried out in Vietnam. Examples of these were the development of napalm and Agent Orange. Napalm was jellied petroleum which was used to burn anything which came into contact with it; it had a devastating effect and often destroyed whole parts of the forest killing everything within it. Agent Orange was a chemical which was designed to kill plants, including tree’s and crops, and this didn’t have a positive effect on the hearts and minds of the South Vietnamese peasants, the people who were in the firing line for Communism. After these events the war became increasingly dirty and barbaric. Events such as such as the CIA’s Operation Phoenix in 1968, which consisted of VietCong suspects, often on bad evidence and the torture of them. Most famously, for the wrong reasons, the incident in My Lai in 1968 where US troops wiped out an entire village with extreme brutality. With households commonly having TV sets in their homes in America it was there to be seen by the US public, who no matter how anti-communist they were, were shocked and disgusted by the actions their troops had committed. This set the ball rolling for the tide of anti-war feeling within the USA. During this period half of the American public were against the war and wanted to pull out. It was all members of US society who wee beginning to feel the tide of anti-war feeling. 1968 signalled the start of when black people began to demonstrate against a blatantly unfair draft system. The draft system was meant to call up young Americans to fight in the war; however it always seemed to pick a disproportional amount of black Americans. With the civil rights movement at the time and the emergence of prominent black figures such as Martin Luther King it meant there were demonstrations against the government. This meant that the government had to deal with a group within their society, who had nothing to lose; therefore, they were able to wield great pressure on the government to withdraw. It was also military mistakes and failures which aided the call for a pullout by the USA. The key example of this is the Tet Offensive in 1968. This highlighted the policy failures of McNamara and his generals. The VietCong launched this against every city in South Vietnam taking large portions of each one. Even though they were retaken later on it still illustrated to the US public that even though US generals such as General Westmorland were pulling out statistics such as â€Å"10 VietCong killed for every US casualty† it showed them that the conflict was far from over. The US public again viewed these events on TV and this graphic detail meant that it only strengthened the anti-war feeling. The cost of this whole operation was beginning to show strains upon the US public. Due to the high costs money had to be detracted from programmes such as Johnson’s â€Å"Great Society Programme† which targeted poverty in America’s cities and the plight of Black Americans. It was planned to produce new homes, schools and roads. Therefore, due to the higher costs, money had to be retracted from the â€Å"Great Society Programme†. These cutbacks caused riots in the inner city areas with a dash of civil rights movement, due to the high number of black people living within those areas. This all posed the questions to the American whether all this was all worth it. The high number of coffins returning whilst living standards were in a downward spiral left Americans angry and change was wanted. However there were other factors which resulted in the call for a pullout from Vietnam. One of these was America’s actual economic situation. Even though the war was expensive, an economically strong USA would have been able to afford the operation. However, this wasn’t the case with America during this period. As taxes went up due to the â€Å"Great Society Programme† American workers began to demand higher wages causing general prices to increase. This caused high inflation meaning taxes weren’t what they were valued at before. In addition to that the fact that America had to cut expenditure in the arms sector meant that the military-industrial complex, the arms industry, suffers. This combined with inflation at the time meant that economy was in bad shape. This forced the US government to reconsider its position in Vietnam. This had political casualties too, due to the resignation of President Johnson. It wasn’t only because of economical reasons that there was a pullout from Vietnam. There were also political reasons too. After Johnson’s resignation, Nixon came into power. Nixon was a realist and knew victory was possible in Vietnam and he knew that doubled up with the political divisions and economical problems that it was best to pull out. He announced â€Å"peace with honour† which followed in with the withdrawal of US troops, who wee replaced with South Vietnamese forces (Vietnamisation), this then bought about the end of the war. This helped ease the political squabbles back home and it also proved to be a bit of a money saver as it cut back expenses. I have come to conclude that the most important reason for the pullout from Vietnam is due to the US public. With the satellite age in full flow at that time the TV proved to be a massive tool for the average American at the time as it allowed them to be able to fully see what their troops were really doing there. This proved to be a bad tool for the government as their mistakes came to light. Also the US government wasn’t helped by the civil rights movement at that time which created figures like Martin Luther King who spoke critically of the war and the discrimination of young black men. The economic problem and the breakdown of the â€Å"Great Society Programme† meant that the average Americans were beginning to feel the effects of the war at home even though the battles were being fought miles away. However there were some factors which weren’t down to the American public. The stagnant economy meant that the high costs of the war were more harshly felt by the American public. Also the pullout was achieved by Nixon due to him realising that Vietnam was a lost cause with more good coming if there was a pullout from there.

The Emergence Of The Role Theory

The Emergence Of The Role Theory Role theory is a conceptual framework with long history in the field of Foreign policy analysis. In order to explain and understand the foreign policy of nation states, the role theory focuses on the reasoning of national political elites, their explanation of the international system and their own states role within this larger system. Despite its conceptual stringency, methodological openness and rich empirical applications, the role theory seems to be neglected by the main stream scholars. Role theory as we said is a long established conceptual tool for the foreign policy analysis. While the role theory analytical potential is high, only recently we have witnessed its revival. Role theory first attracted attention in the foreign policy literature after the publication of Holstis  [1]  study of national role conceptions. Role theory had been in development for nearly four decades in Sociology, Social Psychology and Anthropology by this time. Holsti didnt import much of the conceptual or theoretical language associated with role theory. He chose to focus on the simple idea that the Self, in this case the leaders of the state may hold a set of beliefs or images about the identity of the state. Also, a social psychologist of the sociological variety  [2]  suggested that Holstis article may well be an example where borrowing a theory has paid off. These national role conceptions were shaped the way that a state acted by it in the international system level. The objective of this paper is to present a role theory as a theoretical and conceptual tool for the analysis of the foreign policy. This paper will divide into parts. First part introduces the intellectual sources and inspiration of the role theory. The second part introduces the assumptions of the role theory, and then Ill mention the key concepts offered by the theoretical conceptual framework of the role theory. The third part summarizes the criticism of International Relations theorists towards formulation of the role theory. The fourth part explores briefly how we can integrate foreign policy analysis and international relation through role theory. The emergence of the Role Theory and its intellectual sources: Role theory was first introduced in 1970 by Kalevi Holsti in his article National Role Conceptions in the Study of Foreign Policy. In 1970, Holsti criticized the unnecessarily crude shape of the national roles and too strong pre occupation with national role types relevant to then structural conditions such as bloc, leader, satellites, allies, and non-aligned. Such typology ignores the great set of roles that smaller states play in the system and in different regions  [3]  . At a time of structuralism analysis of foreign policy, Holsti tries to refocus the attention of the discipline towards the domestic sources of foreign policy behavior. Role theory has been inspied by sociological and social psychological theories about the role of individual in the society  [4]  . Holsti drew heavily on Meads symbolic inter action  [5]  long before Wendt picked symbolic inter action as a core principle of his constructivist theory. Holsti relies on George H. Mead and his study of the impact of the behavior of others on an individuals self conceptions and his conceptual distinctions between the self and the change. Symbolic inter action remains the most important source of inspiration for role theorists up until today. Social psychological and sociological theories about the role of individual in the society are applied in the explanation of the behavior of the state. Role theorists argue that by providing the sense of purpose of the state in international community, national role conceptions concede the state with a sense of selfhood and identity. Without the sense of identity, individuals cant order their environments and they will find that the social behavior becomes difficult to understand and manage  [6]  . According to Chaftez, the same process occurs within the states. In this sense, role theory is just another example of anthropomorphic theory  [7]  . It is built around an anthropomorphic assumption that we can draw an analogy between individuals in the society and the state. This assumption some would say chicanery allows us to import social psychological and sociological theories into the disciplines of international relations and foreign policy analysis. At the same time the role theory steers clear of the trap of treating states as some kind of unitary actors. After explaining the origin of role theory and knowing the main scholars and intellectuals ideas of the theory. Ill explain the main assumptions that theory depend on. Theoretical assumption of the role theory: This part tries to identify the assumptions of the role theory which are the epistemological and ontological and its position in contemporary theoretical debates. The starting point is the classification of approaches to the study of foreign policy by Walter Carlsnaes  [8]  . In line with the categories developed by Hollis and Smith  [9]  , Carlsnaes distinguishes four basic approaches to the study of foreign policy according to their epistemological assumptions which are objectivism versus interpretativism and ontological assumptions versus individualism. Objectivist holistic approach such as various strands of realism and neo realism offer a structural perspective on the foreign policy. Objectivist individualist approaches such as bureaucratic politics approaches and liberal approach see the foreign policy from the agency based perspective. On the intersection between holism and interpretativism lie the approaches such as: social constructivism or discursive approaches representing the social institutional perspective. Hollis and Smith distinguish explanation and understanding as two basic epistemological positions. Explanatory approach is inspired by natural sciences and looks for causal relations within the social reality. On the other side interpretivists rely on reconstructing inter subjective meaning of that structure for the subjects of interests. The goal of interpretativism is to reconstruct and understand the way people make sense of the social reality and on this ground understand the behavior of individuals and groups. While some authors argue that the two theoretical questions are interrelated as ontological position predestined the epistemological choice  [10]  , Carlsnaes agrees with Hollis and Smith that ontology doesnt entail epistemology and thus we can distinguish four basic combinations of theoretical perspectives. After that, itll be better to explain the meaning of the two assumptions which are epistemology and ontology in details to form the whole image in our minds about the role theory. Epistemology The epistemological position of the role theory is quite clear according to Carlsnaes. It is an example of interpretative perspective. Role theory seems to favor domestic sources of foreign policy and at the same time given its roots in symbolic interactionism, role theory produces interpretative knowledge rather than casual explanations. Role theory allows us to reconstruct the meaning attributed to national role by the domestic elite individual national foreign policy makers  [11]  . Carlsnaes classification shows the original analytical intentions of those who formulate the role theory. According to Stephen Walker, role theory offers a thick description. The theoretical function of role theory isnt codifying abstract regularities but to make thick description possible, not to generalize across cases but to generalize within them. In line with its epistemological underlying, role theory is more suitable for answering the How possible questions rather than the Why questions. Role theory follows the principles of interpretative which examine the background of social and digressive practices and meanings which make possible the foreign policy practices as well as the social actors themselves, how meanings are produced and attached to various social subjects and objects thus constituting particular interpretive disposition which create certain possibilities and exclude others. Ontology Walter Carlsnaes, following Hollis and Smith distinguishes two basic ontological positions: holism and individualism. Holism holds that the effects of social structures cant be reduced to independently existing agents and their interactions, and that these effects include the construction of agents in both causal and constitutive senses  [12]  . The dynamics of social systems can always be tracked to the evolutionary changes on the level of self reproducing structures  [13]  . On the other side individualists claim that individuals are ontologically primary, all social phenomena as institutions, norms and cultue are intended or unintended consequences of aggregated behavior of the individuals. Social scientific explanations should be reducible to the properties or interactions of independently existing individuals. Walter Carlsnaes puts the role theory unambigously into the individualist box. The role theoretical analyzes focus on the reasoning of individual national foreign policy makers. Role theory exemplifies the bottom up individualist interpretative approach which is concerned to understand decisions from the standpoint of the decision makers by reconstructing their reasons. Holsti and most of the empirical applications of his conceptual framework didnt incorporate role prescriptions of external expectation and their empirical analyses focus solely on the domestic sources of national roles. Conceptual framework of the role theory: Its better to divide the concepts of the role theory into three categories which are: National role conceptions, which are better one role or many roles and other concepts of the role theory. National role conceptions Role theory explains the foreign policy behavior by exploring the roles played by individual countries in international level. The conceptual framework of the role theory has evolved through time as new concepts have been added. The key concept of the role theory is national role conception introduced by Holsti. He defines the national role conception as the policymakers have definitions of the general kinds of decisions, commitments, rules and actions suitable to their state and its the function of any state that should perform on a continuing basis in the international system or in subordinate regional systems. Its the image of the appropriate orientations or functions of their state or in the external environment  [14]  . This definition has been widely accepted by other role theorists. For example Ulrich Krotz thirty years later defines the national role conceptions as domestically shared views and understandings regarding the proper role and purpose of ones own state as a so cial collectivity in the international arena  [15]  . National role conceptions induce preferences and motivate wills, goals and actions. Often interests and policies that derive from National role conceptions are viewed as normal and right within the respective country. According to Le Prestre, the articulation of a national role betrays preferences, operations of an image of the world, triggers expectations and influences the definition of the situation and of the available options  [16]  . At the same time, national role conceptions make certain interests and policy options intuitively implausible, categorically exclude them as wrong or unacceptable or make them unthinkable. National role conceptions are a product of domestic socialization processes and they give meaning and purpose to the foreign policy. One role or many roles Glen Chafetz notes that actors usually have multiple roles that various in overall importance centrality and according to the situation salience. This argument is supported by Holstis original empirical analysis. He confirms that on the lowest level of a day to day politics actors normally have several different roles in the international system and its subsystems. Role theory reflects the arguments made by James March and Johan Olsen that humans maintain a repertoire of roles and identities each providing rules of appropriate behavior in situations for which they are relevant  [17]  . On the other side some researchers adopt the single role assumption that the foreign policy as such is on the highest plane guided by a shared, historically constituted role vision of a national mission which is relatively stable and coherent across time, context and circumstances. The analysis of such dominant, overarching shared view, understanding regarding the proper role and purpose of ones own state as a social collectivity in the international arena can be challenged for being overly generalizing. By looking for common thing in the national elites world views and visions of the national mission, we get that one inevitably puts aside differences in the political elites foreign policy priorities. On the other side the single role assumption allows us to trace and explain patterns in the foreign policy of the state and identify ideas discourse shared even among national politicians with different political preferences in foreign policy making. Other concepts of the role theory Even though the national role conception represents the key concept of the role theory it isnt the only concept. While the national role conception is an egos own conception of his position and function, the term role prescription has been introduced to capture the alters prescriptions. Holsti defined role prescriptions as norms and expectations cultures, societies, institutions or groups attach to particular positions. Role prescriptions emanate from the external environment. In the constructivist language role prescriptions are interred subjectively shared norms and expectations which form the social structure of the international system. Even though the term role prescriptions has been introduced in the role theory since its very beginning, the structural source of the role prescriptions has been sidelined and hardly utilized in role theoretical empirical analyzes. It took some time before role theorists acknowledged the analytical value of the role prescriptions and of the struct ural dimension of the role theory. Contemporary role theorists not only acknowledge on a theoretical level that roles are determined both by an actors own conceptions about appropriate behavior and by the expectations or role prescriptions of other actors but they include role prescriptions into the design of their empirical analyses. The inclusion of the role prescriptions into the research design is in line with the tenets of symbolic interactionism and with the constructivist arguments that roles are institutionalized in social structure. Stephen Walker a Sheldon Simon introduced another structural concept into the framework of the role theory: role set  [18]  . Role sets can be defined as a set of actors positioned as significant others and the web of mutual roles in the system. It is a web of mutual expectations which according to Walker and Simon represent a dynamic and interconnected system. The last term is national role performance. National role performance denotes concrete foreign policy decisions and actions. National role performance encompasses the attitudes decisions and actions governments take versus other actors in order to implement the role. Empirical analyzes relying on the concept national role conceptions usually rely on the single role assumption, they try to discover domestically shared ideas about the purpose and role of the state in international arena and they try to illustrate. The term role set is simply denoting the set of roles played by a particular state versus the spectrum of other actors explain the continuity in the foreign policy behavior of national role performance. On the other side analyzes operationalizing the concept of role prescriptions are better equipped to capture and explain changes in roles and role performance of foreign policy behavior. For example: Walker and Simon claim that actors do from time to time experience role conflict. Role conflict is defined as a situation in which multiple roles are elicited by competing or conflicting expectations, cues and conceptions. This conflict can have the form of a clash between contradicting national role conceptions and role prescriptions or as a clash between two competing role prescriptions. Walker and Simon convincingly argue that the structure of the role set is a product of this role location process as countries enact roles and attempt to cope with role conflict. If individual member of the system in an attempt to solve his own role conflict and changes the role he plays in the system then the whole role set changes as other members of the change their roles and expectations in respons e. The criticism of the role theory: In line with Carlsnaes classification of the role theory as an individualist interpretative approach, International Relation constructivists treat the role theory as an actor based perspective. Alexander Wendt who praises the role theory for introducing symbolic inter actionism into the field criticizes Holsti for emphasizing the agentic role taking side of the equation at the expense of the structural, role constituting side which strips the concept of role of much of its interest. Similarly Audie Klotz criticizes Holsti for excessive focus on individual motivation and cognition at for ignoring the congruence in shared norms which form the backbone of dominant ideas and knowledge. To summarize the critique, International Relation constructivists castigate the role theory for orientation on subjective rather than inter subjective ideas. Role theory seems to forget that national identity and role is not only about inner experience of the state in elite national role conceptions but al so about the structure of expectations of the wider international environment role prescriptions. Wendt and other critics are to some extent different and right. The theoretical and conceptual model introduced by Holsti in fact incorporates not only actor centered national role conceptions domestically shared visions about the role and purpose of the state in international arena but also structural role prescriptions expectations of others. But this socio psychological theoretical model wasnt fully translated into Holstis design for a foreign policy analysis. Even though role the agent society relationship plays a crucial role in the original Meads social psychological theory, Holsti depreciated the impact of society on the formation of national roles in the international context. In his words the expectations of other governments, legal norms expressed through custom, general usage, treaties and available sanctions to enforce. These are ill defined, flexible and weak compared to those that exist in an integrated society and particularly within formal organizations. In a rather n eorealist he also refers to the lack of institutions, acute international conflict and the fact of sovereignty as the factors behind the precedence of policymakers role conceptions over externally derived role expectations. Here lies the rift between Holsti on one side and the English School and constructivist IR on the other side which has been reproduced in some of the empirical analyses. Integration of FPA and IR through Role Theory: Role theory has an intermittent presence in the study of foreign policy analysis, though it is unfamiliar to scholars in international relations. Yet it is uniquely suited to integrate IR and FPA. Role theory is premised on explaining and understanding the interaction between agents and structure. This may sound familiar to constructivist IR scholars. Role theory tends to focus on the agent structure debate from a slightly different, albeit complementary and vantage point. Foreign policy analysis and International Relation scholars operate within different analytical traditions. Whereas the former consider the individual to be the ground of International Relation theory, the latter are more apt to proceed from a system level orientation. To be more precise, Foreign policy analysis scholars often use role theory informed by social psychology while International Relation scholars are more firmly grounded in constructivist principles borrowed from sociology. There is a geographical divide: the former group of scholars is more prevalent in the United States, whereas the latter tend to be located in Europe and elsewhere in the world. Both groups use methods of analysis and standards of evidence that are in keeping with their separate traditions. Some suggest that theories of International Relations cant also be theories of foreign policy. However, others have argued that there is no logical barrier to such a synthesis  [19]  . We believe that role theory offers the potential for integration, possibly and synthesis. Foreign Policy Analysis generally as well as cognitive approaches specifically and International Relation theory generally as well as constructivism specifically stand to benefit from the results of dialogue between the formers largely agent based role theory and the latters largely system based agent structure debate. Although fully synthesizing the two fields may not be feasible, there is so much common ground that bridging the divide between these two traditions not only brings them closer together but also advances knowledge in both Foreign Policy Analysis and International Relations theory. Indeed some efforts aimed at synthesis can already be identified. Consider for example: Maulls work on the civilian power role of Germany and Japan and Harnischs subsequent efforts to place Germanys civilian power role in a constructivist International Relations framework. These two scholars demonstrate the potential for a synthesis of Foreign Policy and International Relations through role theory. Roles like the civilian power role make intuitive sense to policymakers and offer great potential to translate Foreign Policy and International Relations theory into meaningful policy relevant advice.

Cancer Taking Lives :: Personal Narrative Writing

Cancer Taking Lives The East Pennsboro elementary school raised money for a statue at a local park. The statue was a ring of children that were holding hands. There was one child missing; the link was broken. The statue was dedicated to East Pennsboro students that did not make it to their graduation. My sophomore year of high school inspired this piece of artwork. Mid December during my sophomore year I found out that a friend of mine had lost her struggle with cancer. Tiffanie was diagnosed with two rare forms of ovarian cancer during seventh grade. Having either type of cancer is very rare, so the fact that she had both types was unbelievable. I had been best friends with Tiffanie during elementary school. We had lost touch in middle school, but our friendship never ended. She had her ups and downs during her illness, but I never expected her cancer to be fatal. I was told at the beginning of December that the doctors didn’t expect her to live until Christmas. Because she was in my grade, my class sent cards to her. I made a funny story about the two of us growing up. I sent the story with an angle ornament. Christmas had to be celebrated early this year, and I thought that an angel would be appropriate. If anything did happen to her, her mom could keep the ornament in memory of her. She died a week later at the young age of 16. I found out about her death two days after it occurred. I was in church getting ready to play my flute in the choir. My best friend was with me. I guess she knew that I didn’t see the news. I can remember still remember what she said. She told me that she was at a friend’s house on Friday night. They were getting ready for a dance that I did not go to. Her mom told them that something had happened. She conveyed the message to me by saying â€Å"Meg†¦I think that Tiff died.† She couldn’t just tell, because she knew that I would be devastated, but I knew that it was no mistake. I ran to the bathroom and began to grieve for my friend who never even got to receive her driver’s license. That night, I watched the news. Her cancer story had been televised for years, so when she finally past, the local news stations began showing clips of her throughout her life as a final memorial.

Hong Kong Airlines Marketing Plan for India Essay

1. Introduction The purpose of this project is to develop an international marketing plan for Hong Kong Airlines to expand to the India market. The first part of the project will cover the current marketing mix and strategies of Hong Kong Airlines, as well as the SWOT analysis. The second part will analyze the India market and explore the feasibility for Hong Kong Airlines to enter this market as a low-cost carrier, or commonly known as a budget airline. It will be followed by some foreseeable challenges, with the relevant remedial measures. 2. Current Marketing Mix This section will illustrate the current marketing mix of Hong Kong Airlines. Product/Service Hong Kong Airlines is a full service carrier which provides both scheduled regional flights and cargo services within the Asia-pacific Region. Price The airfare for Hong Kong Airlines is relatively lower than that of its competitors such as Cathay Pacific and Dragonair. Place Hong Kong Airlines is a Hong Kong-based airline with its main hub and corporate head office at the Hong Kong International Airport. It uses the bauhinia flower, the emblem of Hong Kong, as its logo. People Hong Kong Airlines emphasizes that their staff are young and energetic. It is expected that the size of employees will reach 2,600 in the near future. Physical Evidence As of February 2013, Hong Kong Airlines’ fleet consists of 25 aircrafts with an average age of 3.9 years. This is relatively new when comparing with other airlines. Processes Hong Kong Airlines adopts both direct and indirect process – direct online sales via its corporate website and indirect sales via travel agencies. Promotion Currently Hong Kong Airlines promotes mainly via advertising, incentives, customer relationship management and public relations. Advertising Hong Kong Airlines does both hard and soft selling through digital platforms, including its corporate website, Facebook, Weibo and Mobile Apps. Positioning as a young and enthusiastic airline, Hong Kong Airlines has invested a considerable amount on online channels in order to reach its potential customers. Besides, Hong Kong Airlines has utilized television commercials, printed advertisements and advertorials in magazines. Incentives Hong Kong Airlines collaborates with local travel agencies, such as China Travel Service (Hong Kong) Limited. The travel agencies bundle air tickets with hotel accommodation and offer seasonal packages with appealing discounts. Customer Relationship Management Hong Kong Airlines has a customer loyalty programme – the Fortune Wing Club. The membership benefits include air award redemption, priority check-in and extra baggage allowance to its frequent flyers. Public Relations Hong Kong Airlines highly involves in charity projects and sponsorship events. For example, it has launched the fund raising programme, Fly & Care, which aims to subsidy athletes for preparing the 2016 Brazil Paralympic Games. It has also received various service awards such as the Capital Weekly Service Awards in 2012. 3. Current Marketing Strategy The majority of Hong Kong Airlines’ passengers are middle-aged males, with annual income below RMB150,000. They are generally value-conscious customers who are looking for reasonable service level with a relatively low airfare. Figure 3.1 summarizes some features of Hong Kong Airlines’ passengers. Geographic Segment| 84% from Asia-pacific region, with Hong Kong constituting 36%.| Demographic Segment| Gender * Male > 70% * Female < 30%Age * Below 30: 28% * 31 – 50: 60%Annual Income Level (in RMB) * Below 60k: 12% * >60k-100K: 23.3% * >100k – 150k: 31.5% * >150k – 200k : 9.4% * >200k – 400k: 8.9% * >400k: 14.9%| Travel Purpose| * Business travel: 71% * Vacation/others: 29%| Figure 3.1Segmentation of Hong Kong Airlines’ Passenger Competitors of Hong Kong Airlines High price Low price Low service quality High service quality Figure 3.2 Perceptual Map of Competitors The vertical and horizontal axes of Figure 3.2 represent price and service level respectively. Hong Kong Airlines is located at the bottom right corner because it provides reasonable service level with competitive price. Dragonair and Tiger Airways both operate on similar routings as Hong Kong Airlines. With Dragonair positioning as a premium brand while Tiger Airways being a low-cost carrier, they are selected for a more detailed competitor analysis. Dragonair Dragonair is an international airline based in Hong Kong, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the flagship carrier of Hong Kong – Cathay Pacific. It aims to offer customers enjoyable and comfortable flying experience via its full scope of services and quality cabin products. Its customers’ demographic profile is very close to that of Hong Kong Airlines: 85% of the passengers live in Asia-pacific and 30% of them live in Hong Kong; 66% are males and their average age is 41-year-old; and the average personal monthly income is around USD5,000. They are service-sensitive and less price-conscious. More than half of the passengers are frequent travelers who fly for more than 6 times annually. Tiger Airways Tiger Airways is a low-cost carrier based in Singapore. Low-cost carrier refers to airline that provides limited scope of service with low airfares. The airfare is meant for the transport service only and customers have to pay extra for baggage allowance, food and beverages etc, if required. For example, Tiger Airways offers a buy-on-board program, Tiger Bites, for customers to purchase food and beverage. Tiger Airways operates between Singapore and some regional destinations in Southeast Asia, Australia, China and India. Their passengers are price-conscious and less service-sensitive. 4. SWOT Analysis Strengths Hong Kong Airlines can enjoy strong financial support from their parent company, Hainan Airline, which is the largest privately owned air transport company in China. Operating in a relatively small scale, Hong Kong Airlines can be flexible and responsive to the market changes. Its young fleet includes both short / medium haul aircrafts (A320) and long haul aircrafts (A330-200 & A330-300), which can support routings between Hong Kong and Asia-pacific ports. Figure 4.1A330-200’s Coverage (from Hong Kong) Figure 4.2A330-300’s Coverage (from Hong Kong) Weaknesses Hong Kong Airlines has a weak financial management. The Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company Limited has stopped providing services to Hong Kong Airlines due to its inability to settling the bills. This forces Hong Kong Airlines to turn to another aircraft maintenance service provider – China Aircraft Services Ltd. Hong Kong Airlines is also weak in operational management. The Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department has frozen the fleet expansion plans of Hong Kong Airlines since August 2012 due to safety concerns, and advised it to consolidate the existing operations with current fleet size. With a relatively small scale of operations, Hong Kong Airlines has a rather weak bargaining power with its suppliers of aircrafts, fuel, and aircraft maintenance services. Opportunities The tourism industry in Asia-pacific region is expected to expand due to the fast economic growth, and the implementation of the intra-regional policies in tourism development. Currently the intra-regional traffic constitutes around 78% of Asian tourism, with budget airlines account for 24.9% of Asia’s total passenger traffic. The Hong Kong Tourism Board will invest around HKD30 million in opening up new visitor sources in five new markets – India, the Middle East, Russia, Vietnam and the Netherlands. These developments in tourism will definitely increase the demand for air travel. Threats There are keen competitions in the aviation industry, involving both the market leaders and low-cost carriers. One of the major operation costs for an airline is the fuel cost, which has a great impact on an airline’s profitability. If the crude oil prices return to the peak of USD70-odd or higher, some small-scale airlines, like Hong Kong Airlines, may be unable to survive. 5. Expansion to India This section comprises an analysis of the India market, a marketing plan for Hong Kong Airlines to expand to India and some foreseeable challenges. Market Analysis To expand the business of Hong Kong Airlines, entering the India market as a low-cost carrier would be a considerable option based on the factors below: Increase in Indian outbound travel The number of Indian outbound travel has been increased from 5.4 million in 2003 to 12.5 million in 2010. The World Tourism Organization predicts that India will account for 50 million outbound tourists by 2020. Figure 5.1Outbound Traveler Numbers of India Depreciation of Indian rupee The Indian rupee has been depreciating and cheap air tickets are becoming more preferable for the value-conscious Indian tourists. Increase in the popularity of low-cost carriers The demand for cheap air tickets has made low-cost carriers more popular in India. In 2012, 37% of the Indian leisure travelers travel overseas via budget airlines. No low-cost carriers available between Hong Kong and India Despite the wide coverage amongst the Asia-pacific areas by existing low-cost carriers, currently there are no direct flights between Hong Kong and India operated by any low-cost carriers. Change in Indian aviation policy In September 2012, the Indian government has eased the restriction by allowing foreign direct investment up to 49% in private Indian airlines. 2013-2014 Work Plan of Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) To open up new visitor sources for Hong Kong, the HKTB has been actively developing new markets, including India. The proposed marketing budget for India in 2013-2014 will be HKD13.4 million. The above factors have illustrated a growing market for low-cost carriers in India, which is not yet fully accommodated by existing airlines. Together with the open-up policy of Indian government and the marketing plan of HKTB, it is a favorable opportunity for Hong Kong Airlines to expand its operation into India as a low-cost carrier. [Remarks: There are rumors that Hong Kong Airlines’ sister airline, Hong Kong Express, will relaunch itself as a low-cost carrier in the near future. However, no relevant official announcement has been made by either the Hainan Group or Hong Kong Express. Regardless, this project aims to propose Hong Kong Airlines to enter India as low-cost carrier; any future development plans of other subsidiaries of the Hainan Group should be investigated separately.] International Market Plan Objectives This plan serves to relaunch Hong Kong Airlines as a low-cost carrier in India. It aims to raise public awareness of the company’s new positioning in the India market, with the ultimate goal to increase revenue. Target Audience This plan will target the potential customers in Mumbai and Delhi, which are the two cities containing the most outbound travel population in India – 33% and 26% respectively. Entry Strategy The ideal entry strategy will be cooperating with a local airline or company in the form of joint venture. It will reduce the risk of investment, and also serve to comply with the local government’s policy on foreign direct investment. However, Hong Kong Airlines needs to be very careful in choosing the right local partner as most of the local airlines are suffering from severe financial problems. Therefore, it would be preferable to resemble the capital partnership between Air Asia and the Tata Group in India. Market Strategy In view of the strong cultural differences between India and Hong Kong, Hong Kong Airlines will adopt a localized market strategy and compete as a market nicher amongst the existing competitors. Marketing Mix The table below summarizes the marketing mix which Hong Kong Airlines will adopt to enter the India market. Price| * Low| Product /Service| * Limited | Place| * Local back office * Online channels| People| * Local employees| Promotion| Direct Advertising * Digital marketing: website, Facebook * Interactive marketing * Outdoor promotions * Membership programmeIndirect Advertising * Cooperation with other organizations / companies: Hong Kong Tourism Board, India’s Ministry of Tourism & travel agents * Product placement in films| Figure 5.2Summary of Marketing Mix for Hong Kong Airlines’ expansion to the India Market Price As a low-cost carrier, the airfare will be much lower than its rivals. Product The scope of service will be limited – the airfare will only include the transport service. Customers will be required to pay extra for the others, such as baggage handling, in-flight catering and entertainment. Place Hong Kong Airlines will set up local office in India, mainly for back-end operation but not customer-facing. Instead, it will utilize the online channels to approach the customers because there is a continuous increase in the number of internet users in India – from 5.5 million in 2000 to 100 million in 2010. People In terms of people, the company will recruit local employees to address the cultural differences between Hong Kong and India. Promotion The promotions can be classified as Direct Advertising and Indirect Advertising; the former refers to advertisements that reach the public directly, while the latter includes cooperation with other organizations and companies. For direct advertising, Hong Kong Airlines will utilize the digital marketing channels by setting up website and Facebook page specifically for India; besides having a fast growing amount of internet users, India also has the world’s third largest Facebook community. Interactive marketing activities, such as games and contests, can be introduced through these channels. The company will conduct outdoor promotions, like billboards, to respond to the cultural characteristics of Indians – collectivism and the preference of public space. Hong Kong Airlines will expand its membership programme, Bauhinia Miles, to India to retain customers and build a customer database for future promotions. Customers will be offered purchase discount upon accumulating certain amount of credits, through participating in the promotion events, such as referral. It is different from other customer loyalty programmes, which customers can redeem complimentary flights or lifestyle awards with flying miles. Since Hong Kong Airlines will operate as a low-cost carrier offering low airfare, it would be difficult for the company to offer excessive complimentary awards to customers. As for indirect advertising, Hong Kong Airlines can cooperate with the Hong Kong Tourism Board and the India’s Ministry of Tourism to promote Hong Kong Tourism to the Indians, and vice versa. This tie in with the current strategy of HKTB to explore new visitor sources in new markets, including India. The company will also cooperate with local travel agents to provide low-cost travel packages because 60% of Indians used to purchase air tickets through travel agents. Also, the depreciation of rupee induces demand for cheap travel packages. Since Bollywood, the Hindi-language film industry, is one of the largest film product centres worldwide, Hong Kong Airlines will cooperate with the local film production companies for product placement. Potential Challenges The cultural differences between India and Hong Kong may obstruct the understanding and effective communication with the potential customers. Recruitment of local employees and learning from the local partner(s) will help ease the cultural impact. Another challenge will be the high burden on operating cost due to the high taxation on luxury in India. Travel is still being regarded as a luxury in India and the tax on jet fuel is 70% more than that in other countries. So Hong Kong Airlines needs to ensure a high passenger load factor on each flight and to strictly control other costs in order to leverage the overall operating costs. 6. Conclusion Hong Kong Airlines is currently a full service carrier in Hong Kong targeting value-conscious customers. In order to expand its business, entering the India market would be a favorable option for the company because of the various opportunities of the India market – the increase in India outbound travel, depreciation of Indian rupee, no existing direct competitors, change in Indian aviation policy, and upcoming work plan of Hong Kong Tourism Board. In view of the market situation, the marketing plan of Hong Kong Airlines will relaunch the company as a low-cost carrier in India, targeting the two cities with most outbound travel population, in the form of joint venture. It aims to raise public awareness of the company’s new positioning in the India market, with the ultimate goal to increase revenue. The marketing mix will be – offering low airfare; providing limited scope of services; setting up local back office and utilizing online channels; as well as recruiting local employees. A wide range of direct and indirect advertising will be adopted, which includes online marketing, outdoor promotion, membership programmes, cooperation with other organizations and companies, and product placement in films. As if other business expansion plans, Hong Kong Airlines will face some challenges when entering the India market. The most crucial one is the cultural difference between Hong Kong and India, which can be eased by recruiting local employees and learning from the local partner. Another one would be the high tax burden induced by the Indian government, which would be remedied by leveraging the overall operating cost. 7. References 1. Hong Kong Airlines official website http://www.hongkongairlines.com 2. Fortune Wings Club official website http://ffp.hnair.com/FFPCluben/ 3. Hong Kong Airlines’ Fly & Care programme http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx99gmWh8hI 4. Hong Kong Airlines advertising media introduction, NINGBO airline media & Co. Ltd, 2011 http://wenku.baidu.com/view/38e6dd2f453610661ed9f4c3.html 5. Dragonair official website http://www.dragonair.com/da/en_INTL/homepage 6. Introduction of Dragonair, SUMMIT MEDIA 7. Tiger Airways, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Airways 8. Hong Kong Airlines, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_Airlines 9. Hong Kong Airlines, Asia’s fastest growing carrier, looks to become reckoning force in the region, CAPA, 15 November 2012 http://centreforaviation.com/analysis/hong-kong-airlines-asias-fastest-growing-carrier-looks-to-become-reckoning-force-in-the-region-86233 10. Launching low cost carriers in emerging Asia: Is now the time?, Travel Daily Asia, 2012 http://www.traveldailymedia.com/asia/launching-low-cost-carriers-in-emerging-asia-is-now-the-time 11. Indian Outbound Travel, India International Travel Mart http://www.iitmindia.com/uploads/iitmindia/India%20Outbound%20Travel%20-%20A%20Report.pdf 12. Legislative Council Panel on Economic Development, Hong Kong Tourism Board, Work Plan for 2013-2014 http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr12-13/english/panels/edev/papers/edev0225cb1-565-3-e.pdf 13. The development of the low cost airline industry in Asia http://www.ukessays.com/essays/tourism/low-cost-airline-industry-in-asia.php#ixzz2Qddj87mW 14. Rupee falls most in 4 months on global dollar strength, Reuters, The times of India, May 10, 2013 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Rupee-falls-most-in-4-months-on-global-dollar-strength/articleshow/19989344.cms 15. Outbound tourism market from India grows: Four emerging trends, Malini Goyal, ET Bureau, The Economic Times, Apr 14, 2013 http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-04-14/news/38529310_1_direct-flights-indians-thai-airways 16. India – Outbound, LiveBean http://www.livebeanhospitality.com/pdf/unravel-the-indian-roap-trick.pdf 17. India internet usage stats and telecommunications market report, internet world stats http://www.internetworldstats.com/asia/in.htm 18. Understanding Growth Markets: China & India, Nielsen http://www.tnhindia.in/statistics_kit/statistics.pdf 19. Hong Kong Airlines’ Bauhinia Miles Programme http://www.hongkongairlines.com/en_HK/buddyclub/about 20. Foreign airlines see beyond clouds in India http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/38d491ee-7be5-11e2-99f0-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2Seqza9VO ——————————————– [ 1 ]. Hong Kong Airlines official website http://www.hongkongairlines.com/en_HK/aboutus/ourfleet [ 2 ]. 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Hong Kong Airlines, Asia’s fastest growing carrier, looks to become reckoning force in the region, CAPA, 15 November 2012 http://centreforaviation.com/analysis/hong-kong-airlines-asias-fastest-growing-carrier-looks-to-become-reckoning-force-in-the-region-86233 [ 12 ]. Launching low cost carriers in emerging Asia: Is now the time? , Travel Daily Asia, 2012 http://www.traveldailymedia.com/asia/launching-low-cost-carriers-in-emerging-asia-is-now-the-time [ 13 ]. Legislative Council Panel on Economic Development, Hong Kong Tourism Board, Work Pl an for 2013-2014 [ 14 ]. The development of the low cost airline industry in Asia http://www.ukessays.com/essays/tourism/low-cost-airline-industry-in-asia.php#ixzz2Qddj87mW [ 15 ]. Rupee falls most in 4 months on global dollar strength,