The new police model Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The new police model - Essay Example This external force has existed throughout ancient societies. The tribal leaders in ancient times acted as judges and their servants executed punishments. Even in various tribal regions of the world this system still exists. The tribal leaders along with their followers act as a police force. The safeguard of the primary aim of society is the main purpose of these forces. The concept of police also defines or explains the aim of living in a society. The humans live in a society as a means of creating a system where they are safeguarded by threats. The police force plays the important role of safeguarding the society members against threats from within the society. Therefore the role of police has been crucial from the very beginning of human societies. In definition, the people who are given the job of enforcing the law are called police. This power is bestowed upon the police by the government and the society itself. The police force further comes into action when there is civil disorder or anarchy. The power of police is domestic. Therefore there is a jurisdiction or an area where this power is applicable and considered legal. The power of police therefore extends only to a certain region or a certain country. Many organizations have their own law enforcement agencies. The military for example has a police force which instead of a regional jurisdiction has an organizational jurisdiction. The role of any police force is defined best by the society itself. Only few decades ago police was used as a tool to strengthen the prejudicial system of ethnic discrimination. Therefore it can be said that police is not a tool of giving justice but in fact maintaining the current state of affairs or in other words order. There are many different stages of the development of the police system to the model currently being used in most countries. The current model however was

Whartons The Age Of Innocence And Hurstons Their Eyes Were Watching Essay

Whartons The Age Of Innocence And Hurstons Their Eyes Were Watching God. The Idea Of Society - Essay Example This is to say that society is made up of people and so any theme that addresses the needs of people addresses the needs of society. Consequently, when authors use their works to address specific and identifiable issues in society, what they are actually saying is that ‘society is giving a message to the people who live in it’. This is in this direction that society could be touted as being used as a character in a given novel or work of literature. In Wharton’s â€Å"The Age of Innocence† and Huston’s â€Å"Their Eyes Were Watching God†, we read of how the authors bring out specific aspects and issues of the America society at the time at which the stories were set. Based on the issues that the authors about the American society, it can be said that society was used as a character to speak out on matters that affects it negatively and how it wants these issues addressed by other characters around it. How each book conceive of the idea of soci ety In both books, the authors conceive the idea of society as a make up of different people, each of whom is aspiring to have their own versions of satisfaction by pursuing what their hearts desire most. In doing this, light is shed on the fact that even though each person may come into this world as an individual, the collective interactions that exist between each of each forms the concept of society. Each book thus conceives society as a make up different people with different ambitions that bring about variety and diversity. In essence, society is seen as a variety of individual beings, having a social interaction together. In â€Å"Their eyes were watching God† for instance, we read of how Janie and Jody, each having different ambitions for life. Whereas Janie was looking for her independence to be herself as a Black female, Jody was seeking ways of exhibit power and fame (Hurston, p. 16 and p. 43). The author of â€Å"The Age of Innocence† adds a new dimension t o society as a very powerful tool for determining the way that people ought to act. For instance even though Newland had fallen in love with Ellen and had planned on living his wife for her, the mere fact that he heard that his wife was pregnant made him resend his decision. What this means is that societal structures and systems such as the family system has so much power on the actions and deeds of the people within the society. It is not for nothing that even though it was said that â€Å"He had known the love that is fed on caresses and feeds them; but this passion that was closer than his bones was not to be superficially satisfied† (Wharton, p. 157), Newland could still not go ahead to take what he wanted because of the societal system. Who are included or excluded from each author’s society Hurston presents an American society that is made up of a White population, dominating a Black population. It was also made up of a Male population, dominating a Female popul ation. To this end, Janie, who happened to be both a female and a Black was supposed to experience a major exclusion from the author’s society. But interestingly, Janie could single handedly fight for a place in the society of the author even to the end of the book. This is because she defiled the gossips that were going on around her to ensure that she attained what she wanted in life, which was the independence of her identity. So at the concluding part of the story, it was stated that â€Å"It was not death she feared. It was misunderstanding† (Hurston, p. 188). This means that the major fight that Janie was involved in was a fight to give her a place in the s

Disability students learning in South Africa education essay

Disability students learning in South Africa education essay Abstract Disability students in many societies are facing debilitating quandaries, including physical, emotional and physiological degradation. As a result, empowering disabilities students to realize their self-esteem as well as to enhance their skills and employability represents an interesting and challenging task to government, industry, interest groups and individuals worldwide. In this research we propose to determine the Impact of Assistive Technology (AT) on disabilities students learning in South African Higher Institutions, from a students voice perspective. As a case study, we will validate our experimental design on randomly selected students with disabilities from University of Pretoria and Tshwane University of Technology, due to their closeness to the researcher, it makes the study cost-effective. The reasons for involving students in this research have its origins from two related subjects: (a) Participatory Research and (b) Participatory Study. The data collection tools that this research will use are; (a) questionnaire and (b) focus groups which will be used in phase two of this study. The results of this study will enable the understanding of various unresolved issues brought about by the disability students needs for assistive technologies in South African Higher Institutions. We are hopeful that our design will be systemic enough to be easily extrapolated into other institutions. Introduction People with disabilities account for four (4) million of the total population of South Africa (SA) as contained in the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) report (reporter, 2009). This latest statistics significantly outgrows the previous Statistics of about 2 million in 2001 (Statistics South Africa, 2001) of the total population of about 40 million. With the vast growth of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in SA and the governments initiatives to have more people with disabilities empowered, particularly with education, implementing Assistive Technology (AT) in academic institutions is a necessity with no option. With careful planning and guidance, the vast number of AT devices and softwares can be beneficial to students with disabilities (Duhaney Duhaney, 2000). In South Africa, the Ministry of Education emphasise that South African schools have to provide AT services and equipments for a students with disabilities to enable a free and appropriate ( balanced) public education. An Assistive Technology (AT) is technology used by individuals with disabilities in order to perform functions that might otherwise be difficult or impossible (Mirenda, 2001). Assistive technology can include mobility devices such as walkers and wheelchairs, as well as hardware, software, and peripherals that assist people with disabilities in accessing computers or other information technologies. For example, people with limited hand function may use a keyboard with large keys or a special mouse to operate a computer, people who are blind may use software that reads text on the screen in a computer-generated voice, people with low vision may use software that enlarges screen content, people who are deaf may use a TTY (text telephone), or people with speech impairments may use a device that speaks out loud as they enter text via a keyboard. With this in mind, the standard of education for these students will greatfull improve since there will be sustained information flow that all st udents will receive with much alteration onto the educational information. Majority of universities in SA use online learning such as; (a) virtual learning environments, (b) discussion lists, (c) e-mail, (d) podcasts and (e) library information databases to provide information to their students. Students of today are being classified as digital native of the net generation Oblinger (2003), so they expect technology to be integrated into their learning environments. Oblinger (2003) argues that, this would need for the universities stakeholders to analyse just how well they know about the new students that are being enrolled into their universities. Most of the literature that is available about the impact of ATs on students with disabilities in Universities comes from three sources; Literature and Case Studies that have been developed from publicly funded studies; Research studies that have explored the general education experiences of disabled students ; Research studies that have explored the specific ICT (e-learning) experiences of disabled students. What the conclusions from the studies have not made clear though, are whether their findings are true for all students, especially the students with disabilities who may need ATs to enable them to access learning materials that may be provided online or digitally or may need other forms of technology to access them? The impacts of the use of ATs on students with disability in SA are enormous. Not only are ATs beneficial in classroom environments, disabilities students social lives have also changed as well as improved with better communication between the disabilities students and their non-disabled peers. Life is all about communicating and interacting with ones environment. However, many issues and barriers impact on the successful use of ATs such as lack of AT knowledge, training, funding, poor coordination between service providers, technology developers and fear/avoidance of these technologies. With the use of ATs, opportunities for students with disabilities are better enhanced. Some of the most significant changes in the education of disabilities students in South Africa has been the initiative to adapt the inclusive education theory into their education system (Patton, 1992). This form of initiative is mainly a collaborative setting which includes a content specialist paired with a learning specialist and then leads to sharing of the teaching responsibilities which will later benefit the education of both general and disability students. The use of inclusive education may change from institution to institution but it clearly indicates that it is extremely important in enabling those students archive their educational goals. Problem Statement and Research Questions Today, the greatest challenge confronting the South African disabilities students is to smoothly integrate into academics and at large the society, participate in a competitive educational system and be equipped for the professional economic world. A number of emerging technologies: assistive and adaptive technologies have been developed to cater for these students. However, very little literature has been written about these novel technologies and their impact on the students with disabilities from a students voice . Moreover, the evaluation of their impact on the end-users has also not been widely researched and reported in the academic publications. One way to ensure best outcomes for disabilities students learning in South Africa would be to evaluate the effective usage of ATs on these groups of students. To do so, different types of ATs would have to be indentified and opinions of these students need to be sampled on the use of these emerging technologies. Thus, a participatory research is necessary to determine the impact of ATs on disability students learning in South Africa from the students perspective because we need to listen to students; with disabilities views and ensure that technology meets their needs. The main research question we are addressing in this proposed study is: How does AT usage impact disability students learning in South Africa Higher Educational Institutions? To answer this question satisfactorily, first it is important to identify various ATs available and determine their contributions towards improving the academic performance of disabilities students learning in South Africa. As result, the following research sub-questions will be squarely addressed in order to solve the main research question. What are the different types of ATs available to disability students learning in South Africa Higher Educational Institutions? How do disability students feel about using AT to help them learn? What support do disabilities students receive while use AT in their learning? How compatible are the ATs provided to disability students to their needs? What problems do disability students encounter while using AT and how is each solved? How has the use of AT enhanced the academic performance of disabilities students? 1.2. Goals and Objectives of the Study Linked to the problem statement, this research has an overarching objective which is to promote the development of user-centred methodologies for studying the impacts of technology on disability students and to expose these widely so as to encourage a participatory approach to studying and designing disability students use of technologies in South Africa Higher Institutions. This goal will be accomplished by implementing the following primary objectives. To identify different types of ATs available to disability students learning in South African higher institutions. To determine how disability students feel about using AT to help them learn. To determine what support disability students receive while use AT in their learning. This can be from University, friends and family. To determine whether the AT the disability students are using is compatible with their needs. To determine what problems disability students encounter while using AT and how they are solved. To determine whether the use of the AT improves academic performance of disability students learning in South African higher institutions. 1.3. Expected Deliverables Within a 2 year project leading to an award of MTec degree, it is important to ensure that there are clear expectations for what can be delivered in these time-scales. We hope to deliver the following outcomes. A comprehensive account of disabled students learning experiences and a clear documentation of the impact of AT on disabled students. A set of recommendations for practitioners, support staff, institutional managers and program developers on ways to manage the challenges of disability students. A summary report detailing how the research questions have been addressed and drawing out lessons learned from the particular institutional context. 1.3 Hypothesis The hypothesis underpinning this study is that certain aspects of students with disabilities academic performance (if not all) will and has improved due to the utilisations of ATs. With the main research question as a basis, this studys hypothesis implies that ATs create value addition. With this in mind, it must be said that only through the creation of general awareness can this be possible in South African Higher Institutions. Students that are fortunate enough to attend institutions that have existing ATs in place score higher percentages, as a result of both, ATs and hard work. At the same time, AT users would report less difficulties in self-care, mobility issues. 1.4 Limitations of the Study This study is not intended to develop nor replicate any existing models, policies, schemes or plans pertaining to ATs usage, but merely evaluate, analyse and where possible critique their implication on students with disabilities learning in south African Higher Educational Institutions. Thus this research will not go into too much detailed studies nor delve into discussions around the elements of the main or sub-disciplines that it straddles and elected to engage. Furthermore, it is not the intention of this research to seek, to isolate nor to discuss in detail all the factors negating the full scope of ATs, but merely to highlight some of the impacts of ATs and the effects they have on those that are directly affected by them. This research will therefore be limited to South African tertiary institutions namely, University of Pretoria and Tshwane University of Technology. Because of this, the research results cannot be generalised to other institutions. In addition, the study has got its own limitations and areas of potential bias as described hereunder. Many questionnaires will be distributed to a number of students with disabilities. Data will be primarily gathered by use of questionnaires, this study notes that not all are expected to be answered and returned. During interviews, interviewees might not be as expressive as hoped. Furthermore ATs are a new trend in South Africa Higher Educational Institutions and thus the lack of knowledge by people concerned i.e. teachers and bodies that regulate students with special needs within the institution might pose another limitation. Thus, in respect of the limitations discussed above the findings in this study should not be concluded as absolute but guidelines for ATs usage improvement. 1.6 Assumptions This study is underpinned by assumptions that ATs do exist and are somewhat effective. However these fail to achieve desired outputs due to lack of general awareness inherit among the directly involved. All principles and policies of ATs should therefore be improved. Any initiative that fails to do so should thus be subject to scrutiny. 1.7 Significance of the Study With the latter sections of this study explaining some of the aims of this study, it should be deduced that this study attempts to extremely explore the different forms of Assistive Technology and their impact on students with disabilities in south African learning institution, so as to increase understanding of the many complex issues and interactions introduced by disabled students requirements for better learning environments. With disabled people in South Africa accommodating a fair share of the population, recognising that disabled students are not a minority group. Students with a wide range of disabilities and access to Assistive technologies in South Africa schools were included in the study in order to: Explore and describe how disabled students participate in learning in Technology-rich environments with the use of Assistive Technology; Investigate the strategies, beliefs and intentions of disabled students who are effective in learning in this rich ICT world and identity factors that enable or inhibit effective use of Assistive Technology in learning. Make recommendations to those stakeholders involved in designing Technology for disabled students based on our understanding of their preferences, experiences and diverse needs. By this study exploring the issues relating to experience, this study hopes to develop a greater perspective and understanding of the skill levels of disabled students. For example, whether there is a relationship between a highly skilled Technologies based students without disabilities and a highly skilled Assistive Technology user; how disabled learners use technologies e.g. how they are involving some of the personal Assistive technologies in their learning and what disabled students experiences of interactions between Assistive and education technologies are. By this study focusing on issues relating to strategies, this study sought to identify the choices disabled students make regarding how they use technologies to support their learning environments. By this study seeking to understand issues relating to beliefs intentions, this study hopes to develop an understanding of the impact that Technology use has on disabled students in terms of their feelings regarding the value and difficulties of using these kinds of Technology to support their learning and other aspects of their livelihood. 2. Literature Review Most of the recent literature focusing on the impact of ATs on students in Universities across the world can be classified into three sources: Literature and case studies that have been developed from publicly funded studies to determine the impact of AT in higher education exist in academic domains and are mostly inform of case studies (Shelvin, 2004) Research studies that have explored the general education experiences of students with learning disabilities exist in both academic and non-academic domains. (Mortimer Crosier, 2006), Shelving et al. 2004 and (Fuller et al. 2004). Research studies that have explored the specific e-learning experiences o f disabilities students have generally been conducted in the UK, an example of this is Draffan et al. (2007) in a survey of the use of and satisfaction with AT by disabled students in UK higher institutions. Another survey by Cobham et al. (2001) also tried to explain the specific experiences of students with learning disabilities when using AT. The important conclusion from these studies is whether their findings are true for all students, most especially the students with learning disabilities who may need emerging technology such as AT for effective learning. The uniqueness and novelty of this study in relation to previous studies is positively different. With the use of participatory research methods, this study shall be a voice for all the students with disabilities who may need emerging technology such as AT effective learning. This enables us to answer the paradigm of nothing about me, without me since the users will be involved in every phase of this study. Meaning that the deliverables of this study will be hands-on on what the impact of AT is on students with disabilities rather than assuming these outcomes or guessing. 3. Research Methodology In this section we will describe how each objective was tackled, and then we will define participatory research in the context of this study; provide an overview of the participatory phases of this study and of the data collection tools and data analysis process. The first objective of identifying different types of ATs that are available to disability students learning in South African higher institutions, we will design a template of various ATs from the literature. This AT template will be presented to research participants to choose which AT is relevant to them or write down in case we havent listed what they are using. The second objective to determine how disability students feel about using AT to help them learn, this study shall ask the students to explain their feelings about using technology to help them learn. Would the disability students sustain without the use of ATs? The third objective to determine whether disability students get any support while using AT will be achieved by integrating questions in the interview that will ask. How the students are supported with regard to their on-line learning and if this different when compared to the support they have for the use of ATs? (E.g. university, friends, and family).The students will also be able to answer what support provides most help and what kind of support would they like that is not currently available? The fourth objective to determine if the AT they are using is compatible to their disability, a question will be asked to the disabilities students to explain in detail if this is true for them. This is done so as to determine if what they are using is what is needed. Under many circumstances, people in general life have tended to employ technology that isnt really necessary to their needs. So this objective will clarify that. The fifth objective to determine if the disabilities students encounter any problems while using them. A question will be asked in the questionnaire that will ask the research participant to clearly identify that problem, explain what it is and also state if that problem was solved, they will also be asked to explain how that particular problem(s) was solved. The sixth objective to determine whether the use of the AT improves academic performance, this study shall get records from the disability unit where academic performance of students with learning disabilities will be compared to non-disabled students using ratio of those who graduated (success rate). This method of comparison will normalize the dominance effect of performance of non-disabled students. For example suppose we have total enrolment of 20 students for ICT programme in a given year and 5 are disability students. If 3 of the students with learning disability graduated, then since 3/5 is greater than 5/15 students with learning disabilities of ICT perform better than their non disabled colleagues of that year. We can study this for all years considered and the ratio of drop-out to determine the overall performance comparison 3.1. Defining participatory research in the context of this study Using the objectives of using participatory design and participatory research, students with disability participation in this study will be defined as: Involving students with disabilities as partners and consultants and not just as research subjects. This is where students with disabilities students help to identify and (re)frame the research objectives and questions; work with this study so as to achieve a collective analysis of the research issues and bring the results of the study to the respective universities that they represent. This helps to reflect the principle of nothing about me, without me (Nightingale, 2006; Nelson et al. 1998) and this principle involves: Working directly with students with disabilities (research participants) in the evaluation of the impact of AT on their learning environments; Continual participation of students with disabilities in order to produce improved teaching and support practices; Engaging students with disabilities in the analysis conduct and design this research. In analysing the participatory nature of this study like this, this study will map its approach against a methodology offered by Radermacher (2006) which defines six major types of student involvement in this study that range from non-involvement to participant-initiated, shared decisions with researcher of this study. This studys methodology falls into the type classified by Radermacher as researcher-initiated, shared decisions with participants where this studys researcher has the initial idea for the study, but students with disabilities (participants) are involved in all phases of the study. 3.1.1 Overview of the participatory phases of this study. With regards to the participation of disability students in this study, there will be three key phases of participation: Phase One (July-August): Consultation with the relevant research participants and stakeholders regarding proposed research questions and research methods, writing of the proposal; Phase Two (September): Opportunity for the research participants (students with disabilities) to contribute own experiences of using AT to help them learn; Phase Three (September-October): Opportunity for both the researcher of this study and the research participants and stakeholders to validate and interpret the results of the study and to contribute to the design, content and dissemination of project deliverables and outcomes. In the first phase of this study, the research participants will be contacted and consulted to attain the relevance of the proposed research questions and the proposed data collection methods that this study intends to use, this is of course done after ethical approval has been granted. In the second phase of this study, participants will be interviewed and allowed to contribute their own feelings and experiences of using AT. In the third phase of this study, participants will be invited to validate and advice on the analysis of the data collected from phase two. Each of these phases is will be described and evaluated in more detail in this study Methodology report. In addition to developing approaches that enabled the participation of disability students within the University of Pretoria and Tshwane University Of technology, this study will employ a range of approaches that will enable the participation of a wider group of stakeholders. These included: Using the Student Support Services of the respective universities in the recruitment of participants; The setting up of a project advisory group (mostly involving research participants teachers, the researcher and the coordinators) so as to deal with any distress that might be involved during phase two; Involvement of senior members of the proposed universities during the life of the research. 3.2 Overview of data collection tools The data collection tools that will be used in this study consist of (a) questionnaire and (b) focus groups. Most research studies that employ a participatory approach use these tools. The benefit of using these data collection tools in this study is that participants (students with disabilities) will influence the way each tool is used. 3.2.1 Questionnaire The questionnaire will consist of both demographic and questions related to this study. The research participant will be able to answer open and closed ended questions. Using the appropriate data collection tool, this study will be able to capture responses to these questions approprioately. 3.2.2 The focus group A focus group will be held in phase three to which all the participants will be invited. During these focus group meetings, the researcher will explain to the participants the purpose of the focus group, which is to share with the research participants in this study the initial interpretations of the data that has been collected in earlier phases of participation. The main findings in phase one and two will be summarised and presented to the research participants. For each of the findings, this study will ask the participants whether they expressed their own views and personal experiences and if this study misrepresented the findings or leaving out important contributions that they made in earlier phases of this study. Though there are other data collection tools like observationnaire, case-studies and content analysis, though some of these methods are used in a brief extent in this study, they are not extensively used due to the fact that participatory researches dont usually employ them and the results obtained from them are what this study is trying to get away from. Making the data collection tools this study has taken far more appropriate when undertaking a participatory form of research. 3.3. Research Data Analysis In the phase two of this study; interviews and an Olympus recorder will be used to record the interviews with the participants. The resulting Windows Media Video (WMA) files will be transcribed into Word documents. For some of the interviews, speech recognition software will be used to assist transcription (e.g. a researcher plays the audio files into their head phones and verbally repeats what they hear from the files so that a speech recognition application can capture their words and convert it into written text). Once these transcripts are typed, this study will email the participants to read through and find out if there any corrections or additions that should be noted. These transcripts will then provide the basis from which issues are noted and strategies developed into artefacts. For those students who can write directly onto the interview sheet, the data from the interview sheet will be analysed and a methodological report of each of the accounts will be drawn out of those accounts. In the phase three focus group, an Olympus recorder will be used to record the discussion. The resulting WMA file will be transcribed into a Word document. These discussions will be mainly to determine if all the students voices have been collected correctly. 4. Ethical Considerations. Formal ethical approval for this project will be received through the Ethics Committee of the respective Universities. Four key ethical issues will be identified as needing addressing: Issues relating to gaining access to the students; finding out which students in the university are disabled in order to contact them directly about the project, without breaking confidentiality and data protection rules. There is however key gate-keepers in the University, who are able to facilitate indirect access to disability students across the whole institution. Issues relating to potential psychological distress; there is a very slight risk in this research that participants might experience distress if they chose to recount a particularly negative technology experience. There is also a potential that some participants might be stressed if they felt they are being excluded from taking part and prevented having their say. For this reason this study will deliberately make phase one all-inclusive in that this study will accept collated responses from any and all students who wished to contribute. For phase two, this study anticipate that, depending on how many replies we receive for the participation of this research, this study might need to be selective in order to get a spread of case studies. Issues relating to anonymity and confidentiality are considered. Participants in phase one of the this study which aims to gain feedback on the relevance of our questions, are guaranteed full anonymity. For phase two of the this study, which aims to solicit accounts of the disability students, this study will negotiate with the students, whether or not they wish to be publicly identified; with the condition that if the participants choose for their contributions not be anonymous, those contributions must not publicly identify the identity of other. 5. Recruitment After receiving ethical approval from the respective university departments. With the help the disabilities departments of the respective universities, an information sheet will be sent out to the students with disabilities about the existence of this study and asking for their willingness to participate in this study. There after interview dates are set between the research prospective research participants and the researcher so as to collect the data necessary. 6. Project Plan Work packages March April May June July August September October November Startup/Project Planning Communication Questionnaire Student recruitment Phase 1 all inclusive Phase 2 purposive Data collection Data Analysis Phase 3-Evaluation /Reporting Table 1:Project Plan

The Use Of Mood In Macbeth :: essays research papers

The Use of Mood in Macbeth Noah Webster, author of Webster’s Dictionary, defines mood as the â€Å"temporary state of the mind in regard to passion or feelingâ€Å" and â€Å"a morbid or fantastic state of mind.† E. L. Thorndike and Clarence L. Barnhart, authors of Scott, Foresman Advanced Dictionary, define mood as â€Å"the overall atmosphere or prevailing emotional aura of a work.† Shakespeare’s Macbeth, especially the pivotal and ominous second act, exemplifies both denotations of mood. The act has an â€Å"overall atmosphere,† even though the mood shifts, while this mood places a sense of cliff-hanging anxiety at the beginning, an ambiance of hysterics towards the middle, a feeling of tragic realization directly following, and an unsure aura of occult extractions. Shakespeare cleverly uses six key elements to further shape and add to the mood: the characters, the imagery, the setting, the sounds, the characters’ actions, and the characters’ dialogue. In scene one, the setting is revealed. It is late, past midnight, and there are no stars, making extremely dark and a dramatically perfect opportunity to commit murder. In any good horror movie, all the deaths occur at night, when it is dark. The location is a castle, which would have to be the eeriest, coldest, darkest piece of architecture ever constructed. Banquo’s â€Å"cursà ¨d thoughts† (II, i, 8) keep him without sleep, in exact contrast with the eternal sleep Duncan will soon begin. Then, as Banquo retreats to his quarters, Macbeth’s imagination and intensified emotional exhaustion and strain generate a looming image of a dagger pointing to Duncan. â€Å"I see thee still . . .† (II, i, 35), he yells at the vision, creating a sense of madness. Again, â€Å"I see thee still . . .† (II, i, 45), but this time the hallucination is glistening with blood (and in all likely hood, that of Duncan). He casts this apparition aside and awaits his signal to make the final walk into his beloved king’s chambers. The bell rang by Lady Macbeth interrupts this thick, tense mood and startles the audience to either jump out of their seat or creep slowly to the edge of their seat. This also related to a popular sermon of the same time period, Meditation 17 by John Donne. A famous excerpt from it reads, â€Å". . . and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee . . . † (Donne, 284).

Blood Brothers Essay

It feels like he is this omnipotent being and he is deciding the fate of all the children. It’s almost as if he is the emotion that everyone wants to avoid but no one is doing anything about it, Mrs Johnstone carries on in her life pretending that she isn’t superstitious and although there is this undying voice inside her saying that she is and one day Mickey and Edward are going to die. This voice is what the Narrator is, he is fate and Mrs Johnstone chooses to ignore it but she knows you can’t change fate. On the stage he is always there, he is omnipresent, this constant being there shows that the thoughts of Mrs Johnstone are still there and that nothing you do will undo the past. Mrs Johnstone has to live with the decision of what she has done but she chooses to ignore it. The Narrator can be viewed upon as the referee of life (or as you might ‘God’), you know the rules and now you have to follow the rules (the superstition) but Mrs Johnstone turns a blind eye, forgets about it and pretends that it will never happen, but she must follow the rules. Prejudice Prejudice is a fixed opinion, which is not based on a fair examination of the facts. The picture with the black and white boy and the so-called ‘magical stick’ (simply because we don’t know what it is) is a base of which many different scenes can be produced and discussions can take place. The children come across as innocent, possibly that they have no reason to be prejudice against each other but through past happenings (lynching in America and the KKK) their parents want them to be prejudice to supposable keep them from harm. It shows that possibly prejudice to this degree is only set in motion if something terrible happens by a specific ‘type’ of people (the KKK killing black people) and that when it comes down to it the people themselves are not the same as the people who have done this feat. Suppose that everyone in the world was white and everyone was the same religion, height, age etc. but despite this the KKK would exist and the lynching would still go on; people would find another way to view differences, where you live or even your surname. My point is that I think its human nature to take a dislike against different people, if you look back hundreds of years and people lived in remote places (tribes for example) and a tribe moved to join another tribe, because the new tribe is different it presents its self with a new variable, that it could jeopardise the well-being of the original tribe. So this original tribe will try and eliminate this variable (driving them away or even killing them) to stop it from harming their own tribe. You can translate this to the black people moving into America and the white people living there trying to protect them by getting rid of any new possible threat. Mickey and Edwards first meeting and an evaluation of two groups Francis (me), Jamie and Barry   There was a nice mime of the gun from me as I sat on the apron of the stage. It was good because the gun I made in my hands by pointing one of my fingers out and it looked as though it was a gun because it took the form of a gun well. We did some good work even though we had only one lesson to get it done in. It was good work because we learnt most of our words and got the blocking sorted. The giggling after the ‘F word’ was good because it was very childish because I and Jamie looked as if we were embarrassed.   My body language was good, my arms movements were exaggerated and typical of a seven year old because that is how the act with their arms.   Even though Jamie lost his place in the play, he didn’t come out of character and got back on tracks very quickly. Very good facial and body language from all of use and especially me, me and Jamie’s facial expressions matched seven year olds expressions and Barry’s face showed that he was ‘pissed off’ and he acted as though he was the boss by talking louder and demanding respect.We could of have improved by thoroughly learning the script and concentrating more on our actions. James and Richard   Both of them learnt the script and did not lose their place or forget their words. They didn’t fully use their hand movement so they couldn’t act exactly as a seven year old would because people at that age use their hands.   When they said the ‘F word’ they looked as though they were very excited and embarrassed. They looked like this because they acted as young people would when they heard a naughty word; they did this by having wide eyes and giggling immensely.   When James’ said ‘pissed off’ it was well done because it sounded as though he really was pissed off. Only on one incident did James forget his words, but nether the less he still kept in character and sorted it out by referring to the script. What I have learnt about the class differences between the twins I have learnt that Edward’s class is most probably upper class; either this or they are very rich middle class people. I have learnt that Mrs and Mr Lyons have a highly etiquette way of living, for example they do not allow swearing of any form whereas with Mrs Johnstone’s way of living swearing occurs frequently. Mickey’s class is probably lower class, which is they do not have a large amount of money or income. She has many children and works very hard for Mrs Lyons but still does not get a large income. I have learnt that it’s most likely that Mrs Johnstone’s family expresses their emotions more often than Mrs Lyon’s family; this could be because Mrs Johnstone does not have as much material possessions compared with Mrs Lyons so she spends more time in her free time with her kids. On the contrast Mrs Lyons has many material possessions so she doesn’t spend that much time with Edward because he’s playing with his toys (for example). The changing attitudes between Mickey and Edward Through the play the twin’s attitude changes in aspects of their lives, for example them being blood brothers forever and the relationship between each other. When they were both seven years old they took delight in knowing that they were born on the same day, furthermore they made each other their blood brother. They were both immensely thrilled by this new bond they made and longed to be like each other. However when they grew older their views on being a blood brother changed, especially for Mickey who grows up and realises that he previous action of becoming a blood brother is child’s play. He says that ‘while no one was looking I grew up’, and I think that because of his harsh life with not much money he stops believing in the childish act and starts realizing that he has to open his eyes and stop playing games. However with Edward he hasn’t got a single worry in his life because he has lots of money a good social life and really not many initial problems at all; so because of this he still believes in this ‘blood brother’ stuff because he hasn’t grown up and found out what the world was really like. He still lives in a pampered world where anything he wants (and because he is an only child he is spoilt) he gets, he can afford to play games and Mickey can’t. Edward doesn’t realize no important a job is, ‘why†¦ why is a job so important’ because he can live off his parent income if he wants to, but Mickey knows that without a job he’ll have no money and because he mum cant afford extra school he cant get the grades to get a good job. Mickey’s attitude towards life changes the most, when he was seven he saw everything as a game and didn’t have any real problem to worry about. Although as he grows up he realises that he needs money and a steady income and him being a blood brother with Edward is just a children’s game. On the other hand Edward has gone to university, he can use his parent’s money to give him anything he wants and he hasn’t yet realised what life is really like when your throw in the deep end without any support, so because of this his attitude of being a blood brother hasn’t changed dramatically. How we acted these changes out We acted out the first time Mickey and Edward’s first meeting, this showed that they are immensely fascinated with each other and wanted to be just like each other, furthermore on top of this they are born on the same day and become blood brothers. To show further how this friendship was good I wrote a monologue showing how Edward was dumfounded with Mickey’s knowledge and who he is and that he wants to play and be friends and blood brothers forever. Later on in the play where the most time and the most dramatic difference was noticeable where they had spent the most time away form each other was when Edward got back to Mickey from university. We acted this out in a workshop and showed that Mickey was extremely livid by his job and Edward’s fortune. Edward had friends he had money and he had just come back from university and he had a great time, whereas Mickey was just working for minimal pay ‘putting together cardboard boxes’. When we see Edward and Mickey meet for the first time Mickey expresses that he hasn’t grown up and he makes him ‘sick’. Mickey has put up with so much when Edward was at university and his nerves were stretched to breaking point and as soon as the person who is most like him in the world comes home and sees that he is doing very well, he snaps mentally. I think that this is why he is forced into taking drugs. We acted this difference out by showing that Mickey was very angry and livid by the thought of Edward and that he saw him self as a failure, no job and even when he had one it was a very poor job, and Edward doing extremely well makes him feel even worse. The workshop During the workshop I learnt that gesture and hand movements are very important to express emotions and that it isn’t all through the voice. I learnt that you can use swear words, gesture and actions which provoke something in the audience but only once or twice because after a couple of times it doesn’t have the same effect that it has the first time. I learnt to know that when your on the stage it’s your stage no one else’s so you do not have to rush what you are saying because you are the one on stage and nobody is their to take it away; space between what you are saying. Also that when Mickey is angry and listing all the things that he is angry about I know that it is a good idea to rise in anger as you progress, because Mickey thinks of one thing which makes him angry then he says another and he knows that there are many things that he is angry about; so it topples on top of all the things he is angry or upset about in one frame of mind. In the workshop I learnt that you must always try your best if you want to become an actor (or any other profession) and that if you have an ambition, you should pursue it fully. The best performance When the people in our group performed I thought that Ned performed well; although there is only one criticism I can offer. His charisma on the stage is very good; he projects his voice and shows very well what the character is feeling. When he was playing Mickey and expressing how Mickey felt about his life he did it in such a way that you felt very sympathetic towards him; me must have emphasised a lot to understand what he feeling. The only criticism I can make is that when he acts as though he is upset or angry he tends to do it all the same. His acting at expressing those emotions are very good but he tends to do the same acting for different characters. I just feel that not everybody is angry or upset in the same way, there are many different ways of being angry so I think he should a larger variety of different ways of expressing different emotions.

Alignment of IT and Business

IT and business alignment is the best system for modern strategic management of organizations because it reduces the overall costs of operations, promotes effective communication in a company, and enhances faster response and evaluation of business progress.   Besides, it sets a platform for faster changes by an organization in future.However, IT and business alignment has proved to be one of the most difficult aspect for most organizations.   Over 75% of the companies and institutions have not fully aligned IT with their management systems.   However, over 80% of them have partially embraced IT especially in the top management levels (Aileen, 2008).IT and business alignment is an ongoing process that optimizes the IT mechanisms and business management operations at all levels.   It carves the correct climate whereby IT becomes a major strategic enabler of all the business operations.Lack of effective leadership in business operationsAccording to Roland (2008) effective leade rship in a business setting acts as a major platform and a guiding icon towards the correct direction for an organization.   Arguably, it is the role of the business leaders to pro-actively identify the most important aspects that would enhance higher levels of sustainability.Notably, small mistakes taken by conservative rigid leaders are referred as minor shenanigans and mostly not factored in business operations until it has sank into great losses.   Most of the leaders are directly engrossed into the past methods of business operations based on raw products and finished products simplified systems of accounting.   Many organizations are unable to link the extra IT cost to be incurred by the business and the returns to be achieved.As indicated by majority of the large companies that have embraced IT in their systems like Wal-Mart and JP Morgan & Chase, the returns are not instant and may take time before the respective advantages are realized.   Arguably, IT/ Business alig nment is a process as opposed to a one day operation.After launching its Point of Sale services that would link Citibank with its major financial operations information centers, the Bank had to wait for some months before realizing the expected goals (Mahesh, 2007).Poor focus into the future and conservatismAnalysts have linked hardship to articulate IT and business hardships to three superimposed factors of business management namely tactic, strategy, and innovation.   The three factors are effectively superimposed on each other and simultaneously operate for or against IT/ business alignment depending with the prevailing environment.Lack of effective tactics and strategy by business makes the overall demand for modernization to appear vague (Malcolm & Keith, 2007).   Notably, many companies and organizations especially in areas with reduced competition have been slow in aligning IT and their business operations.Southwest Airlines managing director cited his company's success a s a product of effective tactic that incorporated customer and staff management through information technology that assists the airline to respond faster to all the consumer need.Arguably, the current economic down turn could have affected them very negatively as the company offers low cost flights in US (Ann, 2007).Henersen & Venkartraman (1993) points out that poor innovative capacity by organization forms a major stepping block of growth, and development.   Arguably, alignment of IT and business demands high levels of innovative capacity that carves new ways of operating the old models.This has been indicated as one of the hardest nut to crack especially where leaders are greatly old fashioned.   This has been cited as the major setback especially where people manage their own premises as opposed to professionals. There is generally lack of effective cost benefit analysis to determine the overall suitability of the alignment.Organizations financial abilityTo add to that, lack of enough finances has slowed or hindered many company's operations alignment with IT.   Arguably, establishment of IT infrastructure is a costly venture that requires correct budgeting in effecting the overall venture.Though analysts have differed on the statement that finances form the key aspect in aligning IT and business operations, it is clear that very little can be achieved without enough funds (Aileen, 2008).Though the cost of installation and establishing the correct IT systems in business has relatively declined, the overall maintenance and possible establishment of new IT operations department demands enough funds especially at the beginning.   This has been a major cause of failure especially in the last three years when companies' have are trying to reduce the overall cost as much as possible.ConclusionIT/ business alignment is the best system for modern strategic management for effecting change and maximizing profits.   Effective leadership demands that balance is taken to ensure increased focus into the future that will be defined and established on the basis of IT assimilation in the business.Lean management should be assimilated in organizations through IT and business alignment’s as a mode of reducing the overall wasteful systems in its operations.   Businesses should embark on international studies to establish the facts and the vast advantages that are derived from IT alignment in business management operations.