Art Forgeries Essay

When one enters into an art museum, one would expect all of the pieces of art to be that of the original. However, when an art lover does not know the difference between an original from a forgery, then they may have been fooled by both the museum and by the forger. No one can really look at a painting and distinctly know whether it is a forged piece of work or an original piece of work. Art forgeries may seem like an artist copying a well-known artists work, but it depends on how one looks at a particular piece of art. There are multiple reasons as to why art forgeries can be seen as something positive in the artistic world. Crispin Sartwell discusses about Jerrold Levinson’s definition of art from Levinson’s article, â€Å"Refining Art Historically,† in the Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism of 1990. To Levinson, art is something that is made to be intended to be â€Å"regarded† as a work of art (Sartwell). Luise Morton and Thomas Foster discuss Nelson Goodman’s definition of art from Languages of Art in Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism of 1991. Goodman says that it is about how one looks at an original and a forged art depends on the way we look at it (Morton and Foster). Both Levinson and Goodman make good points because they are both saying that all depends on the person’s perspective. Not everyone sees the same piece of art the same way another person does, so given a choice between an original or a forged piece of art, some may be able to tell the difference and some may not. The idea of having different perspectives on what is real art or what is not depends solely on an individual. Levinson and Goodman both see art by how the person intends it to be. According to Jonathon Keats who writes in The Daily Beast, art forgery helps take us out of our comfort zone, while the real art keeps us within our comfort zone. Keats writes that forgers credit their work to the original artist. In doing so, the artist’s work is more accessible to more people and that the artist who forged an original should be appreciated (Keats). Blake Gopnik writing in the New York Times says that the forgers can make recreate art with their hands; however, great art depends on the idea of the artist. The idea of the forger comes from the original artists, like Pollock and Rothko, setting up procedures and ideas for making art (Gopnik). The forger is able to recreate a work of art because of the way a particular artist wanted their art to be seen. On the other hand, Ross Bowden writing in the Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism of 1999 about Alfred Lessing’s essay titled, â€Å"What Is Wrong with a Forgery? † In Lessing’s essay, he disapproves of art forgery when talking culturally. Lessing believes that forgeries do not have that artistic integrity and lacks creativity. He continues to say that one can recreate an amazing artwork, but it will lack the imagination it takes to create the original piece of work (Bowden). Forgeries in the opinion of Lessing lack imagination and creativity, however, Gopnik and Keats see that an artist has the imagination and creativity to recreate a famous piece of work. If one lacks that imagination and creativity then they would not be able to get away with forgery. These forgery artists are capable of pulling off century old paintings and able to sell them to museums as originals. That takes imagination and creativity. W. E. Kennick brings up in the Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism of 1985 that every copy of an original piece of work is a forgery. Artists make their work in the style of others, but still make it their own. One is not actually forging a real piece of art, much less than copying or imitating that person’s style (Kennick). Gopnik also says that Andy Warhol’s works were sometimes made by him or sometimes made by his assistant. Warhol even attributed some of his work to other artists. An artist by the name of Marcel Duchamp made art out of bicycle wheels, urinals, already made sculptures, and other reusable items. Duchamp encouraged others to do the same and copy his style (Gopnik). Every artist can imitate or copy someone else’s work, although that artist who made the original work may no longer be alive, their work is still living on. Art forgeries can be looked at as some sort of crime because someone is recreating masterpieces and selling them to museums. However, if one stops to think about the fact that art forgeries are actually artists bringing masterpieces back, one would not think it was a crime. These artists are creative enough to be able to recreate an artwork and give art lovers the feeling of having a masterpiece in their home or be able to look at it in a museum. Art forgeries are a lucrative past time for those who love art and want to be able to see â€Å"their art† in a museum. It is a win-win situation for both the artist and the art lovers. Works Cited Bowden, Ross. â€Å"What is wrong with an art forgery? : An anthropological perspective. † Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism (1999): 333-343. Gopnik, Blake. â€Å"In Praise of Art Forgeries . † The New York Times 2 Novemeber 2013. Keats, Jonathon. â€Å"Why Forgeries Are Great Art. † The Daily Beast Kennick, W. E. â€Å"Art and Inauthenticity. † Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism (1985): 1-12. Morton, Luise H. and Thomas R. Foster. â€Å"Goodman, Forgery, and the Aesthetic. † Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism (1991): 155-159. Sartwell, Crispin. â€Å"A Counter-Example to Levinson’s Historical Theory of Art. † Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism (1990): 157-158.

American Fast Food

The most popular American fast food products are hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs and French fries. Fast food has become an important part of the American Food Culture for a long time. In fact, America is called a fast food country due to its strong fast food habits. According to some surveys, Americans spend more money on fast food than on education, new cars and computer software buying; 200 millions of Americans visit fast food restaurants weekly; nearly 90 percents of American children visit McDonald's every month. There are several reasons why this is happening. Firstly, as the industrialization and technology keep developing, Americans seem to be much busier with their life. As a result, they pay much less attention and less time for their meals. People need foods which require short time to get but still taste good. And those are exactly the characteristics that fast food has. Secondly, American culture is very individualistic. This individualism results in many people living alone at a very young age. And those who are single or living alone are more likely to rely on fast food, because they think it is simply a waste of time to spend 45 minutes cooking and cleaning for one or at most two meals for one person. Many in the average households of two, three, or four feel the same way about cooking. Thirdly, fast food is very convenient. They can be packaged and carried everywhere. In addition, you can easily find fast food chains even at mid-night. Moreover, fast food companies have even simplified the buying process by creating the drive-through restaurants, which allow customers to purchase products without leaving their cars. Next, fast food is usually cheap. It’s affordable for the consumers, especially when the economy is having a difficult time like these days. However, fast food is not good for our health. Fast food nutritional information shows that most meals contain high numbers of calories, saturated and trans-fats. In fact, you can eat all the calories your body needs for the day in one meal. Furthermore, you will actually receive very little nutrients from all of these calories. The white breads, sugars and animal fats that are packed into most fast foods contain very few vitamins and minerals. Eating these foods with tons of calories and fat on a regular basis leads to obesity. Obesity has become a big problem in America. Americans are heavier and unhealthier than ever before. This has led to millions of people suffering from threatening conditions such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, reduced bone strength and many other health elated problems. For someone who consumes these too much, it may lead to liver failure due to the high amount of fat, salts and oil in it. Too much of fast food on a regular basis can make a person overweight due to the extra calories given in those foods. It affects the concentration levels in studies and other activities too. Although fast food has a lot of bad sides, Americans can not eliminate them due to its conveniences. In short, fast food is an important part of the Food Culture; it has become a way of life for many Americans.

Barack Obama - Second Weekly Transition Address

Barack Obama Second President-Elect Weekly Transition Address Broadcast 15 November 2008 Today the leaders of the G-20 nations, a group that includes the worlds largest economies, are gathering in Washington to seek solutions to the ongoing turmoil in our financial markets. Im glad President Bush has initiated this process, because our global economic crisis requires a coordinated global response.And yet, as we act in concert with other nations, we must also act immediately here at home to address Americas own economic crisis. This week, amid continued volatility in our markets, we learned that unemployment insurance claims rose to their highest levels since September 11th, 2001. Weve lost jobs for ten straight months nearly 1.2 million jobs this year, many of them in our struggling auto industry. And millions of our fellow citizens lie awake each night wondering how theyre going to pay their bills, stay in their homes, and save for retirement.Make no mistake: This is the greatest economic challenge of our times. And while the road ahead will be long, and the work will be hard, I know that we can steer ourselves out of this crisis, because here in America we always rise to the moment, no matter how hard. And I am more hopeful than ever that America will rise once again. But we must act right now. Next week, Congress will meet to address the spreading impact of the economic crisis. I urge them to pass at least a down-payment on a rescue plan that will create jobs, relieve the squeeze on families, and help get the economy growing again. In particular, we cannot afford to delay providing help for the more than one million Americans who will have exhausted their unemployment insurance by the end of this year. If Congress does not pass an immediate plan that gives the economy the boost it needs, I will make it my first order of business as President. Even as we dig ourselves out of this recession, we must also recognize that out of this economic crisis comes an opportunity to create new jobs, strengthen our middle class, and keep our economy competitive in the 21st century. And that starts with the kinds of long-term investments that weve neglected for too long. That means putting two million Americans to work rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges, and schools. It means investing 150 billion dollars to build an American green energy economy that will create five million new jobs, while freeing our nation from the tyranny of foreign oil, and saving our planet for our children. It means making health care affordable for anyone who has it, accessible for anyone who wants it, and reducing costs for small businesses. And it also means giving every child the world-class education they need to compete with any worker, anywhere in the world. Doing all this will require not just new policies but a new spirit of service and sacrifice, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. If this financial crisis has taught us anything, its that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers. In this country we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. And thats how we will meet the challenges of this time together. Thank you. Source:Â  https://www.loc.gov/ Source: https://en.wikipedia.org

Martin Luther the Monk Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Martin Luther the Monk - Essay Example Martin Luther is one of the most famous Christian religious preachers in the history. He was born at Eislenben in the year 1483. In Mansfeld, Martin Luther’s father, Han’s Luther served as a leaseholder of the smelters and several copper mines. Hans Luther worked very hard to earn his family a good standard of living and he wanted Martin Luther to become a lawyer by profession. In order to accomplish this, he first sent Martin Luther to the Mansfeld based Latin schools. After that, Martin Luther gained education in Madgeburg in the year 1497 followed by Eisenach in 1498. By the year 1501, Martin Luther had turned seventeen years old. That was when he joined the University of Erfurt which was more of a whorehouse and a beerhouse than a university. In 1505, Martin Luther gained the postgraduate degree. Contrary to his father’s dream of seeing Martin Luther as a lawyer, Martin wanted to study the Scriptures. In order to achieve that, Martin Luther went to the August inian canons, where he spent about three years. He was proclaimed to be a priest in the year 1507. Martin Luther offered lectures on the Scriptures and philosophy at the University of Wittenberg. Over a very short period of time, Martin Luther became a very influential and inspiring preacher. Martin Luther commenced the exploration of evangelical perfection and tried to comply with the Augustinian order’s rule, but it did not take him long to realize that there were a lot of doubts and uncertainties in it. Theological problems enhanced his spiritual complexities which particularly included the message of grace and the ambiguities in nature of indulgences. â€Å"Luther had entered on the search for evangelical perfection with serious zeal and sought exactly to fulfill the rule of the Augustinian order, but he soon found himself struggling against uncertainties and doubts† (â€Å"Martin Luther†). Subjects included in the course of biblical exegesis that he taught at the University of Wittenberg included Romans, Psalms and Galatians. Martin Luther served as the professor at this university between 1513 and 1518. His courses of lectures speak of his mind’s maturity and richness. He was appointed as the preacher in the Parish Church in 1514. The pul pit of this church was essentially a locus of the preaching ministry. Martin Luther preached the Scriptures to the common people and made every possible effort to make them analyze their personal lives in context of the religious Scriptures. During this, Martin Luther noticed many things that were inappropriate with his Church as well as with the whole world. â€Å"[T]he Roman Church has always maintained the true faith, and that it is necessary for all Christians to be in unity of faith with her† (Luther cited in Pastor). Therefore, on 31 October 1517, Martin Luther collected Ninety-Five Theses to elicit the truth and attached them to the All Saints’ Church’s door in Wittenberg. This date is known as the All Saints’ Day’s eve. â€Å"Martin Luther, Doctor, of the Order of Monks at Wittenberg, desire to testify publicly that certain propositions against pontifical indulgences, as they call them, have been put forth by me† (Machiavelli and Mor e 273). Although those theses tended to criticize the papal policy, yet they never refuted the papal prerogative. They also did not challenge the doctrine of purgatory much. However, those theses emphasized upon the intrinsic spirituality of the Christian faith. Martin Luther attempted to forward the copies of those theses to his own bishop as well as the Archbishop of Mainz, but the process was interrupted by the intervention of the printing press. In spite of the effort of the printing press to hinder the process, numerous copies of the theses got spread which made an otherwise local issue an issue of huge significance and controversy to be discussed among expanding circles. One of the most

Sponsorship Agreements of Turkish Airlines Dissertation

Sponsorship Agreements of Turkish Airlines - Dissertation Example The intention of this study aviation industry that characterized by financial crisis arising from oil prices, augmenting competition, decline in fare rates, changing consumer expectations and political and economic constraints. Under such turbulent environment, one airline company, which has showed signs of constant growth and responsive marketing, is Turkish Airlines. Turkish Airlines was established in the year 1933 with an initial aircraft fleet of only five. However, with its strategic approach and aggressive marketing tactics, it very soon grabbed the status of a 4-start company with a jaw-hopping 144 aircraft fleet running across 166 destinations. It also bagged the Award of Best Airline in Southern Europe. It also signed sponsorship agreement with Manchester United as an extension of its sponsorship activity and will serve as the medium of travel for players and officials for three and a half years. Despite less connection between Manchester United and Turkish Airlines fleet a nd destinations, its officials remark the deal as one step ahead in contributing to their brand value and demonstration of quality and service in their offerings. However, rumours are rising on the Club’s intention of sailing through their debt position with the help of this deal and no promising advantages accruing to the Airlines in return. The national airlines company of Turkey, Turkish Airlines’ moves to participate in the sponsorships for the golf events to be held in Turkey is considered another key step for the marketing of its brand. The airlines company has already tied itself with international brands like FC Barcelona and Manchester United for its sponsorship events in the field of football. Turkish Airlines new sponsorship event was tagged as â€Å"Turkish Airlines Challenge† and was tied up with the European Golf event European Challenge Tour. Another sponsor for a sub-event in the golf arena was also done by Turkish Airlines to sponsor the women p articipation in the golf event. These types of events held at the international level draws in huge crowds and is aired across national and international borders. Thus aiming to sponsor such events signify introducing the company to a

Arguments For or Against the Existence of God Essay

Arguments For or Against the Existence of God - Essay Example Mainly, the argument is based on induction. It begins with Aquinas believing that there is an order of â€Å"efficient causes† in this world (Reichenbach, 2012). This means that causality exists in this world and that this causality has a particular order, where one thing causes another and this caused thing also causes another thing. Aquinas then proceeds by assuming that nothing can cause itself because it would be impossible for it to be prior to itself. This then leads Aquinas to think that everything is caused by another thing other than itself (Reichenbach, 2012). This part of the argument is rather self-explanatory but Aquinas makes it clear to his audience that causality works and that the law of causality exempts nothing. He also makes it clear that in this series of causes, it is impossible for one event to cause itself, or for one thing to cause its own existence. Aquinas is doing this while at the same time leading his reader to believe that there must be one cause that first caused all these series of causes but that this cause itself was not caused by any other cause. He does this while somehow postulating that only God can cause Itself to exist. Moreover, the significance of this particular assumption is that if one thing can cause itself, then there would not be any first cause, for if one thing could cause itself, then there would not be any need for this first cause to cause the event next to it. In short, if a cause could cause itself, then each cause could be independent of each other and there would be no series. Aquinas then assumes and states that in matters of efficient cause, it is not possible to go to infinity (Reichenbach, 2012). The purpose of this part of the argument is to convince the reader that there must have been a definite beginning to this series of causes. Otherwise, if this series of causes went on to infinity, then there would not be any first cause but only an endless series of causes. However, without giving any proof or any other insight, Aquinas somehow just considers this assumption on the absence of infinity a priori, and expects his audience to simply just accept this. What Aquinas has presented instead in order to prove his statement that it is possible to go to infinity with matters of efficient cause is rather an ontological proof. This proof is that, if there were an infinite number of causes, then there would neither be a â€Å"first efficient cause† nor an â€Å"ultimate effect† (Reichenbach, 2012). However, since these two things exist in nature and in reality, then there must not be an infinite series of causes. The last part of the argument is when Aquinas states that it is therefore necessary to admit a â€Å"first efficient cause,† which Aquinas believes everyone would call God. In summary, therefore, the argument of Aquinas, therefore, is that causality exists and that one thing causes another but cannot cause itself. This is to discount the possibilit y that an event is dependent on its own cause and is therefore independent of adjacent causes. Moreover, Aquinas assumes that it would not be possible for a series of causes to go on infinity, and he does this for the same reason that he assumes that one thing cannot cause itself. He then also proves ontologically that if there were an

Breast Cancer Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Breast Cancer - Lab Report Example Acccording to studies,it is known that glycosylation is more pronounced in the breast cancer cells (Hakomori 1985). The reason for this is because of the increase in tne oligosaccharide structures (Hudis 2007).Such alterations might be identified through lectins which are the carbohydrate-binding proteins   an they have a very high specificity for the saccharides(Brooks and harris 2006).The lectins normally function as   the data mediators in the biological systems.In this case they interact with the glycoproteins glycolipids as well as the oligosaccharides(Nilsson 2007).They also bind specifically to the carbohydrate epitopes(Staffieri et al. 2012).The immunofluorescence method as well as the direct lectins cytochemistry   with the use of the   FITC-labeled lectins enables the visualization of the glycosylation’s impact on the therapies which targets the surface of the cells that bind to theHER2 receptors (Gabius 2009.The results from the histograms above (fig 1), ind icates the reason why the glycosylation’s intensity is higher in the sixth cell line when compared to that of the fifth cell line because of the different blocking agents used. In summary, further study needs to be done to clearly understand why there was a difference in the intensity of this two cell lines. It could be due to the above three mentioned reasons. Unfortunately, this study could not ascertain this.The reasons that could have resulted to the difference in the intesity could be due; firstly,the BSA could be a better blocking agent.

Innovation, Ethics & Change-Hypocrisy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Innovation, Ethics & Change-Hypocrisy - Essay Example The resistance change is human nature and the employees should undergo certain training to accept change. The managers are also encouraged to ensure the employees’ opinions with regard to certain changes, whether positive or negative is not held against them. This discourse is about guidance to help employees accept change within organizations. There are several reasons why various employees resist change. Some employees could be perfect in their areas of duties. For instance, an employee could choose to associate himself with other races or tribes as this could seem as a let down to his personality and even the family. Such employees will always address his peers sarcastically to discourage them from further participation. The managers should identify such employees and guide them or counsel them since such attitude could limit the overall productivity of an organization ( Kegan & Lahey 2001). Mistakes in any working organizations are to both the employees and even the managers. The global financial crisis was a mistake of the topmost leaders in the financial institutions as well as the legislators. The legislators involved despised opinions of various experts and their decisions still have an impact on the global economy to the current date. We may have the urge to accept change but there are factors called the sidetracks that may limit our abilities to embrace such changes. One of the sidetracks is the ‘forces within’ and these are our personal thoughts that encourage resistance to change. This could also be attributed to the people surrounding us. The emotional attachment could also hinder us from accepting changes, for instance, Yahoo boss turned down deal termed as one of its kind, when Microsoft was ready to buy its search engine at $22 B, in 2008.

Current Events and U.S. Diplomacy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Current Events and U.S. Diplomacy - Essay Example The current status of relationships between Russia and the United states cannot be termed as friendly by any means because the relationships which were strained by the US withdrawal from ABM treaty and which were further deteriorated by Iraq war and Kosovo independence crisis continued to go from bad to worse. Another significant down came in March 2007 when US announced its plans to build an anti-ballistic missile defense installation in Poland along with a radar station in the Czech Republic. According to the United States officials, the motive behind such plans is to safeguard the international peace and ensure international security against the threat posed by Iranian and North Korean nuclear weapons to the world. However Russia considered this move as an aggression against them because Poland and Czech Republic are former Warsaw Pact countries and US military influence in these countries means creating an imbalance of power in Europe once again. Russian President issued various statements to protest against this action and warn the US president about the consequences of such a move while on the other side Russia continued to test its intercontinental missiles and claimed that these missiles can defeat all kinds of missile defense systems. Russia also started establishing missile defense basis along the now US backed Poland (Kegley & Blanton, 2011). The relationships between the two countries have reached another historical low at the moment and the Russian-Georgian clash. and Russian military cooperation with Venezuela are the most recent incidents which mark the strain in the relationships. The diplomatic dialogue between both countries has almost ceased to a zero level at the moment and there are no hopes of an improvement in the relationships in recent future. The relationships between the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and United States are a matter of very frequent discussion in international politics today and the subject has many complexities associated with it. The diplomatic ties between the two countries exist from the year 1947; Pakistan emerged on the map of the world during this year. From the very beginning the basis of

Water shortages in urban areas Essay Example for Free

Water shortages in urban areas Essay An analysis of the â€Å"Impacts of water rationing on public health†: Case study of Makokoba, Bulawayo Introduction Zimbabwe local governance is made up of a system of city councils and municipalities which are mandated to provide water and sanitation services and goods to their respective residents. This system has been effective during the colonial era where the urban areas were less populated than there are at the present moment. The Zimbabwe post-independence period has seen a large influx of people into the urban areas. The population growth in urban areas meant that most city councils and municipalities are failing to cope with the water demand. The major reason is that the rate of population increase in urban areas is by far greater than that of improving or increasing the existing water supply. Background information However worries over water supply in Bulawayo is only part of a larger trend across urban Africa1. Water is vital to any development, and its availability or dearth is a major driving force behind migration, population growth, and economic development, among other factors. As a whole, Africa has relatively ample water supply potential2. Bulawayo is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, which was established in the 1840s. Its economy was built around it being a center of industry for the nation and a hub of transportation for the Southern Africa region. With this economic development, Bulawayo saw an unabated increase in water demand over the past three decades, with increasing urbanization, economic activity (until 2000), and population growth, which has steadily increased over time, to around 655675 (CSO 2012), in line with urban areas across Zimbabwe3. Bulawayo as a city and province has failed to secure a long term and sustainable water resources to meet its water demands both domestic and industrial. Its main water supply was reliant on five dams but currently being supplied by Insiza and Lower Ncema and Umzingwane with the other two being decommissioned. This led to the city council to introducing the 72hours per week rationing strategy to save the remaining water resources prior to the rainy season. The water stress currently being faced by the city is attributed by several factors such as its geographical location, increased population, climate effects and underdevelopment of infrastructure4. DAM VOLUMES 9/09/13

The Innovation Of Fashion Designers Cultural Studies Essay

The Innovation Of Fashion Designers Cultural Studies Essay Vivienne Westwood has been an innovative and provocative fashion designer. She has been influenced primarily by the Punk movement and that is one of the reasons I chose to research her fashion collections. This essay is going to investigate the importance of the relationship between Vivienne Westwood and the Punk movement to the fashion society. Westwood established the background for the punk movement in the United Kingdom which affected a lot the fashion styles and until today many clothes are designed according to the Punk fashion style, for example the skinny jeans. I believe that this investigation will provide an insight on sociocultural facts and events that are memorable for the world of fashion. What attracted me to it was that Westwood who hadnt done any studies on fashion, met Malcolm McLaren and together with their clothes, they were influenced by the British culture so much and they started working at the time when Punk movement was established. This made me think that when one has a gift and wants to become a successful person, eventually he will achieve his goals. Vivienne Westwood has had a successful career for more than 40 years. The essay will focus on the first eight years of her career from 1970 to 1978. During this period the punk movement appeared all over the world. Punk was actually a music genre that developed during this period in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom, which is the homeland of Westwood, Punk appeared as an alternative political movement, which expressed rebellion, but also appeared as a music scene which brought to the spotlight many punk music groups like the Sex Pistols etc. It also appeared as a fashion style. British adolescents have long created stylish subcultures in order to express all manner of rebellions  [1]  . The punk style is the connection between Vivienne Westwood and Punk. Therefore, the research question formed is; How Vivienne Westwoods collections were affected by the punk movement? The essay will start the biography of Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren and I will refer to the definition and the characteristics of the punk movement in the United Kingdom. I will followins also write about the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls which are both Punk music groups and wore clothes of Vivienne Westwood. Following I will move into comparing in chronological order collections of Vivienne Westwood with particular punk music groups. The collections I will look into are; Let it Rock 1970, Too fast to live Too young to die, 1972, Sex, 1974 and Seditionaries, 1976. This procedure will lead into the conclusion and my findings on Vivienne Westwoods influences from the Punk movement MAIN BODY Biography The punk movement appeared as a rock music genre which developed in the decade of the 70s in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. They created hard-edged music, characterized by short songs, stripped-down instrumentation and often political, anti-establishment lyrics. In Britain, the Punk movement was politically active and their main concern was the economy of the country. Many people were unemployed because the economy in the United Kingdom in the 1970s was in a recession. Early Punks played a role in politics and protest, and they wanted to express themselves as anticapitalists, antihippies, anarchists and fascists. They portrayed themselves as political radicals by drawing on themes of Marxism, fascism etc. Beyond the fact that punk started out as a music-based subculture, there is a debate about its geographic origins, its ideologies, its membership etc. Most published accounts of punk focus on the origins and flourishing of punk subculture from late 1960s to lat e 1970s.  [2]  Punk may have originated in the United States, but punk as a subculture gelled in mid-1970s Britain.  [3]  . Punk appeared also as a fashion style. The basic male uniform consisted of combat boots, leather jacket, torn jeans, shaved head and most girls tried to adopt this male uniform completely. The ways in which the punk girls combined their punkness and their gender is very unique. They combined female items with punk elements. The influence of the Punk style on music groups is remarkable. The Sex Pistols and New York Dolls are English bands which formed in 1975 in London and their manager was McLaren who was born in 1946 and is a performer and former manager of the two groups. Music, fashion, the Punk Movement was something that attracted him when he was in a Fine Arts college. Malcolm was a friend of Vivienne Westwoods brother and thats how they met. Vivienne Westwood was born in Glossop, Derbyshire on 8 April 1941. She is as much of a symbol of England a s the Queen and the black cab.  [4]  She always liked fashion and a quote of her is that Fashion became her baby, she picked it up and never put it down.  [5]  In 1965 she met Malcolm McLaren and a relationship began. Together they established the foundation of the punk movement by opening shops and creating clothes related to rebellion and punk. Westwoods career in fashion was galvanized by her partner, Malcolm.  [6]  Their working relationship lasted from 1970 until 1983, and as is referred to above launched Punk. In 1971 Vivienne thought they should set up a clothes shop, because Malcolm was certainly fascinated by clothes. Thereby, Malcolm found a place at Kings Road which was named Paradise Garage and the couple made an agreement to own part of the shop. Let It Rock was the name of Viviennes first collection and the name of the shop too. Her first collection included pieces of drape jackets, leather ties with plastic sleeves, drainpipe trousers, ruffled shirt, day-glo socks, bootlace tie etc. Her favorite fabric was leather, she used a lot of zippers and slogans in order to decorate her clothes. They were interested in that era and they wanted to approach the Teddy boys who were into rebellion and could things stir up. Vivienne sourced authentic buttons, cloth and linings and informed by research in Teddy Boy clubs, copied and recoloured the look.  [7]  Vivienne began making trousers and more and more people were coming to the shop to try on their day-glo jackets, the special blue and silver trousers etc. At that period of time Vivienne and Malcolm went to a big music concert and were inspired in order to make their own T-shirt, Viva la Rock n Roll. Malcolm described rock n roll as the jungle beat that threatened white civilization.  [8]  It is a fact that in the collection Let It Rock of Vivienne Westwood we dont see a big influence of the punk movement. This can be explained by the fact that at the period of time that Let It Rock was launched, it only the foundations of the punk movement had been established. Despite this fact we can find characteristics of the pun k style in specific clothes of Let It Rock. Let It Rock Collection Figure 2. Sid Vicious, Let It Rock, 1970-1972 Figure 1. Vivienne Westwood, Let It Rock, 1970-1972Punks and members of music groups wore clothes that were ripped because in this way they were expressing rebellion through their style. In Figure 1 we see a T-shirt of Let It Rock which shows the influence of punk. Punk style was characterized by clothes with zippers, with holes, slogans, pins, pockets etc. The T-shirt in Figure 1 is ripped like all the clothes of Punks and it has many zippers and pockets and slogans that Vivienne used a lot. A characteristic example is Sid Vicious (Figure 2) who is wearing a ripped T-shirt of the Westwood Let It Rock collection and skinny jeans.. Moreover the slogans for her T-shirts were often lyrics of Sex Pistols songs. A characteristic example we see in Figure 3, in which Westwood is wearing her T-shirt with a photo of the Queen and the title of the Sex Pistols song God save the Queen on top. Figure 3. Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, Let It Rock 1970-1972 Figure 4. Destroy T-shirt, Let It Rock 1970-1972Another example of a T-shirt with a slogan is shown in Figure 4, in which Vivienne wants to get the message across that Nazis should not exist. She was against all this racism against the Jewish people etc and she wanted to make something in order to express her disappointment about the Nazis and maybe she thought that she could change something. Thats why she thought to make a T-shirt with the swastika and the work Destroy on top. An example for leather gear is Sid Vicious again (figure 5) who is wearing a leather jacket at a Sex Pistol concert in Notre Dame Hall. Also, Vivienne, who is promoting her style and her clothes by wearing a leather outfit herself. Figure 5. Sid Vicious and Vivienne Westwood, Let It Rock 1970-1972 Although the Let It Rock collection and shop were very successful, Vivienne and Malcolm were searching for something new because the trend of the Teddy Boys had started to elapse. The Teddy Boys werent such rebels after all and because the couple wanted to express rebellion they needed something new. They started experimenting with rockers and a bike boys look and a tougher leather look which was accompanied with punk style. So, in the spring of 1973, they renamed the shop into Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die and Vivienne started a new collection. Malcolm started buying fabrics such as velvet and Lurex and he thought that they should sell second-hand jeans, customized leather, pegged trousers, double-breast Zoot suits with padded shoulders etc. Because some striped and plain black T-shirts were left over from Let It Rock collection, Vivienne decided against throwing these clothing items away and chose to alter them by ripping them, knotting, cutting holes, rolling and stitching sl eeves together. Thereby, Westwood made a series of extraordinary clothes and especially T-shirts collaged with feathers, nipple-revealing zippers, studs, chains, potato prints, hand-stencilled garments and odd objects. She also put glitter on clothes and the whole work turned into something more creative and fun for her. Together with the punk style they also wanted to search for motorbike wear because the couple was interested in rubber, leather and fetishism. This collection of Westwood had the characteristic that, it was a point at which elements of sex imagery, cult fashion and politics met. This characteristic was sometimes a disadvantage because they were sometimes prosecuted under the obscenity of law for exposing to public view an independent exhibition . One characteristic example is that one of their T-shirts showed two naked cowboys which was thought to be unethical, unacceptable and inappropriate by society at large. Vivienne explained, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ my job is to confront the Establishment to try to find out where the freedom lies and what you can do: the most obvious way I did that was through the porn T-shirts  [9]  . Actually she always wanted to express sex somehow. Even when she put zippers on her clothes above all there were all sort of other sexy associations with the zippers  [10]  . All these characteristics like for example the zippers, leather, chains etc made her clothes surreal and somehow controversial. Also some of the clothes were characterized as rough and deliberately confrontational. To Fast To Live To Young To Die Collection In comparison with Let It Rock collection, here in the TFTLTYTD collection the influence of punk plays a bigger role and we can find characteristics of the punk movement in many clothes of Westwood. Figure 6. Venus T-shirt, TFTLTYTD 1972-1974In Figure 6 we can see Simon Barker wearing the famous hand-made Venus T-shirt which had armholes edged with sections of bike tyres and trimmed with horse hair. For this T-shirt Vivienne was inspired from motorbike wear and the punk movement. Generally, she used also many clues in order to express sexuality. Regarding to the punk style as I have referred to above, the clothes have chains, slogans, pins, leather etc.. So, here in this T-shirt we have as elements taken from punk such as lots of pins, chains and of course the slogan Venus. Also we see that Simon Barker is wearing leather trousers and army boots that Punks quite often wore. Figure 7. Vivienne Westwood, TFTLTYTD 1972-1974Moreover, as I referred to above, Vivienne wanted to express sex through her clothes, so most of the times she made and wore clothes with which she wanted to show that she was against all taboos. A characteristic example is in Figure 7, in which we see Vivienne wearing a shirt, a jacket and underwear from the TFTLTYTD collection without wearing jeans, or trousers above etc. By appearing in public like this she wanted to get the message across that she hated Puritanism and that people should not had taboos and prejudices regarding sex and the expression of the human body. The above opinion is also supported by Figure 8 in which we see Malcolm wearing the T-shirt Two Naked Cowboys of the TFTLTYTD collection. This is one of the T-shirts that had the couple prosecuted under the obscenity of law for exposing to public view an independent exhibition  [11]  . Vivienne didnt want to be limited in her designs regarding to ethical implications but sometimes she was obligated to be limited because of the authorities. Figure 8. Two naked cowboys, TFTLTYTD 1972-1974 Figure 9. McLaren and Westwood, TFTLTYTD 1972-1974 In addition, Vivienne herself wore the clothes she designed and by doing so she aimed at promoting the clothes and the punk style also. A characteristic example is Figure 9 in which we see Vivienne with Malcolm in a Photo shout. Vivienne is wearing leather jeans and a blouse with a zipper that could be characterized as conservative. In this photo shooting she wanted to wear something conservative but still in leather so we continue to see the effect of punk on her. She wanted to provoke and show that she is different, that she can be conservative through Punk too. As time passed McLaren set the scene for Punk via the next venture into a field that he knew would provoke still more outrage. He said characteristically in an interview of Elle magazine in November of 1985; It started with an interest in any form of youth revolt, so that it involved Teddy Boys and Rockers. Then we brought the sex element into it.  [12]  So, in 1974 they renamed their shop to SEX written with pink letters again. At that time they started selling bondage gear such as rubber body suits, rubber masks, leather mini skirts, leather underwear, shirts with chains, padlocks, fishnets, fetishistic lace-up boots and they also sold stilettos. At that time their slogan was Rubber wear for the office. The couple wanted to prove that they didnt care about taboos and prejudices and thats why in this collection they marketed clothes related to sadomasochism, fascism, pornography etc. Her clothes continued to shock society if we consider that this collection was selling sex more than the previous ones. Vivienne explains, all the clothes that I wore that people would regard as shocking, I wore them because I just thought I looked like a princess from another planet, I just thought I looked incredible in these clothes.  [13]  . The influence of Punk in SEX is more than in the previous collections because SEX clothes were mostly made of leather, chains etc which are basic elements of punk style. Punk was a cross-fertilization of SEX clothes  [14]  . Some people believe that punk was an eruption in the streets. But what it was infact was a fashion e vent from the start, like the creation of a historical painting based on a revolution; because that is what it actually was, a revolution. Sex Collection A characteristic example of this sexual revolution that Vivienne wanted to express through fashion is the T-shirt Tits in figure 10. It is a T-shirt from SEX and it was worn by both men and women but it was preferred by men because they wanted to shock by expressing the idea of homosexuality; Figure 10. Tits T-shirt, SEX 1974-1976 Figure 10. Tits T-shirt, SEX 1974-1976 Moreover as it was referred to above, punk influenced SEX in such a way Vivienne used their elements and their main fabric, leather in making her clothes. In Figure 11 we observe how punk influenced SEX. In this picture we see Jordan, shop girl of 1974, wearing a leather outfit of SEX. In the foreground it is shown a body suit made of leather belts and in the background we can find rubber clothes hanging on racks. Figure 11. Jordan, SEX 1974-1976 We can find another example of Punk influence on SEX in Figure 12, in which we see Johnny Rotten wearing a black leather bondage suit. This piece of clothing shows the combination of punk and sexuality because leather is the fabric of punks and when we talk about bondage suits we relate them to sadomasochism and generally sex. Figure 12. John Rotten, SEX 1974-1976 Furthermore in Figure 13 it can be detected Vivienne wearing a total black outfit made of rubber and leather. It has some pins on top and Vivienne is also holding some leather straps attached to other leather objects. Malcolm and Vivienne had gone all the way by making a public display of the leather and rubber stuff that fetishists succumbed to in private. Figure 13. Vivienne Westwood, SEX 1974-1976 What SEX was and generally what all Westwood collections were was a complex amalgam of various stylish influences, in which Punk had its roots in the streets of London and the music scenes of New York. As time went by the New York Dolls made their own decadent outfits to which Westwood added elements from the torn clothes of the pin-ups in Let it Rock, chains, zips, rubber wear and bondage garments of SEX. Consequently, in 1977 the shop and the collection changed its name yet again into Seditionaries under the slogan Clothes for heroes. The word Seditionaries was Viviennes concoction and was based on the fact that someone needed to seduce people in order to revolt. This moment was the peak of all this punk madness. In this collection the zips and straps of obscure sexual fetishism were transformed into fashion. Malcolm and Vivienne continued selling SEX T-shirts and fetish gear but everything was much smarter, less underground and less provincially British  [15]  . They made some T-shirts with photos, slogans on top and again they borrowed elements from the Punk movement. Savage wrote that Seditionaries brought the modern look in the 1970s but also Seditionaries clothes unleashed a more violent reaction combined with punk elements than SEX clothes. If the first Punks had thrown up every youth style since the war and then stuck it together with safety pins and panache, Seditionaries avoided retro yet caught the confusion: the look both in the original and the imitations spread thoughout the world  [16]  . This collection included again bondage trousers and clothes with straps and zips. Westwood in this collection used wool, mohair and leather for fabric which were elements of Punk movement. Westwood also made trousers based on military wear but even then she added her own elements based on sado-masochistic and fetishist gear. The Punks at that time had their own army uniform. The clothes were accessorized with pins, razor blades and silver phalluses. They tended to throw together sado-masochistic bondage paraphernalia and clothing associated with the hospital or the mental asylums so that they produced a surreal commentary on the anarchic tendencies of the sartorial display. Again with this collection Vivienne wanted to reveal taboos and mess with the normative class coding. One of the most significant factors of Punk at that moment was that it gave license for women to dress assertively. Vivienne said characteristically that Punk was what made her think of herself as a designer. Actually what Punk was both for her and society was a fashionable expression of a revolution. In fact, fashion itself became a revolution. Seditionaries Collection In Figure 14 we can identify that Vivienne made such shirts like in this Figure which has an image of Karl Marx in the top left hand in order to express revolution. Punks wanted to mess with everything and break the rules and norms. Marx symbolized revolution and was against the system as were the Punks. And this is the reason why her clothes appealed to Punks. Figure 14. Punk shirt, Seditionaries 1977 Figure 15. Blue cotton shirt, Seditionaries 1976-1980In Figure 15 we observe a Seditionaries blue cotton parachute shirt with strap harness, printed with situationist slogans such as Only Anarchists are Pretty. Regarding the Seditionaries clothes, they had borrowed elements from the Punk movement and also elements from the SEX collection. All these straps and slogans were characteristic of the Punk style and the whole parachute thing reminds us of the SEX bondage gear. In the 16th and last Figure we detect a few clothes of the Seditionaries worn by a number of Punks. The woolen sweaters that are shown in the figure and all these parachute jackets have been borrowed from the Punk style. In addition the jackets also have elements from SEX bondage and sado-masochistic gear which exists also in Seditionaries collection. Figure 16. Punk clothes, Seditionaries 1977 Conclusion Manifests are always written after an event. In retrospect, the manifest of the Punk movement allowed a person to express himself, to succeed or even fail in extravagant way. The music, fashion and of course the Punk movement were a huge art festival which was born from the life and the experiences that Malcolm McLaren gained in the school of Arts. He inspired Vivienne to create this vast business in the world of fashion based on the Punk movement. This was the new fashion, the new way of thinking. The couple started from a small shop in Kings Road and step by step they created their own rules for life, their own norms, their own identity. In other words they set the foundation for an alternative society. Of course all these things were based on the Punk movement and primarily on their ideology. Vivienne not only used the elements of the Punk movement but also their ideology. Through her fashion, she wanted to make rebellion and go against mainstream society, just like the Punks. Tha ts why she used symbols related to Punks and rebellion in her clothes like for example Karl Marx, or the swastika with the word Destroy on top etc. Combining irony and the ideology of Punks she wanted to break taboos like the issue of homosexuality or nudity etc. Actually McLaren and Westwoods aim was to create something new, totally fashionable while they were using symbolism to convey their ideas. And that was the point where they needed Punk, as inspiration and influence. Vivienne characteristically says about Punk Im proud to have been part of it. It was heroic at the time  [17]  . But as it is known, fashion is like a circle and the trends change every now and then, so the whole issue with the influence of the Punk movement in Viviennes career stopped at the beginning of the 80s. From the 80s there on, she introduced a startling and highly influential new vocabulary about fashion which was characterized as nostalgia for the future. In spite of this she never forgot her orig ins. Vivienne never created something conservative despite the fact that their future collections dont have elements from the Punk movement. Viviennes career was built on punk. Whenever she gives an interview she refers to the influence that Punk had on her work and life, saying characteristically that Punk and McLaren were the two factors that encouraged her to make fashion and to be who she is now. The punk period helped her develop creatively. Having created the Sex Pistols look he gained more self-confidence and realized her vast creative abilities. Fortunately, Punk helped Westwood expand her abilities, and identify her talent. Westwood was determined to leave her mark on international fashion which she certainly did.

American Flag :: essays research papers

The United States Flag is the third oldest of the National Standards of the world; older than the Union Jack of Britain or the Tricolor of France. The flag was first authorized by Congress June 14, 1777. This date is now observed as Flag Day throughout America. The flag was first flown from Fort Stanwix, on the site of the present city of Rome, New York, on August 3, 1777. It was first under fire for three days later in the Battle of Oriskany, August 6, 1777. It was first decreed that there should be a star and a stripe for each state, making thirteen of both; for the states at the time had just been erected from the original thirteen colonies. The colors of the Flag may be thus explained: The red is for valor, zeal and fervency; the white for hope purity, cleanliness of life, and rectitude of conduct; the blue, the color of heaven, for reverence to God, loyalty, sincerity, justice and truth. The star (an ancient symbol of India, Persia and Egypt) symbolized dominion and sovereignty, as well as lofty aspirations. The constellation of the stars within the union, one star for each state, is emblematic of our Federal Constitution, which reserves to the States their individual sovereignty except as to rights delegated by them to the Federal Government. The symbolism of the Flag was thus interpreted by Washington: â€Å"We take the stars from Heaven, the red from our mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to posterity representing Liberty.† In 1791, Vermont, and in 1792, Kentucky were admitted to the Union and the number of stars and stripes was raised to fifteen in correspondence. As other states came into the Union it became evident there would be too many stripes. So in 1818 Congress enacted that the number of stripes be reduced and restricted henceforth to thirteen representing the thirteen original states; while a star should be added for each succeeding state. That law is the law of today. The name â€Å"Old Glory† was given to our National Flag August 10, 1831, by Captain William Driver of the brig Charles Doggett. The Flag was first carried in battle at the Brandywine, September 11, 1777. It first flew over foreign territory January 28, 1778, at Nassau, Bahama Islands; Fort Nassau having been captured by the American in the course of the war for independence.

Puerto Rican Cultural And Religion :: essays research papers

Puerto Rican Cultural and Religion I am a member of the Puerto Rican American Families research team. I myself grew up in a Puerto Rican American, or "New Yorican", family. The assignment is a field study. The study is on an observation of the religious community. We visited a Roman Catholic church in Buffalo on the west side, which is a predominantly Hispanic area of the city. I myself am also a Roman Catholic. This is a slightly erred site, because I believe that most Puerto Ricans migrated to New York City. However, we were able to make some interesting observations. The group attended mass at Holy Cross; both an English and Spanish mass. It seemed that the group accepted our presence without any apprehension, however, as I stated before, this probably is a result of I myself being Puerto Rican American. There were some striking differences between the English mass and the Spanish mass. The first noticeable difference was in attendance. The Spanish mass had a considerable higher attendance than did the English mass. Also the appearance of the manner of dress. The attendees of the Spanish mass were more formally dressed than those of the English mass. Another major difference was in the music. The English mass had the "traditional" European "angelica" type singing. The Spanish mass, however, had more upbeat music, along with the use of "traditionally" Carribean instruments like maracas, for example. What does this suggest about the religious community of Puerto Rican Americans? I think that it is a balance between assimilation and preserving the culture. I think it is obvious that Roman Catholicism was not the native religion of Borinquen. Borinquen was the name of the island Puerto Rico before the conquest of the Spanish. So since they had already been forced to assimilate their culture into European culture by the Columbians, they found they could easily assimilate into American culture more readily than other cultures. However, we find in the Spanish mass, the use of Carribean instruments. This suggests an effort by the religious community to maintain the Puerto Rican culture. I personally have experienced the efforts to maintain Puerto Rican culture in the form of Santeria. Santeria is a religion practiced by, I guess, many Puerto Rican Americans. It is practiced in the homes of Puerto Rican Americans when they are not in church. Puerto Rican Cultural And Religion :: essays research papers Puerto Rican Cultural and Religion I am a member of the Puerto Rican American Families research team. I myself grew up in a Puerto Rican American, or "New Yorican", family. The assignment is a field study. The study is on an observation of the religious community. We visited a Roman Catholic church in Buffalo on the west side, which is a predominantly Hispanic area of the city. I myself am also a Roman Catholic. This is a slightly erred site, because I believe that most Puerto Ricans migrated to New York City. However, we were able to make some interesting observations. The group attended mass at Holy Cross; both an English and Spanish mass. It seemed that the group accepted our presence without any apprehension, however, as I stated before, this probably is a result of I myself being Puerto Rican American. There were some striking differences between the English mass and the Spanish mass. The first noticeable difference was in attendance. The Spanish mass had a considerable higher attendance than did the English mass. Also the appearance of the manner of dress. The attendees of the Spanish mass were more formally dressed than those of the English mass. Another major difference was in the music. The English mass had the "traditional" European "angelica" type singing. The Spanish mass, however, had more upbeat music, along with the use of "traditionally" Carribean instruments like maracas, for example. What does this suggest about the religious community of Puerto Rican Americans? I think that it is a balance between assimilation and preserving the culture. I think it is obvious that Roman Catholicism was not the native religion of Borinquen. Borinquen was the name of the island Puerto Rico before the conquest of the Spanish. So since they had already been forced to assimilate their culture into European culture by the Columbians, they found they could easily assimilate into American culture more readily than other cultures. However, we find in the Spanish mass, the use of Carribean instruments. This suggests an effort by the religious community to maintain the Puerto Rican culture. I personally have experienced the efforts to maintain Puerto Rican culture in the form of Santeria. Santeria is a religion practiced by, I guess, many Puerto Rican Americans. It is practiced in the homes of Puerto Rican Americans when they are not in church.

European Settlements and the Decline of Indian Power in America Essay

European Settlements and the Decline of Indian Power in America What today is the state of Virginia used to be Native American lands. The Indians claim that God had given them the right to own and settle those lands. The problem as we have seen in class is the Europeans such as the Spanish and English came and took over the Native American land in the name of the King and /or Queen. They invaded their territory, and destroyed their culture, all in the name of conquest. What I intend to show is how these problems developed for the English from the years of 1607 to 1644. Kirkpatrick Sale in his book Conquest of Paradise says that the English were just carrying out the Columbian legacy with the same brutality toward the Native American population. The main goal of the English as well as the Spanish was to settle large chunks of land and have military control over a backward (as they saw it) society. By 1610 the enemy for the English was the natives, or as they called them savages, and their mission was to take them prisioner and make them slaves. It even says in the charter granted to the colonists in 1607. "Which may by the Providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the glory of his divine majesty, in propagfting of the Christian religon to such people as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance of all true knowledge and worship of God and may in time bring the infidels and savages living in those parts to human civility and to settled and quiet government (Warner 38). Plus if the natives became hostile they felt that it w as their right to ta ke their corn while in return giving them useless things of no pratical value, such as beads, compasses, and looking glasses. The English felt that in time the Indians would com... ...t I want or I will slaughter your population and take you prisioner. Plus the Indians were on English land when it really was their inherited land from their ancestors. It was like what Columbus did on Hispanola; he took over native lands and did what he wanted with the Indian tribes, steling their land putting them in slavery and having them recognize the Spanish as superior people. It was a battle between the Indians and the colonizers and as we can see the colonlists won. It really was a clash of cultures with the latter winning. Bibliography Campell, Charles. History Of The Colony And Acient Domion of Virginia. Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott and Co. 1860. Sale, Kirkpatrick. The Conquest of Paradise Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy. New York 1991 Warner, Charles D. Captain John Smith 1579 - 1631 New York, Harvey Holt and Company. 1881

Aboriginal Quality of Life in Canada Essay

The state of health and health care for Canadian Aboriginal people is currently not improving, â€Å"Canadian Aboriginals tend to bear a disproportionate burden of illness; an outcome linked to their economic and social conditions [and] oppression† (Newbold 1998). European contact would forever change the course of life for the Aboriginals and their communities in Canada. It was only after the encounter between the old world and new world that two completely separate ecosystems had interaction between each other. Both worlds changed in radical ways through people, plants, animals, varmints and pathogens, this is known today as the â€Å"Columbian Exchange†. The New pathogens introduced to the Indigenous people who had no immunity, caused major depopulation up to 80 – 90% during the 1500’s. See more: Recruitment and selection process essay This completely changed the Indigenous people and posed as a massive threat to extinction of their population and culture. Contact between the Canadian Aboriginals and European voyagers brought in a mass amount of deadly and infectious diseases. Some of the diseases included smallpox, typhoid, the bubonic plague, influenza, mumps, measles, whooping cough, and later on cholera, malaria, and scarlet fever. Smallpox was a virgin soil epidemic, meaning that it was the first outbreak ever to the population that has had no previous experience with it. The Aborigines of the new world had no immunity to smallpox and the entire population was in danger of extinction. At around that time smallpox had a very high mortality rate which broke down the Aboriginal communities social mechanisms. This brought forth the break down of social the devices which were built within the Aboriginal culture, because the people were unable to hunt and gather food for the elders. This caused great knowledge loss as the elders in the Aboriginal community would perish from the disease. The greatest example of this is when Spanish explorer Cortez defeated the Moctezuma at Tenochtitlan. Cortez, had only 500 soldiers going up against the Aztec population of 200,000. When the battle began Cortez surely should have been defeated but it was not the strength of his army but the diseases they had brought with them that defeated the Moctezuma. Smallpox and the other various diseases brought over from the old world to the new world contributed to millions of deaths, severely diminishing communities, and it some cases erasing populations and communities completely. The disease was not controlled until the 1870’s when vaccination campaigns were introduced and implemented. After the epidemic of contagious diseases had slowed the Canadian Aboriginals were in the midst of assimilation, residential schools were established in the mid 1850’s to the 1990’s. Residential school were implemented by the Canadian government to assimilate Aboriginal people into the dominant society. The Aboriginal children removed from their communities and placed in the Residential schools. â€Å"Children as young as three to age eighteen were removed from their homes, mostly forcibly, and placed in boarding schools, where they stayed isolated from their family, community, culture, and the rest of Canadian society† (Barton, Sylvia S., Thommasen, Harvey V.,Tallio, Bill ,Zhang, William, Michalos, Alex C. 2001 pg. 295). Residential schools assimilated Aboriginal populations, however in doing so drastically reduced the health of the children being forced to attend these schools. Children were beaten, raped and starved while attending these schools leaving them p hysically and mentally scarred for life. â€Å"Children who attended these schools, in particular, suffered from the loss of culture, identity, and language as residential school life altered the traditional ways of Aboriginal peoples and broke up traditional ways of Aboriginal family life. In addition to physical, sexual, mental, emotional, and spiritual abuse, many children who attended residential schools were exposed to unhealthy environmental conditions, as well as malnutrition. Low self-esteem and self-concept problems emerged as children were taught that their own culture was inferior and uncivilized, and it is believed that as a result, many residential school survivors suffer from low self-respect, and long-term emo- tional and psychological effects† (Barton, Sylvia S., Thommasen, Harvey V.,Tallio, Bill ,Zhang, William, Michalos, Alex C. 2001 pg. 296). The main aspect of the Residential schools was to make the children abandon their heritage and traditions taught to them by their Aboriginal communities. This is the most significant reason why today’s Aboriginal youth is confused about their culture and heritage. If the children were not separated from these traditions the Aboriginal youth may not have been so vulnerable to substance abuse and other from of health constraints. Canada in its present day does not have diseases like smallpox to destroy. Aboriginal populations, also Residential school have been eliminated and no longer assimilate the Aboriginal youth. Still, the deteriorating health conditions for the Aboriginal community are dangerously high. This is mainly because of poor quality of living conditions, very limited access to doctors or healthcare centers, and the major diseases that affect the modern world today. The Aboriginals that live in highly populated urban areas still have poor quality living standards. Nearly two thirds of the Aboriginal population lives in the western part of Canada, the majority being in 4 or 5 cities. The issues that are considered social detriments to Aboriginals in these regions are education, health care, employment, Aboriginal status, social exclusion, unemployment rates and job security. Society’s negative attitude towards Aboriginal people has been a significant link between their living conditions and the overall quality of life. As stated by Hanselmann â€Å"In spite of the size of the urban Aboriginal population†¦[the] discussion about treaties, self-government, finance, housing, and other issues focus exclusively on First Nation communities and rural areas†. This is a problem because the majority of the Aboriginal population is left out of the equation, â€Å"it ignores the urban realities†¦ [and] an acute public policy [should] therefore exist for broadening of perspectives to include not just on-reserve Aboriginal communities but also urban communities† (Hanselmann 2001 pg. 1). The Canadian Aboriginal populations living in urban areas have been exposed to worse living conditions, also â€Å"aboriginal families are over twice as likely to be lone parent families, and more likely to experience domestic violence† (Hanselmann 2001 pg. 4). Lone parents tend to have lower living conditions, therefore lowering the quality of health for Aboriginals. Emotional stress and poverty are common factors among single parent families; these cause children to have lower social capital because they are unable to be active to develop social skills. Consequently, children with a single parent will likely be subject to psychiatric disorders, social problems, and academic difficulties, which all can lead to further health problems and issues. Another major aspect regarding health and the quality of life of Canadian Aboriginal communities is education. In a study done by Michael Mendelson he states â€Å"The category â€Å"less than high school†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦the Aboriginal population fared much worse than the total population, with at least 54 percent failing to complete high school compared to 35 percent in the population as a whole† (Mendelson 2006 pg. 10). Urban populations of Aboriginals have more individual without the education of grade 12 then the rest of the country. Education is important to the quality of life for Aboriginal communities because â€Å"Aboriginal males and females contingent on whether or not they earn a high school diploma, attend technical school or go to university†¦results show that an Aboriginal male who drops out gives up over $0.5 million†¦[and a] female can earn over $1 million by obtaining a high school diploma† (Mendelson 2006 pg. 8-9). This can better the quality of living for Aboriginals through better health care and living conditions . Living conditions as stated before can severely decrease the health and quality of life of Aboriginal communities, but it is not the only factor. Aboriginal people have a high susceptibility to chronic diseases and HIV/AIDS causing a higher mortality rate, higher suicide rate, and the reason for high alcohol and drug abuse. The Aboriginal people of Canada â€Å"bear a disproportionately larger burden of disease and die a decade earlier than the average population†. This is a shocking reality but not more then knowing the mortality rate for children of Aboriginal decent, â€Å"the infant mortality rate for Aboriginals is double the national average†¦they experience high rates of infections, diabetes, substance abuse, renal disease, mental illness, and suicide† (Sin, D., Wells, H., Svenson, L., & Man, P. 2002) . The two leading diseases that are currently affecting the Aboriginal population are cardiovascular disease/tuberculosis and diabetes. Cardiovascular diseases like tuberculosis among Aboriginal people are â€Å"more at risk than other Canadians of getting [a tuberculosis] infection. Some of the root causes are related to poor socio-economic conditions where they live† (Health Canada 2010). This is because Aboriginal people have significantly higher rates of smoking, glucose intolerance and obesity. Type 2 diabetes is a major problem among the Aboriginal youth and is increasing at a rapid rate. Health Canada says, â€Å"First Nations on reserve(s) have a rate of diabetes three to five times higher than that of other Canadians. Rates of diabetes among the Inuit are expected to rise significantly in the future given that risk factors such as obesity, physical inactivity, and unhealthy eating patterns are high† (Health Canada 2011). A reason for the high levels of diabetes in Aboriginal communities is because there is low participation in physical activities and traditional food is not consumed as much. Cardiovascular/Tuberculosis disease and diabetes considerably decrease the health and quality of life of the Aboriginal population. The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) are a very dangerous and major health concern for the Aboriginal population. HIV if left untreated will cause AIDS. HIV attacks the immune system, as the illness progresses it results in chronic and deadly infections. Health Canada states â€Å"HIV severely weakens the immune system, leaving people vulnerable to many different types of infections and diseases. HIV is transmitted through: unprotected sexual intercourse, needle-sharing and pregnancy/delivery through birth† (Health Canada 2010). Due to the lower level living conditions, low grade incomes, and under developed education are more probable to be exposed to HIV/AIDS. Aboriginal women in Canada are at higher risk of contracting HIV/AIDS â€Å"Aboriginal women constituted 49.6 percent of newly diagnosed HIV cases among Aboriginal people while Non-Aboriginal women comprise 20 percent of newly diagnosed† (Ship, Norton 2001 pg. 25). Injection of drugs is the major contributor to contracting HIV/AIDS for Aboriginal women, which stages the affects of drug use and disease and how it negatively affects the Aboriginal populations health. Substance abuse, such as drugs and alcohol, has been documented as having harmful affects to the human body. Aboriginal communities have been exposed to the addiction of these substances and have cause significant deterioration of the individual’s health and social attributes, ruining relationships within their families and community. As more and more Canadian Aboriginals become addicted to the substances the more the degradation of the community and weakening of the quality of life within the community. Aboriginals are more exposed to substance abuse then others. This puts them at risk of being introduced at a young age and taught it is a social norm. â€Å"My father was a chronic alcoholic. His parents had seven children and five died of alcoholism, including my father. My mom drank also and I started drinking at age eight. I was in and out of group homes and foster care and by the age of fifteen I was ordered to attend AA. I started on IV drugs at sixteen† (Chansonneuve, Deborah 2007). With the combination of alcohol, drugs, and smoking the Aboriginal population is seemly wasting away. The leading issue occurring today is the age at which Aboriginal youth are beginning to abuse substances. The use of these substances only enhances chance that youth will not complete their high school diploma, will be at greater risk for criminal offences, and will only get lower grade incomes. Aboriginals being highly vulnerable to disease as mention before (Tuberculosis/CVD, diabetes, and HIV/AIDS) add with the substance abuse, the Aboriginal population have greater health care needs then that of the Non-Aboriginal population. Bruce Newbold explains the greater need to access physicians for healthcare and needs for greater funding. â€Å"Analysis reveals that geographic location, as compared with Aboriginal identity, appears to have a large impact with respect to health status and use of physician services. On-reserve Aboriginals, for example, reported a lower likelihood of having seen a physician and were more likely to rank their health as fair or poor. Location also influenced perceived community health problems and solutions. Self-identified problems included drugs, cancer and arthritis, while corresponding solutions included education, counseling and service access. Although the problems and solutions were relatively consistent across space, they too varied in their importance. In general, the results tend to reinforce the determinants of health framework, suggesting that the provision of health services is insufficient to remove health disparities on its own. Instead, broader social-welfare provisions must be considered.† (Newbold 1998 pg. 59) It seems that Aboriginals who consider themselves of good health are considered to be actually of low health by the rest of society. From a Geographically view, Canadian Aboriginals on reserves do not have the same access to physicians as urban communities do. This causes Aboriginals on reserves to travel, which reduces the chance of them using a physician. The quality of proper health care is out of reach for most Aboriginal communities, mostly because of geographical isolation, cultural barriers and jurisdiction disputes by the federal and provincial government. Improving health conditions and the quality of life for Aboriginal people of Canadian current issue that solutions are being reviewed and implemented annually. The task is not easy because of the substance abuse and low education levels of the Aboriginal youth. Government politics play a huge role in the funding and improving the health care system for the Aboriginal communities, but over time the aboriginal people will have to look to themselves to improve their quality of life. Both Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal people need to be more educated of the health risks concerning the Canadian Aboriginal population. The health of Aboriginals has not been treated in the proper manner Bruce Newbold explains â€Å"past attempts to improve aboriginal health status have tended to focus upon a narrow definition of health as the absence of disease or illness†¦this focus neglects a much broader range of determinants, including poverty, living conditions and education†. The government needs to put into prospective that â€Å"Improvements in health will likely depend on the improvements in the socioeconomic conditions faced by Aboriginals†¦by the direct participation of Aboriginals in the health reform process† (Newbold 1998 pg. 70). Therefore, to improve health condition in Canada for the Aboriginal population the people and the government cannot be narrow minded, every aspect that being social, financial or physical must be addressed. The major improvement of the Aboriginal financial economy and social conditions is needed to repair the deteriorating health and quality of life of the Aboriginal population. Aboriginal Health in Canada has drastically deteriorated since the first contact with European decedents. The early contagious diseases such as smallpox and tuberculosis have threated to destroy Aboriginal populations and now have become chronic diseases like CVD, diabetes and HIV/AIDS for existing Aboriginal communities. Substance abuse among youth and seniors mixed with low level education and poor living conditions are advancing the decline for the quality of life in Aboriginal communities in Canada. The Government and Aboriginal communities must work together and not have a narrow mind when solving these issues and implementing them in society. Improving the socioeconomic conditions in the regions of Aboriginal communities along with health care issues is the start to improve the quality of life for Aboriginals in Canada.

Was Egyptian Medicine a Huge Leap Forward?

Medicine in Prehistoric times and medicine in Egyptian times have shown similarities. For example trephining was still used as a treatment, even though it was not really very helpful. There was still the belief in supernatural forces being the cause for someone being unwell, despite the fact that it was not true. They both also used charms which have no effect, yet they believed it would have effect towards the supernatural forces. There was also the fact that during these two time periods there never were any anatomies to gain insight on how the whole human body works. They both used herbs which do work if used correctly. However there were also quite a few steps forward of development in Egyptian medicine as they did have the embalming process which involved somewhat dissecting the body if only to remove the organs and not a full scale anatomy however they were closer to the truth with the ‘channel theory’ as we do have veins, arteries and capillaries that have similar qualities to channels. They also were more developed in civilisation as they believed in a hierarchy where doctors existed, meaning that there were people specifically trained in medicine with medical books; they would pass knowledge through writing which would preserve over time to help new doctors and they would also comment on the effectiveness of the treatment itself, helping the doctor to decide the best treatment for their patient. They were also more developed as they had trade which would mean resources unavailable in Egypt could be brought from other countries to their own if they were in need of certain herbs for medicine. They could also exchange knowledge and treatments with other countries to gain more insight into effective medicine and ineffective medicine. Despite a few similarities in Egyptian and Prehistoric medicine I do believe that the Egyptian’s did provide an important step forward in the development of medicine as they had not only come up with a fairly accurate theory for how the human body worked which would lead away from supernatural causes to some extent as it offered more logical reasons why. This was discovered during mummification which was a process that was closer to the anatomy we still do today which does teach a lot about the body and how it works. Their preservation techniques for medicine were also really important as they would serve as guides and mean that any tested and proven theories and recipes could then be used by others as education and treatments, which is similar to today also.

Paul marcartny

The Paul Mccartney conspiracy theory In October of 1969, three weeks after The Beatles Abbey Road album was released, wknr-FM ‘s Russ Gibb took a call from a man who identified himself as Tom who told the deejay and all the listener's about carefully hidden clues in The Beatles songs and album art which he claimed that they indicated Paul Mccartney had died on 9th November 1966 in a car accident soon millions of people started to tell people about other evidence they have discovered which proved Paul is dead was this a prank set up by John Lemmon or was Paul really dead ?The accident During the early-morning hours of November 9, 1966, while driving to a friend's house, Paul picked up a female hitchhiker who couldn't control her excitement when she realized who picked her up. As a result she tried to hug Paul, causing him to lose control of his Aston Martin. It smashed into a stone fence and burst into flames, killing them both. Paul was decapitated and burnt to a crisp, making a positive ID difficult. Despite no evidence to support either the story of the fatal crash or of a cover-up, the rumours persisted that Paul was dead.The need for a cover up The reason for the cover up was simple since the Beatles were one of the major money incomes for Britain if they broke up or the fans did not like the band since Paul was dead Britain will lose one of its most financial incomes of the time. The cover up In order to cover up Paul's death the band would need a Paul lookalike it is said the person chosen to be this Paul lookalike was William shears Campbell the winner of a McCartney lookalike contest. Evidence Here is some of the evidence which support's the claim of Paul death. 1 .The cover of the album, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (the album the band were working on when Paul died), has multiple indications that Paul McCartney may not have survived. The Beatles, wearing their new hippy outfits stand in the middle of the cover overlooking what appears to be a flower-covered grave. To their right are wax mannequins†borrowed from Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum†of the younger Beatles sadly looking down toward the â€Å"grave. † 2. The drumhead in the centre of the cover that says â€Å"Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band† may be the most deliberate clue of all.When you hold a straight-edge mirror perpendicular to the canter of the drum, in the middle of the words â€Å"Lonely Hearts,† the reflection reads, I ONE IX HE DIE (â€Å"One one nine he die,† or November 9 he die). The diamond points to McCartney. the doll's right leg sits a toy Aston Martin (the type of car that Paul drove) and at its left side is a bloody driving glove. 4. With the group dressed up for another album cover with Pau is I dressed as a walrus. Allegedly, in the Nordic-Viking culture, the walrus is a symbol of death. 5. Let It Be was the second-to-last Beatles album to be recorded, but the last to be eleased.On the cover, Pau l is the only Beatle whose face is partially obscured (by a microphone). He is also the only one not photographed in profile and with a white background. Paul's background is blood red. 5. The abbey road album cover is probably one the only album cover which the most evidence to support Pauls death. 1 . John Lennon leads in a white suit and symbolises the preacher; Ringo Starr is the mourner, dressed in black; George Harrison, in scruffy shirt and trousers, denotes the grave-digger; Paul is wearing an old suit and is the only one who is barefoot. Paul McCartney is left-handed, but here holds his cigarette in his right hand. At the time, cigarettes were commonly referred to as ‘coffin nails'. This, therefore, could be seen as a message that Paul's ‘coffin lid' had been nailed down and that the man in the picture was a lookalike. Paul is also out of step with the other band members. Each of the others has his left leg forward, but Paul has his right leg forward – ag ain marking him out as different. 3.The white Beetle in the background has the registration LMW 281F – 28 being he age conspiracy theorists say Paul would have been IF he hadn't ‘died', It has also been suggested that the LMW stands for ‘Linda McCartney Weeps' – referring to his new wife whom he had married earlier that year. 4. In the background, a small group of people dressed in white stand on one side of the road, while a lone person stands on the other side. 5. on the right-hand side of the road is a black police Van, believed to be a reference to the police who kept quiet about Paul's ‘death' 6.

Change for the Better

Never would he have thought that we would have ended up loving t there, falling in love, and learning about the culture as much as he did. Although a person's perception can be a good a thing, it also can get in the way of having a great friendship, learning something new, and Just being happy. Today's technology is very friendly in meeting new people on different sites like Backbone, Twitter, and Chattahoochee. Some peoples perception of meeting new people with technology that are around the world will get rid of their local cultures, traditions, and control over their cultures communication (Borderer, Borderer & Swollen, 2010, peg. 12). What people don't get Is technology Is one of the ways we learn the most about a culture. A way to get more respect for your culture Is to share It to people and not to be afraid to show It. When making friends you don't want to be the weird one, but for me seeing someone that Is so proud of their cultures Just makes me want to learn more about them . Plus you might be surprised that our cultures have some similarities and are part of the dominant culture. Having something in common is always a good base to a wonderful Friendship. Cultures in the world are what makes the world so interesting.So many different things we can learn and discover where things came from. Now some people are to proud of there country to even take the time to learn about another country because they thing its wrong and their cultures is the right way of doing things. All the different cultures have probably something in common with one an other, and you will probably find out that a lot of them Just a have some tweaks to make them different. Learning about a culture that you are going to go visit Is respectful to the people of that country whether they are Into the big tradition or not.In the end everyone is proud of their country's accomplishments and what they contributed to make the world it is today. Outsourced is a great way on showing how your pe rception affect your attitude and happiness. While Toad just wanting a burger, he went to a Mac Dona's to realize they don't sell burgers. He meets a character, named Bob, who was in the same predicament that Toad was in but for much longer. Bob told Toad that it doesn't get better until you accept Indian's culture. Once Toad finally accepted the culture he wanted to learn more about it and found a way to communicate better with the people of India.Toad was a more happy person, and even found love during his months In India. When you totally accept something, whether it's a different culture or It Is Just the way you look, you become a better and happy person. Perception Is a strong and powerful thing you use to view life situations. It Is always going to be with you whether you want it or not, and is something that we control our actions, and make up our mind about something we heaven full learned about. Perceptions can change your life for the better or for the worst. It comes dow n to how you take your perceptions and whether you let them change your life for the better.

Essence of Corporate Social Responsibility and CSR Coursework

Essence of Corporate Social Responsibility and CSR - Coursework Example CSR can be defined a commitment made by a company towards the stakeholder to operate in an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable fashion. CSR seeks to integrate workplace culture, communities and human rights to business strategies. In the initial days the many used to treat CSR as arm chair philanthropy, however things have changed drastically. It is treated as an integral part of the overall business strategy. In order to discuss the focal points related to CSR two companies have chosen in the form of Philip Morris and Starbucks. Philip Morris is one of largest tobacco companies. It includes seven leading international brands that include Marlboro, the top most cigarette brand in the world. Starbucks one the other hand is a global coffee chain. They are based on Seattle, Washington. It is also the largest coffeehouse company. It has over twenty thousand stores and operates in over sixty countries. Starbucks shops provide a wide range of products including hot and c old coffee, pastries, snacks, etc. As it can be seen that two companies with distinct product mix and different business model has been chose. The main objective of such choice is to demonstrate the importance and benefits of CSR across various industries. Add to it must be mentioned that as per research the key focal points of CSR activities of both the companies happens to be same, at least to some extent; such as investment in foundations and communities, waste reduction, energy conservation, recycling etc. Here it is needless to say that CSR for Philip Morris is supposed to be a bit trickier as compared of Starbucks keeping the product line in mind (Urip, p. 13). Potential Benefits and Importance of CSR CSR should not be looked upon a leakage of resources. If implemented properly CSR policies can provide an array of benefits such as increase the level of customer retention, enhances relationship with customers, suppliers, stakeholders and other channel partners, differentiates t he company from that of the competitors, improves reputation, generates positive publicity and even helps the companies to get new business. This segement will be of great help to understand how CSR activities benefits Starbucks and Philip Morris to maintain better relationship with the stake holders. Stakeholders include employees, business partners, investors, local communities as well customers. It will also be helpful to analyze the alignment of CSR with the corpora objectives. It will reflect the importance of CSR keeping the overall corporate strategy in mind. Corporate objective can be defined as a realistic objective set by the company that influences key strategic decisions (Heal, p.132). Starbucks views CSR as an opportunity to give something back to the community. As a matter of fact it runs down deep to the company roots. For Starbucks CSR is an approach to fulfill the commitments made to the origins, environment, communities, and partners. Some of the approaches include investments to benefit coffee producers and their families; promoting the concept of recycling, conservation of coffee growing countries; having in store green teams. More than one billion people work at Starbucks. They are not treated as employees; rather they are treated as partners. As a matter of fact the mission statement of the company talks about the commitment to partners. As mentioned before CSR activities for Philip Morris are supposed to be a bit trickier as compared to the other. However the CSR activities of the company are nothing short of impressive. The company actively invests in art

University essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

University - Essay Example Human resource management plays a crucial role in forming organizational culture and involves activities such as making organizational structure, building trust, ensuring job satisfaction, leadership, influencing power and politics in the organization. Human resource management involves a set of ideas, practices, techniques which are designed to improve employees’ productivity. They provide support and instructions to the groups in the organization. HR plays a crucial role in solving all cultural barriers and cultural issues. HR practices bring flexibility and office integration for improving quality of work. Human resource management in an organization plays an important role in forming organizational culture. â€Å"Culture is defined as (a) a pattern of basic assumptions, (b) invented, discovered, or developed by a given group, (c) as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, (d) that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore (e) is to be taught to new members as the (f) correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.† (McLuhan 2006). Organization has to bring the people together to achieve the common goal of the organization. Management sets certain parameters, guidelines and accepted norms to decide what and how the organization’s goals are to be achieved. Every organization has its own unique culture, attitude, morale or values set. Culture in any organization indicates the roles, values, beliefs and the behaviour patterns of the people working in it. â€Å"Organizational culture includes a complex set of interrelated, comprehensive, and ambiguous factors. Furthermore, it is a multidimensional construct that is of interest to many different disciplines including anthropology, sociology, and organizational psychology.† (Jesus 2008). Organizational culture is shared among the members

Behavioral finance Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Behavioral finance - Assignment Example Modern financial economics are pegged on the assumption that financial practitioners act both meticulously and with rationale. However as evidenced and earlier stated, this is not always the case. These deviations from the norm are not rampant and inherent but follow a systematic chain of events. With this information in mind it is possible to incorporate these systematic human deviations into the standard model of financial markets (Rutledge 264). In so doing, two commonly overlooked mistakes come to the foreground: Financial practitioners tend to indulge in excessive trading with belief that the next trade will rake in more lucrative returns. This is irrational trading and is propelled by emotion rather than rational thinking. The human trait of being too overconfident or corky in this case is the key driving motivation behind this bias. Some financial practitioners are also in the habit of holding on to losing stocks while at the same selling their winning stocks. This again is in stigated by lack of confidence and the need to avoid both failure and regrets coupled with poor judgments. Behavioral finance contributes to asset pricing in two major dimensions. These dimensions are reached upon by use of agents which may in them are not completely rational. These are: I. Limits to arbitrage This argues that the damage caused by irrational traders in their irrational deviations may be difficult, if not impossible to be undone by the more rational trades. The traditional asset-pricing model does not factor in market frictions and greatly undermined trading frictions like transaction cost, bid spread, ask spread etc. These forces have a great impact on asset returns and therefore should not be ignored. The limits to arbitrage create a model where mispricing exist for the simple reason that risk adverse arbitragers are not concerned mainly with the riskless values of an asset, but about the price of assets in periods following these irrational traders. This model con siders the cost of arbitrage more so the volatility returns and states that the habit of mispricing will inevitably dominate markets especially in the cases of highly volatile stocks whereby arbitragers may avoid the risky volatile position. Finding mispricing is a tasking affair and may involve institutional laws that should regulate the type of trade to be done. For instance short selling which is essential to effective arbitrage including cost of borrowing, legal fees and liquidity risk is not allowed in mutual and pension funds. Therefore there should exist a cap on the limits to arbitrage. II. Psychology: This helps in creating a continuum of deviations spurning from full rationality to completely irrational. The known concept of asset pricing therefore is in a very vibrant flux whereby there is a slow paradigm shift from the completely irrational approach to a more accommodating broader outlook based on the psychology of investors. Risk and misevaluations are therefore the two main determinants of the security expected returns. This is roughly based on a concept by Savage (183) which is a decision making method with imminent or existing risks in consideration. This concept is known as the Subjective Expected Utility whereby it is widely