Reading response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 7

Reading response - Essay Example en taken for granted could soon ceased to exist and most certainly have whatever extent rights that they do enjoy removed as a result of human exploitation, overuse, or general disregard. Within Christopher Stone’s article entitled, â€Å"Should Trees Have Standing? Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects†, the author presents the case for why natural objects should be given a degree of legal protection. Secondly, the understanding is presented to the reader that although such a series of steps may seem as a departure from logic and/or reason, the fact that matter is that a degree of legal rights for an animate objects has existed for decades within the developed world. As the author explains, this is a result of the fact that corporations and even certain types of municipalities Garner a degree of legal protection, it seems as foolish and rather uninformed that the natural objects which truly stand to disappear from the world entirely an impact upon the lives and quality of life of untold billions, should not have any form of legal protection. With regards to the actual response of this reader to the information presented, it must be stated that althou gh I was initially doubtful of the way in which such legal protection should be granted and provided to an animate/natural objects, the argument that the author lays out present its a convincing case for why such legal protection should be granted and

Acculturation and Ethnicity in Consumer Behavior

Acculturation and Ethnicity in Consumer Behavior The concepts Acculturation and ethnicity are often used by the researcher to describe consumption experiences of ethnic minority consumers. This paper presents a review of the relationship between cultural process, specifically what has been termed Acculturation, and how it helps to understand consumer behavior of ethnic minority consumers. Consumer Acculturation is a socialization process in which an immigrant, or marginalizes consumer learns the behavior, attitude and values of a culture that are different from those of their culture of origin (Lee 1998). Ethnic groups are ..any group which is defined or set off by race, religion, or national origin, or some combination of these categories, (Gordon, 1964, p.27). Historically Acculturation has been primarily shown as a one-way process where the microculture adopts the dominant cultures norms without corresponding influences. This paper looks for explain the impact of acculturation on consumer purchase decisions of ethnic minority gr oup and how it helps to understand consumer behavior of ethnic minority group. INTRODUCTION: Minority ethnic audience in all over the world represents a significant cultural and consumer force. Increasing ethnic and cultural diversity- like other forms of social change represents both a threat and an opportunity to marketers. New consumer segment can provide fresh sources of top-line growth with focused new product development to the marketer. And for that producer has to be aware of the cultural change among the ethnic minority consumer. Acculturation provides a qualitative overview of how cultural differences of the larger minority ethnic communities affect their consumer behavior. Acculturation and Ethnicity in Consumer Behavior: Acculturation and Assimilation: Redfield, Linton and Herskovits (1936,p.149) ) define acculturation as those phenomena which result when group of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact, with subsequent change in the organizational culture patterns of either or both groups. Under this definition, acculturation is to be distinguished from culture-change, of which it is but one aspect, and assimilation, which is at times a phase of acculturation. Acculturation is a process of adopting the believes and behavior of one culture group by another cultural group. The direction of adaptation can be a minority group adopting habits and language patterns of the dominant group, and can be other way- that is, the dominant group also adopt patterns typical of the minority group. The changes may take place in dominant culture, the subculture or both groups, according to Berry (1977); in practice Acculturation tends to produce more substantial change in one of the groups. Assimilation of one c ulture group into another may be evidence by changes in language preference, adoption of common attitude and values, membership in common social groups, and loss of the separate political or ethnic identity. Many researchers have used the term acculturation and assimilation interchangeably, or in some case, the meaning has overlapped (Gordon 1964). To ass to the confusion, different disciplines use the terms to mean different concepts (Berry and Annis 1974; Padilla 1980). For example, sociologists like Gordon (1964), typically use the term assimilation to describe encounters between ethnic groups and the cultural negotiation process to find common ground. In contrast anthropologists prefer the term acculturation to describe the same cultural negotiation process (Gordon 1964). A review of the consumer acculturation literature reveals a similar inconsistency. Therefore, it is important to relay the predominant difference between assimilation and acculturation in terms of their usage in the consumer acculturation context and the next outcome of the cultural negotiations. While assimilation occurs when an immigrant fully adopts mainstream values and gives up their cultural heritage, accultur ation can occur when some elements of the mainstream culture and added without abandoning the native culture ( Berry 1980; Padilla 1980; Wallendorf and Reilly 1983; Jun, Ball et al 1993; Rossman 1994). Consumer Acculturation: Consumer Acculturation is a subset of acculturation and socialization. While acculturation is more general, consumer acculturation is specific to the consumption process. Consumer acculturation can be seen as a socialization process in which an immigrant consumer learns the behaviors, attitude and values of a culture that are different from their culture of origin (Lee 1988). Webster (1994) views ethnic identity as a subset of acculturation and assimilation as a mode of acculturation. In the Websters study, ethnic identification is operationalised by determining which language is used in the home. Webster believes the combination of the ethnic identification and self-identification captures assimilation dimensions. Laroche, Kim and Tomiuk (1998) state that the primary different between the two constructs is that ethnic identity measures focus on maintenance/retention of the culture of origin and acculturation measures focus on acquisition of the host culture. Ethnicity and Ethnic Identity: Although closely related, ethnicity and ethnic identity are two separate constructs. Ethnicity is an objective description and refers to a group with common national or religious background. In contrast, ethnic identity is more subjective ( Cohen 1978; Hirschman 1981; Minor 1992) and is a self-designation which relays a persons commitment and strength of association to a particular group (Zaff, Blount, Philips and Cohen 2002; Chung and Fischer 1999). The concept of acculturation refers to a process or change. Ethnic identity , on the other hand, refers to a status, which may or may not be statics. Thus the strength of ethnic identity may influence the level of acculturation as suggested by Penazola and Gilly (1999) and others. The contrasts of the ethnic identity and acculturation are neither parallel nor opposite of each other; rather they influence and shape each other. Measurement of Acculturation Constructs: Measures of acculturation typically attempt to determine the extent which a person has adopted to a new culture (Magana et al 1996) and the resulting behavioral changes that occurs a result of the contact (Ward and Arzu 1999). There has been a great deal of variation in the measurement of acculturation and ethnicity in both the social science and the consumer behavior literature. Some factors, either individually or in combinations, that have been considered in the measurement are language, reference groups, intermarriage, identity, culture (Laroche, Kim and Tomiuk 1998; Lee and Um 1992), and religion (Hirschman 1981). Communication based measures =, such as media usage, have also been used (O Guinn and Faber 1985; Kim, Laroche et al. 1990).

Evolutionary Ethics and Biologically Supportable Morality :: Philosophy Essays

Evolutionary Ethics and Biologically Supportable Morality ABSTRACT: Consider the paradox of altruism: the existence of truly altruistic behaviors is difficult to reconcile with evolutionary theory if natural selection operates only on individuals, since in that case individuals should be unwilling to sacrifice their own fitness for the sake of others. Evolutionists have frequently turned to the hypothesis of group selection to explain the existence of altruism; but group selection cannot explain the evolution of morality, since morality is a one-group phenomenon and group selection is a many-group phenomenon. After spelling out just what the problem is, this paper discusses several ways of solving it. Introduction The term ‘evolutionary ethics’ denotes an approach to naturalistic moral philosophy which seeks to explain how moral traits and behavior evolved. Sophisticated versions of evolutionary ethics do not argue that the moral judgments of each and every individual can be predicted given only the tenets of evolutionary theory. Rather the aim is usually to show that human beings possess moral traits because such traits confer a selective advantage. The motivation for this kind of view lies in a broader naturalism: if moral philosophy is to be founded on a naturalistic understanding of human beings and their place in the world, and if evolutionary theory gives us the best (kind of) account of the natural history of human beings, then moral philosophy will need to be brought in line with (some version of) evolutionary theory. Shaping moral theory so that it is possible to explain the selective advantage of moral traits and behavior is thus the vocation of evolutionary ethics. One of the intriguing problems confronting evolutionary ethics is to solve the apparent paradox of altruism. According to evolutionary theory, natural selection entails that in general only the fittest individuals in any given biological population will survive and reproduce. An organism’s evolutionary telos, or goal, seems to be to promote its own fitness in order to survive long enough to reproduce. In situations where an organism confronts a choice between enhancing its own fitness and enhancing the fitness of others, it would seem to follow that the organism will (or "ought to," or should be expected to) choose to enhance its own fitness. (1) The paradox arises because empirical facts seem to contradict this prediction of evolutionary theory. In a wide range of cases, and among organisms of differing levels of sentience and sapience, individual organisms frequently behave in ways that promote the fitness of some group (especially but not always a kin group) at the expense of their own individual fitness.

The need for free public Wi-Fi.

The need for free public Wi-If. BY Leeway Sample Persuasive Speech Self-Defense on Campus Speech Commentary Rebecca Hanson You're tired; you're hungry. You've Just spent a long day at College Library and you can't wait to get back to your room. Glancing outside, you remember how quickly it becomes dark. You don't think much of it, though, as you bundle up and head out into the gusty wind. Not until you spy the shadows on the sidewalk or hear the leaves rustling beside you do you wish you weren't alone.You walk quickly, trying to stop your imagination from thinking of murderers and rapists. Only when you are safely inside your room do you relax and try to stop your heart from pounding out of your chest. Can you remember a time when you felt this way? I would be surprised if you never have. The FBI reported last year that there were three murders, approximately 430 gag aggravated assaults, 1,400 burglaries, and 80 rapes here in Madison alone. And while these statistics are quite alarmi ng, they don't even compare to the numbers of larger metropolitan areas.No matter where we live, crime affects us all-?men and women, students and instructors, young and old. We need to stop being the victims. One way we can do this is by enrolling in a self-defense course. There are many times I can remember when my heart seemed to pound out of my chest, but because I took an introductory course in self-defense, I feel more confident and more prepared to deal with potentially dangerous situations. Today I would like to encourage all of you to enroll in a self-defense course.Let's start by looking at the dangers of crime we face as college students. College students face many crime issues, both as members of society and as students on campus. These crimes endanger our money, our property, our self- inference, our psychological well-being, and even our lives. According to the Foundation for Crime Prevention Education, violence and crime have dramatically increased. An American is six times more likely to be assaulted with a weapon today than in 1960.The FBI reports that someone is either murdered, raped, assaulted, or robbed every 16 seconds. This means today, at the end of our 50-minute class period, approximately 187 people will have been victims of a violent crime. College students, many of whom are away from home for the first time, are especially easy targets for crime. Students often look at campus housing as a secure place. But according to the book Street Wisdom for Women, precautions must be taken in a dorm or Greek house, Just as in any house or apartment.How many of these bad habits do you have? How often do you leave your room without locking your door, for getting how easily accessible your room is to anyone? How often do you fall asleep without locking your door? Or how often do you open your door without first checking to see who is there? As the Wake Forest University Police Crime Prevention website states, â€Å"Each of us must become aware of the precautions necessary to reduce the childhood that we will become victims of crime. † Those who forget to take these precautions invite trouble.Although students must watch themselves in campus housing, they must also take care elsewhere. Prevalent use of drugs and alcohol, especially on college campuses, increases the chance of crime. Using drugs or alcohol makes you an easier target because, as we all know, it affects your Judgment, influencing your decisions on safety. According to the Pacific Center for Violence Prevention, in 42 percent of all violent crimes, either the assailant, the victim, or both had been drinking. Specifically n campus, 90 percent of all violent crimes involve drugs and/or alcohol.This problem is so serious that testimony by law enforcement officials reprinted on the Security On Campus website indicates that many college campuses are the highest crime areas in their communities. So now that we see the dangers we face as students, what can we do to protect ourselves? Although there are many ways of dealing with crime, I recommend that you and every college student enroll in a self-defense course. You can choose from a variety of self-defense courses offered right here in Madison.You can find one to fit our schedule and your pocketbook. On campus, the university has a club sport called Shoring Rye Karate, which emphasizes practical self-defense. They hold their meetings in the evening, after classes, right on campus, and they're open to all university students, faculty, and staff. Another option is Pillar's Self-Defense and ATA Chi Center, which not only offers courses in self-defense, but in ATA chi, karate, and gung if. Pillar's location on State Street is convenient for all university students.To find a class that fits your needs, you can also search over the Internet or through the Yellow Pages. I also brought along some brochures today, so if you are interested, please see me after class. After enrolling in a self-defen se course, you will find yourself much better prepared to deal with an emergency situation. Patrick Lee, an instructor for a course called â€Å"Self-Defense for Women: Victim or Survivor,† claims the biggest thing he teaches in his courses is that you must decide from the beginning whether you want to be the victim or the survivor.Repeating over and over again that â€Å"l am a survivor† not only increases your self-confidence but helps you think more clearly in a difficult tuition. I didn't realize the importance of this myself until I took an introductory course in self-defense in my high-school physical education class. After a few days of practice, each of us faced the notorious padded attacker. Expecting to enjoy fighting the attacker, I prepared to yell, â€Å"No; stop; back off,† as forcefully as possible. But before I knew it, this man, twice my size, had put me in a hold I could not get out of.My mind was so overcome with fear that I could barely muste r out a â€Å"No. † Immediately, I pictured this as a real situation, one which I probably would not have survived. But after a few more days of practice, we were able to go against the padded attacker one more time. This time, I no longer felt fear. I felt anger. I was angry that this man felt he could take advantage of me. This time, using what I learned, I yelled, â€Å"No; back off,† and successfully escaped his move. And this time I survived. I'm not the only example showing the benefits of taking self-defense.If you're interested, check out â€Å"Stories from Self- Defense Classes† posted to the Internet by the Assault Prevention Information Network. Although I don't have the time to share with you the dozens of success stories. I can sum them up with a quote by Cindy, a 23-year-old woman who used her self-defense knowledge to scare off an assailant. Cindy says, â€Å"l know deep inside, where it matters most, that I have what it takes to defend myself if need be, and this feeling is one of pure Joy. † As you can see; self-defense is time and money well invested.So I encourage you to enroll in a self-defense course, whether it be through a physical education class or through a private organization and whether you do it here or back in your hometown. Even if you do not enroll right away, I encourage you to do so in the near future. Taking such a course could mean keeping your money, protecting your property, defending yourself, your boyfriend or girlfriend, husband or wife. It could even mean the difference between life and death. Don't ever think, â€Å"It could never happen to me. † Why not be prepared?As Patrick Lee said, â€Å"Ask yourself, do you want to be the victim or the survivor? † The speaker begins with an extended hypothetical example. Vivid and richly textured, it gains attention and relates the topic directly to the audience. It also contains a strong element of emotional appeal-?especially for fema le students who have expert once the feelings described by the speaker When you begin a speech with a hypothetical example, it's a good idea to follow up with statistics showing that the example is not far-fetched.The statistics in this paragraph are especially effective because they come from the city in which the speech was given. After reinforcing the fact that crime is a concern for all members of her audience, the speaker focuses on the specific issue of enrolling in a self-defense course. She estate lilies her credibility by citing the benefits she gained from taking such a course. Although she stresses her personal experience here, it becomes clear as the speech goes on that she has also done a great deal of research on the topic.This speech is organized according to Monomer's motivated sequence. In this paragraph, the speaker begins her discussion of the need for students to enroll in a self-defense course. Notice how she identifies the sources of her statistics and translat es the figures into terms that relate directly to her classmates. Moving from the general crime statistics in the previous paragraph, the speaker focuses on crime issues facing college students.

Criticism of the Church in the Canterbury Tales Essay

The Canterbury Tales, a collection of tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, was written in Middle English at the end of the 14th century (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2011). It is considered to be the best work of literature in English in the Middle Ages (Johnston, 1998). Chaucer uses literary devices as no one had ever done. In addition, he chose to use English instead of Latin. This masterpiece is structured in a similar way as Bocaccio’s Decameron. The tales are organized within a frame narrative (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2011) explained in the General Prologue by the narrator: a group of pilgrims that are going to visit St.  Thomas Becket in Canterbury’s Cathedral. These pilgrims are from different estates of the medieval society: nobility, the church and peasantry (The Norton Anthology, 1993: 76). Through the characters, Chaucer reveals some aspects of the society he lived in. In other words, instead of creating typical role models, the characters are exaggerated individuals very different from the prototypical idea. The author uses hyperbolic characters and irony to create humour and criticism. For example, the knight is not the typical medieval soldier the reader would expect. He avoids conflict being a very romantic person. In a similar way, the characters that are part of the Church are also very peculiar. At the time when Chaucer wrote this poem, the Catholic Church was very powerful and rich. The clergy enjoyed great fortunes and a high quality of life compared with the peasantry who was starving and dying. In this essay, I’m going to deal with the criticism towards the Catholic Church analysing the ironic portrays of the Prioress, the Monk, the Friar and the Pardoner. Chaucer begins writing about the hypocrisy of the church in the General Prologue when the Prioress is introduced. The Prioress is a nun with very good manners (e. g. she wipes her lips before drinking, lines 133-134) that behaves as if she were a lady of the court (e. g. she speaks French but with a very bad accent, lines 124-125). The Prioress is also very romantic as we can see in her brooch and her motto: â€Å"Amor vincit omnia† -â€Å"Love conquest all†- (Dr. Melillo, 1996). She is also very kind and sensitive. For instance, she cries when a mouse falls in a trap and feeds her dogs meat so they do not starve. This image of nice person contrasts with the reality of the time. If her words and actions are analyzed, the audience can understand that this was not the typical behavior of a nun. She is more worried about her pets than the commoners who actually did starve and rarely ate meat. The narrator is portraying her as a very naive person in a very nice tone that hides the irony. Nevertheless, the audience was aware that she is not fulfilling the aim of the Church: take care of people (The Norton Anthology, 1993:76). The Monk is the following pilgrim described in the General Prologue. According to his description he is very interested in hunting and in horses (line 166). A monk should not be riding and hunting but obeying, praying, copying and studying. In addition, the Monk is fully aware that his order does not allow these practices and he admits that he does not follow the rules of his order (Jokinen, 2010) (lines 174-175). When the portrait of the Monk finishes in the General Prologue, the man described is bald, fat and well-dressed. Any person in that time that heard this description would immediately think about a lord not a monk. Although the narrator likes the life style of the Monk and his description is not very acid, we can see how Chaucer is criticizing some monk’s lives. Monks are supposed to be obedient and to embrace vow of poverty not to reject rules and live the life they want. After analyzing two characters against who the narrator does not show great rejection, I am going to analyze the Friar and the Pardoner who the narrator describes in a very ironic and bitter tone. A friar is a roaming priest that begs for living whose goal is to help beggars and lepers selflessly. On the contrary, this friar really detests this kind of action because he does not get any benefice from it (lines 242-247). He likes to enjoy life and pleasures. He shows that he is not like a normal friar implying that he is above (lines 210-211) like an aristocrat (Knapp, 1999). In this sense, he acts like the Prioress does, pretending not to be who he really is, a beggar. The reader also knows that he accepts bribes and gives easy penance for extra donations so he can live better. He justifies his conduct explaining that giving money is a sign of repentance. Nevertheless, the Friar, as the Monk, is supposed to have done the vow of poverty. Contradicting any preconceived ideas the reader may have about friars, he has a good quality life thanks to keeping the money he should give his order nd receiving extra incomes. In the description of the character, the audience understood how Chaucer is condemning the abuses of the Church by creating a person who does not follow any of the prototypical characteristics of a good Christian friar. Finally, I am going to explain in detail the character of the Pardoner. The Pardoner resembles the Friar in the fact that both get money from people (with a religious reason behind) for a living and keep it for themselves. However, there are some differences: the Pardoner is not part of an order whereas the Friar is; and he does not believe in what he does either while the Friar justifies it. The Pardoner is considered the most hypocrite character of all because he embodies all the sins he preaches against. He sells papal indulgences in exchange of donation that he keeps for himself showing avarice (lines 389-391). In addition, he admits that he does not feel guilty and that the relics he sells are a fraud. Furthermore, he tells the other pilgrims his tricks implying that he lies and manipulates people to get money. Ironically, after he has admitted that he is a liar, the Pardoner gives a kind of sermon against gluttony, drunkenness, gambling and swearing. Moreover, his tale can be considered an exemplum (Patterson, 1976) that warns against avarice and drunkenness. He gives an instance of the kind of person he is when he tries to sell one of his relics to the Host even when he has already told them they are forged and useless. Apart from being described as, what we would call now, a con artist and a sinful person, there are allusions to his condition of homosexual and eunuch (Jokinen, 1998). All these characteristics make him appear in the margins of society. As I said before, this character is the one that better represents the hypocrisy that Chaucer shows in this work. As I said, he represents all the sins he preaches against: he drinks (his finishes his drink before stating the tale); he lies (about his relics, line 394), and he is greedy (he keeps the money, line 409). Through this character, the author shows a very sinful and corrupt church away from their goal. To conclude, Chaucer shows a very hypocrite and selfish members of the Church in The Canterbury Tales. In the 14th century, the Catholic Church was very influential and religion was present in everyday life. The purpose of the Church was supposed to be the caring of the people. Nonetheless, the characters in this poem do not worry about anything else that themselves and their actions are directed always to their own benefit. Through their words and actions described ironically by the narrator, the characters reflect their sins and their corruption and by extension, the sins and corruption of the Church. It can be concluded that in The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer makes a social criticism showing the dishonesty of the Church. However, it should be pointed out that the characters are an exaggerated version of the original people because the main aim of this work is to be enjoyable for the audience.

Party Politics in Africa essays

Party Politics in Africa essays Political parties are a group of people with a defined programme organised to capture political power or stay in it through elections to control personnel and policies of government. This form of government was introduced to africa in general and ghana in particular by the colonial imperialists and its a form of western ideology which was not known to the ghanaian society until the advent of colonialism and its aftermath. Although political parties play important roles and affairs of the modern political affairs of ghana like recruiting of political leadership, aggregation of interests, goal formation, socialization and political education, articulation of ideas and intergrate of norms in the society to mention but a few but then they posed serious problems to our society because they are alien and a legacy bequeated to ghanaian politics by colonialism. This was because colonialism was itself an arbitrary and therefore the idea of oneness towards state building itself will be arbitrary since ghana was composed of several ethnic groups and cultures. Colonialism didnt bridge the gaps between the ethnic groups to enhance our use of political party system to govern the people like the western imperialists. For example the united states has long provided a bridge to bring together its people and thats the reason for their survival with this party political system. These political party system pose problems to Ghana because there is the lack of tradition in the practise of party politics Since it was never part of our traditional political system we lack the political culture, norms, tradition, experience for the working of an effective party system. Party in power is usually intolerant to oppostion groups and will not even listen to any form of constructive criticism. The opposition is seen as nothing short of an enemy. The opposit ion group on the other hand resort to conspirational practices to ...

Profile of the Prehistoric Archelon

Profile of the Prehistoric Archelon Name: Archelon (Greek for ruling turtle); pronounced ARE-kell-on Habitat: Oceans of North America Historical Period: Late Cretaceous (75-65 million years ago) Size and Weight: About 12 feet long and two tons Diet: Squids and jellyfish Distinguishing Characteristics: Leathery shell; wide, paddlelike legs About Archelon Dinosaurs werent the only animals that grew to immense sizes during the late Cretaceous period. At a whopping 12 feet long and two tons, Archelon was the one of the largest prehistoric turtles that ever lived (it used to be on top of the charts, until the discovery of the truly stupendous Stupendemys of South America), about the size (and shape, and weight) of a classic Volkswagen Beetle. By comparison with this North American behemoth, the largest Galapagos tortoises alive today weigh a little over a quarter of a ton and measure about four feet long! (The closest living relative of Archelon, the Leatherback, comes much closer in size, some adults of this seagoing turtle weighing close to 1,000 pounds.) Archelon differed significantly from modern turtles in two ways. First, its shell wasnt hard, but leathery in texture, and supported by an elaborate skeletal framework underneath; and second, this turtle possessed unusually wide, flipper-like arms and legs, with which it propelled itself through the shallow Western Interior Sea that covered much of North America about 75 million years ago.  Like modern turtles, Archelon had a human-like life span as well as a nasty bite, which would have come in handy when tussling with the giant squids that constituted the bulk of its diet. One specimen on display in Vienna is thought to have lived for over 100 years, and probably would have survived much longer if it hadnt asphyxiated on the sea floor. Why did Archelon grow to such an enormous size? Well, at the time this prehistoric turtle lived, the Western Interior Sea was well-stocked with the vicious marine reptiles known as mosasaurs (a good example being the contemporary Tylosaurus), some of which measured over 20 feet long and weighed four or five tons. Clearly, a speedy, two-ton marine turtle would have been a less appetizing prospect to hungry predators than smaller, more pliable fish and squids, though its not inconceivable that Archelon occasionally found itself on the wrong side of the food chain (if not by a hungry mosasaur, then perhaps by a plus-sized prehistoric shark like Cretoxyrhina).