Distracted Driving Essay

Recently â€Å"Texas college student Chance Bothe’s last words prior to driving his truck off a cliff were in the form of a text message: â€Å"I need to quit texting, because I could die in a car accident.† He miraculously survived, but Bothe’s story has become an ironic example of the dangers of texting while driving† (Zafar). Distracted driving has become a worldwide problem that is ending/injuring the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent people each year. â€Å"A statistic from 2009 declares that in the United States alone 5,474 people were killed on roadways and an additional estimate of 448,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes that were reported to have involved distracted driving† (Aldana). Distracted driving is causing many unnecessary and unintended fatalities and injuries among the drivers and passengers of motor vehicles in the world today; these incidents can be easily avoided if the education of distracted driving is conveyed to all those in possession of a license to operate motor vehicles and the laws being put in place to avoid it are followed and enforced by all. In recent years distracted driving can almost be described as a pandemic outbreak with only negative effects on the lives of many humans. Some may ask what is the exact definition of distracted driving it is as follows: â€Å"distracted driving is any activity that could divert a person’s attention away from the primary task of driving. Any type of distraction endangers the drivers, passengers, and bystanders safety† (What is Distracted Driving). Drivers are not only responsible for their own safety when operating a vehicle but also for their passengers and those in other vehicles around them on the road. When driving, the driver must maintain the three aspects of driving focused on the road these are visual, manual and cognitive (Injury Prevention & Control: Motor Vehicle Safety). Visual is the driver’s ability to see everything occurring around him or her on the road. It is known that it is the driver’s responsibility to keep his or her eyes on the road at all times to make sure there is no prevalent danger that  may occur to anyone. Manual is making sure the driver keeps one or both hands on the wheel while it is being operated; which is also common knowledge to all drivers because it is how it is taught during driver’s education and is a major part of passing the license exam. Lastly cognitive is the driver’s awareness of his or her surroundings while on the road so he or she is able to make smart decisions. One should not be thinking of anything other than the road in front of them when operating a motorized vehicle. When the topic of distracted driving comes up in conversation it is usually never a good thing, but the typical first thought of any person is texting while driving. Which is â€Å"by far the most alarming distraction while driving because it requires visual, manual, and cognitive attention from the driver,† (What is Distracted Driving) consequently meaning all three aspect which should always be focused on the road are taken away making the driver almost blind and oblivious to the road. Texting while operating a vehicle is positively the worst distraction because it has been calculated by scientists that when a driver is â€Å"sending or receiving a text message he or she takes their eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds, the equivalent of this, at fifty-five miles per hour, is driving the length of a football field† (Distracted Driving 2009). Just imagine how many things could go wrong in that amount of road, especially at that speed a great deal of serious damage and possibly even death could result from just that one text message. However, there are also many other devices and actions the driver may partake in to diverge his or her attention away from the road such as â€Å" using cell phone or smart phone, eating and drinking, talking to a passenger, grooming, reading (including maps), using a navigation system, watching a video and adjusting a radio, CD player or MP3 player† (What is Distracted Driving). All these activities are common among every person while driving. Some of these activities being so common for people to do in a car, that some do not even think of them as distracting while operating a motor vehicle, especially the ones where the driver is only eating, drinking or just talking to the passenger. But when we think about it after hearing so many of these statistics we can see how many elements that are crucial to driving can be impaired by some simple multi tasking by the driver to save  some time through their day or just making naà ¯ve conversation. With today’s technology world constantly improving and becoming more popular among the world’s people, both older and younger, it comes with its negative effects of increasing the rates/statistics of distracted driving accidents. This is proven by the statistics taken by the Center of Disease Control Prevention, displayed in their document Injury Prevention & Control: Motor Vehicle Safety, which states the proportion of drivers reported to have been distracted at the time of a fatal crash has increased from seven percent in 2005 to eleven percent in 2009. Although many may not view this as a huge percent in the first place and maybe no a big increase either, but the though of how simple it is to fix this problem but many are not willing to do so. Another statistic from 2010 of a national telephone survey on driver distraction shows results of more than three quarters of drivers reported that they are willing to answer calls on all, most or some trips; yet feel unsafe when riding in vehicles in which the driver is texting (Aldana). These negative increases in statistics are surfacing the dire need to educate the public on the hard facts of distracted driving. The solution being proposed by many organizations today is to educate drivers of the dangers distracted driving poses not only to driver but also to other drivers, passengers and pedestrians. Although, with this solution comes the responsibility of the people to help spread the education they learn and also help enforce others to act on their new knowledge when operating a motor vehicle. In the two cities of Hartford, Connecticut and Syracuse, New York multi-market efforts were made in 2011 to decrease the rate of distracted drivers (Aldana). These pilot projects found dramatic declines in distracted driving, with texting dropping seventy-two percent in Hartford and thirty-two percent in Syracuse (Aldana). Since these pilot projects have shown such a great decrease in distracted driving, which also shows a decrease in motor vehicle accidents, proves effectiveness of educating drivers to be aware of the dangers of distracted driving. Now that it has proven to improve distracted drivin g rates many states are taking action against texting while driving. Also well-known figures of today’s world such as President Obama are getting involved; on September 30, 2009 he issued an executive order prohibiting federal employees from texting while driving on government business or with government equipment (Injury Prevention & Control: Motor Vehicle Safety). Also â€Å"on October 27, 2010 the Federal motor carrier Safety Administration enacted a ban that prohibits commercial vehicle drivers from texting while driving† (Injury Prevention & Control: Motor Vehicle Safety). With the help of these well known figures and the laws being put in place the hopes of decreasing distracted driving rates is slowing becoming a reality. It is seen in recent statistics that many people including average people and even ones in high federal government positions and also state governments are partaking in the challenge to help end distracted driving among all those around them. The public is beginning to be immersed in the education of distracted driving. They are being taught about all the dangers and hazards it can cause not only in one life but of all those it may affect. As of right now, nation wide there are thirty-nine states plus the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands and Guam which have all ban texting behind the wheel; Also ten of the thirty-nine states, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands and Guam have even gone further by prohibiting all hand-held cell phone use while driving (Aldana). These new laws are in fact decreasing distracted driving rates, however, they are not working at their maximum potential. The new laws also need the support of the people to help enforce these laws on all those they have influence on. With the people of the world working with the newly enacted laws being put into place soon the fatality and injury rate due to distracted driving will surely decrease and no longer have to be such a stress on those who are on the road. Everyone in the world can save many lives just by simply waiting to do any one of the distracting actions at a time which it is appropriate and safe so no harm will come to the driver or anyone else on the road. Works Cited Aldana, Karen. â€Å"Blueprint for Ending Distracted Driving.† Distraction.gov. NHTSA, 07 2012. Web. 15 Oct 2012. . . â€Å"Distracted Driving 2009.† Traffic Safety Facts. Department of Transportation, n.d. Web. 15 Oct 2012. . . â€Å"Injury Prevention & Control: Motor Vehicle Safety.† CDC. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 09 2012. Web. 15 Oct 2012. . . â€Å"What is Distracted Driving?.† Distraction.gov. NHTSA, 05 2012. Web. 15 Oct 2012. . Zafar, Aylin. â€Å"Man Texts About Needing to Stop Texting, The Drives Off a cliff.† Time. Time, 05 2012. Web. 15 Oct 2012. .

Marriage and Lovers

An Epitaph upon Husband and Wife By : Richard Crashow Richard begins his poem with addressing lovers who are dead and whom death gathered them one more time, or, as it were, wedded them again, and this is a metaphor, in which, he resembles dying together to get married again. The grave that the lovers are in is the second marriage-bed, this is also a metaphor. The lovers will fade away, for separating soul and body is the fate's job which is : obligatory; however, desting can not sever husband and wife because they live once.Now the poet wants readers to calm down because the lovers are not dead, they are sleeping like innocent turtles, this is an image, in which, he resembles the sleeping of the lovers to the turtles, for turtles are innocent and never commit any bad thing. The only reason that lets them sleep together is love knot, lovers cannot run away, for love knot gathers them together. The lovers have to sleep until the end of fate's job which is : taking away people's life, they have to sleep until the dawn shines, and then all life will be daytime only without night as in paradise.When the storm stops, and the shining dawn comes, the lovers will sleep with happiness and enjoys eternity. Commentary This poem is entitled † An Epitaph upon Husband and Wife† by Richard Crashow, a metaphysical poet. The metaphysical poetry is unusual poetry that is behind logic. In this poem, Crashow tries to cure a misconception, in which, lovers fade away after being dead, he declares that they are just asleep, they do not die but live immortality. This poem enjoys rhyme as in : † wed ,bed† , † wife ,life† , â€Å"lie ,tie† and â€Å"light, night†.

Real Income convergence Across states Assignment

Real Income convergence Across states - Assignment Example Real Income convergence Across states The countries or states with poor economies experience increased levels on returns as compared to the rich economy states, a fact attributable to the diminishing returns to capital. Analyzing the neoclassical model on an international platform, it becomes noticeable that the effect of convergence is strengthened by both technological and capital outflow from rich economies to poor and, outflow of labor to rich economies from the poor ones. In ascertain whether real personal disposable incomes were converging to a certain constant value, we formulated our null hypothesis such that: Ho: there is income convergence across states (unit root exists for income series) H1: There is no income convergence across states (no unit root for income series and thus it`s stationary) Previous empirical analysis focused on the increase of per capita income and the production level of the U.S. states (Shekhar, 115). Extensive studies have been undertaken on the analysis of the data regarding the personal income from the 1840s and on the cumulative produce of the state dating back from 1963. For analyzing purposes on what determines the growth of the states’ economy, the familiarity with the U.S. states acts as representation of resources that are not properly utilized: basically, there exists information on the 48 states for a period of more than a century.

The Yellow Christ by Paul Gauguin Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Yellow Christ by Paul Gauguin - Assignment Example The essay "The Yellow Christ by Paul Gauguin" explores the artwork by Paul Gauguin called "The Yellow Christ". This painting conveys starkness of the Breton scenery despite gay colors. Women in this painting portray a peasant potency. The outline of image the Christ in the painting and bold shading of women represents Gaugin’s emblematic style. Paul Gauguin uses oil with color pigments forming emulsions for application onto a canvas surface by cloisonnism. The applicator is a paintbrush that spreads the emulsion evenly on a canvas surface. Color pigments are miscible in oil and take a comparatively long period to dry. Shades of colors produced are clear and last for long periods with no risks of fading. Oil and canvas form basic materials for painting since time immemorial. Lines in the â€Å"The Yellow Christ† spread all over its frame. Vertical, horizontal, straight, curvilinear, and contour lines mingle in this painting bringing about diversity. Contour lines represe nt the landscape while straight lines outline the crucifix. The painting is a rectangular frame with dimensions of 92 Ãâ€" 73cm. Shapes of women and Jesus are elliptical and merge with smooth outlines of landscape. â€Å"The Yellow Christ† painting portrays a mixture of primary and secondary colors signifying various features. Yellow color in the painting merges Jesus with the scenery. Shades of blue and black on women in the painting depict contrast between bright and deep colors. Contrast of colors form a balancing relationship in the painting.

Differiating Between Market Structures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Differiating Between Market Structures - Essay Example The first part of the paper will identify the market structure of the high technology industry; outline the market share of Samsung Corporation, explain why I decided upon this marketing structure and how different the marketing structure is from other alternatives. Part two of the paper will identify four competitive strategies that may be used by Samsung to maximize its profits effectively within the high tech industry’s competitive environment. More so the paper will evaluate the efficiency of these strategies in the market structure. Market structure of the high technology industry High technology industries are prone to the same market forces just like any other industry, but there exist few forces that are stronger in the high tech industry. Research claims that these forces affected the market structure of high technology industry in the 1890s and are still affecting the same industry to date. The high technology industry falls under an imperfectly competitive market st ructure, which means that products and services are highly differentiated (Varian, 2001). There are vast factors that arise from effective price discrimination that affects the high technology industry. These factors include personalization of products and pricing, versioning, bundling, switching costs, lock-in and economics of scale. Differentiation of products and services - The information technology allows flexible observation and analysis of consumer behavior, which in turn brings in various kinds of marketing strategies that seemed impossible on a large scale. For instance, a seller can offer prices and goods that are differentiated through individualized behavior and characteristics. Ideally, the high technology industry allows the market of one phenomenon where customers can personalize their prices (Varian, 2001). The high technology industry customers can personalize their adverts on the front pages online and can still buy a personally configured computer. According to th e theory of monopoly first degree price discrimination in most industries charge the highest prices they can to each customer, but the technology industry’s case is different because online sellers face competition from each other as well as from online sellers; hence, further stiffening the competition. Versioning - Versioning is a second-degree price discrimination that usually falls under product quality, which means that sellers design product line that appeals to different market segmentation. For instance, the latest trend of DVD version sells at a higher price and has a lot of content, an aspect that studios uses to discriminate prices between collectors and viewers, as well as between buyers and renters. Bundling - Bundling is the process of selling two or more distinct goods together for a single price. In the technology industry, these goods are â€Å"small† information goods like the individual items of web content that are sold in extremely large bundles. B undling affects the economy by reducing the dispersion of willingness to pay as well as increase entry barriers, but it enhances firm profits and overall efficiency (Varian, 2001). For instance, instead of a soft w3are company selling a word processor and a spreadsheet separately at different prices, the company could combine the two products and sell them at a higher price. Switching cost - Unlike other industries, switching costs in the high technolo

It has been argued that the system of patent protection in the United Essay

It has been argued that the system of patent protection in the United Kingdom unfairly favours the inventor who is successfully awarded a patent. Discuss - Essay Example ndividual who may try to take their work without permission, they are subjected to fund for their legal action as well as their legal representations. However, this can be a relief when the patent owner wins the case because it is the other party that shall have to pay for the legal action charges1. The existence of the patent prevents other individuals from trying to copy and idea or two from the inventor’s work. However, the law is very supportive to the inventor because when another individual takes the ideas of somebody else, they are prone to be sued for that. Despite that, the legal action is very expensive and takes a lot of time as it requires professional legal advice. Despite the benefits that are posed by an individual seeking to undertake patent rights for their invention (s), it is claimed that the system of patent protection in the UK is not fair to the inventor despite the inventor being granted the patent by the Intellectual Property Office in UK. Based on that, here are some possible reasons why this is true: In the UK, patent application normally costs GBP  £230 -  £280. However, if an individual seeks the services of a professional Intellectual Property (IP) representative, the costs may rise since this individual had to be paid for their services. Once the patent has been granted, then a renewal fee must be paid for the invention every year after its fourth year of existence. Again, these costs are prone to change every year. For example, the renewal fee for the fifth year is  £70; for the sixth year is  £90; for the seventh year is  £110; for the twentieth year is  £600 etc. Moreover, there are other papers filling costs to be encountered. These include:  £30 – application fee for the preliminary examination;  £150 – to perform a search of the invention;  £100 – to perform substantive examinations of the invention. In the event that the patent is to be done online, the costs to be encountered are slightly different. For example: the

Discuss the rise in importance of FDI for Multinational Enterprises Essay

Discuss the rise in importance of FDI for Multinational Enterprises - Essay Example This deepening and widening economic integration is achieved through three main channels such as trade, foreign direct investment and the international transfer of knowledge and technology. The enterprises, which have dispersed their business processes across the globe through the channel of FDI, are termed as Multinational Enterprises (MNEs). These MNEs are the main pillars in the globalized economies which involved in the world economic activities. Though trade which principally means export-import of goods and services across the geographical regions are there since many years but the concept of foreign direct investment (FDI) is rather of recent origin. Being different from portfolio investment this type of investment entails a firm to open its subsidiary in a foreign land to expand its business activities there. In today's fast moving global economy the scale of FDI made by a multinational enterprise plays a vital role for the growth of developed as well as developing countries across the world. In this essay the rise in FDI as well as its importance for the MNEs has been vividly described in the Section-II and also an analysis of the circumstances under which FDI may or may not be an appropriate strategy for an international business has been made in the Section-III. The conclusion to the discussion has been given in Section-IV. The analysis of the rising trend in the various regions of the world and the possible impact of FDI in the host and home economies has been made in this paper. II. FDI: The Increasing Trend in Global Economy "FDI is defined as a firm based in one country (the 'home country') owning 10 percent or more of the stock of a company located in a foreign country (the 'host country') -- this amount of stock is generally enough to give the home country firm significant control rights over the host country firm. Most FDI is in wholly-owned or nearly wholly-owned subsidiaries." (http://www.populareconomics.org/globalization/html%20/Glossary.html). Thus FDI is different from the portfolio investment which may cross borders but lacks such controls over it. This FDI may be 'Green-field'1 or 'Acquisition/Mergers'2 and also it may be 'horizontal'3 or 'vertical'4. "Thus to create, acquire or expand a foreign subsidiary, MNEs undertake FDI. The total direct capital owned by non-residents in a given country each year constitutes the stock of FDI" (Navaretti & Venables, 3). If one makes a comparison between export and FDI during the last twentieth century one can see that the exports grew much stronger than FDI in the pre 1980 period while the FDI sown an unprecedented rise after 1985. "The worldwide real GDP increased at a rate of 2.5% per year between 1985 and 1999 and worldwide exports by 5.6%, worldwide real inflows of FDI increased by 17.7%." (Navaretti & Venables 3). Also it is seen that the worldwide FDI stocks increased from $794 billion to $1, 768 billion in the second half of the eighties (Table-1). That means they more than doubled in just six years. The inflow of FDI peaked in the year 2000 but suddenly declined from the year 2001 due to slowing down of economy.

Leadership and Self Deception Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Leadership and Self Deception - Essay Example According to Warner (2002), individuals who are in a state of self deception normally live and work as if they are trapped inside a box. Consequently, they remain in the same position and experience minimal or no change. According to Warner (2002), there is a solution to self deception and most individuals in leadership positions can always work towards solving it. People find the knowledge of self deception very liberating since it increases happiness and satisfaction, enlivens the desire for team work, increases accountability, sharpens vision, reduces feelings of conflict and magnifies the capacity to achieve results. Self deception therefore appears to enclose many good attributes in an individual. It is therefore important that individuals are enlightened on it for purposes of liberation. According to Arbingel Institute (2002), self betrayal on the other hand occurs as a result of being insincere on what you know is the right thing to do. In most cases, people tend to rationalize and justify their actions when they don't want to do what is considered as right so as to protect their egos. This results to transference of one's blame unto others as well as considering them as hindering objects. Self betrayal is very common among individuals in the society and results to interpersonal problems either at home or school. In reference to chapter one-Bud, it a... Consequently, they focus on giving their best in order to benefit the company and their fellow workers. The tricky thing that comes in is that their motivation is normally flawed; deceiving others into subtle ways and making them think that they are the right ones for the right reason. Self justification then becomes such an ingrained habit that it becomes hard to break free of it. The box The authors of the book have created a hypothetical situation whereby Tom Callum, a recently hired senior executive is settling into his new duties at Zagrum Company. It comes as a surprise to him when he realizes that part of his orientation involves identification of the box. The box has been used as a metaphor implying an enclosure and captivity. It also resembles apparel and people carry it wherever they go irrespective of the circumstance. In most instances, people create boundaries which normally limit their potential and eventually end up as failures. Confusion as a result of other's opinion Tom's conversation with the fellow workers as he sought to know what the meeting between him and Bud was all about portrays a clear picture of self betrayal among the workers since they were all insincere and did not give the right answer. Instead their explanations ended up confusing Tom. The confusion came about due to numerous opinions from different people. Their self betrayal resulted into self deception. Self deception in reference to one's performance On his way, to meet Bud, Tom reviewed his performance in Zagrum and he was quite sure that he was on the right track since he always arrived early for work and left very late in the evening. He did all that so as to outshine his fellow coworkers and compete for the

Free

Freedom in the Eyes of Kant Essay Term freedom implies various aspects and is seen as man’s endowments and thoughts within his parameter and his relationship with himself, his society and his environment. Various sociologists and theorist have their own interpretations and thoughts on what constitute freedom for a man. Whether in Rome or Greece, there has been constant transformation of Greek thoughts and methodologies on the concept of freedom. Epicurians thought that, â€Å"No bodily thing was born for us to use, Nature had no such aim, but what was born creates the use. † (Carus Humphries, 143) There is nothing in this universe that has been created for us to use but what has been born naturally becomes an essential element for us. From this doctrine, freedom gets its new meaning implying we are part of the nature and to the nature we owe our existence and our freedom is also based on this natural concept. From this concept, westerners began to analyze their thoughts on freedom and what is a true freedom? In sixteenth century, the whole concept of freedom was constantly changed. Changes occurred when the concept of slavery began to shake foundations of very core of humanity. The westerners began to seek the freedom of human beings from the jaws of slavery. From the 16th to 18th century, world saw considerable change: the beginning of modern era- a period when people began to see themselves free, free from autocracy, dictatorship and even more freedom from slavery. His mental attitude as observed was, â€Å"A reasonable man is always happy if he has what is necessary for him according to his condition [his place in the social order], that is to say, if he has the protection of the laws, and can live as his father lived before him: so that one of the essential things to the good of a nation is being governed in one constant and uniform manner. † (Rempel, Online edition) According to an ordinary man of the eighteenth century, his freedom lies in the will to live according to norms of the society and follow what is traditionally inherited for him. But literature and philosophical writers saw the new dawn of day, as there was a spontaneous over flow of significant thoughts of freedom emerging from their literary works. In the backdrop of this scenario, philosophers undertook social outlook of man in defining freedom. What is an essence of freedom in the eyes of philosophers in itself involves various paradoxes. Immanuel Kant, a product of eighteenth century looked at the freedom from various perspectives but he visualized these perspectives from the individual’s inner self: how human beings himself adjust to his actions from the angle of his preconceived notions. For Kant, freedom is â€Å"the power of self determination, and as absolute self activity. †(Heidegger, 16) In the general sense as according to Kant, freedom is an activity that arises from within human beings and takes a spontaneous movement. In other words, it implies that freedom does not mean any dictates of law from any society or surrounding or environment established by human’s themselves because Kantian said, â€Å"The human will is†¦[free] be cause sensibility does not necessitate its action. There is a man a power of self determination, independent of any coercion through sensuous impulses. †(Heidegger, 17) If we ask a question, is there a general characterization of freedom? Then the answer is no as we cannot put freedom under any category, because even Kant said that no one can prove freedom as something actual or something in a real sense. We all are confined into the domains of moral laws to fundamentally actualize our freedom. All the types of freedom man presupposes like the spontaneity of the understanding, autonomy of reason, free play of faculties in judgments of taste and the political freedom to think for oneself, run on the basis of the moral laws. We ensure and follow the freedom on the basis of this morality. For Kant, both the freedom and morality are same. A person follows his free will on basis of the morality. In the other words, freedom implies independence of any wish based on conditions. Kant’s concept of morality shows deep contradiction to what is known today as compatibilist theories on freedom. These theories try to combine determinism and freedom. You can follow your own terms in doing what you feel determined by your own inner nature that in turn is determined by the moral duty that you feel you have. If we feel that we have certain moral duty on us, then we also feel ourselves free to obey these moral duties. John Locke, in his The Second Treatise of Civil Government, maintains moral duty arises when we consider duty for others. It is, â€Å"respect for the autonomy of others, which means allowing the free exercise of the innocent, competent will of others in regard to their own interests. † (Ross, Online Edition) Kant formulated moral law on the ground of involving duty towards one self and towards others. This conception of human nature dates back to St. Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle. When we see in our practical life and look around our world, since centuries what we have been following are certain laws or moral codes and we have been taught our freedom is all based on the dictum of these moral laws. Here lies the most paradox situation. If we follow societies’ moral codes, then where will be our freedom as the true freedom implies when we have all the rights to do any thing under this blue sky but moral laws restrain us in performing our own free will and if Kant says freedom entails in following our own moral laws, is itself questionable. But it is also true that man is a social animal and is dependent on others for every of his needs and desires. This intrinsic nature of human beings resulted in the formation of societies and civilizations, where every one man is dependent on every other person for the fulfillment of his needs. If each and every person follows his own free thoughts, there will be only chaos therefore what must need to be followed are the moral duties and within these moral duties all our lives are dependent on. What is more significant for the Kant is that we are rational human beings. But being human being as a rational is also a disputable matter when it comes to homosexuality and sodomy. When we go entirely by Kant’s views, we cannot take into consideration homosexuals and the question arises: is there anything rational that moves in contradiction to these practices? Even if we choose ourselves things we want to do, we cannot in our endeavor do so without considering its causes. When we think in practical terms, moral laws do not actualize us to activate free will. If we take up the spontaneity of understanding by Kant, it is spontaneous movement of our thoughts and these three thoughts originate from the faculties of mind that can arose from the possibilities of sense, imagination and appreciation. (Savre, 163) He further developed the view that â€Å"Understanding is nothing but the unity of appreciation in relation to the synthesis of imagination†. (Savre, 164) In understanding of any action, Kant’s basic assumption lies in the power of logic thinking, in other words reasoning. The reasoning can also take many forms. Reason is a sort of systematically following of laws and principles and is a source of morality and feeling of our consciousness towards freedom. Reason for Kant is both logical as well as magnificent way to express freedom. When we look at every aspect from logical viewpoint and notion, it paves the way for certain conclusions and as transcendental faculty; it makes us go into the inner depth of our mind and to analyze things through the power of intuition. Kant gave very concrete differentiation between reason and understanding. He said that understanding is concerned with finitude whereas reason with infinite. Understanding is something that we consider something concrete and with understanding, there is no scope for, as said by Kant, synthetic cognition from conceptions that is why it is finitude. Understanding simply means to grasp what is shown to us and in our environment where as reason is a flow of thoughts. We can also say that understanding is the faculty of rules whereas reason is the faculty of principles. We may generalize that reason is closer to freedom than understanding as we are not bound by any rules though both are the different sides of same coin. It is our spontaneous understanding of one aspect that leads to reasoning. Freedom also lies in our judgment of other objects and things around us according to Kant are the free play of faculties in judgments of taste. For e. g. Let us take up beauty. We all have universal appeal for beauty. Others regard beauty as a subjective thing considered being as private preference but for Kant beauty is very objective and universal. Beauty is not just physical feature but it is the way we react towards that beautiful object. We are judging ourselves in our judgment of object and this involves our feeling towards the object but with universal claim. This individual judgment should be free from any restriction or any moral constraint and they are in turn symbol of moral freedom. As no one else except individual person is involved in the feeling and judgment of taste, it’s an individual autonomy. This free play is in a state between imagination and understanding. You understand the object and it is your freedom and free play of judgment that dictates you that the object is beautiful. The main difference between free play of judgment and other types of judgment is based on its core principles. This type of freedom is enshrined within you and takes place in same situations and same circumstances in every human being. In short Kant stated that, â€Å"Free play of judgments of taste can have the quantity of universality and the modality of necessity while retaining the quality of independence from direct moral interest and relation to merely subjective, cognitive interests rather than objective, practical ones†. (Guyer, Online Edition) As the democracy as form of government has emerged in several places, man has all the freedom of the political thinking. Kant held the view that every one has a freedom to deliver his political thoughts and enter into any social contract in political sphere. Kant separates the political rights with political thoughts from what we call morals. These are the most important kinds of freedom focused by Kant, but there are many different aspects of freedom that Kant ignored. Kant also postulated what is known as Science of Right followed and pursued by Jurists or jurisconsultus. Jurists or juriconsuluts have practical knowledge of legislations and laws enshrined in the subject whereas, as said by Kant, the rights and laws when looked from theoretical perspective come under the category pure science of right. He further said that, â€Å"The science of right thus designates the philosophical and systematic knowledge of the principles of natural right. And it is from this science that the immutable principles of all positive legislation must be derived by practical jurists and lawgivers. †(Kant, Online Edition) The science of right also enshrines within itself freedom: this freedom entails freedom on account of his being human, independent of any binding and he is justly right to attain this freedom, and which according to Kant is unimpeachable. Inherent within the man is also the right of common action-all the activities that bring the men together without infringing each other’s rights. Humans have right to convey their thoughts, narrate anything to other or promise truthfully or falsely and honestly or dishonestly and on the other hand it is right of others whether they accept it or reject their messages or actions. In all these aspects of freedom for Kant, humans express the best is the freedom of the free play of the faculties in judgments of taste as Guyer in â€Å"Kant on Freedom, Law, and Happiness† says, â€Å"We are entitled to our own happiness only if we exercise freedom, freely chosen actions. † (Guyer, 124) In faculties’ of judgment, it is we who are decision makers and make interpretations on basis of our own reasons. In other types of freedom still we are bound by one law or other but here too there is a certain essence of moral law that plays which is universal. We cannot interpret to anybody anything, we have certain moral and ethical duties on how we have to address others and interpret other things. This kind of human freedom is quite plausible and satisfying. According to Guyer, it is only this freedom that induces us to follow moral laws because we are all human beings and are social animals and our humanity requires us to respect others, which is a theory of respect and it in-turn involves good will. This faculty of the freedom and fair play of judgment is part of the nature. But as Kant says there is a great gulf between the â€Å"realm of the concept of nature† and the â€Å"concept of freedom†. (Guyer, 27) He further said that â€Å"the concept of freedom determines nothing in regard to the theoretical cognition of nature; the concept of nature likewise determines nothing in regard to the practical laws of freedom. † (Guyer, 27) This faculty of judgment is a middle-way between the concept of nature and freedom which makes it possible to create a link between what is purposeful natural and what is purposeful theoretical. It makes us move from the law-engulfed world of freedom towards what is purely and in true sense and spirit natural. (Guyer, 27) Kant’s critique of teleological judgment has raised the question to what extent is it legitimate to think of nature in teleological terms, in other words, in terms of ends, goals and purposes. After assuming all the possibilities and views of Newtonian science and other teleological judgments, he said that if study of organism is a part of natural science then all the products viewed by nature should not be considered as artifacts but as natural products. He further stated that still they should not be considered merely as essential forces of matter but should be considered in teleological terms. Anything what is produced naturally or designed have an end, as Kant stated, â€Å"It is required that its parts altogether reciprocally produced one another, as far as both their form and combination is concerned, and thus produce a whole out of their own casuality. † (Ginsborg, 5) He said all the natural objects are considered to have a natural end, and the entire end must be â€Å"cause and effect of itself. † (Ginsborg, 5) For e. g. Trees are free beings that reproduce its species and the parts of trees stand depended and are in relation to each other, leaves perform the function of taking care of tree whereas tree in turn produces leaves, but this concept is different than watch. Watch does follow first two conditions but does not follow the third. It is not possible for the wheel in the watch to produce another wheel, and still less one watch does not produce other watches, and when we have to compare it is not possible for a watch to repair itself or to replace the removed parts. But Kant said that â€Å"An organized being is thus not a mere machine, because that has solely moving force [bewegende Kraft]; rather it possesses formative force, and indeed of a kind which it communicates to kinds of matter [Materien] which not have it (it organizes them), thus a self-propagating formative force, which cannot be explained through the capacity for movement (mechanism) alone. † (Ginsborg, 5) From these points it is true that nature is viewed teleologically, and there are free beings like watch, which are not natural but mechanical and can be considered beyond nature as man invented it but its conduct is quite natural. WORKS CITED Carus, Titus Lucretius Humphries, Rolfe. â€Å"The Way Things are: The De Rerum Natura of Titus Lucretius Carus† Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1968. Ginsborg, Hannah. â€Å"Kants biological teleology and its philosophical significance† Available: http://209. 85. 175. 104/search? q=cache:-DckacXj2cQJ:https://itunes. berkeley. edu/file/10/Kants_Biological_Teleology. pdf+Kant%27s+biological+teleology+and+its+philosophical+significancehl=enct=clnkcd=1gl=in, June 17, 2008 Guyer, Paul, Kant on Freedom, Law, and Happiness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Guyer, Paul. â€Å"Kant and the Experience of Freedom: Essays on Aesthetics and Morality†. Cambridge: Cambridge University Publisher, 1993. Guyer, Paul. â€Å"Kant, Immanuel† In E. Craig (Ed. ), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. London: Routledge. Internet (2004). Available: http://www. rep. routledge. com/article/DB047SECT12, June 17, 2008. Heidegger, Martin. â€Å"The essence of human freedom: An Introduction to Philosophy†. London New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005. Kant, Immanuel. â€Å"THE SCIENCE OF RIGHT†. (Translated by W. Hastie). Internet. Available: http://www. 4literature. net/Immanuel_Kant/Science_of_Right/, June 17, 2008 Laehn, Thomas. Liberty, Law, and the Historicity of Man in Ancient Rome Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Palmer House Hotel, Chicago, IL, Apr 12, 2007 (Internet). Available: http://www. allacademic.com/meta/p197401_index. html, June 15, 2008 Rempel, Gerherd. â€Å"18th Century Social Order:Peasants and Aristos†. (Internet) Available: http://mars. wnec. edu/~grempel/courses/wc2/lectures/peasantsaristos. html, June 15, 2008 Ross, Kelley L. â€Å"The Fallacies of Egoism and Altruism, and the Fundamental Principle of Morality† Internet (2007) Available: http://www. friesian. com/moral-1. htm, June 17, 2008. Svare, Helge. â€Å"Body and Practice in Kant†. Netherlands: Springer, 2006.

The romantic period and the poems of Blake Essay Example for Free

The romantic period and the poems of Blake Essay The Romantic Period which lasted 1785 to 1830 was a significant period that made a paramount contribution to the growth of English language and literature. The writers of the Romantic period were influenced by historical events such as the French revolution. Thus the Romantic period was shaped by a multitude of political, social, and economic changes. Many writers of the period were aware of a pervasive intellectual and imaginative climate which some called as Zeitgeist: Spirit of the age. Some poets call themselves as visionary bards who had the capability to prognosticate the future. There are six major writers that represent in the concepts of the Romantic period by names: Wordsworth, Keats, Percy Shelly, Byron, Coleridge and Blake. The work of these writes can be categorized under different themes. William Blake was a poet who lashed out against repression in all its many forms. The plight of the oppressed, be it the wretched child condemned to the drudgery of chimney sweeping, the hapless soldier, the youthful harlot or the robin redbreast in a cage moved him to a furious advocacy of liberty and the repudiation of reason which was seen as having a tyrannical hold on man preventing him from breaking out of the bonds that held him. Blakes Chimney sweeper in the songs of experience, crying weep, weep in notes of woe that his parents oblivious to the poor creatures suffering are gone to praise God and his priest and king/ who make a heaven of our misery. According to the boys words it is possible to deduce that it is their false reasoning that blinds them to the chimney sweepers plight; And because I am happy, dance and sing / they think they have done me no injury. Thus while openly criticizing and rejecting the traditionally accepted figures of authority the poet subtly shows that the tyrannical system is maintained by reason. Blakes Garden of Love clearly exhibits how the church has become a harmful to the people while creating disillusionment in the poets mind. The church is openly criticized by Blake for not being truly religious but being a pernicious institution The Garden indicates the romantic symbols of joy and innocence. But in the middle of the garden A chapel has been built. The graves indicate the death of that joy and innocence. Among Blakes work the poem which manifests this theme best is London. The poet is looking at the marks of weakness, marks of woe plainly etched on the faces of the passes by. As the poem develops the causes for the suffering of the Londoners are made clear. Blake accuses the blackening church for the sorrow of the innocent chimney sweepers. The hapless soldiers life is frittered away by the rulers and the young women with no means of sustenance are forced into eking out a meager living through the dangerous trade of harlotry. London echoes and resounds with cries of suffering and marks of weakness, marks of woe apparent on every face the bard encounters manifest the complete permeation of suffering in London society. However, this is also a society where there not only exists Institutionalized religion and governance but these very authority figures suppress the growth of the society by burdening it with manifold sufferings and turning a deaf ear to the protests of the people. Unfortunately, the troubles of London are not limited to a socio-political sphere. If so they could have been righted by revolution. The greatest enemy the Londoners face is the mind forged manacles which prevent them from moving on to a better life. How does one fight a foe firmly wedged in ones mind, restraining growth? Blakes songs of innocence are peopled with children, rural folk and harmless animals like lambs. They are characteristically joyful and innocent enjoying all they see and experience. Their state is one filled with unsophisticated spirituality and optimism. The Lamb is written in the form of a childs monologue with a sheep. The innocence of the child, its simple enjoyment of the beauty of nature and the close communion it has with nature is apparent in the guileless act of speaking to an animal. The child finds delight in the sheeps soft and bright fleece, and its tender voice. The child in its innocence poses one of the most profound questions that have been troubling humanity for millennia: that of origin, Little lamb who made thee? / Dost thou know who made thee? However, the child answers its own question with a strong simple belief in the Christian teachings, He is called by thy name / for he calls himself a lamb Enjoying the simple beauty and safety of un-fallen nature the child finds it possible to connect Jesus and God the creator with the world around itself. The state of innocence inherent in the child coupled with his lack of experience in evil prevents him from questioning the existence of cruel powers as the adult persona of The Tiger does, Did he who make the lamb make thee (tiger)? Another poem of Blakes which manifests the innocent spirituality of children and the noble savage is The Little Black Boy. Seated under a tree shading them from the tropical sun the mother teaches spirituality and Gods Infinite love to her little Negro son. The boy is taught to regard sun shine as a part of Gods love giving off light and heat to the flowers and trees and beasts and men. Thus the boy learns to view all things in nature as a part of Gods kingdom, receiving his love and protection. The colour of the skin is viewed as a temporary covering to be shed when souls have learnt to bear Gods love. The Negro boy sees spiritual love as a force common to all, transcending barriers of color and race. Therefore he is ready to teach this lesson of eternal love and grace to the white boy of whom the poet gives the impression as not being so innocent and worthy of Gods love as the black boy who will shade from the heat till the former is spiritually developed and capable of facing Gods love. Thus drawing on the objects of nature such as the sun, clouds, flora and fauna the little black boy builds up a spiritual message on unconditional love in the afterlife. The antithetical states of innocence and experience, their relative merits and demerits were of deep concern to Blake as portrayed through his songs of innocence and experience. The state of innocence abounds with joy, optimism and love but is sullied by its nai ve, rose tinted outlook on life. In The Little Black Boy the innocent purity of the little boys belief in divine love and the promise of a better life in the world hereafter are endearing. With a great deal of tender maternal love his mother teachers him the greater lesson of divine love. The poet draws a touching and interesting picture of the mother and the son engaged in their lessons under a tree. The boys belief and practice of love surpasses barriers of race and color as he will look after the English boy, shading him from the heat, till he can bear / to lean in joy upon our fathers knee. It is a touching and moving picture of humanity and piety but although the little back boy discards racial barriers due to his inexperience, the negative effects of racial discrimination are nevertheless apparent through his words. The little black boys attitude towards the English boy appears to be rather subservient throughout despite the fact that the former seems fuller of Christian virtues. It is a society where fairness is clearly associated with goodness and darkness with its opposite. This becomes apparent in the lines, White as an angel is the English child, / But I am black, as if bereaved of light. These lines are innocently uttered by the boy with no bitterness but the connotations of racial discrimination are present in them. The black boy persisting in his belief that in the after life both black and white will be equal, phrases this view in a manner which once again brings out the effects of the color bar, And be like him (the white boy) and he will love me. This gives rise to several questions such as, why cannot the white boy be like the black boy and not vice versa? Is the white boy only capable of loving the God? Even though Blake was added to the romantic period after poetry his poetry make a huge contribution to the Romantic ideas and views.

Sustainability Asset Management (SAM)

Sustainability Asset Management (SAM) Introduction The concept of Sustainability currently is been paid more and more attention. The idea of Triple Bottom Line (TBL) which Economic, Social and Environment or Profit, People and Planet (PPP) are concerned not only from societies or non-government organization (NGO) but also from all stakeholders; shareholders, investors, employees, customers, etc.. As there are many studies on corporate sustainability, corporate social responsibility which many of them shown positive outcome or positive relation between corporate sustainability and corporates performances or outcomes in either in monetary or non-monetary term or both (Groot Churet, 2009; Peters Mullen, 2009; Samy, Odemilin, Bampton, 2010). Monitoring system has been developed to make business more sustainable by supporting corporation to measure, indicate, monitor and report their operation or sustainability activities and performance for their performance improvement overtime. A characteristic of monitoring system should be accurate, balance in performance accounting, comparable, easy to understand and match to firms activities plan (GRI, 2010) which also mean monitoring system should able to assess sustainability performance respect to the legislation, norm, code, and standard with accountability, be able to continuous developed according to the expectations, be able to interpret and understand the positive and negative impact to the firms, comparability over companies, over time that can support organization to make decision for organization strategy, implementation plan, outcome and continuous improvement (GRI, 2010). One of the most well-known monitoring systems is Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) which will expl ore further detail in this report. This report will briefly introduce the history and the development of sustainability accounting and reporting following by the overview concept of SAM Sustainability Asset Management, Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI) and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) as monitoring systems. Then review and analyze a selected company, Nestle as a leader multinational food Producer Company in which their vision and mission are concerning not only on economic but also environment and social as their hope to be a part to shape the world for more sustainable (Nestle, 2010). Furthermore its relevant sustainability dimensions will be identified and described on the boundary implemented in its operation, including the indicator measured and results reported to the publics, its limitation, challenges and how will it use those indicators for company performance improvement. Literature review history and development One of the literatures of sustainability accounting and reporting development reviewed from Burritt and Schaltegger (2010) which aim to classify paths and the future of sustainability accounting and reporting assessment mentioned that there are two main developing tracks. The first one is a viewpoint of a critical theory which seen sustainability accounting development as a cause and source from corporate sustainability problems which may not reach the purpose of firms sustainability information disclosure and can be seen as a fashionable which may fade out after sometime. While another path looks sustainability reporting as a tool for management to support and make different decisions and actions according to those information. In the critical path sustainability accounting development, the Bruntland Report, World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), was published in 1987 and seemed to pull attention from the public for the global need of sustainable development but because insufficient understanding of sustainability this corporate sustainability report was not well defined and been abandoned (Burritt Schaltegger, 2010). Even the sustainability accounting process and reports was not clear though some companies still use sustainability reports caused by the pressure from both internal stakeholder managers and external stakeholder publics, media, societies to gained competitive advantage as reputation, market opportunities and to perceived from others perception on sustainability (Bebbington et al. as cited in Burritt Schaltegger, 2010). Another sustainability accounting development, managerial path, by comparing the financial accounting, the management reports were designed to meet the need of firms managers for decision making, planning and controlling while financial statements e.g. balance sheet, financial performance reports were designed for external stakeholders in which the first sustainability reports tried to linked with these accounting reports by integrating economic, social and environment aspect to support management decision and other stakeholder decision. Burritt and Schaltegger (2010) proposed three approaches for sustainability accounting which are inside-out, outside-in and twin-track. For the first approach inside-out, it is an approach for a company to define its business strategy, implementation plan and make decision from sustainability performance measurement and reporting that trying to contribute to social and environment together with economic to strengthen their market position, gain competitive advantage from good reputation or value added to customers and even in monetary term from new technologies concerning with triple bottom line or innovated process that reduced waste, energy saving, emission reduction which decrease operational expenses and increase profit for the firm. Secondly, the approach of outside-in is an approach from external organization such as Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) that supply guideline for a company for sustainability reporting and can be used as a driven forces for management consideration of how can the firm contribute to sustainable development and meet expectation from stakeholders. In which GRI is one of the best well-known sustainability reporting guideline (Brown et al. as cited in Burritt Schaltegger, 2010). Also, the way to measure, indicate, monitoring and reporting had taken into account as the study on the market reaction to the first-time release of corporate sustainability reports (Guidry Patten, 2010) in which they examined from US firms report according to Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) found that even there were no significant market reactions from the corporates sustainability released announcement but the it is positive significant to the quality of the reports in which the more market reaction to the highest quality report than lower quality report. Those evidences could implicate that people (investors in this study) are more concern in the detail or quality of the sustainability not only to have or simply mention corporate social responsibility in the annual report (Erusalimsky et al. cited in Guidry Patten, 2010). Monitoring System: SAM Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes and Global Report Initiative One example of monitoring system that has been develop as the important of corporate sustainability and increased interested from organizations stakeholders consist of societies, media, customers, employees, NGO, investors etc. reviewed earlier, an asset management company in Switzerland, SAM; Sustainable Asset Management, specializing in corporate sustainability investments has founded in 1995 and turn to be one of the worlds leading investment groups, looking for and identify the leading companies base on sustainability criteria using one of the largest sustainability corporation database by cooperated with Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) in analyze companies all over the world in yearly basis (SAM, 2009). In 2009, from 2,500 largest companies according to Dow Jones Wilshire Global index had been analyzed and only 15% 367 companies in 57 different sectors were qualified which classified in three different level; SAM Gold Class scored more than 75%, Silver Class scored 70-75% and Bronze Class scored 65-70%. The scores were measured across all three perspectives economic, social and environment. As mentioned the SAM collaboration with DJSI. DJSI is one of the biggest and longest datable that has been launch in 1999 provided reference point for corporate sustainability assessment by measuring and indexed base on economic, environment and social criteria of the firms. The assessment processes are conducted annually by SAM using different weighted criteria in general and specific-industrial to assess companies according to firms opportunities and risk from their sustainability trends. The assessment are the response from the companies based on SAM questionnaire including companies document and from others third-party. This assessment report then will assure by Deloitte defining rules. The dimension, criteria and weighting are shown as diagram below: Source: Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, 2010 Another example of monitoring system is GRI Global Reporting Initiative which has developed in 1997 from the idea to disclosure sustainability information framework by CRES, non-profit organization in Boston, the pioneer of environmental reporting framework since early 1990s. The first GRI version of sustainability report guidelines, G1 guideline, had released in 2000 following by the G2 Guideline in 2002 and the recent version of GRI, G3 Guideline launched in 2006 (GRI, 2010). The GRI Guideline aim support an organization to what it has to report and how to report. The overview concept can be explained by the figure: Source: Global Reporting Initiative: G3 Framework and Executive Summary (GRI, 2010). In how to report, the GRIs Principle Guidance and Protocols are provided to ensure that the report is focused to both internal and external stakeholders value. In the principle and guidance part the processes are first, to define the report content relating to core component, stakeholder comprehensiveness, sustainability perspective and completeness. Secondly, make sure the report quality by concerning with accuracy, balance, comparable, easy to understand, timely and reliable of the report. Third, set the report boundary by determine the organization unit, function or process to be include in the report. Another part on what to report Standard Disclosure, Sector Supplements and National Annexes are provided and using three different measurements which are: Profile to express strategic approach and governance, Second, Management Approach to explain the sustainability goals and management used and Third, Performance Indicators which accountable on economic, environment and social performance. Company Description: Nestlà © was established in 1867, Switzerland by Henri Nestlà © (Koese, 2008). The meaning of Nestlà © is little nest (Nestlà ©, n.d.). The first product of Nestlà © was FarineLactee Nestlà © for children who mother cannot feed them with the breast. The current product line including chocolates, soups, instant coffee, cornflakes, frozen foods, seasoning and mineral water as well as they expanded their products to pet foods, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics (Sefcik, n.d.). Nestlà © accomplished with the innovative and business acquisitions to become the world largest Food Company in term of sales which has factories in 83 countries globally. The vision of Nestlà © is known as the leading in Nutrition, Health, and Happiness company (Nestlà ©, 2010; Mali, Ali, Rana, Ilyas Khan, n.d.). According to Nestlà © (2010) stated that Our mission  of Good Food, Good Life  is to provide consumers with the best tasting, most nutritious choices in a wide range of food and beverage categories and eating occasions, from morning to night. With it vision and mission, Nestlà © focuses on 5 areas namely the consumers, human rights and labour operations, human resources, supplier and customers, and environment (The Nestlà © Corporate Business Principles, 2010) using 10 principles on its business operations consist of: Consumers Nutrition, health, and wellness is the first principle that company needs to increase the quality of consumers daily life by adding more tastier and healthier to their products. Quality assurance and product safety provides the safe and high quality to consumers. Consumer communication, the company provide responsible to consumers to reach consumers need such as infant foods. Human rights and labour operations Human rights in our business activities is the fourth principle which emphasizing providing and supporting good real situation of human right and labour performances via business activities. Human resources Fifth principle is leadership and personal responsibility by respecting and reputing to all staff as well as motivating and providing opportunities to develop themselves in management and leadership. Safety and health at work is the sixth principle of business operations that concern with obviating the hazard, harm, and sickness from work. Suppliers and customers The seventh principle is suppliers and customers relations by expressing the reliability and equality to contractors and clients. Agriculture and rural development, the company provides the advancement in the production, community, and financial to farmers and rural people as well as create environmentally friendly in term of sustainability. Environment Ninth is environmental sustainability. The company takes the sustainability in environmentally friendly into action through business activities as well as product life cycle by using the resources efficiently. The last principle is water due to the company create the sustainable of water as well as development in water systems by managing as the confining resources. Sustainability dimensions most relevant to Nestlà © Nestlà © is responsible for creating the corporate achievement in long term in term of creating shared value. (Nestlà ©, 2009) The company follows the highest standard of business activities and environmental sustainability which concerns in various areas of sustainability such as socio-cultural, economic, and environmental. Refer to the companys objective is known as the leader in Nutrition, Health, and Wellness; it relates with the sustainable in triple bottom lines such as financial, social, and environment issues (Nestlà © Oceania, 2009). Nestlà © believes their business activities in term of sustainability can create environmentally friendly for future. (Nestlà ©, 2009) Regarding to sustainable development to Nestlà ©, it can define as the expansion that reach the need in the present by using the fully ability to satisfy individuals need of next generation. Description: CSV Conversely, the company makes business profit in long term by going beyond cooperation and sustainable to create value for investors and society. In addition, Nestlà © emphasizes on the global environmental issues such as nutrition, water, and rural development as well as these issues can create strong business strategy and competitive advantage to increase the shareholder value and attain the socials requirement (Nestlà ©, 2009). The dimensions relevant to Nestle are categorized as: Socio-cultural dimensions First of all, nutrition is one of the relevance of Nestlà ©s sustainability due to the company focuses on helping people and society healthy (Nestlà ©, 2009). The company creates the nutrition aim to improve health and provide more choice to consumers as well as adding up quality of life. In addition, the company also focuses on the lowest impact with environmental problems. Moreover, the company needs to provide knowledge and understanding in the consumers. The company tries to develop and improve their products with high quality of foods to support low-income consumer as well as pursuing with World Health Organizations regulation. Furthermore, Nestlà © renovates products by providing the nutrition labelling and descriptions on the packaging as well as develop nutritional knowledge and training in infant formula marketing employees (Nestlà ©, 2009). Nestlà © has several aspects that make corporate sustainability. For instance, the research and development is one of factor that concern for the social sustainability. The RD needs to have well planning to drive the company achievement in the consumers needs. The company also provides diversify of products to improve branded active benefits for health benefits to customers. However, there are some problems that Nestlà © faces such as the increasing rate of obesity in the developing countries (Nestlà ©, 2009). Second, rural development is one of aspects that Nestlà © concerns due to the company works directly with the farmers. Most of them live in the rural areas and work as agriculturists. Nestlà © creates sustainable by supporting them to have better standard of living, increasing in productivity, and protecting the environment. The company also has the high quality of raw material to support the consumers and make more profit because they reduce the intermediaries. Nestlà © supports social sustainability by providing the knowledge, loans, rural employment, and training as well as technical assistance to rural people. The company also manages the relationship with suppliers to save the distribution costs and obtain high quality of raw materials. Moreover, the company can create shared value via supplier development by providing training and knowledge as well as reach high standard of the company (Nestlà ©, 2009). Last are human resources that focus on the sustainability and stability in work life as well as the employees satisfaction. Nestlà © aims to invest for professional training and development in quality of staff as well as provide the job opportunities and environmental in the workplace. The company also needs to create the respect and parity at all level within the company (Nestlà ©, 2009). Health and safety is one of the important factors that can create the sustainability in organization such as the zero accident during work. Employees need to work in the secure and comfortable place which can create more productivity. The relationship within employee is emphasizing on the human rights, culture and equity which can connect to the sustainable in corporation. Moreover, Nestlà © concerns in the gender balance in term of multicultural diversity within the company. Training and learning are necessary to create business success by staffs need to understand their job and use effectively skills as well as the company provides the management training and leadership development to their employees. In addition, Nestlà © creates in employee engagement and workplace wellness to build corporate sustainable (Nestlà ©, 2009). Environmental dimensions Nestlà © concerns in water and environmental sustainability which improve production process and environmental performance as well as they produce goods with lowest environmental effect. The company launches the environmental sustainability programs to reduce use in water and natural resources as well as develop the packaging to maintain environmentally friendly. Moreover, company promotes more sustainable in supply chain management in water. Nestlà © is continuing to improve the environmental performance such as water resources and reduce the energy consumption as well as renovate energy sources (Nestlà ©, 2009). Nestlà © has environmental management to improve the sustainable development in order to business activities. The company is also responsible for engaging stakeholders performance and capture leadership role. The company also creates the environmental sustainability in product life cycle by focusing on the environmental impacts such as production process, conveyances, a nd consumption. Water is the natural resources that an essential for Nestlà © due to the company uses water for agriculture. (Nestlà ©, 2009) Therefore the company manages the water resource as main factors of creating shared value. Another factor is climate change, Nestlà © concerns for the greenhouse gas emanation by improving energy, and converting to cleaner fuels as well as renewal of energy. Moreover, transport and distribution, the company works on the environmental impact to reduce the environmental issues. The company also reduces the waste and recovery of by-products and increases the reprocess of by-products as well. In addition, Nestlà © emphasizes on the packaging due to it is necessary for food safety by providing the nutritional information to consumers. Hence, the company focuses on the innovative of packaging that makes from natural resources such as plastics as well as motivates consumers to reuse plastic bottle (Nestlà ©, 2009). Economical dimensions Nestlà © provides the economic sustainability through the principles and policies which concerns in management approach. (Nestlà ©, 2009) Nestlà © also indicates the economic sustainability into risk and opportunities in climate change. Nestlà © create sustainability in core strategy in term of rural development due to the company provides knowledge training to communities as well as develop the rural areas. Moreover, the company provides long term micro financial loans to farmer as well as employment. Nestlà © has project to invest and develop in term of agriculture activities such as growing and improving coffee quality and sustainability. Nestlà © also shares the Creating Shared Value and supply chain in order to consumers, suppliers and distributors, industry, employees, government, and shareholders which sharing as consumer surplus, suppliers of raw materials and packaging, price and cost of company productivity, job and revenue of staff, taxes, and enhance in share-holder value. Analysis of Nestle indicators From Nestle company perspective, they believed that Creating Shared Value for societies that go beyond regulations, business principle, code of conduct compliance and sustainability to protect the future concerning with all stakeholders can create long-term value for their shareholder and company value in the term of economic, innovation, social and environment too. They are support UN Global compact and committed business principle base on sustainability and had developed conceptual framework measured the impacts on all stakeholders which depict as the figure below. Apart from the stakeholders impact matrix mentioned, they also looked in to materiality issues and analyze on their value chain which concerning from stakeholders and identified key performance index, focused area and prioritize according to degree from low to high of the impact and the interest of society that helped the company to utilize resources allocation, clearly goals setting and proper action plan in each focused areas. Source: Nestle Creating Shared Value, published on www.nestle.com, 2010 Analyzing to the Nestle monitoring system, their recent indicators are measured and reported in the form of United Nation Global Compact Principles which are Economic, Nutrition, Water, Environment Sustainability, Rural development, Suppliers, People and in addition with external assessment from SAM using Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI) and Bureau Veritas assurance for Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). This report will describe and evaluate indicators from the dimensions of Socio-Cultural, economic and environment by using DJSI and GRI for analysis. Overall, results of performance indicator by SAM, Nestle been classified in to SAM Gold Class and ranked second leader in Food Producers Sector according to SAM methodology and assessment as shown in figure below. Source: SAM Sustainability Yearbook 2010 The performance indicators measured were weighting across Economic 34%, Environment 29% and Social Dimension 37% which can been seen that it got highest score in Social Dimension and almost highest in Environment Dimension that match with the firm focused areas on Nutrition, Rural development Our people as Social and Water Environment Sustainability as Environment Dimension as shown in table below. Source: SAM Company Benchmarking Scorecard, Corporate Sustainability Assessment, 2010 Looking into another indicator, GRI, Nestle GRI report shown its application level on B+ which mean they met criteria requirement in level B shown below and the report assured by external auditor Bureau Veritas. The reasons Nestle not met level A are because the reports did not respond to core G3 version and Sector Supplement Indicator; Nestle are categorized in Food Producers Sector. Source: GRI Application Levels version 3.0, 2010 The detail indicator analysis according to different dimension will explain in the following section. Economic Dimension DSJI Sustainability Assessment in economic dimension In DJSI Economic Dimension, it evaluated in 6 criteria indicators using the Sustainability Assessment questionnaire responded from the company, Nestle, consist of Corporate Governance Risk Crisis Management Code of Conduct / Compliance / Corruption Bribery Innovation Management Health Nutrition Strategy for Emerging Markets The DJSI report of Nestle Company evaluated by SAM can be seen as table below: It can be seen that Nestle Score are more than average in every area that evaluated by the answers responded from the questionnaire. For example: In corporate governance, it reported Checks Balance of the Board structure using two-tier system with supervisory board from non-executive and independent directors of total 14 persons compared to 13 from management board from executive management and the role of CEO is split from Chairman. It reported formal corporate government statement. There are 3 women in board for gender diversity. Board owned the company stock to align with long-term interest of shareholders. Another example in Risk Crisis Management including water and climate which Nestle got the best score shown that it assigned specific management staff Head of Group Risk Management, to response and report in this area, it using risk analysis tool such as HACCP, Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), etc. and correlated analysis all this risks to business and financial risk including sensitivity and stress test such as change in carbon pricing, water quality. It has contingency plans using Nestle Environmental Management System (EMS) including ISO14001. More detail questionnaire answers can be seen from SAM Research Corporate Sustainability Assessment Questionnaire, DJSI Sustainability Assessment 2010, NESTLE SA/AG. Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) for Economic dimension measuring in 3 performance areas as Economic performance, 4 indicators: EC1, EC2, EC3 and EC4 Market presence, 3 indicators: EC5, EC6 and EC7 Indirect economic impacts, 2 indicators: EC8 and EC9 For example: Nestle reported EC1: Direct economic value generated and distributed as below figures: It reviewed that the group achieved organic growth of 4.1% but because of Swiss franc currency weakness, it reported sale down to 107.6 Billion CHF. While the EBIT margin is increased to 14.6% and also dividend per share are increased 14.3%. The profitability is increased because of the cost saving target from Nestle Continuous Excellence (NEC) program. Also it increases its RD investment by 1.9% of sale for long-term brand building and investment. Another example of EC2 Risks and opportunities due to climate change: It can be seen that Nestle has improve energy efficiency and renewable energy expansion use over year such as it reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 3.1% from 2008. Environmental Dimension DSJI Sustainability Assessment in environmental dimension The score are measured in 8 different sub dimensions and Nestlà ©s score are shown in below table: Nestlà ©s all scores are above the average and some of them get the best score. Those score achieved by the company performance, for example in Environmental Policy / Management System, Nestle has adopted environmental policy which committed to environment since publish global policy on environment in 1991 where preserving natural resources and reduced wasted are in its operations which include the reduction use of water per kilo of food and beverage produced, signed UN Global Compact, improved environment through SAI-platform (Sustainable Agriculture Initiative), participated Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), shared knowledge through Greening the Supply Chain (CGS) program which help suppliers to develop their EMS (DJSI, 2010). Nestle EMS verify by ISO14001. Another indicator in Operational Eco-Efficiency, reported that the EP- Direct Greenhouse Gas Emissions in 2009 was 3976158 Metric ton CO2 equivalent compared to 4104488 in 2008, also Indirect Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Energy purchased, Water consumption, Waste generation were reduced from the previous year. Additional example of Packaging indicator, Nestle policy is integrated with environmental aspects which applied to holistic life cycle farm to consumer to reduced weight and volume of materials, Packing reduction, recyclable packaging, use recycled materials, biodegradable packaging, recovered energy from used packages in which all detail reported can be seen from Nestle publications, eco-design and by invested in RD Sustainability Council to ensure that sustainability is taking in to account in all development products. Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in Environment Dimension are measured in 9 different areas as Material: 2 indicators EN1 and EN2 Energy: 5 indicators EN3 to EN7 Waster: 3 indicators EN8, EN9, EN10 Biodiversity: 5 indicators EN11, EN12, EN13, EN14 and EN15 Emissions, effluents and waste: 10 indicators EN16 to EN25 Products and Services: 2 indicators EN26 and EN27 Compliance: 1 indicator EN28 Transport: 1 indicator EN29 Overall: 1 indicator EN30 At Nestle, for example in Material EN1: Materials used by weight or volume, it shown that it reduced 58,995 tons of materials weight from 21.43 million tons in 2008 to 21.18 million tons in 2009 as table below: Next example of Energy EN3: Direct energy consumption by primary energy source. It can be seen that Nestle had reduced energy consumption and move toward renewable energy sources. Additional example of Water EN8: Total water withdrawal by source in which Nestle aim to be the most efficiency water user and they can reduced 143 million cubic meters in 2009. Another example of Emissions, effluents and waste EN16: Total direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions by weight reported reduced in 2009 compared to 2008. Further example of Products and Services EN26: Initiative to mitigate environmental impacts of products and services, and extend of impact mitigation. Nestle conducted Life Cycle Assessments to determine the impact to environment from its product such as coffee products and used those information for RD and share among communities for further improvement as shown in figure below: Social Dimension DSJI Sustainability Assessment in social dimension SAM was assessed in 7 main area indicators which Nestle assessment score are shown as below table: For example in Labor Practice Indicators, Nestle reported that it has a strict policy of non-discrimination base on gender, ethnic, nationality, religion and performance characteristic which from the Labor KPI as Non-Discrimination / Diversity shown 33% of women in the workforce and 27% in management position and the diversity distribute among 33.9% in Europe, 38% in America 28.1% in Asia, Oceania and Africa. Also for the safety in the workplace it used international standard of OHSAS 18001 as safety work indicators in which only 0.23 in

The Internet and Theories of Fantasy :: essays research papers fc

The Internet and Theories of Fantasy [Summary. This paper analyzes the work of Bertolt Brecht in relation to fantasy and reality. Theatre and the Internet today, reach several parallels this paper attempts to uncover; and also to answer the question is it ever really there at all? In conclusion this paper will make not that the internet is really just a space of play.] Brecht used epic theatre to bring forth an idea or meaning for the audience to consider while entertaining the audience. Epic theatre involves the use of alienation techniques to distance the viewer from the story but still concentrate on the overall meaning. The person who just views the story would likely take it as fantasy and not reach the true depth of the play. Brecht shocks the viewer by making the events and actions in the play "strange and abstract" this contrasts with dramatic plays where the audience sympathises and relates to the characters of the play. Brecht believed that "To think, or write, or produce a play also means to transform society, to transform the state, to subject ideologies to close scrutiny." Having established this doctrine for himself, Brecht instigated the use of epic theatre in an attempt to break from the Aristotelian definition. Although he did not approve of the Aristotelian version, he redefined the nature of catharsis to suit his needs. (Brecht 71-90) Quick to criticism the role of the audience in traditional theatre, Brecht placed particular emphasis on the eventual let down created by fantasy. "For many, the theatre is the abode where dreams are created. You, players, sellers of drugs, in your darkened houses people are changed into kings and perform heroic deeds of safety. In rapture over themselves, or seized with pity they sit in happy distraction, forgetting the toils of daily life. Runaways. .. Of course, should someone come in, his ears still full of the roar of the city, himself still sober, he would scarcely recognize there, up on stage, the world he has just left. And leaving your house, he would scarcely know the world-- now no longer king, but lowly man-- he'd scarcely find himself at home in real life." (Brecht 54) Brecht's reference to actors as "sellers of drugs" is particularly apt imagery. The actors sell a package of fabricated grandeur to the audience, which experiences a rush of feeling leading to an emotional high. However, at the end of the performance, the audience has already experienced the highest emotional climax, the memory of which is strung along by the inevitable plot resolution.

Essays --

Ernest Hemingway uses the various events in Nick Adams life to expose the reader to the themes of youth, loss, and death throughout his novel In Our Time. Youth very often plays its part in war, and since In Our Time relates itself very frequently to war throughout; it is not a surprise that the theme of youthful innocence arises in many of the stories. In â€Å"Indian Camp† the youthful innocence is shown in the last sentence of the story: â€Å"In the early morning on the lake sitting in the stern of the boat with his father rowing, he felt quite sure that he would never die.† (19) When this sentence and the conversation Nick and his father have before they get on the boat are combined in thought it shows that because of Nicks age at the time that he does not yet understand the concept of death. Throughout the book youth has a complicated relationship with aging. This can be seen in â€Å"Three-Day Blow† when Nick and Bill are drinking, acting childish and just having fun. They talk about each others’ fathers and about missed opportunities even though they cannot really understand what they are...

What is the importance of Moira in the Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale ?

Moira is a strong character whose determination and past life experiences influence her actions within the new Gilead regime. Moira is undoubtedly a role model for the handmaids in the novel as she is brave and is motivated by her beliefs from which she developed even before the regime was introduced. Moira is also Offred's friend with whom she can associate comfort and trust. However, her determination for her own survival shows her to be selfish and dangerous. One of the underlying purposes of Moira in the novel is as a link to Offred's past. There are many occasions in the novel when Offred refers to her friendship with Moira before the regime: ‘There was a time we didn't hug after she told me she was gay, but then she said I didn't turn her on' Throughout the novel Moira is displayed as a flamboyant character, here, she willingly jokes about her sexuality in order to comfort Offred. She appears to be a complete contrast to Offred as she is bold and out-going, her language is vulgar and brash. Furthermore, the fact that she is allowed to be gay in society shows how much more freedom there was in a pre-Gilead culture. Moira is a clear role model for the handmaids, especially Offred. She displays exceptional courage and determination throughout her time at the Red Centre: ‘You can't let her go slipping over the edge. That stuff is catching' When Janine shows weakness in the Red Centre, Moira takes it upon herself to help her and make sure the Aunts don't find her like it. The fact she tells Offred how to help Janine shows Moira plans to escape. The escape from the Red Centre for the Handmaid's is a fantasy, and when Moira successfully escapes, she too becomes their fantasy. Offred is particularly impressed by Moira's actions and at one point states ‘ if I were Moira, I'd know how to take it apart' This shows Offred's respect for Moira, and suggests her will to be like her. However, Offred makes no attempt to act like Moira, as her disbelief in herself is too strong. Although Moira is caring and a good friend to Offred, her plans to escape the regime are entirely selfish: ‘I've got to get out of here, I'm going bats. I feel panic' Not only does Moira not consider Offred's panic when she tells her she wants to leave but she also implies her escape will be on her own and for herself. Moira's resistance could be a direct danger to Offred, as she is associated as her friend and could therefore be considered either as a source of information for Moira's whereabouts or as a rebel herself. Although Offred's intentions for Moira to stay may also be selfish, as Moira is her only companion, and brings about an air of protectiveness and hope, because she never shows fear and always seems to believe she will escape. The fact Offred finds Moira in Jezebel's hints she has been unsuccessful, as she has escaped to a place, which goes against herself and her ideals: ‘That shit you're with? I've had him, he's the pits' This quote shows she has slept with men, something she would not have been inclined to do in a pre-Gilead society, this clearly shows Moira is not a free woman. Moira is also wearing something she would not haven chosen freely, her out-fit is intended to make her look sexually attractive to men. This is something that Moira would have campaigned against before the new regime was introduced. The fact that Moira was unsuccessful makes her less of a role model in Offred's mind and her mistake was to be too determined. Moira acted on impulse and needed to seek a more powerful resistance than her. Offred's comfort she takes from Jezebels is maybe that the resistance she has discovered is her escape route. Offred now knows she can be successful without being Moira. So, Moira is a strong-minded politically aware woman. Her beliefs in feminism motivate her to resist the sexist regime she has been forced to comply with. Moira is a constant reminder of past life, as she represents freedom for women in a pre-Gilead and Gilead regime, although the sexism she now fights against is magnified in Gilead. Moira's determination is a contrast to Offred's, and her bravery is something, which all the Handmaids wish they had. Moira's heroine status makes her seem she can help any of them and they perceive her to be successful. However, in reality Moira has become a prostitute in Jezebel's. Moira has become something that symbolises what she has fought against mentally and physically throughout her life. Moira is an example in the novel of failed determination. She shows that Offred's subtle attempts to resist the regime and find others like her are not useless.

Why Did Fascism Rise in Europe During the 1920s? Could It Have in the 1930s US?

What kind of economic environment would embrace Fascism? What kind of society would allow their country’s freedoms and future to be placed into one dictator’s hands? Germany was surrounded by perceived forces of evil. The exploitation of fear from the French to the West and the Russians to the East would break the spirit of the German people. The fear of these two forces against a nationalized Germany would be used by Adolf Hitler to gain power. In Italy, Benito Mussolini used alliances with the Catholic Church, unions, and industry bosses to gain political power. That, along with using brute force against his political opponents, Mussolini’s form of Fascism was gradually built with eleven years of severe political maneuvering. Both Hitler and Mussolini took advantage of a political environment to form a new lofty ideal, fascism, an ideal that would lead to a second escalation in the early 20th century. World War I ended very badly for the Prussians. They were broken into smaller nations. Lands were taken from them. Their methods of wealth gathering from previous investments were seized away from them. Any possible modes of financial stability were looking bleaker with the continuance of the reparations coming out of the Great War. Even when the new Germany did create wealth, the French would take it away from them because of overdue payments. There was no financial hope because the French were so relentless with their strict enforcement of the Treaty of Versailles. The enduring vengeance that the French leaders had towards Germany after WWI was eventually viewed by Germans as greed. The ruthless attitude of the French capitalists developed into an overall German distaste for the existing capitalist movement. To the East there was also a newly formed communist Russia that was growing in structure and power. There was an anxiety among the German people with what was going on in Russia. By outsiders, communism was understood as simply a loss of private property. The loss of private property was something that the new Furher, or leader, of Germany would claim to protect. Exploiting the people’s anxiety for a state-owned economic system was a main tool used by Hitler. Germany didn’t want to be like the greedy French capitalists, nor did they want to be like the War-Communist, Stalin-led Russians. These two forces to either side of Germany created a vacuum of ideas. Within this vacuum, Hitler forced his own ideas that in 1926 he laid-out in his work Mein Kampf . At this point of Germany’s economic disrepair, Hitler could have sold the German near anything especially because it was neither like the French nor the Russian respective economic futures. Hitler also used the Jews as his own capitalist scapegoats for why the country was in such economic peril. He used this as a rallying cry, a distraction for something to move against at home. All they had to do was to exterminate the Jews, follow Furher, and he would lead Germany back to being a reunified world power. Benito Mussolini in Italy went another route. After he was elected Prime Minister in 1922 he slowly used political force to gain and maintain power. He gained the support of the Catholic Church by mandating Catholic school for children. He somehow aligned himself with both unions and industry bosses by mandating an eight hour workday and freeing the industries of back payments from WWI. And in order to get his way in the elected government he would use his seemingly endless political power to dissuade the elected liberals. He would threaten or even assassinate anyone who opposed his rise to power. â€Å"I declare†¦. in front of the Italian people†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦that I alone assume the political, moral and historic responsibility for everything that has happened. Italy wants peace and quiet, work and calm. I will give these things with love if possible and with force if necessary. † Peace via force? Somehow that doesn’t seem possible, but the fascist government led by its Il Duce, or leader, got its way. Exterminating, not Jews as Hitler was then doing, but liberals in Italian places of power. In the 1930’s America it was a dire time financially. People were voting with their stomachs and they were all ears in following the leadership of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR was a very popular American leader as he was voted into the highest office four times. America was not quite as broken as Germany was. America still had its ideals intact as evidenced by its strong opposition to FDRs attempted amendment to the Constitution adding six members to the Supreme Court. Despite the financial hardships that the American people were experiencing in the 1930s, Fascism was much too different for appeal to the Americans. They were too proud of their existing American democracy to ever be influenced enough to change the ideology from a capitalist democracy towards a fascist dictator. Americans were much more interested in FDR’s ‘tweaks’ than in a complete government overhaul as either Mussolini or Hitler would have advocated. With a thriving fascist government, when is enough, enough? When dealing with fascism there is never really a true stopping point. Whether it was someone within the nation, like the liberals in Italy or the Jews of Germany, or an outside threat, like the communists of Russia or the French Capitalists, there will always be an opposing party. It begs the question whether a successful WWII campaign by Italy and Germany would have eventually pitted them against each other?

Looking for Alibrandi Extra Chapter

Chapter 33 Three months have passed since Josie and Jacob’s break and the completion of their final year at school, the summer holidays are coming to an end and a new year has begun. My heavy eyes ached as I closed them listening to music. I was nearly asleep when the song I was listening to paused and my familiar message tone sounded through my headphones. I picked up my phone just as the song faded back in, my eyes blurred as they adjusted to the light of my phone screen but the only thing I could see was Josie’s name. I sat up in shock and re-read the sender name a few times before believing it.I opened the message and started reading. ‘I’ve missed you so much Jacob, this is so hard and everything I do reminds me of you, I really want to see you again. ’ I stared at it for a moment in shock before a huge wave of emotion came over me. I kept reading it over and over thinking I must be in a dream. I didn’t know what to do or say. My mind was soon crowded with thoughts and suddenly I felt wide awake. Every day that passed I thought how I wished I was good enough to be with her, because in reality I wasn’t over Josie and I really missed what we had.When I did reply I wrote ‘I need you in my life Josie, I can’t bear not having you next to me anymore, I miss your company and want to see you’ I pressed send and anxiously waited for a reply. I heard another buzz so I picked up my phone. ‘Meet me at Subway at 12’ she said. The morning went so fast, I was slightly nervous about seeing Josie again since it had been three months since our last encounter. I put on a t-shirt and shorts on then stood in front of the mirror as I splashed my face with water. I looked at the clock and saw it was 11:50 so I grabbed my helmet and jacket as I pushed my motorcycle out the garage.It wasn’t until I got to the street before Subway that I realised my phone had fallen out of my pocket and I had lef t my wallet at home. I knew then I was going to be late and Josie was going to be left waiting. I turned around and was accelerating down the road when my bike slowed and came to a halt. ‘Could things get any worse? ’ I asked myself as I stared down at an empty fuel gage. I was scared that Josie would be thinking I stood her up and that I had no intention of getting back together with her. I had no choice at this point but to push my bike back home. All I could picture was Josie sitting at Subway all alone waiting.I arrived back home feeling stuffed but I refuelled my bike and sped back down to Subway. I saw Josie sitting at a bus stop nearby and I knew she had recognised the familiar sound of my motorcycle. I parked and got off right beside her. ‘You actually bothered to show up? ’ she exclaimed with anger in her voice. ‘Jose I’m so sorry, I’m sorry for everything! ’ I said still taking off my helmet so my voice was muffled. I tr ied to wrap my arms around her but she resisted trying to be mad. Even though I knew her better than anyone and I could tell she was happy to see me.The butterflies from three months ago had probably just filled her stomach like she told me they used to. ‘I was nearly here when I realised I forgot my wallet, then my bike ran out of fuel, I’m so sorry†¦ I’ll make it up to you,’ I looked at her in the eyes as she pushed out a smile. ‘Let’s go, I want to take you somewhere’ I said as I grabbed her hand and she jumped on the back of my bike. We went down to the beach and took a long walk on the sand. Having that break between us was the best thing, it feels like nothing was ever wrong and we are just meant to be together.