How to work hard without being a pushover

How to work hard without being a pushover If you’re like most of us, you’re dedicated to doing your absolute best at work- day in and day out- in order to prove to yourself, your colleagues, and to anyone else who’s paying attention that you not only deserve the position you’re in but that you have every intention of moving as high up your career ladder as possible. After all, who doesn’t like a hard worker? This often means that you not only give 100% effort on all of your work tasks and responsibilities, you also make every effort to help those around you- after all, smart employees know that a rising tide lifts all boats. It never hurts to gain a little good sentiment among coworkers, who hopefully see you as a strong link on the team chain and are more than willing to return the favor when needed. However, the truth is that this sort of good-natured and well-intentioned approach to work often comes at a price, and you may have to contend with an onerous species of colleague- the sort wh o will take advantage of your hard-working nature and use it to their self-centered advantage.Does this sound familiar? After spending countless hours toiling away on a long and involved project a scheming colleague swoops in out of nowhere and takes all the credit for your hard work. Does this sort of thing happen often to you? If so, don’t feel too defeated- the truth is, hard workers are often vulnerable to this bad behavior, as unscrupulous and infinitely lazier coworkers seek to capitalize on every opportunity to take advantage of the efforts of others. But that doesn’t mean you should sit idly by and let them take advantage of you.If you’d like to figure out some effective strategies for showing the world that you’re a hard worker who will routinely go above and beyond- but who will not be taken advantage of- consider taking advantage of the following steps.Step 1- DiagnoseThe first step to making positive change, if and when you feel as if you†™re hard work is being taken advantage of, is to recognize that there’s a problem. This often means realizing that there’s a pattern of poor behavior on the part of a colleague- after all, a one-time thing where someone received a little more credit on a work project than they deserved might just be a miscommunication or harmless mistake. But if it continues to occur repeatedly, then it’s a real problem. Once you recognize that there’s an issue, you can begin to mobilize a strategy for dealing with it head on.Step 2- ConfirmThe truth is, sometimes we’re our own worst witnesses to a situation that directly involves us. Why? Because we often simply lack the distance needed to have a completely rational perspective. As a result, it’s helpful in situations like these to either get a second opinion from a trusted colleague or, if not feasible, to try our best and take a step back from the situation in an effort to objectively confirm that what we think is happening actually is. After all, the last thing you want to do is accuse a colleague of taking advantage of your hard work when it isn’t really happening (talk about awkward!).Step 3- Confront (Carefully)For most people, this is the trickiest step, and for good reason. Once you’ve diagnosed and confirmed the problem, the only way to effect positive and lasting change is to confront the situation- but be sure to proceed with caution. There is a broad spectrum of approaches you can take, depending on how pervasive the situation is, as well as your relationship with the person in question and your position and standing at work- as well as theirs. After all, how you handle this situation if it was a subordinate taking advantage of your hard work vs. your boss behaving this way will likely be vastly different.This is why proceeding with caution is so essential. If feasible, try tactfully communicating your feelings regarding the situation to the person in quest ion. Best case scenario, with minimal effort you nimbly eradicate the bad behavior. If this approach fails, then it may be time to step up your efforts, but don’t jump from a 1 to a 10 on the assertiveness scale out of frustration- try incrementally more assertive approaches (we’re NOT endorsing doing anything that will put you or your job in jeopardy here) to send a clear signal that you will not sit by and idly accept your colleague taking advantage of your hard work. It may entail talking to your boss or the other person’s boss about the situation if all else fails, or trying to avoid working directly with them whenever possible.If it’s your boss or a superior who’s taking advantage of you, then the situation is even trickier. Simply put, you’re going to have tread lightly here. If your relationship with the superior in question is strong, you may stand a good chance of fixing the problem; if this isn’t the case, weigh your options and determine the approach that makes the most sense given your situation, always erring on the side of caution.Step 4- ChangeHow you behave moving forward will send a clear indication of how much others can treat you at work. Simply put, people are far less likely to try and take advantage of a colleague who radiates strength and confidence than someone who’s more meek and reserved. Continue your hard work and eagerness to be a team player, but start sending clear signals that you’re not a person to be underestimated or mistreated. Whenever possible, try and protect your work from the involvement of others, and claim fair credit for your work when you can. Trust us, if handled properly people will start to get the message and will think twice before trying to take advantage of you- you may even garner some newfound respect from others in your work orbit.

In Order To or So That in Spanish

In Order To or So That in Spanish Phrases such as in order to, so that, and with the aim of are known as subordinators of purpose - and there are several ways to get across those ideas in Spanish.   Using Para and Para Que for In Order To The most common Spanish subordinator of purpose is the conjunction para or the phrase para que, as in the following examples: Come para vivir, no vive para comer. (Eat in order to live, do not live in order to eat.)Para perder peso, tiene que reducir la cantidad de calorà ­as en su dieta. (In order to lose weight, you have to reduce the number of calories in your diet.)Haga click en la foto para conocer los à ºltimos trabajos de este artista. (Click on the picture in order to learn more about the final works of this artist.)Voy a hacer una lista para que no olvides mis cosas. (Im going to make a list so (or so that) you dont forget my things.)Para que comprenda lo que quiero decir, primero permà ­tame advertirle. (In order to understand what I want to say, first let me tell you.)Tambià ©n se le debe ofrecer agua para que beba. (You can also offer him water so (or so that) he can  to drink.)Hay muchos trucos para que cocinar sea ms fcil. (There are many tricks so that  cooking is easier.) Note that in most cases you the same Spanish translation works for either in order to or so (that). As in the above examples, para que is followed by a verb in the subjunctive mood, while para standing alone is followed by an infinitive. Also, you may notice that when the para infinitive construction is used, the person performing both actions is the same, while when para que subjunctive is used, the persons are different. See the difference in these simple examples: Trabajo para comer. (I work so that I eat.)Trabajo para que comas. (I work so that you eat.) This rule isnt always strictly followed. It is possible under some circumstances to use para by itself when there is a shift of doer, or (more often) to use para que when theres not. But the method given here is the most common and also the easiest for foreigners to use if they wish to keep from making grammatical blunders. Other Spanish Subordinators of Purpose Here are some examples of other Spanish subordinators of purpose (in boldface): Salieron a cazar por el dà ­a. (They left in order to hunt for the day.)Llegan a comer mariscos. (They came in order to eat seafood.)Llame al oficina a defin hablar confidencialmente con un asesor. (Call the office in order to speak confidentially with an advisor.)A fin de que su aplicacià ³n sea à ºtil, las correlaciones encontradas deben ser tan poco obvias que parezcan ilà ³gicas. (In order for your application to be useful, the correlations found ought to be so inobvious that they seem illogical.)Fueron a las ruinas con el fin de aprender ms. (They went to the ruins with the goal of  learning more.)Con el fin de que el turismo pueda ser una actividad sostenible, es fundamental que se adopten cà ³digos de conducta. (In order for tourism to be a sustainable activity, it is vital that codes of conduct be adopted.)Con objeto de controlar la produccià ³n agraria, se prevà ©n sistemas de cuotas. (In order to control farm production, quota systems are being planned.)Con objeto de que los grupos sean lo ms homogà ©neos posibles, rogamos que no participen los desempleados. (So that the groups are as homogenous as possible, we ask that unemployed persons not participate.) As you might have guessed, the differences between a fin de and a fin de que, and between con objeto de and con objeto de que, are similar to the differences between para and para que. Phrases such as con el fin de and con objeto de are more common in Spanish and less stuffy-sounding than English equivalents such as with the purpose of.

The concerns will be with regard to population in the Research Paper

The concerns will be with regard to population in the - Research Paper Example According to the pilot issue of Horizon: Future Issues for Development, in an article entitled â€Å"Population Growth, Environment and Food Security: What Does the Future Hold?,† human population growth is â€Å"the most significant cause† of many of the problems that the world faces like climate change, poverty and scarcity of food resources. By around 2050, the growth of the world’s population will be by 2.7 billion thus resulting in an estimated total of 9 billion people by that time (Collodi & McCormack, 2009). This significant increase in the human population will definitely outrun the supply of natural resources and will definitely force man to exploit the natural environment for the sake of survival. In the table below from the United Nations Population Fund, one can see that the projected population of the world by 2050 is either 7 billion still, or 10.5 billion as the upper limit, or ideally at 9 billion. One of the problems caused by overpopulation that will most likely affect the world on a global scale is environmental degradation. The overwhelming growth in population is expected to lead to unsustainable demands on the environment as well as natural resources. There is also a consequent production of hazardous waste and an intensified level of urbanization, both of which are expected to contribute to the degradation of the environment. There is also climate change due to the increase in the amount of greenhouse gas emissions by around 52% by 2050. Aside from this, water is expected to be scarce, and that 90% of freshwater supply will be gone even by 2030. Moreover, there is also an expected doubling of the demands for energy all over the world even 20 years from now. There is also a considerable loss of biodiversity, destruction of many ecosystems, and renewable environmental resources because of excessive draining of wetlands, clearing of forests and expansion of infrastructure (Collodi & McCormack, 2009). Another global problem

Impact of multimedia in learning English as a second language Literature review

Impact of multimedia in learning English as a second language - Literature review Example Meanwhile, learning happens as a process rather than an event. This means that for the acquisition of second language to take place, there are series of things that a person should do, as learning a second language will not happen overnight. Mayer (2003) used the cognitive theory to explain the processes that take place in the course of second language acquisition. It was noted that the more interaction a person has with the language being learnt, the better the chances of acquiring it more easily and quickly. Meanwhile, the interactions that a person has with language often differ in potency and impact. For example using the multimedia principle, Mayer (2003, p. 33) explained that ‘the human information processing system contains an auditory/verbal channel and a visual/pictorial channel’. By implication, a person gets an easier grip of a particular language being learnt if provisions are made for all of auditory, verbal, visual and pictorial channels. However, using multimedia such as audio and video easily provides all these channels at a go (Neal, 2006). Based on this, when designing a website for acquisition of English as a second language, it will be beneficial to include audio and video files that wil l provide multimedia learning platforms, rather than use only written and verbal means of acquisition. Neal, L. (2006). Predictions for 2006 — E-learning experts map the road ahead. Elearn Magazine [online]. Available at http://www.elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=articles&article=31-1 [accessed 13 February

Toast Box Essay Example for Free

Toast Box Essay Firstly joining food and drink market in 2005, Toast box now becomes a well-know business with 71 outlets in Singapore and other six Asian countries. This seven-year-old trademark serves up various sorts of bread and coffee with traditional flavor, reminding of the warm atmosphere of local Nanyang coffee shops of the 60s and 70s. Aiming at reinforcing its special strong position in the market, starting a franchise in Vietnam has been put under Toast box’s consideration. This will open the business up on the one hand to opportunities of expanding its outlet system, and on the other to pressure from coping with more competitors in an unfamiliar market. Firstly, the advantages of franchising Toast box in Vietnam concerns its profit from name recognition and assorted and distinctive food and drink. It usually takes long time for a business to develop a recognizable presence with the customers; however, compared to normal start-up enterprises, Toast box has already succeeded in attaining a stable status in people’s mind through its websites and social network like Facebook. In addition, various sorts of bread and coffee also make Toast box stand out from other competitors. Its distinctive flavor of freshly toasted bread and fragrant coffee creates unforgettable experiences for everyone tries it at the first time. Toast box would soon become a part of Vietnam cuisine culture. Besides, franchising in Vietnam also puts Toast box at a considerable disadvantage. As Vietnamese personal income is not really high, Vietnam is a relatively sensitive market to price strategies. Admittedly, not many people are willing to pay 2-5$ for each breakfast with a cup of Milo Dinosaur coffee, a thick toast bread set, or Nonyan Laska in Vietnam. Meanwhile, Toast box’s competitor are putting premium on cheap price, which may pose huge challenge to the new comer. Unless the price strategy is taken into careful consideration, Toast box may lose out its fans in Vietnam. In conclusion, starting a Toast box franchise in Vietnam contains a lot of implicit advantages and disadvantages. A distinctive know-how and franchising experiences in other foreign countries such as China, Philippines, and Thailand is the driving force to help Toast box survive and develop in Vietnam market.

Changing the Way a Person Thinks :: Sociology Cultural Essays

Changing the Way a Person Thinks If you ever happen to pass through the small town of Fairfield, IA, you would probably just think it to be just another normal, rural Iowa town. But like many other towns, there is a conflict hidden beneath the pleasant exterior. Two totally different groups of people have been meshed together in this town. The claim I’ll be making is that one group is counterproductive, but their presence still essential to the town economy. First let me give you some background on the two groups of people. Fairfield was originally the typical rural Iowa town. I see a typical Iowa town as a town in which has a strong agriculture background and yet is striving to become ever larger. Most of the families are in the middle-income division, with a large part of the town also depending on the industrial factories in town. Although most people will accept a gradual growth, many would find it hard to adjust to a sudden, large change. This is what I would call the typical Iowan. The other group of people involved in this situation is a more flamboyant group. I will refer to them as the Meditators. Most are highly religious, with their faith placed in the Maharishi. Most of these people will follow wherever their leader tells them to go. I estimate that this group of people has three thousand people in Fairfield. That means that they take up about one third of the population. These people first moved to Fairfield soon after a local college had been vacated. They used this college by turning it into both a university and primary education facility. They called it the Maharishi International University (MIU). As you can imagine, this increase in population also caused an increase in the local economy. Most of the meditators belong to the upper class and have plenty of money to spend. Many of the meditators are also business entupenuers. MIU has created multi-million dollar businesses in Fairfield that hire from both pools of people. All this seems fine and dandy for the town of Fairfield, but there is actually an underlying problem. Meditators have strong conflicting values with the first group of people. Conflicts of values range from religion to food preference. I will focus on their counter-productiveness. Most of the meditators are vegetarians, which sometimes conflicts with the area farmers. I’m now speaking from personal experience.

Crucible: Grudges vs the Salem Witch Trials Essay

Have you and your friends ever done something you were no permitted to do and then wanted to keep it a secret? So you all did whatever yo had to do to keep from letting that secret from getting exposed, even if you ended up lying and it spiral out of control? A great example of this is in The Crucible,several people know the entire truth but chose to keep it a secret. The people of Salem, the puritans display grudges and rivalries that collide with their religious beliefs into this mass hysteria known as what i the Salem Witch Trials. Sparks first start to fly when he towns minister, Rev. Parris begins with a grudge with the girls. He walks through the woods late at night and sees the girls dancing around a cauldron that is simmering on an open fire with his slave tituba. At first he does not know what to think. However the next day that follows with his daughter Betty not being able wake from her sleep. This has him questioning all the girls on what they did the night before , especially his niece, Abigail Williams. Word spreads about the questioning which gets the town worried. This is where the first cry of witch craft is heard. Now with grudges there are sometimes rivalries, a good rivalry in The Crucible is between Abigail Williams and the other girls. All of them are in the vestry , the room attached to the church for meetings. Mary Warren, John Proctors servant girl , is trying to tell the judges that she has been lying all along and that Abigail is the one the to blame. She claims that she is with God now and can no longer lie. However , Abigail Williams has other plans , with the fear she puts in the girls she knows she can get them to agree with her and have the judges thinking that Mary is lying. So with that in mind Abigail pretends that she sees a bird in the rafters that is coming to get her and scratch her face off . She calls it Mary Warrens spirit. The judges think that its true so Mary , like every one else in Salem is questioned and Abigail gets what she wants. Usually when we want something and we know its going to be hard to get we negotiate, that is exactly what happens in the last grudge Between Rev. Parris and his slave, Tituba. Being treated the way she is already is makes Tiuba already have enmity for Rev. Parris. Once Rev Parris find out that Tituba was the one conjuring spirits in the forest that night when he found the girls he begins to punish her. This is where Tituba negotiates , now as silly as this sounds she negotiates with her self. She knows that she could confess and serve jail time or not confess and hang. So she decides to tell Rev. Parris, she falsely confess to trafficking with the devil , saying that he urged her to kill Rev. Parris. Thinking this may be true the people of Salem start thinking that the devil may be lose in Salem working his evil through others as well. Now will all the grudges we see what happens when several people who know the whole story choose to keep it a secret make something so small turn in to something so big due to peoples personal grudges and rivalries. From Rev. Parris first questioning the girls to the girls all using their powers in court to manipulate people . To finally the choice of life or death for Rev. Parris’s slave Tituba.

Joint Venture of the France Based Company Alcatel

A joint venture, according to Adler and Graham (1989),along with mergers and acquisitions, licensing and distribution agreements, and sales of products and services – critical aspects of all such interorganizational relationships, are face-to-face negotiations. This would mean the interaction between people. In today’s society, as the world becomes much more globalized than we could ever think of, with the fast growth of the internet industry, we are connected with people from another country at an instant. However, business to business deals and negotiations are still at a stage where face-to-face communication is still required. As interpersonal communication is brought onto the table, with the clash of different cultures as companies today all have the tendency to become globalizes and multi-nationalized, the understanding of another’s culture and cultural values plays an important role in the negotiation, and the interactions thereafter. As the proportion of foreign to domestic trade increases, so does the frequency of business negotiation between people from different countries and cultures. To successfully manage these negotiations, businesspeople need to know how to influence and communicate with members of cultures other than their own (Adler and Grahamd (1989)). Through the analysis of the case study on the joint venture of the France based company Alcatel and the U. S. based company Lucent Technologies, issues of cross-cultural management, the weakness and strength of an international joint venture, including the rights and wrongs of the particular case study will be discussed. As Shenkar (2001)said in an article, establishing a measure gauging the â€Å"distance† between cultures has understandably presented an even greater challenge. At the end, recommendations will be provided for future companies seeking joint ventures. Body The major differences between the initial negotiation in 2001 and the final successful negotiation in 2006 was the division of power. In 2001, in the original negotiation, the base company was Lucent, which was based in the US. Because it was a joint venture, the amount of power on Alcatel cannot be decided. Due to this inequality, the joint venture was called off in 2001. In 2006, as this inequality no longer stands between the two companies, it established the final negotiation of the joint venture, and at least in the beginning, both companies were satisfied with the negotiation. According to Barkema and Vermeulen (1997), differences in uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation cause problems. Differences in how IJV partners perceive and adapt to opportunities and threats in their environment are more difficult to resolve. Cultural differences regarding power distance, individualism and masculinity are more easily resolved because they are mainly reflected in different attitudes towards the management of personnel, something firms can make explicit agreements about before entering the partnership. As Berkema and Vermeulen (1997) already said, issues on power distance, individualism and masculinity are considered to be more easily resolved cultural issues, and realizing the fact that if the joint venture between Alcatel and Lucent Technologies could not even solve the more easy problems, it is pointless to say the success of the negotiation. Since the merger in 2006, it is now the fifth year for the joint venture to be in business. With the resignation of Russo, the company is now led by The company is under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Ben Verwaayen and the non-executive Chairman of the Board is Philippe Camus. Verwaayen and Camus joined the company in the third quarter of 2008 after Alcatel-Lucent's first CEO Patricia Russo and first Chairman Serge Tchuruk resigned. For 2008, the company posted revenues of â‚ ¬16. 984 billion and a net loss of â‚ ¬5. 215 billion (Alcatel-Lucent (2009)). As Powell and Dent-Micallef (1997) found in their article, ITs alone have not produced sustainable performance advantages in the retail industry, but that some firms have gained advantages by using ITs to leverage intangible, complementary human and business resources such as flexible culture, strategic planning–IT integration, and supplier relationships. The results support the resource-based approach, and help to explain why some firms outperform others using the same ITs, and why successful IT users often fail to sustain IT-based competitive advantages. Alcatel-Lucent has done what it was suppose to do a long time ago, which was to appoint leaders based on expertise, and not nationality. As the entire industry was going downhill during 2006, for the past few years, with the correct leadership of Verwaayen and Camus, the joint venture is in much better shape than it was before. As Tchuruk commented initially that the merger is â€Å"a giant transatlantic experiment in multicultural diversity,† the company has run into some major cross-cultural problems since its merger in 2006. One major issue is the fact that the appointed CEO of the joint venture could not effectively run the business, resulting in six quarterly losses, which led to the restructuring of the company, and a cut of 16,500 jobs in total. As the case study states, it was a poor decision to appoint leaders based on their nationality rather than skills. For the time that Russo was CEO, she struggled greatly to bring together a company that consisted of two entirely different cultures, especially when she has no background knowledge of any French language at all. In addition, because there was a lack of understanding between the cultures, the two companies, although formed as a joint venture, were literally pushed into each other out of desperation because of the down sliding industry. However, more importantly, it was the cultural clash that brought the JV into a poor state initially. As Adler, Doktor, and Redding (1986) wrote in their article, with the growing shift of business from the Atlantic to the Pacific Basin, East-West cultural differences are becoming increasingly significant. Research in developmental psychology, sociology, and anthropology shows that there are major differences among the cognitive processes of people from different cultures. In the era of the global corporation, cultural diversity has to be recognized, understood, and appropriately used in organizations. It is suggested that cross-cultural management would greatly benefit from comparative studies considering the impact of the cognitive aspects of culture on managerial practice. Moving forward as a combined company, the JV faces great competition from low-cost Chinese rivals, and as the internet technology is increasingly changing the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is faced with much deeper challenges as demand in the entire industry is decreasing tremendously. Yet one challenge would also be the challenge to integrate the French culture with that of the American Culture. As Shenkar (2001) pointed out, establishing a measure gauging the â€Å"distance† between cultures has understandably presented an even greater challenge. With the globalization of the firm into the Eastern side of the world, and with the JV servicing clients all over the globe, it is not hard to imagine the importance of cross-cultural management as the firm takes its role onto the global stage. In Ralston et al. (1993)’s research on onvergence/divergence of managerial values, the four Western-developed measures (Machiavellianism, locus of control, intolerance of ambiguity and dogmatism) and the four dimensions of the Eastern-developed Chinese Value Survey (Confucian dynamism, human-heartedness, integration, and moral discipline) were used to find that often times both culture and the business environment interact to create a unique set of managerial values in a country. It is the values of the management, the values of a company, that makes up the success of an industry. Conclusion Soderberg and Holden (2002) defines cross cultural management as a discipline of international management focusing on cultural encounters between what are perceived as well-defined and homogeneous entities: the organization and the nation-state, and offering tools to handle cultural differences seen as sources of conflict or miscommunication. However, in the business world today, with its transnational companies that face the challenges of the management of global knowledge networks and multicultural project teams, interacting and collaborating across boundaries using global communication technologies. There is the need for an alternative approach which acknowledges the growing complexity of inter- and intra-organizational connections and identities, and offers theoretical concepts to think about organizations and multiple cultures in a globalizing business context. Today’s world has become a big clash of all different types of culture. Not only it is seen in the business world, but this clash of cultures has become part of today’s society, and the whole world. This phenonmenon not only suggests more research topics for scholars, as Thomas and Mueller (2001) said in their study, that the relationship between culture and four personality characteristics commonly associated with entrepreneurial motivation. By demonstrating systematic variation in entrepreneurial characteristics across cultures, we raise important questions about the boundaries of international entrepreneurship research and the challenges of transcending them, in the real world, cross-cultural management is also becoming more important and is discussed and faced by many entrepreneurs in the business world. With the case study of Alcatel from France and Lucent Technologies from United States as an example, it has proven the fact that the importance of understanding the different cultures that one’s engaging in, and the importance of acknowledging cross-cultural management has become a requirement for any company leading to a JV or entering into a foreign country. Everyone country has its own unique culture, and every country has its own set of rules. In order to gain profit, in order to become globalized, one must take the time to learn about the culture, and go by their rules, because ultimately, in the business world, you are never alone.

Globalisation essays

Globalisation essays In the past few years, one of the most controversial economic issues has been global free trade. The proponents claim that nations engaged in open trade would experience a great deal of economic growth. Opponents think that giving foreign countries unrestricted access to American markets will cause a decrease in the number of American jobs, and will pose a threat to American sovereignty. It is the opinion of this writer that the latter is correct. The problem with global free trade is really fourfold. The first and foremost problem with such measures is, as stated above, the threat posed to American sovereignty. All free trade agreements set up international bureaucracies to govern the participants; to ensure that all parties comply with the terms of the agreement. Vice President Gore tried to allay the concerns of the opponents of GATT by claiming that the World Trade Organization would hold no authority over the U.S. He claimed that we would only be bound by those rules which we agree to and no others. However, in his very next breath, he claimed that other countries could be forced to comply with their "international trade obligations" (Gore). Clearly, this is a complete contradiction. No contry, except perhaps the U.S., would agree to so obvious a double standard. Newt Gingrich is at the opposite end of the political spectrum from the Vice-President. Of GATT, he once said, "... we need to be honest about the fact that we are transferring from the United States at a practical level significant authority to a new organization... I would feel better if the people who favor this would just be honest about the scale of change." ("How Can") However, despite his own concerns, and the victory he was handing his political opponents, he publicly supported and voted for GATT. Self-flagellation seems to be a hobby of these people. The second problem deals with the market size. How does the size of the market in the U.S. compare with ...

Zack de la Rocha Biography of the Musician

Zack de la Rocha Biography of the Musician The 1990s music scene was unique in that the two genres that dominated the charts- alternative rock and rap- seemed to have little in common. But that perception would change in 1991 when a Los Angeles Chicano named Zack de la Rocha melded the two art forms together in the rap-rock outfit Rage Against the Machine. Influenced by punk bands such as Minor Threat and militant rap groups such as Public Enemy, de la Rocha delivered angry rhymes about social injustice over heavy metal riffs as front-man of the group. His biography reveals how personal experiences with discrimination led de la Rocha to pen raps that challenged racism and inequality. Early Years Zack de la Rocha was born Jan. 12, 1970, in Long Beach, Calif., to parents Roberto and Olivia. Because his parents parted ways when he was very small, de la Rocha initially split his time between his Mexican-American father, a muralist in the group â€Å"Los Four,† and his German-Irish mother, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Irvine. After his father began to exhibit signs of mental illness, destroying artwork and praying and fasting nonstop, Zack de la Rocha lived exclusively with his mother in Irvine. In the 1970s the Orange County suburb was nearly all white. Irvine was the polar opposite of Lincoln Heights, the predominantly Mexican-American community of Los Angeles that de la Rocha’s father called home. Because of his Hispanic heritage, de la Rocha felt racially alienated in Orange County. He told ​​​Rolling Stone magazine in 1999 how humiliated he felt when his teacher used the racially offensive term â€Å"wetback† and his classmates erupted in laughter. â€Å"I remember sitting there, about to explode,† he said. â€Å"I realized that I was not of these people. They were not my friends. And I remember internalizing it, how silent I was. I remember how afraid I was to say anything.† From that day forward, de la Rocha vowed never again to remain silent in the face of ignorance. Inside Out After reportedly dabbling in drugs for a spell, de la Rocha became a fixture in the straight-edge punk scene. In high school he formed the band Hard Stance, serving as vocalist and guitarist for the group. After that, de la Rocha launched the band Inside Out in 1988. Signed to the Revelation Records label, the group came out with an EP called No Spiritual Surrender. Despite some industry success, the group’s guitarist decided to leave and Inside Out disbanded in 1991. Rage Against the Machine After Inside Out broke up, de la Rocha began to explore hip-hop, rapping, and break-dancing in clubs. When Harvard-educated guitarist Tom Morello spotted de la Rocha performing a freestyle rap in a club, he approached the budding MC afterward. The two men found that they both espoused radical political ideologies and decided to share their viewpoints with the world through song. In Fall 1991, they formed rap-rock band Rage Against the Machine, named after an Inside Out song. In addition to de la Rocha on vocals and Morello on guitar, the band included Brad Wilk on drums and Tim Commerford, a childhood friend of de la Rocha, on bass. The band soon developed a following in L.A.’s music scene. Just a year after RATM formed, the band released a self-titled album on influential label Epic Records. While promoting the album in 1992, de la Rocha explained to the Los Angeles Times his mission for the group. â€Å"I wanted to think of something metaphorically that would describe my frustrations toward America, toward this capitalist system and how it has enslaved and exploited and created a very unjust situation for a lot of people,† he said. The message resonated with the public. The album went triple platinum. It included references to Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, South African apartheid, a Eurocentric educational curriculum, Fand other social issues. The band’s sophomore album Evil Empire, a reference to a Ronald Reagan speech on the Cold War, touched on de la Rocha’s Hispanic heritage with songs such as â€Å"People of the Sun,† â€Å"Down Rodeo† and â€Å"Without a Face.† Evil Empire also achieved triple platinum status. The band’s last two albums the Battle of Los Angeles (1999) and Renegades (2000), went double platinum and platinum, respectively. Although Rage Against the Machine was undoubtedly one of the most influential bands of the 1990s, de la Rocha decided to leave the band in October 2000. He cited creative differences but stressed that he was pleased with what the band had accomplished.​​​ I am extremely proud of our work, both as activists and musicians, as well as indebted and grateful to every person who has expressed solidarity and shared this incredible experience with us, he said in a statement. A New Chapter Almost seven years after the breakup, Rage Against the Machine fans received some long-awaited news: the band was reuniting. The group performed at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., in April 2007. The reason for the reunion? The band said it felt compelled to speak out in light of  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Bush administration policies they found intolerable. Since the reunion, the band has yet to release more albums. The members are involved in independent projects. De la Rocha, for one, performs in the group One Day as a Lion with former Mars Volta member Jon Theodore. The band released a self-titled EP in 2008 and performed at Coachella in 2011.​ Musician-activist de la Rocha also launched an organization called Sound Strike in 2010. The organization encourages musicians to boycott Arizona in light of the state’s controversial legislation targeting undocumented immigrants. In a Huffington Post piece, de la Rocha and Salvador Reza said of the strike: â€Å"The human impact of what is happening to immigrants and their families in Arizona calls into question the same moral and ethical imperatives that the civil rights movement did. Are we all equal before the law? To what extent can states and local law enforcement officers engage in human and civil rights violations against an ethnic group that has been completely vilified in the eyes of the white political majority?†

Business and Social Approaches to Social Media - Opportunities and Essay

Business and Social Approaches to Social Media - Opportunities and Issues - Essay Example Through social media, companies do not have any limit for entry, and there is excellent communication between customers and promoters (Hamill, 1997). Companies using the social media find it easy to penetrate the market, to find information that helps them change their products to meet the customers demand, and also reduces the cost on advertisement. In overall, the company is able to improve its performance as a result of the feedback got from the consumers of its product (Denis et al., 2002). Social networking sites are websites whose accounts are profile based. They are often known as Web 2.0 (O’Reilly, 2005). People are able to form relationships through chartrooms, instant messaging, newsfeed and blogging. Some of the communicating avenues or social network sites used today include; facebook.com, Myspace.com used by people who share the same taste in music and friendster.com used to connect people looking for love partners (Ellison, et al., 2007). In this discussion, we s hall elaborate more on the use of facebook as a social network, and how it has helped companies such as Coca Cola, IKEA to advertise its products leading to an increase in sales and profit maximization. ESSAY Facebook is a social networking means that has made it possible for people with same ideals and values to connect. Originally facebook was introduced to help students connect with each other after school (Ellison et al., 2007). However, today facebook is also used for marketing companies’ products, introducing new ideas, and an avenue to collect data or for advertising purposes. Being a socially appreciated form of networking, facebook has helped to improve the public relation of companies with its consumers, has helped to identify marketing gaps and also to identify consumers tastes and preferences. Facebook has bridged the gap of space and time in business. This has been done through creating of groups, which allows members to ‘like’ the goods and services provided by keeping them informed with the latest information. This has also been done through the creation of facebook pages or use of celebrities in the advertisements. Other than companies using the media for advertising, organizations have also been able to gather information leading to a shift of how they get to collect information; information does not only flow from up to bottom but from down to the bottom. This has therefore, shifted the focus of organizations to providing what the consumers desire. It has not just changed organizations and companies’ methods of advertising, but has also led to an increase of companies’ productivity and revenue as well as reducing costs. In addition, the social network; facebook have helped in detecting criminals. Police in Canada and the U.S. have directed certain videos and requested the public to try and indentify them. The videos were initially on YouTube, but to make communication faster it was uploaded in facebook. This did not only help the police men to get to arrest the criminals but also helped the businesses to get to indentify the criminals incase they just dropped on their doorsteps. Facebook can therefore, be used as a means for protection and for boosting security around our places. However, the success of a company that uses facebook to advertise depends on how well they design their web. A

Add Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Add - Research Paper Example This article gives most of the details outlined above, such as the fact that it appears a Saudi airline truly did serve donkey meat, and is useful because it is one of the most reputable news organizations to report on the findings. It points out that Saudi airlines has mostly Muslim customers, who would be especially upset about the donkey meat. Saudi airlines constitutes a three start airline because it meets satisfactory standards in every category of airline care, including food. This means that the expectation level of a passenger on this airline should be fairly high, because they are paying for an airline that is supposed to deliver consistently good qualities of service in every area. Donkeys are considered Haram animals (forbidden animals) to be eaten because of their having cloven hooves. This means that it would be against religious practice for many Muslims to eat Donkey, even accidentally, and could be very troubling to a Muslim who