Federal Reserve Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Federal Reserve Policy - Essay Example The weakness in the real estate markets has spread to become a system wide problem as sub-prime loans turn into toxic assets leaving financial institutions under-collateralized. The US Federal Reserve Board has been criticized for enacting policies that exacerbated the problem, or at least for failing to curtail the spread of the problem by its lack of action. The purpose of this paper is to examine the policies of the Federal Reserve Board during the period of 2006-2009 in light of the current financial crisis. The paper will find that the Federal Reserve Board policies during this period were prudent and appropriate, but failed to exert the political will necessary to address the problems that have arisen in the financial system that were due to factors that are beyond the Board's authority. By many accounts, the current financial crisis began in the housing industry and was fuelled by the twin problems on over-evaluation and high-risk mortgage loans. As the problem grew, financial institutions continued to make high interest, high-risk loans on property that had reached values that were unrealistically high. When the real estate bubble burst, many of these institutions and borrowers were left with assets worth far less than the amount due on the loan. According Bernanke (2008), "housing and housing finance played a central role in precipitating the current crisis. As the crisis has persisted, however, the relationships between housing and other parts of the economy have become more complex.Declining house prices, delinquencies and foreclosures, and strains in mortgage markets are now symptoms as well as causes of our general financial and economic difficulties". Yet, could the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) have taken steps beginning several years ago to address theses ca uses of system wide failure Bernanke (2008) is very clear that the problem was "declining house prices, delinquencies and foreclosures, and strains in mortgage markets". In fact, the FRB was aware of these problems, but failed to enact policies to address these complex issues. Bernanke lists the first cause of the current crisis as the falling prices of housing as the real estate bubble burst. In a free market, asset prices will work to reach equilibrium. A bubble in any industry will eventually deflate in an effort to reach its true valuation. This was seen in the collapse of technology stocks in 1999-2000, and now has hit the real estate market. However, the FRB may have not been able to deal with this problem effectively. In retrospect, Stern (2008) states, "it is challenging at best to identify when asset prices have reached excessive levels, to build support for action once identification has occurred and to implement corrective policy successfully". There is a general philosophy in the FRB that the best strategy for asset inflation is a policy of containment and clean-up, rather than prevention (Stern 2008). In fact, the FRB's policy was "monetary policy easing and last-resort lending", which only deepened and prolonged the crisis (Blanchard 2009, p. 2). Asset revaluation is a political challenge, but is within the FRB's capacity. None of these actions took place, and the FRB continued dropping interest rates. While the falling interest rates were enacted to stimulate a lagging economy, other factors continued to prop up housing prices at unrealistic levels. When mortgage money is cheap, it creates more customers interested in borrowing and the demand for housing remains high. During the

Sociology Research Essay Example for Free

Sociology Research Essay Sexism is also known as  gender discrimination  or  sex discrimination, is defined as prejudice or discrimination based on sex; or behavior, conditions, or attitudes that foster stereotypes of social roles based on sex. Sexism is a form of discrimination or devaluation based on a persons sex, with such attitudes being based on beliefs in traditional stereotypes of gender roles. The term  sexism  is most often used in relation to discrimination against women, in the context of patriarchy. Sexism involves hatred of or prejudice towards a gender as a whole or the application of gender stereotypes. Sexism is often associated with gender-supremacy arguments. Gender stereotypes A 1952 magazine feature stereotyping women drivers. Gender stereotypes are widely held beliefs about the characteristics and behavior of women and men. Gender stereotypes are not only descriptive, but also prescriptive beliefs about how men and women should be and behave. Members of either sex who deviate from prescriptive gender stereotypes are punished; assertive women, for example, are called bitches whereas men who lack physical strength are seen as wimps. Empirical studies have found widely shared cultural beliefs that men are more socially valued and more competent than women at most things, as well as specific assumptions that men are better at some particular tasks (e. g. , mechanical tasks) while women are better at others (e. g. , nurturing tasks). For example,  Fiske  and colleagues surveyed nine diverse samples, from different regions of the United States, and found that members of these samples, regardless of age, consistently rated the category men higher than the category women on a multidimensional scale of competence. Gender stereotypes can facilitate and impede intellectual performance. For instance,  stereotype threat  can lower womens performance on mathematics tests due to the stereotype that women have inferior quantitative skills compared with men. Stereotypes can also affect the assessments people make of their own competence. Studies found that specific stereotypes (e. g. , women have lower mathematical ability) affect women’s and men’s perceptions of their abilities (e. g. , in math and science) such that men assess their own task ability higher than women performing at the same level. These biased self-assessments have far-reaching effects because they can shape men and women’s educational and career decisions. Gender stereotypes are sometimes applied at an early age. Various interventions were reviewed including the use of fiction in challenging gender stereotypes. For example, in a study by A. Wing, children were read  Bills New Frock  by  Anne Fine. The content of the book was discussed with them. Children were able to articulate, and reflect on, their stereotypical constructions of gender and those in the world at large. There was evidence of children considering the different treatment that boys and girls receive, and of classroom discussion enabling stereotypes to be challenged. Sexist and gender-neutral language Research has found that the use of  he  as a generic pronoun evokes a disproportionate number of male images and excludes thoughts of women in non gender-specific instances. Results also suggest that while the plural  they  functions as a generic pronoun for both males and females, males may comprehend  he/she  in a manner similar to  he, as  he  usually is placed before the dash and  she  after. This is usually done because the word  she  already contains the word  he  so it is positioned after the dash. It also has nothing to do with stereotypical gender roles. Nearing the end of the 20th century, there is a rise in gender-neutral language in western worlds, which is often attributed to the rise of  feminism. Gender-neutral language  is the avoidance of  gender-specific job titles, non parallel usage, and other usage that is considered by some to be sexist. Supporters claim that having gender–specific titles and gender–specific pronouns either implies a systemic bias to exclude individuals based on their gender or else as unnecessary in most cases as race-specific pronouns, religion-specific pronouns, or persons-height-specific pronouns. Some of those who support gender-specific pronouns assert that promoting gender-neutral language is a kind of semantics injection itself. Anthropological linguistics and gender-specific language Unlike the  Indo-European languages  in the west, for many other  languages  around the world,  gender-specific pronouns  are a recent phenomenon that occurred around the early 20th century. As a result of  colonialism, cultural revolution occurred in many parts of the world with attempts to modernize and westernize by adding gender-specific pronouns and animate-inanimate pronouns to local languages. This resulted in the situation of what was  gender-neutral pronouns  a century ago suddenly becoming gender–specific. (See for example  Gender-neutrality in languages without grammatical gender: Turkish. ) Gender-specific pejorative terms Gender–specific pejorative terms intimidate or harm another person because of their gender. Sexism can be expressed in a pseudo–subtle manner through the attachment of terms which have negative gender oriented implications  such as through  condescension. Many examples include swear words. A mildly vulgar example is the uninformative attribution of the term hag for a woman or fairy for a man. Although hag and fairy both have non-sexist interpretations, when they are used in the context of a gender–specific pejorative term these words become representations of sexist attitudes. The relationship between rape and misogyny Research into the factors which motivate perpetrators of  rape  against a specific gender, for example, women, frequently reveals patterns of hatred of said gender and pleasure in inflicting psychological and/or physical trauma, rather than sexual interest. Researchers have argued that rape is not the result of pathological individuals, but rather systems of male dominance, cultural practices and beliefs that objectify and degrade women. Mary Odem, Jody Clay-Warner and Susan Brownwiller consider sexist attitudes to be propagated by a series of myths about rape and rapists. They state that contrary to those myths, rapists often plan a rape before they choose a victim and that acquaintance rape  is the most common form of rape rather than assault by a stranger. Odem also states that these rape myths propagate sexist attitudes about men by perpetuating the thought that men cannot control their sexuality. In response to  acquaintance rape, the Men Can Stop Rape movement has been implemented. The US military has started a similar movement with the tagline My strength is for defending. Occupational sexism Occupational sexism refers to any  discriminatory  practices, statements, actions, etc. based on a persons  sex  that are present or occur in a place of  employment. One form of occupational sexism is  wage discrimination. In 2008, the  Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development  (OECD) found that while female employment rates have expanded considerably and the gender employment and wage gaps have narrowed virtually everywhere, on average, women still have 20% less of a chance to have a job and are paid 17% less than men. Moreover, the report stated: [In] many countries, labor market  discrimination  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ i. e. the unequal treatment of equally productive individuals only because they belong to a specific group – is still a crucial factor inflating disparities in employment and the quality of job opportunities [ ] Evidence presented in this edition of the  Employment Outlook  suggests that about 8% of the variation in gender employment gaps and 30% of the variation in gender wage gaps across OECD countries can be explained by discriminatory practices in the labour market. The report also found that despite the fact that almost all OECD countries, including the U. S. have established anti-discrimination laws, these laws are difficult to enforce. Gender stereotypes Gender roles  (or sex roles) are attitudes and activities that a society links to each sex. A culture that defines males as ambitious and competitive encourages them to seek out positions of leadership and play team sports. To the extent that females are defined as deferential and emotional, they are expected to be supportive helpers and quick to show their feelings. According to the  OECD, womens labor market behavior is influenced by learned cultural and social values that may be thought to discriminate against women (and sometimes against men) by stereotyping certain work and life styles as male or female. Further, the OECD argues that womens educational choices may be dictated, at least in part, by their expectations that [certain] types of employment opportunities are not available to them, as well as by gender stereotypes that are prevalent in society. There is a long record of women being excluded from participation in many professions. Often, women have gained entry into a previously male profession only to be faced with additional obstacles. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to receive an M. D. in the  United States  and  Myra Bradwell, the first female lawyer in the state of  Illinois, illustrate the prevalence of women being excluded from certain professions and the changing culture. Professional discrimination continues today according to studies done by  Cornell University  and others. Some have hypothesized that gender bias has been influencing which scientific research gets published. This hypothesis coincides with a test conducted at the  University of Toronto  led by Amber Budden. The study showed that, in the journal  Behavioral Ecology, after implementation of double-blind review in which both the author and reviewer identity is concealed, there was an increase of 7. 9% in the number of papers authored by women. This was more than three times the increase of female ecology graduate students in the United States. In addition, women frequently earn significantly lower wages than their male counterparts who perform the same job. In the U. S. , for example, women earn an average of 23. 5% less than men. In 1833, women working in factories earned only one-quarter of mens wages, and in 2007, womens median annual paychecks reflected only $0. 78 for every $1. 00 earned by men. A study showed women comprised 87% of workers in the child care industry and 86% of the health aide industry. Some experts believe that parents play an important role in the creation of values and perceptions of their children. The fact that many girls are asked to help their mothers do housework, while many boys do technical tasks with their fathers, seems to influence their behavior and can sometimes discourage girls from performing such tasks. Girls will then think that each gender should have a specific role and behavior. A 2009 study found that being overweight harms womens career advancement but presents no barrier for men. Overweight  or  obese  women were significantly under-represented among company bosses, whereas a significant proportion of male executives were overweight or obese. The author of the study stated that the results suggest that the glass ceiling effect on womens advancement may reflect not only general negative stereotypes about the competencies of women, but also weight bias that results in the application of stricter appearance standards to women. Overweight women are evaluated more negatively than overweight men. There is a tendency to hold women to harsher weight standards. At other times, there are accusations that some traditionally female professions have been or are being eliminated by its roles being subsumed by a male dominated profession. The assumption of baby delivery roles by doctors with the subsequent decline of  midwifery  is sometimes claimed to be an example. Wage gap [pic] Euro stat  found a persisting gender pay gap of 17. 5% on average in the 27  EU Member States  in 2008. Similarly, the OECD  found that female full-time employees earned 17% less than their male counterparts across OECD countries in 2009. In the U. S. , the female-to-male earnings ratio was 0. 77 in 2009, meaning that, in 2009, female full-time, year round (FTYR) workers earned 77% as much as male FYTR workers. Womens earnings relative to mens fell from 1960 to 1980 (from 60. 7 percent to 60. 2%) and then rose rapidly from 1980 to 1990 (from 60. 2% to 71. 6%), and less rapidly from 1990 to 2000 (from 71. 6% to 73. 7%) and from 2000 to 2009 (from 73. 7% to 77. 0%). At the time when the first  Equal Pay Act  was passed in 1963, female full-time workers earned 58. 9% as much as male full-time workers. The gender pay gap has been attributed to differences in personal and workplace characteristics between women and men (education, hours worked, occupation etc. as well as direct and indirect discrimination in the labor market (gender stereotypes, customer and employer bias, etc. ). Studies always find that some portion of the gender pay gap remains unexplained even after controlling factors that are assumed to influence earnings. The unexplained portion of the wage gap is attributed to gender discrimination. The estimates for the discriminatory component of the gender pay gap vary widely. The OECD estimated that approximately 30% of the gender pay gaps across OECD countries is due to discrimination. Australian research shows that discrimination accounts for approximately 60% of the wage differentials between women and men. Studies examining the gender pay gap in the United States  show that large parts of the wage differential remain unexplained even after controlling for factors that affect pay. One study examined college graduates and found that the portion of the pay gap that remains unexplained after all other factors are taken into account is 5% one year after graduating college and 12% 10 years after graduation. Research done at  Cornell University  and elsewhere indicates that mothers are less likely to get hired than equally qualified fathers and, if hired, would be paid a lower salary than male applicants with children. The  OECD  found that a significant impact of children on women’s pay is generally found in the United Kingdom and the United States. ]  Fathers, on the other hand, earn  $7,500 more on average that than men without children. Glass ceiling The term glass ceiling is used to describe a perceived barrier to advancement based on discrimination, particularly gender discrimination. In academic achievement, great improvements have been made. However, as of 1995 in the United States, women received about half of all Masters degrees, but 95 to 97% of the senior managers of Fortune 1000 Industrial and Fortune 500 companies were male and in the Fortune 2000 Industrial and service companies, only 5% of senior managers were women. The  United Nations  asserts progress in bringing women into leadership and decision making positions around the world remains far too slow. Objectification Some argue that  sexual objectification  is a form of sexism. Some countries, such as  Norway  and  Denmark, have laws against sexual objectification in advertising. Nudity itself is not banned, and nude people can be used to advertise a product, but only if they are relevant to what is being advertised. Sol Olving, head of Norways Kreativt Forum, an association of the countrys top advertising agencies, explained, You could have a naked person advertising shower gel or a cream, but not a woman in a bikini draped across a car. Sexism in the Workplace Sexism in education is clearly associated with sexism in the workplace. When women are expected to â€Å"stay in the home,† they are unable to access the necessary educational resources to compete with men in the job market. If by chance they are able to secure a position, women may be less prepared educationally for the task, and thus draw lower wages. In recent decades more women have entered the United States workforce. After WWII (from about 1947), about 30 percent of women were employed outside the home; today, at the start of the 21st century, the figure is well over 50 percent. (Some estimates approach 75 percent if â€Å"part-time† jobs are included. Yet women are far from treated equally on the job. Typically, they hold lower-paying, lower-status jobs than men. In fact, women may account for only 25 percent of the upper-level managers in large corporations. And although half of the employees in the largest, most prestigious firms around the United States may be women, perhaps as few as 5 percent or less actually hold senior positions. In general, women are under-represented in the higher-status, higher-paying occupations, such as university teaching, law, engineering, and medicine. In contrast, women are over-represented in the lower-paying occupations, such as public-school teaching, nursing, and secretarial work. In stereotypical female jobs, referred to as  womens ghettos, women are subordinate to the positions of men. For example, executives supervise secretaries who are likely to be women, and lawyers supervise paralegals, who are also likely to be women. Women in the same jobs as men usually earn less, even though these women may have the same or better training, education, and skills. As a general statistic, women make only 60 percent or less than men in comparable positions. Why this disparity? Sociologists speculate that, in some cases, the fact that women often must take time off to have and raise children interrupts their career path. As much as Americans may hate to admit it, women in the United States still bear the primary responsibilities of child-rearing. Conflicting demands may partly explain why married women with children are more likely to leave their jobs than are childless and single women. Also, men are seen as the â€Å"chief bread winners,† so the belief is that they should be paid more than women in order to support their families. Whatever the reason, paying women less than men for equally demanding work is discrimination.

The brain :: essays research papers

Occipital, Frontal, and Temporal Lobes The occipital lobes are the center of our visual perception system. They are not particularly vulnerable to injury because of their location at the back of the brain, although any significant trauma to the brain could produce subtle changes to our visual-perceptual system, such as visual field defects and scotomas. The Peristriate region of the occipital lobe is involved in visuospatial processing, discrimination of movement and color discrimination (Westmoreland et al., 1994). Damage to one side of the occipital lobe causes homonomous loss of vision with exactly the same "field cut" in both eyes. Disorders of the occipital lobe can cause visual hallucinations and illusions. Visual hallucinations (visual images with no external stimuli) can be caused by lesions to the occipital region or temporal lobe seizures. Visual illusions (distorted perceptions) can take the form of objects appearing larger or smaller than they actually are, objects lacking color or objects having abn ormal coloring. Lesions in the parietal-temporal-occipital association area can cause word blindness with writing impairments (alexia and agraphia) (Kandel, Schwartz & Jessell, 1991). Frontal Lobe The Frontal Lobe is responsible for cognition and memory. The prefrontal area gives one the ability to concentrate, judgment and inhibition as well as personality and emotional traits. The premotor area is responsible for storage of voluntary activities and motor patterns. The motor area provides voluntary motor activity. Language is a motor speech. Temporal Lobe Location of the temporal lobe is near the temples just above the ear canal. Functions of the temporal lobe are to: Control hearing; from birth a baby can hear completely. The temporal lobe in the brain is fully developed before the baby is born. Language use; talking is very closely linked to hearing, and since people can hear they react by using language as means of communication. Emotions, especially fear plays a part in this role. Some complex aspects of vision, including the ability to see patterns such as faces. When the temporal lobe is damaged it causes:  · Deficits or limitations in understanding and comprehending spoken words  · May cause a lack of fear if the emotional responses are no longer working (a person seeing a snake may not be afraid because they don’t understand what the object even is)

Forensic Science Section Essay

1. Where is Herculaneum located? What happened to the city? It was an ancient Roman island, near Pompeii. It stood in the shadow of an active volcano, which destroyed the island’s life form. 2. Why is Herculaneum important to archeology today?  It is important because unlike other ancient cities, it was better preserved so they can really study the habitants that live in Herculaneum. 3. What are some of the challenges that archeologists face when examining the city of Herculaneum? Some of the challenges would be that the architecture is very fragile, so it is falling apart very quickly. This causes them to have to be very carefully. Another challenge is that they can’t explore more into the tunnels because there are modern houses built on top. 4. How do you think the archeological investigation of Herculaneum relates to forensic anthropology? In what ways are similar techniques and processes used in both of these situations? I think that it relates because the archeologist are look and dealing with the remains of ancient people. The two still seek to find the remains and causes of death; just really tried to piece together what occurred. 5. What is surprising about the ruins in Herculaneum? How is this different than Pompeii? They never found a lot of remains of the inhabitants. This differ from Pompeii where was hundreds of human remains. 6. How do archeologists know that other people have been to the ruins in Herculaneum before them? What were the people searching for? What dangers did they face? They know others where there because they dug tunnels. The people were raiding Herculaneum for beautiful art. They people faced the danger of being crushed by rocks falling down on them in this fragile building. 7. How did the bodies in Herculaneum differ from those in Pompeii? The Herculaneum bodies were found by the sea, whereas the remains in Pompeii were found there. 8. Do you think it would be interesting to work on a site like Herculaneum to discover what happened? Why or why not? How would this work differ from a traditional crime scene? Yes! It would be so fun to excavate this area out, as well as see how they lived back â€Å"in those days†. It preserved the island well enough that minor details are preserved. Herculaneum would be different from a traditional crime scene because you already know what killed all the people.

African Literature Essay

Despite the ignorance of most so called â€Å"literati† to the domain of African literature, African literature in fact is one of the main currents of world literature, stretching continuously and directly back to ancient history. Achebe did not â€Å"invent† African Literature, because he himself was inundated with it as an African. He simply made more people aware of it. The Beginnings of African Literature The first African literature is circa 2300-2100, when ancient Egyptians begin using burial texts to accompany their dead. These include the first written accounts of creation – the Memphite Declaration of Deities. Not only that, but ‘papyrus’, from which we originate our word for paper, was invented by the Egyptians, and writing flourished. In contrast, Sub-Saharan Africa feature a vibrant and varied oral culture. To take into account written literary culture without considering literary culture is definitely a mistake, because they two interplay heavily with each other. African oral arts are â€Å"art’s for life’s sake† (Mukere) not European â€Å"art’s for art’s sake†, and so may be considered foreign and strange by European readers. However, they provide useful knowledge, historical knowledge, ethical wisdom, and creative stimuli in a direct fashion. Oral culture takes many forms: proverbs and riddles, epic narratives, oration and personal testimony, praise poetry and songs, chants and rituals, stories, legends and folk tales. This is present in the many proverbs told in Things Fall Apart, and the rich cultural emphasis of that book also is typically African. The earliest written Sub-Saharan Literature (1520) is heavily influenced by Islamic literature. The earliest example of this is the anonymous history of the city-state of Kilwa Kisiwani. The first African history, History of the Sudan, is written by Abd al-Rahman al-Sadi in Arabic style. Traveling performers, called griots, kept the oral tradition alive, especially the legends of the Empire of Mali. In 1728 the earliest written Swahili work,Utendi wa Tambuka borrows heavily from Muslim tradition. However, there are little to no Islamic presence in Things Fall Apart. The Period of Colonization With the period of Colonization, African oral traditions and written works came under a serious outside threat. Europeans, justifying themselves with the Christian ethics, tried to destroy the â€Å"pagan† and â€Å"primitive† culture of the Africans, to make them more pliable slaves. However, African Literature survived this concerted attack. In 1789, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustava Vassa was the first slave narrative to be published. Kidnapped from Nigeria, this Ibo man wrote his autobiography in Great Britain in English, and like Achebe used his narrative as a platform to attack the injustices of slavery and cultural destruction. Back in Africa, Swahili poetry threw off the dominating influence of Islam and reverted back to native Bantu forms. One exemplar of this was Utendi wa Inkishafi (Soul’s Awakening), a poem detailing the vanity of earthly life. The Europeans, by bringing journalism and government schools to Africa, helped further the development of literature. Local newspapers abounded, and often they featured sections of local African poetry and short stories. While originally these fell close to the European form, slowly they broke away and became more and more African in nature. One of these writers was Oliver Schreiner, whose novel Story of an African Farm (1883) is considered the first African classic analysis of racial and sexual issues. Other notable writers, such as Samuel Mqhayi and Thomas Mofolo begin portraying Africans as complex and human characters. Achebe was highly influenced by these writers in their human portrayal of both sides of colonization. Emerging from Paris in the 1920s and 1930s, the negritude movement established itself as one of the premiere literary movements of its time. It was a French-speaking African search for identity, which ofcourse took them back to their roots in Africa. Africa was made into a metaphorical antipode to Europe, a golden age utopia, and was often represented allegorically as a woman. In a 1967 interview, Cesaire explained: â€Å"We lived in an atmosphere of rejection, and we developed an inferiority complex. † The desire to establish an identity begins with â€Å"a concrete consciousness of what we are–†¦that we are black . . . and have a history. . . [that] there have been beautiful and important black civilizations†¦that its values were values that could still make an important contribution to the world. † Leopold Sedar Senghor, one of the prime thinkers of this movement, eventually became president of the country of Senegal, creating a tradition of African writers becoming active political figures. Achebe was doubtless familiar with the negritude movement, although he preferred to less surrealistic and more realistic writing. In 1948, African literature came to the forefront of the world stage with Alan Paton’s publishing of Cry the Beloved Country. However, this book was a somewhat paternalistic and sentimental portrayal of Africa. Another African writer, Fraz Fanon, also a psychiatrist, becomes famous in 1967 through a powerful analysis of racism from the African viewpoint – Black Skin, White Masks. Camara Laye explored the deep psychological ramification of being African in his masterpiece, The Dark Child (1953), and African satire is popularized by Mongo Beti and Ferdinand Oyono. Respected African literary critic Kofi Awoonor systematically collects and translates into English much of African oral culture and art forms, preserving native African culture. Chinua Achebe then presents this native African culture in his stunning work, Things Fall Apart. This is probably the most read work of African Literature ever written, and provides a level of deep cultural detail rarely found in European literature. Achebe’s psychological insight combined with his stark realism make his novel a classic. Post-Achebe African Literature Achebe simply opened the door for many other African literati to attain international recognition. East Africans produce important autobiographical works, such as Kenyans Josiah Kariuki’s Mau Mau Detainee (1963), and R. Mugo Gatheru’s Child of Two Worlds (1964). African women begin to let their voice be heard. Writers such as Flora Nwapa give the feminine African perspective on colonization and other African issues. Wole Soyinka writes her satire of the conflict between modern Nigeria and its traditional culture in her book The Interpreters (1965). A prolific writer, she later produces famous plays such as Death and The King’s Horseman. Later, in 1986, she is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. African Literature gains more and more momentum, and Professor James Ngugi even calls for the abolition of the English Department in the University of Nairobi, to be replaced by a Department of African Literature and Languages. African writers J. M. Coetzee, in his Life and Times of Michael K. written in both Afrikaans and English for his South African audience, confronts in literature the oppressive regime of apartheid. Chinua Achebe helps reunite African Literature as a whole by publishing in 1985 African Short Stories, a collection of African short stories from all over the continent. Another African writer, Naguib Mahfouz, wins the Nobel Prize in literature in 1988. In 1990 African poetry experiences a vital comeback through the work I is a Long-Memoried Woman by Frances Anne Soloman. African Literature is only gaining momentum as time marches onwards.

Coco Cola Essays

Coco Cola Essays Coco Cola Essay Coco Cola Essay It also defined as the organizations or individuals have similar features make the remarkable determination in equines strategy (Fay Jobber, 2012). There are several benefits for make the market segmentation for Coca-Cola Company. It enhances the opportunities of growth and the profitability. The Coca-Cola company introduced a new product Of fruit flavor to increase the consumer groups towards young generation and combined low calorie to meet the healthy population. The market segmentation also improved the customers retention and make communications more effective. The new product give customers more selection and the customers feedback can help the company get more communication with different groups of customer. All the beneficial of market segmentation is for better matching the correct group and satisfied their needs (Stardom, 2004). The new products is mainly towards the carbine soft drinks and making market segmental strategies can expand or change the market orientation, for example, Coca-Cola Company used to produce the cherry flavor soft dinky, however, the new product increase more fruit flavor and decrease the calories contents in it. Therefore, the market position and strategy has change towards young and healthy generation. Market needs The Market needs involves what customers want rather than the competitors ND what the product can benefited for themselves in the market place (Wellington, 2010). The new product of Coca-Cola creates new brand value of this company. The brand value refers to the additional traits or service added to the products to make the new products particular. The new Coca-Cola product creates low calories and various flavors create more consumption groups (Fay Jobber, 2012). The new product towards young generation, who prefer fruit flavor and give them more choice rather than the only cherry in Coca-Cola soft drinks. The new product also contains nearly zero calories to help healthy groups to keep fit. They can use the products as diet drinks. According to the research, 63% of the customers plan to order the Coca-Cola products during the Christmas holiday and 61% of the appointed customers would like to consume the Coca-Cola products in pub (Coca-Cola, 2014). Segmentation potential The marketing potential of a product requires research and marketing processing and lead to a important part of successful business strategy. Through analyzing of market potential can help the company make decision of weather the products needs to invest. So before launching the new market of the new product, the company should do many research of potential rakes in K. According to the research, there are 1. 7 billion of Coca-Cola are sold every day. The picture below shows the contents of caffeine in different drinks, it illustrates the Coca-Cola is not the highest calories soft drinks in many brands. So the customers trends to select the Coca-Cola products and the new product provide more selection of different consumer groups. Analysis of current and potential competitors The Porters five forces describe the five threats for a new product launching the market. The Current competitor corresponds to the rivalry among existing competitors. The Coca-Cola Company has many existing competitors, like Pepsi, red bull. Compared to these companies, the Coca-Cola have many competitive advantages.

Prevailing Themes in Swamp Gravy essays

Prevailing Themes in Swamp Gravy essays South Georgians from different backgrounds, sharing various experiences in life, all have a story to tell. Swamp Gravy portrays these real life stories with a unique staging technique, allowing the audience to be involved and participate during the performance. The play illustrates folk life in the past and celebrates the way things use to be when life was simple. The stories told in Swamp Gravy are derived from local tales and histories of the community that reveal themes about death, family, and relationships. The theme of death was evident in the first act of the play. The main character, Harvey, was only a young child when his mother died a month after giving birth to a baby girl. After his mother's death, Harvey and his five other siblings were separated and labeled as orphans. Harvey had no mother and his father was not a positive figure in Harvey's life. He felt a sense of abandonment, loneliness, and a voidance of love. As the play progressed, a young girl who lost her big brother in a car accident told another story about death. The younger sister admired and looked up to her older brother. She was saddened by the death of her brother, but she held on to the memory of him, as did Harvey remember his mother. Swamp Gravy exemplified the importance of family throughout the play. A large family was common and displayed a sense of unity and love. Harvey's youngest sister was adopted when she was a baby. She always felt emptiness in her heart and often dreamed of someday meeting her biological family. Harvey, also determined to find his baby sister, never gave up hope. During one scene of the play, a family convened in the swamp for a family reunion. Even though the family's cousins were escaped convicts, the family still wanted to inclu ...