Queen Victorias Effect on Britain

Queen Victorias Effect on Britain Did Queen Victoria leave her subjects in a better condition in 1901 than when she found them in 1837? The Victorian era was principally a time of change, of transience: the translocation of a people, challenged morally, socially and in their religious beliefs, as never before. Standing majestically above all this was the image of stability which Queen Victoria symbolised. The shift from the rural life of the eighteenth century and the Romantic Movement in the Arts which accompanied it was displaced and the population in the industrial towns and cities swelled to the point of overflowing, producing slums and sweatshops rather than the wealth and security that had been sought, with ‘the Age of the Novel’ involved with social issues as well as establishing a new literary genre. In 1837, when Victoria came to the throne, these changes had already begun and by the time her reign ended, in 1901, more was ahead particularly if one considers the ‘long nineteenth century’ which encompasses the pre-war years up to 1914. How far her people were in a ‘better condi tion’ by the end of Victoria’s reign will be the subject of this essay, looking at the idea via the different media of change evidenced in religion, literature, politics and related social issues as well as the Imperialism which the establishment of the British monarch as the first Empress of India established. In many ways, it is true to say that Victoria presided over a Renaissance which had not been seen since her antecedent, Elizabeth, had been on the throne. The coincidence that a female monarch should have been in place at both times of regeneration does not, however, imply a connective: conditions were very different during Elizabeth’s reign, particularly in the area of social mobility and religious imperatives. The Victorian era saw the greatest challenges to both of these that had ever been seen. The movement of the peasantry to the towns saw an enormous shift in both the physical location of the population and its imperatives. Much was lost, in terms of tradition and permanence when the move to the cities occurred because most of those who did relocate in the hope of increasing their meagre incomes had never been farther than the next village before they moved and this had been the case for generations. Indeed, as early as the mid-nineteenth century novelists were using the idea of the rural idyll to exemplify an ideal existence now lost[1]. This is evident in novels such as George Eliot’s Adam Bede (1859) which was set some fifty years before it was written: As he reached the foot of the slope, an elderly horseman, with his portmanteau strapped behind him, stopped his horse when Adam had passed him, and turned round to have another long look at the stalwart workman in paper cap, leather breeches, and dark-blue worsted stockings.[2] The mounted, unidentified and detached observer (a connective with the contemporary reader) takes a ‘long look at the ‘stalwart workman’ in an elegiac emblem of the author’s intent within the novel to show a time now lost and the changes that were about to take place. Adam as a type of workman has been displaced and is no longer to be found and which represents a longing for a return to old times and old days associated with the countryside which can be traced to the present day and certainly becomes a primary informative, present in works such as Flora Thompson’s enduringly popular Larkrise to Candleford (1945) and further evidenced even in the work of such ‘scientific’ novelists as H.G. Wells in his novel, The History of Mr Polly, and the character of Leonard Bast as well as the evocative, mystical rural setting in E.M. Forster’s Howard’s End, both written in 1910. The novel also introduces the character of a female preacher, a ‘Dissenter’, in other words a Methodist, and by combining the two, Eliot shows that despite the loss of the life portrayed in her novel, there were positive challenges which changes such as the growing desire for the emancipation of women, at the forefront of which was J.S. Mill[3], and the need to find new ways of expressing religious sensibility. The ultimate challenge to religion, of course, was presented by the theories of evolution which were being formulated in the 1860s. Although Charles Darwin is credited with having discovered this, the work of such as Herbert Spencer, who actually coined the term ‘survival of the fittest’ in his Principles of Biology (1864) which Darwin incorporated into a later edition of his own work, were also significant. Within his seminal The Origin of Species, first published in 1859, Darwin introduced to the wider public the then profoundly disturbing notion that man was not created entire and complete as the Bible relates but evolved and thus dispossessed an entire generation who had previously felt secure in the knowledge of God as their Creator (though Darwin uses this term himself many times within the work and does not deny the idea of a Creator directly[4]). It is a mistake, however, to assume that Darwin’s ideas had much immediate effect on the population at large. R ather, its immediate aftermath may be discerned in the literature of the time, George Eliot, a close friend of Spencer, amongst these. Moreover, his published theories were simply an affirmation for many of a growing generic scepticism, such as Thomas Hardy shows: On the last day of the year [1901] he makes the following reflection: ‘After reading various philosophic systems, and being struck with their contradictions and futilities, I have come to this: Let every man make a philosophy for himself out of his own experience. He will not be able to escape using terms and phraseology from earlier philosophers, but let him avoid adopting their theories if he values his own mental life. Let him remember the fate of Coleridge, and save years of labour by working out his own views as given him by his surroundings.’[5] However, just as the move from the towns to the cities subsequently produced a sense of loss, the disconnection with the certainty of divine creation also saw the longing for a mystical element to life once ‘the divine’ had, in a sense, been removed from it: seeking ‘an oasis of mystery in the dreary desert of knowledge’[6]. The disconnection resulted in the burgeoning of interest in Spiritualism which was witnessed at the end of the century, with personages as eminent and respected as Rudyard Kipling not only interested and involved with this but also writing about it in stories such as the mysterious ‘They’[7] and imagination came to be seen as connected to the divine and dislocated by Darwin’s discoveries, Forster wrote in 1910: ‘They collect facts and facts and empires of facts. But which of them will re-kindle the light within?’[8] However, the connection of facts with the denial of imagination had been discussed much earlier by the man who is above anyone the voice of the nineteenth century, Charles Dickens. In his novel of 1854, Hard Times, he demonstrates the denial of the importance of ‘fancy’ in Utilitarian educational methods and the pre-eminence of ‘facts’[9]. This he extends to the teaching methods used to train the teachers themselves: He and some one hundred and forty other schoolmasters had been lately turned at the same time, in the same factory, on the same principles, like so many pianoforte legs. He had been put through an immense variety of paces, and had answered volumes of head-breaking questions. [†¦] He had worked his stony way into Her Majestys most Honourable Privy Councils Schedule B, and had taken the bloom off the higher branches of mathematics and physical science, French, German, Latin and Greek. [†¦] Ah, rather overdone, MChoakumchild. If he had only learnt a little less, how infinitely better he might have taught much more![10] Dickens the radical is less appreciated now than in his own time, as in subsequent centuries he has come to be seen simply as a master-story teller, which of course he was. However, this is to deny the way that Dickens, as evidenced in this satirical swipe at the Utilitarian movement, used his immense popularity in the cause of social reform. Indeed, in the early years of Victoria’s reign, he published his second and third novels, Oliver Twist (1837-9) and Nicholas Nickleby (1838-9). The first of these was concerned with the effects of the infamous ‘Poor Law’ and the 1834 amendment. It was widely believed that the abuse of this injured rather than helped the poor and Dickens’ novel was intended to bring that to the notice of those who had the power to do something about it, as well as reaching the newly literate lower echelons and letting them know they had someone who would speak for them, that their story, as Dickens remarked in his Preface to the 1867 ed ition, from thieves to prostitutes, was a ‘TRUTH’ that ‘needed to be told’[11]. As his friend and first biographer remarked: His qualities could be appreciated as well as felt in an almost equal degree by all classes of his various readers.[12] Thus, as the novelist is known to have said, by making people care about one child, he might make them care about the many and this emanated from his own sufferings as a child alone in London when his father was imprisoned for debt in the infamous Marshalsea (which was to provide the setting for his later novel, Little Dorrit, 1857, though the six hundred year old prison closed in 1842) whence he was accompanied by his wife and younger children[13]. Dickens never spoke of the experience, save through his fiction, nor did he ever forget it. In Nicholas Nickleby and the creation of Dotheboys Hall, Dickens continued to exercise his creative power to bring to the attention of his readers the appalling social evil of the Yorkshire schools, whose abuses he remembered hearing of as a child and then investigated (whilst wearing a disguise) as part of his research for the novel. As the author said in his fragment of autobiography, ‘we should be devilish careful what we do to children’[14]. Dickens had a long memory and an acute social awareness and both are evident in Nickleby, as is the sheer exhilaration and appetite for life which had proved so popular in his first novel Pickwick Papers (1836-7). Moreover, Dickens was a successful reformer, commenting in his preface to the 1848 edition: This story was begun, within a few months after the publication of the completed Pickwick Papers. There were, then, a good many cheap Yorkshire schools in existence. There are very few now.[15] The fact is stated simply but the achievement was immense. The obverse of these schools, of course, was seen in Arnold’s pioneering work in reforming the public schools, as evidenced in Thomas Hughes’, Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1857). The issue of social and educational reform was one with which many novelists were concerned at this time, engaging with both the needs and desires of the weakest in society. Engels had identified this as ‘the social war, the war of each against all’[16] and he applied this as a generic to the multiplicity of industrial towns and cities: What is true of London, is true of Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, is true of all great towns. Everywhere barbarous indifference, hard egotism on one hand, and nameless misery on the other, everywhere social warfare, every mans house in a state of siege, everywhere reciprocal plundering under the protection of the law, and all so shameless, so openly avowed that one shrinks before the consequences of our social state as they manifest themselves here undisguised, and can only wonder that the whole crazy fabric still hangs together.[17] Engels’ work was published between September 1844 and March 1845 and had an immediate effect on not just those who were, if one may term it so, ‘declared radicals’, like himself, but also those like the deeply ‘respectable’ and widely respected writer Elizabeth Gaskell, whose first novel, Mary Barton, written in 1848, partly to assuage the pain of losing her child, deals largely with the poverty experienced by the poor in Manchester. Gaskell, encouraged by both her husband, the Ereverend William Gaskell, and Dickens, researched the conditions of the city in which she and William were then living. What she found horrified her and the reality of expression present within the novel can be seen in her powerful descriptions of the slum dwellings she had seen: Our friends were not dainty, but even they picked their way, till they got to some steps leading down to a small area, where a person standing would have his head about one foot below the level of the street, and might at the same time, without the least motion of his body, touch the window of the cellar and the damp muddy wall right opposite. You went down one step even from the foul area into the cellar in which a family of human beings lived. It was very dark inside. The window-panes many of them were broken and stuffed with rags, which was reason enough for the dusky light that pervaded the place even at mid-day. After the account I have given of the state of the street, no one can be surprised that on going into the cellar inhabited by Davenport, the smell was so foetid as almost to knock the two men down.[18] The importance of setting such descriptions in the context of fiction might be thought possibly to lessen its reality in the eyes of contemporary readers but nothing could be farther from the truth, as though few would be drawn to the admirable tracts of Engels, many were attracted to the vivid stories of such as Dickens and Gaskell. Indeed, Gaskell was careful always to ensure that her work did not offend those in power to the extent that she will qualify a passage on the uncaring attitude of the rich as perceived by the poor by adding placatory comments such as: I know that this is not really the case; and I know what is the truth in such matters: but what I wish to impress is what the workman feels and thinks.[19] The implied separation in comprehension may appear patronising by today’s standards but it must be remembered that Gaskell was truly attempting to do as she proclaimed, ‘impress’ the thoughts and feelings of ‘the workman’ on those in power in the hope it would aid reform. If she had been too directly challenging, they would simply not have read her works which would have defeated the object. Gaskell faced similar opposition in her second novel, Ruth, published in 1853, when she addressed the topic of an unmarried mother sympathetically, much too sympathetically for the liking of many, who felt she was undermining the perceived moral and religious mores of the time. The novel was thought to be based upon the true story of a girl called Pasley: In 1850 she took up the cause of a girl called Pasley whom she had come across in the New Bayley prison. In a long letter to Dickens, at that time involved in his emigration project for fallen women, she gives details of the case. Pasleys career exemplifies the dangers facing even a girl of respectable parentage who was neglected. The daughter of an Irish clergyman who had died when she was two, she had been neglected by an indifferent mother, and then placed in an orphanage, before becoming a dressmakers apprentice. Following a series of misfortunes for which she had not herself been responsible she had been seduced by her own doctor. The consequence had been first the Penitentiary and then a career of petty crime; finally, by an appalling stroke of coincidence, the poor girl had been confronted when in prison by her very seducer, now acting as prison surgeon.[20] Certainly, there are many similarities between the case of Pasley and that of Ruth and Gaskell’s clear intent is to show how difficult was the plight of girls in Ruth’s and Pasley’s situation. Gaskell successfully persuaded Dickens to intervene for Pasley and she emigrated but clearly the case was not forgotten by her as emblematic of the vulnerability of young girls in nineteenth century society. Indeed, she had already addressed the idea that prostitution was the usual fate of such girls in Mary Barton and the ‘petty crime’ to which she refers might certainly be euphemistically describing prostitution. Attitudes towards prostitution were far from sympathetic and much of the reforming work done at the time concerned not only changing conditions for prostitutes but also in improving the notorious double-standard which operated towards it, both then and now. The Contagious Diseases Acts of 1864, 1866, and 1869 to some extent reflect this. The Act was established to protect soldiers but had the coincidental effect of advancing the cause of women’s liberation: [†¦] legislation intended to protect members of the British armed forces from sexually transmitted diseases ended up galvanizing a major Victorian feminist movement in which working- and middle-class women worked together for a common cause.[21] Thus, it can be seen that Gaskell’s pre-emptive strike truly reflected the feelings of many that Victorian laws operated for the protection of men rather than women and that even though there were exceptions, such as Mill and Dickens, the latter of whom set up Urania Cottage as a refuge for ‘fallen women’, the vast majority of the population preferred simply to ignore the suffering and anguish of girls on the streets. Somewhat ironically, compassion towards prostitutes was stirred by the infamous ‘Whitechapel Murders’ of 1888-91, perpetrated by the still unidentified ‘Jack the Ripper’. Even for the so called ‘respectable’ working classes, indeed, in general conditions were appallingly bad, especially in the factories and sweatshops[22] which abounded both in London and elsewhere in the country: ‘The nineteenth century saw the Englishman turn town dweller and by 1900 three-quarters of the nation lived in towns’[23]. Bearing this in mind, it seems inevitable that conditions in these towns would be at best difficult and at worst unbearable (the infamous employment of children as, for example, chimney-sweeps, being evident in the work of such as the reformer Charles Kingsley who wrote The Water Babies in 1863 to expose this abuse). Thus, approaching the end of Victoria’s reign, the population was generally in a state of crisis. However, there was a discernable exception to this, in part, in the beginning of what we would now take to be an upwardly mobile meritocracy. Consisting largely of those persons concerned with ‘white-collar work’, the clerk for example, this section of society knew a growth and freedom such as never before. Possibly the best example of this is to be found in George and Weedon Grossmith’s The Diary of a Nobody, first published in Punch as a series of articles during 1888-9, in the form of a diary of the fictional Mr. Pooter. The highly amusing work is also an invaluable record of a new type of man emerging in Victorian society: My clear wife Carrie and I have just been a week in our new house, â€Å"The Laurels,† Brickfield Terrace, Holloway—a nice six-roomed residence, not counting basement, with a front breakfast-parlour. We have a little front garden; and there is a flight of ten steps up to the front door, which, by-the-by, we keep locked with the chain up. Cummings, Gowing, and our other intimate friends always come to the little side entrance, which saves the servant the trouble of going up to the front door, thereby taking her from her work. We have a nice little back garden which runs down to the railway. We were rather afraid of the noise of the trains at first, but the landlord said we should not notice them after a bit, and took  £2 off the rent. He was certainly right; and beyond the cracking of the garden wall at the bottom, we have suffered no inconvenience.[24] The Pooters encapsulate the image of a new class, living in their own home, employing a servant, having a garden and yet still retaining their parsimonious connective with their humbler origins; in many ways, the Pooters are the future. In conclusion, it may be remarked that the Victorian era saw the greatest period of change that had ever been seen. Industrial development saw riches and poverty in unequal measure; improvements were made in nursing and social concerns but the population mostly remained in poverty and both ill-nourished and inadequately cared for in terms of health; the trains united the country but the rural population was fragmented and the urban largely in dire circumstances; schooling was expanded and literacy improved but the standard of education was at best questionable; the Empire flourished but its members across the seas were mostly downtrodden, subjugated and rebellious: in short, to quote Dickens’ famous opening to A Tale of Two Cities (1859), ‘it was the best of times and the worst of times’. It is extremely difficult to assess, in the final analysis, whether the end of Victoria’s reign saw her people in a better or worse condition than when her reign began but certainly, the single most important development seen was the opportunity for change. In this sense if no other, the population was better off at the end of the long nineteenth century than at the beginning of it. However, the war that was about to devastate Europe brought apocalyptic changes which could never have been envisaged and certainly Tennyson’s famous reference in ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ (1854) to the fact that ‘Some one had blunderd’ would take on a profoundly disturbing resonance from which the world over which Victoria presided would never recover. Truly, 1914 brought more than just the end of an era it brought the end of Victorian mores and the expectations of the population would alter radically, with revolution, such as occurred in Russia in 1917, a perpetual possibility, especially with the growth of the unions and the Socialist Party, which wiped out the Liberals. Victoria’s reign was not just one age but many and as such, like most eras, was both good and bad. Bibliography Ackroyd, Peter. Dickens. London: Guild Publishing, 1990. Beer, Gillian. Darwin’s Plots. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Davis, Philip. The Victorians. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Cobbet, William. Rural Rides. New York: Cosimo Classics, 2004. Darwin, Charles. The Origin of Species. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. Dickens, C. Oliver Twist. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999 Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989. Eliot, George. Adam Bede. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Eliot, George. The Lifted Veil. London: Virago Press, 1985, Englels, F. The Condition of the Working class in England (1844) http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/condition-working-class/index.htm> Forster, E.M. Howards End. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1987. Forster, J. The Life of Charles Dickens in Two Volumes. London: J.M. Dent, 1980. Hardy, F.E. The Life of Thomas Hardy. London: Macmillan, 1962. Hughes, Thomas. Tom Browns School Days. New York: Harper Brothers,1911. Gaskell, Elizabeth. Mary Barton. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1993. Gaskell, Elizabeth. Ruth. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Grossmith, G M. The Diary of a Nobody. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Kipling, Rudyard. Kim. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1918. Kipling, Rudyard. Traffics and Dicoveries. New York: Charles Scribner Sons. Langland, Elizabeth. Nobodys Angels: Middle-Class Women and Domestic Ideology in Victorian Culture. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995. Lawrence, D.H. The Rainbow. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. Lightman, Bernard, ed. Victorian Science in context. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997. Maltus, Thomas. Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), 29.11.08. http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/malthus/index.htm> Mathias, P. The first Industrial Nation. London: Routledge, 2001. Mayhew, Henry. The Unknown Mayhew. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971. Mill, J.S. The Subjection of Women. New York: Prometheus, 1986. Roberts, F. David. The Social Conscience of the Early Victorians. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2002. Smiles, Samuel, Self Help. 29.11.08 http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext97/selfh10h.htm> Smiles, Samuel. Industrial Biography: Iron-Workers and Tool-Makers. Boston: Ticknor and Fields,1864. Sturt, George. Change in the Village. London: Caliban Books, 1984. Thompson, Flora. Lark Rise to Candleford. London: Penguin, 2008. The Victorian Web. accessed 30.11.08. http://www.victorianweb.org/gender/contagious.html> Worthen, John. D H Lawrence. The Early Years 1885-1912. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. 1 Footnotes [1] For more on the idea of changes and loss of traditions see: Sturt, George. Change in the Village. London: Caliban Books, 1984. (First published in 1912.) [2] Eliot, George. Adam Bede. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 12. [3] See: Mill, J.S. The Subjection of Women. New York: Prometheus, 1986. [4] Darwin, Charles. The Origin of Species. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. [5] Hardy, F.E. The Life of Thomas Hardy. London: Macmillan, 1962, p. 310. [6] Eliot, George. The Lifted Veil. 1878. London: Virago Press, 1985, p. 26. [7] Kipling, Rudyard. Traffics and Dicoveries. New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1904, p. 337. [8] Forster, E.M. Howards End. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1987, p. 43. [9] Dickens, C. Hard Times. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989, pp. 8-9. [10] Dickens, C. Hard Times. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989, p. 10. [11] Dickens, C. Oliver Twist. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, Preface, p. xx. [12] Forster, J. The Life of Charles Dickens in Two Volumes. London: J.M. Dent, 1980, vol. I, p. 83. [13] Forster, J. The Life of Charles Dickens in Two Volumes. London: J.M. Dent, 1980. [14] Forster, J. The Life of Charles Dickens in Two Volumes. London: J.M. Dent, 1980. [15] Dickens, C. Nicholas Nickleby. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990, Preface to the 1848 Edition, Lii. [16] Englels, F. The Condition of the Working class in England (1844): 29.11.08. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/condition-working-class/index.htm> [17] Englels, F. The Condition of the Working class in England (1844): 29.11.08. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/condition-working-class/index.htm> [18] Gaskell, Elizabeth. Mary Barton. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1993, pp. 79-80. [19] Gaskell, Elizabeth. Mary Barton. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1993, p. 49. [20] See Alan Shelston’s introduction to: Gaskell, Elizabeth. Ruth. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. vii-viii. [21] See: ‘The Contagious Diseases Act’, accessed 30.11.08. http://www.victorianweb.org/gender/contagious.html> [22] See: Mayhew, Henry. The Unknown Mayhew. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971. [23] Mathias, P. The First Industrial Nation. London: Routledge, 2001, p. 226. [24] Grossmith, G M. The Diary of a Nobody. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 3.

Career as a Concept Artist Essay -- Video Game Development

The employment outlook in my area for a Concept Artist in Video Game Development isn’t too promising. Nebraska isn’t the metropolis for technological employment like this, thus I would have to relocate to somewhere along the East or West Coasts, where jobs are more available than they are in the mid-west. This is due to the fact that a lot of the Game Publishing companies, such as Blizzard Entertainment, Monolith Games, a subdivision of Warner Bros. Entertainment, require an applicant to work on-site. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2007, Graphic Designers earnings ranged from entry-level pay of about $35,000.00 to staff-level median of $45,000.00. More seasoned designers earned $62,000.00 and freelance designers earned around $60,000.00. Design Directors earned up to $98,600.00. Graphic designers with ownership or partnership interests in a firm or who were principals of the firm in some other capacity earned $113,000,00. Generally, for every company, there’s a different salary, depending on the type of work being completed and what they need. The role of ...

Money and Morals Essay

The underlying consequences of the clash between social and market norms are multitudinous and frequently inimical to our humanity. Fundamentally, the sages of our pasts weren’t wrong when they said, â€Å"Money is the root of all evil.† Dan Ariely, an American professor of psychology and behavioral economics, claims that, â€Å"When social and market norms collide, trouble sets in.† (Ariely 68) This essay will make an attempt at proving that claim; naturally, it is not unusual that money is the chief topic of this essay. Ariely makes several claims, but doesn’t adequately describe the unpropitious effects of money. Money rules the â€Å"market world;† consequently, money and its contemporary adverse effects and affects will be analyzed in this essay. Everyone knows money propagates deceit and betrayal. It changes social relationships to a darker shade from its original bright and happy color. It generally provokes a darker human: one that cheats, l ies, and destroys lives for the betterment of their future. It ravages our being, causing monetary values and materialistic items to define our purpose. Karl Marx once noted, â€Å"Money then appears as the enemy of man and social bonds that pretend to self-substantiate.† (Porto) Clearly, one can see how money degrades character; however, the reasons are unclear. Some say greed and the desire to fulfill one’s every wish are simply too overpowering a force to oppose, and specifically those things are the motivation to acquire more money. However, only a select few can seriously have the requisite spine to risk their personal lives and even companies to do that. Maybe greed isn’t the only factor. A study conducted by Harvard and Utah Students that proposes a different answer. The study was published in Behavioral Reasoning Theory, a book by J.D Westaby, who is a professor in Columbia University with a PhD in social-organizational psychology. The students collected a myriad of undergraduate students and presented videos, images, and texts that made them think of money, such as dollar bills and expensive jewelry. Then, they showed them other things that had nothing to do with money. Some students were exposed to monetary-related pictures more than others. Then, a  comprehensive questionnaire was filled by all the students. The und ergraduates exposed to the images related to money exhibited questionable ethics. They consistently chose answers that were cut-throat, immoral, and selfish. Surprisingly, however, the students didn’t see their choices as immoral at all. They, â€Å"framed their choices as products of cost-benefit analysis.† (Porto). The study’s abstract says, â€Å"Students constantly exposed to [money] were more likely to steal numerous pages from a printer†¦ and create stands to sell products in a school without permission.† (Westaby [Study 1] 60). The student’s reactions are symbolic of the unconstructive behavior money tend to propagate when gone out of control. Although their perusal of the images and texts related to money was rather short, the outcome was apparent. It discouraged positive social interaction and encouraged a grimmer human. When money rules our lives, and when we feel very wealthy, we tend to behave adversely. Think about it this way: Pretend you are playing a game of Monopoly; however, in this game, the combination of skill, luck, and intelligence has been rendered irrelevant. Why? The monopo ly game is rigged, and you have the advantage. You’ve been given several more opportunities to move around the board. You have most of the money. You have most of the â€Å"cities† and numerous hotels. Every time you land on a â€Å"chance,† or â€Å"community chest,† you find yourself with more resources. How might this unfair advantage influence the way you thought of yourself and, more importantly, how you regard the other player(s)? This experiment was, in fact, performed by psychologist Paul Piff. Piff is a social psychologist and post-doctoral scholar in the Psychology Dept. of UCBerkley. He published an article titled, â€Å"Higher Social Class Predicts Increased Unethical Behavior.† It proved through questionnaires, quizzes, in-lab manipulations, and several other techniques, that living high in the socioeconomic ladder increases the chances dramatically and exponentially of dehumanization. It drives affluent societies to immoralities, causing them to be more insular and acrimoniously unsympathetic. It can make them more likely, as Piff shows in one of his several experiments, to deliberately and knowingly take candy from a bowl of sweets designated specifically for children. Wealthy individuals, Paul Piff claims, â€Å"Are way more likely to prioritize their own self-i nterests above the interests of other people. It makes them more likely to exhibit characteristics that we would  stereotypically associate with, say, assholes.† (McElwee)* Piff was able to gather 100 participants, and set up 50 monopoly boards. Each monopoly game had two participants, and at the flip of a coin, it was decided who would be the richer player in the rigged game of monopoly. The luckier player had several advantages: they got twice the salary, earned four hundred (instead of two hundred) when they passed â€Å"Go,† and were allowed to role two die instead of one. Piff installed hidden cameras in the rooms the players were in, and reported several intriguing things. First of all, the richer player began to show off his dominance. He moved around the board louder. It was as if the piece he was controlling symbolized his footsteps: loud, confident, and obstreperous. Moreover, they smirked disapprovingly at ever â€Å"stupid,† move the poorer player made. In contrast, they richer player made jubilant sounds – that seemed to depress the poorer players – every time they made a move. As the game progressed, so did increase of the rich player’s hubris. There was a bowl of pretzels on the side, and the rich players began to eat from the pretzels, and gave dirty looks to the poorer players when they even approached the pretzels. One player even said something along the lines of, â€Å"Don’t eat my pretzels.† The rich players started to get ruder and ruder, making comments like, â€Å"You’re going to lose big time at this game,† or â€Å"Wow, you’re so poor. I’m still going to take all your money though. *chuckle*.† One player even said, â€Å"Are you sure you even know how to play this game?† At the end of the game, Paul Piff interviewed the players. He reports that the richer players, when asked why the won the game, replied with a very intriguing, yet not surprising, answer. They attributed their inevitable victory to their skills! They ignored the fact, or maybe even forgotten, that they were put into a much more privileged and advantaged situation. Even the means by which they were chosen to be rich was ruled by luck, not skill. This game of monopoly can symbolize society. It gives us much insight into how humans essentially view advantages and opportunities they were given. As a person’s level of wealth increases, their feelings of entitlement and self-interest increase with it. Conversely, their empathy, compassion, and consideration decrease. Paul Piff says, â€Å"In surveys, wealthier individuals are more likely to moralize greed being good, and that the pursuit of self-interest is favorable and moral.† (TedxMarin)* To further understand why affluent people exhibit less altruistic behavior,  another study was lead by Daniel M. Stancato. Daniel M. Stancato, like Paul Piff, is a social psychologist and post-doctoral scholar in the Psychology Dept. of UCBerkley. He co-authored, â€Å"Social Class Predicts Increased Unethical Behavior.† This study meticulously examined whether provoking an environment where greed is regarded positively increases the unethical tendencies of the less-pri vileged enough to meet their rich counterparts. In the experiment, when the benefits of greed were emphasized, Daniel hypothesized that blue-collar individuals would be as susceptible to unethical behavior as richer individuals. If these findings were true, it would attest a revelation, that is lower-class individuals tend to act more ethically is because they hold relatively unfavorable sentiments towards greed. Conversely, rich white-collared individuals tend to act more adversely is because they hold relatively favorable sentiments towards greed. The study was, essentially, an economic game. Around 100 participants were gathered, and given â€Å"laboratory† credits. These credits, the participants were told, could be traded for real money. They were then presented with a questionnaire. The questionnaire prompted the participants to list the ways the participants viewed greed, and why. After about an hour, the participants were given the opportunity to give some of their laboratory credits to a needy stranger. The lower-class individuals (those who made $20,000 and less) gave a total of 45% more than the rich white-collared folk (those who made 150k+). Not surprisingly, the poorer individuals had negative sentiments towards greed, and the richer individuals felt more comfortable and accepted greed more easily. Later, the participants were given a different questionnaire that prompted them to list three negative outcomes of greed. They were then shown several videos of starving children. Then, they were again given the opportunity to give money to a needy stranger. The difference in lab credits given between the two groups was near negligible. This shows that, in an environment where greed is negatively promoted, one can give more. A while later, the same participants were given another questionnaire that prompted them to list three positive outcomes of greed. Afterwards, they were shown several clips of very rich people and the lives they lead. They showed them mansions, jewelry, expensive cars, and several other materialistic items that emphasized on money. They were then, again, given an opportunity to give  away some of their lab credits. This time, however, very few people gave away anything, and those who gave, gave very little. This study shows that money can seriously make individuals less generous, compassionate, and altruistic. The first part of the experiment introduced an atmosphere where greed was looked at neutrally; one was supposed to fill out their general attitude towards having a covet nature. When the individual was left to their own devices, their actions reflected upon their true nature; consequently, the poorer folk, who fully understood the egregious consequences greed has on society, gave more. The richer folk, who practically lived in an environment where taking advantage of every possession is vital to success, were a lot less giving. However, a new environment was introduced. By prompting the participants to list three negative outcomes of greed, the participants were influenced. They were manipulated into adopting a new paradigm – a paradigm where greed was bad. Consequently, their actions were reflected that new way of thinking, and caused several people to give more. This is important because the previous mentality (for the rich individuals) existed solely because they were in an environment that promoted the hoarding of resources, like money, and that blocked feelings of empathy and generosity. Again, when money rules your life, including your social (life/norms), there is a distinct negative effect on the personality. Its intrusion is very dangerous, and it is essential to keep a balance, because if one immerses their entire lives in the market (life/norm), they will give up an extremely vital part of their humanity. It is important to keep in mind I am not bashing wealthy individuals. It is a fact that several of them secede from moral values more than I would like, but it is not because they have innate egregious qualities. Another study shown, by Dacher Keltner, who has the same credentials as Paul Piff and Daniel M. Stancato, suggests otherwise. Keltner showed rich and poor individuals a 45 second video calling out for support to starving African children. One hour later, Keltner had the individuals try to help other individuals in distress, and the wealthier people exerted just as much energy as the poorer, suggesting that these differences are not categorical, but are extremely malleable to slight changes. Little nudges of compassion and empathy are all one needs. Bill Gates once said, †Å"Humanity’s greatest advances are not in its discoveries, but in how those discoveries  are applied to reduce inequity.† Bill Gates has given nearly all his money to the Bill Gates Foundation, which helps support starving children all over the world. I believe money can buy you happiness; just not when its primary purpose is: you. Self-commitment, community, family, friends; investing in others is investing in yourself, and reducing inequities will doubtless increase social mobility, economic growth, trust, and community life. The rat race we involve ourselves in allows negativity to ferment, and only the morally transcendent individuals who have discovered a much more fulfilling calling – the desire to address the needs and satiate the interests of others – have realized that even if you win the rat race, you’re only just a rat. Do you want to be a rat? If you still find my claim ambiguous, let me make it clearer. It is one of the most time-honored maxims in philosophy, clear even in Chaucer’s time. His Pardoner’s Tale is built on ‘Radix Malorum est Cupiditas’: Money is the Root of All Evil. Now, as illustrated in my essay, social science supports that. * I realize you marked things on my paper like, â€Å"I don’t understand where this source comes in. Are you quoting Ariely’s article or not?† No, I am not quoting his article; I am quoting him. Aside from being a writer, Ariely is an extremely famous speaker. Those sources are where I got the quotes from. Specifically, McElwee is an author of an article on a blog, and TedxMarin is just a Ted Talk that took place in Marin. They are in my, â€Å"Works Cited,† page in more detail. If I did anything incorrectly, I am very sorry. That was how I learned to make citations through my entire highschool and college life†¦ Works Cited Paul K. Piff, Daniel M. Stancato, Stà ©phane Cà ´tà ©, Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, and Dacher Keltner â€Å"Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior† New York: Farrar. 2008. Print. Porto, Eduardo. â€Å"How Money Affects Morality.† Nytimes.com. New York Times, 13 Jun 2013. Web. 13 Feb 2014. Westaby, J.D. Behavioral reasoning theory: Identifying new linkages underlying intentions and behavior. Ney York: Harper Collins, 2008. Print. Cristina Becchio, , Joshua Skewes, et al, et al, Andreas Roepstorff, and Uta Frith. â€Å"How the Brain Responds to the Destruction of Money.† Journal of  Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics. N.p.. Web. 14 Feb 2014. Piff, Pauf. â€Å"Does money make you mean?† Ted Talks. Marin County, California. Oct 2013. Lecture. Loeb, Paul Rogat . Soul Of A Citizen, Living With Conviction In Challenging Times. Los Angeles: St. Martin, 2009. Print. Ariely, D. . Predictably irrational, the hidden forces that shape our decis ions. New York: HarperCollins, 2008. Print. McElwee, Sean

Essay on Graffiti Art

Essay on Graffiti Art Essay on Graffiti Art Los Angeles is the most densely inhabited city in the state of California, and stands in second place after New York City, as the most populous in America. Most people in the city socialize mostly through cultural traditions and arts that are mainly practiced in the area. These arts form the basis of communication and expressions whether political or social. That being a few of the forms of expression graffiti is being widely used in the city. This form of art is employed as a means of social and political expression. The reason as to why young people use this form of avenue is that it is quite public and will relay the message. The fact that they are not provided with platforms to express themselves is another key issue to be addressed. In this paper, discussion on ways through which this work of art expresses the social and political issues in relation to Los Angeles will follow suit. The city holds a history rich of arts and culture that has attracted millions of tourists from all over the world many years ago. In fact, the city’s greater area represents the most important site for television and movie production in the whole of the U.S. Other works of art related to Los Angeles include literature, music, museums, architecture, paintings, and street art, just to mention a few. Wordings; Graffiti artists use certain terms like crews, bombing, taggers these form a characteristic of graffiti traditions, although significantly, this type of dialect is to the idea that the whole culture is associated to the wider American customs that we are a components. Culture and language cannot be separated; culture creates language and the language creates culture. This distinct language is a preserve for graffiti tradition members and can be learnt through participation or continuous exposure to tag culture. This tag language is one form that graffiti is used to express social issues. The present graffiti words are obtained from the daily social life, the comments, phallic symbols, the jokes. Such graffiti is written in a common language so that individuals can comprehend, in addition to, partake in its humor or react in kind (Phillips, 47). The second category is images; in the context of community-based graffiti; these graffiti look like vivacious characters and vibrant texts. They have an origin in hip-hop culture and were selected because of its ability to both isolate, and form an interconnected faction that replicate current social issues in Los Angeles. It reflects a culture that is emerging in the society; it is ingrained in clothes, music, and dialect. The style was a preferred method, and individuals who create these images were part of the society that is influenced by the occurrence of these descriptions. Graffiti carried out by Gang is the type that is emphasizes a lot of the communal identification that this expressive means may value . However, the power that this illustrations yield, is usually disregarded. Graffiti expressing political notions is founded in interior representation by which negative political thoughts are channeled. These types of graffiti are mostly employed through activism movements in times of political protests; they have the ability to induce an emotional response, whether good or bad from their targeted audience. Objects, images and social conducts that contain a common implication among communities stand to unite the people. Under graffiti, the art has stood as a representation of opposition and a common dissatisfaction with current social certainty. Ancient graffiti expressed love affirmations, social opinions and simple terminology of the notion in comparison to current popular information of societal and political standards as seen in the streets of Los Angeles (Phillips, 46). This is the same as in today’s world. Graffiti has been commercialized and is gaining popularity while others are seeking its legitimization. In 2001, IBM a large computer firm instigated a movement in Chicago, and San Francisco, which was advertising peace the campaign primarily, involved the community spray work of art on pavements the given symbols to illustrate Peace, Love, and Linux. However, because of the law which states that graffiti art is illegal the act saw the artists detained and prosecuted with damage charges, in addition to the repair costs, and penalty measures, IBM Company was fined more than US$120,000. In Los Angeles, Sony instigated same advertising campaign in 2005 and other cities, but this time taking into consideration the legal challenges of the IBM campaign. Sony compensated proprietors for the privileges to paint on their properties; portraits of dizzy-eyed city kids gathering, who were imitating a skateboard, a paddle or a rocking horse using PSP gadget. The two campaigns are an expression of an application of graffiti as a means in passing information, which the society does not approve to some extent. The war is clearly illustrated in Los Angeles, where two people were shot dead by the graffiti artist when they tried to stop them from doing what they love best. . Another social aspect is the growth of computer gaming depicting the art largely. These is to the positive aspect of the art, for example, the jet set radio program (2000–2003) shows the story of an assembly of youths fighting the subjugation of an authoritarian police that seeks to hinder the graffiti artists’ liberty of expression. Frequently, graffiti is reputed as an element of a culture that seeks to rebel against au thority and laws in general as seen in the state where a certain group brands themselves and seek to warn visitors of their presence. What in my perspective makes the art wrong is the fact that most vandals are young people, ranging from young school going to youths, who vandalize public spaces for invalid reasons such as boredom, anger or revenge. For successful artists, ideas that perform this art often diverge and can illustrate a wide array of approaches and perceptions. Most artist use materials such as paints and sprays, these sprays have a negative effect on the surroundings because of the fact that it contains. Harmful chemical elements like chlorofluorocarbons or volatile hydrocarbon gases are contained in the paints used for graffiti in painting a surface. These are harmful to the environment, and will continue to worsen the global warming situation in the world. Alternatively, moss graffiti can be adopted which will use moss, which is more environmental friendly to create the images or the wordings. The mixture is prepared through gluing moss unto a plane by mixing beer milk or yoghurt to serve as an adhesive for the art. These efforts of making the situation more environment friendly does not justify the fact that each year, in the clean up exercise of graffiti, large amounts are accounted for. The society can approve a policy less lenient for destruction and instead provide an avenue or a place designed specifically for these artists to express themselves. Arresting them will only make the condition worse and they will continue to spend cleaning up the streets. On the other hand, with the already tarnished streets, what the locals need to do is first; to identify objects and locations prone to graffiti, and educate property owners effective and efficient of cleaning the places. Participants in these forums will mostly include property owners affected by graffiti, recreational facilities public works, shopping malls, schools, government, businesses, and other institutions. This will resolve the crisis in the short period; in the end, they can construct their buildings with hard to write on bricks or plant shrubs and hedges. Improved lighting and cooperation of the community and the authority will solve their so-called problem. Looking at an artist’s perspective bring us to understand why they are so passionate about the art. Certain anthropologists explain that the art is an expression of one’s ideas and ideals. It goes beyond just the images and is mostly a representation of political ideas, race and art. This passion goes beyond fear of being caught, which has made a blog that highlights these paintings as being top five most viewed sights. I must say that these pieces of art is quite eye-catching and has its own beauty. The artists also are said to have a distinction between street art and graffiti basing the difference in that the artist signs graffiti while the street art is simply a form of expression, which is often done randomly. These facts also lead us to asking the question is the form of art an unnecessary struggle. I believe when one wants to pursue something he should go for it. Being a true believer means one is not swayed by the changing world, but one should also consider doi ng it peacefully. Overall, the art can signify liberation, love or territory. What the artist need is to make the community understand from their point of view. Successful artists in this field have received awards to prove that the entire art is not a negative vice and can be displayed in museums. In other words, it can be a visual method of communication with these it would play as both an art and a mode of communication to the users. Being an old form of art goes to show it has its form of justification and is not all negative (Ganz, and Tristan, 98). A closer insight to the teenagers responsible for this form of art these explain that graffiti delineates the effect neighborhood, politics, and culture that is the society in general have on the day today activities of these teenagers. Most outstanding thing of this insight being the spirit, pride and allegiance that are expressed through in the voices of the said teenagers. This is not a glorification or the justification of gang behavior, but we rather perceive it as an objective that focuses on a specific social group that is not readily featured in the mainstream media and is trying to reach out. Gangs are not prevalent in many communities; my hope is that concerned parties would be enlightened, through various channels to be able to communicate with this group of a generation that is in need of help.

How to properly read a job posting so you dont apply to a terrible job

How to properly read a job posting so you dont apply to a terrible job When you’re on the job hunt, it’s almost like you need to become fluent in a new language. You need to look at a job description and figure out if it fits your experience and then whether applying for the job is even worth your time. You need to know what common phrases like â€Å"competitive salary,† â€Å"flexible,† and â€Å"growth opportunity† are really telling you about this company and this job, and how to adapt your resume to fit what it requires. But while you’ll certainly face a lot of jargon when searching for a new position, once you understand how to decipher any job posting you come across you’ll save a lot of time and energy.Anatomy of a job postingJob postings are often written like news articles: the most important information is presented right up front, with the extra supporting information down toward the bottom. First, let’s look at the straightforward parts of a standard job ad.The job title: This is basica lly the headline. It’s what you see in an email subject line or on the search results screen. It’s what grabs your attention first and sets the expectations for the rest of the post. Some job title lines will offer the company name or other (succinct) details like the experience level, but many will just be the job itself.Executive Assistant at Fortune 500 CompanyData Management ClerkLevel II Auror at the Ministry of MagicResponsibilities/description: This is where the narrative kicks in. This is usually a brief paragraph or series of bullet points outlining the highlights of the job. It’s not typically comprehensive, but provides a high-level summary of what the job is.Meet aggressive sales goalsProduce 5–10 newsletters per yearGenerate monthly sales reportsQualifications: This is where you kick in. The company has outlined what job they’re filling and what that role does, but now it shifts the focus to you: do you have what they’re seeking ? This is typically a section of bullet points outlining what the company’s ideal candidate for this position would already have.Associate’s Degree in Business or related field5-7 years experienceEnglish and Spanish language fluencyBenefits and pay: This is usually a short section outlining any specific salary and benefits associated with the job. This section may or may not be included in a job description. Benefits are listed far more often in job descriptions than a specific salary, because the benefits can be used as a lure, while a salary number may be either a dealbreaker for potential candidates or might limit the company’s ability to negotiate after a job offer has been made.401(k) matchingSalary commensurate with experienceDental and vision insuranceAbout the company: Company information is especially common when a job is posted in a database or another public forum like a website because the readers may not be familiar with what the company is or does. This is usually a brief statement about the company itself, or its general mission.Giving Hands is a nonprofit company that sends balloon animals to people in need.Cutting Edge Media, LLC is a digital media powerhouse that publishes immersive social media content.Since its founding in 1846, Big Books has shaped public debate by publishing award-winning content about dolphin life and philosophy. How to read between the linesFirst of all, know that a job description isn’t necessarily meant to be taken literally. It’s an ad sent out based on the best estimate of what a job will be and what kind of candidate the company wants to see applying for it. So while it’s absolutely a guideline, nothing is 100% etched in stone. Positions evolve over time, and a stellar candidate with slightly different skills might lead a company to tweak the initial description into something a little different.Job title:  While it seems pretty straightforward, this can sometimes have cl ues about the company and the qualifications you’ll need. For example, in the earlier example of â€Å"Executive Assistant at Fortune 500 Company,† the job title is used to establish the importance of the position (working with executives, so probably not entry-level) and that the company is large and/or prominent.Responsibilities: Again, this is a high-level summary of what the company anticipates for this open job. There may be significantly more (and more specific) duties awaiting the future holder of this job. If you see six rather vague responsibilities and want to know more about what the day-to-day life is like for this role, you can do a little digging online to see if there’s more information available about this particular job at this particular company.If you see a phrase like â€Å"other duties as assigned† or a similar phrase that leaves the job responsibilities open-ended, then that should tell you that the company values flexibility and lik ely has an all-hands-on-deck mentality. That’s a cue for your resume and cover letter package- definitely emphasize your flexibility as an employee and your commitment to getting the job done whatever it takes.Qualifications: If you don’t hit every single bullet point, don’t automatically give up and move on. (Though if you meet, say, 1 qualification bullet point out of 10, this job might be a bit of a stretch.) If you meet most of the job’s requirements, you should still consider applying. You can provide context in your cover letter and resume and emphasize the requirements that you do meet. It may be that the qualifications you’re missing are â€Å"nice to have† instead of â€Å"must have† from the company’s perspective or that your other qualities make up for that one deficit. So don’t let one or two misses discourage you from applying if you’re a good fit otherwise.Benefits and pay: There’s lots of rea ding between the lines here because job descriptions rarely pin down an exact salary or benefits. With phrases like â€Å"commensurate with experience† or â€Å"competitive salary,† the company is basically saying, â€Å"we’ll deal with this later, and be ready to negotiate if we offer you a job.†If you see a request to send your â€Å"salary requirements† along with your resume, that means you’ll have to do some finessing in your application. You can include a salary range in your cover letter. It’s probably wise not to ignore the request altogether- if it was included in the job posting, it’s possible that leaving out the salary requirement would screen your application right out of the running. But you also don’t want to get too specific, because that number could eliminate you as well if it’s too high or too low.About the company: There’s not usually a lot of mystery in this part of a job description. B ut just remember that the company is describing themselves in a very official, public-facing way. If you’re expecting a candid description of what it’s really like to work for this place, or their flaws, well†¦your expectations will not be met.You might also come up against a case where the company isn’t named at all. That can either mean that A) the company is shady; or B) the company is trying to be discreet. If it’s option A and you’re finding a vague, unnamed company advertising jobs on, say, Craigslist, all I can say is†¦think twice. If it’s option B and there’s other information given about the company (it’s a major media company or a top-tier financial company), then it’s possible they just want to avoid either getting a million applications for a single position or don’t want it made public that they’re advertising for someone’s job because he hasn’t been, uh, relieved of his duties yet. Look for context clues about the company if there isn’t a straightforward presentation of X job at Y company.Decoding the buzzwordsEvery field is subject to jargon or clichà ©d phrases, and the art of the job description is no different. Let’s look at some common words and phrases, and what they really tell you.Self-starter/independent worker: This means they’re looking for a person who is ready for a leadership role who doesn’t need a lot of hand-holding. In your application, emphasize your leadership skills or instances where you’ve taken the lead on something.Fast-paced: This job is going to be chaotic and likely subject to deadlines. In your application, demonstrate what you’ve achieved under pressure, or your unwavering commitment to deadlines.Flexible: The company may be looking for someone who’s not afraid to do a bit of scut work as part of their job, or who will be willing to go outside the normal 9-to-5 routine to get the work done. It could signal work-life balance boundary issues, so if you have concerns about this, a little extra research about the job or the company is in order. In your application, emphasize your ability to perform under pressure, or your ability to multitask.Detail-oriented: This company has received one too many applications with blatant typos, and/or the person currently holding this job has made a lot of messy mistakes. In your application, emphasize your organizational skills and your commitment to getting something done efficiently but accurately. And do not skimp on proofreading your resume and cover letter.Communication skills: This shows that the company wants someone publicly presentable, either with customers, clients, or other parts of the company. This is a delicate way of making sure that you can write and speak well and confidently.Growth opportunity: This is likely a low-level or entry-level job and the company might not expect you to commit long-term . That could be a good thing (the last assistant was promoted after six months in the job) or a bad thing (the last assistant got fed up and quit after three months on the job). Definitely mark this as a follow-up item if you get an interview- ask who had previously held the role (generally), and what they’re doing now.Team player: This is not a job for a lone wolf type, who would rather hole up and do the job himself rather than deal with others. In your application, emphasize how you’ve worked with others to achieve goals and, ideally, how you’ve led or inspired others to meet goals as well.So as you can see, there’s no great Rosetta Stone needed to work with the job descriptions that you’ll come across in your job search. And in fact, these postings are more similar than not, so once you learn the basics about what companies are trying to achieve with their limited space in a job ad, you’re ready to go forth and start tailoring your resum e to be the best possible candidate.

Ethical issues in Financial Companies Lending practices Research Paper

Ethical issues in Financial Companies Lending practices - Research Paper Example The overall wheel of development of humanity is almost entirely hinged on the decisions, policies, strategies, and plans of financial institutions. However, as these institutions continue to grow in relevance so does the problems of mankind. The almost direct relationship between the growth of financial institutions and the level of humanitarian crises and predicaments in different times and places underlie some fundamental truths of their complicity in these situations. The dual potential of the lending institutions to create both good and evil in same measure has placed these institutions under scrutiny by analysis’s and rights watchdogs for suspected complicity in the geopolitical, and environmental dilemma that have been witnessed in modern times (Weiss, 2005). Some of the crises that have dominated the global stage since the second half of the twentieth century include the spread of HIV/AIDS pandemic, global warming resulting from the green gas emissions, mechanization of the labor market which has led to job losses, wars and violent conflicts, several forms of environmental degradation, among other many situations. The process of creation of these situations has been made possible by the willful involvement of human beings working within structural organizations that spend millions of dollars to create these situations. The source of these money has been chiefly through lending from financial institutions. These institutions have knowingly given loans to questionable organizations even amid protests from activists regarding the ethical ends of the borrower’s missions. Moreover, these same lending institutions have sought every opportunity to merge, link up, or buy stakes in some of the organizations with disastrous missions around the globe. The bottom line of profits has often blinded the lending institutions from the horrible missions

Internet is beneficial (argumentative) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Internet is beneficial (argumentative) - Essay Example Evidently, many people in the society have a measure of knowledge concerning the internet, especially concerning the potential to connect the globe irrespective of the distance. Moreover, different groups of people are familiar with other realms of possibilities brought about by the internet. For example, students recognize the provision of online schooling and jobs made possible by the internet. Without doubt, there are multiple controversies surrounding the positive and negative impacts of the internet in the society. In my research, I will seek to prove that the internet has served to transform the society positively through its numerous benefits. Readers will benefit from the research, as they will become familiar with the benefits of the internet despite the negative popularity associated with it. The media has been committed in developing different stories concerning the internet. Through the television, newspapers and online articles, I am bombarded with multiple articles discussing the potential impacts of the media, as well as other sources describing the origin of the internet and its effects in the recent past. One of the intriguing articles that I read touched on the development of the internet in the 1990s. The article revealed that the initial commercial browser that people relied on was the mosaic, and yahoo emerged a few years later. The 1990s saw an increasing popularity of the internet, with an increasing number of people owning computers, and seeking to have access to the internet. Reports reveal that 40 % of the American population owned computers by 1998, and 33 % of the computer owners accessed the internet. The increasing use of the internet sparked a debate concerning the nature of its influence. Notably, people ha realized that the internet was transforming societies, explaining why they sought to analyze the type of influence registered. The media have relied on the models of influence