Tottenham Hotspur PLC Essay Example for Free

Tottenham Hotspur PLC Essay Introduction The given case study is mainly concerned with the management decisions that are considered by the chairman of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, Mr. Daniel Levy, in order to generate a steeper rise in revenues for the club. The major investments in question are the construction of a new stadium that is almost twice the present capacity, an improved practice facility and further improvement of the team through desired player acquisitions. But, Tottenham being a publicly owned club need to justify the time and resources that would be at stake in order to undertake this project. The four major sources of revenue for the team include the number of fans attending the match, the sponsorship rights it receives from other companies, the sale of club merchandise and its broadcast rights sold to television channels. By building a new stadium, which has an estimated cost of 250 million spread over the next two years, Tottenham hopes to increase the current capacity of 36500 people to 60000 fans per match. This is estimated to increase the revenues through attendance by 40 percent and considerable merchandise sale as well. The club also plans on investing in better practise facility and better players, thus increasing the odds of winning matches. This would not only increase the revenues from the matches but also increase the sponsorship amounts by 20 percent at the same time hiking the demandable price for broadcast rights. The collective rise in revenue is estimated to be around 9 percent. Body Decision Criteria 1. Joseph Lewis is a majority stake holder in the firm; the only one with greater that 3 percent stakeholding. He can be expected to work solely in favour of appreciation of his share value. His company ENIC has 82 percent  overall beneficial interest in the club. One needs to determine whether this would negatively affect the decisions made by him. 2. Daniel Levy and Joseph Lewis were former partners at ENIC from 2001 to 2007 and once ENIC had a large majority in Tottenham Hotspur, in early 2008 Daniel Levy decides to make this radical change in the club. He further went on to claim that it is not just about the money but a long term prosperity of the club. We must however, consider the fact  that he had to his advantage a prior experience managing a Scottish Football Club called Rangers 3. The magnitude of risk posed by the assumptions made by Levy must also be considered to judge whether the investment is profitable. 4. A quantitative analysis of the investment including the computation of various factors such as the Cost of Capital, NPV, IRR, DCF analysis, etc can point towards the right direction 5. By calculating the percentage of games won over a period of 2004 to 2007 and comparing it to the market reaction towards the shares of Tottenham Hotspur we can make decision about what factors negatively affected the market; whether it was an external matter or something related to Tottenham hotspur itself. Assumptions 1. The predictions made about the future growth of revenue with respect to the predicted inflation of the country. 2. Operating expenses are based on historical data of other clubs. So, we need to analyse reasons why that might not project the right image of the future for Tottenham 3. Changing the players may not automatically improve performance of the team and hence may not lead to as many wins as expected and hence the growth in revenues through sponsorships and merchandise may be stunted.

Nikes Competitive Advantages: Strategies in China

Nikes Competitive Advantages: Strategies in China With widely globalization movement, managers in MNCs have to be continually involved into the challenges that mainly include competitive and collaborative challenge. Facing the challenges, Nike has always been a leading sports product organization. Thus, it is meaningful to analyze Nikes global success which will benefit from obtaining relevant international management issues. The aim of this project is to reveal Nikes competitive advantages in global market and especially focus on company strategies in Chinese market. In order to achieve practical guidance, some theoretical tools will be adopted. The project will firstly introduce a literature review which provides the underpinning and explanation of these analysis tools. In the following, Nike company analysis will be discussed into four aspects. The first aspect will examine the national business environment of Nike in the USA by using Porters diamond. In the second and third section, Bartlett and Ghoshals theory will be used to analyze both the competitive challenge and the collaborative challenge of Nike in China. Hofstede culture dimensions will be adopted to analyze the cultural challenge Nike is confronted. Finally, it comes to the conclusion. 1.2 Company overview Through an investment of $500 each by Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman, the company (then called Blue Ribbon SportsBLS) was founded in 1964. It has evolved from an importer and distributor of running shoes to the world biggest leader of athletic footwear. Our business model today is basically the same as our model in 1964.It is that we invest our money in design, development, marketing and sales and then contract with other companies to manufacture our products. Knight developed Nikes business model when he was attending Stanford Business School in the early 1960s.He realized that most leading footwear companies were still producing their own shoes in higher-cost countries like the United States and Germany while he US consumer appliance and electronic markets, were starting to be taken over by lower-cost, high-quality Japanese producers. Knight believed that Blue Ribbon Sports could sell in a lower price by distributing its production to Japanese producers to break into this market. So Blue Ribbon Sports began to import high-tech sports shoes from Onitsuka Tiger of Japan. BLS began to have its own branches of shoes, as sales increased to almost $2 million in the early 1970s. The company officially changed its name to Nike, Inc. in 1978.At the beginning time Nike developed a strong working relationship with two Japanese shoe manufacturers, Nippon Rubber and Nihon-Koyo, but as a combination of a tighter labor market, the impact of the first Oil. Crisis on Japans economy, and a shift in the dollar/yen exchange rate in the 1970s, Nike began to search for other producers. Nike established its ow n shoe factories in Maine and New Hampshire to develop a reliable and high-quality production to supply its growing domestic market during these same years. The company also began to contact potential suppliers in Korea, Thailand, China and Taiwan. As costs continued to increase in both Japan and the United States, by the early 1980s, and the Korean government created many incentives to develop Koreas footwear industry, Nike closed its US factories and sourced almost all of its production from Asia. In 1982, 86% of Nikes athletic footwear came from Korea and Taiwan. However, costs also began to increase in the two countries. Nike had to urge its suppliers to re-locate search for other owner-cost countries to relocate their operations. Then the company opened up their factories in Indonesia, China and Vietnam. Nike was able to help its lead vendors establish an extensive network of footwear factories throughout Southeast Asia by guaranteeing a number of important orders and by placing Nike employees at these new factories. At the present, Nikes products are manufactured in more than 700 factories, employing over 500,000 workers in 51 countries of which only 22658 are directs employees, the majority working in the United States. Over the years, Nike has broadened its product range. Whereas in 1980, Nike sold 175 different styles of shoes, it offered many different styles in its spring collection. The company has also focused on apparel and sports equipment and expanded its sales to Europe, Latin America and Asia. Last year, Nike made about $9.5 billion in revenues, of which 59% came from footwear sales and 29% from apparel. 2 Literature Review 2.1 Porters national competitive advantage Michael Porter (1990) meticulously introduced a model that intended to answer the questions, why do some nations succeed and others fail in international competition? and â€Å"why some industries within nations are more competitive than others are† in his book The Competitive Advantage of Nations. Porter (1990) states that the sources of competitive advantage can be found in the â€Å"national diamond,† comprising four major economic attributes: factors conditions, demand conditions, supporting industries and firm strategy and structure. Porter believed that the four elements have bilateral impacts, forming a diamond system. Besides, there are two variables: the Government role and opportunities. The opportunity is beyond control, and the impact of government policies can not be ignored. All the determinants comprise a diagram as follow. Factor conditions Factor conditions can be categorized into two forms: â€Å"Home-Grown† resources and highly specialized resources. The first one referred to the original resources from one nation. And the latter one pointed out that a country creates its own important factors such as skilled resources and technological base. In the actual competition, Porter (1990) stated that sufficient in natural resources or low cost factors often result in inefficient allocation of resources. By contraries, local insufficient in factors of production could lead to innovation. Also, resource constraints may encourage development of substitute capabilities. For example, Japans relative lack of raw materials has stimulated miniaturization and zero-defect manufacturing (Grant, 1991). Demand conditions According to Porter (1990), demand conditions in the domestic market provide the primary driver of growth, innovation and quality improvement. A strong domestic market could be seen as stimulation to the firm from being a startup to a slightly expanded and bigger organization. For example, the worlds famous automobile companies like Mercedes, BMW, and Porsche in the case of German have dominated the world when it comes to the high-performance segment of the world automobile industry. However, in German, automobiles with a cheaper price in the market have little competitive advantage. The reasons could be attributed to the demand conditions in domestic market. The Germany market traditionally demanded a high level of engineering performance. Also, the transport infrastructure of Germany such as Autobahns does tend to favor high-performance automobiles. Related and supporting industries The third determinant of national advantage is the presence in the nation of related and supporting industries that are internationally competitive. Based on Porters view, when local supporting industries are competitive, related company will enjoy more cost effective and innovative inputs. Secondly, this effect is strengthened when the suppliers themselves are strong global competitors. Firm strategy, structure, and rivalry Inevitably, the strategies and the structure of the firms play a key role to influence the national performance in particular sectors. Also, competition indeed has a great impact on driving innovation and the subsequent up gradation of competitive advantage. Obviously, domestic competition is more direct compared with the impact of foreign competitors. So the stimulus provided by home national competition is higher in terms of innovation and efficiency. As an example, in the Japanese electronic industry, there are many local competitors (Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba, Mitsubishi and so on) providing intense competition in the domestic market, as well as the foreign markets in which they compete. Governments role Despite the impact from Government policies and regulations do not belongs to the major determinant of national advantage, to some extent, they play an important role on influencing the national system. Porter (1990) pointed out â€Å"Governments proper role is as a catalyst and challenger. At first, government can provide a basic environment for industry development, since it could invest on infrastructure development, opening up capital channels, training information integration and so on. Also, governments can create new opportunities and pressures through intervene activity. In addition, governmental sourcing could enlarge product demand. What is most important, the government could ensure that the domestic market is under lively competition, avoiding Trust status. Opportunities Opportunities can not be met rectifiable, and one opportunity could influence the four elements to change. Porter (1990) pointed out that, in terms of the enterprise development, there are several circumstances when chances are brought: the basis of scientific and technological inventions, fault emerging in traditional technologies, a sudden increase the cost of production caused by external factors (such as the oil crisis), financial markets or major changes in the exchange rate, market demand surge, the governments major policy decisions and war. In fact, the opportunity is a two-way. It is quite often that new competitors gain an advantage accompanying with an advantage concession of other competitors. And only when enterprise could continually meet the new needs of manufacturers, â€Å"opportunities† will be developed. Flaws in Porters diamond Although Porters model is widely used, it also has a number of critics. Firstly, Dunning (1993) pointed out that there is nothing new in Porters diamond analysis. Dunning commented that a countrys competitive advantages were under the impact of globalization of production and markets. He also pointed out that value generating assets of a country has been taking the form of created assets like human capital instead of the natural assets like land and untrained labor. Thus, Dunning considered that Porters diamond of national competitive advantages was required to be transnational since widespread globalization of the world economy. Secondly, Rugman and DCrusz (1993) stated that Porters diamond underestimated the importance of foreign investment. This model could not adequately explain the competitive advantages of developing countries which heavily depend on foreign direct investment. (Lee, 1998) And they also commented that this model is incomplete for small economics which are not pa rts of the trial nations and is only applicable to triad nations. Thus, they thought Porter only thought over the exports and outward FDI of domestic industries and further neglected the sales abroad by foreign subsidiaries. Whats more, Bosh and Proijen (1992) stated that Porter paid too much attention on the importance of culture while evaluating the international competitive advantages. Meanwhile, Ball and McCulloch (1999) implied that this models evidence is anecdotal without empirical evidence. And it is an ex-post model and has no predictive powers since the number of variables lead to weaken any predictions, in particular inclusion of chance into the equation. To sum up, Porters diamond still is a useful tool to examine competitive advantages although it has insufficient application. 2.2 Competitive challenge MNEs need to create and sustain competitive advantages to overwhelm the competitive challenges from the global competitors. There are a great many of varied prescriptions about selecting strategies to develop advantages. It is argued that one of the successful strategies is to produce products standardized and sell them throughout the market via the same ways (Levitt 1983). On the contrary, some scholars suggest that, rather than single product, a relatively broader product portfolio with products diversity can enable the share of investment (Hamel and Prahalad 1985). In addition, Porter et al (1982) indicted that, to implement global strategy effectively, it needs a number of approaches including exploiting economics of scale via global volume and managing interdependently to achieve synergies across different activities. Two basic types of competitive advantage which are lower cost and differentiation are suggested by Porter (1990) as well. Porter points out that, to achieve competitive advantage, it is necessary for a firm to provide customers with values more efficiently (low cost) or to create greater values and charge a premium price in a more special way (differentiation) than its rivals. By contrary of the above statements, to build up competitive advantage sustainably, MNEs are suggested to achieve three strategic objectives which are global efficiency, multinational flexibility and worldwide learning (Bartlett et al. 2008). However, it challenges almost all MNEs to achieve all of these objectives at the same time. Efficiency can be considered as the ratio of the value of a firms output to the value of its input while Flexibility means the â€Å"the ability of a company to manage the risks and exploit the opportunities that arise from the volatility of a global environment† (Bartlett et al., 2008, p.200). The last objective refers to the ability of a firm to learn from its exposure and opportunities internationally, and to apply the learning in a global environment. For the purpose of building up global competitive advantage, it is suggested three fundamental tools: â€Å"exploiting differences in sources in sourcing and market potential across countries, exploiting economies of scope and exploiting economies of scale† (Bartlett et al. 2008, p.201). Factors which may lead to competitive advantage are indicated by every goals-means intersection indicates (Bartlett et al., 2008). Table 1 shows the varied goals and means to achieve competitive advantage throughout the world. Table 1: Worldwide Advantage: Goals and Means StrategicObjectives Sources of Competitive Advantage National Differences Scale Economies Scope Economies Achieving efficiency in current operations Benefiting from differences in facto costs-wages and cost of capital Expanding and exploiting potential scale economies in each activity Sharing of investments and costs across markets and business Managing risks through multinational flexibility Managing different kinds of risks arising from market-or policy-induced changes in comparative advantages of different countries Balancing scale with strategic and operational flexibility Portfolio diversification of risks and creation of options and side bets Innovation, teaming, and adaptation Learning from societal differences in organizational and managerial processes and systems Benefiting from experience- cost reduction and innovation Shared learning across organizational components in different products, markets, or businesses Source: Bartlett et al. (2008), p203 There are four strategies which can enable exploiting competitive advantage through different goal-means combinations (Bartlett et al., 2008): Multinational strategy achieves most strategic goals by emphasizing national differences. The firms which have adopted this strategy tend to operate business based on local environment. They are flexible and responsive to local environment, but there is a lack of capability to learn globally within these firms owing to the fact that almost all national units operate independently. Based on the worldwide environment, international companies apply all the approaches to create and exploit innovations. This approach is helpful to strengthen the ability of developing innovations and leveraging knowledge on a worldwide basis; however it is challenged by the problem of deficiencies in both respects of efficiency and flexibility. All the means are applied by MNEs which adopt global strategy to realize global efficiency. However, flexibility and worldwide learning this kind of approach may be negatively influenced by this kind of approach. What is more, high sourcing risks may be resulted from the focus of activities of achieving scale economies. The three traditional strategies discussed above respectively possess unique assumptions about how to build up worldwide competitive advantage. Multinational companies emphasize differentiation, international companies focus on innovations, and global companies concentrate on building the best-cost position. It is indicated that a global industry can be more successful than a multinational one in some industries (Yip 1989). Additionally, Yip (1989) also suggested that a balance between overglobalizing and underglobalizing can be found in most successful strategies. Nevertheless, Bartlett et al. (2008) believed that the best strategy should be consisted of syntheses of all these approaches. It suggests that MNEs should adopt the transnational strategies which â€Å"focus on exploiting each and every goal-means combination to develop layers of competitive advantage by exploiting efficiency, flexibility, and learning simultaneously† (Bartlett et al., 2008). Strategic orientation and configuration of assets and capabilities vary with the four types of companies, which is shown by table 2. Table 2: Strategic Orientation and Configuration of Assets and Capabilities in Multinational, International, Global, and Transnational Companies Multinational International Global Transnational Strategic orientation Building flexibility to respond to national differences through strong, resourceful, and entrepreneurial national operations Exploiting parent-company knowledge, capabilities through worldwide diffusion and adaptation Building cost advantages through centralized, global-scale operations Developing global efficiency flexibility, worldwide learning capability simultaneously Configuration Of assets and capabilities Decentralized and nationally self-sufficient Sources of core competencies centralized, others decentralized Centralized and globally scaled Dispersed, interdependent, and specialized Source: Bartlett et al (2008), p206 2.3 Collaborative challenge A number of organizations tend to cooperate with other parties such as their suppliers, distributors and competitors, when they believe that it is difficult to develop and enhance the global competitive advantages in the increasingly complex global environment (Bartlett et al. 2008). The strategic alliance is viewed as the most important collaborative strategy, which is to set the cooperative relationships between MNEs and their rivals (Bartlett et al. 2008). Bartlett (2008) stated that â€Å"strategic alliances had become central components of most MNE strategies† The strategic alliances is divided into two categories namely scale alliances and link alliances (Daniels et al., 2007). Moreover, Griffin and Pustay (2005) identified two broad types of the strategic alliance, which includes the comprehensive and functional alliance. The latter one includes production alliance, marketing alliances, financial alliances and RD alliances. The alliances assist of some types such as cooperation agreement, franchising and joint venture (Bartlett et al., 2008). There are some differences between the traditional joint venture and the new forms of strategic alliances. The traditional form seems to be used for a senior multinational firm in an industrialized country and a junior local partner in a less-developed or less-industrialized country. The new strategic alliances tend to serve the organization in industrialized countries. At the same time, the modern alliances concentrate on the development and innovation of new products and technologies rather than t he distribution of existing ones. What is more, the present-day strategic alliances seem not to survive for a long time to contribute for the companies. There are some main reasons that the companies need to set the collaborative arrangement. Daniels et al. (2007) identified two groups of motivations. In the first place, the companies need to consider the general reasons, which involve spread and reduce costs, specialize in competencies, avoid or counter competition, secure vertical and horizontal links, and learn from other companies. The second one is the specific reasons, including gain location-specific assets, overcome legal constraints, diversify geographically, and minimize exposure in risky environments. However, Bartlett et al. (2008) outlined that there are five significant motivated issues to support the building of strategic alliances: technology exchange, global competition, industry convergence, economies of scale and reduction of risk, and alliances as an alternative to merger. Bartlett et al. (2008) also identified the risks and costs of collaboration. The collaborative alliances could create the opportunities for one or both cooperators to enhance the competitive advantages better than other, and there is the risk that â€Å"collaborating with a competitor might be a precursor to a takeover by one of the final† (Bartlett et al. 2008). Therefore, the organizations need to have the capability to manage the cooperated relationship in order to reduce the collaborative risks. There are three dominating challenges namely managing the boundary, managing knowledge flows, and providing strategic directions. However, there are some principles set to estimate which companies benefit most from competitive collaborations. These principles include as: collaboration is competition in a different form; harmony is not the most important measure of success; cooperation has limits; learning from partners is paramount. 2.4 Cultural challenge Understanding culture differences and diversifications is vital for MNCs managers in international business and foreign affairs. In this context, the major task for MNCs is to adapt different culture in different countries effectively and efficiently. 2.4.1 Hofstedes cultural dimensions Hofstede (1980) created five dimensions to distinct countries with their respective culture backgrounds, which are Individualism-Collectivism, Power distance, Uncertainty avoidance, Masculinity-Femininity and Long term-Short term orientation. Power distance Power distance is â€Å"the extent to which less powerful members of institutions and organizations accept that power distributed unequally (Hofstede and Bond, 1984).† Leaders from high power distance countries, for example, Belgium and France, are more likely to enquire the low-level employees to obey their orders blindly. What the subordinates think or achieve for the company is not important. So the authoritarian and paternalistic leadership style could be accepted in these countries. On the contrary, low power distance countries for instance, the US and UK, leaders from these countries should be resourceful democrat. And subordinates expect to be consulted and their advices to be taken seriously. They also consider hierarchy in organizations as exploitation (Yates, 2008). Therefore in these countries participative leadership style could be useful. Uncertainty Avoidance Uncertainty avoidance is â€Å"the extent to which people feel threatened by ambiguous situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid this (Hofstede, 1980). In high uncertainty avoidance countries, such as Belgium and Japan, leaders generally do not like uncertainties. They trust on experts and their knowledge, institute many rules to fulfill the high need for security and nearly have no tolerant for deviant ideas (Hodgetts, 2006). Thus, authoritarian and paternalistic leadership style could work in these countries. Conversely, in low uncertainty avoidance countries such as The United States and The United Kingdom, leaders are more of risk takers. Fewer rules are set in the organizations and deviant ideas are to some extent welcomed by the leaders. Therefore, participative leadership style could be popular in these countries. Masculinity Masculinity is defined by Hofstede (1980) to describe â€Å"a situation in which the dominant values in society are success, money, and things.† The other side versus the masculinity is femininity which is also defined by Hofstede (1980) as, â€Å"a situation in which the dominant values in society are caring for others and the quality of life.† Japan has a highly masculinity orientation. (Hodgetts et al, 2006). Leaders with this kind of cultural background are expected to be decisive, firm, assertive, aggressive and competitive culture heroes. Few of them are female. On the contrary, Russia and most of the socialist nations scores low for this dimension, such as China and France (Brandley, 1999). To support the needs of the workers and their families is the most important role of the manager with in these countries. They are employees like others. Individualism Individualism is â€Å"the tendency of people to look after themselves and their immediate family only†. (Hodgetts et al, 2006) The opposite side versus individualism is collectivism which is â€Å"the tendency of people to belong to groups or collectives and to look after each other in exchange for loyalty (Hodgetts et al, 2006). Most high individualism countries are wealthy countries with high GNP. However, Japan is an exception, Leaders from collectivism countries pays more attention on work in a union. Japan is a typical collective country. For example, the president of Sony Corporation, Akio Morita once said his firm likes a ship; each employee shares the same fate. All staff would suffer if one went wrong (Lee, 1982). In the contrast, individualism focuses on individuals. As an example, the USA leaders usually appraise the performance of the substance individually, because it was found by Earleys study (1989) that, American performed well when they are told their achievement would be measured individually. Long-term orientation Leaders from LTO countries are persistent, ordering relationships by status and observing this order, thrift and having a sense of shame. In the contrast, STO countries leaders are with personal steadiness and stability and reciprocation of greetings, favors, and gifts (Hofstede, 1991). Therefore, authoritarian and paternalistic leadership style could increase the efficiency of management in the LTO countries. On the contrast Participative leadership style could be efficacious in STO countries. In the background of global economics, multinational enterprises are growing rapidly. It has become a common phenomenon that a manager enter into a new countries to lead a group of people with diverse cultural background. Nike is one typical MNC among them. In the following parts, this essay will use the Nike case as an example which manifests that different countries with their respective culture backgrounds require different leadership styles. 2.4.3 Criticism Hofstede derived his data from questionnaires that were distributed among employees of IBM. However, this theory may hide certain dimensions, or values may be wrongly derived because of certain situational influences on the respondents. As a result, Hofstedes research has been criticized by other theorists. Firstly, Tayeb (1996) pointed out that this research was based on attitude-survey questionnaire which could not effectively reflect underlying values of culture. Secondly, IBM as the only sample is not representative. (Robinson, 1983) This is because IBM mainly is comprised of middle-class employees and it has a powerful US-derived organization culture, namely, the respondents may not reflect local national cultures. Thirdly, Hofstede and his associates come from Europe and America and may have cultural bias. (Roberts and Boyacigiller, 1984) Fourthly, Mead (1994) stated that Hofstedes research has been outdated whose research was conducted between 1967 and 1973. Young people have being influenced deeply by the development of globalization and they tend to share a common set of values recently. Generally speaking, despite Hofstedes model has many limitations, it is still a simple and easily comprehensible model to research nations cultural differences. 3 Company analysis 3.1 Sports products Industry relate to American National Diamond 3.1.1 Factor Conditions From the factor conditions view, there is a good home base for sports products companies in US. Firstly,

Roles Of Armed Forces In Disaster Management Environmental Sciences Essay

Roles Of Armed Forces In Disaster Management Environmental Sciences Essay 1. Disasters are of various types caused by natural phenomena as well as compounded by human error. Natural disaster may be of various type such as earthquakes, cyclone, tornado, flood etc. and other events such as drought, crops failure, etc. whereas man made disasters may include radiation accidents, gas leakage accidents bomb explosion, war time rioting, firing etc. Natural Disasters are unlike anything else in human experience. These are largely beyond control of human being resulting quick changes in the lives of the victims. On the other hand, the cost of man made disaster like war is borne by the entire population. The socio-economic consequences of all these disasters have always been highly alarming and devastating. 2. Many countries of the world are frequently struck by adverse natural calamities. The magnitude and severity of such disasters are be alarming. The loss of life, damage to property and stripping off the resources are common features. However, the topology of natural disasters is multiple, based on meteorological, topographical and geological conditions such as cyclones, floods, earthquake etc. and its effects also vary from country to country. 3. Like many countries of the world, natural disasters are very common in Bangladesh, because of its geographical, atmospheric, environmental and fast changing ecological reasons. Bangladesh may be described as one of the most disaster prone countries of the world. Almost every year she experiences one or the other type of disaster. The most common disasters that generally occur in Bangladesh are floods, cyclone, storm surge, tornado, norwester, drought, earthquake etc. Bangladesh is a developing country having one of the lowest per capita income in the world, cannot afford to have a big standing organization with equipment exclusively to meet the requirements of pre, during and post disaster activities. 4. The contribution which the armed forces can make in dealing with such disaster need not be over emphasized. This contribution has usually been made under some form of official arrangement for aid to civil power, as laid down in the standing operating procedures.Experience has shown that military forces are fully effective in counter-disaster role. The flexible organizational structure, capability of sustained operation in all weathers by day and night and well trained management system of the armed forces make them particularly well-suited for effective disaster relief operations. In addition, many of their normal activities parallel to those in public emergency services. Thus armed forces can offer assistance to the victims with invaluable support in engineering, communications, transport, rescue, emergency medical services, field sanitation, water supply and so on. 5. Therefore, whenever Bangladesh faces any natural disaster it becomes imperative for the Armed Forces to respond quickly with its own management, communications and administrative machineries to assist the Civil authorities to provide humanitarian relief to prevent further loss of lives and property. In this paper an attempt will be made to identify the types of different natural disasters and the role of the Armed Forces in handling them, effects of disaster in general those of the new disaster threats and Disaster management system in other countries The study is confined to the natural disasters that commonly occur in Bangladesh and its handling by the armed forces. It is assumed that the definition of disaster, its pattern and nature, the principle causes are well-known to the reader and therefore, not discussed here. The paper is laid out in the following order : a. Types of disaster; and its Effect on Bangladesh. b. Nature of Military Assistance and the capabilities of the Armed Forces to combat the Disaster. c. Existing Disaster Management System in Bangladesh. d. Contribution of the Armed Forces in Disaster Management- a Historical Review. e. Disaster Management System in other Countries. f. Future Role of Armed Forces in Disaster Management. AIM 6. The aim of this paper is to analyse disaster management in general and recommend measures/systems for disaster preparedness and mitigation in Bangladesh by the Armed Forces. TYPES OF DISASTER, AND ITS EFFECTS ON BANGLADESH. 7. General. Disaster includes such events produced by a variety of natural and manmade destructive agents, including earthquake, volcanic eruption, tropical cyclone, flood, landslide, drought, epidemic, fires and war time bombing attacks. According to Kates (1980) roughly 90 percent of the worlds disaster are due to four hazard types. a. Floods (40 percent) b. Tropical Cyclone (20 percent) c. Drought (15 percent) d. Earth Quakes (15 percent) 8. Types of Disaster. Except earthquakes (Though the country experienced a mild trauma in 1988) other three hazards are common in Bangladesh. The most common disasters for which the Armed Forces may be employed in aid of civil power are. a. Natural Disasters. (1) Flood. (2) Tropical cyclone (typhoon). (3) Earthquake. (4) Landslide. (5) Epidemic. (6) Drought. (7) Famine. (8) Storm surge. b. Man made or Artificial Disasters. (1) Major Accidents. (2) Civil Unrest. (3) Man made floods. 9. The New Disaster Threats. The new disaster threat which has developed since World War-II besides the traditional disaster threat need to be considered and dealt with as a challenge with more effectively . The new disaster threats, may cause endless sufferings win far-ranging effects, and at the same time be difficult to counter. Some of these kinds of disasters are listed below : a. Social Violence. Social Violence like hijacking, terrorism, communal riots, civil unrest and conflicts with conventional arms affect many nations. The Armed Forces can help the government remove such social violence. b. Hazardous Material. Hazardous materials or substances can be as new disaster threat. The tragedy of Bhupal in India in 1985 ranks paramount in this category, with its estimated toll of 2500 killed and 100,000 affected in various ways. c. Atomic and Nuclear Threat. The explosion in 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Russia highlighted the extent and severity of this problem. Radio active effects from the disaster area were measured as far way as 1600 miles and more. Even if country was not directly involved in nuclear conflicts or terrorism, it could well suffer severely from the radio active side-effects. 10. General Effects of Disaster. The causes of disaster may be varied, the major effects of disaster tend to be : a. Loss of Life. b. Injury. c. Damage to and destruction of property and nationalInfrastructure. d. Damage to and destruction of subsistence and cash- crops. e. Disruption of production, life style and essential services. f. Loss of livelihood. g. Destabilization of National Economic Development. h. Sociological and physiological after effects. j. Political Instability. k. Crisis related to national security. 11. Effect of Major types of Disaster in Bangladesh. The effect of major types of disasters are given at Annex `A. 12. Impacts on Macro-Economic Adjustment of govt. The impacts of the natural Disasters on macro-economic adjustment are: a. Impact on central govt revenue. b. Impact on availability of Extra-budgetary resources. c. Impact on central govt development budget. d. Impact on foreign aid and over all growth. NATURE OF MILITARY ASSISTANCE AND THE CAPABILITY OF ARMED FORCES TO COMBAT THE DISASTER. 13. Military Assistance. The nature and extent of military assistance in disaster will depend on the combination of the forces prevailing in the country. Following assistance may be rendered by the Armed Forces to fight disaster. a. Air, land and sea survey and assessment, specially to ascertain levels of casualties and damage. b. Reconnaissance in the disaster zone and identification of routes within and leading towards it. c. Organized and mobile manpower for rescue operation. d. Well trained and equipped Engineers. e. Signal / communication units to provide emergency radio and telephone links. f. Supply / Logistic units to handle, store and transport goods and people over all types of roads. g. Emergency / Immediate medical support to the civilian services. h. Helicopters and aircrafts for reconnaissance and transport duties. j. Provision, by Naval forces, of transport support in harbour; also electrical power, mechanical engineering, water purification, long distance radio communication, cooking and backing facilities. 14. Capabilities of the Armed Forces to Combat Disaster. The well planned organization and management system of the Armed Forces make them capable to effectively handle, manage and tackle natural calamities and disasters under any serious condition. The members of the Armed Forces are selected personnel, disciplined and are well trained in leadership qualities. They are great organizers of any given task with honesty, sincerity, co-operation, discipline and above all patriotism. They can handle and manage any catastrophe with success. 15. Armed Forces have specialized training institutions to impart training to their members on various fields. They have expert hands such as doctors, engineers and other professionals to meet the differents need . These experts become extremely necessary to meet any emergency and for conducting relief and rehabilitation work. The role of the Armed Forces in various disaster management fields is briefly narrated below : a. Rescue Operation. The Armed Forces are quite capable of rescuing water bound people from flood affected areas using different kinds of water transport and also helicopter. b. Relief and Rehabilitation Work. Members of the Armed Forces with their better mobility can reach at every corner of the country rapidly to start relief and rehabilitation work in disaster and crisis ridden areas. c. Medical and Sanitation Services. Members of Army Medical Corps immediately start providing all kinds of emergency and general medical services including vaccines and setting up of sanitation facilities through active participation , wherever possible of the affected people. d. Supply of Pure Drinking Water. The Armed Forces are assigned the task of ensuring the supply of through water bowsers/trailers. Besides, they also assist in sinking tube-well for this purpose. e. Repair and Maintenance of Communication. Restoration of normal communication becomes a very important task of the Armed Forces in flood affected and cyclone hit areas. They also perform this important task in areas where sabotage or subversive activities are carried out. Members of the Signal Corps undertake this responsibility and urgently rebuild the communication system. The Crops of Engineers of the Armed Forces undertake emergency repair and reconstruction work of the roads and bridges damaged by flood, tidal bore and help restore effective and workable communication system. f. Provision of shelter. Armed Forces also in sometimes participate of construction of shelters in areas severely hit by natural disaster. Mostly this is done through the active participation of the affected people. g. Transportation of Relief Materials. Armed Forces render great help in transporting relief materials to the affected areas. For this purpose, they quickly use their different kinds of transport vehicles. h. Loading Unloading of Food Grain Relief Materials. Armed forces may be employed for loading and unloading and guarding of food grains and relief materials in sea-port and different river ports. EXISTING DISASTER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN BANGLADESH 16. General. Disaster relief and its managements is one of the prime national responsibilities. The Bangladesh Government Bangladesh has outlined the duties and responsibilities of the various Governmental institutions and of different ministries, including the Armed Forces in two Standing Operating Procedures (SOP). These SOPs are : a. Emergency standing orders for flood. b. Standing order for cyclone. 17. Based on these two SOPs Armed Forces have formulated their own SOPs up to unit level. SOP at all level has clearly spelt out the detail tasks with regard to pre, during and post disaster activities. More so, when a disaster is anticipated, selected military units and personnel with vehicles, transport aircrafts, helicopters, naval vessels and other water crafts remain in complete readiness to take part for immediate rescue and relief operations. 18. Existing System. Armed Forces play a pivotal role in complementing Government effort to restore normalcy in disaster affected areas. The system which are followed in disaster management is briefly stated below : a. Preparedness to Face Calamities. Natural calamities like cyclone and flood are recurring phenomenon Bangladesh but In recent times the intensity and magnitude of these natural calamities have given rise to the need for organizing the whole nation in preventing, fighting and understanding this calamities. b. Organizations Dealing with Preparedness. Government (govt) of Bangladesh has formed various committees/ bodies/cells at the national level to advise the government as to how to be prepared for facing natural calamities and to execute the Government decision and action programmes to fight the disasters. These committees have specific tasks and mission during a disaster period. The committees/cells are : (1) National Disaster Prevention The policy making Council. body. (2) National Co-ordination The co-ordinating Committee. body. (3) Disaster Management and The operation Relief Activities Co-ordination Group. and Monitoring Cell. (4) Prime Ministers Relief Go-down. 19. Armed Forces in Disaster Management. Armed Forces Division (AFD) is the highest Military Organization in Bangladesh. Disaster Management and Relief Activities Co-ordination cell operates at the Prime Ministers Office with support from Armed Forces Division. The cell functions under the directive of the Honorable Prime Minister. Principal Staff Officer of the Armed Forces Division acts as the Chief Co-ordinator of all relief and rehabilitation activities through this cell. All the three services, ie Army, Navy and Air Force are ordered by this Division prior to an anticipated disaster. 20. Co-ordination and Monitoring Cell. In the event of post disaster management, day to day operation coordinated by a cell within the Prime Ministers office under the Principal Staff Officer (PSO). This is commonly known as Disaster Management and Relief Activities Coordination and Monitoring Cell, more widely known as the PSOs Cell. The functions of the Cell are : a. Collection and compilation of damage assessments. b. Assessment of relief requirements. c. Management of Prime Ministers Relief Fund and related Storage facilities. d. Receipt, storage and distribution of locally and foreign donated relief supplies. e. Coordination of air supply drops. f. Coordination of transport. g. Public relations including briefing of the media and donors. 21. In the aftermath of any disaster, the Cell functions round the clock. The tasks that military personnel are to undertake in an emergency period are : a. Evacuation. b. Rapid damage assessments (specially logistic support to mixed assessment teams). c. Search and rescue. d. First aid/medical treatment. e. Handling of relief. f. Logistical support (land, sea and air) for the delivery of relief goods. g. Placing of relief storage and distribution. h. Clearance of debris. j. Emergency repairs. k. Burial of human bodies and animal carcasses. l. Setting up/ restoration of Telecommunications. m. Provision of Temporary shelters. CONTRIBUTION OF THE ARMED FORCES IN HANDLING DISASTERS A HISTORICAL REVIEW 22. Armed Forces of Bangladesh traditionally have an additional role to meet any sort of national emergency. For any severe disaster Armed Forces is called for providing necessary emergency support and assistance. Besides this, on humanitarian ground an organized force feels obliged to participate in alleviating human sufferings. In recent past during the severe disasters military organization worked side by side with Civil Administration. This remarkable contribution of the Armed Forces as explained below has earned the confidence and respect of the people. a. Cyclone of 1985 and 1988 and Great Cyclone of 1991. It is well remembered that on 25 May 1985 the ferocious cyclone accompanied by tidal waves devastated Urirchar and badly affected Swandip and Hatia. On 29 November, 1988 another devastating cyclone rolled over Bagerhat, Satkhira, Khulna and Sundarban areas. The cyclone that crossed the Bangladesh coast on 29-30 April 1991 can only be described as a Great Cyclone. All these cyclones caused indescribable damage to the lives, livestock, crops and properties of the affected areas. The destruction of property caused by 1991 cyclone alone was estimated to be about $4 billion (US). The cyclone that affected Bangladesh since 1960 are shown at Annex `B and the official statistics of 1991 cyclone are shown at Annex`C. b. Immediately after the cyclone warning orders were issued by the Govt to all the services Headquarters, to undertake anticipated relief and rescue operations, Armed Forces provided the following support during the cyclone. (1) The Armed Forces Quickly mobilized troops and moved them to the cyclone affected areas by the Naval vessels, boats, other available Water crafts along with the relief goods, medicine, drinking water etc. (2) Rescued the affected persons/families. (3) They helped sinking tube-wells and re-excavated ponds for pure water where necessary. (4) A good number of small medical team with life saving drug deployed in affected areas to treat the injured persons. (5) They established radio communication between the affected areas and concerned headquarters. (6) They prepared temporary shelters. (7) They rendered assistance in restoring the public services. (8) Army engineers with the assistance of Roads and Highway and Railway authorities repaired bridges and culverts as well as roads within the shortest possible time. (9) Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) employed substantial number of its air assets for dropping food into the cyclone affected areas. They also evacuated serious patients to the base hospital. (10) Bangladesh Navy was mainly deployed in Chittagong and Khulna area. Its sailors had been worked day and night to provide emergency assistance to relief/ reconstruction operations. 23. Flood of 1987 and 1988. The floods of 1987 and 1988, that which inundated about 39.9% and 67% of the land area respectively were also unprecedented in the history of Bangladesh. The entire international community was not sure how Bangladesh will over come this disaster. But by the grace of Almighty, the Govt, could tackle the situation within very short period of time in an organized manner. The military organization earned confidence nationally and internationally. Total 350 camps were established to carry out relief activities. Official estimates of loses and damage by floods in 1987 and 1988 are shown at annex D. and major floods in Bangladesh since 1954 are shown at annex E . DISASTER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN OTHER COUNTRIES 24. General. Most of the countries of the world are facing disaster in some form or other but the type and magnitude differ from country to country. Each country has a National level disaster plan in which there is provision for military assistance. Organization and the procedure of handling disaster of some of the countries are discussed below : 25. Australia. a. Types of Disaster. Cyclone is a common natural disaster in Australia. The cyclone season extends from November to April. The two major cyclones are TRACY which devastated Darwin on Christmas Day of 1974 and the TRIXIE that devastated western Australia in February 1975. Australia did suffer from floods normally caused by cyclonic rain falls. b. Organization. The Federal Civil Defence Authority under Department of Defence is the central authority to coordinate relief activities. Each state and community has its own local Counter Disaster Organization. The Defence Forces of Australia have their own role to play in disaster management. They coordinate with all levels of disaster activities i.e. the National Level, the state and community level and the Local level. In the local level the chief Executive officer (CEO) may be the local Chief of the Police. c. Disaster Planning Group (DGP). Besides, the DGP is to provide policy guidance for the CEO in planning disaster counter measures and during the conduct of disaster relief operations. The DPG consists of representatives from the following : (1) Police. (2) The local State or Territory Emergency Service Organization. (3) The major Medical/Hospital facility. (4) Local government. (5) The communications/telecommunications authority. (6) The major non govt welfare Organization. (7) Others in accordance with any priority local need. d. The Emergency Committee. The CEO is the chairman of the committee, consists of the leaders of all local organizations, including the Police. e. Defence Forces. When Defence Force units assist in counter disaster operations, a Defence Force liaison officer is to be attached to the CEO during the period of operations. All matters relating to the allocated Defence Force elements or resources can then be channelled through this officer. 26. Malaysia. a. The Types of Disasters. Malaysia experiences flood almost every year.17 The major causes for this are constant and heavy rainfall, erosion and siltation of river beds. b. National Security Council. National Security Council (NSS) It is primarily responsible for disaster management. At the national level it is the NSC that decides on the policy and conducts relief operations. They have the National Disaster plan and a Disaster Organization at all levels to mobilize and coordinate all activities connected with disaster. The plan also includes the participation of the Armed Forces. The use of military in National Disasters is within the scope of the Malaysian Armed Forces. This is one of their defined rolls. The major operational control machineries of the Relief operational plan includes: (1) National Security Council (NSC). (2) National Flood Relief Committee (NFRC). (3) Working committee for supplies. (4) Working committee for transport and communication. (5) National Security Council Flood Relief Operation Centre. (6) Defence Operation Room. (7) State Flood Relief Coordination Control Centre. (8) District Flood Relief Coordination Control Centre. All these committees and centres include all three services of Armed Forces i.e. Army, Navy, and Air forces. Philippines 27. Types of Disasters. Typhoons-high winds, storm surges, landslides and floods are the major disasters in Philippines. 28. Organization. The national govt is responsible for disaster operations. The main body in charge of mitigating the impact of natural disaster is the National Disaster coordinating council (NDCC). The secretary of Defence convenes the council with the representatives of govt. the office of the president, the Armed Forces and the phillipine National Red cross (NRC). The role of the philippines Armed Forces is to establish communication links and make this available for disaster operations, to assist in reconstruction of damage rods/ bridges and to assist in providing transportation for relief and evacuation. 29. Analysis. From the above discussions, It may also be observed that in almost every country of the world Armed Forces, form the core of different national disaster management bodies and in any catastrophic, all these bodies work shoulder to shoulder. In the light of their experience following suggestions can be made for Bangladesh for effective National disaster management. a. Bangladesh may also form a body like one of those countries. In such effort our Ministry of Relief and Rehabilitation may be placed under Prime Ministers Secretariat as a Division. This will enhance the coordination capability of the proposed division to effectively handle the crisis arising out of disaster. b. In case of Australia they have a National policy making body on disaster management. Their main job is policy formulation for better disaster management and help the Govt. This can be very much practicable in case of Bangladesh. Noted Scientists, intellectuals and peoples representation from all walks of life can formulate better policy for ensuring peoples participation at all levels. c. As Armed Forces are often called for disaster management, standing cell may be formed in every service so that they can distribute the work in advance, train and motivate the forces under their command to ensure quick response and rapid deployment to the disaster affected areas. 30. Problems being faced during the Management of Disaster. Disaster management is the national responsibility. But to combat the it effectively all social agencies and establishments should work unitedly. Whenever Bangladesh faces any natural disaster the Armed Forces is called to fight the disaster. However, Armed Forces work under many constraints like shortage of officers and other skilled personnel, fixed and rotary wing aircraft, naval vessels, equipment etc. It is also not possible to solve and overcome this problem within short time. Even then these constraints/limitations, Armed Forces shall have to work with dedication and in full cooperation with the civil administration. However, there are some constraints which are forced particularly during day to day operation at the time of actual disaster management. These constraints if not addressed in time many greatly affect the disaster management operation and thereby reduce the capability of the organizations/ agencies includi ng the Armed Forced. a. Inter Agency/ Departmental Statuesque. Some times over conscious official with regard to his rank, status or title stand in the way of effective cooperation and thereby delays the progress of crisis management. b. Personal rather than Collective Concern. Individual attitude of thinking may not be the same. But in Case of disaster management which works on group decision imposition of individual decision can delay the attainment of common goal. c. Absence of Common Forum. In our country, there is not much opportunity to exchange views among parties involved. Meeting common forum generate mutual understanding and strengthen cooperation. d. Lack of Communication between Two Parties. Lack of proper and effective communication between two parties creates a gap which decreases the effectiveness of co-operation and after creates confusion. e. Lack of Co-ordination. Sometimes the work of different parties are not well Co-ordinated. Co-ordination is essential for any type of joint venture to avoid mismanagement or disorder. Without proper coordination, any good venture or attempt may turn into an utter failure. f. Confusion about Jurisdiction of Work. In all situations, the role of each party should be clearly defined. Interference to other partys role is harmful. It destroys the congenial atmosphere. g. Lack of Mutual Respect. In most cases officers of civil and military administration suffer from ego-centric complexities. These create rigidity and hinder smooth functioning. 31. Ways to Overcome the Problems. To overcome these problems few suggestions are discussed below : a. Mutual Respect. All civil agencies and military administration must have respect for each other. In practical field it is often deliberately over-looked. Mutual respect ensures effective co-ordination and success in a given task. b. Sense of Duties and Responsibilities. Both civil and military administration must be aware about their own duty and responsibility. This is a pre-condition for any successful disaster management. c. Sense of Team work. Civil and military administrations should jointly work for all nation of peoples sufferings. They are complementary to each other. If anybody considers otherwise, then it will create undesirable situation. d. Avoid Rumour. Rumour may create misunderstanding between civil and military administrations. Direct communication diminishes the danger of rumour. e. Proper Communication and Co-ordination. Communication gap between civil and military administrations often crops up during crisis management. Proper and timely communication between each other help achieve the goal. f. Sense of patriotism. Both civil and military administrations must work together to achieve common goal ie to serve the nation. Deviation from this goal meets with failure. FUTURE ROLE OF THE ARMED FORCES IN DISASTER MANAGEMENT 32. RATIONALE. Since disasters such as cyclones, tornadoes, tidal surge, etc. are sudden, severe and overwhelming in nature, an organized and trained institution with the necessary manpower, materials and other logistic supports are required to respond to crises and prevent further human suffering. The Armed Forces being the only institution with all the necessary requirements may fulfill this role. On the basis of this rationale, the following organizations may be set up.The organogram is at annex G. 33. National Disaster Management Council . This would be the highest level decision and policy making body related to natural disaster management in Bangladesh which will be acted upon by National Emergency Response Committee (NERC). The Prime Minister (PM) will be the chair person of this council with following members. a. Key Ministers of. (1) Home Affairs. (2) Relief and Rehabilitation. (3) Information. (4) Cabinet Affairs. (5) Foreign Affairs. (6) Finance. (7) Communication. b. Chiefs of the Three Services. c. Principal Staff Officer of AFD. 34. National Emergency Response Committee (NERC). NERC may be consisted of the following members : a. PSO as Chief coordinator. b. Secretaries of Following Ministries. (1) Relief and Rehabilitation. (2) Home Affairs. (3) Information. (4) Communication. (5) Cabinet Division. (6) Director General Metrology office (Weather Forecasting). c. Director General, NGO Affairs Bureau. d. Task. (1) To report to the Pri

Free Essays - Alienation in Landscape for a Good Woman :: Landscape for a Good Woman Essays

Alienation in Landscape for a Good Woman In her introduction to Landscape for a Good Woman, Carolyn Steedman claims that "this is a drama of class" (22); she blames her mother's working-class background -- where "fierce resentment against the unfairness of things, was carried through seventy years and three generations ... [and] dissolved into the figure of [her] mother" (30) -- for her own joyless childhood. The shocking portrait of Steedman's mother, who tells her children repeatedly both in her actions and words how unwanted they are, redefines the culturally normative nurturing role of motherhood. While Steedman's passionate argument -- that her mother's history of material inequality was responsible for the creation of this monster-martyr-mother -- must not be discounted, it is incomplete. Her claim is convincing; however, her mother's poor decisions were also contributory causes. For example, Edna selected a married man who already had a daughter as the prince who would fulfill her desires for property, material goods and status which seems risky at best. However, her desperate, failed attempt to become his wife through motherhood after ten years of cohabitation is striking for both its evident lack of foresight and blindness to reality. It is difficult to imagine that her fantasy whereby life would somehow improve from this decision ever had the chance to be anything but a recipe for failure, especially since she pinned her hopes on this ploy not once,but twice. Perhaps Steedman wishes to imply that her mother's working-class status is responsible for her poor decision making skills. She certainly wants to convince us that her mother's desire for things is not trivial; and she blames her "mother's sense of unfairness, her belief that she had been refused entry to her rightful place in the world" (112), on her working-class status. While this is certainly a key factor in the disturbing tale, it is not the only factor; therefore, the story is more than a drama of class, for this complex portrait of Steedman's mother is that of a vain, mean-spirited, bitter woman whose priorities were in disorder. The fact that Steedman's mother's working-class relatives did not visit this "illegitimate" family indicates that her lack of a marriage certificate was unacceptable within her own class as well.

The World According to Gump: All Nuts and Gooey Centers Essay -- essay

The World According to Gump: All Nuts and Gooey Centers "Life is like a box of chocolates," says Forrest Gump (as played by Tom Hanks) to anyone who will listen."You never know what you're going to get." This homily introduces us into the "world of Forrest Gump," both the random strangers Forrest encounters on his park bench, as well as the film's potential audience.Its folksy wisdom is meant to characterize for us the commonsense, down-to-earth, accepting and exceptional attitude supposedly unique to Forrest Gump; an attitude we will better understand once we have, as the advertisements put it, "seen the world through the eyes of Forrest Gump."Thus this dictum about chocolate is meant to capture what we might call the Gump Worldview: life is full of surprises, some of them odd or funny looking, but all of them enjoyable. Yet, if we can pull ourselves away from the tempting treats for a reflective moment, we might ask ourselves: is a box of chocolates really all that full of surprises?Is it really the case that you never know what you're going to get?If your experience with chocolates is anything like mine, you might agree that, finally, there are ultimately very few surprises to be had this way; that in fact chocolates exist in a fairly simple world where everything is either full of nuts or conceals a gooey center.And so this epigraph does indeed capture the Gump ideology--and a sugary, binary ideology it is. Yet it certainly does not capture the philosophy or mood of the book upon which the film is based.Forrest Gump, by southern writer Winston Groom, begins with the line, "Let me tell you this: being a idiot is no box of chocolates."Thus the film takes what is in the book a statement of protest and cynicism and... ...historical events in which it deals; and that ideology is disturbing.To protest the war is seen as indicative of a personality disorder; in fact, to protest anything is characterized as a psychological flaw, a self-destructive, self-indulgent neurosis.The epigraph for the film reads: "The world will never seem the same after you've seen it through the eyes of Forrest Gump."How true.How troubling, for it suggests that if our vision of history were as blinkered and our desires as ideologically vaccuous as are Forrest's, then all of our dreams (which we shouldn't have) will come true, and all of the world's conflicts (which are mere shams) would be solved.For Forrest Gump the film, life is indeed a series of chocolate-coated surprises--as long as you forget each chocolate the moment it is consumed and you desire nothing more than a steady diet of nuts and gooey centers.

Roles in the Society

Essay Title: Roles In The Society In modern society, everyone has different roles to play; with each role we play there is a different of characteristic, sometimes we have to perform against our wills to meet a criterion of the roles. I had an experience of role distancing in last year’s summer camp which to be one of the instructor, the expression I had given to the children is very serious, but it doesn’t mean I am a serious person, it’s because I need to go into my role.As the instructor, it’s a job of education, the experience I got from the camp refers to â€Å"Functionalism† view of education; it provides pathways into the structure of society. Last summer I participate in Taylor Statten over night Camp as the instructor, the campers are ages from 10-14. The camp was mainly outdoor activities, which leading the kids to experience the nature of forest, and only one-hour indoor activities daily. It was my first time to be the instructor. Basical ly we spent all day with the kids, and distributed different tasks to them and particulate within the tasks.The outdoor activities included hiking, canoeing and campfires; indoor activities include performing arts and handwork. The instructors need to consider kids’ safety and train them the ability of strain capacity, in order to strengthen their mind and body. During the time I had spent as the instructor, I experienced role distancing. As Brym and Lie mentioned in the textbook, â€Å"role distancing involves giving the impression of just going through the motions and that we lack serious commitment to a role† (Brym and Lie 2012: 83).People want to make good impression of the role they are playing, but if individual happens to disagree with the expectations of the role they are playing, the individual want to give others an impression of the role they are playing are not who they really are. When people interact with others, according to Brym and Lie â€Å"onstage, people typically try to place themselves in the best possible light† (Brym and Lie 2012: 83). Role distancing is the distance from the role you are being required to play and the act of presenting yourself.There is one particular example of role distancing during my experience in the hike activity in the camp. Being as the instructor we cannot helping kids to finish their tasks, but we need to ensure kids always stay in the safety environment. When we hike toward our camping station, everyone has to carry his or her own baggage, which includes your camp equipment and daily supplies. The baggage was heavy to carry on; some kids told me that they felt the baggage is the same weight as them.When we hike through the forest, lots of kids fell on the ground because it’s difficult to walk in the forest with a heavy backpack, some of them asked for our help, as the â€Å"true† me I would definitely help them out, because few kids seemed not strong enough to carry the bag gage, but as the instructor I couldn’t help, its against the policy. During the last few days of the camp, I explained to the kid’s that I require you to finish all the difficult tasks by yourselves because I performed my duty, however, I’m not a mean person.It is the role I’m playing distanced from my true self. The conclusion I had after experienced of role distancing according to functionalism. First, the group solidarity is extremely important, in the hiking activity, we all need to have shared beliefs of arrive at camp station before sunset because we still have to set tents when we arrived, I need to be serious with kids so they could understand more of the circumstance.Besides I felt being the role of instructor, I need to maintain group stability, because during hiking two girls cried, they asked to go back home because they are tired and scared, as the instructor I have to comfort them and persuade them to keep going. However, overcome the moody emotion is the most important issue of stability. At the same time re-establish equilibrium of physical and mentally are extremely important, take several breaks during hiking, I share some funny stories to the kids during the break, in order to help kids to re-establish equilibrium.How functionalism helps me understand this experience of role distancing is being the instructor of the camp are part of this camp structure, I played an important role as part of the hiking activity, mainly to maintain group solidarity, stability with same belief and value shared and re-establish equilibrium kids’ minds and bodies to achieve our goal. We play different roles everyday, the roles we play that we want to perform the best possible light of ourselves in front of others.The discipline of these rule sometime distance ourselves from the rule, being the instructor in the summer camp I have to perform a different person against my own will of handling situations, but the character I played was importantly within the camp organization. The instructor help the camp accomplished the function they perform in the society, help children improve themselves meanwhile to improve the future of society.

Ojibwe aboriginals in Cass Lake/Leech Lake Minnesota Including their History Treaties Essay

I. Introduction The Ojibwe (Plural: Ojibweg) are people who belong to the First Nation and of a big Native American language group. They are on top in terms of prevalence among the North American native language tribes. Scholars and Elders of Ojibwe perceive that the group has historical relations with several other bands that share some language points. The Ojibwe oral tradition gives light to such speculations as it indicates the Ojibwe to be part of the â€Å"Three Fires of Anishinabe,† along with the Ottawa and the Potawatomi (Turtle Island Productions, 2003). In the Ojibwe language, â€Å"Anishinabe† pertains to â€Å"original people,† â€Å"original man,† or â€Å"one of the people.† This is how the Ojibwe people prefer to be called. The word â€Å"Ojibwe† is spelled in many forms, owing to how the Euroepans of early times heard and spelled it. Some of the forms include â€Å"Ojibewa,† â€Å"Ojibwe,† â€Å"Otchipwe,† â€Å"Chippewa,† or â€Å"Chippeway† (Turtle Island Productions, 2003). For the purposes of this paper, the term â€Å"Ojibwe† will be used. The Gaa-zagaskwaajimekaag, or the Leech Lake Indian Reservation, houses the Ojibwe people in the north-central parts of Minnesota. According to the census of 2000, it is the largest Indian reservation in the state, with its population amounting to 10,205 in that year (â€Å"Leech Lake Indian Reservation†, 2007). The most dominant community within it is the Cass Lake. Ten other communities within the reservation include Bena, Pennington, Sugar Point, Ball Club, Onigum, Smokey Point, Inger, Squaw Lake, Mission and Oak Point (Indian Affairs Council, 2007). How the Ojibwe people came to live in this area of Minnesota and how their settlement was established throughout histories of treaties will be the subject of this paper. Contemporary issues that face the Ojibwe people of Leech Lake will also be discussed. II. The Leech Lake Ojibwe and their History According to history shared through oral tradition, the Ojibwe people originally lived along the bays of North America, speculated to be either in Hudson Bay or in St. Lawrence gulf. By the 1400s, the climate in the North America became way cold so that in effect, the first Ojibwe bands decided to move towards Lake Huron, and later further north to occupy the shores of Michigan. Their movement continued westward until they reached Lake Superior in the 1500s (Sultzman, 2000). Pushed by war and fur trade, the Ojibwe people made an expansion towards the west, east and south until they had control over a vast portion of southern Ontario and lower Michigan in 1701, and won over the northern portions of Wisconsin and Minnesota in 1737. Movements continued until the Ojibwe people had settlements in so many areas by the 1800s, Minnesota to include. However, eventual takeover of the whites forced the Ojibwe onto reservation (Sultzman, 2000). Another way to view the Ojibwe migration is to take after what their oral tradition discusses: that one of their â€Å"miigis† or â€Å"radiant beings† related a prophesy that the Ojibwe people should move further west if they desire to maintain their traditions amidst the arrival of European immigrants. Thus the Ojibwe people made the movements discussed above, some of them finally settling in Minnesota (â€Å"Ojibwa†, 2007). It was on the small islands of Leech Lake where the Ojibwe in Minnesota first settled in the 1700s. The area became home to the Pillager Ojibwe and Mississippi bands, but southwest portions of it were taken by 1847 treaties to be allotted for the tribes that were moved from Wisconsin. (â€Å"Ojibwa†, 2007). The rest of the Leech Lake Ojibwe lands were relinquished to the United States government by the treaty of 1885, leaving the Ojibwe with the establishment of the 670,000-acre Leech Lake Indian Reservation (Oakes, February, 2005). The first treaties that were set in place were usually termed as â€Å"Peace and Friendship Treaties.† The aim of such treaties is to build healthy ties among the Ojibwe people and the Europeans. Such treaties provided the foundation for resource sharing to be made possible between the aborigines and the settlers (â€Å"Ojibwa†, 2007). The treaties that followed, however, entailed cessions of lands. These were perceived to serve as advantageous for the territorial interests of the U.S. However, such cessions were not accompanied by clear terms that were understood entirely by the Ojibwe people. The reason behind this is the disparate cultural perspectives of the Ojibwe and the government regarding the land. The government sees the land as a commodity, and something of worth at that. Thus, for them, land could be purchased, entitled for exclusion, and traded without restraint (â€Å"Ojibwa†, 2007). The Ojibwe people, on the other hand, perceive land to be non-exclusive. For them, land should be shared completely to everyone, in the same way that water, air and sunlight should be treated. During the period of treaty conferences, the Ojibwe did not know anything about exclusive land ownership or entitlement, moreover of selling land. Thus, modern time legal debates on treaties and of interpreting them usually expound on the disparity among cultural understanding of terms in such treaties. Only with cultural sensitivity and comprehension could obligations and rights based on such treaties could be understood (â€Å"Ojibwa†, 2007). One such treaty where cultural sensitivity could be applied would be that of 1864. With the intention of transferring other Ojibwe bands in Minnesota to Leech Lake, the 1864 Treaty was made to expand and fortify the reservation. Changes in plans were made however so that in 1967, the White Earth Reservation was established to house all of the Ojibwe. 1873 and 1874 executive orders reduced the lands of the Leech Lake Reservation (Indian Affairs Council, 2007). Tax forfeitures, allotments, and seizures for government forests and parks later reduced the remaining land until only approximately five to six percent of the original area was left to the Ojibwe people (Giese, 1997). The severe reduction of Ojibwe lands was the gravest that any tribe in Minnesota has experienced. This was made worse by the increasing valuation for the lakes and forests of the reservation as whites increasingly settled in Minnesota. It was only in recent years that the pattern of land loss was inverted (Oakes, February, 2005). III. Further Treaties and Relevant Events in Leech Lake Ojibwe History In 1881, the United States Army Corps of Engineers began to build dams at lake outlets including that of Cass and Leech Lake to provide a stable water power for Minneapolis. In the course of such activities, water levels rose seven feet such that Ojibwe homes, rice beds, food and burial grounds were destroyed (Oakes, February, 2005). Meanwhile, the Dawes Act of 1887, along with the Nelson Act of 1889, made it possible for individual Ojibweg to be allotted and sell parts of reservations lands to settlers, railroads, and timber companies. Because of land sales, fraud, and tax forfeitures, more Ojibweg lost their lands through these Acts (Oakes, February, 2005). By 1898, the Leech Lake Ojibwe’s anger over their loss of land and reckless logging activities in the area reached boiling point, resulting in gunfire exchange that lasted for three days and seven deaths among federal soldiers. The battle was recorded as the last between American soldiers and American-Indian natives. In gratitude to the stoppage of what could be a full-blast Ojibwe revolt, the government forgave the involved Ojibweg. In 1908, the concern of aggressive logging activities in the region pushed the United States government to form the Chippewa National Forest (Oakes, February, 2005). It was in 1912 when a white family started the pioneer fishing resort on Cass Lake. From there, several people followed suit until tourism became the reservation’s second major industry, though it was not the natives who drew much of the profit. On the other hand, 1925 saw to the decline of timber supply in Cass Lake and the fall of the great logging boom (Oakes, February, 2005). In 1933, the outpour of white settlers in the reservation ended as the US Government Land Office in the area closed. Yet to date, white settlers in the area remain to be more than half (Oakes, February, 2005). 1937 saw to the Leech Lake Ojibwe adopting its first ever constitution. Legal activities of the tribe developed as 1972 saw to the Ojibwe band settling a lawsuit for the reaffirmation of their right to hunt, fish, and gather within the bounds of the reservation beyond what is regulated by the state. This was the first of its kind and affirms the drive of the Ojibwe people to keep their traditions alive, beyond the restrictions of the government (Oakes, February, 2005). The year 1975 was witness to the growing determination of the Ojibwe people to fight for their rights as a people when 75 Ojibwe students walked out of their classes in protest against racism, cultural insensitivity, and discrimination in Cass Lake Junior-Senior High School. In response to this, the Ojibwe people started the culture-based school, Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig, for their youth (Oakes, February, 2005). To date, the school is showing great progress. Meanwhile, the Ojibwe started operating casinos in 1983 after the rule of the federal courts stated that Indian tribes must be given the liberty to gamble, as respect to their culture. In 1998, the Ojibwe created its own police force through a federal grant, by which it started to administer its own civil rules (Oakes, February, 2005). It was in 2002, however, that a major breakthrough in the political arena happened when Elaine Fleming became the first Ojibwe to be elected as mayor by the residents of Cass Lake (Oakes, February, 2005). IV. The Leech Lake Ojibwe Today Today, the Leech lake Ojibwe culture remains vibrant and developing. The Ojibwe in the reservation continue attending â€Å"jiingotamog† gatherings for their spiritual customs, and the â€Å"niimi’idimaa† for their social customs. Traditional methods of hunting, harvesting, and making medicines and sugar are still being maintained. Ojibwe people still participate in sun dance ceremonies. Even the sacred scrolls of old are being kept hidden for future interpretation (â€Å"Ojibwa†, 2007). Ojibwe people also maintain their traditional burial methods of erecting â€Å"Spirit houses† over burial mounds and markers made of wood with the dead’s doodem written on it. These special burial grounds have been viewed with much value that they have become endangered to thieves. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act was made to respond to such issues and have benefited the preservation of the Ojibwe’s burial traditions (â€Å"Ojibwa†, 2007). The Leech Lake Ojibwe band has also been pioneering in securing their rights to fish, hunt, and plant wild rice — practices which are embedded in their culture as a people (Indian Affairs Council, 2007). Another aspect that determines the maintenance of the Leech Lake Ojibwe’s cultural integrity is its continuation of its traditional extraction of medicine and food from plants, as well as other such activities bound by tradition (US Environmental Protection Agency, 2007). Meanwhile, the Leech Lake Ojibwe had organized community councils with the intent of airing their political concerns. They have also seen to it that they have their own means to health services, education, fire protection, and such community necessities. The band even started a burial insurance program in 1995 (Indian Affairs Council, 2007). As for the State, it pays the Leech lake Ojibwe tribe for controlling its use of resources within the reservation. Furthermore, the Ojibwe also deputizes the conservation officers of the State so that their own tribal natural resource codes will be enforced (Indian Affairs Council, 2007). Because the Ojibwe band was permitted to operate casinos, such casinos have made the band Cass County’s biggest employer (Indian Affairs Council, 2007). Through an Ojibwe currently residing in Oregon, the Leech Lake Ojibwe also markets their very own products of wild rice and locally-made craft baskets internationally (Giese, 1997). Today, the Leech Lake Ojibwe tribe decided that the reservation must keep its existence in line with the treaties and executive orders upon which it was founded. This is because even with the said treaties and orders at place, they could still exist as a people within the bounds of their cultures, traditions, and beliefs (US Environmental Protection Agency, 2007). For one, the tribe still holds its constitutional and natural sovereign power over the reservation and its people. Further, the tribe also holds power over the activities of outsiders in the reservation, for as long as such activities affect or threaten to affect the welfare, political integrity, heath, and economic security of the Leech Lake Ojibwe (US Environmental Protection Agency, 2007). The Ojibwe people, with the treaties in place, are also able to maintain regulatory authority over the water resources of the reservation. This is because having the inherent rights to the reservation’s waters, their intent is to ascertain that their water resources would remain viable for generations to come, the reservation being their permanent home. The Ojibwe people of Leech Lake also serve for the protection and preservation of its waters since with this comes the promotion of the tribe’s historic and religious values. By doing so, they are also able to maintain a suitable environment for the reservation’s wildlife, something which has been embedded in the values of the Ojibwe as a people (US Environmental Protection Agency, 2007). However, though the Ojibwe people of Leech Lake have been perceived to have maintained their culture and traditions, a sad fact looms over the band. The number of youths in the reservation who have been involved in drugs, alcohol, violence, and imprisonment is appalling. Murders have been common in the area. Statistics indicate that the Leech Lake Reservation is one of the worst places for children in all of Minnesota (Oakes, April, 2004). A 1999 government research found Cass County to be the poorest in terms of children’s safety and health. It was also determined in 2002 to have the most children who live in foster and care homes. Majority of these cases entail Ojibwe children who were abandoned by their parents or taken forcibly away from them on grounds of neglect, delinquency, or even abuse. The main thrust behind this seems to be alcoholism, which plague the Ojibwe people of whatever age and gender. Parents leave their children behind on accounts of being drunk, or imprisoned because of some crime they did while drunk (Oakes, April, 2004). Thus, death looms eight years earlier over the lives of the Ojibwe in the Leech Lake reservation (Oakes, April, 2004). And this fact is something to be bothered about, especially when considering the current status and welfare of the Leech Lake Ojibwe people. It is a threat that must be dealt with, if the centuries of battling with treaties, fighting for their rights, and maintaining their cultures and traditions will not be put into waste. The Ojibwe of Leech Lake are a beautiful people who have a great history behind them, and a great culture and tradition with them. It thus matters, more than the treaties, to make efforts to keep their welfare and their people alive, because if not, we know that something great will die.