The Most Influential Designers of the Century

Paul Poiret (1879 – 1944) is best known for liberating women from corsets. Lacking certain technical dressmaking skills Poiret made draping the focal point of his designs. He was interested in simple shapes that freed the body and being inspired by Fauvism, Japanese culture and the Ballet Russes mostly used exotic colours. He was the king of Oriental Era in 1910's and a natural businessman. He expanded limits of what fashion meant at the time and brought some serious innovations to the industry. Kimono coat, â€Å"hobble† skirt, â€Å"lampshade† tunics, â€Å"harem† pantaloons are all signature outfits of Paul Poiret.Along with other designers like Mariano Fortuny, Paul Poiret helped to establish what we now call a Classical style and of course, he is one of those designers who define Exoticism. While researching this revolutionary designer I came up with idea of three types of women he designed for: 1) Goddess-like woman in rich colored, empire waisted, b eautifully draped dress; 2) Exotic, seductive, slave-like woman in turban and harem pantaloons/hobble skirt. 3) Rich, extravagant Eastern/Japanese woman in fur, velvet, etc. lush fabrics.Gabrielle Coco Chanel (1883 – 1971) is rightfully called a queen of 20's. She was (and still is) one of the most influential designers of all time. The style that Chanel promoted is considered classic today, not to mention timeless wardrobe essentials as little black dress or Chanel suit. Channel started off by shortening hemlines so that women who now had to work in factories (post WWI) would feel more comfortable. Using unconventional fabrics (at the time) like jersey and tweed she adapted menswear to women needs and actually transformed what a modern woman means.Her woman was independent and strong. She lowered the waistline to upper hips level thus creating an androgynous/boyish silhouette – La Garconne. Combining elegance and practicality she used simple materials to create access ories: for the first time in history daring to mix pearls with glass beads and inventing â€Å"poor chic†. On the contrary to Poiret, Coco Chanel was an experienced seamstress and paid great attention to details. Later in her career, she stopped using sewing machines and started making every garment by hand.She was also known for her signature embroidery which was carried out by Russian house Kitmir exclusively for her. For me, Chanel stands for timeless elegance. She is inspirational image of independence and innovation. Nowadays, Karl Lagerfeld is a head of design in house of Chanel. Here are my three favorite looks this season (from pret-a-porter A/W 2012): Madeleine Vionnet (1876 – 1975) was the first designer to adapt her â€Å"haute couture† designs to high street and by doing so she transformed commercial fashion industry. Vionnet combined modern business practices with innovation in dressmaking.She is also praised for taking garment construction to the h ighest level – adopting and perfecting the bias-cut (many people say she invented the bias cut but in her biography Vionnet clearly states that is not true), making dresses with one seam and showing off outstanding cutting skills in each garment. Vionnet promoted style which I would describe as Grecian aesthetics minimized and polished to form clean, sleek, ageless idea of beauty. In 1925 British Vogue, articulating Vionnet's appeal, declared her ‘perhaps the greatest geometrician among all French couturiers'.Her ideas survived and are continued with great success in the house of Vionnet. http://vionnet. com Here are some of my favorite looks this season: Elsa Schiaparelli (1890–1973), Italian designer and the greatest rival of Chanel was a very influential figure in 30's fashion. Fascinated by Surrealism, she formed one of the most iconic partnerships between Art and Fashion while working with world-renowned artist Salvador Dali. (I must mention though, that she collaborated with many other artists of the time).Unfortunately, she didn't adapt to changes after WWII and her business had to close in 1954. Today, her garments are kept in museums and she is praised as a genius, messiah of ultramodern couture. Few of her creations are particularly famous: Tear (1), Lobster (2) and Skeleton (3) dresses and Shoe hat (4). Claire McCardell (1905-1958) is regarded as the inventor of the â€Å"American Look†. With the rationing of silk and wool during WWII, she employed corduroy, seersucker, denim and cotton fabrics to create sensational designs. She said, that â€Å"All of us, any of us, deserves the right to a good fashion†.Her Monastic and Popover dresses were massive hits, not to mention cloth ballet slippers which survived until today. She was the originator of mix-and-match separates, spaghetti straps, pedal-pushers, bareback summer dresses, strapless swimsuits, and feminine denim fashion. Immediately after WWII, Christian Dior (19 5 – 1957) jumped into a fashion arena. He launched his â€Å"New Look† in 1947 and it was an immediate success. After years of rationing Dior cut himself loose and designed dresses with full skirts (making of these required up to 50 yards of fabric), â€Å"waspie† waists and slender shoulder line.He brought back femininity and hope for a better life. Although many people in Europe were shocked with such drastic changes, Americans gladly accepted the new breeze and much of Dior's income in the first years came from export to USA. Unfortunately, genius died 10 years later leaving young master Yves Saint Laurent as an artistic director of his house. Today Dior house is one of the strongest leaders in fashion industry and one of my personal favorites as well. Here are my three favorite looks from A/W 2012 haute couture collection:Yves Saint Laurent (1936 – 2008) was hailed as the man who (at the age of 22) saved the house of Dior, a King of French fashion and a first couturier to present ready-to-wear collections. I think that the most important time began when he opened his own house in 1962. He was a genius and cared about empowering women, also (much like Schiaparelli) he aimed to shock. Therefore a trouser suit – Le Smoking – was born. It was a trend setting evening trouser suit and it became Yves Saint Laurent's trademark, also a must-have in modern women's wardrobe.We have to be grateful to him for blazers, see-through blouses and a business wardrobe for women. He was one of the main figures in 60's and 70's taking the best out of pop culture and translating it to fashion (Andy Warhol inspired dresses). He was also a great lover of art so he designed a collection of dresses inspired by his favorite painter Piet Mondrian. â€Å"Mondrian Look† (especially one particular dress) is as famous as New Look or Elsa Schiaparelli's Tear dress. Yves Saint Laurent house continues to make androgynous women designs under le adership of newly appointed creative director Hedi Slimane.Here are my favorite looks from Spring/Summer 2013 ready-to-wear collection: Hubert de Givenchy (1927 – today) is best known for his elegant, refined style, and for his popularity with celebrities like Audrey Hepburn (Audrey Hepburn became a symbol of house of Givenchy, she popularized him in movies like â€Å"Sabrina†, â€Å"Breakfast at Tiffany's†, â€Å"My fair lady†, etc. ) , Jackie Kennedy, Grace Kelly and many others. Givenchy introduced a new concept of mix and match separates (unthinkable in 1950's). His signature garments were: little black dress and â€Å"Bettina† blouse.Creating elegance for 40 years straight, Givenchy house continues to astonish the world today with a new leader Riccardo Tisci. Here are my favorite looks from A/W 2012: Givenchy's idol was Cristobal Balenciaga (1895 – 1972) a great Spanish couturier and colorist. He was strictly modern, very technical and a master of illusion. He invented the threequarter-length sleeve and the standaway collar. He taught fashion design classes, inspiring other designers such as Oscar de la Renta, Andre Courreges, Emanuel Ungaro, Mila Schon and Hubert de Givenchy.He was so innovative, that he designed waistless dresses and tunics in 50's proving to be fashion forward by almost a decade. However, in 1968 he decided to close his business. Balenciaga house was bought by Gucci group and today is run by Nicolas Ghesquiere, one of the most talented designers of today(as praised by Vogue). Here are my favorite looks of the season: Mary Quant (1934 – today) is a British designer and fashion icon which has become synonymous with the â€Å"swinging sixties† in London. She is credited with the invention of a mini skirt, skinny rib sweater and false lashes.She reinvented the use of PVC material and created the popular â€Å"Wet Look†. She popularized hot pants and eventually received OBE and Hall of Fame awards from British Council for her outstanding contribution to fashion industry. Through 70's and 80's she concentrated on cosmetics industry and interior design and her clothing lines became of secondary importance. Today she has about 200 Mary Quant Colour shops in Japan where her cosmetic products remain popular. Vivienne Westwood (1941 – today) is the mother of 70's punk era.Together with Malcolm McLaren she established a brand that specialized in clothing with bondage pants, kilts, chains, leather jackets and T-shirts with provocative imagery. Popularized by McLaren's managed band â€Å"Sex Pistols† the look became a new wave of fashion . It was quickly accepted amongst teenagers and young adults and I think it captured the overall atmosphere of self-expression in 70's. Vivienne did not stop here though, she went on to receive prestigious OBE and DBE awards and opened quite a few labels under her name: Golden Label, Anglomania, Red Label and Man.Her house successfully work today and here are my favourite looks from A/W 2012 collection: Rei Kawabuko (1942 – today) is a Japanese avant-garde designer which managed to enter the international fashion scene with an uproar. In 1983 (together with another designer Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto) she presented a new concept in fashion – deconstructed silhouette, colourless, distressed fabrics and garments full of clothes. The look was immediately dubbed â€Å"the Hiroshima chic†, â€Å"boro look†, â€Å"beggar look† and similar.Her distinctive point of view shocked and amused the West and that earned her a place in Parisian Chambre Syndicale du Pret-a-Porter. Today she is a head of her own company Comme des Garcons, and one of the most popular brands in the world. Here are my favourite looks from this season: Yohji Yamamoto (1943 – today) became popular at the same time as Rei Kawabuko. Presenting the unprecedented style concept to Western fas hion world with his 1983 cutwork collection he was instantly acknowledged and recognized.His asymmetrical designs always take a viewer by surprise, his commercially successful designs are sold worldwide and together with Rei Kawabuko Yohji Yamamoto is held responsible for putting Tokyo on the map fashion wise. Wonderful thing is, that despite similarities in Kawabuko's and Yamamoto's designs (and their life together in 80s – 90s) they both have different aesthetics and distinctive directions. Kawabuko occurs to me to be more conceptual and Yamamoto is way more elegant designer. Here are my favourite looks:John Galliano (1960 – today) is one of the most controversial designers today but nevertheless, genius. In short, he graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design Galliano was awarded the â€Å"British Designer of the Year† in the year 1987, 1994 and 1995. Due to frequent financial troubles he accepted the job offer at Givenchy and in two years time he was transferred to Dior as a creative director of the house. He also has his own house under his name. Achieving that amount of success in a short period of time, he is proven to be genius and of course he has plenty of respectable awards to prove it.His creations are magical, his style is very dramatic and his presentations are always theatrical . Despite his recent â€Å"crimes† (in 2011 he was dismissed from Dior when found guilty of racial insults in public) Galliano name still stands for unspeakable elegance and innovation, his garments are highly collectible. It is unclear to me what happened to genius after he was dismissed from Dior. House of Galliano is working without his original captain under leadership of Bill Gaytten. However his idea of beauty prevails and I think he is the next Chanel. Here are my favourite looks from this season:Alexander McQueen (1969 – 2010) was a magnificent designer who left a huge imprint through his short lifetime. He wo n a great number of awards for his distinctive dramatic point of view, including Commander of the Order of the British Empire, International Designer of the Year 2003 by Council of fashion designers of America and others of similar caliber. Ever since he entered fashion industry he was considered a genius. Fashion editors were left in awe after each new collection, not to mention the infamous VOSS. He is well known for his collaborations with celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Bjork, Kanye West and Katy Perry.I would say his style is eccentric, avant-garde but extremely elegant at the same time. Alexander McQueen was original in every way and extremely technical as well. After unfortunate and untimely death of genius in 2010 Sarah Burton took the helm of Alexander McQueen's house and added her own feminine touch to the name. She has also designed a wedding dress for the Royal Wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince Williams. Alexander McQueen's house successfully runs today and here are fe w wonderful creations from this year Autumn/Winter collection:

Psychological Warfare Essay

Psychological Warfare is a war of the mind. It is considered to be a plan operation to convey selected information and indications to audiences and influence their emotions,motives, behaviors, objective reasoning towards a particular aspect. It is a weapon used in all aspects of war and whose effectiveness is limited to the commanders ingenuity that has been using it. Psychological warfare or also known as Psychological Operations (PSYOP) is considered ed as one of the oldest weapon in a man’s arsenal,an important force,protector and a non-lethal weapon system. It is simply learning everything about your enemies belief,likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses, vulnerabilities and your main motive is to determine their weak point that will make you win. Here a comprehensive study about Psychological Warfare will be tackled and how terrorists maximizes the use of Internet in doing Psychological operations that will make or break their motives towards a particular enemy. The factors that influences an individual to develop Psychological Warfare and their morale as well as other related dilemmas will also be discussed. Psychological Warfare is broadly defined as a planned use of communication to influence people’s attitudes and behaviors and which main target is the emotion that will support the attainment of national objectives. â€Å"The form of communication can be as simple as spreading information covertly by word of mouth or through any means of multimedia.† (Rouse, 2007) The U.S. Department of Defense defines psychological warfare (PSYWAR) as: â€Å"The planned use of propaganda and other psychological actions having the primary purpose of influencing the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of hostile foreign groups in such a way as to support the achievement of national objectives.†   Psychological Warfare is also known as infowars. This type of warfare is often used in modern situations, such as the dropping of leaflets and propaganda campaigns. Psychological warfare could be considered a type of unconventional warfare. This is because it attempts to influence the mind of the enemy rather than destroy its military. The press is one of the most commonly used weapons for spreading propaganda. (wikipedia) Here, the primary weapons are sights and sound since it can be disseminated by face to face communication, through radio,television,newspaper,books, magazines or posters. The real deal is not how the message is sent but it is more about the message and how that message impacts the beliefs of an individual. Most of events and terrorist attacks involves Psychological warfare that utilizes tactics (psychological Operations or PSYOP) that will inculcate fear towards the enemy and catches people’s attention to unite with their motives. As communications and technology advances, greater chances for mass propaganda is developed. Psychological Operations (PSYOP, PSYOPS) are techniques used by military and police forces to influence a target audience’s emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and behavior. Target audiences can be governments, organizations, groups, and individuals, and are used in order to induce confessions, or reinforce attitudes and behaviors favorable to the originator’s objectives. These are sometimes combined with black operations or false flag tactics. (wikipedia) It is also classified as white, grey and black whereas white is said to be true and not biased and the source of information is acknowledge. Grey is largely truthful it contains no information that can be proven as wrong and the source may or may not be revealed. Black propaganda is worst because it is really intended to deceive enemies. â€Å"History provides the strongest proof of the importance of moral factors and their often incredible effect: this is the noblest and most solid nourishment that the mind of a general may draw from a study of the past.† (Clausewitz, 1976,p.185)) Psywar and PSYOP is a directed war propaganda at their enemies to induce surrender, disruption and insurrection. It is also said to be more effective when based on military tactics and realities. Since we are now in the twenty first century, mass media now allows the dissemination and reception of information from enemies. Their messages are provided through leaflets, radio, television and know the world wide web invasion is also a medium for Psychological warfare. Through the Internet various propagandas that attempts to persuade people to think and influence people is made possible by individuals that wants to achieve a certain degree of power through their opinions and firm conviction regarding a certain claim. Most individuals who use the net as a means of promulgating informations that attacks certain party are those people whom they called terrorists. Terrorists in the modern sense are classified as people who are violent and uses harmful acts to threaten or directly harm civilians for their political and ideological goals. Terrorists are now increasingly using the Internet to communicate with their co-terrorist and to the rest of the people in the world who uses this medium of communication. Most people have seen certain propagandas like videos that are published on the world’s news networks and other websites made possible by these people. The Internet is a powerful tool for terrorism to be done. Certain websites contains forums, message boards and chat rooms that shares information to coordinate attacks and spread each propaganda to continuously recruit people to be part of their terrorists groups. It serves as a mind opening and soul awakening for an individual to develop more of their Psychological warfare to revolt and act against a particular group. Such websites also serves as training grounds from newbies in the terrorists’ world where tutorials on building bombs,firing missiles and shooting guns are offered. It also host messages that raises morale and for further expansion of recruting and getting funds for their group. The greatest advantage of using Internet is that terrorists have greater edge of disseminating information and they began to develop more sophisticated encryption tools and creative techniques that are efficiently provided by these medium. It also provides a global pool of recruits and greater fund raising means since it has become a commonplace for organizations to accept donations through usage of credit cards and wire transfers. Certain websites that contains terroristic motives was already discovered and disciplinary measures were given to those caught using this as a Psychological Warfare weapon to influence people and inculcate terrorism into the minds of people. An article entitled â€Å"Briton convicted of terrorism offenses† was retrieved and In this article Mohammed Atif Siddique21 years of age and a British Muslim was accused of terrorism offenses and he was also plead guilty of his acts. This is because he was possessing and distributing materials for aspiring Islamist terrorists via world wide web between March 2003 and April 2006. He’s threat of becoming a suicide bomber made also cases to be filed against him. He cannot deny the fact behind the judge’s decision since the presiding Judge, Lord Carloway told him that having those articles in his possession that are connected with the commission made him convicted of significant attempts of terrorism attacks. A video on Mr. Siddique’s computer that shows a man threatening to bomb Britain serves as a strong evidence on his case. The same video was also shown to his fellow students at Glasgow Metropolitan College. Even his cousin Shazia Rehman received 6 e-mails than advocates suicide bombings. Which for him finds most pleasing in the eyes of Allah because blowing himself cannot be considered suicide but rather being a martyr. In spite of the evidences cited against him, he denies the accusation and charges against him by saying that he has those materials for research purposes only. Nevertheless he was sentenced on October 23, 2007 of 15 years imprisonment. His good lawyer. Aamer Anwar wants to appeal on his case since he finds it unfair because according to him what his client does is just a typical everyday activity of young people who surfs the Internet everyday looking for answers. He claims that it is a r ragedy of justice and freedom of speech that differentiates his client among terrorists. (Fontanella, 2007) I can say that in his case, such evidences and activities is credible enough for him to be sentenced. It is better for him to be vindicated than to allow him to be free and put the lives of many people in danger. However, a parole maybe given if he behaves   monitor his activities if there will be another terrorist attempt for him. Shutting down of a terrorist website is one immediate solution on this scenario hence it is also considered as a temporary disruption if the web master is not stopped. Thats why an immediate action like filing a case and sending the accused in jail is a better solution on this case. Because if certain web masters are still allowed to be free even though the website is already shut down,a worst case of integrating another website can be done to develop another Psychological warfare grounds and make terrorist activities possible. A disappointing article about a successful terrorist act is entitled â€Å"Bomb blasts in Pakistan kill at least 25† The outskirts of Pakistan capital, Islamabad were were bombed on September 4, 2007 claiming the lives of 25 innocents and injured 60 more. The blasts happened on two separate accounts in a military garrisoned town of Rawalpindi. The target of the first explosion was a military bus in an encampment of the general headquarters which automatically placed the two areas under high alert. The alert was just lifted a couple of days prior to the bombings. The explosions are deemed to be a succession of terrorist acts happening in Pakistan in the past few months. Government officials indicate that the attacks were suicidal in nature. The military claimed that the motives behind the blasts will be revealed after an investigation. Security officials viewed the attacks as a retaliation to the military operations against the militants in the country’s border.(Bokhari, 2007) The failure of the Pakistani Armed Forces to serve and protect the civilians are becoming more of a habit, rather than a mistake.In recent instances, the Pakistani army is showing that they cannot counter the Islamic Extremists who plague their country. The bombings of the military headquarters obviously prove that the security as well as the military’s competency is highly questionable. The massive difference in number between Pakistani soldiers and Islamic rebels prove that the Pakistani Army needs strategical and tactical training in order to penetrate the base of a small rebel assembly. Furthermore it is clear as day that the military officials are ill-equipped to distribute soldiers to different tasks in order to eliminate terrorist activity and presence in Pakistan, it is blatant that they use quantity rather than strategy in conducting operations. They should have further research about the group before going into war and they should have determine it earlier if they already gathered enough informations about this terrorist by surfing in the web about the propagandas of this group. One might say that morale has been a boosting factor for terrorist to push thorough their acts of being determined in having a Psychological warfare. Morale is a subject clearly less glamorous than high-technology precision weapons and information systems but no less important. There has been no â€Å"revolution in morale affairs† to make the gray shades of morale more black and white. Instead, because morale keeps us flying on instruments â€Å"in the soup,† it serves as a governor to check the hyper pace of modern warfare. Morale inertia also carries an imperative that the will to win the fight is something the victor must maintain and the vanquished must lose. (Tzu, 1963, p.54). Having a moral boost makes a person more determined in doing an activity according to his/her belief and the conviction to triumphed in that particular matter. And since Psychological operations (PSYOP) is officially the business of targeting the mind of the person, (Collins, 1999, p.58) it serves as a weapon to communicate the message directly toward morale, PSYOP uses television, radio broadcasts, and other methodologies like Internet websites rather than physical destruction to convince the enemy to do something and much worst scenario is expected to happen when it was successfully done like the article stated above that killed innocent people. Having enough time to contemplate before thinking of having and building the concept of Psychological Warfare is really an issue for an individual. Because being committed in such group requires a lot of moral dilemmas and many things should also be taken into consideration. Informations generated and are used as weapons of catching up people’s attention is critically analyzed by web masters and terrorist who took advantage of technology in influencing people’s attitudes and behaviors and targets their emotions to get sympathy and encourage others to be a part of their group that will support the attainment of national objectives according to their sets of principle. It requires good decision making whether you wanted to be affected by these factors and it is also your decision that will make or break your personality as an individual and how you view the world in a brighter perspective. After all Psychological Warfare starts with the mind its all up to us how we are going to be influenced by these stuffs. And we also have to overlook the outcome of every decisions that we make. Deciding with the mind and of course with the heart. References Bokhari, Farhan in Islamabad. (2007) Bomb blasts in Pakistan kill at least 25. FT.com Financial Times retrieved December 5, 2007, from: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ad231bc6-5aa6-11dc- 8c32-0000779fd2ac.html Clausewitz, Carl von. (1976). On War, ed. and trans. Michael Howard and Peter Paret. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, p. 185. Collins, Steven. (1999) â€Å"Army PSYOP in Bosnia: Capabilities and Constraints,† Parameters 29, no. 2 (Summer)p. 58. Fontanella,James and agencies. (2007)Briton convicted of terrorism offenses. FT.com Financial Times retrieved December 5, 2007, from: http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto091720071114413670&utm_source=utm source%3Dyahoo&utm_medium=utm_medium%3DSSP&utm_campaign=utm_campaign%3 Dnews Psychological Warfare (2007) U.S Department of defense definiton. Wikipedia.org retrieved December 5, 2007, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_warfare#United_States_use_of_psychological_w arfare Rouse, Major Ed. (2007) Psychological Operations/Warfare. psywarior.com retrieved December 5,2007 from: http://www.psywarrior.com/psyhist.html Tzu, Sun. (1963). The Art of War, trans. Samuel B. Griffith. London: Oxford University Press,p.54.

Border security issues (week 3) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Border security issues (week 3) - Essay Example Of course this shows that the Mexican public had little confidence with the police handling border security issues. In the midst of all these hardships, there is hope for radical transformation on the horizon, with the onset of a new government. Under the new leadership of the new President Enrique Peà ±a Nieto, perhaps there might be changes. During the Mexican Election campaigns Peà ±a Nieto ran for president on promises that he would end the drug wars and promote police reforms. Currently, it may be too early to determine whether the new administration is doing something to promote reforms in the Mexican police departments. This is because the Mexican public has lost faith in police the police in Mexico. It is no secret that the police force has committed so many atrocities and violated human rights. The expression that Rome was not created in one day plays a significant role in Mexico’s problems. For the new administration to change this trend there is more to do than just introducing police reforms. The operational policies and procedures in police departments need to change. The training and development of officers also needs to change into a system that encourages officers who are not corrupt (Adams, 2006). Increasing reward systems in the force may also aid in promoting the officers to deliver the right services. It will promote the general police force image from a brutal force to one that is professional and fair, thereby resulting to more respect from the Mexican

Family and Social Structures Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Family and Social Structures - Case Study Example If we compare contemporary families with those from a century ago, the most significant difference we can note is the divorce rate. In 1911, approximately 700 families experienced divorce in England and Wales (Simpson 1994). Today that number has risen to 160,000 per year (Simpson 1994). Britain currently has the second-highest divorce rate in Europe (Simpson 1994). 55 percent of couples who divorced in 1990 had a child under the age of 16 (Simpson 1994). What, then, does this mean for the family as a structural unit Today, families continue to be less clearly defined as they must incorporate step-parents, step-siblings, half-siblings, and biological siblings or parents that are not in contact with one another. One such example is "Steve," a husband and father that Bob Simpson interviewed for his article Bringing the 'Unclear' Family into Focus: Divorce and Remarriage in Contemporary Britain. Steve is in his thirties and is married to "Karen." Since marrying in 1990, they've produced two children together. However, prior to their marriage, Karen had a daughter from a previous relationship, and Steve had two children from his marriage to "Kath," and a son from a relationship he'd had as a teenager. Steve considers himself to be a father of six, and the numerous other participants in his children's lives, such as his ex-partners, and his ex-partners' current partners, creates a network that functions as the family unit. While the typical nuclear family has two parents, this family has six. This differs most strikingly from the traditional family in the fact that there are no clear definitions. All six parents are part of the unit, but two children might be related to one set while the other four are not, creating an even more complex matrix of kinship. This becomes most complicated in how the grandparents treat all of the children. Steve's parents acknowledge all six children as family, but Karen's parents only acknowledge the three children that were born to Kar en as family. This causes conflict when Karen's parents ignore Steve's other three children and only give gifts and candies to the three that are biologically Karen's. The "network" family could be successful were all parties open and accepting of different family ties, but now we have one family circle that only exclusively accepts blood relatives, thus dividing the family structure into blood relations versus non-blood relations. This calls into question varying definitions that people have for the family unit. Is a family just two parents and the children that are biologically related to them If so, what is the resulting implication for the rest of society A society in which its members must meet strict biological standards if they are to gain acceptance One such example of the conventional family unit coming into conflict with the "network" family unit is in William Shakespeare's play, Much Ado About Nothing. The play depicts the rigid social structure of the Elizabethan era as it follows the efforts of Don Pedro, Claudio, and Leonato to make Benedick and Beatrix fall in love with one another. Don Pedro is the prince of Aragon, blood-heir to the throne, and as such, represents order, goodness, and purity. His bastard brother, Don John, is evil and devious, purposely setting out to ruin the marriage of Claudio and Hero. Don John is an outsider, an intruder, and thus his character is

Leadership in context Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 1

Leadership in context - Essay Example Also, it will examine various leadership theories and relate them on how the guest speakers apply them in their organizations. Although there is no single style recommended as the best for all leaders some leaders achieve better performance than others depending on prevailing conditions, individual experience and the nature of other workers. According to John Ackerley, a regional manager of a football association he has a responsibility to provide business skills to the small and medium businesses in the region of west midland. Also, he offers them skills to develop the football association and coordinate the Association at the grass root level. His roles involve interacting with other stakeholders from the top to the bottom. For example, he had to share his values with the chair and the general secretary of the football association. He shares the goals of various projects with leaders of different departments and instructs the heads of different departments such as David Clarke, who is the captain of Great Briton blind club squad. Therefore, according to John anyone can be a leader in various ways. He believes that being a leader involves individual commitment to achieving specific goals. In his perception leadership, requires formal training although for general skills. However, experience is the most important determinant of successful leadership because it defines the specific goals and objectives of a leader. Through his work experience as a coach for seven years, John had the opportunity to interact with people from the diverse background. These were people with different races, age, education background, religion, etc. That helped him to learn how to relate well with diverse characteristics hence he would apply interaction skills in his leadership to coordinate the activities of various groups in the football association. The leadership skills are acquired through training and

Supply Chain Information Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Supply Chain Information Management - Assignment Example This paper evaluates the Amazon’s distribution channel and its evolution. Amazon started in 1994 as a book store that was launched by Jeff Bezos and it took its shape of the Amazon.com since then. Notably, Amazon was initiated on a value proposition anchored on four dimensions. The four dimensions helped Jeff Bezos to focus on service to the customer, the price, selection and the convenience of the products and services it would offer online. The Amazon online inventory consisted of many items and this offered the customers a wide range of choices as compared to any physical store. Moreover, the website was constructed such that it kept the download period very low while offering platforms for reviews that were later used for its improvement. Originally, the online store was constructed such that customers for books would be satisfied by being supplied from the warehouse of Amazon while it enjoyed its benefit of time and cost efficiencies. As such, the Amazon built several ten warehouses that were situated in ten states with least or no tax for sales (Jansen, Bernard, Amanda & Isak 2009). Amazon would then order books from the warehouses after customers had agreed to pay for them and hence low return costs. After a period of time, the Amazon warehouses were increased worldwide and also the number of products stored in the warehouses increased. The products in the warehouse were well kept and computerized so that the number lines of a product in the warehouse matched those of the product stocked online. When a customer ordered a product, for example, a book, automatically the order mentioned the title of the product and then a barcode. As a result of this process, computers would then signal the workers that a particular product was not supposed to be on the shelf and then they would verify the order and pick it for parceling. Currently, the distribution channel

Sec accredited investor for hedge funds PowerPoint Presentation

Sec accredited investor for hedge funds - PowerPoint Presentation Example According to this regulation, accredited investors are those individuals or group of investors who possess financial might and autonomy. These investors are legalized to invest in a higher risk investment such as hedge funds, limited partnerships, seed money, and private placements networks. It also refers generally to wealthy individuals and organizations such as insurance firms, banks, big charities, and some corporations who are allowed to invest in securities markets. These investors require very little protection offered by particular government filings. (Jaffer p. 134) As explained earlier, accredited investors are investors who are financially powerful and very rich individuals and to qualify as accredited investor, one must have at least one of the following: as an individual or together with his or her spouse must have a net worth more than $1 million. He or she must have stable financial income of more than $200,001 annually or a steady joint income of more than $300,000. One must be a director, general partner, or executive officer for the hedge fund . An employee benefit plan or a trust can qualify as accredited investors if the total asset exceeds $5 million. An American financial journalist known as Alfred W. Jones, in 1949, created the first Hedge fund. By then the funds were known to manage the investment risk due to dynamics in the financial markets. The number of hedge fund grew to over 200 by 1968. Hedge funds refer to privately managed accredited investment funds or securities markets. These are investments made in wide range of markets and large schemes and are bound by regulatory restrictions of a given country. In some countries like in U.S, the regulations restrict hedge fund involvement to certain group of accredited investors. These investments are quite flexible and often permit withdrawals or

The impact of E-commerce on the auditing standards Dissertation

The impact of E-commerce on the auditing standards - Dissertation Example Continuous innovation in the information world has drastically changed the nature of works of business organization as well as of individuals. Substantial dependence on information system has also enhanced individuals’ innovative power. Today people can not only dream about some spectacular thing, but they can actually give a realistic shape to their dreams with the implementation of information system. For example, a few decades ago it was even beyond imagination that people can get the opportunities to enroll themselves in any foreign universities without making any physical presence. But continuous and spectacular innovations in the field of information technology have made people dream about distant learning where they can be in continuous touch with their tutors and college administration without making there physical presence in college campuses. Thus information system not only revolutionized they way people do their works, but also the way people think. In this age of highly improved information age ecommerce has become a very popular term. E-commerce can be defined as â€Å"the use of electronic transmission medium (telecommunication) to engage in the exchange, including buying and selling of products and services requiring transportation either physically or digitally from location to location. Introduction of ecommerce has been found to have produced some positive effects on economic performance of a country. It offers innovative ways of selling, delivering and receiving of goods and services and affects almost every industry and all aspects of business mechanisms and in this process dramatically contributes to productivity enhancement of the industries. In the field of auditing, ecommerce has been taking its place at very fast pace. However, it would be The proposed study will consider a particular set of widely used auditing standards in order to evaluate the effects of ecommerce on that set of auditing standards. For the purpose of the pro posed study, the impacts of ecommerce on US GAAS (US Generally Accepted Auditing Standards) will be studied. Thus the theme of the study can be written as follows: Effects of e-commerce on a particular set of auditing standards, i.e. US GAAS, in terms of the application of US GAAS and the outcomes. However, before proposing research questions and relevant research methods, it is very necessary to look into the findings of existing literatures in the relevant field of study. Given the research theme stated above, a number of research questions and corresponding hypotheses should be postulated in order to asses the impact of ecommerce. Now, one thing should be mentioned at this juncture in order to understand the next section that a number of factors are associates with the application of a particular set of auditing standards. The most vital factors are audit planning and implementation of audit plan. The research questions that should be presented later in this proposal should take into account all these facts. Apart form these, some parameters relating audit plan and implementation of audit plan should be taken into account in this research in order to measure the effect ecommerce on these variables. The literature review section should explain all the issue relating to impact of ecommerce on auditing, issues concerning audit planning and issues relating to proper implementation of audit plan. All these will provide required explanations of the research questions to be postulated after the literature revi

Personal Development Planning Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Personal Development Planning - Assignment Example According to the report findings the most important part of a student’s personal development planning is the communication skills. Communication skills according to Smith, is not only about talking to fellow students and tutors but listening to them as well. Listening is a very powerful tool for a student as it is through listening that they learn the art of patience as well as end up learning more than they already know. A student has to for example, listen to the professor in class, if they are to learn the concepts of the course. Communication is a two-way process, which is listening and talking.As the discussion highlights communication skills also incorporate non-verbal form of communication. When one is communicating with classmates or others that will aid in developing their future goals or in capitalizing their strengths, they can rely heavily on their non-verbal communication to know whether they are on the right track or not. In communicating goals to mentors for exa mple, they may praise the goals verbally but their facial expressions are different and indicate otherwise. This way one learns that they need to make changes. This constant relying on both the verbal and non-verbal form of communication is what eventually leads to a student having strong reflection as well as address their weak areas as a way to have stringer future with more developed and realistic goals that can be easily attainable.