Spoken Word Poetry Essay Example For Students

Spoken Word Poetry Essay To hear such powerful words in such a strong voice come from the tiny body was absolutely amazing. Today, I had the pleasure of being part of the audience to which Gabriele Garcia Medina delivered several of her lengthy, yet heartfelt poems. When you first see Gabriele, you would never think that Inside the small body Lies such power and self-confidence. She captivates her audience, makes them laugh, cry and think from deep within themselves and in the end leaves them wanting to hear more of what she has to say. Gabriele gives you a bit of background before reciting any poems so that you can understand a bit more about who she is and her point of view while listening to the poem she is reciting. According to Gabrielle, her family left Cuba in 1989 and moved to London. At the age of ten and on one of her first field trips, to a soup kitchen, Gabriele realized that there were people who didnt have food or homes. This brought her to tears and the only way she was able to soothe her soul and ease the tears was to express her feelings In the form of poetry. We will write a custom essay on Spoken Word Poetry specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Her family embraced the retentive gift and encouraged her to keep writing. This was the start of the young womans career and a chance to let begin touching the lives of others through her words. Gabriele has two different ways in which she writes her poetry. One is a structured format in which she is hired by an organization given a theme, time and money. Though Gabriele has the freedom to write the poem in her own creative way, the theme and idea behind it must follow the guideline that the company which she was hired by provided. The other way Gabriele comes up with her ideas for poems re through her day-to-day interactions with others. According to Gabriele, every time she comes In contact with a person she knows that Its a potential poem. Things that most people consider normal daily activities, Gabriele turns Into poetry. Whether It Is a bad day or a trip to the mall, for Gabriele Its a way to tell a story that can potentially touch someones life or change their views, Including her own. Gabriel poems are quite lengthy, approximately 4 to 6 minutes in length. She memorizes them by rehearsing -standing in a mirror reciting them over, and over, ND over again until the words are etched into her mind and heart. Even though she has performed before hundreds of audiences, Gabriele still gets nervous before going on stage. To keep her nerves in check, Gabriele meditates for a minute and reminds herself that what she has to say is meaningful and positive. This helps her memorize her thoughts, relax and put on a great show that seems very natural. Since there are a lot of people that write, but not all have the pleasure of getting on stage to share their thoughts with an audience Gabriele embraces the opportunity and looks at It as an honor. According to Gabriele, she wants to Inspire people to feel great and empowered about themselves and their lives and encourage them to be positive and do positive things. Because Gabriele has worked hard and stayed focused, her writing and thing that she dislikes most about all of the traveling to different venues to perform is that she never really gets a chance to connect with the audience and members of the community, there is no time for that with her hectic schedule. Even though she is a wonderful performer, she still has off days when she is going through something ND would rather be locked away in her room thinking while burning a candle than putting on a show. .u8d22b0072357fa55b97cd5f06c2f646c , .u8d22b0072357fa55b97cd5f06c2f646c .postImageUrl , .u8d22b0072357fa55b97cd5f06c2f646c .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u8d22b0072357fa55b97cd5f06c2f646c , .u8d22b0072357fa55b97cd5f06c2f646c:hover , .u8d22b0072357fa55b97cd5f06c2f646c:visited , .u8d22b0072357fa55b97cd5f06c2f646c:active { border:0!important; } .u8d22b0072357fa55b97cd5f06c2f646c .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u8d22b0072357fa55b97cd5f06c2f646c { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u8d22b0072357fa55b97cd5f06c2f646c:active , .u8d22b0072357fa55b97cd5f06c2f646c:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u8d22b0072357fa55b97cd5f06c2f646c .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u8d22b0072357fa55b97cd5f06c2f646c .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u8d22b0072357fa55b97cd5f06c2f646c .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u8d22b0072357fa55b97cd5f06c2f646c .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u8d22b0072357fa55b97cd5f06c2f646c:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u8d22b0072357fa55b97cd5f06c2f646c .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u8d22b0072357fa55b97cd5f06c2f646c .u8d22b0072357fa55b97cd5f06c2f646c-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u8d22b0072357fa55b97cd5f06c2f646c:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Understanding dramatic tragedy EssayBecause her career has taken off so quickly, she realized that she must always be a performer and put on the best possible show that she can for her audience. According to Gabriele, the thing she likes most about what she does is meeting people all over the world and having the opportunity to put empowering ideas in their heads. Gabriele hopes that through her writings and performances, she puts larger than life ideas into her audiences heads and leaves them with the feeling of mating to do big things that will change lives, or maybe even the world. Gabriele Garcia Medina, spoken word poet, strong woman, full of knowledge, inspires others with her thoughts, captivates them with her words, sure of who she is and isnt afraid to express her thoughts in the form of poetry on a stage in front of thousands. I had the pleasure of meeting her and seeing her show, I may forget her name over time; but her words are something that have touched my heart forever and some of them are etched in my mind.

Product Team Cialis Getting Ready

Product Team Cialis Getting Ready Brief background Mark Berbato is the product team leader and executive director of Cialis. He has for a long time worked to provide a remedy for impotence in men competing existing leader, Viagra. The team is structured according to the function of its members. The product and marketing team works day and night to provide differential marketing strategies in order to survive the competition.Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on Product Team Cialis: Getting Ready specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Viagra has been used for a long time to treat erectile dysfunction in men. Despite this statistics, Mark’s team is optimistic about the uncertainties involved. Lilly management decided to find a better erectile dysfunction treatment by first understanding the market. The medical, regulatory, legal, manufacturing, financial and marketing managers report directly to the executive director. The drug is expected to go throu gh various tests to ensure that it is safe for consumption by human beings. The test involves three phase trials after which it can be available in clinics. Decision dilemma Decision dilemma for Leonard Blum and his is team is whether to market Cialis in the already competitive market or go for the niche strategy. If the team decides to compete with Viagra, then their marketing strategy will involve reaching out to the loyal Viagra customers, dropouts, and those who have never consumed it at all. Health practitioners are also important because they are the ones who prescribe the drug to their patients. The management will also have to consider targeting the partners of the male patients with erectile dysfunction. The niche strategy however involves choosing a specific target group. Contradicting case facts The German leading erectile dysfunction drug, Levitra, was more effective than Viagra hence posed a challenge to Cialis. Bayer’s market research showed that 76% expressed s ome interest in Levitra. However, in 2001, its sales dropped by 2%. The team was forced with a task of clearly choosing a market for Cialis and ways of achieving results against the competition. The side effects of ED drugs such as facial flashing also prevents users from trusting the drugs hence it is very difficult to penetrate the market. The physicians believe that they are the only people who decides what patients should take hence they influence the consumption habit of ED victims.Advertising Looking for case study on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Important details for better decision making For better understanding and decision making, the team should first understand its target group hence details regarding consumption of Viagra, the health practitioners, the partners of male victims, and the views on the media regarding those who do not take the drug and why should be analyzed. The con sumer today is more demanding, more connected and less loyal to a product hence the team should find better ways of dealing with certain target groups especially if they go for the niche strategy. Things that make the chosen target group different from the rest should be studied and the details should be analyzed. In order to make the right choice between the two options, the decision makers must compare the two market strategy so as to justify their choice. Analysis Consumers tend to follow what others do; it is a life preserving habit. The target market is already used to the existing product hence changing their perspective involves a lot of work. All the two market strategies can be effective depending on the approach given by the decision markers. The niche strategy can only be used when the team decides to assume the position held by Viagra and concentrate on their product. The team can then market Cialis to a specific target group regardless of how Viagra is performing in oth er areas. In the health sector, people tend to avoid using harmful substances despite the campaigns conducted by the health experts and advices provided. Viagra is an example of such products that have received mixed reactions. Niche strategy Pros The reason for niche strategy is that working with a specific target group is cheaper especially for a new product in the market that is not well established. It is also a way of avoiding coalition with the existing products such as Viagra. Narrowing the market segment means that the new product will have relatively less competition. Cons The strategy however assumes the importance of other target groups because of its narrow market segment. This strategy may be successful but its slower hence can easily cause failures during the implementation. It is sometimes difficult to identify the right target group to focus on hence the team can choose the wrong users resulting into failures.Advertising We will write a custom case study samp le on Product Team Cialis: Getting Ready specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Compete Pros This strategy is important because it provides a faster growth. Once all the target groups are reached they can be given better services in order to maintain their loyalty. Competing strategy also creates room for learning because the challenges created by Viagra provide a learning environment to Cialis. It also takes care of the uncertainties involved in the new market hence the users are left to choose for themselves and no speculations are made. Cons A reason against this strategy is that when joining a new market, it is not easy to know whether customers will prefer new product to the old ones hence more products can go to waste. This strategy is expensive because competing existing product involves differentiation in both services and products. Going head-to-head with Viagra may require Cialis to use their marketing strategies which may not work becau se the consumers expect something different. Beating Pros The reason for differentiation is that it makes consumers aware of the importance of the product. It gives a consumer an opportunity to compare and contrast the unique characteristics with other similar products. For Cialis, it is important because the users will easily identify unique health importance of the product. Cons However, product differentiation may not be good for drugs because it leads to false unique qualities that are used to attract more users. It also exposes the users to risks because the drug may be uniquely identified with wrong qualities that result to complications when consumed. Finally, medical products are not measured in terms of design but impact and diagnosis therefore the strategy violates this principle. Co-branding Pros The main purpose of this strategy is that the drug can be convincingly positioned using the renowned brand. It can also be used to change the perception of users when the drug is branded with a product they relate to. To capture the doubting users, co-branding can be used to improve the confidence of customers who feel the drug is not well known.Advertising Looking for case study on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Cons Co-branding poses challenges when the partner brand goes through recession. Each company works hard to improve its market share hence one company may ruin one’s brand except for same-company co-branding. Co-branding also denies a company a chance to develop because it relies on a particular company to market its products. Conclusion Cialis can fairly compete with Viagra to gain a large customer base by choosing the best option, considering important details concerning the target market and making the right decision required in order to survive in the market.

Revised paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Revised paper - Essay Example The lessons are, therefore, well planned to help the students identify with the complex situations in life, to enhance their reading capabilities. The students are taken through advanced multicultural recipes to enable them to be familiar with the delicacies of the world. At the same time, this enables those who are familiar with the recipes to feel part and parcel of the class. The lesson plans are plans are designed to enable them to enhance their listening then reading skills. The teacher will read aloud; this helps the students remember and store the pronunciation in their brains. This helps them to read and say the words correctly the next time they are in the position to speak this words. The teacher will also aim at improving the conversation skills of the students by asking them to assume scenarios in life and talk to one another in reference to these scenarios. This will develop the ability of the students to talk and ask for things in real life. The lessons are also planned to improve the students’ ability to sieve out the relevant information from excerpts. This will enable them to be able to pick out clues from passages, and they can apply this when faced with examination questions, or other critical analysis situations, whereby they need to write what is important and leave out the less important material. Goals:Develop students’ confidence in speaking through conversation with peers and reading aloud thus helping them remember this words in future. The conversation is aimed to help them understand the contexts of their readingso they could appreciate the practical use of the language and encourage them to frequently speak English. Teacher willdivide the students into four groups and give each group a recipe card, then let them converse and read the content freely.Worksheets will be distributed to each student, but they cannot answer the questions right away, and notes must be written at the back of the worksheets.

Thinking Globally; Do you think the US should convert to the metric Essay

Thinking Globally; Do you think the US should convert to the metric system - Essay Example The system has proved beneficial in baking for the reason that baking is a science where accurate measurements are required to generate consistent and quality baked products (Strianese and Strianese 118). Other than the baking industry, metric system is important in the pharmaceutical, automotive, engineering, and science industry. These industries have decided to go metric system because it is very crucial in world trade. Metric terminology is being used in the medical field. The metric system is taught early during the training of doctors because the drug dosage is usually specified in metric units. Presently, approximately ninety percent of global population utilizes the metric system. The metric system is still being introduced and utilized in majority of the industries in the United States; the most remarkable industries using the system include the food and beverage industry. For instance, when an individual purchases a beverage such as coffee or soda, the measurement usually appears on the beverage package in metric terms and customary measurements always used (Strianese and Strianese 119). As stated before, the metric system is used in the baking industry because it gives exact measurements. Thus, it is useful in this industry because the ingredients are generally weighted instead of being measured. The change to the metric system is evident in the United States; in the food and beverage industry, very few bottles of wine are sold using the customary U.S. measures (Strianese and Strianese 119). The metric system offers standard rules for â€Å"communicating the amounts of its units through prefixes. For example, a milligram is one-thousandth of a gram (weight), a milliliter is one-thousandth of a liter (volume), and a millimeter is one-thousandth of a meter (length)† (Strianese and Strianese 120). The customary system does not have this form of predictability and uniformity (Strianese and Strianese 120).

Management and Leadership Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Management and Leadership Development - Essay Example The benefits are vital for organizations as a whole, particularly in countries that are developing, where the level of quality is low and require increment in search for effective cooperation in the various organizations. In the due course of implementation, there are many difficulties that are faced by organizations and do fail to practice benefits that are expected from management implementation that is of quality. Relating this to the implementation issue, it is observed that the implementation process is a major determinant of success in the introduction of technology or methods in an organization (Collins, 2001). It can be seen from these studies that acquisition of insights into the implementation process is vital, especially in trying to get a way of transforming the concept of quality management and practice from principles in the course of the organization. The transformation is referred to as implementation of quality management. In accordance, implementation research is re quired for the effectiveness of organizations. This report provides for operationalization of management and leadership development into practice in manufacturing companies, in Indonesia (Babbie, 2007). Basing on development of concepts and different leadership frameworks, there will be a discussion on operationalization. The operationalization discussion takes into consideration the research raised as an expression that guides relevant subject observation of implementation of quality management. As it is comprised of facts that are observable, it can occur in an analysis level. If related to management implementation, it allows an individual to conceive an organization analysis level. It is mainly focused on how leadership and management of an organization are conceptualized. Automotive Assembly Company (AAC) Implementation process From the time ownership was changed, three factors influenced management implementation process. Firstly, there was a change in the orientation of group that covered both investment decisions and encouragement of individuals’ use of the management system. Here, there was changes, in the in the management guidance for the group. Secondly, in 1997, a relationship of the joint nature with Itochu Corporation and Isuzu Ltd restructured the business pattern and this made AAC the only manufacture. Thirdly, there was an economic, national crisis which made AAC to bring in an efficiency policy to satisfy the new requirement of customers. Being the largest Corporation in Indonesia, AAC had close relation with Japanese partners. This was an influence to the member countries as it introduced unique practices, norms and value (Effron and Ort, 2010). The many corporations they had with Japanese counterparts made them acquire knowledge from different perspectives. For the integration of the practice, value and norms, there was a development of system of management to unite and link resources, identities and capability. This system was refe rred to as ATQC. There was also an introduction of quality control system by the group. The groups made a team put to practice and encourage companies adhere to the quality assurance. In 1994, AAC received their certification and got support from implementation group and was renewed in 1996. AAC transformed

Investment Appraisal Report Example

Investment Appraisal Report Example Re: Investment in Kingfisher Plc Following our conversation earlier, I have prepared a report into Kingfisher Plc to help you with your investment decision. I have split this report into two sections, to help you analyse the company’s financial management practices and also to determine what represents a fair price for the company’s shares. As we discussed earlier, when making any investment it is vital to consider the financial management policies and practices of the company. These include what the company invests in; how these investments perform; how the company raises funds to invest; and how the company treats its profits. As such, the first part of this section will address these four sections in turn, and how these affect the performance of the company. The second section will address the fair value of the shares of the company. This is because, whilst the company may perform well, if the shares are purchased for more than a fair value, based on the company’s ability to earn, they may not provide a good return to an investor. I hope this report will be of interest to you, please let me know if you have any questions about any aspects. Part A)  Financial Management Investments Kingfisher’s primary investment over the past five years has been in tangible assets, such as property, plant and equipment, which have made up over fifty percent of total assets over the past five years. The majority of the remaining assets are composed of goodwill, with small amounts devoted to pension plans, financial derivatives and other intangible assets. This can be seen in the table below: Table of non current asset values for Kingfisher Group Plc (all in  £ millions) Assets 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Property, Plant and Equipment 3041 2781 3032 3265 3211 3698 Goodwill 2652 2455 2463 2559 2552 2532 Other Assets 309 146 289 354 380 532 (Source: Kingfisher, 2008) The main trend in the assets of Kingfisher has been a steady rise in the value of property, plant and equipment as well as other assets. The main change in the other assets is a rise in the level of post employment benefits; deferred tax assets; and derivative financial instruments, which were not on the balance sheet in 2003 but have a total value of over  £200 million in 2008. In addition, the drop in all values from 2003 to 2004 is a result of the disposal of the Chartwell Land property portfolio, which resulted in a reduction in the value of all asset classes due to the transfer of goodwill associated with the property sold. From 2004 onwards, the company has engaged in a significant expansion program based on organic growth and the opening of new stores. This has naturally increased the value of the total property, plant and equipment; with a small drop in 2007 where the company disposed of some of its less profitable stores. This balance in assets is largely expected because Kingfisher is a retail group, operating stores such as BQ, Screwfix, Castorama, and Brico Depot. As such, the group’s main source of income comes from sales from these stores; hence these stores are the most valuable asset the group owns. In addition, the company maintains a diverse portfolio of businesses across the UK, France and other countries including the Republic of Ireland, Poland, Italy, Spain, Turkey and China. In order to operate in these countries, the group needs to own assets such as stores, offices, and distribution networks. This further increases the percentage of total assets which will be taken up by property, plant and equipment. With regards to the level of goodwill, this became quite high prior to 2003, but has stayed quite constant over the period of the study. This indicates that a significant proportion of the business’ assets have been purchased for more than their book value. This is possibly how the group has managed to obtain such a large portfolio of businesses, and particularly how it has managed to ensure that all of its businesses are in the top three of the domestic markets. However, over the period of the study, the group has not experienced a significant increase or decrease in the level of goodwill, which implies that it has not significantly expanded its portfolio through acquisitions, and the majority of the increase in the value of the total assets has come through organic growth or purchases at close to book value. This is slightly complicated by the group’s goodwill policy, which makes an assessment of the ability of acquired businesses to generate cash each year, and amort ises the level of goodwill to compensate. As such, it is possible that the group has invested a significant amount in buying new businesses, and the value of the goodwill from these businesses has since fallen. However, the annual reports mention that new stores are being opened, not bought, which implies that the group’s expansion policy is to open new stores, rather than acquire existing ones from competitors. Investment appraisal Investment appraisal is generally done on a per project basis, with a company projecting the cashflows, both positive and negative, associated with a project; and then calculating whether the net cashflow will be positive or negative, and by how much. This value can be calculated based on either the absolute value of the cashflows, or on the discounted value of the cashflows which takes into account the fact that cashflows occurring in later years will be less valuable due to inflation and other factors (Knott, 2004). However, when considering an investment in Kingfisher, this methodology is not appropriate, as the company is a continuous operation with no definite start or end point. Indeed, all the new stores the company opens are intended to remain operational for the foreseeable future, hence making it very difficult to calculate their rates of return and net present values. Whilst the company will undoubtedly have an internal method for doing this, perhaps taking the cashflows f or the first five years of operations, this method is not detailed in the annual reports. Nor does Kingfisher reveal details of the exact costs of the investment into stores or their cashflows in the annual reports, thus making it impossible to attempt such an analysis with the available data. As such, it is necessary to analyse the performance of Kingfisher’s overall business, from the point of view of an investor looking to buy shares. As such, the initial purchase of the shares represents the initial investment, and the return made on these shares can be taken to be the future cashflows for the purposes of the analysis. On this basis, it is necessary to look at the annual returns provided by Kingfisher, as well as the change in the value of the shares (Lumby, 1994). Kingfisher annual share price from May 2003 to May 2008 Date Closing Price 27/05/2003 257.25 27/05/2004 285.5 27/05/2005 259 26/05/2006 235.75 25/05/2007 252.75 27/05/2008 138.1 (Source: Yahoo Finance, 2008) Kingfisher earnings per share from 2003 to 2008 Year Earnings per share 2003 16.4 2004 17.4 2005 20.8 2006 12.2 2007 11.8 2008 11.7 (Source: Kingfisher, 2008) As can be seen from these graphs above, Kingfisher’s share price and earnings per share have both fallen over the period of the study. As such, one share purchased for 257 pence in 2003 would be worth just 138 pence in 2008, and the total dividend earnings per share would be just 90 pence. As such, the total return from an investment of 257 pence would be only 228 pence. This implies that an investment in Kingfisher over the past three years would have performed very poorly, with a return of -12.7% over five years, even without considering discount factors and net present values. Indeed, given that the positive cashflows have occurred after the negative cashflows, any investment in Kingfisher would have a negative net positive value for any positive discount factor. In addition, the earnings per share have fallen from 2003 to 2008. Within the period of the study, earnings per share rose from 2003 to 2005, before falling sharply between 2005 and 2006 and then remaining relatively constant. This fall is specifically mentioned in Kingfisher’s 2006 annual report as being due to a significant fall in profits from the UK market, which was driven by â€Å"rising energy costs, higher taxes and pension contributions and [consumer] confidence has been affected by a weaker housing market† (Kingfisher, 2008). This implies that Kingfisher’s investments in the UK have performed poorly over the past three years, and indeed the 2008 annual report shows that the UK investments have further weakened against the background of the global â€Å"credit crunch†. Whilst the credit crunch has affected all markets around the world, Kingfisher specifically points out that the high level of debt in the UK has created even more problems for consu mers, who have less money to spend as their debt payments have risen. As such, Kingfisher’s investments in the UK, which account for around 47% of the group’s total revenue, are unlikely to improve their performance in the near future. Sources of funding Kingfisher main sources of funding All in  £ millions 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Total long term debt 1528 744.9 828.3 1255.5 1432 1620 Total equity 4463 4407 4387.3 4320.4 4421 4724 (Source: Kingfisher, 2008) Kingfisher is strongly dependent on equity as a source of funding, with total shareholder’s equity making up at least three times as much of the funding as long term debt. Short term debt has been excluded from these calculations, partly because short term debt appears to be used only to settle any cashflow issues, and partly because prior to the 2006 accounts short term debt was not declared separately from trade payables. As such, it would be impossible to compare short term debt across the entire period. It is worth point out that the decrease in debt from 2003 to 2004 is largely due to the sale of the Chartwell Land property portfolio mentioned above. The proceeds of this sale were largely used to reduce the level of long term borrowings, thus resulting in a significant drop between 2003 and 2004. However, following this sale, when the debt to equity ratio fell to just 0.17, the amount of debt has risen steadily, to the point where it reached 0.34 in 2008, the same level as in 2003. This rise has been accompanied by a small rise in the level of shareholder equity, but not to the extent that the total asset value has risen as seen in the investments section above. This implies that the store expansion and refurbishment programs mentioned throughout the Kingfisher annual reports during the period of the study have been funded largely by debt. This has caused the company’s debt to equity ratio to rise quite significantly over the period of the study, which has more than doubled the debt to equity ratio. This significant increase in the debt to equity ratio could be a cause for concern, as it potentially places a higher debt burden on the company which must be serviced from profits. As such, if the company’s fortunes continue to suffer due to the effects of the credit crunch, the company may have difficulty paying its debts and may suffer liquidity problems. However, in the 2008 financial statements the net finance costs on the debt are just  £62 million, whilst the operating profit is  £453 million. As such, the company can cover its interest more than seven times from profits, which means that this rise in the level of debt is not currently a significant concern. Of course, running counter to this is the fact that the global credit crunch is expected to increase the effective rates of borrowing, which could increase the interest payments as well as reducing the long term levels of consumer spending. As such, it is possible that the credit crunch will continue to reduce K ingfisher’s profits whilst increasing the interest cost, thus potentially creating financial troubles in the next few years. This potential issue is compounded by the fact that the company capitalised  £1 million of borrowing costs in 2007, and a further  £3 million in 2008, which may indicate issues in paying these loans out of profit. The major sources of debt finance for the business at the current time are medium term notes and other fixed term debt, which make up  £1,436 million of the debt. These have been placed on markets in the UK, Eurozone and United States and have raised capital at a net cost of between 4.1% and 6.9%. As such, the company has relied on non convertible loans raised on public markets. The majority of the remainder is made up of non secured bank loans. This indicates that, even if the company should encounter financial difficulties, it will not necessarily lose any of its property or have its equity diluted by convertible loans. Treatment of profits and dividend policy Year 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Dividend per share (pence) 9.5 9.65 10.65 10.65 10.65 7.25 Earnings per share (pence) 16.4 17.4 20.8 12.2 11.8 11.7 (Source: Kingfisher, 2008) From 2003 to 2005, Kingfisher’s dividend grew by a reasonable amount, although this was not proportional to the increase in earnings per share over the period. This indicates that Kingfisher was using partly using the increase in earnings to boost the dividend, but mainly using it to build up the volume of reserves, pay back debt, and expand the company. As a result of this, the company allowed its earnings per share to rise by more than the level of the dividend. Following the decline in the UK market from 2005 to 2006, and the subsequent fall in the earnings per share for the company, Kingfisher attempted to maintain its dividend at 10.65 pence per share in spite of the fact that this left very little retained earnings. However, in 2008, following a significant fall in the share price, the dividend yield has also fallen to 7.25 pence in spite of the earnings per share remaining at the same level as in previous years. This implies that the company is now encountering difficul ties maintaining its dividend yield at this level, and thus is having to drop its dividend in order to accumulate further reserves. Unfortunately, there is no detail in the Kingfisher accounts around exactly why this reserve is being built up. However, it is interesting to note that the reserves have now been built up to the  £2.2 billion mark, after being maintained at around the  £1.9 billion mark for the period from 2005 to 2007. This may indicate that the company feels that the tough trading conditions will continue for some time, and hence there may be a need to retain more earnings to help cover interest payments in the future. Another potential explanation is that, as a retail company owning a significant amount of property, plant and equipment; Kingfisher has a significant level exposure to the property market in both the UK and France. As such, the company may feel that, with the property markets in the UK and France showing signs of weakness due to the credit crunch, there may soon be a need to revalue the property portfolio in each of these countries. Therefore, the reduced dividend and increase re serve may be an attempt to boost the equity and net asset value of the company in order to protect the value of the company against such a fall. However, the balance sheet tends to reveal a different potential explanation. The rise of  £300 million in the value of the reserves of the company has occurred at the same time as a  £300 million rise in the value of the inventory held by the company. This could be due to the fact that cost price inflation is significantly boosting the cost of inventory and the price of sales, and hence has increased the value of the inventory held by the company. However, the annual report indicates that cost price inflation for the company was just 4% over the previous year. As such, this cost price inflation is unlikely to have created a  £300 million rise in the value of inventory, which is a 20% rise in the total value of inventory. This implies that the rise in the value of the inventory is for another reason, potentially due to a lack of sales or by overbuying of replacement inventory. As such, this does not indicate that the company is making the best use of its profits, nor that it is efficiently pursuing a goal of maximising value for its shareholders. Part B) Fair Value When attempting to assess whether the current share price of Kingfisher Plc represents a fair value for the company, it is necessary to look both as the share price and the market capitalisation; which is the total market value of all the shares. This price is determined by the shares traded on a stock market where brokers buy and sell shares on behalf of their clients. For Kingfisher, the stock market is the London Stock Exchange, and Yahoo Finance (2008) quotes the current share price of the company as 128.2 pence. In addition, the 2008 annual report states there are 2,361 million shares outstanding. This gives the company a total market capitalisation of  £3.027 million as of the 18th August. One potential method of calculating the fair value of the company is through the net asset value of the company. This is because, provided the company can sell all its assets and pay off all its liabilities at their book value, it will realise its net asset value in cash. In addition, in theory the shareholders own a share of the net assets of the company equal to their share of the market capitalisation. Therefore, if the market capitalisation of the company was equal to the net asset value of the company, the share price would be at a fair value. For Kingfisher, the net asset value in the 2008 financial statements is  £4,724 million. This implies that a fair value for the market capitalisation would also be  £4,724 million, which is around 56% higher than the current value of the shares. This would further imply that a fair share price for the company would be 200 pence. However, this method is somewhat flawed because it assumes that all assets can be sold for fair value and al l liabilities can be settled at fair value. In reality, the only time when all assets and liabilities will be sold is if the business is wound up under bankruptcy or liquidity problems. As such, assets are most likely to be auctioned off by the creditors and shareholders are unlikely to receive a fair value for them. Indeed, assets such as inventory are often sold at less than ten per cent of their market value. As such, this method is likely to be unreliable, particularly for a business with such a large volume of inventory (Lumby, 1994). Another method of calculating the potential fair value of a company is to use the value of net earnings and compare this value to the historical price / earnings ratio to work out what the current fair price should be for the shares. Based on this method, the average price / earnings ratio of Kingfisher has been 16.18 over the past five year period. Year 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Average Earnings per share (pence) 16.4 17.4 20.8 12.2 11.8 11.7 15.05 Share price (pence) 257.25 285.5 259 235.75 252.75 138.1 238.0583 Price / Earnings Ratio 15.68598 16.408046 12.45192 19.32377 21.41949 11.80342 16.1821 Applying this to the earnings per share over the past year of 11.7 gives an estimate of the fair value of the share price of 189.33 pence: this is 47% higher than the market value of the shares. As such, this also implies that the current market value of the shares is too low. However, valuing the company on this basis is also flawed, in that it assumes that the company will maintain its past performance, and that the past performance of the shares has been efficient. Indeed, for Kingfisher this is arguably even less of a relevant method by which to judge the shares, as Kingfisher is currently suffering significant problems in its main UK market. Therefore, attempting to value the company based on its past valuations assumes that the company is still performing as it did in the past, something which is arguably not the case. In addition, with many predicting that the Kingfisher’s UK market will continue to shrink, it is possible that the company’s ability to generate ea rnings will be further impaired, and its earnings per share ratio will fall below its average (Lumby, 1994). As such, and given that there is significant uncertainty over the future value of Kingfisher’s assets and liabilities as well as the ability of the company to generate earnings, it is difficult to come up with an analytical method for calculating the fair value of the company. Therefore it is necessary to use the efficient market hypothesis when attempting to value the company. This hypothesis is based on the view that the market produces the fair value of the shares of the company using all available information. As such, the market should already have priced in the potential for Kingfisher’s properties to decrease in value and the potential for the company to be unable to make as much money in the future. This is based on the argument that the market as a whole has access to all the information available, and also has experience in reading and judging signals regarding the value of a company. As such, if Kingfisher were currently trading at too high a price, people wo uld sell the shares until the value moved to a fair value. In contrast, were the company currently trading at too cheap a price, participants in the market would buy the shares until the value was driven up to a fair price. As such, the efficient market hypothesis implies that the current fair price for the Kingfisher shares is the price at which they are currently traded on the open market. Therefore, the fair price of the shares is 128.2 pence. However, the efficient market hypothesis is based on markets only being able to act on available information. As such, it is possible that there is a fundamental problem with Kingfisher which will affect the share price but which is not included in the publicly available information. In addition, the market price for the shares can be driven by factors such as investment banks buying up shares, or takeover rumours. Therefore, in the short term the market value of shares may not reflect their fair value, as the market may not have all the information or may be being driven by other factors. However, in the long term, the professional analysts who are employed by many of the banks and investment funds which buy and sell shares will be best able to value the share s, and hence the best estimate of the fair value of the shares is their current market value: 128.2 pence. References Kingfisher (2008) Kingfisher Plc. http://www.kingfisher.co.uk/ Accessed 16th August 2008. Knott, G. (2004) Financial Management. Palgrave MacMillan. Lumby, S. (1994) Investment Appraisal and Financing Decisions. Thomson Learning. Turner, G. (2008) The Credit Crunch: Housing Bubbles, Globalisation and the Worldwide Economic Crisis. Pluto Press. Yahoo Finance (2008) Kingfisher Share Price Chart. http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=KGF.Lt=5y Accessed 18th August 2008.

An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley :: Papers

An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley The author of this play is John Boynton Priestley. The Inspector Calls is set out in 1912, around two years before the outbreak of the Fist World War. Looking back on it now, or the perspective of 1945 when the play was actually produced in the Edwardian era. Priestly uses this era to show irony because in the play he talks about the Titanic not sinking and a war never occurring again. This was very ironic especially to the audience in 1945 because they would already know that the Titanic had sunk and had also experienced wars between the time the play was set and the time it was produced. In this play there is a rich, upper class family who were named the Birlings. In this family there was money the minded father of the family called Mr Birling and his wife. They had two children in the name of Eric and Sheila. Sheila was engaged to a rich man's son called Gerald Croft. This play is all about a suicide case involving this family. An officer who is called Inspector Goole is investigating the case. He is a hard talking inspector, who is trying to find out why Eva Smith (the person who committed suicide) took her life. In this essay I will examine how Priestly ends each act on a note of high drama. I will look at how the tension builds up and will describe how priestly leaves the audience plenty to think about during the ends of the acts and during the invitation. At the end of act one Gerald admits that he knew Daisy Renton (Eva Smith). He only says that he knew her and was hesitant to go on and explain how he knew Eva. "All right. I knew her. Lets leave it at that" After Gerald says that sentence tension begins to build between him and Sheila. Priestly presents this drama and tension by building it up gradually in the conversation. Tension is very high and increases hen Sheila figures out what the relationship between Gerald and Eva was. An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley :: Papers An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley The author of this play is John Boynton Priestley. The Inspector Calls is set out in 1912, around two years before the outbreak of the Fist World War. Looking back on it now, or the perspective of 1945 when the play was actually produced in the Edwardian era. Priestly uses this era to show irony because in the play he talks about the Titanic not sinking and a war never occurring again. This was very ironic especially to the audience in 1945 because they would already know that the Titanic had sunk and had also experienced wars between the time the play was set and the time it was produced. In this play there is a rich, upper class family who were named the Birlings. In this family there was money the minded father of the family called Mr Birling and his wife. They had two children in the name of Eric and Sheila. Sheila was engaged to a rich man's son called Gerald Croft. This play is all about a suicide case involving this family. An officer who is called Inspector Goole is investigating the case. He is a hard talking inspector, who is trying to find out why Eva Smith (the person who committed suicide) took her life. In this essay I will examine how Priestly ends each act on a note of high drama. I will look at how the tension builds up and will describe how priestly leaves the audience plenty to think about during the ends of the acts and during the invitation. At the end of act one Gerald admits that he knew Daisy Renton (Eva Smith). He only says that he knew her and was hesitant to go on and explain how he knew Eva. "All right. I knew her. Lets leave it at that" After Gerald says that sentence tension begins to build between him and Sheila. Priestly presents this drama and tension by building it up gradually in the conversation. Tension is very high and increases hen Sheila figures out what the relationship between Gerald and Eva was.

Thinking about qualitative data collection & analysis for grounded theory Essay

Communication Strategies Introduction Research Design                   Creswell, John. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. 3rd . New York: SAGE Publications, 2011.                   The research will incorporate a well-crafted research design to enhance an effective data collection. The design describes how data collection will be done, the relevant participantsto involvein the study, and the materials or instruments that will be used for data collection. This is done with considerations of the objective of the study. The research main aim is to evaluate The Relationship between Social Media and Effective Publicity in Organizations.                   Due to the nature and the phenomenon of the study, a qualitative research design is selected. This is because the design will employ a multi-method approach which is comprehensive in data collection and it ensures a qualitative data interpretation.                   Festinger, David. Essentials of Research Design and Methodology . New York: SAGE publishers, 2013. Participants                   The study targets a population with the relevant information that will lead to approximately accurate findings. The participants will involve customers, employees, and suppliers of selected organizations. These individualsshould have knowledge of social media, its application in business and they have an experience of the new technology in their daily business and organizational activities. A sample of 10 respondents will be selected randomly from the targeted population. This will involve different people using the social media platforms in their daily lives. The study assumes that all the data collected from the respondents is representative of the prevalentstate to usage of social media in publicity of firms.                   Vogt, Paul. Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2012.                   The study will employ a simple random technique in sampling the population. This is technique is selected because it is easy to use and manageable. It also minimizes bias in sample determination because the sample is selected randomly. The technique will enable the research get information from respondents selected randomly. This is important because sample will cover different people in different organizations at unique situations hence a comprehensive data collected.                   Stephene. Thinking about qualitative data collection & analysis for grounded theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Data Collection                   Validity of data collected defines the success of a conducted research. To achieve this goal, the study intends to utilize both secondary and primary sources of data. The primary sources data will be collected fromthe targeted respondent to the investigation. The secondary sources will include reports published by the selected organization giving the correlation between social media and the publicity of organizations.                   Patton, Michael. Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods: Integrating Theory and Practice. New York: SAGE Publications, 2011.                   The materials that will be used for data collection are observation, interview schedules, and questionnaires. This instruments of data collection were selected due to the qualitative nature of the research. Well-structured questionnaires with both closed and open ended questions were administered to the targeted participant to the study.                   Maxwel, Joseph. Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach (Applied Social Research Methods). New York: SAGE Publications Inc, 2012.                   Open-ended questions will give the respondents an opportunity to give their opinion on the relationship between social media and publicity of organizations. This aims at gathering any other additional information relevant to the study. Furthermore, the closed ended questions in the questionnaires will collect specific data from the respondents. The closed ended questions are important because they give a certain uniformity in responses and makes it easy for analysis. Before sending the questionnaires to the participants, all the vague questions will be eliminated to make the eventual data collected relevant and easy to analyze. The questionnaires will be sent to the respondents through their emails. Interviews will be done on phone where the sample population will be contacted and asked relevant questions that will address the research objectives. Conclusion                   A research design is one of the important elements that makes any study complete and successful. Due to the topic under investigation, a qualitative approach is taken. The study targets a sample of 10 participants from the targeted population and it will use a simple random technique to arrive at the sample. Data will be collected through interview schedules and administering of questionnaires. References Creswell, John. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. 3rd . New York: SAGE Publications, 2011. Festinger, David. Essentials of Research Design and Methodology . New York: SAGE publishers, 2013. Maxwel, Joseph. Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach (Applied Social Research Methods). New York: SAGE Publications Inc, 2012. Patton, Michael. Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods: Integrating Theory and Practice. New York: SAGE Publications, 2011. Stephene. Thinking about qualitative data collection & analysis for grounded theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Vogt, Paul. Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2012. Source document

Science ; Future

Much of what IVe said would seem uncontroversial or even platitudinous to the scientifically-attuned audiences here in Newcastle this week. But there's one thing that scientific advisors in any democratic system must not forget. When really big and long-term policies are in contention – whether about nuclear weapons, nuclear power, drug classification, or health risks – political decisions are seldom purely scientific: they involve ethics, economics and social policies as well.Such discussions hould engage all of us, as citizens – and of course our elected representatives. Sometimes this has happened, and constructively too. The dialogue with parliamentarians led, despite divergent ethical stances, to a generally-admired legal framework on embryos and stem cells – a contrast to what happened in the US. And Lisa Jardine has chaired the HFEA, another fine precedent. But we've had failures too: the GM crop debate was left too late – to a time when opin ion was already polarised between eco-campaigners on the one side and commercial interests on the other.Scientists have a special responsibility to engage – though they should accept that on the economic, social and ethical aspects of any policy they speak as citizens and not as experts. But despite many worthy efforts, there are habitual grumbles that such inputs don't have much traction with politicians. For them, the urgent trumps the important. The local trumps the global. And getting re-elected trumps almost everything. Anything that gets headlined in the media, or makes their postbag bulge, will get attention.It's volume not quality that counts. So scientists might have more leverage on politicians indirectly – by publicising their research and letting the media do the campaigning – rather than by more official and direct channels. This is one reason – over and above the general cultural value of our findings – why â€Å"outreach† by s cientists is important. And there are special things universities teachers can do. We're privileged to have influence over successive generations of students.We should try to sensitise them to the issues that will confront them in their careers – ndeed, polls show, unsurprisingly, that younger people who expect to survive most of the century, are more engaged and anxious about long-term issues. We fret too much about minor hazards of everyday life: improbable air crashes, carcinogens in food, low radiation doses, and so forth. But the wide public is in denial about two kinds of threats: those that we're causing collectively to the biosphere, and those that stem from the greater vulnerability of our interconnected world to error or terror induced by individuals or small groups.The issues impel us to plan internationally (for nstance, whether or not a pandemic gets global grip may hinge, for instance, on how quickly a Vietnamese poultry farmer can report any strange sickness). And many of them – energy and climate change, for instance, involve multi-decade timescales – plainly far outside the â€Å"comfort zone† of most politicians. One issue that should be addressed is whether nations need to give up more sovereignty to new organisations along the lines of IAEA, WHO, etc.Final message Unlike our 17th century forebears who I cited at the beginning of this talk, we know a reat deal about our world – and indeed about what lies beyond. Technologies that our ancestors couldn't nave conceived enrich our lives and our understanding. Many phenomena still make us fearful, but the advance of science spares us from irrational dread. We know that we are stewards of a precious â€Å"pale blue dot† in a vast cosmos – a planet with a future measured in billions of years, whose fate depends on humanitys collective actions. But all too often the focus is parochial and short term.We downplay what's happening even now in impoverish ed far-away countries. And we discount too heavily the problems we'll leave for our grandchildren. We can truly be techno-optimists. But the intractable politics and sociology – the gap between potentialities and what actually happens – engenders pessimism. We need a change in priorities and perspective – and soon – if we are to navigate the challenges of the 21st century: to share the benefits of globalisation, to prioritise clean energy, and sustainable agriculture; and to handle the Promethian challenge posed by ever more powerful technology.To survive this century, we'll need the idealistic and effective efforts of natural scientists, environmentalists, social scientists and humanists. They must be guided by the insights that 21st century science will offer, but inspired by values that science itself can't provide. And I give the last word to a great scientist who was himself once the president of the BA – the biologist Peter Medawar: The bells that toll for mankind are like the bells of Alpine cattle. They are attached to our own necks, and it must be our fault if they do not make a tuneful and melodious sound.

Two Party System - Why Democrats and Republicans Win

Two Party System - Why Democrats and Republicans Win The two party system is firmly rooted in American politics and has been since the first organized political movements  emerged in the late 1700s. The two party system in the United States is now dominated by the Republicans and the Democrats. But through history the  Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans, then the Democrats and the Whigs, have represented opposing political ideologies and campaigned against each other for seats at the local, state and federal levels. No third-party candidate has ever been elected to the White House, and very few have won seats in either the House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate. The most notable modern exception to the two party system is U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a socialist whose campaign for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination invigorated liberal members of the party. The closest any independent presidential candidate has come to being elected to the White House was  billionaire Texan Ross Perot, who won 19 percent of the popular vote in the 1992 election. So why is the two party system unbreakable in the United States? Why do Republicans and Democrats hold a lock on elected offices at all levels of government? Is there any hope for a third party to emerge or independent candidates to gain traction despite election laws that make it difficult for them to get on the ballot, organize and raise money?   Here are four  reasons the two party system is here to stay for a long, long time. 1. Most Americans Are Affiliated With a Major Party Yes, this is the most obvious explanation for why the two party system remains solidly intact: Voters want it that way. A majority of Americans is registered with  the Republican and the Democratic parties, and thats been true throughout modern history, according to public-opinion surveys conducted by the Gallup organization. It is true that the portion of voters who now consider themselves independent of either major party is larger than either the Republican and Democratic blocs alone. But those independent voters are disorganized and rarely reach a consensus on the many third-party candidates; instead, most independents tend to lean toward one of the major parties come election time, leaving only a small portion of truly independent, third-party voters. 2. Our Election System Favors a Two Party System The American system of electing representatives at all levels of government makes it almost impossible for a third party to take root. We have what are known as single-member districts in which there is only one victor. The winner of the popular vote in all 435 congressional districts, U.S. Senate races and state legislative contests  takes office, and the electoral losers get nothing. This winner-take-all method fosters a two-party system and differs dramatically from proportional representation elections in European democracies.   Duverger’s Law, named for the French sociologist Maurice Duverger, states that a majority vote on one ballot is conducive to a two-party system ...  Elections determined by a majority vote on one ballot literally pulverize third parties (and would do worse to fourth or fifth parties, if there were any; but none exist for this very reason). Even when a single ballot system operates with only two parties, the one that wins is favored, and the other suffers. In other words, voters tend to choose candidates who actually have a shot at winning instead of throwing their votes away on someone who will only get a small portion of the popular vote. By contrast, proportional representation elections held elsewhere in the world allow for more than one candidate to be chosen from each district, or for the selection of at-large candidates. For example, if the Republican candidates win 35 percent of the vote, they would control 35 percent of the seats in the delegation; if Democrats won 40 percent, they would represent 40 percent of the delegation; and if a third party such as the Libertarians or Greens won 10 percent of the vote, they would get to hold one in 10 seats. The basic principles underlying proportional representation elections are that all voters deserve representation and that all political groups in society deserve to be represented in our legislatures in proportion to their strength in the electorate. In other words, everyone should have the right to fair representation, the advocacy group FairVote states. 3. Its Tough for Third Parties to Get on the Ballot Third-party candidates have to clear greater hurdles to get on the ballot in many states, and its difficult to raise money and organize a campaign when youre busy gathering tens of thousands of signatures. Many states have closed primaries instead of open primaries, meaning only registered Republicans and Democrats can nominate candidates for the general election. That leaves third-party candidates at a significant disadvantage. Third party candidates have less time to file paperwork and must collect a greater number of signatures than do major party candidates in some states. 4. There Are Just Too Many Third Party Candidates There are third parties out there. And fourth parties. And fifth parties. There are, in fact, hundreds of small, obscure political parties and candidates who appear on ballots across the union in their names. But they represent a broad spectrum of political beliefs outside of the mainstream, and placing them all in a big tent would be impossible. In the 2016 presidential election alone, voters had dozens of third-party candidates to choose from if they were dissatisfied with Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton. They could have voted instead for libertarian Gary Johnson; Jill Stein of the Green Party;  Darrell Castle of the Constitution Party; or Better for Americas Evan McMullin. There were socialist candidates, pro-marijuana candidates, prohibition candidates, reform candidates. The list goes on. But these obscure candidates suffer from a lack of  consensus, no common ideological  thread running through all of them. Simply put, theyre too splintered and disorganized to be credible alternatives to the major-party candidates.

The Effects of Biblical Violence on Readers' Behaviors Essay

The Effects of Biblical Violence on Readers' Behaviors - Essay Example Although studies from the American Academy of Pediatrics give a low rate on the effects of music on listeners’ behaviors, that lyrics are generally not given much attention or in the case of children, are not fully understood because of their limited understanding and experience, researchers are open to the idea that somehow songs suggest certain undesirable actions. In a world where violence abounds, it is not a wise action for a person to isolate himself or for parents to isolate their children only to avoid the evils of this world. It is then important for every individual to educate one’s self and others about the consequences of a certain thought or action. For instance, the last lines of the aforementioned psalm speak about revenge to those who have done the Jews harm. However if one examines the verse closely, it is not the Jews who want to avenge themselves but that there would be another who would stand up against their enemies. This reveals their belief in the golden rule, that those who have wronged them will get their just punishments somehow. Such understanding could lead people to avoid doing evil towards others. II Yes, the Liturgy of the Hours should include the end of Psalm 137 however; it should be with the explanation or interpretation like that of St. Augustine’s, Origen’s, St. Ambrose’s and the like. The Bible could be interpreted literally and figuratively so it could not be treated similarly to lyrics of modern music where promiscuity and violence are explicitly expressed. As it is always advised by professionals in the case of children, parents should guide their children in the choice of songs they listen to and clearly explain to hem what is good and what is not. Indeed, words have psychological effects on people so that even adults should choose their songs or meditate on the good implications of the songs rather than its evil suggestions. The Bible is actually full of stories of violence and promisc uity and surely, God did not like such stories to be exposed just for the sake of telling a story about a person rather have been narrated along with the consequences experienced by the people involved. They seem to be words from a parent saying, â€Å"Look, this is what happens to you if you do this and that.† This world is full of so many evils and that is just the way the God of the Bible wants people to look at it so that they would know how to prepare for the dangers they face each day. Therefore, preachers should do likewise, presenting all the truths and not just the things people want to hear from them. They have to send the people from the church to the world, armed with the necessary attitude and words of guidance that will keep them strong to avoid being involved in violent acts. III A group of students associated with campus ministry at CUA wants to have a liturgical service which includes a reading of Psalm 137, which they understand through the lens of St. Augus tine’s interpretation: Jerusalem represents the kingdom of God and Babylon represents the corruption of this world. Some students think the language at the end of Psalm 137 is too violent to be read or prayed, and point out that the Catholic Church has removed these verses from the Liturgy of the Hours.  

Religious Study Exam Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Religious Study Exam - Assignment Example Meat offered to idols: meat that had been sacrificed to pagan deities and offered in the Greco-Roman world where polytheism was the main religious practice. The gods were appeased through the animal sacrifices and in turn they protected the empire. Definition B: His letter to his nephew, commonly known as Tacitus. The letters made him to make friendship with Emperor Vespasian and his letters contributed to the letters the Romans wrote to Christ’s disciples. 2. TERM: Manumission Definition A: The technical term for freeing a slave, mainly by paying the owner. Christ Hymn (in Phillipians): the passage found in Phil 2:6-11 that may have originally been a hymn sung to (or about) Christ, who gave up his divine rights to become human, lowering himself to die on a cross before God exalted him even higher than he had before. Definition B: The feelings of benevolence help us in learning how Roman slaves paid wages and bought themselves hence liberation. 3. TERM: Paidagogos Definition A : A Greek word sometimes translated as "custodian" which refers to a slave in charge of the children of a household, who was expected to watch over their care and to keep them in line Definition B: This term helps us in learning about how the Roman in the New Testament were charged with supervising the boys belonging to the better class. 4. TERM: Partition Theory Definition A: Theories of literary composition that indicate a book is comprised of several sources or texts that have been spliced together (e.g. 2 Corinthians or Phillipians) Definition B: The partition theory helps us in understanding the chronological events that have happened in the New Testament 5. TERM: Christ Hymn Definition A: A six verse that is a collection from the bible and it is mainly used as a song. Christ Hymn (in Phillipians): the passage found in Phil 2:6-11 that may have originally been a hymn sung to (or about) Christ, who gave up his divine rights to become human, lowering himself to die on a cross bef ore God exalted him even higher than he had before. Definition B: Christ hymns are used in the New Testament as songs, which are not aimed to imitate the Christ but a call to believers to act in the ways that favors the lord. PART II: PAUL’S PARTICULARS. Short essay. Write a 4-paragraph essay that answers the following questions (10 points each; 40 points total): 1. What do we know about Paul before his call to be an apostle of Jesus Christ? 2. From what key New Testament texts do we learn biographical/autobiographical information about Paul (the names of the books will suffice)? 3. What compelled Paul to become an adherent of the Jesus movement? 4. As a â€Å"servant of Jesus Christ,† does Paul still think of himself as a Jew? To what texts would you appeal in answering this question? Your essay should be no longer than ONE, double-spaced, page (200-250 words)! Paul was known as Saul before his conversion. He used to persecute anybody that preached and talked about Ch rist. Not anybody found preaching about Christ like the disciples escaped Paul’s wrath and this compelled Christ to convert Saul into Paul and that is when he began to do God’s work. The book of Galatians gives us a detailed information about Paul. Paul devotes two chapters to an autobiographical account, including his conversion, which is meant to confirm the reliability of his gospel. He underwent