Somaliland

SAHAL SERVICE: INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND Somalia is located in the horn of Africa with boundaries to Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. Somalia's last full functional government collapsed in 1991. Since then Somalia has been ruled by transitional governments backed by the United Nations and international unions and now the Somali federal government. Somaliland north part of the Somalia declared itself as separate sovereignty in 1992, although there is no country still recognized its sovereignty, similarly, Puntland; the north eastern regions of Somalia, established the semi- autonomous administration called Puntland state of Somalia in 1998.After the collapse of central government of Somalia, financial institutions destroyed, the central bank of Somalia was malfunctioning with no enough authority to manage the monetary system of the country. The country's cash management system became night mire, with no central management for the cash receipts of the country. The inflation reached at its peak with 30,000 so.sh exchanged to 1$ in 2008 and the management of cash to businesses and day to day transactions become too risky and costly. Somaliland launched new currency notes named Somaliland shillings in October 1994 to resolve financial disturbances from the rest of Somalia.In 2010 mobile money transfer has emerged in the horn of Africa country, Somalia; the telecommunications companies operated in Somalia started the mobile money transfer service, Golis Telecom Company, hormuud telecom and telesom company covering the three zones in Somalia namely Somaliland, puntland and south central somalia. Golis telecom covered mobile money transfer services named SAHAL SERVICE in Puntland state, telesom company covered Somaliland and called it ZAAD SERVICE and hormuud telecom covered south central Somalia named its service as EVC PLUS.The emergency of mobile banking in Somalia started a new era in the field of bank system in Somalia. This new system has solved a lot of financial constrains faced the business and commerce in Somalia and started improving transactions and cash security in the country.Sahal service which is the mobile money transfer offered by golis telecommunication company has been launched in 2009 in all over puntland. This includes the major cities in puntland such as bosaso, garowe and galkacyo. The service which is owned and offered by golis Telecommunication Company, the largest telecom company in the region, with more than 15000 active subscribers (2015) has been easily accepted by the community which highly suffered the malfunction of monetary system in the country.Sahal service in puntland offer the community to the following services:Money transfer. Mobile paymentMobile banking and servicesMobile airtimeMobile remittanceMoney transfer service:Sahal service offered customers to transfer money from one to another, they can transfer from small fraction of amount ranging from 0.1$ to unlimited us dollars. Golis Company charged this service initially to small amount of which is as follows:Golis later decided to keep all the services free of charge. This service works as follows; the customer needs to deposit his cash amount to his mobile phone by visiting golis sales center. Later the customer can send the money back to other customers with sahal service where ever he is in Somalia.This service has largely been used by businesses and individuals for the transitions between the cities and regions and has been widely accepted by the community since it is cheaper than the normal remittances working in the region such as dahalshiil, amal or iftin. This is the graphical representation of how sahal service works: Mobile payment (paybills): This is another service offered by the golis telecom company's SAHAL SERVICE. Mobile payment is also called merchant number and is intended to replace cash transactions between businesses and people. Golis customer has to get merchant number from golis sales offices and it is used for that business only, it cannot be used personal. You can get merchant number only if you have a running business with a name and location. After you get merchant number, the customer will do payment through this merchant number. The merchant number does not charge the customers as well as the owners, it is free of charge. The merchant number is bounded by cities and regions and cannot cross across different cities. If you wish to send money from one city to another for purchases, merchant number will not help you and will not work for that purpose instead you have to use sahal money transfer service. Merchant number offered by golis telecom has helped businesses to run their business with or without cash transactions. It increased the security of their transactions by keeping transactions with their merchant numbers history. The merchant person will go to golis offices to get the transactions he made this year or this month or simply a specific customer. This has increased the reliability and confidence of the merchants and they are heavily relied on this service. This service has changed the dynamics of the business transactions in puntland and it fills the gap of securing business transactions and payments in which otherwise the government should have to deal with. On the other side, there is a widespread believe that sahal service dominated the cash transactions in the country and if this service goes as it is now for many years there is a possibility that it will degrade the cash system of the country hence it should be regulated and concretely managed by the concerned government agencies. Use of Paybills service from golis telecom is shown graphically below: Mobile banking system:Sahal service has an additional service called kaaftoon, this service connects your salaam bank account into your mobile with the help of sahal service. The customer who needs to use this service should first have sahal service enabled in his mobile phone, then your salaam bank account can be tailored to your sahal service simply by asking salaam bank offices to do so. After it is being opened, you will be able to deposit and retrieve you money to your bank account. Similarly, you can send and retrieve money from the other salaam bank account anywhere in the country.Kaaftoon services become the biggest nightmare for other competitor banks. It helped salaam bank which is co-owned by golis telecom to enter market tremendously and get a huge market share with the minimum amount of time. The community highly welcomed This service as it is a new service enabled with the latest technology and removed the constraint of lining up the bank offices to deposit or withdraw cash your account. The kaaftoon service works as follows; the customer should deposit cash money to his sahal service by visiting golis sales offices and depositing money to them then they will credit your sahal service account as per the requirement. Then inside your phone you can deposit the amount required to your salaam bank account and send money to other salaam bank accounts if required. Similarly you can withdraw money deposited in your salaam account into your sahal service and use it. You really don't require visiting salaam bank office or ATM machine to withdraw cash.The amount of money to withdraw or deposit using kaaftoon service is as follows; you can withdraw or deposit minimum of 10$, it will not accept below 10$. But you can withdraw and deposit as much as you need. This gives the customers a huge flexibility of managing their transactions and business into their premises. Mobile airtime: Mobile airtime is also another feature which allows customers to get golis airtime from their sahal service, this service give customers the ability to get airtime to their mobile phones by using their sahal service, similarly they are allowed to give airtime to their friends and any golis subscriber. Before sahal service come into existence, scratch cards, golis centers and agents used to give customers the airtime they need. Small amount of service fee are charged to the customers by the agents. But when sahal service begin to work all airtime work has shifted to the sahal service. Still there are agents of airtime which help customers those do not have registered sahal service to get their required airtime but they use their agency within sahal service. Al though this shift of airtime paradigm lost jobs and services but the subscribers get the flexibility to manage their airtime. Mobile remittance (taaj service):The mobile remittance service or taaj service has been included sahal service package in the year 2015. Taaj is a subsidiary company of a sis companies named HTG (hormuud, telesom and golis) and formarly known as BARAKAAT REDSEA COMPANY. The company have been subsidized according to the locations and clan boundaries in Somalia. This gave birth to group of sister companies of HTG group. Taaj remittance belongs to HTG and it is supported by all the mobile banking systems of these companies viz SAHAL, ZAAD and EVCPLUS services.Taaj Remittance Company has been introduced in the Somali market in the year 2012, and has gained a large market share immediately, compelling the competitor companies with large market share to enter into the telecommunications company. The gaint Somali remittance companies', dahalshiil group and amal bank both entered the telecom company by forming SOMTEL and AMTEL companies respectively.The main aim of creating SOMTEL and AMTEL by dahabshiil and amal companies is the risk they faced from such technology as taaj company with the help of mobile banking systems such sahal service. Somtel has been largely launched Somalia at large and has come with their mobile banking system named E-DAHAB.AMTEL Company has been launched in the year 2017 and it is still in its initial start up phases.Since the collapse of Somali government in 1991, Somali community has largely become immigrant in almost all over the world. Somali communities in different parts of the world use to send money in their families back home. The banking system of the country collapsed and the transfer of money from abroad to the country become difficult and that time Somali remittance companies has emerged and take their role in transferring money between communities abroad and Somalis in Somalia. Coming back to sahal service package, taaj service is one of the services supported by sahal service, it supports both local and international money transfer and it works as follows: The person should deposit the amount of money to send into his sahal service. By using his sahal service, person should follow procedure accordingly and provide all the required information as seen graphically below: Challenges confronted sahal service in puntland:Introducing sahal service into the market met challenges which include technology related issues, reliability and money exchange business. We will address these three challenges below and how sahal service survived from these two challenges.Deficiency of sahal service technology:The customer got caught by lack of knowledge from this new technology in which they feel a huge risk of their money. They didn't have prior knowledge of such technology nor it is something they use to see. This makes the service rigid and decreases its reliability and flexibility. Golis telecom company which is the owner of sahal service started the service as follows; the company run the service only to its employees initially, to check whether the service runs as planned and rectify errors if any. This initially run of the service lasts for three months in which they send employee salaries, bonuses etc to this service, then the company opened the service to its customers by putting a lot of efforts to encourage customers the reliability, confidentiality and security of the service. They put a huge amount of marketing money to introduce and convince the customers to the new service. Golis telecom established a huge lcd tv's to many of its centers explaining how to use the service from technology point of view. Similarly they put advertisement agencies such as TV's, radios and newspapers explaining the same. This helped customers to understand the service and use it. Leter, sahal service customers started to increase each month. Reliability of the service:Inutility, customers got suspicious about the reliability of the service, they didn't convince to put their money in mobile phone and let it go. They believed the possibility that the company may collapse, or they misuse their money. Similarly since there is no strong financial system in the country they feel keeping their money with them is best policy. Golis telecom survived this problem as follows; first of all the service was not only run in golis telecom or in puntland but all across Somalia. ZAAD and EVC PLUS have been introduced in hargaisa and Mogadishu respectively. The introduction of the similar service across the country convinced the customers that the service has its demands now and may be it is the time to keep your money in mobile phones. The other asset which helped the company to convince the customers is the customer loyalty to the company. The company has made a clean image from fraud and financial mismanagement during its existence and the customers feel it that way and it increased its reliability. Similarly golis telecom run a lot of sales offices to handle sahal service customer care and customer issues in which it poured a huge money to immediately retrieve customer money in cash in case needed. This step greatly influenced the mindset of the customers and increased their confidentiality since their money is available 24/7 in cash or in the mobile phone.Money exchange businesses:Merchants from money exchanges business who do currency exchange from dollars to Somali shillings and vice versa saw sahal service as their biggest threat. These group of business people immediately felt that if this service runs successfully all those exchange businesses will not live peacefully side by side instead sahal service is the end money exchange business. This is true in a way that no one will need to go exchange business to do exchanges from dollar to Somali shillings and vice versa since sahal service will do this and many more services. These group have tried to ruin the service and publicly misinform the community by spreading negative propaganda about the service and mostly aligning the service with financial fraud.Golis telecom company stuck to its plan of fighting and convincing the community the services offered by sahal service and its benefits. Their main defence strategy was security and convinced the community golis is the right place to secure their money instead of holding and incurring security costs similarly since there is no fully working financial banks both public and private there was a huge need of financial services which is better than the current unstructured financial systems and services. This is the place where sahal service got the attention of community as whole.

The Curse of the Lady’s Dressing Room

Jonathan Swift’s poem, The Lady’s Dressing Room, is a comic satire that seeks to show readers the inescapable humanity – and its flaws and gory ugliness – that women have to live with no matter how hard they try to make themselves appear immaculately beautiful on the outside. It could be read as a criticism of the extreme efforts women do to make themselves beautiful, and as a criticism of the beholder, the man, who is enamored by the physical beauty only to realize the imperfections being hidden underneath that flawless exterior in the lady’s dressing room. The dressing room is where the transformation takes place – this is where the lady goes in simple and when she comes out she is a radiant beauty and men cannot help themselves. That is what the poem implies that is why the poem begins with a man, Strephon, who is enamored by Celia who takes at least five hours to prepare herself, sneaking in the dressing room to find out why, and discovers the horrors that goes on not only inside the room but also with his beloved Celia’s body beneath those laces and brocades. He discovers: first a dirty Smock appear'd, Beneath the Arm-pits well besmear'd. Strephon, the Rogue, display'd it wide, And turn'd it round on every Side. On such a Point few Words are best, And Strephon bids us guess the rest; But swears how damnably the Men lie, In calling Celia sweet and cleanly. That in fact, Celia is not as perfect as she seems – her clothes have perspiration and bad smell on them. hat follows next is a series of finding other items Celia uses to prepare herself – combs with dirt, dandruff and sweat, a piece of cloth with oil used to cover wrinkles, gloves made from Celia’s dog’s skin when it died, and various little jars filled with pomade, paint, ointments, all these used to cover her imperfections. Strephon even finds the discarded stockings that reveal stinking toes. No wonder that at the end of the poem, Strephon could no longer look straight at any woman, for his imagination always conjures the images he saw in the dressing roo m and saw their stinks, their flaws that they try so hard to hide. The narrator of the poem says that this is vengeance for his peeping, for if Strephon did no such thing then he could still be blessed when he sees beautiful women without knowing â€Å"such gaudy Tulips rais’d from Dung†. Hence this is the curse of the lady’s dressing room, that it took the magic and wonder for the beholder and made him see the woman as the imperfect creature masquerading to be a work of art. However, the dressing room is also a curse for Celia and all women, as it is the chamber where they feed their obsession to make themselves beautiful for men. In the poem the narrator mentioned â€Å"Celia’s magnifying Glass†, which is simply a mirror, but in this mirror everything was enlarged, that it can †¦to Sight disclose, The smallest Worm in Celia's Nose, And faithfully direct her Nail To squeeze it out from Head to Tail; For catch it nicely by the Head, It must come out alive or dead. — that it makes her so insecure to make her spend time to look for even the minutest flaws that no one would see anyway. The woman spends a minimum of five hours (perhaps an exaggerated figure, but the point is that women spend a large amount of time preening) and fails to see that real beauty comes from within, not on what is reflected by a piece of glass. The poem shows the readers an image of the preparation taken to make one look good outside but in so doing shows that perhaps it is nature’s way that makes it so difficult – that we should learn to appreciate each other and ourselves, flaws included, for we all have them. This is not to say to forgo hygiene, but merely to examine what activities we spend time on. The curse of the dressing room is that it makes us believe in the illusion that media sells us: the dream of that perfect skin, that Barbie body, that photoshopped face, that if we make up ourselves as long as we need to we can transcend our human bodies’ flaws. But we cannot, because all these are parts of what makes us who we are.

Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman: Certain Private Conversation in Two Acts and a Requiem Essay

According to the American Dream, Willy Loman is a failure. His true failure is that he does not cope with changing trends in the established system. According to American dream, success means that one has materials and gadgets from the latest innovations, dresses well and works in a well-furnished office (Miller 5). The definition of success by the American dream is not the only way for being successful. This is because having a business or job that brings income, which can satisfy ones basic needs, and having social, political, emotional and economic stability is some kind of success. In addition, the stories of Willy’s father, brother and son suggest that Willy’s destiny will never come true and thus will not achieve the American dream. The author, Miller, creates a character who possesses carpentry skills because these skills are viewed as old fashioned and not part of the new system, which is characterized by innovations and materials. The word ‘better’ as used by Willy means that the grandfather had skills, which were adapted and acceptable to the new system. The American dream is not concerned in the involvement of manual laborers, but focuses mainly in the success of business and this forms the relationship with the American dream. By saying ‘little salary’, Linda meant that the employee was not ready to change but remained in the same position for a long time (Miller 17). A little salary cannot help in achieving the American dream and therefore no man needs a little salary. In conclusion, Willy will have been happier if he had not felt compelled to obtain material success because he could have enough money to take care and satisfy his family. Work Cited Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman: Certain Private Conversation in Two Acts and a Requiem. New York: Penguin Publishers, 1998. Print. Source document

Management in a Globailsed world Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 2

Management in a Globailsed world - Assignment Example The expatriate should understand the culture of the destination country. The paper will offer management advice on cross-cultural training before the client sends an expatriate from South Africa to Amsterdam, The Netherlands for a 2-year asasignment. The paper will cover globalization in international business, the factors that matter when an expatriate moves to another country, the importance of culture, the comparison of Netherlands and South Africa’s culture using Hofstede’s model and things that a culturally intelligent executive should be aware of. Globalisation in terms of international business refers to the process of integration and interaction of companies, governments and people of different nations due to international trade and foreign direct investment (Went 2000). Globalisation is the process by which production and marketing in different nations is continuously becoming interdependent due to the changing dynamics in the trade, capital and technology advancements (Ritzer 2010). The current wave of globalisation is driven by the economic deregulation and free trade policies that allow multinational companies to increase the production capacities through setting own manufacturing operations in foreign markets or entering in to marketing partnerships with foreign partners (Neelankavil and Rai 2014). The advancements in technology has allowed multinationals to identify and pursue economic opportunities such as low-cost manufacturing opportunities in developing countries. Globalisation has led to exchange of raw materials , free movement of capital and infusion of cultural norms thus leading to increase in the global production output, stiff competition in markets and improvement in the quality of products (Went 2000). The establishment of multinational organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Trade Organization (WTO) has facilitated the interconnectedness of national economies due to deregulation of

Responsibility and Accountability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Responsibility and Accountability - Essay Example This means that one can be relied upon to oversee and implement their duties. Accountability, on the other hand, involves the assumption and acknowledgment of the consequences of actions, policies and decisions in governance and administration. It also encompasses the obligation to report, elaborate and be answerable for the consequences resulting from the decisions. Being accountable entails assuming the results for a particular action. In the community, it is important to identify who is responsible for certain actions and the one accountable for the consequences of these actions. Currently, there is an ongoing debate regarding the application of responsibility and accountability in the governing bodies. The roles that public relations practitioners take imply the responsibility to undertake certain functions. In business, the term can be used to describe the obligations or duties that have been assigned to a person with respect to the person’s function or position. Therefore, responsibility can be viewed as a collection of obligations that are associated with a function or a job. Therefore, a responsible actor can be viewed as a person whose job entails a set of obligations. These obligations are usually predetermined. The obligations must be met for the accomplishment of the job. Responsibility also includes moral obligations. These moral obligations are usually related to functional obligations. Henceforth, a certain level of maturity in terms of morals is required for an individual to be termed as responsible. Responsibility also encompasses the need for a person’s ability to reason in a moral and mature way. Ability to reason is the awareness of consequences and action that might follow ones action. Accountability is when a person is credited or blamed for his/her actions. These actions are usually associated with an established responsibility. Here, the difference between the two terms can be noted. A

Oedipus rex Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Oedipus rex - Essay Example When Oedipus understands that, he is the murderer of Laios , he insults the oracle and mocks him of his psychic power In rage of revealing the truth, the oracle is threatened to be overthrown from the kingdom. During the same encounter, the Oedipus history of killing his father and marrying his mother is revealed which was part of his history. Here we can see the anxiety of a person in knowing his past and the trauma and trouble it brings into the life of self and others. It is an ardent fact that our life is predestined, even though free will is working, God understands our choices and our fate is written far ahead of time. If we are ignorant or knowledgeable, what is destined will happen no matter how we resist it.Oedipus did the mistake of approaching the Oracle to know his past which completely destroyed his peace and mental balance. When it is the matter of argument between Creon and Oedipus , it started due to the conspiracy accusation of latter on former. Creon being a gentle man rationally explained to Oedipus about his disinterest in being a king and how he handed over the crown to Oedipus with full heartedness and kindness. Creon’s major points are that Oedipus’s kingdom is his granting and he explains that he is less interested in power and wealth as he already possesses them being his wife’s brother. The points seem rational as it explains that Creon has no hand in corrupting the throne of Oedipus. Here Jocasta sang a song to Oedipus about her first born son and his death on order to convince him that he is not the murderer of Laius. Oedipus in the play relates his life story to that of Jocasta in order to counter check whether the person he has killed is his own father. The story of Oedipus made Jocasta think that indeed Oedipus i her son as he mentioned he was called bastard by a drunk man in the kingdom of Corinth. The effect of the story on Oedipus was

Management Essay (Job Satisfaction; Hofstede's Dice Dimensions)

Management (Job Satisfaction; Hofstede's Dice Dimensions) - Essay Example However, a person’s job involves much more than performing the routine technical tasks such as accounting, marketing, researching, manufacturing, engineering, driving or sweeping. Along with doing the primary tasks related to their jobs, employees are also expected to adhere to the code of conduct of the organization, coordinate with colleagues, manage relationships with superiors and fine-tune themselves in compliance with the organizational environment. Consequently, the measurement of job satisfaction is quite an intricate summation of several components involved in a person’s professional life. Nevertheless, after years of experiments, the two most generally accepted measurement techniques are: Single Global Rating and Summation of Job Facets. In the Single Global Rating method, employees are asked to choose on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 representing highly satisfied and 5 representing highly dissatisfied. While in Summation of Job Facets method, employees are require d to express their sentiments with regard to their job in words. The two methods have their advantages as well as disadvantages and are believed to be helpful in their respective domains (Robbins, 2009). Over the years, different theories have been developed by management researchers to expound the concept of job satisfaction. ... Ambrose and Mr. Smith. Mr. Ambrose values variety in his job while Mr. Smith is indifferent about variety in job; then Mr. Ambrose will be more satisfied in a job which offers greater amount of variety and less satisfied in a job which is monotonous, in contrast to Mr. Smith. Another important theory related to Job Satisfaction is Dispositional Theory. It suggests that irrespective of their jobs, people hold certain in-born dispositions that result in them developing a certain type of job satisfaction. Research even suggests that identical twins who have not been brought up together exhibit analogous levels of job satisfaction. Consequently, attempts were made to discover the psychological mechanisms that bring about dispositional roots of job satisfaction. The outcomes have shown that people who have positive core self evaluations – who place confidence in their ability, have much higher levels of job satisfaction in contrast to those who have negative core self valuations (M artinko, 2004). Two Factor Theory (Motivator-Hygiene Theory) groups all the pertinent job facets under two broad factors - Motivators and Hygiene Factors. Motivators include facets such as appreciation, recognition, interesting work, etc. They yield positive feelings related to the job resulting in high job satisfaction. Alternatively, Hygiene factors comprise of job security, pay, work settings, etc. They do not yield affirmative satisfaction, however dissatisfaction emerges from their nonexistence. For example, an employee Ms. Laren would be motivated by challenging work and recognition of performance, resulting in high satisfaction; emanating from the intrinsic nature of the job, which stimulates personal development. While on another occasion, uncertainty hovering over her

Environmrntal science 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Environmrntal science 2 - Essay Example First of all, one needs to develop a question or a problem. The problem must be able to undergo scientific experimentation for it to be meaningful. Secondly, one has to make observations or research on the problem formed in the first series. Thirdly, there must be a formulation of a hypothesis that gives information on the possible answer to the problem solved. Fourthly, an experiment must be carried out to show if the hypothesis is true or false. This can be done by collecting the necessary materials and procedures to come up with results that can be quantified or measured. The fifth step involves collection and analysis of the results from the experiment. If the experiment is not accurate then one can change or make the procedures better. The analysis must have evidence like photographs, tables and graphs to ease understanding. The sixth step is simply to come up with the conclusion whereby it must have statements that either support or reject the statement of the hypothesis. The s ixth step also included making recommendations to allow improvement or further studies to be done. The last step is being able to communicate the results to other individuals (Michael, 2003, pp. 1-220). Sustainable development is concerned with using resources following a particular pattern with the aim of meeting human needs in preservation of the environment for the present and the future generation. It ensures that the needs of the present human needs are met without compromising that of the future generation. Sustainability is therefore the ability to maintain a particular state. For instance, in environmental sustainability, the environment is expected to be at its natural state avoiding any depletion (Michael, 2003, pp. 1-220). The biosphere matter follows a circular pathway because they use up one type of matter and reproduce another that can be used by another living thing. For instance, animals take in oxygen and give out carbon dioxide

Soccer injury Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Soccer injury - Essay Example I was lost into recapitulating the painful moments when I had gained the injury when suddenly I heard the phone ring again, â€Å"trrrrang . trrrrrang†. With my left hand, I picked the phone up. The screen showed Martha, the maid. â€Å"Yes, it should have been her. What did mama pay her for if she did not do the service now? O yes, may be I can avail this opportunity to ask Martha if mama and papa have been told about the incident,† I thought. The air was wet. The fog had clouded the air. The sky was white. I could not see across two feet of the radius of the circle of which, I made the center. I could not feel my nose. It was chilled and red just like the pores of my fingers. My hands had gone numb. I extended my hand towards the tip of my nose to touch it. At one point, my hand would not go further. But it had still not reached its destination. My nose kept waiting for the finger tip to approach it, but it never did. I had no mirror around me to see what had happened . â€Å"Find it, find it†, I ordered my finger tip. The tip was trying its best to obey me, but it finally gave away after trying for long. I had dropped my arm. I again extended the tip of my finger towards the tip of my nose. ... In a matter of five minutes, I was standing in front of my dressing table in my room. â€Å"Ahhhhhh †¦ hahaha†, I screamed with joy and excitement. Both my nose and finger were perfectly fine, and my finger was resting over my nose. Soon, I began to feel the two as well. The warmth of my room had reactivated the sensory cells in both the organs. The redness faded and the sensation enhanced. The unbearable cold outside had made me so numb that I could neither feel my nose nor my finger tip when the latter pressed against the former while I was out. â€Å"It must be freezing cold today,† I realized. I walked past the kitchen and appeared into the gallery to read the temperature that my thermometer hung in the open displayed. It was -4 degree centigrade. Now I exactly knew why my finger was not approaching my nose tip. â€Å"It is going to be an extremely tough match today,† I thought. The match was due by 10 am. And the clock showed half past 7. There were two hours for the match to approach. I was all set to show how talented I was in the match. I had been a loser for long. My team had lost three matches in a row because of my poor performance. Everybody said that I did not practice sufficiently, and so did I feel about myself. Last time, though I had not displayed extremely nice performance, yet it had been way better than what it had been in the first too matches, and it was too much practice that had improved my performance, yet the practice was not enough to make me win the match. Since the time I had lost the third match, I had practiced just too much. I imparted major part of my daily routine to practice. I really felt that I had matured as a

Managing Hospitality Resources Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Managing Hospitality Resources - Essay Example The premeditated use of technology in marketing services has created many opportunities in the hospitality and tourism industry. Consequently customers are always not satisfied with what they receive and desire innovative alternatives. Since the 1980s, the information communication technology has transformed dramatically, the management and outlook of many hospitality industries resulting into computer reservation systems, which later transformed into global distribution systems in the early 1980s and finally the currently used internet. The invention of the internet has caused a shift in many operations changing operational practices and a general paradigm shift in the market (Moutinho 2011, pp 108). It is in this regards that many hotels are developing computer systems to meet the demand of their customers. The Royal Garden Hotel is a five star hotel that need improvement in technology since technology is a driving force towards growth of many economies. In addition, technological advancement in a hotel facilitates efficient internal operations and improvement in service quality. Body When the Royal Garden Hotel develops technology and systems in their operations many services are likely to be improved. To start, the management will be able, to create automated guest histories. By having the guest history available, defining the customer mix to come up with the services salient for each customer will not be a challenging factor. From this perspective customer satisfaction gets enhanced, this leads to retention and in turn maintaining loyalty. Secondly, the development of the E- business strategy at the Royal Garden Hotel will provide transaction centric solutions (Shin 2003, pp 76). This leads to efficiency and proficiency in administrative procedures (property management systems) and internal operations. The core function behind the improvement of management is in the provision of guest folio, a factor important in the provision of services to the guest. In as much as this is not a primary goal of introduction of technology in Royal Garden Hotel, it is an indirec t benefit, which accrues to the net yield of the hotel. One means of using technology to reach customers is by websites. This is because customers are increasingly applying voice recognition mechanisms and call routing technologies. They access hotels through websites where they speak to computers routing their calls to relevant departments. A website proposal for the hotel, therefore, would target various audiences. For instance, various company executives can access the website and check various services offered by the Hotel. This is because company executives often have meetings in hostels with partners from overseas of internal customers (Leong 2001, pp 201). Tourists also remain a central segment of the targeted audiences who book online through various websites before arriving at their destinations. To prevent customers who access the site from being bombarded with run-of-the-mill products the website developed by the hotel, must meet all requirements as well as expectations o f customers to gain the competitive advantage. It is from this perspective that Royal Garden hotel management should employ the automated system, which can impart

The Origin Of Anatomically Modern Essay Example for Free

The Origin Of Anatomically Modern Essay Introduction The origin of modern humans and the fate of the Neanderthals are two of the most hotly debated topics in paleoanthropologist   Recent fossil finds new information from the field of molecular genetics that led to a re-evaluation of the question of the origin of the modern human beings. Where, when and how did modern human beings first appear? These critical questions have engaged anthropologists since the birth of their science. In last several decades paleoanthropologists have concentrated in solving the problems of Plea- Pleistocene origins of our genus, Homo. Interest in this issue remains passionate, but we have grown to understand that the origin of our species, Homo sapiens, is the outcome of an equally interesting and complete set of evolutionary factors.   Origin of Homo Sapiens and the Fate of Neanderthals   Neanderthal refers to a group of morphologically distinct human fossils. It is found throughout Western Eurasia way back ca. 130,000-30,000 BP. They evolved in Europe from Homo heidelbergensis populations, such as those from Sima de los Huesos in Atapuerca, Spain, Steinheim in Germany and Petralona in Greece. The primary Neanderthal fossils of the Levant come from the cave sites of Tabun, Amud, Kebara, and Dederiyeh, as well as Shanidar Cave in northern Iraq. Neanderthals physically were ruggedly built, with thick chests and relatively short limbs, a body shape today found among arctic populations. The modern humans evolved from archaic Homo sapiens primarily in East Africa.   A 195,000 year old fossil from the site in Ethiopia shows the beginnings of the skull changes that we associate with modern people, including a rounded skull case and possibly a projecting chin. A 160,000 year old skull from the Herto site in the Middle Awash area of Ethiopia also seems to be at the early stages of this evolution.   It had the rounded skull case but retained the large brow ridges of archaic Homo sapiens.   Somewhat more advanced intermediary forms have been found at Laetoli in Tanzania dating to about 120,000 years ago.   By 115,000 years ago, early modern humans had expanded their range to South Africa and into Southwest Asia shortly after 100,000 years ago.   Evidently, they did not appear elsewhere in the Old World until 60,000-40,000 years ago.   This was during a short temperate period in the midst of the last ice age.   The Fossil and Genetic study of Homo Sapiens and Fate of Neanderthal   At present the only way of studying ancient ancestors was through old fossils and stone tools. As we go back further in time fossils become rarer. Of the billions of people who lived before the invention of agriculture only the fossilized remains of a few hundred have been found. In the absence of fossils, human DNA that transmits genetic information from one generation to the next has proved to be a valuable tool in recording the evolution of the human species. Two pieces of the human genome are particularly useful in discovering human history. One is the Mitochondrial DNA and the other is the Y chromosome. These are the only two parts of the genome that are not interchanged about by the evolutionary mechanisms designed to generate diversity with each generation. Hence the Mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome are passed down generation to generation intact. Studies of modern DNA, especially mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) which occurs only in the cellular organelles called mitochondria, reveal that humans are amazingly homogeneous, with rather little genetic variation.   In fact, there is significantly more genetic variation between two individual chimpanzees drawn from the same population than there is between two humans drawn randomly from a single population. Until recently, the Levant was seen as furnishing the strongest evidence for a biocultural transition between the Neanderthals and early modern human populations. In the mid-1980s, geophysicists had developed several methods, thermoluminescence, electron-spin resonance, and uranium-series, for dating sites older than 40,000 BP that provided revolutionary results. While estimated ages for the Levantine Neanderthals were broadly comparable to those from Europe, between 65,000-47,000 BP, the new dating methods showed that the early modern humans from Skhul and Qafzeh date to 130,000-80,000 BP, older than the Neanderthals who were supposedly their ancestors (Valladas et al. 1998). Minimally, these new dates call for a reinterpretation of Neanderthal vs. early modern human biological and behavioral contrasts. Overview from the revolution of Homo sapiens and the Fate of Neanderthal The evolution of these two hotly debated topics in paleoanthropologists was basically about to, when and where they lived, their physical appearance, their way of living and to whom they originated. According to paleoanthropologists and some people who showed interest in studying those ancient people is that Neanderthals lived in Europe while the coming of modern man or the Homo sapiens was essentially compared to Asian people. There are many similarities in the Neanderthals’ and early modern humans’ according to archaeological records. Both lived in similar Mediterranean woodland habitats and occupied Kars tic caves. Both hunted and gathered the same range of animal species. Such similarities are to be expected between closely related hominids, but they do not necessarily imply a close social or cultural relationship. Instead, evidence for evolutionarily significant behavioral differences between Neanderthals and early modern humans is likely to be delicate, reflected in the different strategies these humans used to realize their settlement, survival, and social goals. The specific topic they end up of arguments was about their physical appearance in which each of them was distinguish by a unique set of anatomical features. The Neanderthals are characterized with a large, long, low cranial vault with a well-developed double-arched brow ridge. a massive facial skeleton with a very projecting mid-face, backward sloping cheeks, and large nasal aperture, with large nasal sinuses an oddly shaped occipital region of the skull with a bulge or bun molars with enlarged pulp chambers, and large, often very heavily worn incisors a mandible lacking a chin and possessing a large gap behind the last molar  . While the Homo sapiens were a cranial vault with a vertical forehead, rounded occipital and reduced brow ridge, a reduced facial skeleton lacking a projecting mid-face  a lower jaw sporting a chin, a more modern, less robustly built skeleton. These two descriptions gave much idea on how they differ each other. Are we genetically different from our Homo sapiens ancestors who lived 10-20,000 years ago?   The answer is almost certainly yes.   In fact, it is very likely that the rate of evolutionary change for our species has continuously accelerated since the end of the last ice age, roughly 10,000 years ago.  The evidence for a biocultural transition between the Neanderthals and early modern human populations they creatively construct social and cultural identities that transcend actual biological kinship (Wobst 1977). The best-documented early examples of symbolic artifacts are bone, ivory and stone beads from â€Å"Aurignacian†.   This is mostly due to the fact that our human population has deliberately grown and moved into new kinds of environments, including cities.   This has exerted strong selection for individuals who were fortunate to have immune systems that allowed them to survive.   We have been exposed to new kinds of environmental pollution that can cause increased mutation rates. There has been a marked change in diet for most people around the globe to one that is less varied and now predominantly vegetarian with a heavy dependence on foods made from cereal grains.   It is not entirely clear what all of the consequences of these environmental and behavioral changes have been.   However, it does appear that the average human body size has become somewhat shorter over the last 10,000 years. Finally, can we say what direction human evolution will take in the future?   This is a captivating question to consider but impossible to answer because of innumerable unknown factors.   Though, it is certain that we will continue to evolve until we reach the point of realizing factored that could possibly affect our lives. Bibliography Aiello, L.C. The fossil evidence for modern human origins in Africa: A revised view. In American Anthropologist, 1993. vol. 95, no. 1, pp. 73-96. Bar-Yosef, O. 1995. â€Å"Modern Human Origins and Neanderthal Extinctions in the Levant   ,† Athena Publications, Inc.( 2001). Accessed September 27, 2007 http://www.athenapub.com/8shea1.htm   â€Å"Early Modern Homo Sapiens.† Dennis ONeil (2007). Accessed September 27, 2007   Ã‚   http://anthro.palomar.edu/homo2/mod_homo_4.htm â€Å"Homo Sapiens.† Smithsonian Institution (2000). Accessed September 27, 2007 http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/sap.htm Johanson, Donald. â€Å"Origins of Modern Humans: Multiregional or Out of Africa?† American Institute of Biological Sciences (2001). Accessed September 27, 2007 http://www.actionbioscience.org/evolution/johanson.html Kreger, David C. Homo sapiens.† Archaeologist .com (2005). Accessed September 27, 2007 http://www.archaeologyinfo.com/homosapiens.htm -2005    McBrearty, Sally. â€Å"The Origin of Modern Humans.† JSTOR (2007). Accessed September 27, 2007 http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0025-1496%28199003%292%3A25%3A1%3C129%3ATOOMH%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Wsize=LARGEorigin=JSTOR-enlargePage ArchaeologyInfo.com All Rights Reserved â€Å"Recent single origin hypothesis.† Wikimedia Foundation, Inc (2007). Accessed September 27, 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_of_Africa_theory

Assessing Materiality and Risk Simulation Essay Example for Free

Assessing Materiality and Risk Simulation Essay Certain accounts, such as cash, long term debt and short term borrowings, and intangibles, are audited 100% because they are very important to the audit process and/or industry, or simply because they are easily verifiable. Unlike auditing inventory, accounts receivable, accounts payable, capital assets; which can be time-consuming to audit fully, auditing 100% of cash or long term debt is fairly easy (e.g. by obtaining cash and debt confirmations from banks). â€Å"According to the financial accounting standards board, materiality symbolized the importance of something forgotten or a misstatement of an entry in an economic report that, the encircling assets make it believable that the awareness of a sensible individual depending on the facts would have been replaced, altered by the involvement or repair of an article† (Boynton, Johnson). All in all when an auditor create an agreeable materiality level that discover both the quantity (amount) and the (quality) nature of misstatements needed to be examined. The auditor will also with given time will assign materiality to everything that is sampled, this way no report is omitted or avoids a looked. Audit risk is the possibility of a material misstatement, remaining undetected even after the audit is completed and as a result the audit statement fails to provide true and fair view of the company financial statements. Of the three components of audit risk, only detection risk is a result of failure on the part of the auditor to notice a misstatement. As noted above, audit risk is a function of inherent risk, control risk and detection risk. Inherent risk and control risk make up the risk of material misstatement. RMM = IR x CR AR = RMM x DR If we assume that the auditor does not have impact on control risk (control risk is usually assessed as High, unless test of controls is performed) and no impact on inherent risk, the auditor needs to manipulate detection risk to reduce the level of audit risk. The higher the risk of material misstatement, the more thorough substantive procedures the auditor needs to apply to support the account balance.

Theories of autobiographical memory

Theories of autobiographical memory Autobiographical memory is characterised by individual and gender differences resulting from significant social interchanges and cultural milieus experienced during the early-developmental and mature phases of life. The study is designed to explore the theoretical concepts encompassing the different types, neural basis and several theoretical dimensions pertaining to the autobiographical memory. Keywords: autobiographical memory, cognitive behaviour, cognitive psychology Theories of Autobiographical Memory 3 Autobiographical Memory: A Theoretical Overview Autobiographical memory can be defined as an explicit memory of the past events (Eysenck and Keane, 2005, p. 138) contributed by varying certain nostalgic factors including individuals psychological understanding, complex spoken or sign language, remembrance of interaction with parents and others, specific style of talking, self-representation, personal perspectives and narrative comprehension and production (Williams, Conway Cohen, 2008, p. 371). Numerous episodic memories or recollected events belonging to an individuals past life are referred as autobiographical memories, which have been identified as more complex form of mummeries as compared to the laboratory memories in accordance with several studies conducted by a number of cognitive psychologists. The episodic memory experiment conducted in a laboratory is usually concerned with a brief set of memory comprising of events that are based on certain words that are presented on a computer screen which primarily involve the use of a single sensory modality; exhibiting a diminutive variation in spatial, temporal, emotional, and narrative content or context that is personally irrelevant to the subject (Bauer, Stennes Haight, 2003, p. 29). On the other hand, in autobiographical memories events are recalled by involving multimodal senses as for example, taste, smell, touch, hearing, vision and kinesthesis which are meant to exhibit significant variation in content and context of spatial, temporal, emotional, and narrative reason and also demonstrate personal relevance (Eysenck and Keane, 2005, p. 138). Autobiographical memories involve real-world stimuli and are extremely complex thus, necessitating supplementary theoretical and methodological considerations that are usually not required in a laboratory study involving simplified stimuli (Diamond, Lee Hayden, 2003, p. 831). The main objective of this study is to explore the theoretical underpinnings of cognitive psychology related to the autobiographical mem ory. The initial segment of the Theories of Autobiographical Memory 4 study aims to identify different types of autobiographical memory which extends to the middle segment which is meant to evaluate its neural basis. The later segment of the study explicates the different theories of the subject matter leading to the final conclusion. Types of Autobiographical Memories The systemic requirements pertaining to autobiographical memories involve individual senses as for example visualisation, hearing, and smell; a multimodal spatial system which reminds about the location concerning the objects and people; emotional system; linguistic system; a narrative system concerning casual interactions which does not necessarily involve the use of language (Rubin, Schrauf, Greenberg, 2003, p. 889); and an explicit memory system which facilitates in coordinating information with the rest (Schrauf Rubin, 2000, p. 621). Depending upon an individuals memory, each of these systems tends to process, organise and assign roles that are exhibited by specific cognitive-behaviours. A number of instrumental studies are employed to document the evidences proffered by each system including cognitive-behavioural studies, individual differences research, neuro-anatomy, neuropsychology, and neuro-imaging studies that are all helpful in identifying the traces of events collected within the autobiographical memory of an individual. It has been studied that autobiographical memory itself, does not represents a single entity rather it is complimented by multiple systems; each demonstrating diverse roles, organisation and processing of the relevant data (Conway Pleydell-Pearce, 2000, p. 267). The permanence of the autobiographical memory significantly relies on the continuity of these individual systems and their interaction with each other exactly similar to the fact how the recollected memories of an individual is a shared cultural knowledge obtained during the life span which subsequently attributes cultural expectations rather than individuals autobiographical memory (Berntsen Rubin, 2004, p. 430). Long term memory is Theories of Autobiographical Memory 5 principally divided into three major systems including implicit memory characterised by the memories relating to the performance of a task in the absence of conscious recollection; semantic memory characterised by factual reminiscence of events; and episodic memory characterised by the memories of information within specific time and space units (Eysenck Keane, 2005, p. 194). Autobiographical memory is predominantly concerned with both the episodic and semantic memories which are further classified into three sub-types including factual memory, self-schemata, generic memory and specific memories (Conway Pleydell-Pearce, 2000, p. 261) that are explicated as follows: Factual Memory The concept of factual memory has not been widely appraised within the theoretical paradigm of autobiographical memory. Factual memory is primarily concerned with the immediate facts and present happenings. Self Schemata Self-schemata as the name indicates, is the central conception within cognitive therapy and is characterised by self-knowledge or information about ones own personality, nature or temperament; which is far more complex and contextualised as compared to the known facts but is much generalised as compared to specific or generic memories (Conway Pleydell-Pearce, 2000, p. 264). Self-schemata are not just limited to a specific self-knowledge are the accumulated information connected to specific self-realisation which can be corresponded as facts or statements. The process involves economical organisation of information related to abstracted real-life experiences which greatly differs from the schematic knowledge and this divergence between original experiences and schematic knowledge transpires as the cognitive processes are likely to be influenced by the pre-established schemata similar to the encoding of an experience. It has been studied that the Theories of Autobiographical Memory 6 insistence and distortion of self-schemata may considerably vary depending upon an individuals perceptions (Dalgleish, 2004, p. 233). Generic Memories Generic memories are much specific in comparison with the self-schemata as concerning the memories of repeated and similar experiences however, specific memories are less abstracted as compared to generic memories. The mechanism of generic memories greatly resembles with self-schemata as it involves stacking of analogous experiences. The most critical aspect of the generic memories is the sensory and visual-spatial components which significantly limits the stacking of experiences making it much more specific than self-schemata. A number of disorders especially depression is associated with a greater likelihood of recalling generic memories based slightly vague reminiscence of experiences. Specific Memories Strong sensory and visual-spatial components are the key characteristics of specific memories which facilitate in the recollection episodic events from an individuals past life encompassing certain canonical categories of information such as ongoing activity, location, persons, others affect and own affect (Williams, Conway Cohen, 2008, p. 376). There is a vast difference between specific and long-term specific memories as the most recent happenings can be recollected by most individuals retaining specific memories of the recent past however, the retention of long-term memories of that particular event, by each person is vitally dubious (Conway, 2005) as it has been studied that the specific memories of recent past belong to a different memory system than long term specific memories (Carver Bauer, 2001, p. 728). The process of autobiographical reasoning stressing on the temporal, causal and thematic relationship and cultural interchanges develop narrative-like structures which are meant to form explicit linkage between several specific memories (Bluck Habermas, Theories of Autobiographical Memory 7 2000, p. 140). The theory suggests that the memories of recent past are not subjected to schemata-driven reconstruction processes and therefore, specific memories can be considered as much accurate and less-biased. Neural Basis of Autobiographical Memories The theoretical underpinnings pertaining to the neural origins of autobiographical memory are briefly explicated as follows: Prospection Mental simulation of probable future events can significantly help an individual to strategise and plan for the potential opportunities in pursuit of personal objectives and thereby, chances of failures can be minimised through consistent efforts. It has been studied that prospection is the concept of imagining oneself in future which subsequently allows an individual to engage in organised strategic behaviour to achieve pre-planned personal objectives (Bird Reese 2006, p. 620). Remembering past events and futuristic thinking are both hypothesised to reflect the parallel course of action which has been explicated by the sequential distribution of self-generated probable future events that have been found to replicate the distribution of recollected past events of numerous individuals during their life cycle (Spreng Levine, 2006, p. 1649). There is a possibility that the recollection of past memories and prospection of futuristic events might share neural substrate and similar mecha nism as studies suggest that, a decreasing fashion of phenomenological richness (DArgembeau Van der Linden, 2004, p. 846) and episodic specificity with age (Addis, Wong, Schacter, 2008, p. 1365) has been observed, in the past and future events. Navigation In accordance with the cognitive theory both the ego-centric and allo-centric perspectives facilitate in imagining the current status of an individual and the desired Theories of Autobiographical Memory 8 objectives followed by specific routes to navigate spatial environments through topographical orientation (Bird Reese 2006, p. 615). Lesser emphasis is drawn to an individuals stance as per the allo-centric perspective which is meant to identify the relation between landmarks with the help of engaging ones mind to discover the future prospects that are substantially indifferent to the immediate environment or to visualise or map the environment (Bird Reese 2006, p. 622). Theory of Mind Theory of mind facilitates in comprehending the social navigation process indicating that the communal interchanges between people are based on an individuals perspectives that are greatly influenced by the pre-conceived notions and in order to predict the action and reaction of others, it is imperative to understand their perspective (Garfield, Peterson, Perry, 2001). It has been studied that to understand others perspectives, individuals make efforts to self-project themselves by simulating the mindset of others (Blakemore Decety, 200). Default Mode Functions of brain studied during the resting phase of an individual are usually referred as default mode (Mazoyer et al., 2001) which is characterised by the unprepared thoughts or mind wandering condition in which the brain is becomes stimulus-independent (Raichle et al., 2001) and could be irrational at times (Mason et al., 2007). Both the external or internal environment has no significant influence on the brain functioning of an individual in a resting phase however, an internal mode of cognition may become activated which allows an individual to self-projection or imagine one-self in a desired condition without being influenced by the respective environment (Gusnard, Akbudak, Shulman, Raichle, 2001; Raichle Gusnard, 2005). Theories of Autobiographical Memory 9 Theories of Autobiographical Memory Development The theoretical underpinnings of the autobiographical memory development have experienced significant progression in context of explaining infantile amnesia which reflects the failure of adults to recall events from their early stages of life. It is quiet a mystery that children seem to remember a lot from their long-term memory bank however, as they grow old and reach the adulthood it becomes exceedingly difficult for them to recall their past memories specially pertaining to their early childhood. Primary Influence Theories During the beginning of pre-school period there is a lack of cognitive and social cognitive framework which is responsible for encoding memories which subsequently result in the failure of retrieving self-relevant memories in later stages of life. Mirror task of self-recognition (MSR) has been identified as the most vital instrument for the encoding and storage of the autobiographical memories (Carver Bauer, 2001, p. 731). On the other hand, it has been hypothesised that self-recognition plays an integral role in retrieving the autobiographical memories however, children in early ages do not poses the ability to understand the fundamentals of nature, personality and character which makes it difficult for them to gain delayed self-recognition. Studies suggest that the memory bank becomes actively responses as soon as a child develops an understanding of one-self and achieves significant representational awareness agreeing to this, the cognitive-motivational theory of adults autobiogr aphical memory presented by (Conway and Pleydell-Pearce 2000) suggest that self grounding is an essential part of retrieving the memories however, they further emphasised on the identification of goals and argued that the inability to reconstruct the memories in later stages of life has a very close link with the incongruity of self-goals with the encoding and retrieving period. Theories of Autobiographical Memory 10 Multiple influence theories A number of studies concur with the former concept of insufficient cognitive or social-cognitive framework during early preschool years, is the vital cause interfering with the encoding and retrieval of autobiographical memories however; they further attempted to analyse the critical abilities of an individual to encode and retrieve the memories, in the larger social and linguistic realm for the child (Conway, Pleydell-Pearce Whitecross, 2001, p. 495). Children are unable to comprehend with the causal-temporal sequence of events and cannot establish the order of self-relevant events into a chronological narrative which enables a frequent encoding and retrieval of autobiographical memories as the representational system largely depends upon linguistic abilities which subsequently develop after 4-5 years (Eysenck and Keane, 2005, p. 149). A number of theories also suggest that social interaction is another significant element to retrieve autobiographical memories and further argue tha t children develop their critical cognitive capacities through social interactions and reminiscing practices. Furthermore, parental cooperation in discussing, evaluating and elaborating the past events also facilitates in providing rich information which consequently develops in the retrieval of autobiographical memories. It has also been studied, that apart from linguistic aid children also necessitate a reason to learn and recall past events which could be strong social bonds and close relationships which greatly helps them in self-recognition process and the more they recognise oneself in their early childhood, the more it becomes easier to reminisce their autobiographical memories (Conway, Pleydell-Pearce Whitecross, 2001, p. 450). Social Cultural Developmental Theories There are three significant arguments encompassing the social and cultural developmental theories pertaining to autobiographical memories including (i) gradual emergence of autobiographical memory across the preschool years; (ii) autobiographical Theories of Autobiographical Memory 11 memory system is highly reliant upon the language which is the vital tool for social interchanges; and (iii) autobiographical memory is characterised by cultural, gender, and individual differences across life that need significant explanation (Bamberg and Moissinac 2003, p. 398). It has been studied that the remembrance of events from a lifespan of a children and adult may considerably vary and it is quite evident that everybody is not capable of remembering more of events with identical detailing and in similar narrative way as expressed by others. This indicates that differences in both the course and time of emergence of the autobiographical memories and their eventual outcomes significantly vary depending upon age, sex, gender, personal experiences, social interactions and cultural differences (Fivush Nelson, 2004, p. 575). The development system begins with the birth followed by toddler memories that are instituted through social interactions with parents, siblings and relativ es, during which nascent conceptions are built in an individuals mind which might be unconsciously penetrated within the memory bank. Studies also suggest that infants are very much aware of their environment and also have an idea of core self which has been essentially related to intentionality. It has been studied that infants as per their core self have determined goals and actions which is fuelled by the infusion of certain skills, emerging concepts and social experiences (Bamberg and Moissinac 2003, p. 398). The later phase after 4-5 years when the children respond to what they hear and start talking by using linguistic aids results in the preservation of a sound memory bank which can be encoded and retrieved later in life depending upon an individuals capability to reminisce the autobiographical memories. The Core Components of Developmental System The key components of the development system facilitating the early development of memory base are characterised by the initiation of memories being stored within the memory Theories of Autobiographical Memory 12 bank of an unborn child. It has been studied that the unborn child are capable of differentiating and discriminating between the incoming information and are also capable to store the information over time. Children have been studied to have implicit memories that have been collected during the first trimester of pregnancy (Eysenck and Keane, 2005, p. 158) however, the remembrance of such memory can be extremely short. On the other hand, it has been studied that the time duration in which a child emits a previously conditioned response can be extended with the use of reminders thus, strengthening their memory base. The role of language is extremely significant in the retrieval and narration of autobiographical memories. It has been studied that language is significant in the retrieval of autobiographical memory in three particular ways including (i) it is involved in providing the organisational and evaluative attribute of autobiographical memory; (ii) it significantly helps in devel oping and maintain social interactions which subsequently results in the organised representation of past experiences especially for children; and (iii) it facilitates in growing the awareness of young children to preserve memory as a representation of past experience which can be evaluated from multiple subjective perspectives (Fivush, 2001, p. 51). Adult memory talk is the third vital component of developmental system in which mothers play an integral role in developing the memory system of their children as they are the initial point of contact to children, enabling them to understand their external environment and educating them to respond. There is a significant distinction between primary consciousness and symbolic consciousness however, it has been studied that the consciousness of the past is greatly responsible in the developmental system as it helps in defining the concept of present, past and future in the autobiographical memory (Edelman and Tononi 2000, p. 99). Finally, the self-recognition or self-in-time is a closely related concept contributing in the developmental system and it has been studied that to relate oneself in the past or in the Theories of Autobiographical Memory 13 present necessitates the clear-cut mapping of two distinct representations (Perner 2000, p. 212). Conclusive Remarks The memories associated with early stages of life can significantly help in gaining an insight oneself thus, providing the opportunities for emotional growth and development. In addition to this, self-recognition and self-knowledge tremendously help in improving the overall personality and temperament of an individual as the autobiographical memories can facilitate in defining personal lacking hence, enabling the individual to transform into a better human being. The study has successfully established the grounds for understanding different types and neural origins of the autobiographical memory and subsequently unfolded varying aspects of theoretical paradigms associated with the subject area indicating that the memory bank can be developed with growing age. Moreover, the study also reveals that social interchanges and cultural influences in early stages of life have significant impacts on the memory development system. To conclude, it can be instituted that cognitive psychology is a vast subject having wide-range of theories related to autobiographical memory; and this study within its limited scope attempted to address numerous speculative areas of the concerned theme. Theories of Autobiographical Memory 14

Paul Revere Essay -- Biography

Paul Revere Paul Revere was a man of many talents, a â€Å"Jack Of All Trades† if you will. Patriot, silversmith, engraver, and republican, he was destined to be a hero. Born to parents Apollos De Rivoire, a French Huguenot, and Deborah Hitchbourn, Paul Revere came into the world on January 1, 1735 in Boston Massachusetts. Clark’s Wharf is where the Reveres resided now. The third born of eight children Revere learned early the lesson of perseverance, a lesson that would be an important in his later life, Revere would need to keep on going no mater what obstacles appeared in his way. Revere attended school in Boston where he got a sufficient education as well as in the shop with his father and the wharves of where he lived. As Revere grows in age he upholds many different jobs, including being a bell ringer for Christ’s Church, an Episcopal parish. Around the time of Reveres newly found job the first indications of the Revolutionary War were be gossiped about around the town. On the Sunday morning in which he was to toll the bell of Christ’s church a young boy heard the first gun of the revolution. Revere didn’t know this yet but his honorable duty lay within that revolution. On the twenty-second day of July, 1754 Reveres father died in his sleep. He was buried in the Old Granary. Paul was very distraught over losing his father. They were close, more like friends than father and son. After his fathers death Paul became the man of the house. He had to take on more responsibilities and work harder to support his large family. After a while the stress was weighing him down and it was probably some sort relief when he went to fight the French. In 1756 he returned. On August 4, 1757 Paul Revere married Sara Orne, or a Revere referred to her â€Å"Sary†. After some years of marriage Revere thinks it’s time for something new so he joins the masons, where he meets James Otis and Joseph Warren both men whom are of importance to him. I n 1761 the year James Otis made his famous speech to Revere it would be know as the year that he fought his cousin Francis husband. The reasons why these two young men fought are not known but are probably logical considering that Revere was not the brawling type. All the while Revere is still making silver. Smallpox strikes the Reveres household as well as the rest of Boston. Paul Revere loved his children and couldn’t bear the fact of losing... ... it is Reveres duty to identify dead bodies, on of which is his friend from the masons, Joseph Warren. Later that year it is said that George Washington himself asked Revere to go out to Castle Island to fix the cannon. This was a great honor. But with honor comes sadness and on May 26th his mother passed at aged 73. Revere had suffered many losses including his wife and father but this one hurt the most. He had lived with his mother his whole life and really respected the idea of family. Revere worked more with the government and Castle Island. He soon packed up and head home once again. Hard times strike once again and Revere is once again drove to find more work. He tries commercial work but silver is still his main income. Revere fights to be court marshal, re-establishes his character, and writes endless letters to his cousins in France and Guernsey. Paul sets up a foundry and casts the first bell ever cast in Boston. Paul Revere now has lived over half his life and relaxes a bit. He gets involved in civic projects and the welfare of children, grandchildren and friends. He discovers the secret of rolling copper and establishes a great industry. Paul Revere dies May 10 1818.

James Baldwin is an Epic Poet Essay -- Notes of a Native Son

James Baldwin; Epic Poet When studying humanity through the arts and literature one can?t help but notice that every civilization has a famous narrative or an epic. The epic marks the beginning of classical civilization in that it was the first form of literature to be written down from oral tradition. The epic tells of the glory of a society, of its? founding from the ruin of another or tells us of the experiences of a beloved hero. The common trait of any epic poem or narrative lies in the tragic hero, or the main character of the story. The hero represents a more than average member of society with a tragic fatal flaw. The narration ends with the hero?s downfall at the hands of this fatal flaw which reminds us of our weak human nature. The tragic downfall of the hero does not always manifest itself in the hero?s death but sometimes in his realization of a hard truth. Western culture has romanticized these heroes in more than just literature but in everyday life. I couldn?t help but notice the char acteristics of a tragic hero manifest themselves in a young James Baldwin as I read his essay ?Notes of a Native Son.? In this 20th century essay; Baldwin as the author uses the narrative of his experiences around the time of his father?s death to analyze his feelings on family, race and culture. Baldwin?s writing flows brilliantly between narrative and analysis in an almost epic fashion. Through my writing I would like to analyze the epic of the young James Baldwin and see what truths are hidden in the framework of Baldwin?s marvelous tale. After his fathers? death Baldwin reflects on him through stories and scenes of social unrest. In order to understand the character of James Baldwin we must first unde... ...He is forced to accept life as it is, an unjust world in which father and son, black and white cannot see each other as equals. One must accept this world because failure to accept it leads to hatred and despair and as we have seen hatred led to the destruction of his father. But on the same token he outlines another hard truth which is that one must not accept the injustice with lowered eyes, one must fight injustices. We as humans experience this sad reality everyday as the epic of human life and through his words at the end of the essay James realizes his humanity as well. We must all accept injustice but at the same time fight to change it, that is our duty that we owe to our fellow humans. Works Cited Baldwin, James. ?Notes of a Native Son.? 1955. James Baldwin: Collected Essays. Ed. Toni Morrison. New York: Library of America, 1998. 63-84.

Bleikasten’s Literary Analysis of Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury Ess

Bleikasten’s Literary Analysis of Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury By focusing on the figure of Caddy, Bleikasten’s essay works to understand the ambiguous nature of modern literature, Faulkner’s personal interest in Caddy, and the role she plays as a fictional character in relation to both her fictional brothers and her actual readers. To Bleikasten, Caddy seems to function on multiple levels: as a desired creation; as a fulfillment of what was lacking in Faulkner’s life; and/or as a thematic, dichotomous absence/presence. The first section of the essay, â€Å"The Most Splendid Failure,† examines The Sound and the Fury as a(n) (ironic) modern recognition of the novel as a failed art form – if not language as a failed communicator. Bleikasten recognizes the novel as a reversal of reading, a realization of experience, adventure, and life. Because Faulkner was (apparently) not writing for the public, The Sound and the Fury acted as an â€Å"intranarcissistic† object, a â€Å"self-gratification,† which honestly makes me imagine the novel as a form of grandiose masturbation. And Bleikasten would have to admit that I am not too far off. He writes, â€Å" †¦ the aesthetic is made one with the erotic† (415). But then the essay takes an odd turn. This self-gratifying fulfillment becomes a replacement of either a missing sister or a dead daughter (the latter of which I don’t understand because Faulkner’s daughter did not die - was she perhaps very sick as an infant?) It seems that Bleikasten is now associating the erotic with the familial - not that incest is an inappropriate topic of conversation. However, Bleikasten does not acknowledge this connection and I cannot understand how Faulkner was implying an incestuous desire in his somewhat romanticized... ...age of the novel (neglecting to mention the same one at the end) that confuses and upsets Benjy: â€Å"caddie† versus â€Å"Caddy,† calling on the ambiguities and failing qualities of language, and seeming to draw his essay into a neat circular argument. But he then continues in a somewhat random discussion of Caddy as simultaneously nowhere and everywhere and as a symbol of/for water. He briefly looks at the role of memory in response to a disappeared, yet obsessed-upon figure, although the purpose of this discussion eludes me. Bleikasten ends by accepting Caddy’s elusiveness as necessary given her role in a modern novel and as a woman who cannot be grasped both by male characters and a male author – but what about us female readers? Can we grasp her by reading into Faulkner’s language, or has his failed storytelling blocked her off from any potential female understanding?

Machiavelli and Bush

In school, we came to know about Niccolo Machiavelli through his extremely popular statement, â€Å"The end justifies the means† (Machiavelli n.p.). Due to the unsavory reputation that has hounded Niccolo Machiavelli, the terminology Machiavellian is now utilized to describe a leadership style that is shrewd/cunning, deceiving/to be regarded with suspicion, as well as, ruthless/cold-blooded; a kind of leadership which is actually instituted upon â€Å"power politics† (Machiavelli n.p.). Political Action is an End Itself Furthermore, for some individuals who have read Machiavelli’s thoughts and ideas, they consider him as a â€Å"negative person†, sometimes he is even addressed as â€Å"somebody who is upholding evil and sin† (Machiavelli n.p.). In fact, the church considers him as immoral, unethical, and even evil (Machiavelli n.p.). This is because politics for Machiavelli should be taken as something which should not be blended with topics of religion, morality, as well as, ethics since politics he says is instituted upon its own value system (Machiavelli n.p.). For him, to evaluate political actions basing on religion or ethical standards is actually unwarranted (Machiavelli n.p.). Moreover, Machiavelli states that the end of the state is the acquirement/getting hold of, preservation, as well as, development/growth of authority/political power (Machiavelli n.p.). Comparing it to the other critical thinkers of the Machiavellian world, Machiavelli just do not consider this as â€Å"a means to an end† but an end in itself (Machiavelli n.p.). What he is saying is that if an act that’s motivated by politics leads to acquirement/getting hold of, preservation, as well as, development/growth of authority/political power then it is reasonable, understandable, and acceptable as well (Machiavelli n.p.). Similarities of Machiavelli and Bush This is where President Bush connects with Niccolo Machiavelli, President Bush believes that by annihilating the ruler, for instance, Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, he will be able to strengthen his hold and power and to bring about unity in the state and since that is the case, like Machiavelli, he believes that his action is justifiable (Thompson n.p). In addition to that, President Bush like Machiavelli feels that since they are the type of rulers who planned to get the better of, and to safeguard the state, then they will be eternally judged to be praiseworthy and be commended by everyone (Machiavelli n.p.). Last but not least, since Machiavelli believes that a ruler has to be cruel and ruthless if he has to; Bush patterned his attitude on that as well (Thompson n.p). He declared a war against Iraq which annihilated two hundred Americans working for the U.S. Armed Forces (Thompson n.p). Furthermore, his declaration also caused the death of countless Iraqi civilians, of which several are women and children (Thompson n.p). Added to that is the fact that such a war costs one hundred billion dollars, which if spent back home then will surely benefit more who are starving and are suffering from poverty (Thompson n.p). All of the above-mentioned entails a great deal of cruelty which should not at all occur in the first place (Machiavelli n.p.).   However, because, President Bush thinks that all these political actions he took are bound to cause the state to unite, then declaring a war even if it would cause countless deaths is still right and should not be negated or objected upon   (Machiavelli n.p.). Simply put, both President Bush and Machiavelli are similar basically on how they rule; to them, cruelty is justified as long as it will unite their state in the end (Machiavelli n.p.). Works Cited Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince. 1505. n.a. 16 April 2008. http://www.constitution.org/mac/prince.txt Thompson, Robert. n.d. n.a. 16 April 2008.                  

Narrative Methods Used in Part 1 of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Essay

Part one of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner opens with a third person omniscient narrator: ‘It is an ancient Marinere, And he stoppeth one of three. ’ This person represents Coleridge as he knows everything that is happening in the poem, and he is setting the scene for the rest of the lyrical ballad. Other people may take the view that the omniscient narrator represents God, as he is seen by religious people as the only person who can possibly be omniscient. This instantly injects elements of religion into the poem. The next stanza is narrated by the wedding guest, who speaks for the reader and voices the questions that the reader may have. He is confused as to why this odd-looking man has ‘stoppest’ him, which shows that the wedding guest doesn’t know who the man is. This leaves the wedding guest just as clueless as the reader themselves at that moment. The mariner speaks for the first time in the third stanza, beginning his tale with ‘there was a ship. ’ The mariner is responsible for telling the embedded narrative, which is an element of the Gothic. The mariner then takes over the story, telling his tale within the tale. The ballad is structured in Quatrains for all of Part 1, but this changes to symbolise a change in the narrative. Stanzas six and eleven end in the same line: ‘The bright-eyed Marinere. ’ The seventh Stanza is reversed at the end of the poem to show when he is going away from the familiar and when he is returning to it. The genre of this piece is a Lyrical Ballad, with elements of Romance and the Gothic. It draws on elements of the Romantic by its recurring themes of nature, extremes of emotion and religion. It also draws on elements of the Gothic as it includes religious imagery, bad weather and supernatural themes. The ballad is set at a wedding in reality, but the embedded narrative in Part 1 is set in the land of ‘mist and snow. ’ This represents the isolation of the Mariner as he strays away not only from land and equilibrium but also from God. This distance from God is physical, as it points out that he left the ‘Kirk,’ ‘the hill’ and ‘the light-house top’ representing him moving away from where God is, but also mental because the Marnier commits a great misdeed: ‘with my cross I shot the Albatross’ and it is almost as if he and God are not at peace any more. There are connotations of the Mariner’s tale happening a long time ago as he uses archaic lexis in his version of events, such as ‘Kirk’ for Church, ‘thee,’ ‘thou,’ and ‘thus. ’ Coleridge begins the poem with ‘It is an ancyent Marinere,’ the language used shows that the Mariner is a strange being as he is referred to as ‘it’ rather than ‘he. ’ The lexis used is archaic as both ‘ancyent’ and ‘Marinere’ are non-standard spellings. Although the wedding guest uses quite outdated terms, we can tell that the Mariner is older than him because his vocabulary predates to Coleridge’s times. Part 1 of this ballad uses internal and alternate rhymes throughout to create a flow of events. The Mariner tells the wedding guest twice ‘there was a ship’ in stanzas three and four which shows that the Mariner is persistent, but the reader does not know why he is so eager (we later find out that he had to tell this tale to the wedding guest). The wedding guest starts to become aggressive at the Mariner’s persistence, telling him ‘Now get thee hence, thou grey-beard Loon! Or my Staff shall make thee skip. This illustrates the wedding guest’s ignorance, and reflects what the reader would probably do if they were in that situation. The Mariner is described as being almost wizard-like in appearance with his ‘skinny hand,’ ‘grey beard,’ and ‘glittering eye’ which could be taken as being quite supernatural; an element of the Gothic. The Sun is mentioned throughout the poem as a motif for God, and is personified as ‘he. ’ The Sun is present a lot before the Mariner shoots the Albatross but is a less prominent character afterward, showing that God is displeased with the Mariner. Coleridge uses Pathetic Fallacy to show the Mariner’s mood, by showing the ‘Storm and Wind, A Wind and Tempest strong! ’ This is also an element of the Gothic. Coleridge also uses a similie to describe the ice: ‘As green as Emerauld. ’ The colour depicted is very natural, which is an element of Romance and the word ‘ice’ is repeated many times throughout to show the reader that the Mariner is literally surrounded by ice, representing his desolation. The ice ‘crack’d and growl’d and roar’d and howl’d,’ which personifies the ice using animal imagery. This shows the unforgiving and harsh nature of the ice, which the Mariner is encapsulated by. The Albatross is a symbolic religious symbol, and religion is referenced throughout Part 1, showing Coleridge’s personal views and depicting elements of the Romantic and Gothic. The moon is used as a motif for change and is only introduced moments before the Mariner shoots the Albatross, which could be taken as foreshadowing.

Abnormality and Normality

Concepts of normality and abnormality The presence of a mental disorder may be considered a deviation from mental health norms and hence the study of mental disorders is often known as abnormal psychology Normal† and â€Å"abnormal,† as applied to human behavior, are relative terms. Many people use these classifications subjectively and carelessly, often in a judgmental manner, to suggest good or bad behavior. As defined in the dictionary, their accurate use would seem easy enough: normal–conforming to a typical pattern; abnormal-deviating from a norm.The trouble lies in the word norm. Whose norm? For what age person? At what period of history ? In which culture ? The definition of the word abnormal is simple enough but applying this to psychology poses a complex problem: what is normal? Whose norm? For what age? For what culture? The concept of abnormality is imprecise and difficult to define. Examples of abnormality can take many different forms and involve diff erent features, so that, what at first sight seem quite reasonable definitions, turns out to be quite problematical.There are several different ways in which it is possible to define ‘abnormal’ as opposed to our ideas of what is ‘normal’ 1. Deviation from statistical norms One way is the statistical approach which is based on the premise that abnormal behaviour is statistically rare. In some cases it is possible to gather data in a numeric form and derive a mean average value. We can then say that the majority of values which are nearest to the mean are â€Å"normal†, and the minority of values farthest from the mean are â€Å"abnormal†.For example, if the average height of a set of people is five foot eight, with most values falling in the range four feet to six foot six, then a height of less than three foot or more than eight foot would or probably be considered â€Å"abnormal†. As another example, anxiety can be assessed using Spiel berger’s State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. The mean score for trait anxiety is 40 and people who achieve over 55 are seen as statistically rare as only 1 in 50 score that high. Therefore those with high scores are seen as deviant from the greater majority of the population.Evaluation The statistical approach helps to address what is meant by normal in a statistical context. It helps us make cut – off points in terms of diagnosis but it still does not helps us define the term. There are many people who have high levels of anxiety, but would still not be categorised as clinically abnormal — it is also equally true that people with very low scores on the anxiety scale are also statistically abnormal! The decision of where to start the â€Å"abnormal† classification is arbitrary.Who decides what is statistically rare and how do they decide ? For example, if an IQ of 70 is the cut-off point, how can we justify saying someone with 69 is abnormal, and someone with 70 normal ? An important consideration of statistically â€Å"abnormal† values is that â€Å"abnormal† doesn't tell us about the desirability of the deviation. For example, obesity is a statistically normal but not associated with healthy or desirable. Conversely high IQ is statistically abnormal, but may well be regarded as highly desirable

The European Middle Ages – Change over Time

The economy of the Middle Ages The economy has long been a major force in the development of societies for centuries. It often changes and fluctuates, consequentially resulting in the success or failure of civilizations. The economy of medieval Europe originated as that of a feudal systemdue to the dangerous and chaotic conditions of the continent at the time. By the end of the Middle Ages, the feudal system no longer being used due to its newfound inefficiency with the new situations emerging.Towns and trade began to get more popular, but society was still agriculturally based and comparatively less developed than the societies of Asia. The early Middle Ages are characterized by the Church and the feudal and manorial systems; systems in which every European’s life were centered around. In this arrangement there were kings, lords, vassals, knights, peasants and serfs. The hierarchy was that of a property owning basis. It was a land exchange for protection. During early medieva l times, Europe was in a state of chaos.Muslim, Magyar, and Viking invaders devastated the continent and surrounded it from all sides. With no true government in place, people were susceptible to invasions, and then came the feudal system. When kings gave men plots of land, those men would have to provide protection for the king and the land given through knights. The system was actually extremely complex because a lord was a vassal and he could also be a knight. In addition to that, a vassal could be a vassal to multiple people and they often fought over land.After the knights were peasants, people who worked the land of their lord. Some peasants were serfs, who were legally bound to the land they were born on, but they were not slaves. The wealth of every lord came from the work of his peasants. The manorial system branched out of the feudal system and was the more economic side of feudalism. The manor was the estate of the lord and there was an agreement between the lord and the peasants who worked the land. In exchange for housing, some farmland, and protection from bandits, the peasants would maintain the estate.A manor was like a small community in the way that is was self-sufficient and had all the necessities for someone living in that time. The manor normally consisted of the lord’s house, a church, workshops, fields, pastures, and a small village for the peasants. The serfs and peasants were also able to produce most of the goods needed for everyday life. The downside of living on the manor, for peasants at least was the taxes. There were taxes on the grain from the lord’s mill, a marriage tax, and a tithe, a church tax, to the village priest.Both of these systems were rigid and social mobility was essentially nonexistent. There was much change in medieval society; some of the causes for these changes even started some domino effects. For example, there was a huge population increase around the 1000s because more efficient farming. Peas ants began to rely on horses more than oxen, resulting in a faster plow. The three-field system was also being used, allowing more land to be farmed and more diversity in the medieval diet. Not only was the population increasing, but people were also living longer.Additionally, the worry of being robbed by bandits or invaded by foreigners was gone, so people could now be more independent and could travel without as much fear. Through these factors, there is a growth of towns and the decline of the feudal and manorial systems begins. The expanding towns mainly consisted of peasants and runaway serfs and weren’t as reliant on farming as they were before. This led to other professions reemerging. Local manufacturing was part of town life and the managing of the training of apprentices, the quality of products, and the prices for the goods were all controlled by a guild.Guilds had a monopoly for their trade in their town. Although guilds and towns did help, what truly had a subst antial effect on society were wars and diseases. The Crusades, the Bubonic Plague, and the Hundred Years’ War caused a variety of events and eventually led to the end of the Middle Ages. Although it was technically a failed expedition, the Crusades, a series of wars for the reconquering of the holy land fed by religious zeal, had quite a good effect on Europe’s future. After the Crusades, Christians’ relationship with Muslims was severed, but trade routes to Asia opened up everywhere.The trade between the two regions led to new technologies being introduced to Europeans. Furthermore, the power of nobles decreased and the feudal system began to slowly decline over the next 200 years. An example of a flourishing city is Venice that expanded and grew rich. Despite the slightly less unpromising time after the Crusades, the Black Death devastated Europe and made it digress some. The bubonic Plague originated in Asia and had already rampaged through Asia and Africa. E ntering Europe in 1347 through a fleet of Genoese merchant ships that arrived in Sicily, the plague spread all throughout Europe quickly.Over one-third of Europe’s population died because of the plague and medieval society was shattered. The population drop led to a scarce amount of workers and increased prices. Farms were abandoned and peasants living in manors demanded higher wages. The nobles refusing to the peasant demands resulted in many revolts. The plague would come in waves, so recovering and surviving more than once was difficult. While the plague struck Europe, England and France were in a war that would come to be known as the Hundred Years’ War. During the war, England used cheaper foot soldiers that used longbows to decimate the French.Knights were being defeated by lowly foot soldiers that were most likely peasants at home, making many people question the functionality of the feudal system. Ultimately the basis of the economy was moving towards trade and the success of towns and cities, ending the system that used to hold medieval society together. Like most past and modern societies, Europe remained dependent on agriculture, the class system was still similar to that of its predecessor, and when compared to other places of the time, Europe isn’t as active in trade and gaining land.A change in economic factors didn’t deviate from the need to feed the growing population. An agricultural based economy was necessary for the survival of Europeans, so that towns could grow and trade could expand. Moreover, the class system still had the king and religious leader on top because of the new sense of nationality and the fact that Europe was primarily Catholic. The class one was born into continued to define the lives of many and social mobility was still nonexistent.Whereas Europe’s trade was beginning to flourish, the trade in Asia and Africa were far beyond that. Just like in the 800s, Europe remained fairly isolated when paralleled to other civilizations. This is partly due to the strong religious intolerance. Namely, the Spanish Reconquista and Inquisition are examples of prejudice against non-Christians, implying a sense of superiority among Christians. The continent was also recently hit with a catastrophic plague, killing one-third of the population, making trade less of a priority.In the 650 years that were the Middle Ages, the economy of the time changed drastically. Europe went from having a strict hierarchy of property owning aristocrats to the growth of merchant-led towns. Nobles lost immense power and the population wavered at the mercy of new agricultural techniques and deadly plagues. Trade became an important component of the European economy, but it still remained very agricultural and not as adept in trade as its peers. The economical change would lead the continent to become on of the principal contributors to history today.