Reflective journal Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Reflective journal - Assignment Example Before her, many women lost their lives while bring new lives in to the world. Nurses had to go through a basic nursing training before specializing in midwifery as a post-basic course, a process that was quite lengthy. The contributions of Gaskin towards safe motherhood initiatives sensitized Americans about the rising rates of maternal death. In my view, the project was a great success as there was a sharp decline in mortality rates. Teenage pregnancy rate in America is among the highest in the industrialized world. I however, find her initiatives narrow and one-sided because the focus is on safe delivery and not on safe sex behavior. Ina Gaskin’s contributions have transformed midwifery into a specialized field of nursing. We now have more midwives and midwifery training schools. The focus of midwifery is now on prenatal, peri-natal and postnatal health of the mother and child. More women are now seeking specialized midwifery services. Nurses can now manage shoulder dystocia competently giving them a greater role. Ian May Gaskin transformed midwifery into a specialized distinct field by starting the direct midwifery training. This taught me that nursing could specialize more as a profession to give the nurses a greater role in health care. Gaskin’s development of Gaskin’s maneuver made me realize that nurses can play a greater role in managing difficult labor because the nurses were viewed to be competent in managing normal labor alone. With a good foundation laid by Gaskin, I intend to broaden the focus of midwifery to deal with difficult labor. This will be achieved by introduction of training modules and workshops for pre-service and in-service midwives on the management of difficult labor. This will ensure that as the numbers of midwives rise, their competency in managing labor is also

Product and Brand management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Product and Brand management - Essay Example According to Forbes and Fortune magazine, HSBC is one of the top 100 power brands in the world. Intraday market capitalization of the company is $122.65 billion (Yahoo Finance, 2012). HSBC operates through four business verticals such as commercial banking, investment banking, global private banking and retail banking (HSBC, 2013a). The company has established more than 7,000 offices across 85 countries in the world. As of 31 December 2012, the company had total asset of more than $2.5 trillion (HSBC Holdings Plc, 2013). The study will focus on discussing retail banking services of HSBC in order to analyze its brand image in front of retail customers of UK. The bank offers retail banking services to more than 50 million customers across the globe. Retail banking services of HSBC is comprised of following offerings. The bank offers personal loan and credit card service to retail customers, worldwide acceptance of credit card of HSBC is helpful for retail customers to purchase their favourite items from shops located in different parts of the world. Core values of HSBC is to be resilient, committed, trustworthy, decisive and capable of taking personal accountability for any losses to customers and other stakeholders due to any misleading activity of the bank. Political environment of UK is stable for operating banking and financial services in comparison to other European countries. For example, banking system in UK is controlled by FSA or Financial Services Authority. Stable regulatory environment will help HSBC to expand its operation in UK. Economic system of UK was affected marginally due to sovereign debt crisis where as countries like Greece, Spain, Italy etc were the worst sufferer during the time Euro zone crisis. Comparatively stable economic environment of UK will provide growth opportunity to HSBC. Many British customers have reported their concern over failure of operational security system of HSBC which can help the

Defining Racism In America

Defining Racism In America Race and race relations have been aspects of American society since the colonial era. With the exception of a handful of countries, no other nation has dealt with the struggles of a multiracial society and has had to overcome the problems created in its nations past. As a result, race in America is a complex issue with many facets and race relations have become increasingly difficult to define. Richard Thompson Ford, in examining the current race situation in America in his book The Race Card, defines the period as post-racism. Focusing on Fords ideas, as presented in his book, as well as an investigation into the Jena Six story, which is a contemporary example of racism, a more defined picture of current race relations in America can be uncovered. Fords The Race Card provides a critique on the current race situation in America. In his book, while Ford presents the idea that America is post-racism, he asserts that post-racism is not defined in the traditional way one might assume. To Ford, post-racism is a late stage of racism in which its contradictions and excesses both cancel out and amplify its original function (2008:25). To Ford, the era of post-racism allows people to have internal feelings of racism, as long as their overt actions and behaviors are not racist. Racial stereotypes may still exist, but no longer are those stereotypes defined by White Only establishments. With the elimination of the stereotypical racism, racism may now be harder to eliminate because overt racists will remain unidentified. Prior to the Civil Rights Movement, segregation laws and blatant bigotry provided easy markers to define racism and identify racists. Today there are laws preventing outward expressions of racism, making the process of defining the current state of race relations far more difficult. According to Charles Hirschman, racism is the belief that people can be divided into categories based on certain features that define a particular look (2004). While characteristics that define a person as part of a particular race are biological, race is a socially constructed concept in which people place meaning on the biological features. The seeds of racism in America were planted out of the need for a cheap and renewable labor force. When indentured servitude was no longer profitable to this countrys landowners, it prompted a needed change. Dark-skinned Africans, brought to this country as slaves, looked different from the white land owners. Based on that difference of appearance, along with the historical lack of a formal schooling, American society regarded them as inferior. This view by society eventually lead to the social construct of race, with whites seen as superior and blacks as inferior. While slavery was abolished following the Civil War, the overt concept of racial inferiority continued until the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s (Pinkney 1999). Up until the Civil Rights Act was passed, Jim Crow laws and other discrimination laws continued to segregate the races and reinforced the societal view of the inferiority of African Americans. Following the passage of the Civil Rights legislation, overt racism no longer was socially acceptable. Racism is no longer is defined by superiority and inferiority, but rather is defined as an acknowledged difference between cultures, with one no better than the other (Miles and Brown 2003). Because of the years of segregation, there are inherent differences between the black and white cultures. While segregation and discrimination no longer are a common practice, there still are differences between the groups and implicit discrimination remains. The faces of racism have changed, but racism has yet to disappear from society. Today, those who are identified as racists, under the old definition, are labeled as bigots and outsiders by society. Although there still are those who are viewed as racists under the traditional definition, there is a new form of racism present and it is much harder to define. As defined by Ford, the current state of racial affairs revolves around playing the race card. In playing the race card, people must presume that discrimination remains and it is based on ones race. More often than not, todays discrimination is a based on the many years of inferior treatment. In other words, people today claim racism because, at one point in history, it could be considered a result of racism (2008:31). There are four instances of playing the race card that are outlined in Fords book, including racism without racists, racism-by-analogy, unclear definitions of what is racism, and unclear goals for the current movement. People use the racism without racists definition because it is the easiest conclusion to use when explaining the motivations of others. There may be extenuating circumstances as to why people act a certain way, but people cry racism because it is an easy answer; they fail to see the situation from the other persons point of view. In racism-by-analogy, other groups claim that their struggles and discrimination are equal to those fought for in the Civil Rights Movement, even though they are not the same. As an example, people that are overweight or not pretty enough may make the claim that their legal rights are being violated, even though overweight is not a protected class under the legislation. Having unclear definitions of racism causes people to overuse the claim. There are many factors that motivate peoples actions, and it is not always based on race. With no clear-cut definition of present-day racism, the resulting lines are blurred as to what actually constitutes racism in todays society. Without an accepted definition of racism and no clear goals for the improvement of race relations, it is difficult to determine when playing the race card may be beneficial or detrimental to a movement. This unknown result causes internal conflict within the movement itself, preventing it from moving forward. Overall, Fords argument is correct in its assertions. The face of racism today has changed and a new era of race relations has begun. No longer are there overt forms of racism and discrimination, but rather there are more subtle situations affecting race relations in todays society. However, Fords argument is not as simple as post-racism and the race card; there still are societal and structural boundaries and obstacles that African Americans cannot seem to overcome. While legally discrimination and segregation are no longer present, there are still examples of it today. As author Shawn Utsey, et al., argues, there are three forms of racism that still exist today: individual, institutional and cultural racism (2000). Examples of individual racism include racial profiling and the lingering sentiments of the overt racism seen during the Civil Rights Movement. Residential segregation and other societal restrictions constitute institutional racism. Cultural racism refers to the lack of African American influence in mainstream American culture and history. These new forms of discrimination and segregation define the current race relations in contemporary American culture. A contemporary example to which Fords ideas of post-racism and the race card can be applied is the Jena Six incident. There are many incidents which occurred in Jenna, Louisiana, between September to December 2006, which contributed to the belief that racism and discrimination were involved in the Jena events (Newman 2007). The first incident occurred in September, involving nooses hung from a tree at the local high school. As is common at most high schools, certain social groups congregate in specific areas, though not necessarily based on race. At Jena High School, a racially diverse school, a specific tree commonly was known as the white tree. A black freshman asked the principal if he could sit under the tree and the principal assured him that he could sit wherever he wanted. The next day, two nooses were hung from the tree, though the motivations behind the hanging of the nooses were unclear. The students responsible for hanging the nooses were identified and suspended. When the suspensions were announced, the black community of Jena was enraged, insisting that the nooses were a symbol of a threat against the black students of the high school. There were two altercations between white and black students, which some claimed were a result of the events that occurred in September. At a party, five black students attempted to enter a party, but were denied entrance because they did not receive an invitation. An altercation ensued, resulting in a white student being charged with battery. The next day, another altercation occurred outside a convenience store between a white male and three black males, one of which had been involved in the previous altercation at the party the night before. One of the black students was charged with disturbing the peace, second degree robbery and the theft of a firearm. The final event, which ultimately is what led to the national publicity, was an altercation between six black students and one white student, Justin Barker. Barker was badly beaten, but was released from the hospital after three hours in the emergency room. Five of the six black students were charged with attempted second-degree murder, though the charges later were reduced to battery. Mychal Bell originally was charged with aggravated second-degree battery and tried as an adult, but his conviction later was overturned. The five who originally were charged later were convicted of simple battery (Associated Press 2007). Due to the events leading up to the attack on Justin Barker, many consider this to be a result of racial tensions in the town. This was reinforced by the filing of the charge of attempted murder to the Jena Six at the beginning of the trail proceedings, a charge many considered to be racially driven and not fitting to the crime. Many also believe that the all-white jury, which delivered the original guilty verdict against Bell, levied an unfair sentence. While on the surface these events seem to be motivated by racism, the events involving the Jena Six are more of a case of Fords racism without racists. Because the events which occurred in Jena involved both whites and blacks, people assume racism was a determining factor. However, most of the events leading up to the Barker incident were unrelated. Even when considered separately, racism is not the only motivation for the actions which occurred. The tree that was claimed as the white tree by the student body has since been refuted by the faculty and staff at Jena High School. According to later testimonies, students of all races sat under the tree at one point or another. There also was a conflict over the number of nooses which were hung from the tree on the following day, and further investigations revealed that only two were hung, not three, which is believed to be a symbol of the Ku Klux Klan. The nooses, it later was found, were a prank aimed at the rodeo team, not hung as racist symbols. As it later was learned, school administrators cut down the nooses before classes started because students were playing with them in inappropriate manners, not because of some underlying racial context. Following the Jena incident, the United States Justice Department conducted an investigation to determine if the act was in fact a racially-motivated hate crime. It was determined that the hanging of the nooses was an isolated event without lasting racial tensions at the school. As such, there is no direct connection between the events occurring in September and the Barker attack. Each event was separate and unique, yet collectively were made to seem as a cause and effect relationship by the media. Finally, the allegations accusing the all-white jury of delivering a racially-motivated verdict fails to take into account underlying causes. Due to the makeup of the town, there are only a small number of African Americans to select for jury duty. Of those summoned for jury duty, some were African American but failed to report on the day of the trial (Mangu-Ward 2007). The events that occurred in Jena led to one of the largest race riots in recent history. Sensationalized by the medias influence, the case seemed to be a series of events indicating the continued racial tensions of the South. When looking deeper into the facts, a different picture is seen. Instead, each event is isolated and unconnected. The coincidences surrounding the events seem to point to a plot against African Americans, yet the motivations had no racial underpinnings. Throughout American history, racism has played a major role in race relations. Although overt racism has become a lesser focus, examples of racial discrimination and segregation still exist in todays society. The era of post-racism has a new set of issues effecting society and the race relations within it. Until these issues are resolved, true racial equality cannot be attained.

The Concept of Corporate Social Responsibility Essay -- Social Responsi

The Concept of Corporate Social Responsibility With the interest in Corporate Social Responsibility growing, increasing numbers of organisations are incorporating CSR into their business operations in an effort to be seen acting as good corporate citizens, so what is CSR & what is it's role in today's organizations? The term CSR refers to a company?s obligation to maximize its positive impact on society, accommodating changing social, market & stakeholder pressures in an effort to achieve sustainable economic, social & environmental development throughout its operations and activities. CSR puts expectations, continuous improvement & innovation at the heart of business strategies and the four dimensions of social responsibility are generally considered to be economic, legal, ethical & philanthropic. Approaches to CSR are varied and due to the differences in priorities & values across the world, there is no "one size fits all" strategy. Where previously, the role of a socially responsible company was simply to create good will in the community, organisations are now required to take into account the full scope of their impact on communities & the environments in which they work, balancing the needs of stakeholders with the need to make a profit. Although there is no one size fits all strategy, well managed CSR programmes have universal benefits; o Increase Profit o Enhance business competitiveness& opportunities o Maximise value of wealth creation to society o Can improve financial performance & access to capital o Enhance brand image, raise profile & boost sales o Attract & retain quality workforce, o Improve decision-making on critical issues o Helps manage risks & reduce long-term costs o Incre... ...ww.bnet.com www.businessdecisionresources.com www.busmmgt.ac.uk www.ccbriefing.co.uk www.cisweb.org www.corporatecitizenship.co.uk www.dti.gov.uk www.ethicalcorp.com www.eurpoac-eu.com www.eurpopeanenergyfocus.com www.globalchange.com www.managing4value.net www.ncbe.co.uk www.nottingham.ac.uk www.sustainability.com www.knowthis.com www.cim.co.uk www.smallbusinessmarketingplans.co.uk www.mintel.co.uk www.wmrc.com Books Marketing Cooncepts & Strategies Dibb, Simkin, Pride & Feral Kotler on Marketing Philip Kotler Marketing Strategy Sudharshan Mastering Marketing Financial Times The Essence of Services Marketing Adrian Payne Value Based Marketing Doyle Marketing Plans Malcom Macdonald Marketing Principles and Practice Adcock, Bradfield, Halborg, Ross Publications Marketing Week Recruitment & Employment Confederation

Classicism And Romanticism In Sleepy Hallow

Shannon Divine English B block Mrs.. Bernard In the movie The Legend of Sleepy Hollow there are many examples of Classicism and Romanticism. Romanticism meaner imagination over reason, common man important, nature and beauty. Classicism is the opposite of that, it is reason over faith h, fixed laws of humanity and the idea that society and more important than the undivided In the movie many characters and places both have characteristics of both Classicism and Romanticism. In the beginning of the movie Cohabit Crane, one of the main characters, is a PRI example of classicism.Crane is a person who believes in science and facts. When he first entered Sleepy Hollow to investigate the killings, he didn't believe the ghost store SE about the so called â€Å"headless horseman†. He believed there was a reason for everything. He said that the heads of the victims could not have Just disappeared by magic, that the heads have to be somewhere and someone obviously took them. Cranes mothe r also had a big part in showing classicism in the movie. She was not allowed to be free. She believed in witchcraft but Cranes father wouldn't allow it.He didn't believe in it and had a stop to it immediately. The movie also showed classicism by showing how overcrowded the Jails were. This showed how important society was and that society was more important than the individual. Classicism was shown great lay in the beginning of the film. Romanticism was shown greatly in the town of Sleepy Hollow. All of the townspeople believed in the story of the headless horsemen which is an example of romanticism. The headless horsemen shows examples of mystery and strangeness which is what romanticism is.The witch in the cave also was an example of romanticism. It showed invigilation over reason and nature and beauty. The witch, like the headless horses was a spirit from another world. The tree of the dead that the headless horsemen iris up from also shows romanticism. The tree has no reason un like classicism which is filled with reason. Cohabit Crane also changes his views by the ending of the book. H alkalizes that the headless horseman is a spirit and not everything can be proven by science.He came to the conclusion that magic and the supernatural is real. He change De a lot throughout the movie. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow shows that you can have both Classicism and Romanticism together in one movie. It also showed how people can change there believes like Crane did. Classicism was shown more in the beginning of the movie whereas Romanticism was shown at the end of the movie. Romanticism and Classicism m differ greatly but in this movie they contrasted each other.

Piano Concerto in a Major, K. 488

Mozart completed the Piano Concerto in A Major, K. 488, in March 1786 and it is a graceful piece in three movements. It used a small orchestra with two flutes, two clarinets in A, two bassoons, and two horns in A, along with the usual string orchestra. The first movement embodies the form called a â€Å"sonata form with double exposition. † This form is common in concerti and one feature of this form is that the first exposition does not end with a double bar and repeat sign indicating a literal repeat of the exposition.Instead the first exposition is for the orchestra without the soloist, and does not modulate to and conclude in the dominant, but stays in the tonic key throughout. When the soloist enters a second exposition begins which does modulate to the dominant key (or relative major if the work is in a minor key), and the second exposition does indeed cadence in the dominant. The only other variance from a standard (non-concerto) sonata form is the traditional cadenza, which occurs near the end of the recapitulation of the movement. The second theme is presented following a transitional section.In the first exposition it is in the key of A, but in the second exposition it is heard in the dominant key of E Major. This phrase ends with a half cadence, and the following phrase ends with a PAC, creating a double parallel period. The closing theme is more intense in character and features interplay between the winds and strings as well as frequent use of the borrowed subdominant chord. It includes a number of different melodic ideas and concludes with a strong beat PAC in A Major in measure 62. The second exposition begins in measure 67 with the first theme stated by the solo pianist.The major difference in this exposition is the modulation to the dominant key of E Major, which takes place in the Transition section in measures 82-98. This second exposition ends in a surprising way in measure 142 with the half cadence falling on the fourth beat of the m easure and the music abruptly ceasing, creating a dramatic pause that is followed by an entirely new theme, which begins the development section. This new theme is in E Major and provides virtually all of the melodic harmony heard throughout the development section.Following this embellished theme in E Major, the music begins to fragment this new theme and moves into key areas associated with the key of A minor as opposed to A Major. The keys touched on include E minor, C Major, F Major, and D minor. An especially nice passage is found in mm. 170-178. It features the clarinet and flute in a canon based on the ‘new’ theme, while the soloist maintains a running sixteenth note figure. Harmonically it begins in the key of D minor and traces the circle of fifths to a cadence on an E major chord in measure 178.Since E Major is the dominant chord of A Major this initiates a prolongation of the dominant of A Major in measures 178-189. A sort of â€Å"mini-cadenza† occurr ed in 189-198, which leads to the Recapitulation beginning in measure 198. The Recapitulation restates all of the themes heard in the exposition, now all in the key of A Major, with the soloist and orchestra interacting, unlike the first exposition. A particularly long Coda section begins in measure 261 with the reintroduction of the development section’s ‘New’ theme, presented now by the soloist alone, and in the key of A Major for the first time.Like the beginning of the development section, including the dramatic pause, it is followed by the placid restatement of the ‘New’ theme by the orchestra (290). This breaks off though and leads through a series of forte chords to the traditional tonic 6/4 chord paving the way for the cadenza. The cadenza is fundamentally a greatly expanded prolongation of the V chord. Following the cadenza the orchestra enters in a forte tutti statement with material drawn from the closing theme first presented in measure 4 9. A decisive PAC in A Major occurs in m. 309 followed by a prolongation of the tonic chord to the movement’s end.