The Sixth Sense Film Analysis

With a close up of the award, the clip begins with our view of the couple only in reflection of Malcolm’s recent award, which is made to seem meaningless as we can’t read the writing despite it being in centre of the frame. The award is in a red frame. This already seems to be warning to both Malcolm and Anna that danger could be heading their way, especially during the reflected close-up shot of the two. It also makes us wonder why this prop appears slanted on the chair.This suggests that the award is a symbol of danger. Also, the red lighting on the couple from the fire leads us to believe that they are now the central target of a dangerous presence. Which we see in upcoming events. The only sound we hear is diegetic, though its very quiet which gives off a calm atmosphere but may also suggest we should be listening for something. In the shot where the couple are reflected in the frame, we see that she is lower down than him showing the characters importance.00:06:08 A wide shot is used to show the scenery and expensive objects. We can see that they are a wealthy couple through the setting. The large living room has what looks to be expensive furnishings and an ornate fireplace as well as a grandfather clock and chandelier in the equally big hallway. We also can assume this as Malcolm is wearing a jumper with a rowing club logo, something we often associate with richer people. The couple then head upstairs and discover the house has been broken into.The setting suddenly becomes dark and we see Anna’s shadow on the wall, She’s positioned to the right in front of the open window showing a dangerous situation, this is also hinted as her back is turned on the dark room insinuating there may be something lurking in the shadows, which is why the lighting is very low key and dull. We hear some diegetic sound though its rather quiet which helps to change the atmosphere from relaxing to a tense and suspicious one.00:06:41 Malcolm approaches his wife to see what the problem is, with this we get a point of view shot, the camera examines the floor before tracking up to the smashed window, the shot lasts approximately 8 seconds and allows us to take in the situation. The phone on the ground makes a beeping noise similar to the sound of a warning alarm which should be seen as a warning in its self. The noise then dies out which links to Malcolm’s life later in the scene.We can assume this scene is centred around Malcolm as it’s his view we’re seeing from, it’s also his bag we see on the floor sprinkled with shattered glass as well as earlier the winning of the award. 00:06:54 A mid-shot Is used to show Malcolm being protective of his wife. As the couple have now taken off there expensive jackets/cover ups it seems they also lost the power that comes with it. 00:07:08 The camera slowly zooms towards Malcolm and straight cuts back to a point of view shot, as this happens we hear the non- diegetic music increasing the tension.As we see Malcolm begin to move we also hear the faint noise of movement from the intruder, this (as well as the camera shot) is allowing the audience to capture that the intruder is standing in the bathroom. We see in a point of view shot to add tension as well as close ups so the audience can see the expression on Malcolm’s face. Though the distance from the bathroom and the position of Malcolm isn’t far at all 13 seconds pass before we discover who is in the room, the time has been stretched out to cause more tension.00:07:13 The first view we get of the bathroom is of the floor as the shot is still from Malcolm’s point of view, the fact we see the floor before the camera moves up shows that he isn’t confident enough to look straight ahead, the shot then is then zoomed out to create a full body shot. it’s obvious the man we see (Vincent) isn’t mentally stable due to the break in, his body language and the fact he’s took the majority of his clothes off, knowing this Malcolm speaks quietly trying to keep a clam atmosphere.As Vincent moves towards the door we hear the diagetic sound return, we also see Malcolm and his wife are aware of the danger, when Vincent moves closer and Malcolm steps back. 00:09:10 A mid-shot frame is used when Vincent starts to become angry and upset making him unpredictable and therefore more of a risk, the pan across Vincent’s face to allow us to see the emotions and then does the same to Malcolm. Vincents body language also tells the audience how unstable he is, one arm  is ‘protecting’ him throughout, he’s also very closed and shrugged which also gives off the sense of fear.The scene becomes very quiet with the only sound being whispers and crying. 00:09:51 A mid-shot is used as Vincent shoots the gun. High key lighting has been used to show whats going on as it’s done very quickly. The loud gunshot comes as a shock to the audience as it’s been very quiet which adds more shock, within seconds Vincent turns the gun on himself.The camera pans while this happens. Malcolm was shot in his rowing jumper, making it ironic that he was shot right in front of his rowing photo in which they all look happy and full of life. 00:10:27 A crane movement is used to end the scene, the screen then fades black and remains silent for a moment before playing the same non-diegetic music as earlier in the scene. The lighting is very dark and the room is a mess which represents the current situation The sixth sense film analysis With a close up of the award, the clip begins with our view of the couple only in reflection of Malcolm’s recent award, which is made to seem meaningless as we can’t read the writing despite it being in centre of the frame. The award is in a red frame. This already seems to be warning to both Malcolm and Anna that danger could be heading their way, especially during the reflected close-up shot of the two. It also makes us wonder why this prop appears slanted on the chair.This suggests that the award is a symbol of danger. Also, the red lighting on the couple from the fire leads us to believe that they are now the central target of a dangerous presence. Which we see in upcoming events. The only sound we hear is diegetic, though its very quiet which gives off a calm atmosphere but may also suggest we should be listening for something. In the shot where the couple are reflected in the frame, we see that she is lower down than him showing the characters importance.A wide sh ot is used to show the scenery and expensive objects. We can see that they are a wealthy couple through the setting. The large living room has what looks to be expensive furnishings and an ornate fireplace as well as a grandfather clock and chandelier in the equally big hallway. We also can assume this as Malcolm is wearing a jumper with a rowing club logo, something we often associate with richer people. The couple then head upstairs and discover the house has been broken into.The setting suddenly becomes dark and we see Anna’s shadow on the wall, She’s positioned to the right in front of the open window showing a dangerous situation, this is also hinted as her back is turned on the dark room insinuating there may be something lurking in the shadows, which is why the lighting is very low key and dull. We hear some diegetic sound though its rather quiet which helps to change the atmosphere from relaxing to a tense and suspicious one.Malcolm approaches his wife to see w hat the problem is, with this we get a point of view shot, the camera examines the floor before tracking up to the smashed window, the shot lasts approximately 8 seconds and allows us to take in the situation. The phone on the ground makes a beeping noise similar to the sound of a warning alarm which should be seen as a warning in its self. The noise then dies out which links to Malcolm’s life later in the scene.We can assume this scene is centred around Malcolm as it’s his view we’re seeing from, it’s also his bag we see on the floor sprinkled with shattered glass as well as earlier the winning of the award. A mid-shot Is used to show Malcolm being protective of his wife. As the couple have now taken off there expensive jackets/cover ups it seems they also lost the power that comes with it. 00:07:08 The camera slowly zooms towards Malcolm and straight cuts back to a point of view shot, as this happens we hear the non- diegetic music increasing the tensio n.As we see Malcolm begin to move we also hear the faint noise of movement from the intruder, this (as well as the camera shot) is allowing the audience to capture that the intruder is standing in the bathroom. We see in a point of view shot to add tension as well as close ups so the audience can see the expression on Malcolm’s face. Though the distance from the bathroom and the position of Malcolm isn’t far at all 13 seconds pass before we discover who is in the room, the time has been stretched out to cause more tension.The first view we get of the bathroom is of the floor as the shot is still from Malcolm’s point of view, the fact we see the floor before the camera moves up shows that he isn’t confident enough to look straight ahead, the shot then is then zoomed out to create a full body shot. it’s obvious the man we see (Vincent) isn’t mentally stable due to the break in, his body language and the fact he’s took the majority of hi s clothes off, knowing this Malcolm speaks quietly trying to keep a clam atmosphere.As Vincent moves towards the door we hear the diagetic sound return, we also see Malcolm and his wife are aware of the danger, when Vincent moves closer and Malcolm steps back. A mid-shot frame is used when Vincent starts to become angry and upset making him unpredictable and therefore more of a risk, the pan across Vincent’s face to allow us to see the emotions and then does the same to Malcolm. Vincents body language also tells the audience how unstable he is, one armis ‘protecting’ him throughout, he’s also very closed and shrugged which also gives off the sense of fear. The scene becomes very quiet with the only sound being whispers and crying. A mid-shot is used as Vincent shoots the gun. High key lighting has been used to show whats going on as it’s done very quickly. The loud gunshot comes as a shock to the audience as it’s been very quiet which adds mo re shock, within seconds Vincent turns the gun on himself.The camera pans while this happens. Malcolm was shot in his rowing jumper, making it ironic that he was shot right in front of his rowing photo in which they all look happy and full of life. 00:10:27 A crane movement is used to end the scene, the screen then fades black and remains silent for a moment before playing the same non-diegetic music as earlier in the scene. The lighting is very dark and the room is a mess which represents the current situation

Us pivot to asia

The paper strives to present the gradual transformation within the global political scenario where China is perceived as a growing power, while US as a declining power. The study also incorporates the most significant hegemonic theories of Power Transition and Balance of Power. It, furthermore, unfolds the significance of Asia- Pacific and the competition of global powers over the reserves within the South-China Sea. Being China as a threat to US, the paper offers a comparison between US old strategy of containing Soviet's expansion and Its latest strategy of containing China.Moreover, it also presents the implications of US refinancing on such a vulnerable state of Pakistan. Introduction: The recent changes in the global politics and economy have spurred the world powers to do the utmost in furthering their national goals in-order to seek multiple financial gains. The economic hunger and greed have become the defining characteristics of today's powerful states as the Inclination of International community towards Asia-Pacific Is one such example. It has been acknowledged that the one dominating the Asia-Pacific would also be in the position to become a excessive global might.Being Mediterranean Ocean as a concern of the past, Atlantic as merely a topic of the present, the focus of the entire international community has shifted towards the whole new facet I. E. The Asia Pacific . The phenomenal development and growing might of China have not only disturbed America but also Its partner states since a powerful China could only challenge the US global status. Over the last two decades, Washington has remained stuck In Afghanistan and Iraq, thus paving way for China to advance its political influence within the Asia-Pacific.Pivot to Asia†, or more specifically â€Å"US refinancing†, demonstrates the realization of American strategic thinking towards the threat which Beijing poses to Washington not only diplomatically but also economically. Aim: To stud y the US strategy of â€Å"pivot to Asia† In its historical and contemporary perspective so as to draw its Implications on Pakistan. Significance of Asia-Pacific: The significance of Asia Pacific lies in the geopolitical interests of the key powers of the global politics.The Key players which define the politics of the Pacific include US, Japan, China and several smaller regional actors. The years following the financial predicament of 2009 have witnessed some crucial political and strategic changes since the region has become the centre of attraction driving the global politics. The region finds Its Importance In the economic and political concerns of the major global powers since It Is not only strategically vital but also possesses a symbolic meaning.The one dominating it would determine the political and the financial future of the world as the South China Sea (CSS) contains an enormous bulk of natural reserves. Its importance could be deduced from the fact that as high a s two-thirds of the global sets are being deployed within the area thereby, validating the assumption that by 2050 the centre of gravity would unfalteringly shift to the Asia Pacific. Keeping in natural reserves in that area have become the flashlight.The tussle over the gas, oil, fish and the other reserves have provoked the powers, especially US and China, to adopt a belligerent military posture and to stand eye-to-eye before each other. The CSS, being bordered by China, Vietnam, Philippines, Taiwan, Brunet, Malaysia and Indonesia, elongates to approximately 3,500,000 sq/km and enjoys a bulk of oil and as reserves somewhere underneath the oceans. Furthermore, it is also significant to international shipping since about one-third (almost 41 ,OHO ships) of the global shipping passes through it each year.It is also known for its â€Å"Large Marine Ecosystem† having distinctive features of biography, ecology and oceanography. Being a semi-enclosed sea, it possesses a large numb er of Islands having strategic, legal, political and financial worth for the regional and international powers. It holds the world's most desirable sea lanes, while as high as 80% of the total oil imported by he States of Taiwan, Japan and South-Korea travels via this regions. The international business and trade routes are also equally important for the establishment of military bases as for the political gains.The US presence in the Asia-Pacific proves the point as almost half of the US Naval forces are deployed along the region while, the development of Chinese military capabilities within the area demonstrates the aggressive posture of the key players. The detection of the hydrocarbon and the presence of marine resources, on the other hand, have intensified the competition towards seizing the natural resources to such an extent that a small tension could even prompt a war in the region.The sea also enjoys the idiosyncratic feature of bio-diversity having more than 1,000 fish, 20 0 shrimp and 50 chopped species thereby, contributing its major share in terms of food and revenuer. Moreover, much of the exports and economies of the adjacent States are dependent on the fishery goods. These incentives, thus, spur the key stakeholders to lock their horns with each other. The Core Interests of the Major Actors in Asia- pacific: Asia-Pacific enjoys a special position not only as being an emblem of national prestige, ego and identity but also because of its strategic and geographic worth.The key actors involve US, China and Japan. US Interests: The geopolitical and strategic significance of the Asia-Pacific places the United States as the most enthusiastic, keen and yet most powerful competitor in the region. The regional markets have attracted the US by providing exceptional opportunities for trade, business, investment and above all the possibility to get access to the latest and advanced technology. Keeping in view the recent global recession and American economic slump, the US economic recovery heavily relies on exports and its approach to the Asian consumer markets.The region is strategically, economically and politically vital for the US since the CSS region is in its central interests not only to counteract China but also North Korea. The US stakes in the region are not new but dates back to almost two centuries ago starting off with its independence and continues since then. The ultimate defeat of Japan in World War-II introduced America as the only decisive global power, thereby authorizing it to further its leslies and interests throughout the world and especially in Asia-Pacific.With the passage of time, its interests grew deeper and stronger while engaging all possible Washington reckons that the region holds superseding importance while the progressive future of US largely depends on boosting its trade, diplomatic or armed intervention and its presence is vital to guarantee a serene Asia. On strategic grounds, one of the core inten tions of the US, particularly after 9/1 1, is to ensure absolute security for its citizens from extremism. For this very purpose, its defended ores are positioned all-across the region to deal with the menace and to curb the terrorists threatening the very existence of the land.Most importantly, it is also eager to â€Å"balance the power† against the possible rising regional hegemony, China, which is both financially and diplomatically capable of defying the only global hegemony. Such a possible scenario has forced US to strengthen its alliances with Korea, Australia, Japan, Thailand and Philippines to tackle the very concerns 1 . Washington seems to be very active since the furthering of US interests within the region largely depends n Beam's engaged leadership and administration.On political grounds, US have always been a staunch proponent of democracy. Its democratic commitment has forced the government to get engaged into the domestic issues of smaller regional states li ke Philippines. United States is also interested to uphold the status-quo through its continuous diplomatic and armed presence and also through adopting diverse multilateral approaches to advance its agenda of curbing China and also the prevention of WIND proliferation of North-Korea since Washington perceives itself and its allies being threatened by its nuclear capability.China: Claims and Interests China, being a maritime, air and land power, is keen to acquire certain islands within the South-China Sea. Keeping in view China's mounting dependency on fuel, oil and other natural commodities, it has eyes not only on the CSS region but also has established brotherly ties with the states of Central Asia, Middle East and Africa which are rich in mineral and oil resources. Economic boost and internal stability are two core ambitions of China that have led the country to alter the political scenario not only within Asia but beyond.China claims its right on almost the entire CSS egging w here its claims rests on the historical nine-dash line. The claimed areas include â€Å"Sparely Islands†, â€Å"Gulf of Trotting†, â€Å"Hanna Islands† and â€Å"Parcel Islands†13. The rapidly growing food and oil demands have placed China as one of the key stakeholders of Asia-Pacific, thereby making the rest anxious and concerned. Moreover, being the claimant of broad sovereignty over the region, it has drawn a maritime boundary that extends from Taiwan to Philippines, from Malaysia to Brunet while passing along the Shore of Vietnam.Being an emerging power, it has already established its bases possessing a wide array of advanced equipments both in Parcel and Sparely arrears. The international observers view China's historical claims over sovereignty as highly rigid, invalid and rather self-indulgent, while China incessantly insists on simply following the path that was pursued by the West since US has its shares in certain islands of North-Pacific and F rance controlling few areas in South- Pacific. On historical grounds, China reckons that the Hans, Mongols, Munches and Tibetan were Chinese and the areas conquered or ruled by them, thus, belong to he very land.The historical manipulation has been cashed by the Chinese authorities very efficiently and has provoked patriotic and nationalistic sentiments throughout the country, thereby complicating the issue and making it an emblem of of the majestic legacy of China but also the state-owned media and textbooks promote such a reality. History holds a very unique and significant position within the country which could be witnessed through education, media, myths, folklore and research institutions and has been exploited to strengthen China's territorial and maritime assertiveness.Ever since World War-II has ended, China has actively engaged itself in reshaping and restructuring its borders, refining its territorial integrity by using coercion and historical manipulation, renaming certa in islands and imposing its viewpoint on the rest of the stakeholders. The decade of sass's saw several unpleasant clashes amongst China, Vietnam and Philippines while continuous Chinese maritime inspection has led to escalation of tensions and differences. Furthermore, China has been criticized for violating and disrespecting asses law of sea which the country ratified in 1996.China is keen to pursue at least three core objectives in South-East Asia and CSS region. First is the regional integration which is central to its strategy of â€Å"peaceful rise†. The second incorporates the resource competition and control which is not vital to China but also to other claimants. The growing population and demands of the Chinese have fiercely contributed in China's efforts towards guaranteeing resource security. The third includes China's ensured grip and augmented security within the entire region which has made the US septic over its military intentions.Japan's Role: Japan, an Asia n power, is highly septic and concerned about China's galloping power and, therefore, is keen to contribute in US refinancing strategy. The history of Sino- Japanese ties is not encouraging since Tokyo has remained a dominant US ally against communism during Cold-War. The disintegration of USSR put Us-Japan coalition into a more strong partnership and their friendship has longed for over 60 years. Tokyo is interested to play a foremost role in US refinancing against China and enjoys a significant position in the eyes of America thinkers.Emerging China and US Apprehensions: The turning of US to Asia is based on the hypothesis that its eventual competitor would emerge from the States. Ever since then, the policy makers have drawn-out few possible competitors which could become a threat to the US. Amongst the potential regional powers China, Russia, India and Japan took the lead. The policy and defended analysts, then, objectively analyzed their intentions, military and economic goals and deterrence capability against US.Amongst certain defended analysts of early asses, Marshall was the first one to predict China's military and economic boost in the upcoming thirty years. The most probable scenario, according to him, was that rising China and revived Russia would become key challengers to US hegemony. The dramatic emergence of China has not only confronted American imperative interests but also is capable to defy the US global preponderance. Considering this picture, India, being China's immediate neighbor, has been the most rational choice for the US to incorporate it into a worthy alliance.The China's AD (defended, deterrence and development) stratagem has contributed a bunch in its expansion, development and transformation over the past three decades. Its average GAP growth since 1979 has been measured up to 9. 82%. Being the second largest economic might and third largest commodity exporter, it enjoys a significant position both within and beyond its phenomen al military and economic boost has made a number of world economies dependent on Chinese products and services, thus challenging US economic superiority.The military edge of China over other Asian states allows it to have a diplomatic dominance and coercive capability against its perceived peer competitors. Washington is concerned not only over the China's galloping power but also fears its rear denial potential, thereby allowing it to utilize coercion against its neighboring states and gradually shifting the US dominance from the region. The only choice left for US, therefore, is to deter and dissuade China from expanding its might globally, amongst which â€Å"Pivot or refinancing† is one such strategy.China's rising might spawns intersecting interests, contradictory ideologies and dissenting worldviews. Beijing, not only, is advancing its naval capability but also structuring its military on modern grounds which make the other entrants anxious and agitated. Theoretical Fra mework: The US strategy of refinancing remains a hot topic thus, involving the most crucial theories of International Relations (R) including â€Å"Power Transition Theory' and â€Å"Balance of Power Theory' Power Transition Theory: The hegemonic theory of power transition focuses on a rising power that poses challenges to the dominant power.The idea is that the emerging challenger, being disgruntled with the status-quo, starts approaching the potential of the dominant state thereby threatening to transgress it in terms of power. It means that the leading power is facing a decline n its capacity while the rising state takes full advantage of the situation. Moreover, the emerging state is motivated to topple the prevailing system established by the leading state when it was enjoying its global dominance.Such a situation triggers instability and war becomes inevitable for the challenger to hasten the course of power transition. Such a scenario can be witnessed amongst America and Ch ina where America is the dominant state facing tremendous challenges and China as the emerging one. Balance of Power: The theory highlights the significance of power- haring in an anarchic system where an effort is put forward to avoid any possible hegemonic.The hegemonic designs of the aggressor are challenged by those states that believe in â€Å"balance of power† in-order to secure peace and stability. Such a situation can be seen amongst China, US and its allies where China is perceived as possessing hegemonic designs while US and its partner states struggling to balance the power within Asia-Pacific. Pivot to Asia or US Refinancing: â€Å"The future of politics will be decided in Asia, not Afghanistan or Iraq, and the United States will be right at the centre of the action†26.Hillary Clinton While Afghanistan and Iraq were Bush's focal targets, Asia-Pacific remains a central objective of Barack Beam's regime and administration. Though the region has been a tacit t arget for so long, but was acknowledged in November, 2011 during Beam's visit to Australians. He announced the region as US top priority thereby, associating a strategic, deliberate, diplomatic and premeditated stance to it thus, demonstrating that the US would remain there as an influential player for a much longer time.Since then, the high profile authorities and government officials eve openly been voicing their President's political ambitions, thus showing the level â€Å"pivot to Asia† but later was renamed to â€Å"refinancing† since the word â€Å"pivot† shows impermanence and rather implies that there has been a sudden shift in American strategic thinking while before that the region was not too important for the country. The enduring interests of United States have engaged it with the region for over two centuries.The non-governmental players including media, traders, and academics e. T. C. Have boosted the regions significance for the country and have been belly engaged in obstructing powerful positive and rather productive US-Asian liaison. Since US possesses a notable majority of immigrants, millions of settlers from Asia-Pacific can be found within the country, thereby getting benefited from American capitalist society while remaining attached to their mother homelands. The regimes of both former presidents G. W.Bush and Bill Clinton were largely focused on the crisis situation of Spooks, Iraq, Bosnia, Somalia and later Afghanistan. President Clinton, however, took a few steps towards normalizing the US ties with the other Asian actors including Vietnam, but he was more interested in deterring and also engaging China. At least four core reasons have been provided regarding US turn to Asia-Pacific; the first acknowledges the most palpable transition period where the country has to line-up its future strategic and diplomatic priorities while considering the US departure from Iraq and Afghanistan.Secondly, the recent budgetary cu ts call for the urgency to lay before the table the country apex concerns in-order to eschew those policies which could transgress the budget. The hired motive encounters the ascending economic and military significance of Asia- Pacific since the region has been marked as a defining feature of the century ahead, thereby deciding the fate of human kind. The fourth impetus, which is perhaps the mother of all, underlies the China's rising might and its â€Å"perceived threat† to US.Curtailing or countering China is the fundamental objective that has prompt America to adopt such a policy. The US worries about China's phenomenal growth both militarily and economical, its anti-denial and anti-access (AH/AD) potential and its growing ties with regional peers. It has been keenly involved in strengthening its strategic alliances including Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippines, Australia, Singapore and Indonesia thus, enclosing China from all angles. The allies are being supported and de fended by US forces whenever they anticipate any danger from China.For example, in 1996, President Clinton sent two battle groups aircrafts to Taiwan when it was provoked against a serious Chinese threat. International observers have argued that the Washington's aggressive posture and continuous presence in the region demonstrates the approaching new era of assertiveness and â€Å"containment† against China. Serious concerns have been raised throughout China in opposition to the refinancing strategy of US. To many defended and political analysts, the strategy is aimed against Beijing to contain its â€Å"peaceful rise† and to trigger insecurity within the region.Washington is interested to strengthen its influence and to maintain its global dominance; therefore, it refers the â€Å"pivot or refinancing† approach as a general strategy targeting the entire globe and not specifically China. Towards Refinancing: It has been acknowledged that the refinancing strategy is actually refinancing the ruder of security in Asia since the policy holds a burden-sharing feature aimed at budgetary cut and being stuck in other global crisis, Washington is persuading its alliances to do the utmost to protect their lands while assuring them support in case of any assault from the Chinese side.In fact, refinancing is a deliberate shift from wars of Africa and Middle East to maritime disputes in East-Asia. US have decided to keep itself focused while deploying an enormous amount of its assets and resources in CSS and Asia-Pacific. A lot of American combat ships, destroyers, submarines and raisers can be found while having military bases in almost all allied states. Washington is keen to have its influence in Hawaii and Guam and also to conduct a training program of over 2000 marines in Australia, its trustworthy ally.It would not only permit the US to enjoy â€Å"freedom-of-navigation† but would also enable it to counter Chinese (AH/AD) capabilities with in the region. However, the budgetary cuts have imposed restrictions on engaging more troops and weaponry. Amongst the other ambitions of Beam's regime lies extensive investment in Asia to line-up the country resources with long-term financial interests. The attraction is the Asian markets which could produce Jobs in the US and could help recover the slumped economy. The key is the regional stability where Washington's continuous role is required to tackle any aggression.A lot of time is being spent by the US government, armed and naval officials in Asia that demonstrates how much focused they are on the very region. The engagement of Washington with SEAN countries and its eagerness to participate in SEAN summits each year signal its enthusiasm of being a decisive player of the region. It is interested both in assuring its military resent and cooperation not only amongst its allies but also with China since the latter's assistance is much needed to uphold the status-quo.Moreover, th e SEAN countries require â€Å"balance of power† within the region while their alliance with US is a major step towards refinancing against China's might. Towards Refinancing: Elements and Objectives The rebalanced remains a multi-faceted, extensive and rather much celebrated policy initiative. Politically speaking, three elements of US refinancing strategy have been figured out that includes defended, financial and diplomatic aspects. L. Security Aspect: The recent adjustments in the US defensive posture reveal the importance of the element of security for the only global hegemony.Washington is aggressively shifting its extensive military potentials from other targets to one platform that encompasses the entire Asia-Pacific region thus, reshuffling its defensive arrangements to ensure a much broader presence of the US armed forces to counter any possible belligerence. This incorporates the highly sophisticated military dispersion in Philippines and Australia and also to othe r regional allies, thereby guaranteeing an enhanced coercive amalgamation within the region. II.Financial Aspect: The refinancing strategy also involves an intention to enhance trade and economic schemes amongst the US and its partners in-order to foster a trustworthy environment. For this purpose, an idea of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TAP), a free-trade accord, has been put forward that currently contains US and eleven other players but excludes China. Moreover, the financial aid to Asia-Pacific allies has also been doubled. Ill. Diplomatic Aspect: The pivot has witnessed heightened diplomatic and military engagement of US high-profile officials in Asia-Pacific.The agenda involves monitoring US-China hostility and promoting trust-building cooperation amongst the two global giants. Keeping into account the US stakes in the region, a number of objectives compliant with American strategic concerns have been drawn out. The central intention, as discussed earlier, is balancing and count ering China while the other objectives revolve around it. L. Constructing a Sense of Justification: Since Washington is currently preoccupied in War-on-Terror, it requires a good reason to pull out its resources from the other regions to Asia-Pacific.The recent phenomenal mom of China has provided US that Justification where it feels itself bound to balance and to defend the land from any aggression. II. Strengthening Alliances: Another objective places the strengthening and reinforcing the strategic alliances as the foremost goal of the US. The idea is to reassure the Asian partners its presence whenever they feel threatened especially by China. Ill. Peaceful Resolution of Regional Disputes: The non-violent resolution of Asian disputes is in the American core interests.The US is very much concerned regarding the solution of China- Taiwan tension and Korean Peninsula. It is keen to imply diplomatic efforts to ensure regional securities. Another objective involves the denationalizati on and non- proliferation of North-Korea in-order to guarantee peace and protection. ‘V. Incorporating Rising Powers: Another objective involves the integration of emerging China into contemporary global order. Keeping into consideration China's economic and military boost, it is vital for the US to make Beijing act as a mature and responsible regional stakeholder. V.Multilateral Commitment and Tackling Non- Traditional Dangers: The strategic alliances are the building-blocks for collaboration against security threats faced by the region whether it be extremism, dangers from climate change, infectious diseases, nuclear proliferation or natural calamities. Such an alliance provides a basis for trust-building and cooperation to tackle Chinese rise. US Refinancing: â€Å"Hub-and-spoke† Vs. â€Å"Spoke-to-spoke† Strategy Washington perceives itself as a decisive and dominant Pacific might where the major part of its foreign policy revolves around shielding and protec ting Eurasia from any possible aggressor.The Beam's â€Å"pivot to Asia† is merely a reflection of American obsession with the region. Moreover, the resultant upshot of World War-II paved way for an undeviating armed presence of US within and around the Asia-Pacific. The US grand strategy involves two options I. E. Over tactics and over posture. These strategic options enable the US to either espouse a forward military posture by having its global premeditated bases or to engage selectively with discerning partner states in pursuit of its national interests.The desertion of Soviet Union had placed China as the only adverse competitor for Washington, a military giant against which America evaluates itself both economically and militarily. In fact, Beijing is powerful enough to give a considerably tough time to the only super power over the upcoming couple of decades since its defended budget and GAP is likely to surpass those of Americana. Moreover, assessments confirm that as compared to Nazi Germany or Soviet Union, China is a more challenging and highly capable antagonist having the potential to compete US economic boost.Though Beijing believes in â€Å"peaceful rise† but the threat of a serious clash amongst the two strategic giants remains high as Washington is much concerned over China's growing strengths. The upcoming 30 to confront the Chinese interests. US, therefore, crave to curb China before such a scenario occurs. For the very purpose, US is eager to conduct Air-Sea battle possessing the potential to hit deep inside the Chinese terrain in-order to perturb China's AH/AD aptitude. It is not only politically acrid but also militarily precarious. Hub-and-spoke† Strategy: Containing Soviet Union and Defeating Communism The cessation of World War-II had witnessed some crucial changes within the political environment especially the metallization of â€Å"hub-and-spoke strategy', a US grand sign to assemble alliances throughout the glo be to guard its immediate interests against any challenger. The only perceptible contender at that time was Soviet Union, former USSR. The â€Å"hub-and-spoke design† acquiesced America to create close bilateral diplomatic and military links with core allies to offer effective deterrence against Soviet rise in Asia.The strategy involved a chain of Joint defended agreements devised at the peak of Cold War with allied states. Three of such treaties were signed in 1951, where the first one involved Philippines while the second incorporated a relater agreement amongst US, New Zealand and Australians. The third entailed a bilateral agreement between US and Japan that enabled America to have its military bases for defensive measures within Japanese territory. Thailand, South Korea and Taiwan also followed the suit. These defended treaties provided security assurance by America against Soviet's threat.The â€Å"hub-and-spoke† strategy, also known as San- Francisco system, had defined the US presence in Asia-Pacific since sass's. The salient characteristics of this system included Intense network of mutual alliances Nonexistence of multilateral defended structures A strong lop-sidedness in alliance relation both in economy and security Special preference to Japan Easy access to US markets Similar to â€Å"pivot to Asia†, the alliances were framed to balance the perceived risk against the then US competitor, USSR.The formulation of SEATS (South-East Asia Treaty Organization) back in 1954 was an evident demonstration of the said strategy where eight states signed the agreement for mutual defended against communist states of USSR and China. The member states incorporated Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, France, United States and United Kingdom. The ore focus during the entire Cold War rested on shared defended against global communism, particularly against Soviet Union since the political upshot of World War-II reinforced the competition between East versus West.The obvious differences in the strategic thinking and contradictory interests brought the US and Soviet Union at the verge of war. Being a capitalist society, America felt itself threatened by communist expansion and the growing capability of USSR. However, as compared to today's mighty China, Soviet Union despite of its broad presence in Asia was militarily lesser a Pacific power than the ISSUE. The USSR-China rivalry, on the other hand, provided further political advantage to Washington and its strategic allies to overpower the Soviet Union in Cold War.Consequently, the â€Å"hub-and-spoke† strategy, by having America as the leading hub while the rest of the allied state as the Spokes, remained the key aspect of security design within Asia-Pacific. Similar to what the world has witnessed during the Cold War, American strategic thinking has yet again turned towards another Asian competitor, China. However, the Washington's containment pol icy has altered to some extent since the approach is Ewing transposed into a more disbursed alliance system marked as â€Å"Spoke-to-spoke† strategy.Keeping in view its financial condition, America is encouraging its partners to share its burden of safeguarding Asia. Increased global military trade, armed exercises and training with different stakeholders could be seen within the region to build the ability to challenge Chinese might. US is not only facilitating its regional allies to develop their own defensive system but also provoking them to cooperate with each other in an effort towards opposing China.The term â€Å"Spoke-to-spoke† refers to the new strategy that focuses on â€Å"Spokes† and to the â€Å"Hub†; America, being the facilitator and inciter, leads its alliances to cooperate with itself and amongst each other in-order to share the load of balancing China's rise. Being highly anxious over China's power, Tokyo is playing the dominant role in furthering this containment policy and has established closer ties with various states. Moreover, Japan is enthusiastically involved in developing strategic links especially with Philippines and Vietnam, two extreme regional opponents of China.Similarly, Vietnam is also building good strategic ties with Washington to offset Chinese might. Australia, in 2012, has conducted military exercises with Japan thus, collaborating in maritime affairs. South-Korea, on the other hand, is strongly committed to Join hands with US to contribute a leading role in criticizing the region. Though American leaders often reject it, but US military has maintained an aggressive posture devised with an intention to bring China's maritime commerce at jeopardy. Its armed forces are placed in such a way that could intimidate Beijing supply lines in CSS region thus threatening Chinese economy.Keeping into count China's reliance on sea-lines, Washington is keen to exploit this dependency by provoking its allia nces while Beijing historical territorial tensions with its neighboring states has put China on a relative disadvantage. America has its strategic bases in almost every partner state. As more as 100,000 US military personnel are deployed in both South-Korea and Japan while 2500 submarines are present in Australia. Likewise India, China's genuine Asian competitor, has also partnered with Washington in-order to challenge Chinese rise. US is interested in containing China from all dimensions through alliance structure.Having the most powerful Navy, America enjoys good working ties with regional opponents of China thus maintaining defended pacts with five Asia-Pacific powers. However, the alliances are not only formulated to contain China but also are helpful in curbing global terrorism. The significant aspects of the containment strategy include; a symmetrical network aimed at refinancing the defended burden in Asia-Pacific, introduction of multilateral defended structures like SEAN e. T. C, broadening the scope of defended relations between Washington and allied partners and Preference to each regional ally .

Course project Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Course project - Assignment Example and emblems on baby clothing that creates that old fashioned feeling and make it a distinct legacy that will be passed on from one generation to the next. In line with pull marketing, I will utilize a lot of advertising to boost consumer desire for the product. Aside from traditional advertising in print and visual media, I plan to make use of the Internet. Open Forums, Blogs, Twitter and social forums is the best way to let a lot of people know of my business. Creating my own web page would lead them to my store with one click. I can post pictures of my products. My target clientele of moms busy at work or those already waiting for the big day at home can easily contact me and even place orders through my website. This manner of reaching to the buying public and conducting business on-line is a part of eCommerce: Another part of eCommerce that can prove beneficial and advantageous for me is that I can make direct orders from suppliers. This is a fast, efficient and economical way to place orders and purchase at wholesale from suppliers anywhere abroad. This is also cost effective since there are no â€Å"middle men† who adds costs to the base price of manufacturers. These manufacturers are also doing their wholesale sales on line: DhGate provides over 3,000,000 products from verified wholesalers from China; B2B offers branded items from Italy; while GlobalSources showcases credible manufacturers and wholesale suppliers.iii They can even facilitate faster delivery of the merchandise directly to my customers. They will wrap the item in my stores name and send it to my customers’ home at no extra charge. This service is called â€Å"dropshipping.†iv There are other benefits that I have yet to uncover. As of now, I can say that eCommercev can contribute a lot to the success of my

Marketing a consumer organization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Marketing a consumer organization - Essay Example It began as an effort to help eleven Japanese-American children they had found wandering the streets of Japan as outcasts and orphans, victims of their bi-racial makeup, a cultural taboo. After successfully relocating these orphans, word spread and before they knew it they were instrumental in helping over one hundred such orphans find new homes and new lives. Between 1960 and 1964 they were directly involved in founding nine orphanages, a school as well as a hospital in both Japan and Vietnam. In 1974-75 the organization assisted thousands of orphans that were rescued during "Operation Baby Lift" and brought to the United States for adoption. In 1976 the organization changed its name to "Childrens Village USA." Then in 1978 the organization created a center called The Village of Childhelp West in Beaumont, California and officially became known as Childhelp (Childhelp 2007). The focus of the agency from that time is captured in its Mission Statement: "Childhelp ® exists to meet the physical, emotional, educational, and spiritual needs of abused, neglected and at-risk children. We focus our efforts on advocacy, prevention, treatment, and community outreach" (Childhelp 2007). They have several regional locations in Arizona, Atlanta, California, Michigan, North Carolina, San Diego, Tennessee, Virginia and the Washington DC Area. However their outreach and information and assistance programs transcend the traditional boundaries. Furthermore, their web site allows them to assist people in all parts of the world. Additionally, the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline (1-800-4-A-CHILD) which began in 1982 has received over two million calls since its inception: These calls come from children at risk for abuse, distressed parents seeking crisis intervention and concerned individuals who suspect that child abuse may be occurring. The Hotline is also a valuable resource for those who are mandated by law to report suspected abuse, such as school personnel,

Careers Management in Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Careers Management in Business - Essay Example It also seeks to analyse how graduates aim to get over some of the challenges going to be discussed below. An analysis of the volatile economy will also be undertaken and the last part of the paper sums up the main points discussed. Basically, a career can be defined as a pattern of work and work related to activities that people develop throughout a lifetime (World Book Encyclopedia, 2008). It includes a job or a series of jobs a person has until retirement. In most cases, it can be observed that careers vary greatly in the type of work involved and in the ways they influence a person’s life. Many careers are based on work for pay and they usually shape the type of lifestyle a person can lead. Of notable concern is the fact that tertiary qualifications usually obtained by graduates often shape their lifetime careers. However, it may not be very easy for the graduates to easily get their dream jobs as they often face numerous challenges during their studies like failing to get places to do their internship or to secure permanent employment after completion of their respective degrees. In as far as the aspects of internship and employment are concerned, it can be noted that the employer plays a significant role in creating the opportunity and climate for full development of the student such that his or her capabilities are optimally utilised (Nelson, 2002). The main advantage of this aspect of internship or in-service training is that the student is given the opportunity to experience the actual environment of their chosen careers before entering into them. This allows for a realistic assessment of the expectations and understanding of the employer’s requirements. It can be noted that the volatility of the economy has a bearing on the students’ endeavours to pursue their careers as a result of different factors going to be analysed below. Due to the emergence of the borderless economy as a result of globalisation, it can be observed that tre nds in the global economy have a bearing on the performance of economies of different countries as well as the respective organizations operating in such environments. Over the past two decades, it can be noted that the size of the global village has rapidly shrunk as a result of the massive advances in information and technology (Venter, 2003). Investors are often seen moving to developing countries given that globalisation sought to liberalise trade and investment opportunities in different countries by various multinational companies as a result of the emergency of the borderless economies. However, the extent of employment creation through globalisation strongly hinges on the competitive edge of the economic policies of the host countries. If these are not in tandem with the dictates of globalization, the host country can fail to attract investors which results in limited chances of employment creation for new graduates. Given such a scenario, competition among the graduates can be seen to lead to shortages of employment as well as internship vacancies for these people. The volatility of the global economy can also pose serious challenges to organizations which may be forced to retrench rather that employ new workers. For instance, the global economic crisis that recently gripped the world resulted in many multinational com

Global Strategies to Eliminate Hunger Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Global Strategies to Eliminate Hunger - Essay Example According to the World Food program (2013), food security is a situation where a household has access to food for consumption. Most developed countries such as the United States of America, and China have highly invested in ways to ensure availability food supply to their population (Shapouri, 2010). They ensure that their household s do not live in fear of starvation. Finances have been channeled to projects and researches to help in the production of better strains of agricultural products. Technologically, laboratories and other research institution have been issued with state of the art technology to provide hybrids for most crops. This ensures food security, which involves storage of surplus foods in case of any risks. These risks involve economic meltdowns, natural disasters, and wars. Storage of surplus foods for the future ensures a country’s self-sufficiency (Shapouri, 2010). On the other hand, developing and non-developed countries have also started initiatives and p rograms to help increase food production (Lawrence, Lyons & Wallington, 2010). This has been implemented through financial and technological help from the already developed countries. However, even with this set initiatives, there have been increased cases of hunger and starvation. This is mostly evident in third world countries. Efforts to guarantee food security in most countries have had several setbacks irrespective of increased technological know-how and financial aids. ... For example, in Sudan, conflicts in Darfur region have lasted for a decade and led to displacements of millions of people. This has led to demand for extra food since the camps are in non-productive area. In some situations during war, the enemy may destroy the food reserves to cause defeat. To eradicate hunger in this situation, avoiding wars may prevent hunger since individuals will invest in other ideas to increase food production. Wars and civil conflicts may lead individual governments to channel more funds into purchasing armory and paying military (Peacock, 2012). In case wars are stopped, the funds could be used to invest in new and advanced ways of agricultural production. Moreover, global peace facilitate efforts geared to eradicate hunger rather than countries seeking to advance war ammunitions. Increased diseases such as HIV Aids, cancer, malnutrition have also contributed to cases of hunger and starvation (Lawrence, Lyons & Wallington, 2010). These diseases are mostly fo und in under developed countries due to poverty. Deaths from the diseases lead to loss of labor that provides psychical and mental work force in agricultural farms. In counties such as those in Africa, there are higher mortality rates due to the increased spread of HIV Aids, which leave most of the children as orphans. With increased medical bills, there are reduced funds to purchase and invest in food security. This increases the rates of hunger and starvation in these countries. The economies also suffer a fall in the countries’ Gross National Product due to increased funds being allocated health services. Focusing on how to reduce mortality rates due to major diseases will lead to an increased and strong work force. Investing in agriculture with the labor force will increase the

The Human Edge Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Human Edge - Essay Example This is done by reducing the effects of the bad mutation on human species. For example, there is a treatment of PKU with a diet with low levels of phenylalanine (Palca 1). This means such individuals can reproduce and thus pass the defective genes to the subsequent generation. This makes it difficult to eliminate defective genes in the population. On the other hand, human beings have made advances in science that helps in overcoming disadvantageous mutations. For example, the problem of poor eyesight has been resolved by wearing eyeglasses, and contact lenses (Palca 1). This helps in overcoming problems faced by the ancestors. Consequently, man has managed to defy nature as he can routinely repair, remove or even insert genes on people. The characteristics have given the â€Å"Human Edge† in different ways. First, the ability of the human to modify the conditions provided a favorable way to have the â€Å"Human Edge†. This is because as the environment became unfavorable, human managed to change it to make it favorable for survival. This gave human an advantage as compared to other species and hence managed to survive and reproduce. On the other hand, other species were exterminated due to poor environment. This means they failed to produce and have subsequent generations. Second, the ability to maintain harmful mutations helped in reproducing without elimination of the species. This is because if defective genes are not regulated, they lead to eradication of species. However, human has managed to overcome this through the development of science. He can establish a specific gene that pose a risk to survival and adopts ways of minimizing risks. Therefore, human can survive even in the presence of a def ective gene in the population. The other thing that gives human a competitive advantage is the ability to overcome deleterious mutation. This is because unhealthy mutation makes one not

MICRO PORTFOLIO TASK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

MICRO PORTFOLIO TASK - Essay Example The six large producers have equal share of market demand and they have successfully threatened the entry of other firms in the industry. According to the viewpoint of the researcher, the firms in the above market are in an Oligopolistic market structure. In this type of a market structure, there are two to ten sellers in the industry. The price and output decisions undertaken by each firm is on the basis of strategic behaviour. In this type of a market structure, each of the above six firms have the power to influence the market demand. This means that each firm undertakes the decision about the prices and the quantity of output to be produced on the basis of the assumption of the business decisions undertaken by the other potential rivals in the market. However, it would be interesting to note that degree competition in the above mentioned Oligopolistic market is zero. The six large firms in the above case are enjoying equal market share and hence, equal profit. This means that the firms have undertaken the decision of Cartel in the Oligopolistic market structure. ... However, on the whole, the market demand curve is downward (Manne, 2012). Figure 1: Profit of Each Firm (Source: McEachern, 2012) The above graph shows the equal profit shared by each of the firm. Cartel in the Oligopolistic market structure which occurs when the nature of the product sold by each of the firm is less differentiated. In the above case, all the firms are engaged in the production of less differentiated cereals. The Herfindahl index is the index that measures the size of each of the firms in a particular industry and comments on the level of existing competition in there. It is calculated by the sum of the squares of the market shares by each of the firm in the industry. An increase in the value of the index indicates a fall in the level of competition on the industry and a rise in the level of market power. The value of Herfindahl index for the above concerned case: Where, N= number of firms on total. So, i = 1 to 16 (6 large and 10 small). S =market share of each firm . H= (0.152+0.152+0.152+0.152+0.152+0.152) + (0.012+0.012+0.012+0.012+0.012+0.012+0.012+0.012+0.012+0.012) = 0.136 (13.6%) The value of the Herfindahl index for the above market (13.6) indicates a high degree of market concentration among the six large firms. Under such a situation if the market shares of any of the six large firms decrease or increase then the value of the index would be increasing substantially. This is the reason for which the firms in the industry have adopted the decision of Cartel in the market (Riley, 2012). (c) It has been analyzed that the level of concentration among the firms in the above industry is high. Only six firms in the industry have occupied about 90% of the aggregate market share. On

The divine life ventures Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The divine life ventures - Research Proposal Example The Divine Life Ventures Research Proposal Dreams are never dependent upon eyes, rather they are born by the visions. We, in TDL Ventures believe in this and it is the core objective behind setting up this organization. In order to convert this idea into reality, we intend to conduct a research so that we would be able to assess our internal and external factors that will be expected to help us out in making this non-profit organization a success.Importance of Research Selection of a correct research approach is of vital nature, as the chances of success are so much dependent on this. A correctly used research method will enable us to have an exact picture of the future structure. Therefore, we it is inevitable for an organization to have a correct measure or use a suitable research approach to ascertain about the certain important current and future factors of the business. An organization, whether commercial or non-profit, is always formed by believing on some assumptions. For bein g successful, these assumptions need to be realistic and practical. Mostly, the research work provides a framework for these assumptions, therefore, research approach is always unavoidable. Research Approach For the desired purpose, we will use exploratory research. The reason is, there is not so much work available to be used as reference for this unique idea. However, we will refer to some secondary sources of data as well, but that would be very limited, only to the extent of taking some guideline for a particular direction in research. Our research will help us out in finding some new ways to do something for the blind or visually impaired people. Their needs, wants and ways of recreation will be explored by this exclusive study. Moreover, by knowing them from the inner, we would also be able to address their problems in a better way and this is the purpose of this study and of course, the objective of formation of this organization. Let’s discuss how this approach and th e intended research will validate the basic strategic tools of our organization in for future. Vision, Mission and Values Vision statement states what a company looks to be in a long term scenario. Therefore, as we at TDL wants to touch the heights in order to provide best services to our handicapped users without getting a single penny profit over our investments. Therefore, through this exploratory study, we will definitely be finding out ways how to explore new ways to do all this. Mission is somewhat what we want to do by our organization. So it is also very clear that we want to provide best services like transportation, leadership training and personal development so that they could make their own status in society and could spend their lives as a normal man does. Lastly, we can also strive to translate our core values in a more meaningful way by exploratory study and the conduct of research. Defining the target market is not a big deal, but finding out new and better ways to serve them is the matter of great consideration. As the chances of improvement are always there in the quality, lead time and magnitude of the future need. So the question for analysis is, HOW CAN WE ESTABLISH OURSELVES AS A BEST SERVICE PROVIDER FOR THE HANDICAPPED, BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED PERSONS? Answer of this question is revealed through the following lines. Internal Environment Analysis Internal environment analysis in research can include the discovery of new and improved infrastructure, minimization of turnaround time, trained and well equipped staff, modern machinery, state of the art software, latest researches equipped library, a separate and effective research and development department and a visionary leadership at all the departments and across the beard in organizational hierarchy. External environment Analysis External environment is also very important as far as some analysis for a newly established non-profit organization is

Specialty Demos Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Specialty Demos - Essay Example The patient information comes from different areas of care including laboratory investigations, diagnosis, pharmaceutical and nursing services. As a result, the data entry in an oncology EHR can be done and accessed by only the medics, pharmacists, laboratory technicians, and nurses within a given setting of care. Thus, it is a hospital system that combines multiple systems from different departments making the clinical documentation complex. On the contrary, the NextGen Ambulatory EHR is designed for use in ambulatory settings (www.nextgen.com). It is an ongoing collection of patient medical records of care over an extended period for the disease management and prevention. The patient information is internal to the practice as opposed to the oncology hospital EHR where many people share information. In addition, the NextGen Ambulatory EHR is web-based, does not require accreditation to be adopted and can be accessed anywhere. Despite the differences, some aspects such as privacy and security standards are required for both the HER

Communicating change Essay Example for Free

Communicating change Essay When an organization is undergoing changes, the management must communicate to employees to ensure they support the decision. Changes in an organization may cause conflicts especially when all stakeholders are not aware the new aspects to be adopted. To communicate to employees about the changes when an organization is relocating to another state requires the managers to provide the strategies being adopted to safeguard the interests of employees. The management should consider the welfare of the employees by maintaining the employees while the organization is undergoing change. When an organization relocates its operations from one region to another, the management should support the employees to understand the new systems. Management strategies should be changed to match the current needs of the employees (Burke, 2002). When changes are communicated to employees, they may react to support or reject the new policies. When employees accept change, the management should change its management style by adding more opportunities to improve their morale. When employees reject change, the management should adopt a persuasive strategy where they will influence them to adopt the new policies. Some changes may be compulsory for the management to implement and in such cases, there is no option but to influence employees accept the new strategies. Managers should interact with employees to determine their needs so as to implement acceptable strategies. Teams within the organization should be created to create synergies among the employees during the change process. Team leaders should be elected to support other employees. All members of the organization should hold a general staff meeting to discuss about the new systems to be adopted. The organization should be prepared to provide resources to employees to relocate to the new offices. For example, the costs of carrying out the entire process can be covered by the management (Burke, 2002). Reference Burke, W. W. (2002). Organization change: theory and practice. ISBN 0761914838, Sage.

Gender equality and Islam

Gender equality and Islam CHAPTER I Introduction Introduction Nowadays, in most of the time, whenever we consider about Islam, we immediately visualize suicide bombing, jihad, terrorism, violent protests, repressive regimes and veiled women in the Middle East. That means we, unknowingly, have a sense of negative feelings towards Islam world. Especially when we think about a muslin woman, we almost always think they are the victims who are suffering from gender discrimination, inequality and injustice. However, since my young age, whenever I found and met with muslin female friends, almost all of them are happy, friendly and peaceful and so I came to have doubts about the existence of gender inequality within muslin society. Especially when I started to study the course named Gender, Labor and Human Rights, I begin to have lots of questions on gender inequality issues in Islam world. This makes me to read a lot of books, papers and journals concerning gender problems in muslin countries. Therefore, in this paper, I try to make the analysis of ge nder inequality issues in Islam world. In my opinion, it is very important to know about another religion and culture properly and, otherwise, we can make wrong judgments on another religion and we can even make wrong accusation and improper insults on them. First of all, before we criticize any religion or any culture, we should remember what is written in Article 18 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. (UN 1948) Therefore, we must respect their religion and, at the same time, we have to try to find ways to attain third Millennium Development goal which states Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women. Generally, it is mostly assumed that gender equality has been present in western countries long time ago. However, it is important to note that, until a hundred years ago, Western women had virtually no rights in law or practice. It means gender inequality has been in place for quite a long time not just in Muslim world, but also in a lot of countries around the world. However, when we look into the Quran, it can be seen that Islam gave far-reaching rights and a defined status to women before the first European woman suffragette. Therefore, the general assumption of the presence of gender inequality in Islam cannot be correct and so we do need to find out why gender discrimination came into existence in Muslim world and how we can help and bring gender equality for Islamic women. Therefore, in my paper, I will try to explore and analyze what caused gender discrimination to be present in Muslim world and examine whether is it is possible attain gender equality goal within the framework of Islam religion. Before I mention my analytical framework, I would like to describe seven types of gender inequality which is stated by Amartya Sen. He differentiated and categorized gender inequality into seven different forms such as mortality inequality, natality inequality, Basic facility inequality, special opportunity inequality, professional inequality, ownership inequality and household inequality (Sen 2001). It would be perfect if I can go into details in these seven issues and check whether it is prevalent and how intense it is in Muslim world. However, because of the limitation of time and space here, I will analyze based on four perspectives namely economic, educational, health and political perspectives, using two case studies on Tunisia and Indonesia. Finally, I will try to answer how gender equality could be achieved in Muslim World. Background Information of Islam What is Islam? The very word Islam translates from Arabic as submission or obedience (to the will and laws of Allah as set down in the Quran) and the word Muslim, with the same Arabic root, means that person or thing which obeys Allahs law. (Horrie and Chippindale 2001) One of the key institutions of Islam is the Islamic law (Sharia). The Sharia is derived from the Quran and Hadith the texts that record the sayings and practice of the prophet, which have been compiled over a century after the death of the prophet Mohammad (Starken 2005). In fact, when we look back into the history, it can be found that Islam, Judaism and Christian religions have quite close relations in the past, but, now, they have been quite different in their contents and beliefs. Whatsoever, it is not a deniable fact that those muslin countries in the Middle East did possess a glorious time in the past. Since 622AD (CE) when Islam was founded, this Religion has been spreading all over the world and, now, the number of Islam believers reached 1.5 billion in 2005. It became the second largest religion after Christianity and it is still growing at 19%. Additionally, throughout evolution over time, Islam has been differentiated into several categories. In certain ways, Muslims are the same everywhere, and yet their societies are different everywhere. Confronted by the wide range and diversity of Muslim societies, the present generation of writers suggests their categorization thus: Moroccan Islam, Pakistani Islam, Malay Islam and so on. (Ahmed 2002) Nowadays, at the time of globalization, Islam religion has been questioned by the west whether this religion is against human rights or not. At the same time, gender discrimination issue also becomes a very controversial topic for Islam among international scholars. CHAPTER II Islam and Gender Islam and Gender equality According to the global gender gap index 2009, it can be found that most Middle East and North Africa region countries not only continue to perform far below the global average, but also do not show much improvement over the last year or have deteriorated with the exceptions of Israel, Bahrain, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, each of which has improved as compared with their absolute scores in 2008. (Hausmann et al. 2009). Moreover, out of 134 countries, the countries which got the least overall gender index score are mostly from Muslin countries, with Yemen at the bottom. In addition, we generally perceived that muslin women are denied a number of basic human rights under Islam, which range from the requirement of a guardian to enter a marriage to the obligation of the wife to obey her husband (Starken 2005). Additionally, we are hearing lots of stories about how women were set at a lower standard and bullied by muslin men and so we are nearly blaming Islam religion and Prophet Muhammad. However, when we really want to understand the whole situation as an unbiased analyst, we must be very careful in criticizing another religion. When we look into Quran, we can find that the basic premise of Quran is that women are spiritually and morally equal to men. In one verse, the Quran states: The Believers, men And women, are protectors, One of another: they enjoin What is evil: they observe Regular prayers, practice Regular charity, and obey God and His Apostle. This ethical and religious equality between men and women can be summed up in terms of respect between spouses, obedience to God, and practice of the five pillars of Islam. Their roles are defined as complementary. Other Quranic laws preached several enlightened ideas in favor of women, such as property and educational rights (Halila 1984). Concerning education, the Quran Sura 35 Verse 28 states: Those truly fear Allah, among His Servants, who have knowledge. Moreover, Prophets Hadiths repeatedly emphasizes the acquirement of education and knowledge for every Muslim male and female. For example, one Hadith states that , Seeking knowledge is a duty of every Muslim, man or woman. (Ayisha Lemu 1978:25). Another Hadith states, Seek knowledge from the cradle to grave. (1978: 25). Another Hadith states that, Father, if he educates his daughter well, will enter Paradise. (The World Bank Report July 9, 1993: 25). Yet another Hadith states that, A mother is a school. If she is educated, then a whole people are educated (Shamley 2009). Moreover, there are still a lot of verses in which womens rights are well-stated and so it is sure that gender equality is not something incompatible with Islam religion itself. Factors for Gender Inequality in Muslim World Historical Factors First of all, we cannot forget about the long history of patriarchal dominance throughout the history in which most of the Islamic writings are almost exclusively in the hands of male religious scholars who interpreted in patriarchal way. Additionally, Muslins faced Eurepean colonization almost inevitable. Moreover, we can find lots of misusage of Islamic religion throughout the history by many a king. Hence, in 1981, Iman Khomeini said: Unfortunately, true Islam lasted for only a brief period after its inception. First the Umayyads and then the Abbasids inflicted all kinds of damage on Islam. Later the monarchs ruling Iran continued on the same path; they completely distorted Islam and established something quite different in its place. The process was begun by the Umayyads, who changed the nature of government from divine and spiritual to worldly. Their rule was based on Arabism, the principle of promoting the arabs over all other peoples, which was an aim fundamentally opposed to Islam and its desire to abolish nationality and united all mankind in a single community, under the aegis of a state indifferent to the matter of race and colour. It was the aim of Umayyads to distort Islam completely by reviving the Arabism of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, and the same aim is still pursued by the leaders of certain Arab countries, who declare openly their desire to revive the Arabism of the Umayyads, which is nothing but the Arabism of the Fahiliyya. (Ahmed 2002) Moreover, concerning one of the most well-known issues, head scarf, it is not really according to Islam religion since Quran itself instruct women to cover their hair, breasts and private parts in public and not ask anything more. However, forcing women to cover their entire bodies as in much of Arabia and Iran is again cultural rather than Quranic, as are many other examples of discrimination against, or maltreatment of, women throughout the Muslim world. These include the practice of removing parts of the female genitals, so-called female circumcision or genital mutilation which is widespread in Muslim Arabia and Africa. Whilst the Quran does place restrictions on Muslim women, it also guarantees them the right to own and inherit property, to participate fully in political affairs and to sue for divorce in short a complete, separate legal identity. (Horrie and Chippindale 2001) Even though Prophet Mohammed did not discriminate women, after his death, religious scholars, kings and administrators elaborated and exaggerated the idea of mens role as protectors and very much reshaped Quranic injunctions in ways that suited them (Halila 1984). Colonial Factors Another important causal factor for gender inequality lies in colonialism. The impact of colonialism from the last century onwards affected society externally and internally in the most extreme manner. First and foremost, the already existing sexual divisions and roles of labour were further exaggerated. Colonialism imposed foreign values at the same time as it destroyed or eroded native ones. As a result, society collapsed internally, its destiny unsure, its confidence evaporated. Man retreated into the shell of rigid customs and sterile ritual, finding a form of security there. They also forced their women to hide behind burkhsa (shuttlecock veils) and remain invisible in the courtyards of their homes. In India, Mughal princesses were reduced to becoming prostitutes. The stereotype of Oriental females as chattels and playthings was formed. It was a bad time for Islam, a time of retreat. When the European masters began to leave from the middle of the twentieth century Muslim women were to be glimpsed still in various degrees of deprivation and subjugation. They still have to recover. Too much has been damaged. Deprived of economic and hereditary rights, and everywhere behind men in education, women formed into an inferior class. The actual situation of women, their social status and privileges, is usually far removed from the Islamic idea, whether in the tribe, village or the city. (Ahmed 2002) In fact, the Islamic civilization was virtually wiped out during the era of Colonialism, and thus what is left is a confused jumble of customs, religious ideas, imported governmental structures, political turmoil, and poverty (Emerick 2002). Economic Factors One important point we could miss to take into account is economic impact on gender issues. First, we cannot deny the existence of gender discrimination on labor issue in this world. Before we solve the division of labor and wages problems among men and women, it is very important to introduce women into the labor industry which will keep them out of their confined kitchens where they cannot learn anything and can get no idea to improve their gender role. As long as the women are engaged in Labor force, they can still at least get access to economic opportunities which have lots of impacts on their lives. However, it depends on the type of economy in which the country is introduced for women to get better access to labor markets. In Middle East oil-rich countries, the economic growth due to oil and mineral extraction is found to be a major cause for underrepresentation of women in the workforce. First of all, oil production did shape the country economy. When countries discover oil, their new wealth tends to produce an economic condition called the Dutch Disease, which is characterized by a rise in the real exchange rate, and a transformation of the economy away from the traded sector (agriculture and manufacturing) towards the non-traded sector (construction and services) (Corden and Neary 1982). Hence, in oil-rich Middle East countries, the traded sector cannot flourish and only non-traded sector becomes dominant. In many developing countries, women are largely employed in the traded sector, in low-wage jobs in export-oriented factories and agriculture; and they are excluded from many parts of the non-traded sector, such as construction and retail, since these jobs typically entail heavy labor, or contact w ith men outside the family (Anker 1997). Therefore, oil booming resulted in the inability and failure of women to join the nonagricultural labor force in non-traded sector. In fact, the entry of women to the labor force can boost female political influence since women in the workforce get a chance to form and join informal networks by which they can later attain collective action to lobby, influence and change a nations policy for the betterment of women. In those oil-rich Middle East countries, since the women miss chances to join workforce, they are far from acquiring collective bargaining power and they cannot influence in politics and policy making of the country. Hence, the lack of womens participation in economy has important policy implications. First, it reduced economic opportunities for women. Second, it reduced their political influence. Third, it may foster Islamic fundamentalism (Ross 2008). A recent study of 18 countries found that when Muslim women had fewer economic opportunities, they were more likely to support fundamentalist Islam (Lisa Blaydes and Drew Linzer 2006). Therefore, here, it is very important to accept and admit historical, colonial and economic causes as the real causes for gender inequalities in Islam. CHAPTER III CASE STUDIES Case Study One: Tunisia Background Information of Islam in Tunisia Tunisia was decolonized from French colonial rule in 1956, and Tunisia was led for three decades by Habib Bourguiba, who advanced secular ideas, including emancipation for women, the abolition of polygamy and compulsory free education. Within a few months after independence, the government changed the former family code and accelerated the enrolment of girls in primary and secondary schools and so, by the 1980s, enrolment rates for both girls and boys became very high. In 1987, Ziane El Abidine Ben Ali, who continued with a hard line against Islamic extremists, became president and he is still in power up to now. Tunisia is in the centre of North Africa and it has the population of 10.2 million according to UN in 2009 (BBC 2009). Its human development index (HDI) in 2009 is 0.769, falling in medium development group and it got 98th rank around the world (UNDP 2009). Even though it is a muslin country, womens right in Tunisia is among the most advanced in the Arab world. Gender Equality Movement in Tunisia In Tunisia, womens liberation movement went hand in hand with the efforts to free the country from colonization. The first advocates of womens liberation were the first nationalist leaders. The most prominent nationalist and feminist figure in Tunisia was Abdellaziz Thoalbi, who coauthored a progressive book called The Liberal Spirit of the Koran published in Paris in 1905. In this book some Quranic laws pertaining to women were reinterpreted from a liberal point of view, and education reforms and a progressive unveiling of women were called for (Halila, 1984). In 1930, when the feminist movement gained momentum, Tahar Haddad, a young intellectual, worte a revolutionary book called Our Women in Islamic Law and Society, in which he called for reforms in favor of women. In 1935, another attempt was led by a group of nationalist students, studying in French universities, who published the first feminist journal, Leila, in which the problems involved in the progressive emancipation of Tu nisian women were addressed.their emancipation platform included important points such as access to education and the abolition of the veil. As feminism and nationalism ran parallel in the 1930s, so did effective emancipation and social modernization in the postindependence era (Halila, 1984). Economic Impact on gender role in Tunisia Unlike other Middle East countries, Tunisia has a diverse economy with important agricultural, mining, tourism and manufacturing sectors (Horrie and Chippindale, 2001). Tunisia expanded its textile industry (traded sector) since about 1970 through exports, relying on low-wage female labor, and weathering changes in European trade policies and, now, it has the highest female labor participation together with Morocco in the Middle East. This high rate of womens participation in labor force has contributed to its unusually large and vigorous gender rights movements. Moreover, Tunisia has womens organizations that focus on female labor issues, including the right to maternity leave, raising the minimum work age, sexual harassment, and gaining rights for domestic workers. The womens movement began with an important advantage: shortly after independence, President Bourguiba adopted a national family law that gave women greater equality in marriage, and opened the door to major improvements in female education and employment (Rose 2008). Impacts and Achievements of Womens Rights Movement within Islamic religious Framework Thanks to all-out efforts of feminists along the history, Tunisia achieved lots of success in gender issue. One of the spectacular successes in the history of emancipation was the abolition of polygyny. The third verse of the fourth Surah mentioned as: If ye fear that ye shall not Be able to deal justly With the orphans, Marry women of your choice, Two or three, or four. And the same verse of Surah IV goes on to say: But if ye fear that ye shall not Be able to deal justly (with them), Then only one In a latter verse, it is mentioned Ye are never able To be fair and just As between women, Even if it is Your ardent desire: (Surah IV, Verse 129) Mahmoud Al-Annabi, president of the Court of Appeal, remarked: In order to protect the family, it was decided to take into account the impossibility of treating two or more wives equally. Moreover, President Bouguiba stated in his official speech on 13 August 1976 as: Polygamy is no longer acceptable in the twentieth century and constitutes an insult to the spirit of justice God never ordered that womans dignity should be trampled underfoot nor that she should be made mans victim. Finally, the modern Tunisia simply chose to outlaw polygyny in Article 18: Polygamy is prohibited. Marrying more than one shall incur a punishment of one years imprisonment and a fine of 240,000 francs or either of these. The legislation wanted to prove that, while polygyny was implicitly permitted, it was not an obligation (Halila, 1984). Additionally, lots of reinterpretation of Quran were done and women got more spaces in other issues such as marriage, divorce, dowry, the veil, etc. Later on, the womens movement has been more successful, raising the fraction of female-held parliamentary seats form 6.7% in 1995 to 22.8% in 2002 the highest in the Middle East, and higher than in Western countries like the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada (Rose 2008). Concerning education, the percentage of matriculation of girls in primary and secondary school increased from 34.6% in 1967 to 40.9% in 1980, and from 25.8% in 1964 to 36% in 1980 respectively (Halila, 1984). According to the Gender Gap Index 2009 Report as in the figure 2, Tunisia scored 0.623 and it was ranked as 109th out of 134 countries (Hausmann et al. 2009). In terms of political empowerment, it ranked 77th and it got 97th in terms of educational attainment. Concerning health, its maternal mortality ratio per 100,000 live births is 100 and maternity benefits are well covered by social security services and so Tunisia got 90 the rank. Concerning employment issue, female adult unemployment rate is 17.33% and male adult unemployment rate is 13.11% and so the gap is not much different. Even though Tunisia is a muslin country, it has been very successful in gender relations and so it means gender inequality issue does not totally depend on the religion. In case of Tunisia, it is very obvious that their gender equality can be promoted thanks to the reinterpretation of the Quran and their way of economic growth depending on traded sector which brings and engages lots of women into the workforce. Nowadays, Tunisia became a unique example of successful reform among Arab and Muslim countries. Therefore, we cannot blame the religion all the time for gender inequality issue and Tunisia is a very remarkable example that gender equality is possible to be achieved within the Islamic religious framework. Case Study: Indonesia Background Information of Islam in Indonesia The Republic of Indonesia is the world fourth most populated country and it got independence on 17 August 1945 after Japans surrender (Database 2008). Its human development index (HDI) in 2009 is 0.734, falling in medium development group and it got 111th rank around the world (UNDP 2009). It has the largest population of Muslims in the world and it is commonly stated that 90% of its over 230 million inhabitants are Muslims (wieringa 2006). Islam came into existence in Indonesia during the 13th century and, since the beginning of 19th century, due to the spread of Dutch colonialism, patriarchal culture was strengthened and institutionalized primarily in the legal system. Accordingly, even though the constitution guaranteed every citizen equality under law and government, Indonesian family law still applied different legal principles to different groups based on religion, customs and gender. This can be primarily attributed to a patriarchal interpretation of Islam (Katjasungkana 2004) . Soon after independence, Islamic groups have been fighting for the establishment of an Islamic state. In the late 1965 and the early 1966, at the time when Sukarno was replaced by Suharto, the two major groups, namely Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and the more rigid Muhammadiyah, grew closer and Suhartos New Order state was built on womens social, political, and sexual subordination, a policy justified by both anti-Communist and Islamic sentiments (wieringa, 2006). Various laws were enacted in which womens subordinate position was entrenched, such as the 1974 marriage law (Katjasungkana and Wieringa, 2003). As a result, the women became more suppressed than ever before. It has been a long way Indonesian feminist scholar, activists and women have struggled for womens rights within Islamic religious framework. Gender Equality Movement in Indonesia A Muslim feminist discourse is built around the reform of Islam along gender-sensitive terms, incorporating womens rights, such as those contained in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) (wieringa, 2006) . In those movements for Womens Rights, non-governmental organizations (NGO) play a major role and so UNIEFM stated and recognized that Indonesia has a strong NGO base, working to end violence against women, fighting for new government policies and providing assistance for women who have experienced violence (UNIFEM 2009). After the destruction of the womens movement in 1965-66, after the fall of Surkano, Yasanti founded in 1982 by some young Muslim activists was the first reappearing feminist organization (Wieringa, 2006). One of the best-known womens rights organizations is the Indonesian Womens Association for Justice (Asosiasi Perempuan Indonesia untuk Keadilan, APIK) which was established in August 1995 to fight for gender justice in Indonesia, using the concept of gender and transformative legal aid. APIK launched legal assistance program, its core program, by which it provided direct legal aid to women who are victims of violence and discrimination. APIK conducted this program in the form of consultations (direct, via email or by telephone) and litigation (representing and accompanying clients, who are referred to as partners so as not to form a patronage relationship inside and outside the court). It was also active in the fields of legal advocacy and training, and conducted research (Research and Policy Study Program) on The history of the Marriage Law The response of religion towards gender stereotyping The impact of gender stereotyping in the Marriage Law on various state policies The attitude of poor communities towards gender stereotyping Discrimination of women in the legal system as observed from CEDAW Articles in the Quran and Hadith that support the principle of gender equality The position of women under Islamic Law in Indonesia Baseline research on VAW Impact of gender stereotyping on the working conditions of low-income women An alternative Report on the implementation of CEDAW in Indonesia Moreover, APIK provide legal information to the public and specific target groups through campaigning and public education. It also strengthened a national network for feminist legal activities, both nationally and internationally (Katjasungkana 2004). APIK claimed that Islam is not only for women but for the whole of humanity, women included. They distinguished between the basic principles of Islam, which are unchangeable, and fiqhi, the thoughts of the ulema (Muslim scholars), who are only human after all and therefore prone to biases. They advocated legal reform in Indonesia in which gender biases introduced by fallible fiqhi are eliminated (Wieringa, 2006). Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, APIKs founder, introduced the concept of gender-sensitive transformative legal aid (Katjasungkana and Wieringa, 2003). Then, a broad range of womens organizations were involved in these debates and struggles. The major groups are APIK, the Womens Research Institute, and the mass-based Koalisi Perempuan Indonesia (KPI; Coalition of Indonesian Women for Justice and Democracy), the secular Womens Human Rights Commission. Even Shinta Nuriyah who is the wife of NU leader and former president Abdulrachman Wahid and Musdah Mulia who is the head of the gen der unit of the otherwise very conservative Ministry of Religion joined the movement (Wieringa, 2006). Impacts and Achievements of Womens Rights Movement within Islamic religious Framework Needless to say, womens organizations fought a very long, hard and tough battle in the midst of suppressive regime, Islamic fundamentalists and extremists. Often, they were violently intervened by arresting, detaining, even kidnapping and murdering female activist (Katjasungkana, 2004). However, because of their relentless efforts, women can move much forward than ever before. On top of their couragous advances, the downfall of the New Order government of Soharto in 1998 offered great opportunities to non-governmental organi

Analysis Of The Movie Fast Five

Analysis Of The Movie Fast Five Fast Five is also known as Fast Furious 5 or Fast Furious 5: Rio Heist which was written by Chris Morgan and directed by Justin Lin. It is the fifth instalment in the Fast and the Furious movie series. It was released in Malaysia on 5th May 2011. The characters in the movie are Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), Brian OConner (Paul Walker), Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster), Gisele Harabo (Gal Gadot), Han Lue (Sung Kang), Elena Neves (Elsa Pataky), Monica Fuentes, Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson), Luke Hobbs (Dwanyne Johnson), Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida), Tej Parker (Ludacris), Zizi (Michael Irby), Tego Leo (Tego Calderon), Vince (Matt Schulze) , Rico Santos (Don Omar). Fast five was the fifth highest grossing movie in Malaysia movie industry for the year 2011 that made RM 16,535,815. Basically, this movie was on a budget of $125 million and the shooting of Fast Five had started by July 14, 2010. Basically the main location of shooting was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The reasons we choose this movie is to review the good values that contained in the movie. We watched that movie before and we find it very interesting as the movie involved in situations that relate to our reality life for example, case of bribery and gambling. Furthermore, this movie valued a good relationship between siblings; between brother and sister (Dominic Toretto and Mia Toretto) and among their friends as well. Other than that, most values in this movie are related to this course, organizational behaviour. For example, they are using decision making to make decision. Besides, they applied team work to complete their mission. Each of the team members has their own role to make their mission success. ANALYSIS OF THE MOVIE FAST FIVE Main Storyline The story starts when Dominic Toretto is confirmed to be in jail for his previous wrong doings. When he is being transported to Lompoc Maximum Security Prison by bus, his sister Mia Toretto and friend Brian OConner lead an assault on the bus and causing the bas to crash with their cars hence freeing Dom. After the incidence, the authorities search for them and the trio escapes to Rio de Janeiro. In a meanwhile, Mia and Brian look for their friend, Vince on a job to steal three cars from a train. At the Vinces house, Mia found out that she is pregnant Brians child. The next day, Brian and Mia discover that agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are also on the train and that the cars are seized property. When Dom arrives with the rest of the participants, they start to steal the car. The conflict begins when Dominic realizes that one of the participants, Zizi, is only interested in stealing one car, a Ford GT40. Dom quickly made a decision as he orders Mia to drive the car and change their plan. After Mia has driven the car, Dominic and Brian fight with Zizi and Zizis friend. Later, Zizi kills the DEA agents assigned to the vehicles and Dominic take this opportunity to escape and he is succeed; however Dom and Brian are captured and brought to crime lord Hernan Reyes, the owner of the cars and Zizis boss. Reyes orders his men to interrogate them to discove r the location of the car, but they manage to escape and return to their safe house. Dom found out that the car Ford GT40 is very important to Reyes and they try to discover its importance. At the same time, Vince arrives to their safe house and later he is caught trying to remove a computer chip from the car and Dom saw it. Vince said he will sell the chip to Reyes on his own and get things clear with Reyes but Dom forces him to leave. Brian investigates the chip and he discovers that the chip contains details of Reyes criminal empire, including the locations of US$100 million in cash. Next, the murder of the DEA agents aboard the train is been blamed on Dom and his team. Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), agent Luke Hobbs Chief of Police and his team arrive in Rio and want to arrest Dom and Brian. With the help of local officer, Elena Neves, they travel to Doms safe house. At the same time, Reyes men also attack them. Brian, Dom and Mia escape successfully. Dom suggests they split up and leave Rio, but Mia announces she is pregnant Brians child. Dom agrees to stick together and suggests they steal Reyes money to start a new life. Later, Dom, Brian and Mia organize a team to perform the heist, recruiting Han Seoul-Oh, Roman Pearce, Tej Parker, Gisele Yashar, Leo and Santos. Vince later joins the team after saving Mia from being captured by Reyes men and earning Doms trust once more. Agent Hobbs and his team eventually find and arrest Dom, Mia, Brian and Vince. While transporting them to the airport for extradition to the United States, the convoy is attacked by Reyes men, who kill Hobbs team. Hobbs and Elena are saved by Dom, Brian, Mia and Vince as they fight back against Reyes men and escape, but Vince is shot in the process and he dies. Wanting to avenge his murdered team, agent Hobbs and Elena agree to help them with the heist. The gang plans how to break into the police station where Reyes money is kept and tear the vault from the building using their cars. On the day planned, they manage to tear the vault and dragging it. As expected, the police pursuit them trough the city. Believing they cannot outrun the police, Dom makes Brian continue without him while he attacks the police and using the vault attached to his car to smash their vehicles. Reyes is dead by the smash of the vault. However, Zizi is still alive and a quick action by Brian, he manages to shoot Zizi. Agent Hobbs arrives on the scene. Agent Hobbs refuses to let Dom and Brian go free but, unwilling to arrest them, agrees to give them a 24-hour head start to escape. The gang splits Reyes money. Some of the amount is given to Vinces family as reward and as compensation of Vinces dead. Lastly, all the members go their separate ways and live with their own life freely. Main Characters Dominic Toretto Vin Diesel Character Dominic Toretto is portrayed by Vin Diesel. He is an elite street racer, auto mechanic, ex-convict and brother to Mia Toretto. Even though he is very rough but he loves his sister and gives her protection. In the movie, he is the leader of the gang which planned to reveal the corruption by Hernen Reyes and also plan how to break into the police station where Reyess corruption money is kept. Brian OConner Paul Walker Brian OConner is played by Paul Walker. Brian OConner leads an assault on the bus and causing the bas to crash with their cars hence freeing Dom. He is the fastest racer and during the heist of the vault, he is helping Dominic to tear the vault from the police station by his car and dragging the vault. He is a brave man. This shows when he bravely shoots Reyess men, Zizi. He is a loving man as well as he loves Mia so much and later at the end of the movie he lives happily with Mia is pregnant his child. Mia Toretto Jordana Brewster She is Dominics sister and Brians love interest. In this movie, she assists Dominics team in the heist by staying back at the base and monitors the traffic for them to avoid the police. Character Mia Toretto is portrayed by Jordana Brewster. Roman Pearce Tyrese Gibson Roman Pearce is portrayed by Tyrese Gibson. He is a childhood friend of Brian OConner. In Fast Five, Roman appears as part of Dominic and Brians in their attempt to steal a vault from a corrupt Brazilian businessman. He is reluctant at first, thinking the mission is personal and not being good business until Dominic utters the vault is full one hundred million dollars in cash which is enough to change his mind. In this movie, he is the most talkative and he went to the police station to send a robot as camera on how to steal the vault. Ludacris Tej Parker He is one of the Dominics team in stealing the vault. He is brilliant as he can solve the security code of the vault. Sung Kang Han Seoul-Oh He is one of the members of Dominics heist team to steal the vault. In Fast Five, he act as a precision driver and a chameleon. Gisele Harabo Gal Gadot. He is also one the members in Dominics heist team. Her role in this movie is she used to seduce the criminal corruptor, Hernan Reyes to get his hands print to open the vault later on. Luke Hobbs Dwayne Johnson He acts as an agent from DSS. His mission is to caught Dominic and his friends because they are suspecting of killing the DEA officer when they steal a luxurys car on the train. Later he realizes that Reyes is a corruptor only then help Dominic and the gang. Elena Neves Elsa Pataky She is helping agent Hobbs to catch Dominic and his friends. Later, she also help Dominics team to steal the vault. Diversity The main characters in this movie are different from one another. The diversity in the characters can be seen in various aspects like genders, age, ethnicity and skill. Two of them are women while the others is men. In the team of Dominic Toretto, consists of two women and the rest is men. Although Mia and Gisela are women, they are welcomed to the group just like the men. They are not underestimating by the group and are given the tasks just like the men. There are also different stages of age. The characters are of the age between 20 to 40 years old. Dominic Toretto is the eldest among all members in the group. The characters also come from different background, race and ethnicity. Furthermore, they come from the various nations around the world for instance, United State of America, London and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In Fast Furious 5, the members are calling back from the place they belong to by Dom and OConner to accomplish a task. In addition, the characters in this movie have their own skill and talent. Dominic Toretto and Brian OConner is a street racer. They are very precision driver, do not crack under pressure and never lose. Han is someone who can blend in anywhere. Roman is a fast talker. He can do anything just according his way. The expert person in circuit goes to Tej. A woman with the expertise in dealing with utilities and weapons is Gisele who also someone who are not afraid to throw down her target. However, they are all same in talent and professionalism in driving. Besides that, Hobbs is acknowledged as the governments version of the best bounty hunter on the planet. Attitudes According the research in Organisation Behaviour, there are three major attitudes which are job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment. In the movie, the characters are having job satisfaction as they hold positive feelings about their job. Just like Hobbs, he is very exciting to do the job as he like his job so much. Although all of the case he faced is very challenging, he always committed to do it as he takes the difficulties positively. Job involvement can be seen in all the characters. Dom and friends are involved in the robbery of Reyess money because they feel that they are worth it if they do steal the money. They will get a lot of benefits compared to the degree of consequences that they may face if they are caught. Dom is a good leader which he involve all the members in decision making thus they feel that they are part of the task and team. In organisational commitment, the Doms friends are the good example. They have identified a particular team and its goal, so they decide to remain as a member and willingly to give a full effort to achieve the goal. It is where someone feels like he is belong to the organisation, he tend to stay longer in it. Similarly, Reyess followers also do the same thing. Emotions and Moods This action movie portrayed a lot of emotions and moods. The emotions that can be identified through the characters facial expression are anger, fear, happiness, hate, hope, joy and love. On the other hand, the basic moods consist of high positive affect and high negative effect. The scenes where Vince wants to steal the chip create anger and hate emotion in Dom. He feels very mad as he thinks Vince want to betray him. Fear of the money would be steal by Doms, Reyes try his best to put his box money in the safest place that is Police Station to make sure Doms cannot have it. Love is blossoms in three partners; Dom with Elina, OConner with Mia and Han with Gisela. This movie has a happy ending scene. Therefore, all characters are happy and enjoy their life meaningfully. In high positive effect, all characters are excited and alert to do their job. They are committed to finish the job until the end. The moods for high negative affect is when the situation are getting worst and tense at time the police ambush the place where Dom are hiding just after they has work on their first plan. Dom, Mia, OConner and Vince have been arrested at the moment. vi) Personality Types Four of main characters in this movie are Dominic, Brian OConner, Hernan Reyes and Agent L. Hobbs. Therefore, there is few personality types can be identified in those characters. The first one is Dominic, from MBTI concept, he can be classified as sensing as he prefers order and focus on details. This can be seen on how he made the strategy and choose who he needs to do the job before he started the robbery. Plus, it can be proved on how he collects the data in details. For example, to break into the police station, he made research how the police station looks like and where the vault is stored. Next, according to Big Five Personality Model (BFPM), he scores high on conscientiousness which he is shown as a very responsible, organized, dependable and persistent. As a leader, he leads the job very well and able to assign which person to their ability are. Most of the other members depend on him as the job is too risky, yet he is still able to gain trust from his members. Besides, he has a positive core self-evaluation. He knows he is effective, capable and he believes he can do the job very well despite the risk he is taking which is can be said as an ambitious goal, to rob $100 million from a very powerful man in Rio who is known to have lots of supporters. Moreover, he is willing to take risks and never fear of anything even when most of the members start to withdraw from the job, he is still standing firm with his decision to finish the job started. Second character is Brian OConner. From BFPM, he is considered as high on agreeableness that refers to an individuals propensity to defer to others. He is very cooperative and trusting. In whatever Dominics decision, he will always believe in him as if right-hand man of Dominic. Plus, just like Dom, he is also risk taking person. He grabs any chance to make sure the job done smoothly, he even risks his life to rob the vault and drive it on the street while followed by many police cars behind. Third character is Agent L. Hobbs, based on MBTI, he may fall into thinking person. While investigating of Dominic and the gang, he mostly uses reasons and logic to handle. In that movie, when he wants to know where is Dom, he asked his teammates to rebuild the car again as in logic, why would Dom break the cars as if Dom is searching something from that car and right as he guessed, Dom did take something from the car which is the chip. Besides, he can be classified as Machiavellianism as he said that he will use anything to get what he wants no matter at what costs. He is so determined to find Dom and asks his colleagues to search for any clues until he found Dom. Next, last character is Hernan Reyes. Based on BFPM, he scores low in emotional stability that he tends to be nervous, anxious, depressed and insecure. It can be proved when he asks his people to move all his money to be stored at one place after one of his ten houses has been robbed by Dom and the gang. Followed by emotions, he didnt think it carefully as what he did is already expected by Dom except the part that Reyes stores the money at police station. He is also can be categorized as Machiavellianism. In order to be very rich and has a lot of wealth, he will use any mean to meet the end. He will kill those who on his way and he even do illegal business such as drugs. Plus, in order to use the locals helps, he pretends to help them by giving what the local wants but then, he asks them to do many illegal works or threat to take back the facilities given. vii) Perceptual Biases Based on the movie, there are three biases that can be identified. The first one is overconfidence bias, it can be explained as someone who is too confident based on past success and believe that nothing will go wrong in their ways. From the movie, Dominic can be seen as someone who has the bias as he truly believes that everything is planned correctly and no problems will appear. Yet, when he started to do the job, before he could make it, Agent Hobbs come to his place and they start to fight. Though he already put the tracker on Agent L. Hobbs car, he didnt give a thought that what if Agent Hobbs realises there is a tracker on his car. So, thats when the only mistake occurs. Next bias identified is availability bias which has been done by Hernan Reyes. He thought that if he moves all the money to police station, the money will be secured because as people said, the last place criminals would be willing to go is police station. Therefore, based on that thought, he made that decision without thinking further that Dominic and the gang may be very determined which they are willing to take the risk to break into police station. The last bias is risk aversion. After being robbed at one of his cash houses and being told that he will come for more, Reyes without considering more, he decides to store all the money at the safest place he can think about which is at police station. This is because he does not want to take the risk to just let the money be without realizing his action is expected by Dominic. viii) Decision Making Process There are many decisions made in this movie. The first one is when Dom and Brian discussed and decides to rob Hernan Reyes. This is a big decision because this is a big job, to Rob the most powerful guy in Rio, Brazil. The decision is taken after they realize they have been chased by polices and they are in top list of wanted people. Therefore, for them to get out of that life and start a new one, they decide to do one last job but a very big one. Considering all the complexities to make the job done, they started to gather a team and call all the capable people from around the world. With a team of 9 people, each of them has expertise in own area. Dom is using rational model as he gathers a great deal of information about all the options and abilities they have. After identifying them, he started to get cars, mock-up the routes to the vault stored in police station. The second decision is made by Agent L. Hobbs when he decides to help the gang to get back at Hernan Reyes as he has killed many of his men. So, he wants to get revenge for that. But he should be thinking carefully about that as his main objective is to catch Dominic yet later he is on Dominics side. Plus, as a cop, to help criminal is against his oath. Therefore, the decision made can be classified as intuitive decision-making which is an unconscious process created out of distilled experience. To see his men died in front of his eyes, he may be unconsciously made that decision and it made that the decision is not rational. ix) Motivational Theories Motivation refers to the process by which a persons efforts are energized, directed, and sustained toward attaining goal. There are three elements on this definition which are energy, direction, and persistence. Among the motivational theories that were applied in this movie is reinforcement theory which says that the behaviour is a function of its consequences. The consequences that immediately follow behaviour and increase the probability that the behaviour will be repeated are called as reinforces. In Fast Five, it shows when Elena works as a translator in police station in Rio, Luke Hobbs chooses her as translator since she is one of the few incorruptible cops in Rio. In addition, she is motivated by the death of her beloved husband in previous movie, who was also a policeman before he was killed on her doorstep. Thus, the fact that the death of her husband is actually becomes a positive reinforcer for her to work as policeman in Rio. x) Teamwork There was a teamwork applied in this movie and I think the teamwork applied was an effective team. Teamwork is a group whose individual efforts result in performance that is greater than the sum of the individual inputs which able to generate positive synergy through coordinated effort. The effectiveness of the team can be seen through Team Effectiveness Model. It encompasses three elements which are context, team composition and team processes. The first contextual factor related to Fast Five is a climate of trust. Members of effective teams should trust each other. They also must exhibit trust in their leaders. Dominic Toretto who is a leader receives high degree of trust from his members including Brian OConner, Roman Pearce and other members. Interpersonal trust among team members facilitates cooperation and reduces the need to monitor each others behaviour. When team members believe they can trust each others in any kind of situation, they are more likely to take risks and expose vulnerabilities. For instance, there is a scene in Fast Five when Brian OConner needs to jump off from the train towards the car driven by Dominic Toretto in order to avoid bridge from being crashed. This kind of crisis does need a high degree of trust from Brian OConner to Dominic Toretto as it is quite risky. If there is less or no trust between each other, the possibility of Brian OConner to die is very high. Thus, the teamwork is less effec tive. The second contextual factor related to Fast Five is leadership and structure. If the team members cannot agree on who is to do what and ensure all members share the workload, team is dysfunctional. For instance, Domino Toretto has assigned specifics of work to each member and fits them all together to integrate individual skills required by leadership and structure. Since each of the members has variety of skills and capabilities to make the work done, Dominic Toretto plays a vital role to delegate responsibility to them, and plays a role as facilitator as well. This complies with multiteam systems which mean different teams need to coordinate their efforts to produce a desired outcome. The desired outcome in the movie is destroying the corruption made by a politician named Hermen Reyes. The first variable in team composition related to Fast Five is abilities of members. In this movie, each of the members has different abilities, knowledge and skills to perform their respective tasks. For example, Roman Pearce is a fast talker. In fact, he has skills to divert people when talking from revealing the real intention. It can be seen in the movie when he enters the police station to put the evidence box which is actually a controlled car. He is successful to divert the policeman to put the evidence box in the vault. The second variable in team composition related in Fast Five is diversity of members. The diversity is actually should be a good thing. It should benefit from differing perspectives. In Fast 5, there is team diversity which affects the team performance to make job done. The team shares a different demographic attribute such as sex, race and age. For instance, Han Seoul-Oh is a Korean guy comes all the way from Korea to join team with Dominic Toretto in Brazil which shows different race with other members. Proper leadership can improve the performance of diverse teams. Dominic Toretto provides an inspirational common goal for members with varying types of skills and knowledge making team more creative and able to achieve desired goal. The first process variable related to Fast Five is common plan and purpose. Effective teams begin by analyzing the teams mission, developing goals to achieve that mission, and creating strategies for achieving the goals. Dominic Toretto, Brian OConner and Mia Toretto have initially analyzing the plan and purpose of the mission before gathering the team members. They even create strategies so that the others members ready to understand the common plan and purpose as well as ready to take risk. They put a tremendous amount of time and effort to discuss, shape and agree on a purpose that belongs to them collectively and individually. The second process variable related to Fast Five is specific goals. The teamwork in this movie can be said as effective as the team is able to translate its common purpose into specific, measureable, and realistic performance goals. The goal of the team delegated by Dominic Toretto is to eliminate the corruption made by a politician named Hermen Reyes and reveal the hidden and illegal activity of distribution of drugs made by him. The goal is quite challenging as the team has to face the politician who has a strong position in the country. xi) Leadership Style Leadership can be defined as an ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of goals. The leaders that can be found in this movie are Dominic Toretto and Luke Hobbs. Dominic Toretto is a professional criminal and a leader of the team with Brian OConner, Mia Toretto and other members. He uses a transformational leadership style. In organizational term, transformational leaders inspire followers to transcend their own self-interests and who are capable of having a profound and extraordinary effect on their followers. Dominic Toretto uses this kind of leadership style as he pays attention to the concern and needs of his team members, change members awareness of problems by helping them look at old problems in new ways, and inspire team members to put out extra effort to achieve their goals. On top of that, this kind of leadership style is more effective compared to others and also it encourages other team members to follow them by being creative. Besides, Luke Hobbs can be considered as a leader among the cops. He leads other policemen to catch the most wanted professional criminals like Dominic Toretto and Brian OConner. It can be seen that he brings out a character of charismatic leadership style in the movie. In the point of organizational term, charismatic leadership theory can defined as followers make attributions of heroic or extraordinary leadership abilities when they observe certain behaviours. Among the key characteristics of a charismatic leader are vision and articulation, personal risk, and unconventional behaviour. xii) Power and Influential Tactics Power or influential tactics that could be identified from this movie is that consultation. It happens when Dominic is giving an idea to his friends and how they are going to do it together in order to make the plan successful. All of them will have their own part in order to accomplish the job that they already to do it at the first stage. They all are given task based on their expertise such as good in circuit, fast talker, an expert driver and many more. Dominic get all of his teammates support by encouraging them that they are going to get US$ 100 million if the plan successful and every each one of them will get same amount from US$ 1oo million. This can be classified as exchange influential tactics, means rewarding the target with benefits or favors in exchange for following a request. Another one of power or influential tactics that applied in this movie is pressure. Hernen Reyes uses this tactics so that his worker will listen and obey to him. He likes to use harsh way in order to get what he wanted, thus make his follower afraid of him because he has power and money. He also will kill anybody that is not finishing what he asked for and when the task is not accomplished so that it will be a lesson to his follower. xiii) Conflicts Yes. The conflicts begin when one of the members, Roman Pearce does not want to get involved in the plan because he said it was a business but actually it was a plan to rob one of the richest men in the country that conduct a drug business but never get caught. The conflict resolution techniques that Dominic, Brian and Mia apply based on the movie is problem solving and also superordinate goals techniques. First, they invite and gather all of their friends that they feel reliable and suitable for the task and then face-to-face meeting of the conflicting parties for the purpose of identifying the problem and resolving it through open discussion. Next, after knew that the goal is to rob US$ 100 million in cash, the superordinate goals conflict resolution techniques take place when they are creating a shared goal that cannot be attained without the cooperation of each of the conflicting parties. It shows that everything can be done through negotiate if we do have skills about it. xiv) Organizational Change and Stress Management Yes. Dominic and the gang try to reveal the corruption by Hernen Reyes and they try to make changes in Rio. They also want to get a freedom for themselves. The tactics that they are used is to steal the vault from the corruptor Hernen Reyes placed at the police station. Even though the mission is totally wrong and against the principle of Islamic practice but they are still doing it to gain self satisfaction. The opposing party do not making any tactics as they do not expect Dominics team will steal his vault as the vault is placed in the police station. So the possibility for them to steal is very low. At the end, when the team is successfully steal the vault, Reyes and his men are chasing them as they expect they will get the vault back. At first, the team is giving up continuing their mission because they see their chances to success is very low but because of the external factor which they will get a big amount of money so they are courage to finish off their mission. The well-planned strategy makes them success in the end and the victory is by their side (Dominics team). LESSON LEARNT FROM THE MOVIE FAST FIVE Teamwork Based on the movie Fast Five, the gang was cooperating to achieve their objective which is to steal the corrupted money from the Hernen Reyes, the criminal empire, of US$100 million in cash. The gang breaks into the police station where Reyes money is kept and tears the vault from the building using their cars. They assigned each of one to do certain job. For example, Brian and Dom are assigned to tear the vault from the building and Mia is assigned to observe the traffic during the vault is being dragging along the stress to avoid police and Hernan Reyess team. Friendship In terms of friendship, there is a quote tells that, no matter how crazy things get among friends, they should stick together till the end of the time. In Fast Five, although there are a number of situations and things attack Dominic Toretto and Brian OConner, they still stick together in whatever kind of situations. In fact, it is because both of them stay side by side that they able to pull off such a big heist involved by a politicia