The country of Armagede Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The country of Armagede - Essay Example A wild animal refuge spans an area of some 1500 miles to the south. This refuge is heavily guarded against poachers and contributes more than three million dollars a year in tourism dollars that offset the cost of the reserve and contribute to the hospitality and cultural art industries in the country. The country supports a population of 4,763,271 Armagede nationals with about population of 3,445,192 who are largely subsistent farmers with a per capita income of about population of $223. The largest concentration of citizens is in the two largest cities in the north and south where residents are employed in government jobs. There is a population of approximately 544 people per square mile. In the past decade the country has begun to maintain vital statistic and economic records that help show a continuing improvement in the country’s economic indicators. The per capita income has increased by nearly 5% per household over the past decade, as represented by the graph below. The re is one university, Aduine University, in the north, a state sponsored university staffed largely by well educated professors from countries that offer incentives for foreign academic services. Most of the graduates go on to work for the government and in state sponsored elementary, middle schools and high schools. A large number of graduates leave the country for graduate studies in medicine and law, but statistics support the fact that these individuals return to Armagede upon completion of their studies.

The Place of Diversity Essay Example for Free

The Place of Diversity Essay The term â€Å"Diversity† is a dimension that can be used to differentiate groups and people from one another. (Bacher, 200) The word itself has become more frequently used in recent years as the world is beginning to encompass people with many differences. Diversity covers a range of characteristics and deals with how we accept and deal with how we accept or respect those characteristic. Bucher , 2010) In other words, diversity is just not about ethnicity, race, gender but its much broader then we actually think but it’s the otherness or those human qualities that are different from our own and outside the groups, to which we belong, yet present in other individual groups. The specific characteristic or trout’s that difference people or groups are referred to as the dimensions of diversity (Bucher, 2010). As one recognizes the many dimensions of diversity, it is important to note that not all of the dimensions are visible. Many all of the dimensions are visible. Many of our dimensions that make us different are considered hidden because they are not apparent by working at a person. Also, some dimensions may be a person’s race, gender, or ethnicity (Bacher, 2010). Sometimes hidden dimensions can include non- physical traits such as social class, religion, level of education, sexual orientation, and religion, level of education, sexual orientation, or marital status. We can recognize that diversity can have different meanings; we must also recognize that people will have their own dimensions of diversity, whether visible or hidden. My Place for Diversity Multimedia Review: I completed and viewed the profiles and observe the Characteristics of the people in the multimedia. I recognize how there can be preconceived ideas of how a person will look if they contain certain dimensions. As I completed the profile, I reviewed Tammy. Reading the non- observable characteristic. I used my own stereotype and prejudices to attempt to determine which person would match the given description, I was wrong. The method I used to determine who fit the profile could be considered visible dimension. I only can conceive what I see not what is hidden my visible dimension maybe consider optimism. The profile describe this person being born in syracaur, NY, they lived in an upscale suburb. These people graduated at the age of 17, then went to college out of state and visit her family during the summer breaks; she is 5ft 3 in tall with few gray hairs. Next, I ruled out the other woman because their description didn’t fit in my mind to the non- observable characteristic. Why? While one lady looked as if she was upscale by her dressed appearance and long dark hair setting in a office seat. Actually, after I read the observable characteristic, then I noticed that Tammy did fit the visible dimension because of her work baggage on her work uniform. Also she had glasses on that made her look professional. Most hidden dimension can be over looked by just judging the outer appearance whether then accepting the person and respect their uniqueness. When you see many different sides of other cultures, you are now being well-versed, and can make sensible assessments about others.

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Design

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Design Introduction Objective The goal of a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is to achieve reusable assets in an agile manner that is aligned with the business needs of the organization. The SOA Reference Architecture provides guidelines for making architectural and implementation decisions. To that end it serves as a blueprint for creating or evaluating a solution architecture for different groups within the organization. In addition it provides insight and patterns for integrating the different elements of an SOA as illustrated by the different layers of an SOA. An SOA Reference Architecture is designed to answer some of the key questions and issues encountered while developing a solution such as: What are the aspects of an SOA as expressed in terms of layers that need to be considered when designing solutions based on SOA principles? What are the building blocks needed to include in each layer of a solution? What are some of the key architectural decisions that need to be made when designing a a solution that is based on SOA? Which roles in a project would benefit from using these principles and guidelines? To answer these questions this document provides the following: Establishes a common vocabulary and set of definitions for services and SOA. Identifies the different functions of an SOA implementation and define their interactions with each other and with functions outside the scope of the Rufus platform. Provides SOA guiding principles. Defines consistent design and implementation across services. Shows when and where to use SOA technologies. Supports SOA governance. Provides an architectural based design methodology. Overview This document presents the layers, building blocks, architectural and design decisions, patterns, options and the separation of concerns needed to design or evaluate an SOA architecture. The architecture consists of multiple components which are divided into the following categories: Quality of Service (QoS) Security Consumer Business Process Integration Services Information Infrastructure Governance Monitoring Management Center of Excellence (COE) Design Time Elements Component View Design Time Elements Design-Time Activities are the technical activities, guidelines, and deliverables that allow for everyday development within the SOA and Integration Architecture. Including: Service Modeling and Design Canonical Data Modeling Policy Specification Service Assembly Service Testing Service Identification Service Lifecycle Management Service Modeling and Design Services must be modeled and designed to support an extensible plug-and-play model by being: Reusable So that other Services leverage an existing Service. Composable So that a Service can leverage other Services. Interoperable So that Services can work with each other. Discoverable To support location independence. To enable the above qualities, each Service (except for Data and Utility Services) needs to have: A well-defined Service Contract To enable loose couple by hiding low-level implementation details from Service Consumers. SOAP-based Web Services achieve this by specifying a WSDL interface with XML-based document exchange. RESTful Web Services define a contract with HTTP input parameters and JSON/XML-based responses. Coarse-grained So that operations have enough data to carry out all tasks in a stateless manner. Stateless operations Statelessness (i.e., not maintaining state between invocations) enables a Service to be reused in many contexts. A way to handle Exceptions to notify its caller if there are problems carrying out an operation. To ensure that each type of Shared Service is designed and implemented in a uniform manner, a SOA Governance team should create SOA Best Practices documents for: Service Design, Web Service Design, and XML Message Design in Designers Guides (i.e., working agreements). Topics would include: Service Specification and Design Interface (including Canonical Data model for messages see section 3.5.2) Policies (see section 3.5.3) SLAs (Service Level Agreements) A description of what the Service does A description of the Services operations. Best practices for each type of Shared Service (Business, Common, Data, Integration, and Utility). Examples showing the difference between Service-Oriented Design and Object Oriented Design. How to develop a SOAP Web Service (and handle Exceptions). How to develop a RESTful Web Service (and handle Exceptions). Canonical Data Modeling (XML) Many organizations have several autonomous packaged and custom developments that have evolved independently of one another. Many times, each system has become a system with its own implementation methodology, culture, processes, business rules, and vocabulary. Many companies face the problem of using the business data to enable applications to communicate in a distributed systems environment. Organizations design Canonical Data Models (CDM) to help analyze the message exchange within the organization and with their trading partners. Data is embedded in the basic architecture of any organization. To develop the CDM, an organization must inventory business concepts and map the vocabulary into fundamental business concepts. The CDM provides a framework for integrating the disparate terms for each line of business. The CDM is a catalog of neutral terms defined in an XML Schema, including: Entities in the business domain (e.g., Order, Customer, etc.) Agreed-upon data structures so that a domain element has a single, common definition. Formatting rules. A CDM defines an organizations data in motion the XML messages exchanged between: Services within an enterprise. An enterprise and its external trading partners. Many industries have an industry standard (e.g., ACORD, for Insurance, or EDRM for e-Discovery) to define core concepts and define data exchanged between companies. A Canonical Data Model provides the following benefits: An enterprise can easily exchange data with its business partners. An enterprise can adopt a single approach to exchanging data across all services the enterprise. The canonical model helps define the interface for each Service (thus hiding the structure of the physical data in the database). Changes to the canonical data model are required only when an entirely new business concept arises. Policy Specification Policies provide service-level meta-data to Web Services consumers. Specifying these policies is an important step in Web Service design, and this is accomplished by attaching policy expressions to the WSDL. Specifically, these policies include: Security: Transport Protocol Algorithm (RSA, etc.). Messages Authentication/Authorization Level of Service (e.g., Silver, Gold, Platinum, etc.). For example, a Platinum customers requests execute on best-provisioned server for better performance (but also at a higher price). Performance For example, send notifications if performance for a particular service dips below the promised SLA. Auditing For example, begin auditing when a particular service consumer invokes an operation on a Service. Service Assembly A Business Analyst first develops a Business Process Diagram (using BPMN Business Process Modeling Notation) to model a business process at a business/requirements level. Then, designers and developers create a runtime model in either BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) or JBI (Java Business Integration) to: Assemble existing Shared Services into a Business Process Enable a BPMS product and/or ESB can run the business process. Designers use MEPs (Message-Exchange Patterns) to model the runtime characteristics of a business process. Typical MEPs include: Pipes and Filters Content-based Router Recipient List Wire Tap Dynamic Router These patterns are gaining in popularity and many of the newer ESB and BPMS products support executable MEP models. Please see the following for further information: Enterprise Integration Patterns Home Page Enterprise Integration Patterns, Gregor Hohpe, Bobby Woolf, et al. Service Testing Most Shared Services will be implemented as Web Services, and it is important to take a Test-Driven Development (TDD) approach to Web Services development because: Designers and developers need early feedback on the design, functionality, usability, and performance of each Web Service. QA personnel need to be able to test Web Services. Overall quality is very important because each Web Service could be used by multiple consumers. Service Testing includes: Inspecting Web Services: Documentation Generating HTML documentation from the Web Service interface. Debugging Show SOAP/HTTP requests that are sent received over the wire. Invoking Web Services: Generating Web Services requests from WSDL to set the Web Service. Simulating/Mocking Web Services Generating Unit Tests based on the Web Service interface. Functional/Performance Testing Web Services Simulating load conditions. Reporting on performance under load conditions. Commercial products include: Eviware soapUI Pro iTKO LISA Open Source products include: Eviware soapUI Community Edition WebInject PushToTest TestMaker Points to Ponder (for Evaluation) Does the product support both SOAP and RESTful Web Services? How? Does the product enable you to view SOAP/HTTP messages over the wire? Does the product have a good/usable Web UI to make it easy to test? Can a QA/Tester use the product without developer intervention? What level of SOAP, WSDL, and HTTP does the product support? Does the product support an Agile/TDD approach with Unit Tests and Mocking? Does the product generate Unit Tests to support Continuous Integration? Can the product simulate load conditions and report on performance/scalability? How much setup is involved? How does the licensing work? Service Identification Service Identification is one of the key steps in designing a Service-Oriented solution because it defines and identifies high-level Business Services by using the following the following approaches: Top Down: Analyze and model business processes. Design new Services that enable the tasks and activities in the business processes. Bottom Up: Service-enable existing and applications systems. Create business processes from the Services. Middle Out: Analyze and model business processes. Catalog existing applications and services. Determine which can be Service-enabled. Create Service Adapters. Map tasks and activities from the business processes to existing Services. Create new Services to fill in the gaps. A Middle-out approach is recommend because it takes the best parts of the other approaches: The bottom-up approach creates isolated silos that dont align with the business. The top-down approach takes a long time, and the enterprise cant wait for every business process to be defined in order to begin designing and developing Services. A compromise approach takes into account the need for timeliness, but also instills enough discipline to design Business Services that match up with the goals and objectives from the Business Architecture by: Taking a first cut at the Business Services from Marketing materials and meetings with the CMO and other business stakeholders. Starting with only a few Business Processes. Driving toward a thin/vertical slice of functionality based on the business processes. Service Lifecycle Management Service implementations are software like any other software module or application. As such, they go through a similar lifecycle. The service lifecycle is depicted in the following diagram. The lifecycle starts with Service Identification. Services are part of more general business processes. As such, new services are usually identified by the design of a new business process. This is not the only way that new services are identified however. Sometimes services are identified as part of portfolio management. This involves analyzing the requirements for a service across the breadth of the enterprise. The level of analysis required for this type of identification is difficult to gauge and therefore CIBER does not recommend using portfolio management for service discovery at this time. Once a service has been identified, it follows an iterative development process. Iterative processes use the feedback from subsequent phases to make corrections in previous phases based on lesson learned or issues that may crop up. Services are part of a greater distributed system however and any changes made can have an impact on other development efforts. Therefore it is important to be mindful of the effect change can have even during development of a service. The Service Specification and Design phase produces at a minimum the specification for the service interface. This interface specification includes the semantics and data that the service supports. This represents the contract between the service and its consumers. Diligence should be applied to the design of this interface as changes to the interface have the greatest impact to subsequent phases. Changes to the service interface can impact both clients that may be developed in parallel, implementation of the service, as well as test plans that have been implemented to test the service. This does not mean that a service interface must never be changed once it is designed. Designs are not perfect and in todays IT environment it is not always possible to take the time required to produce an interface definition that is ideal. Therefore it is prudent to put processes in place that take into account that service interfaces may change. Whenever implementing a service take into account tha t the interface may change to the extent possible to minimize the impact of that change. This also applies to the implementers of consumers of the service. In some cases, consumers may want to wait until the service has been through some number of rounds of testing before starting their implementation. This allows for some experience to be developed with using the service thereby (hopefully) minimizing the possibility of change to the interface. Once the service has been designed it proceeds to the Service Implementation phase. In this phase the service will be developed based upon architectural standards developed by the university OIT group. Any issues encountered trying to implement the design of the service should be fed back to the designer in order to refine the design if necessary. Finally, service need to be tested before being deployed into production use. Testing of services involves four primary areas of focus: Security testing is essential to assess the risk of a service with regard to vulnerability, data privacy and data integrity. Tests need to be developed to test boundary conditions which can assess the robustness of the service handling inputs outside the range of anticipated values. Tests should also be created that ensure the service performs as expected based on the roles as defined within the system. Type of Testing Description Functional This area of testing focuses on ensuring the service performs its function according to the requirement of the business process it support. Automated test suites should be developed to perform regression testing to quickly verify functionality during the life cycle changes that may occur. Performance This area of testing focuses on performance characteristics of the service including measurement of time to perform the service and load testing of the service. The output from this type of testing forms the basis of understanding how to configure and deploy the service in a production environment. Interoperability This area of testing ensures the service adheres to its service specification. Early identification of interoperability issues is key to integration of the service through exposure to university partners and clients. This type of testing is especially important when the service interacts with multiple data sources and/or systems. Security Security testing is essential to assess the risk of a service with regard to vulnerability, data privacy and data integrity. Tests need to be developed to test boundary conditions which can assess the robustness of the service handling inputs outside the range of anticipated values. Tests should also be created that ensure the service performs as expected based on the roles as defined within the system. Regression One of the more important types of testing related to usage of services is regression testing. The more applications that depend on a given service, the more impact a change to that service can have on the environment. As such, when changes are made to services, regression testing must be undertaken to ensure that the service not only supports new or updated functions but all other functions upon which the service relies. Table 1 Service Testing Types Once the service is ready it is deployed into production use. At this point the service enters the maintenance cycle as opposed to the development cycle. Services in production sometimes require change. The change may be due to a defect in the system or a request to add more functionality to the service. It is important to understand how this change should be handled based on its nature. Defects that are a result of a fault in the underlying implementation of the service and do not change the behavior of the service may be handled by a Defect Remediation process. In this case it is desirable to apply a fix as quickly as possible to the existing service as it may be affecting multiple university processes and causing a disruption to the universities ability to perform its function. Changes that modify the behavior of an existing service or its interface are best handled by identifying a new service or a separate version of the service. In this scenario versions are really new services that are separate from the original. Taking this route minimizes impact on consumers using the original service but can cause a proliferation of services within the enterprise. This may not always be desirable however and some effort should be put into defining conditions under which an existing service in production may be modified (for instance, only one business consumer is affected and the change is well understood). This should be documented so that everyone understands the conditions and ensure that changes are handled in a consistent manner. Service Withdrawal is the final step of the lifecycle. Eventually services will start ballooning (especially when changing production services leads to the creation of new services) and some services will stop being used. Removing service can be problematic as a service may support multiple business process owned by different colleges and departments. A procedure needs to be adopted to define and orderly withdrawal of services from the system. Such a procedure may start with deprecating the service (with a note explaining why and some suggestion as to another service to replace it). Secondly, services can be monitored for use and the consumers identified. Finally, if the service is still being used the consumers should be contacted to discuss a solution. This should result in establishing a schedule for the consumers to switch over to another service so that the service may be withdrawn. Consumers of a deprecated service may not have incentive to change. Making changes requires effort and possibly some risk to the consumer. This needs to be recognized when seeking collaboration from consumers to switch over to another service. In this case it will be necessary to be creative in coming up with a common understanding of the benefit of switching to a newer service so the deprecated one may be withdrawn. Center of Excellence (COE) An online community to: Impart the SOA Vision. Educate IT and business staff on SOA. Communicate SOA best practices. Gain feedback on how to adapt the SOA Governance process and overall SOA program. Provide support advice for new and ongoing SOA implementations. Provide SOA Resources: Books Web Sites Industry Standards Quality of Service Logging Most applications and systems use some form of logging that stores messages to a persistent medium (DBMS, file, etc.). Logging provides the following benefits: Troubleshooting Applications log errors upon failure, and system personnel use this information to repair the problem. Reviewing System personnel examine log messages to check for problems. Auditing Security personnel can review log messages to see what actions a user performed in the system. Debugging Developers generate log messages to debug their programs. Identity Management Identity Management is the ability to identify a requestors (person or system) true identity and relationships between people and organizations (groups). The current policies and level of enforcement are expected to continue into Managed Services by using Microsofts Active Directory as the source for identity management. Confidentiality Confidentiality assures that during transport of the data it was never visible, accessible or viewed other than by authorized recipients. There currently is no Smart Energy or Smart Grid requirement to secure messages for Confidentiality. Authentication Authentication is also done within Microsofts Active Directory and adds authorization policies to the verified identity. Authorization Authorization is currently done at the application level. Within Managed Services (stage MS3) authorization will be performed to determine whether the requestor (person, application, service) is authorized to access the requested service, data and even the Managed Data Repository. Integrity / Non-repudiation Integrity requires that during transport and even as read by the sender there were no unauthorized modifications of the content of the message. Non-repudiation assures the sending service that the receiving service has received the intended message. Current Smart Energy and Smart Grid projected needs do not require message Integrity, but for sensitive messages (time, confidentiality, event, or priority) there is Non-repudiation. Consumers Service Consumers are the end consumer/user of the services provided by an enterprise. The consumer has the flexibility to process and display useful and relevant information provided by Services. Service Consumers access Services through a consistent interface (or contract) exposed by that Service. Service Consumers can be: User Interfaces B2B Applications Business Processes User Interaction Users can access enterprise services through variety of mechanisms, including Portals, web sites, or PDAs. A web site provides a web-based interface to enable users to perform daily, job-related tasks. A web site leverage the services created provided the organization, as a part of SOA implementation, and do not contain any business logic themselves. The site seamlessly integrates with back-end services (using SOAP/WSDL, REST/JSON) and business processes. The site can be secured by global security policies, but also can include role based authentication that limits access to only relevant information making it easier to manage. A Portal is a web site that enables users to access highly personalized information and services. It can increase the productivity and effectiveness of employees within an organization through a consolidated view of available services and information. Typically the site is highly interactive, allowing the user to run a wide variety of tools and functions such as, global search queries, and custom dashboard and advanced business intelligence tools. Portals provide a unified entry point to the organization and provide common look and feel all across applications. Portals form the front end for business processes and custom applications created as composite applications. The site can also be utilized to mash-up other applications or services from 3rd party sites. Wikis, Blogs, RSS feeds, and content can all be made available within the site. A PDA enables mobile users to access enterprise services. Like sites and portals, a PDA has no business logic of its own, but it allows the end user to interact with back-end services by seamlessly accessing the Web Services exposed by an enterprise. However, a PDAs interface and functionality is much more limited than that of a web site because of display and memory constraints. B2B Applications An organization normally collaborates with external business partners such as suppliers and customers to achieve its business objectives. An external partners B2B application (e.g., a web site or portal) will invoke a Web Service exposed by an enterprise, which in turn executes business functionality on behalf of the client. Business Processes A Business Process codifies and streamlines the rules, practices, and business s activities in an enterprise. Business analysts create Business Process Diagrams using the industry-standard Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) to document a set of coordinated tasks and activities that lead to an organizational goal. You can think of a business process as a graphical representation of a Use Case (RUP) or User Epic (Agile / Scrum) in that it shows normal and alternate flows along with exceptions encountered during processing. In SOA, a business process coordinates the business services (see section 3.2.1) developed by an enterprise. SOA architects and developers derive business services from the tasks and decision points in a business process diagram. Business logic is used to form business flows as parallel tasks or sequential tasks based on business rules, policies, and other business requirements. Examples of Business Processes include: Purchasing a product Time Entry / Approval Billing Service Provisioning For information on tools and products, please the Workflow / Orchestration section (3.4.5). Collaboration Services Presentation Services Presentation Services define a common set of services to manage interaction with users or trading partners (to the extent this second interaction is needed). Presentation services are provided by: web servers, portal servers, and application servers that provide the capability to quickly create the front end of business processes and composite applications to respond to changes in user needs through channels, portals, rich clients, and other mechanisms. Presentation services integrate with other foundational services, such as security (e.g., single sign-on). Users can access enterprise services through variety of mechanisms, including Portals, web sites, or PDAs. A web site provides a web-based interface to enable users to perform daily, job-related tasks. A web site leverage the services created provided the organization, as a part of SOA implementation, and do not contain any business logic themselves. The site seamlessly integrates with back-end services (using SOAP/WSDL, REST/JSON) and business processes. The site can be secured by global security policies, but also can include role based authentication that limits access to only relevant information making it easier to manage. A Portal is a web site that enables users to access highly personalized information and services. It can increase the productivity and effectiveness of employees within an organization through a consolidated view of available services and information. Typically the site is highly interactive, allowing the user to run a wide variety of tools and functions such as, global search queries, and custom dashboard and advanced business intelligence tools. Portals provide a unified entry point to the organization and provide common look and feel all across applications. Portals form the front end for business processes and custom applications created as composite applications. The site can also be utilized to mash-up other applications or services from 3rd party sites. Wikis, Blogs, RSS feeds, and content can all be made available within the site. A PDA enables mobile users to access enterprise services. Like sites and portals, a PDA has no business logic of its own, but it allows the end user to interact with back-end services by seamlessly accessing the Web Services exposed by an enterprise. However, a PDAs interface and functionality is much more limited than that of a web site because of display and memory constraints. BI / Reporting BI (Business Intelligence) / Reporting provides a high-level view of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to business stakeholders to enable them to make decisions and manage the business. Examples of KPIs include: Efficiency of business processes. Job Costing. New customers acquired. Sales information by demographic (age, ethnicity, geographic region, etc.). Churn / turnover of accounts by demographic. A BI product uses the information stored in a Data Warehouse to present it to the user. A BI tool (such as Business Objects) uses Key Performance Indicators (KPIs e.g., sales conversion rate, in-force polices, market penetration, for example) to report on data, identify trends, perform data analysis, etc. to enable business users to make decisions and operate the business as efficiently as possible while advancing a business strategy. BI increases business agility and shortens timeframes for decision-making. It gives companies the ability to identify and anticipate opportunities represented by seemingly unrelated events. It is a key enabler of strategic and tactical decision making. Commercial products include: IBM COGNOS MicroStrategy O

The Challenge of Having Faith in God Today Essay -- Philosophy Religio

The Challenge of Having Faith in God Today In Elie Wiesel’s book Night, one character professes to have â€Å"more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He’s the only one who’s kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people† (77). After all they have gone through in their rich and lengthy history, Jews have every right to feel angry toward God for not keeping His promises. God told them that they were His chosen people; but who would feel privileged to be a Jew if being â€Å"chosen† meant having to live through Auschwitz? For many Jews who lived through the Holocaust, their faith in God will never be the same. The question that many of them ask is â€Å"Why?† Why the gas chambers? Why the Jews? â€Å"Why has God apparently forsaken us?† Many survivors feel great anger towards the God of their ancestors, and through this anger they try to understand the â€Å"whys.† For many, this is the only way they can live after what they have been through. Throu gh anger, survivors can assert their presence: â€Å"To overwhelming death one must respond with overwhelming life†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Greenberg 330). In a post-Holocaust age, a logical and reasonable way for many survivors to relate to God is through anger and controversy rather than through a passive acceptance of God's will. Elie Wiesel is probably the best known Holocaust survivor alive today. He has written several books about his experiences in the concentration camps and his reflections on the Holocaust. Wiesel’s work is known for the hard questions that it poses, and the sensitive issues that it discusses. Wiesel himself is an excellent example of how the Holocaust destroyed or at least significantly altered the faith of many of its victims. Before he was deported, the 15-year-old Wiesel wa... ... Otherwise, how do we know that He is listening to us? Or how do we know that He cares about what happens to us? How do we even know that God did not hang on the gallows of Auschwitz? Works Cited Brown, Robert McAfee. Introduction. The Trial of God. New York: Schocken Books, 1979. vii-xix. Greenberg, Irving. â€Å"Cloud of Smoke, Pillar of Fire.† Holocaust. John K. Roth and Michael Berenbaum, eds. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 1989. â€Å"The Book of Job.† The Harper Collins Study Bible. NRSV. London: Harper Collins Publishers, 1989. Kushner, Harold S. When Bad Things Happen to Good People. New York: Avon Books, 1981. Mauriac, Francois. Forward. Night. by Elie Wiesel. New York: Bantam Books, 1960. vii-xi. Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Bantam Books, 1960. Wiesel, Elie. The Trial of God. New York: Schocken Books, 1979.

Ku Klux Klan :: Ku Klux Klan

In the spring of 1866, A year after the civil war had ended; Six confederate veterans formed a social club in the town of Pulaski, Tennessee. Just out of the war and looking for excitement they formed a secret society which they named the Ku Klux Klan. The name came from the Greek word Kuklos, meaning circle. This small group started as a harmless fun loving group, developed into one of the largest, most violent groups in American History. The original group only lasted a few years, and left a permanent impression, rituals that people today still use. Klan supporters saw the group as a protector of a certain way of life and the white race. The original Klan shut down in 1872. On Thanksgiving Night 1915, The Klan struck again. Sixteen men from Atlanta, Georgia went to the top of the mountain and set up for a Klan ritual. They built an altar of stones, on which they placed on American Flag, a bible and a sword. Then the men erected a sixteen-foot high cross and lit it on fire. William Joseph Simmons was the leader of the new Klan. William, son of an ex Klan member, heard his dad speck of Klan stories and wanted to â€Å"Frighten the Dark people† himself. In the early 1920’s the Klan traveled on a wave of terror in the south and southwest. As the violence spread a pattern appeared. The majority of the Victorian’s were whites who had broken some kind of moral code. Such as Bootleggers, Gamblers, were favorite targets. The Klan would parade the streets at night as a reminder of the constant terror they haunted a southern town with. By taking the law into their own hands the Klan made sure the laws were respected. Hooded Klansmen sometimes took their victims in brood daylight but mostly they piled into cars and went â€Å"nightriding†. Klansmen used whips to punish those victims. Once they finished whipping they would pour hot tar on them and sprinkle feathers on them. This would add insult to injury. I n 1921, the Klan was brought to trial for the murder of a black man who had been a known drunk in his hometown. Simmons, Klan leader, stepped up in front of congress and swore on the holy bible that the Klan â€Å"never had been and never will be involved in violent acts†. In 1922, the Klan used its anti-Catholic appeal to capture control of the Oregon St. Ku Klux Klan :: Ku Klux Klan In the spring of 1866, A year after the civil war had ended; Six confederate veterans formed a social club in the town of Pulaski, Tennessee. Just out of the war and looking for excitement they formed a secret society which they named the Ku Klux Klan. The name came from the Greek word Kuklos, meaning circle. This small group started as a harmless fun loving group, developed into one of the largest, most violent groups in American History. The original group only lasted a few years, and left a permanent impression, rituals that people today still use. Klan supporters saw the group as a protector of a certain way of life and the white race. The original Klan shut down in 1872. On Thanksgiving Night 1915, The Klan struck again. Sixteen men from Atlanta, Georgia went to the top of the mountain and set up for a Klan ritual. They built an altar of stones, on which they placed on American Flag, a bible and a sword. Then the men erected a sixteen-foot high cross and lit it on fire. William Joseph Simmons was the leader of the new Klan. William, son of an ex Klan member, heard his dad speck of Klan stories and wanted to â€Å"Frighten the Dark people† himself. In the early 1920’s the Klan traveled on a wave of terror in the south and southwest. As the violence spread a pattern appeared. The majority of the Victorian’s were whites who had broken some kind of moral code. Such as Bootleggers, Gamblers, were favorite targets. The Klan would parade the streets at night as a reminder of the constant terror they haunted a southern town with. By taking the law into their own hands the Klan made sure the laws were respected. Hooded Klansmen sometimes took their victims in brood daylight but mostly they piled into cars and went â€Å"nightriding†. Klansmen used whips to punish those victims. Once they finished whipping they would pour hot tar on them and sprinkle feathers on them. This would add insult to injury. I n 1921, the Klan was brought to trial for the murder of a black man who had been a known drunk in his hometown. Simmons, Klan leader, stepped up in front of congress and swore on the holy bible that the Klan â€Å"never had been and never will be involved in violent acts†. In 1922, the Klan used its anti-Catholic appeal to capture control of the Oregon St.

International and Comparative Human Resource Management Essay

Globalization of business activities has over the recent past happened at rising rates. With the rapid growth of technology, coupled with constant innovations, several corporate organizations have targeted to operate in global scale. With the advent of multinational corporations, the landscape of human resource has undergone a lot of transformations that have given it a new definition. It is important to note that the definition of human resource management has not remained the same given the international dimension added to it (Edwards & Rees 2006; Brewster & Harris 1999). The degree to which a corporation or company can be considered to be multinational is normally determined by looking at and assessing human resource management policies it has put into place and implementation of the same; these policies are considered alongside other facets of organizational structures and functions. In ethnocentric corporations, human resource policies are formulated at the head quarters, home countries, and then supplied worldwide to other subsidiary corporations. It has been argued that this is not an appropriate strategic policy formulation for a multinational corporate organization with international human resources (Briscoe & Schuler 2004). International human Resource Management is concerned more with global management of human capital of a given multinational corporation. The main aim of IHRM is to empower a multinational corporation to achieve success in its global operations; this means the corporation being competitive world all over, being efficient in its international operations, adapting to the global business environment and adapting to the same within the shortest time possible, being locally responsible (in every geographical region of its operations) and being able to transmit learning to all its globally dispersed subsidiaries. The main themes of this paper are about institutional factors that can potentially Influence IHRM practices and policies in developing countries. It also examines the implications of International Human Resource Manager. There are many actors that really influence the process of International Human Resource Management. However, for the purposes of this paper, the main focus will be on three institutional factors. Institutional factors that can Influence IHRM practices and policies in developing countries Institutional strategies and policies Different multinational corporations have different human resource management approaches. Several studies have found out that there is substantial national variance in terms of human resource management (Cooke 2002). This has mostly been witnessed where the parent country’s strategies seem to dominate how a multinational corporation manages its human capital. This is referred to as ethnocentric or forward diffusion strategies (Keeley 2001). This ethnocentric approach has been a big hindrance to the diffusion of parent practices into other subsidiaries. More research studies that have been done have also drawn focus to the influence which the parent country has on how strategic decisions regarding human resource management is done by a company in the host country. Most developing countries pursue different trade policies and strategies; they are these strategies and policies that inform how the multinational corporations operate and interact with other corporations from other developing and developed nations as explained by Kidd et al (2001, pp. 154-163). The fact is that these developing nations have different cultures from the host nations. Due to these differences, it has become an uphill task to transfer human resources management strategies amongst the developing nations. Moreover, different nations come up with changing legislations regarding labor management. These legislations are on policies that may concern minimum wages payable to an employee, the number of expatriates allowed in a foreign owned corporation and also the work status of such expatriates. Developing economies have different economic systems governed by different economic policies and strategies (World Book Encyclopedia 1994). Some economies are centralized while others are liberalized. In the centralized economies, it becomes a bit more difficult for foreign-owned corporations to get foreign expatriates and according to Dutkiewicz and Espino (1997, p. 22), a corporation may be forced to hire purely locally; the issue here is that centralized economies are under direct governments’ control. With respect to this, different governments come up with certain restriction or legislations that may be different from the home country of a parent corporation. Different countries also have varied legislations regarding human capital and multinational corporations are expected to comply with the legislations of the host countries. One area in which legislations differ is in terms of income. Income taxes may vary and have different ranges. This is always likely to have negative impact on the attitude of employees who are transported or exported to countries where income taxes are high. Besides, due to currency fluctuation in the global financial market, managing the salaries for the expatriates becomes a big challenge to International Human Resource Management process. Political factors Politics is one of the major factors that directly impact on IHRM. The political activities in the developing economies have significant influences in the IHRM. Elaboration of this point is evidenced by the fact that different developing nations have varied political environments. The political environments of developing nations are more dynamic in comparison to the political environment of Western developed and other developed nations. Due to this, International Human Resource Management process faces more challenges in the developing economies than developed countries. The causes of these challenges emanate from the fact that the political landscape is characterized by varied opinions by different rival politicians giving promises to the people during electioneering periods; this has made the political environment of the nations to be unstable and hence unpredictable in terms of efficient and effective IHRM policies implementation (Sparrow 2009). Political factors are intertwined with economic factors; this is in the sense politics determines economic activities in the countries. The role of politics in this sense is strong in the developing countries where poverty indices are still low. Political instability and or elements of social conflicts may scare away foreign direct investments; and most importantly, foreign workers may fear working in such economies. The effect of this scenario is ineffective transfer of human capital to certain regions. However, political stability and relative peace in these economies are likely to benefit multinational corporations as far as IHRM is concerned (Sparrow 2009). Within the political environment, there are several pressure groups and institutions that represent different interests of particular individuals. Labour unions are some of the mostly prominent pressure groups shaping the political landscapes. The availability and the latent influence exacted by the labour unions are some of the dominant factors considered when multinational corporations are deciding on countries to expand their operations to. The multinational corporations consider critically the potential cost and other limiting factors associated with the influence of labour unions. The structures of labour unions, their priorities and legislations and practices vary greatly amongst the developing nations. Some of the unions are organized based on the basis of shared industries while others are organized according to occupation of the members. There are nations where labor unions play a major role in labor relations and, low, are allowed to have representations in the boards of multinational corporations. Otherwise, there are also developing nations where independent labour unions are suppressed. Moreover, in some countries labour unions are only mainly concerned with safeguarding personal interests of workers; such interests are commensurate wages and better working conditions. In other nations, labour unions are actively involved in political process and activism. The presence of labour unions may be both beneficial and disadvantageous to multinational corporations. However, it is the prerogative of individual Multinational Corporation to decide whether it is to venture and carry out its expanded operations in a country of choice. However, it is important to mention that there are varied implications of the dynamic labor unions to the International Human Resource Management, especially in developing nations where labour unions are fully involved in mainstream politics and activism. These unions are not just a collection of workers, but also of individuals with political motivation. The consequence of this is that political issues may get into the core business of a multinational corporation thereby jeopardizing its business objectives. Therefore, International Human Resource Managers have to deal with more diversified labour issues than the national human resource managers. Organizational culture Organizational culture is one of the institutional factors that affect the IHRM. An organization’s culture is a popular concept in the theory of organizational management. It is used to refer to the underlying fundamental assumptions, shared norms and values that determines and informs the behavior of individuals attached to the organization; it serves as a behavioral control and provides a framework within which employees are to carry out organizational duties. Research has shown that there is evidence of potential ability of organizational culture in informing the values of the employees (Perkins 2000). Nonetheless, further studies have shown that an organizational culture may instill values and norms that are not consistent with those of national culture to its employees. Consequently, the both national and organizational cultures are likely to conflict at international level. Focusing on organizational culture, it is crucial to note that when a corporation goes multinational, it is likely to face challenges in situations it establishes subsidiaries in countries where its culture is potentially in conflict with the national culture of the host country. It therefore implies that an internationalizing corporation requires carrying out of thorough audit of the new regions of operations and reforming its organizational culture to conform to the national culture of the host state. This may include changing its human resource policies and harmonizing them with those of the host state (Perkins 2000). Every organization has its own culture, which it uses to remain distinct within the global sphere (Joynt & Warner 1996). However, this may not stand due to varied national cultural practices of different nations. As has been discussed earlier, the organization will be forced to adapt to cultural practices of the host countries; this may mean employees working in each subsidiary have differing norms and values. This situation is extensively discussed and explained by Heath (2005, p. 233). The organizations may find it appropriate to adapt to the cultures in the host countries. The implication of this is that the organization is most likely to lose its organizational cultural identity; but still the organization has to operate as a unit on the world business platform. Taking for instance, operating in a purely Muslim country will need restructuring how human capital is managed in the organization. The relationship between men and women in Muslim countries are not as liberal as other non-Muslim nations. Therefore, the organization is faced with lots of cultural dilemmas in terms of IHRM. Joint ventures and acquisitions are some of the ways through which multinational corporations expand their operations. Given the varied organizational cultures of the developing countries, integrating human capital to work as a unit is likely to be faced with some challenges on the basis of cultural conflict. This situation may be more evident where two multinational corporations come together just to form a joint venture. However, the organizational culture of the acquiring corporation may dominate the whole negotiation. But it is also important to note that, with this respect, organizational culture may not be a problem where a multinational corporation expands its operations to regions where its culture is identical or closely related to the host’s national culture and organization (Perkins 2000). Due to different and varied national and organizational cultures, a multinational corporation may consider localizing recruitment of its human capital. The advantage of this is that there is no need to grapple with cultural issues since human resources are tapped locally; the employees are already familiar with their own national culture and are able to form a uniform organizational culture (this is where the organization has decided it will allow its organizational culture to vary regionally or geographically). This is exemplified where multinational corporations expand within the developing Muslim states. Adoption of new technology and effecting new changes form an important part of an organizational culture. Employees and other stakeholders have different opinions regarding new changes; due to this, it is important that they are well prepared for such changes. Otherwise, any form of change may not get their support, especially when change involves the corporate organization going global with its business operations. An organization may be forced to ensure that its potential expatriates are well informed on the imminent changes and how they are likely to be affected.

Effects of Emotions on Driving Essay

There are reported cases of vehicular accidents every year in the United States. Even though drivers are aware that drinking and using cellular phones while driving are dangerous, they overlook other factors that might contribute to accidents such as physical condition and emotion. Emotions, along with personality types, video games and gender differences, determine driving behavior. Emotions can be a positive force in determining driving behavior. For instance, a person can be motivated to drive safely by his love for his family. Moreover, if he fears any legal consequences or accidents, it might restrict him from reckless driving. On the other hand, if a person has emotional problems, this can possibly lead to collision. Some may think that emotions may have little effect on one’s driving. But according to researches, any kind of emotion has negative impacts on driving, which can cause impairments that the driver is not fully aware of. A person who is frightened, depressed, upset or excited while driving may be in the same danger as someone who is engaged in a phone call or is drunk (DMV, 2008). There are also cases when a person has to drive after attending to an emergency or after learning of a loved one’s sickness or death. To avoid accidents, it is advisable that the driver pause a while to get his bearings straight before getting behind the wheel. Research about causes of vehicular accidents showed that those who are experiencing negative and even positive emotions were at a distraction level more serious than those who were engaged in a phone call. These emotions can affect even excellent drivers in many ways. First is that they might experience â€Å"dimmed or impaired observation and reaction times† (DMV, 2008). Second, drivers might not see debris in the road or might not recognize situations such as slowing of traffic, which can result to hitting other cars in the way. Third, drivers might not recognize what is happening around them (Connolly, 2007). For instance, they might not recognize that a car ahead is turning around or is about to cross. Fourth, emotions might cause drivers to make risky changes such as abrupt change of lanes. Fifth, they might feel as if they were detached from their surroundings (DMV, 2008). There might be some cases wherein a person is involved in a road rage. Road rage has become too common these days. It is responsible for many cases of bodily injuries and accidents on the road. These accidents can be attributed to the fact that some drivers overreact and personalize driving situations. Researches about road rage showed that more than half of all the drivers in America can express road rage themselves, or they can be a victim of another driver’s road rage. Moreover, the U. S. Highway Safety Office declares that the many cases of accidents on the road are connected to road rage or aggressive driving, as such, road rage is now the primary cause of death (DMV, 2008). The personality type of a person can also determine his driving behavior. Personality type is categorized into Type A and Type B. Type A is those that are impatient, aggressive and hostile while Type B is those calm individuals (Sedona. com, 2007). One of the traits common in the abusive personality or Type A individuals is recklessness in driving. Drivers categorized as Type A are always in need of power and control. This might be an explanation for engaging in road rage situations. Emotions’ effects on driving can be further explained by what is going on in the parts of the brain involved. Emotions have effects on the part of the brain responsible for reason, thought and judgment. These brain parts mature when a person reaches 25 years of age. Thus, drivers below 25 years old, especially teenagers, are at risk of accidents (Davis, 2005). The parts of the brain related to emotion and decision-making of the teens are still developing. As their brain develops, teens are susceptible to risky behavior such as driving too fast. Brain immaturity is responsible for the high number of teen crash rate today. Recent brain researches of the National Institute of Health (NIH) have come out and shown that young drivers are at risk of accidents because the â€Å"executive branch† of the teen’s brain that is largely responsible for weighing risks, making judgments and controlling impulsive behavior is not yet developed. Results have shown that a â€Å"16-year-old’s brain is far less developed† (Davis, 2005) than those teens who are a bit older. This explains why there are more 16-year-old drivers who are at a higher risk of crashing than those older teens. In fact, a recorded number of 937 drivers who are 16 years of age were involved in fatal crashes in 2003. Almost half of those drivers and 352 of their passengers were killed. Thus, young teenagers need supervision because they are too young to drive. Another factor that psychologists and doctors looked into to explain the many cases of teen crashes is the video games. Video games on racing feature realistic driving environments wherein players must race through city and traffic (Wood, 2007). Several studies were conducted to determine the relationship between video games and driving. One such study was conducted by Douglas Gentile and Craig Anderson, both psychologists. Video games are interactive and engaging. Plus, violent behavior in video games is rewarded. Thus, teens and even adults tend to repeat these behaviors as they play. Gentile and Anderson indicated that for these reasons, violent video games may have stronger effects on aggression. The results have also shown that video game is directly related to having aggressive thoughts and behavior (cited in American Psychological Association, 2004). Another study by German researchers has also shown that video games affect those who play them. The researchers stated that the video games exhibit â€Å"competitive and reckless driving, speeding and crashing into cars or pedestrians, or performing risky stunts† (cited in Wood, 2007). This means that the actions in video games can result to accidents or crashes in a realistic racing environment. The researchers chose 198 men and women to participate in the study. Results showed that those who play more often were likely to engage in risky and aggressive driving and getting into car accidents while those who played less often were more cautious in driving (Wood, 2007). Studies were done to determine the difference between male and female when it comes to driving. Men are more aggressive than women, as is explained by testosterone, the male sex hormone responsible for aggressiveness in men. Most people want to know if men tend to be aggressive compared to women when driving, as such, a study showed a situation wherein a male driver became upset when another driver cut in front of him. He followed the car until he found out that the driver was a female. He was shocked because the female driver drove violently, when in the society women are not depicted to drive aggressively. If the other driver was not female, would the driver’s behavior of following the car be justified? Just from observation alone, we see how men and women differ in emotional behavior when driving. Men will likely criticize another driver, making sure that the other driver can hear him. Women, on the other hand, will likely criticize other drivers to themselves because they fear retaliation. There are also instances when emotional behaviors get in the way of safe driving. For instance, a girl asked her boyfriend to drive her home, but the boyfriend got upset. At 60mph, he sped around corners where the speed limit was 25mph. The boyfriend’s want for being in control forced his girlfriend to comply with his emotions. Anger sometimes gets the best of drivers. It results to behavior that is destructive for both the driver and the passenger (Lucey, n. d. ). Emotions affect driving. When a person is elated, frightened, worried or depressed, he or she might not be able to perform well in driving. Aside from emotions, other factors that can affect driving are personality types, video game influences and gender differences. References American Psychological Association.(2004, June 8). Violent video games – Psychologists help protect children from harmful effects. Retrieved December 1, 2008, from http://www. psychologymatters. org/videogames. html Connolly, A. (2007). How to control your emotions on the road. Associated Content. Retrieved December 1, 2008, from http://www. associatedcontent. com/article/157425/how_to_control_your_emotions_on_the. html Davis, R. (2005). 16, Is it too young to drive a car? USA Today. Retrieved December 1, 2008, from http://www. usatoday. com/educate/college/firstyear/articles/20050306. htm DMV. (2008). How emotions affect driving. Retrieved December 1, 2008, from http://www. dmv. org/how-to-guides/driving-and-emotions. php Lucey, C. (n. d. ). Gender differences in driving norms. Retrieved December 1, 2008, from http://www. soc. hawaii. edu/leonj/459ss97/clucey/report2. html#2 Sedona. com. (2007). Type A personality, Type B personality: How much are we really controlled by â€Å"personality types†? Retrieved December 1, 2008, from http://www. sedona. com/lp-typeA. aspx Wood, J. (2007). Video racing games may spur risky driving: study. Soft32. com. Retrieved December 1, 2008, from http://news. soft32. com/video-racing-games-may-spur-risky-driving-study_3722. html