How retention strategies of organisation has an impact on labour Dissertation

How retention strategies of organisation has an impact on labour turnover in China - Dissertation Example Throughout the entire period in fulfilling the objectives of this dissertation, I was greatly blessed with his extensive guidance and supervision over my work. I cannot complete this part without saying ‘thank you, sir’. Subsequent to that, my colleagues and friends who also played their part have extended their hand for my project; the successful culmination of this dissertation has also observed the role of my friends. For such contribution, I am also indebted to them. Executive Summary The report objectives were to investigate the recent status of labour turnover in China, reason for increasing labour turnover, identification of retention strategies and effective way to reduce turnover in China. The literature review highlighted the theoretical underpinnings of turnover intention and its related factors with a particular focus on the Chinese market. The online survey was carried out to entertain these objectives. The main findings indicate that job variety, decision making and job involvement have no or zero correlation with turnover intention; job variety, decision making and job involvement have a weak positive correlation with job satisfaction and the same has been found with organizational commitment. The majority of the respondents attach considerable significance to â€Å"leave† incentive as an option to switch over to new organization and training, career help and appraisal can be employed as effective tools to reduce the labour turnover and simultaneously they can be used as retention strategies. The future research should be focusing on the different incentives offered by the employers. Table of contents Introduction 6 Problem statement 8 Research Objectives 8 Revised Literature Review 9 Labour turnover 9 School of turnover 10 Objective opportunities 10 Turnover intention 12 Retention strategies 12 Job satisfaction 13 Organizational commitment 14 Job involvement 14 Job or skill variety 15 Decision making 15 Gap in research 15 S ummary 16 Methodology 18 Research philosophy 18 Hypotheses formulation 19 Research approach 19 Research instrument 20 Data collection method 21 Pilot testing 22 Sampling 23 Sampling strategy 23 Validity and reliability 23 Discussion and analysis strategy 24 Research limitations 24 Research ethics 25 Discussion and analysis chapter 27 Correlation 27 Turnover intention and job variety 27 Turnover intention and decision making 29 Turnover intention and job involvement 30 Job satisfaction and job variety 31 Job satisfaction and decision making 32 Job satisfaction and job involvement 34 Organizational commitment and job variety 35 Organizational commitment and decision making 36 Organizational commitment and job involvement 37 Benefits of Switching organizations 38 Retention strategies 39 Conclusion 40 Recommendations 43 References 45 Appendices 49 Introduction The Chinese economy has grown rapidly. This growth has also increased the Chinese economic environment along with raise increa se in the aggregate employment level. However, this rise increase in the employment has also resulted in labour turnover. Labour turnover can be divided into two main dimensions: voluntary and involuntary. The former reflects employee decision to discontinue offering employment services and the latter relates to employer’s decision to cease up employment relationship with employee. Abbassi and Hollman (2000) maintain that there are five reasons which give rise to employee turnover including managerial style, hiring practices,

Global Warming Report Essay Example for Free

Global Warming Report Essay Over the past few decades scientist have been observing a warming trend in the over all temperature of the earth. Although the earth has been known to go through warm and cold periods, it seems that we humans are causing the earth to heat up this time. The greenhouse effect is causing the earth to go through this warming trend that we call global warming. The greenhouse effect is caused when the infrared radiation from the sun is absorbed in atmospheric gasses such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone, and methane. All of these gasses escape slowly from the atmosphere, therefore the heat stays here longer in a short of warm airy blanket. Without the occurrence of the greenhouse effect scientist say that the earths average temperature would be around 30 degrees C. or 50 degrees F. There are many greenhouse gasses that can trap the infrared rays of the sun. Carbon dioxide can be released into the atmosphere in several ways, the bulk of it is produced by car exhaust, deforestation, and the burning of fossil fuels. It is a colorless, odorless, non flammable gas, and it is also the most prominent greenhouse gas in earths atmosphere. CO2 is recycled through the earths atmosphere using the process photosynthesis, which makes most life on earth possible. Another greenhouse gas is methane and it is one of the most common gasses in the universe. methane is colorless odorless gas that is lighter than air and is produced by organic decay. Deposits of methane can usually be found in areas where lots of natural decay takes place, such as swamps, and land fills. Each year we add 350-500 million tons of methane to the atmosphere through mining, raising livestock, rice cultivation, and landfills. In fact a cow can release up to a half pound of methane into the air everyday. Nitrous oxide is another colorless and greenhouse gas, however it does smell sweet. It is mostly used medically because it deadens pain, because of this it is called laughing gas. It is released naturally from oceans and by bacteria is soil. It is important to reduce our emissions because nitrous oxide we release today will still be trapped in the atmosphere 100 years from now. The set of greenhouse gasses are fluorocarbons, that is a general term for any group of synthetic organic compounds that have fluorine and carbon. These can be found in aerosol cans, refrigerators, and air conditioners. When fluorocarbons are released into the atmosphere they breakdown molecules of the earths ozone layer. The effects of global warming are also good for human beings, because it could increase food production. The most important factor in crop production is climate, and global warming would facilitate a better climate for the growth of more crops. It would also create much more space for businesses were there was once ice and harsh climate. Also without global warming the earth temperature would be about 30 degrees F. n average. With global warming there would be far fewer deaths from cold exposer. If global warming caused enough arctic melt then shippers would have many new shortcut routes to take from place to place. After glacier melt we would have access to many new mining areas. However global warming will also have some large negative effects. Such as health concerns, scientist predict that there will be ma ny more deaths from diseases that are irritated by heat, including heart attacks and heatstroke. Another downside to global warming is the amount of flooding that will occur with coastal cities. Scientist have predicted that about a sixth of the country will be under water after global warming has taken full effect. The Maldive Islands are a nation of 1190 islands that are home to over 200,000 people. These islands are only 1. 5 meters above sea level and if global warming occurs then all of those people will have to be relocated. There are many things that we as human beings can do to help prevent global warming from happening. We can start to take advantage of all the different types of renewable energy instead of burning fossil fuels that pollute the atmosphere in multiple ways. There are many types of clean, efficient, renewable energy sources. There are many energy sources that the earth has provided for us that we need to take advantage of. We need to build more wind turbines, hydro electric plants, and solar power plants. Another way of producing clean energy include using fission through nuclear power to create a clean renewable energy source. Government can also be doing there part by funding research about global warming and raising awareness about how individuals can be doing there part to reduce pollution. In conclusion, Global warming is a very serious thing, it can affect the orld in many different ways. We just need to decide which effects help or harm the world the most and then make an educated choice as to which ones the earth can handle while taking the least amount of stress, and having the best long term effect. Patrick Michaels, The Satanic Gasses Henry Willis, Earths Future Climate Fred Singer, Hot Talk and Cold Science Ronald Bailey, Gl obal Warming and Other Eco Myths

The U.S. Constitution and Slavery :: USA, constitution, slavery, history,

The US constitution was written with great vision to create strong nation. The bill of right were written, it provide all humans with rights. The writers of the constitution we hypocrites, they didn’t abide by what they preached. Thomas Jefferson wrote himself â€Å" all men are created equal† but he owned slaves. The founding father didn’t look or even think about slavery when they wrote the constitution. They were pre-occupied in getting the southern state to join the union and sign the new constitution. They southern states believed that the federal government shouldn’t mess with the issue on slavery because slavery was a state issue. The south and the north made numerous compromises to create a great nation. The first indirect compromise was when the constitution didn’t mention slavery in the constitution, they left that for the states to deal with. After years after when the congress decide to stop the slave trade in 1808, they gave the south time to adjust to this but they new that by the time the slave trade died line was over the slave would have reproduces and they would have more slaves. Third compromise gave the south more power. They had notice that they had less seats in the house of representative. States with the most slaves, for instance Virginia and Maryland, were get out number in the house of representative, so the compromised to have the slave counted as part of the population. They got three counts for every five slaves. This helped balance the house of representative. Later on, after President Lincoln abolished slavery(the thirteen amendment in the constitution) the southern states decided to nullify his decision but the went against the constitution. Nullification is illegal. This action cause the bloodiest civil war in America. President Lincoln notice that the US government was not following what they were preaching. After the win in the civil war, the federal government had established themselves with a lot of power.

Toni Morrison’s Beloved: The Effects of Slavery on Family Bonds

Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved analyzes the effects of slavery on the lives of the African Americans in a very original and profound way. Instead of telling a story about the violence of the white slave masters and about the sufferings of the black people, Morrison reviews the way in which slavery affects the sense of selfhood and identity in the African Americans. The enslaved self cannot relate to the world in the same way as the free self. The master and slave bond is reenacted in the family relationships of the former slaves.Thus, the text investigates the perpetuation of violence and possessiveness after the liberation of the African Americans has taken place. The climax of the novel is indeed an extremely violent moment- Sethe, a runaway slave from the Sweet Home plantation attempts to murder her own children in order to protect them from future slavery. She only has time to kill her baby daughter, Beloved, before the white men stop her. The black slave thus turns the vio lence that was done to her against her own children in two ways: first of all, Sethe kills her daughter because she thinks death would be better her than a life of slavery.However, this violent reaction of the mother has another meaning as well: she acts as if her children were her own possession, as if she were a white master herself. However, motherhood is not the only relationship that is affected by the dark past.Morrison’s novel exemplifies, through a number of relationships, the way in which slavery affects the unity of the traditional African family. In this respect, Beloved traces the reconstruction of African American identity and of the African family as a central structure of society, after the freedom has been obtained.Thus, Toni Morrison’s novel is a different type of slave narrative, told from the point of view of the African Americans, and focusing on the psychological effects of the slavery on selfhood, identity and love. First of all, the bond that is most investigated in the novel is that between the mothers and their children.Through this however, the author points at the destructive force that slavery has on the entire African American community, and especially on the family. Motherhood symbolizes creation and as such, it is the center of any human society.Morrison reveals the violence of white people indirectly, through the murder performed by the mother against her own child, which is obviously a remnant of master and slave relationship. The relationship between Sethe and her daughter Beloved, who haunts her first as a ghost and then as a nineteen old girl, is certainly the central one in the novel and the one that best represents the extent to which slavery can affect the human nature. The master/slave bond is essentially based on dependence, violence, transgression of boundaries.Selfhood for the black people was reduced to the definition of the white men, who took possession of them as if they were objects and not human be ings. The motive that the whites used to justify the slavery of the blacks was always the fact that the latter were savages.Morrison deftly inverses this statement, and points to the fact that the jungle was actually created by the white people, who annihilated the sense of selfhood and humanity in the slaves: â€Å"Whitepeople believed that whatever the manners, under every dark skin was a jungle.Swift unnavigable waters, swinging screaming baboons, sleeping snakes, red gums ready for their sweet white blood. . . . But it wasn't the jungle blacks brought with them to this place from the other place. It was the jungle whitefolks planted in them. And it grew.It spread†¦. The screaming baboon lived under their own white skin; the red gums were their own. (Morrison, 198-199) The strong bond between Sethe and her children reflects this ownership of the slaves by their masters.The jungle that was planted by the white people in the blacks through slavery is mirrored in the Setheâ₠¬â„¢s violence. The murdering act of Sethe can thus be explained: she does not know herself and mistakes her own identity with the fate of her children.Unable to see herself as an independent person, Sethe clings to her role as a mother and becomes extremely possessive. She mistakes her own identity with her motherhood, and thus, in a way, reenacts the violence of the white masters against her.Sethe feels she has no power over her own self because the white people had crossed all the boundaries and not only taken everything she possessed physically, but everything she had dreamed as well: ‘†Those white things have taken all I had or dreamed,' she said, ‘and broke my heartstrings too.There is no bad luck in the world but whitefolks. ‘†(Morrison, 89) It is obvious that the â€Å"whitefolks† are â€Å"bad luck†, that is, for the black slaves they were the instruments of destiny itself, trough the power have over their lives.Thus, when Sethe k ills her infant daughter, she obviously acts, although out of love, as a white master would. As Malmgren remarks, Sethe’s violent act against her own child is actually a perpetuation of the logic of slavery: â€Å"Sethe so identifies her Self with the well-being of her children that she denies their existence as autonomous Others, in so doing unconsciously perpetuating the logic of slavery. †(Malmgren, 103) Morrison’s novel thus reflects the violence of the white race against the black one indirectly, showing how weak the theory that the African American are less than human has proven over time.The white people are actually the ones who took their humanity by treating them as objects or animals. Beloved therefore reviews the manner in which the master/slave bond affects the selfhood of the former slaves, to the point that it is replicated in Sethe’s murder o her own daughter.Motherhood is exemplified in the novel not only in the relationship between Sethe and Beloved, but also in the relationships between Ma’ma and Sethe, or Baby Suggs and her own children. Infanticide seems to have been rather common among the former slaves, as a means of protecting their children.Although Sethe had barely known her mother, she is told that the latter also killed her children, all but herself since she was the only one begotten in love with a black man and not through the rape of a white master: â€Å"She told Sethe that her mother and Nan were together from the sea.Both were taken up many times by the crew. ‘She threw them all away but you. The one from the crew she threw away on the island. The others from more whites she also threw away. Without name she threw them. You she gave the name of the black man. She put her arms around him.The others she did not put her arms around. Never. Never. Telling you. I am telling you, small girl Sethe. ’†(Morrison, 98) As Demetrakopoulos points out, the slavery affected motherhood in such a way that it permitted the excessive and protective love to endeavor guard the child from the cruelty of life itself: â€Å"In this act, Morrison gives us the most searching portrait I know of the paradoxical polarities in motherhood. For Sethe the children are better off dead, their fantasy futures protected from the heinous reality of slavery.It is better, Sethe's act argues, to die in the cradle than to live out one's full life span soul-dead, a zombie/ puppet daily treading the process requirements of someone else's life and needs. The child as the adult's fantasy of the future is obviously central to Sethe's murder of Beloved. †( Demetrakopoulos, 53)In this way, motherhood crosses the normal limits of human love and seems to be reminiscent of the instinctual bonds between the animals and their babies: â€Å"Even her escape from slavery was not really for herself.Her swollen breasts and the baby kicking within pressed her onward to the baby waiting for her milk. B iological necessity made her create a life that would allow her children to grow up. Sethe carries Beloved on her conscience and in her heart. For the mother, the dead child is maternity in potentia, the mother truncated.( Demetrakopoulos, 54)The white domineering culture that enslaved the black is the main cause of this displacement of identity in all the characters in the novel.Although in the text the ghost and then the embodiment of Beloved appear as the main motives for the destabilization and deterioration of all the other family relationships, it is clear that the murdered child represents not only motherhood but also love itself. The possessive and narcissistic love that is exemplified in the relation between Sethe and Beloved replaces the normal emotions for the troubled self. This kind of love that ignores the boundaries of selfhood is obviously the result of the years of slavery and dependence.The liberated self does not know its own substance and limits: â€Å"Beloved/ You are my sister/ You are my daughter/ You are my face; you are me/ I have found you again; you have come back to me/ You are my Beloved/ You are mine/ You are mine/ You are mine. † (Morrison, 216)Paul D fears Sethe's love precisely because he realizes it is extremely powerful and fierce : â€Å"This here new Sethe didn't know where the world stopped and she began . . . more important than what Sethe had done was what she claimed.It scared him†(Morrison, 90) As Barbara Schapiro emphasizes in her study called The Bonds of Love and the Boundaries of Self in Toni Morrison's Beloved, Morrison constructs in her novel precisely the kind of love that is based on possession, dependence and entrapment to show that the consequences of slavery affect the sense of self in the individuals: â€Å"Toni Morrison Beloved penetrates, perhaps more deeply than any historical or psychological study could, the unconscious emotional and psychic consequences of slavery.The novel reveals how the condition of enslavement in the external world, particularly the denial of one's status as a human subject, has deep repercussions in the individual's internal world. These internal resonances are so profound that even if one is eventually freed from external bondage, the self will still be trapped in an inner world that prevents a genuine experience of freedom. †(Iyasere, 155) Paul D calls this type of love that Sethe manifests for himself and for her children â€Å"too thick†, as if it were undiluted by the sense of identity.This type of love, that Sethe has shown in killing he baby daughter is afterwards perpetuated by her in her relationship with the ghost, with Beloved and with Paul D. Thus, the very opening of the novel plunges into Sethe’s world and briefly exposes the nature of the relationships in her family. The house itself is called â€Å"spiteful†, that is haunted by the dark past in the form of Beloved’s ghost. The two sons of Seth e have left and Baby Suggs is dead, all because of Beloved’s ghost.Slavery thus still haunts the lives of the liberated people, and not only in the form of guilt. The fact that the murdered daughter is named â€Å"Beloved† hints to the way in which emotions have been affected and altered: â€Å"124 was spiteful. Full of baby's venom. The women in the house knew it and so did the children. For years, each put up with the spite in his own way, but by 1873 Sethe and her daughter Denver were its only victims.The grandmother, Baby Suggs, was dead, and the sons, Howard and Buglar, had run away by the time they were thirteen years old — as soon as merely looking in the mirror shattered it (that was the signal for Buglar); as soon as two tiny handprints appeared in the cake (that was it for Howard).Neither boy waited to see more, another kettleful of chick peas smoking in a heap on the floor: soda crackers crumbled and strewn in a line next to the doorsill. Nor did the y wait for one of the relief periods: the weeks, months even, when nothing was disturbed.No. Each one fled at once — the moment the house committed what was for him the one insult not to be borne or witnessed a second time. † (Morrison, 3) Heller showed that Morrison’s novel is an attempt at reconstructing of the family relationships, which had been so much influenced and deteriorated by the slavery system: â€Å"As a study of the connection between the historical and the familial, Beloved is concerned with the healing of the black American family and the â€Å"reconstruction† of kinship structures.These structures had been violated by the cruel fact of family life under the slavery system: as enslaved Africans, women and men had no right to themselves, to one another, or to their children. †(Heller, 108) Love and family relationships are clearly affected by the question of identity.For the former slave identity is still undefined since he had been so long treated as an object which has a certain price but no value as a human being. In some of the plantations, the slaves were not allowed to have their own families, and the black women were often raped by their masters.In these conditions, it is obvious that the people had no sense of self and therefore could not relate to someone else. As Carl Malmgren comments in his study Mixed Genres and the Logic of Slavery, the novel points to the way in which love is affected by the loss of identity: â€Å"The novel thus meditates upon and mediates between the various forms that love takes. In this regard, its dominant theme is the problematic of love, particularly as regards the question of identity. †(Malmgren, 105)Denver, Sethe’s second daughter is also affected by Sethe’s love for her dead child. She intuitively feels that the relationship between Beloved and Sethe is wrong, and she lives with the anxiety that the mother could at any time repeat the murderous act and maybe kill her too: â€Å"All the time, I'm afraid the thing that happened that made it all right for my mother to kill my sister could happen again. I don't know what it is, I don't know who it is, but maybe there is something else terrible enough to make her do it again.I need to know what that thing might be, but I don't want to. Whatever it is, it comes from outside this house, outside the yard, and it can come right on in the yard if it wants to. So I never leave this house and I watch over the yard, so it can't happen again and my mother won't have to kill me too. † (Morrison, 205)Denver is actually the one that saves Sethe by deciding to go out of the house in search of food, and to break thus the mother’s total isolation. She makes therefore the first step to establish a relationship between herself and the outside world.She also evinces a much stronger sense of identity in her desire to listen to stories that only talked about her: â€Å"Denver hated the stories her mother told that did not concern herself, which is why Amy was all she ever asked about. The rest was a gleaming, powerful world made more so by Denver's absence from it.Not being in it, she hated it and wanted Beloved to hate it too, although there was no chance of that at all. â€Å"(Morrison, 62) Teresa N. Washington in The Mother- Daughter Aje Relationship in Toni Morrison’s’ Beloved’ shows that Beloved actually is a symbolic incarnation of the African American consciousness coming back to life:â€Å"But in having equated her best self with her children, making the decision to save that precious self, and summoning the self for a discussion, Sethe comes face to face with her spirit, her embodied conscience, and her own (and all her people’s past. )† (Washington, 184) Thus, it is the white culture that first took possession of the black people’s selves and identities, thus destabilizing the entire African American community: â€Å"Anybody white could take your whole self for anything that came to mind. Not just work, kill, or maim you, but dirty you.Dirty you so bad you couldn't like yourself anymore†¦The best things she was, was her children.. â€Å"(Morrison, 251) The novel concludes with the hope of Sethe’s regaining of her lost self: â€Å"You your best thing, Sethe. You are. † â€Å"Me? Me? † (Morrison, 273).The master and slave relationship is also based on dependence, and this is why Sethe has no sense of her real, independent self. She does not even dare to â€Å"go ahead and feel† for example: â€Å"Would it be all right? Would it be all right to go ahead and feel? Go ahead and count on something? † (Morrison, 38).This re-appropriation of the self is a symbol for the reconstruction of the African American identity and culture, and an example of the way in which the past can be accepted. The sense selfhood and the consolidation of the family bonds repre sent the consolidation of the African American community.Works Cited: Demetrakopoulos, Stephanie A. â€Å"Maternal bonds as devourers of women's individuation in Toni Morrison's Beloved. † African American Review. 1992. Vol. 26(1): 51-60.Heller, Dana. †Reconstructing kin: Family, history, and narrative in Toni Morrison's Beloved. † College Literature. Vol. 21(2). 1994.Horvitz, Deborah. â€Å"Nameless Ghosts: Possession and Dispossession in Beloved,† in Studies in American Fiction, Vol. 17, No. 2, 1989, pp. 157-67.Iyasere, Marla and Solomon Iyasere. Understanding Toni Morrison's Beloved and Sula: Selected Essays and Criticisms of the Works by the Nobel Prize-Winning Author. Troy: Whitston Publishing, 2000.Malmgren, Carl. â€Å"Mixed Genres and the Logic of Slavery in Toni Morrison’s Beloved. † Critique. 1995. Vol. 36(2).Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Knopf, 1987. Washington, Teresa. The Mother- Daughter Aje Relationship in Toni Morrisonâ₠¬â„¢s’ Beloved’.

Cause and Effect Essay Example Essay

What is the leading cause of death in the U.S.? Many people would guess cancer, but they would be wrong. The leading cause of death over the past few years has been heart disease. Last year, heart diseases claimed the lives of more than 600,000 Americans. The most common of these is acute myocardial infarction, better known as a heart attack. Each year, about 720,000 Americans suffer from a heart attack. That averages to almost two thousand heart attack cases a day! So why are there so many heart attacks? The answer is simple: by eating unhealthily, not exercising, and smoking, millions of people put themselves at risk of suffering a heart attack. One of the main causes of a heart attack is an unhealthy diet. Because eating healthily costs more, people turn to cheap fast food instead. This fast food is loaded with cholesterol, an important lipid used in the membranes of cells. However, if a person eats too much cholesterol, the excess begins to build up along the wall of the person’s arteries. This substance, called plaque, inhibits the flow of blood to the heart. Consequentially, the heart has to pump much harder to circulate the blood. An unhealthy diet also leads to high blood pressure which further increases the build up of plaque and other fatty matter in the arteries. All of this plaque causes decreased blood flow to the heart which makes it weaker. Although the decreased flow of blood can cause heart problems later on, the real danger is the risk that a piece of the plaque could break off, leaving a gap. If this happens, red blood cells form a clot on top of the plaque which could result in the blockage of the entire artery, causing a heart attack. Maintaining a healthy diet is one of the best ways to lower the risk of having a heart attack. Another factor that increases the risk of having a heart attack is lack of exercise. The heart is a muscle and like any other muscle, it becomes stronger by exercising. Sadly, many people do not and the heart stays weak. It does not pump as well, leading to decreased capability in the future, and numerous health problems. Exercising also prevents clotting in the arteries, therefore lowering the chances of having the arteries blocked. Lazy people who sit and watch television all day miss out on this benefit, and increase the likelihood of a heart attack. Finally, exercise reduces inflammation in the arteries, optimizing blood flow and reducing the threat of a heart attack. Unfortunately, many people do not take the time to exercise, and they suffer from poor blood flow, inflammation of the arteries, and increased risk of heart problems. By not exercising, people put themselves in danger of suffering a heart attack. Finally, countless heart attacks are caused by smoking. Surprisingly, about one in every five deaths from heart disease is caused by smoking. Everybody knows that smoking leads to breathing issues and lung cancer, but what most people do not realize is that smoking also puts people at a higher risk of having a heart attack. The 4,000 or more poisonous substances in a cigarette harm blood vessels throughout the body, including the heart. They also increase the likelihood of blood clots in the arteries which cause heart attacks. Next, smoking causes the arteries to narrow which reduces blood flow further. This means that it does not take as big of a clot to cause a heart attack. Lastly, the carbon monoxide breathed in from smoking replaces the oxygen that would have been breathed in. The carbon monoxide then binds to the red blood cells and is distributed to the body instead of oxygen. This poisons the whole body, including the heart, and makes it have to do more work to supply the body with oxygen. By smoking these lethal substances, people put themselves in the clutches of the leading cause of death in the world. In a society where the fast-food industry booms, video games replace exercise, and cigarettes litter the streets everywhere, it is not surprising that so many people have heart attacks each year. Many people choose to eat unhealthily, lounge around all day, and smoke, endangering their overall health and putting themselves at risk of a heart attack. However, people always have a choice. Although all these things can cause a heart attack, they are not really the underlying problem. The irresponsible behavior and foolish decisions of people is really behind the leading cause of death in America.

The Lovers by Marguerite Duras

The Lovers by Marguerite Duras In this paper we are going to analyze, to try to look deeper or even may be to feel the main ideas, concerns, themes of the famous novel of Marguerite Duras The Love. In order to do this, we have to stop a little on the personality of the author, this is really important for understanding the style and main ideas of the novel. She was born in Saigon French Indochina. Later on she decided to take up law in the native county of her parents – France, but instead developed her talent as a writer. She wrote a number of novels, plays, short stories, was the director of several films, but her best selling book was The Lover ( L’Armant in French). This novel was translated into 43 languages and in the year 1984 it received the Prix Goncourt reward. There was also a movie shot after this novel, the director of which was Jean-Jasques Annaud. Some time later, Duras also published another book, which was a little bit different from the first one under the name – LArmant de l a Chine du Nord. Mostly her works were of an unusual style and full of romanticism. She was considered to belong also to Nouveau roman literally movement in France. The Lover is without double an autobiographical novel and there are some facts confirming this. For example the real lover of the author was also Chinese and his name was Lee. The last information that she received about him was that he became born Christian and that he really loved his family. He died at the same city where they met for the first time. The main heroine of the novel is 15, the same was the age of Duras when she had this love affair. The book is written in an unusual manner, not presenting the chronological sequences of the events and thoughts, this is more a collection of memories, feelings and dreams. The novel mixes up the present events with the past events. The short book of around 100 pages looks like an experiment, due to its style of recollecting ideas and images. At the very beginning the reader is not able to catch the thread of narration, however, really quickly he is amazed by novel. The author perfectly shows how human mind can rapidly recollect the events of the past and mix them with the present surrounding world. The memories seem to be so deep and so emotional that a person would never be able either to forget them or to get rid of them. The novel is absolutely far from simple romantic stories with happy ends, somehow it seems even to break the limits of the permitted relations for such a young girl, but this never makes it perfunctory or obscene. The story is told from the third person and then suddenly from the main heroin herself. This also contributes probably to the feeling that there are two worlds: the usual one, most people used to believe in living in and the other subtle and hidden world of persons desires and feelings. Happiness is hardly separated from violence, love and hated are mixed up, thus neither the themes nor the message of the novel are simple and transparent. The story is told in the way that sometimes there is a feeling that you are listening to a person who is talking in the state of hypnosis. Certainly the main portion of attention is drawn from the very beginning till the end of the story to the young girl, who is always sad, sad because of the situation in her family, because of lack of tender and real love from her mothers side, because of her responsibility for the youngest brother, later because of her involvement into the life of a grown up woman. She belongs to a French family, but living in Indochina, the status of the family is rather poor and low due to the death of the father. From one side this is still a very young a little naive girl, she is not able to have an affair based on pure sexual relations without falling in love. On the other hand, in many senses, this is a mature personality, psychologically older than her physical age. But it is not possible to state whether she is so wise or just gets into such situation only due to her curiosity. At the school, which she attends, other girls and she herself are not much interested in taking care of lepers, the cholera stricken. From the very beginning we have to pay attention to the appearance of the girl, because it is the same dual as her inner world: she has plaits and funny man’s hat, but on the other hand, her transparent dress and shoes make her look like a young prostitute. Thus there is also a contrast, because she is not stunningly beautiful and at the same time, when somebody looks at her he can not just pass by without noticing her ugly beauty. And exactly dressed like this she is noticed by a wealthy Chinese guy, who in a way is a contrast to her, to her clothes, appearance, manners, status. Actually, he could probably find another girl or woman who would be right for him, but he could not stand the temptation to have this one. And he starts conversation with her, though in reality the conversation seems not appropriate, she is far from his business and his compliments she accepts with childish easiness. When the girl agrees to be taken to Saigon by him, it is again not quite clear, weather she just wants to check her charms and ability to attract mens attention, or she is in really interested in this man. Maybe she is just sick and tired of her family situation, of lack of interest and care towards her and is looking to get it from a stranger. Concerning the young man and his motives for the relations with a girl, it is also hard to judge only from one side, he was probably fascinated by her image, by her youth, by her feelings, however there was no intention from his side to marry her, although he was desperately wishing to see her and to be with her. As their relations continue to develop, the girl falls in love, most likely she didn’t expect it and she didn’t want it, as she wanted first of all to be loved, but in reality she gives her body and a part of her soul to a man, who became her lover. In the event that happened after the restaurant, we again come across the duality common for the novel. On the one hand the lover hits and rapes the girl, she feels pain, humiliation, but on the other hand there is some kind of cathartic pleasure for her. Before the situation seemed to be under her control, now the man got what he wanted without her permission. But when she makes him pay the same sum of money that he would have to pay to the prostitute if he had sex with her, and he paid, in a way she manages to take her power back. The man is obsessed by the girl, not however wanting to marry her. Once the girl says that the real reason for her to be with him was money, the reader feels that it is not in this way, she probably doesnt love him deeply, but she is without doubt also attracted to him and nothing is so simple as just money. She maybe chose him for more important mission than being her man or her husband, she chose him as a person who would help her and push her to be reb orn from her old life into new one. At the end of the story it is absolutely clear that there will be no usual happy end, and that they won’t be together and would have to part sooner or later, but they still have love for each other, which is probably far from that classical feeling described by poets and shown in melodramas, but if they are strong enough to part, that doesnt mean that their love was not deep enough and that many year later the lover will not appear in the life of a writer, saying that he still loves her. At least Duras wrote the book later, when she was a quite famous writer. Overall, The Lovers is a deeply emotional, sensitive and subtle story about a man and a girl, about their love and the power of this love, about the psychological fight and about erotic desires. In a way it can be also called a feminist novel, because it mainly underlines the strength of a very young girl, woman, who has little or even no idea about relations between men and women and still she is able to attract and somehow even to control a man who is much older than she.

Kentucky Derby Essays - Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs, Derby

Kentucky Derby Essays - Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs, Derby Kentucky Derby The History of The Kentucky Derby The Kentucky Derby is the most famous and prestigous horse race in the world. It is the first leg of the United States Triple Crown of horse racing. The race became the most famous horse race shortly after it started in 1875. The Kentucky Derby is said to be The most exciting two minutes in sports. Besides the race itself, there are many Derby activities in the previous two weeks, known as the Kentucky Derby Festival. The month of May and the Kentucky Derby is one of my favorite times of the year. Churchill Downs was started by a group headed by a man named M. Lewis Clark in 1874. The group built the track on land owned by the Churchill family of Louisville, Kentucky. The track officially opened on May 17, 1875 and that was the day of the first Kentucky Derby won by Aristides. The first races from 1875-1895 were modeled after the English Derby and were 1 and a half miles long. In 1896 they changed the length of the Kentucky Derby which would prove to be a good decision because from there on it became the most popular race in the world. The Kentucky Derby is the first leg of the United States Triple Crown of horse racing. It is held annually on the first Saturday of May on the world famous Churchill Downs track in Louisville, Kentucky. The race itself is run on a 1 and one-fourth mile dirt track. The race is for the best 3-year-old horses in the world. Most of the recorded times for the race are just over 2 minutes. Only one horse, Secretariat, in 1973 has run the Derby in under 2 minutes. The Kentucky Derby usually has attendences of over 120,000 fans, but millions of viewers watch at home on television. The Triple Crown is the biggest three races in the world. Only eleven Kentucky Derby winners have went on to win the next races, the Preakness and the Belmont Steaks. Some of the most notable Triple Crown winners are Sir Barton in 1919, the first Triple Crown winner, War Admiral in 1937, Whirlaway in 1941, Citation in 1948, Secretariat in 1973, Seatlle Slew in 1977, and Affirmed in 1978. These Triple Crown winners are some of the most famous horses in the history of the sport of horse racing. The fastest Kentucky Derby time was run by Secretariat in 1973, who finished in 1 minute and 59.4 seconds. The slowest Derby winner ever was Kingman in 1891, who ran the Derby in 2 minutes and 52.25 seconds, when the race was still 1 and a half mile. The biggest longshot to win the Derby and the highest paid winner of the Derby was Donnerail in 1913, who paid $184.20 at 91-1 odds. There have been 36 fillies, or female horse who have run in the derby, and 3 of them have won. Fourty-eight favorite horse have won the Derby in 126 runnings, the last favorite to win was this years winner, Fusaichi Pegases. The largest purse for any winning horse was in 1987 when Alysheba won $618,600 for winning the race. The largest crowd for the Derby was in 1975, the 100th anniversary of the Kentucky Derby. Besides the race itself, the two week period before that known as the Kentucky Derby Festival is a favorite time for people in Louisville. For the past several years the Festival has been kicked off 2 weeks before the Derby with Thunder Over Louisville. Thunder Over Louisville is one of the biggest displays of fireworks in North America. Once Thunder Over Louisville has started, the Derby activities begin. There are too many to list, but here are some of the most notable events. The Balloon Glow happens on the next Friday after Thunder, where the balloon are blown up and displayed for families to see. The next morning is the Great Balloon Race if the weather permits it. There are many famous hot air balloons which trail the winner of the event from the previous year and try to hit a target placed somewhere different every year. In the week before the Derby, there is one of the 5 top