Seeing Yourself in Social and Historical Context Essays

Seeing Yourself in Social and Historical Context Essays Seeing Yourself in Social and Historical Context Essay Seeing Yourself in Social and Historical Context Essay Essay Topic: Everything I Never Told You Recently, I realized that alcohol and the partying lifestyle had become negative influences on my life. The negative influence was subtle most of the time, but there were occasional moments when the effects of drinking played a highly visible role in my personal life and relationships. I decided that I might like to decrease, if not eliminate, my consumption of alcoholic beverages and this decision prompted further difficulties and challenges in my life, particularly in regard to my friends and peers, and those with whom I had regularly socialized. Though I realize I am not an alcoholic; I can get by just fine without drinking, the impact of my decision not to drink as much has exerted a dramatic influence on my daily life. In many ways, I think my personal experience mirrors those of many, many people, especially younger people who are embracing personal freedom and individual decision-making, often for the first time in their lives. Any young person looking to the media, or to the real-life examples of their elders will see that consumption of alcoholic beverages is utilized as a panacea for everything from stress to boredom. People are portrayed in commercials as happy-go-lucky, and even glamorous when they are drinking; I can’t even hope to count how many times in a movie or television show or novel or commercial, people are seen drinking alcohol to give themselves â€Å"courage† or to meet an unpleasant event or chore. Also, when you are young, you are supposed to be having â€Å"fun;† many older people have told that to myself and my friends, wistfully, as though they wished they were young again. The expectation to be having the â€Å"best time of your lives† is reinforced also through much of the media we see and hear. Almost every style of popular music from rock to rap to country glamorizes drinking and makes it seem like it is the â€Å"thing to do.† Drinking seems to have a social reputation for being everything it isn’t. That is: although peers, the media, elders, and even the law seem to advocate drinking, to make it seem like a privilege and a mark of adulthood, I found through personal experience that the real results of drinking were much less romantic. Instead of great social camaraderie and glamor, I just wound up not remembering a lot of things I said and did with my friends, and instead of feeling like I was mature and responsible, I wound up feeling completely out of control and incapable of taking care of my responsibilities. Nowhere in the media and cultural glamorizations of alcohol do we get to see the â€Å"after result† which is being sick from a hangover and not remembering anything you said or did. It seems obvious that most people crave and desire a release from their everyday lives. Maybe they are frustrated with their careers or their relationships or they are just frustrated with life in general. But instead of delving into the cause and effect of stress or boredom or unhappiness, society seems to forward drinking as the great escape. There are bars on every corner, liquor stores, ads for beer, wine, and hard liquor on television. It’s obvious that we all crave a break from the ordinary and society offers very little in the way of inexpensive entertainment for the masses. There is television, movies, music and drinking: if you look closely you will see that there are cultural reinforcement and ties between all of these recreational pastimes. In a capitalist society, marketing no-doubt plays a very large role in fostering the myths about drinking. The big corporations that sell alcoholic products rake in billions of dollars and this allows them to permeate the social media with selected images that increase the propagation of   myths about drinking and never represent the scientifically established dangers to body, mind, and emotional responses that occur when individuals turn to alcohol for release. When I cam across an article, â€Å"WHATS YOUR DAUGHTER DRINKING TONIGHT? One Middleclass Girls Haunting Account of How the Binge-Drinking Culture That Afflicts Countless Teenagers Nearly Cost Her Life, I realized that the dangerous fallout from drinking could be far worse than nagging hangovers; I could have lost my life. In the article, a girl explains how she began drinking for just the same reasons I have noted above: boredom, a sense of glamor and excitement, peer pressure, and the desire to be mature and self-determined. However, the article goes on to describe how the girl nearly lost her life, and how drinking had slowly robbed her of her self-esteem, her ability to distinguish right from wrong, and her relationship with her parents. Reading the article, the first impact that ht me was how similar the girl’s story seemed to be with my own experience. However, i had never really imagined that my drinking could lead to such a devastating, near-death event such as the one described in the article. Knowing that my very life is at stake, now, I find it very hard to imagine that I will veer abuse alcohol, or that I would ever condone the abuse of alcohol as a glamorous or socially expected norm. Like the girl in the article, i found that my reluctance to drink alcohol influenced my relationship with certain people I had once been friendly with; those who still drank regularly seemed to seek to avoid my company. This fact would have troubled me more deeply were it not for the account in the article which demonstrate a very similar result. In the article, the girl wrote: â€Å"Most importantly, Ive become stronger. I want to find friends who will like me whether or not I drink. There is so much pressure nowadays to keep up with each   other, like some sort of competition to see who can get the most drunk. It makes me sad to think I never had the guts to refuse. I havent heard from a lot of my so-called friends. My drinking buddies have largely disappeared† (WHATS YOUR DAUGHTER DRINKING 26), which is exactly how I feel although my experience was far less dramatic and far less extensive than those described in the article. The biggest jolt I received from reading the article was the girl’s description of her near-fatal accident: The only thing I can remember is we were drinking neat vodka. Four weeks later, I woke up in hospital after being in a coma on a life support machine. The room was clinically white and totally unfamiliar. Youre in hospital, said my mum, who was sitting red- eyed at my side. Standing at the edge of the bed were two policemen waiting to speak to me. Id been found at the bottom of the car park, after falling 20ft from the top floor, and was lucky to be alive. Id split my skull, broken my neck and dislocated my shoulder. Almost immediately Id fallen into a coma, during which Id had a blood clot on my brain. The swelling was so bad I had to be put on a life- support machine and have part of my skull removed to help reduce the pressure. (WHATS YOUR DAUGHTER DRINKING 26) Though I’d personably never experienced this intense of a negative impact from drinking, the shock that I could have experienced it was quite an influence on me. I had been someone who drank very little, but I did drink, caving into the same social and peer pressures that were described in the article. I wondered how many of my friends and drinking companions were bound to meet such a terrible fate due to their recklessness. More importantly, this recklessness was socially acceptable behavior – drinking being glamorized from every quarter of the media-driven world. The evidence was clear to me from personal experience and from studying the article and other sources where the truths about alcohol consumption were made available. The facts were strikingly opposed to the social myth. Rather than promoting glamor, fun, and social revery, alcohol was responsible for (or at least involved in) some of the most atrocious social syndromes in our world: suicide, crime, early pregnancy, unemployment, divorce, chronic health problems and emotional instability. All of these aspects are apparent in the selected article and it seemed the girls’ story was a microcosm of the ills that accompany alcohol abuse. Making the decision not to abuse alcohol seemed fairly easy for me, although trying to make my friend understand this decision or even encouraging them to examine the perils of alcohol abuse for themselves before experiencing them directly proved to be much more difficult. Because the consumption of alcohol is so deeply ingrained into our social fabric- and this influence extends back through time in history as well- I found that one person’s experiences, whether dramatic and nearly fatal as the girl in the article’s, or more mundane, such as my own, seemed to exert little or no influence over those who were determined and convinced that drinking was fabulous fun and glamorous. This is a paradox because the devastating impacts of alcohol abuse are deeply personal in nature: impacting an individual’s health, relationships, personal responsibilities, and emotional well-being, but the media-driven image of alcohol is abstracted into the universal, meaning: the purveyors of alcohol labor to create and image for alcohol-consumption that presents a picture of social inclusiveness, normalcy, and even tradition. People raise toasts at special, memorable occasions; they commemorate special years and epochs in with wines and brandy and even the most scared and hallowed holidays, such as Christmas and New Year’s Eve involve the socially instituted drinking of alcohol.Now that I have stopped to examine the influence of drinking on my personal life I find it very difficult to regard others’ drinking as harmless or simply a recreation. I realize that, rather than considering the possible negative effects of drinking, most people who abuse alcohol are searching for the â€Å"myth† of drinking which is fostered from social institutions and corporations and media outlets. Those who abuse alcohol find themselves so intellectually, emotionally, and socially immersed in their abuse that they are unable to consider the possible bad effects of their behavior. When someone, such as myself, tries to point out these negatives, the counter-argument is so heavily backed up by other people and established social behaviors, that the person pointing out the dangers can be easily ridiculed and dismissed. This means that my decision not to abuse alcohol will be an ongoing process. No doubt, I will be confronted with pressure to drink and pressure to abuse alcohol for the remainder of my life. It s a friendly gesture to offer someone a drink and it is socially acceptable to accept this offer, whereas it can be socially off-putting to refuse, as though you are refusing someone’s friendship. Nonetheless, my personal well-being, health and emotional development are as important to me as social acceptance.   There is a socially accepted â€Å"picture† or image of the drinker: a fun-loving, friendly, free-spirted person, but there is also this picture, from the article: A few days later, I asked for a mirror. Holding it up to my face, I shrank back in horror. Doctors had shaved all the hair off the top of my head, leaving my long locks trailing at the back like one of those evil-looking wigs from a joke shop. There was a huge scar on my head where theyd removed part of my skull and my head was lopsided where it was missing. (WHATS YOUR DAUGHTER DRINKING 26) For me, there is no confusion over what it means to abuse alcohol, and no uncertainty as to whether or not I will do so in the future. Some people drink in an attempt to find courage; others Seeing Yourself in Social and Historical Context   like me have found courage by not drinking and that includes the courage to face those who may ridicule or ostracize somebody because they have made an informed decision to not abuse alcohol. I can only hope that my own experiences while much more mundane than those recounted in the article may someday help inform another about the perils, often lethal, which accompany alcohol abuse.   If so, I will have succeeded in understanding how one’s subjective experience connects to the social whole and the historical confluences of society– in this case helping to exert a positive influence in an area where so many negatives are socially accepeted.

International Relationsin UK and Qatar Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

International Relationsin UK and Qatar - Essay Example 88). Therefore, the paper aims at examining the international relation between UK and Qatar with other countries in line with international disputes. The UK’s foreign relations are implemented in its foreign and commonwealth offices. However, the UK’s prime minister among other agencies have vital roles to play especially in setting these polices. It is worth noting that Great Britain was once the foremost powerful nation in the world particularly in the 18th and 19th as well as in the early 20th century; therefore, it is bound to have numerous international disputes than Qatar. Moreover, holding that it was once a major colonial giant, she is bound to fight for its oversea territories that Qatar will never think of the same. UK has had numerous international disputes since 1945 and among its major such disputes include its involvement in the Greek Civil War of between 1946 and 1949. It had also a major role in ensuring there was independent Palestine and Israel. In ensuring the same, it occupied Palestine between 1945 and 1948 until the united nation formalized the independence of these two warring nations in the y ear 1948 (Dellorto, 2013; p. 182). It should be noted that UK was part of the cold war (1947 to 1991) between Soviet Union and the United States where the United States emerged to be the world’s supper power. UK has also had numerous international disputes in affair touching the Arab nations specifically for oil and international security related issues. For instance, the Gulf War where it claimed that Iraq interfered with it oil companies. Additionally, UK has been US’s greatest ally especially in resolving international disputes. It has helped US in fighting its wars on terrorism with Arab nations. For instance, in 2011, under the mandate of the UN, the UK forces helped US in the operation Ellamy where they enforced the Libyan no fly zone orders (Dellorto, 2013; p. 216). Finally, in 2013, the UK supported

Lean On Me Assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Lean On Me Assessment - Essay Example He is very strict and he believes a lot in the value of discipline. In a way he acted like a dictator in the school. His leadership style worked well with the students, but it got him into trouble with the teachers because he did not show mutual respect. The teachers were not the enemy they are a part of the solution to fix the problems at the school. I would describe Mr. Clark’s organizational interventions as one sided. He controlled the interventions by imposing his authority into others. Due to the major problems the school faced Mr. Clark was the right person for the job. He made sure he resolved problems by imposing strict measures. Mr. Clark’s interventions brought clarity and changes to the school. He was a leader that got involved in every aspect of the school including students, teachers and parents. The students at this school needed the discipline. His style got him into trouble with the teachers because it seemed he did not respect their work. An example of a wrong decision by Mr. Clark was firing the music teacher for standing up to him. As the principal Mr. Clark had legitimate power over the teachers. Legitimate power is formal authority that can be used to control other people (Schermerhorn, Hunt, Osborn, 2003). Mr. Clark was too tough on the teachers and he was not accepting their input. As time passed in the story of the movie Mr. Clark started to change his ways and he began to cooperate with the teachers in order to make the school a better place for

Toyota Hr Policies Essay Example for Free

Toyota Hr Policies Essay INTRODUCTION Toyota is one of the worlds largest automobile manufacturers, selling over 8.8 million models in 2006 on all five continents. A Top 10 Fortune Global 500 enterprise, Toyota ranks among the worlds leading global corporations and is proud to be the most admired automaker, an achievement the company believes stems from its dedication to customer satisfaction. Toyota has been shaped by a set of values and principles that have their roots in the companys formative years in Japan. The Toyota story begins in the late 19th century, when Sakichi Toyoda invented Japan’s first power loom, which was to revolutionize the country’s textile industry. In January 1918, Sakichi founded the Toyoda Spinning Weaving Company, and with the help of his son, Kiichiro Toyoda, he fulfilled his lifelong dream of building an automatic loom in 1924. Two years later, he established Toyoda Automatic Loom Works. Like his father, Kiichiro was an innovator, and during his visits to Europe and the U.S. in the 1920s, he became deeply interested in the nascent automotive industry. Making the most of the  £100,000 that Sakichi Toyoda received for selling the patent rights of his automatic loom, Kiichiro laid the foundations of Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC), which was established in 1937. From looms to cars, the Toyota experience has been shaped by extending the boundaries of manufacturing. GENERAL HR POLICIES The Toyota company-wide culture is the key ingredient in its success as the global leader in operational excellence. They achieved by the following means * Attracting, developing, and engaging exceptional people * Encouraging problem solving at all levels of your organization * Making management accountable to employees * Inspiring your people to be committed to the company, family, and community * Turning your HR department into the arbitrators of fair and consistent daily practices DIVERSITY AND EQUAL OPPURTUNITY 1. Toward Promotion of Womens ParticipationIn 2002, based on the principle of respecting diversity and with the aim of reforming management throughout the company, Toyota set its sights on womens participation, reviewing its arrangement with regard to female employees, and taking steps to put a better environment in place. In order to promote the creation of an environment more conducive to participation by motivated female employees, Toyota has made a three-pronged effort to: * Help enable women to work and raise children at the same time; * Assist in womens career building, * Reform the working environment and employee awareness. Toyota has also introduced flexible working arrangements and constructed child-care facilities at business sites. 2. EMPLOYMENT FOR DISABLED PERSONAs of March 2003, Toyota employed about 800 disabled people in many kinds of positions at various workplaces. Toyota believes in helping the disabled achieve autonomy within society, and makes it a basic rule to have them work together with other employees. Human consideration is given to the conditions of their disability at the business sites and ways are devised to accommodate them in workplace facilities so as to create a workplace environment that is safe and easy to work in. As of the end of March 2003, Toyotas disabled employee’s ratio was 1.95%, exceeding the 1.8% Legal Employment Quota.| 3. TOYOTA CHILD CARE BUBU LANDIn March 2003, the Toyota Child Care Bubu Land, an on-site childcare facility (in Toyota City, Head Office area), was opened so that all employees, both male and female, who wished to continue working while raising children could do so without worry. The facility has many useful features, which include having a resident nurse on the staff and staying open until 10:30 pm. One female employee using the facility (with a one-year-old child in care) expressed her sentiments in the following way: Its located at the company, so drop-off and pick-up are easy, and I can continue working without having to worry if extra work should suddenly crop up. PRACTICE OF THE TOYOTA WAY| Toyota Way| Values and ways of thinking that should be held by those working for Toyota| Toyota problem-solving techniques| Techniques for improving current conditions in order to realize ideal working conditions| Ji Kotei-Kanketsu (Built-in quality with ownership)| How to work in order to continually produce the best output| Education of subordinates| Systems for training subordinates through ones daily work| Policy management| Managing implementation items that should be initiated in order to accomplish workplace missions and create new value| Basic skills| Minimum skills necessary for production line work| Production skills| * Knowledge regarding recognizing irregularities and work points * Trouble-shooting capability| Skills and Roles of Management and Supervision| * Manager and supervisor skills for soundly managing standard operations * | | ICT PROGRAM FOR SELF-RELIANCE OF AFFILIATES AND CONTRIBUTION TO LOCAL COMMUNITIESIn order to promote self-reliance in overseas affiliates, the ICT (Intra Company Transferee) program temporarily transfers employees of overseas affiliates to TMC for human resource development through on-the-job training. Transferees learn skills and know-how throughout their training periods which range from six months to three years. As of the end of April 2012, a total of 450 transferees from 48 affiliates in 27 countries were working in Japan under the program| |

post colonial :: essays research papers fc

George, Rosemary Marangoly, and Helen Scott. "An Interview with Tsitsi Dangarembga." Novel (Spring 1993):309-319. [This interview was conducted at the African Writers Festival, Brown Univ., Nov. 1991] Excerpt from Introduction: "Written when the author was twenty-five, Nervous Conditions put Dangarembga at the forefront of the younger generation of African writers producing literature in English today....Nervous Conditions highlights that which is often effaced in postcolonial African literature in English--the representation of young African girls and women as worthy subjects of literature....While the critical reception of this novel has focused mainly on the author's feminist agenda, in [this] interview...Dangarembga stresses that she has moved from a somewhat singular consideration of gender politics to an appreciation of the complexities of the politics of postcolonial subjecthood" (309). Full text also available from EBSCOHost Academic Search Elite, Article No. 9312270407. Veit-Wild, Flora. [Interview with Dangarembga] "Women Write about Things that Move Them." Matatu: Zeitschrift fur afrikanische Kultur und Gesellschaft 3.6(1989): 101-108. Wilkinson, Jane. "Tsitsi Dangarembga." Talking with African Writers: Interviews with African Poets, Playwrights and Novelists. London: James Currey, 1992. 189-198. Tsitsi Dangarembga (b. 1959) was interviewed 4 Sept. 1989 in London by Jane Wilkinson, and I here highlight some points made in that interview. There seem to be many autobiographical parallels between Tsitsi’s and Tambu’s lives, although Tambudzai (supposed to be 13 in 1968 in the novel) would be slightly older than Dangarembga (who was 9 in 1968). Dangarembga says that she wrote of "things I had observed and had had direct experience with," but "larger than any one person’s own tragedies†¦[with] a wider implication and origin and therefore were things that needed to be told" (190). One important theme in Nervous Conditions is that of remembering and forgetting—especially the danger of Tambu’s forgetting who she is, where she came from—as her brother Nhamo did. Dangarembga acknowledges this in the interview (191). "I personally do not have a fund of our cultural tradition or oral history to draw from, but I really did feel that if I am able to put down the little I know then it’s a start" (191). Nyasha, the author says, doesn’t have anything to forget, for she never knew, was never taught her culture and origins—and this forms "some great big gap inside her." "Tambudzai, on the other hand is quite valid in saying that she can’t forget because she has that kind of experience. Nyasha is so worried about forgetting because it’s not there for her to remember.

Biography of Albert Dwight Paper

This person is my grandfather’s old buddy. His name is Albert John Dwight. He is born in Atlanta, Georgia on December 5, 1931. He is the only son of James Dwight and Adela Santos. He is half-American and half Brazilian. He grew up in his home in Atlanta with his mother. His father was a soldier. His father was recruited by his friend to join the US forces because of the Second World War. Many Americans join the Second World War and his father was one of them. His father was send to Cuba when he was nearly ten years old. This was why AJ (as his mother called him when he was a child) had missed his father so much.During his time, America was a simple place with simple dream. But it changed when the Second World War exploded. It was when the Pearl Harbor is being attacked. This was also the time that his father decided to leave his family. He didn’t know that this was also the last time with his father. Accidentally, his father died during one of the night raids. His mothe r almost dies when she heard the news. She thought that she can never raise AJ alone. The US government supported the family due to tragedy happened. AJ finishes his study along with my grandfather.He always told that he wanted to be a soldier even though it was the cause of death of his father. This is the attitude of most teenager, they usually idolized their father and wanted to be like them. He enjoyed his teenage years. He had many girlfriends in his time because he was built is beautiful. He was more energetic than ever. This was the peak of his life that everything he can do whatever he wanted to do. He was just like any normal teenager without dark past. He never recalled the death of his parents. He got married at the age of 26 to an American named Sarah Gainsborough at age of 23.Sarah is a very intelligent women and very gorgeous. They have one child named Edward. His dream of becoming a soldier vanished from his mind. He didn’t want to saw the same event that happe ned to his family. AJ thinks of his family first because as you grow up, the mind focuses on more important people than your dreams. His family became stable and financially supported because of the family business left by his mother. He witnessed the changes during his time and the time of his son. The government focuses what is good for its citizen unlike his days which gave a more focus on establishing a decent army which will fight for America.He also noticed that the kind of living had change. Several gadgets have been invented to life easier. Also he witnessed the launching of several spacecraft used to study the outer space. He thought that the time of his son was the new era of living but he proved it wrong when he reaches the age of 60 (approx). He witnessed the age computers. Big computers were made to do specific jobs. This machine can do three times as fast as any man can do. His son also married an American and they had 3 children. He loves his three grandchildren. It i s said that many grandparents loves their grandchildren than their child.He always told stories and he gave what ever his grandchildren wanted. He was fond of playing with his grandchildren. He sometimes took them to the park or to the mall. When they were in the mall, he can’t resist ongoing to gadget section because he can’t believed that that the things really existed. He was also amazed even in the nightlights of Las Vegas. He told that there are nightlights during his time but not like this that looked like fireworks. When year 2000 came, the age of computers, he became more fascinated on mobile phones because he saw its evolution from large one to phones with cameras until it becomes thinner and thinner.This is also the time his body is deteriorating and needed assistance in almost everything he wanted to do. He never wanted to learn to use those kind phones because of his age but his grandchildren insisted to teach him. As you grow older, you became happier with the things you want, unlike when you were a child that you want everything to become happy. Maybe this is part getting older. He also saw the evolution of government from his childhood. He saw it when it started recruiting soldiers and when the Second World War is over, the government became peaceful until it declared war with Afghanistan as a part of â€Å"anti-terrorism campaign†.The establishment of new weapons called super weapons that use nuclear power to bring destruction to its enemy. Also the government was creating advance vehicle made for combat not only for air but also for land and water. They also use satellite for military purposes which were used for mapping and to check weather during early times. Today, he doesn’t know if terrorism is over so that the government will be back to its peaceful state with no worries but the welfare of its citizen. Reference JRJR (2001). Second World War. Retrieved 25 October 2007 from http://www. worldwar-two. net/acontec imentos/130/

Aflac An Economic Argument For Strategic Corporate...

Aflac: An Economic argument for Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility Ruben Guardiola MNGT 5990 Corporate Responsibility and Society Prof. Brian Craven July 9, 2015 Introduction The company chosen for this case paper is Aflac, Inc. They are a life and health insurance company that markets supplemental insurance for individuals. Company insurance policies include cancer insurance, hospital intensive care, home healthcare, accident, and disability insurance. Products are marketed mainly at the worksite on a payroll-deduction basis. The company has a dominant position in cancer insurance in Japan and a growing insurance business in the US. – Merrill-Lynch Company Summary Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility is the inclusion†¦show more content†¦Aflac holds ethical behavior and integrity as the most important trait an employee, partner, or supplier can have. It accomplishes this by creating a set of tenets or code of conduct called the â€Å"Aflac Way† that is given to each employee and board member. It is used to communicate the vision that the company’s founders hold most important. Communities How community involvement is used to address health and welfare issues in children, women, the underprivileged, and marginalized. Aflac has achieved a variety of accolades for its community involvement and charitable work, which is a strategic priority at the company. Twenty years ago, a young mother named Vicki Reidel reached out to Aflac CEO Dan Amos for help. Vicki’s baby, Ansleigh, was undergoing leukemia treatment at what is now Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. The floor on which children like Ansleigh received cancer treatment was in serious need of renovation, and Vicki asked for $25,000 to get the job done. Amos mulled over Vicki’s request and came up with a better solution: Instead of contributing $25,000, he pledged $3 million and asked that the treatment center be renamed the Aflac Cancer Center. Aflac reinforced its commitment to fighting childhood cancer in January 2014, when the company pledged to surpass $100 million in contributions