The Significance of Myth in the Novel Ceremony

Many people in our culture misunderstand the function of myth. We usually assume that there are two kinds of narrative, completely different from one another: a journalistic compilation of facts, all literally true and verifiable, or stories spun by a fiction writer for the purpose of entertainment only. Myth, we assume, falls resoundingly into the latter group. While primitive and superstitious people may have once believed that the sun was pulled across the sky by a chariot, we in our infinite scientific wisdom know that is not the reason that the sun appears to move in the sky when viewed from earth. Therefore, the myth is written off purely as a work of fiction and fantasy. Indigenous peoples throughout the world, however, look at their myths and folktales in quite another way. They recognize in them an explanation, not for the way physical science works or history occurred, but for the way their culture feels about itself. For Native Americans, these stories concern the universe and the spiritual domain. They are didactic because they teach the history of the people, how to live, and how to survive. According to Paula Gunn Allen, â€Å"myth is a story of vision;†¦ a vehicle of transmission of sharing and renewal. † It connects the past with the present. Myths â€Å"show us that it is possible to relate ourselves to the grand and mysterious universe that surrounds and informs our beings†¦The mythic heals, it makes us whole† (Allen, 116-17). Myths explain by analogy concepts that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to explain literally. They do so in a way that bypasses the conscious, analytical mind and heads straight for the heart (technically, the unconscious). Folklorist Carol Mitchell explains that Silko’s use of the Laguna creation myth at the beginning of Ceremony, â€Å"it recreates the power and the time of creation. The cosmic creation is the exemplary model of all life,† and hopes that it will restore the patient, Tayo (Mitchell, 34). Mitchell also believes that the use of this myth is a â€Å"spiritual means by which the novelist is inspired in her creative work† (Mitchell 28). The stories are thus emotionally and psychologically satisfying, and can have a very therapeutic effect when an individual's spirit is sick. Ceremonies are the retelling of the myths by a tribal healer or shaman. Then there are rituals which are the physical enactments of what is told in the myths. The purpose of the ritual is to â€Å"transform something (or someone) from one state to another† (Allen, 103). In the novel is a healing ritual which changes Tayo from a sickly, altered state, one which is of isolation and despair, to a state of health and wholeness with his people. This is the plot in Leslie Marmon Silko's novel, Ceremony. â€Å"Her narrative plot follows a cyclical of time, like that found in Native American myths and legends, instead of a western linear sense of time† (Bell, 53). It is open to irrational spiritual experiences instead of confining itself to scientific logic and reason. In addition, Silko’s main focus is more on the whole community and Tayo’s relationship to that community than it is on Tayo’s individuality. More importantly, she constructs the novel itself as a sacred ritual. Continuously throughout the novel, Silko flip flops between the main plot and various internal poems of Native American origin. One such poem involves a being named Thought-Woman. When Thought-Woman thinks, whatever she thinks about appears. I’m telling the story she is thinking,† says Silko at the start. The myth is reality, and the novel leads the reader into that unity between myth and reality. â€Å"Reality is a story†, Silko explains. The material presented in poetic form paces the reality, leading us to the denouement of the novel, and it also portrays the action of the story and gives structure. When we see the reality of the novel in terms of the mythic poem, is when we see this order in the story. The loss of power and vision, or, as Tayo says, â€Å"how the world had come undone,† the fight to return the world to its proper ays, the ultimate end to the crisis, and the identity and harmony created by this successful conclusion of the story are all predicted, ordered, and directed by the myth or poem. The â€Å"mythic poem† expresses the poems meaning. It creates that meaning. It is not just a metaphor or a piece of local sentiment. The extended drought, the Whites, the fall of tribal identity and meaning, the war, and even nuclear experiments are given me aning through the poetry, or you could say through the connection and intertwining of myth and reality. Robert Bennett, in his critical analysis of Silko’s Ceremony, states, â€Å"these interspersed poems create a second mythic narrative that runs parallel to the realistic narrative about Tayo. Even though these mythic poems take up less space than the realistic narrative, they are equally, if not more, important than the realistic narrative† (Bennett, 2). The poems mark important mile stones in the story for Tayo. They are placed in the beginning of the novel and at the end. These mythic poems trace Tayo’s recovery throughout the novel. Gregory Saylor describes the opening of Ceremony as with keeping with Silko’s vision of healing because it is written in the verse of Thought-Woman, who is the giver of all life. He claims that â€Å"from these opening pages we learn about the energy of stories, their ability to cure, and their capacity to counter the witchery of destruction† (Saylor, 00). This connection of stories as healing entities and the warriors of witchery gives an intriguing perspective to the purpose of Tayo’s journey. Tayo has suffered what we would consider a nervous breakdown as a result of traumas suffered in the war. The trauma actually occurred because he encounters enemy soldiers, who seem to bear the faces of his family. He is first sent to a Veteran's hospital upon his arrival back to the states, where he is diagnosed to suffering from â€Å"battle fatigue† and released without being cured completely. He then returns to his home on the reservation, where his symptoms get worse. Tayo has been told by the young doctor at the VA clinic that he really should rid himself from all his Indian heritage as much as possible, because that is what is making him sick, and that the worst thing for him is â€Å"Indian medicine† (Silko, 3). By â€Å"Indian medicine,† the VA doctor does not mean herbs and weeds. What he truly means is Tayo's spiritual condition and the return into the culture and heritage of his people. The Indian culture is of deep spirituality, and it is difficult for an Indian to think of having a mental disorder that is not a sign of a spiritual disintegration. The fact that Tayo feels his connection to his spirit and to the spirit of his people fading is why he perceives himself as â€Å"white smoke†. He feels this mainly because he is no longer completely an Indian, and the smoke is white because Tayo has accepted too much of white culture that differs from his heritage as an Indian. Tayo's aunt calls a local healer to treat his problem, Tayo's spiritual distress, which shows his loss of identity with the values and heritage of his people. Betonie, the healer called to help Tayo, makes the surprising claim that Tayo is not to blame white people: â€Å"We can deal with white people, with their machines and their beliefs. We can because we invented white people; it was Indian witchery that made white people in the first place† (Silko, 132). What he means is that Native Americans, by doubting the strength and the rightness of their culture, have allowed the white man to manipulate them; the triumph of white culture, he asserts, is a result of the surrender of the Indian people as a whole. Although Betonie appears to be a classical shaman, with all the usual potions and paraphernalia, he heals through stories intended to put Tayo back in touch with his natural heritage. One of the stories told in Ceremony is that of the magician Pa'caya'nyi and his lure of the Indian people with promises of magic. The Indians worshipped the Corn Mother by working their fields and helping the Mother grow big amounts of corn. In return the Corn Mother blessed the people's land. Pa'caya'nyi spoke to the people and told them that they should not work so hard in the fields, it was completely wasting their time and energy. He told them that he could see to it that their fields could continue to be productive just by him using his magic for them. The people stopped working and The Corn Mother became angry with her people, and left them on their own. As a result, a terrible drought came; the corn wilted, and the animals left. The people realized for the first time that what they had with the Corn Mother was a two-way relationship and that it took work to sustain the relationship. For many years they had worked hard to serve her, and as they had worshipped her, she had blessed them. No amount of magic or witchery could replace what they had once had. Tayo had a natural relationship with the earth based on his heritage, as well as with his Indian spirituality. But he had been seduced by the â€Å"witchery† of the white man into believing that he did not need to practice his ethnic heritage. By leaving the Indian world for the white one, he turned his back on his culture and replaced it with a set of cultural beliefs that seemed more modern and a lot less work. However, in doing this, he lost sight of himself and his spiritual connection to the earth. Betonie proves that what Tayo is, inside and out, is an Indian. To retain an ethnically different heritage in a white world, and to keep that heritage viable and meaningful, is hard work. But the cost to the individual of allowing that relationship to lapse is tremendous. Tayo momentarily paid the price of his neglect with his sanity. Now he is able to go forward and recapture his cultural inheritance, and by doing so, reclaim himself. Tayo’s return to individual and cultural identity and health through ceremonial integration with a unified story, or reality, is central to the novel. Tayo’s act of cursing the rain parallels the loss of rain in the mystic story. His personal breakdown reflects the breakdown of Laguna cultural integrity. His personal dryness of emotion, spirit, and community identity find physical manifestations in the drought suffered by the people of Laguna. Betonie’s ceremony is Tayo’s path to reintegration back to identity on the personal, cultural, and mythic level. But it is also the Laguna’s path back to reintegration. Tayo begins to heal when he is able to leave himself open and vulnerable to the forces of myth. Bettina Havens Letcher maintains in her dissertation, In the Belly of This Story, that â€Å"the Native American notion of myth is one that counteracts the negativity of witchery. When Tayo begins to live the stories of his youth, he opens his soul to the possibility of healing. He takes his culture and allows it to take over his personality. By losing himself he is able to become whole. During this journey, Tayo and Ts’eh, in their connection with each other, opens Tayo to the vulnerability that begins his healing. During their union, â€Å"He was afraid of being lost, so he repeated trail marks to himself. He eased himself deeper within her and felt the warmth close around him like river sand. But he did not get lost† (Silko 181). Instead he gathers strength from his connection with the land through his physical and emotional connection to Ts’eh. Tayo is healed because he is able to allow himself to join the mythical battle. The importance of Ts'eh in the story is derived from her role in Tayo’s recovery. Ts’eh lives on her own in the rim rock and is in touch with her land. Being out o f touch with his heritage and caught between the white world and his own peoples world, leaves Tayo feeling invisible and hollow inside. Through the power and strength of nature, Ts'eh helps Tayo become in touch with his Indian side. She instructs him on how to use certain plants, flowers, and ceremonies and how they are helpful to Native Americans. When Tayo falls in love with her is when Tayo begins to feel alive again. He restores his connection with his culture and no longer feels invisible anyone. Ts’eh takes away all Tayo’s nightmares and replaces them with pleasant dreams, like when one night he awoke â€Å"dreaming of her arms around him strong† and â€Å"he was overwhelmed by the love he felt for her† (Silko). Nevertheless, Tayo has completed his healing journey and feels whole again. Tayo no longer feels like a walking shadow, but finally a real person with feelings and emotions, other than anger and guilt. It is with the help of Betonie and Ts'eh that he discovers himself and is ultimately able to overcome the trauma inflicted upon him by his birth mother and Aunt. He is able to accept his mixed ancestry in a changing world. Therefore, when Ts'eh finally leaves him, Tayo is able to go on living and remembering all that she has taught him. Overall, Tayo's healing process was long and arduous. However, it was successful. With the guidance and support of Betonie and Ts'eh, Tayo was able to complete his healing journey on his own. In essence, he was able to recover his own life and find a desire to live. In understanding that the real world and the mythic world is one in the same, Tayo is healed and the reader is shown how the combination of the two leads to the success of not only Tayo, but to the story as a whole.

Analyzing The Theme Of Nature In Literary Devices English Literature Essay

The subject of nature is really of import to each of the texts to be discussed in this essay: The Fat Black Woman ‘s Poems by Grace Nichols ; Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. In a sense, the fact that each work is created within a different literary genre to some extent dictates the indispensable differences amongst them. However, this essay sets out to analyze how, in add-on to comparing literary devices, nature is used as a different jussive mood in each of the selected texts. Throughout the drama, Willy escapes back into his memories and it is profoundly important, hence, that the countryside is allied to this: ‘I was driving along, you understand? And I was all right. I was even detecting the scenery. You can conceive of, me looking at scenery, on the route every hebdomad of my life. But it ‘s so beautiful up at that place, Linda, the trees are so thick, and the Sun is warm ‘[ 3 ]Loman both belongs in the state and out of it because he has merely used it, as he has used both things and people, to acquire in front. The fact that he has been unsuccessful is hence a treachery of his ain and a generic dream that is ne'er fulfilled nor justified, merely as the narrative he begins to state Linda, his married woman, ends non in revery on the idyllic, as it started, but on loss of control: ‘all of a sudden I ‘m traveling off the route! ‘[ 4 ]Miller uses nature, hence, as an emblem of Willy ‘s supplanting: ‘Many of Willy ‘s activities can be seen as extremely symbolic. He workss seeds merely as he workss false hopes: both will decease and ne'er come to fruition, mostly because the house has become excessively hemmed in by the metropolis. ‘[ 5 ]In add-on, a farther lost dream of Willy ‘s has been connected with nature, that of his brother, Ben ‘s, offer to fall in him and do his luck beyond the suburban life Willy has lived: ‘William, when I walked into the jungle, I was 17. When I walked out I was 21. And, by God, I was rich! ‘[ 6 ]For Willy, hence, nature has become a topographic point of lost hope where ‘the grass do n't turn any longer ‘[ 7 ]; it does non belong and nor does he: ‘A victim of both a hardhearted capitalist society and his ain ill-conceived dreams, Willy ‘s eventual self-destruction is presented with tragic dimensions. His beliefs may be misguided, but he stays true to them to the terminal. Although he has neither soc ietal nor rational stature, Willy has self-respect, and he strives to keep this as his life falls apart around him. ‘[ 8 ] Supplanting is besides a major characteristic of Jean Rhys ‘s novel, Wide Sargasso Sea. First published in 1966, it is a prequel to Charlotte Bronte ‘s Jane Eyre, foremost published in 1847. The fresh uses nature as a agency of developing the narration of Rochester ‘s first married woman, Bertha Mason, here known as Antoinette Cosway, a immature adult female who feels herself displaced following the liberation of the slaves who had worked on her household ‘s plantation. ‘The really word â€Å" topographic point † occurs many times in the novel ‘[ 9 ]and Antoinette seeks consolation in what she sees as an Eden garden, her former place, from which she is cast out: ‘A really of import early set piece is Antoinette ‘s description of the garden at Coulibri, where she was a kid, a garden which was likely based on Rhys ‘s memories of her female parent ‘s household estate at Geneva. It marks childhood as taking topographic po int in a damaged Eden. ‘[ 10 ]The description of the garden is therefore really of import to an apprehension of Antoinette and of the manner Rhys uses her connexion with nature to help her character and thematic development: Our garden was big and beautiful as that garden in the Bible – the tree of life grew at that place. But it had gone wild. The waies were overgrown and a odor of dead flowers assorted with the fresh life odor. Underneath the tree ferns, tall as forest tree ferns, the visible radiation was green. Orchids flourished out of range or for some ground non to be touched. One was serpentine looking, another like an octopus with long thin brown tentacles bare of foliages hanging from a distorted root. Twice a twelvemonth the octopus orchid flowered – so non an inch of tentacle showed. It was a bell-shaped mass of white, mauve, deep purples, fantastic to see. The aroma was really sweet and strong. I ne'er went near it.[ 11 ] The genitive pronoun with which this paragraph opens instantly establishes the duality of Antoinette ‘s state of affairs. This is her place, it should experience like hers but it does non. The ‘beauty ‘ she infers has a ambidextrous luxuriance because it has ‘gone wild ‘ , symbolic of a land which has lost control, albeit for a positive ground. The ‘living ‘ and the ‘dead ‘ mix and encroach upon one another, and there is a snake in the garden in the ‘snaky ‘ orchids. Furthermore, the ‘twisted root ‘ implies a deformation of what was meant to be, metaphorically repeating Antoinette ‘s supplanting. In add-on, this is non the lone illustration of topographic points looking resonant of temperament and/or state of affairs: ‘Places are highly alive in this novel: the menacing, exuberant garden at Coulibri, the cryptic bathing pool at Coulibri, sunset by the huts of the plantation workers, the route fr om the small town of Massacre up to Granbois, the sea and sky at sundown from the ajoupa or thatched shelter at Granbois, the bathing pools at Granbois ( the bubbly pool and the nutmeg pool ) the forest where Antoinette ‘s hubby wanders until he is lost, the route to Christophine ‘s place, the trees and bamboos around the house at Granbois. ‘[ 12 ]Here, Antoinette appears at the same time intoxicated and repelled by the ‘sweet and strong ‘ of the garden, which possibly says something about her similarly ambivalent attitude towards those around her and they to her: ‘The image we now have of Rhys and her heroines is that of a inactive, impotent, self-victimized schizotypal personality who, comfy with failure, wields her weakness like a arm — all every bit natural as being female. ‘[ 13 ]The presentation of nature at the ‘honeymoon house ‘ is likewise hard to put, looking to be one thing but really being another, but her form er place is ‘a sacred infinite where Antoinette hugs to herself the secret hidden in Coulibri ‘ .[ 14 ]It is, so, these secrets in isolation, echoed in the descriptions of Antoinette ‘s fatherland that make the representation of nature in Wide Sargasso Sea so clearly an jussive mood of the text: Equally long as Antoinette can retrieve and order the events of her memories into a temporal or causal sequence, make even an semblance of sequence and keep a mensural sense of infinite and clip, so she can keep her life and ego together. Her act of narrative becomes an act of avowal and coherence, a nod to the universe and its conventions, an effort to forestall herself from fade outing. When, in Part Three, Antoinette lies encaged in Thornfield Hall ‘s dark, cold loft, the togss that hold her to the world that the universe perceives as saneness eventually interrupt. These togss are the elements of conventional narrative: additive chronology, sequence, narratorial clarity, distance. She herself admits at this point that ‘time has no significance ‘ ; sequence disintegrates into a confusion of present and past and finally into a dream which narrates her hereafter.[ 15 ] This has been quoted at length because it addresses many of the literary devices that the novelist, as opposed to the dramatist or poet, can utilize to develop a subject. With respect to nature, it is used by Rhys, as suggested above, to make a temporal infinite for Antoinette that is symbolic of the individuality she has lost. The abandon which is infringing upon the Eden of the garden, subsequently to be wholly destroyed, is an illustration of the manner in which the novelist can utilize one strong image to take into another, both being resonant of the yesteryear. Indeed, once more as stated above, the act of stating the narrative creates the character in the head of the reader and the locations in which she is placed are connected to that, as is the temporal disruption which memory green goodss and which is frequently, as with Antoinette, declarative mood of her province of head. The evocation of nature as a turbulent and affectional presence adds to this, with the sea as the ulti mate semiotic of challenge, pandemonium and disruption. Grace Nichols ‘ 2nd aggregation of poetry, The Fat Black Woman ‘s Poems, published in 1984, besides uses nature to arouse a peculiar image. However, as this is poesy, the lingual and literary devices used are really different from either those of the dramatist and/or novelist. ‘Nichols grew up in Guyana ‘[ 16 ]but has made her life and calling in England, ‘she has lived and worked in Britain since 1977 ‘[ 17 ], and this cross-cultural jussive mood is really much evident in her work: ‘her poems often acknowledge the foreigner clime, geographics, and civilization of England ‘s metropoliss ‘[ 18 ]Within The Fat Black Woman ‘s Poems, Nichols seeks to arouse a different perceptual experience of beauty from that which is shown in white Western civilization: ‘Nichols besides deploys the fat black adult female as a powerful challenge to the dictatorship of Western impressions of female beauty ‘[ 19 ]and therefore ‘ engender a new heroine, a adult female who revises the aesthetic of female beauty. ‘[ 20 ]One of the techniques Nichols employs to make this is uniting nature with an facet of the physical ego, as here in ‘Thoughts floating through the fat black adult female ‘s caput while holding a full bubble bath ‘ : Steatopygous sky Steatopygous sea Steatopygous moving ridges Steatopygous me[ 21 ] The unfamiliar word, ‘steatopygous ‘ ( intending holding to the full rounded natess ) is repeated for accent and juxtaposed with images of nature so as to bring forth an emblem of the black adult female as stopping point to nature, her organic structure shaped like the sky, moving ridges and sea. Nichols is authorising black adult females in image by making this as she does by giving the black adult female her ain alone voice: ‘In doing the fat black adult female the speech production topic of many of these verse forms, Nichols signals her refusal to busy the topic ( erectile dysfunction ) place designated for the black adult female by history and to take a firm stand on more complex subjectivenesss. ‘[ 22 ]Nichols is besides concerned that the voice should look realistic and hence the natural images perform yet another map: ‘Like many Afro-Caribbean authors, Nichols infuses her poesy with the religious energy of the tradition of adult females before her , a tradition that has little written record. ‘[ 23 ] In another verse form from the aggregation, ‘Beauty ‘ , this reproduction of a different image of physical entreaty can besides be seen to be connected with nature: Beauty is a fat black adult female walking the Fieldss pressing a breezed hibiscus to her cheek while the Sun lights up her pess Beauty is a fat black adult female siting the moving ridges floating in happy limbo while the sea turns back to embrace her form[ 24 ] Again, the adult female is juxtaposed with nature, supplying a integrity between the character and her milieus which is both actual and metaphorical. Repeat is used one time more by the poet to underscore the connexion between the subject of the aggregation and beauty in abstract. Indeed, the word ‘Beauty ‘ , the merely capitalised word in the verse form, is set entirely on a line, as is ‘hibiscus ‘ , as if to emphasize its importance as an emblem or iconic of what Nichols says is an imperative i.e. that this is what beauty unambiguously is. There is a common embracing between the adult female and nature, she ‘pressing ‘ the ‘hibiscus/to her cheek ‘ and ‘the sea bend [ ing ] back/to hug her form ‘ . It is as if Nichols is proposing that the ‘fat black adult female ‘ who is ‘riding the waves/drifting in happy limbo ‘ is in unison with nature and recognised by it as being so. All of nature, so, like â⠂¬Ëœthe Sun [ that ] lights up her pess ‘ is lauding her and she it. There is no punctuation in the poetries, underscoring the smooth, natural flow of the descriptions and the manner in which they are intended to connote all that is inherently natural. As Nichols writes in ‘The Assertion ‘ , ‘This is my birthright ‘[ 25 ]and therefore the probe of beauty within the verse forms becomes a socio-political jussive mood, excessively. In decision, all three texts – Miller ‘s Death of a Salesman, Rhys ‘s Wide Sargasso Sea and Nichols ‘ The Fat Black Woman ‘s Poems – all use nature as a manner of enlarging upon and more efficaciously showing their cardinal concerns. An of import component of this is the manner in which hapless false belief is used by the writers, i.e. nature reflecting and/or proposing a temper or subject. As the three texts discussed here are from different genres, they of class usage nature in different ways, using different literary devices, as has been shown. However, for each of the writers nature is singularly of import and enriches the single texts immeasurably. In the concluding analysis, hence, it might be suggested, so, that nature itself becomes about a communicative character within each of the really different plants discussed within this essay, as its importance to the creative activity and communicating of each can non be overestimated.

Basketball Skills Essay

Andrew Lorentz Prof Berkhof PE 141 Basketball Skills 10/14/09 Basketball Skills Reflective Assessment Essay Basketball Skills was a great physical education class because I got to improve my overall basketball skills and learn some exact specifics about the sport I love to play the most. I’ve been playing basketball since I was very young and will continue to throughout my life. I have quite a few strengths while playing basketball. One is that I am a skilled ball handler.Anyone who knows anything about basketball will tell you that in order for your team to win, you need to have that one guy or girl that can handle the ball, also called the point guard. I’ve played point guard ever since elementary school traveling to those all day basketball tournaments on Saturdays. I fit the role of the point guard because I am small and quick with excellent hand-eye coordination. I value my skill as a ball handler because my teammates rely on me to bring the ball up the court with ease without the defender stealing the ball from our team before advancing it past half court.I was valuable when our team had to break a full court press put on by the opponent because I am quick and can get open easier than all of my teammates could. Another strength of mine is that I am a fundamentally sound passer. Being able to pass the ball well in basketball relates to playing the point guard position in some ways because most point guards can dribble and pass well. I love making that assist to my teammate that forces the opponents to freeze on the court because my pass was that perfect.In high school, playing point guard my teammates and coaches would expect me to make that one pass, or the exceptionally good passes during games and practices because they knew I was capable of it and performing to my highest skill level was vital for our success as a team. Another strength I have is I am fast and quick. These skills attribute well for playing defense particularly. I was one of the best defensive players on our high school team because my coach always wanted me to guard the opponents’ quickest player. He knew I could â€Å"mirror† him and not let him score or hardly touch the ball.With strengths come weaknesses and I have a number of weaknesses while playing basketball. One is that I need to be more aggressive overall. My teammates and coaches knew I could shoot and always encouraged me to shoot or drive to the hole more. I know I could have started more games in high school if I was just more aggressive. Another weakness is my lack of being a vocal leader. For playing the point guard position you could assume that I was the captain and leader of our team but that was not the case. Since I am a more introverted person in general, I carry that with me on the basketball court.I am vocal on defense but more of a â€Å"follower† versus a hardcore leader. Basketball relates to Frequency because you could add more time in your day to play basketball. Whether that be practicing your fundamental skills more or playing more in pick-up games. Intensity is all about you as the player in basketball. Your attitude and energy that you have will show boldly on the court when you’re playing. When coaches or teammates tell you to pick up your intensity, that means focus and start getting more aggressive like driving to the hole more.Or being more active on defense: shuffle your feet and stop being lazy with your hands. Also being more vocal to get your teammates hyped up. Time relates to how much basketball you play at a time. Sometimes you might spend more time playing and others day you could be just too tired or not in the mood to work on your game. Playing basketball many days of the week could vary as far as how much time you specifically spend. You might not want your routine to be the same all the time. Type is simply doing different activities while playing basketball.In order to be a great ball player you need to be sharp in more aspects than just being able to shoot well. For instance, you could run sprints the length of the court or practice shooting from various spots around the arch. Shooting free throws becomes muscle memory with practice. Type refers to practicing different types of skills in basketball. I will continue to keep basketball in my life even though I no longer play competitively like in high school. It’s hard to stop playing a sport you’ve been playing all your life that you love to play and watch.Every winter, my high school puts on an alumni basketball tournament on one weekend. It’s a lot of fun to play with my high school friends again and play against some of the old alums of the high school that I don’t know of. Basketball to me is more than just the game itself. You can learn a lot of life lessons playing basketball, such as how to work as a team. I also love playing outside in my driveway at home. It’s a great way to practice m y shooting skills. I’m glad I took this class this semester because it was a fun class with a great coach/teacher.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF BUSINESS PLAN Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF BUSINESS PLAN - Essay Example Past predictions held that the global textile and clothing industry would have become a $500 billion market by the year 2010 (Govett, 2006). While many products in the US are imported from China, the recent product needs are creating a lot of opportunities for Turkish companies. Therefore, my target clients will be the modern and elite consumers of Turkey, Europe, and the US. In textile industry, the most beneficial business results from manufacturing the product for the modern elite because they are the people with the largest amount of disposable money and are willing to invest in clothes frequently for fashion and style. Having modern elite as the target audience also directs manufacturers’ attention more toward quality of work than quantity. Clothes thus produced are sophisticated and of a very high quality and can thus be presented on international fashion shows which in turn helps the business entrepreneur get global fame for the company. International exposure is very necessary if a business entrepreneur has plans of expanding the company globally after its establishment. My designs would be inspired by nature in general. I shall take inspiration from the dramatic color combinations of beautiful birds and natural scenes. Some brands that I would consider for inspiration and direction include Gucci and Armani. My promotion strategy will be based on two things; first, using the existing channels of promotion that my father has been using for decades and second, using the Internet in general and social media in particular as the channel of promotion. I shall start over by making the clothes accessible for purchasing to the people online. I shall also get my clothing line advertised in the magazines popular among the modern elite, and get my clothes modeled in famous fashion shows once I have sufficient collection. Therefore, the channels I shall be using will include

Old advertising and marketing vs. effective new media campaigns Essay

Old advertising and marketing vs. effective new media campaigns - Essay Example Both Fordism and post-Fordism have to do with the organisation of businesses, but they are normally extended to include political and social spheres (Tuten, 2008). Fordism was the accepted process and practice in the industrialisation of nations in the past. It was focused on delivering effectiveness in the processes of mass production. Post-Fordism, on the other hand, is applied in modern definitions of industrial progress as the previous grew less efficient in handling the new technical innovations (Ioannides and Debbage, 1997). The fundamental values of Fordism were the establishment of big processing production facilities that were characterised by inflexibility in a procedure that was supervised by a hierarchical and bureaucratic executive system. A partially-skilled workforce was engaged to function in repetitive as well as highly specialised operations. The dominant political and societal constituent of Fordism was that it was centred on shielding the national market (Boynton and Milazzo, 1996). It aimed to preserve jobs within borders with the aim of selling principally to the populace of the local market. Fordism, which got its name from Henry Ford, proposed the design of central control, homogeny and the capacity to cultivate and meet the requirements necessary for the mass consumption of products and services market. Post-Fordism, on the other hand, has to do with the era of technical advancements which have altered the entire procedure of production. The extensive, bureaucratic business establishment that characterized Fordism is no longer relevant. The post-Fordist model is evident in the reorganisation of the administrative structures of organizations. In such corporate structures, there are fewer employees, as well as the specialization of all operations. Post-Fordism is interested in consumer preferences, and market segmentation (Kompare, 2006). The basic doctrines of post-Fordism would be making use of more flexibility, and ensuring that the la bour force is only constituted of specialists, with blue collar skills being subcontracted to other companies market. There is a greater stress on individual consumer tastes and distinctiveness instead of the perception of the consumer force as a joint homogenised unit. Another critical disparity between post-Fordism and Fordism is that the former sees the economy in international terms, having given up its domestic interests that were characterised by the Fordist glory days after World War II (Ioannides and Debbage, 1997). Both post-Fordism and Fordism are widely used in many industries in developing as well as developed nations in the world (Boxall and Purcell, 2008). The technology division has clearly espoused the principles of post-Fordism, but the Fordist principles are still used by many corporations. The bigger the business and the more conventional its manufactured goods, the more it is inclined towards observing the Fordist values of organisation. Moreover, the post-Fordis t method of conducting business is quickly gathering momentum, and is the obvious practice of the future (Boxall and Purcell, 2008). Post-Fordism has complicated the conventional Marxist connection between the employee’s labour time and the extent of her or his misuse (Hutchison, 2008). As work becomes more dematerialised and the distribution of labour in business production declines, investment not only takes precedence in the working hours in which commodities are produced, it uses up all of the employee’s time, and thoughts. Goods are formed not to be used up directly, but as a type of new communication, language, and knowledge (Grainge, 2008). The purpose of consumption these days is not just the creation of products, but the duplication of new variations as well as conditions for the manufacturing process (Grainge, 2008). The operations of the immaterial businesses become the creation of subjectivities that are creative as well as cultural categories, and not fina ncial ones. Consumption

Alternative investments consistently provide higher returns as well as Essay

Alternative investments consistently provide higher returns as well as diversification benefits to client portfolios Discuss this statement highlighting the most common types of alternative investments - Essay Example e negatively influenced – no matter even the limitation in these products’ performance is high or low; the examination of the investors’ preferences under normal market conditions has led to the assumption that alpha returns is likely to be preferred as an investment tool instead of beta return. The nature and the performance of this investment product can be used in order to explain the increased interest of investors on alpha returns. However, under the influence of the current financial crisis, the attractiveness of alternatives and structured products has been reduced showing the strong dependency of investment decisions on the market conditions. In order to understand the increase in clients’ preferences on alpha returns it would be necessary to refer primarily to the characteristics of the specific investment; in accordance with Dorsey (2007, p.5) ‘alpha often is a virtual catchall for the return generated by an alternative investment that is not considered to be related to equity beta’. The above type of alternative investment seems to be preferred by investors – instead for the beta return; this differentiation on the investors’ preferences can be explained by analyzing the characteristics of the specific two investment products. The term beta return reflects ‘beta is the amount of return for a security or fund that is explained by its benchmark or component benchmarks’ (Dorsey, 2007, p.6); in other words, the main difference between the alpha and the beta return is that the former focuses on the factors influencing the performance of a specific investment while the latter r efers to the market prices in general. In this context, the alpha return is likely to be preferred by investors as it offers a clearer view on the potential performance of a particular investment; the identification of the price of the market to which an investment is related is of secondary importance for the investors of the particular market. From another point

United States of America, Appellee v. Russell Hoffmann, Appellant Case Study

United States of America, Appellee v. Russell Hoffmann, Appellant - Case Study Example  § 201(c) (1) (A). Hoffman, however, argues that he gave Schwening a gift as a friend and not for official reasons. Issue: The court of appeal was to determine whether Russell D. Hoffmann (Appellant) contravened 18 U.S.C.  § 201(c) (1) (A) by giving a gratuity to Schwening, as earlier affirmed by a state court. Russell D. Hoffmann argued otherwise. 18 U.S. Code  § 201 Applies to bribery of public officials and witnesses. 18 U.S.C.  § 201(c)(1)(A) defines the term â€Å"official act† as any action or decision regarding any question or cause that, at any time according to the law, may be presented to a public official in an official capacity in the official’s trust (LII, 2015). In determining the law, the government must ascertain the relationship between a thing of valued presented to a public official and the specific â€Å"public act† for or the reason to which it was offered. Reason: Based on the evidence presented by USA, it was sufficient that both parties were on official duty as stipulated under 18 U.S.C.  § 201(c) (1) (A). This is illegal as it creates a conflict of interest between the two

Social psych Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Social psych - Essay Example In this study, the participants were presented with stimuli such as exposure to positive Black situations and negative White situations. The participants’ perceptions were then assessed before the stimuli and a day after the presentation. The results of the experiment that participants who were subjected to â€Å"positive Black and negative white† situations had lesser level of prejudice but their â€Å"explicit racial prejudice† remained the same. President Obama can be regarded as positive African American example, and his electoral win could effect change on attitudes toward African Americans. This is the presumption and has to be proven through a review of the literature and of past experiments by researchers. But the literature cited in Bernstein et al (2010) also cited that stereotypes and prejudices do not succumb to change so easily (Fiske & Neuberg, 1990 cited in Bernstein et al, 2010), which could lead to the conclusion that Obama’s electoral vic tory may not change people’s perception after all. Or, there could be varied perceptions and attitude change as a result of the election. But the authors also cited that there could be positive attitude change with Obama’s electoral victory. 3. General methodology Bernstein and associates (2010) conducted a research study on 40 undergraduates of psychology, performed on two sessions to represent the pre-election and post-election periods. It was therefore divided into Time 1 and Time 2, to design two attitudes for explicit and implicit. The first period was completed during the seven days before election. The participants were made to complete a test known as â€Å"Attitudes Towards Black† (Brigham, 1993 cited in Bernstein et al, 2010). The scale was marked on 1-7, and statements were addressed on perceptions of prejudice or equality towards Black people. Example: â€Å"Black and white people are created equal.† Following this, participants were also made to complete the â€Å"Implicit Association Task†, which is about evaluations on social categories. The participants were also evaluated using the â€Å"Implicit Racial Bias† test. 4. Basic results The results were analysed by determining the implicit prejudice, which was done by subtracting â€Å"the average response latency on compatible trials from the incompatible trials† (Bernstein et al. 2010). The IAT result stated that if there was a big different in the score, called the IAT effect, the participants had greater bias towards Whites as against Blacks. This was compared with the results after the election in which a t-test sample was obtained on the IAT result. It was found that the IAT effect was smaller after the election; meaning the IAT effect was reduced after Obama’s electoral victory. The stats revealed that the mean and standard deviation are M = 330.35, SD = 219.93, after the election, compared to M = 494.70, SD = 307.95, before the electio n. 5. Major conclusions One of the striking results of the study by Bernstein et al (2010) is that implicit associations changed while the explicit prejudice changed, after the election in which Obama had a commanding victory. President Obama’s victory changed the perceptions of the general population towards African Americans. President Obama’

The Charlie Hebdo shooting by Muslim Extremists Essay

The Charlie Hebdo shooting by Muslim Extremists - Essay Example It is common for people to get shaken after such an attack (Là ©vy A11). However, France has shown a lot of unity in dealing with this attack as everyone is concerned and more than ever, they want unity resolved. Some extremists have twisted the entire issue to show that there is war between Europe and the Muslims but this is not the case. Getting the killers may be a difficult task since they can easily cross the borders but reinforcing the wrong ideas will only do more harm than good to the people in France (Dockterman N). I feel that France is vulnerable to more attacks similar to the Charlie Hebdo attack and the root to the problem should be addressed. Before the shooting took place, France was already a fragile state with high unemployment rates, and so many French born individuals who are youths and feel that they do not have any opportunities. Therefore, it is important that the root problems are addressed as a step to finding the solution to the attacks. Making Muslims feel they are wanted will only create fear and enmity between individuals as explained in (â€Å"Why We Are All Charlie Hebdo†

Media Impacts on Children’s Rights Essay Example for Free

Media Impacts on Children’s Rights Essay Child abuse gives most people a vision of the faults and blunders of the society. Child mistreatment is one of the most common crimes committed in the present. As for the Philippines, one can find vital statistics to certain crimes at the Bantay Bata 163 website (http://www.abs-cbn.com/bantaybata163). According to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), 6,494 cases of child abuse were reported for the year of 2006 alone. Indeed, the government and certain non-government organizations must deal with these incidents of child abuse particularly the mass media. This paper examines the role of the media in relation to child abuse and child protection and argues that the media have been essential to the task of placing the problem of child abuse in the minds of the public and on the political agenda. THE MASS MEDIA According to YourDictionary.com, Mass Media is those means of communication that reach and influence large numbers of people, especially newspapers, popular magazines, radio, and television. Mass Media are those media that are created to be consumed by immense number of population worldwide and also a direct contemporary instrument of mass communication. Nonetheless, Mass Media is considered as the fourth estate of the society as well. It is the fourth branch of the government. It is the voice and weapon of the people and the society as whole. Mass media has various purposes, first is for entertainment, traditionally through performances of acting, music, and sports, along with light reading but since the late 20th century it can also be through video and computer games. Next is for public service announcement which is intended to modify public attitudes by raising awareness about specific issues like health and safety. And lastly is for advocacy. This can be for  both business and social concerns. This can include advertising, marketing, propaganda, public relations and political communication. MEDIA AND HUMAN RIGHTS As stated by the Secretary- General of the United Nations in 1998, Human Rights are ‘what reason requires and what conscience commands’ (Mizuta, 2000). It is commonly recognized that human rights are firm foundations of human existence and co-existence. It is for these human rights that the United Nations is engaged in securing the basic conditions of life, in ensuring peace, development, a safe environment, food, shelter, education, participation, equal opportunities and protection against intolerance in any form. The Preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights expicitly states that: ‘every individual and every organ of the society, keeping this Declaration constatly inmind, shall strive by teaching education to promote respect for these rights and freedom’ (Hamelink, 2000). With this, we can say that all (including different institutions) are responsible in promoting human rights. Mass media present the opportunity to communicate to large numbers of people and to target particular groups of people. As observed by Gamble and Gamble (1999), mass communication is significantly different from other forms of communication. They note that mass communication has the capacity to reach simultaneously many thousands of people who are not related to the sender. It depends on technical devices or machines to quickly distribute messages to diverse audiences often unknown to each other. Thus, media in relation to human rights shows a exceptional characteristic in promoting it. CHILD ABUSE In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or other caregiver that results in harm, potential for harm, or threat of harm to a child. The physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect of children have a long recorded history. In the mid to late 1800s, it was reported that children were often sexually assaulted, that children reported honestly about their abuse, and that the perpetrators of abuse were often the childrens fathers and brothers (Olafsen, Corwin and Summit 1993). Every year, millions of children across the world are becoming innocent helpless targets of atrocities. They are the sufferers of ill-treatment, exploitation, and brutality. They are part of human trafficking to induce into prostitution rackets. In terror prone regions, they are kidnapped from their homes and schools and their innocent childhood is forced into the army to witness the brunt of cruelty. They are enforced into debt repression or other kinds of slavery. In Metro Manila, according to Australian study, urbanization and migration continuously increase, children are often forced by circumstances to help their families earn a living. Most street children are of poor parents who have migrated from rural areas to find better job opportunities in the city, but lack of education renders them ill-equipped to earn or survive in the city. Street children have a bleak present and an uncertain future. Life in the street is a constant struggle to overcome the various negative elements that threaten to overtake and destroy the hope for survival. The street child works under the heat of the sun or in the dark of the night from 6 to 16 hours, seven days a week, often in a combination of â€Å"occupations† each considered their only means to survive. In the cities, neglected and abandoned children find themselves in the streets fending for themselves and vulnerable to the various evils of the urban jungle such as drug addiction, crimes and commercial sexual exploitation. Children who are neglected or abandoned are easy prey not only to accidents but to commercial sexual exploitation, drugs, crime and unwanted pregnancies. Incidents of child abuse is still on the rise especially  child sexual abuse. Also on the rise are reports of physical abuse and maltreatment of children. According to the statistics, there are approximately 40,000 to 50,000 street children of all categories in Metro Manila. Studies conducted reveal that the number of street children range from 2 to 3% of the child and adult population. The national project on street children estimated the number of street children at over 220,000 in 65 major cities as of 1993. There are now about 350 government and non government agencies that are responding to street childre n and their families. The government has given special focus on helping street children with programs focused on health and nutrition, educational assistance, parenting sessions, livelihood and skills training, residential care, foster care and adoption. However for as long as there would be squatter colonies sprouting in urban areas and for as long as there are not enough jobs, street children will continue to dominate in the streets. In a 1993 survey of households, some 16% of households surveyed have children below 12 years old who are left unattended with no supervising adult in the house. This translates to one in six households where children are without adult supervision. The consequences of child abuse are overwhelmingly disturbing. It denies a child its basic right-education. While violence and abuse pose a threat to their life, it also offers more devastating adverse effects on their mental and physical health. Often it leads to homelessness, resulting in increased number of cases of vagrancy giving birth to a feeling of depression. To worsen the scenario, these victims are more likely to abuse their own children in future, thanks to the deep impact on their mind and the cycle will continue forever. Though the agony and the plight of these children remain suppressed in silence, the brunt of their exploitation is very real. Although, the whole world is morally fuming at the abuse children endure. Yet, protection laws against child abuse commonly meet with confrontation at all strata of society. Like the protection of human rights, child protection can also be effectively promoted through media. MEDIA ON CHILD PROTECTION The media have been essential to the growth of society’s awareness of child abuse and neglect, not so much from specific community education campaigns as through ongoing news and features reporting on specific cases, research and intervention initiatives (Gough 1996). Media representations are the primary source of information on social problems for many people (Hutson and Liddiard 1994). Specifically, it is apparent that the media’s conceptualization of children and young people, and media reporting on both physical discipline of children and child abuse, is significant in reflecting and defining society’s perceptions of children and young people (Franklin and Horwath 1996), and what is and what is not acceptable behavior towards children. In addition to news stories, feature articles, and investigative journalism, sporadic mass media education and prevention campaigns are launched. These campaigns usually endeavor to broaden community knowledge of child abuse and neglect, to influence peoples attitudes towards children and young people, and to change behaviors that contribute to, or precipitate, the problem of child abuse and neglect in our communities (Goddard and Saunders, 2002). The constructive use of mass media can assist in teaching children and young people socially desirable ways of dealing with conflict, knowledge of their rights to integrity and protection from harm, healthy eating habits and lifestyles, and ways to assert themselves and their rights in a positive, acceptable manner. In an Inquiry into the Effects of Television and Multimedia on Children and Families in Victoria, Australia, evaluations of educational television programs, designed either for pre-schoolers or for older children, have suggested their effectiveness in heightening a range of social behaviors’ (Friedrich and Stein 1973), diminishing the effects of stereotyping (Johnston and Ettema 1982), increasing preparedness for adolescence (Singer and Singer 1994), and stimulating the discussion of solutions to general social issues (Johnston et. al 1993). The Convention of the rights of the child provides for the right of children to access information and material to those that aimed the promotion of his or her rights. (Hamelink, 1999).Therefore, mass media as a  primary source of these information should provide the children proper knowledge of his or her rights. Also, mass media education and prevention campaigns may be designed to target children and young people, providing them with useful information and alerting them to avenues for further information, help and support. Campaigns can also use regular television programs for children. Research suggests that, at least in the short term, television viewing of such programs may increase childrens and young peoples knowledge and positively change attitudes and behaviors. Unfortunately, longitudinal studies exploring sustained effects are rare and thus inconclusive. It further notes that television is one of the most popular forms of mass communication and entertainment in has been under-utilized as an educative tool, and suggests that perhaps narrow vision has meant that the deliberate use of television simultaneously to entertain and educate has not been fully recognized. Despite this, Postman (1994) has argued that television is rapidly becoming the first curriculum, with educational institutions such as schools following behind. Further, campaigns may be designed to give children and young people an opportunity to express their views on issues that affect them, specifically targeting adult audiences that habitually ignore the views and experiences of children and young people. The UK Childrens Express is one example, as is Youth Forum in Melbournes Herald Sun newspaper. .Research on the physical punishment of children suggests, for example, that adults may be interested to hear childrens views on the issue of physical discipline, and children interviewed in the research were keen for adults to hear their views. To date, however, the media rarely, if ever, consults children and takes their views into account before reporting on the physical punishment for children (Goddard and Saunders, 2000) MASS MEDIA CAMPAIGNS †¢ EVERY CHILD IS IMPORTANT (Australia, May 2000) This primary prevention campaign used a comforting approach and incorporated a significant mass media component (Tucci et. al2001). As outlined in More action less talk! Community responses to child abuse prevention (Tucci, et. al 2001), the campaign sought to: elicit a commitment from adults to adults to develop safe and non-abusive relationships with children; persuade adults to stop behaving in ways which are harmful to children; educate adults about the important needs of children; and better inform adults about the causes and consequences of child abuse. The campaign encouraged all adults to: think and view children as a source of hope; understand the developmental variables of children; respect the meaning children give to their experiences; engage positively with the principles of childrens rights; and appreciate more fully the capacities and contribution of children to the cultural and emotional life of families and communities. The campaign also addressed: the commonly held belief that children are a cost to society; the perceived suspicion that any application of the notion of childrens rights will mean an erosion of parents rights; and the publics lack of understanding about the extent and nature of child abuse in Australia. The campaign continued until the end of 2001. A song, written by Van Morrison and performed by Rod Stewart, Have I Told You Lately That I Love You, was the focus of a television advertising campaign that aimed to stimulate peoples thoughts about the importance and value of children and how this is communicated to them. Television commercials were backed up by press and radio advertisements. In addition to advertising, the campaign sought media attention by involving Tracy Bartram, FOX FM radio personality, as an ambassador for the campaign. Media attention was drawn to the campaigns launch. A free information kit for parents was made available, parents seminar sessions, featuring Michael Grose, were conducted, and a website made readily available to the public. The campaign did not receive state or federal funding but relied heavily on in-kind support from individuals and Victorian businesses. Quantum Market Research monitored the effectiveness of the campaign. In  May 2000 and October 2000 telephone interviews were conducted with a representative sample of 301 adults. Public dissemination of research outcomes formed part of the campaign strategy. Tucci et al. (2001) report that the initial research findings, five months into the campaign, revealed that: Child abuse is as serious social problem that is poorly understood by the Victorian public while fifty one per cent of respondents believed the community recognized child abuse as a serious social problem and another twenty one per cent believed they accurately understood the extent and nature of child abuse in Australia, this is clearly not the case. Fifty nine per cent were unable even to guess the number of reports of child abuse received annually. Only four per cent of respondents accurately estimated the size of the problem. Twenty-nine per cent of respondents underestimated the problem by at least 90,000 reports. The idea that adults can hurt children is disturbing and likely underpins the belief by fifty one per cent of respondents that the community treats this issue seriously, but when asked to account for the extent to which children are being abused by adults, community awareness is sadly lacking. Eighty per cent of respondents strongly supported the need for a campaign against child abuse. Australians Against Child Abuse thus feels confident that the Every Child is Important campaign will significantly influence public attitudes and responses to children and to child abuse. Ongoing research into the impact of the campaign will in itself be valuable in contributing to the debate about the educative and cost effectiveness of mass media campaigns aimed at preventing child abuse and neglect. †¢ NSPCC Full Stop Campaign Primary Prevention (United Kingdom, May 1999) It has the ambitious aim of ending cruelty to children within 20 years. Costing three million pounds, it proposes to change attitudes and behaviour towards children, to make it everybodys business to protect children, and to launch new services and approaches (Boztas, 1999). The campaign is supported by Prince Andrew, popular personalities such as the Spice Girls, the English football star Alan Shearer, and companies such as British Telecom and Microsoft. As Rudaizky (quoted in Hall 1999) explains, a pictorial theme of the campaign is people covering their eyes: The theme of the eyes being covered is about people not facing up to the reality of what is happening. Our intention was not to shock but to move people into doing something about it. Child abuse is not nice to talk about. It is an upsetting subject but unless we talk about it, we will not end it. This objective highlights the suppression/awareness phenomenon mentioned above, and draws attention again to the need for ongoing rather than intermittent prevention campaigns. FAMILIES – University of Queensland Sanders et al. (2000) evaluated Families a 12-part prevention-focused television series designed to provide empirically validated parenting information in an interesting and entertaining format. The series presented a parenting model, suggesting strategies parents could use with their children. It aimed to reassure parents that it is normal for parenting to be challenging, and it hoped to increase parents confidence that positive changes in childrens behavior were achievable. The series also aimed to increase awareness in the community of the importance of positive family relationships to the positive development of young people (Sanders et al. 2000). This media-based television series was considered to be successful, specifically in relation to its impact on increasing the parenting confidence of mothers. However, Sanders et al. (2000) concluded that the impact of the series could have been increased: by the strategic provision of service support systems, such as telephone information contact lines or parenting resource centers, which could be advertised as part of a coordinated media strategy planned to coincide with the airing of the television program. These services could provide information and back-up resources, such as parenting tip sheets, to parents seeking further advice after viewing the program. Staff at these centers could also identify and  refer families who may need more intensive help. †¢ BEYOND BELIEF (United Kingdom, 1992) A documentary claimed to show new evidence of satanic/ritual abuse in Britain. Following the program, helplines were overloaded with calls from people who had experienced sexual or ritual abuse. Counsellors noted that: The program appeared to have given callers permission to speak of their experiences and their gratitude that someone, somewhere took what they said seriously. (Scott 1993) Henderson, a fellow at Glasgow Universitys mass media unit, as quoted by Hellen (1998) commented that: A lot of people who have suffered child abuse quite simply lack the vocabulary, because of shame or fear, to come to terms with what has happened. Provided a drama does not place blame on the child, it can be very helpful. †¢ BBC Screenplay It has been suggested that sometimes drama reaches the parts the documentary cannot (Campbell 1989). Writing about Testimony of a Child, a BBC screenplay that presents the other side of the Cleveland child sexual abuse saga the story of an abused child going home to [the] abuser, Campbell argues that sexual assault presents television with terrible problems. Television is about seeing. But it censors what we need to see if we are to understand because it bows to propriety and thus contains what is knowable (Campbell 1989).Despite this, Campbell (1989) notes the power of fictitious drama based on fact to: invite you to think: what would you do if faced with that childs face, his fantasies full of terror and death, his starvation, his stubborn silences, his sore bum. †¢ COLD HANDS- (New South Wales, 1993) Armstrong (1993) argued that the play portrays a week in the life of a 12 year-old girl sexually assaulted by her father and got pregnant. The  plays focus allows the audience to gain an insight into the childs fear and trauma, the fathers feeble rationalization and defense, and the mothers fear of confronting the truth. Armstrong noted that the New South Wales Child Protection Council showed professional interest in the play and that plays have been used as part of child abuse awareness campaigns. The plays director, Ritchie (as quoted by Armstrong 1993) remarked that: The play is powerful, dramatic, presenting practical and emotional reality. It is confronting, but it emphasizes the fact that there is no excuse. †¢ QUESTIONS 2: Killing Tomorrow New Zealand A documentary, screened in New Zealand in 2001, graphically depicts the lives and abuse of three children. During the documentary, a Detective Inspector informs the audience that the drama is based on the lives of real people, and the audience is told how life turned out for the children and their abusers. Only those with ice in their veins could fail to be moved and there lies the problem. In each case, one adult or more had failed to take responsibility for the safety of a defenseless child (Herrick 2001). Reporting in The New Zealand Herald, Herrick asks what can programs like this possibly expect to achieve. Twenty years ago, polite society didnt even acknowledge abuse existed, let alone talk about it. So shows like this, which provoke thought and discussion, must be a sign of progress, even if the statistics say otherwise. Killing tomorrow was punishing if compelling viewing. Supported by New Zealands child protection authority, Child Youth and Family Services (CYFS), consider documentaries like Killing Tomorrow to be a powerful way of educating people about the issues and what can be done to protect children. We want to create an environment where child abuse is less able to exist and were pleased Screentime-Communicado has decided to help raise these serious issues (Brown, CYFS chief executive quoted in The  New Zealand Herald 28/11/01). After the program was screened there was a panel discussion of the issues presented in the documentary and CYFS booklets that provide tips on parenting were made available to the public. Child protection received 211 phone calls during the documentary and on the night it was screened. Fifty-three child abuse investigations resulted, five of which cases were considered very urgent [and were] assigned immediately to social workers for investigation (Ward, CYFS spokesperson, quoted in The New Zealand Herald 30/11/01). Also quoted in the New Zealand Herald 30/11/01 was Simcock, the National Social Services spokesperson: The documentary showed community groups were doing their best on the issue but government measures were sadly lacking the most helpful thing the government could do was to change the law that allowed parents to hit children. While the documentary appears to have raised awareness of child abuse and prompted some people to act on their suspicions of abuse and neglect, Henare, a Child Abuse Prevention Services spokesperson, noted that the objective of the documentary would not be reached without enough money for community providers (quoted in The New Zealand Herald 30/11/01). These are only some examples of media campaigns. There were still lots more evidences the media protecting children around the globe from abuse. Though media shows a remarkable effort in the child protection system, people can not stay away from the fact that there are still several problems these media campaigns face. MEDIA PROBLEMS IN CHILD PROTECTION CAMPAIGN Journalists willing to advocate for children and young people face the challenge of counterbalancing negative images or demonisation‘(Franklin and Horwath 1996) of children and, particularly, of adolescents, in print, television and film. Starkly contrasting with once popular views of  childhood as a time of innocence, less than positive images of children and young people in the media may place obstacles in the path of attempts to prevent their abuse and neglect. In 1968, 11-yearold Mary Bell murdered two boys, aged three and four in the UK. Twenty-five years later, in 1993, two ten-year-old boys murdered two-year-old Jamie Bulger in the UK, and in Australia in 1998, a ten-year-old boy was charged with drowning a six-year-old playmate. In such cases, a child being able to open his or her mind in abusive acts might be the perpetrator of maltreatment to his or her fellow. Psychologically, the Social Information Processing Theory of Aggression, comes here. According to Strasburger (1995), the central tenet of social information processing theory is that children create their own rationales to explain the behavior of others during social during social encounters. In turn, these self- generated interpretation influence children’s responses in their ongoing social interaction. Given that mental state operate in a feedback loop, it is possible that all social experiences, including those involving violent media, could influence social information processing. CONCLUSION Society sometimes fails to recognize that children are the most vulnerable group in our community, and are thus in need of the greatest protection. The social and economic costs to societies that have not prioritized childrens needs, especially the prevention of child abuse and neglect, are well documented. This paper focused on news stories, feature articles and investigative journalism. In this, we have concentrated on mass media education and prevention campaigns, television series, documentaries, and live theatre productions. It demonstrate the medias potential power to positively influence child welfare policies, community responses to children and young people, and societal acknowledgement of, and reaction to, child abuse and neglect. It challenges those who are involved in child welfare and child protection to make greater efforts to understand media influences and to use  the media constructively. Sustained community education and prevention campaigns, using mass media communication, are integral to the prevention of child abuse and neglect. These campaigns continually confront communities with the reality of child abuse. They challenge people, institutions, and governments to listen to children and to respond to the needs of all children and families, and particularly the special needs of children who have been abused or neglected. Further, sustained mass media exposure of child abuse and neglect may publicly censure and shame perpetrators, many of whom are relatives and adults well known to the victimized child. According to Tucci (2002), the agenda for our community and the government which represents us should be clear. The prevention of child abuse should be a priority. However, to be effective, mass media campaigns will need to be part of a broader prevention program that includes the provision of supports and services for all children and families. There are limitations to what the media can achieve. REFERENCES: Armstrong, M. (1993), The cold realities of child sex abuse, Sydney Morning Herald, 11 November Boztas, S. (1999), Prince Andrew launches crusade against child cruelty. The Daily Telegraph, 23/3/99. Franklin, B. and Horwath, J. (1996). The media abuse of children: Jakes progress from demonic icon to restored childhood. Child Abuse Review. Friedrich, L. and Stein, A. (1973). Aggressive and prosocial television programs and the natural behaviour of preschool children. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development Gamble, T. and Gamble, M. (1999). Communication works. McGraw Hill Publications. Goddard, C. and Saunders, B.J. (2000), The role of the media, in Project Axis Child Sexual Abuse in Queensland: Selected Research Papers. Goddard, Chris. , Saunders, Bernadette. (2002). The role of mass media in facilitating community education and child abuse prevention strategies. Child Abuse Prevention Issues Number 16. Gough, D. (1996), Defining the problem Child Abuse Neglect, Vol. 20. Hall, C. (1999), NSPCC shock tactics to tackle child abuse, The Daily Telegraph. Hamelink, Cees. (2000). Media and Human Rights. Media and Human Rights in Asia: an AMIC Compilation. Singapore: AMIC. Hellen, N. (1998), Bennett pens TV child sex drama, Sunday Times, 5 October. Herrick, L. (2001), Truth of abuse too powerful to ignore, The New Zealand Herald, 21 December Hutson, S. and Liddiard, M. (1994). Youth homelessness: The construction of a social issue. Macmillan Publication Johnston, J. and Ettema, J. (1982). Positive images: Breaking stereotypes with childrens television. Sage Publications. Johnston, J. Bauman, J. Milne, L. and Urdan, T. (1993). Taking the measure of talking with TJ: An evaluation of the first implementation of talking with J Series 1, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan Publishers. Mizuta, Kayoko. (2000). Human Rights and Media. Media and Human Rights in Asia: an AMIC Compilation. Singapore: AMIC. Olafsen, R., Corwin, D. and Summit, R. (1993). Modern history of child sexual abuse awareness: Cycles of discovery and suppression. Child Abuse and Neglect. Postman, N. (1994). The disappearance of childhood. Vintage Books. Sanders, M.R., Montgomery, D.T. and Brechman-Toussaint, M.L. (2000), The mass-media and the prevention of child behavior problems: The evaluation of a television series to promote positive outcomes for parents and their children, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Singer, D. and Singer, A. (1981). Television, imagination and aggression: A study of preschoolers Sage Publications. Strasburger, Victor. (1995). Adolescents and the Media: Medical and Psychological Impact. Sage Publications. Tucci, J. Goddard, C. and Mitchell, J. (2001). More Action Less Talk! Community responses to child abuse prevention, Australians Against Child Abuse. Ringwood.

Environment Analyses That Will Impact Burger King Marketing Essay

Environment Analyses That Will Impact Burger King Marketing Essay This research market proposal is for Burger King for their marketing strategies to launch their new cafe in competition with McCafe of McDonalds. This report is an in depth analysis of its Internal and the External Environment that will influence Burger Kings success and fail. Burger King is well known thought-out to be a major fast food chains in the world. This proposal explores the three key environment analyses that will impact Burger King: External-Environment Internal Environment The overall report is about PESTEL, Porters 5 Forces model, and SWOT analysis. These current strategies will determine the competitive and how successful Burger King is in the market before launching a new cafe and take into account the ,market analysis and situation. Introduction Burger King is a global chain fast food restaurant which was founded in 1955 in United Sates in Florida owned by David Edgerton and James McLamore. By the year 2011, 12,400 outlets were opened by Burger King in 73 countries including New Zealand. Since its opening in 1955 the menu for the Burger King has evolved from basic offering of French fries, sodas, milkshakes, and burgers to more diverse and lager set of products. Between 2002 and 2010, Burger King targeted large products that carried large amounts of unhealthy fats to 18-34 male demographic. In 2011 Burger King moved away from male oriented menu to new menu items with packing and product reformulations (The Free Encyclopedia, 2012). Burger Kings franchise is one of the means of expanding its operation. Burger King acts as a franchisor laying down precisely procedures and rules for other franchisee to follow. To achieve volume growth Burger King associated itself with multinational expansion for a large saturated market place (Made Easy). Burger King is ranked second next to McDonalds in terms of size and number of stores but their brand name is the most widely-recognized brands in the world which sets them apart from their competitor. Burgers Kings innovative and more food menu choices help them to be competitive in the market and maintain the customer it has. The main menu Burger King has is French Fries, cheeseburgers, and chicken and fish sandwiches, breakfast items, hamburger, onions rings, soft drinks, salads, desserts and etc. (Made Easy). Political and Legal Issues In New Zealand to conduct a market research first we will have to become a member of the Market and Research Social Research Society (MRSRS) which is a professional organization for any researcher who is interested in conducting a market research. This agency has set of regulations of professional behavior to abide by. There are policy act and principles that will have to follow when collecting, storing, and using and disclosing personal information (MRSNZ 2012). The political and legal forces that will affect the Burger King for their marketing strategies will be the monetary and fiscal policies of the government where interest rates, tax legislation affecting the marketing system, a good example will be GST (Rix, 2004, p. 48) . Other legal laws that will affect the Burger King will be Fair Trading Act 1986 in this act, if an employee makes a misrepresentation or misleading claim about the product, such a claim would be deemed to breach the act (Parliamentary Counsel Office, 2012). For Burger king to open up a cafe in their restaurant they will have to comply with Food Act 1981 rules and regulations like food safety regulations and, food fees charges regulation (Ministry For Primary Industries, 2012). The privacy act 1993 will requires Burger King to advice their customers of the intended purpose of information held about them after the market survey. These acts promote and protect individuals information privacy who will take part in the marketing survey and research (Parliamentary Counsel Office, 2012). Ethical Issues Ethics is basally the moral conduct of the business what is right or wrong. Ethics for Burger King will be the corporate social responsibility of towards society and commit itself in the code to encourage diversity among employees, franchisers, business sources, community involvement and sponsorships and prevent discrimination within the company. Other ethical issues Burger King will face will be: Promoting ethical culture that values and respects all people Acting with honesty and integrity ethical standards which encourage compliance with all laws and company policies. Providing sponsorships, supporting local sporting teams, and helping young disable people in need. Ethics like refraining from using company position, information, and property for personal gain. Providing fair, timely, and full reasonable disclosures in the financial report with compliance to the law. Holding itself responsible and accountable for the action it takes (Corporate Responsibility 2012) Burger King will also have to consider about giving employment to disable people and also providing a car park space for them. Social Cultural Issues Burger King will have to consider the beliefs, social values, lifestyles, behavior and buying preferences of the people. New Zealand has many different races with different cultural, norms and values determine what is acceptable and what is not. When assessing the food requirements of a particular cultural or ethnic group Burger King will have to know the food requirement for each ethnic group. For example people with Hindu back group are mostly vegetarian so they will need products from Burger King that does not contain animal fat, eggs, or meat. As for Muslim community they will only eat halal certified foods so Burger King will have to consider these factors before opening up the cafà ©. Burger King will also have to consider about people who put emphasis on quality of life rather than the quantity of goods. Some buys will look for safety, durability, and value in the foodstuffs they buy. Some buys will desire for more physical goods in the belief that these will lead to greater levels of overall satisfaction and happiness for example more environmentally friendly products and introduction of recyclable packaging (Rix, 2004, p. 44). Burger King will also have to take in to the account the trends of male and female member within the household, especially about their purchasing power and decisions. Each gender will have different taste that will influence their buying (Rix, 2004, p. 44). SWOT Analysis For Burger Kings new Cafà © I will have to use Porters 5 forces model, SWOT and PESTEL Analysis to investigate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of launching the new cafà ©. This situation analysis will summarize the Burger Kings current situation and will scan the external environment for strengths and weaknesses and environmental opportunities and threats. Strengths are business capabilities, competitive advantages and competencies. Weaknesses are business limitation. Opportunities are environmental trends to which business plan can be matched. Threats are environmental changes that would affect business operations or direction. Environmental analysis is very important in planning process as it enables us to collect the necessary information to assist management in decision making process. (Rix, 2004, p. 428) SWOT Analysis is a tool that Burger King can use to identify their internal strengths and weaknesses and opportunities and threats, and then develop strategies to deal with their situation (Rix, 2004, p. 428) (S) Strengths of Burger King will be the customer loyalty, market share, organizational efficiency, and product. Burger King is the second largest fast food hamburger restaurant in the world. Burger King has a strong brand equity when talked about wide selection of menu items, fast and efficient service, and innovative products. All this strong brand equity will favor and will help Burger King in their opening of the new Cafe and they also will get good customer loyalty. (Made Easy, 2012). (W) Weaknesses of Burger King over the years that contributed to its decline were its weak marketing campaigns. If Burger King has weak marketing campaigns then they will not able to communicate with their customers. Another weaknesses Burger King will face is the heavily relies on franchisee rather than corporately owned stores. Each franchise will try to sell and promote their product for customer loyalty and this can be a major drawback for Burger King in launches their new cafe (Made Easy, 2012). (O) Opportunities for Burger King will be their expansion strategy for new product development, particularly around breakfast in their new cafà ©. Burger King can set example for other franchise on how a cafà © should be operated. Opportunity like edifice its brand though advertisement campaign and expansion into up-and-coming markets can improve financial aspects of the business. (Made Easy, 2012). (T) Threats one of the biggest threats Burger King will face will be from McCafe of McDonalds which is the largest fast food chain restaurants. The competition among within these two companies will be characterized by price wars for the market share. This will make Burger King to heavily promote their product which will cost money and time. Other threats Burger King will face is consumers changing attitude and behavior towards eating healthier food choices. Now days consumers are more conscious about their health issues which may result them not buying for Burger King. Increasing labor cost will also put pressure on Burgers Kings finance (Made Easy, 2012). Figure Strength(S) Weaknesses (W) SO Strategies Use strengths to take advantages of opportunities WO Strategies Take advantage of opportunities by overcoming weaknesses or making them relevant ST Strategies Use strengths to avoid threats WT Strategies Minimize weaknesses and avoid threats Source: Have, S. T., Have, W. T., Stevens, F. (2003). Key Management Models. Great Britain: Biddles Ltd,Guildford Kings Lynn. According to (Have, Have, Stevens, 2003, p. 187) as shown in figure1Burger King can use SO and WT strategies meaning that they will able to do what they are good at. They will also able to steer the business clear from competencies in opportunity. If Burger King decides to use WO strategies then they will able to take on opportunity despite not having the requisite strengths, which means they will have to borrow or develop the required strengths to outmaneuver the competition. ST strategies if used by Burger King mean that they will bust or buy their way out of trouble. For example these strategies will make Burger King to fend off smaller cafà © by means of expensive price wars, multiple channels of promotions and with insurmountable marketing budgets. PEST Analysis PEST Analysis is at tactical planning means to evaluate the impact of the external environment like Political, Economic, Social and Technological factors on an organization (Haughey MPM, 2002). Burger King will have to use PEST Analysis is a vital ingredient in their planning process. (P) Political is factors like trade restriction, environment regulations, tax policy, and employment laws that Burger King will have to comply. New Zealand government also has legislation that governs the dissemination and preparation of the financial information so Burger King will have to comply with legislation when preparing annual report. (E) Economic factors are inflation rate, exchange rates, interest rates, and economic growth. Burger Kings cafes survival will depend on how New Zealand economic is doing. For example people must have money to spent and they should willing spend it. (S) Social is factors like emphasis on safety, cultural aspect and population age distribution. For example McDonalds sells soft drink made from an Amazonian beery in Brazil, milk shakes flavored with durian in Singapore and Malaysia, and in south East Asian it is aphrodisiac (Bartol, Tein, Matthews, Sharma, 2008, p. 79). Burger King will have to identify will menu will people of New Zealand will desire. Also any changes in socio cultural trends will shift the demand of a partially product mean. (T) Technological are technological changes that creates new processes of producing products and services. For example new coffee machine which will give Burger King a competitive edge. Porters Five Forces Burger Kings competitive position in a particular market will depend on which marketing and management model is available to them. Burger King can use Porters industry structure and generic strategies models. Michael Porter five major forces determine the nature of the competition in market. This will set the profit potential and competitive parameters for Burger King as shown in Figure 2. Potential EntrantsFigure 2: Porters Five Model Forces Threat of new entrants Industry Competitiors Rivalry among existing firms buyers Suppliers Bargaining power of suppliers Bargaining power of buyers Threat of substitute products or services Substitutes Source: Rix, P. (2004). Marketing A Practical Approach (5th Edition). NSW, Australia: McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd. Porters competitive analysis identifies five fundamental competitive forces that will determine the relative attractiveness of Burger King. (Rix, 2004, p. 434) Threats of New Entrants if Burger King sees a strong probability of new firms entering their market, it will impact on how Burger King will operate. This risk is resolute by the extent of the industrys barriers to entry. For example if profits are only earned through economies of scale than the threat of entrant will be less. Also if Burger Kings capital investment in the cafà © is large and have product differentiation leading to customer loyalty, and high cost for customers to switch suppliers will also have barriers to entry by other firms. (Rix, 2004, p. 434) Threat of Substitutes Goods if Burger Kings products are reasonably cost efficiently and easily substituted by other products that gives the same satisfaction with low cost will mean restrict profits to Burger King. Burger King might also lose their customers but there can use product differentiation to promote and get their customers (Rix, 2004, p. 434). Buyers Bargaining Power if Burger King has a petite number on individually strong buyers then it will impact on their profit. The buyers can demand low prices, extended credit and very high levels of services. Other situations where products are homogeneous commodities and switching suppliers cost is low then the buyers strength is higher (Rix, 2004, p. 434) Suppliers Command of Industry if Burger Kings key ingredients are supplied by a small number of individually strong suppliers than it can put pressure on Burger Kings profits. Suppliers can control and increase prices, can demand fast payment or gives priorities to other competitor when it comes to supplying stock which will limit Burger Kings profit potential (Rix, 2004, p. 432) Existing Competitors. Some of the major competitors for Burger King will face are Mc Cafe, Starbucks, and Wild Bean Cafe etc. When all this consists number of companies starts to be competitive, it will have significant impact on Burger Kings profitability. Other factors that will intensify the competition in the market will be for customer loyalty and market share. it might be bit hard for Burger King to compete with them but if they do a market research and get feedback from the customers and promote their product at the right place, at right time ,and at the right price than Burger King will be able to succeed in their new product launching (Rix, 2004, p. 432) Porters Generic Strategies According to (Rix, 2004, p. 434) Burger King should be seen as a considerably different or supply at the lowest cost for means. They can be concentrating on specific niches or supply to the entire market. Burger King can use three generic strategies as shown in figure 3 STRATEGIC TARGET Figure 3: Three Generic Strategies STRATEGIC ADVANTAGE OVERALL COST LEADERSHIP DIFFERERENTION Uniqueness perceived by the customer Low cost position Industry wide FOCUS Particular segment only Source: Rix, P. (2004). Marketing A Practical Approach (5th Edition). NSW, Australia: McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd. The three objective strategies are: Overall Cost Leadership Strategies will make Burger King to become the lowest cost cafe in the market by precisely selecting manufacturing ability and invention level, eliminating unprofitable customers and products. These strategies will provide protection against competitive substitutes and rivalrys (Rix, 2004, p. 435). Differentiation Strategies will make Burger King to promote and develop real or perceived differences between those of its competitors and Burger King. This strategies will protect Buger King by developing a brand loyalty against their competitors so that the consumers dont change suppliers (Rix, 2004, p. 435) Focus Strategies will make Burger King to adopt differentiation strategies or cost leadership strategies. This will make Burger King to focus on a particular segment of the market. This will provide a means of defenses to Burger King (Rix, 2004, p. 436) CONCLUSION Burger King operates in a very extremely competitive environment where the threat of competitors to Burger King is very high. It is very important for Burger King to build a point of differentiation that will make Burger King apart from all other competitors because its competitors are employing almost the same strategies that Burger King is employing. Operational excellence, high standard service, its innovative and quality products is what Burger King is known for today. So in order to remain competitive, Burger King must differentiate itself from its competitors which can be done through differentiation of products. Buger King must be able to maintain its global perspective, explore new markets and take advantage of new opportunities with the help of its market expansion strategies. The changing consumer preferences and demands also need to be satisfied. In order to do that, Burger King must develop a diverse product line.

Analysis of the Dar Es Salaam Stock Exchange

Analysis of the Dar Es Salaam Stock Exchange 3.0 Chapter Three 3.1 Research Methodology This chapter aims at explaining the methodology which has been adopted in this study. Research approaches or style have been categorized into mainly two groups, the phenomenological approach and positivist approach. The phenomenological approach studies the phenomenon through observation, no theory at outset while the positivist approach use an existing theory or develop a new theory and test its validity. Since this study has used the existing theory on market efficiency therefore positivist approach have been adopted with this study, the rationale behind the choice of this approach is due to the nature of the study. 3.2 Research Design Research design can be broadly classified as exploratory research and Conclusive research .This study is conclusive research design because it involves the testing of specific hypothesis and examination of relationships as well as the data analysis is quantitative and research process is formal. 3.3 Data types and sources Two types of data that has been used in this study, the daily closing stock of market index(Dar es salaam Stock Exchange Index-DSEI) and the weekly share prices for a sample of five listed companies from Dar es salaam Stock Exchange. The daily closing stock for market index has covered the period from July 2007 to August 2008 making total number of observation to be 280, excluding public holidays and non trading days. The daily data prior to July 2007 were not found therefore the study had to use the available data . The second type of data that has been used in this study are weekly share prices of the five companies/securities included in the study .The weekly data runs from Jan 2002 to August 2008, which makes the total number of observation to be between 90 and 266. The final date is the same for the all companies but the initial date differs depend on when the company joined the stock market. The weekly data refers to the Wednesdays closing stock price, however if Wednesdays data were not available then Thursday closing price were used, in absence of Thursday data , Tuesday was taken instead, but when both Tuesday and Thursday were not available as well , the data for that week was regarded as a missing data. The use of weekly data is appropriate for this kind of studies as Humphrey and Lont (2005) asserted that weekly data helped to mitigate any non-trading effects and also reduced the effects of noise trading. Even though the stock price was collected for the purpose of performing statistical tests, the actual test was conducted using natural logarithmic of the relative price. The stock return (denoted by R) was calculated by natural logarithmic difference of the weekly stock price given by the following equation = [- )] (1) Where: Rt = Return at time t P = Price at time t The reasons why change in log price was used instead of the normal change in price, has been explain by Fama (1965), he mentioned that logarithms neutralize price level effects as well as producing a series of continuously compounded returns. The daily closing stock for market index (DSEI) was used in performing the parametric serial correlation test and the weekly share prices for five listed companies was used to perform the non parametric runs test .In additional to the primary data (Stock prices) collected from Dar es salaam Stock Exchange, the study has also used the secondary source of data. The secondary data includes academic books, journals and other publications. 3.3.1 Thin Trading As discussed earlier in literature review section, infrequency trading or thin trading is big problem in most of emerging stock market and failure to take into account can results into serious biasness of statistical results. In this study this problem has been taken into account and the weekly data were collected from infrequency trading. The first step taken in controlling the infrequency trading was to eliminate the mostly thin traded securities / companies as Shanken (1987) depicted that some of researchers controls the thin trading problem by eliminating some of thin traded stocks. Initially the study was meant to include all ten companies listed in Dar es salaam Stock Exchange, however five companies were found to be very much affected by infrequency trading therefore were eliminated from the study. The actual correction of weekly data from thin trading for the five companies included in this study was based on approach by Atchison et al (1987) as adjusted by Milambo et al (2003;cited in Mabhunu 2004). They suggested correcting thin trading problem by adjusting approach by Atchison at el (1987) who used uniform process which allocates returns equally over the days in multi -days interval where security not traded. According to Mlambo et al (2003 ;cited in Mabhunu 2004), if a stock is not traded for example after 14 days of non trading, then a single entry given by the following equation (2) should be used as an oppose to 15 entries of equal value. Where: = Length of time between a trade in a period t and previous successive trade = Price of stock at time t = Dividend at time t Therefore the infrequency problem in this study have been controlled by applying equation 2 without taking into account the dividend adjustment as it has been suggested that adjustments of dividend does not have much effects.Also the use of weekly data instead of daily data for individual companies has helped to control this problem. 3.3.1 Test of goodness -of-fit One of the hypothesis in which the random walk has based on is about price changes to conform to some probability distribution. Therefore in testing the efficiency of stock market it is essential to identify the pattern and determine which known statistical distribution the pattern follows. In this study the Jarque-Bera test has beeen employed to test the normality of the stock return. This techniques has been used in several studies, includes the recent study of Market Return and Weak Form Efficiency: The case of Ghana by Frimpong and Oteng (2007). The Jarque-Bera test statistic is given by JB = T(+ ) (3) Where: JB = Test Statistic T = Number of observation S = Sample Skewness K = Sample Kurtosis. Kurtosis which denoted by (K) in equation (3) measures the sharpness / peakness or flatness of the distribution of a series and is given by the following equation K = (4) A normal distributed series has kurtosis of 3, therefore whenever kurtosis of a series exceeds 3, the distribution of that series is regarded as leptokurtic relative to normal and if the kurtosis is less than 3, then the distribution is regarded as platykurtic(flat) relative to normal. The skewness which denoted by (S) and computed by the following equation S = (5) Measures the asymmetric distribution of the series from its mean. A normal distributed series has skewness of zero, therefore if the skewness of the series is positive then the series is concluded to have a heavier right tail and if the skewness is negative the distribution is regarded as having a heavier left tail relative to normal. The results of the Jarque-Bera test together with the skewness and kurtosis of the return series employed in this study have been reported in table 1. 3.4 Methods employed As mentioned earlier this study aimed at achieving three main objectives, first to find empirical evidence of weak form efficiency hypothesis for Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange, secondly to identify the main barriers for the development of the Dar es salaam Stock Exchange i.e. the factors that hampers the growth of DSE and lastly to identify the quality of information available to investors at Dar es salaam Stock Exchange. Therefore in this chapter the methods used in achieving each objective have been explained in detail, starting with the first objective. 3.4.1 Objective 1: Empirical evidence for weak form efficiency hypothesis. In achieving the first objective, the study intended to answer the following two specific questions Is the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange weak-form efficient? Do the stock prices in Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange follow the random walk? The study was guided by the following hypothesis Dar es salaam Stock Exchange is weak form market efficient. Stock price follows a random walk Various techniques have been used so far in testing for weak form hypothesis by different researcher as depicted in literature review section, the techniques includes the statistical test of independence and trading rules. In determining whether a stock market is a weak form or not using statistical test, the correlation / relationship between stock price and return over the successive time interval is identified. If no significant correlation found then the market is regarded as weak form market as past return can not be used to determine future return. The market will be regarded as weak form inefficient if significant correlation will be found. In testing our first null hypothesis, one statistical test of independence have been employed, the serial correlation test . The non parametric runs test was employed to test our second null hypothesis, the random walk hypothesis. The following is the explanation of each statistical test employed in this study. Serial correlation test It is among the widely used test of independence .The serial correlation test measures the correlation of a variable over consecutive time interval e.g. at time t and time t-1.The reasons why this approach have been chosen to be used in this study is because of its familiarity in this kind of study. Several studies have employed this technique for example Vaidyanathan (1994) in the study of efficiency of the Indian capital market employed this approach. Similarly, Baral and Shrestha (2006) studying the daily stock behavior of commercial banks in Nepal, used the same approach. In testing the weak form efficiency of the stock market using this approach, the correlation of log price/return series is determined, if autocorrelation is found the assumptions will be that the series does not follow the random walk, meaning that the stock price are not independent, past return can be used to determine the future return and hence the market is weak form inefficient. The test statistic for the serial correlation coefficient for lag p can be express as p = (5) Similarly written as P = (6) In determining the autocorrelation of the return in this study, the Ljung-Box test was used. This is a portmanteau test which measures the autocorrelation of the variable. The Ljung-Box test statistic is given by =T(T+2) (7) Where by: = Test Statistic T = Number of observations = Is the jth autocorrelation or autocorrelation coefficient (for lag j) K = Number of coefficients to test autocorrelation, in other words the number of lag to be Tested. Given the value of obtained from the test, the conclusion on the randomness of the log price/return can be reached if > , K at significance level ÃŽ ±, where by , K means the ÃŽ ±-quantile of the Chi-square distribution with K degrees of freedom. Alternatively if the p-value obtained from the statistical test is less than 0.05,then the test is significant at 95% level of confidence and therefore the null hypothesis of zero auto correction can be rejected. The results for this test have been reported in figure 1in the next chapter. Runs test This is the second test that had been employed in this study to test for the second null hypothesis. Unlike parametric tests such as serial correlation, a runs test is a non-parametric test which means that it does not require the normal distribution of the series. This is one of the advantage of using this approach and it is also the reason why this technique has been adopted in our study. A run can be define as a set of identical (or related) symbols contained between two different symbols or no symbol (such as at the beginning or end of the sequence)Spiegel et al (2000.p366). In performing this test, each change in return/price is classified as positive (+), negative (-) and zero change (0). Alternatively change in return could be classified alphabetically for example A ,could be each return that equal or exceeds the mean value and B could be each return that are below mean value. The test can be executed to obtained the actual number of runs (denoted by V), and then the actual number of runs (V) can be compared with the expected number of runs () which is given by the following equation = (8) Where = Expected number of runs N = Total number of return observations = Sample size of each category of price change If actual number of runs will be greater than expected runs, it will be indications of negative serial correlation and if actual runs fall below expected return it will indicate the positive serial correlation of the return. Alternatively the p-value obtained can be used to conclude on the results of this test, if p-value is less than 0.05, then the test is significant at 95% level of confidence and therefore the null hypothesis of randomness can be rejected. For a large sample i.e (N>30), the sampling distribution of V is approximately corresponds to a normal distribution and thus Z = (9) Where: Z = Z-Test Statistic V = Actual return = Expected return = Standard deviation given by the following equation = [{+ N (N+1)} 2N (10) Therefore at appropriate level of significance, the Z-statistic can be used to test for independence of return series. The reason why the randomness tests such as non parametric runs test are used to test for the efficiency of the stock market is because efficiency of the stock market is determined by the way information are incorporated in current stock price. For a well efficient market , new information is incorporated instantaneously and spontaneously and therefore no arbitrage opportunity can exist. Since new information is incorporated instantaneously and spontaneously in current stock price then stock price/returns will be generated in random fashion i.e there will be no any pattern. In relation to the weak form efficient market all past information is expected to be incorporated in current stock price in such a way that a positive change in returns is not expected to be followed by positive change in return or negative to be followed by negative as the returns generated randomly. However, for the weak inefficient market all past information are not incorporated instantaneously and spontaneously as the results the change in returns is generated in a pattern which can lead to opportunity of making fortune. Therefore testing of randomness helps to reveal the how new information is incorporated in current stock price and the way returns are generated, if its in a random fashion or with pattern. This helps in drawing conclusion regarding the efficiency of a stock market. The results for this non parametric runs test are shown in table 2 3 and discussed in the next chapter. Objective 2:Factors affecting the growth/ development of Dar es salaam Stock Exchange Despite aim of finding empirical evidence of weak form hypothesis, also the second objective of this study was to identify and discuss major factors/ challenges that have been affecting the development and progress of Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange. April 2008, the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange celebrated its tenth years anniversary, however for the period of its ten years of operations; we have witness the slow growth / development of the stock market, only few companies have been listed so far. But what are the main causes of this slow growth? in terms of listing of companies?, what are the challenges faced by the stock market?. Further more the numbers of individuals participating in the market as investors is not so impressive, in a speech by the minister of finance and economic affairs on 10th anniversary of DSE , he said the market so far DSE has enable more than 116,651 Tanzanians to own shares. This is small figure to be as a minimum figure for the country with population of approximately 39.4 million people, we would expect a good number of individual to be aware of operations of the stock market and hence participating and a minimum figure could have been a million and above, however the situation is different then what is the real problem?, are there any efforts by the market authority to ensure the general public is aware of the stock market operations and hence increase the number of investors in the market?. Despite of the barriers and challenges for its growth, what measures have been and will be taken to ensure the stock market is growing? .What are the future prospects of the market? . In achieving our second objective the above mentioned questions will be addressed and discussed. This was done through reviewing and studying of the existing literature and publications regarding Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange and African stock markets in general, since most of the emerging African stock markets share the same kind of the obstacle/ challenges. The findings and discussion of these issues have been presented the following chapter. Objective 3: The quality of information to investor and other stakeholders at DSE. The last objective was to determine the quality of information available to investors and other stakeholders at Dar es Salaam Stock Market. There various sources of information for investors in any stock market and one of the sources is financial statements. Even though financial statements are sometimes subjective to the manipulation of management and by the time financial statements are published some changes might have already happen, yet financial statements remains to be crucial source of information for investors and analysts. Normally the existing investors as well as potential investors would like to know how the investment have been well managed as this will give them the overall picture on how safe investing in the company has been or will be. Using the published financial statements, investors and analysts can acquire valuable information which can help in their decision making. However, investors will be deprived from using this type of source of information, if the information provided with the financial statements are not of good quality and required standard. According to Benston (2003), if the information provided by financial statements is not useful and accurate then its reception will not give investors the kind of insight they wanted and as the results investors will incur costs to find information somewhere else. Therefore with this objective, the quality of information available to investors in DSE was determined and discussed. This was achieved through a comparison of financial statement of Tanzania Breweries Limited (TBL)- a company listed in Dar es salaam Stock Exchange and Sanisbury PLC a company listed in London Stock Exchange. The aim of the comparison was to determine if an investor in DSE using financial statement will get the same quality of information similar to an investor in London Stock Exchange. In this comparison in additional of looking the contents and standards in which these annual report have been prepared also the study looked at the general accessibility of the annual report and other companys information which might be helpful to investors between these company .Also the general overview of corporate governance between these two companies was analyzed and discussed. The results and discussions of this comparison have been presented in the following chapter. 3.5 Data Analysis Since the study had involve the statistical tests, therefore data was analyzed with the help of statistical packages. The parametric serial correction test and parametric runs test was performed using SPSS (Statistical Package For Social Science) and the Jarque -Bera test was performed using EVIEWS .Both quantitative and qualitative approach have been used in interpreting the results of analysis 4.0 Chapter Four: Data Analysis, Presentation Discussion of Findings 4.1 Introduction The aim of this chapter is to present the analysis and discuss the findings of the study. The chapter have been divided in three main part (A, B, C). The first part (A), reports the results and the discussions from statistical tests relating to the first objective of this study. Part B and C report the findings and discussions relating to the second and third objectives respectively . 4.2 Part A : Empirical evidence for weak form efficiency hypothesis In finding the empirical evidence for weak form efficiency hypothesis in Dar es salaam Stock Exchange ,three main statistical tests were performed , firstly the normality test i.e the Jarque Bera test, parametric serial correlation test and non parametric runs test, the findings of these test are presented in that order. 4.2.1 Test of goodness of- fit Since it is essential to determine the probability distribution of the series when performing efficiency tests /statistical tests, therefore the returns for the stock market index(DSEI) as well as the returns for the five companies used in the study were firstly analyzed to determine if the return series follows the normal distribution. The result of nomality test are shown in table 1 Table 1: Jarque- Bera Test DAHACO DSEI SIMBA TBL TCC TWIGA Mean 0.002166 0.000227 0.006390 0.002727 0.000724 0.008349 Median 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 Maximum 0.141970 0.021668 0.277632 0.202941 0.074108 0.287682 Minimum -0.182322 -0.024520 -0.253781 -0.146093 -0.117783 -0.072759 Std. Dev. 0.028979 0.002794 0.045971 0.027860 0.021852 0.040065 Skewness -0.462822 -0.623957 0.863549 2.133508 -0.934278 4.314131 Kurtosis 15.81011 39.73707 17.61886 23.35083 11.19382 29.39428 Jarque-Bera 1216.549 15707.35 1751.608 4792.031 532.6697 2891.643 Probability 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 Sum 0.383447 0.063240 1.239581 0.725336 0.130979 0.751392 Sum Sq. Dev. 0.147799 0.002170 0.407877 0.205694 0.085951 0.142861 Observations 177 279 194 266 181 90 Source : Analyzed data As shown in the table 1, the p-value of the jarque -bera test for stock market index series(DSEI) and the p-value for the five individual companies is below 0.05 i.e p-value As depicted in the table 1 above, the return for the market index(DSEI), TCC Ltd and DAHACO/SWISSPORT Ltd are negatively skew(heavier left tail) as their skewness less than zero. I,e skewness 0) which means that their returns are positively skew( a heavier right tail) relative to normal. A perfectly symmetrical distribution such as normal distribution has skewness which equal to zero. Regarding the kurtosis which describe the flatness or peaknedness of the distribution the results shows that the returns of both market index and individual companies have kurtosis greater than three i.e kurtosis > 3, which implies that the distribution of the returns are sharply peaked (leptokurtic) relative to normal. The p-value from test statistic, kurtosis and skewness indicates the rejection of normality for the returns so the general conclusion which can be drawn from the test of goodness-of-fit is that the returns employed in this study are not normally distributed and therefore non parametric statistical tests are more appropriate to be used than parametric statistical tests. 4.2.2 Results of Serial Correlations/ Autocorrelation Test Though it has been suggested that when the series is not normally distributed then non parametric tests wo