Wednesday, January 29, 2020
The West, Middle East And Orientalism Essay Example for Free
The West, Middle East And Orientalism Essay The Middle East has become a focal point in the last fifty years because of concerns regarding the regions role in economics, international security and politics. There is urgency in developing peace and development for the region: its position in the world’s oil markets and its role as gateway between Europe and Asia are critical reasons for the interest. There has been an exhaustive amount of literature aiming to analyze and develop solutions for the region developing a consensus to what has to be done has proven to be difficult and even if accomplished, implementation has been problematic. One point of suggests that the difficulty in the region stems from cultural reasons. Orientalists contend that the culture of the people in the Middle East which is predominantly Islamic is one of the reasons for the developing conflicts. The purpose of this paper is to survey existing views on this perspective and to assess the validity of the arguments presented. In doing so, the paper will be able to define how culture affects the peace, order and development in the Middle East based on historical and current studies of the region. Perspectives of Orientalism The term orientalism was coined to delineate the geographical divide between the Europe and the Americas with Asia. This reflects the more recent use of the â€Å"west†to refer to the occident and â€Å"east†to refer to the orient particularly during the colonial expansion in the 20th century. Though the term was originally developed as a geographical term, the more significant application is in its use to imply a cultural divide that in turn is the core of conflicts held against the â€Å"west†. In Cole’s review of Bernard Lewis What Went Wrong: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response, he cites that Lewis uses orientalism to characterize and develop his insights regarding the Middle East’s situation . Lewis uses the west as a standard to define what is wrong with the policies in the region. The approach is not just used to assess the current state of affairs in the region but reaches back historically with the study of the Ottoman Empire versus Central and Western Europe. According to Ismael Hossein-Zadeh, orientalist perspectives have had resurgence after the September 11th attacks. He considers that development an effort to understand the reasons behind the tragedy and at the same time an effort to develop the protagonists and antagonists of what was to be the war against terrorism. In this light, the Middle East and Afghanistan were modeled according to their difference with the Allies and the most distinct difference being the culture of the region . Stefan Lovgren reflects that this view of the Middle East is steeped and history as evidenced as far back by the Crusades . Ideologically, there are significant similarities: in the middle ages, the focus was to deliver the region from the domination of Arabs of Christendom’s birthplace and today, the objective to liberate the region from the supporters of terrorism. Evaluating Orientalism In Edward W. Said’s review of Samuel Huntingtons article The Clash of Civilizations he criticizes the War of the Worlds scenario presentation of the cultural and religious conflicts . Huntingtons approach is distinctively orientalist because of his use of cultural or civilizations to illustrate his theories. Said’s view is that Huntington is only â€Å"reinforcing defensive self-pride than for critical understanding of the bewildering interdependence of our time†. One of the key difficulties in orientalism is that there seems to be too much focus on superficial differences. This is not to imply that cultural differences have to be considered but rather, there is little historical perspective given to the economic, political and strategic factors. For example, Nanda Shrestha and Kenneth Gray reflect that the current conflicts between the West and the Middle East and all other conflict in recent history belie a two hundred years of good relations in terms . Using an orientalist approach, one culture or group is evaluated based on what is considered a more superior culture. In such a scenario, one group ultimately is considered to be superior to another thus its use as a standard. This then leads to conflict because either of the perception that a culture is being judged as inferior or because of the action on enforcing judgment or the will of the â€Å"superior†nation to the other in what is seen as in consideration of the interest of the other. It should be noted that this is not the motive of orientalism but is often used as the justification of extraterritorial action not just in the Middle East but the rest of the world as well. Conflict and Orientalism Cole points out that one of the difficulties in orientalism is that it tends to lumps together issues and then gives it a cultural or ethnic label that rarely represents all the individuals involved in the issue. According to him, when the terms Middle East is used the connotation is of Islamic insurgency which does not represent the majority of the countries in the region in either religion or sentiment . Bernard Lewis considers the current points out that this has lead for Moslems to fell that they are being persecuted and has led to resentment and mistrust of the west, particularly the United States . The cycle then continues on with Middle Eastern leaning towards orientalist views in dealing with other countries. Which, to be expected only further encourages conflict and misunderstanding among the parties involved. In Shrestha and Gray’s evaluation of Huntingtons article clash of civilization theory is that it should be considered as an â€Å"ideological work underpinning a neoconservative agenda for a global American Empire than a work of scholarship or accurate representation of historical reality†. Evaluating the Conflicts Lewis suggests that the evaluation of the conflicts should not focus so much on the disparities suggested by orientalist but rather on the competition because of common interests in terms of economy, politics and security . His view is supported by Lovgren whose study of the city of Jerusalem, one of the most contested cities in history and a goof microcosm of the region, reflect that history has shown that various cultures and civilization have co-existed well enough. He cites that most conflict has developed from territorial, economic and political disputes rather than from cultural differences . Furthermore, Kunihiko Imai that there has been greater tension not only in the Middle East but in the world as a whole because of greater exposure and interdependence among nations . Common stakes and conflicting interests are considered as one of the main causes of conflict. The discrepancies between the developed and lesser developed countries is creating tension and brings to the surface questions regarding the fairness of today’s global economics and politics . At the same time, J. J. Nance points out that there is also realization that issues like terrorism are global issues that have gained the attention of the international community that may not necessarily be in the interest of some country’s sovereignty . Nance uses as an example the aviation industry which has been among the hardest hit after the September 11th attacks: the aviation industry is typically one the highest grossing industries of any country, generating billions of dollars in tax revenue. Educator Henry A. Giroux also points out that the conflicts that develop can also be attributed to the lack of cultural literacy which is the development of context and understanding of other cultures which has created â€Å"politics of difference†that gives little margin for real communication . Hossein-Zadeh supports this view: he believes that there has been little effort in addressing the root of the conflicts and religion and culture are used as a convenient scapegoat for the conflicts . There is no denying the impact of culture and civilization. It affects all aspects of society, creating the dimensions and forces that shape individuals . Orientalists’ perspectives have merit in that societies have their own motivations and capacities that either allows them to become more developed than another. However, considering communication and technology today which has created unprecedented channels for global interaction the distinction of what the West and Middle East encompasses is becoming blurred. As much as one would want to consider the Middle East as a far off and alien region to the West, the irony is that most recent leaders of the region have been educated in the West . Conclusion It is easy, if not convenient, to use cultural or regional characterizations to explain conflicts but this provides little option for the creation of satisfactory solutions. The real albeit more difficult issues to deal is whether there is fairness in economic policies; whether there is basis of foreign military presence; whether there is religious, racial and social discrimination; whether there tolerance for differences; and whether issues are not being misconstrued because of differences in perspective or objectives. There is little consideration of the underlying issues that was created the existing status quo and leaves too much to speculation and assumption. Therefore, any attempt to tackle with the issues in the Middle East must not be limited to this perspective and if used, should not consider it as indicative for the region. In conclusion, issues can not be fully assessed and solution can not be fully developed from orientalist perspectives alone. These perspectives consider only a snapshot of the issues that have to be dealt with. Reference http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/533230/posts http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/10/1028_041028_jerusalem_conflict.html
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Child Case Study :: Psychology Psychological children Essays
Child Case Study Who?     5-year old boy (Friends Nephew) Name? â€Å"JD†Where? In the Family Room and the Kitchen How many family members are present? Brother(3) Aunt (20) Grandma (60) (PEER SETTING) 30-minute observation Friday 2/25/05 4:00PM     Child sitting on floor in front of TV getting ready to watch Ed, Edd, and Eddy. 4:02PM     Lying down on pillow. 4:04PM     Asks aunt for banana. 4:06PM     Eats banana in kitchen 4:08PM     Eating and watching from kitchen. 4:10PM     Finishes banana and sits in family room watching cartoon. 4:12PM     Sitting and watching TV with little brother. 4:14PM     Commercial and brother and him reenacting cartoon. 4:16PM     Cartoon is back on and both are still playing rough. 4:18PM     Aunt tells them to stop and they don’t. They are still playing rough. 4:20PM     Child stops playing rough with younger brother and sit down watching TV. 4:22PM     Watching Ed, Edd, and Eddy. 4:24PM     Watching Ed, Edd, and Eddy. 4:26PM     Laughing and still watching Ed, Edd, and Eddy. 4:28PM     Show is over child begins to play with Aunt’s Boxer Dog. 4:30PM     Child continues to play with dog (brother joins in later). Who?     5-year old boy (Friends Nephew) Name? â€Å"JD†Where? In the Kitchen How many family members are present? Brother(3) Aunt (20) Grandma (60) Sister (6) (FAMILY INTERACTION) 30-minute observation Monday 3/1/05 2:00PM     Kids come over. 2:02PM     Child pulled homework out right away and Aunt sits to help. 2:04PM     Aunt helps child with reading for reading log. 2:06PM     Child practicing reading skills with his reading book. 2:08PM     Child finished reading book 2:10PM     Child worked on his writing skills. JD writes two sentences every three days. 2:12PM     Child is still working on his writing skills. 2:14PM     Child is still working on his writing skills, he is almost finished. 2:16PM     Child finishes his sentence writing and works on his math homework. 2:18PM     Child works on math problems. 2:20PM     Child is counting with his fingers. 2:22PM     Child is still counting with his fingers on another problem. 2:24PM     Child finishes his homework. JD sits on couch and watches Jimmy Neutron. 2:26PM     Child watches TV still. 2:28PM     TV Show ends and child tries to read his dinosaur book. 2:30PM     Child gives up on reading and goes back to watching the next episode on Nicktoons.
Monday, January 13, 2020
Benefits of an online business presence Essay
In this task I am going to explain the developments in internet technology, describe the benefits of an online presence and give examples of businesses that enjoy these benefits and finally explain the advantages of to businesses of having an online presence rather than having a purely offline presence. Broadband and other developments Nowadays, broadband connections enable data to be transferred much faster than narrowband. The connection does not tie up a normal phone line. The user can choose get online by an ADSL connection, a cable line, wireless or via satellite dish. Also the internet is low cost and is increasing in speed which benefits the commerce online. The new portable devices such as PDA offer the user easy internet access at any time. 80% of the UK can get broadband by ADSL and cable. Most of people use internet every day which enables a great share of data. Secure payments The increase of security enables the use of credit/debit card facilities. But the newspapers and magazine headlines about fraud and hackers quite obviously put people off. To be secured, all the online payments need to be private and confidential between the buyer and the seller, conveyed intact and without any changes during transmission and erased from the system after the process has been completed. The banks are increasing the security of the debit/credit cards of the user. To purchase an item online the user need to key in the password and the date of birth. Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) is a standard protocol for securing credit card transactions over insecure networks, the Internet. SET is not itself a payment system, but rather a set of security protocols and formats that enables users to employ the existing credit card payment infrastructure on an open network in a secure fashion. When the cardholder buys online the credit card company authenticates the card via digital signature. This proves that the cardholder is genuine. Web authoring tools Nowadays there are a number of web authoring tools such as the Microsoft FrontPage program which enables the user to create a website without any specialist knowledge. There are other programs such as the Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Flash technology used to create the effects and designs in a website. Businesses can easily build their website, which enables them to create a service online. Benefits of an online presence A web business presence have global â€Å"round†visibility which means they never close and are available from any location in the world at 24 hours 7 days a week. This benefit can increase the opportunity of trading of the website. Some examples of websites that enjoy this benefit are www.sainsburys. co. uk, www. amazon. co. uk and www. argos. co. uk. Some businesses operating online have opportunity of expansion to access to a wide range of customers especially from abroad. If the business offers an excellent service the opportunity is maximised. But there are worries for example the tariff barriers, quotas and environmental regulations. This is not a problem in the European Community as the goods can be freely traded between member states. Some websites that enjoy this benefit are www. ebay. com, www. hp. com, www. dell. com. A Small business with a good service and well designed can compete with larger businesses. There is an equality of presence regardless of size of business. The costumer never looks on the size of the business only on the service and product provided. Therefore a small business can compete with a larger one. Some websites that enjoy this benefit are www. zonepoint. co. uk and www. computeradvicecentre. com. A web business presence has the benefit of a rapid response to customer interest. But some firms don’t take advantage of this benefit. A web can provide several opportunities for customer contact for example the email messages. The speed of response is very important. A response over the internet is faster than the response by phone or letter. An online business presence enjoying this benefit is www. ebuyer. com. A web business presence has the opportunity to analyse online competition. It is quicker and easier to compare competitor activities online than by visiting their stores or obtaining information offline. Also the internet enables businesses to check new competitors and their market share. Businesses operating online have opportunity to keep up with customers. Businesses can check competitor’s status and then they can improve the product or service offered, speed of the delivery or the design of the website. The internet has made the life much easier. Achieving a responsive integrated supply chain A supply chain contains every single business that is involved in the eventual supply of a product or service. But there are problems associated with the supply chain. If the chain is long the price to the customer may be high and the chain is usually slow to respond to a rapid change. To combat these problems businesses tried to change the supply chain to shorten it, this is done by cutting out or by passing as many intermediaries, and to integrate it, to speed the things by changing the information in one stage to another. An example of business that has a simple and short supply chain is Dell. Dell manufactures computers and sells them online directly to the buyers. This means there are no wholesales and no need for retail shops. This speeds things up and reduces the final price to the customer. If the businesses improve their supply chain there many benefits that follows. Businesses can offer punctual delivery as a sales feature. The seller will have more control over delivery if the supply chain is short and integrated. One example of a business operating online that has this benefit is Dell. co. uk Other benefit is the opportunity for buying the products online. Businesses can improve the product delivery and reduce the time between the order and supply. Customers can check stocks online. If an item is currently out of stock many businesses put a note on the site and email the customer when stocks are replenished. One example of a business that has this benefit is ebuyer. com. Ebuyer is a business like Dell. It sells directly to the buyer; there is no need for retail shops. Online order tracking is another benefit. It enables the customers to check every stage of their order from the supplier’s website. The system sends automatically email to customer informing about tracking order. In other systems customers can check at any time the progress of the order. Ebuyer. com is a business operating online that enjoys this benefit. Businesses can reduce overheads and labour costs. A business that has a short and an integrated supply chain has more possibilities to process the orders more cheaply. This is because there is likely to be fewer staff required to process paperwork relating to customer orders, fewer shops required if the business deals directly to the customer, fewer intermediaries required and fewer staff needed to deal with the customer. Ebuyer and Dell are two examples of businesses that enjoy this benefit. Reduced stockholding Businesses can improve cash flow through fewer bad debts. Cash flow improves if the customer is paying as they make a purchase. The transactions over the internet are done by credit or debit card. The card payment is always checked and authorised before the goods are dispatched. Ebuyer. com can choose where to locate. Ebuyer only trades over the internet. It has more freedom in choosing the location than other types of businesses. A business can save money with affiliations with ISPs and portals. This works as the following: a business wants to show the location of the company, the business can do an affiliation using multimap to show it. One example is the BT website. Other benefit is the accessibility to different users. Disabled and housebound people have more advantages to shop at home over the internet. Also people who live in rural and remote areas don’t need to worry to go a shopping trip. Only one â€Å"click†can save money and time. Nowadays is increasing availability of public web access points. The internet kiosks and cybercafi s are a common feature in all large towns and cities. They enable anyone without a pc, or away from home, to access the internet easily. Also the pocked Pc’s and the portable computers, laptops, enable the access to internet at any time. Advantages of to businesses of having an online presence rather than having a purely offline presence Tesco are ale to sell a lot more groceries as they have both their stores and the home delivery service than Primark which only sells its product to customers who came into their stores. Tesco website would operate globally as well as locally for relatively little extra cost. Tesco can get a wide range of customers because they can buy online at any time. People don’t need to worry to go for shopping. Only by one â€Å"click†people can shop online. Also disabled people would prefer to shop online. Primark website only offers the information about the products and where to find retail outlets. In my point of view an online presence has more advantages than a purely offline presence. An online presence can get more customers selling online than an offline presence. The customers are very important for a business because without them a business can close. In conclusion, I mentioned the benefits of an online presence and the advantages of an online presence rather than a purely offline presence. BTEC First in Business Unit 8: Business Online.
Sunday, January 5, 2020
Apple A Competitive Market - 1622 Words
In a competitive industry there is a wide range of aspects that help determine what companies succeed and fail. Over time different companies grow and develop competitive relationships that encourage refining of their companies in order to stay relevant in a competitive market. Apple is a prime example of a company that is in a competitive market has had many innovations since its creation to help it stand out from other companies in the computer technology industry. Apple is one of the leading computer manufacturing companies and has been known for innovations in both technology and aesthetically pleasing products. Apple more well-known devices include the I-Phone which revolutionized the mobile phone industry, and the I-Mac Laptops and home computers which have been found huge success and are popular among a variety of age groups and demographics. In the mobile phone industry apples main competitors would be Google who are the creators of the Android operating system which is used by a majority of non-Apple phones. As for the computer industry, Apples main competitors consist of Microsoft who had created the Windows operating system which is used and pre-installed on a large portion of competitor computers, this includes companies like Lenovo, Dell, Hewlett Packard, and Acer. Since the 1970’s Apple computers has made a large impact on the computer industry and has revolutionized what it means to be a computer company. Beginning as a project between Steve Jobs andShow MoreRelatedApple s Competitive Strategies For The Consumer Electronics Market2054 Words  | 9 Pagesur I When most consumers think of a leader in the electronics market, they think of Apple. For many years now, Apple has been the forefront of innovation in the consumer electronics market. 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