Nigeria civil war Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Nigeria civil war - Essay Example By such a level of analysis, this student hopes to explain the conflict more fully. The â€Å"Who and What† of Boko Haram: Founded in 2001, the rebel Boko Haram is a Salafist Islamic insurgency that wants to overthrow the existing democratically elected government of Nigeria and replace it with a government founded upon Sharia’ah law. This particular group was founded in 2001 by Mohammed Yusuf. Keeping in line with the radical level of Islamic groups that exist throughout the world beginning at the turn of the 21st century, Yusef saw the existing Nigerian government as corrupt, worldly, and unrepresentative of the Islamic communities that live throughout northern reaches of Nigeria. In trying to understand the Nigerian Civil War to a more complete degree, one should understand the fact that Nigeria is a multiethnic, multiracial, and multi-religious society (Nwenta, 2013). A large percentage of Nigeria is Christian; whereas a large minority is Muslim. It should not be un derstood that the entire Muslim population supports Boko Haram. However, a great deal of support has been generated for Boko Haram within territory that it occupies due to repression, threats, and a certain level of approval on the part of the general population. The Government and Natural Resource Wealth: From the government perspective, it must be understood that Nigeria is a resource rich territory. The government has been able to fund its activities and provide basic services to its population due to the fact that it gains a high level of revenue from these natural resources. This is both a blessing and a curse due to the fact that the Islamic insurgency is interested in getting its hands on the revenue from the economy. In order to understand the Civil War to a more effective degree, it must also be understood that neither side of this particular struggle is ultimately representative of the â€Å"good† or the â€Å"bad† (Yenta, 2013). Two Sides to a Bloody Situati on: Whereas it is true that Boko Haram has been responsible for many tragedies, such as murdering entire villages and/or killing indiscriminately based only upon religion, the governmental response to this separatist movement/civil war has been equally heavy-handed. Many examples exist of the government forces indiscriminately murdering large groups of people due to the fact that they supported or gave refuge in some way shape or form to Boko Haram. This ultimately is a counterproductive effort on the part of the strategic resolution to the Nigerian Civil War. Due to the fact that the government response has been so heavy-handed, it has oftentimes turned individuals away from the government into the arms of Boko Haram. In order to understand this insurgency to a more full and complete degree, it is necessary to understand the disillusionment that has taken place within Nigeria. Many individuals involved in the Civil War have only come to be involved due to the fact that they no long er believe that the government can have a positive impact in their lives. In this way, they turn to Boko Haram as a way of seeking to find another path in the process of nation building. Many outside nations have tried to provide support for the government; however, the level of corruption and the failure of government forces to be able to secure their own territory

Brands and other intangible assets Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Brands and other intangible assets - Essay Example The financial status with a brand becomes more distinguished as relations to consumers are built through the brand valuation. Recognizing the brand as an intangible asset becomes essential to a corporation because of the impact it has on consumer spending as well as on the financial future of a company. If finances begin to fluctuate from stable growth to increases and decreases in the company, then it can be noted as a direct link to the intangible asset of brand valuation (Wood, 662, 2000). Branding is a concept that began centuries ago as many began to associate the idea of ownership with the products they owned. Branding a home or slaves was the concept used by those who were interested in keeping and maintaining a personal establishment. The main concept was to recognize ownership specifically to gather a return on investment for the ownership. The concept of branding for businesses began to boom with the emergence of the industrial revolution and the building of companies into national entities. During this time, the competition to create products at a mass level while outdoing competitors became the main concept. In the 1920s, General Motors, Ford and companies such as P&G began to use their name identity as a tactic for overcoming the competition. As these brands were identified as an intangible asset demand increased as well as the accounting structure. As consumerism began to rise in the 1980s, most businesses began to incorporate branding into their main ident ity as it was noted that financial differences occurred when a brand was recognized. The main concept was to create a higher amount of demand from potential customers while allowing customers to become loyal to the brand identity over other competitors. The result was the ability to not only build reputation, but also to change the financial increases within a corporation. The concept of brand identity during the 1980s and 1990s also began to emerge at a global level,

Information About The Relative Worth Of An Employee Commerce Essay

Information About The Relative Worth Of An Employee Commerce Essay Performance appraisal is the process of obtaining, analyzing and recording information about the relative worth of an employee. The focus of the performance appraisal is measuring and improving the actual performance of the employee and also the future potential of the employee. Its aim is to measure what an employee does. According to Flippo, a prominent personality in the field of Human resources, performance appraisal is the systematic, periodic and an impartial rating of an employees excellence in the matters pertaining to his present job and his potential for a better job. Performance appraisal is a systematic way of reviewing and assessing the performance of an employee during a given period of time and planning for his future Objectives Of Performance appraisal: To review the performance of the employees over a given period of time. To judge the gap between the actual and the desired performance. To help the management in exercising organizational control. Helps to strengthen the relationship and communication between superior subordinates and management employees. To diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of the individuals so as to identify the training and development needs of the future. To provide feedback to the employees regarding their past performance. Provide information to assist in the other personal decisions in the organization. Provide clarity of the expectations and responsibilities of the functions to be performed by the employees. To judge the effectiveness of the other human resource functions of the organization such as recruitment, selection, training and development. To reduce the grievances of the employees. Performance appraisal of employee is important in managing the human resource of an organization. With the change towards knowledge-based capitalism, maintaining talented knowledge workers is critical. However, management classification of outstanding, poor and average performance may not be an easy decision. Besides that, superior might also tend to judge the work performance of their subordinates informally and arbitrarily especially without the existence of a system of appraisal. Performance appraisal of candidates in relation to a particular position, is a key task towards managing the human resources of an organization. Supervisors are concerned with performance appraisal judgments and evaluations that they have to make on their subordinates. On the other hand, subordinates are increasingly realizing the importance of performance appraisal since it would very much affect their rewards and future career path. As the world began to shift towards knowledge based capitalism, it reminds all organizations on the importance of maintaining their talented knowledge workers. Performance appraisal is usually conducted periodically within an organization to examine and discuss the work performance of subordinate so as to identify the strengths and weaknesses as well as opportunities for improvement among employees. Following this, most of the employers use the performance appraisal result to determine if a particular staff should be terminated or reinforced; as an employee development and coaching tool; to give a practical evaluation of an employees readiness for promotion; and to serve as the foundation for giving merit bonus. Some companies do not havea formal appraisal system and as a result the company gets infected with certain drawbacks like under motivated and under committed workers. In a recent Human Resources Forum poll, 16 percent of the people responding have no performance appraisal system at all. Supervisory opinions, provided once a year, are the only appraisal process for 56 percent of respondents. Another 16 percent described their appraisals as based solely on supervisor opinions, but administered more than once a year. The improvement of performance appraisal systems is a matter of sharing a social definition of performance appraisal that is congruent with the original intent decided by the organisation. The management development professional can aid the process by being educated about appraisal systems, analysing the potential benefits to the organisation, and accepting that all appraisers need training. To help performance appraisal reach its fullest potential, management development professionals need to be political strategists, appraisal system experts, trainers, salespeople and catalysts, in combination. An organization comes across various problems and challenges Of Performance Appraisalin order to make a performance appraisal system effective and successful. The main Performance Appraisal challenges involved in the performance appraisal processare: Identification of the appraisal criteria is one of the biggest problems faced by the top management. The performance data to be considered for evaluation should be carefully selected. For the purpose of evaluation, the criteria selected should be in quantifiable or measurable terms Top management should choose the raters or the evaluators carefully. They should have the required expertise and the knowledge to decide the criteria accurately. They should have the experience and the necessary training to carry out the appraisal process objectively. Many errors based on the personal bias like stereotyping, halo effect (i.e. one trait influencing the evaluators rating for all other traits) etc. may creep in the appraisal process. Therefore the rater should exercise objectivity and fairness in evaluating and rating the performance of the employees. The appraisal process may face resistance from the employees and the trade unions for the fear of negative ratings. Therefore, the employees should be communicated and clearly explained the purpose as well the process of appraisal. The standards should be clearly communicated and every employee should be made aware that what exactly is expected from him/her.    The appraisal process might also be influenced by the following factors relating to the forms that are used by raters: The rating scale may be quite vague and unclear The rating form may ignore important aspects of job performance. The rating form may contain additional, irrelevant performance dimensions. The forms may be too long and complex. The raters may not be adequately trained to carry out performance management activities. This becomes a serious limitation when the technical competence of a ratee is going to be evaluated by a rater who has limited functional specialization in that area. The raters may not have sufficient time to carry out appraisals systematically and conduct thorough feedback sessions. Sometimes the raters may not be competent to do the evaluations owing to a poor self-image and lack of self-confidence. They may also get confused when the objectives of appraisal are somewhat vague and unclear. If the sincere appraisal effort put in by a rater is not suitably rewarded, the motivation to do the job thoroughly finishes off. Sometimes, low ratings given by raters are viewed negatively by management as a sign of failure on the part of rater or as an indication of employee discontent. So, most employees receive satisfactory ratings, despite poor performance. Normally, the raters immediate supervisor must approve the ratings. However, in actual practice, this does not happen. As a result the rater goes off the hook and causes considerable damage to the rating process. If the rater dislikes any employee, he may rate them at the lower end and this may distort the rating purpose and affect the career of these employees. A person outstanding in one area tends to receive outstanding or better than average ratings in other areas as well, even when such a rating is undeserved. To minimizing the halo effect, you should appraise all the employees by one trait before going to rate on the basis of another trait. In general, raters remember the recent appraisal of the employee and they usually follow appraisal results last time. Some of the biases all managers should refrain from while conducting the performance evaluation are as follows:- (i)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   First impressions (primacy effect): The appraisers first impressions of a candidate may color his evaluation of all subsequent behavior. In the case of negative primacy effect, the employee may seem to do nothing right; in the case of a positive primacy effect, the employee can do no wrong (Harris, p.192). (ii)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Halo: The Halo error occurs when one aspect of the subordinates performance affects the raters evaluation of other performance dimensions. If a worker has few absences, his supervisor might give the worker a high rating in all other areas of work. Similarly an employee might be rated high on performance simply because he had a good dress sense and comes to office punctually!. (iii)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Horn effect: The raters bias is in the other direction, where one negative quality of the employee is being rated harshly. For example, the ratee does not smile normally, so he cannot get along with people! (iv)  Ã‚   Leniency: Depending on raters own mental make-up at the time of appraisal, raters may be rated very strictly or very leniently. Appraisers generally find evaluating others difficult, especially where negative ratings have to be given. A professor might hesitate to fail a candidate when all other students have cleared the examination. The Leniency error can render an appraisal system ineffective. If everyone is to be rated high, the system has not done anything to differentiate among employees. (v)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Central tendency: An alternative to the leniency effect is the central tendency, which occurs when appraisers rate all employees as average performers. For example, a professor, with a view to play it safe, might give a class  grades nearly equal to B, regardless of the differences in individual performance. (vi)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Stereotyping: Stereotyping is a mental picture that an individual holds about a person because of that persons sex, age, religion, caste, etc. By generalizing behavior on the basis of such blurred images, the rater grossly overestimates or underestimates a persons performance. For example, employees from rural areas might be rated poorly by raters having a sophisticated urban background if they view rural background negatively. (vii)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Recency effect: In this case the rater gives greater weightage to recent occurrences than earlier performance. For example, an excellent performance that may be six or seven months old is conveniently forgotten while giving a poor rating to an employees performance which is not so good in recent weeks. Alternatively, the appraisal process may suffer due to a spill over effect which takes place when past performance influences present ratings. In conclusion I would state that performance appraisals are important to any organization. The procedure should be carried out effectively. The reward and point system for human capital is vital for the employee development and also for the organization to reach its corporate goals. Some of the topics discussed aboce should be avoided and the above written issues should be catered to while a manager conducts a performance appraisal system within the organization.

Elizabeth The Film Essay -- essays papers

Elizabeth The Film Theme of the Film: How Elizabeth managed to gain the throne through turmoil, and then maintain it through even greater conflict and opposition. Greatest Surprise of the Film: The attention to detail and the symbolism employed to make the story richer than any other period piece. The script was also very well written, and very well paced making the movie much more enjoyable to watch because it was interesting and did not drag. Historical Characters Prioritized: Elizabeth I, Duke of Leicester, Sir William Cecil, Walsingham, Duke of Norfolk, Mary Queen of Scots, and the Vatican, various potential suitors to Elizabeth I. Understanding Clarified Which Would Not Be Achieved Through Reading Alone: Elizabeth’s political struggles greatly affected her personal life. Being a passionate woman did not make this easy, and she was forced to give up much, even love, for her rule and her state. Summary: The film Elizabeth is set in 1552, mid sixteenth century, when a shift in power is about to occur in the British Empire. The daughter of Henry VIII and one of his many headless brides, Elizabeth was not only outcast because of this, but because of her protestant religious beliefs and affiliations. Her half sister Mary, along with her sister’s husband Philip II of Spain, ruled the English Empire at this time. They were both strict to the catholic faith and when they felt the threat of their protestant relative. They had her arrested and brought to the Tower of London for interrogation, and hopefully a confession of treasonous heresy. But in a turn of events, Mary dies without giving way to signing Elizabeth’s death warrant. Suddenly a â€Å"protestant heretic† is upon the throne of England. So Elizabeth I, of the house of Tudor, begins her rule of the English Empire on a wobbly footing. With the likes of the Duke of Norfolk and up even to as high as the Vatican itself, plotting against the new Queen, and Elizabeth’s personal endeavors complicating her rule, Elizabeth must choose wisely in her actions so not to lose her throne or her head. Biding by the advice of her trusted counsel including her lover, the Duke of Leicester, Sir William Cecil, her only real father figure, and her advisor and bodyguard Walsingham, Elizabeth tried to bring her rule and her state to order. In the end, Elizabeth has to give her love and he... ... film good. 3. Results? A great script, concentrated direction, brilliant lighting and cinematography, etc. all helped make the film very good. But the core of this film is definitely the emotion. The acting was wonderful and the story was nothing short of great. These were the hearts of the film. Recommendations for Future Use of this Film: This films gives amazing insight into what royalty have to go through. It was informative about the religious struggles in Europe in the sixteenth century, as well as the overall fight for power the throne causes. The film brings much attention to the idea of corruption and betrayal, especially those you very much love and trust. The film focuses on the idea of sacrifice. Elizabeth had to sacrifice her own personal life in the end in order to secure her rule and remain queen of England. She symbolically cut her hair and became â€Å"The Virgin Queen,† deciding to never again let man or romance get in the way of the throne. Did she truly want to do this, or was it just a necessary evil? All that we are told is that she remained at the throne for another forty years after this film ends, and that her rule is considered England’s â€Å"Golden Age.†

What Impression Does Steinbeck Give of Life in the Bunkhouse?

What impression does Steinbeck give of life in the bunkhouse at the beginning of the novel? Steinbeck describes the bunk house as a plain, dark, hostile place with â€Å"small, square windows†, this creates the impression of a dark, lonely environment. The workers don’t have proper chairs to sit on, using â€Å"grouped boxes†, this shows that there is no comfort within the bunkhouse. The workers belongings are kept in an â€Å"apple box† which shows little luxury and comfort. This image is the opposite to the image of the brush; a tranquil, safe place.Using words like â€Å"he stepped out the door into the brilliant sunshine† creates the image of an oppressive room, somewhere you wouldn’t want to stay; a sense of danger nearby. Hierarchy in the ranch is important, some of the characters use body language and clothing to show their status about the ranch. Age has a lot to do with hierarchy in the ranch. We first see this in the image of Candyà ¢â‚¬â„¢s dog, the dog is old and lame, parallel to the image of Candy. The dog is shot later on in the novel because it is worthless in the ranch, because of age similar to Candy.The amount of work Candy can do is limited because of disability and when the boss thinks he cannot do anything else in the ranch, he will be fired and have nowhere to go. The natural authority shows when Candy talks about Crooks, â€Å"Ya see the stable buck’s a nigger. â€Å" this shows that race in the ranch is important in in the hierarchy of the ranch. Crooks is not allowed into the bunkhouse because of race, he sleeps elsewhere, he is lower in the hierarchy of the ranch.Some characters on the ranch have to show their authority by the way that they dress, the boss is an example â€Å"he wore high-heeled boots and spurs to prove he was not a labouring man† this tells us that the boss does not have natural authority within the workers on the ranch and has to prove that he is the boss. Ste inbeck does not give the boss a name because he is such a minimal character in the novel, this shows he is not involved with the workers very much throughout this novel.Curley is another example of this â€Å"like the boss, he wore high-heeled boots† Curley feels threatened by bigger men because he is quite small and feels as though he has to act tougher to be more respected. Curley feels that making up rumours about his wife, â€Å"Curley says he’s keepin’ that hand soft for his wife† will possibly gain him more respect, like he has something to prove, but instead the workers think its disgusting. Another example of natural hierarchy is Slim. Candy tells George and Lennie about Slim as if he is the boss, â€Å"Slim don’t need to wear no high-heeled boots on a grain team. this tells us that all of the workers respect him, he is a natural leader and it doesn’t matter what he wears, they’ll still respect him up to the point Curley apol ogises to him. In the bunkhouse George is suspicious of Candy, â€Å"George said sceptically† this tells us about the distrust between George and the other workers. From this quote we can see the itinerant workers lifestyle, and how isolated and lonely the lifestyle is. When Candy is speaking â€Å"George pretended a lack of interest† which tells us that he doesn’t want to get to involved with the stories Candy tells him.

How does Homer make Essay

The scene with Charybdis and Scylla is one of the best depicted scenes in the whole Odyssey, aiming not to build tension into the readers but to scary or even terrify them. Actually, the whole story does not begin when Odysseus faces the danger but a bit earlier. When Circe tells him what to kind of monster he will meet, this anticipates us to get ready for real horror and builds up the tension as they are sailing. But when the Trojan heroes reach the place the horror is even bigger than what we are ready for. Only the first sentence contains more than enough to see the high seriousness of the situation. Odysseus’ men are â€Å"wailing in terror† i. e. all the braveness and manhood are gone and they look more like women or babies. But all this seems to be quite logical when we read the effective description of Charybdis that Homer uses. Adjectives such as â€Å"awesome†, â€Å"fearful† and â€Å"dreadful† gives the reader the impression that the ship is doomed to disappear forever. Moreover, Charybdis does not just throw away the water but it â€Å"vomits it† and it â€Å"rains down† – verbs showing how massive and powerful the whirlpool is. The simile with â€Å"a cauldron† is not long or detailed, but actually it gives the best possible image of what danger Odysseus and his men are. If they get even one inch closer probably all will be boiled. What completes the picture is the fearful sound Homer includes â€Å"the rocks re-echoed to her fearful roar† – Charybdis resembles a lion ready to swallow everything on his way. Once again the reaction of Odysseus’ men draws an exact image of the terror – â€Å"my men turned pale† – helpless fearing for their lifes, afraid to move or say a word. Thus frozen, now Odysseus’ men face even a bigger surprise and terror with Scylla having grabbed 6 of them. The unexpected change throws the reader in even greater tension, but what is worse is that Odysseus loses his â€Å"strongest men†. Now Homer draws us into one sense – helplessness. First the description of Scylla is skillfully made to show how doomed is the whole situation – she â€Å"snatched† and â€Å"whisked† Odysseus’ comrades while they are â€Å"dangling† in the air. The choice of words is not random, but aims to build up senses of power and violence on the one side and fear and death on the other. Once again Homer uses sounds but this time in a different way. The â€Å"dangling† men are calling Odysseus, who he can’t do anything but standing and looking at them. Just a silent witness. Homer uses a precise simile to draw the way in which Scylla swallows the men. She is like an â€Å"angler† and they are like fish -description that crates the feeling that the sailors are small and insignificant and this is the natural order: the angler must catch his dinner. The reader by now feels more than pity but Homer goes on showing us how the â€Å"little fishes† are suffering and â€Å"struggling† and â€Å"shrieking† in â€Å"desperate throes†, all of this action looking worthless but showing will for life, life that they will lose very soon. Odysseus is sad for his men and admits that he has never seen â€Å"a more pitiable sight†. That makes even bigger impression knowing about Odysseus meetings with the Cyclops, the Laestrygonians, the Sirens etc. He has endured much and seen even more but that is the only moment he feels so helpless, useless and wordless.