Free Essays on Always Running

One Author’s Struggle There are choices you have to make not just once, But every time they come up. -Chente In 1993, Luis Rodriguez wrote an autobiographical book Always Running. Within months the Theocratic Right of Book Banning made Always Running their number one target calling it ungodly, antifamily, radical, and harmful. Rockford school district member, Ed Sharp, went to the extent of stating, â€Å"I challenge anyone who knows how the mind works, after reading this book, not to be more likely to assume the lifestyle of a gang person and not to be more likely to have sex in the back of a car† (Sharp). Had Sharp truly read Always Running and comprehended the passion, he would understand Rodriguez is only speaking of true life and real events. On the other hand, Armando Solana, a high school student commented on the novel, â€Å"Reading this book is like living thorough it†¦what I learned from this book is to never give up no matter what† (Always Running preface). Luis Rodriguez like many other’s knows first hand that life is not always what its cut out to be. The quick success of his book, Always Running, has caused a large uproar within the community with it stories of unemployment, drugs, gangs, rape, abortion and prostitution. Even with its forbidden tales, Always Running has won the Carl Sandburg Literary Award, the Chicago Sun-Times Book Award and was chosen as the New York Times Notable Book in 1993. Rodriguez’s aim was not to offend anyone, but merely to open the eyes of his son who had recently joined a gang, Tiffany L. Youngren could not have said it better when she exclaimed, â€Å"Rodriguez wields life together like a tool, splitting stereotype cleanly down the middle and scooping out characters that are complex and whole†¦ the people in his stories abuse drugs, start fights, steal and gang-bang, but they are human above all† (Youngren). Always Running by Luis Rodriguez with its ... Free Essays on Always Running Free Essays on Always Running One Author’s Struggle There are choices you have to make not just once, But every time they come up. -Chente In 1993, Luis Rodriguez wrote an autobiographical book Always Running. Within months the Theocratic Right of Book Banning made Always Running their number one target calling it ungodly, antifamily, radical, and harmful. Rockford school district member, Ed Sharp, went to the extent of stating, â€Å"I challenge anyone who knows how the mind works, after reading this book, not to be more likely to assume the lifestyle of a gang person and not to be more likely to have sex in the back of a car† (Sharp). Had Sharp truly read Always Running and comprehended the passion, he would understand Rodriguez is only speaking of true life and real events. On the other hand, Armando Solana, a high school student commented on the novel, â€Å"Reading this book is like living thorough it†¦what I learned from this book is to never give up no matter what† (Always Running preface). Luis Rodriguez like many other’s knows first hand that life is not always what its cut out to be. The quick success of his book, Always Running, has caused a large uproar within the community with it stories of unemployment, drugs, gangs, rape, abortion and prostitution. Even with its forbidden tales, Always Running has won the Carl Sandburg Literary Award, the Chicago Sun-Times Book Award and was chosen as the New York Times Notable Book in 1993. Rodriguez’s aim was not to offend anyone, but merely to open the eyes of his son who had recently joined a gang, Tiffany L. Youngren could not have said it better when she exclaimed, â€Å"Rodriguez wields life together like a tool, splitting stereotype cleanly down the middle and scooping out characters that are complex and whole†¦ the people in his stories abuse drugs, start fights, steal and gang-bang, but they are human above all† (Youngren). Always Running by Luis Rodriguez with its ...

Nummi Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Nummi - Essay Example However, even after sending 16 top managers to learn on the best ways to induce change in the organization in order to produce high quality cars, the managers were unable to bring changes. Majority of them opted to quit. This is because General Motors had a change resistant culture. For instance, workers liked things the way they were. This is because they were highly paid despite having not to work very hard for their compensation. Therefore, they did not see any need for change. The managers who were sent to NUMMI wanted to maintain a status quo. The compensation in General Motors was linked to hierarchy. As a result, the subordinates had to wait for years before they are promoted to management levels. Therefore, the managers did not want any change that would reduce their powers. This is because more people were reporting to them, an aspect that meant that they had more power. The Toyota approach would highly affect the hierarchical structure in General Motors. This would mean that power would be distributed to many managers in order to improve the levels of supervision. This created resistance from the above. There was an internal culture that branded teamwork as telling on each other rather than working with each other. This culture acted as a major barrier because the employees could not work as a single unit. The conflicts that remained unsolved made it hard for them to relate with each other. Therefore, even after the attempts to introduce Toyota’s culture in the organization, the level of resistance was very high because the subordinates could not put their differences aside and work together towards a common objective. General Motors was departmentalized. Therefore, there was lack of internal connection between the departments. This culture created an interdepartmental competition, an aspect that made it hard for the organization to work as a unit. When plants tried to implement the methods that were used by Toyota, they ended up failing because

Islamic finance RM Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Islamic finance RM - Coursework Example The unique consideration concerning credit risk in Islamic banking are current account is considered as more stable source of credit financing since it constitutes largest percentages of the finances. The five years maturity period of ijarah Sukuk is considered as the unstable fund since it takes long time for its maturity. Mudarabah, Musharakah, Qard and Ijarah are working together in the Islamic banks. Musharakah cannot perform its function without Mudarabah and it cannot work in the absence of Qard, therefore they are expected to work together. Oversight by board and management: IIFS is expected to possess a comprehensive risk management process which includes the senior management oversight for controlling the different types of credit risks. 3. Credit risk weighting for the Islamic finance institution can be explained as 400% risk weighted is applied in case of all commercial and private enterprises and 300% of risk weighted funds on Mudarabah basis for withdrawal by the investor during the short notice period. It is useful since it acts as a pledge of assets as collateral, it provides guarantee to the third party and leased assets. 1. The Rate of Return Risk mainly manages the maturities and re- pricing opportunities of the assets and liabilities of the banks. IIFS are mainly exposed to Rate of Return Risk associated with overall balance sheet exposures. It ensures that it can understand the characteristics of their balance sheet position and different currencies jurisdictions. IIFS adopts balance sheet techniques for minimizing the exposures using the strategy which includes determining the future profit ratio, developing new Shariah instrument, expectation for fulfilling the market condition and issuing securitization. Rate of Return Risk focuses on sensitive gap management for reducing the risk and minimizing the gap between maturities of

How to Live a Greener Lifestyle Essay Example for Free

How to Live a Greener Lifestyle Essay More people have paid attention to sustainable environment. This essay will introduce how to live a greener life which can be applied by each person living on earth. The behavior of greener lifestyle includes food, clothing, living and transports. These 4 parts also regarded as 4 basic need of human. First, food and clothes make a great difference for both saving source and reducing waste. Food can be divided into 2 parts vegetable and meat, once meat is produced, at the same time, animals have spent air, land, and especially much water, which means meat uses more resources than vegetable, so person should limit the frequency of eating meat. As for apparel, modern media always spread what fashion is, however, what does fashion teach the public? Fashion tells people to stay â€Å"fresh†, which encourage consumers to buy more clothes than they need. In order to follow fashion, trendsetter and the consumer could never stop shopping each year and each season. Almost everything in fashion is cyclical, a dress which has been owned would become â€Å"out† in a short time. A greener lifestyle bans buying clothes if you do not need. Second, the choice of where you are living is a factor to greener lifestyle. People who are looking forward to bigger house are not living a green life. Because the bigger living space is, the more resources must be used to adjust the temperature. The habit of using heating equipment or air-condition is common in daily life, living in a small space can both save money and energy. The last part that a greener lifestyle asks for is transport. Citizens should decrease using private car, what a greener life is taking public transport such as subway, bus or train as much as possible, in this way, each private car owner would save his part which spends oil and release toxic gas. After following these step above, people all around the earth would live a greener lifestyle. Eating more vegetables, buying clothes sanely, not pursuing bigger house and taking public transport are easy to perform.

Lego Testing - Just Another Education Fantasy :: Teaching Education Essays

Lego Testing - Just Another Education Fantasy After years of hearing how standardized testing cheats minorities and the disadvantaged out of the higher education, educationists have come up with a new bag of tricks - Lego building. Johnny can’t read and Mary can’t compute? Not a problem. If they can build a robot out of Legos in 10 minutes, they’re college material under a pilot program being tested by Colorado College and eight other schools – Beloit, Carleton, Grinnell and Macalester colleges and the University of Michigan, University of Delaware, Rutgers and Penn State. The gist is this: Some children who do poorly on standardized tests have other qualities that counselors believe would make them good candidates for success in college. The Lego test and other exercises – public speaking, conflict resolution and personal interviews – are designed to measure those qualities. The Lego exercise works like this: A group of eight to 10 students is given a box of the colored blocks and shown an assembled Lego robot in another room. Each student views the robot individually. Then the group is given 10 minutes to try to reproduce the robot. Evaluators rate students’ performances, awarding a score between one and four. The robot isn’t the end point, apparently. The process is supposed to reveal which of the students emerges as a leader, one of the markers for projected college success. Other markers are perseverance, drive, motivation, adaptability and the ability to work well within a group. Too many exceedingly bright students have emerged from dismal backgrounds to succeed in college to support the thesis that standardized tests are unfair to the socially disadvantaged. Likewise, too many exceedingly advantaged children perform poorly on standardized tests to convince me that financial security predicts academic success. You either can read or you can’t; you either can do math or you can’t. That’s about as simple as it gets. What more likely is true is that minority children who also come from economically depressed neighborhoods tend to receive inferior educations owing to a plethora of problems, not the least of which is the high turnover rate among teachers exhausted by an incompetent education system.

Birch Paper Case Essay

The division can’t very well show a profit by putting in bids that don’t even cover a fair share of overheadcosts,let alone give us a profit. † Birch Paper Company was a medium-sized,partly integrated paper company, producing white and kraft papers and paperboard. A portion of its paperboard output was converted into corrugated boxes by the Thompson Division, which also printed and colored the outside surface of the boxes. Including Thompson,the companyhad four producingdivisions and a timberland division, which supplied part of the company’spulp requirements. For severalyears, eachdivision had beenjudged independently on the basis of its profit and return on investment. Top managementhad been working to gain effectiveresults from a policy of decentralizing responsibility and authority for all decisionsexcept those relating to overall companypolicy. The company’s top officials believed that in the past few years the concept of decentralization had been applied successfullyand that the company’sprofits and competitive position definitely had improved. The Northern Division had designeda special display box for one of its papers in conjunction with the ThompsonDivision, which was equippedto make the box. Thompson’sstaff for packagedesign and developmentspent several months perfecting the design, production methods,and materials to be used. Becauseof the unusual color and shape, these were far from standard. According to an agreement between the two divisions, the Thompson Division was reimbursed by the Northern Division for the cost of its design and developmentwork. When all the specificationswere prepared,the Northern Division askedfor bids on the box from the ThompsonDivision and from two outside companies. Each division manager was normally free to buy from whatever supplier he wished, and evenon saleswithin the company, divisions were expectedto meet the going market price if they wanted the business. During this period, the profit margins of such converters as the Thompson Division were being squeezed. Thompson,as did many other similar converters,bought its paperboard,and its function was to print, cut, and shapeit into boxes. Though it bought most of its materials from other Birch divisions, most of Thompson’ssaleswere made to outside customers. If Thompsongot the order from Northern, it probably would buy its linerboard and corrugating medium from the Southern Division of Birch. The walls of a corrugated box This case was prepared by William Rotch under the supervision of Neil Harlan, Harvard Business School. Copyright 158-001. by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Harvard Business School case i Case6-2 Birch PaperCompany 2 consist of outside and inside sheets of linerboard sandwiching the fluted corrugating medium. About 70 percent of Thompson’s out-of-pocketcostof$400 for the order representedthe cost of linerboard and corrugating medium. Though Southern had beenrunning below capacity and had excess inventory, it quoted the market price, which had not noticeably weakenedas a result of the oversupply. Its out-of-pocket costs on both liner and corrugating medium were about 60 percent of the selling price. The Northern Division receivedbids on the boxesof $480 a thousand from the ThompsonDivision, $430 a thousand from West Paper Company,and $432 a thousand from Eire Papers,Ltd. Eire Papers offered to buy from Birch the outside linerboard with the specialprinting already on it, but would supply its own inside liner and corrugating medium. The outside liner would be supplied by the Southern Division at a price equivalent of $90 a thousand boxes,and it would be printed for $30 a thousand by the Thompson Division. Of the $30, about $25 would be out-of-pocketcosts. Since this situation appearedto be a little unusual, William Kenton, manager of the Northern Division, discussedthe wide discrepancy of bids with Birch’s commercialvice president. He told the vice president:†We sell in a very competitivemarket, where higher costscannot be passedon. How canwe be expectedto show a decent profit and return on investment if we have to buy our supplies at more than 10 percent over the going market? † Knowing that Mr. Brunner on occasionin the past few months had beenunable to operate the Thompson Division at capacity,it seemedodd to the vice president that Mr. Brunner would add the full 20 percent overheadand profit chargeto his out-of-pocketcosts. When he was asked about this, Mr. Brunner’s answer was the statement that appears at the beginning of the case. He went on to say that having donethe developmentalwork on the box, and having receivedno profit on that, he felt entitled to a goodmarkup on the production of the box itself. The vice president explored further the cost structures of the various divisions. He remembereda comment that the controller had made at a meeting the week before to the effect that costs which were variable for one division could be largely fIXedfor the companyas a whole. He knew that in the absence of specific orders from top management Mr. Kenton would acceptthe lowest bid, which was that of the West Paper Companyfor $430. However,it would be possiblefor top managementto order the acceptance another bid if the situof ation warranted such action. And though the volume representedby the transactionsin questionwas less than 5 percent of the volume of any of the divisions involved, other transactions would conceivablyraise similar problemslater. Questions 1. Which bid should Northern Division acceptthat is in the best interests of Birch Paper Company? 2. Should Mr. Kenton acceptthis bid? Why or why not? 3. Should the vice president of Birch Paper Companytake any action? 4. In the controversydescribed,how,if at all, is the transfer price system dysfunctional? Doesthis problem call for somechange,or changes, the transin fer pricing policy of the overall firm? If so, what specific changesdo you suggest?

Funding For Reconstruction And Security Thinking - 1978 Words

In the past few decades, natural disasters, like earthquakes, hurricanes, and tsunamis, have significantly affected more people in the world due to an increase in population size. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the world’s population grew from 2.5 billion to 6.3 billion since 1950, and increasing globalization has directly affected how these individuals are affected by the natural disasters that occur in their respective cities. The most important factor in the way these disasters affect individuals is how both local and national governments respond to them. Funding for reconstruction and security thinking is what provides the direst care for individuals who are forced to endure these natural disasters. Most commonly, it is women†¦show more content†¦Globalization and Natural Disasters According to Munro in â€Å"Natural Disasters, Globalization, and the Implications for Global Security,† recovery of cities in the wake of disaster has become an internati onal responsibility. Munro states: â€Å"Disasters do not occur within strict national boundaries, their effects can be felt across the world, and responses must be broad and comprehensive. Security no longer refers only to state security or the absence of conflict; it also includes individual and environmental security and global health concerns† (10). Fundraising for those countries effected by natural disasters has become mainstream throughout global culture, and can even be seen in academic institutions and online organizations. In Western societies, there is an underlying moral obligation that comes with providing donations for countries hit by disaster. Children in schools often learn about these devastations through fundraisers implemented by their teachers, school councils, and PTAs and are taught to aid those less privileged than them. Fundraising techniques have even advanced into a mobile movement where donations to national crisis can be made with a simple text or mobile app that takes fund directly out of an individual’s bank account. These moral obligations are felt by not only individuals, but also on a global economic scale as governments from surrounding