Essay for Toyota’Human Resource Management

List of abbreviation There are some common words which often appear in this report will use the abbreviation to reduce the repeating of words through the report. Toyota Motor CompanyTMC Human resource managementHRM Human Resource HR Total Quality Management TQM Toyota Management Principles TMP Financial Year FY Research and Development R&DThe United States U. S Abstract: Toyota Motor Company is the one of world's leading automotive companies and is a global benchmark for quality and continuous improvement. However, in recent years, they faced a recall crisis unlike any they had seen before. Mr. Akio Toyoda, Toyota's president and grandson of the founder, was called to testify before the U. S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform about the company's response to the recall (Greto et al, 2010).Many researchers analysed Toyota’ problems and pointed out several causes for this situation such as Toyota production system’s problem, quality mana gement, and human resource management and so on. This report will focus on human resource management problems in this case, based on information from media and theories of human resource management such as human resource strategy, employee development and career management, performance development, and compensation and etc ; the report will then give not only a conclusion but also recommendations with regard to Toyota’s situation. I.Introduction: I. Toyota’s overview: Kiichiro Toyoda founded Toyota Motor Corporation in 1937 as a spinoff from his father's company Toyota Industries to create automobiles. Three years earlier, in 1934, while still a department of Toyota Industries. The Type A engine was created in 1936, its first passenger car, the Toyota AA. Toyota Motor Corporation group companies are Toyota (including the Scion brand), Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino Motors, along with several â€Å"non-automotive† companies. The numbers of employees worldwide including consolidated and non-consolidated are 386. 841 in 31 March 2011.The company produced more than 7. 000. 000 vehicles per year both inside and outside Japan from 2009. As of the end of March 2011, Toyota businesses worldwide consist of 50 overseas manufacturing companies in 26 countries and regions. Toyota's vehicles are sold in more than 170 countries and regions (Toyota Annual Report, 2009) Katsuaki Watanabe, President of Toyota, had famous words: We are doing the same thing we always did; we are consistent. There’s no genius in our company. We just do whatever we believe is right, trying every day to improve every little bit and piece.But when 70 years of very small improvements accumulate, they become a revolution There are some business results, production and sales results in consolidated basis market Table 1 : Business results (2009_2011) | FY 2009 (April 2008 to March 2009)| FY 2010 (April 2009 to March 2010)| FY 2011 (April 2010 to March 2011)| Sales*1| 20,529. 5| 18, 950. 9| 18,993. 6| Operating income*1| -461| 147. 5| 468. 2| Net income*1| -436. 9| 209. 4| 408. 1| Capital Expenditures*1*2| 1302. 5| 579. 0| 642. 3| R;D*1| 904. 0| 725. 3| 730. 3| Number of consolidated subsidiaries| 529| 522| 511| No. of Affil.Accounted for Under the Equity Method| 56| 56| 56| (unit = 1 billion yen or 1 company) *1 Monetary figures rounded down to the nearest 100 million yen *2 Figures for depreciation expenses and capital expenditures do not include vehicles in operating lease * Table 2 : Production results | FY 2009 (April 2008 to March 2009)| FY 2010 (April 2009 to March 2010)| FY 2011 (April 2010 to March 2011)| Vehicles| Japan| 4,255,000| 3,956,000| 3,721,000| | Overseas| 2,796,000| 2,853,000| 3,448,000| | Total| 7,051,000| 6,809,000| 7,169,000| * Table 3 : Sales results | FY 2009 (April 2008 to March 2009)| FY 2010 April 2009 to March 2010)| FY 2011 (April 2010 to March 2011)| Vehicles| Japan| 1,945,000| 2,163,000| 1,913,000| | Overseas| 5,622,000| 5,074,00 0| 5,395,000| | Total| 7,567,000| 7,237,000| 7,308,000| Homes| 5,442| 5,281| 5,157| (Source: http://www. toyota-global. com/company/profile/overview/) II. Toyota’s problems in recent years: In late 2009, Toyota became the subject of media and U. S. government scrutiny after multiple deaths and injuries were attributed to accidents resulting from the unintended and uncontrolled acceleration of its cars. According to Smith (2012), despite Toyota's voluntary recall of 4. million vehicles for floor mats that could jam the accelerator pedal and a later recall to increase the space between the gas pedal and the floor, the company insisted there was no underlying defect and defended itself against media reports and regulatory statements that said otherwise. As the crisis escalated, Toyota was further criticized for its unwillingness to share information from its data recorders about possible problems with electronic throttle controls and sticky accelerator pedals, as well as braking problems with the production system. Cole said that â€Å"†¦ y the time Toyota Motor Company president Akio Toyoda apologized in his testimony to the U. S. Congress, Toyota's stock price had declined, in just over a month, by 20 percent-a $35 billion loss of market value† (2011, p3) Furthermore, Toyota in Australia revealed that it was halving production at its Altona plant in Melbourne, citing components shortages resulting from Japan’s earthquake and tsunami. The company announced that for the next two months, its 3,000 Australian workers would receive only 75 percent of their wages, operating on half shifts, and that it would review its production schedules in June of 2011 (Marshall, 2011)II. Methodology: The methodology used to make this report is data collection and analysis from two sources including sources of Toyota’s issue from the Internet, Toyota Motor Corporation’s Website, magazines, journal articles and academic materials such as books , lectures and etc. After collecting, those data have analysing about Toyota’s issues. Besides, the data collects the commentary from authors and experts about issues of Toyota and its HRM in order to observe those issues in many sides of views, especially in human resource views.The sources of case study also comes from magazines and news from quality source such as the New York Times, Human Resource Management Magazine, Harvard Business Publishing, Human Capital Online Magazine, and other HR magazines in order to guarantees the quality of the data. Finally, both HR theories and practice were compared in order to give recommendations and conclusions in this issue. III. Analysis about Human Resource Management of Toyota 1. Toyota human resource management views and practice:Toyota is known for many world class products and quality initiatives that include the famous Toyota production system that later became popular as JIT (just-in-time inventory). Toyota maintains a high pro file in its HRM policies and practices too (Smith, 2008). The global vision in human resource management in Toyota Motor Company (TMC) is create working environments for various employees to work proudly and with loyalty and confidence in fulfilling their potential, which realize their self- growth (Akio, 2005).The company focus on relationship with their employees based on basic principles of human resource management including creating a workplace environment where employees can work with their trust in the company; creating a mechanism for promoting constant and voluntary initiatives in continuous improvements; fully committed and thorough human resources development; and promoting teamwork aimed at pursuit of individual roles and optimization of the entire team (Toyota ‘s sustainability report, 1998).According to Ian Winfied, Professor of university of Derby in UK, said that human resource practices of Toyota’s company can serve as a model, particularly in manufactu ring and production oriented organizations. Toyota’s HRM framework broadly comprises of four goals including four goal follow: a) The goal of organizational integration: The integration of employees at individual and collective level with organization is seen as the primary goal of Toyota HRM strategy. This goal has been achieved through extensive use of teams that are subordinate to organizational goals.Welfare of employees also received wide attention as a part of this goal (Toyota global overview, 1998) b) The goal of commitment. In order to achieve this goal, a two-pronged strategy was followed. Firstly, Toyota preferred a semi-rural workforce for induction in their plants. They believe that people who are not contaminated by industrial culture and influences tend to retain with them a kind of feudal value of loyalty, which can be converted into organizational commitment.Secondly, measures such as suggestion schemes, quality circles and employee involvement methods are us ed to gain commitment. (Toyota global overview, 1998) c) The goal of flexibility and adaptability. Team authority in place of single individual holding all the powers has paved the way for realizing flexibility in the organization. These teams are task-based and can be dismantled or restructured, depending upon the situation. The adaptability trait is institutionalized through the approach of multi-skilling and job rotations. Toyota global overview, 1998) d) The goal of quality. Self, peer and teams surveillance techniques are used to ensure quality of products. Further, a series of measures employed, such as time and motion study, benchmarking, continuous process improvement and employee involvement contributed in the achievement of this goal (Toyota global overview, 1998) In addition, Toyota has recomposed the aforementioned four HRM goals into 17 specific practices.These 17 practices are classified into production practices and employment practices. The production practices are: JIT, Kanban, Line stop, Level scheduling, Continuous flow and Processing. The employment practices are: Continuous improvement, Single status facilities, Performance appraisal, Daily team briefings, Temporary contracts, Performance related pay, Company council, Cross training and group decision-making (Toyota annual report, 1998) Moreover, Toyota seeks to develop human resources through the activity of making things.Honorary Advisor Eiji Toyoda said that â€Å"†¦. Because people make our automobiles, nothing gets started until we train and educate our people†. As seen in these words, which were expressed by president of the company, Toyota believes that the development of human resources requires the handing down of values and perspectives. In conjunction with the geographic expansion of business and the growth of business areas, undertaking global actions for the development of human resources has become a priority issue.Toyota is building both tangible (a new learning facility) and intangible (course content) structures relating to team member development that ensures a secure and steady flow of qualified human resources to conduct Toyota's global business in the 21st century (Toyota global overview, 2000) * Fully Committed and Thorough Human Resources Development: Toyota conducts systematic company-wide and divisional training and assignments for training purposes with an emphasis on on-the-job training (OJT) to ensure that associates can fully utilize their abilities.Toyota has defined the required qualifications of â€Å"professional staff†1 for office and engineering positions, and â€Å"T shaped human resources’ who are able to perform day-to-day activities and expand their skills in technical positions. Company-wide training is conducted based on employee qualifications, as well as specialized training for individual divisions, language training, and special knowledge and skill training (Toyota’s sustainability Report, 2005)The basis for human resource development is putting the Toyota Way into practice. Toyota is working to develop human resources by seizing times of adversity as opportunities to learn, planning greater enhancement and reinforcement of educational programs based on the five Toyota Way keywords, and on-the-job training (OJT) essential to the progress and succession of building excellent products. (Source: http://www. toyota-global. com/company/profile/overview/) Toyota Management Principles (TMP): Continuous Improvement * Challenge: The company form a long-term vision, meeting challenges with courage and creativity to realize our dreams * Kaizen: â€Å"Continuous Improvement†: They improve their business operations continuously, always driving for innovation and evolution. * Genchi Genbutsu: â€Å"Go and see for yourself† They go to the source to find the facts to make correct decisions, build consensus, and achieve their goals. * The Toyota Production System (TPS): + Jidoka: quality at the source + Kaizen: continuous improvement Heijunka: even flow + Kanban: pull system + Just-in-Time: minimal inventories + Work teams + Total Quality Management + Supplier Partnerships * Total Quality Management (TQM): Implementation of TQM has been promoted based on the philosophies of â€Å"Customer First,† â€Å"Continuous Kaizen† and â€Å"Total Participation. † In order to raise the awareness of TQM, several measures are taken to promote resolution, provide every employee working in Toyota's global organization with ideas for action to improve product and service quality, motivate people and revitalize the corporate structure. Source: http://www. toyota-global. com/company/profile/overview/) * Employees Training Procedure: The purpose of training is to make sure that employees have the right skills and capabilities to identify and handle all situations they may encounter. Toyota is famous for its four-step cycle — plan/do/check /act. Company-Wide Training to Key principles of the Toyota Way support Professional Staff (Source: http://www. toyota-global. com/company/profile/overview/) Outline of Training Programs (Source: http://www. oyota-global. com/company/profile/overview/) * Rewards and recognition The purpose of any corporate reward process is to encourage and promote the right behaviours and to discourage the negative ones. It’s important for the reward process to involve the gathering of information about problems. It’s equally important to reward employees who are successful in getting executives to take immediate action on negative information (Toyota annual report, 2000) ( Source: http://www. toyota-global. com/company/profile/overview/) 2.Toyota’s human resource management problems: In the late of 2009, by the first of a series of highly publicized recalls of Toyota vehicles in the United States, Cole (2011) cited Toyota announced that it was recalling 3. 8 million U. S. vehi cles as potential problem in which poorly placed or incorrect floor mats under the driver's seat could lead to uncontrolled acceleration in a range of models. For manufacturing executives who have strived for decades to emulate Toyota, the mere suggestion that it had not only quality issues but also was a serious matter.Furthermore, Toyota said that it will close its New United Motor Manufacturing Incorporated (NUMMI) plant in Fremont, California. NUMMI, opened in 1984 as a joint venture by Toyota and General Motors, currently employs about 5,400 workers all over the world (Kearney, 2009). Similarly, Byrne and O’Connor (2011) showed that Toyota Australia has threatened to end its manufacturing of cars in Australia, after workers went on strike against the company’s wage-cutting drive.Strikes were held on September 2, and September 15 and 16 in 2011, involving more than 3,000 workers at Toyota’s main plant at Altona, in Melbourne’s west, and hundreds more workers at its parts centres in Melbourne and Sydney. The Altona plant produces around 560 cars per day, with 70 percent of them exported, mainly to the Middle East. Toyota is demanding that workers accept a new enterprise agreement that entrenches real wage cuts over the next three years, with nominal wage increases of 1-2 percent now, 2. percent in April 2012, 3 percent in 2013 and 3. 5 percent in 2014. The official annual cost of living is currently 4. 5 percent (Petter, 2011) Moreover, Business Week  Magazine pointed out that employee errors were the root cause of Toyota issues and estimated that Toyota is losing $155 million per week as a result of their recent recall. Toyota had lost nearly $30 billion in stock valuation. The long-term impacts of the root causes that led to Toyota’s current situation could cost the company hundreds of billions of dollars.In addition, poor handling of the issue in the public eye has damaged the automaker’s brand reputation and c aused sales to decline to their lowest point in more than a decade (Hunter, 2010) Furthermore, According to Dr John Sullivan, who is a well-known thought leader in human resource a and professor of management at San Francisco State University, with case study â€Å"How Human resource caused Toyota crash† said that Toyota’s current predicament is a result of poorly designed practices and weak execution on the part of the human resource department (2010).This opinion was supported and confirmed by Hunter (2010) â€Å"†¦Toyota’s current predicament is a result of poorly designed practices and weak execution on the part of the human resource department†. IV. Discussions Although, Toyota is famous with the production system but when they apply this system in global, it is not mean that this system can work effectively in the same way (Sullivan, 2010).For instance, Toyota concentrates exclusively on the hard administration of a production system that produ ced vehicles to the customer’s order in Japan instead of the Western method of producing as many cars as possible as fast as possible, then trying to sell those cars to the customer (Smith et al, 2011).For instance, in response to the growth, Toyota had to delegate more design work to outside contract engineers with more than 1000 new engineers around the globe and take one new suppliers because the internal engineering resources and existing suppliers base could not keep up with the demands (Cole, 2011) It is obviously that the most important in Toyota problems is that the Toyota philosophy is so radical and requires such a change of management strategy that the change in the production process itself overshadows some even more fundamental differences between the drivers of performance in the Orient and in the West.For this reason when Toyota went into production in the West the emphasis was on the detail of the process, not on the people who carried out that process. Accord ing to Bob Nelson, the author of â€Å"Keeping Up In A Down Economy† told that: The average number of suggestions given by an American worker to improve the performance of Toyota company is 1. 1 per year. The same figure for a Japanese worker is 167 suggestions per year.This seems to indicate that there is a significant difference between the way that the Japanese worker feels about what he does and the way that the North American workers feel about what they do. In addition, when the new Toyota plants in the West or other countries were built they slavishly tried to copy the detail of the Toyota production system without understanding the difference between the ways that the workers in the East, compared to the West, felt about what they did.Today that difference is called engagement (Hunter, 2010). Employers in the West are becoming aware of the huge value that is realised when a workforce is engaged but, other than running surveys to find out how engaged, or not, their wor kforce is, very few understand that it is possible to create engagement in an otherwise unengaged workforce, and fewer know how to do it.The cars that Toyota recalled were all built in the West. Is it possible that the faults that caused the recalls did not occur in vehicles produced in the East because they were spotted and rectified by an â€Å"engaged† workforce, while in the West the â€Å"disengaged† workforce knew of the problems but never reported them to Toyota because Western managers do not know how to engage their workforces (Cole, 2011).According Sullivan (2010), in any situation where employees fail to perform as expected, investigators must determine if the human error could have been caused by factors beyond the employee’s control. Such external factors might include actions by senior management, lack of adequate information or job training, faulty inputs to the process, or rewards those intent actions not in line with documented goals.Therefore, if managers believe in accountability, they have to accept that human errors that lead to corporate catastrophes could be the result of faulty HR processes, most notably those related to acquiring, developing, motivating, and managing labour (Hunter, 2010) Furthermore, the mechanical failures were known to Toyota leaders long before corrective action was taken, and many close to the issue are indicating that the company took decisive action to hide the facts and distort the scope of the problem (Greto et el, 2010). When the organization disproportionately rewarded managers for ost-containment versus sustaining product quality, it created the incentive for everyone involved to ignore the facts and to deny that a problem existed. Employees who are well-trained and subject to balanced rewards and performance monitoring systems would not have allowed the situation to grow as it did. If the root cause of the problems Toyota is facing are failure by employees to make good decisions, confr ont negative news, and make a convincing business case for immediate action, then the HR processes that may have influenced those decisions must be examined.The HR processes that must at least be considered as suspect include rewards processes, training processes, performance management processes, and the hiring process (Sullivan, 2011) V. Recommendations: Toyota traditionally has ranked best in its relationship compared with other automakers. However, its ranking has fallen steadily from 2007 through 2010. The roof of Toyota’s recent quality problems, any thorough analysis would also need to acknowledge the role of the company’s centralized management structure (Cole, 2011).From previous parts of this report, there are some recommendations for this issue. The first recommendation is that Toyota should focus on training employees system because the purpose of training is to make sure that employees have the right skills and capabilities to identify and handle all situa tions they may encounter. Toyota is famous for its four-step cycle — plan/do/check/act, but with Toyota plants clearly the training among managers now needs to focus more on new engineers and general staffs.In addition, in an environment where safety is paramount, everyone should have been trained on the symptoms of â€Å"groupthink† and how to avoid the excess discounting or ignoring of negative external safety information (Cole, 2011). The Toyota managers should encourage employees to detect errors and propose solutions. The second recommendation is recruiting process. According to Kramar et al (2011), the purpose of great hiring is to bring on board top-performing individuals with the high level of skills and capabilities that are required to handle the most complex problems.Poorly designed recruiting and  assessment  elements can result in the hiring of individuals who sweep problems under the rug and who are not willing to stand up to management. Therefore, To yota should do not for the purpose of rapid development that ignores the evaluation stage of the recruitment processes otherwise Toyota should maintain the hiring procedures which ensure quality for human resource management.The company can adopt external or internal recruitment in order to looking for high quality employees (Robin et al, 2011) Another recommendation is performance management process. According to Sullivan (2010), the purpose of a performance management process is to periodically monitor or appraise performance, in order to identify problem behaviours before they get out of hand. Hence, The Toyota should check and ensure that the performance measurement system included performance factors to measure responsiveness to negative information.Furthermore, the Toyota’s Human Resource Department also need check or audit the performance appraisal , Performance planning and evaluation (PPE) systems, performance feedback, and performance monitoring process effectively in order to help employees identify, report and alerts errors to warn senior managers before minor problems got out of control (Krmar et al , 2011, p 475). For example, the company should base on performance appraisal to make administrative decisions such as salary administration (pay rises or bonuses), promotion, retention and termination, retrenchment and recognition of an individual's performance.Finally yet importantly, the recommendation is psychological contract. According to Rousseau (1989), the psychological contract is defined as an individual's beliefs about the terms and conditions of a reciprocal exchange agreement between that person and another party. In other word, a psychological contract emerges when one party believes that a promise of future return has been made, a contribution has been given and thus, an obligation has been created to provide future benefits.Many researchers illustrated that psychological contract has a huge impact to the performance of employees . As the results, Toyota should consider and ensure the conditions of wages, bonuses, compensation, and welfare as well as avoid violating the psychological contract with employees to create healthy environment workplace. Thus, the company can motivate their staffs make contributions to the success of the company. VI. Conclusion: Human resource management refer to the policies, practices, and systems that influence employees’ behaviour, attitudes and performance.Krmar et al, 2011 said that Human resource impacting the bottom line and customer’s satisfaction, diversity management, and the health and well- being of employees. Therefore, human resource managements is not only about the achievement organization’s goals but also employees health and well –being. It is important for any budding manager to remember that a happy employee is often a productive employee. Furthermore, according to Sullivan (2010), Toyota’s problems are not the result of a sin gle individual making an isolated mistake, but rather due to a companywide series of mistakes that are all related to each other.So many corporate functions were involved, including human resource management, customer service, government relations, vendor management and public relationship, that one cannot help but attribute the crash of Toyota to systemic management failure. As discussed above, employee errors in recruitment, selection, performance management, compensation and benefits, international human resource management and so on were the root cause of several mechanical and financial failures in Toyota automobiles (Cole, 2011).Therefore, to restore credibility, quality and brand, Toyota should not only focus on overcoming the technical problems but also need to review, correct remedy all the processes related to the creation of products that the most important factors is human resources management. To sum up, the key lesson is that others should learn from Toyota’s mi stakes is that HRM system needs to periodically test or audit each of the processes with considering all factors and fix problems as soon as possible otherwise it could allow this type of billion-dollar error to occur.References lists: 1/ The sources of Toyota issues: Byrne, P & O’Connor, P 2011, Toyota Australia executives threaten shutdown after strike, Word Socialist Web Site, http://www. wsws. org/articles/2011/sep2011/toyo-s20. shtml. Cole, R E, 2011, What really happend to Toyota, 01 June, http://hbr. org/product/what-really-happened-to-toyota/an/SMR395-PDF-ENG. Hunter, P 2010, Root cause of Toyota failure: Emplyee Engagement, Human

Complicating the situation further

The proposed solution will be useful to agricultural enterprises because it will enhance the level of efficiency in cost control. The organization presented in the case study produces two commodities: corn and soybeans.Additionally, the equipment used is shared between two parties. Complicating the situation further is that the ownership of the farm is distributed among several parties. Therefore the establishment of cost and profit centers is a must for correctly assessing the level of costs and earnings.Currently the management focus is on production. However the management intent is to shift greater focus to implementing a managerial accounting system that will correctly allocate costs and assign the level of profits proportionally.In this respect, implementation of activity based costing is the best solution inasmuch as it facilitates the identification of allocation criteria based upon which costs and profits can be assigned.The advantage of using the managerial accounting syste m mentioned above is that the management can exercise its own discretion about how to allocate costs between different processes and commodities.Unlike the financial statements prepared under the strict scrutiny of the GAAP, internal reports generated by the managerial accounting system mentioned above do not have to follow any hard and fast rules. As a result the management can customize the system to the specific characteristics of its own business.This customizability is one of the most important features in favor of implementing an activity based costing system. The customizability enables the management not only to assign costs to different processes and commodities based upon resources consumed but also to enhance the level of process efficiency.For example, the proposed solution for the organization in the case study enables John and Mary Farmer to allocate costs to the equipment based upon their level of usage in producing different commodities. As a result, the cost driver is this case is identified as the two commodities. The cost of production for each of the commodities is calculated accordingly.The advantage from using this system is that the overhead is allocated in proportion to the level of resources expended in producing each commodity. This strengthens the quality of the cost structure. The result is that the management is in a much better position to measure performance and formulate strategies accordingly.As illustrated in the case, John and Mary Farmer are going to have to collect a considerable level of information in order to implement an activity based costing system.Therefore in conducting a cost benefit analysis of implementing the managerial accounting system, the cost of collecting the information will have to be taken into account. Additional costs will be incurred by the maintenance of the information system which will have to be supported by expensive hardware and software requirements.These are some of the drawbacks that agricul tural enterprises can run up against when implementing the proposed solution. However these drawbacks must be the weighed against the benefits of more cost-efficient strategy formulation.Question 2If the Farm Council Case did not use activity based costing, then it would not be in a position to correctly assess the cost of producing each commodity. As a result some costs would be overstated and some understated. This would distort profit comparisons between the two commodities. Consequently, any future investment decisions would be distorted as well.The traditional cost allocation method would be particularly harmful in the Farm Council case because the resources being used belong to several different parties. For this reason it is particularly important for the management to use the activity based costing method in order to allocate costs based on the level of consumption.Although the costs of implementing an advanced managerial accounting system would be high, the long term benefi ts of more effective strategy formulation outweigh the costs. Such would not be the case when implementing the traditional cost allocation method.According to the traditional cost allocation method, product costs are calculated according to the number of units produced. As a result, this method does not take into account the level of resources expended in producing these units.This cost distortion is particularly pronounced in the Farm Council Case because the same level of production for two different commodities necessitates different levels of resource consumption.If John and Mary were to use the traditional cost allocation method, then these differences would not be taken into account and the unit costs that would be calculated would be incorrect. As a result, they would not be in a position to make decisions about which product line to invest in more.Currently the focus at the farm was on production rather than on cost control. Therefore, the traditional cost allocation method seemed to satisfy the requirements. However there were massive pools of overhead that were being improperly assigned. These errors in the costing system would be perpetuated under the traditional cost allocation system.The problem with the alternative solution was that the identification of resource drivers for support and production cost centers would be difficult. This would complicate the process of assigning costs.The support cost centers in terms of equipment, shop & maintenance, and general farm would have to be defined in terms of the activities involved. Otherwise it would not be possible to assess the level of resources consumed by each of the cost centers. Therefore the unit costs for different commodities would not reflect the true expenditures and the management would be stuck with a costing system that would be misleading.Commodities which consumed a lower level of resources would have unit costs overstated and vice versa. The reason why this would happen under the alte rnative solution is that the costs would be divided equally between different cost centers based on production volume. As a result, the alternative solution is not recommended.ReferencesAtkinson, Anthony A., et al. (2006) Management Accounting. McGraw Hill/Irwin.

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Unemployment - Essay Example This increases exposure to malnutrition, disease and depression. An economy with a high rate of unemployment has increased rates of crime and social problems. High unemployment rates can also cause civil unrests and may result in the collapse of an economy (Hobson, 2013). Unemployment is a general term that explains the lack of work by individuals who are willing to work. However, unemployment can be divided into three types. These are cyclical, structural and frictional unemployment. Structural unemployment occurs where the skills required for the available work does not match with the skills of those seeking work. It can also occur due to a long-term decline in demand. Seasonal employment is also a form of structural unemployment because it is associated with certain type of work. Both the occupational and geographical immobility of labor can also cause this type of unemployment. Cyclical unemployment is involuntary and occurs when the aggregate demand in an economy does not match the number of individuals seeking work. In this type of unemployment, there is a reduction in the demands of goods and services, which reduces production, and the number of works needed to satisfy demand. Frictional unemployment occurs where and individual is changing fro m one job to another. This type of unemployment exists in every economy because of the diversity of the skills of the workers as well as the work available. Frictional unemployment also occurs due to the entry of new graduates to the job market (Winkelmann, 2014). There are for major cause of unemployment. These are minimum wage policies, efficiency wages, labor unions and job search. The implementation of minimum wage policies by the government results in the demand of more wages by individuals below the minimum wage level. This results in the demand of more wages by those above the minimum wage level. Because of increased costs in labor, firms will reduce the number of workers in order to

Emergency Management Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Emergency Management Plan - Essay Example â€Å"Communication lines are often knocked out altogether or if not they are either overloaded or sketchy or busy† (Lalrokima, 2013, p.176). This is because most people attempts to use the lines when a disaster strikes. â€Å"Wireless system is the obvious choice when normal telephone and mobile phone does not exist† (Lalrokima, 2013, p.176). Wireless communication of a radio is based on radio waves that use the satellite or terrestrial system. Another option of communication that can be adopted is Radio frequency spectrum that covers very minimum to extreme maximum frequencies (Lalrokima, 2013). It is significant to consider the distance between the Emergency Operation Center (EOC) and the Incident Command Posts. It is because EOC manages the community-wide resources necessary to complete the rescue operations. The EOC requests resources through mutual aid and establishes traffic control points at critical evacuation junctions. In addition, the EOC locates the resources, directs them to staging areas set up by the ICP operation, and releases them to the Incident Commander’s control. Meanwhile, the EOC requires status updates from the Incident Commander to determine how long the shelters must remain open. In addition, the EOC determines resource distribution of food and sanitation facilities among the shelters operating on the ICP network (Zobel, 2008). In many occasions when an incident occurs, whether major accidents or minor incidents such as a house fire or major calamities such as hurricanes and earthquakes, it needs responses from a variety of agencies. Despite how big the incident is, all calamities require a well-organized and determined attempt to ensure a successful response and achieve the maximum use of available resources. In other words, no single agency can handle an emergency of any scale alone. Therefore, having a multiple incidents command posts ensures that there is efficient use of all of the available

Violating Company Social Networking Policy Assignment

Violating Company Social Networking Policy - Assignment Example NLRB ruled in favor of the employer because it is important that the activity should be concerted in order to provide relief to the employee in such cases. In this case, the employee was properly disciplined and therefore there was nothing wrong in it, according to the ruling and judgment of NLRB. Â  I agree with the decision of NLRB because it is also important to protect the rights of the employer. There are guidelines which NLRB has to follow and in this case, they have followed the guidelines. NLRB makes sure that rights of employees are not violated and employment terms are such that use of social media activity against employer does not become grounds for termination (Belicove, 2012). But the social media activity should be concerted, meaning that the employee should take up the issue with other employees before posting something online regarding his or her employer. This was not done and therefore this case was decided in favor of the employer. The decision was accurate because it was based on the laws and guidelines of NLRB and the termination of the employee was not legal because he did not talk about the issue with his fellow employees. Â  The decision would not have been taking in a positive way in any organization by the employees. Employees would feel that they were violated and employer got off because of a technical issue. The issue would have created many work-related problems and moral issues in any organization. Employees have a natural tendency to think positively regarding their fellow employees. Also because in this case the employee posted something that was very true and therefore sympathies of employee would always be with him. This would worsen the employee relations in any company and more and more of such cases would come up which will negatively affect employee productivity. Â  

Seamus Heaney Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Seamus Heaney - Essay Example Some of the prizes he has won include the T.S Elliot Prize, Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry and most notably the Nobel Prize in Literature, just to name a few. Seamus Heaney was born seventy three years ago (in 1939) in Castledawson, County Derry in Northern Ireland. He was the first born in large family, having eight siblings to show for it (McCarthy 9). His father, Patrick Heaney was a cattle trader in Castledawson and most of young Seamus’ childhood was spent in the rural setting. This environment of the countryside, fuelled with other factors would prove to be important, forming an integral part of Seamus’ literary works, especially his poetry. Seamus Heaney attended a local primary school in his native town. At the tender age of twelve years, he won a scholarship to attend St Columb’s College. This was a catholic boarding school, also found within the environs of his native town. During his time at St. Columb’s, he gained further skills that would later help him map out his career. He learnt Latin and Irish languages, a fact that was crucial in his turning out to be a translator. In 1953, his family moved out from his rural County of Derry. However, his thoughts, feelings and aspirations were still strongly entangled with his rural homeland. After St. Columb’s College, the other education pot that Seamus drank from was Queen’s University in Belfast. He graduated with a degree in Literature in 1961 from Queen’s. While there, he studied Anglo-Saxon, another contributor to his translation skills. He was to later on, (1966-1972) come back to lecture at his former school. His writing career o fficially began while he was at Queens. His first works that earned him recognition came about in the 1960s (Buttel, 12). It is at about the same time when he met his wife, Marie Devlin. Marie

The Principle of Double Effect Essay Example for Free

The Principle of Double Effect Essay The Principle of Double Effect (PDE) states that it is â€Å"morally permissible to perform an action that has two effects, one good and the other bad† (Harris, 71) if certain stipulations are met. A person would need to make use of the Principle of Double Effect in any situation in which there is what would also be called a moral quandary. A situation in which an action must be performed to achieve a good, but as a result of achieving that good, a bad is also achieved, would be cause to make use of the PDE. The PDE is basically a morality barometer—yes, this effect is bad, but how bad is it really when taking this good into consideration. The PDE strives to determine whether an action full of gray moral area is ultimately morally permissible, and it does so by judging the action through a number of set criteria. These criteria are, in brief, as follows: (1) The act in itself is morally permissible; (2) The good effect from the act cannot be achieved without the bad effect occurring as well; (3) The bad effect is merely a side effect, and not the means through which the good effect is achieved; (4) The good and bad effects are both equally balanced in importance (Harris, 71). In order for the action to be considered morally permissible, all four criteria must be fully met. Take, for example, the story of Mary and her ectopic pregnancy. Mary and her husband are practicing Catholics, and as such they have very strong beliefs against abortion and do not want to do anything that would go against the Church. However, regardless of the course of treatment chosen, Mary’s baby is lost, so this element should automatically be discounted as a determining factor. This in itself is a gray area. The four choices of treatment that Mary is given all have their own set of risks—some have higher risks to her, the mother; others have risks to the future of Mary’s and her husband’s efforts to have another child; all ultimately mean the termination of her pregnancy. Mary’s options include waiting for the egg to pass naturally, which poses a high risk to her the more time passes; taking a drug to thin the egg and force it to pass on its own; one surgery with a risk of making conceiving difficult in the future as well as the common surgical risks to Mary, and another surgery with less risk of complications in the future but also with the common risks of surgery. Because the pregnancy is lost regardless, I would advise Mary on deciding on a course of treatment as quickly as possible, because it is morally right to save oneself. She has already agreed to get treatment, given that the treatment doesn’t violate the Church’s teachings and that she can still bear children in the future. Because of the different levels of risks involved with each procedure, I would recommend the drug therapy. Both surgeries are risky due to the fact that they are surgeries, and the one is even riskier because it can lead to complications in Mary getting pregnant later. The option to let it pass naturally is probably more in line with the Church’s teachings, but it puts Mary at too great a risk and the pregnancy can’t be saved anyway. I would be loathe to think that any Church would encourage waiting it out so as not to be actually physically performing an abortion, when it is a given that the embryo will die regardless. Unfortunately, taking the drug treatment does not fully satisfy the criteria of the PDE: first, the act itself of a woman taking a drug to save her life is morally permissible. However, it is not necessary that she receive this treatment (or any other, for that matter) in order to survive. She can still survive without treatment; it’s just that the risks of her not surviving (or causing damage to her fallopian tube) is greater—note, NOT imminent. Second, there is no way for the good effect (saving Mary’s life) can be achieved without the bad effect (the embryo being killed)—especially when considering that the embryo is dead regardless. This bad effect is unavoidable because if she waits to pass the embryo on her own, she could die too. Third, and this is where the treatment fails to satisfy the PDF criteria, the bad effect is the means of achieving the good effect. The â€Å"abortion,† for what it’s worth, is the only way to guarantee Mary’s life will be saved—and that goes for the drug treatment as well as both surgical options. The fourth criteria is, however, satisfied because the death of the embryo—again, especially considering it will die regardless—balances saving Mary’s life. Based on the third criteria of the PDE, the only morally permissible way to â€Å"treat† this problem is to wait for the embryo to pass through the fallopian tube naturally, putting Mary at the greatest risk. All other options, despite how ridiculous it might be to even be referring to this as an â€Å"abortion,† especially considering the embryo will die regardless, require that the abortion, for what it is, must be performed in order to reduce the risk to Mary’s life. Therefore, no treatment is morally permissible and Mary has to take her chances.

Greek mathematician Pythagoras Essay Example for Free

Greek mathematician Pythagoras Essay Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher and mathematician. He was born in Samos, Ionia around 580 b.c. Thales, who was another philosopher was the main teacher of Pythagoras. Pythagoras went to study further in Egypt so Thales couldnt teach him anymore. In Pythagoras teenage years, he began to become known for his philosophic ideas. He also succeeded in math, astronomy, wrestling, and music. In music, he figured out that when a string is vibrating, the longer or shorter it is makes a difference in the tune of the note. In astronomy, he taught that the earth was a sphere, and in math he compared the difference between composite and prime numbers, discovered irrational numbers, and proved the Pythagorean Theorem. This stated that when the two shorter sides in a right triangle were squared and then added, it would equal the square of the longest side or hypotenuse. This was known earlier, but he was the first one to really prove it was true. He soon moved from his home in Italy to a place called Crotona. In Crotona, he found a wife named Theano and founded a school based on philosophy and religion. While in Crotona he discovered many things and even had some followers. Pythagoras followers called themselves the Pythagoreans. In order to become a Pythagorean , you had to follow a couple of strict rules. One of the rules was silence. This meant that you could never share any of your own ideas with the others and that you could only listen to your fellow Pythagoreans. Another rule was avoiding the ingestion of meat. An interesting thing about his school was that if you joined you were automatically a Pythagorean so that meant if you were a student, youd have to obey the rules also. His followers also believed in reincarnation. Reincarnation- when one dies, their soul is transferred to another human beings body. Pythagoras died in Metapontum, Lucania in 500 b.c. Historians think that he  fled and just barely escaped death when violence broke out in Crotona. When he died, a lot of his ideas were forgotten. We will always miss our dear Pythagorus.

Festivals and Holidays in Bolivia

Festivals and Holidays in Bolivia A festival is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community and the Festival. Among many religions, a feast is a set of celebrations in honour of God or gods. A feast and a festival are historically interchangeable. However, the term feast has also entered common secular parlance as a synonym for any large or elaborate meal. When used as in the meaning of a festival, most often refers to a religious festival rather than a film or art festival. In the Christian liturgical calendar there are two principal feasts, properly known as the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord (Christmas) and the Feast of the Resurrection, (Easter). In the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican liturgical calendars there are a great number of lesser feasts throughout the year commemorating saints, sacred events, doctrines, etc. For a list of festivals in the USA, please see List of festivals in the United States. Bolivia The annual tradition of Alasitas involves buying tiny replicas of the things you want the coming year, and offering them to the Ekeko, who carries them (literally, the things are supposed to be sown or somehow attached to him) during the year. In Bolivia, Ekeko is a character associated with abundance and prosperity, and he is the central figure in the Festival of Alasitas. This event is based in the city of La Paz, but can also be seen in other cities of Bolivia. Juan Apaza writes about some of the scenes from Alasitas in El Alto Hoy [es]. Alasitas Alasitas is a 3-week long fair that, in La Paz, takes place beginning on the 24th of January and in Santa Cruz takes place in September. Everything is in miniature! This festival originally took place in September throughout the country when its spring time in Bolivia and farmers prayed for a good crop so their harvest would be bountiful. Alasitas is an Aymara festival Bolivia celebrates in reverence of the indigenous god of bounty or abundance called the Ekkekko. Therefore, Alasitas has been called the Festival of Abundance. It takes place at the Parque Urbano in La Paz and the 5th Ring between Tres Pasos al Frente and Cumavi in Santa Cruz. As it grows each year, its location is sometimes moved. Tradition that has spread to other parts of Bolivia as immigrants move around; however, in the Andean regions of the country the date was switched to January to commemorate an indigenous uprising that took place in 1781, let by Tupac Katari. The Aymara have a god called the Ekkekko (meaning midget or dwarf). Hes the god of abundance. They purchase a statue of the Ekkekko which usually has a poncho made of aguayo fabric. The aguayo is the colorful handloomed lambswool or alpaca wool fabric that Aymara women use to carry produce or their children on their backs. During Alasitas, which takes place just prior to Carnaval, everything you can possibly think of is sold in miniature. You can find miniature houses, cars, grocery store products, university diplomas, little tools and kitchen utensils, clothing, even passports and visas. The Aymara purchase in miniature everything they hope the Ekkekko will grant them during the coming year. They then pin these things to his poncho and leave them there as a sort of altar in their homes throughout the year, in the hopes that he will help them acquire these things during that time. When they first pin the miniature things to his poncho they put a cigarrette in his mouth and light it. They then pray to him as he smokes. Sometimes they drink alcohol and toss him a little drop or drop some onto the floor in front of the Ekkekko before drinking from the glass themselves. This, Im told, is because you must always give to the Earth before taking for yourself. Alasitas is a great place to visit as a tourist. Its incredibly interesting. But because it has also become very touristic, you can now purchase just about anything you want at Alasitas in the form of handcrafts and art pieces for tourists. In fact, it has become so popular that artisans come all the way from Peru, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil and other places to sell their handcrafts too. You can also find things that are not in miniature like great ceramics and leather goods. Definitely visit this month-long fair if youre in La Paz in February or in Santa Cruz in September. You can sample all kinds of great baked goods and dried fruits. I suggest trying the anticuchos. Anticuchos are like shish-kabobs. Theyre little pieces of meat and potatoes stuck on to a thin metal stick and roasted on an open grill. Prior to handing the anticucho to you, the griller will slather a spicy sauce over it. The sauce is absolutely delicious and is made from peanuts and hot peppers. (Oh! And did I mention the meat is beef heart? Yum.) Alasitas has become one of the best and largest venues for people to sell their goods and handcrafts each year. They sell so well that theyve completely broken with tradition and now sell all kinds of things just for tourists. In addition, what used to be a 10-day fair has been extended to 30 days and they now move to Santa Cruz every year in September and stay a whole month there too. Its rather amusing, really, since most of the people who sell at Alasitas claim to be staunchly anti-capitalist. During the Alasitas Fair devotees buy miniatures of items they would like to own and offer them to Ekeko, the God of Plenty, while the Virgin of La Paz is also honoured. Alasitas is Bolivias festival of small wishes, yearly held in different towns at different times. The largest fair is held yearly in the capital of La Paz, on January 24, when Bolivians buy miniatures representing the material goods they aspire to own and offer them to Ekeko, the God of Abundance. The History of the Festival of Alasitas in Bolivia There is not one conclusive theory about how and where the festival started. In the Aymarà ¡ language, alasitas means buy from me and in pre-colonial times Alasitas was celebrated in September [Bolivian springtime], to ensure a good crop. It is said that the Spanish changed the date to January 24 in commemoration of an indigenous uprising in 1781: the siege of La Paz by Tupac Katari. During the colonisation the Spanish tried to force Catholicism on the indigenous people. They partly succeeded, many Bolivians became Catholics, but in fact the Bolivian religion became a mix of Catholicism and traditional Andean beliefs and rituals. Ads by Google Having Doubts About the LDS Church? Mentoring by former Mormons www.irr.org You Can Make a Difference God wants to work through you. Transformation soul winning helps harvestevan.org/bookstore.html Who Celebrates the Alasitas Fair? Alasitas has become a potpourri where Catholicism is mixed with centuries-old Andes traditions. The main divinity is Ekeko, but Catholic priests give their blessing to the newly acquired miniature goods as well, while simultaneously the Virgin of La Paz is honoured. Whereas the Franciscans focus on the Virgin, the yatiris the local wizards focus on Ekeko; the average Bolivian cares about both. Alasitas is a festival for everybody and celebrated by Bolivians from all levels of society. It is celebrated by the inhabitants of villages, cities and countryside, by the highlanders and the lowlanders, by the indigenous and the criollos, as well as by western orientated entrepreneurs. Who is Ekeko, Bolivias God of Plenty? Ekeko [dwarf in Aymarà ¡] is the household god and it is not unusual for Bolivians to have a representation of this short and chubby, happy-looking fellow in their home. To ensure good luck the statue should be received as a gift and not be personally bought. Ekeko brings wealth into the family and keeps misfortune at bay. To obtain the favour of fortune, Bolivians like to present Ekeko with miniatures mostly made of a sugary substance of products they would like to own. These can be a house, a car, furniture, clothes, an airplane but also food. A miniature passport may be bought if one has the wish to travel, a university diploma in case one wants to study or when graduation is near. Read on   La Paz, Bolivia Forms of Public Transportation The Archaeological Museum in La Paz, Bolivia Three Good Reasons to Travel to La Paz, Bolivia Perfectly copied miniature dollar and euro notes are favoured over local bolivianos in case one wants wealth. Ekeko loves smoking, his statue has a special hole in the mouth to offer him a cigarette. Where in La Paz is La Fiesta de las Alasitas Celebrated? Calle Sagà ¡rnaga is the commercial centre of the indigenous handicraft of miniatures. This is the heart of the tourist centre where thousands of tourists stroll down the alleys in search of souvenirs and to admire the local curiosities of miniatures and other products that bring good fortune. The Bolivians especially come for the latter during Alasitas, and the streets are crammed with locals who need to buy their miniatures replicas in time the blessings will take place around noon and they should be prepared by then. The location of the ritual of blessings may change yearly. It is best to ask at a Tourist Information, or another tourist location such as a hotel, restaurant or museum where the main activities will be held. The Alasitas Festival in La Paz, Bolivia Alasitas is one of La Paz important festivals. On January 24 Bolivians buy miniatures of products they would like to own and offer them to their God of Abundance, Ekeko. This festival gives tourists an insight into the typical Bolivian mixture of Catholicism and local beliefs. Holidays and Festivals in Bolivia Alasitas This is a colourful, happy event tinged with poignancy. At the end of January the streets in the centre of La Paz fill with people from the city and the countryside, many of them in traditional dress, eagerly buying finely-crafted miniatures from street stalls and vendors. The figures represent material goods that the people aspire to own. It might be a tiny automobile or a bag of cement to represent a new home. A miniature passport or postage stamp might secure a dream of travel and tiny banknotes might bring wealth. One of the most popular figurine is Ekeko, The God of Abundance, a popular, generous and all encompassing divinity. At the end of frenzied buying and selling there is a procession to visit the Yatiri, a wizard who blesses all the objects. Virgen de la Candelaria The festival of the Virgen de la Candelaria, in many images, is celebrated on February 2 in various Hispanic Catholic countries, including Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Venezuela and Uruguay. The celebrations in Peru and Bolivia are centered around Lake Titicaca, in Puno and the small village of Copacabana. In Bolivia, the Virgen is also known as the Dark Virgin of the Lake, and the Patroness Of Bolivia. She is revered for a series of miracles, recounted in Nuestra Seà ±ora de Copacabana and has another festival on August 5. Normally, Copacabana is a quiet, rural village with fishing and agriculture the mainstays. However, the week before and the day of the fiesta, the village changes. There are parades, colorful costumes, music and a lot of drinking and celebrating. New vehicles are brought in from all over Bolivia to be blessed with beer. People gather for days ahead to pray and to celebrate in a mixture of Catholic and native religions. Bolivian celebrants believe the Virgen prefers to stay inside the Basilica erected in her honor. When taken outside, there is a risk of storm or other calamity. Carnaval de Oruro and Diablada Festival Say Carnaval and what images come to mind? Fantastically and scantily garbed dancers, pounding samba rhythms, parades, incessant revelry? Carnaval de Oruro, Bolivia? In Bolivia, Oruro, Santa Cruz, Tarija and La Paz hold carnavals but the carnaval in Oruro,is the most famous. It takes place for the eight days preceeding Ash Wednesday. Unlike carnaval in Rio where the escolas de samba choose a new theme each year, carnaval in Oruro always begins with the diablada or devil dance. The diablada is a centuries-old ritual surviving unchanged from colonial days. Next are hundreds of devils in monstrous costumes. The heavy masks have horns bulging eyes fangs long hair and in contrast to the frightening masks the devils wear sparkling breastplates silk embroidered shawls and golden spurs. Between the devils groups of dancers dressed as monkeys pumas and insects caper to the music from brass bands, or pipers or drummers. The noise is loud and frenzied. Out of the devil dancers comes China Supay, the Devils wife, who dances a seductive dance to entice the Archangel Michael. Around her dance the members of local workers unions, each carrying a small symbol of their union such as pickaxes or shovels. Dancers dressed as Incas with condor headdresses and suns and moons on their chests dance along with dancers dressed as the black slaves imported by the Spaniards to work in the silver mines. Family members led by the matriarchs in yellow dresses appear in order: first the husbands dressed in red, next come the daughters in green, followed by the sons in blue. The families dance their way to the football stadium where the next part of the celebrations takes place. Two plays begun, as medieval mystery plays, are enacted. The first portrays the Conquest by the Spanish conquistadores. The second is the triumph of the Archangel Michael as he defeats the devils and the Seven Deadly Sins with his flaming sword. The results of the battle are announced the Patron Saint of the Miners the Virgen del Socavon and the dancers sing a Quecha hymn. Although the references to the Spanish conquest and the downtrodden state of the Bolivian peasants are very clear, this festival is based on the pre-Colonial ceremony of giving thanks to the earth-mother Pachamama. It commemorates the struggles of good and evil and the early Catholic priests allowed it to continue with a Christian overlay in an effort to pacify the local natives. The celebration of carnaval continues for days as the diablada dancers break into smaller groups and continue dancing around huge bonfires. Onlookers join the procession at any point and with the consumption of strong Bolivian beer and the very potent chicha made from fermented cereals and corn they get rowdy. Many sleep in doorways or where they fall until they awake and continue celebrating. If you plan to be in Oruro or any of the towns celebrating carnaval, follow the basic safety precautions: Dress comfortably Allow yourself time to get acclimated to the altitude Watch what you drink chicha hangovers are awful! Leave your valuables behind Carnaval de Santa Cruz Refleja el espà ­ritu alegre del pueblo cruceà ±o. Comienza un mes antes con las fiestas precarnavalerasen las que participan todas las comparsas juveniles encabezadas por su Reina. Una semana antes del carnaval se lleva a cabo el minicorso en el cual se realiza la proclamacià ³n de la soberana anual del Carnaval . A partir del atardecer del sà ¡bado y hasta el amanecer del domingo de carnaval tiene lugar el deslumbrante Corso en el que saltanalrededor de 300 comparsas. Las mismas recorren las calles de la ciudad al ritmo de bandas y tamborita. En el recorrido el visitante podrà ¡ admirar un marco desbordante de lujo y colorido en hermosas fantasà ­as, impresionantes carros alegà ³ricos que transportan a las reinas, tambià ©n percibirà ¡ el intento por rescatar los motivos regionales y el respeto al medio ambiente. El espectà ¡culo adquiere su mà ¡xima fastuosidad cuando ingresa la reina del carnaval cruceà ±o con toda su corte constituida por los integrantes de la comparsa coronadora. En estas fiestas la mujer es la principal protagonista pues, al estar completamente disfrazada, hace de las suyas escogiendo pareja, coqueteando e invitando a bailar a los varones que asisten a dichas fiestas. El pà ºblico podrà ¡ apreciar que la entrada de los grupos està ¡ dividida en tres bloques folklà ³ricos: regional, nacional e internacional. Tambià ©n participan de esta fiesta conjuntos tà ­picos, entre los que destacan los de la Chiquitanà ­a que entran acompaà ±ados de tamboristas al son de chovenas (ritmo oriental). El frenesà ­ continua el domingo, lunes y martes , dà ­as en que la poblacià ³n baila y se divierte en las calles cà ©ntricas de la ciudad jugando con agua, pintura y espumas, viviendo momentos de total alegrà ­a. Pujllay or Phujllay in Tarabuco, Sucre The Pujllay or Game begins with a Catholic mass in Quechua language it stops then to continue with the party and the rejoicing for the victory of the Battle of Jumbata in a parade of nonpareil coloring, the peasants move to the place where the Pucara is and they dance in circles to its surroundings to the they are of the Tokoros, Pinquillos, Spurs, Bells and Drummers. The Pucara that consists on a support or stairway covered with great variety of agricultural products, besides drinks, breads and others taken place by the peasants of the region. Labor Day or May Day If you are traveling in Latin America on the first day of May, you can expect to find banks, government offices, stores, post offices and businesses closed for the day as people celebrate the Dà ­a Internacional Del Trabajo with parades, demonstrations and other symbols of solidarity with the worker. Bolivia celebrated Dà ­a Internacional del Trabajo for the first time on May 1, 1936. Day of the Worker, or May Day, had already been established in Europe, and would shortly sweep across the Latin American countries. The communist and socialist countries embraced the day, and over time, May Day became associated with those political systems in many non-English speaking countries. In Paris in 1889 the International Working Mens Association (the First International) declared May 1st an international working class holiday in commemoration of the Haymarket Martyrs. The red flag became the symbol of the blood of working class martyrs in their battle for workers rights. The Origins And Traditions Of Mayday Who were the Haymarket Martyrs? They are all but ignored in the history of the United States, who moved the May Day labor celebrations to September. May Day: what happened to the radical workersholiday? The first Monday in September is now the Labor Day holiday, but it has very little to do with the reason for a working mans holiday. This history is detailed in May Day the Real Labor Day. Long before May Day, The WorkersDay, born in the struggle for the eight-hour day came to be, the first of May was a traditional day of feasting, celebrating spring, fertility, romance and more. The Pagan Origins of May Day asks Why did the Labour Movement choose May Day as International Labour Day? Its more that May Day chose the Labour Movement. Unlike Easter, Whitsun or Christmas, May Day is the one festival of the year for which there is no significant church service. Because of this it has always been a strong secular festival, particularly among working people who in previous centuries would take the day off to celebrate it as a holiday, often clandestinely without the support of their employer. It was a popular custom, in the proper sense of the word a peoples day so it was naturally identified with the Labour and socialist movements and by the twentieth century it was firmly rooted as part of the socialist calendar. So now you know why everything shuts down on May 1. Its a good idea to play it safe that day and stay away from parades and rallies that might prove explosive. Gran Poder The merging of pre-Columbian religions and the Roman Catholic faith created a number of religious observations, including the Fiesta del Gran Poder celebrated primarily in La Paz, Bolivia. The event began in the late 1930s with a small number of dancers and is today a huge event. The festival centers around the devotion to Christ as the second person in the Holy Trinity based on an anonymous painting of the Trinity dating from the early XVII century. The three entities were painted withIndian or mestizo features. Though the Catholic church had forbidden human representations of the Holy Trinity, a young novice named Genoveva Carrià ³n took it with her when she entered the Monasterio de la Purà ­sima Concepcià ³n. When the religious order downsized, the painting found its way into different lay hands, finally ending up with Plà ¡cido Là ³pez who lived in the barrio Chijini in la Paz. A small chapel was built to honor the Holy Trinity and then Bishop Augsto Scheifert direct two not-quite-expert artists to paint over the two side figures. They did so, but one, wanting to retouch the eyes, came back one night. When the remaining figure moved its head, the artist fled, but many favors or miracles were attributed to the Christ figure. Devotion grew and in 1939 the chapel was officially named Iglesia Parroquial del Gran Poder. In the years since, the festival of El Gran Poder has grown into an international celebration. Parades and processions with the dark figure of the Christ (see photo), music and costumed dancers honoring cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Of these, La Morenada is the most famous. Held annually at the beginning of June, the Fiesta del Gran Poder is La Pazs biggest street party. Copious amount of local beers and food are consumed. Visitors wanting a place to stay during the celebrations make advance reservations. Columbus Day October 12 (or the nearest Monday to it) is traditionally celebrated throughout the Americas as the day Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492. In English speaking countries, the day is celebrated as Columbus Day or Native American Day. In Spanish speaking countries and communities, is is known as Dà ­a de la Raza, the Day of the Race. Dà ­a de la Raza is the celebration of the Hispanic heritage of Latin America and brings into it all the ethnic and cultural influences making it distinctive. It is celebrated on October 12 in Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Uruguay and Venezuela, Not anymore in Bolivia, because the strong feelings about the real situation of native americans on Spaniards Rule. A few historical facts behind the holiday: Cristà ³bal Colà ³n, born Cristoforo Colombo, following the newly accepted theory that the world was round and not flat, sailed west from Spain to find a new route to China or the East Indies. He wanted also to prove his calculations of the earths circumference. He was off on his calculations and he didnt find a new spice route. Instead, on October 12, 1492, he and his small fleet of three ships, the Nià ±a, the Pinta and the Santa Maria, landed on one of the islands now known as the Bahamas. The exact island is a matter of debate and conjecture, but from there, he went on to Cuba and Hispaniola, now the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and went back to Spain to recount his adventures. With royal approval and funding, he set forth in 1493 with a fleet of 17 ships and retraced his earlier voyage. This time he explored Puerto Rico and the Leeward Islands, founded a colony on Hispaniola. He did not find any spices, nor gold in great quantities, but returned again to Spain. He made his third journey to the New World in 1498, where he explored the coast of Venezuela and was awed by the sweet water of the Orinoco where it flowed into the Atlantic. For his efforts, Columbus was made admiral and Governor General of the new colonies until he was sent back to Spain in disgrace in 1500. He overcame that humiliation sufficiently to make a fourth and final voyage in 1502, landing in Costa Rica. When he died in 1506, Columbus was dishonored and all but forgotten. Whether he should be celebrated as the man who opened Central and South America to exploration and colonization, or excoriated for the same thing is a continuing debate. Christopher Columbus and Columbus Day are reviled in places because he is blamed for bringing the evils of slavery, the encomienda system and the diseases of Europe to Latin America. He was avaricious, cruel and paved the way for the conquista. Now, 500 plus years later, we recall his deeds and celebrate not Columbus the man, but the actions and influences of all the people who came after him, who melded their European culture with the indigenous cultures and, with difficulty, blood and years of battle, misunderstandings and treachery, have created the multi-cultural, multi-ethnic society we now celebrate with the Dà ­a de la Raza. Note: It was up to others to name the places where he had landed or to discover the route to China. Amerigo Vespucci named Venezuela afer his native Venice, and Vasco da Gama sailed round the Cape of Good Hope and the Indian Ocean to the Far East, opening the Spice Route for Portugal. All Saints Day November 1 is celebrated throughout the Catholic world as Dà ­a de Todos Santos, or All Saints Day, to honor all the saints, known and unknown, of the Catholic faithful. Every day of the year has its own saint or saints, but there are more saints than calendar days, and this one major holy day honors them all, including those who had died in a state of grace but had not been canonized. And, to keep things fair, November 2 is celebrated as the Day of All Souls. Dà ­a de Todos Santosis also known as Dà ­a de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. Like many other Catholic celebrations, in the New World it was grafted onto existing indigenous festivities to meld the newCatholicism with the oldpagan beliefs. In countries where the Europeans eventually reduced the indigenous populations, by one means or another, the celebrations gradually lost their native meaning and became more of a traditional Catholic event. In Latin American countries where the indigenous culture is still strong, such as in Guatemala and Mexico in Central America, and in Bolivia in South America, Dà ­a de Todos Santosis an important meld of many influences. In Central America, the dead are honored by visits to the their gravesites, often with food, flowers and all family members. In Bolivia, the dead are expected to return to their homes and villages. The Andean emphasis is agricultural, since November 1 is in spring south of the Equator. It is the time of returning rains and the reflowering of the earth. The souls of the dead also return to reaffirm life. During this time, the doors are opened to guests, who enter with clean hands and share in the traditional dishes, particularly the favorites of the deceased. Tables are bedecked with bread figurines called tantawawas, sugarcane, chicha, candies and decorated pastries. At the cemeteries, the souls are greeted with more food, music, and prayers. Rather than a sad occasion, the Dà ­a de Todos Santos is a joyous event. In Peru, November 1 is celebrated nationally, but in Cuzco its known as Dà ­a de todos los Santos Vivos, or Day of the Living Saints and celebrated with food, particularly the famed suckling pig and tamales. November 2 is considered the Dà ­a de los Santos Difuntosor Day of the Deceased Saints and is honored with visits to cemeteries. Wherever you are in Latin America on the first and second of November, enjoy the local holidays! Virgen de Copacabana A religios festival for the virgin of the snow. Mass, folkloric dancing and processions. 5th 6th Virgen de Copacabana Copacabana (La Paz). Celebration for the Virgin of Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Dancing, processions, folkloric displays. Virgen de Urcupià ±a or Virgen de Urqupià ±a Festival in Quillacollo (Cochabamba). One of the most important religious festivals in Cochabamba. It is a colorful religious festival with a large mass, folkloric dancing, processions, typical food and the sale of miniature handicrafts. Chutillos The Chutillos festival in Potosi is definitely worth it. Especially the first day with the authentic dances and costumes is marvelous. Virgen de Guadalupe Festivals celebrated in Viacha (La Paz), Sucre (Chuquisaca) and Valle Grande (Santa Cruz), but by far in Sucre is the biggest. A religious festival in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Folkloric dances, bull fights, music, dancing and typical food and drink. San Roque Festival in Tarija, (Although the fiesta day of San Roque is officially on the 16th of August). An 8-day long celebration for the patron saint of dogs, San Roque. Unique costumes, processions, music and dancing. The biggest party and typical of the Tarija region with its unique music style. Each year on January 24 a large marketplace in La Paz, Bolivia, is full of merchants who traditionally call out, Alasitas, an Aymara word meaning buy from me, to potential buyers of their miniature wares. Shoppers can find tiny replicas of just about every kind of object-cars, houses, foods, furniture, clothes, tools, household goods, and, especially, money-and seek those which represent items they would like to have in the coming year. After purchasing the miniature object of ones desire, the next step is to take it to church to have it blessed. Presiding over all this downsized commerce is Ekeko, an Aymara god of material wealth, fertility, and good luck. Ekeko is represented as a portly little man who wears a backpack full of goods and whose arms are stretched out, as if in an attitude of acquisition. Many people keep ceramic figures of Ekeko in their homes for good luck. Maldives The Maldives will hold a Hay festival starting October 14 with the intention of celebrating ideas, conversations and fun. The festival will bring together international and local experts in literature, art, science, drama, music and poetry, according to a statement from the Presidents Office. Maldivian writers including Ogaru Ibrahim Waheed and Fathmath Nahula will join historian and biographer Jung Chang (author of Wild Swans and Mao), novelist Ian McEwan (author of Atonement) and environmental campaigners Montagu Don, Tim Smit, Mark Lynas and Chris Gorell-Barnes. Mauritian-born, electronic fusion artist Ravin will perform and local bands will include Fasy Live. Lectures will also be delivered online by prominent artists, scientists and historians. The Maldives has been a multi-party democracy for only two years and this new freedom has opened up a host of new opportunities both culturally and politically, the statement said. Some events will be held on the Presidential Retreat on Aarah, allowing rare public access to the island. The Hay Festival began in the Welsh book town of Hay-on-Wye in Brecon Beacons National Park in the UK, and has fostered the exchange of ideas for more than twenty years. Hay Festival Maldives will commission a series of lectures to be delivered online by prominent artists, scientists and historians. These will debate environments that are facing transformation over the next one hundred years and what this means for the people living there. Speakers include historian and biographer Jung Chang, author of Wild Swans and Mao, the novelist Ian McEwan, author of Atonement, and environmental writers and campaigners Montagu Don, Mark Lynas and Tim Smit. They will appear alongside Maldivian writers including Ogaru Ibrahim Waheed and Fathmath Nahula. Mauritian-born, electronic fusion artist Ravin provides musical enchantment, and local bands performing include Fasy Live. As well as the live events, Hay Festival Maldives

Voltage: Ohms Law And Kirchhoffs Rules :: essays research papers

Voltage: Ohm's Law and Kirchhoff's Rules ABSTRACT   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ohm's Law and Kirchhoff's rules is fundamental for the understanding of dc circuit. This experiment proves and show how these rules can be applied to so simple dc circuits. INTRODUCTION   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the theory of Ohm's Law, voltage is simply proportional to current as illustrated in the proportionality, V=RI. As shown in this relation, V represent voltage which is the potential difference across the two ends of a electrical conductor and between which an electric current, I, will flow. The constant, R, is called the conductor's resistance. Thus by the Ohm's Law, one can determine the resistance R in a DC circuit without measuring it directly provided that the remaining variable V and I is known.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A resistor is a piece of electric conductor which obeys Ohm's Law and has been designed to have a specific value for its resistance. As an extension of the Ohm's Law, two more relationship can be drawn for electric circuits containing resistors connected in series or/and parallel. For resistors connected in series, the sum of their resistance is, RTOTAL=R1+R2+ ..... +Rn . And for resistors connected in parallel, 1/RTOTAL==1/R1+1/R2+ ..... +1/Rn . Complex dc circuit involving a combination of parallel and series resistors can be analyzed to find the current and voltage at each point of the circuit using 2 basic rules formulated by Kirchhoff. 1) The algebraic sum of current at any branch point in a circuit is zero. 2) The algebraic sum of potential difference, V, around any closed loop in a circuit is zero. These rules and equations provided by the Ohm's law and the Kirchhoff rule can be experimentally tested with the apparatus available in the lab EXPERIMENTAL METHOD   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The apparatus used in the experiment includes a Voltmeter, an Ammeter, some connecting wires and a series of resistors and light bulb with varies resistance. This experiment could be divided into 5 sections which value of voltage and current measured is noted in all sections for further calculation. In the first section, in order to evaluate the reliability of Ohm's law, a dc circuit was constructed as FIG 2 (on p.4 ) using a resistor with an expected resistance at 2400W*120W. In the second section, we were instructed to determine the internal resistance of the voltmeter. Two dc circuit were constructed as FIG 1. and FIG 2. using a resistor with an expected resistance at 820000W*41000W. In the third section, we were asked to judge if the filament of a light bulb obey Ohm's law, this was done by constructing a dc circuit as FIG 1. with a light bulb instead of a resistor.

Use of Pathos in Writings on Torture Essay example -- Who Walk Away fr

Torture is a loaded word. It conjures images in a readers' mind of any number of horrors, physical and mental. Many writers rely on this reaction and use pathos in their articles to illicit a strong response in their audience. Pathos is an emotional appeal used to gain sympathy and trust from the audience and works for people of all intellectual levels. It often casts the author or characters in a story as an Everyman, easy to identify, and therefore see eye to eye, with. In my opinion, the more an author is able to create a personal connection to torture, the stronger their argument becomes. Strong emotions create a more appealing argument for an everyday audience. Michael Levin's â€Å"The Case for Torture† uses a few moments of pathos to convince the audience of the potential benefit of torture. He poses several scenarios of terrorists planning attacks on large numbers of innocent people and then asks, â€Å"If the only way to save those lives is to subject the terrorist to the most excruciating possible pain, what grounds can there be for not doing so?† Even if you don't agree with him, he urges the reader to â€Å"face the question with an open mind.† By doing this, Levin uses pathos as well as ethos to present himself as a nice guy who's not unreasonable. Though his argument is different from Levin's, Andrew Sullivan tries a similar approach in his article, â€Å"Bush's torturers follow where the Nazis led†. The article demonstrates a clear use of pathos from the beginning. Sullivan begins with some personal information about himself, showing that is is one of the regular people. His imagery is subtle but power ful. By implying that the government's behavior is in some way akin to the Nazis, he conjures up a powerful imagine in the readers min... ...Oct. 2008 . Ortiz, Sister Dianna. "Mr. President, stop the torture!" US Catholic Magazine Online. July 2004. 26 Sept 2008 news_iv_ctrl=1341&abbr=usc_&JServSessionIdr001=anotsvvjc1.app45a> Ortiz, Sister Dianna. "Speak Truth to Power Defender – Interview with Dianna Ortiz." Speak Truth to Power. 26 Sept 2008. . 26 Sept 2008. Sullivan, Andrew. "Bush's torturers follow where the Nazis led." Times Online. 7 October 2007. 23 Sept 2008 andrew_sullivan/article2602564.ece> Porter, Henry. "America's Dirty Torture Secret." The Guardian. 10 Sept 2003. 1 Oct 2008 .

Character Analysis of Macbeth

In the play we can easily see that Macbeth is driven by ambition and later on in the play tortured by his regrets which manifest a great deal of inner conflicts seen in his soliloquies. Macbeth is a man dominated by a strong moral sense, a man who has a profoundly sensitive conscience and who knows at each stage the moral consequences of committing murder Macbeth at the beginning of the play is mentally stable and a good man but due to certain influences (supernatural and normal) and his own flaw being his †vaulting ambition†. His values and his better aspects begin to dwindle under his growing desire for power. Macbeth is an example of a normal man that has done a monstrous deed and from this deed giving rise to regret and paranoia, signalling his decline which eventually led to his tragic downfall. There are many redeeming qualities of his character and Macbeth is essentially a good man but ultimately is the architect of his undoing. At the beginning of the play he is first qualities are introduce to us by the bleeding captain explaining his heroic performance and valour shown on the battle. He is described as †great† and †valour's minion† which shows that he is very willing to serve his king and country and strives to help Scotland to the best of his abilities and all these merits gained during his battles help his ambition to grow. ‘I have no spur' he states, ‘to prick the sides of my intention, but only vaulting ambition' this clarifies that he is very ambitious almost to the point that it might harm his own interests in the future which inevitably happens leading to his downfall. Another good example of his unstable ambition is when the three weird sisters begin to address him with title such as †Thane of Cawdor† and tell him that he †shall be King hereafter† following this we very quickly see his interest in these equivocal prophecies †stay you imperfect speakers† , this conveys that maybe he thinks he could attain these titles and from this it is evident his ambition will try to do everything in its ability to strive for this greatness and promised glory even though the witches had explained nothing else making it clear that his ambition is also blind. His ambition is so great he acts on the words of strangers that he has never met before and becomes ‘rapt' in a world cut off from others which is evident in his soliloquies where in each he equivocates within himself about what is good and evil which both fight for mastery over him and this ‘evil' and his ambition seem to go hand in hand throughout the play and causes him to do things he regrets which build up and becomes ‘a dagger of the mind' and we see throughout the play the damage being dealt to his moral being. Another example of his blind ambition would be witnessed in Act 1 scene 7 when Lady Macbeth questions his bravery and insinuates that he is a †coward† but Macbeth is adamant that he should prove himself a man regardless of what he is actually about to do which shows he is ambitious to impress others. Another last example of his ambition his with his goal to see the whole situation through and says †I am in blood stepped in so far that, should I wade no more† and that †returning were as tedious as go'er . † This shows he is eager to see through what he had started till the end. Macbeth's ambition has become dehumanised and will also end himself. Aside from Macbeth's ambition we also witness in times of his self doubt when his rational mind and conscience starts to extinguish his ambition, the bad influences from many different sources seem to slowly dissolve his better qualities and set him back on the road to moral decline and his doom. Initially the witches are the first to influence him, telling him he will be promised power and glory but never say he should act on or actually do anything at all but non-the-less kick start his decline. Later on in the play when he reencounters the witches again they show him three apparitions one of which explain that he should †Beware Macduff† which influence him to order the killing of Macduff and his family which clearly shows how heavily influential these weird sisters are with regards to Macbeth acting on the prophecies with such unfaltering hastiness. The next influence and I think is one of the more dominant influences in the play his Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth gave herself the responsibility to influence Macbeth and act when he wouldn't (which she never appears to do), calls upon the darkness and †spirits that tend on mortal thoughts† to instil her with masculine features as to aid Macbeth in is goal for power. The first example of her influencing Macbeth is in Act 1 Scene 5 she explains how he should †Look like the time† and †bear welcome† in his eyes during the banquet that the King Duncan is to at their home and to †look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under't† as in an effort to deceive The king to knowing where their true intention lie. This example of her influence is much softer in contrast to Act 1 Scene 7 which is a much harsher brand of influence. During the scene Macbeth states he †will proceed no further† in their plans and the King †hath honoured him of late† to which Lady Macbeth snaps at him saying †was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself† implying he was only brave whilst inebriated and also asks him if he would rather live like †a coward† then to carry on with the plans he first begun. This is a blow to Macbeth's manhood with regards to him being a coward and says he would do anything that will prove his masculinity. These attacks on her husband manhood is the device she uses to influence him because she knows that Macbeth and most warriors of his time put most of their effort into being the greater man and such insults drive Macbeth to act without question especially when he feels his manhood is in question. Another factor in the play that influences Macbeths which manifested from his monstrous deed is his paranoia. The first signs of this paranoia is evident in act when he states †to be thus is nothing but to be safely thus†. This shows that he feels unsafe and that unless you are safe you are nothing and now he is influenced to destroy anything which might jeopardize his safety and the first obstacle being Banquo. Reasons such as †his royalty of nature reigns that which would be feared† and Macbeth states his mind is full of scorpions and his life is filled with ‘terrible dreams/That shake us nightly', following these thoughts he quickly and subtly organises the killing of Banquo by means of hiring assassins. This action is a major step in Macbeth's moral fibre due to the reason that Banquo was originally his most trusted friend and ally and the evidence he is beginning to use murder as a tool to solve most of his issues and concludes with himself that it is the only solution to his problems. There are also signs of the influence of jealousy with regards to when Banquo was told during the first encounter with the witches that he would †have kings but be none† and Macbeth realises that upon his head he now has †a fruitless crown† and †a barren sceptre† in his grip which angers him by the knowledge that his sons (if he ever has any) will never be air to the throne, this being another reason to murder Banquo. With regards to the influencing factors we see that at the beginning of the play Macbeth is mainly intervened by external forces influence but as the play proceeds slowly he withdraws from his wife and friends due to again his paranoia and becomes more fuelled by his emotions, the predominant emotions being fear and jealousy. Macbeths regret in the play with regards to the murder and following murders is one of the more important issues to mention, regret being the catalyst in which his characters morality and mental stability are remoulded by traumatic experience and long term symptoms of his guilt. The first obvious example of his regret is scene when he attempts to opt out of the plans of murder and conveys that he feels guilty for any of these nefarious plans even crossing his mind but at this moment in the play he is not tortured by his guilt or regret obviously until he actually commits the crime but until then and right up until he is about to murder the king he is more greatly affected by anxiousness to the extent that he hallucinates. After the murder has been committed he is very obviously traumatised and is paralyzed, unable to move due to his mind being completely occupied with what has happened. The damage dealt is clear when he says that he heard a voice cry †Macbeth hath murdered the innocent sleep† which shows the beginning of his restless nights which is the first harsh blow to his mental health. Also in this scene Macbeth talks about the blood on his hands as if it is a metaphor for the guilt and in contrast to Lady Macbeth saying †a little water clears us of this deed† make replies that not even all the waters of †Neptune's oceans† could not wash away this blood or guilt from his hands. We can see his guilt and regret build up and burst out as witnessed in the banquet scene where Banquo's ghost appears only to him and a mental breakdown takes place with moments of Macbeth almost unconsciously confesses the details of his to murders in the presence of lords to which the pressurised Lady Macbeth desperately tries to disguise. This ghost Macbeth is seeing in my opinion is not real but a complete manifestation of his guilt and regret and his better side subconsciously is trying to give himself up an attempt to save his ‘damned' soul, with regards to the quote where he states he would †jump the life to come † meaning he is aware he will be punished in the afterlife. In Act 5 scene 3 we see that regret and guilt has affected to the extent that he nearly loses the will to live and feels that live is void of meaning †I have lived long enough: my way of life is fall'n into the sere, the yellow leaf† he also realises that his poor decisions have bereaved him of things that would have originally accompanied his old age such as †honour, love, obedience† and †troops of friends† none of which he shall have to look forward to in his future. This indicates he is very regretful of almost everything he has done right back to the killing of Duncan. Throughout the course of the play Shakespeare weaves into the storyline small respites in which Macbeth's slowly declining character shows moments that magnifies what is left of the qualities that redeem slightly in the audiences perspective and shows them he has not completely transformed in this remorseless †tyrant† but is still just a man that has performed a monstrous act. The first example of these redeeming qualities is in Act 1 scene 7 where he says he †will proceed no further in this business† and acknowledges that king Duncan †hath honoured† him recently for his bravery in almost single-handedly ending the battle in the opening scenes of the play. At this point we see he has a good moral sense and instilled with the highly valued qualities such as respect and honour but Lady Macbeth succeeds in convincing him otherwise diminishing and muting these values in him. Throughout the play, we constantly see that Macbeth has a conscience towards his actions and does always have a general sense of right and wrong. . Conscience is exhibited after he kills Duncan but can't stand to look at the body. †I am afraid to think what I have done; look on't again I dare not†. This lets us see that after Macbeth killed Duncan his conscience will not let him look at what he has done. He also realized what he had done could not be changed and it will affect him for the rest of his natural life. Macbeth understands that he is marked for life and this realization in itself one of his redeeming qualities. Another minor example of a redeeming quality is that Macbeth †is too full o'th'milk of human kindness† and that he is†art not without ambition† but has the absence of †the illness† being ruthlessness. Back to the issue addressing his conscience with regards to it being a redeeming quality that is fighting a losing battle against the rest of the conflict within him. We witness many times his conscience trying to override his normal behaviour. Macbeth's conscience creates the ghost of Banquo in an attempt to make him subconsciously confess to the murders which make us realise he is very sorry for what he has done which redeems him slightly through sympathy. One last sign of redeeming qualities is neat the end of the play where he stares in the face of death. He contemplates suicide by falling on his own sword as †Romans† used to do but even though he knows he has no one on his side he will fight to the end and die an honourable death showing his original bravery which he once used to fight for his country which reminds us that he was once a great hero. To conclude Macbeth is a tragic hero. A man with an ambitious but a victim of temptation and the pseudo prophecies of his rise to power which seemed so close at the time was actual the beginning of Macbeth's change from hero to tyrant. He was used as a vessel for chaos by the witches to plant their ideas of power into a fertile mind which was nurtured by his blind ambition which grew into an unstable mind tormented by regret and guilt.