The Voice Of Generation X :: essays research papers

'We have been labeled apathetic, lazy, and selfish just to name a few,'; says Josie Mazzaferro in her essay entitled, 'Turned Off by Politics.'; We have been judged in every aspect of society, especially in the political arena. Is there any way for us to clear up these misconceptions given to us by other generations? It seems that the voice of Generation X is silent when it comes to political issues these days. When we talk about politics we often wonder what relevance it has on our lives. Many of us feel that politicians are no longer trustworthy. 'I am not saying that every politician is corrupt,'; states Mazzaferro, it's just hard to believe what he or she says is true when our generation has witnessed such harsh realities involving political figures. For example: the Monica Lewinsky ordeal that involved President Clinton. How are we supposed to trust a President who lies and commits forms of adultery to run our country effectively? Still many X'ers are too consumed in themselves to even worry about who is elected to our heads of state. They either think that their votes will not make a difference, or that the majority of people will vote for the same candidates that have been elected again and again by their name recognition alone. We as Generation X need to elect people that can associate themselves with the issues that affect the people today, and the new issues that will arise tomorrow in order to change the politics in this country. These types of situations make it hard for X'ers to take a stand and voice their opinions. What we need is a new political dialogue that will enable our generation to control more political power in this country. This new political dialogue can only begin if we start to become more interested in what goes on outside of our daily lifestyles, because it's not about us anymore, it's about them, the future generations to come. We as X'ers need to stop being so absorbed in ourselves and focus on issues that will change the future for the better. 'Instead of killing any chance for political debate by framing our values as mere matters of personal taste,'; states John Leo in his essay entitled 'The Unmaking of Civic Culture';. The only way that our generation is ever going to gain any political power in this

Democracy :: Politics Democratic Republic

Democracy I. Meaning of Democracy II. Summary of Places and Dates III. Features of Democracy IV. Types of Democracy V. Early Democracy A. Athens B. Rome VI. Middle Ages and England VII. The Renaissance A. United States of America B. France VIII. Modern Times IX. Important People   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Demos Kratia, or democracy, as it is used today, means â€Å" the people rule.† A democracy is a form of government is run by the people of that country through elections and representation. A democracy is really a form of a republic known as a democratic republic. A republic is a government where officials, elected by a small group of people, make the important decisions.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Democracy has been around for almost 2500 years since Athens, Greece became the first democracy. The Romans also experimented with democracy, however it was more a republic, and not a democracy. Around 1200 England laid the groundwork to become a republic. Later, in the 1700's, United States of America, became a democracy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are many features of democracy. Most of these features are the same, but individual countries use varations of the main ideas. The main feature of democracy, which determines a true democracy, is free, competitive elections. Sometimes however, women or minorities don't have the right to vote. Some of these other features, such as checks on power, help to limit the strength of any one person or party. Other features like free elections, and majority/ minority rule, help to make elections fair, since the judgment of many people is generally better then the judgment of a few people. Political parties keep one government, or idea of government form holding all power. These features let the people to govern themselves without the country being torn apart.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are two true types of democracies, direct democracies, and representative democracies. In a direct democracy all the people meet to discuss problems and creat laws. A direct decision consults all the people for the decisions.. Since that is unpractical in todays world, a new form of democracy, the representative democracy has arisen. This form of democracy has elected representatives making most of the day to day decisions, while the main groups of citizens consulted for only the most important decisions.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One of the earliest known democracies was in Athens, a city-state in southern, ancient Greece. Around 620BC, Athens became the first true democracy. In Athens the ruler Draco tried to make many reforms in the city state. Draco organized laws by putting them in a written code, letting everyone know what the laws were and how they applied to everyone. He also gave the people the right to a trial. The next ruler Solon, the next Athenian ruler also helped Athens become

Project success: success factor and success criteria Essay

1.Since the 1960s there have been an increasing number of Project Management scholars that have expressed concerns regarding the ways to manage the success or failure of a project. Crawford (2000) theorised that there are two major avenues of thought in this area being: how success is judged and the factors that contribute to the success. These two avenues were later crowned ‘success factors’ and ‘success criteria’ respectively of which both will be discussed in depth during this essay to provide an insight for future project management scholars. SUCCESS CRITERIA 2.The way by which a project is judged as to whether it is successful or not has long since been deliberated by many Project Management scholars. Crawford’s (2000) efforts to detail these criteria has helped however a better understanding is required such that each project manager or key stakeholder can choose as to what criterion will defined whether the project is a success or failure. This section will elaborate on Crawford’s (2000) studies by drawing on one of her principle advisers, Atkinson. Atkinson uses the Iron Triangle as the foundation of the work and then building on it to develop a robust methodology for success. 2 Figure 1: Iron Triangle (Atkinson, 1999) 3. Iron Triangle. Oilsen (1971) over fifty years ago stated that the Iron Triangle (Atkinson, 1999) of Time, Cost and Quality were the key success criteria for any project. This triangle was reduced to just time and budget by Wright (1997) however Turner (1993), Morris (1987), Wateridge (1998), deWit (1988), McCoy (1987), Pinto and Slevin (1988), Saarinen (1990), and Ballantine (1996) all agree that the Iron Triangle should be used albeit not exclusively. Temporary use of criteria can be used during certain parts of the project to ascertain whether or not a project is going to plan. An example of temporary criteria that was used by Meyer (1994) was the earned value method. The Earned value method in a project can demonstrate it the project is on track, specifically when earned value (what the project is worth at that time) is less than actual costs it means the project is over budget. This is countered however by deWitt (1988) that states when costs are used as a control they manage progress rather than project success. Atkinson (1999) adds that some projects may need to be bound by time; he uses a Millennium project (e.g. a computer system with a potential year 2000, Y2K, bug) as an example, if the project doesn’t meet the time constraint it could have catastrophic consequences. 4. Alter (1996) considers process and organisational goals as another measure, utilising the concept of ‘did they do it right’ and ‘did they get it right’; this gives rise to the concept of measuring success both during and after the project. Atkinson (1999) reflects this concept by the introduction of the ‘Square Root,’ which proposes three additional criteria to the Iron Triangle. The three additional criteria for determining project success are: the technical strength of the resultant system, the benefits to the 3 resultant organisation (direct benefits) and the benefits to the wider stakeholder community (indirect benefits). A detailed breakdown of the Square Root is explained in table 1. Iron Information Benefits Benefits Triangle system (organisation) (stakeholder community) Cost, Maintainability, Improved efficiency, Satisfied users, Social and Quality, Reliability, Improved effectiveness, Environmental impact. Time Validity, Increased profits, Personal development, Information– Strategic goals, Professional learning, and quality use Organisational-learning, contractors’ profits. Reduced waste Capital suppliers, content project team, economic impact to surrounding community. Table 1: The Square Root (Atkinson, 1999) Figure 2: The Square Root (Atkinson, 1999) 5. The Information System. Whilst Atkinson (1999) doesn’t detail the information system success criteria other than what is described in the table it is reasonable to suggest he was concerned with the ‘ilities’ of the project. Essentially Atkinson was considering the maintenance of the project to ensure that it was not only resourced but also governed that the information would support its continued success. 4 6. Organisational Benefits. Success of a project must not only be considered from an individual perspective, rather it must look at how it will also benefit the organisation. Table 1 presents these areas however there are two areas that must be considered individually, namely efficiency and effectiveness. Success of a project is not necessarily guaranteed due to efficiency, reducing the amount of workload due to shortening of processing won’t necessarily help without the consideration of effectiveness. Effectiveness considers whether or not the goals are being achieved thus when placed with efficiency it ensures that the goals are being achieve quickly and in full. 7. Stakeholder Community Benefits. The final area of the Square Root that Atkinson considers is the success criterion that benefits the stakeholder community. These criterion consider the wider benefits of not just the direct outcomes of the project rather this area considers the stakeholder satisfaction and the social and environmental impacts that the project provides. These areas in a house project for example are criteria that  improve the socioeconomic factors of the community around the actual house. Thus this project could use improved gardens or visual impacts of the housing project that will improve the community’s view of the suburb rather than just that particular site. These secondary and tertiary impacts provide success criteria for the project. Furthermore in the acquisition of a new aircraft for military the stakeholder community benefits that could be used as success criteria could be the level of host nation employment or involvement to improve their knowledge base. Thus whilst it may not improve the actual new aircraft it will allow the host nation to build the aircraft themselves next time that that nation wishes to purchase a new aircraft. SUCCESS FACTORS 8. Since the late 1960’s Project Management scholars have been trying to establish the factors that lead to project success (Baker, 1988) (Pinto, 1988) (Lechler, 1988), which have led to conclusions being published for project management practitioners. Despite decades of research and countless articles being written (Kloppenborg, 2000) (Morris, 1994) projects continue to disappoint stakeholders (O’Connor and Reinsborough 1992) (Standish Group, 1995) (Cooke-Davies, 2000). So what factors actually lead to successful projects? Cooke-Davies (2002) states that project success 5 factors are based upon answering three separate questions: â€Å"What factors are critical to project management success?†, â€Å"What factors a critical to individual success on a project?† and â€Å"What factors lead to consistently successful projects?† 9. What factors are critical to project management success? Cooke-Davies (2002) analysed a selection of 136 mainly European projects which varied in size and scope however had an average of $16M over a period of two years, a  detailed breakdown is at (Cooke-Davies, 2000). The analysis found a surprising differentiation between the correlation of schedule delay and cost escalation, only a small amount of cost escalation was accounted for schedule delay. This analysis found that when adequacy and maturity specific project management practices are compared with the performance of each criterion then different practices are found to correlate significantly. This correlation relates to nine factors (the first nine factors depicted at Table 1). The analysis for â€Å"Adequacy of documentation of organisational responsibilities on the project† is depicted at figure 1 with the vertical axis showing the 95% confidence interval of time predictability and the horizontal axis showing ‘not at all adequate’(1) to ‘fully adequate’(4). Essentially it shows that the more adequate the factor the more confidence can be shown that the project will achieve its schedule target. Figure 3: Adequacy of project documentation improving schedule confidence (Cooke-Davies, 2002) 6 10. What factors are critical to the success of an individual project? Cooke- Davies (2002) suggests that there is a single factor; which leads to individual project success. He states that the existence of an effective benefits delivery and management process that involves the mutual co-operation of project management and line management functions (Table 2, Factor 9). Without this factor an individual project is likely to singularly fail. Essentially this factor requires a process to which the project outcome is delivered and managed. This factor further requires the cooperation of a project team with a single goal to achieve this project benefit outcome. 11. What factors lead to consistently successful projects? Cooke-Davies (2002) now moves away from the individual project and considers that corporate functions that enable a project to succeed. Whilst this analysis was complex to derive from analysis it was found via extensive questionnaires three main factors corporate influenced the factors for project success. These three factors are identified at Table 2 (Factors 10-12) however directly relate to resourcing, feedback loops and learning from experience. 12. Resourcing (Table 2, Factor 10) being governed by corporate is essential to project success, for if a project is not able to have the right people or assets at the right time a project is unlikely to succeed. If a project management corporation sets up the correct plans, processes and procedures to ensure that each one of its subsidiary projects are adequately resourced, Davies-Cooke (2002) envisages that it is set up for success. An example of this is the development of Standard Operating Procedures for purchase of support equipment in a large-scale acquisition project. The standardisation of this resource alignment by corporate enables the factors for success later in the project. 13. Feedback loops (Table 2, Factor 11) are essential to a line manager knowing if what they are doing is appropriate and in line with the project manager and the stakeholder’s perceptions of what the project needs to succeed. Whilst it is acknowledged that if a feedback loop is too short it will tend to misguide a line manager rather than improve the chances of success. This is the job of the project manger to ensure that the loop is correct for the particular project, for example a long lead time project is suited to a larger feedback loop whereas a rapid prototype project 7 needs to have potentially daily feedback to key line managers to ensure the project is going in the right direction given the potentially fast  innovations in technology. Cooke-Davies (2002) finally proposes the success factor of learning from experience (Table 2, Factor 12). Corporations should in order to succeed implement plans, programmes, and procedures to ensure that the lessons learnt from previous projects are not re-learnt the hard way. Constantly (Pinto, 1990) (Robertson, 2006) (Baker, 1988) (Atkinson, 1999) when project scholars analyse how a project has performed it is recognised that a lot of issues that cause failure are not ground breaking rather they are just repeated with a delay loop. Thus project management corporations should endeavour to ensure that as a project is finding solutions to problems they are documented to ensure that in the next project they are not realised again. 14. These three questions relate directly back to a vicious ‘oval’ of influences as depicted by Cooke-Davies (2002) of four key elements (Figure 4). These influences from a project management, individual project and corporate area all play out to enable success of a project. Figure 4: Corporate Project Success Model (Cooke-Davies, 2002) 8 Factor F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 F9 Factor Type Project Management Success Factor Project Management Success Factor Project Management Success Factor Project Management Success Factor Project Management Success Factor Project Management Success Factor Project Management Success Factor Project Management Success Factor Individual Project Success factor F10 Corporate success factors F11 Corporate success factors F12 Corporate success factors Description Adequacy of company-wide education on the concepts of risk management. Note Factor that correlates to on time performance Maturity of an organisation’s processes for assigning ownership of risks. Factor that correlates to on time performance Adequacy with which a visible risks register is maintained. Factor that correlates to on time performance Adequacy of an up-to-date risk management plan. Factor that correlates to on time performance Adequacy of documentation of organisational responsibilities on the project. Keep project (or project stage duration) as far below 3 years as possible (1 year is better). Allow changes to scope only through a mature scope change control process. Factor that correlates to on time performance Maintain the integrity of the performance measurement baseline. Factor that correlates to on budget performance Factor that correlates to on time performance Factor that correlates to on budget performance The existence of an effective benefits delivery and management process that involves the mutual co-operation of project management and line management functions† Portfolio and programme management practices that allow the enterprise to resource fully a suite of projects that are thoughtfully and dynamically matched to the corporate strategy and business objectives A suite of project, programme and portfolio metrics that provides direct ‘‘line of sight’’ feedback on current project performance, and anticipated future success, so that project, portfolio and corporate decisions can be aligned. An effective means of ‘‘learning from experience’’ on projects, that combines explicit knowledge with tacit knowledge in a way that encourages people to learn and to embed that learning into continuous improvement of project management processes and practices. Table 2: Success Factors (Cooke-Davies, 2002) 9 CONCLUSION 15. This essay has discussed the ways to manage success of a project via two means being how it is judged and the factors that contribute to its success. The success criteria have been shown to be wide and varied however they ultimately boil down to the Iron triangle, the information system, organisational benefits, stakeholder community benefits. Furthermore the factors that lead to this success are multiple however they are mostly governed on the project mangers competence to ensure that the project is maintained within the triangle of time, cost and scope. 10 BIBLIOGRAPHY Alter S. Information Systems a management perspective, 2nd ed. Benjamin and Cummings, California, 1996. Atkinson RW. Effective Organisations, Re-framing the Thinking for Information Systems Projects Success, 13–16. Cassell, London, 1997. Atkinson, R., Project management: cost, time and quality, two best guesses and a phenomenon, its time to accept other success criteria, International Journal of Project Management, Volume 17, Issue 6, December 1999, Pages 337-342, retrieved from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0263-7863(98)00069-6. Baker BN, Murphy DC, Fisher D. Factors affecting project success. In: Cleland DI, King WR, editors. Project management handbook. (2nd ed.). New York: John Wiley, 1988. Ballantine, J, Bonner, M, Levy, M, Martin, A, Munro, I and Powell, PL, The 3-D model of information systems successes: the search for the dependent variable continues. Information Resources Management Journal, 1996, 9(4), 5-14. Cooke-Davies TJ. 2000. Towards improved project management practice, PhD thesis, Leeds Metropolitan University. Crawford, Lynn (2000) Profiling the Competent Project Manager. In: Project Management Research at the Turn of the Millennium: Proceedings of PMI Research Conference, 21 – 24 June, 2000, Paris, France, pp. 3-15. Sylva, NC: Project Management Institute (ftp://ns1.ystp.ac.ir/YSTP/1/1/ROOT/DATA/PDF/MISC/PMI2000%20Research.pdf) de Wit, A, Measurement of project management success. International Journal of Project Management, 1988, 6(3), 164-170. Kloppenborg TJ, Opfer WA. Forty years of project management research: trends, interpretations and predictions. Proceedings of PMI research conference paris project management institute. Paris: Project Management Institute, 2000. Lechler T. 1998. When it comes to project management, it’s the people that matter: an empirical analysis of project management in germany. In:  Hartman, F., Jergeas, G., Thomas, J. editors. IRNOP III. The nature and role of projects in the next 20 years: research issues and problems. Calgary University of Calgary. pp.205–15 McCoy FA. Measuring Success: Establishing and Maintaining A Baseline, Project management Institute Seminar/Symposium Montreal Canada, Sep. 1987, 47-52. Meyer C. How the right measures help teams excel. Harvard Business Review 1994, 95-103. Morris PWG, Hough GH. The Anatomy of Major Projects. John Wiley, 1987. Morris PWG. The management of projects. London: Thomas Telford, 1994. O’Connor MM, Reinsborough L. Quality projects in the 1990s: a review of past projects and future trends. International Journal of Project Management 1992;10(2):107–14. 11 Oilsen, RP, Can project management be defined? Project Management Quarterly, 1971, 2(1), 12-14. Pinto JK, Slevin DP. Critical success factors across the project life cycle. Project Management Journal 1988;19(3):67–75. Pinto, J.K.; Mantel, S.J., Jr., â€Å"The causes of project failure,† Engineering Management, IEEE Transactions on , vol.37, no.4, pp.269,276, Nov 1990, http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=62322&isnumber=2268 Pinto, JK and Slevin, DP, Critical success factors across the project lifecycle. Project Management Journal, 1988, XIX, 67-75. Robertson, S. and Williams, T. Understanding project failure: using cognitive mapping in an insurance project. Southampton, UK, University of Southampton, 43pp. University of Southampton Discussion Paper Series: Centre for Operational Research, Management Sciences and Information Systems,2006. Saarinen, T, Systems development methodology and project success. Information and Management, 1990, 19, 183-193. Standish Group. 1995. Chaos. Available: http://standishgroup.com/ visitor/chaos.htm. Terry Cooke-Davies, The â€Å"real† success factors on projects, International Journal of Project Management, Volume 20, Issue 3, April 2002, Pages 185-190, ISSN 02637863, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0263-7863(01)00067-9. Turner JR. The Handbook of Project-based Management. McGraw-Hill, 1993. Wateridge, J, How can IS/IT projects be measured for success? International Journal of project Management, 1998, 16(1), 59- 63. Wright, JN, Time and budget: the twin imperatives of a project sponsor. International Journal of Project Management, 1997, 15(3), 181-186.

Financial crisis in Kazakhstan

Introduction The purpose of this paper is to describe 2007-2009 global financial crisis reasons and define its consequences for Kazakhstan economy. From the very beginning of year 2007 global economies faced series major economic and financial problems. Many economists consider events started in 2007 as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s and the latest phase of the evolution of financial markets under the radical financial deregulation process that began in the late 1970s.Since the Great Depression in 1930s almost everyone believed that financial arkets need to be regulated to be stable, avoid fraud and manipulation. The strict financial regulatory system was created by US government to protect the country from mentioned dangers. It worked effectively through the 1960s. Economic and financial turbulence in the 1970s and early 1980s led to both a paradigm and a policy regime shift.Efficient financial market theory and new classical macro theory replaced the existing system of tight financial regulation. Such developments facilitated the transition to a new globally-integrated deregulated neoliberal capitalism. As a result the world faced the threat of total collapse of large financial institutions, the bailout of banks by national governments, and downturns in stock markets around the world. In many areas, the housing market also suffered, resulting in evictions, foreclosures and prolonged unemployment.The crisis played a significant role in the failure of key businesses, declines in consumer wealth estimated in trillions of US dollars, and a downturn in economic activity leading to the 2008-2012 global recession and contributing to the European sovereign-debt crisis. 2. Reasons Attempting to identify the factors that caused the global financial crisis is a discussion which has been raging over the last few years, with some people pointing to one area, and others looking at other guilty ones for what has been one of the most devas tating and groundbreaking events of the economy in recent memory.The global financial crisis might seems to be that it hasn't affected ordinary people, but this certainly isn't the case, as regular workers in some of the massive companies that have been bankrupted have become unemployed, and cities and towns across he United States have been decimated if a major employer in the area has gone out of business. There are a number of factors which are generally pointed to when looking at the reasons that triggered the global financial crisis.One of the main reasons which is often pointed to as one of the main triggers of the global financial crisis are the mortgage derivative products, where risky mortgages were packaged with more traditionally secure mortgages and sold to corporate investors and other banks as secure investment products. This packaging of mortgages is generally ccepted to have masked the real risks that were linked with such a product, which gradually grew as lending c riteria were loosened in the first five or six years of the twenty first century. Between 1997 and 2006, the price of the typical American house increased by 124%.During the two decades ending in 2001, the national median home price ranged from 2. 9 to 3. 1 times median household income. This ratio rose to 4. 0 in 2004, and 4. 6 in 2006. This housing bubble resulted in quite a few homeowners refinancing their homes at lower interest rates, or financing consumer spending by aking out second mortgages secured by the price appreciation. By September 2008, average U. S. housing prices had declined by over 20% from their mid-2006 peak. Easy credit, and a belief that house prices would continue to appreciate, had encouraged many subprime borrowers to obtain adjustable-rate mortgages.

Cultural Differences between United States and Italy Essay

All societies provide for certain broad areas of social living. Wissler (2000:99) identified these as universal patterns of culture, such as speech, material traits, art, mythology and scientific knowledge, religious practice, family and social systems, property, government, and war. Even within these broad areas of social living are a number of common elements. Moreover, cultures between countries differ because of the great variety of solutions people in different societies evolve in solving life problems. Amongst the important factors which give rise to cultural differences are the kind of environment within which the society lives, the human and natural resources available within this environment, the extent and intensity of exposure the society has to other people from which they can borrow ideas, and their cultural heritage. This paper intent to figure out the differences between the United States of America and Italy in terms of history, languages, Ethnical diversity, culture, superstitions and religions. II. Discussion A. United States of America The United States developed and grew from 13 English colonies on the Atlantic coast into an independent republic that eventually extended to the Pacific, with Alaska and Hawaii among its states. Although the original 13 colonies were British, several other nations took part in the discovery, exploration and settlement of the territory that became the United States. Both France and Spain once controlled more of North America than did Great Britain. Dutch and Swedish colonies existed temporarily on the Atlantic coast. Thus the beginnings of the United States, like its later development as a nation, involved contributions by people from many lands (see Graff, H. America: the Glorious Republic (2 volumes; Houghton Mifflin, 2001). North America was inhabited by Indians and Eskimos long before the first Europeans arrived. White men came into contact with the Indians from the very beginning, but the Eskimos were not greatly influenced by the white man’s civilization until the 20th century (see Link, A. S. , and others. American Epoch: a History of the United States since 1900, 9th edition (2 volumes: Knopf, 1999). There are various religions existing in the United States such as Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Unitarian Universalism and Hinduism while others claimed that they don’t have a religion. Amongst the religions mentioned, Christianity has the greatest number as surveyed in 2001. On the other hand, English is the de facto national language of the United States. Spanish language has also been taught as â€Å"non-English second language† (see Boorstin, D. J. and R. F. The Landmark History of the American People, revised edition (2 volumes; Random House, 1999). B. Italy Italy is a country in the southern Europe. Jutting southward from the Alps into the Mediterranean Sea, Italy consists mainly of a slender boot-shaped peninsula and the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. Ital is bordered by France, Switzerland, Austria, and Yugoslavia, and the Adriatic, Ionian, Tyrrhenian, and Ligurian seas. It completely encircles two tiny, independent states: San Marino, east of Florence, and Vatican City, in Rome. The name Italy was first used by the Greeks for the southern tip of the peninsula, where they established colonies as early as the eighth century B. C. Gradually, as the peninsula came under Roman rule, the name was applied to everything south of the Alps (see Coppa, F. J. , editor. Dictionary of Modern Italian History (Greenwood Press, 2000). Italy has contributed greatly to western civilization. For hundreds of years it was the center of the far-flung Roman Empire. It was in Italy that Christianity first flourished in Europe and became powerful force. Rome has long been the seat of the papacy and the world center of the Roman Catholic Church. The Renaissance, the period of enlightenment that ended medieval times, began in Italy and during this period Italians contributed greatly to the intellectual and artistic development of the Western world. Italy still preserves much of its noble past in its cities, museums, and ruins, attracting more foreign visitors than any other country in the world (see Guicciardini, Francesco. The History of Italy (Princeton University, 1999). The Italians, an Indo-European people, were settled in theItalian peninsula by 1000 B. C. In the eighth century B. C. the Etruscans (or Tyrrhenians), who came probably from Asia Minor, founded Etruria on the west. To the south was Latium, established by the Latins, an Italian tribe, with Rome as its strongest city. Farther south were Greek colonies (see Guicciardini, Francesco. The History of Italy (Princeton University, 1999). By the middle of the sixth century B. C. the Etruscans dominated central Italy, including Rome. Greeks and Romans cooperated in driving back the Etruscans. Raids by Gauls, who had crossed the Alps and settled in the Po Valley, helped weaken Etruria, and it rapidly declined (see Coppa, F. J. , editor. Dictionary of Modern Italian History (Greenwood Press, 2000). In the fourth century B. C. the Greeks made several attempts to conquer the Italians, but in the third century the Greek colonies fell to Rome. From that time until the collapse of the Roman Empire, the history of Italy coincides with the history of Rome (see Coppa, F. J. , editor. Dictionary of Modern Italian History (Greenwood Press, 2000). III. Conclusion United States and Italy has many differences in terms of culture and history. However, these two countries were able to experienced invasion from other countries that tried to colonize them. References: 1. Coppa, F. J. , editor. Dictionary of Modern Italian History (Greenwood Press, 2000). 2. Guicciardini, Francesco. The History of Italy (Princeton University, 1999. 3. Graff, H. America: the Glorious Republic (2 volumes; Houghton Mifflin, 2001. 4. Link, A. S. , and others. American Epoch: a History of the United States since 1900, 9th edition (2 volumes: Knopf, 1999. 5. Boorstin, D. J. and R. F. The Landmark History of the American People, revised edition (2 volumes; Random House, 1999.

Review of the “Safety Training” Episode of The Office Television Series Essay

The mockumentary-inspired effort of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in presenting real life situations of workplace environment has paid off with the apparent success of the network’s American version of British BBC 2001 hit television comedy show â€Å"The Office. † The 2005 release of the TV series in the United States paved the way for the public’s realization of the various exploits existing within an organizational setting. This is primarily due to the diversified hence obvious clashing of personalities and professional attributes among office personnel. In particular, such office conflict is clearly manifested by the 47th episode of â€Å"The Office† entitled â€Å"Safety Training. † This is where Andy Bernard who is being portrayed by actor Ed Helms and who after finishing his anger management therapy, returned to Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton, Pennsylvania branch which is a fictional paper supply office. It is during this specific episode that arguments concerning employees’ egos, improper conducts and boredom have become more effectively depicted. In the said episode, Regional Manager Michael Scoot, played by actor Steve Carell, showed his usual hazardous antics, which eventually endangered an employee and required all of them to undergo safety training. This showed a thesis that anything is inevitably risky in an office environment or that any office activity, even a supposedly safety training, may go astray if the personnel involved are apparently clashing with each other and are always in conflict thus despairing people. Ultimately, the said episode which was carried out in an amusing spoof manner manifested that an office-based depression is a threat to an employee (Novak & Ramis, 2007). Lastly, such episode of â€Å"The Office† generally imparted a premise that each office equipment and machinery has its own function and possible danger which may affect both the employees and organizational performance. Hence, office employees need to protect themselves regardless of their respective conflicts in order to achieve office success. Reference Novak, B. J. & Ramis, H. (2007). Safety Training. In G. Daniels, The Office. Los Angeles: Reveille Productions.

Automotive Technology

My life has always been filled with dreams and aspirations. As a young child, I have always been interested in things that required thinking. I remember as a young child, I was fascinated with the way cars work. The work of mechanics would always leave me with a lot of questions in my mind. So when I grew older, I decided to fulfill my long time dream, and took Automotive Technology. I believe that The South Seattle Community College would be the answer to all my queries, with regards to Automotive Technology. I will be given the chance to experience a technologically advance training that would help me learn more about the processes involved in the automotive industry. In the long run, I may be able to share my talents and knowledges to those who are in need of my service. With the Automotive Technology degree, I may be hired as a Service Manager, or as a Service Advisor, and earn as much as $34. 00 an hour. This would be enough to suffice for my other needs at home. As of now, I guess my biggest barrier in acquiring my degree is my financial status. I am currently unemployed, with no means of sufficing for my education. I am only armed with my will, dedication, and passion to learn new ideas so that I can be the best person that I can be. I know that financial problems can never hinder me from striving hard and learning. I believe that the best way to overcome my obstacles is to just keep my drive in accomplishing my hopes and dreams of acquiring a degree from your university. In addition to this, I would also like to inspire people to do the same thing I did – to study hard and overcome barriers in education.