The middle east and conflict there in. essays

The middle east and conflict there in. essays The Jews, one of the most frequently persecuted and discriminated against groups in the world, have possessed a strong desire to return to their Holy Land and create a homogenous state there since the first century. The movement to return to the Holy Land, Zionism, was described in Hebrew religious texts and praised as a puritanical pilgrimage. However, executing the repatriation proved a much more difficult task than the holy books professed it to be. The Muslim inhabitants of the region, the vast majority of whom were opposed to a Jewish state and certainly against leaving their homeland, adversely regarded Zionism. In the struggle to establish a Zionist state, the Arabs were eventually forced to leave their country, beginning a cycle of conflict that characterized Palestine as a state since the beginning of the Zionist movement. The Palestinian Arabs, who felt their very existence was threatened by the Zionist movement, waged official and unofficial wars against the Zionists as a means of liberation. After fleeing Palestine in the first century, the Jewish people sought a return to the Holy Land for centuries to come due to the strong religious significance of the location. However, until the 19th century, Zionism was a small, unorganized movement lacking leadership. In Russia, Jews were threatened by intense religious persecution in the form of pogroms. While many Jews sought refuge in the United States, Zionism also gained popularity as a result. Led by Theodor Herzl, the Zionist movement gained significant amounts of followers during the last four years of the 19th century and continued to grow in the 20th century. The Zionist movement gained even more popularity when, in 1917, the British announced the Balfour Declaration, a document declaring that the British favored establishment of a Jewish state within Palestine. After gaining control of Palestine a month later, the British decided that negotiations between ...

Political Issues - The Congress Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Political Issues - The Congress - Essay Example The member of Congress holds forums with the constituents while at home. The member also likes to appear as if they are one of the constituents. He achieves this through putting on the local attire, talking in a casual manner, and answering the questions in a way that will leave the constituents attracted to him. Moreover, he uses this forum to listen to the grievances of the people on the ground and issues that they would like the member to address once he gets into Capitol Hill. Hill style is significant in fulfilling the election promises. It is the style of which a member represents his district. This can be achieved through voicing a support to projects that are of great significance to the constituents. In addition, a member can request more funds to support stalled projects in the district. Hill style focuses mainly on bringing money back home. In addition, it includes voicing the support of the home people, businesses, and sports team in order to attract investment and increa se the focus on the area. Through the hill style, the constituents are able to fell well represented, an aspect that leads to the reelection of the member. One of the major problems facing the Congress is the increasing number of unemployed people in the country. The economy is growing slowly and people are optimistic that is heading in the right direction. However, ballooning debt is likely to affect the policies that are meant to create more jobs for the young people who are being released from the institutions of higher learning.

Designers handbags for women Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Designers handbags for women - Assignment Example With the passage of time, the designer handbags have grown popularity and women have shifted from just handbags to designer handbags. Both might be considered the same by many but for women, designer handbags are statement of their style, their unique image and their temperament. Designer handbags have gained popularity in different parts of the world including in Asia. Women are now more comfortable with the designer handbags rather than just leather handbags. Designer handbags are the first choice of women when it comes to selecting between handbags and for the very reason Luxurious has aimed to provide the customers with an exclusive range of designer handbags in Asia. These designer handbags offered to the customers are unique and different from others in the market and because of their uniqueness in style they are liked by a large number of women. With the potential of the market and increasing demand of the handbags (Venugopal, 2010), this report analyses the possibility of introducing one of the designer handbags offered by Luxurious in Indian Market. Indian Market is one of the most lucrative and highly potential markets for handbags (Venugopal, 2010) and therefore this report analyses the positives and negatives of the Indian market and how fruitful Luxurious can be if it introduces its hand bags in the Indian Market. With the increasing competition in the designer handbags industry, there are different factors that influence the consumers to buy the handbag. Design although has always remained the most important factor, but the price has also played an important part to encourage the consumers to buy the product. Luxurious handbags in India would be offered with competitive and very reasonable prices and this has been predicted as the main reason why large number of consumers would be attracted to use the products of Luxurious. The competitive price of these Luxurious designer handbags would be helpful in gaining more attention as women are fond of collecting designer handbags but due to the high prices many of them are not able to afford such bags. There are number of factors that would help Luxurious to be successful in India and some of the major factors include; highly populated country, demand of luxury products including handbags, purchasing power of India, and culture of India etc. Luxurio us can enter the market of India and it can open up its outlets in the Indian market and at the same time offer its products online as well. This decision is based on the fact that the purchasing power of customers has greatly increased due to which the demand for quality designer handbags have increased and the trend of online sales have also been increasing. Background India being one of the fastest growing economies of the world has much potential than other markets of the world. The women in this region are more inclined towards designer handbags than any other local handbags available to them. The rising income is another factor due to which the demand for the designer handbags is preferred over simple and local handbags. The main reason to select this region over others is the potential growth and opportunities that could be availed in this market. India is emerging as one of the developing countries in the world. The designer handbags industry in this country is improving eve n though demand internationally has been reduced because of recession. With the rise in the income level in India, more and more women are intending to purchase designer handbags. The market has great potential for designer handbags as fashion industry in this

Direct effect in the EU Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Direct effect in the EU Law - Essay Example This paper shall discuss the development of the doctrine of direct effect, the issues arising therefrom, and how the European Court of Justice resolved them. Moreover, it shall examine the dynamics in the relationship between the EU and the member-states and their individual citizens. Finally, it shall look into how the courts settle issues with regard to conflict arising from the implementation or non-implementation of EU laws and directives. Supremacy of EU Law The principle of supremacy of the EU law holds that in the event of conflict between the provisions of EU law and domestic law, the EU law shall prevail.1 This principle is anchored on the fact that when states signed the treaty creating the former EEC, the members had also signed off a part of their sovereignty to create a new sovereign that can bind both the state and its individual citizens.2 The Preamble of the Treaty on European Union declared in no uncertain terms that it aims to â€Å"establish a citizenship common t o nationals of their countries†3 and create â€Å"an even closer union among the peoples of Europe, in which decisions are taken as closely as possible to the citizen in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity.†4 Finally, the supremacy of EU law is sanctioned by the Treaty on European Union itself which mandates all states to â€Å"facilitate the achievement of the Community’s tasks†¦ [and] abstain from any measure which could jeopardise the attainment of the objectives of this Treaty.†5 Aptly, the European Court of Justice interpreted the foregoing provision as a conferment of legal and enforceable rights unto the individual citizens of member states. EU treaties produce direct effects and â€Å"individual rights which national courts must protect.†6 Needless to state, concomitant with the exercise of these rights is compliance with the obligations created by virtue of the Treaty. Doctrine of Direct Effect The landmark case of Van Gend e n Loos saw the birth of the doctrine of direct effect which made the EU law a reliable source of statutory rights and obligations for parties litigating cases before domestic courts. In particular, the Court ruled that Article 30 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) which prohibits the imposition of custom duties within the Union has confered rights upon the individual nationals which may not be impaired by domestic laws and which may be invoked before national courts.7 Apparently, the realm of treaties does not end with member states; it extends further to individual citizens, vested rights and imposed obligations alike. The court has upheld the rights acquired by individual citizens by virtue of the provisions of the Treaty and declared that it â€Å"must be interpreted as producing direct effects and creating individual rights which national courts must protect.†8 Van Gend en Loos became the controlling jurisprudence insofar as direct effect of tre aties is concerned. However, subsequent cases had pushed the bar and thus expanded the doctrine’s application to include other forms of EU legislations. Seven years after the 1963 case of Van Gend en Loos, the Court ruled in the case of Grad v Finanzamt Traunstein that provisions of Council Decisions are also capable of â€Å"producing direct effects in the legal relationships between the member states to which the decision is addressed and those subject to their jurisdiction.†

Psychometric assessment Essay Example for Free

Psychometric assessment Essay Certain people tend to be more obedient than others. Individuals who have the tendency to adopt a submissive, uncritical attitude toward authority figures authoritarian submission (Adorno, 1950) tends to perform tasks when demanded. Also, people with an external locus of control (a sense that fate rules their life rather than their own actions) tend to be more obedient. However, despite the popular myth that women are more submissive, women and men are relatively equal in the degree to which they will obey demands (Eagly Carli, 1981). Dehumanisation or deindividuation is the loss of the sense of individual identity and control over our behaviour. Sensory overload, arousal, anonymity, and reduced self awareness are key factors which loosen inhibitions and thus uncharacteristic behaviour is not inline with usual internal standards. According to deindividuation theory, the psychological state of deindividuation is aroused when individuals join crowds or large groups. The state is characterized by diminished awareness of self and individuality. This in turn reduces an individuals self-restraint and normative regulation of behaviour. In social psychology, deindividuation is a major theory of group behaviour: it provides an explanation of collective behaviour of violent crowds, mindless hooligans, and the lynch mob. In addition, deindividuation has been associated with other social phenomena such as genocide, stereotyping, and disinhibition in other settings such as computer-mediated communication. Several influential studies were conducted to illustrate the force of deindividuation. For example, Zimbardo (1969) carried out a study that inspired much subsequent deindividuation research. In this study, participants were rendered anonymous by clothing them in oversized lab coats and hoods, compared with normal clothes and name tags in the control condition. The participants task was to shock a confederate in a situation similar to the classic Milgram studies on obedience. In a first experiment using groups of female students, Zimbardo demonstrated that anonymous participants shocked longer (and therefore more painfully) than identifiable participants, in confirmation of his theory. Another area of controversy in psychology is the area of psychometric testing, which aim to make important decisions affecting individuals and society. Tests are used in a variety of settings to aid selection in education and work and for diagnosis for those with learning and psychological problems. Ability tests were amongst the first psychometric tests to be developed, and controversy has surrounded their use since. Binet and Simon (1905) were commissioned by the French government to find a method to differentiate between children who were intellectually normal and those who were inferior. The purpose was to put the latter into special schools where they would receive more individual attention. In this way the disruption they caused in the education of intellectually normal children could be avoided. This led to the development of the Binet-Simon Scale, and constituted a revolutionary approach to the assessment of individual mental ability. Revisions to the Binet-Simon Scale resulted in the concept of mental age, an easily understandable concept which significantly increased the popularity of ability testing. Further developments of the tests produced the concept of intelligence quotient (IQ) and resulted in one of the currently most widely used tests, the Stanford Binet Scale. Most intelligence tests measure the general reasoning ability that is involved in many different types of problem solving behaviour. Older types of tests referred to this intelligence factor as general ability, whereas more recent tests have tended to divide the general ability into fluid intelligence (innate and not particularly influenced by ones environment) and crystallised intelligence (underlying fluid intelligence that is a product of environmental experiences. In recent years, the introduction of the eleven plus exam, which is largely compiled of IQ tests, was used to distinguish those who would proceed to grammar school and those who would be relegated to academically inferior secondary schools. Research into the psychometric assessment of intelligence has been the focus of many eminent psychologists including Spearmen, Burt, Eysenck, and Cattell. The latter two also went on further to develop (separate) personality tests, Cattells 16PF in 1970, and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) in 1975. These involve analysing a series of short yes/no questions in an attempt to decipher the nature and character of the person answering them. Today, personality assessments are mainly used in clinical settings, with their use in occupational settings increasing. They may also be used in educational settings in assessing individuals with learning problems and are still widely used and developed within academic and research settings. Personality tests are also widely used today within the work environment, perhaps for deciding whether to employ someone or not, or even to decide who gets made redundant. On the whole, psychometric tests have acceptable validity and therefore make them less prone to error than other types of assessment. The interpretation of psychometric data requires the use of norms, against which the scores of a particular individual can be compared. Psychometric assessments tend to be the only measures for which norms are available. Psychometric tests are fairly short and therefore time and cost efficient. Many are group tests, and so can be given to a number of people at the same time. In fact the development of computer programmes concerned with psychometric testing means that tests can be administered and scored by a computer, enabling results to be made available quickly and can form the basis of a discussion. Personality tests are particularly cost efficient as they prevent money being wasted on training unsuitable personnel. However, there can be an undue reliance on the results of psychometric tests. Simply discovering that a person has an aptitude for a particular occupation does not guarantee that they will be successful at that job. The mystique of psychometric test results means that they are frequently not discussed with those who complete them. In this sense there is a failure to use psychological testing humanely. Test scores can also be misused. The results of tests should not be used to withhold educational or occupational opportunities from those who may perform less well on tests of ability due to factors that have little to do with intelligence. In any instance, the results can be faked by the participant to influence the results in their favour, and so can be unknowingly misinterpreted anyway. Because of the cheapness and predictive success of many psychometric tests, there may be a failure to use other important information. Psychometric test results should ideally be used alongside other reliable information about a person, otherwise they may wrongly stereotype an individual. Furthermore, there are many cultural and sub-cultural issues that can arise when measuring IQ, which causes much controversy. At the extreme, IQ tests were used to keep out certain immigrant groups from the United States during the 1920s. Jenson (1969) suggested that genetic differences were the cause of consistently lower IQ scores observed in non white racial groups. Recent controversies relate to the systematic differences attained by different groups in society. Critics say these are the results of bias in test items. Typical examples relate to previously learned information and items using verbal information, typically English, which require reading and writing. Even when tests are translated to the native language of the participants, questions are still raised over the cultural equivalence of certain items (Zindi, 1994). Even tests which explicitly attempt to be culture fair have been questioned. The Ravens Progressive Matrices test showed that the performance of Asian immigrants has been found to improve over a five year period by an average of 15-20 points, which demonstrates that minorities will be disadvantaged in taking them until they learn different ways of approaching them (Roth, 1990). In 1972, Williams produced the Black Intelligent Test of Cultural Homogeneity (BITCH) in an attempt to highlight cultural biases in test items, which was heavily loaded towards black minorities. Using this test, it is black people who tend to score higher than whites. Particularly in IQ tests that use visual cues, participants may misinterpret an action, and their own cultural biases produce expectations which can alter what they see. They may use methods derived from an alien culture (emics/etics) and may have a hostile reception which will bias their observations. Observations are made of a sample and may not be typical of the whole culture being studies. It is also wrong to imagine a culture as being a homogenous group of people; differences within a culture may be as large as those between cultures.

Union Bank Of India

Union Bank Of India INTRODUCTION: Union Bank Of India Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, inaugrated the Union Bank Of India on November 11, 1919. It covers all the sectors of the society, be it agriculture, industry, trade and commerce, services or infrastructure, the bank plays a major role in rendering services to the financial needs of every section. Apart from this, the bank also extended financial support to educational, housing and trade sector. In 1947, the bank had only 4 branches which include 3 in Mumbai and 1 in Saurashtra. The bank was nationalised in 1969 and at time of nationalisation the bank had total 240 branches all over India. In June 2000, Union Bank acquired Bank of America’s highly profitable operations in Pakistan and went on to become one of the largest private commercial banks. The acquisition added a new dimension to Union Bank’s business and enhanced its customer base, deposits, and loan portfolio quality. This acquisition also enhanced Union Bank’s corporate image in the domestic financial market. PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OFFERED BY UNION BANK: Deposits Account: Cumulative Deposit Scheme Deposit Reinvestment Certificate Union Flexi-Deposit Union Insured Recurring Deposit Union 94 Months Double Scheme Monthly Income Scheme Tax Exemption Deposits Union Float Deposits Union Unfixed Deposits For NRI FCNR (B) Foreign Currency Deposit RFC Customer Relationship Management CRM (customer relationship management) is an information industry term for methodologies, software, and usually Internet capabilities that help an enterprise manage customer relationships in an organized way. It happens by maintaining and updating the contacts of customer. This is for the: 1. Existing customers 2. Prospective customers For example, an enterprise might build a databaseabout its customers that described relationships in sufficient detail so that management, salespeople, people providing service, and perhaps the customer directly could access information, match customer needs with product plans and offerings, remind customers of service requirements, know what other products a customer had purchased, and so forth. It consists of the following: Helping an enterprise to enable its marketing departments to identify and target their best customers, manage marketing campaigns and generate quality leads for the sales team. Assessing the organization to improve telesales, account, and sales management by optimizing information shared by multiple employees, and streamlining existing processes (for example, taking orders using mobile devices) Allowing the formation of individualized relationships with customers, with the aim of improving customer satisfaction and maximizing profits; identifying the most profitable customers and providing them the highest level of service. Providing employees with the information and processes necessary to know their customers, understand and identify customer needs and effectively build relationships between the company, its customer base, and distribution partners. CRM Strategies Adopted By Union Bank of India Nowadays, many businesses such as banks, insurance companies, and other service providers realize the importance of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and its potential to help them acquire new customers retain existing ones and maximize their lifetime value. At this point, close relationship with customers will require a strong coordination between IT and marketing departments to provide a long-term retention of selected customers. Union Bank aims to increase customer profitability with any customer retention. It is a sound business strategy to identify the banks most profitable customers and prospects, and devotes time and attention to expanding account relationships with those customers through individualized marketing, pricing, discretionary decision making. According to Union Bank of India having and acting upon deeper knowledge about the customer, ensure that the customer such as how to fund the customer, get to know the customer, keep in tough with the customer, ensure that the customer gets what he wishes from service provider and understand when they are not satisfied and might leave the service provider and act accordingly. Union Bank of India has a database of its customers and informs them about the various schemes offered by the bank. The bank has a suggestion box in which customers of the bank can give their views and suggestions. The bank also has a helping desk where the customers can ask their queries. This is a very good strategy to retain the customer. The bank provides the information to its customers about any change in the interest rate of advances. They attend all the customers who are present in the bank, so that they do not feel neglected and not switch to any other bank. CRM Strategy of Public Sector Banks Public sector CRM strategy must be aligned to the organization’s purpose in order to realize a sustained achievement of CRM objectives and successful customer relationships. While CRM strategies differ among implementers, the most successful strategies have several criteria in common. Alignment between the organization’s mission and the CRM strategy; a good strategy is a direct reflection of the mission and supports the mission in direct, clear and easy to understand terms. Strategies must be customer focused; they speak to the positioning and evolvement of the customer relationship. CRM strategies require executive sponsorship and complete buy in; the rank and file take their queues from the executive team so the executives must visibly, vocally and actively sponsor the CRM strategy for it to be successful. Strategies are an iterative process; as the the organization evolves so to will the CRM strategy. They mainly focus on the following: To win back or save customers To attract new and potential customers To create loyalty among existing customers and To up sell or offer cross services. CONCLUSION CRM in banking industry entirely different from other sectors, because banking industry purely related to financial services, which needs to create the trust among the people. Establishing customer care support during on and off official hours, making timely information about interest payments, maturity of time deposit, issuing credit and debit cum ATM card, creating awareness regarding online and e-banking, adopting mobile request etc are required to keep regular relationship with customers. The present day CRM includes developing customer base. The bank has to pay adequate attention to increase customer base by all means, it is possible if the performance is at satisfactory level, the existing clients can recommend others to have banking connection with the bank he is operating. Hence asking reference from the existing customers can develop their client base. If the base increased, the profitability is also increase. Hence the bank has to implement lot of innovative CRM to capture and retain the customers.There is a shift from bank centric activities to customer centric activities are opted. The private sector banks in India deployed much innovative strategies to attract new customers and to retain existing customers. CRM in banking sector is still in evolutionary stage, it is the time for taking ideas from customers to enrich its service. The use of CRM in banking has gained importance with the aggressive strategies for customer acquisition and retention being employed by the bank in todays competitive milieu. This has resulted in the adoption of various CRM initiatives by these banks. Private Sector Banks have been able to implement the CRM practices more effectively as compared to the Public Sector on the basis of of the service quality level being provided by these banks.

Mark Twains Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Escape From an Oppressive

Huckleberry Finn - Escape From a Cruel and Oppressive Society America... land of the free and home of the brave; the utopian society which every European citizen desired to be a part of in the 18th and 19th centuries. The revolutionary ideas of The Age of Enlightenment such as democracy and universal male suffrage were finally becoming a reality to the philosophers and scholars that so elegantly dreamt of them. America was a playground for the ideas of these enlightened men. To Europeans, and the world for that matter, America had become a kind of mirage, an idealistic version of society, a place of open opportunities. Where else on earth could a man like J. D. Rockefeller rise from the streets to become one of the richest men of his time? America stood for ideals like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. People in America had an almost unconditional freedom: freedom to worship, write, speak, and live in any manner that so pleased them. But was this freedom for everyone? Was America, the utopia for the millions of common men fro m around world, as great as the philosophers and scholars fantasized? America, as a society, as a country, and as a leader was not as picture perfect as Europeans believed. The United States, under all the gold plating, carried a burden of unsolved national problems, especially racial. The deep scar of slavery had left a dent in the seemingly impenetrable armor of the country. From the times of early colonization to the late 19th century, Africans had been brought over by the thousands in overcrowded and unsanitary slave ships. They were sold like cattle to the highest bidder, an inhumane and despicable act that America, land of the free and home of the brave, allowed to happen... ...1997. 14-17. Leavis, F. R. "Viewpoints." Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1968. 109-11. Mailloux, Steven. "Reading Huckleberry Finn." New Essays on Huckleberry Finn. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985. 107-30. Marx, Leo. "Mr. Eliot, Mr. Tilling, and Huckleberry Finn." American Scholar 22. (Aut 1953): 423-40. McKay, Janet H. "An Art So High." New Essays on Huckleberry Finn. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985. 61-81. Walker, Nancy. "Reformers and Young Maidens: Women and Virtue." Modern Critical Interpretations. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1968. 76-85. Wright, James. "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Great Writers of the English Language: American Classics. North Bellmore, New York: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 1991. 12-17.