Thursday, January 30, 2020

Invisible Man Essay Example for Free

Invisible Man Essay In Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, the character of Trueblood is unique and well developed. Trueblood is a man who impregnates his wife, and at the same period of time commits incest and impregnates his daughter. This character’s reasoning for having sexual relations with his daughter is that he was dreaming when this happened; a feat that while fantastical, could also be plausible due to Trueblood’s nature. Trueblood, while a moral character aside from his transgression, is also oblivious. A good example of this happens on page 48 when Dr.  Norton asks You feel no inner turmoil, no need to cast out the offending eye? † to which Trueblood replies Im all right, suh. My eyes is all right too. Regardless of his ignorance, Trueblood shows remorse for his actions, and believes that a man dont leave his family, which attests to the morality of the character. Much like the Invisible man, Trueblood found his own morality which did not exactly follow society’s guidelines. When explaining his situation, Trueblood brings up the issue regarding awareness of reality, since according to him he has sex with his daughter during a dream state. As he describes it on page 59, the dream seems to be a metaphor for what actually happened: I runs and runs till I should be tired but aint tired but feelin more rested as I runs Only Im still in the tunnel. Then way up ahead I sees a bright light like a jack-o-lantern over a graveyard. It gits brighter and brighter it burst like a great big electric light in my eyes. Trueblood comforts himself by saying You aint guilty; he does not admit his guilt since he does not see fault in what he did since he was not in control of himself. This is his perception of reality. Again, this unawareness of reality is parallel to the Invisible Mans life, who cannot see anything as real until understanding he is invisible. The way Trueblood has been treated by the white community, however, seems to be one of the major issues. Before impregnating his own daughter, he claims his life to have been hard: Every time I think what a hard time we was having I gits the shakes and it was cold and us didnt have much fire I tried to git help but wouldnt nobody help us. After his sinful act, surprisingly enough, it was the white community which came to his aid. Not only are the police ssisting by giving Trueblood protection from the black community, but also assisting by giving him money. To this, Trueblood says I done the worse thing a man could even do in his family and instead of chasin me out of the country, they gimme more help than they ever give any other colored man (67). Again, morality is the theme here – the white community is treating Trueblood in a way as if rewarding him, even though his act was actually reprehensible. While this could be seen as the white community’s moral obligation to assist someone who was ostracized from their own community, it could also be seen as moral hypocrisy.

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Organizational Behavior Essay -- Psychology, Emotional Intelligence

This paper will identify and examine the perspective of cognitive intelligence and emotional intelligence which are considered to be important individual diversities in the field of organisational behaviour. The organization selected for this topic is, The Australian Hellenic Educational Progressive Association, commonly known as (AHEPA), the association was founded in Melbourne Australia in 1938; at that time the mission of AHEPA was to promote Hellenism, education, philanthropy, civic responsibility, family and individual Excellence. Originally the association was set up with a small group of Australian/Greek volunteers as a community based establishment to assist Greek immigrants in Australia experiencing language barriers, families with financial difficulties, finding homes, jobs, medical care and help the elderly, as former state secretary of the association I was able to experience the cognitive and emotional intelligence behaviours first hand. The General Structure of the "AHEPA Family" is composed of distinct groups, all of which work in harmony on a local, state and national level under its constitution and by-laws. They are; the Supreme Lodge (National body), Grand Lodges and District Lodge (State bodies). There are several committees within AHEPA who work in harmony to organise fundraising and community activities. The members of these committees work diligently to achieve their various goals for the betterment of the whole community. AHEPA is recognized as a non-profit charitable organization; this essentially means that any profits or surpluses the charity makes must be used to further its charitable purposes. Such profits or surpluses must not be distributed to owners, members or any other individual or group of i... ...n greater in today’s diverse working environments, neglecting emotional intelligence working in a small group can be devastating in the efficiency to the organisation, and these breakdowns can produce confusion, uncertainty hostility and reduce the required performance. The fear of change in any organisation is a major concern as at times management seeks for a quick fix instead of taking a more comprehensive and longer perspective, thus creating emotional uncertainty and mistrust. Given the facts and understandings of cognitive intelligence and emotional intelligence are conceptualized, emotional intelligence can be rationally considered as a reasonable measure to which a person can apply rational judgment and reasoning and feelings to situations and responses in the organisation, it shows that emotional intelligence is a stronger predictor to a task performance.

Monday, January 13, 2020

Food Waste? Too valuable to waste! Essay

According to statistics from the Environmental Protection Department, in Hong Kong, solid waste generated daily weighs around 17000 tones, of which around 30% is organic matter (2700 tones) which is roughly equal to 120 double-deck buses in size. Compared this to the US where, revealed by the Environmental Protection Agency, only 12% of waste stream was scrap of food in 2005. Extra care in disposal is required for these putrescible wastes, otherwise nuisance to the environment will be caused. Food waste not only causes a feculent choking smell, but also discharges a huge amount of concentrated greenhouse gases, methane and polluted water, all of which are leading to the global warming that we highly concerned about. All the food wastes are currently disposed to landfills, however all the existing landfills will be saturated within 5 years. Construction of new landfill is a problem because of a lack of available space that is far away from residential areas. Therefore, seeking out alternative ways for food waste treatment has become an imperative for the government. Before discussing cutting food waste at its source, there is another possible destiny for surplus food besides disposal – Food recycling. The food waste for food recycling can be categorized into two parts: edible (bread, vegetable and meat) and inedible (bones and eggshell). Food Waste Processor Basically, inedible food wastes are useful in that they can be recycled and reused. Through natural biodegradation by bacteria, all the organic waste will be converted into organic fertilizer and soil stabilizer. According to the journal of â€Å"Food waste composting – sustainable organic waste management† (Jonathan, 2003), in some advanced countries in Europe, central food waste treatments has been practiced for years. All the domestic food waste will be collected and transported to central composting facilities which are installed far away from the residential areas. However, this huge facility is not available to Hong Kong owing to the limited area. The Ecotech Food Waste Processor, a new technology for the same purpose is being tested in Hong Kong, including Hong Kong International Airport, housing estates and universities. Due to the tiny space of Hong Kong, it is well-designed for being used in small communities such as restaurants and housing estates which are the main sources of food waste. A large processing capacity 100kg per day is supported with a small sized machine. The automatic processor is easy to operate and is equipped with self-adjustment of temperature and moisture which are decisive parameters for the speed of reaction. Also, the specially formulated microbes and materials are used in the processor to increase the rate of biodegradation. To enhance the transportation efficiency, the volume of food waste will be reduced by about 90% in 24 hours. The composite fertilizer contains high nutrient value including nitrogen which is a major element for plant growth. This new technology is suitable for Hong Kong, as it has limited space. All the food waste can be recycled and become useful materials rather than being disposed in landfill. Besides reducing the load of landfill, the valuable organic materials, which are transformed from the â€Å"waste†, are nutrients to our health and the Earth. Since vegetables grown by organic fertilizer is much healthier to human than those grown by chemical fertilizer. Therefore, this processor should be widely used in Hong Kong in order to minimize the amount of food waste and raise public awareness of this exigent problem. Surplus Food Donation The Environmental Protection Department stated that â€Å"the amount of food wasted by Hong Kong’s restaurants, hotels, and food manufacturers has more than doubled in the past five years.† Effort should be focused on collecting leftover food donation as a huge pile of edible food waste is created from restaurants every day. Foodlink is a nonprofit organization working on this aspect. It takes surplus food from over 40 hotels and restaurants and delivers it to charity groups such as Home of Love in Sham Shui Po and Action Care that works with the less privileged communities in society. Regarding to an article â€Å"The food chain† (Grace, 2012), about one million people in Hong Kong are suffering from hunger and struggling to fill their stomachs. Freshly cooked food is something that they cannot support on a daily basis, especially for the one million people in Hong Kong who are living below the poverty line. Actually, those government-sponsored food banks only provide canned or prepackaged food which is unhealthy in the long term. On the contrary, the hot leftover food from the hotels and restaurants is nutrient rich. In fact, this creates a triple win situation for the landfills, charities and hotels. By examining the amount of excess food that transport to the charity, the hotel can determine the appropriate quantity of food for each day. Eventually, not only less food waste will be produced, but the cost of excess food production and food waste treatment can be reduced and eliminated. Also, less recyclable food will be wasted and disposed to landfills. Therefore sponsorship to those charities and public promotions is an obligation for the Hong Kong government. As the old saying goes â€Å"Prevention is better than cure†, cutting the food waste at its source is the best ways to solve this issue. However, despite there being less food waste being disposed to landfills, the food waste problem will continue to occur if the eating habits do not change. Food waste charge Similar to the solid garbage charges being promoted in the past few months, food waste charges could be implemented in restaurants to minimize this problem commercially. According to Friends of the Earth, in the catering industry, hotel buffets and restaurants that offer â€Å"all you can eat† are the major sources of uneaten food, which then goes into the landfills. Many customers whose â€Å"eyes are bigger than their stomachs† usually order far more dishes that they are able to consume, so the surplus food eventually has to be disposed of. Some hot pot restaurants that provide â€Å"all you can eat† strictly charge the leftover food per kilogram in order to minimize the problem. However, only a few hotel buffets in Hong Kong are willing to charge for the uneaten food since it may lower its attractiveness. In foreign countries, London and America are good role models that are attempting to use this policy to solve the food waste issue. A Chinese restaurant Kylin Buffet in London will charge a $32 â€Å"wastage fee† for the excess food. A â€Å"guilty fee† is imposed to charge the uneaten food in a Japanese restaurant located in Manhattan. In order to enhance the popularity of food waste charges, promotion and communications with restaurants are necessary for the government. Through this policy, it arouses public awareness of food waste so that the eating habit may finally improve. Since the food waste fee acts as a reminder and warning to customers to make self-adjustments to their appetite. All in all, for thousands of years, famine has continued to happen somewhere throughout human history. In fact, the current food production and storage in the world is more than enough to support the whole populations if we are able to minimize food waste. The food waste processor, leftover food donation and fee charging are the substantive measures to minimize the food waste and reduce the load of landfills from two main aspects (usage and source of food waste). As a Chinese proverb says â€Å"every grain is from hard toil†, hardship is required in food growing, we should cherish food and respect the nature that nurtures us. (1261 words) References 1. Food Waste Management in HK. (2011). Environmental Protection Department. Retrieved from http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/waste/prob_solutions/owt_food.html 2. Municipal Solid Waste in The United States – 2009 Facts and Figures. (2010). Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/wastes/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/msw2009rpt.pdf 3. Jonathan, W. (2003, May). Food waste composting – sustainable organic waste management. New Horizons, 3, 12-13. Retrieved from http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~cpro/online_pub/nh0203/nh0203_12-13.pdf 4. Monitoring of Solid Waste in Hong Kong – Waste Statistics for 2011. (2012). Environmental Protection Department. Retrieved from https://www.wastereduction.gov.hk/en/materials/info/msw2011.pdf 5. Grace, T. (2012, April 19). The Food Chain. Retrieved from http://hk.asia-city.com/city-living/article/food-chain 6. Order Less Waste Less. (2012). Friends of the Earth. Retrieved from http://www.foe.org.hk/welcome/geten.asp?id_path=1,%207,%2028,%20150,%204310,%204566

Sunday, January 5, 2020

The Importance Of Corporate Social Responsibility And Ikea

The Importance of Corporate Social Responsibility to IKEA This essay is about the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to IKEA. Corporate Social Responsibility is a broad subject comprising of many definitions. It can be defined as, ‘the social responsibility of a business that encompasses the economic, legal, ethical and discretionary expectations that society has of the organization at a given point in time’ (Carroll, 1979). Expectations of society have been the key driver for how important and widely adopted CSR has become in today’s business world. In a competitive business environment where consumers are increasingly aware of their buying power, they are asserting their right to not only demand quality but hold companies to account to high standards. They are concerned with where the goods were originated, the conditions under which the goods are manufactured and what ethos a brand stands by. It has become crucial for a business to be built on ethical practices in order for an organization to maintain its success. Over time the idea of CSR just being an unnecessary expense has shifted, with it coming as far as being called out as a, ‘definitively important strategic issue’, Businesses now see CSR as a method of generating and protecting income through creating a good brand image and customer loyalty. Not only but also smaller of organisations gain when Corporate Social Responsibility is implemented (CSR) very actively in the business. The BodyShow MoreRelatedIKEA S Global Sourcing Challenge Case Questions Essay813 Words   |  4 Pagesshould decline the invitation for IKEA to have a representative appear on the upcoming forecast of the German video program. 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