Reflect on the manner in which an musical artist(Mos Def) deals with Essay

Reflect on the manner in which an musical artist(Mos Def) deals with issues of identity or racism - Essay Example Born Dante Terrel Smith in 1973, Mos Def has also been called Mighty Mos Def, The Freaky Night Watchman, Boogie Man, Black Dante, Dante Beze, Pretty Flaco and Flaco Bey (wikipedia 2006) all in an effort to develop his identity. Urban Thermo Dynamics was his first group with his siblings. He began working solo in 1996 with De La Soul and da Bush Babees before his first single came out, Universal Magnetic. Working with Talib Kweli, he formed Black Star in 1998. His first solo album came out in 1999, Black on Both Sides, and his second, The New Danger, in 2004. Despite saying that he wasn’t â€Å"down with that commercial nonsense† and that he wouldn’t do an album with JayZ and RocAFella for that reason, he still made a commercial for General Motors that made his fans wonder. Still, Mos Def â€Å"keeps it real† with his fan-base by his ‘real’ lyrics and his excellent movie portrayals.

Families Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Families - Essay Example Whereas fifty years ago divorce was rare, and homosexuality invisible, nowadays these features are common in society. If individuals want to create their own type of family according to their own values and ideals, then there is an opportunity to explore this in new ways. There is conflict between restrictive but stable traditional models, and freer but potentially less stable modern alternatives. Immigrant families have the benefit of at least two cultural heritages, and this enriches their life experience. It can also cause tensions when adapting to new contexts and sometimes clashes with expectations of the culture of origin. Often children feel caught between the old and the new, and it takes generations for families to be fully at ease in both cultures. Another advantage of immigrant families is that people often have the opportunity to speak more than one language. This has useful career implications but above all it enables people to see the world more openly and be accepting of differences without judging one or the other. White American families who only speak English are at a disadvantage because they are tempted to hold narrow views, and find it harder to think in concepts outside their own ethnic group norms. Latinos, African Americans, Asians and other minority groups in America can suffer prejudice and misunderstanding which adds stress to their lives. Families who find themselves victims of racism will stick together more closely, but there are disadvantages in accessing full citizenship benefits if resentment builds up inside the family and opportunities are blocked in society outside the family. This can be a vicious circle which is hard to break. Similar scenarios can develop within gay and lesbian families. Multi-generational families are the norm in some societies, notably African and Asian

Graduate Reflection Paper 4(a) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Graduate Reflection Paper 4(a) - Essay Example There are many factors that create a leader with strong communication skills. Covey (1989) states that being a good listener brings many benefits for the leader. It helps the leader build relationships and it is a very important part of appraisal and training. Covey also suggests that communication has four components: speaking, writing, reading and listening. Caputo et al. (2003) suggests that leaders must create a system of effective communication with their employees and leadership must have effective communication in order to have complete leadership. Covey (1990) created seven principles regarding communication: "Be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think win/win, seek first to understand and then to be understood, synergize and sharpen the saw" (p. 41). Covey talks about these habits as human endowments that enhance a leaders communication skills by placing them in a frame of mind that creates their ability to move their employees forward (Covey, 1990). This means that they also need to have a voice in communication. Leaders must be active listeners, create a space for employees to speak their minds respectfully and help their employees to recognize their own voice (Covey, 2004). Each leader must be influential which means they also need to understand how to persuade their employees. This does not the must coerce their employees but rather understand how to move them towards what is expected or needed. Carnegie (1964) suggests that the one way to get someone to do something is to make them want to do it. A strong leaders does this by helping their employees improve, not by criticizing them. Also, leaders must show employees that they are appreciated. These ideas will help employees stay motivated to communicate well with their manager. This also means that the manager must seek to find a

Alvin Plantinga's Free Will Defense Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Alvin Plantinga's Free Will Defense - Essay Example Platinga demonstrates how theistic belief, about God being omnipotent and wholly good, is logically consistent. Permitting evil means creating a world with moral good, as well as, moral evil. This is an argument that answers the questions raised by different philosophers, or defends itself against some philosophers, with contradictory ideas about the existence of evil and the role of God. In the logical problem of evil, it is indicated that there are different possibilities to the existence of evil. Some of these mentioned are that God: can eliminate evil but he is adamant, wants to eliminate evil but is incapable of eliminating it, does not wish to eliminate evil and cannot eliminate evil, and wants to eliminate evil and can eliminate evil (Zagzebski, p. 146). Platinga gives an argument that creatures are given free will to do moral good and evil, and God had a valid reason for it. This paper is an explanation of Platinga’s argument of ‘free will’. In Platinga’s Free Will Defense, he has made certain definitions and distinctions. Being free is defined with respect to an action. Being free with respect to a certain action means that the individual has the free will to refrain from performing it or to perform it. There are no causal laws or antecedent conditions that predetermine the person’s choice of action. Free will means the person has the power to decide to act or not to act. A second definition or distinction is about the action. An action is morally significant if it is right to perform the action and wrong to refrain from it or vice versa. Significantly free means a person is free with respect to a morally significant action. There is also a distinction between naturally evil and morally evil. Moral evil is that which results from free human activity while natural evil is any other kind of evil (Plantinga, p, 30). Based on these distinctions and definitions, Platinga notes that a world is more valuable when it contains creatures with significant freedom than when it has creatures with no freedom at all. In their freedom, the creatures should be able to perform more good than evil actions. Platinga argues that there is no freedom if people are created with the freedom, but their actions are predetermined by God. According to him, God has the capability of creating creatures that are significantly free, but has chosen to give them the freedom to act on their own always. God cannot cause or determine the creatures to do only what is right. Freedom according to Platinga means being given a choice. A choice has to exist between two or more variables. In this case, the variables are good and evil, or moral good and moral evil. If God creates creatures with free will, but determines what their actions will be, there is no freedom at all. Free will creatures are given the will to choose from moral evil and moral good, and to act according to what they think is right or wrong. His argument, th erefore, is that God cannot create creatures capable of moral good without giving the same creatures the capability of moral evil if they are to have free will. In exercising their freedom, some of God’s creatures went wrong in exercising their freedom. This does not mean that God is not omnipotent and not good. It means that he has given the free will with no determinations of what actions the creatures should engage in (Plantinga, p, 30). Free will defenders believe that or find propositions that are consistent with; God is omnipotent, God is omniscient, and is wholly good. They also believe that alongside the existence of these characteristics of God, there is still evil. God has very good reasons for creating both moral

Interrogating the Museum Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Interrogating the Museum - Essay Example It is â€Å"is fashioned after the many cabinets of curiosities housed among princely palaces that originated throughout Europe during the 1500s. Ours follows this tradition with a stimulating mixture of books, games, costumes, and other hands-on activities for the entire family (Denver Art Museum). Perhaps the extra effort that was undertaken by the curator of the museum was consistent with its mission not just to house art works but rather to â€Å"enrich the lives of present and future generations through the acquisition, presentation, and preservation of works of art† which explains why the â€Å"unusual† presentation of the art works. The Bernadette Berger Discovery Library contains a mixture of artworks, artifacts, books and other printed artistic materials that it would be difficult to classify the discovery library as a mere museum or study area because it is a combination of both and even more because it encourages the visitors toward a self-discovery of the a rea. In addition, the discovery library in Denver Art Museum is also constantly rearranged to invite its visitors for a return. The moment visitors enter the library, they would notice unusually sized furniture where books, artifacts and artworks are nicely tucked on the walls and cabinets which includes an 18th century doll house, an Egyptian mummy case and several Greek vases. What is unusual with the framing of the artworks there is that some are contained in drawers that the visitors can roll out to see them which includes Egyptian jewelry. What is interesting in the discovery library were the artworks that early Native Americans would have which includes ceramics, basketries and even photos and paintings of the old American West. They are also constantly being rearranged but in general, the place could simulate a comfortable home with oversize furniture and air conditioned. It is also one of the very few museums where there are computers that we could use. Equally interesting, and perhaps the visionary approach of its curator is that there were no staff present when I visited the place and we were just left alone. It was not to neglect us visitors but it was more of encouraging us to explore what is in the library and to encourage that, staff presence were removed. And it was effective because I became engaged with the discovery center. The Bernadette Berger Discovery Library was opened between 1997 and 1999 which was deliberately created as a â€Å"themed† library and used the term â€Å"discovery library† for it to send a message to its visitors that they are welcome not to mention to become more comfortable with the place that would induce them to stay longer. The set up of presenting the books and artworks in the Discovery Library was intended to break the pattern where visitors see a museum with a permanent set up or presentation where they would only visit once not to mention that the visit would be a bore because they remain standing that they could only spend for minimum amount of time (Williams 160). Personally, this is the most interesting part of the museum because it is inviting, relaxing and engaging unlike in other places in other museum where there are no activities that all I have to do is stare at the artwork or listen to the explanation of the curator where I have been standing all along. With this kind of set up, the guests visit

International Human Resources Managemnt Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

International Human Resources Managemnt - Essay Example We will briefly start with the need of international human resource management, followed by the increase in problems and hurdles and finally highlight the key strategies that should be adopted to have a strategic international HRM in order to achieve an added or competitive advantage (Lane 2000). This will include a special focus on dealing with expatriates. In the end we will sum it up with certain recommendations and conclusion. Globalization has accelerated greatly in the last few decades. Organizations are crossing borders either through opening branches or subsidiaries in other nations or simply hiring individuals on a contract basis. However, one major misconception is that due to globalization labor environment has become uniform. Though super national bodies such as European Union are trying to develop consistent policies across all nations they are still at a very initial level. Therefore, there is a dire need for having unique HRM policies and strategies for every state in which the business is operating (Caluwe 2000). In this situation the real question arises when there has to be a balanced developed between an integrated HRM practice across border and at the same time keeping consideration of the local perspective. Organizations need to spread their competent policies to other sides of the business. This means that if there is an effective strategy in place at the home ranch it has to be introduc ed in other nations too for competitive advantage. As mentioned in the introduction, there are many factors that make international HRM more complicated and act as a hurdle in achieving a well management system of human resource. Some of them are as follows: 1. Legal laws and policies: Every country has its own labor laws and rights protection policies. Further, how well are they enforced is another factor that differs from one state to another. Multinationals that are present in Europe as well as India have to

Advanced Financial Accounting Assignment - Accounting by employers for Essay

Advanced Financial Accounting Assignment - Accounting by employers for employees' retirement benefits - Essay Example Actual returns on plan assets are reduced from this pension cost for purpose of its recognition on income statement. SSAP 24 requires that pension cost is the long term funding costs that is evaluated by actuaries and should be spread over the total period in order to smoothen the cost from year to year. Similarly actuary evaluated scheme surpluses are also spread out over the total period and the net charge of each year is expressed as percentage of payroll. On the other hand the approach under FRS 17 emphasis that ‘what is shown as the cost in the profit and loss account is the cost of buying one year’s benefits for the scheme members i.e., the benefit accrued during the current accounting period.’(Standard Life, page 4)1 SSAP 24 requires that a consistent valuation method be used to calculate best estimate of pension cost, and a regular and standard contribution rate is computed to meet the estimated pension costs. Surplus or deficits of pension costs are spread out over remaining working lifetime of current memberships. But SSAP 24 does not specify any amortization method. With the result there were prepayments on balance sheets when the company was in deficit and provisions when the company was in surplus. Accordingly a number of dubious assets and liabilities used to be created on application of this standard rate. Balance sheet was therefore not a fair representation of assets and liabilities under the pension plan. With implementation of FRS 17 ‘this spreading or accrual based approach was abandoned and instead proper recording of balance sheet assets and liabilities has become the focus of revised accounting standard.’(Robert Kirk, page 237)2 Every year the actual returns on plan assets are compared with the expected returns on plan assets. The expected return is generally equal to the fair value of the plan assets at the beginning of the period multiplied by the expected