Monday, October 21, 2019

Profile of Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize Winning Novelist

Profile of Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize Winning Novelist Toni Morrison (February 18, 1931, to August 5, 2019) was an American novelist, editor, and educator whose novels focused on the experience of black Americans, particularly emphasizing black womens experience in an unjust society and the search for cultural identity. In her writing, she artfully used fantasy and mythical elements along with realistic depictions of racial, gender and class conflict. In 1993, she became the first African American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Fast Facts: Toni Morrison Known For: American novelist, editor, and educatorAlso Known As: Chloe Anthony Wofford (given name at birth)Born: February 18, 1931 in Lorain, OhioDied: August 5, 2019 in The Bronx, New York City (pneumonia)Parents: Ramah and George WoffordEducation: Howard University (BA), Cornell University (MA)Noted Works: The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Beloved, Jazz, ParadiseKey Awards: Pulitzer Prize for fiction (1987), Nobel Prize in Literature (1993), Presidential Medal of Freedom (2012)Spouse: Harold MorrisonChildren: sons Harold Ford Morrison, Slade MorrisonNotable Quote: â€Å"If you’re going to hold someone down you’re going to have to hold on by the other end of the chain. You are confined by your own repression.† Along with the Nobel Prize, Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award in 1988 for her 1987 novel Beloved, and in 1996, she was selected for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. government’s highest honor for achievement in the humanities. On May 29, 2012, she was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. Early Life, Education, and Teaching Career Toni Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford in Lorain, Ohio, on February 18, 1931, to Ramah and George Wofford. Growing up during the economic hardship of the Great Depression, Morrison’s father, a former sharecropper, worked at three jobs to support the family. It was from her family that Morrison inherited her deep appreciation for all aspects of black culture. Morrison earned Bachelor of Arts degrees from Howard University in 1952 and a Masters degree from Cornell University in 1955. After college, she changed her first name to Toni and taught at Texas Southern University until 1957. From 1957 to 1964, she taught at Howard University, where she married Jamaican architect Harold Morrison. Before divorcing in 1964, the couple had two sons together, Harold Ford Morrison and Slade Morrison. Among her students at Howard were future Civil Rights Movement leader Stokely Carmichael and Claude Brown, author of Manchild in the Promised Land. In 1965, Toni Morrison went to work as an editor at book publisher Random House, becoming the first black woman senior editor in the fiction department in 1967. After returning to teaching at State University of New York at Albany from 1984 to 1989, she taught at Princeton University until she retired in 2006. Writing Career While working as a senior editor at Random House, Morrison also started sending her own manuscripts to publishers. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970 when Morrison was 39. Bluest Eye told the story of a victimized young black girl whose obsession with her idea of white beauty drove her longing for blue eyes. Her second novel, Sula, depicting the friendship between two black women, was published in 1973, while she was teaching at State University of New York. While teaching at Yale in 1977, Morrison’s third novel, Song of Solomon, was published. The book gained critical and popular acclaim, winning the 1977 National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Her next novel, Tar Baby, exploring the conflicts of race, class, and sex, was published in 1981 and led to her being accepted as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Morrison’s first play, Dreaming Emmett, about the 1955 lynching of black teenager Emmett Till, premiered in 1986. The Beloved Trilogy Published in 1987, Morrison’s most celebrated novel, Beloved, was inspired by the life story of Margaret Garner, an enslaved African American woman. Remaining on the New York Times bestseller list for 25 weeks, Beloved won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. In 1998, Beloved was made into a feature film starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover.   The second book in what Morrison called her â€Å"Beloved trilogy,† Jazz, came out in 1992. Written in a style imitating the rhythms of jazz music, Jazz depicts a love triangle during New York City’s Harlem Renaissance period of the 1920s. Critical acclaim from Jazz resulted in Morrison becoming the first African American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Published in 1997, the third book of Morrison’s Beloved trilogy, Paradise, focuses on the citizens of a fictional all-black town. In suggesting that Beloved, Jazz, and Paradise should be read together as a trilogy, Morrison explained, â€Å"The conceptual connection is the search for the beloved- the part of the self that is you, and loves you, and is always there for you.† In her 1993 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Morrison explained the source of her inspiration to depict the black experience by telling the story of an old, blind, black woman who is confronted by a group of black teenagers who ask her, â€Å"Is there no context for our lives? No song, no literature, no poem full of vitamins, no history connected to experience that you can pass along to help us start strong? †¦ Think of our lives and tell us your particularized world. Make up a story.† Final Years and the Writing of Home In her later life, Morrison wrote children’s books with her younger son, Slade Morrison, a painter and a musician. When Slade died of pancreatic cancer in December 2010, one of Morrison’s final novels, Home, was half-completed. She said at the time, â€Å"I stopped writing until I began to think, he would be really put out if he thought that he had caused me to stop. ‘Please, Mom, Im dead, could you keep going . . . ?’† Morrison did â€Å"keep on going† and finished Home, dedicating it to Slade. Published in 2012, Home tells the story of a black Korean War veteran living in the segregated United States of the 1950s, who fights to save his sister from brutal medical experiments performed on her by a racist white doctor. In a 2008 interview with NPR’s Michel Martin, Morrison addressed the future of racism: â€Å"Racism will disappear when [it is] no longer profitable and no longer psychologically useful. When that happens, it’ll be gone.† Today, Oberlin College, in Oberlin, Ohio, is the home of the Toni Morrison Society, an international literary society dedicated to teaching, reading, and researching the works of Toni Morrison. Toni Morrison died at age 88 from complications of pneumonia at the Montefiore Medical Center in The Bronx, New York City, on August 5, 2019. Updated by Robert Longley Sources and Further Reference .†Toni Morrison Fast Factsâ€Å" CNN Library. (August 6, 2019).Duvall, John N. (2000). â€Å".†The Identifying Fictions of Toni Morrison: Modernist Authenticity and Postmodern Blackness Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-23402-7.Fox, Margalit (August 6, 2019). â€Å".†Toni Morrison, Towering Novelist of the Black Experience, Dies at 88 The New York Times.Ghansah, Rachel Kaadzi (April 8, 2015). â€Å".†The Radical Vision of Toni Morrison The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331..†Ghosts in the House: How Toni Morrison Fostered a Generation of Black Writersâ€Å" The New Yorker. October 27, 2003.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Problem Solving Strategies

Problem Solving Strategies The type of problem solving strategy you use depends, in part, on the type of situation you are facing. For instance, finding the answer to a mathematical equation requires different skills than writing an essay on the differences between two philosophers views on religion. Problem solving is considered to be the process of finding solutions to difficult issues.  The type of  problem solving  strategy you use depends, in part, on the type of situation you are facing. For instance, finding the answer to a mathematical equation requires different skills than writing an essay on the differences between two philosophers views on religion. One has a fixed, set answer; the other is subject to interpretation. THE ART OF PROBLEM SOLVING Problem Solving Strategies Below are a few problem-solving strategies, how each works and when they are appropriate: ALGORITHMS. These types of problem-solving techniques rely on a set formula that allows you to arrive at one fixed answer. Good examples of algorithms are mathematical formula and computer programs. HEURISTIC. Heuristic problem-solving tactics are commonly referred to as rule of thumb strategies. These tactics are based on past experience and dont usually arrive at a single, fixed answer. Such problem-solving techniques are used when an exact answer isnt necessary when a range or an approximation is good enough. An example of using a heuristic problem-solving technique is estimating how long it will take you to drive home from campus. If, on previous trips, it has taken between 30 and 35 minutes, its likely that the next trip will take the same amount of time. However, unusually heavy traffic or construction could change this answer. CONSTRUCTIVE CONTROVERSY. This problem-solving technique, developed in the late 1970s, involves presenting your proposed solution to a group of other people, defending your idea, listening to their input and modifying your idea based on their feedback. This approach works well for team projects. INSIGHT. This technique is less structured, but often very effective. This is the let me sleep on it way of solving problems, such as when you awake with an answer to a problem or the answer comes to you in the shower or on the way to class. This technique relies on the subconscious using our past experiences to formulate an answer to a similar problem to those weve dealt with in the past. Since you have no way of knowing if youll arrive at an answer this way, this is obviously a poor technique to use for projects with a deadline. BRAINSTORMING. Brainstorming unleashes the talents of multiple team members on a single project. This technique involves throwing out tentative ideas, discussing each ideas merits and challenges and using the best of these possible solutions to solve the problem. DIVIDE AND CONQUER. Some projects, such as reading an entire text or writing a 5,000-word paper, can seem overwhelming. Dividing those huge projects into smaller, more manageable segments, such as reading a chapter a night or writing 500 words a week, often makes them easy to handle. RESEARCH. This problem-solving tactic makes use of other peoples past experience with similar problems to solve a current problem. As the name implies, this technique involves studying past performances and applying this acquired knowledge to the task at hand. Problem-solving strategies are a necessary part of college, the work environment, and everyday life. The better you become at the different types of strategies and at determining which type to use in which situation, the easier you will find not only your college studies but navigating the world at large. PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS In case you are working on a problem solving assignment, and are having difficulties with it, would be happy to assist. Feel free to contact our writers and they will help you to work through the assignment. Our staff will assign writers with suitable backgrounds and adequate experience. This will result in a paper that is properly written and formatted, with thorough background research and a solid literature base. Feel free to contact us anytime  or place an order and we will gladly help you.

Saturday, October 19, 2019

International Business Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

International Business Assignment - Essay Example Company also became an online store in February 2005 with rebelsport.com.au. Now it has become all the more convenient to purchase performance runners, lifestyle footwear and apparel, gym equipment, yoga clothes, junior wear, licensed jerseys, specialized team and individual sport equipment, camping and outdoor gear and such items just at the click of a mouse. The latest financial figures of company (sales revenue for the nine months ended 1 April 2006) indicate an increase in sales revenue by 14.5% to $272.9 million compared to nine months ended 2 April 2005. Company hopes to cash-in on the Soccer mania and is looking forward to the period of April - June 2006 when the Soccer World Cup begins in Germany. Rebel Sport is associated with some major sporting bodies like National Rugby League (NRL), Cricket Australia, and Soccer NS around Australia. Company has also developed two sponsorship programs MVP and Rebel Sport Rookies to assist both sporting clubs/schools and individuals. In order to fulfill its commitment towards the society, company supports some charities as well. Starlight Foundation, The Day of Difference Foundation, Jeans for Genes (an initiative of The Children's Medical Research Institute of Australia-CMRI) are some of the charity organizations being benefited by this Philanthropy. New avenueNew avenues for business are explored when environment demands increase in pace of activity. Strategists feel more satisfied and comfortable with the prospects of growth from expansion and once the company feels secure and experienced enough on the home-ground it can very well start thinking about crossing the borders and entering the fiercely competitive international arena. It can very well be said that online retail counter can cater to anybody around the globe but for the brand to be recognized and developing 'brand loyalty' physical presence in different markets is a must. Rebel Sports has an experience of more than 20 years in this field so it can very well plan a strategy for opening stores in other countries as well. Today, rules of business success have changed. Innovation and the art of mastering the technological edge have emerged as the new competitive advantages. Information technology and improvements in global telecommunications are giving international firm s more flexibility to shape their global strategies. Rebel sports made good use of the information age by starting online training of its staff and thus channeling the inherent creative talents of all individuals in the right direction, a recipe for success. Now the moot question is 'which strategy to opt for, while entering the International arena. In general the strategies could be categorized as; 1. A multi domestic strategy 2. A global or international strategy 3. A transnational strategy A multi domestic strategy enables individual subsidiaries of a multinational firm to compete independently in different domestic markets. The multinational headquarters coordinates financial controls and major marketing policies, and may centralize some R&D and component production. Otherwise subsidiary behaves like a strategic business unit that is expected to contribute earnings and growth

Friday, October 18, 2019

Developmental Issues Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Developmental Issues - Coursework Example 5. There must be a strong emotional attachment between parents and children, since this drives children to take an interest in the world around them , (Objectives Aligned with NAEYC Standards, page 58). 6. The attitudes towards child rearing is gendered, and often when the father is not spending enough time at home with the children or giving the required resources to manage the family, a stressful home environment is created which affects the proper development of children, (Objectives Aligned with NAEYC Standards, page 62). It involves responsive adult-child interaction, a curriculum that is geared towards the development of children, proper assessment that allows caregivers to develop curriculums and gauge childs performance and show it to their parents, involment of parents in their chidlrens learning, caregivers with knowledge about childhood development, and small groups with higher adult to children ratio, (Objectives Aligned with NAEYC Standards, page 63). Children may develop characteristics that are harmful of their development if not their parents jobs do not give much time for them to pay attention to their children. Over demanding jobs, job insecurity, unsupportive co-workers, long hours etc create stress in working parents , (Objectives Aligned with NAEYC Standards, page 73). They are grandparents, (Objectives Aligned with NAEYC Standards, page 75). Grandfathers can act as father figures for children, grandparents and grandchildren are often free of emotional conflict with each other (Objectives Aligned with NAEYC Standards, page 77). Grandparents can look after the children of full time employed parents, grandparents have stabilizing effect on emotional lives of children (Objectives Aligned with NAEYC Standards, page 75). The dignity and interests of all family members must be respected, parents child rearing values must be

International Business - Change Management Case Study

International Business - Change Management - Case Study Example It has won the following awards: the Northern Ireland Quality Award (twice); the Supreme Irish Quality Award; the parent company's overall quality award (four times); and the British Quality Award. With a turnover f around 258 million, it is among the top 10 companies in Northern Ireland, and is viewed as an exemplar by many local organizations. In addition, BTNI is one f the few companies in Ulster to have undertaken both TQM and large-scale BPR. The need for effective change management dates back to the mid-1980s when the parent company was privatized. Its former monopoly status and Civil Service ethos did little to equip the company to survive and prosper in a market-place which was changing at a rapid rate and becoming increasingly competitive. It quickly became apparent that a new culture, skills and value system were needed--the customer could no longer remain out f sight and out f mind'. Accordingly, this subsidiary, which with around 2600 employees is the smallest f the nine geographical zones' that together cover the whole f the UK, began its formal total quality journey in 1986. Senior management, with involvement from the corporate chief executive office, drew up the company's vision statement and quality policy, and its first cost f quality exercise was undertaken. This revealed that BTNI was overmanned, inefficient and expensive. Benchmarking exercises indicated that BT had approximately 10 times more staff than some f its major competitors. At this point the company could be described as being in crisis'. Its response to this crisis is interesting and informative. Response to crisis. Many writers believe that companies which regard themselves as being in crisis have no option but to re-engineer. It is also argued that the potential risks f BPR make it a last option for businesses, used only for company turnaround. Ryan (1994), for example, states that, in reality, crisis is the necessary trigger to push companies into such radical change. Talwar (1993) takes the opposite view, arguing that high-performing companies are more likely to undertake BPR. This is consistent with Bashein et al. (1994), who consider that re-engineering in a crisis may be inappropriate, as crisis can promote fear and even panic, neither f which is conducive to focused BPR. At BTNI, rather than immediately rushing into re-engineering, senior management developed a complex and long-term change strategy, key elements f which were BS 5750/ISO 9000 accreditation, total quality and, finally, process re-engineering. BTNI's improvement journey. Once the vision statement and quality policy were in place, a Quality Council was established to drive the company's improvement efforts. Figure 1, which maps the company's improvement journey, is revealing. As can be seen, early moves towards TQM in the mid-1980s proved less than successful, when compared with the rate f improvement achieved after BS 5750 accreditation. This was awarded for the company's maintenance operations in 1988/89 and for installation in 1991, followed by ISO 9001 accreditation for all parts f the company in 1993. BTNI's experience is consistent with

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Advocacy Policy for African Americans with Diabetes Research Paper

Advocacy Policy for African Americans with Diabetes - Research Paper Example For this purpose, nurses can collaborate with the Senator and hospital administrators to tell them of their concerns. Provision 9 is about shaping a social policy. This code of ethics encourages nurses to work individually and together through political action to bring social reform (American Nurses Association, 2011). Incorporating these provisions in the policy for African Americans can help the nurses to shape healthcare within the US. This is because these provisions urge nurses to go out in the community and raise awareness about health-related sociocultural issues like poverty, homelessness, and abuse of human rights. Nurses should work both individually and collectively to achieve this end. Adherence to these provisions of the ANA code of ethics is in itself a powerful force to promote advocacy policy. Ethical dilemmas related to lobbying can arise during my advocacy campaign. The whole process of lobbying should be very transparent and there should be no corruption. An unethical practice related to lobbying occurs when policymakers are bribed in some way by those seeking to bring a change. This practice should not be allowed because it only lets those people win who have more power and resources. This ethical dilemma can be resolved by training all nurses to not encourage lawmakers to vote for their policy in a biased manner. However, not all ethical dilemmas are related to lobbying. For example, research has it that there are moral judgments which should be evaluated (Masse and Williams-Jones, 2012, p. 241). Many times people are blamed for having a certain disease due to making bad lifestyle choices by the lobbyists. The burden of responsibility for an illness should not be placed on patients when there a staggering amount of evidence suggests that â€Å"risk factors external to an individual’s control can have an enormous impact on his or her health† (Masse and Williams-Jones, 2012, p. 242). So, this ethical dilemma can be resolved

Bank of England Quantitative Easing(Benefits and consequences) Dissertation

Bank of England Quantitative Easing(Benefits and consequences) - Dissertation Example On the other hand, such a reaction may be just what the UK and US need in order to prevent a deflationary spiral as a result of the financial crisis. If the first round had no detrimental effects, the question remains as to how far is right, because a second round may go further into creating inflationary pressures than expected. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether or not QE could be a viable means of implementing monetary policy to address the present financial morass. Findings arrived at are tentative, because of the relatively short time the quantitative easing policy has been implemented, which spans only about two years for both the US and the UK. For Japan, on the other hand, while QE was implemented for a full five years, the results are inapplicable to the present situation because QE was meant to address Japan’s negative inflation rate already registering for several years, which is entirely different from the threat posed by the present crisis on UK and t he US. Acknowledgment Table of Contents Title Page 1 Abstract 2 Acknowledgement 3 Table of Contents 4 Chapter 1: Introduction 6 1.1 Background of the research topic 6 1.2 Objectives of the study 7 1.3 Research question and subquestions 8 1.4 Scope and limitations of the study 8 1.5 Ethical considerations 9 Chapter 2: Review of related literature 10 2.1 Background of quantitative easing 10 2.2 Quantitative easing as implemented in the UK 12 2.3 Viewpoint of the sceptics 19 2.4 Viewpoint of the enthusiasts 21 2.5 Modest impact assessment 22 2.6 Other Econometric Studies 23 Chapter 3: Methodology 24 3.1 Research strategy 24 3.2 Data description 24 3.3 Data gathering methodology 24 3.4 Analysis of data 25 3.5 Limitations of data and analysis 25 Chapter 4: Case study – US and Japan 27 4.1 Quantitative easing in Japan 27 4.2 Quantitative easing in the United States 33 4.3 Comparison among the US, UK and Japanese QE 38 Chapter 5: Results, analysis and discussion 40 5.1 Analysis of v ariance with log of monetary base and log of long-term interest rate as variables 40 5.2 Analysis of variance with monetary base and long-term interest rate as variables 43 Chapter 6: Conclusion 46 6.1 Summary of the dissertation 46 6.2 Findings of the study: answers to the subquestions 46 6.3 Conclusion: answer to the research objective 47 6.4 Recommendations for future research 48 References 49 Appendices 53 Chapter 1 Introduction 1. 1 Background of the research topic Quantitative easing is a process which the central banks often consider as a last resort to inject liquidity in an economy, without caring for its own quantity of reserve assets (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 72). Often banks opt to buy off all government securities in circulation in the open market in their aggression, without preferring to fix any target rate of retaining their money reserves (Baumol & Blinder 271; Marta & Brusuelas, â€Å"Quantitative Easing†). Such an unorthodox st rategy, as quantitative easing, helped to bail out economies like Japan at a time when it was undergoing its worst phase of liquidity crunch. The method helped the nation to revive from its plight through enhancing its monetary base significantly, though meanwhile the government had to face immense deficits in their budgets (Organisation