Henrik Isbens A Dolls House :: A Dolls House Essays

A Doll’s House When the play â€Å"A Doll’s House† by Henrik Ibsen was first performed, society was much different, and the play shocked many people. Today we don't have quite the same problem, but a deeper look at the "meaning" of the play reveals that it is about problems themselves, not a specific issue. Perhaps a play about gay parenting, internet privacy, or AIDS in the workplace can strike chords of concern in our contemporary audience, and Ibsen's works (perhaps) should be viewed in light of their impact upon social awareness rather than as purely historical pieces. If Nora’s story seems somewhat "archaic" to us, because of our own enlightenment, then we can in a sense thank Ibsen for his pioneering work as a social conscience. Rather, what the play symbolizes about our needs in society, to communicate, and to work towards understanding and tolerance, are much more important issues to a modern day audience. It makes us wonder; can we still learn from Ibsen? Yes we can. Many modern day values are presented in this family. Money is still such a vital role in society. If you don’t have it your worthless, and if you do you are nice to have around. People need money, and still today they will go out of their way to get it. At the time Ibsen's wrote and presented this play it was unheard of that a women COULD leave her family in pursuit of herself and her own happiness. Nowadays this idea is commonplace. Ibsen showed that women were first people, not just doll's, not a â€Å"play thing† for her husband. And that women are intelligent and had others needs then raising a family, and taking care of the home.

Essay --

Role of renewable energy sources in environmental protection. Munthir ALMoslem Student # 1001020682 Course: EES1100 Date: 9th December 2013 Area of interests The Saudi Arabia economy is highly dependent on oil exports; the country has approximately â€Å"one-fifth of the world's proven oil reserves, and it is the largest producer and exporter of oil†, producing 12 million barrels per day (Saudi Arabia Country Profile, 2013). Saudi Arabia is the biggest consumer of oil in the Middle East; in 2009, the country was ranked as the world’s 13th highest consumer of energy, of which about 60 percent was petroleum-based and the other 40 percent was natural gas (Saudi Arabia Country Profile, 2013). From all the accessible sources, the current capacity of producing energy in Saudi Arabia is about 55 gigawatts and grows by 3 gigawatts annually (Alaindroos & He, 2012). The Saudi Arabian government invests about 1,125 billion dollars to cater to its energy needs between now and 2018 (Alaindroos & He, 2012). In the year 2009 alone, the country used about 100 million barrels of oil to produce energy and this implies that they consume one q uarter of all their oil in domestic uses. The demand for electricity in Saudi Arabia is estimated to increase by 70 GW in the next twenty years (Saudi Arabia Country Profile, 2013). The current dependence on unsustainable energy sources has a different effect on the environment due to gases they emit into the atmosphere. If the country fully implements the use of sustainable sources of energy, it will help to expand the use of energy for security purposes. The use of sustainable sources of energy would lead to reduced emissions of greenhouse gases, effluents and other wastes that have a negative im... ...s. Environment, 37(9): 6-15. Maithani, P. (2008). Renewable Energy in the Global Context. New York: Concept Publishing Company. Mani. (2013). Saudi Arabia Invests $109B To Meet 1/3 Energy Needs From Renewables. ValueWalk. Retrieved from http://www.valuewalk.com/2013/07/saudi-arabia-invests-109b/ Nogee , A . , Clemmer, S. , Donovan, D. ,& Deyette, J. (2002). Clean Energy Blueprint: Increasing Energy Security, Saving Money, and Protecting the Environment with Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 22(2): 100-109. Olivier, J. , Janssens-Maenhout , G. , Muntean, M. ,& Peters, J. (2013) . Trends in global CO2 emissions: 2013 Report. Retrieved from http://www.pbl.nl/sites/default/files/cms/publicaties/pbl-2013-trends-in-global-co2-emissions-2013-report-1148.pdf Saudi Arabia Country Profile. (2013). Environmental Analysis. MEED

The Crying of Lot 49 – the Mystery of Trystero

Thomas Pynchon’s novel The Crying of Lot 49 is his second novel, and its his shortest novel, and many even consider it more of an experimantal novel. This novel is about a woman named Oedipa Maas and her quest for the secret behind a hidden and a shadowy organization known as Trystero ( it is also sometimes spelled as Tristero ). This novel was written in 1960s which was a very turbulent time in the history of the United States. Many things happened during this period, many of them had a dramatic influencce on the lives of the ordinary people. During this period, the world witnessed the assassination of J. F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, there was also the rise in the rights women and Civil Rights movement. This was also a time of the so called drug culture, for the abuse of drugs was very common. The novel shows us this world as a world that is constantly high, constantly on drugs and drunk, filled with secrets, information from questionable sources and secret identites. The subject of this paper is the secret society and an organization known as Trystero and their secret underground war against United States government and the official state postal system. Before we move on to the story of the novel, we must first remind ourselves of the postmodern novel and what constitutes a postmodern literature. Postmodern literature, as postmodernism as a whole, is very hard to define for there are no standards for it nor are there any founding fathers, writers who set the standards for it. We could say that postmodern literature is a continuation of the experimantation started by the modernist writers and authors and their usage of fragmentation, paradox, questionable authors, etc and it is also a reaction against the enlighment ideas set by modernist literature. As it was mentioned, postmodern literature is very hard to define and many even say that is no longer exists, also hard to determine. However, many authors and literary critics agree on common themes that occur in postmodern literature, themese that are almost always present in these works and that are always grouped together in order to create irony, humour or to parody something. These themes are however not always used all the postmodern authors, so they can not be called standard postmodern themes, but they occcur most commonly. Thomas Pynchon and his novel The Crying of Lot 49 are an example of postmodern writing, for Pynchon always uses parody, paranoia, playfulness and black humour in his works, and this work is also filled with these themes. Postmodern authors, Pynchon among them, usually treat serious themes and subjects in a humorous and funny manner. Pynchon does that in this novel. In The Crying of Lot 49, Pynchon deals with a serious topic about lives of people in a modern consumer America, about secrets and mysterious organizations, secret identities and also how information can influence our thoughts and even confuse and disturb us, but he approached all of that in a humorous and a funny way. This novel is a sort of a parody of a detective novel. This is because in real detective novels, the hero starts to solve the mystery starting from various and numerous clues, from a, we could say, chaos of information and draws a conclusion which leads to the truth behind the mystery and reveals the bad guy. In this novel however, we have Oedipa who opens a mailbox to get the letter and discovers that she has a job to do, pretty simple really, but as the novel progresses, her life and task become more complicated and complicated, she learns about the Trystero and her ex-boyfriend’s job and business undertakings but instead of making things clear, instead of solving the mystery of the Trystero, she became even more confused than she was when she first found out about them, so much confused that she almost lost her mind and started to think if it all was nothing more than a joke, created by her deceased ex-boyfriend or even maybe this was all just the work of her own imagination. This novel also has paranoia present in itself, Oedipa becomes paranoid about the world and the people around herself, but she is not the only one really. Almost all characters are paranoid, and the existence of the Trystero is more than enough to create a paranoid world. What also makes this novel postmodern is the usage of wordplay. Pynchon plays with words, names of the people, like Pierce Inverarity, Mike Fallopian, Stanley koteks, Oedipa Maas, with the names of the towns like San Narciso and we also have the wordplay with words like waste which is turned here in this novel into an acronym W. A. S. T. E. and KCUF radio station. What also makes this novel postmodern is that we have unreliable narrator. Oedipa Maas is the main protagonist of this story, but we see the action of the novel only as she does and we know what we know, no more no less, and she is almost always drunk or on drugs, just like all other characters that appear in the novel. We can say that this novel also combines elements of both modern and postmodern novels, because the relation between these two genres is often connected because they share both similarities and differences. Oedipa Maas is the heroine, a modernist heroine who is trapped in a postmodern world. Her quest is not only to discover the death of Mr Inverarity and of the Tristero, but also to discover her inner self and her inner soul. She meets people who can be considered as lost causes, but Pynchon sees them as someone really worth fighting for as they have shown the real self-discovery. We could say that this is the novel of the character development, a bildungs roman, for Oedipa develops her character, no matter how confused she is in the end, she becomes stronger and more determined to discover the real truth, no matter how weird and confusing that truth really is. She continues and carries on even though her quest is a lost cause. However, Pynchon also uses his postmodern novel in order to criticize the modernist vision of the world by showing us a society that filled with discarded objects and discarded people. The most obvious example of this is the acronym WASTE, which becomes a central theme in the novel, but will talk about it later in the paper. There are also discarded people who formed secret underground groups and societies as a response to various forms of rejection by their society. For example we have IA group, created by a man who swore off love after his wife cheated on him, The Alameda County Death Club and the Peter Pinguids, a group of people who are against industrial capitalism etc. As it was stated in the beginning, the subject of this paper is the mysterious Trystero organization. This novel is a bout a world, a world that seems to be constantly on drugs or drunk. We could think that this is the world that many people try to get away from, trying to vanish from it, for in this novel Oedipa meets various people who just want to be left alone, forgotten perhaps. We see people who have not rebelled against the government and they are not the deserters, they have just chose to leave, to hide and stay hidden. Oedipa sees this as their first real independent choice, a choice they have all made away from the press, the government and its institutions. They don’t use official state institutions, in this case the official postal system of the United States. This is the world of secrets and hidden identities, and of course secret societies, underground organizations, like Trystero is. What is this Trystero? Who are they? What is their goal? Their mission and agenda? Oedipa wants to find out just that, who they are and what they want, but unfortunately all she accomplishes is to end up completely baffled by everything and everyone she meets. As it was mentioned in the previous paragraph, she does not give up and is determined to continue with her search. Trystero represents this main aspect of underground and of hiding away from the government and the world. We as readers of this novel know about Trystero as much as Oedipa does and we also in the end, as she does, end up confused and baffled if all of this was actually real or was it all just her imagination or a bad joke. The bulk of the book is spent following Oedipa as she tries to track down what exactly the Trystero is. She stumbles upon this one night when she and Metzger are at The Scope, a club frequented by Yoyodyne employees, a huge defense contractor for the military in the area. While in the ladies’ room Oedipa notices the following written near a drawing of a muted horn: â€Å"Interested in sophisticated fun? You, hubby, girl friends. The more the merrier. Get in touch with Kirby, through WASTE only, Box 7391, L. A. †1 The book then follows a play-within-a-play format when Oedipa watches a play called The Courier’s Tragedy which puts into some context the history between Tristero and Thurn And Taxis, the latter being a real mail distribution company throughout Europe for many centuries. It is from this play that Oedipa learns about the history of Trystero. According to the story, Trystero was defeated by Thurn and Taxis in the 1700. and since then it has been hiding and went underground. This Trystero now exists, or at least it appears to exist, or maybe not, as a secret society that is completely separated from the United States government and the official postal service. Oedipa even believes that Trystero battled with Pony Express and United States Postal Service over the control of information flow. However, this battle seems to go on, between Tristero and US Postal Service. Tristero is the symbol of the underground here in the novel and they are present as an invisible force with a hidden agenda and goals. Their symbol is a muted post horn which is the first thing Oedipa sees of the Tristero in a club mentioned early and their way of communicating and transfering of information is through the WASTE system which uses clever disguises – their way of transferring information, a kind of parody to the official postal service, is by using waste-bins as their post-boxes. Thomas Pynchon does a very good job in making us believe that this society indeed really exists, but he also confuses by putting various names, most of them of people who are actually not so important for the story of the novel, but he does manage to create and illusion of a conspiracy. The most important part of the novel is the reproduction of the fictional Jacobean Drama known as The Courier’s Tragedy. This play is where Oedipa first hear the name Tristero and of their struggle with Thurn and Taxis. This play provides us with the first account of the Tristero, but it is their symbol that really draws our attention. We will now discuss the symbols of Tristero, for they are the key to understanding it, or at least trying ot understand the story behind them. These include the muted post horn and WASTE system. We will begin with the first symbol that Oedipa comes in contact with and tha th is the muted post horn. Oedipa first sees this symbol in the bathroom of a club The Scope, as a part of a small message, more like an add. Fro mthat moment she will see this symbol everywhere she goes. Genghis Cohen will show her the post horn tha ris hidden in a certain stamp collection that was I nthe possession of her late ex-boyfriend, mr Inverarity. Later she will see the same symbol being scribbled on paper by a technician in Yoyodine building, Stanley Koteks. Oedipa even sees it when children draw it in the park and play a game in which they mention Tristero. This post horn, as Oedipa finds out from Cohen, was a symbol of Thurn and Taxis. Their symbol is a post horn, while Tristero uses a muted post horn, probably as a way to mock them. Tristero, as it is given, fought against Thurn and Taxis and lost the battle. Tristero went into the hiding and managed t oreach United States somewhere arund 1853. nd fought the Pony Express and Wells, Fargo, and their agents were always either dressed as outlaws in black or as indians, Oedipa manages to recover a ring fro man old man, Mr. Thoth, who lives in a retirement home bulit by Pierce Inverarity. He tells her that this ring, which ha s the muted post horn engraved on it, was given to him by his grandfather who got it from an indian he killed. However, at one time, Oedipa met a man who wore a pin with the muted post horn: â€Å"What if I told you, â€Å" she adressed the owner of the pin, â€Å"that I was an agent of Thurn and Taxis? † â€Å"What, â€Å" he answered, â€Å" some theatrical agency? †2 Here we have a different story about the origin of the muted post horn. According to his story, this is a symbol of Inamorati Anonymus, a group of people who forsook love, which they see as the worst addiction of all. The creator of the organziation and of the symbol was a Yoyodine executive, who found the Inamorati Anonymus after finding out that his wife was cheating on him. This leads us back to point when Oedipa saw for the first time the muted post horn as a part of the advertisement for this organization, which makes us believe if Tristero really is real or just an organization of people who have forsook love and make sure that no one else ever falls in love are using secretive methods to communicate with each other. Another characteristic of this novel, and another symbol of the Trystero, is the so called WASTE. This can stand as an acronym which means We Await Silent Trystero Empire, which is always written on regular waste bins. This can also stand for a secret undergrounf information network that is used by people who forsook their own lives and chosen t olive I nsecrecy and away form the government. There are even corporations who refuse to use the official postal system, like Yoyodine, and there is also an organization known as Peter Penguid Society, of which Mike Fallopian is the member, who oppose the monopoly of the US Postal Service and are using their own private system. This is a system of information transfer that is used by those who want to remain hidden, secret, and there are signs that Tristero is the runner of it. They use waste bins and their postman, or couriers,are bums and other social missfits. Inamorati Anonymus is the organiztion that openly uses the WASTE system for their communication. These two symbols, the muted post horn and the WASTE system, give us and Oedipa clues about Tristero but the lalso confuse us, brcause as we learn about their connectionwith Tristero, we also learn their other meanings and that they are being used by some other ynderground isoalted groups and organizations. After all this confusion, Oedipa returns to the Jacobean Drama, where she first heard the word Tristero. She comes in contact with Emory Bortz, a proffesor at San Narciso College, for the information about the play itself, especially the Tristero version of the play. Unfortunately, the only person who knew the real story about the play was Driblette, who directed the play Oedipa saw, and he commited a suicide. As we draw near to the end of the novel, we see that Oedipa discovers a great deal of historical Tristero, about its origins. She discovers that it was created around 1577, I nthe Netherlands. After William of Orange achieved independence from Spain and the Holy Roman empire, he replaced the people who were in control of the Thurn and Taxis and Leopold I’s rule, and in their place put a man named Jan Hinckard. However, Hinckard was challenged by his cousin Hernando Joaquin de Tristero y Calavera. Tristero fought a guerilla war against Hinckard from 1578. until 1583. Tristero gives up the fighting and sets up a covert system. However, Oedipa finds out that during 17th Century, Thurn and Taxis struggle to maintain their system ,and this may mena that Tristero was very effective during that time and period. Tristero’s presence as the black coated bandits was confirmed by Proffesor Bortz wh ogave her a book An Account of the Singular Peregrinations of Dr. Diocletian Blobb. Dr. Blobb survived one of their attacks with him being captured by them and sent back to England in order t otell everyone of the power of Tristero. Oedipa in the end managed t odiscover a great deal of historical information about the Tristero, but this did not satisfy her because she still did not know why Driblette mentioned the Tristero in his work, when in the original work there is no mentioning of them at all. Wheteher this is true or not, Oedipa tells everything to Mike Fallopian back at the Scope, where she first saw the muted post horn. Fallopian, after hearing her story and her findings, asks Oedipa if she ever considered the possibility that this may all had been a joke orchestrated by Pierce Inverarity. She did consider this, but refuses to think like that anymore. Later she goes back and again searches through all of the Pierce’s possesions and finds out that Pierce had presence in all the places and had inlfuence on all the people she met. He owned Zapf’s Used Bookstore, where she bought her copy of the Jacobean drama, he also owned the Tank Theater, where she saw Driblette’s production of â€Å"The Courier’s Tragedy†. Proffesor Bortz works at San Narciso College, which was founded by Pierce himself, and even blobb’s Peregrinations were bought at Zapf’s Used Bookstore. Thisl eads her to believe that Fallopian may be right, that all of this was nothing more than joke, a gag produced by Pierce himself. The ending of the novel also does not help us, for it is open ended. Oedipa goes to an auction of Peirce’s stamp collection, which is under the name Lot 49, but that is where it all ends. In a conclusion, we are left confused whether this was all real. Pynchon did a great job of providing the information about the historical founding of the Tristero, but he also filled his novel with other information, all of it made up, even the historical. Instead of finding answers, we find more and more questions. The Crying of Lot 49 shows a fragmented world in which there are always more alternatives, in this world information leads to more information which create more questions and answers. This leads people, like Oedipa in this case, to create various alternate interpretations just in order to create some sort of the bigger picture onto which they will hold to. This entire Tristero conspiracy may have been a joke or a paranoid creation by Oedipa herself, or maybe there is truth behind it all. We will never know. We do know, that there are secret organizations who uses secret and undercover means of communicating, there are people who have secret identities, who seek truth somewhere else. We all live in the world filled with information and symbols and who knows, maybe there is a secret undercover conspiracy by a secret postal system who wants t obring down the monopol of the government’s postal system. Personally, I find this novel to be very interesting because it deals with a mystery and search for the truth. When I read it, I found it hard t ounderstand it in the end, whether this is all true, if there really is Tristero, or maybe this was all just a paranoid dream by Oedipa or maybe even a possibilty that this was all a bad joke by Pierce with Oedipa as its target. Whatever the truth is, we will never really know, for the novel has the open ending, but all quests, all attempts to find some sort of truth end up like that – with more questions than answers and with multiple interpretations of evidence and information. End Notes 1. Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49, First perennial fiction library edition, 1986. Pg. 52 2. ibid. , Pg. 111 Bibliography www. wikipedia. org www. sparknotes. com http://www. examiner. com/x-13462-West-Palm-Beach-Literature-Examiner~y2009m7d19-Modernism-v-Postmodernism-part-one-The-Crying-of-Lot-49 http://cl49. pynchonwiki. com/wiki/index. php? title=The_Crying_of_Lot_49 Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49, First perennial fiction library edition, 1986

Insurance in 2020

INSURANCE 2020 – THE PATH AHEAD Introduction Insurance is a social device which help the public to transfer the risk which is integrated part of the human life. It’s been years this term called insurance generated. Now one of the most emerging and greening sector in India is insurance. The needs and preference of a customer is changing day by day. The people are more aware about the need for diverting the risk to a third party by taking insurance. They also consider insurance as an investment. Now day’s insurance companies are following certain marketing strategies. It includes understanding needs and preference of the customers by conducting marketing research and customizing the products and services to the benefit of the society. The companies follow different retail and wholesale distribution channels to reach the customers. Agents, Bancassurance, Brokers and others are some of the distribution channels which prevail in the current market. This paper talks about considering the current facts and features of insurance sector in India, what will be the insurance scenario in 2020. It also talks about upcoming marketing strategies and distribution channels in 2020. Objectives of the study †¢ Primary Objectives o Identify the major changes in the Indian insurance sector on a road to 2020 †¢ Secondary Objectives o Analyze the consumer perception of insurance how it can be tackled by the insurance companies in the upcoming future o Identify the future marketing strategies of insurance as a business in 2020 o Identify the distribution channels of insurance in 2020 and how the features are differentiated themselves from the current distribution channels Research Methodology Descriptive research method is followed in this study Change in Indian insurance industry by 2020 Indian insurance is expected to be going through a significant change of 70% as per the survey conducted by IBM insurance 2020 survey 2006. Among the 30 samples taken 30 % states that insurance industry will be having an incremental change of 30 % by the end of 2020. [pic] There are some reasons for saying that the Indian insurance industry will be facing significant change. The customers are living in era of latest technology and advanced services in which customers are treated not as king, he is the god which decides the existence of a company whether it deal with products or services. If the business fails to please their lord i. e. customers then there won’t be any existence for that particular business. Because of the latest technologies strengthening the demand and bargaining power of customers the customers are active and well informed about the services that they can get from the insurance companies. Another reason would be the increasing competition among the players in Indian insurance sector. Each company is trying to get a competitive edge over other companies by giving most importance to the word ‘Innovation’. The companies can’t run their business without innovation because all the businesses believe in ‘survival of the fittest’. And more over the customer wants the companies should predict their needs and preference well in advance and to serve them. Last but not the least people consider insurance as a strategic investment in life or we can put forward like people consider insurance as life time planning which starts from cradle to graveyard. Now it’s time for us to think about the upcoming trend of Indian insurance industry in the coming years. The ultimate users of the insurance services are people. When companies target people for selling or marketing of insurance they will think only think about their demographic characters like age, income, family etc. But classifying the customers as per their demographic characters and social characters may not help the insurance companies to survive for future. Insurance companies need to further classify the people into innovators and non innovators. Innovators are the people who buy the product or service as and when it reaches the market. Innovators are early buyers of the product. Non innovators are late buyers. Now the point to be discussed is what is the relevance of innovators in a service sector like insurance and why people should buy insurance policies or plans as and when it reaches the market. As I mentioned earlier insurance policies are good stage for strategic investments. When a share or a fund of a blue chip companies are announced in the market, people would be demanding those funds even if it is not there in market. In future most of the companies would be designing their insurance plans as a strategic investment plus risk covering plan, so such companies would targeting high growth funds or shares. So when an insurance company launch their new insurance products in market they will be targeting innovators. Another reason for targeting innovators is that the people who are in the category of non innovators would seek the advices from innovators during purchase of services since innovators are opinion leaders in the market. Another important trend that, the insurance sector would be mostly adopted the concept of virtual office in terms of physical presence. The technology is so updated, now it self a consumer can avail the facilities of insurance companies through the use of internet. Another reason for this trend would be increasing the number of insurance companies in the market. This also will pressure the companies to fully adopt the concept of virtual insurance. The insurance companies in 2020 will be targeting a modern value chain which is the collection of process and services that are linked together to create, develop, sell, deliver, process and service an insurance policy over the life of the contract. It would be hard to find the paper documents or trend of e-documents are no longer away from the insurance market in 2020. The insurance products that is going to capture the markets would be rather known as insurance packages which would cover all the risk of a human being in his life time i. e. once if he is taken an insurance plan it will cover all the risk till his death and investment requirements. The insurance products in 2020 would be concentrating on the concept of ‘Just in Time insurance’ as a person moves through set of spaces. Each stage of his life would be consisting different set of spaces. The new insurance package policies would be concentrating this set of spaces in human life. Insurance sector is one of the mostly regulated sectors in India. The economic crisis which struck globally will be forcing the IRDA and other regulatory bodies to come out with more rules and regulations especially in the foreign institutional investments and foreign direct investment. In 2020 the barriers in availing facilities of insurance with in the boundaries of the respected country, would be started to change since the insurance sector itself demands the emergence of a globally accepted standard of global insurance bodies. Another important thing that we can see sometimes before 2020 would the concept of ‘risk – to – opportunity’. Climate change is big question mark for the insurers. We can see a trend of insurer responds to climate change also. Considering the carbon trade and green business development project the insurance sector can’t close its eyes towards the natural environment. The insurance packages that are going to be prevailing in the insurance market will have certain features. It would a socially enabled product which would be designed to market through online word of mouth. It would also concentrate the concept of a mass produced, multi – component pre-packaged one click solutions which will find a gap in the market place. These packages would be allowing plan conversion exchange which would allow people to convert defined contribution assets into income for life through making into annuities. Another important point to be discussed is that considering the latest technologies that is going to be adopted by the insurance scenario in 2020, most of the insurance companies will have direct tie up with software companies for the use of Information Technology [pic] Marketing strategies of Indian insurance sector in 2020 Indian insurance marketing strategies mainly concentrating on the concept of CRM i. e. customer relationship management. Since insurance sector concentrating on the societal and demographic features of customers, future CRM would be all about creating online communities of customers via emerging social media, such as face book, twitter and similar websites. The companies will take initiative to create such communities which will increase the customer handling efficiency of the company. Another strategy that the insurance companies started to adopt is 80:20 principles. It means retaining the customer who contributes to the majority of the business and serving him as the primary customer. Concentrating in the existing customers will help to get business through cross selling and reduction of the acquisition cost of a new customer. Another trend in the marketing strategies adopted by insurance would be based on the concept of ‘being with the customer’. For example if there is an insurance policy for a corporate is being taken, while providing statements and newsletters the insurer include success stories and pictures that people in that particular corporate works. The future climate of insurance will be forced to emerge new distribution marketing strategies. We can see different strategies for each distribution channels. Banks have long established programs and accounts for ‘young savers’, and have made available courses on handling credit for teenagers. In the future insurance arena, a similar program might involve school presentations on the mechanics of risk, or, rather than the typical sponsorships of sports, taking a logical next step with youth organizations. These kinds of steps include activities such as insurance sponsored clubs which will tune the kids mainly in the concepts of risk management and practising safety in their environment where they interact most. One another strategy would be different approaches to people who have different demographic characteristics. For example, old aged customers can be approached with statistical details and promotional campaigns while the younger group prefers the carries like orkut, face book and other online communication devices. The trend show like more and more consumers are increasingly disenchanted with mass marketing and seek individual attention as well as customization of their customer interactions. The next generation of risk management is one where the focus is not on simply mechanizing the processing of data, but on modelling and automating the smart processing of risk information. The upcoming insurance industry is going to take advantage of social technologies in two ways, like first would be empowering the agents to take advantage of social media as their CRM systems. It is the best way to reach the customers with common interests, while the other is connecting with people engaged in similar occupation. Second would be the extreme widening of products and services. Innovative thinking needs to be built in existing products around their social ability and connectivity. The life insurance business has innovated in less obvious ways by combining coverage’s and adding flexibility to standard coverage’s. Life companies need to attack the oft-quoted maxim that ‘life insurance is sold, not bought’ and overcome the negative perceptions that plague this industry. Change in the distribution channel and their features Insurance companies have got different distribution to reach the customers. It would include agents, brokers and Bancassurance. The upcoming trend in case of distribution channel has to be compared with each of these levels. An insurance agent is a person who identifies himself and the insurance company of whom he is an insurance agent. Earlier insurance companies were used this particular distribution channel, they only require people to sell their products. Now days the trend of insurance companies is selecting the agents changed because these are the persons who represent the company in front of the public. By 2020 the concept of virtual office would come into play. And any person named as agent, he would be having information not only about the product, he will be an expert to advise the customer about how to do the strategic investment and investment options etc. The insurance marketplace is undergoing a transformation that may eventually lead to significant changes in how consumers purchase insurance products. A variety of distribution channels are currently used in this market place and some insurers utilize a combination of distribution channels. In terms of Bancassurance when the insurance products are sold as a third party products along with banking products. In the new era it would be in a relation with the banking product which functions jointly. Another important trend that you can expect from the market would the concept of ‘hyper –efficient direct distribution model’. This concept would be working the idea of super low cost of solution. Now days when the insurance companies are using the multiple distribution channels to reach the customers, the cost associated with this purpose is increasing. Because of the non-traditional competitors have much lower distribution costs than insurers, insurers face intense pressure to operate more efficiently. Distribution costs are one of the largest expense items associated with life and annuity policies. In the upcoming years we can see the trend of an emerging hyper – efficient distribution model which works on low cost. Change in consumer perception of insurance Indian consumers have big influence of emotions and rationality in their buying behaviour. There are certain factors which are going to be very crucial in 2020 in terms of buying behaviour of insurance. They are: †¢ Company loyalty †¢ Services quality †¢ Ease of procedures †¢ Satisfaction level †¢ Company Image †¢ Company Client Relationship Initially the Indian insurance sector was in the major hands of LIC. The people didn’t have a second name or second thought to think from where they should take the insurance plan or policy. Now the trend is changing. The main proof of the change is that the monopoly entertained by LIC was started to capture shares by other private companies. The private players are also able to provide the services and they are also able to generate the trust as LIC could create among the mindset of people. The private companies pitch the products in such a way that it was more acceptable to the customers. For example, One of the promotional objectives designed was to create a feel good factor around retirement and change customers’ perception of retirement as a mark of old age and loss of financial independence. Today’s behavioural patterns are different rather than the traditional ones, but still predictable. The concept of predictive analytics as applied to consumer behaviour follows reaction to control triggers (like marketing campaigns) and thus allows companies to manage their customer portfolio into an optimal spread on a value/ loyalty matrix. The consumers are expecting an insurance product/service like a direct sale of mid market lifetime income solution with a lower premium which also helps to invest for future purpose. Challenges of Indian Insurance Sector on a road towards 2020 One of the big challenges that are going to be faced by 2020 would be estimating local market potential for insurance products is continual challenge for the insurance industry. One solution for this big challenge would the concept of ‘insurance CLOUT’. Based on the actual purchase patterns, the idea like insurance CLOUT provides the most reliable local estimates for all type of insurance products and includes key detailed information like household counts, policy deductibles and premiums. Insurance CLOUT includes both current year estimates and five year projections for all of the data provided. Insurance CLOUT helps you to focus the marketing strategies of a business. It’s an indispensable tool for numerous marketing applications like †¢ Allocating market dollars against market potential †¢ Estimating potential for specific products within local markets †¢ Identifying high opportunity areas †¢ Measuring agency performance relative to market potential This idea also helps to assess the key market potential data for insurance companies. Conclusion The study was trying to give some information about the picture of insurance preferences and features in 2020. It identifies the factors that are going to be very crucial in terms of consumer buying behaviour with respect to insurance. The marketing strategies and distribution channels are also tried to portray considering the big limitation of the uncertainty of future. The study states that as time passes insurance sector in India will be undergoing through changes which can be giving a new face for the Indian insurance sector in 2020. As the insurance industry will be facing difficulties along with the rest of its financial services brethren to operate in the current global recession, it must consider the actual value of true innovation. No insurance business can’t exist in business in the upcoming future with out innovation. Innovation can come in the form of modified process, new business models, distribution channels and simple organizational changes. Innovation with out knowing the consumer buying behaviour would be fruitful. Creating innovative products like energy savings insurance, innovative renewable energy project insurance products, green building insurance and insurance for developing world (Micro insurance) would help the insurance companies to smoothen their road towards 2020. In the upcoming trend of insurance will be focusing on ‘pay as you live and active risk management in which active risk management means where proactive actions are taken to reduce total impact of risk. REFERENCES: †¢ Insurance 2020 – Insurance beyond old models by IBM †¢ Ceres report ‘From risk to opportunity’ 2008 by Evan mills [pic]

Diffrenece Between Hypothesis and Theory

TOK essay Difference between scientific law, theory and hypothesis 551 words In the world were living in nowadays people, groups or even some nations each has a different way of thinking. That’s why opinions were created and people could have different prospectives and different ideas were developed all over the past centuries. That variation of ideas, prospective and ways of thinking had lead into the creation for methods for proving something as an idea an experiment a suggestion, and others.This essay would be discussing those ways and their differences. Firstly, the first thing that leads into an opinion or way of seeing something is setting up your hypothesis, hypothesis is an educated guess based upon observation for a certain matter. It is an explanation of a single event or something based on what is observed not deeply observed but just observed, and it also has not been proved yet. Most hypotheses can be supported or disproved by experiment or a deep observation.Some examples of hypothesis are, when an apple is put in the wind and sun it will rot, this is a simple example it’s based on what’s observed as when an apple is put in the sun it would rot but no further scientific explanation is given. After a hypothesis is set based on really weak and shallow observations it must be tested for that opinion or idea to be true it must be tested and observed scientifically and not only once it must be tried and observed a number of times, that what develops a theory and obeys scientific laws, a scientific law is a statement of fact that explains a certain matter or different action or habits.It is generally accepted to be true and universal and can be proved and tested widely and sometimes they could be written as mathematical equations. Scientific laws must be simple, true and universal. Going back to a theory it is noted as more like a scientific law than a hypothesis. It is an explanation and prove for your hypothesis and sets of relate d observations or events based upon proven hypotheses and verified multiple times. A theory could hold on a definition as it is the way people could know this certain idea or issue is true by repeated xperiments whom tern a hypothesis into a theory or it just keeps it a hypothesis untested. Some examples of scientific laws are some physics and maths rules as Newton's laws of motion, law of gravity, the laws of thermodynamics and other physics laws whom are proved and tested that’s why they turn into a scientific law. Sometimes some laws can turn to theories as the law of gravity and gravitational forces, as it could go more general to be turned into a theory.The biggest difference between a law and a theory is that a theory is much more complex and dynamic. A law runs a single action, whereas a theory explains an entire group of related matters and phenomenas. That’s what differs an experimented hypothesis whether it turns into a theory or it is more specified so it tu rns to be a law, an example of a theory is automobiles Components of it can be changed or improved upon and more things invented in it, without changing the overall truth of the theory as a whole that it is an automobile.

Trial of Henry Kissinger

Amanda LakeyInternational Relations Book Review 18 April 2012 Kissinger’s Offenses The book the Trial of Henry Kissinger was written by Christopher Hitchens, a political opponent of Henry Kissinger. He is considered to be a pretty controversial figure because of his confrontational type of debate. He is considered a political observer, polecemist, and a self-proclaimed left -winged radical. He can be remembered for being a critic of Henry Kissinger, Mother Theresa and Bill Clinton.The Trial of Henry Kissinger took a long time for the author to write because he collected a lot of incriminating evidence to help bring out the wrongdoings Kissinger has done during his political career. The book focuses on Hitchens’s examination of the evidence of Henry Kissinger’s supposed war crimes. Hitchens thinks that Kissinger deserves prosecution â€Å"for war crimes against humanity, and for offenses against common or customary or international law, including conspiracy to co mmit murder, kidnap, and torture† ( Hitchens 2).To the author, Henry Kissinger is just a great liar who seems to have an amazing memory. According to Hitchens, Kissinger may be connected to war casualties in Vietnam, massacres in Bangladesh, planning murder in Chile when the US was not at war with them, involvement in the murder of the head of state of Cyprus, enabling a genocide in East Timor and kidnapping and murdering a journalist from Washington DC. The logic in which the author uses appears to be pretty persuasive to the reader. It is difficult to argue with one who uses such solid support in his opinions.This book seems more like pure fact than just what the author thinks. If I were to have read thinking Henry Kissinger was innocent, afterwards I would start to think that he should be charged for the things he did. I think many Americans are not aware of the kinds of secrets acts that happen within the political system. This is an eye opener for many citizens; one shoul d not get away with committing a crime, even if he has a lot of power. One of the main events the book focuses on is Kissinger’s involvement with the bombing of Cambodia.The bombing of Cambodia would need approval from congress before it could occur. Unfortunately, Nixon and Kissinger never tried to get approval and went ahead with the plan anyways. They would try to hide these happenings from society. The bombing of Cambodia actually took place for about fourteen months, and â€Å"as a result of the expanded and intensified bombing campaigns, It has been estimated that as many as 350,000 civilians in Laos, and 600,000 in Cambodia, lost their lives† (Hitchens 35).These events were leaked into the newspaper by American journalists, and Kissinger tried to find those responsible by wire-tapping phones. Another one of the events that took place is Kissinger’s involvement with the Vietnamese War. During the 1968 Paris peace talks, Kissinger came into the discussion a nd said that â€Å"he thinks any pullout next year would be a serious mistake†¦ he favored a continued winding down and then a pull out†¦ so it is too late to affect the election† (Hitchens 19). Kissinger was having secret meetings with the North Vietnamese, specifically the negotiator Le Duc Tho.He was hiding these meetings from the rest of the governments officials who should have been involved. These peace talks ended up being futile, but they did help him gain more of a reputation with Nixon. Nixon was not happy with the way the Vietnamese War was turning out, so he decided to invade the neutral countries of Cambodia and Laos; this resulted in one million deaths in Cambodia and 350 thousand deaths in Laos. Even after everything that occurred, Henry Kissinger signed a peace treaty with Le Duck Tho in 1973. The two of then were then awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.Henry Kissinger was one of the people who helped start the war, and he is also the person who helped fi nish it: â€Å"It took Henry Kissinger to ensure that a war of atrocity, which he had helped to prolong, should end just as furtively and ignominiously as it had began† (Hitchens 20). According to Hitchens, there is a Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial in which the names are listed by date, not alphabetically: â€Å"The first few names appear in 1954, and the last few in 1965† (20). A majority of the American population would not know that we went into Vietnam as early or as late as the memorial claims.The author also talks about Kissinger’s role in Bangladesh. Kissinger supported Pakistan in the Liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. He wanted to show China how useful the United States can be when it comes to tactical alliance so they would side with America and oppose the USSR. Kissinger helped support the extermination of many Bengalis: â€Å"Kissinger had received some very bad and even mocking press for his handling of the Bangladesh crisis, and it had somewhat spoiled his supposedly finest hour in China† (Hitchens 50).The Nixon Administration also was involved in a controversial military coup in Chile. Nixon had given the CIA permission to hold a military coup in order to prevent Salvador Allende’s inauguration. Allende was said to have ties with communist countries, which is something that caused the United State’s to have a rocky relationship with Chile. In 1973, the military coup caused the death of the Chilean leader. After this happened, Augusto Pinochet took control of Chile and began to bring a reign of terror to the country. Two cases were filed against Kissinger and dismissed during these times.He was blamed for being involved in the military coup and disregarding those civilian’s and their family’s lives when he encouraged the Chilean repressive regime. The Trial of Henry Kissinger is one of the more recent books written in 2002 about the wrongdoings of Henry Kissinger, but other books were prev iously written before this time. One of the books is called the Price of Power written by Seymour M. Hursh in 1983. The other book is called Sideshow written by William Shawcross in 1979. There was obviously a great time span between these two books and the most current one, but they all seem to have the same idea.They all seem to discuss Kissinger’s involvement with the Nixon Administration and try to charge him as a war criminal. The other books seem to focus on the topic of Cambodia the most, but the Trial of Henry Kissinger seems to discuss more circumstances for which Nixon should be charged for. The Slideshow seemed to think that Cambodia was one of the biggest crimes Kissinger and President Nixon committed: â€Å"Neither the United States nor its friends nor those who are caught helplessly in its embrace are well served when its leaders act, as Nixon and Kissinger acted, without care.Cambodia was not a mistake; it was a crime† ( Shawcross 396). According to the book the Price of Power Nixon and Kissinger both appear to be in denial that any of the occurrences were their fault: â€Å"Kissinger and Nixon would repeatedly claim that the failures in South Vietnam and Cambodia were not their responsibility but the fault of Congress, which had cut off funding for the war† (Hursch 640). The book the Trial of Henry Kissinger is able to expand on these arguments more by giving solid evidence.One of Nixon’s associates who worked alongside Kissinger claimed that if the plan for Cambodia did not work then Henry would get in trouble: â€Å"Kissinger was caught between the views of his staff- several of whom resigned in protest when the invasion began- and the need to please the President† ( Hitchens 28). Compared to the other books that has been written about Kissinger, I think the Trial of Henry Kissinger is the most helpful and informative, but because of the use of excerpts from government documents and memorandums, it can be a little difficult to read.I also feel the author did not use enough counter arguments when he wrote the book. I feel like this is supposed to be an argumentative book in which the author tries to sway the reader to agree with his side. I think there is enough evidence to back up the authors claims, but the book would be even more believable had he tried to bring in opposing arguments and prove them wrong this way, there would be no arguing that Kissinger did do something wrong. All in all, I think this book is very useful for people to learn about Henry Kissinger.To be honest, before coming into this class, I had never heard anything about him or the terrible things he was involved in. I think this book gives good background information in order to show the reader what kind of person Kissinger is and why he should be treated like a criminal. Because there was so much evidence from government documents used in the book, I have almost no arguments against the author’s claims. Re ferences Hitechens, Christopher. Trial of Henry Kissinger. Verso, New York. 2001. Print. Hursch, M Seymour. The Price of Power. 1983. Print. Shawcross, William. Sideshow. 1979. Print.

Groupwork Tools Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Groupwork Tools - Essay Example The important aspects or tools through which the productivity of team work is affected are numerous. Therefore, to accomplish utmost efficiency, group or any team work requires certain tools to enhance the chances of accomplishing targets. Working effectively in a group involves few basic and compulsory steps which include introduction, looking for similarities with any group member, listening intently to others, praising others, taking turns, honesty, invisible support to others, avoiding arguments and conflicts, pleasantly providing alternatives for suggested ideas by other member so to put it more optimistically, promoting humor, showing courtesy and frankness if need be, giving opportunity to new and young members to share their ideas and put all the ideas in writing without missing important suggestions, being generous to share ideas with a group and appreciate them on uniqueness brought by them and finally shared decision making (Pausch, 1998). The more positive attitude and energy prevail in a group, the maximum creativity and productivity can be attained from a group work (Sawyer, 2012). The problems which can be faced by any group member are due to the apathetic attitude of other group members, which directly affects the learning process and, hence, an individual is unable to bring his share of productivity in it (Clark, 2003). Often, many abilities aren’t recognized unless a person indulges himself in a group activity which supports and shines out the ability in him (Douglas, 2000). Therefore, aloof and tactless behavior hinders the learning and developing process of other group members and decreases the chance of attaining shared vision. Absence of cooperative and collaborative approach dwindles the interest of others and, hence, reduces the chance of learning experience or recognition of one’s hidden potential (Brody, 1998). If a team member is unaware of the group