Thailand Visit essays

Thailand Visit essays Thailand owns a rich cultural background, which has been molded by the own hands of its people. Its former name Siam means the Land of the Free, basically because it was not colonized by many foreign nations. Also dubbed the Land of Smiles because of its people, Thailand boasts of quick advance in technology, an increase in the rate of literacy, progression in economic status, and certainly, the high demand of its world-renowned products. The discussion of Thailand cannot be completed without the inclusion of Thai food because of its significance in many aspects of their society. Thai cuisine can be seen as one of the worlds most delicious because of its popularity in many countries. Thai cuisine is considered among the most internationally known dishes, with a unique blend of particular tastes: hot (spicy), sour (piquant), sweet, and always highlighted with citrus (lemongrass and lime). The rising recognition of Thai cuisine is due to the fact that most western people today are more health-conscious. Thai food is lighter and not as bulky as Western food. Moreover, the herbs and spices used as common ingredients have medicinal properties that come with them. Nevertheless, the common theme of all Thai meals is harmony-harmony in the taste and smell, as well the harmony of communal dining. During my two-week stay there, I was exposed to a new hodge-podge of dishes. One of my fears before the trip was the food, which I thought were all hot and spicy. But then, I saw [and tasted] how Thai food was not only limited to the zesty and fiery flavors. In fact, it was a jumble of different tangs, emphasizing on the sweet and the spicy still. I was able to stretch my otherwise miniscule knowledge on taste [since I am very picky and conservative with what I take in] because of their food. My palate was more than satisfied with the very delectable dishes they have such as the tom yam (sour and mildly spicy soup), gra thong-thong (crispy f...

Comparing John Locke and Thomas Hobbes

Comparing John Locke and Thomas Hobbes Free Online Research Papers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke were two of the greatest political and philosophical thinkers of their time and ours. Ideas like these have shaped governments throughout history and still hold true today. They had extremely different views on government, but the bases of their arguments were similar. They used reason to justify their ideas, rather than divine right. Although both men acknowledged that there was a God, He played a very small part in their ideologies. The philosophers each had an impact on the world. John Locke’s ideas influenced the United States Declaration of Independence, Federalist papers, and the Constitution. Thomas Hobbes’s ideas refuted England’s parliament. Hobbes and Locke agreed that some type of ruler would be necessary, whether it be an absolute monarchy or a form of democracy. Although Locke and Hobbes agreed on some subjects, the majority of their philosophies differed greatly, such as the type of ruler that they agreed was needed. Thomas Hobbes believed that a ruler with absolute control was necessary, while John Locke held that government should be at least partly be influenced by the people. Locke also believed that the people had the right and responsibility to overthrow their government if their needs are not being satisfied. On the contrary, Hobbes was more pessimistic. He believed in the Social Contract, thinking that once people handed their will to a ruler by putting them in power, that ruler had total power over them and could not be overthrown. Hobbes believed that this transfer of power was how man is able to get out of the state of nature and formed society. John Locke also believed in the social contract and the state of nature, but he opposed Hobbes’s position on these issues. Locke thought people could live in peace in the state of nature, because everyone was equal and had a conscience to guide them. Locke disagreed with Hobbes’s assumption that the state of war and the state of nature were the same. He felt that people could go without a leader by using reason in its place. The state of war would only occur when they tried to force things on each other. Locke thought that when that happened people had the right to wage war, as an act of defense. I feel that the reason the philosophies of Locke and Hobbes clashed is that their views of man kind were polar opposites. John Locke kept an optimistic view point, considering man kind good, independent, and equal from birth, and the choices made from then on to be able to change this image. He also felt that humans could only understand and sympathize with things that they had experienced, but also could learn from mistakes and interactions to improve themselves. Thomas Hobbes’s view point was very different. He reasoned that humans were not unlike animals, and were fearful and predatory. Hobbes held that man kind was evil and constantly in opposition to the rest of mankind. He also felt that humans had an innate motivation to feel pleasure and cause hurt. Research Papers on Comparing John Locke and Thomas HobbesAssess the importance of Nationalism 1815-1850 EuropeQuebec and CanadaCanaanite Influence on the Early Israelite ReligionComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoBringing Democracy to AfricaCapital PunishmentEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationUnreasonable Searches and Seizures19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided Era

Pay for Performance why it doesn't work in the Workplace Essay

Pay for Performance why it doesn't work in the Workplace - Essay Example To show the extensive use of the reward system, the author writes on using rewards to recognize teamwork, monetary rewards for employees for undertaking trainings and gaining new skills. The author states that rewards often impede than they enhance performance on many tasks with specific emphasis to those that require creativity with the example of Japan and Germany countries that do not use reward incentives and are successful in employee motivation. The other further explores the fact that there are no empirical studies linking motivation to rewards showing poor implementation of compensation systems. In fact, research by Jenkins in 1986 shows no relation between quality performance and rewards (p 124). In a case where incentives were withdrawn, production decreased then after sometime rose to reach a better level than when there were incentives further showing that incentives do not motivate workers for quality or higher productivity (p 124). The author then delves into the reasons for the failure of incentives including lack of necessity that is the introduction of incentives unnecessarily resulting in lack of any impact on performance. The second reason is secrecy where there is no transparency on each employees earning leading to overestimation and belief of differences in pay resulting in low morale and turmoil at the workplace. Other reasons are lack of match between performances and pay and expense in rewards solved via using noncash rewards. The other reason is too big versus too small incentives where small incentives do not have an impact while large ones are not received by all the workers resulting in failure of incentives to motivate performance. Short-term versus long-term incentives are the other reasons for incentives failure where employees may make decisions countering long-term interests when incentives base on short-term performance. Objectivity versus subjectivity,

A Thousand Years Of Good Prayers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

A Thousand Years Of Good Prayers - Essay Example He has great concerns about the welfare of life of his daughter living in a distant land as a divorcee and feels that he can contribute something tangible to lighten her burden. His intentions are good, but not to the liking of his daughter! This retired man from Beijing travels all the way to visit her in Spokane, Washington. She is working there as a librarian. He plans to stay with her till such time, he thinks, she is able find peace through her trauma. The generation gap strikes! The daughter is not much enamored with the ideas of her father. Father is hurt with the negative approach shown by his daughter for his efforts to what he considers as the reconstruction of her life. In that town, he meets an old woman who has fled from Iran to USA, after the revolution. Both of them know not much of English but human emotions score over their own languages, and rare friendship develops between the two. They find a unique unexplainable horizon of hope in life, without knowing what exactly they want from each other, except striking the nearness through each other’s trials and tribulations. The daughter, influenced by the western culture has practical ideas. She wishes to remarry and gets ready for it with a Russian man. In the end, the old woman is sent to a retirement home and the father and the daughter come to terms. The relationship between the daughter and father is normally intimate. But this story reveals why it is different, due to the cultural gap between the two. The father arrives from the rigidly governed Communist China, and the social values are shaped accordingly as per the directions of the State. The position is entirely different in USA, where personal freedom is topmost in the agenda of governance. On the one side the people live with the damaged psyche, women silently bear the desperation of lost love relationships and on the other side new experiments in love-relationships continue to happen without any restrictions from the

How globalisation can have different impacts on various groups within Essay

How globalisation can have different impacts on various groups within the same country - Essay Example How globalisation can have different impacts on various groups within the same country? Improved transport and communication has facilitated trade between countries turning the world into a global village prompting a lot of debate with proponents arguing that globalization is essential for economic growth and elimination of poverty while opponents argue that globalization is undermining the role of the state hence eliminating sovereignty of nations. He argues that the advancement in technology enables suppliers in one part of the globe to satisfy the demands of consumers in other parts of the globe thus increasing the magnitude of globalization. Boyes & Melvin view globalization as increase in cross-border flow of goods and services, and increased mobility of technology, information and individuals. According to Lerman & Schmidt, globalization is not a new phenomenon but has been in existence since the First World War but has increased in speed and intensity in recent past. It leads to convergence of nations politically, economically, socially and culturally. It is char acterized by increased international trade, foreign direct investments, capital flows, migration of population, and flow of knowledge. It has led to overdependence among nations especially poor countries dependence on rich nations. Globalization has opened doors to trade by removing barriers resulting in a lot of competition in domestic markets and providing opportunities for firms to expand into the global arena. There are also increased mergers and acquisitions as competition increases as well as establishment of multinational companies. Globalization has also been in the lime light as the cause of the recent financial crisis due to integration of financial markets and increasing ineffectiveness of the monetary and fiscal policy. Many anti-globalization campaigns have been on the rise as it is argued that it enhances income inequalities and unemployment (Ehrenberg, 1994). The paper discusses the effects of globalization on various groups in USA. Globalization in USA USA is conside red as the most globalized nation. It is a capitalistic state or free market economy and hence governed by the forces of demand and supply and open to competition from all quarters nationally and internationally. The value of foreign trade in USA continues to rise as the effects are felt everywhere especially the less developed countries. For example, the value of merchandise exports 1950 was 4% of gross domestic product (GDP) same as that of merchandise imports. Recently the value of merchandise exports is 8% of GDP while that of imports is 11% of GDP. The exchange of services which was not common in 1950s is now in existence enhanced by improvement in information technology. Outsourcing in 1960 accounted for only 1.7% of the value of services produced in USA and sold to foreigners but by 1997 it had risen to 5.1% showing how globalization is extending at fast pace (Boudreaux, 2008: 8). Deregulation of the financial sector is another phenomenon in USA. The financial sector has thus increased in fragility leading to financial instability and vulnerability to external shocks. The deregulation of banking industry has partly been blamed for the current global financial crisis. The banks engaged in sub prime mortgages and securitization of the mortgages without a limit leading to collapse of the institutions as a result of bursting of the housing bubble. This effect was transmitted to other parts of the economy and the world as a whole through integration of world financial markets (Brewer & Boyd, 2000). According to Pryor (2000), there is a change in the location of trade transactions in the USA from business people to multinational companies. He alleges that

The Mother Essay Example for Free

The Mother Essay â€Å"The Mother: Remember the children you got that you did not get† Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem â€Å"The Mother† is ambiguous and totally unexpected. The narrator starts by speaking about abortion in a very accusatory tone. In the first part of the poem the narrator uses second person language and accuses mothers of getting abortions and talks about how all the mothers will be missing out on seeing their children grow. She is talking to readers about abortions in general. She talks to mothers and patronizes them, â€Å"Abortions will never let you forget. You remember the children you got that you did not get.† (1-2), she starts the poem with a paradox. The narrator sounds like an antiabortion and will speak for having a child; but as the poem came to an ending it seemed like she is trying to justify her own actions. As the poem goes on the speaker suddenly changes her language and starts to talk about herself in a first person language. She explains how she cannot forget how many children she has killed. From the second part of the poem she starts to talk about her children, which meant that she had not one but multiple abortions and now is haunted by it. She starts to talk about her pain and loss about not having a child, â€Å"I have heard in the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed children. I have contracted. I have eased. My dim dears at the breasts they could never suck. I have said, Sweets, if I sinned, if I seized your luck† (11-15). In these lines the speaker starts to blame herself; and then the tone becomes angry and helpless, â€Å"If I stole your births and your names, Your straight baby tears and your games, Your stilted or lovely loves, your tumults, your marriages, aches, and your deaths† (17-20). In these last few lines she again is listing out the things she will miss about her children and reminds the readers that she is full aware of the things and is regretful, but she still does the abortion. Along with the title of the poem there is another irony here, she says she stole their deaths by not letting them grow, she is saying she did not naturally let them die and had killed them herself before they were born. Our class had an intense conversation about the lines â€Å"If I poisoned the beginnings of your breaths, Believe that even in my deliberateness I was not deliberate .† (21-22), someone had suggested about how there is another paradox here. The tone has once again changed and she again tries to justify herself and her actions. She tries to explain that even though she had gone through with the procedure and succeeded in getting the abortion, it was not what she had  intended. Later on the narrator starts to sound very hypocritical, â€Å"Though why should I whine, Whines that the crime was other than mine? Since anyhow you are dead.† (23-25). Here the speaker is stressing over her own words, one moment her tone is sad and regretful and the next she is saying that there is no point as the child is already dead. The mother started the poem by accusing others of getting rid of their unborn, then she directly starts to talk to her dead children and now she is reasoning with herself about getting an abortion. She talks about a crime but does not call herself a criminal; somehow she tried to sound like the victim. She questioned if it was another’s fault. She tries hard not to take the blame on herself; in that particular line she is possibly implying that there may have been another person in th e scene that had made her do this, but none were mentioned, which indicates she is just looking for a way to share the blame with someone else, so that shame is not heavy on her. Once the mother’s intensions were established the tension between the mother and her unborn children and abortion was pretty luminous. She claims to have multiple abortions and explains her grief about giving up her children, yet she never apologized. She cannot get over the ghosts of all the children and is haunted by what could have happened, yet she is not apologetic, she never once mentioned that maybe she should have changed her mind and kept one child. Before she ends the poem she says, â€Å"Is faulty: oh, what shall I say, how is the truth to be said? You were born, you had body, you died. It is just that you never giggled or planned or cried.† (29-31). In those lines she tries to speak the truth and tries to accept that each child had a body and lived but it died. She even says it is faulty, but still does not blame herself for the abortions. She ends the poem by saying, â€Å"Believe me, I loved you all. Believe me, I knew you, though faintly, and I loved, I loved you All.† (32-34). It seems as though she tries to sound like a loving mother and tries to tell her unborn children that she loved them and vaguely knew them. Works Cited Brooks, Gwendolyn. The Mother. Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2014.

Lord Of The Flies, An Analysis :: essays research papers

People are privileged to live in an advanced stage of development known as civilization. In a civilization, one’s life is bound by rules that are meant to tame its savage natures. A humans possesses better qualities because the laws that we must follow instill order and stability within society. This observation, made by William Golding, dictates itself as one of the most important themes of Lord of the Flies. The novel demonstrates the great need for civilization ion in life because without it, people revert back to animalistic natures. When the children become stranded on the island, the rules of society no longer apply to them. Without the supervision of their parents or of the law, the primitive nature of the boys surfaces, and their lives begin to fall apart. The downfall starts with their refusal to gather things for survival. The initial reaction of the boys is to swim, run, jump, and play. They do not wish to build shelters, gather food, or keep a signal fire going. Consequently, the boys live without luxury that could have been obtained had they maintained a society on the island. Instead, these young boys take advantage of their freedom and life as they knew it deteriorates. The boys spark the onset of tragedy when the pig hunt evolves as more than just an activity. Jack and his band of hunters love the thrill of the chase. They spend much of their day searching the pig runs enjoying the brutality they cause on other living beings. This amusement is taken too far when Jack introduces face paint into the game. The face paint takes away the identities of the boys and transforms them into nameless savages. They hide behind the paint â€Å"liberated from shame and self-consciousness† (Golding 64). Jack’s mask overpowers the rest of the boys and they go off to hunt despite some discontent. Eventually, the painted warriors ready a fortress at one end of the island. This tribe brings nothing but death and destruction to the island. Moreover, the newly formed group of warriors even develop a dance that they perform over the carcass of the dead pig. They become so involved in this dance that that warriors kill one of their own kind. By chance, Simon runs from the forest towards the group that is already shouting â€Å"‘Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!’† (152).