Why Racism Should Not Occur Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Why Racism Should Not Occur - Essay Example American people throughout the history of the nation’s slavery marks the begging of the racial prejudice and discrimination that presented the blacks and the other minority groups, especially the immigrant minorities, as inferior (Tiffany Gee & Takeuchi, 2008). Thus, due to the social status, they held during the period of American colonization as slaves, the prejudice, stereotyping and color bigotry has continued to rule the mind of many, resulting to the persistent increase in the reported cases of racial hate incidences throughout the country. On the other hand, due to the identity that such minority groups have been given as inferior throughout the history, they have also turned against the dominant groups, by discriminating and prejudicing against them as well (Kivel, 1996). However, the most disturbing thing about racism is that it does not appear to be perpetrated by individuals alone, but also the media that is a very influential tool in the society. The media has been seen to contribute to racism through biased reporting in relation to the prevalence of high crime rates in the minority groups as opposed to the dominant groups (Banton, 1988). This has resulted in unbalanced social construction, with the minority groups, most especially the African Americans being stereotyped as crime-prone than the rest of the communities. The impact of this is that such minority groups have in turn adapted crime as the tool for revenge against the marginalization. One can be forgiven for asking the question; where does racism happen? The answer to this would also be equally disturbing, because racism is all over the society, whether in the schools, on the streets, in churches and even in the high political offices such as the parliament and the Congress.

Developing good study skills Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Developing good study skills - Essay Example Furthermore, it is possible to overcome procrastination by developing proper studying habit, and hence improving the studying habit of an individual is the key of good study, and success in education. This paper takes a stand that good studying habits are an important tool that a student should have in their toolbox of life. Ability to develop good studying habits is able to create great organizational skills, and this develops the testing ability of a student, providing less stress and frustration when meeting and preparing deadlines. Rawlings (2008) explains that the tips of achieving success for onsite classroom students, is the same as the tips of achieving success for online students. Following a series of studying tips are essential in helping students to effectively learn new academic theories as well as concepts. Zimmerman and Schunk (2011) explains that effectively following these studying tips is an example of a good studying habit, and hence it helps a student to be organized in his or her work. One of the best methods that a student can use to stay organized is through using folders which can help him or her to keep assignments and any school work, until the time when these assignments and school work are needed. Rawlings (2008) explains that when children are able to reach a grade whereby tests and homework are part and parcel of their school curriculum, then there are a variety of actions that parents can undertake for purposes of encouraging good studying habits. It is important to explain that when students are faced with a variety of home work and tests, without proper guidance, chances are high that they may develop stress. On this basis, a good and proper studying habit is to carry a study before and during the process of doing the homework. It is important to understand that little amount of home studies will play a great role in helping elementary school

Terrorism And Its Impacts On Tourism Tourism Essay

Terrorism And Its Impacts On Tourism Tourism Essay This part of research project comprises of brief and deep look about the presence of terrorism and its impacts on tourism in management literature. At first the characteristics of terrorism risk and uncertainty discussed after defining terrorism and it history, and then discussion tries to narrate the some of the most important and basic concepts in strategic management relates with the terrorism research. We also need to critically analysing the different strategic concepts and about at which level of uncertainty, what kind of strategy may better for tourism industry. Terrorism is not new; it has long history as old as humans willingness to use violence or force against the civilian population to achieve political or social ends. It has been defined as a tactic and strategy, a holy duty or crime, a justified reaction to oppression and an inexcusable represented. It has been used since the beginning of the history. According to Richard A. Horsley (1979) the first terrorist group was Jewish group called Sicarii, who murdered Romans and their collaborators to oust their Roman rulers from Judea. The killing weapon of Sicarii was Sica (short dagger) which they used to murder their enemies (Romans and Greeks) and these killings normally took place in daylight and in front of people. The aim of such acts was to send a message to the Roman authorities and their collaborators that this tactics can be used against them as well. The Hashhashin was the 11th to 13th century Iranian terrorist group offshoot of by a person known as the Ismailis. Like Sicarii ter rorist they used the same method of stabbing their victims in daylight. There forces were too small to challenge the militarily, so thats why they killed city governors and military commanders in order to create uncertainty in militarily. They also carried out assassinations as retribution. Under modern definitions of terrorism some killings they carrier out do not qualify as terrorism (Mark Burgess 2003). According to Jeffrey Record (2003) the origin of modern terrorism and word terrorism was introduced in Europe in the French Revolution of 1789. In the early period of revolutionary years, it was mainly by violence that governments in France tried to impose their radical order on a reluctant citizenry. As a result during this revolution, the meaning of terrorism was recorded by Francaise Academie in 1798 as system or rule of terror. During these revolutionaries more than 40,000 people have been killed and 5 millions people being jailed as political suspects. This was one of the worst examples that show the terrorism and these cruel killings were justified as an attempt to reduce or eliminate the revolutionary government opponents and to create fear in others people trying to overthrow the existing government. According to Findley Carter Vaughn (1982) the French revolution created huge terror and become a prototype for the future terrorists. The terrorist groups formation happened in the late 19th century. Terrorist used to format small groups to attack nation states. According to Crenshaw M. (1981) one of the examples of theses groups was Russian Revolutionary Group (Narodnaya Volya). This terrorist group was trying to create uncertainty through quick attacks against current political regime. The ideas and tricks that these terrorist were used, later become the prime example of terrorism in around the world. They used modern weapons such as bombs, guns and suicide attacks. According to the Director of Central Intelligence (1981) report the Soviet Union was giving assistance to revolutionary movements throughout the cold war. They provide free training and supply of weapons to terrorist groups. The Soviet Union support revolutionary groups around the world in order to export revolution to non communist countries. This Soviet strategy resulted considerable terror and violence around the world. In early 20th century revolutionary terrorism continued to motivate political violence all over the world, much of this violence directed against the British government. The Irish Republican Army terrorist started violence against British Empire in 1910s and IRA carried out number of attacks from 1916 to 1923 against British power. During this period they attacked over 300 police stations, killed dozen police officers and burned down the Liverpool docks and warehouses. After years of violence finally British Empire agreed to create an independent Irish nation. Many terrorist groups inspired from IRA fighting tactics including Palestine Mandates, Zionist, Hagannah, Irgun, Lehi and even British army special operations unit used during World War II (Carr M. 2006). After the World War II terrorism was practiced by groups and individuals. According to Goren R. (1984), in late 20th century dramatic growth in terrorism began. Through this period many terrorist organizations were motivated by ideological considerations such as Palestinian Liberation Organization, Basque ETA and IRA appeared terrorists besides nationalists. These terrorist organizations introduced new and modern method of terrorism such as hijacking, attacks on public and private organizations. Many terrorist organizations consider terrorism as religious war and some use to achieve political goals. The recent and largest act of terrorism occurred on September 11 2001, when terrorist set of coordinated attacks on USA. The terrorist hijacked civilian airplanes and used these plans to attack the World Trade Towers and Pentagon. Other major terrorist attacks have occurred in London subway bombing, Madrid train bombing, Mumbai attacks and many more around the world in past decade. Defining terrorism: Terrorism in nature is very difficult to define but the acts of terrorism conjure emotional responses in the victims and the person who did it. No one is agreeing on one single definition of terrorism, because one mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter. If we consider terrorism is an act of political violence, then the war on terrorism is another form of political violence to wipe out other (terrorists). The term terrorism is come from French word terrorisme based on Latin language words Terror means great fear related to the Latin verb terrere (to frighten). According to the Oxford dictionary, terrorism means act of terror. The word terrorism is emotionally and politically charged and it is also very difficult to provide a precise definition. The studies have found over hundreds definitions of terrorism. The concept of terrorism may itself be controversial because state authorities often use it to delegitimize political or other opponents by use armed force against them (Hof fman B. 1998). Defining terrorism is one of the most demanding tasks, because it has proven impossible to outline the scope of terrorist activities and find the meaningful delineation of actions that should be called terrorism in the context of philosophers and political scientists. The main reason is that (as said before) one mans terrorist is another mans hero. In the view of different authors and organizations terrorism has the different definitions. Hoffman B. (1998) describes as terrorism is violence or equally important, the threat of violence, used and directed in pursuit of or in service of political aim. According to United States department of Defence the calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological. In the dictionary of United Nations An anxiety-inspiring method of repeated violent action, employed by (semi-) clandestine individual, group or state actors, for idiosyncratic, criminal or political reasons, whereby in contrast to assassination the direct targets of violence are not the main targets.. According to the FBI (2002), terrorism is unlawful use of force of violence against the person or property to intimidate government, civilian population or any segment therefore in furtherance of political or social objectives. A deep interpretation of terrorism in literature: Terrorism can take many shapes and forms and much literature has been produced about financial impact of terrorism on different economic sectors and industries. Now arguably it the biggest threat to the tourism and related industries around the world. In the past twenty years, we have seen a dramatic rise in terrorism in different parts of the world. Terrorism did not begin in 21st century after World Trade Centre terrorist attacks. Europe, United States and other continents have a very long and sad history of terrorist attacks. According to Harold Miller (2003), in 20th century IRA in UK, ETA in Spain, Brigate Rosse in Itely, Rote Armee Fraktion in Germany, 7 November in Greece are the few worse examples of terrorist groups in Europe. In United States we remember the bombing in Oklahoma City in 1994, World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks. But September 11 2001 attacks have changed the world, as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has said, none of th e issue that faced us on 10 September 2001 has become less urgent. Now the terrorism has grown to an unprecedented limit and in multiplicity. As we know that, even terrorist without the use of weapons of mass destruction can kill thousands of people and destroy the economic activities (Gabriele G.S. Suder 2004). According to Blomberg, Brock S. Gregory (2004), terrorism is associated with a diversion of spending from investment to governments expenditure. To fund these government expenditures, they borrow from foreign financial institutions and governments. The develop countries with less volatile currencies normally issue long term debts to cover the deficit and less developing countries confronting terrorism by government spending through sale of foreign reserves, printing more currency and increasing inflation. Gupta S. Clements B. (2004) reached the same conclusion, that the terrorist activities severe impacts on less develop countries than developed from monetary policy perspe ctive. Terrorism has its massive effects on tourism industry and related businesses. Darnell B. (2010) said, most businesses operating in the effected area gets impact from the thrust of government policies to quell terrorism, which is another kind of harm which tourism industry may gets, when the terrorist activities happens. This kind of wide-spread results predict an escalate unattractiveness of tourism in effected areas. It is conspicuous to secure all of the targets of terrorism at the same time. In the number of attacks done by small terrorist groups with least resources, the loss to tourism industry was massive. If costs of an attack be measured by the loss which tourism industry faced, the tourism industry always paid far great amount than the loss of terrorist group. Hoffman B. (1998) cited that the cost of the bomb was not more than $400, which was the reason of the loss of $550 million in the blast of World Trade Centre in 1993. The amount which is sending to protect the world fr om terrorism is many billion dollars, while the terrorist cost nothing in front of it. The word terrorism seized the worlds attention in September 11 2001 as a result of destructive and dramatic attack on core symbols (world trade centre and pentagon) of worlds most powerful country United State of America. The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York exposed the vulnerabilities of the tourism industry and it also change the perception of tourists as to travel safely and securely. According to Bruck T. and Wickstrom B. (2004), some economic sectors or industries are more vulnerable to terrorist attacks than other and consequently they suffer more losses. The vulnerability of sector or industry may be due to characteristics of its operation. Tourism industry is perishable and its services can not be sold at another time or stored, once the time passes. So tourism industry will experience the vulnerability in the times of terrorist attacks and it affect on patterns of demand. The main aim of terrorist groups is to communicate the massage of fear to the people as wide as possible. According to Lehrman S. R. (1986), tourists are the soft target for terrorists because politicians and embassies are less attractive as they have huge security measures. Connor, Stafford Gallagher (2009) said, targeting tourists has the potential to punish the ideologies of capitalism and damage the country economy. Richter and Waugh (1986) said that terrorist attacks on overseas tourists are less likely to alienate popular support than they attacks on local targets because in this way they threat to other tourists. Targeting the local tourists would likely to engage the public as a result to retribution of places the existence of the terrorist groups at risk. There are number of studies about tourists choice of destination based on the costs and risk of terrorism. Gray P. and Thapa B. (2003) examined the effect of terrorism risk on travel intentions after the September 11 2001 attacks. The results show that travellers were considering the safety concerns and risk of terrorist attacks during travel. McKercher B. and Hui E. 2003) said that, terrorist attacks have an immediate but short term impact on tourism and travel flows. They also suggest that after the initial attacks tourism industry has greater effect than the scale of initial attack. According to Connor, Stafford Gallagher (2009), terrorist will continue the biggest threat to the tourism industry and terrorist groups have to be active in order to maintain discipline, interest and morale. This statement is still valid after 19 years later, for this reason we can expect this to be continuing, because terrorist attacks can happen anywhere and no place is safe. Now the biggest challenge to tourism industry is to deal and manage the crisis in the event of terrorist attack. It is difficult to determine the impact of terrorism on tourism industry because structure of tourism and terrorism differ not across the countries but also over the time. Drakos K. and Kutan A. (2003) emphasizes the importance of differentiating between different types of attacks, the locations of terrorist attacks (e.g. urban or rural areas) and number of casualties. Aziz H. (1995) said terrorism could also be a reaction to irresponsible tourism development. The study of Enders W. and Sandler T. (1991) argue that it is found that the causality is unidirectional, that the terrorists affect the inflow of tourists but not reverse. The different studies, facts and figures show how tourism industry in particular country or region is affected by terrorist attacks. The deterrent impact of terrorism on tourism industry in particular country may benefit the tourism in alternative destinations. Financial impacts of terrorism on tourism industry: The literature on terrorism and tourism is scant. The two studies by Enders et al 1992 and Enders and Sandler 1991 provide empirical evidence on the link between tourism sector and terrorism. Enders W. and Sandler T. (1991) used monthly data from 1970 to 1988 and employed VAR (Vector Autoregressive Analysis) to find negative impact of terrorism on tourism in Spain. According to Drakos K. Kutan A. (2003), Enders et al studied a large sample of European countries, between the periods 1974 to 1988 to find the impacts of terrorist attacks on tourism. They employ time series analysis and ARIMA technique with transfer functions and construct a forecasting model to analyse the impact on tourism in these countries. In these models they used quarterly terrorism data to quantify the present value of loss in tourism revenue for selected sample of European countries. According to Enders calculation Italy, Greece and Austria lost $1.16 billion, $.77 and $4.5 billion respectively during 1974 to 19 88. During this period all Europeans countries lost in tourism $16.15 billion due to terrorism. They conclude that terrorism has significant impact on Europe tourism industry revenue and tourists find substitute destination in order to minimise the risk of experiencing terrorist attacks. The immediate effects of terrorist attacks are death and destruction but the subsequent effects are discourage investment, interrupt travel tourism patterns and destabilise economies. The economic effect of terrorism has been the main subject of number of studies. According to Enders W. Sandler T. (2002), the terrorist attacks have economically significant negative effect on the economic growth; these attacks have less persistent and considerably smaller than the impacts of internal conflict or external war. Frey B. and Luechinger S. (2004), said that terrorists change tricks and tactics in reaction to the government polices, and it has direct effect on investment and economic growth. They also said that the investor decision to invest in particular country is based on economic risk, monetary returns and political risk. The foreign direct investment is one of the economic benefits of tourism, anything that effect on tourism needs to be minimised. Coshall J. (2005) claimed that Pan Am flight bombing in Lockerbie Scotland had minimal impacts on UK tourism and receipts from international tourists, while September 11 2001 had severe impacts on UK tourism and rest of the world. Different strategic management approaches of the tourism industry may have the same analytical aspects to improve the performance of industry. According to context of world Tourism organization (2008) the international tourism is increasing day by day as in 2008, the trade happens of more than $944 billion and over 922 million international tourist arrivals at different destinations and 2009 number of tourist arrival to 880 million which is 4% decline compare to 2008. The most affected reign was Europe, especially UK with a 6% decline. Terrorism can also destroy tourism industry by reducing tourist arrivals in UK. After September 11 2001, terrorist attacks in UK and continued threat of terrorist attacks also reduce the foreign direct investment significantly. According to Ritcher and Waugh (1986), terrorism and political violence can destroy the tourism industry supply and demand because this industry is extremely sensitive to these extreme events. However, after September 11, 2001 the world has been threatened by terrorism, and acts of terrorism have increased in many countries including UK. The effects of terrorism on tourism decisions have been an area of research concern on demand. Drakos and Kutan (2003), Pizam A. (1999) and Krakover (2005) all agreed that the severity and frequency of terrorist attacks are negatively correlated with the tourism demand. The Pizam and Fleischer (2002) said that the frequency of terrorist attacks cause large decline in tourism industry demand. The intervention analysis by Coshal l J. (2005) employs explore that the dynamics of the effects of terrorism incidents on those travelling or visiting UK and UK people going abroad. Influence of Media Following a Terrorist Attack Modern terrorism is particularly onerous, because of characteristic of its time. The impact of terrorism on macroeconomic is crucial, customers feel themselves in stress and some kind of continuous fear which definitely effects the spending patterns. Media plays very important role with regards to terrorists activities around the world. Firstly, terrorist use media to send their massage to the audience, and general public relied on media for information in the times of crises. Now terrorist are using media to advance their causes of attacks. According to Sonmez and Graefe (1998), the escalation of terrorism after 70s has been linked to media, with instantaneous access to the global audience. Secondly, the media provide information to the public, what has happened, which normally influence the public decisions about travel. In the event of terrorist attacks, Fischer H. (2005) discusses the importance of information, he said it is very difficult for emergency personnel to receive and c ommunicate the accurate information at the time of terrorist attacks. According to Lynch Katju (2004), media only report during the time of crises, it provides coverage to particular incident as long as its news and then move toward new news story when it happens. She said tourism industry has a great influence of media reporting and constant coverage of terrorist related incidents discourages the restoration of consumer confidence. Beirman D. (2003) said that the globalisation of media enhanced the ability to report terrorist events as they occurred, it also gives rise some problems and benefits to tourist authorities. In the word of Mansfeld and Pizam (2006), the media coverage and reporting on terrorist attacks have great impact on tourism industry, which transform the terrorism from horrendous event into iconic event. Tourism industry needs to monitor media coverage of terrorist events, because this will help tourism industry to develop strategies, which will help it to restore the tourists and travellers confidence. Media have its ital role in endangering fear, among the society; the irresponsible reporting generates scenes of ever present possibility of terrorist act. According to Crenshaw M. (1990) the new and fastest ways of communication allow people to know about happens in the other part of the world within minutes about any terrorist attack. On the other hand terrorist groups are adopting the latest techniques to communicate with each other and even sometime just for spreading fear with in the specific community to achieve their targets. Czinkota et al (2004) cited that terrorist also using old traditional ways to communicate which are unable to penetrate. The latest ways of transportation system gives terrorist groups better way to move around. So we can say that media plays very important role for tourism industry in the time of terrorists incidents, as the media medium for terrorists to the public subsequently depend on the same media for more information on that incident. Conclusion: The discussion will cover some of the most basic concepts in the research of terrorism and its impacts on tourism. Tourism industry internationally and locally particularly affected by terrorism because when some things happen, it disrupts the activities of tourism and related industries. Every year more than trillion dollars are spent on combating terrorism. This along with billons dollars lost in property damage, loss of human resources and decrease in key industries potential profit like tourism, aviation, hotel and transportation industry. It is a plague on global economy and affects on everyone from entire countries to all the way down to individual. Terrorism in recent years has sparked, increase in fear and demand higher level of security. The cost of terrorism can be broken down into number of areas and come down to direct effects, response costs and negative effects on tourism industry. Terrorism effects tourism activates deeply. This threat compel almost every department of tourism industry, which cause decline in the profit of industry and on the other side the whole economy has to bear the cost of every single act of terrorism. According to LCCI (2005) report, after 9 11 terrorist attacks, majority of tourism related industries fear high risk of terrorist attacks and they have contingency plan in place to deal with uncertainty. As globalization integrates multinational organizations and financial markets, events like terrorism which spurn economic uncertainty have increasingly international consequences. Terrorism causes unpredictable political and economic consequences, infuses the public with fear and prevents the free flow of capital, labour, and free market principles. Because of their disastrous impacts, occurrences of terrorism have serious implications on the performance of tourism and related industries around the world. In past few years immediate respon ses and severe impacts are felt in tourism industry soon after terrorist attacks happened. These sustained reactions can be observed through macroeconomic impacts, government policy responses, tourists and investor confidence. As world move towards more liberal economies and democratic political structures, tourism industry must have the ability to adapt and respond to terrorist events. In order to do so, tourism industry and associated businesses, need a more complete picture and understanding of the deleterious effects of terrorism.

Resistance to Imperialism and the Zulu War Essay -- African History Es

Although it is usually 19th century European imperialism that appears in Western literature, Africans have felt pressure from outside powers for over a thousand years. By the year 1200, most of Northern Africa had adopted Islam, and the population consisted mainly of a blend of Arab and Berber peoples. It was at this time that the enslavement of black Africans along the eastern coast of the continent by Arabian pirates began. This slave trade, however, met fierce resistance from the flourishing African kingdoms of Kush and the Somali king, Nagus Yeshaq, who was a Christian Becker). Because the strength of the Arabic incursions was based mainly on conversion, the Islamic armies never penetrated deeply into sub-Saharan Africa. In the middle of the 15th century, Portuguese explorers began to establish trading outposts along the western coast of Africa, thus beginning the first steps toward imperialism by European nations. It is estimated that the first trading of Africans as slaves by the Portuguese began in 1444. The West African kingdom of Benin, however, still suc...

Cultural Models and Cultural Dimensions

Cultural Models and Cultural Dimensions (Hofstede) Cultural studies are not a unified theory but a diverse field of study encompassing many different approaches, methods and academic perspectives. As in any academic discipline, cultural studies academics frequently debate among themselves. Cross-cultural communication, as in many scholarly fields, is a combination of many other fields. These fields include anthropology, cultural studies, psychology and communication.There exists no uniform evaluation system or model of cultural aspects to date. However, the variety of the available models much more illustrates how multifaceted the approach can be. Nevertheless, there are some common dimensions for the most cultural models such as concept of time and space, equal (or non-equal) rights of men and women and position of the individual in the society. The most popular cultural models come primarily from the English-speaking researches: Hall (1989), Hofstede (1991), Oksaar (1988).Wierzbick a is famous for her work in semantics, pragmatics, and cross-cultural linguistics and has established the idea of so called Universal Human Concepts and their realisation in the language (Wierzbicka, 1992). Looking for an appropriate basis cultural model for this research a short comparison of the most known models needs to be done. The differences begin at the definition of culture or even at avoiding any definition, at the objectiveness level (e. g. amount and homogeneity of the interviewed persons) as well as at use of different cultural dimensions.Table 6 contains a comparison between three most popular cultural models of Hofstede, Hall and Gesteland though the latter should be concerned more as a collection of a life experience in how to behave in business with success worldwide. Table 6: Comparison of Cultural Models (Astapenko, 2008: 92) This comparison demonstrates the lack of homogeneity of the research basis. While the amount of the interviews done by Hall is relatively hi gh, he surveys only three countries. Gesteland on his hand does his research without any statistics using his own experience.Comparing to this the cultural model of Hofstede is more representative and homogeneous. He worked on interviews of IBM-employees in over 50 countries who therefore work in the same sector in comparable positions and have a similar social status. It is obviously that every cultural model has to be approached with great caution and an uncritical reading of cultural dimensions can lead to false conclusions. But even if Hofstede's conceptualization of culture has attracted some criticism he is though one of the most renowned and most cited experts.The continuity of his researches can be observed over decades and the approach of his scientific school is still being applied and improved. Moreover, his research approach establishes a connection to the active prevention measures mentioned in Chapter 2. As his classification system will be used to make a comparison of the involved regions later in this chapter, it adds to the consistency of this report to explain his definition. Hofstede defines culture as â€Å"the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from others† (Hofstede et al. , 2010: 6).Investigating culture is an attempt to catch general trends among a large group of people on a very general level. Therefore, the findings in this report should not be applied on an individual level, as this may lead to miscommunication or even stigmatisation. There are different levels of culture (national, regional, ethnic, religious, gender, social class or even organisational level) but regarding Transferability of Road Safety measures the national level was suggested to be the subject for further research. Strictly speaking, the concept of a common culture applies to societies, not to nations.Based on elaborate research from 1967 to 1973, Hofstede developed a model that tries to cap ture †culture† through scores on four values, so-called cultural dimensions (given below). Later researches added further dimensions which cannot be fully evaluated here due to other focuses in this project. The complete description of the cultural dimensions can be found on the website (Hofstede, 2011). The four main dimensions according to Hofstede are: †¢ Power Distance Index (PDI): the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally.Individualism (IDV): the degree to which individuals are integrated into groups. †¢ †¢ Masculinity (MAS): refers to the distribution of roles and values between the genders. The women in feminine countries have the same modest, caring values as the men; in the masculine countries they are somewhat assertive and competitive, but not as much as the men, so that these countries show a gap between men's values and women's values. Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI): a society's tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity. Based on the values for these dimensions of the 19 European countries for which cultural dimension scores are available, an average European score was calculated. After a comparison between Europe, India and Brazil based on the official study data from Hofstede the research for metropolitan areas of Sao Paulo and Delhi which was done for this particular project by the local partners using the questionnaire of Hofstede is being presented.On the basis of its results the project partners awareness of the cultural differences and similarities between Brazil, India and Europe should be sharpened in order to consider them during the transfer of European Safety measures to Emerging Economies. This allows to avoid misunderstandings and to exclude from the beginning those measures which cannot be transferred due to cultural reasons. 1. 1. 1. Comparison of Cultural Dimensions of Europe, Brazil and IndiaA first issue that arises when comparing the regions that are cooperating in SaferBraIn is the difference in analysis levels: how should one compare the cultures of two countries (India and Brazil) with the culture of a continent (Europe)? Having some insight in the European states cultures, it is safe to say that significant differences can be noted between the European member states. Therefore an average European score was calculated based on a mathematical analysis of Hofstede’s cultural dimension scores.Even if there are in some cases crucial differences between European countries like Italy and Germany, Spain and Sweden, this average score allows comparing the cultures of Europe, India and Brazil. The next figure presents the scores on the four dimensions for these three regions. It must be stressed at this stage that it is not the authors’ intention to make hard statements about cultures. As was indicated before, Hofstede’s research can only be used to descr ibe general trends in the average culture of a country. This should under no circumstances be translated to an individual level.Figure 20: Comparison of Europe-India-Brazil on Hofstede’s 4 cultural dimensions Figure 20 indicates that the power distance is relatively large in India and Brazil, compared to Europe. This could mean that individuals in these two countries operate in a more hierarchical system. Following Hofstede’s definition, hierarchy in India and Brazil is not only accepted, it is also expected. It may be interesting to keep this in mind when analyzing the corresponding traffic systems and when designing pilots to be implemented in these two countries.Especially concerning the enforcement of safety measures, the strong power orientation influences its exercising. It is known that Brazil and India already have many road facilities and road safety measures but they are not proper used by population. Due to that stronger enforcement measures are needed to im prove the acceptance of new technologies and facilities. One can also notice that Europe appears to have a more individualist culture than India and Brazil. This tendency toward individualism can be found in several Western countries. The United States of America for example, have a score of 91 on Hofstede’s scale.Individualist cultures rely more on media and less on their social networks. Different surveys demonstrate that in an individualist culture employees are expected to act at their own responsibility and organise their work gathering their own interests with those of their employers. In a collectivist culture an employee is a part of a group and has to act according to its interest. This should be considered cooperating in pilot projects for SaferBraIn. Moreover, collectivist cultures tend to have higher power distance that individualist ones.So a strong hierarchy and acceptance of higher positioned partners can be presupposed working with India and Brazil. Considerin g vulnerable road users a health-care survey mentioned by Hofstede showed that individualist and collectivist cultures differently deal with disability. A special part of the survey was dedicated to disabled children. â€Å"In the individualist communities [†¦], people with disabilities tended to remain cheerful and optimistic, to resent dependency and being helped, and to plan for a future life as normal as possible.In the collectivist communities [†¦], there would be more expression of grief, shame, and pessimism; family members would be asked for advice and assistance, and they would make the main decisions about the person’s future† (Hofstede, 2010: 116). Translating this finding to the SaferBraIn project, it can be supposed that collectivist cultures like India and Brazil would not have sophisticated facilities for disabled VRU’s and these persons would not be well integrated in the society. This could be therefore a useful part of the safety meas ures? ransfer though the awareness of local partners cannot be assumed. The scores on the masculinity dimension show the smallest differences between the investigated regions. The scores are about 50-60 which can be interpreted as a quite balanced value between masculinity and femininity in the compared countries. However, one can notice that Europe has the highest score. A thorough look at Hofstede’s full definition for this dimension could interpret it as follows: Europe has a more assertive culture overall than India and Brazil, while India and Brazil have a slightly more modest culture.In relation to this report, it may be important to safeguard these cultures’ higher need for modesty. Even if the masculinity dimensions scores are very different within Europe, the average score demonstrates the predominant masculine character. In masculine societies there is a feeling that conflicts should be resolved by a â€Å"good fight†, where challenge, earnings, recogn ition, and advancement are important, whereas in feminine cultures there is a preference for resolving conflicts by compromise and negotiation focused on relationships.Since the score’s difference for surveyed countries are minimal, this dimension cannot evoke critical misunderstandings within SaferBraIn project. Finally, the level of Uncertainty Avoidance (UA) shows strong differences between the three regions. Though, UA is not the same as risk avoidance and these two concepts should not be mixed. Risk is focused on something specific and refers on a known and expected event. Avoiding risk we prevent something what we can foresee and not what is completely unpredictable.Hence, it would be incorrect to conclude that showing a relatively low level of UA, a potentially higher sense for risk taking can be assumed for India. Cultures with high Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) like Brazil or to a lesser extent Europe shun ambiguous situations and try to prevent them with more la ws, rules, and regulations. Brazil has more law schools than all countries in the world together. There are 1,240 higher education courses for the training of lawyers in the country while the rest of the planet comes to about 1,100 universities (CNJ, 2010).Cultures with low UAI like India believe that many problems can be solved without formal rules and that the latter should be established only in case of absolute necessity. Paradoxically in countries with weak UA where rules are less scared they are often better followed. Translating these findings to the needs of SaferBraIn even when European experts can expect hindered possibilities for Road Safety measures enforcement due to low legacy level in India they can presuppose their better acceptance. On the contrary in Brazil it is assumed that every measure would first need a legal regulation.However, in countries with strong UA laws can fulfil a need for security even when they are not followed. Another finding done by Hofstede tha t is relevant for SaferBraIn shows an interesting correlation between the strength of UA and the maximum speeds allowed in the country. â€Å"The relationship is positive: stronger uncertainty avoidance means faster driving. Faster driving, other things being equal, means more fatal accidents, thus more risk. However, this is a familiar risk, which uncertainty-avoiding cultures do not mind running.Their emotionality provides them with a sense of stress, of urgency, which in turn leads to wanting to drive faster. The higher speed limits in stronger uncertainty-avoidance countries show, in fact, a priority of saving time over saving lives† (Hofstede, 2010: 198). 1. 1. 2. Cultural Research for metropolitan areas in Brazil and India Brazil and India are countries of contrasts concerning climate, geography, income distribution, and educational level of its people. Because of the diversity we cannot consider that knowing the country’s culture we also know cultural dimensions of its metropolitan areas.For this reason the Hofstede? s theory of Cultural Dimensions using the interviews based on his questionnaire was applied in Sao Paulo city and Delhi – the big metropolises which can be compared in their extension and live rhythm and in which the use of western experience can be assumed. Local partners (IMR for Brazil and A+S for India) have initiated interviews of about 200 people each in Sao Paulo and Delhi to have representative scores for these metropolitan areas. Of course, analogue researches can be done for every region or city where the transfer of safety measures is planned.The detailed information to the results of these researches can be found in Annexes 6 and 7. Though, the difficulties with the questionnaire are worth to be shortly mentioned at this point. Although questionnaires in local languages (Portuguese and Hindi) were used, the interviewees in India could not always interpret question unambiguously. It was established especially dealing with lower and lower middle class that a certain level of education is affordable for the answers. Many easy understandable issues from the European point of view needed to be explained.In contrary, the upper-class representatives preferred to use the English version of the questionnaire. The main outcomes of the research are the differences between Individualism (IDV) and Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) scores. For Brazil also the Masculinity (MAS) score features diverse scores. Power Distance Index (PDI) remains very similar in Brazil and India for both country average and metropolitan area (Figure 21). Figure 21: Comparison PDI incl. Sao Paulo and Delhi As mentioned before countries with high PDI tend to have well-built hierarchical relations within the society and need strong enforcement.Concerning wearing of helmets to protect two-wheelers, Error! Reference source not found. should be studied. Following the law, the motorcycle driver is wearing a helmet. At the same time m ore vulnerable passengers (two children and the lady) are not protected. Hence, only the stronger member of the family, having more power, is protected. Figure 22: Using helmet on motorcycle in India IDV (Figure 23) shows very high divergence between the country average and metropolitan area in both Brazil and India.Though, the development goes in both countries in opposite directions. While the inhabitants of Sao Paulo turn out to be extremely individualistic the population in Delhi tends to more collectivism. Figure 23: Comparison IDV incl. Sao Paulo and Delhi With reference to the assumption in Chapter 4. 3. 2 according the interrelation between the individualism score and the treating of disabled following examples can be used due to motivate this assumption. Delhi roads are equipped with convenient, wide footpaths.Though, the level of most kerbs on Delhi roads is inconveniently high (Figure 24). This prompts pedestrians to walk along the roadside especially when they have physi cal problems in climbing high steps. Figure 24: High kerbs in India However, in modern projects like the Rapid Bus Corridor (RBC) in Delhi a segregated and safe corridor for pedestrians and non-motorized transport is provided. Also for the VRU with disabilities special facilities like dropped kerbs, low floor buses or platform-bus adjustment are provided.In the City of Sao Paulo, where the individuality score is very high, dropped kerbs and tactile pavements are applied on most major junctions in the consolidated part of the road system (Figure 25). Figure 25: Tactile pavements in Sao Paulo Another example for extremely low IDV in Delhi is the unspoken rule to never cross the street alone. They always wait to gather a group of some persons and cross the street in a crowd feeling safer as a part of a group and providing counterweight to motorised traffic (Figure 26).Figure 26: Crossing the street in Delhi Traffic rules require motorists to stop once a pedestrian steps on the zebra cr ossing. Practically this rule is not being followed, and crossing busy roads at zebra crossings is as dangerous for pedestrians as elsewhere. Pedestrians cross roads either in larger groups or whenever opportunity occurs. Concerning Masculinity score the research shows that Sao Paulo has a very high MAS (Figure 27), even higher that the European average. Therefore a conclusion can be drawn that the society of Sao Paulo is more oriented on financial recognition, earning and challenges.Possessing a big and expensive car means to be more powerful and respected. For this reason VRU have to subordinate whether crossing the street or waiting for a car blocking the footpath while garage or property. However, when a pedestrian shows his power by stepping to the road and focusing directly and self-confident on the driver he will be accepted and the car will let him cross the street. Figure 27: Comparison MAS incl. Sao Paulo and Delhi In Delhi even having an expensive do not automatically mea ns to be more powerful.These cars can be scratched and damaged the same way as a simple rickshaw. Even animals are seen as the most vulnerable road users and are equal to others. These facts are related to the very low IDV which means that this society is relationship-oriented and tries to solve conflicts by compromise. Similar to IDV the tendency of the score for UAI develops in the opposite direction between the country average and metropolitan area (Figure 28). In Brazil it is drastically decreasing for Sao Paulo, in India it is slightly increasing for Delhi.It can be therefore concluded that in Sao Paulo new safety measures being to a certain degree always ambiguous would be easier accepted. On the contrary, in Delhi more enforcement and education measures would be needed to promote acceptance of new safety measures. Figure 28: Comparison UAI incl. Sao Paulo and Delhi To sum up the research has identified several crucial differences between the countries? scores and the scores f or metropolitan areas. It is important to consider it when talking about transferability of road safety measures or working on pilot projects.

Louis Armstrong and His Innovation

Louis Armstrong was known as one of the greatest artist in Jazz History. With his work and dedication to the Jazz music, He managed to connect diverse population of society using his music through his innovations; Blues, Improvisation, Singing, Repertory, and Rhythm.Louis Armstrong made an impact on BluesLouis Armstrong was mostly known as one of the greatest trumpet player in Jazz history, specifically Early New Orleans Jazz. In this case, Armstrong recognize the Blues; a type of jazz genre, as a founding foundation of Jazz. Blues Jazz has the important role in Jazz history. Blues originated during 19th century in Southern plantation. The founders of Blues were mostly slave and ex-slaves who sings as they pluck plants in the fields.†You got to like playing pretty things if you're ever going to be any good blowing your own horn.† With the help of Charles Black, Columbia law professor, Louis Armstrong would not have been recognize for this reasons. When Charles heard Armstrong performed lived, the experience he have with Armstrong during his live performance feels that it will have an effect about viewing the race. Louis Armstrong song, â€Å"Savoy Blues† made an impact on society. It shows tenderness of the sound and shows a little feelings behind the song. This song was considered as a sweet jazz, a sound that lacks improvisation and performed with a moderate tone. With the use of sweet jazz, other uprising black musicians started to use this kind of music genre. If Louis Armstrong did not use the sweet jazz, he would not inspired other inspiring artist and would not impact his music. The Idea of Louis Armstrong was to inspired young black musicians to embrace the sound of Jazz, specifically Sweet Jazz. In this case, a movement called Harlem Renaissance that supports the black achievements were introduced. In Conclusion, Armstrong recognizes blues as the founding foundation for Jazz because it leads to the rights of the black men during their years. Through his musical career, he shows to people that it is possible to have a strong feeling to blues. In this case, He influenced a lot of inspiring musicians to create a music that is similar to him, also known as sweet jazz. Improvisation led him to be KnownThrough his Improvisation, his goal is to have a connection to his verbal to the music. Armstrong describes his music as a approaching to improvisations in the terms of suggesting logic developments and through his progress. His music shows that his first chorus plays melody and his second chorus plays the same melody with another combination of melodies. As he plays his instrument, trumpet. He always stated that his trumpet always tells a story. In short, whenever he plays his trumpet he just need to go with the flow to feel the music in it. Armstrong develops his music through creating a story, according to Roy Eldridge, When Armstrong creates music, it's like connecting an idea of telling a story with syntactic and cumulative development. Every phase that Armstrong plays led to somewhere else, that links to other songs. In this case, Armstrong's motivation was to shows a attention to others, mostly through a nightclub. Armstrong's improvisation shows that his melodies were unique, creative, and shows emotions towards the songs. His Improvisation depends on an attractive tunes, His music structure must be elegant. Another approach with his improvisation is through harmony, through the chord progressions, the tune must be focused shifted from tune to harmony in order to create an abstract and a large scale creative sounds. Armstrong's Improvisation brought changes to his melody. His improvisation methis was to think what rhythm that is already created and what to add to it in order to be more creative rather than creating a new rhythm from the scratch. Armstrong's melodic tunes were considered as a free mode. His chord progressions was seen as a potential to create a harmonic improvisations, a related way of creating a new rhythm. With in that, People respect Louis Armstrong with his great composition on music because of the quality of the tune and his pitches, the mood within the song he made and it sound that is made has a relaxing tune for the listeners to like it. In summary, throughout his career, records shoes that his music was advancing, using improvisation, he managed to get a lot of attentions through his music. The main goal was to let everyone know the connection of his music and the other's music rather than listening to a music without knowing anything. With improvisation, he made jazz as music that shows individual expressions. Crystal Voice of Louis ArmstrongThrough his career, He also sings specifically scat-singing. Scat singing is type of singing that is using nonsense syllable instead of words. Throughout the Jazz history, male vocalist of jazz were musical performers originally and one of them was Louis Armstrong. With the use of his improvisation, he emphasized the music more with his scat singing. According to his singing, his trumpet and scat has a connection between in it. As he plays his trumpet, it is played by using a triplet pattern of eight notes and develops motif by the right ascending or descending tune of his melody. Same thing as his scat, the development of the motif of the trumpet somehow related to scat. As Armstrong sung, the sound that came out gives a â€Å"dynamic synergistic effect. It brings a thrilling tune when using voice that is like a trumpet instrument.When Armstrong sings, people described it as a â€Å"heart warming†, and â€Å"beautiful and nostalgic.†. Louis Armstrong has the same manners to sing as he did on trumpet. As being said, His singing and playing trumpet has the emphasize on a gracefully melodic, rhythms, and triadic extensions. With is singing, Louis made an impact on the other singers such as; Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Elvis Presley. Armstrong's scatting melody was considered as a powerful melody throughout his music, as well being said, some artist have been collaborated with him like Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. In conclusion, Armstrong wouldn't been so recognized if he didn't introduce scat-singing to the public. As his use scat singing, he opened a door full of opportunity to the future aspiring. RepertoryAs Louis Armstrong considered as one of the most influential person in Jazz, His music has a potential to the listeners. Throughout his musical career, There were a lot of people that His music was not original, but just were being improvised. In fact, it is true; however, not all the hits he just improvised, some of them were written originally . As he composing his own song, there were some mistakes on it, over and over he changes some of his tunes in order to get the right tune. With his repertory, he sold a lot of albums. His repertory made an transformation through his career.As people believed that his repertory was low quality, his career suddenly fail to become popular. With his dedication to music, he started again to show different kinds of repertory that he has that ended up to have one of the best recordings in his period. His repertory showed variety of sound such as timbre. He also includes different techniques within his music such as inserting instruments' range. With his repertory, He created some of Tin Pan Alley songs into a masterpiece. In that case, Some of Louis Armstrong's musics became one of the standards of jazz. With his work, His music was introduced widely by the people such as his music, Memories of You, On the Sunny side of the street, and I got rhythm. After he was introduced by him music, another musicians were been also recognize with their innovations such as Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Dizzy Gillespie. Reverberating RhythmLouis Armstrong's Rhythm introduce to the world as a second nature to everyone. As critics says that some people considered Armstrong's music was disorganized, but most people recognizes his music has a perfect rhythm, harmony, pitch, and a flow. Theortically, people considered Armstrong's contributions to the people is to teach them to appreciate music.With the rhythm of Armstrong, he became more integrated to his language over time. When Armstrong create a new rhythm, he made it very seriously but when it is very complicated he intended to change the tune in to simple tune. However, Armstrong's rhythm made his music complicated. This complication in his music did not bother him, in fact, he began to recruit other singers specifically blue. As he recruits singers, he developed a habit playing a triad minor in his music. In some people's vision, Louis Armstrong's rhythm seems to lack something. He was also judge by having an old fashioned music. In order to correct this mistake, Armstrong changes some of his tune or re arrange it in order the listeners will be satisfied. With his popularity in repertory, he able to performed wonderfully in front of his audiences, the goal was to entertained the audience, it happened. In some of his music he change some of his phrases to a more triad. Based on his rhythm, he has this first eight bar that assembles his melody's pitch. As the critics says about his rhythm, â€Å"Armstrong has the right rhythm instinct and sense of time in ‘swinging around and away from the regular beat' as he expresses it. His rhythm made a huge impact on Early New Orleans Jazz, his skills on rhythm, he able to connect phases without any problem compared on other Early New Orleans Jazz such as dealing with complicated notes within music. Through his creativity, he was able to tell people that music may be hard to understand sometimes, it just need to be hear it carefully in order to understand what the song is trying to tell.