Psychoanalysis and The Wizard of Oz Essay

Analyzing â€Å"The Wizard of Oz†: Freud’s Psychosexual Theory and Theory of the Personality vs. Klein’s Object Relations and Play Technique Theory Psychoanalysis paved the way for infinite discoveries of the human mind. It has been attributed as the â€Å"mental science†Ã¢â‚¬â€a scientific way of locating and interpreting the (un)natural behavior of a person which greatly affects him or her. The psychoanalytic theory has always been very controversial since it introduces very unconventional ways of treating the mind. Although there are a lot of psychologists who have influenced the field of psychoanalysis, none can compare to the contributions of Sigmund Freud and his contentious theories. Sigmund Freud is most famous for his Theory of Personality that talks about the id, ego, and superego and the psychosexual interpretations that goes with it. Another important person to note is Melanie Klein who hypothesized her own theories that focus more on the mentality and behavior of a child and his or her relationship with the things and people around him or her. According to Mitchel and Black (1995), Melanie Klein made such a tremendous impact in the field of psychoanalysis that there is no another person aside from Sigmund Freud himself who can be appreciated for her contribution with regard to the field of psychoanalysis. Although Klein was influenced by Freud’s theories and patterned her theories after his, her own hypotheses are very much different from Freud’s. While Freud reinforced the idea that personalities of individuals are more likely connected to certain psychosexual gratifications (or dissatisfaction in many cases according to him), Klein more or less centered on the idea that individuals behave according to the experiences they had as a child, the kind of play acting they did, and the things that they played with. In fact, Klein focused more on â€Å"reading† a child by the artworks and play acting that he or she does. One thing that could be seen as similar in their works is the fact that both consider dreams as very important tools in â€Å"reading† a person and identifying his or her mental situation. Freud stipulated that dreams are very important since they involve thoughts that are unconscious to the person. Moreover, these dreams can also be traced to certain experiences that the person had as a child (Mitchel & Black, 1995). Klein herself believed in such theory, but Freud believed more in the psychosexual aspect of things concerning the human mind and the human behavior. In the setting of school education, most especially with the area of guidance and counseling, these two personalities and their theories are greatly used in interpreting children’s manners and their conduct. Counselors would use artworks as a way to delve deeply into what a child is thinking and what are the reasons for his or her certain behavior. Images, colors, signs, and symbols may seem so simplistic when they are looked at their surface interpretations, but psychoanalysis provides latent meanings to what could have been depicted as something so simple and mundane. In literature, there is such an approach called the Psychological Approach in which certain psychoanalytic theories are used to interpret a certain body of work. The intricate details are seen as symbols that contain very important meanings. Such perspective can be used in trying to analyze the ideas that Freud and Klein presented through their theories by comparing and contrasting certain elements of the 1939 movie version of The Wizard of Oz. The Wizard of Oz is a classic children’s literature that was written by L. Frank Baum in 1900 and has been hailed as a beloved masterpiece by many. The original work of Baum is very much different from the movie, but it is the movie which has been retained and appreciated by the general public. The characters, settings, certain elements, and scenes are depicted as marvelous by many—a fine example would be the appearance of the ruby slippers of Dorothy (which is in fact colored as silver in the original work as what was expressed by Tim Dirks in his review of The Wizard of Oz) that she can click together to transport her from one place to another. The plot is very simple yet meaningful. Dorothy, a nine-year old girl from a little farm in Kansas, goes on a long journey with her dog Toto, the Tin man, the Cowardly Lion, and the Scarecrow to find the Wizard of Oz in the Emerald City and fulfill their individual wishes (Dorothy wants to go home to Kansas, the Lion wishes to have courage, the Tin man desires to have a heart, and the Scarecrow thinks he needs a brain). At the end of the journey, they all realize that the things they are looking have always been with them and under their noses all along. As with many literary works, what makes a person think he or she has achieved the goal is not the resolution of the conclusion but the adventures that the long journey entails. In the end, Dorothy wakes up to find that it was actually just a dream (more or less like when Alice in the Wonderland wakes up to find that all her adventures were just a dream), but the values that she has learned in the journey is very much kept close to her heart. In connection to the psychoanalytic theory, the dream itself may be interpreted already as a somewhat significant aspect of Dorothy’s consciousness. There are many other aspects and elements that can be interpreted as something else if the theories of Freud and Klein would be taken into account. For instance, Dorothy has a very obvious conflict with the Wicked Witch of the West/Miss Almira Gulch over the Ruby Slippers and Toto the dog. During the start of the film, Dorothy was in trouble and in predicament over the vehemence of Miss Almira Gulch over Toto, her dog. Toto accidentally bit Miss Gulch on her leg which enraged the woman. She was so enraged that she had the sheriff write a warrant that would allow her to take Toto away and lock him up. However, Toto has always been the only companion of Dorothy and is the only reason that she laughs. Their farm in Kansas has been characterized as gray and dull and Dorothy has been deemed as the only person with such life and happiness. That reason for happiness is Toto, and Miss Gulch’s insistence that the dog be put away is stripping Dorothy of her happiness. According to Klein, such play things of a child are important and usually mean something more. Dorothy’s play thing may be a dog, but her obvious affection and love for the dog can be traced to the fact that she is yearning for another living thing that could be with her and provide her attention. Her Aunt Emily and Uncle Henry pay more attention to the farm than to their â€Å"adopted† niece, which gives Dorothy the idea that she needs company and does not want to be alone. The gravity of her attachment to Toto is realized in the scene where Miss Gulch arrives and plans on taking Toto away. Dorothy begs for Miss Gulch to reconsider her decision and even states with such self-sacrificial courage that she would replace Toto and be taken away. Miss Gulch is also so insistent that Toto be taken away and she does the task, symbolically stripping Dorothy of her happiness and causes great dissatisfaction on her part. In Freud’s object choice theory, the child readily associates things or people that he or she is surrounded with. The people that the child finds are considered as his or her associates (people that are close to the child or in some cases, the things that matters to him or her) that he or she wants to have affection with and instinct tells him or her that there needs to be a established relationship with that person (or people or things). Dorothy considers her Aunt Emily and Uncle Henry as people that she should connect with and feel some sort of affection, but the two characters do not reciprocate the feelings; instead, Dorothy finds herself drawn to Toto, her dog. Since the dog is her â€Å"maternal† substitute, Dorothy is drawn to make-believe and fantastically daydream which is the whole point of the story of The Wizard of Oz—Dorothy’s dream. Dorothy retreated to her world bringing Toto and play acting, but since the awful truth of reality plays such a big part in her life, the usual â€Å"running away† with Toto does not suffice anymore, and a deeper form of â€Å"running away† takes place and makes her fully leave the world of the farm in Kansas. Dreams as what Freud and Klein believe are very important tools; since Dorothy dreamt that she was in the World of Oz and having such wonderful adventures, she strayed away from reality and got lost in the make-believe world that she has unconsciously created. Another of Freud’s theory comes into place with the mention of the unconscious. The famous iceberg imagery or metaphor of his theory of personality and the id, ego, and superego play a part in Dorothy’s dreaming. The ego is what people perceive as reality and manifests in the physical world; the id is the unconscious which greatly affects and controls our behavior and way of thinking in reality and is considered as irrational since it involves the hidden urges and desires we have that we are not fully aware of; and lastly, the superego is the conscience and is considered as the ethical voice that controls our behavior subconsciously. Dorothy’s dreams may be her way of running away from reality (as what is supposed with regard to Klein’s theory), but it may also be the manifestation of her id (as what is supposed with regard to Freud’s theory). The beginning of the film appears as Dorothy not being welcomed by her Aunt Emily and Uncle Henry; she then resorts to the fantastical notion of the dream—the dream consists of her adventure with the Tin man, Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion. Dorothy’s participation may be that of a selfish reason (because she wants to go to Emerald City and find the Wizard of Oz so she can go back to Kansas). But the first part of the adventure (and the beginning of the movie) may be a manifestation of her id, as her wants and demands should be followed. However, as the adventure progresses, she soon realizes the selfishness of her desires and focuses on helping her friends find their own desires. Even if the dream is a manifestation of her id, the ego and superego win over the id. Another thing to point out is the second object of conflict between Dorothy and the Wicked Witch of the West which is the ruby slippers of Dorothy. Firstly, however, it is important to note the existence of the ruby slippers itself. Again, according to Tim Dirks’ review of The Wizard of Oz, the ruby slippers are the beginning of Dorothy’s entrance into female adolescence. Red has always been the archetypal color for passion and blood, and the symbolism behind such color could just mean that Freud’s psychosexual theory can be justified. Going back to the Wicked Witch of the West’s desire to have the ruby slippers, it can mean that the Witch wants to rid Dorothy again of the happiness (as the same character who portrayed Miss Gulch is the Wicked Witch too) that she wants to have because the slippers are her means of returning back to Kansas. From a different perspective however, it could mean the Wicked Witch of the West wants to steal Dorothy’s puberty and youth. There has been many literary works wherein evil witches are in desire of young girls’ youth, vitality, and virginity (as Snow White’s stepmother wants her dead because of her beauty or when Lamia lures Yvaine to steal her youth in the novel Stardust). It can be concluded that the situation may be the typical good versus evil scenario, but if the Witch so badly wants to have power and let evil reign in the Emerald City, why not go after the Wizard of Oz himself (even if he is a fraud)? If Freud was at the actual scene, he may have interpreted the ruby slippers as a symbol of the beginning of Dorothy’s menstruation. If Klein was there, she would have just said that the ruby slippers are another of Dorothy’s play things. The next thing to point out is the extreme conflict between Dorothy and Miss Gulch/Wicked Witch of the West. In Klein’s theory of Depressive Position, when a child hates his or her mother, he or she in effect hates him- herself. It cannot really be said that Miss Gulch/Wicked Witch of the West can be likened to Dorothy’s mother, but the enmity between them is so great that the Witch uses such horrifying threats to Dorothy and Toto. Even if the Witch really wants certain â€Å"valuable† things from Dorothy, the vehemence that the Witch feels for Dorothy is so great that it is certain that an underlying symbolism may be present. In Mitchel and Black’s book, a quotation by Herman Hesse was introduced to Klein’s chapter: â€Å"If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us. † This quotation, in all its simplicity, already justifies the claim that Dorothy and Miss Gulch/Wicked Witch of the West hate each other because there is a big part of themselves that they probably see in each other and in turn hates it since they see the mirror of themselves. Both Freud and Klein have a lot of similarities and differences in both their theories and in this paper, both theories have been voiced with the certain elements that were picked in the story. Although there is no claim in which theory is better or which interpretation provides more depth and breadth, it is safe to conclude that each theory is unique and helps in making getting a bigger and better viewpoint of The Wizard of Oz, most especially when used and analyzed together. References Mitchel, S. & Black, M. (1995). Freud And Beyond: A History Of Modern Psychoanalytic Thought. New York: Basic Books Dirks, T. (2009). The Wizard of Oz (1939): Review by Tim Dirks (Review of the movie The Wizard of Oz]. Filmsite. Retrieved March 30, 2009, from http://www. filmsite. org/wiza3. html.

Contract Law – Intention to Oontract

Contract Law 1 Intention to Create Legal Relations In order for a contract to be valid there must be intention to create legal relations. Enright notes ‘the requirement of intention to create legal relations is a final doorkeeper in contract. It determines which agreements supported by consideration shall be covered by contract law and which shall merely be morally binding. ’ This requirement was expressly stated for the first time in Heilbut, Symons & Co V Buckleton.Friel notes that important as there are a great many agreements and arrangements that, though possessing many of the characteristics of contract, probably are not intended to attract legal consequences. Intention to be legally bound operates on the basis of presumptions. The test for intention is objective. The court will impute intention to create legal relations to the parties on the basis on external factors rather than on the workings of the parties’ minds. Intention and Presumptions There are two presumptions in this area: 1.There is a presumption that agreements between family members or friends are not intended to be legally binding. 2. There is a presumption that agreements which are made in a commercial context are intended to be legally binding. Social and Domestic Arrangements A close family of social relationship raises a presumption of lack of intention to create legal relations. The seminal case, Balfour V Balfour involved maintenance payments to be sent home to his wife while he was working abroad. The court held that agreements between husband and wife are not intended to be legally binding.The closer the blood relationship the more readily the presumption will be raised and the more distant the degree of blood relationship, the more likely the courts will infer an intention to be legally binding. This can be seen in Simpkins V Pays where an informal agreement between a landlord and his lodger, to enter into a weekly competition, held lodger entitled to share of winnings, despite landlord’s evidence that there was no intention to be legally bound. Rogers V Smith shows the same principal in Balfour V Balfour applied to other family relationships. It was held in this case that the agreement between a mother nd her son did not attract legal relations. Likewise in Mckay V Jones where a nephew had worked on his uncle’s farm for some years without payment, claimed that the uncle had promised to the farm when he died. Deale J. Ruled that it was nothing more than a statement of intention or wish by the deceased†¦.. no promise was made as the agreement was between family members. In contrast to this case is McCarron V McCarron where a child worked without reward for 16 years. The child was said to have lost out more in McCarron and therefore had a greater detriment or reliance on the compensation promised.The dates between this cases may explain the different points of view. In Leahy V Rawson found that an agreement between her no n-marital partner’s brother, did not attract the presumption as it only applies to the closest family kinships, such as parent and child and spouses. The courts also held the same principal in social arrangements as was shown in Hadley V Kemp. In this case the court raised the presumption that an agreement as to the sharing of songwriter’s loyalties with other members of his band (Spandau Ballet) was not intended to create legal relations.Enright notes that a degree of intimacy is required between the parties in order to raise the presumption. The issue is not of status but closeness. We can contrast Balfour with Merritt V Merritt. As in Balfour, the parties were husband and wife and the agreement concerned an allowance, yet, in Merritt, the court chose to enforce the agreement. Merritt is distinguished however, on the grounds that the husband and wife were separated, so they were not in a close relationship any longer and so the presumption of lack of intention to cre ate legal relations could not be raise.For the same reason, and as it appears in Courtney V Courtney, a separation agreement will not attract the presumption of lack of intention to create legal relations. It is the parties’ relationship at the time of contracting which matters. That is clear from the mother-daughter case of Jones V Padavatton. In this case, the mother agreed to maintain her daughter if she came home and studied for the Bar. Over time their relationship broke down but the presumption of lack of intention to create legal relations stood because of their close relationship at the time. Rebutting the PresumptionThere is some authority to the effect that the courts are more likely to find that the presumption of lack of intention to create legal relations has been rebutted where one party has relied on the agreement. This is seen in Parker V Clarke, involved two couples who were close friends. The Clarks told the Parkers if they sold their cottage they could move in with them, that the Clarks would leave some of their considerable estate to the Parkers on his death. Sometime after the couple moved in they fell out and the Parkers were forced to move out. They sued the Clarks for breach of contract.Because of the parties close relationship at the time of contracting, the presumption was that it was not intended to be legally binding. However, the court found that the Parkers’ detrimental reliance on the agreement in leaving their home was a factor strong enough to rebut the presumption, and intention to create legal relations was thereby found. The party alleging that a family agreement was intended to be legally binding bears the onus of rebutting the presumption that it was not so intended. It is significant that in a family agreement was made in a business context.So, for example, an agreement made in connection with a family business, such as that between brothers, directors of the company in Snelling V John G Snelling Ltd, is unl ikely to fall foul of the presumption of lack of intention to create legal relations. The words used by the parties in setting out their agreement and, in particular, the level of certainty attaching to the agreement were also important. The fact that the parties have taken time to set out their agreement with formality and precision suggests that they intended it to be legally bound.On the other hand, where an agreement is expressed in vague terms, it tends to suggest that the parties did not intend to create a legally binding agreement. This is clear from Vaughan V Vaughan. This case concerned a couple who were no longer living in amity. They had agreed that the wife could stay in the matrimonial home. However, they had not decided how long she could stay for, or on what terms. Accordingly, their agreement was so vague in its essentials that the Court could not confer intention to create legal intentions in it.Commercial Agreements Commercial agreements raise the presumption that intention to create legal relations is present. It is difficult to rebut this assumption. The burden of proof is on the party seeking to deny it and that burden, according to Edwards V Skyways, is a heavy one. Vagueness on the essential terms of the contract tends to suggest an absence of intention to create legal relations. For example, the courts will rarely be able to find intention to create legal relations in so-called sales puffs.Thus, in Lambert V Lewis, no contract arose from a manufacturer’s statement that his product was ‘foolproof’ and ‘required no maintenance’ because his statements were ‘not intended to be, nor were they, acted on as being express warranties’. A lot depends on the facts of the case at hand. In Esso Petroleum V Commissioner of Customs and Excise, a binding contract was deemed to arise from a transaction in which football tokens were offered to anyone who purchased four gallons of the plaintiff’s petrol .According to Lord Simon ‘†¦. the whole transaction took place in a setting of business relations†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢, the purpose of the offer being commercial: Esso wanted the public to buy its petrol. Rebutting the Presumption Cadbury Ireland Ltd V Kerry Co-Op shows how a number of factors can operate to rebut the presumption of intention to create legal relations. In this case, a clause held not intended to be legally binding despite its solemnity: it was an argument to draw up a detailed agreement, but could not be relied upon itself.Even in a commercial context, the presumption in favour of the intention to create legal relations can be dispatched by a very clear expression of lack of intention. A classic example of this is in Rose and Frank Co V Crompton Bros. In this case, the parties had agreed that the plaintiff would be permitted to distribute the defendants’ goods in the US. The agreement however contained an ‘honourable pledge clause’. The cour t held that the agreement could not be enforced because of this clause. The court also found the wording precise enough to rebut the presumption in Jones V Vernon’s Pools Ltd.Collective Agreements Where a trade union negotiates an agreement with an employer on behalf of its members, does this agreement attract the presumption of intention to create legal relations? In the English case of Ford Motor Co Ltd V Amalgamated Union of Engineering and Foundry Workers, it is said that the presumption in relation to collective agreements is that they are not made with the intention to create legal relations. However, Irish Law takes a contrary view, tending to favour the enforcement of collective agreements via contract.So in Ardmore Studios V Lynch, it was suggested that a collective agreement which is set out in a clear specific manner will take legal effect. The Supreme Court took up this thread in Goulding Chemicals V Bolger. For the purposes of Irish Law, it seems safe to say that collective agreements can be enforced in the same manner as any other commercial agreement and attract the presumption that the intention of legal relations is present. In O’Rourke V Talbot Ireland, Barrington J treated a collective agreement as a commercial agreement.Similarly, in King V Aer Lingus the Supreme Court took the view that some of the commitments given by Aer Lingus to its employees as part of a collective agreement were binding. A problem that continues to afflict collective agreements, however, is their characteristically vague language – the majority of collective agreements will be void for uncertainty. Letters of Intent V Letters of Comfort Enright notes that a letter of comfort is a document designed to reassure the person to whom it is provided about certain matters while stopping short of making any binding promise.A good example of the effects of a letter of comfort arose in Kleinwort Benson V Malaysia Mining Corp. Bhd. In this case, the plaintif f bank had agreed to lend money to the subsidiary of the Malaysia Mining Corporation. In the course of negotiations for the loan, the bank received a letter of comfort stating that: ‘it is policy to ensure that the business of our subsidiary is at all times in a position to meet its liabilities to you under the above arrangements. ’ Despite this reassurance, the Court of Appeal concluded that this statement did not bind the defendant.The letter was not, in fact, purporting a binding promise. It was simply stating that company’s policy, a policy that might be changed or adjusted in response to novel circumstances. It is important to note, however, that there is no concrete rule precluding a letter of comfort from giving rise to legal relations. Whether or not such letters creates a legally binding promise is a matter to to be discerned primarily from the language used. The simple fact that the words ‘letter of comfort’ have been used, while evidently relevant, may not conclusively prevent the agreement rom having legal implications. There is a lot of uncertainty in this area as in seen in the case of Wilson Smithett & Cape (Sugar) Ltd V Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation. A letter of intent, in contrast to a comfort letter, is one in which a person or company seeks to induce another entity to undertake work to incur expenditure, while denying or limiting liability to that other entity, often by insisting that liability turned on concluding a formal contract at a later date.In AC Controls Ltd V BBC, the court summarised the principals in relation to letters on intent. The general principal on letters of intent that seek to authorise work, materials or services pending the conclusion of a later contract is that such letters will be viewed as contracts in themselves as long as objective is present. In ERDC Group Ltd V Brunel University, the Court held that the work done prior to September had all been on the authority as set out in the series of Letters of Intent.The judge thought that the usual requirements for a contract were all there (intention to create a legal relationship, certainty, etc) and had all been there until 1 September. He therefore found that there had been a contract until then. Accordingly, ERDC was to be paid on the basis specified in the letters – the JCT rules. Conclusion It is contended that the requirement of intention to create legal intentions largely makes sense.Social and domestic agreements have the presumption as not having intention to create legal relations as there is a belief that such formalities are not required in this type of relationship. Enright notes that there are two reasons why this is employed. Firstly, if the rule were that social and domestic agreements were always legally binding, the courts might be flooded with petty disputes and the second is because it is felt that people should have the freedom to make certain types of private, persona l agreements without drawing the interference of the law into their lives.It is also understood that Commercial Agreements are correct as they do have the intention to create legal relations as there is the acceptance that such formalities should be required in this type of relationship. The ways to rebut this assumption also makes sense as it can be rebutted if the essential terms of the contract are vague or if the party seeking to deny it can prove that there was no intention. Enright notes the burden of proof is on the party seeking to deny it and that burden according to Edwards V Skyways, is a heavy one.

Writing The Report Roanoke, Virginia Branch Coursework

Writing The Report Roanoke, Virginia Branch - Coursework Example d. Employee’s morale declining day by day- over worked- without salary increment. II. Methods for investigation a. Questionnaires were given to designers and copywriters in order to determine their problems. b. Budget review to determine the reason why the company accepted new orders before accomplishing initial orders. c. Employees were interviewed by members of the department. III. Findings. a. Copywriters and designers had issues regarding their department b. The employees were demoralized hence the quality of the products was substandard c. The company had to accept new orders before accomplishing initial ones. IV. Conclusions: a. Employees demoralized because they were not compensated for the over time hence low productivity. b. The branch also some of its great members. c. The company’s reputation got ruined. V. Recommendations. a. Compensation of over time. b. Improved communication within the organization. c. Collaboration of designers and copywriters. INTEROFFI CE MEMORANDUM TO : GREGORY S. FOREST FROM : HUMAN RESOURCE DEPARTMENT SUBJECT: ROANOKE BRANCH DATE : May 2, 2012 As the vice president of Human Resource Department, I would like to take this opportunity to give you detailed information about Roanoke Branch, situated in Virginia.

Methods of Engagement in Afghanistan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Methods of Engagement in Afghanistan - Essay Example The long battle with the Soviet Union which eventually ended in the late 1980’s and gave rise to the Taliban government. The retreat of the Soviet Union gave room for rebel forces from within the country to rage civil war on the Mujahedin government. In 1996 the Taliban took over the country and imposed strict Islamic law over the people. The use of harsh punishments, the segregation of women and the practice of public executions forced international support to pull back their resources leaving Afghanistan in a state of rubble and chaos. Despite many attempts by the United States administration to reach agreements with the Taliban, they were never recognized as the official government of Afghanistan. The attack of the twin towers on U.S. soil prompted the United States to launch a â€Å"war on terrorism† coalition in search of Osama Bin Laden believed to be the leader of Al Qaeda. The Taliban refused to disclose the location of Osama, which resulted in yet another war o n Afghan soil. The Taliban was militarily removed by the end of 2001. After nearly 20 years of continuous warfare disaster, Afghanistan is left in much need of international support in order to rebuild a stable country. Success regarding â€Å"nation building† within Afghanistan depends primarily on local support and involves a combination of tactics. After years of warfare devastation and corrupt governments the nation is in desperate need of a reliable structure. In order to gain the confidence of the population within Afghanistan, they must be free to choose their voice. As an Islamic nation, the leaders of the government must respect and hold the same values of its people. In order to address individual needs it is imperative to hold public assemblies as well as meet with tribal leaders. This will help to increase the faith of the people and create an understanding with their government. This will reduce further risk of civil wars against administration. Enforcing laws an d regulations against internal corruption will also bring peace within the country. With a stable government in place backed by the trust of the citizens, concentration on re-building the nation’s economy can begin. By proving to the people that in laying down their weapons and working collectively with their government they would have more to gain then continuing to fight. Afghanistan stands to be one of the poorest countries in the world. There are many levels that need to be addressed in order to work out a functioning economy within Afghanistan. Prioritizing the basic foundations such as education, medical, housing and employment will lead to the success of the economical situation and the development of the country. The majority of the population lives in rural areas without clean water or electricity. There is a shortage of housing and employment despite international aid. Due to years of destruction and draught the country’s agricultural sector has taken a sever hit. Most of the area is still filled with land minds and debris, leaving the land dangerous and uncultivable. Major cleaning and restoration is needed in order to help to farming community. There is also a sever lack of animals; the migration during the invasion of the Soviet Union resulted in the loss of most of the country’s live stock. Because agriculture is the primary source of income of most of the population, functioning strategies should be implemented to help local farmers. Working jointly

What is fairness (fair) and what is justice (just) Compare and Personal Statement

What is fairness (fair) and what is justice (just) Compare and contrast both - Personal Statement Example 161). It means all citizens have the same rights as anyone else, regardless of their station or lot in life. In Platos definition, justice means attending to the proper order of things in society. Justice means equal respect for the rights of everyone, without discrimination to age, gender, race, color, etc. Fairness, on the other hand, means a quality of being free from bias, inequity, injustice, or making decisions or judgments without any discrimination. To be fair means to be making the compromises necessary for all parties concerned, although it may not mean complete justice. The notion of fairness can be better understood in the norm of need. This means being fair is to help all people meet their needs according to what is just, and also based on resource constraints. Not all individuals can be given what they need, but some can partly be satisfied based on fairness. A good example is the obligation of the state to provide everyone with health insurance coverage but not everybody can be covered due to limitations of financial resources or budget cuts. In this connection, the Affirmative Action program was designed to address the fairness issue, with regards to access to educational and employment opportunities (Jansson, 2009, p. 30) and intended to counteract the discrimination suffered by some minorities or segment of society. It attempts to create an equal or level playing field, with the stated aim to achieve social

The assignment is to choose between problem 2 and 3 of the Problem Essay

The assignment is to choose between problem 2 and 3 of the Problem Solving Activities (pages 428 and 429) and prepare a word report of your findings - Essay Example If a student or the person applying has this information at hand then this stage will not be a problem to pass. I also found out that you can actually log into the website using your social media account which is very good considering the fact that almost every student have one or more social accounts. They especially use the Facebook accounts for verification and thus one doesn’t have to go through the rigorous process of filling in information because all will be obtained from the website itself. After feeding all the information correctly you will receive notification in your email account and thus you will use it to activate your account with my majors and access the services. On the website you will find several courses that you can major on after your undergraduate level and thus you get assisted on the way forward on how to select a course online. The website is easy to use and is helpful to all the students who would like to identify the areas of studies they would like t0o major on. It is essential to visit this site if you have an ambition to strengthen your studies by advancing it via majoring in specific fields. The website generally assist students achieve their

Software Team Project Initial Report and describe the role team Essay

Software Team Project Initial Report and describe the role team - Essay Example This report entails the different roles of each individual member in their process of developing the software program. The report goes on to explain the software engineering concepts to be used in the game development in details. The customer interface manager has a task of ensuring a good relationship between customers and the team. This happens by considering the requirement specifications that would enable the software design and ensuring adequate freedom from ambiguities (Dix, 1998). The design manager is obligated to follow the standards of the design documentation in order to present excellent quality of the documentation as well as understanding the problem fully. A full understanding of the problem would enhance its expansion (Sage, 2011). The team members would also be able to provide possible and better solutions. The implementation manager has the obligation of ensuring that members are within the same Java programming level. Given that this is hardly the case, the team member are to be given tutorial videos or books in order to improve their knowledge and extend it as well. The task also include identifying libraries with useful code pieces to reuse it and ensure that the entire project and its implementation are done at a specified time. This manager is obligated to test the created software and guide the testing team. The leader in this case need to understand the testing disciplines and the best way of implementing a testing process that the manager ensured. All software applications, which are successful, require a plan. This implies that whenever a customer is contacting a team for a given product the team first draws out a plan about the same. The planning is done as follows: The manager of the customer gets the needed specifications from the respective customer and then documents it. The customer manager, for ambiguities clarification based

Winston Churchills War Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Winston Churchills War Leadership - Essay Example Having worked as the first leader in Britain, Churchill took part in the development of British intelligent system between 1918 and 1921. Churchill admired intelligence at an early age because, at the age of twenty, he appreciated the intelligence he used when the guerrillas from Cuba fought the Spanish. He also worked for the British imperial army at the in the forces in South Africa and Sudan. As an intelligent consumer, Churchill was enthusiastic, had individual confidence, assertive, had a lot of emotional firmness, he was friendly and very honest (Dubrin, Dalglish & Miller, 2006, p.67). Therefore, it is the information from intelligent reports that guided his victory. It is important to note that Larders who use consumer intelligence are in a position to understand and control their emotions, and for individuals who work with them. There are traits that can be used to describe effective leaders like Churchill. He can be said to have enthusiasm, individual confidence, assertiveness, sociability, sense of wit, emotional firmness, friendliness, high acceptance to obstruction and honesty (Dubrin et al, 2006, p.67). Therefore using these traits he was in a position to work with different professional advisors. He was responsible for several posts during his career, and he was consummate of all public servants (Best, 2005, p. 45). He took part in the civil war at Cuba, Egypt, India, and Sudan, which was the major influence of the First World War (Best, 2005, p. 45). His experience of survival behind enemy lines added to his repertoire of expertise this motivated his passion for intelligence and how he believed the use of intelligence was military operations. However, Churchill also made several mistakes despite having intelligence (Dubrin, Dalglish & Miller, 2006, p.67). He was also able to learn from his own mistakes this gave him an experience that no any other leader ever had (Dubrin, Dalglish & Miller, 2006, p.67). Therefore, as an intelligent consumer, he also made mistakes but was ready to learn from his own mistakes.

Under what conditions could it make sense to combine private and Essay

Under what conditions could it make sense to combine private and public warehouses in a logistical system - Essay Example Private warehouses are those ones that are owned by the companies for their manufacturing and storage purposes. These warehouses are operated by the companies to store their products. These companies tend to have enough resources to buy their own warehouses using large areas and money to buy the place. These warehouses are beneficial as they are a one-time cost for the company and they can design these warehouses as per their own needs and product demands; for example controlling atmosphere for edible products (Ismail, 2008). On the other hand, some companies use public warehouses. These warehouses are owned by the public sector but are given on lease or rent to the companies who need them to store their products mostly for a temporary period of time. These warehouses can be expensive and not always available. However, companies may choose them because of their location in the center or near to the manufacturers. Mostly small scale companies lease these warehouses as they don’t have enough resources to buy their own warehouses whereas large companies buy their own warehouses to avoid inconvenience (Ismail, 2008). The third type of warehouses that companies may go for is contract warehouses. These warehouses are combined of private and public warehouses. Companies chose these warehouses for several reasons and decide to combine the private and public warehouses for their logistical system. These warehouses are chosen by the companies because contract warehouses operate on a contract basis with a long-term relationship maintained which lowers the cost as compared to an average public warehouse. Contract warehouses can also benefit in operations such as flexibility, expertise, and economies of scale as equipment, labor, management, and risk is shared amongst a number of clients (Voortman, 2004). Companies thus combine private and

Management behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Management behavior - Essay Example Current customers were more interested in solutions and services rather than the products alone. InterClean Inc is a major player in the sanitation and cleaning industry with high quality products and efficient workforce. High quality products of InterClean can move in the market well only if the product selling backed with high quality services. Management behavior is important in determining the productivity of the workers and quality of services offered to the customers. The purpose of this memo is to inform all the first level managers at InterClean about the merger between InterClean and EnvironTech and the possible changes after the merger. I would like to explain how a manger should behave with his workers to improve their productivity, different types of management actions in line with the existing employment laws and the best strategies to work with a diverse workforce. â€Å"Essential conditions of service such as good pay, motivation, incentives, regular promotions, training and development should be provided for the workforce so as to enable them put in their best in order to increase the level of their productivity in the organization† (ADEKUNLE et al, 2009) Mangers can play a vital role in ensuring the employee satisfaction which is important in ensuring maximum productivity from them. A manager who fails to motivate the workers cannot ensure 100% productivity from them. In order to motivate the employees the first level managers must reward them for the good performances with incentives or promotions. The work culture should be developed in such a way that both the manager and the workers function in a healthy environment where no prejudices or biases control the management actions. In case of a conflict the manager should never take any one sided actions, instead he should take decisions after hearing the arguments of both the parties involved in the conflict. Positive work environment is another

Indian American Immigrants in the Golden Age Essay Example for Free

Indian American Immigrants in the Golden Age Essay Arthur W. Helweg is known as a Cultural Anthropologist and a Professor of Anthropology at the Western Michigan University, who studied the lives and stories of many Asian Indian Immigrants in different countries around the world which includes Australia, Canada, Great Britain, India and the United States of America (Arthur W. Helweg). Through his love and passion for the people with Asian Indian origin, he worked with different publications and has already written various books that feature the tale of many Asian Indian Immigrants around the world. He also co-authored the book entitled â€Å"Immigrant Success Story: East Indians in America,† which has been awarded with the Theodore Saloutos Book Award given by the Immigration and Ethnic History Society, as the best book on immigration history category in the year 1990. More so, he has also done co-editorial task wherein he has been chosen to be a part of the editorial team for the book series entitled Discovering the People of Michigan. The book entitled â€Å"Strangers in Not-So-Strange Land: Indian American Immigrants in the Golden Age† is regarded as one of the most brilliant works of Arthur William Helweg in his chosen field of interest in studying the narrative of many Asian Indian people around the globe who seek for better life and fortune outside the premises of their motherland. This book is also characterized as one of the apparent proofs that signify the dedication and excellence of Arthur Helweg, as a Cultural Anthropologist and an enthusiast of the Asian Indian struggles as immigrants in different countries abroad, more especially in the United States. Currently, there are now thousands of Asian Indians who are living in the United States. Synopsis of the Book In a sense, this book of Arthur Helweg presents his own account of case study regarding the narrative and struggle of many Asian Indians in the United States. For more than three decades, the story of these people has never been in the mainstream and almost regarded as nonexistent ever since they arrived in the U. S. However, this profound community of Asian Indian is regarded to be a group of immigrants with the highest educated members and known as the highest earning average family of any ethnic group in North America. Thus, theses Asian Indians are noted as valuable members and representatives of the latest type of immigrants arriving in the United States. In a sense, the author, Arthur Helweg, has focused more about the theme of immigration of these people in the United States. This book highlights the truth and facts about the narrative of Asian Indian immigration and how these highly educated and professionally trained immigrants vary and deal with different challenges and difficulties associated to the traditional concepts of migration in the United States. Thus, this book tells about the real stories of these people regarding their journey to the land of America and how they adjusted to the new set of laws in the United States, as immigrants and foreign people. This also highlights the case study of the author about the adjustments involved in creating a new line of respect between the Asian Indians and the Native American people. Furthermore, this reading also renders a clear overview about the historical narrative of the Asian Indian in the United States and how the Indian Diaspora becomes a global tribe, which has been all over the world. This also explains the origin of these people and how their homeland is being recognized, as these people continuous to create good recognition across their names internationally. With the fact that these people is now recognized as one of the well acknowledged group of immigrants in the United States, this book also highlights the real happenings as to how the ethnicity of the Asian Indian survived in a relatively new world and volatile nature of the United States. More so, this also depicts the apparent pictures with regard to the efforts and hard work of these people in laying the foundation of their ethnicity in the United States. The Critique From a personal point of view, it is of reasonable grounds to say that Arthur Helweg, as a cultural anthropologist, professor and author is indeed a master and specialist of what he does best, which is that of studying the narrative of Asian Indian immigrants in different areas around the globe, more especially in the United States, as evident in the excellence of this book. More so, this book is observable to be cohesive and reliable in presenting valuable and factual accounts of the Asian Indian ethnicity and their journey towards instituting their equal position in the American society. Starting from the fundamentals and discussing the significance of the main story, the writing style of Arthur Helweg for this book is indeed informative and at the same time profoundly entertaining, as he also incorporates most of his distinct humor in presenting and discussing some of the light aspects of the book. Though writing a case study type of book is a bit tricky and complicated to do, the author, Arthur Helweg, has done a good job in presenting a well researched and comprehensive readings with regard to the life and struggle of these people, as valuable refugees in foreign countries like the United States. The way Arthur Helweg highlights and reveals both of the minor and major issues that these people are experiencing in the United States, as immigrants, is really one of main factors of that has made this book cohesive and well informative, not only for the member of Asian Indian community in U. S. but also for the people who wants to know more about the narrative of these ethnic people. Relation to Class Material As for this book, the topic about ethnicity and race of the Asian Indian in the United States is what I really understand the most. As a part of the class discussion, I learned that though people from other countries with specific ethnicity or cultural background prefers to live and start a new in a foreign outside of their original home turf, they can still be classified as an individual according to their culture, as seen evident through their beliefs, actions and language. Thus, as for the case of Asian Indian, depicted in the book of Arthur Helweg, it has become more understandable that these people, though they traveled so far and miles away from their homeland, still remain as a recognizable ethnic society in the U. S. because of their cultural background and racial origin, which can never be easily altered though they are already living in a relatively strange world. More so, through the materials we have discussed in class, it made me understand better that racial inequality in diverse countries like the United States is one of the most significant and common issues as well as dangers that typical ethnic immigrants like the Asian Indian in the United States are facing as a group of people living a strange world. Lastly, it is of my well established knowledge that migration of different of ethnic group in particular country helps alter the cultural background and/or orientation by the people involved in the process. In the end, this book of Arthur Helweg, has helped me better understand the issues and facts as to how migration of different ethnic groups of people around the world is changing the world cultures and influencing the formation of various policies both local and international. More so, through this book, I learned that in the end, race and/cultural differences should not be the main basis from which one would draw the importance and superiority of ethnicity. Instead, people should value the worth of one another according to their abilities and help for the betterment of a given country, regardless of race or cultural background. Works Cited Arthur W. Helweg. 15 may 2009 http://msupress. msu. edu/authorbio. php? authorID=13 Helweg, Arthur. Strangers in a not-so-strange land: Indian American immigrants in the global age. California: Wadsworth, 2004. Miller, Barbara. Cultural Anthropology in a Globalizing World. Boston: Addison-Wesley, 2007. Profile of Asian Indians in the U. S. A. spindlepub. com. 15 May 2005

The Birth Of Singapore Airlines Tourism Essay

The Birth Of Singapore Airlines Tourism Essay Strategic Management is a term that is not new, first used in the 1970s it was conceived that a team of strategic planners would come up with strategic ideas to sell to decision makers. It is all about identification and guideline used by the managers in order for the company to have a competitive edge over the competition. Joel Ross Michael Kami(Fred 2011, 35) mentioned that; Without Strategy, an organization is like a ship without a rudder, going round in circles. Its like a tramp; it has no place to go. According to Wheelen and Hunger(2006,3) A set of decisions and actions that are used to charter the performance of a corporation can be defined as Strategic management. The process of this would take into account the scanning of external and internal environmental factors, long term and strategic planning for strategy formulation as well as the implementation and evaluation and control process. Wheelen Hunger(2006,3) strongly focused on the analyzing and evaluating of external opportunities and threats compared to the companys strengths and weaknesses. A SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats) analysis is an ideal tool for strategic managers to plan for both predictable and unfeasible contingencies. In the point of Dess and Miller(1993), the combination of three major interrelated activities; strategic analysis, strategic formulation and strategy implementation can be called strategic management. These activities are a continuous process that helps evaluates and controls the company and the industry it is in, benchmarks the competition and set realistic targets and strategies to meet its existing and potential competition. Lamb(1984) states that strategic management is a continuous process that evaluates and controls the business and industries the company is in; it also assesses the competitors to set goals and strategies then reevaluates them every quarterly or annually to decide on the implementation of the strategy is successful. It then reevaluates the if there is any new factors such as technology, competition, economic market, social, financial and even political environment that can be used to create a new strategy. As a summary, Strategic Management and Planning is the understanding of the process of strategy formulation, implementation and evaluation. For company an organization to gain the edge over its competition regardless of size, scale; each organization needs to have a well planned strategic management in order to strive and compete in the market while optimizing its potential for tomorrows trends of today. Background of company The birth of Singapore Airlines was from Malaysian Air Limited where it first started in 1947, because of political reasons, the company was renamed to Malaysia-Singapore Airlines and finally the company split its shares to Malaysian Airlines System and Singapore Airlines in 1972 on which Singapore Airlines is owned by Singapore state owned investment house; Tamasek Holdings Singapore Airlines was forced to focus on the international market that was subjected to intense competition because there was no domestic route available to after the separation. The difficult start of was one of the factors that drove Singapore Airlines driving spirit to compete and dedication to branding. It started the branding strategy by engaging a French haute-couture designer in 1972 to come up with a special version of the Malay Sarong Kebaya for the airline stewardess uniform and adopting a branding Singapore Girls that provide top quality in-flight hospitality. This feature became one of the most recognized signatures for Singapore Airlines. The human resource management area was given a booster with an investment of 20million for its training facilities. With a good marketing strategy and sound backing, the return was shown at 1973 when SA was ranked 3rd for the Asian region. But in 1973 to 1977 period was forced to cut cost due to the surging oil prices. Singapore Airlines joined its operations with British Airways to provide its Concorde services but was terminated in 1980. Even though the collaboration was a failure, it took advantage of the marketing campaign to made itself known around the globe. At the same time, Changi Airport was constructed thus leading the industry to higher service standards. With all that in place Singapore Airlines became the top preferred Airlines for the Asia Pacific region in 1981. Singapore Airlines experienced a steady growth rate in the 1980s with expansion of its fleet and routes, it was privatized in 1985 and listed in the stock exchange with Tamasek Holdings owning a 63% of the company and was gradually reduced to 54% in 2008. SA underwent changes in the 1990s with changes made to cater for the lower cost market segmentation as well as the SA engineering focus on increasing productivity and pursuit of better opportunities for business. The globalization in 1990 also made the airline expand overseas as well as investing on other companies. With its strong financial backing, it spend to renovate its fleet, thus giving benefit to the airlines during crisis allowing the airlines to have more bargaining power over its supplier (Scott, 2008) To date, SA group has provided a wide variety of services for the aviation industry from passenger, cargo, terminal, enginnering, training and even tour services as a whole. The airlines operates over 36 countries with week ly flights to them. Organizational Structure The organization is divided by function and its disadvantages as the low responsibility of the bottom staff as well as the compartmentalization on its mangers. In order to tackle this, SIA have made their organization chart more flattened with fewer levels of hierarchy in the organization, thus allowing empowerment and creation of a flexible and yet dynamic business that allows its employees to make decisions to leads to job enrichment. SIA also encourages independence and encourages its senior staff to train and low its junior employees to make decisions. To overcome the job compartmentalization, non technical mangers are rotated on the job and thus allow them to have a better view of the organization for a better picture. The SIA management also stresses for the importance of maintaining a healthy and good work culture. Teamwork and collaboration is placed high on importance by the company. With the growth of the company and expansion of sales office to over 80 countries, the sales operations have been divided to geographical areas. To overcome the problem of control, the company focuses on the end result objective empowering its site managers to have flexibility and to make adjustments based on the situation. Full power is given to the overseas regional general manager to make decisions and to respond promptly in order to deal with local problems and to customize the operations to suit the local scene. In general, SIA is slowly decentralizing its organizational structure and it encourages autonomy allowing faster response to the business thus creating opportunities that are vital in the fast and dynamic airline industry. 4.0 Analysis of External Environment 4.1 Political The political environment of Singapore is stable with its dominant political party Peoples Action Party (PAP) controlling the government since the independence. Singapore government has allowed the freedom in corporate governance and has little set restrictions to the industry. Singapore Airlines make 90% of the decision on its own and has only influence the appointment of the director over the company (Sikorski, 1995). Singapore Airlines was allowed to stress on profit in comparison with public or social responsibility and was even backed by the government during its retrenchment practice during the economical crisis. (Sikorski, 1995) With a strong foreign policy that maintains good relationship with 175 countries, Singapore has a particular good relationship with huge economical countries such as France, United Kingdom, and Germany. It also has a mutual free trade agreement between Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, India, United States of America and recently with China in 2008. With Singapore signing the Gulf Cooperation Council-Singapore Free Trade Agreement in December 2008, it embarks to build strong ties with the middle east countries as well. Singapore is a stable base for the operations for SIA comparing itself to other regions in the Asia Pacific that have seen unrest over the recent years. Terrorism alerts affected some countries in the Asia region with India(2008) and Pakistan(2009) hit with the lost of hundreds of life. The tourism industry for Thailand was affected in 2008 during the protest and heavy floods as well as the Tsunami event that happened in Langkawi, Malaysia as well as Thailand that affected the influx of tourist there. There was also the riots in China and the Korean Missile crisis that effect the Singapore Airlines to re-route its flight to other locations. 4.2 Economic Financial Crisis in 2007 affected many countries over the world that brought recessions to most of the affected countries. This slum lasted through 2008 that made the global financial institutions very cautions on its loans of money and many companies had to underwent a cost cutting measure to stay afloat. The IMF predicted the regeneration of the world wide economy by 2009 and it the up market trend has steadily grown from there. The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) also contributed to promote Singapore as a destination for MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions). In SGD 90 Million BOOST (Building on Opportunity to Strengthen Tourism) program was launched in February 2009 and was followed up in October with an announcement for a new Tourism Compass 2020 roadmap to grow tourism 2015, with the goal to set Singapore as the leading city for MICE (STB,12 Oct2009). The growth was further spurred by the building of two integrated resort projects, Marina Bay Sand and Resort World at Sentosa. Singapore has also continued to host the Formula One Night Race and with all this factors surely has a positive impact for the travel and tourism sector for the country. 4.3 Social Cultural Singapores population comprises of more then 75% Chinese, followed by Malay and Indian; the main religion of the country is Buddhism, Islam, Christian, Taoism and Hinduism. Having a rich Asian culture in the country, Singapore is one of the most westernized countries within Asia. With the growing China economy and its open door policy; Singapore has landed a great pool of foreign labor arriving from China. This in return has created a cultural conflict among many Singaporeans. With a highly diversified culture with close to 35% of its population is non citizen residing in the country, (25% of is foreigner and 10% are permanent resident); Singapore can be considered as an immigrant country. Although having high non-citizen to citizen ratio, the country never stops to promote foreign talent and believes that if the immigrant policy were to be stopped, Singapore would face a shortage of quality labor. Having a strong Chinese influence over its working culture that has made it a culture of high in power distance with the lower employees accepting the subordinates positions that seldom questions the managements decisions. The working culture also stresses on good team work and maintaining group harmonies. (Warnstam,2007). This has made Singapore to become a very cooperative employee to employer relationship and its labor union is in good terms with companies throughout. 4.4 Technology The growth in the usage if Internet around the globe has prompted the growth of customized web addresses to be used around the world. This has also given the potential for the usage of Chinese characters to form the web address (Choe,Oct 2009). With the emergence of such technological advancement, the electronic devices has also evolved to become more portable with increased performance and now almost every household in Singapore would have a portable laptop, hand phone and digital cameras loaded with personalized music, games , photo and video. The growth of such technology has prompt an expansion of innovation over the past decade. The development of high speed networks and compression has allowed faster transfer of data and transfer rate, resulting in the availability to have high quality real time video conferencing with people around the globe from the office or even without leaving the house. This has made it a very good substitute for companies to use instead of having to send its employees for business travelling. (Yu, 23 Jun 2009). 5.0 Evaluate Current Strategic choice and implications 5.1 Analysis of Current Strategic Position 5.1.1 Financial position Singapore Airlines has maintained its profit over the years, the group has maintained its profit even through the 2008 financial crisis. After the growth in 2009 the group assets are worth SGD 22.04 million and debt of SGD 1.077million with an equity debt ratio of 0.08. With a general reserve of SGD 11.264 million the company is poised to be able to sustain its operations in any case of crisis. (SIA, Annual report 2012) 5.1.2 Product position Carrier RPK (Million) SIA 90,128 Cathay Pacific 90,975 Qantas 99,176 Total of   AAPA member 550,014 Table 1 Comparison of RPK Airlines market size can be measure by Revenue Passenger-Kilometer (RPK). Having based in Asia Pacific region, SIA, Cathay Pacific and Qantas all falls into the same category of medium cost, developed airlines. These airlines have similar offering and price level. It can be seen that SIA, Cathay and Qantas have market share of similar size [AAPA, 2009]. The company is ranked number two in Skytrax Best airline award; the airline is in the top five ranking for 10 out of the 12 award Skytrax have. The airline has the Best 1st Class and best in-flight catering award in 2009. The only part the company dont have a ranking is on the airport lounge service [Skytrax, 2009]. 5.1.3 Marketing capability The initial distribution of SIA is mainly by the travel agents or through internet bookings, SIA has come a long way by providing a ticketless system for its passengers that even allows boarding as well even for connecting flights with its partner airlines (SIA,2009). SIA also engages social networking website in Facebook though quite limited in its presence. This is a drawback with the current trend of younger generation who associates more with social networking sites. Another factor that is a slight disadvantages for Singapore Airlines is that the domain www.sia.com and www.sia.com.sg is not owned by Singapore Airlines, but to counteract this, they company has engaged to actively publish itself as the preferred search referee if anyone searches for SIA online. SIA has also made good placement in the search engine for using the key world Singapore airlines and Air Ticket Singapore which prompts SIA at the top of the search list. 5.1.4 Organizational structure The organization is divided by function and the disadvantages of low responsibility for the employees at the bottom as well as the compartmentalization on the managers. To overcome this, SIA has flat organization chart with few hierarchical levels for its organizations, this enables autonomy and create a more flexible but yet dynamic business that empowers its people to make decisions and lead to better job satisfaction. The promotion of independence and encouraging its senior employees to train and give chances to the junior personnel to make decisions are a key factor for SIA. Non technical management personnel are rotated on jobs and this gives them to have a broader perspective for the job. This is further strengthening by the stress on the importance of having a good and healthy work culture for the company. Great importance is stressed on having good team spirit. To overcome sales operation issue, SIA has focused on end results while giving its site managers to exercise flexibility to make necessary changes based on the situations. The full power is given to its overseas regional general manager to ensure fast response time for local issues and a more localized business operation to site the climate. The company focuses on the growth strategy that focuses more on profitability rather than size, thus allowing slow and steady growth with chances for leaders to be groomed properly. In general, the organisational structure of SIA is decentralise encourages autonomy allowing quick response to business treat and opportunity which is crucial in the airline industry which are very fast and dynamics. 5.1.5 Human Resources SIA has a strong emphasis on human resources. The requirements for entry level to the company is only for diploma holders are accepted, these employee would then go through the recruitment process. After the appointment, these cabin crew is trained for 15 weeks, 2 times longer the industrial standards. The SIA employees have a 6 month probation that needs to be reported continuously by their supervisor with a confirmation rate of 75% while 20% will be on extension. These trainings are changed periodically to adjust to show the customers expectations. While on the job, the employees are also required to engage in various voluntary community services, arts and cultural activities. Refresher courses will be available for employees allowing 3 to 4 days per year, this is a form of motivation for the employees to engage in self learning and the employees will be accountable for their own growth and development. Results from these stringent training has been obvious by producing Stewardess that have high esteem, motivated and capable in handling the customers in the companys best interest (Heracleous and Wirtz. 2009). The focus on talent form within the company, the company focuses on development of the human capita given training spending of SGD100million for its employees. The company also offers scholarship programs for recruiting management trainees from the universities. 5.1.6 Condition of facilities and equipment Having one of the newest fleets in the world, with an average age of 6 years, Singapore Airlines is one of the most updated planes compared to the worldwide average of 15 years (Prystay, 28 Aug 2009). By adopting the newest planes and technology this impacts in the reduction of maintenance and petrol cost. Other than that, SIA also went through an upgrading of its plane cabins to provide customers with the most updated entertainment systems and a better seating arrangement. Training equipment for its pilots is also provided from the SGD 1 million flight simulator that is capable of simulating the high altitude scenario. SIA also updated its training center in 1999 to ensure the recruitment is capable to facilitate a better and efficient training environment. Overall the airlines does have a great training faclilities for its personnel as well as their commitment to bringing top quality service with a strong financial background but because of the financial crisis in 2008 and the lack of demand over supply, SIA is laden with excess aircraft that has not been utilized. 5.1.7 Past objective and strategies SIA corporate level uses a diversified strategy whereby it expands its business to airline catering, airport terminal services as well as into aircraft maintenance. These dual strategy in cost leadership and differentiation enables SIA to have excellent cost efficient service through high business efficiency. SIA has secured its high business competence through the execution of five organizational systems. The first is the structured service development and design that allocates dedicated departments for its enhancement of service and thorough testing to ensure that there will be a quality service that will be able to meet the latest customers expectations. Second is the focus on consumer trends over the years, with a specific department that monitors closely to ensure that innovation is tailor to focus on improving and enabling a cost effective and highly productive service innovation. The focus will also be on the companys weak point, adapting the best practices from other successful developments while reducing the cost and risk involved for the innovation. The third set is the focus on a profit conscious culture, with the education of its personnel on the priority of profit and customer satisfaction. SIA also focuses on a reward based system that gives proper recognition to employees based on their performance to encourage team work and productivity while reducing wastage. The fourth is the goal for the organization to achieve success through the diversification and infrastructure of its subsidiaries. These integration allows the focus and control that will enhance the knowledge while reduction of cost at the same time. The management of its subsidiaries is based on a clear expectation that enables the subsidiaries to be subjected to market discipline. The last focus for the company is the development of its personnel through training and development while encouraging the development of a direct self continuous learning system to boost their self esteem. The overall strategies that SIA has adopted has made the company to have a high competence core with the overall ability to achieve a differential offering through exceptional levels of efficiency (Heracleous et al 2009) 6.0 Strategic Potential Justifications Choices for strategy for SIA should be based on the logical elements for the process and have a central role. The company should focus their choices of strategy through based on the internal and external factors while taking into account its core competency to strive for profitability and service excellence of its personnel. Strategic Choices for Singapore Airlines Business Level Strategy Corporate Level Strategy Direction and Method of Development Strategy for competitive advantage Adhere to government regulation and satisfaction Internal training and development Profit measurable success for strategies Diversification in market Creation of value added services to gain competitive advantage 6.1 Business Level Strategy Price Based Strategy This strategy takes into consideration of the product to price to gain a competitive advantage. There are many low cost airlines company as of this moment that is conducting business in the Asia region. This causes the market to be very competitive and Singapore Airlines is one of such company that faces challenges. Low cost airline companies such as Air Asia is one of the competitors that are focusing on the usage of price based strategy to capture a market share in the current market. Justification: Acceptable and feasible pricing strategy: The focus for the price based strategy is important as the current completion from the low cost airlines also focuses on the same routes of travel while providing a lower air fare. One of such routes traveled is from Singapore to Bangkok, from this example, Air Asia is selling its seats for a round trip for a price of $150 while compared to SIA that cost $500. Because of this the company is losing money as customer trends are now slowly switching over the low cost seats. http://htmlimg1.scribdassets.com/4abs74bzsw9yk25/images/16-b0f782e011.jpg 4.2 Corporate Strategy Direction Policy Matrix Used to measure the health of the industry for the Asian regions and the capabilities of Singapore Airlines. Below is the representation of Singapore Airlines in comparative to Air Asia ad MAS in the Asian Region. http://htmlimg1.scribdassets.com/4abs74bzsw9yk25/images/17-978ec5a00e.jpg Source: Johnson G, Scholes K. 2005. P 320 Justification: Acceptability Feasibility of Directional Policy Matrix From the analysis it can be seen that the market positing of Singapore Airlines is aimed towards the middle business class strength that offers a highly attractive market. The bargaining power, threats for substitute and competitive rivalry is high for the Singapore Airlines. In the event of a cost increase for jet fuel to USD 115/barrel, the supplier has the upper hand the the treat of substitute is potentially high for the market. For this the feasibility and acceptance of a directional policy matrix for Singapore Airlines is High. 6.3 Directional and Method of Development TOWS Matrix Through the analysis of the internal and external environment, the generation of a TOWS based matrix. This will enable Singapore Airlines to focus on the strategic options available to cater for any potential changes or adapt strategies to further strengthen its market share while limiting its weakness. http://htmlimg2.scribdassets.com/4abs74bzsw9yk25/images/18-6f7d0e3282.jpg Suing the strength and opportunity for Singapore Airlines, there is potential for market diversification. To overcome the potential treats, SIA can have a merger or acquisition with certain airline companies. Avoidance of weakness for Singapore Airlines can adopt a cost leadership strategy. The airlines can develop their internal factors to avoid the treats and weaknesses. Justification Diversification: The current airline industry for the Asian region is highly competitive. There are many airline operations in the region and one of such competition comes from the low cost airline Air Asia. Air Asia flies twice daily from Malaysia to Guangzhou. Currently Air Asia has 86 routes that offers no frills service and has garnered wide recognition from the china market comparing to Singapore Airlines which has 88 destinations in 38 countries. Singapore Airlines would need to strengthen and diversify its market by planning out more feasible routes to high business locations and take a competitive advantage though expansion of the Asian market. Merger and Acquisition: Singapore Airlines needs to have a strong understanding on its competition and to avoid the treats they possess. With their strong financial background, the potential for merger and acquisition is a great choice for Singapore Airlines. Currently there are two national carriers that are seeking to limit Singapore Airlines to access their home market thus slowing down the growth for the airline. Because of this Singapore airlines joined the Star Alliance to take advantage of its international strategy. This is also boosted by the investment of SIA groups into China and India to ensure strategic alliances with the local organizations for their cargo divisions, airport services, enginnering and catering. Internal Development During the previous years, Singapore Airlines recorded a low asset turnover ration in comparison with its competitors. Because of this, the weaker asset turnover ratio has a potential to show that the companies ineffectiveness to utilize the assets to generate profit and will eventually lead to the decline in the groups growth. Singapore Airlines can adapt to this by using better use of information technology to enhance its services to the customers and gain back better response and efficiency. Singapore Airlines website is now one of the most advance and user friendly in the industry that offers the customers to check their schedules, buy tickets, check in and manage their accounts as well as even choosing the meal for their flights. Because of this value added service, the company is able to further maintain its market share and slowly cover up the losses by creating a portal for customers and potential clients to interact with Singapore Airlines. The efficient use of IT has proven to significantly reduce the cost and enhance service levels for Singapore Airlines. Conclusion Singapore Airlines is the national carrier for Singapore and is one of the industry leaders in Asia. Currently the operations route carries Singapore Airlines to South East Asia, East Asia, Europe, Middle East and the Australia. The analysis for the external factors indicates that Singapore Airlines does face some barriers due to the international economic and political sector. The prices of oil over the years have been very volatile and would play a major impact on the profitability of the airline industry. Other than that with some ups and downs in the economy and the growth of high speed networks through the usage of information technology has played an impact for the overall performance in the airline industry in general with people become less mobile while still being able to work with their counterparts across the globe. The internal factors with the successful branding of Singapore Airlines is one of the drawing factors that is able to sustain its competitive edge as well as with strong management background that ensure a quality of service for its customers gives the company its core competencies. For Singapore Airlines to keep evolving towards the new market trends, the company should take into account the internal and external surroundings.

Strawson Has Shown Russells Theory Of Definite Descriptions Philosophy Essay

Strawson Has Shown Russells Theory Of Definite Descriptions Philosophy Essay Sir Peter Strawsons ironically titled paper of 1950 On Referring argues that expressions do not refer in themselves but rather people refer when using expressions.(Lycan, 2008:20) Influenced by Wittgensteins Use Theories, Strawson did not consider a sentence to hold a truth value in its abstraction but rather it is in virtue of the way in which Human Beings utter and react to the sentence that give it the attribute of truthfulness and as such he considered his theory to be more adaptable than Russells Theory of Definite Descriptions in regard to ordinary language use. (Austin, 1978:531) In this essay I will critically analyse Peter Strawsons argument in relation to Bertrand Russells theory with the intention of demonstrating that Strawsons position on ordinary language is unsubstantiated and that the consequences of his language model has deeper philosophical implications which marks his theory, not Russells, as untenable. I will initially outline Russells argument in the light of St rawsons critique of the Theory of Descriptions to determine the flaws it uncovers in Russells theory. I will then attempt to offer Strawsons alternative theory through his objections to the Theory of Descriptions, to prove that his attempt to justify his theory as less problematic to the use of ordinary language is misguided. I will then finally attempt to engage in Keith Donnellans solution to consider whether it proposes a more successful and balanced approach to Russells and Strawsons theoretical problems of meaning and reference. The most efficient model for demonstrating the dilemma concerning Russell and Strawson is through Russells famous example; The present king of France is bald (Russell, 1905:485) This sentence appears to be of a subject predicate form with the grammatical subject present king of France forming the denoting phrase that Russell profoundly analysed in his paper of 1905 On Denoting. Russell proposed that there are three types of denoting phrases, however for the context of this essay I will deal exclusively with those denoting phrases that denote a single definite person or object also known as definite description akin to present king of France above. According to Russell declarative sentences of the structure of (1)do not possess the object represented by the grammatical subject in the sentence but rather conceal the more complex existential expression in virtue of their logical structure; there is one and only one x that is y, with x representing the grammatical subject and y representing the predicate. It is when the expression is altered into logical form that Russell makes the distinction between the logical subject and the grammatical subject of the sente nce which he proposes as the solution to the puzzles of non-referring definite descriptions. (Morris, 2007:51) So if we convert (1) into formal logic; 2) à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã†â€™x(F(x) à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â€š ¬y(F(y) à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ x=y) G(x)) (Ludlow 2007) Russell proposes that in instances at least of denoting phrases being the grammatical subject of the sentence, the misunderstanding that leads to the puzzles occurs in virtue of the denoting phrase being an incomplete symbol on logical analysis. (Perkins, 1972:201)This is deceptive in that it is not obvious in ordinary language and as such it is in fact x that is the logical subject of the sentence. Consequently Russell contends that denoting phrases never have meaning in themselves, but that every proposition whose verbal expression they occur has meaning.'(Russell, 1905:480) In other words whilst the sentence (1) may appear to be of a subject -predicate form, it is in fact not in virtue of the logical proposition concealing the quantifier of the expression and subsequently Russell argues that the denoting phrase contributes meaning above its referent in that it is not actually a singular term but a quantificational structure. (Lycan, 2008:14) With this in mind, if we analyse the co mplex existential claim asserted by the definite article the in (1) a)(à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã†â€™x)Fx b)(â‚ ¬Ã‚ ¢x)( Fx à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (Gx) (Fy à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ y= x)) c)(â‚ ¬Ã‚ ¢x)( Fx à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ Gx) (Lycan, 2008:14) It is necessarily the case that each condition needs to be satisfied in order for the proposition to be true, however in this instance condition (a) is false in virtue of nothing in the world satisfying the condition of being the present king of France and consequently conditions (b) and (c) cannot be satisfied . As a result of uncovering this logical structure it is evident that the grammatical subject in these classes of sentences are not singular terms in so much as the king does not feature in the logical form of (1) and as such denoting phrases cannot hold meaning independent of the proposition . Russell argues that this demonstrates how it is possible for sentences that express a non-referring denoting phrase to be meaningful and hold a truth value despite not referring. (Russell, 1905:484) Conversely Strawson contended that the statement was not false but rather devoid of truth value in that it misfired in its attempt to refer, and further argues that this mistake occurs in virtue of Russells disregard to the distinction between uniquely referring expressions, that which mentions or refers to some individual person or single object, (Strawson, 1950: 324) and a sentence beginning with such an expression. He formulates the distinction between the expression itself, a use and utterance and similarly a sentence, its use and utterance. (Strawson, 1950: 325) If we reconsider example (1), and suppose that it is uttered once during the reign of Louis XIV and once during the reign of Louis XV, in this instance the same sentence has been uttered on two difference occasions of use (Strawson, 1950:327) and it would be logical to admit that it was uttered about different men and as such the statement asserted could either be true or false on either occasion. That is the man who utt ered it during the reign of Louis XIV may have been true in virtue of the King being bald whilst the other man may have been incorrect in asserting such a statement. Subsequently it is clear that the same sentence can be used differently on two different occasions of the utterance. Furthermore, if the same sentence (1) had been uttered concurrently during the reign of Louis XIV, then it could be said that the same sentence had been used to express the same statement to the extent that as a result of successful reference to a present king of France the statement must necessarily hold a truth value, however the utterances of sentence (1) would have been different. (Strawson, 1950: 328) Therefore it must be the case, on the evidence presented, that it is possible to use the same sentences to make different statements with altering truth values, and it is in virtue of not recognising the distinction between sentences and expressions and their uses that Russell does not appreciate that i t is only through the token use (Cohen,2008:1) of a sentence that one can make a statement and similarly through the use of an expression or sentence that one can refer to a particular person through context laid out by the statement made and as such an (Lemmon,1966:90) Expressions cannot be used to mention, or to refer to, anything, any more than a sentence can be said to be true or false. The same expression can have different mentioning uses, as the same sentence can be used to make statements with different truth values.mentioning is not something an expression does, it is something that someone can use an expression to do. (Strawson 1950: 327) Accordingly, Strawson concludes that just as the use of a sentence generates the truth value of a statement, referring or mentioning is the function of the use of an expression or sentence in that it is the speaker who uses the expression or sentence that refers and therefore it is illogical to speak of the same things about sentences their uses and utterances and about unique referring expressions their uses and utterances for they belong to different categories. (Lemmon, 1966:91) So if we again reconsider; The present king of France is bald (Russell, 1905:485) From the distinctions demonstrated in On Referring Strawson challenges Russells assertion that this statement is false. He argues that as a result of Russell confusing expressions with their use in a particular context (Strawson, 1950: 326) it appears that the sentences appear meaningful and false. However as for mentioned, Strawson considers that whilst the sentence itself holds meaning it is the token use of the sentence on a particular occasion that alters the sentence into a statement which holds truth value.(Cohen, 2008:3) Consequently Strawson argues that in virtue of (1) being a sentence in itself that it is in fact meaningful in so much as it provides general direction for use, however since any present token use of it does not refer then it is not false but rather lacks truth value in so much as it misfires in its attempt to refer to the (nonexistent) present King of France. (Strawson, 1950: 327) Unlike other false statements such as, the present Prime Minster of England is female, which is defective as a consequence of the speaker incorrectly referring to Gordon Brown as female, (1) is defective since the speaker has failed in his attempt to identify a referring subject and as such it should be disregarded as spurious use (Strawson, 1950:327) rather than considered false. (Lycan, 2008: 20) Strawson further develops his objection by demonstrating that it is the grammatical subject of the sentence that refers to the referent whilst it is the predicate that attributes a characteristic to the referent. However when reference fails it is inconceivable to attribute something to which we cannot refer and as such no attribution take place and therefore the statement cannot hold a truth value. (Cohen, 2008:3) Unlike sentences akin the present Prime Minister of England is female (1) does not attribute anything to the king of France since he does not exist. Consequently Strawson takes up a position which is strikingly similar to Frege who distinguishes between the referent and the sense of a sentence and as such it is possible for a sentence to express more than one sense, or furthermore a sense can be expressed by different sentences. As a result sentences akin to (1) which have a sense but no referent are meaningful in so much as you can understand them, however they lack the q uality of truthfulness. (Lemmon, 1966:94) Strawson perceives Russell as ignoring this distinction and as a consequence he misapprehends the identifying role of the grammatical subject between entailment and presupposition in that anyone who use the sentences (1) to make a statement implies that there is a present king of France. (Strawson, 1950:332) The notion of implies is equivalent to presuppose but it is in no way comparable to the formal logical notion of entails that Russell uses to state the existential conditions asserted by the definite article the that necessarily needs to be fulfilled in order for the statement to be true. On the contrary it is to imply in the special sense that the existential conditions are satisfied.(Cohen, 2008:3) If we use example (1) Russell would argue that The present king of France is bald is true if and only if There is a present king of France is true and vice versa, however Strawson contends that it is the case that The present King of France is bald only holds a truth value if and only if there exists a present king of France, if this condition is not met then the statement holds no truth value. So once more I draw the conclusion that referring to or mentioning a particular thing cannot be dissolved into any kind of assertion. To refer is not to assert, though you refer in order to go on to assert. (Strawson, 1950:335) It is in this that Caton (1959) realised that Strawson did not recognise the distinction between failing to refer to or to mention something and referring to or mention something (Caton, 1959: 540) in ordinary language usage and as such it is apparent that Strawson has not actually accounted for the way in which we use refer in ordinary language. In other words, when using language we use it the same regardless of whether we are referring to something which exists or does not exist. (Caton, 1959:540) Consequently, it is only possible to use a sentence or expression thinking it refers even though it does not, and surely even if one did use a non referring expression without intention surely it would appear as if one has referred? Consequently it appears as if it is not that the speaker fails to refer but rather he uses a sentence or expression with the intention of referring to something he believes to exist but actually does not. (Caton, 1954:542) The implication of this position is that when a speaker utters a statement which intends to refer to an existing thing but fails, the speaker will be corrected by someone as there is no existing king of France. It is just not substantive of our approach to ordinary use of language to suggest that a speaker could use a referring expression successfully or conversely unsuccessfully and furthermore is it not the case that when we utter a sentence, unless we are consciously aware that it is factious, that we would believe that what we are referring to is successful given the linguistic and social conventions that govern our language and thought? Strawson argues that this failure of reference could occur, however given the account above how often would a speaker refer to something believing it exists when it does not, surely even if this was the case, given our social pedigree for awareness, it would be so rare that surely it would be absurd to accept it as a foundation to a critique?(Caton, 1954:543) Furthermore if Straws on argues that his proposal is less problematic to ordinary language then surely the counterexamples used need be to be more inclined to towards our natural intentions of speech, and as such it seems that a Gricean distinction between intended and expressed propositions could almost accommodate for Russells Theory of Descriptions in this instance in that the meaning of the sentences that appear object-dependant studied by Russell are incomplete without the context of use that Grice studied through speaker-meaning. (Ramachandran, 1993:1) If we consider the example; (3)The book case is filled with DVDs Strawson uses awkward example such as (3), which expresses that there is one and only one bookcase and it is filled with DVDs when applied to Russells analysis, to devalue Russells theories but Neale (1990) developed ideas from Grice and argued that if (3) is applied to the notion of restricted quantification the absurd illusion disappears. That is the domain over which we take the quantifier is adequately altered and consequently the quantifier silently recognises the context of the speech act. Whilst this is by no means a solution it is evident that when a sentence such as (3) is used a contemporary, Russellian could argue that it is in its use that the statement is completed and furthermore this is through the restriction of quantification.(Lycan, 2008:22)I admit that there is still an ambiguity and awkwardness about the non-existent reference however it has become apparent that in ordinary language it would highly unlikely that a speaker would use (1) with the intention of referr ing but could it be as a condition of the non-intention of the speaker that the uncomfortable nature of truth arises? (Ramachandran, 1993:4) Keith Donnellan (1966) attempts to offer a pragmatic approach to the problem by suggesting that both Strawson and Russell are incorrect in their analysis of definite descriptions by claiming that they both commit to the error that when nothing satisfies the condition of being the referent that the truth value of the sentence or use or the sentence is affected. (King, 1984:14)Donnellan argues that this is not the case but rather a speaker could use a non-referring expression to express a true sentence despite the grammatical subject being a non-referring expression and this misunderstanding occurs in virtue of neither Strawson nor Russell appreciating both the referential and the attributive use of a definite description as a consequence of not analysing the interpretation of a sentence on specific occasions of use in the specific context.(Lycan, 2008:24) If we consider the example; (4) The person who bought that Ferrari is rich Donnellan argues that that statement could be uttered twofold; It could refer to the fact that the Ferrari was  £300,000 and as such it must be the case that the person who purchased the vehicle was wealthy, this is known as the attributive use of the description. It could also refer to Henry the man who purchased the vehicle after haggling the price down to  £250 000, this is known as the referential use of the description. Russells theory is an application of the attributive use of definite description in speech acts, whilst Strawsons argument against Russell is on the basis of him not recognising the referential role of definite descriptions, however Strawson neglects the attributive use and as such his theory is similarly problematic. (Cohen, 2008:2) Furthermore, the distinction between the referential use and the attributive use runs deeper, in that the truth values are different given there being nothing that satisfies the condition of being the referent in a use of a sentence as a direct consequence of the presuppositions in each case being different. In the case of the attributive use the assertion misfires as a result of their being nothing to satisfy the condition of the referent however in the referential sense it may still have a truth value given that the object that is being referred to may satisfy the description given and if it does not then the given speech act is misleading. As a result Donnellan demonstrates that out of context it is ludicrous to try and determine what a definite description is, because it is context dependant in that within a particular speech act it could be used for either referential or attributive use and as a consequence both Strawson and Russells arguments are deficient in some capacity. (Cohen, 2008:3) However, given that the question at hand is whether Strawsons critique has deeper philosophical implications for Russells theory, and that we have accepted that both theories are not sufficient if we accept Donnellans theory then could it be the case that given that Strawsons theory is not practical for ordinary language, is it worth accepting in light of the detrimental effect it has on the analysis of language given the arise of truth gaps? Subsequently by accepting Strawsons thesis on the non truth value of non-referring expression then we permit for these truth value gaps, whereby certain sentences cannot be subject to logical analysis because they lack a truth value. (Quine, 1953: 439) By analysing sentences under the scrutiny of formal logic there is the possibility of refraining from ambiguity because all sentences are ascribed a truth value through the proposition expressed by their existential logic properties. (Lemmon, 1966: 105) According to E.J Lemmon (1966) this is only sufficient if logic is not liable to imitate ordinary language to the effect that it manifests itself in the same manner. As Russell seemed to acknowledge this is not the case and in fact the role of logic is to control language under conditions where ordinary language cannot be regulated and therefore surely it is a given that it does not necessarily accurately represent ordinary language in every respect? Besides is it harmful to accept a situation whereby the logician is aware of the problem of non-referring descriptions, would it not be adequate to merely realise this and maintain the logical structure which has been demonstrated as efficient and practical? As far as the difficulty demonstrated by Strawson in this instance it only holds if and only if Russells intention was for the logical proposition to mimic ordinary language. (Lemmon, 1966:107) In conclusion I would argue that whilst neither Strawson nor Russells argument provides a wholly adequate account of definite descriptions, if we evaluate the purpose of each theory they are of differing successes. Russell provides a scientific approach to analysing definite descriptions which generally provides a sufficient measure for reference whilst still encompassing difficulties. Strawson on the other hand attempts to offer an improved theory in regard to ordinary language use however, the counterexamples he provides are not intuitive uses of language. Furthermore the implication is that it is unlikely that such occurrences would occur intentionally and as a consequence the position Strawson takes up is not philosophically practical given the arise of truth gaps when accepting his theory. Word count (3032 exclusive of reference and quotations)