French Politics and Institutions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

French Politics and Institutions - Essay Example In the Toulouse shooting there were four Jews killed outside of a Jewish school, three of those dead being children. Just like in the past incident, the Toulouse shooting sparked riots in France with the society divided between those who supported Bayne and those who condemn him. Therefore, other separate incidents similar to the recent shooting should work as a highlight and a warning sign rather than being treated as a lone incident. Unlike in North America where issues affecting the Jewish community there are low birth rates, intermarriages and assimilation, in French Europe, anti-Semitism is a social phenomenon rather than just a lone incident1. The strong outspoken French public take on the two incidents has worked in highlighting the similarity between both incidents. The society seems, just like in the first incident, to be very active in taking sides - either on the side of the victims or on the side of the perpetrators. The underlying crimes are based on hate. However, there have been recent twists to this anti-Semitism in that political and economic spheres have been introduced into the debate but the fact remains that anti-Semitism just like in those periods of 1890s still is strong if not getting even stronger in France. Even scholars have been thrown into different conclusions about the recent incident in line with the Dreyfus Affair in that some like Neocon John Podhoretz are declaring an alert that â€Å"Jews are being hunted.† Though an overtone, it seeks to highlight that the recent event cannot be looked at in isolation to the 1894 anti-Semitic affair because of the similarity between them. On the contrary Leon Weiseltier termed his article â€Å"Hitler is dead.† In essence, the writer is telling the Jews in the Diaspora that they should not panic. These two authors could be taken to be social representatives in the voicing of how society in France takes up positions when these issues are brought to light in the French public dom ain2. The fact that even those denying the latest shooting incident are referring to the contrast between the two incidents only raises concerns about the similarities between the incidents which are more than 100 years apart. It is therefore not uncommon to find political leaders in search of public support or mere social debate in quest to remain relevant talking about the two events and dragging anti-Semitism into the contemporary political and economic circles. Despite the country’s enormous steps in technology, economy and political spheres, the culture of anti-Semitism has remained deeply enshrined among some parts of the society. The recent shooting does not therefore represent a separate aspect of the French population but a rather serious social phenomenon. It can also be seen as a serious social evil because the shooter in the recent Toulouse shooting definitely was not even born when the Dreyfus affair was happening. Examination of the Ability of France to Divide O ver Issues The study has already established that one similarity between the Dreyfus Affair and the recent Toulouse shooting has been the characterization of the French public to divide into two different camps when social phenomena take place. Hence, while others openly support the individuals who perform the anti-Semitic activities such as the ones noted above, others strongly condemn them in equal matters. This has historically been the French scenario. Taking the scene in

Santander Bank Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Santander Bank - Assignment Example Its main competitors are the Barclays bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered Bank. Santander bank, however, stands out from the rest of the institutions as it offers savings accounts that are cost-effective and reliable to the customers. All these have both short term and long term benefits to the customers. This unique feature has made it have a wider market base that has, in turn, improved its profitability. Santander bank’s current business environment in the financial sector makes it suitable for my placement purposes. Being a business student, I believe that I will gain immensely from the practical experience that I will obtain from this bank. The experience will prepare me adequately in the business world in which I will be required to compete favorably with my competitors. Santander bank being such a successful bank I believe that I will be able to gather excellent lessons that I will make use of in the future. Santander Bank’s Business Activities Sa ntander bank offers banking and financial services to its customers. The services are broadly divided into two, which is, business and personal banking. Its target customer market comprises large business enterprises and individual investors. Some of the business segments of the bank are as follows: retail banking, asset management, global wholesale banking and insurance (Guillen & Tschoegl, 2008). The bank also takes part in the run-off real estate business of Spain in which it advances loans to its Spanish customers.

TARGET CORPORATION FINANCIAL ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION Essay - 2

TARGET CORPORATION FINANCIAL ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION - Essay Example This refers to how fruitful a company is in using assets. Liquidity and efficiency are significant and complement each other. To calculate a company’s short term liquidity (requirement) we need to figure out the current ratio and working capital. Working capital is the current assets less the current liabilities. To calculate the current ratio we divide the current assets by current liabilities. In looking at the objective organization’s financials for years 2004, 2005 and 2006 we can see how sound they performed over the years. 4,638 was its working capital in 2004. We got this by subtraction of current liabilities of 8,134 from current assets of 12,952. 5702 and 4817 was the working capital in 2005 and 2006 respectively. Now we have to look for the current ratio for these same periods. In 2004 current ratio for Target Company is 1.56. We got this number by dividing 12,952, which are current assets, by its current liabilities, 8,314. In 2005 and 2006 the current ratio is 1.69 and 1.50 respectively. It reflects the company’s ability how use assets to create sales. It is an important aspect in a company’s working efficiency. To calculate this we divide net sales by average total assets. Target Company the asset turnover for 2004 is 0.20. It can be determined by its net sales of 3,198 and divided by average of total assets of 15,708. The asset turnover rate was 0.15 for 2005. In years 2004, 2005 and 2006 we can see that from 2004 and 2005 there was an increase in liquidity and efficiency but in 2006 there was a fall. Although there was a fall, Targets results are not that unusual from other companies, in fact some had even bigger decreases and struggled more within the same time period. I would like to invest in the Target Corporation; with the drop from 2005 to 2006 at the overall picture the drop is not that

Compare Job and Gilgamesh as suffering heroes, as they search for Essay

Compare Job and Gilgamesh as suffering heroes, as they search for understanding, and come to accept the limits of their human co - Essay Example The Book of Job and the Epic of Gilgamesh were set around the 13th century before Christ, and both stories were placed in the region of ancient Mesopotamia. Both stories have a great deal of religious themes, although the Epic of Gilgamesh leans more on the mythological side while the Book of Job maintains a more spiritual-religious tone and message. It should also be noted that there are differences with regards to the culture of the ancient Sumerians and the Israelites. The ancient Sumerians were very much a polytheistic culture that made a society and civilization that revolved around the worship of its many deities and mythical heroes. Gilgamesh, for example, is taken in high regard of worship by ancient Sumerians. On the other hand, Israelite or Hebrew culture was very monotheistic. The Hebrews believed that there is only one true God, in their language Yahweh or Jehovah, and He is the Lord of everything and His Will is supreme and good. Israelite society centers on this in the sense that they worship no other being or thing other than God Himself, and submit to completely to His Will. In understanding each story’s civilization and cultural background, it would be easier to understand the parallels between the two. The first contrast between the story of Gilgamesh and Job is who the characters are in the nature of their portrayal. According to ancient Sumerian mythological tradition, Gilgamesh is a semi-divine, or demi-god, of extraordinary strength and was also one of the great kings of Uruk. Gilgamesh could be described as a proud, powerful and confident in personality based on his character in the Epics written about him. Gilgamesh is also an adventurer as much as he was a king, and went into many arduous and sometimes dangerous exploits with his man-beast friend Enkidu. To say the least, Gilgamesh was every bit as warrior like as much and kingly. On the other hand, the Hebrew Job is in far contrast to Gilgamesh. Job is a complete human being wit h no supernatural powers. Although not a mighty king Job is considered to be a very wealthy man, with large livestock herds, and a large and healthy family by ancient Hebrew standards. Unlike the ancient Sumerians, the Israelites did not settle is fortified city-kingdoms and were nomadic in nature. Instead, the Israelites would establish nomadic communities on lands that were fertile enough to support the habitation of both people and livestock. Since Job had a healthy and growing number of both livestock and his family, he most certainly had even larger tracts of fertile land for him to support that kind of population. Job would spend most of his time with his family in agriculture and livestock raising, living a pastoral and peaceful life. Now, the reasons why both Job and Gilgamesh were given suffering also differ. In the case of Gilgamesh, it was more of divine retribution. The fact that the exploits of Gilgamesh and Enkidu affected the disposition of the Sumerian deities was of no small matter. It is as Ferguson noted that Gilgamesh is especially proud of his expedition with Enkidu to the cedar mountain in which he killed the guardian and chopped down the sacred cedar† (327). In the case of Job, suffering was brought unto him as a test of his faith to Yahweh and also a test of his character. Gilgamesh lost his closest friend

Welding Metals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Welding Metals - Essay Example (www.wikipedia.org). A weld is defined as a blend or coalescence of two or more metals by heating then until they reach a critical temperature and flow together. The piece of metal to be welded is called the base metal, work piece, or work. The edges of the base metal are often specially prepared for welding by, for example, machining, shearing, or gouging. There are five basic weld joints: butt, lap, corner, "T," and edge. The American Welding Society has developed a system of symbols that are added to mechanical drawings, to convey precisely how a welding site should be prepared, what type of weld should be made, and any other considerations. Arc welding is a very popular method of joining metal together for many different applications. It is the processes of joining metal together through fusion which is done by the electric Arc, by electrical current (Arc 1994).An electric arc between the electrode and the work piece generates heat. Sufficient heat is generated to melt the pieces together. The arc reaches temperatures of around 6,000 degrees Celsius which is concentrated at the tip of the electrode (Weldwell 2003). The range of welding current used varies from 5 to 500 amps. The voltage ranges from 20 to 30 volts. The current can be either AC or DC. The type of current is dependent on material thickness. The electrodes have a metal core surround by flux, which melts with the work piece creating a fusion weld. The flux coating forms a gas and slag that shields the molting metal pool. This flux materialis cleaned off once the weld has cooled with a wire brush. The weld should be as strong or stronger then the metal that i t is fusing together. There are four common types of welding namely Stick or SMAW(Shielded Metal Arc Welding) Mig or GMAW(Gas Metal Arc Welding) Tig or GTAW (Gas Tungsten Arc Welding). Flux-Core or FCAW (Flux Core Arc Welding). Shielded metal arc welding or stick welding is one of the most commonly used types of welding. (Repp 1994).this is because it is one of the easiest methods and the equipment used is inexpensive. It is used in mobile welding due to its ease of portability. In this process the flux covering the electrode melts during welding. Due to this gas and slag are formed that form a protective layer around the molten weld pool. The slag is chipped off the weld bead after welding. The flux provides a method of adding scavengers, deoxidizers, and alloying elements to the weld metal. Advantages The equipment is simple, inexpensive and portable. It has a moderate welding speed. This process is flexible i.e. in order to tackle different tasks, metals and thickness change of rods or welding parameters is sufficient. Flux provides excellent cleaning action in cases where weld metal preparation is less than ideal (rust, scale, dirt, etc.). It is less sensitive to wind and drifts. Discontinuities Considering the weld discontinuities stick welding suffers from undercut where a groove melted into the base metal adjacent to the weld toe or weld root and left unfilled by weld metal. Secondly it suffers from incomplete fusion i.e. a weld discontinuity in which fusion does not occur between weld metal and fusion faces or adjoining weld beads. Other discontinuities include porosity of the weld formed, cracks and slag inclusions in the weld. Problems The main problem concerning stick welding is Arc Blow. It is a problem that exists with most electric welding processes. It is caused by the preferential magnetic fields developed near the arc. These are most often caused by the arc current ground path or in the

Understanding Organized Crime Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Understanding Organized Crime - Essay Example Organized crime has existed in the ancient world with bands of pirates and thieves attacking remote areas of the countryside. Crime in the ancient world was mostly prevalent in the rural areas because of the remoteness and wilderness of these regions. Thugs were considered to be one of the earliest organized crimes which operated in India. Piracy was a recurrent problem that plagued the ancient world as ships carrying goods and people were attacked and plundered (Albanese, 2003). The nobility in the middle ages displayed characteristics that were typical organized criminals. Their domination and subordination of the modes of production, legal structure, and armies ensured that they could repress and violently engage in criminal activities. Modern criminal gangs began to appear in the urban areas. Ethnic minorities living in countries like the United States set up their own gangs which engaged in criminal activities. Organized crime has become sophisticated because of the advent of te chnologies like the internet to perpetrate their crimes (Albanese, 2003). Organized criminal groups flourish in areas where they have local support. Criminal members use a number of tactics to influence businesses, police, and legal establishment in order to maintain their activities. Blackmail and bribery are some of the methods which are used to intimidate or scare opponents. Criminal groups have shown remarkable resilience in their ability to respond to crisis (Berdal, 2002). They have shown amazing ability to adapt according to changing situations. New opportunities are quickly grasped with the criminal group moving into the market. Modern organized crime uses the internet, shadowy bank accounts, and links with other groups to engage in illegal activities. Internet fraud and stealing of information are some of the newest activities promoted by organized criminal groups. The internet makes it safe for criminal

Modernism Visual Comical Strips Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Modernism Visual Comical Strips - Research Paper Example The essay "Modernism Visual Comical Strips" discovers modernism and visual comical strips. The modernism arts focused on freedom and individuality as evidence from Pablo Picasso’s art works. Modernism art, therefore, saw the emergence of some new media especially photography thus it emerged during the eras of history of photography and this explains why history records the photographers of 19th century. Modernism also marked the beginning of the new art forms like animation, assemblage, cinematography and even the avant-garde art, including the earliest conceptual art forms and the same style was used on comic strips as the same themes are portrayed in the modernism cartoons and other visual comedy. Style and setting of modernism comical strips used backgrounds that showed how the society evolved to become civilized. In most modernism comedies, the artists used black and white backgrounds to show an evolving society unlike the postmodernist artists that have used technology to affect the backgrounds to the desired colors. On the other hand, most of the modernism comedies centered on war and how servants served their masters. Moreover, modernism visual comedy shows the activities of social organization, architecture, and economic situations in the modernist era that become outdated as industrial revolution took over the world. Post modernism art came about after the emergence of modernism arts and as such, contradicted the aspects of the modernism art. Post modernism in visual art includes general aspects.