Individual Critical Reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Individual Critical Reflection - Essay Example To the best of our abilities, members of the group adhered to Saunder's (2007) advice regarding primary data collection and sampling procedures. In retrospect, however, and having read much more on data collection, I would have approach the procedure differently. In the first place, in order to ensure the reliability and validity of the primary data, I would have requested permission to audio-record the interviews from the respondents. Not only would this have preserved the respondents' answers as given, rather than their subsequent, possibly biased, reinterpretation from interview notes drawn up by the researchers, but would have evidenced the validity of the data. Further to that, I would also followed Miles and Huberman's (2005) advice concerning the establishment of construct validity. Insofar as the aforementioned necessitates the establishment of a chain of evidence throughout the data collection process, audio-taping the interviews would have been important. It would also have necessitated presenting the respondents with a copy of the study for their review and the verification of information through several sources of information. This process is, needless to say, infinitely more time-consuming than that which we adopted for the purposes of this study and, definitely more complex. Nevertheless, given the extent to which it would have contributed to the validation of the study and allowed for the generalisation of its findings, I would have chosen to adhere to this strategy. Individual Contribution Working as part of a team is complicated and, more often than not, a source of extreme tension. It entails trusting a part of one's grade, one's future, to others and, by no means, is this easy to do. Therefore, even though all the team members did their part and none were left holding the slack of others, I personally prefer doing my work myself. For this reason, I had no objections whatsoever to the workload assigned to me by the group leader, despite the fact that it somewhat exceeded the work load assigned to other team members. As a matter of fact, considering that I wanted to achieve the highest grade possible on the team project, I actively welcomed any work assigned to me, knowing that I will do my best to ensure that it meets with the highest standards possible, at least to the best of my ability. It is, thus, that I took responsibility for critical sections in the literature review; more specifically, I researched and wrote the parts ob coffee shops and Fairtrade products. I also was responsible for designing and completing the time-table, writing the interview permission letters required for the purposes of gaining permission to conduct interviews with employees of fair-trade companies, processing the primary data using SPSS, answering all the objective questions and finalising the work of other team members. As I noted at the outset, I often did more than my share but I did it on a voluntary basis as, quite honestly, the more work I did for the project, the more reassured I was regarding quality. Given that, from my perspective at least, the work submitted by other group members displayed substantial effort and high quality, I have to admit that the problem lies with me. I have not yet learnt to

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Lean Six Sigma

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Lean Six Sigma 1. Introduction While businesses seek for ways to survive and also to remain competitive in a changing global environment, they either choose adopting business excellence models or continuous improvement philosophies to guide them in the journey of organisational excellence. Lean Six Sigma is a new breadth in the area of continuous improvement, which constitutes strengths and key focuses of Lean and Six Sigma approaches. The rest of the paper is organized as follows: section 2 provides an insight on the concepts Lean,Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma. Then relevant examples of Lean Six Sigma in manufacturing and service sector will be presented in section 3.The advantages and disadvantages of Lean Six Sigma will be discussed in section 4. Lastly, an overall recap on the subject is done. 2. Literature review The objective of this section is to provide an insight of the Lean Six Sigma by briefly outlining the concepts behind Lean and Six Sigma, the two ingredients of this blend, along with their strengths and criticisms. 2.1 Lean Approach Lean manufacturing, developed by Toyota Motor Corporation in 1950s, has been adopted and adapted by many companies (Finch,2006). It then extended into a concept of Lean thinking that was introduced by Womack and Jones.The current state of Lean is called Lean enterprise that reaches beyond the shop floor and encompasses various departments within the organisation as a whole (Papadopoulou and Ozbayrak,2005). Dale (2007) defines Lean as a way of thinking, consisting of a set of methods and operating principles to identify and eliminate waste in business processes (Dale,2007,p.565). While for Ferguson (2007) Lean is a change that takes an organisation from where it currently stands and move to a desired state. Briefly, the objective of Lean is to eliminate all types of unnecessary waste by managing resources depending on customers needs and at the lowest possible costs (Andersson et al. 2006). In other words, doing more with less (Thomas,2009). Principles There are 5 principles of Lean; providing right product or service for the right price and time to customer,identification of value stream,smooth flow of processes,only customers demand trigger the action and lastly continuously improve to value stream in pursuit of perfection (Dale,2007). The first step when implementing Lean is to identify value-added and non-value added processes (Pepper and Spedding, 2009) by Value stream mapping(VMS) which is a qualitative analysis tool. Other tools and techniques from the Lean Toolkit such as Single Minute Exchange of Die, 5S, TPM etc. are used in order to achieve above-mentioned principles. Whereas, it should be noted that using these tools and techniques only, does not guarantee a Lean organisation (Bendell,2006). Criticism In the literature, there are many criticism topics on Lean where the most popular ones are about its universality and social aspects. It has long been argued that Lean is not flexible (Andersson et al.,2006) and not applicable to all environments but only to high volume-low variety (HVLV) operations. Authors like Arnheiter and Maleyeff (2005) define this view as one of the key misconceptions whereas Pepper and Spedding (2010) refer it as a limited success of Lean in their work. There is a common misconception caused by the misunderstanding of the concept that Lean means laying-off people (Arnheiter and Maleyeff,2005). However, Flinchbaugh (2001), Arnheiter and Maleyeff (2005) stress that Lean does not mean less people but using people in a smarter way. David Meier (2001) who is a Senior Lean Manufacturing Consultant, argues that Lean creates a stressful, uncomfortable environment due to sense of urgency while ensuring an immediate response to customers. On the other hand, Papadopoulou and Ozbayrak (2005), and Williams et al. (1992) take the opposite view. 2.2 Six Sigma Approach Six Sigma,which is developed by Motorola and popularised after the adoption of General Electric (Finch,2006) aims at value creation and improving the process through variation reduction (Dale et al,2007).Six Sigma inherits principles from TQM (Arnheiter and Maleyeff, 2005) while setting focus on customer satisfaction. In statistical terms, the goal is to achieve a defect rate of 3.4 per million (Pepper and Spedding,2010). This structured,top-down approach has a positive impact on business in monetary terms since it reduces risk and costs (Slack et al., 2006) especially related with scrap and rework. Due to realised benefits, many organisations have adopted Six Sigma today. Principles DMAIC(Design,Measure,Analysis,Improve and Control) is the most commonly used 5-stage methodology which is employed to achieve minimum defects and to reduce the variation throughout the processes in an organisation (Bhuiyan and Baghel,2005). The approach is on project basis and these projects are carried out by trained supervisors called Black belts and Green belts (Bendell,2006). Criticism Six Sigma has long been seen as a statistics-heavy, technical approach to process control (Pepper,Spedding, 2009, p.145). Bendell(2006) supports this view and criticises Six Sigma due to its tendency towards being a complex approach. The training of Black Belts and Green Belts is required in order to be able to use statistical tools and handle the projects effectively. Senapati (2004) mentions that these trainings and solutions to problems can be costly for many businesses. Bendell (2006) states that there is no formal link to policy deployment in Six Sigma. Since Six Sigma projects are chosen depending on their cost-effectiveness, it is possible for this cost-down approach dominates the primary customer driven focus. and may shift it to cost-down possible to be dominated by immediate cost down driver (Bendell,2006). 2.3 Similarities and Differences between Lean and Six Sigma: The point of intersection -overlapping areas(kà ¼me Ã…Å ¸ekli) The intersection point:Similarities-The area of convergence Both approaches have related operating philosophies,performance objectives,work focus,team approach and improvement focus (Watson,2003). Lean Six Sigma Since Lean Sigma or Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is a relatively new management trend, there is not much literature available comparing to the information and facts found about Lean and Six Sigma alone. Recently, many companies have started to combine continuous improvement programs together by utilising the best of each initiative to get an extensive and more effective program than individual programs (Bhuiyan and Baghel, 2005). Thus, Lean Six Sigma is evolved as a hybrid methodology that encompasses benefits from both Lean and Six Sigma (Bhuiyan and Baghel, 2005). Watson (2003) defines the merge between Lean and Six Sigma as a marriage of necessity. The objective of this integrated approach is boosting quality and reducing costs through elimination of waste and variation reduction (Kamensky,2008). The origins of Lean and Six Sigma come from different roots however they both have an aim of improving the processes of a business. It has been shown that the benefits achieved with LSS cannot be achieved when applying Lean or Six Sigma solely (Bhuiyan and Baghel, 2005). This data-driven approach enables sustainable competitive advantage if properly applied (Burgess,2009). In the report of John Maleyeff (2007) to IBM Business of Government, LSS is defined as: Lean Six Sigma encompasses many common features of Lean and Six Sigma such as an emphasis on customer satisfaction,a culture of continuous improvement,the search for root causes,and comprehensive employee involvement.In each case,a high degree of training and education takes place,from upper management to shop floor. It is now being realised by many businesses that Lean is more powerful and meaningful when combined with Six Sigma and vice versa (Watson,2003). Many businesses in both manufacturing and service sector including GlaxoSmithKline,Xerox and Dell turned to Lean Six Sigma and achieved significant benefits (Neuhaus and Guarraia,2007). There has to be a careful blend of Lean and Six Sigma that brings two extremes into equilibrium. One end is becoming too Lean thus being very responsive to the market whereas the other end is too much focus on reducing variation beyond the expectations of customers resulting in unnecessary resources being wasted to achieve zero variation (Pepper and Spedding 2010). The optimum point is where market share is maintained by creating sufficient value in the eyes of a customer and the process variation is kept inside acceptable levels to achieve lower costs without over-engineering (Pepper and Spedding 2010). Principles George (2002) states the principles of LSS as the activities that cause the customers critical-to-quality issues and create the longest time delays in any process offer the greatest opportunity for improvement in cost,quality,capital,and lead time. Focus is on customer needs as in Six Sigma and also on speed as in Lean, in order to be responsive to market by shortening lead times. It should be noted that there is no standard framework of LSS that businesses can take it and apply step by step for a specific problem. In other words, there is no one fit for all since it depends on the situation and also the environment within a company. Nevertheless, there have been some attempts regarding different ways of implementing LSS in the literature and industry. Some authors argue that it would be more effective when Lean is used as a first step smoothen the process by eliminating waste and then run the DMAIC cycle. Another view is to implement Lean tools within DMAIC cycle as it can be seen in the work of Kumar et al (2006). Thomas et al. (2009) also proposed a similar framework where basic Lean principles are integrated in each phase of DMAIC method. Criticism Since it is a new breadth in the area of management, LSS has become the target of criticism in the literature. Bendell (2006) suggests a single approach that effectively combines the two philosophies rather than an alleged combination (Pepper and Spedding,2010). Another criticism is about the compatibility of these two approaches. Mika (2006) argues that Six Sigma cannot be embraced by the workers in the shop floor since it requires an effective use of statistical tools and techniques unlike Lean. In contrast, George (2003) outlines several points that Lean compliments Six Sigma and vice versa. Furthermore, since LSS is an integration of two different approaches there is a possibility that one dominates other throughout implementation. Some authors and practitioners see this new continuous improvement initiative as the latest management fad. However, Westwood and Silvester (2007) argue that these approaches such as Six Sigma, Lean or Lean Six Sigma are not fads but they are vital for improving and sustaining competitive advantage. As opposed to views about the negative social aspects of LSS, Burgess (2009) strongly disagrees that it does not support creativity and turns people into robots mainly due to increased workload. It has been argued that the continuous improvement initiatives including LSS are not working well in small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SME) due to lack of critical success factors such as commitment from top management, lack of understanding of tools and techniques and lack of financial capability (Thomas et al. 2009). 3. Findings In this section, an attempt is made to present examples regarding the application of Lean Six Sigma in both manufacturing and service sectors. Manufacturing firms were the early adopters of LSS. Then, it was embraced by the service sector in the 1990s (Kamensky,2008). Halliburton, which is one of the worlds largest oilfield providers, began to implement Lean Six Sigma in 2004, in response to the growth in demand with the purpose of being able to respond customer needs by increasing efficiency and improving customer service (Atkinson,2009). The amount that they used to produce in the manufacturing plants is tripled as a result of reduced cycle times and high utilisation of their equipments. Halliburton also encouraged its supply base to adopt the same strategy so that a synchronisation can be achieved in terms of being more responsive to the market (Atkinson,2009). The main reason to implement LSS approach in Caterpillar Inc. was to gain competitive advantage by breakthrough improvements. As a result of innovative products, their revenues had grown by 80 percent (Byrne et al.2007). Another notable example would be Xerox Corp., which was having problems with its long filing time for patents so first of all the root causes of delays were identified. To eliminate these non-value added steps, Xerox Lean Six Sigma team carried out DMAIC, and came up with a solution which reduced the cycle time of 64 days and saved $400,000 in overall time (Xerox Corp. Brochure,2009). National Grid, who is a client of GE Fleet Services in the UK listened to the voice of its customers and applied Lean Six Sigma to reduce the time spent running (issuing and managing) order prompts (Fraser and Fraser,2008).This project is an example of a well-applied Lean Six Sigma method in a service sector in terms of achieving expected results in a timely fashion (Fraser and Fraser,2008). In the work of Kumar et al. (2006), the implementation of LSS in a die casting manufacturer is resulted in a significant decrease in the number of defects occurred in the final product and an overall savings of around $140 000 per year. Apart from the success stories, National Health Service Modernisation Agency (MA) in UK, is a well-known failure case of LSS. In 2004, Six Sigma together with Lean implemented in NHS to improve processes and quality (Proudlove and Moxham et al., 2008). Whereas, due to lack of well-designed processes, lack of support and unclear link between business strategy, it resulted in failure (Montero,2010). 4. Discussion In light of the findings and review of literature, the advantages and disadvantages of LSS will be discussed in this section. It is believed that this integrated approach will bring better results when the structured and systematic approach of Six Sigma came together with the agility of Lean with a focus of customer in the centre (Antony et al,2003). Despite some views arguing its effectiveness, in theory, by integrating the best of Lean and Six Sigma, the outcome would be satisfactory or even delightful both from the organisations and the customers point of view that creates a win-win situation. According to Arnheiter and Maleyeff (2005), if Lean firms adopt Six Sigma principles, costs incurred by defective products such as rework or scrap costs and the related overhead costs can be reduced. Likewise, when Six Sigma companies adopt Lean principles, faster lead times and deliveries can be achieved. Antony et al. (2003) outlines four major benefits of implementing LSS as; becoming faster and more responsive to customers, striving for Six Sigma capability level, operating at lowest costs of poor quality, achieving greater flexibility throughout the business (Antony et al.,2003,p.41). Companies that have successfully implemented Lean Six Sigma have gained considerable benefits in terms of increased shareholder value and market share. Based on the examples of several companies given in the Findings section, these benefits are provided in dollars. On the other hand, a recent BainCo.survey of 184 companies, shows that 80 percent is dissatisfied with the results they got from their LSS efforts because they have not achieved their goals in both monetary terms and level of improvement (Neuhaus and Guarraia,2007). Because it brought many advantages to leading firms, it does not imply that every attempt will be success or that every firm is ready for this initiative. Basu (2001) outlines the difficulty of sustaining a process improvement program even it may be successful in the beginning. Thus, this situation causes employee layoffs and a decrease in employee morale (Basu,2001). Despite being a powerful engine for businesses, the necessity of high skills to be able to use relevant tools and techniques is seen as one of the weaknesses of LSS (Montero,2010). This factor is seen as a critical prerequisite for the successful implementation of LSS. Though,the training and necessary investment can be costly to some companies. Therefore, this situation may limit its applicability. Unless a necessary change within the business is done including cultural aspects, mindset of employees together with the full commitment of top management, the result will be a failure. 5. Conclusion Many businesses in various sectors have recently started to adopt LSS either as a result of an external pressure or due to inadequate results achieved with their current methodology applied (internal need). Benchmarking plays a significant role in creating a trendy environment in the market where companies follow the giants and trying to adopt the best practice in order not to be obsolete. Although, this integration is seen as a fad by some authors and practitioners The concept was emerged as a response to market requirement. This merge between initiatives Regardless of the continuous improvement strategy that is chosen to follow, there is a common ground that no positive results can be gained without an adequate support, and attention across the business. There are still some uncovered areas of LSS for further research or no one knows what is next.

Immigration Essay -- Illegal Immigrants Essays

Immigration Debate over immigration and immigration policy is not new to the nation's history. For a long time, Congress debated legislation to control the immigration problem. As immigration rises and hatred grows more laws will be carried out trying to release some of the pressure. Immigrants offer cheaper labor to businesses. Immigrants do not get minimum wage, but instead they get paid lower, this gives the business an edge over other competitors. Agriculture industries employ more undocumented workers than any other industry in the country because it cost less. Half of California's 700,000 farm workers are estimated to be undocumented. Thirty years ago 50 percent of farm workers in California were immigrants, and now it’s 92 percent. Agriculture is not the only industry that has under paid immigrants. Published by the Chronicle, a list of businesses fined by the INS in San Francisco includes a car rental company, construction firms, restaurants, clubs, a trucker, a travel agency and even a Protestant church. Everywhere today, you see immigrant workers cleaning rooms in hotels, mowing lawns in the suburbs, pumping gas in service stations, doing all sorts of temporary jobs. These business groups have a lot of interest in immigrants. The immigrant workers provide cheaper labor which cuts costs and get industries ahead in competition. Richard Rogers, district director of the INS in Los Angeles, was quoted as saying: "If we were to increase fines 75 to 80 p...

Hinduism and the Religion’s Worldviews Essay

Hinduism is not merely a religion, it is also a philosophy and the culture in India, and it has already been a marked part of their everyday living. So much so that everything aspect of their daily lives goes back to it; and it has 950 million followers to wit (mostly from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan). Hinduism ranks third as the world’s largest religion after Christianity and Islam, and it is also said to be one of the world’s oldest organized religion along with Judaism (VandeWeghe, 2007). Hinduism and Christianity differ in many ways, and it is rational that there are disagreements and contradictions when two people from different religions involve themselves in a conversation regarding their beliefs. The purpose of this paper is to discover an effective way to build a pleasant relationship with a Hindu in order to be able to share the gospel with them. In order to accomplish this aim, this paper will discuss the origin, beliefs, practices and the views of Hinduism about Christianity and how they differ from the said religion. Hinduism: A Closer Look According to Robinson (2007), besides being called â€Å"Hinduism†, it is also referred to as Sanata Dharma (eternal religion) and Vaidika Dharma (religion of the Vedas). Hinduism has no specific founder and the day that it was born is still unknown; however, there are two theories regarding the origin of the religion. One is the Classical Theory which explains that Hinduism originated at the Indus Valley around 4000BCE to 2200BCE and that its development was due to various foreign invasions particularly of the Indo-Aryan for they are the ones who were said to have brought the religion of Vedism. The other is the Emerging Theory which went against the first theory by proving that there were no foreign invasions along the Indus Valley and that the Vedic religion (Hinduism at 1500BCE to 500BCE) was allowed to flourish by the same group of people who later called themselves Aryan. The Hindu scriptures as well as literatures, which are even older than the Bible’s Old Testament, are the sources of the religion’s beliefs and practices. The most sacred Hindu scriptures are the four Vedas (Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda) which consists of hymns, incantations, rituals and explanations – among which the Rig Veda (1700BCE to 1100BCE) is said to be the oldest. There are also the Upanishads which discussed â€Å"states of consciousness, dreams, meditations, self-realizations and unity†; the Darshanas which consists of six philosophical system and teachings derived from the Vedas; and lastly and the most recent, the Puranas which tells the stories of the most recent gods (Reid & Corduan, 2008). Hinduism also has the two great epics that show the virtues and ideals that are significant to the religion; the first is the Ramayana which is a tale about a prince named Rama and his wife, Sita, and the Mahabarata, a collection of poems which states the duties of a â€Å"religious, law-abiding man† (Mason, 2000). Not only is Hinduism one of the oldest and largest religions, it is also said to be the most complex one (McDowell, 2002). There are various beliefs in Hinduism and one of them is the very popular and highly criticized Caste System which is said to be the cause of inequality and harsh laws in India. There are four main castes; the Brahmin (priest-teachers), kshatriyas (soldier-nobles), vaishyas (merchants) and sudras (servants). In the early periods, it was supposed to be part of the divine order, however, as years passed by, subcastes were developed and there came the outcastes or the untouchables – people who do not belong to any of the four main castes (Perry, 1989). Associated with this system are other beliefs. The belief that each of them have dharma (duty), depending on which caste they were born into; they also believe in karma and samsara (reincarnation) – thus, they believe that if they do their duty properly, they will have good karma and will be reincarnated into a higher class. On the contrary, if they did not, they might be reincarnated to the lower class or even as an animal. Their goal is to achieve moksha (release), which is their concept of salvation. Here they would not be liberated from sin but to life existence itself for they believe that as long as they are in the maya (phenomenal world) suffering would never stop because of karma and samsara. Moksha can be attained in three ways, by â€Å"way of works†, â€Å"way of knowledge† and â€Å"way of devotion† (bhakti) which is the most popular one, in which a person will completely devote himself to a certain god and the latter will take care of everything in his behalf (Reid & Corduan, 2008). In early Hinduism, Jesus Christ has no particular role in the religion and is not even mentioned in their scriptures; however, due to the rise of Christianity, Hindu thinkers thought of a place where they could put Jesus Christ in their religion. According to Reid and Corduan (2008), since Hinduism is a polytheistic religion, the Hindus viewed Jesus Christ as one of the incarnations or avatars of Brahman who, like Rama and Krishna, is a â€Å"divine self-embodiment† in order to preserve Hindu teachings and another way was by saying that Jesus Christ spent his â€Å"silent years† in India to proclaim the teachings of Hinduism. Nevertheless, Hindus’ incorporation of Jesus Christ into their religion does not seem to fit properly. According to McDowell (2002), Hinduism is known to be tolerant towards other religions because of similarities with Hinduism. This is believed to be one of the characteristics of a polytheistic and henotheistic (believing in one god and regarding other gods and goddesses as just manifestations) religions. However, due to rise of a nationalistic political party which took hold of the India’s government, the separation of church and state collapsed and religious tolerance went down as well, increasing anti-Christian violence in the country (Robinson, 2007). Christianity and Hinduism has numerous differences and some of them are the following: Hinduism’s Supreme Being is the Brahman, an indefinable and impersonal deity, while Christianity has a loving, personal and caring Creator. Hinduism looks at man as a materialization of Brahman who has no value and self-worth at all, whereas, Christianity proclaims that man is created in the very image of God that deserves to love and be loved despite their sinful deeds. When it comes to sins, there are no sins that are committed against Brahman, things that were done wrong are taken as results of ignorance that can be redeemed by following the duty of a specific caste to which the person belongs to and the path going to salvation. On the other hand, wrongdoings that are done within Christianity is taken as acts of rebellion against God. Salvation in Hinduism is referred to as moksha and can be attained in three ways which cannot be accomplished in one lifetime, while salvation in the Christian sense is granted by God to those who deserve it after being separated from him. Lastly, even their view of the material world differ – for a Hindu, the material world is an extension of Brahman and just a transitory and secondary importance; on the contrary, Christians see the material world as an objective reality and a something total different from God (McDowell, 2002). However, despite these differences, it is said that Hindus accept Jesus, but not the Christian relgion. In fact, they even refer Christianity to â€Å"Churchianity. † According to Abhedananda (2002), Hindus can tell apart the religion of Jesus Christ from the religion of the Church for the reason that the true religion of Jesus Christ is a religion of the heart. Thus, it has no dogma and no theology, no rituals and ceremonies, and is not based from a book. From their perspective, the religion of the Church is based from a book, is full of creeds and rituals, and even has an organized way of preaching them. When it comes to the Gospels, they see it as full of inconsistencies and discrepancies, and one very doubtful area for the Hindus comes from their awareness that Jesus Christ did not have His own writings and that there are no precise and contemporary accounts of His life inside and outside of the Bible. In order to share the Gospels to the Hindus, Rev. Dharmaraj (2001), gave some advice to approach the Hindus and make them listen to the Gospels. He said that one should determine and understand what type of Hindu community one intends to visit, since there are different sects that belong to Hinduism. Next, he said that one should explain the concepts incorporated in the Gospels in order for them to understand the Gospels for they have their own understanding of God, salvation, sin, among others. Lastly, Christians should deal with the challenges of dogmatism, risks of syncretism and to focus on evangelism. In addition, according to Reid and Corduan (2008), a Christian should connect with the person rather with the person’s religion; Christians should approach them along with humanitarian efforts and outreach projects since Hinduism does not cater to such. Through a combination of these, Hindus have already felt the kind of loving relationships that pay no attention to the caste which have long been abolished but is still being practiced. The salvation of Christianity even reached them in a way, and it even made them accept Jesus Christ more as they felt that they have been freed from the dark aspects of Hinduism. The one who comes from above is above all. The one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things. But the one who comes from heaven [is above all]. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. Whoever does accept his testimony certifies that God is trustworthy. For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God. He does not ration his gift of the Spirit. The Father loves the Son and has given everything over to him. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him. (John 3:31-36, NAB) In the given Gospel, in order for a Hindu to understand it, one should clarify that the God in the Gospel is the Creator and that His son is Jesus Christ, the Savior of mankind from sins. In addition, it will also be better to give a slight background of what the Gospel is about – say that at this point in the Gospel, the Savior have finally presented Himself in front of the people. The Hindu should also be informed that â€Å"eternal life† is referring to the promised salvation in a Christian context and that it can only be attained by believing in Jesus Christ. On the other hand, the Christian should also point out what â€Å"the wrath of God† means, so that the Hindu could have insights as to the consequences of not obeying their God. And since this pertains to the concept of Hell, it should be also explained again in totality for Hindus do not have this concept in their belief system. Hinduism is a large complex religion that is older than Christianity. If one would be able to understand the essentials of this religion, it would be easy to reach out to the Hindus and make them listen to the Gospel. Christians have their views about Hinduism and Hindus likewise have their own views about Christianity. While they criticize and contradict each other about most of the aspects of their beliefs, setting them aside for awhile in order to learn about one another’s religion makes it possible to establish not just communication but also an open, two-way relationship. To share a Gospel to Hindus, proper understanding of Hinduism is required along with the use of an effective interpersonal approach. References Mason, C. (2000). A short history of Asia – Stone Age to 2000AD. London: Palgrave Macmillan Perry, M. (1989). A history of the world.Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Holy Bible: the new American Bible. (1987). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Abhedananda, S. (2002). Why a Hindu accepts Christ and rejects Churchianity. Retrieved March 31, 2008 from Hinduism website: http://www. hinduism. co. za/jesus. htm Dharmahal, P. (1992). Communicating Christ to the Hindu world. Retrieved April 1, 2008 from Mission Frontiers website: http://www. missionfrontiers. org/1992/0912/sd9211. htm McDowell, J. (2002). A ready defense. Retrieved March 31, 2008 from Jesus Who website: http://www. greatcom. org/resources/areadydefense/ch24/default. htm Reid, P. & Corduan, W. (2008). About Hinduism. Retrieved March 31, 2008 from Christian Answers Network website: http://christiananswers. net/evangelism/beliefs/hinduism. html Robinson, B. A. (2007). Hinduism: the world’s third largest religion. Retrieved March 31, 2008 from Religious Tolerance website: http://www. religioustolerance. org/hinduism. htm VandeWeghe, R. (2007). Prepared to answer. Retrieved March 31, 2008 from Windmill Ministries website: http://www. windmillministries. org/frames/CH30A. htm

Malcom X Summary

Malcolm X’s Prison Education Malcolm X was an African American Muslim minister who, as a teen, spent most of his time hustling people and getting into trouble. This soon landed him in prison. During his prison sentence he became self-educated, which led him to be an articulate speaker, to discover the true history of African American slaves, and to become a strong advocator of human rights. Malcolm X’s â€Å"A Homemade Education†, starts off in a soft and calm tone. X uses a persuasive style narrative from the Autobiography of Malcolm X to share his story.By the end of the essay his tone has changed to a more angry and demanding style. While in prison, X explains how he began writing letters to Mr. Elijah Muhammad, a Muslim leader, but, not being able to write in an articulate manner, X began getting frustrated because he could not express what he wanted to say. He also states that he could not keep a conversation with his prison friend Bimbi or even understand t he books he read because of his lack of knowledge.X says that he got a hold of a dictionary and began to copy word for word everything, learning more words and what they meant. He also says went to the prison library and read books about science, history, and slavery. X was most inspired by Mr. Muhammad’s teachings. X explains that in one of Mr. Muhammad’s teachings, Mr. Muhammad stressed how history had been â€Å"whitened,† in other words, that black history was left out of history books (95). He says he immediately began to search in the library for books that would inform him about black history.He says he read many books about black history and the early struggles for freedom. X states he will never forget how shocked he was when he read about the brutality of slavery or the illustrations of black slave women being tied up and beaten, children being taken away from families, and dogs hunting down slaves. X explains how he read books about the histories of v arious nations and learned that the white men had made all non-white people suffer, especially in India and China.He explains how the British white man controlled much of India and how people of India refused to obey orders and were beaten and killed. X also explains the Opium War in China and that some observers in China have reported that the world had never known such a hate campaign as is now going on in this non-white country (98). Reading about the various histories of the world, X found a common theme; white men were not liked by many civilizations. X states that he never knew that reading in prison would change the course of his life.He says his homemade education has given him more than a college degree could ever give him and that it is worth more than a college education because it is knowledge that no one can take away from him. Malcolm X states he has learned a lot from his reading about black history, he stresses that black men should not only fight for civil rights, b ut they need to think bigger and win their human rights. Works Cited X, Malcolm. â€Å"A Homemade Education. † The Conscious Reader. Ed. Caroline Shrodes, Michael Shugrue, Marc DiPaolo, Christian J. Matuschek. Glenview, IL: Pearson Education, 2011. 92-100. Print.

Free Essays on Nature Of International Law

INTERNATIONAL LAW QUESTION: Is international law â€Å"law†? Definition of Law Law is defined differently by different schools of thoughts. Some attribute more importance to one element of law than the other elements. For example positivists define law as a command of state that is backed by the state's enforcement power. They are in the opinion that without the power of enforcement, no system of rules can be regarded as a system of law. Although different definitions law exist, it in general terms, can be described as the body of rules, whether proceeding from formal enactment or from custom, which a particular state or community recognizes as binding on its members or subjects. Internatioanal law is defined as a set of rules and principles created between states ans instutional subjects of internatioanal law such as the UN, either for their own purposes or as a means of facilitating the functions of organisations of which they are memberes. There are clear differences between international and national law. National law has a supreme authority, and based on principles of command, obedience and enforcement. There are law making, law determining and law enforcement agencies. However, International law lacks a supreme authority. States are legally equals. It is based on consent and reciprocity. There is not any enforcement institution. The nature of international law The creation of public international law relies on negotiation and ratification of formal treaties and conventions, and on the formation of custom. Customary international law arises through the â€Å"general practice† of states’ legally relevant actions resulting in stable expectations, and ultimately in rules widely believed by states to be legal requirements. This is to be contrasted with international law arising from treaties or other formal legal arrangements, which are negotiated by states, and must be signed and ratified in order to be ... Free Essays on Nature Of International Law Free Essays on Nature Of International Law INTERNATIONAL LAW QUESTION: Is international law â€Å"law†? Definition of Law Law is defined differently by different schools of thoughts. Some attribute more importance to one element of law than the other elements. For example positivists define law as a command of state that is backed by the state's enforcement power. They are in the opinion that without the power of enforcement, no system of rules can be regarded as a system of law. Although different definitions law exist, it in general terms, can be described as the body of rules, whether proceeding from formal enactment or from custom, which a particular state or community recognizes as binding on its members or subjects. Internatioanal law is defined as a set of rules and principles created between states ans instutional subjects of internatioanal law such as the UN, either for their own purposes or as a means of facilitating the functions of organisations of which they are memberes. There are clear differences between international and national law. National law has a supreme authority, and based on principles of command, obedience and enforcement. There are law making, law determining and law enforcement agencies. However, International law lacks a supreme authority. States are legally equals. It is based on consent and reciprocity. There is not any enforcement institution. The nature of international law The creation of public international law relies on negotiation and ratification of formal treaties and conventions, and on the formation of custom. Customary international law arises through the â€Å"general practice† of states’ legally relevant actions resulting in stable expectations, and ultimately in rules widely believed by states to be legal requirements. This is to be contrasted with international law arising from treaties or other formal legal arrangements, which are negotiated by states, and must be signed and ratified in order to be ...

Free Essays on Essay On A&P

In John Updike’s â€Å"A&P†, Sammy the main character and narrator creates the emotion and development for the story. Let’s take a look at what Sammy has helped us to learn about his character. Sammy has told us that he is a nineteen year old from a small town near Boston. He works for the local A&P supermarket. The major interpretation about Sammy is how he sees everyone else. Everything we interpret comes from the detailed descriptions of Sammy. He tells us what the store is like, how it looks, and what he hears while he is there. Sammy’s descriptions bring a different type of meaning to the saying â€Å"Grocery Shopping†. For instance on page 271, he talks about a little song you hear from the cash register. â€Å"Hello (bing) there you (gung) happy pee-pul (splat)!† This extensive description brings the store to life. It is almost as if the store where another character. Some of Sammy’s comments about people also show his character. His descriptions of the people shopping in the store give us ideas about him. â€Å"The sheep pushing the carts down the aisle†, â€Å"A few house slaves in pin curlers† and â€Å" The fat one with the tan† show us how critical of people Sammy’s character is. In closing, the way a character is described and how they are related to in the story reveals a lot about the development of the character.... Free Essays on Essay On A&P Free Essays on Essay On A&P In John Updike’s â€Å"A&P†, Sammy the main character and narrator creates the emotion and development for the story. Let’s take a look at what Sammy has helped us to learn about his character. Sammy has told us that he is a nineteen year old from a small town near Boston. He works for the local A&P supermarket. The major interpretation about Sammy is how he sees everyone else. Everything we interpret comes from the detailed descriptions of Sammy. He tells us what the store is like, how it looks, and what he hears while he is there. Sammy’s descriptions bring a different type of meaning to the saying â€Å"Grocery Shopping†. For instance on page 271, he talks about a little song you hear from the cash register. â€Å"Hello (bing) there you (gung) happy pee-pul (splat)!† This extensive description brings the store to life. It is almost as if the store where another character. Some of Sammy’s comments about people also show his character. His descriptions of the people shopping in the store give us ideas about him. â€Å"The sheep pushing the carts down the aisle†, â€Å"A few house slaves in pin curlers† and â€Å" The fat one with the tan† show us how critical of people Sammy’s character is. In closing, the way a character is described and how they are related to in the story reveals a lot about the development of the character....