Daughter from Danang Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Daughter from Danang - Essay Example Significantly, the film effectively deals with cross-cultural conflicts through the protagonist who returns to Vietnam as an adult to meet her birth mother, where she is able to discover the fundamental elements of the cross-cultural conflicts. One important component of the cross-cultural conflicts is revealed by â€Å"Operation Babylift†, the Ford administration plan by which Hiep is sent to the U.S. The documentary film convincingly unfolds cultural differences and cultural shock in the reunion of a mother and daughter after 22 years. In this riveting film, the cultural differences and the impact of culture on family structure and dynamics become evident through the experience of the protagonist who undertakes a vital journey from the Vietnam War to Pulaski, Tennessee, and back to Vietnam. It is fundamental to maintain that the protagonist lacks a thorough understanding of the cultural differences, cross-cultural conflicts, family structure and dynamics, etc. and this is at the center of the issues cropping up in the reunion of Heidi and Kim. Most essentially, the reunion between Heidi and Kim rapidly develops tension and misunderstanding, in place of their hopes and expectations.

Master Project Specification Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Master Project Specification - Coursework Example Outline of the Project Environment Most of the developing countries are in the preliminary phases of putting into operation the electronic government to get better public sector services. The same is the case with the Sultanate of Oman, has established Information Technology Authority (ITA) in 2006 in order to establish/implement the National information technology infrastructure through planning and executing IT projects. While, it must be ensured that these projects are aligned with Digital Oman Strategy and ITA Policy through close supervision of these projects. The ITA has a mandate to the people of Oman in ensuring secured information to its citizens. The Sultanate currently faces a number challenges in offering efficient and timely services. To solve this problem, the Sultanate of Oman is keen to integrate its processes in order to deliver services to its people in more efficient and effective manner. Therefore, it has been planned that the services or the business processes of the public sector organizations would be automated first before providing these services to the public. Therefore, our client ITA is initiating project titled â€Å"E-Enablement of Public Sector Organizations and Provision of Services to the People of Oman†. The E-Government initiative is an integral part of ITA’s approved ITA Policy and Digital Oman Strategy. The objectives of the E-Government Program are laid down: Increase Efficiency and Effectiveness of the Government Increase Transparency and Accountability in decision making Enhance delivery of public services to Citizens efficiently and effectively In order to achieve these objectives, this IT project has been envisaged and would be executed. The current project focuses on the above objectives in order to achieve satisfaction of public. To complement this, the current project includes the provision of enhanced IT infrastructure and support. This provision will help bringing improvements in the efficiency of pub lic sector offices. 2. Description of the Problem to be Solved and its Background: E-Government information has allowed effective communication between departments, employees and citizens coupled with better service delivery and responsiveness of governments. Nevertheless, the internet and mobile phone services have engendered a paradigm shift of how governments can deliver services effectively and efficiently. E-government and m-government services have popularized especially in the third world countries as a means of pacing up with the developed world. Various research studies have explored that how the government and the people of Sultanate of Oman have embraced e-government services.

Realism In Narrative Fiction Film Studies Essay

Realism In Narrative Fiction Film Studies Essay John Ellis has remarked that there is no realism but there are realisms. Explore the implications of this comment in relation to television drama. There is no universal, all encompassing definition of realism, nor is there agreement amongst academics and film-makers as to its purpose and use. But what we can say is that there are many realisms and these realisms share an interest in presenting some aspects of live as it is lived. (Lay, 2002, pg.6) This quote really helped me to understand the question in hand and what John Ellis meant when he said that there is no realism but there are realisms. In the context that I am writing in, about television drama, it means that different television dramas represent different aspects of reality and each one has its own unique function and purpose. For example, soap operas use realistic, life-like situations and issues such as divorce, death, teenage angst and relationships. These are topics that every person has had to deal with at some point in there life. Obviously the storylines on these programmes are greatly exaggerated but they can either help by showing people ways of getting through them or by showing them that their own lives are not as bad as they may think compared to those on screen. Other television dramas present other aspects of reality such as The Bill or Doctors illustrate what live is like in different institutions (i.e. the police force and a doctors surgery) and the struggles that they face in the professional and personal life. To begin with I shall present and explore the views and opinions on realism of other writers that I have researched into and observe their position on Ellis statement that there is no one realism. In addition to this, I am going to be looking at two case studies. These studies will be regarding television dramas of different genres so that I can make comparisons between them. I will also look at how realism is used in these dramas and which theories relate to them. Then I shall look at Desperate Housewives, which is an American drama set in a cul-de-sac in suburbia where the residents are best friends but all hide dark secrets from one another. I will review Holby City, a drama set in a British hospital that explores not only the situations and issues of the patients, but also follows on going storylines about the lives and relationships concerning the staff. I shall then do my own analysis of each drama individually and comparatively, looking at conventions and how they relate to th eories of realism such as British Social Realism and the Classic Realist Text. John Ellis wrote about realism in his book Visible Functions cinema, television and radio, which is where the quote in the title is cited from. In his chapter on realism he says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the word realism is used to cover a whole series of ideas and expectations, some of which can conflict each other (1992, pg.15). By this he is saying that there are so many different theories and ideas into what realism is, this means that we cannot talk about realism as having one definition because there is no one realism. Therefore we can only refer to these theories as realisms because there is no one way of describing what is it. Ellis goes on to say how he believes that realism can often be over complicated as the word is used to describe a range of artist construction and of audience expectation. In his realism chapter he also talks about how it is not just a realistic portrayal of character and events that makes a television programme realistic. He says that the programme also nee ds surface accuracy and to confirm the perceptions of what an audience expects to happen within a television programme that you would be expecting from preconceived ideas and common sense. It also needs to explain itself fully to the audience to fill in the gaps of what they do not figure out from these preconceptions made from previous viewing. However, these aspects to programme making are not enough on their own. For example, when thinking about surface accuracy media producers will also need to be thinking about all features that make up this one area, such as characters costumes, settings and props. In his book Ellis talks about realism as being a way of trying to depict things as they either are or as they were. He goes on to dispute this by saying that the demand that a representation should explain itself adequately to the audience cuts right across the desire that it should show things as they were' (1992, pg.16). By this I think that he is saying that an adequate represent ation may not necessarily show events as they were. This is because programme makers are sometimes more absorbed in making sure that a programme is entertaining to its audience than that it is a completely accurate representation. According to Ellis there are 4 ways in which realism can be used and shown. However, because of how society constantly changes and develops these descriptions will also be in need of changing so that they are more appropriate to todays society. Programme makers are also trying to break the conventions of realism and try out new techniques and methods to create a new sense of reality and how we recognise it. The other books that I looked in for research said very similar things about how there can be no one explanation for what realism is. In the book Picture of Reality they talk about how knowledge is socially constructed and say that for realism, no formal criteria can be adequate to the task of characterising scientific explanations (Lovell, 1980, pg.17). Later on in this book they go on to talk about how people try to find patterns in realism when there really isnt any to find. I have also been doing some research on this topic in the book Television Drama realism, modernism and British culture. In this book John Caughie talks about what he calls serious drama, which is what he refers to as a scare quote by which he means that he uses this term just to make people realise that studying television drama is not just as simple as watching ER. By this term he means that we should look at dramas in a more cultural way and although it is a series drama, he means that it is series in ways other than just its content. He says à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦legitimate cultural territory within television from other areas which are legitimated by the official discourse of cultural approval (Caughie, 2000, pg.3). In this introductory chapter to his book Caughie also talks about how we stereotype genders to certain television dramas, for example women are more associated with soap operas whereas men are seen as more likely to watch action dramas. Then, because of this we then slip in to what he calls a natural order. To put Ellis theory about how there is no one realism into context I am going to be looking at and analysing the television drama that is Desperate Housewives (fig.1). I will be talking about what the drama is about, where it is set and the characters in it. As well as this I will be exploring how this supports the opinion of Ellis that this drama will only be representative of one type of realism and portray one aspect of live. Desperate Housewives is a drama made mainly for the purpose of entertaining its target audience. It is based around four main female characters, and narrated by a woman who used to be in their circle of friends but committed suicide in the first episode. The programme follows these women through their lives and the challenges and traumas that they face in the weekly episodes. Like a soap opera the events that take place are usually the type of situations that people are confronted with in every day live. However, the frequency of the events is exaggerated imm ensely in order to make the programme more appealing and entertaining to its audience. This means that Desperate Housewives both does and does not display realism, because the events and the way they and handled are realistic, yet the regularity at which they are occurring are not realistic for a setting such as the one in which this drama is situated. This location of this programme is another aspect to consider in terms of realism. By this I mean that Desperate Housewives is set in a quiet col-de-sac called Wisteria Lane (fig.2) in the fictional town of Fairview. This is another issue that could be deemed realistic or not because the town itself is not a real place, but it is realistic in the sense that it is representative of suburban towns and streets in America. Looking at even these view issues we can begin to unravel what Ellis means when he says that there can be no one definition of what realism is. This is because even in this one television drama there are many different areas that we have to look when considering if it is realistic. We cannot declare that the programme is realistic as a whole when some areas may lack in realism. In certain ways Desperate Housewives does relate to some aspects of the Classic Realist Text. I mean this is the sense that it will quite often use dominant specularity, where we as the viewer know more than the main characters. This will happen in the majority, if not all of the episodes because even though the main characters are a group of women who are best friends, they still have many secrets from each other. As the audience we are aware of everything that happens on Wisteria Lane, whereas if there is a scandalous event occurring that involves one of these women no one else will be conscious of it. Desperate Housewives also deals with some of the issues raised within Social Realism, but not in the sense that it deals with working class characters because the families are very middles class. However, in the way that it deals with contemporary issues such as homosexuality, suicide and racial issues. I also decided to examine Ellis theory in relation to a different type of television drama so to make comparisons between to the two. To do this I chose to look at Casualty (fig.3), a hospital drama which is broadcast on BBC1. Casualty is the longest running medical drama (first broadcast in 1986) and it follows the lives of the staff and patients in the Accident and Emergency department at the fictional Holby City Hospital which is located in Bristol. The programme not only concentrates on the goings on within the hospital, but also explores the private lives of the staff. It also does not only focus on the one profession of people in the hospital (i.e. the doctors), but centres around surgeons, nurses, receptionists etc (fig.4). This makes the drama seem a lot more realistic because obviously all the staff in a hospital are of equal importance. The makers show this by not having just a few main characters; instead they have many characters that get roughly the same amount of screen time and storylines each. Each episode will start off with the back story of the person, or the family of the person, who is going to be the main patient within that episode. We will see the events leading up to their incident and see how it happens. Obviously the majority of the programme is set in the hospital but we also follow to ambulance drivers when they go on call outs. This makes Casualty fit in with certain aspects of Social Realism which is often filmed on location. There are ways in which Casualty is both realistic and not. It shows good realism from a medical perspective, they manage this because they have real medical staff on set at all time to make sure that everything is represented accuracy. They also have to make sure that they always use the correct terminology and get all of the medical concepts exactly right as to make sure medically it is 100% accurate. However, similarly to Desperate Housewives, the lack of realism is down to the frequency at which events ar e occurring. Every week in Holby City hospital there are many more disastrous accidents and much more disease than any real life hospital would see, but again the incidents obviously all need to be exaggerated greatly to keep the audience interested in the programme. I can make a similar observation of Casualty that I did of Desperate Housewives. This is that Ellis was write in his theory that there is no realism is correct, not only over television drama itself (that is to say that all programmes represent different aspects of reality) but in each drama individually. This becomes more and more obvious when analysing television dramas because, as I said before, there are so many elements to a drama that some could be realistic and some could not be. Therefore, event within one drama series there are what can only be described as realisms. Both of these television dramas that I have been studying have a lot of similar conventions to those of social realism. To begin with they both deal with the contemporary issues that I mentioned before (e.g. homosexuality) in a very open way and do not try to hide this type of issues away, because that is not what we should and do act like in society. They are also contemporary in the sense that, unlike watching a film, we never know what is going to happen in the end because there is no end, and the programme makers may not even know so it is impossible for anyone else to. In addition to this, they fit the convention of being secular; an extension of real life, because they use real life situations and adapt them to entertain their target audience. In contrast to Ellis views about how there are many realisms, some people do believe in Anti-realism. This theory basically says that realist theories only show the surface and that we need to question the understanding behind it. Lukacs would say that realism fails to look at underlying social structure within television dramas and that it should advance our knowledge of society by focusing more on the programmes narratives. He also goes on to say that new social realities are in need of new forms of representation to get them across to the viewer. Although I do agree with some one the anti-realist policies and that some realist theories do need to grow with the development of society, I still think that Ellis was correct in his quote that there is no realism, but there are realisms. This is because in my eyes there can be no one definition of realism because every film or programme that we watch show reality it a different way. Figure 1. Figure 2. Figure 3. Figure 4.

Irony used by Chaucer Essay -- essays research papers

Irony is the general name given to literary techniques that involve surprising, interesting, or amusing contradictions. Two stories from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales that serve as excellent demonstrations of irony are â€Å"The Pardoners Tale† and â€Å"The Nun's Priest's Tale.† Although these two stories are very different, they both use irony to teach a lesson.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In â€Å"The Pardoner’s Tale, the Pardoner uses his story to speak out against many social problems, all of which he is guilty of. He preaches about drunkenness, while he is intoxicated while telling the story. Blasphemy and greed are other problems he speaks of. Ironically, he attempts to sell fake religious relics and is amazingly greedy. Yet there are also many ironic situations in the story itself. In the beginning of the story, the three rioters make a pact to â€Å"be brothers,† â€Å"to each defend the others,† and â€Å"to live and die for one another† in protection from death. In going out to fulfill their vows, they encounter money and end up killing each other over greed. After finding the money, the men plan to stay with it until it becomes dark when they can safely take it away. To tide themselves over until then, they send the youngest one out to get food and wine, and while he is away they plan to kill for his share of t he money. Ironically, the youngest one is planning the same thing by slipping poison into the drinks of his companions. When he returns, he is attacked and stabbed to death by the other...

The Edge and Cassie Jones English

Although, one lady was scared of embarrassment, she knew that she had to say something. She had her own boy at home. â€Å"You boys will be hurt. You'll be killed†, she said. The boys acted like they were going to obey her but instead made a mockery of her. If they would have respected her words and listened, things might have been different. A successful gentleman who witnessed the boys laughing and forbidding to obey decided he would put a stop to it.The story states, â€Å"He walked in a citizenly way to the end of the car, where he pulled the emergency cord†. Some may blame this man because pulling the cord halted the train which sent passengers tumbling. Samuel was then pitched forward and crushed between the two cars. The passengers sat silent. Some may have been thinking they could have prevented this tragedy if only they interfered and not worried about embarrassment. The gentleman ultimately feels guilty because if he had not pulled the cord, maybe Samuel would still be alive.The mother's who sent their four sons off on a train without supervision may feel responsible also. Who's to blame? The four boys, regardless of their ethnic background, are responsible. They are old enough to know the difference between right and wrong. What seems like a fun pastime at the moment can bring many years of sadness to families. No one can be replaced. No matter how many children Samuels mom gave birth to; no other boy could be like Samuel. This story gives a life lesson. Respect authority because their words may save your life.

Merrill Finch Inc. Case Study Essay

Merrill Finch Incorporated is a large financial services corporation. As a newly hired financial planner for the company, I have been assigned the task of investing $100,000 for a client. The investment alternatives have been restricted to five options: T-Bills, High Tech, Collections, U.S. Rubber, Market portfolio, and a 2-Stock portfolio. The economic forecasting staff for Merrill Finch developed probability estimates for the state of the economy, and the security analysts have developed software to estimate the rate of return on each of these alternatives under each state of the economy. A chart showing the results of the analysis is in Appendix A of this report. Section 1 of this report begins with a discussion on the concept of Return. The calculations of each of the alternatives expected rate of return are also calculated and discussed. Section 1 then continues with the concept of Risk. Three different measurements of risk are discussed and calculated for each of the investment alternatives. The risk measurements discussed are the Standard Deviation, Coefficient of Variance, and Beta Coefficient. Section 2 discusses some scenarios of different investment options. The first is of a 2-stock portfolio consisting of the investment of $50,000 into both High Tech and Collections. The expected return, standard deviation, and coefficient of variance are then calculated and discussed for this option. The second scenario is of a portfolio consisting of randomly selected stocks. The section concludes with a discussion of the risk involved with this random portfolio and how the addition of more random stocks to the portfolio would affect the risk. Section 3 discusses the Security Market Line (SML) Equation and how the SML would be affected if inflation expectations were to rise by 3 percentage points. Appendix B shows this equation and its use to calculate the required returns of each of the investment alternatives. The section is then concluded with a discussion of these calculations and how they compare to the expected returns calculated in section 1. Due to time constraints, probability distribution graphs for High Tech, U.S. Rubber, T-bills, and a portfolio of randomly selected stocks has been omitted from this report. Return Return is defined as the income that an investment provides in a year. When deciding on what type of market to invest in, it is wise to first look at each markets expected rate of return. The expected rate of return of an investment is the weighted average of the probability of all possible results. The expected rate of return of various investment options are shown in Appendix A of this report on page 6. For each option, the expected rate of return is calculated by multiplying the probability of the state of the economy by the corresponding estimated rate of return for that market, then taking the sum of these values. One of the invested alternatives for Merrill Finch’s client is Treasury Bills, or T-bills. These are a form of treasury securities issued by the United States Treasury. T-bills are said to be a risk-free investment, but in realty, there are no true risk-free securities. In regards to default risk, T-bills are risk-free because the Treasury must redeem them. Being that they must be redeemed, also shows that they are independent of the state of the economy. They are, however, susceptible to other forms of risk.  If the rates were to increase or decrease, T-bills would then be susceptible to reinvestment rate risk, the risk that they might not be able to be reinvested at the same rate. For this investment, the expected rate of return on T-bills is calculated to be 5.5% . High Tech and Collections are two other investment alternatives for the client. The expected rate of return is 12.4% for investing in High Tech and 1.0% for Collections. Investors might choose to invest in one of these two depending on how well they predict the economy will do. High Tech has a direct relationship with the movement of the economy. If the market is expected to increase, then this would be a good investment. Collections, however, moves in the opposite direction of the economy. If a decline is expected, then investors would use this as a hedge against the negative movement of the economy. The remaining alternatives for this client are to invest in U.S. Rubber, a market portfolio, and a 2-stock portfolio of High Tech and Collections. The expected rates of return are 9.8% in U.S. Rubber, 10.5% in a market portfolio, and 6.7% in the 2-stock portfolio. RiskAs we have already discussed above, no securities are truly risk-free. Depending on the nature of the investment, the type of investment risk will vary. The following sections discuss some of the different types of measurements that can be used to determine the amount of risk in an investment. †¢Standard Deviation. The standard deviation (ÏÆ') is defined as a statistical measure of the variability of a set of observations. The smaller the standard deviation, the lower the risk of the investment. It is calculated by taking the weighted average of the deviations from the expected value. This provides an idea of how far above or below the expected return the actual return is likely to be. The type of risk measured by the standard deviation is Stand-Alone Risk, which measures the undiversified risk of holding an individual asset. For this investment analysis, the standard deviation for T-bills is 0% , 20% for High Tech, 13.2% for Collections,  18.8% for U.S. Rubber, 15.2% for a market portfolio, and 3.4% for the 2-stock portfolio. †¢Coefficient of Variance. The Coefficient of Variance (CV) is a standardized measure of the amount of risk per unit of return. It is calculated by dividing the standard deviation by the expected return. The larger the CV, the riskier the investment. It is a better measurement of Stand-Alone risk than the standard deviation. This is because it includes the effects of both risk and return and allows for a closer evaluation of situations where investments have substantially different expected returns. This investment analysis shows the CV for T-bills to 0, 1.6 for High Tech, 13.2 for Collections, 1.9 for U.S. Rubber, 1.4 for a market portfolio, and 0.5 for the 2-stock portfolio. †¢Beta Coefficient. The Beta Coefficient a measurement of Market Risk. It shows the extent to which a given stock’s returns move up and down with the stock market. The Beta of an average stock is 1.0, but most have betas in the range of 0.5 to 1.5. Beta coefficients are calculated as the slope of a â€Å"regression line†, which represents the difference between a given stock and the stock market in general. The expected returns of a market are directly related to each alternatives market risk. In other words, the higher the rate of return of the alternative, the higher its beta coefficient. The estimated betas for each of the clients investment alternatives are shown in the chart in Appendix A. Considering the beta coefficients provided in this chart along with the other information that we have calculated, we do not yet have enough information to choose among the various alternativesWhen considering whether or not to invest in a particular alternative, one thing t o consider is portfolio diversification. An investors view of risk in an investment can be greatly affected by the diversification of their portfolio. The risks that can affect an undiversified portfolio may not be the same as those of a diversified portfolio. An undiversified investor may need to be more aware of the stand-alone risk and, therefore, closely monitor the alternatives Coefficient of Variance or standard deviation. These, however, may not be as relevant to a diversified investor because they are more concerned with the impact that a stock may have on the  riskiness of their entire portfolio rather than on its stand-alone risk. Aside from having higher risk, another drawback to having a portfolio containing only an individual stock is that you would not be compensated for your higher degree of risk. SECTION 2: Investment Alternatives2-Stock PortfolioOne of the investment alternatives for the client is a 2-stock portfolio. An option with this alternative would be to invest $50,000 into both High Tech and Collections. The chart in Appendix A contains the calculations of the various measurements of risk. The expected return on the 2-stock portfolio is 6.7%, the standard deviation is 3.4%, and the CV is 0.5. The riskiness of this alternative is different than that of the individual stocks if they were apart from one another. A major difference is in the measurement of the stand-alone risk. The stand-alone risk of the individual stocks is greater than that of a stock portfolio. This is because the two stocks have opposite reactions to the market. As the risk of one alternative increases, the risk of the other decreases, reducing the overall risk of the portfolio. Random Stock SelectionAnother investment alternative to consider might be to start a portfolio with one randomly selected stock, then randomly adding more and more stocks to this portfolio. Initially, the portfolio would have significant risk because it only contains one individual stock. As more stocks are added, the expected rate of return would remain the same, but the risk would be reduced due to the diversification of the risk through the various stocks. SECTION 3: Security Market LineThe Security Market Line (SML) equation shows the relationship between risk as measured by beta and the required rates of return on individual securities. Appendix B shows this equation and the calculations of the required returns for our various investment alternatives. Given an estimated risk-free rate of 5.5% and market return of 10.5%, the required rates of return were calculated at 5.5% for T-bills, 12.1% for High Tech, 1.15% for Collections, 9.9% for U.S. Rubber, and 10.5% for a market portfolio. These returns compare closely to the estimated returns in the chart in Appendix A. The required returns are equal to the  estimated returns for the Market Portfolio and T-Bills, showing that they are fairly valued. Required returns are greater for U.S. Rubber and Collections, showing that they are overvalued. The required return is lower for High Tech, showing that it is undervalued. The required return of a portfolio with 50-50 High Tech and Collections is calculated at 6.63%. For a 50-50 portfolio of High Tech and U.S. Rubber, the required return is 11%. If investors raised their inflation expectation by 3 percentage points over current estimates as reflected in the 5.5% risk-free rate, the SML would result in an upward shift of 3 percentage points. The required returns of both high and low-risk securities would also result in an increase of 3 percentage points. If investors risk aversion increased enough to cause the market risk premium to increase by 3 percentage points, the SML would then result in an upward rotation about the y-axis and the required returns of high-risk securities would increase.