Racisim in Sports

Comm 102KEREM MERAL Spring 200720050383 Valerie A. Tas? ran Second Draft Racism in Sports In the modernized and global world of today, it is necessary for people to get rid of their prejudices and learn to respect differences. Racism should be eliminated from all areas of life, including sports. Sport is meant that bring people from different backgrounds together to compete in equal conditions and provide interactions among them. No matter which country and ethnicity an athlete is from, once they are in an international competition, all should have equal rights. The only factor should be their skills and success.However, there are many cases when sportsmen or sportswomen face prejudices because of their ethnicity. There are even times when opportunities for them to choose their profession and become successful are limited because of their race. Although it is hard to prove acts of racism in sports, athletes show their reaction by letting authorities know about it, or talking to the p ress about the discrimination they face. The aim of sports should be providing equal opportunities for everyone and a peaceful atmosphere where people cooperate and compete at the same time.It should not give unequal rights and opportunities to a group because of their race while disregarding and discriminating another group. In this paper, the aim is to examine the issue of racism in sports and prove that it is in damaging levels for sportsmen that face it. First, historical facts and general information will be given about the effects of discrimination in sports. Then, cases of racism in sports will be analyzed by related examples. Finally, it will be concluded that authorities are not successful in eliminating racism in sports and this damages careers of athletes and players who face it.Some of the people who make racist movements are sport fans. Club owners see them as a source of income. If they punish these fans they will earn less money then before. Because of that they are a fraid of punishing them. The sport players and athletes, who face to racism in the sport areas, lost their interest to sport. Some of them cannot carry this pressure and had to retire earlier. Racism has always been a controversial issue throughout the history. Many arguments have been made on the issue of racism and sport. Jarvie & Reid (1997) focus in their article on the area of sport and racism.They claim that the â€Å"European intellectual constructions of racism have often been applied in a devastating manner in the field of sport† (Jarvie & Reid, 1997, p. 211). In the other words, racism that emerged in Europe is started to appear in the sport fields, too. So, the historical developments on discrimination have also affected sports. Jarvie & Reid (1997) further claim that discussions on racism lead to numerous racist beliefs about sporting skills of people. The early studies on racism between 1920s and 1960s in America paid attention to discrimination against black peo ple.In South Africa, during 1948, apartheid had emerged. During the time, sport was seen as: â€Å"functionally supportive of and integral to a multi-racial South African society in which a plurality of groups competed within the framework of apartheid† (Jarvie & Reid, 1997, p. 213). South Africa at that time had to be unfair, racist and ideological at the time because of the external pressures. This ideology regulated involvement in sport. It claimed that although sport has a kind of independence, it included â€Å"racial segregation and racial discrimination† (Jarvie & Reid, 1997, p. 213).Writers in South Africa at that time believed that the racism in sports could be eliminated by external pressures. In 1960s and 1970s other efforts were made to explain race and race relations. One was the work of John Rex, who claimed that race relations caused different groups to be located in social stratification. For example, because of discrimination, blacks were put at the bo ttom of society. The demonstrations of American athletes in 1968, called â€Å"Black Power† were a reaction to this. The athletes believed that they were not given the treatment they deserved although they were very successful in Olympics.They said that they were being used and race relations were very bad. (Jarvie & Reid, 1997)When racism was present in society, it was also seen in sports and protests occurred as a result. Jarvie ( 1991 ) claims that the non-racial sport movement in Africa, the Olympic Project for Human Rights, and other protests are examples of the attempts to prevent racism in sports. Finally, it is concluded that during the last century, many efforts were done in order to explain racism and race relations in sports. Racism in sport is in high levels and it results in disadvantage and a barrier for he group of people being subject to it. They are not given the same opportunities of involving in advertisements or occupying important managerial positions in sports. Let’s now introduce some evident cases of racism in sports from real life stories. First, as Lipman (1988) suggests, there is a lot of racism going on in sports marketing. When an advertiser wants to use an athlete in a commercial, first they will go to a white athlete. They are afraid of losing some consumers, because some consumers can show a negative reaction when they see a black athlete on a commercial of their supporting brand.Even if they are not completely racist, it doesn’t even cross their minds to choose a black athlete. They instinctively go to a white athlete. However, marketers and sports agent refuse to accept that they are being racist and Michael Goldberg -New York’s National Media Group, the sports-marketing firm that represents gymnast Mary Lou Retton- says that â€Å"to blame an athlete’s lack of endorsement success on race discrimination† is not right. (Lipman, 1988, p. 1) On the other hand, it is also true that some ve ry successful and famous black athletes are not offered any role in advertisements.Although 8 of 12 best ranked athletes in US are black, only one black athlete; Michael Jordan was ranked in highest paid endorsers in Sports Marketing Newsletter. (Lipman, 1988) . This example shows that although not done clearly, there is a prejudice in sports advertisers to choose white athletes and ignore blacks. In most of the commercials white athletes take role instead of black athletes. Commercials owners prefer the white athletes. Another real life example on the discrimination in sports is given by Rainbow Forum on Race, Racism in Sports Media (1996).In the forum, it was said that although black athletes are dominant in the sport area, their numbers have declined in managerial and coaching positions in sports since 1980’s. For example, it was noted that there were few Blacks in managerial positions in the media. There were only 10 Black sports columnists in all the 1600 newspapers. Als o, although NBA is 80 % black, NFL 67 % and Major League Baseball is 37% Black or Latino; about 80% of working population in offices in these leagues are white (1996). This shows that whites have an advantage over blacks or Latinos over occupying important positions in sports.Both examples show that because of racism in sports, some groups which are discriminated have a hard time in occupying positions in management or finding the same endorsement opportunities as whites. There are also some cases when racism in sports is so strong that it forces people to change their occupation. As Obley (2006) explain, the story of Oliver Purnell is a good real life example of how racism can affect the careers of sports players. Obley (2006) claims that â€Å"racism in America forced Purnell down another road† (p. 1).Purnell emphasizes that his aim was to play baseball which was almost his favorite sport, but he wasn’t allowed to play baseball in Little League during the 70’s because of the racial movements against him. Because of this, he started playing basketball and was very successful at it, and after some experiences as player, he took the position of coach. He became the first African-American head coach hired by Clemson at team Old Dominion. However, although he turned out to be successful in another area, his actual goal was to play baseball. Obley, 2006) As a result, because of racism in sports, he had to change his area and missed the chance of become a successful baseball player which was his initial purpose. But luckily, he showed his talents in another area, which is basketball. There may also be cases when talented people miss the chance of being recognized because of their races. Thyrone Willingham, a football coach at Stanford emphasized this by saying: in our country, not just in athletics, there is a great deal of talent we let go unnoticed. You see alent not being derived, not being noticed, not showing what it can do. There are a lo t of people who could be doing the job I am doing, given the opportunity† (as cited in Shrophire, 1996, p. 20) So, it is seen that racism in sports can have important effects on the careers of sports players, Many talented people subject to racism might not be able to show their talents and become a successful sportsman or woman. There are a lot of talented people who couldn’t arrive to the success. It is not so easy that a talent arises suddenly and discovers it.Because of that people have to give more importance to these talented people and try to protect them from the racial rages. Although many athletes and other sports players often complain about events of racism, the authorities are not successful in taking action and eliminating discrimination. For example, as Carrington and McDonald (2001) explain, during the National Village Cricket Championship quarter-final in 1996, an Asian team sent an official complaint saying they were racially abused by members of the C aldy team from the Wirral.Although the Cricketer magazine, which â€Å"organized the competition, reprimanded the Wirral team for ‘sledging’ but took no action on the racial abuse† (Carrington & McDonald, 2001, p. 54) Because of this, black and Asian cricketers believe that authorities don’t take racism serious and try to prevent it. The cricketing authorities failed to punish clubs and players which are guilty of racist actions. This way, they actually legitimize such acts. (Carrington & McDonald, 2001). Also, sometimes authorities fail to realize and accept that there is racism.Unable to even accept its existence, they cannot take any action against it. As Dimeo and Finn (2001) explain, despite of clear evidence, there is a continuous rejection of racism in Scottish football. There is a belief that â€Å"racism is no problem here and racism is foreign to Scotland† (p. 29). Lipman (1988) also explain that sports agents and marketers fail to accept that institutionalized racism exist in advertising. So, in such cases, being unable even to accept the fact of racism, authorities may not take any action towards it.Finally, it is seen that authorities are not successful in attempting to eliminate discrimination from sports and there are a lot more steps to be taken. In the end, it has been shown that there are not always equal opportunities provided for people from different races in sports. There is an important degree of discrimination going on which has negative effects on athletes and other people engaged in areas of sports. Most of the time, this discrimination is recognized, but cannot be proved directly, because these racial movements mostly take place by oral way.Authorities cannot find any printed proof. Because of this discrimination, many talented people are being put in hard conditions for their career. Some of them had to retire earlier, some of them are moving around the country to find an area in which racism doesnà ¢â‚¬â„¢t appear. It has been shown that authorities were not able to take action to eliminate racism in sports. They should be more effective in punishing discriminatory acts in sports. To conclude, sports should aim to bring people from different ethnicities together in an environment which is free of biases, prejudices, and acts of racism. I

Does the Media Promote Terrorism?

Assignment: Some scholars argue that too often the media helps promote terrorists' agenda. Others, however, disagree. What is your own position on the media's role and impact in covering terrorist cases? Organize your reply by selecting three case studies that, by employing the same assumption or hypothesis, appear to compose a pattern that supports your opinion. Your answer should not exceed five hundred words (about two double-spaced, typed pages). Does the Media Promote Terrorism? The news media of American society does not encourage terrorism. The only thing that the media encourages is knowledge of what is going on around the world. Unfortunately, some terrorist organizations use the news media to gain recognition for their groups causes and goals. Most of the time, the media will serve as force to gain citizen support for the government's actions against a terrorist movement. The only problem with having the freedom of press that the United States enjoys is that everyone has a voice. When it comes down to an American killing an American, the media is not allied with the terrorist. Americans do not like to see fellow citizens die at the hands of a terrorist, especially by an American terrorist. Timothy McVeigh, probably unknowingly, helped in decreasing the number of American terrorist. McVeigh's act, bombing the Murrah building in Oklahoma City, was seen as so repulsive that many law-abiding people attracted to militias simply walked away. The majority of Americans didn't want to be associated with anything like the killing of 168 Americans, even though McVeigh had only attended a few militia meetings. (Mahan & Griset, p. 225) The media coverage for the bombing in 1995 gave the American public the education needed to assess what was going on in the militant organizations across the United States. No one truly believes that the media plan or suggest terrorist attacks to groups or individuals. But the action of the media has been scrutinized intensely in recent years to determine whether media coverage of terrorist events caused terrorists to choose one particular choice of action over another. (Combs, p. 179) The education of American citizens is an invaluable tool that is channeled through the media for the benefit of all citizens. With the help of the media, the people get all of the facts and are able to form their own opinion about what is going on, who is responsible for events, and how future events can be avoided. The media and the government have common interests in seeing that the media are not manipulated into promoting the cause of terrorism or its methods On the other hand, neither the media or policymakers want to see terrorism, or counter terrorism, eroding constitutional freedoms including that of the press–one of the pillars of democratic societies. (Perl) In conclusion if terrorists seek media attention and are given after an attack, their act will be seen as successful so, by not overruling other ‘real news’ media, have the ability to affect the scale of an attack. With today’s worldwide Internet accessibility to anyone at anytime the support and especially funding of terrorism acts may increase. But, however, the ‘CNN affect’ in other words may increase the number of casualties from a terrorist attack if international press exaggerating the hatred towards terrorism and ‘war on terror’. Out of this it is clear that media as the ‘voice of the people’ encourages the scale of the terrorist attack but not the actual terrorist attack in itself. References Combs, C. (2010). Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century ( 6th Ed.), Charlotte, NC.: Pearson Mahan, S. & Griset, P. (2008). Terrorism in Perspective ( 2nd Ed.), Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications. Perl, R. (1997). Terrorism, The Media, and the Government: Perspectives, Trends, and Options for Policymakers Retrieved Febraury 25, 2011 from http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/crs-terror.htm.

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Current Event Article Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

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Terror Risk Assessment and Counter-Terrorism Strategy Essay

Terror Risk Assessment and Counter-Terrorism Strategy - Essay Example A quick strategy that many governments adopt when confronting terror is one of deterrence. However, one academic’s discussion points out that deterrence is hardly an effective strategy, although it still is a crucial part of any comprehensive plan. Deterrence, in the case of Israel for example, requires extreme, â€Å"Draconian† measures for success and thus defies justice. Overall, the most effective form of deterrence may be an all-out assault on the leadership structure of a traditional terrorist organization, but little else can be done. (Radlauer) That said, the best counter-terror strategy is a readiness for a response after the movement of the attack begins, but before it can be effectively carried out. In a sense, this can be compared to structuring a vehicle to be durable and ensure the safety of its passengers in the case of an unavoidable accident.One of the most devastating possible terrorist attacks is the use of a biological weapon, as chemicals and diseas es are a threat to human life that can arrive undetected and cause massive loss of life from a small source. For potential terrorists, biological weapons present a method of destruction that requires a lower level of infiltration and effort with a high-yield result. A research fellow from the Center for Non-Proliferation Studies describes how the Israeli government’s counter-terror efforts in the realm of biological and chemical attacks present a model for the US government to follow when making policy.... Deterrence, in the case of Israel for example, requires extreme, â€Å"Draconian† measures for success and thus defies justice. Overall, the most effective form of deterrence may be an all-out assault on the leadership structure of a traditional terrorist organization, but little else can be done. (Radlauer) That said, the best counter-terror strategy is a readiness for response after the movement of the attack begins, but before it can be effectively carried out. In a sense, this can be compared to structuring a vehicle to be durable and ensure the safety of its passengers in the case of an unavoidable accident. One of the most devastating possible terrorist attacks is use of a biological weapon, as chemicals and diseases are a threat to human life that can arrive undetected and cause massive loss of life from a small source. For potential terrorists, biological weapons present a method of destruction that requires a lower level of infiltration and effort with a high-yield re sult. A research fellow from the Center for Non-Proliferation Studies describes how the Israeli government’s counter-terror efforts in the realm of biological and chemical attacks present a model for the US government to follow when making policy. He describes how the Israeli government provides a kit to all citizens, free of charge, consisting of a gas-mask and sterilization tools. This is part of an overall strategy that recommends keeping a â€Å"sealed body in a sealed room† during the event of a biological attack, and also recommends that citizens set the radio to a station playing only static while sleeping—this station is used by the government to broadcast warnings. However, these strategies may not be practical in the US, where society is not so

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Network Security Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

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Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

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The positive and negative influences has televisions had on your Essay

The positive and negative influences has televisions had on your society - Essay Example Before television was around, news was reported by radio or in the next day's newspaper. There were no moving images. There was no opportunity to watch sport games or see presidents speak. There were real limitation to the amount of information a person at home could receive. Now, however, that has changed. Television lets us see the world like never before. We have a real opportunity to watch events develop in real time. The recent revolution in Egypt is a great example of this: it was possible to watch the square where protestors gathered night and day. Viewers could watch as the protestors were attacked by Molotov cocktails. These images brought the facts into vivid life. There are many other aspects which are positive. There are those who say television is bad for children. But scientific studies disagree. The economists found that television was especially positive for children in households where English wasn't the primary language and parents' education level was lower. "We do n't exactly know why that is, but a plausible interpretation is that the effect of television on cognitive development depends on what other kinds of activity television is substituting for," says Mr. Shapiro, 28. Growing up in the 1950s, Sonia Manzano, who plays Maria on "Sesame Street," was part of the first generation of children who watched television. Born in the South Bronx to Spanish-speaking Puerto Rican parents, she says that television "gave me a view of the world -- it gave me sort of a sense of what it was to be an American and what that was about." (Lahart). Television can open up whole new worlds to our children. There are trashy shows, no doubt, but there are also shows of substantial value. The difference is one of parenting. There is such a variety of kinds of programs, from documentaries to educational shows, that one can always learn something from television (Williams, 78). There are, however, a number of negative aspects to TV that are important to note. Televis ion can be a big waste of time. Many reality TV programs and entertainment news shows are glitzy and glamourous but impart no real knowledge. They are pointless and a waste of time. Many people spend hours in front of the TV when they should be getting exercise or acting in productive ways. Many children who watch TV can be negatively influenced by what they see. So many shows feature violent scenarios or the commission of crimes that children can get the wrong idea about how they should behave. They may learn to swear or drink alcohol by watching popular TV shows. Again, parenting is very important to help avoid this problem. Television can also be used to influence people in a negative way through propaganda. Television shows do not always show the truth and many people believe what they see on their screens. This is an unfortunate state of affairs. Governments try to use TV to manipulate their people, feeding them a diet of lies. Because TV images and stories can often seem so re al—which is why we watch so many dramas on our little screens—they can be incredibly powerful. Sometimes, there is not an intention behind the manipulation. Sometimes real important discussions are not seen to be entertaining enough, and are therefore kept off the air (Bourdieu, 3). Like with everything in life, there are good aspects of technology

Mona Lisa - The Enigmatic Meaning Essay Example for Free

Mona Lisa The Enigmatic Meaning Essay The Enigmatic Meaning They call her â€Å"The Enigmatic Woman,† yet the painting at first glance is quite banal. It looks a lot like any run of the mill portrait with the subject positioned in the center while she sits facing and staring directly at the viewer. Even the colors are boring in this painting with its abundance of earth tones with different mellow shades of faded green, brown, blue, and burnt orange. The picture itself is only 30†x21† which is about double the size of the average college textbook. With all of the hallmarks of a picture that most people would discard, it is quite an enigma as to why the world has been obsessed with the â€Å"Mona Lisa† for over 500 years. In â€Å"Ways of Seeing† John Berger, an art historian and novelist (only a tiny sample of the different ways I could title this Renaissance man), offers his readers a way into understanding the moment captured in paintings, especially mysterious paintings like the â€Å"Mona Lisa.† He suggests that viewers ask questions about and to the painting as way into entering into a sort of dialogue with the artist and his or her subject. By asking the appropriate questions, I was able to get a bit of a grasp on exactly why this enigmatic woman’s gaze has been capturing the rest of the world’s for so long, but I was also left questioning Berger’s theory. Berger encourages everyone with an interest in art to complete this process in order to fight against the â€Å"mystification† of classic paintings, but sometimes mystification is part of the experience of enjoying art and there is merit in that as well. As the title of the essay hints, Berger believes that â€Å"Every image embodies a Way of Seeing† (99 My Italics), meaning that every image also includes the perspective of the artist to the subject. Once a reader can start to grasp where the artist is coming from in relation to what he is painting, then the image may start to make sense. As an example of this process Berger examines â€Å"Regents of the Old Men’s Alms House† by Frans Hals, which is depicted below: Berger contextualizes the pictures by first inquiring into the artist’s social status at the time. During the commission of the painting Hals was â€Å"an old man of over eighty, [and] was destitute† (101). These wealthy men that Hals depicted gave him â€Å"three loads of peat† (101), or rotting vegetation, for this portrait. With those facts in mind, Berger comes to the conclusion that there is a sense of bitterness in the perspective of the painting, which may be why Hals depicted the third man from the right as being drunk. Berger argues that the man’s expression and hat are not necessarily a result of facial paralysis and fashion as art historians argue, but part of the â€Å"drama of these paintings† (102) which in this case is an old pauper struggling with his feelings of these men while trying to stay objective in his depiction of them; therefore, he let a glimpse of the truth out, a glimpse at these regents’ corruption. So, how does one begin to ask questions about the â€Å"Mona Lisa†? Perhaps it is best to start the same way that Berger does, by understanding who the artist was at the time of the painting. According to the Louvre’s official website, (the museum where the painting hangs) the painting is believed to have been painted between 1503 and 1506. Leonardo da Vinci, the artist, would have been just over fifty at the time. Kenneth Clark from The Burlington Magazine explains that â€Å"after he had lingered over it four years, [he] left it unfinished.† In 1516 the king of France invited him to work on a project. BBC contributor Bob Chaundy believes that da Vinci took Mona Lisa with him to continue working on it until his death in 1519. So what we have is man nearing the end of his life working on a seemingly personal project (since he took it with him everywhere), a project that he felt he never finished. The next obvious question: who is the woman? According to the Louvre, the model was Lisa Gherardini who was by all accounts an average Italian middle-class mother to five children. Her husband, Francesco Giocondo, commissioned da Vinci to paint the portrait as a way to celebrate the new Giocondo home and the arrival of their second son. Essentially, Mona Lisa, My Lady Lisa, is a housewife put on a pedestal. She is arguably the most glorified housewife of all time. With an understanding of the artist and the subject, it is time to ask, â€Å"what is the perspective here?† What point of view was da Vinci trying to give his audience? Knowing the information that I do, it is hard to even suggest that there was an audience for the painting. The accounts suggest that da Vinci painted and gave what he was commissioned to Gioncondo, but he kept one of the original sketches to keep working on. In other words, the Mona Lisa the world knows today was really for da Vinci’s eyes only. The portrait is an intimate depiction perhaps of someone who baffled da Vinci’s sensibilities. Of all the different subjects and models da Vinci painted, it was a middle-class mother who captivated his attention. Perhaps da Vinci could not even wrap his own mind around why she was so enthralling and so spent the rest of his life trying to capture that â€Å"it factor† she seemed to exude. In a sense, da Vinci was trying to capture the feeling of love at first sight, the feeling of being completely attracted to someone and not knowing why. So how does this feeling of awe-inspiring adoration flow over into the other stylistic elements of the portrait? Most people tend to comment on her eyes and her smile, and if you notice, they do not really seem to correspond to each other. If you only look at her eyes and cover her mouth, the eyes give a sense that she is giving a much broader smile than she actually is since the eyes are wrinkled and upturned. The high placement of the cheekbones also lend to this interpretation. The rest of the portrait with the conservative colored clothes and pose do not exude the sense of joviality that the eyes give. Those eyes that seem to contradict the other aspects of the portrait are also paradoxically the focus since many people comment on how Lisa’s gaze seems to follow you wherever you go. Her eyes tell you one thing, and the rest of her tells you another. She feels two emotions simultaneously, and that is mysterious. Many people also tend to comment on the background since it is not based on any real location (BBC). It is almost other-worldly, alien in that sense. In the same way that she can feel two emotions at the same time, it is as if she can be in two places at the same time since she is posed in between two  manmade columns on a balcony; she is simultaneously human and extraterrestrial. The colors of the background also give this sense since they are split into two. The top half is bluish green in its depiction of the sky, water, and trees while the lower half is brown and orange in its depiction of the land. Finally, her equilateral triangle pose really seems to seal this reading, for what is a triangle but the convergence of two opposite points on a single point? Mona Lisa is that point of convergence. She is place where two emotions can converge. She is the place where terrestrial and extraterrestrial converge. She is the point where a mundane housewife converges with an iconoclast of the world. She is the epitome of mystery since she cannot be pinned down to just one thing. Mystery, though, is what John Berger is fighting against. He wants to take what he calls the â€Å"bogus religiosity† (109) that mystifies art out of the equation by giving people the tools they need to make meaning on their own. He believes that art critics and historians mystify by â€Å"explaining away what might otherwise be evident† (103); in a sense they try to confuse interpretations that might be obvious through academic discourse and elitism. But what happens when the point is mystification? When the point of the painting is to leave the viewer confused? Is not there a place for that in art also? If it was not for this mysteriousness that Lisa creates, would anyone care? I think not. â€Å"Works Cited† page deleted

Suffering in Shakespeares Works Essay Example for Free

Suffering in Shakespeares Works Essay The prominent metaphor used throughout Shakespeare’s sonnets and â€Å"Twelfth Night† is the comparison of love to suffering. This metaphor is brought up many times in â€Å"Twelfth Night† by different characters which exaggerate the suffering caused by love. Most of the sonnets written by Shakespeare compare love to suffering, but the sonnet that exemplifies it the most is sonnet 147. These two works written by Shakespeare are similarly connected through word choice to set up the metaphor of love as a painful experience. â€Å"Twelfth Night† is a romantic comedy, and even though the play ends with almost all characters happy, Shakespeare demonstrates just how painful love can be. This suffering that different characters experience is either from being in love or unrequited love. At one point during the play Orsino compares his love for Olivia as an â€Å"appetite† (I.i.1–3) that he can never fully satisfy while later he describes his desire for her as â€Å"fell of cruel hounds† (I.i.21). This word choice chosen by Shakespeare provides the reader with a clear metaphor that love within this play is viewed as cruel. Furthermore Olivia describes her love as a â€Å"plague† (i.v.265), that word carries a negative connotation that cannot be construed in any way to be positive. All of these metaphors are continued throughout the play by varies characters all complaining about their sufferings with words pertaining to a degree of violence. Similarly in Shakespeare’s sonnets the metaphor of love as being cruel and painful can be seen with his particular word choice. The opening line of Sonnet 147 sets the mood for the entire poem with comparison of love to sickness thus continuing the metaphor of love as a dreadful experience. Comparing love to a â€Å"fever† that is â€Å"longing still† (1), Shakespeare creates a discouraging outlook of unrequited love. Furthermore it continues with accusing the unnamed recipient of â€Å"Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill† (3). Not only is Shakespeare complaining about being in love without reciprocation, but he blames the unnamed person for his sickness. This metaphor of love being torturous is continued throughout the rest of the sonnet, ending on a very morbid couplet â€Å"For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, / Who art as black as hell, as dark as night† (13-14). The word choice of the couplet shows the pessimistic view of unrequited love, thus clearly indicating the extended metaphor of suffering while in love. Love described by Shakespeare is a terrible sickness that no one should have to endure, which is typically not the mindset of most people when they think about love. However, given the context in which Shakespeare wrote these two works, it is clear that he was bitter because of his own personal unrequited love from a woman. This unrequited love is portrayed in almost all of Shakespeare’s sonnets, however Sonnet 147 described the most dark and miserable aspects of love. â€Å"Twelfth Night† portrays the suffering of love through word choice similarly to Shakespeare’s sonnets; however in the end all the confusion sorts itself out unlike Sonnet 147. The extended metaphors within these two pieces express the emotional suffering of unrequited love as written by William Shakespeare.

Problems of excessive meat consumption

Problems of excessive meat consumption PROBLEM Nowadays, meat consumption is becoming an uncontrollable problem. As a result of high consumption, different kinds of issues occurred. It is possible to sum these issues up in two major groups as health and environment. Red meat consumption linked to increase risk of total, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality. Meat consumption also increases the risk of diabetes. According to new research from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) when people eat more meat than usual, their risk of getting diabetes will be increased by 50 percent. In fact, same study shows that people who decreased their meat consumption lowered their diabetes risk will increase 14 percent. On the other side environmental problems are also vital. For instance, it ought to be 60 pounds of water to produce one pound of potatoes while 2,500 pounds of water for a pound of beef. Health Issues: Cancer There are a lot of studies about the relationship between diet and Cancer. According to the searches in England and Germany, the meat consumers are 40 percent more likely to have Cancer than the vegetarians. Again Harvard studies show that people who eat meat everyday have almost three times the colon cancer risk, compared to other people. There are many reasons for this result. During the cooking meat, some mutagenic compounds are produced like HCAs and they are very dangerous for our health. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are another reason for Cancer. Especially broiling and grilling meat produce these kind hydrocarbons (Meat Consumption and Cancer Risk). So, these chemicals penetrate our body via meat. Breast Cancer: The fat comes from animal products, such as meat and dairy products increases the rate of breast cancer. For women who can eat meat daily has an 8.5 times higher risk of this cancer than poorer women who can eat make once a month (Hirayama, 1978). Colorectal Cancer: Red meat is a great factor for colon cancer. According to another Harvard research, consuming beef, pork or lamb have approximately three times the risk compared to people that avoid these meats (Meat Consumption and Cancer Risk). Mainly, colorectal cancer is another effect of meat consumption. Prostate Cancer: As with breast cancer, if a man takes dietary fat, especially from animal products, increases his testosterone product and this causes increasing of prostate cancer risk. There are two large studies at Harvard University about this issue. According to one of them, the men who eat red meat everyday have 2.5 times risk compared to the men who eat it once a week (Giovannucci, et al., 1993). Put simply, meat consumption also causes prostate cancer. Other Cancers: In addition to these cancers, there are several researches about kidney, pancreatic and other kinds of cancer. Commonly, similar reasons such as much meat consumption and much intake of fat increase cancer risk. Otherwise, the same sources claim that vegetarian diets protect us against the cancer (Meat Consumption and Cancer Risk). Thus people have to avoid meat consumption. Heart Disease Vegetarian people’s intake of calories and fat is lower than non-vegatarians do. Thus, they have lower risk of heart disease. Regular consumption of red meat especially processed ones, increase mortality risk directly (Mayo Clinic, 2011). Meat consumption clearly causes deaths. Indirect Factors People who consumed high levels of red meat have less-than-healthy body weights. Meat consumption makes them also want to smoke and drink (Sarich, 2013). All these factors are another way to die younger. Environment Issues: Meat consumption has a big impact on the environment. It is considered as the most important reason for the Global Warming. Animal farming is the major source of carbon dioxide. Unfortunately there is no such a thing as sustainable, humane meat production. Changing the source of your meat and preferring farms which seem to be care about ecology do not change the facts. Any farm cannot change the effect of farm animals. The combined emissions of animals are more than all transportation systems. Lindsay Wilson compares the carbon footprints of five different American diets in her article titled ‘The Carbon Footprint of 5 Diets Compared’. As stated in the article, studies allocate diets in five different ways: Meat Lover Diet, Average Person Diet, No Beef Diet, Vegetarian Diet and Vegan diet. It is an important factor that the studies only attach importance to the emissions rates. They do not include storage, transportation emissions. http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Plates.gif According to the article, ‘A vegetarian’s footprint is about two thirds of the average American and almost half that of a meat lover’. We can see that there is a huge difference between the vegetarian and meat lover life style in terms of carbon food print. On the other hand vegan diet leads the ecological nutrition as usual. The health secretary of U.K, Andy Burnham said that ‘Climate change can seem a distant, impersonal threat; in fact the associated costs to health are a very real and present danger’. He emphasizes that everyone should cut back on the amount of meat and meat products they eat. Even going meatless once a week (Meatless Mondays) has a big positive impact on the environment. Another ecological issue is the water consumption. According to the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization’s report titled Livestock’s Long Shadow (2006) by the year 2050, 2/3 of the World population will lack clean water even for their basic needs. There is a hidden water use behind meat production. It takes 60 pounds of water to produce one pound of potatoes. On the other hand, it takes more than 20,000 pounds of water to produce a pound of beef. According to PETA, all but half of the water used in the U.S, used to raise the animals for food. We would save more water if we do not eat a pound of beef than we do by not showering for six months they say! As a result, in any case it is beneficial for us to cut back meat. Every small step is important. Graham Hill, the founder of TreeHugger.com states the importance of small steps in his Ted talk titled ‘Why I’m a weekday vegetarian’. At the end of his speech there is a very unique expression which give hope to us: ‘’If all of us ate half as much meat, it would be like half of us were vegetarians’’. SOLUTIONS At the present time, high numbers of projects have been developing about meat consumption in USA. Such as Meatless Monday, Eating Better, Tax Meat and Earth Friendly Diet Campaign. These projects are supported by society organizations, government and celebrities. Projects which are considerable are listed below: Meatless Monday: It is a project which encourages people not to eat meat on Mondays. The aim of this project is to improve peoples health. The project was founded by Sid Lerner in 2003. It is an association withJohns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The reason that they choose Monday is that people are not exactly living healthy during weekends, so not eating meat on Mondays would help them to get back to their usual eating habits. Monday also represents a fresh start. In order to give a support to this project some celebrities are going meatless on Mondays. Such as; Sir Richard Branson (founder of Virgin Group), Denise Richards (actress), Jessica Simpson (actress, singer), Oprah (TV star), Kate Moss (model). Eat Better (Live Better): This movement believes that living better starts with eating better. In order to eat better, you need to be informed about food according to them. They share recipes varying on different needs as vegetarians, Low Carb, Sodium and Gluten free diets. Tax Meat: This movement Tax Meat is started by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). They are trying to convince the government to put tax on meat because of two reasons. One of them is animal products contain remarkable amounts of cholesterol and it is unhealthy to consume by people. Secondly, studies show that there is a connection between cancer and the consumption of meat. Take Extinction off Your Plate (Earth Friendly Diet Campaign): Take Extinction off Your Plate aims to save the wildlife by helping to decrease the amount of meat consumption across the country. It was launched in 2014 in Tucson, AZ. They started a campaign called Earth Friendly Diet. It basically supports being a vegan and it is trying to attract people into being a vegan. They claim thatâ€Å"By cutting just one-third of the meat from our diets, we can each save as much as 340,667 gallons of water, more than 4,000 square feet of land, and the greenhouse gas equivalent of driving 2,700 fewer miles a year.† EVALUATION Meat Consumption is one of the oldest habits of human life. Therefore cutting or even decreasing meat consumption is a huge mountain to climb. To convince people not to eat meat, it needs to be put forward certain reasons. Since it is about convincing; taxing the meat or in another words forbidding meat in a way, is not a steady solution. Wealthy part of the society won’t be coaction by taxing while the other part will. So this situation can easily cause social problems. For this reason Tax Meat project maybe a little part of the solution but definitely cannot be the best. Take Extinction off Your Plate is a kind of limited movement. The project intends to make people vegan. Given this evidence it may sound that it is an agreeable idea but in real it is not. Forwhy to want people be a vegan is leaving an alarming impression. In simple the cure is worse than the disease. When people heard that offer they may remain at bay. Eat Better Live Better project seems not to be adequate. Although it has some actionary parts, turnout of the project is just advisory, it is not satisfying, not like Meatless Monday. The project of Meatless Monday has a certain message. Those who partaken know what to do, why they are doing it and beyond that it is very easy to do, they don’t eat meat Mondays. Most of the people accept Monday as an opportunity for a fresh start to a new week. Meatless Monday followers are increasing each passing day. It is easier to start a plant-based lifestyle via not eating meat once a week. It will be much easier for willing people to become a weekday vegetarian first, which can be followed by a whole vegetarianism. This simple idea achieves a considerable amount of benefits. Works Cited Giovannucci, E., Rimm, E. B., Colditz, G. A., Stampfer, M. J., Ascherio, A., Chut, C. C., Willett, W. C. (1993). A prospective study of dietary fat and risk of prostate cancer. Journal of The National Cancer Institute, 1571-1579. Hirayama, T. (1978). Epidemiology of breast cancer with special reference to the role of diet. Preventive Medicine, 173-195. Mayo Clinic. (2011, September 16). Meatless meals: The benefits of eating less meat. Retrieved from The Website of Mayo Clinic: http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/meatless-meals/art-20048193 Meat Consumption and Cancer Risk. (n.d.). Retrieved from Physicians Committe for Responsible Medicine: http://www.pcrm.org/health/cancer-resources/diet-cancer/facts/meat-consumption-and-cancer-risk Sarich, C. (2013, July 21). Harvard Says Reducing Red Meat Consumption can Extend Life by 20%. Retrieved from Natural Society: http://naturalsociety.com/reducing-red-meat-consumption-extend-life-20-percent/#ixzz2zdnAhdzY

Legend of Corn :: Free Essays

Chippewa is a small Native American group live up north. Their whole life of living is base on raising corn, hunting, fishing and tobacco is self entertainment. One day, they found a baby near the shore next to the canoe; they don’t know where the baby comes from but the kindness heart run in their blood, they decide to raise the baby. They also believe, in order to raise to a fine young man, everyone in the village must look after him, teach him how to be one good man. They gave the baby to grandma, and also his mother, as the primarily be on his side. Zhomin, the new baby, they teach him how to swim, how to hunt animal, how to be a fisherman, paddle the canoe, accept your mistake and learn from it, listen to the elder. The boy did everything as his elder tell him too. At night he always begs his mother tell story, he wants to know everything. As day gone by, the boy grow to be a man, his mother now is too old, she dying. His mother belief in supernatural and she is a sacred person, not just an ordinary mother, she knows what will happen in the future, like all other elders in the village they know something that most people don’t. Before she dies she told Zhomin, an outsider will come to this village and look for you, you will do what he wants you to do, never reject. An outsider, Mandabin comes to the village to look for hero in the village to challenge. Zhomin must meets his destiny, must accept Mandabin challenge, that’s his mother moral code. They fight night by nights, at last, Mandabin has come to his last breath, he told Zhomin bury him next to his mother as his final request. Zhomin buried Mandabin next to his mother and accept Mandabin as his friend, he light the fires up four days and nights to pray his friend.

Comparing Vinegar Tom C. Churchill and The Crucible A. Miller Essay

The Crucible is a naturalistic play by Arthur Miller set in a town called Salem and based on true events. The play inspired by the Salem witch trials shows Miller’s personal views and many popular views on McCarthyism. The naturalistic style of the play evokes the audiences emotions and allows the audience to sympathise with the characters. The play also has a sense of realism, illustrating the social and domestic problems of everyday life. The main character John Proctor was said to be a reflection on the situation Arthur Miller saw himself in and portrays many of the emotions he had the time from the McCarthy trials. The crucible focuses on the problems caused by mass hysteria. Similarly, Vinegar Tom a feminist play written by Caryl Churchill written in 1976, also focuses on witchcraft. The play is a non-naturalistic style and is shown using features of Bertolt Brecht’s epic theatre, for example the use of song and choral movement. The play was inspired by the womenâ €™s rights acts of the 1970’s. There are many similarities between the two plays, the first being the plot of the two plays both being about witchcraft and although different styles of theatre are used the same views are shown. There are many evident differences between the two plays. Firstly, the time period and location in which they are set. The Crucible set in the 17th century town called Salem in America, however Vinegar Tom was set in London, England. The set of the play is important as Salem was a puritan town meaning religion was strict and disciplined. The word of God â€Å"the bible† is your authority. There would be no dancing, theatre or entertainment. Sin is a crime and crime is a sin. And most importantly to the play you would believe in witchcraft and the... ... are carrying a child suggests that the character of Daforth and Packer may be sympathetic towards the women. In The Crucible Danforth is sympathetic and believes the likeable character of Elizabeth Proctor, however Packer in Vinegar Tom does not bleive Joan and therefore showing how the character has no emotional impact. To conclude there are many differences yet also similarities between the two plays. The similarities being the plot, and the situations the characters are in. However, the differences being the culture the playwrite lived in and the effects these cultures had on the plays. Each play was written for a different purpose, to impact a different audience and create different emotions. I preffered the play The Crucible because the journey the characters went on was more interesting and as an audience I prefer to be able to relate to the cha racter.

Something to Sing About in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Essay -- Buffy the

  Ã‚  Ã‚   Throughout much of recorded human history, people have written tales of the dead returning to life, usually to trouble the living in some way. These traditional myths have progressed from ancient superstitions, to campfire ghost stories, to television shows such as Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In the series, vampires are created from the dead victims of other vampires (as long as a certain rite is performed during the victim's death). After a time they rise from their graves and immediately seek to kill and drink the blood of the living. Creatures such as these are, as Lacan [give first name when you first mention someone] describes them, "between the two deaths" and live again only to fulfill insistent, mechanical drive. This drive, often centered on killing, vengeance, or some other quest for closure, is distinct from desire in that it is not "caught up in dialectical trickery" (Zizek 21). According to Zizek [ditto], normal desires are not alway s what they seem, for when we desire something, we may be seeking something else entirely (21). Most of the vampires in Buffy the Vampire Slayer fit Lacan's profile of between the two deaths, and, as one might expect, they are antagonists to the protector of the living, Buffy. However, in the musical episode "Once More, with Feeling," Whedon explores two protagonists who are also between the two deaths, each struggling to revert back to their prior state of being, but both in a different situation. One of these characters, Spike, once fit the archetype of the vampire, but now faces difficulty as he is forced to cope with normal dialectical desire in order to exist in the civilized, symbolic world. The other, Buffy, fulfilled the death drive when she sa... ... her to be the Slayer. Her only chance to find motivation in the world is to find a new desire. Both characters approach the same center, but from different ends of the drive-symbol spectrum. Thus, Whedon not only makes use of the Lacanian "between the two deaths" concept, but he also plays with making it dynamic (Spike) and with inverting it (Buffy). Then, at the very end of the episode, the two experiments are united in an elegant closure.    Sources Cited or Consulted Buffy the Vampire Slayer. "Once More, with Feeling." Felluga, Dino. "Modules on Lacan: On Desire." Introductory Guide to Critical Theory. Date March 11, 2003. Purdue U. March 23, 2003. <http://www.purdue.edu/guidetotheory/psychoanalysis/lacandesire.html>. Zizek, Slavoj. Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan through Popular Culture. Cambridge: MIT P, 1991.

McDonalds Cross-Cultural Analysis Essay

Introduction The Internet has made the world a smaller place, especially when it comes to online business – it’s now just as easy for a company to attract customers in Nairobi as it is in Nevada. This technological globalization doesn’t translate to cultural homogeneity, though–while you might be able to find a McDonalds in nearly every city on earth now, that doesn’t mean that every city eats and thinks and shops in the same way. Every national and cultural group in the world retains its own language, its own metaphors, its own identity, and thus, its own way of shopping. At about the same pace as the popularity of the Internet increased, visions flourished of the World Wide Web as a tool for bringing the world together. The marketing world in particular quickly embraced the Internet as an ideal medium for reaching beyond domestic markets in order to disseminate products to foreign markets. By understanding how communication styles may be reflected on websites, we come a step further towards identifying, and subsequently realizing the potentials of, the interactive nature of the Internet. This would be rewarding not only from the marketing perspective, but also for those organizations that are working on bringing the world closer together through dialogue. Intercultural communication competence, as Chen and Starosta [1] note, is imperative for human progress, and it is by studying communication  styles and understanding how to use them that we may be able to communicate more clearly, and promote dialogue between â€Å"us† and â€Å"them.† The interactive and global nature of the Internet has fostered many visions of mutual understanding among cultures, although the means for achieving this are still at a very early, exploratory stage. A number of studies on the relationship between website design and cultural dimensions have been conducted. Studies like Marcus and Gould [2] and Sheridan [3] analyzed both commercial and non-commercial websites in an effort to identify relationships between Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and visual presentation on the. In this work also were used Hofsted’s researches[4, 5], mainly his typology of cultures that is the most widely accepted and frequently cited theories. Also Hall’s description of some cultural dimensions was used [1, 7, 8, 9, 10]. Kluckhohn’s and Strodtbeck’s ‘Variations in value orientations’[11], Gudykunst’s [12] and Lewis’s [13] researches devoted to cultural specifics of different countries are mentioned in this study. In this work we will try to analyze the effectiveness of communication between company and customers on current websites of McDonald’s in the next five countries: Ukraine, Russia, Germany, America and Canada; and make some recommendations how to improve them according to their cultural specifics. 1 Theoretical Issues and Ideas 1.1 Website as Method of Communication between Company and Its Customers The Internet becomes more and more popular all over the world. People use it for communication, business or just to look for the information they need. The Internet is a truly global thing. Growing importance of Internet is making communication through websites between companies and customers more and more significant. The Internet environment is not only a simple tool to promote a business, but it also offers opportunities to supply information; it is an efficient platform to communicate with the clients. It’s great opportunity for companies to get feedback from their customers; attract them and improve the vision of the company. Significant result of effective communication is improved branding. If the message or purpose of the company is communicated effectively to visitors, it will leave an impression on them  that will help form their image of the company. Branding is important online and off, and the messages being sent are a major factor. Website is cost effective, pa per free communication. Using website, company can reach the wider audience and it’s open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so it can distribute information internally within the organization, as well as to share information with business partners, clients and suppliers. New customers will be able to locate company and company’s information and will always know where to contact the company. [14]] Company can inform customers about changes, sales, bonus campaigns, etc.; gain valuable market research, to build trust and finally reduce printing and mailing costs. A professional-looking site can help company to be taken seriously and build credibility and trust. Many consumers search for information online before purchasing at a physical store; company’s site can make a good first impression on a potential customer. At the same time customers can express their attitude towards company, their wishes and judgments about different campaigns or products proposed by the company. Developing a web-site makes it possible a very good communication with the clients and this leads, finally, to a constant adaptation of the company’s offer to the continuously changing customers’ requests. The most efficient web-site is the one that is integrated into company’s informatics system. By creating its own website, a company gets the possibility to influence in a positive way, the evolution of its activity. This way, the company becomes more efficient, with a more flexible internal functionality, more careful with the customers’ needs and expectations.[15] 1.2 McDonald’s Corporation McDonald’s Corporation is the world’s largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries, and there is the same number of websites nowadays. Currently 1.7 million people work for Brand McDonald’s. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948 they reorganized their business as a hamburger stand using production line principles. Businessman Ray Kroc joined the company as a franchise agent in 1955. He subsequently purchased the chain  from the McDonald brothers and oversaw its worldwide growth. A McDonald’s restaurant is operated by either a franchisee, an affiliate, or the corporation itself. The corporation’s revenues come from the rent, royalties and fees paid by the franchisees, as well as sales in company-operated restaurants. McDonald’s primarily sells hamburgers, cheeseburger s, chicken, french fries, breakfast items, soft drinks, shakes and desserts. In response to changing consumer tastes, the company has expanded its menu to include salads, wraps, smoothies and fruit. McDonald’s has a charity organization Ronald McDonald House Charities which functions in 52 countries. Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) is an independent organization whose mission is to create, find and support programs that directly improve the health and well being of children across the world. Programs are grass-roots driven to enable the Charity to offer help where children need it most—right in their own communities. RMHC has three core programs: the Ronald McDonald House, Ronald McDonald Family Room and Ronald McDonald Care Mobile. McDonald’s started its global diversity journey by creating the Global Women’s Initiative in 2009. This initiative is active in all of McDonald’s operating areas of the world and is sponsored globally by Don Thompson, McDonald’s COO. In each part of the world, this initiative supports the recruitment, development, and advancement of women at all levels of the company while creating a culture where wome n have the opportunity to succeed and grow. In 2011, the Catalyst organization recognized the Global Women’s Initiative as an innovative and systemic means through which women can thrive in the McDonald’s system and awarded the company the prestigious Catalyst Award. As a result of the global concentration, women’s business networks have been formed and have quickly grown. McDonald’s has for decades maintained an extensive advertising campaign. In addition to the usual media (television, radio, and newspaper), the company makes significant use of billboards and signage, sponsors sporting events ranging from Little League to the Olympic Games, and makes coolers of orange drink with its logo available for local events of all kinds. Nonetheless, television has always played a central role in the company’s advertising strategy. ‘I’m lovin’ it’ is an international branding campaign by McDonald’s Corporation. It was created by Heye & Partner, a longtime McDonald’s agency based in Unterhaching, Germany. It was the company’s first global advertising campaign and was launched in  Munich, Germany on September 2, 2003, under the German title ‘ich liebe es’. The English part of the campaign was launched in Australia on September 21, 2003, the UK on September 17, 2003, and in the USA on September 29, 2003 with the music of Tom Batoy and Franco Tortora and vocals by Ju stin Timberlake, in which the slogan appears. In 2007, after a public casting call which received 15,000 submissions, McDonald’s selected 24 people to appear as part of the campaign. Images of those chosen, who had submitted a story and digital photograph which â€Å"captured †¦ themes of inspiration, passion and fun,† appeared on McDonald’s paper bags and cups worldwide [16]. 1.3 Analysis’s Criteria In this study is used the collectivism versus individualism dimension, which was proposed by Geert Hofstede. Individualism is the one side versus its opposite, collectivism, that is the degree to which individuals are integrated into groups. On the individualist side we find societies in which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after him/herself and his/her immediate family. On the collectivist side, we find societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, often extended families (with uncles, aunts and grandparents) which continue protecting them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty. Values in collectivistic cultures include training, physical condition and the use of skills whereas in individualistic cultures values are personal time, freedom and challenge. Another of Hofstede’s dimensions is power distance. This dimension expresses the degree to which the less powerful members of a society accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. The fundamental issue here is how a society handles inequalities among people. People in societies exhibiting a large degree of power distance accept a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and which needs no further justification. In societies with low power distance, people strive to equalize the distribution of power and demand justification for inequalities of power [17]. In F. Trompenaar’s interpretation there are the next cultural factors: equality and hierarchy. Equality corresponds with low power distance and hierarchy with high power distance. Equality is about all people having equal status. It assumes we all have equal rights,  irrespective of birth or other gift. Hierarchy is about people being superior to others. It assumes that order happens when few are in charges and others obey through the scalar chain of command [18]. One more dimension is uncertainty avoidance. According to G. Hofstede uncertainty avoidance deals with a society’s tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity; it ultimately refers to man’s search for Truth. It indicates to what extent a culture programs its members to feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured situations. Unstructured situations are novel, unknown, surprising, and different from usual. Uncertainty avoiding cultures try to minimize the possibility of such situations by stric t laws and rules, safety and security measures, and on the philosophical and religious level by a belief in absolute Truth; ‘there can only be one Truth and we have it’ . The next criterion used in analysis is high and low context of culture, which was found by E. Hall. Hall observed that â€Å"meaning and context are inextricably bound up with each other† [19], and suggested that to understand communication one should look at meaning and context together with the code (i.e., the words themselves). By context, we refer to the situation, background, or environment connected to an event, a situation, or an individual. When communication is high-context, it is not only the non-verbal and para-verbal communication that comes into play. High-context communication draws on physical aspects as well as the time and situation in which the communication takes place, not to mention the relationship between the interlocutors. The closer the relationship, the more high-context the communication tends to be, drawing on the shared knowledge of the communicating parties. Gudykunst identified high-context communication to be indirect, ambiguous, maintaining of harmony, reserved and understated. In contrast, low-context communication was identified as direct, precise, dramatic, open, and based on feelings or true intentions. The next Hall’s cultural factor used is time. There are two types of time: monochronic time and polychronic time. Monochronic, as he called it M-Time, means doing one thing at a time. It assumes careful planning and scheduling and is a familiar Western approach that appears in disciplines such as ‘time management’. Monochronic people tend also to be low context. In Polychronic cultures, human interaction is valued over time and material things, leading to a lesser concern for ‘getting things done’ – they do get done, but more  in their own time. Aboriginal and Native Americans have typical polychronic cultures, where ‘talking stick’ meetings can go on for as long as somebody has something to say. Polychronic people tend also to be high context. According to Richard Lewis we can divide all cultures in three groups: monoactive, polactive and reactive. Monoactive cultures – it is cultures, where activity complies with clear planning and organized in definite orded, they do not approve distractions to other tasks and percept the time linearly. Polyactive cultures are people-oriented, talkative and communicative, can make several actions at ones. In reactive cultures activity depends on changing situation and appears to be a reaction on these changes. Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck did some germinal work in drawing up a conceptual map which tried to include the complete range of values which it is possible for human beings to hold in relation to five key issues about which all human beings hold opinions. Orientation Postulated range of variations Human nature evil neutral mix of good and evil good changeable unchangeable changeable unchangeable changeable unchangeable Man-nature subjugation to nature harmony with nature mastery over nature Time past present future Activity being being in becoming doing Relational lineality collaterality individualism 2 Communicative Effectiveness of the Company Website in Various Countries 2.1 McDonald’s Site for Ukrainian Customers Ukrainian culture is more likely to be high-context than low context. By Hall high-context communication involves â€Å"more of the information in the physical context or internalized in the person†, that is why this cultures usually use more imagery and less text, people are expected to read between the lines and greater confidence is placed in the non-verbal aspects of communication. These features are notably represented on the ‘Ukrainian’ website: one can view the process of preparing food in stage by stage pictures with minimum accompanying text. One more example is a list of suppliers shown as a table of logotypes of these companies. Also the main page contains illustrations of dishes moving through the screen; links to other pages are given as small pictures connected with their content, for example if you want to go to the page where you can find more about quality of milk you should click the picture of a cow. So this site communicates by means of links a nd information stated in a limited amount of text with illustrations. This gives not very transparent overview of the content in the website and often requires that the user finds out the information placing the cursor over the link to reveal more content before finally clicking this link. The term transparency is borrowed from the usability field. Basing on the â€Å"Variations in Value Orientations† Ukrainians perceive an individual as a mixture of bad and good features. According to Terri  Morrison the level of trust is rather low: the Ukrainians are suspicious of other people and along with it they are likely to rely on objective factual information , based on their own experience [20]. There are a large amount of information devoted to the quality of milk and each component of food such as its composition and great diversity of food quality certificates. One more interesting feature is presence of variety of graphs which reflect the results of polls after Doors Open Day (DOD). But people in our country do not believe this information, they think it can be falsified and that the company deceives them just to gain profit. This part of content doesn’t work effectively. By Marcus & Gould strong focus on expertise, authority, certifications, official st amps or logos can be explained by high power distance. In addition the site contains a special section which describes you how to apply for participation in DOD and provides you with a video of the previous excursions. These features may appeal to relatively high level of uncertainty avoidance in Ukraine. 2.2 McDonald’s Site for Russian Customers Russia is collectivistic culture – it’s one of dimensions found be Geert Hofstede, which is characterized by tight social frameworks in which people distinguish between groups. The site promotes collectivistic values; it is reflected in the imagery of the website, such as images of the groups of people who involved in various activities like dancing, singing, coffee drinking and doing some sports. Values in collectivistic cultures include training and physical condition. ‘Russian’ website includes special section called ‘be active’, which offers different physical exercises for boys and girls and contains sets of photographs of competitions navigated in various cities. Russian culture is relatively high-context which according to E. Hall means that the most of the information is already in the person, while very little is in the explicit, transmitted part of the message. Using this feature towards website a lot of animations and pictures are ex pected, and we can find a lot of them on the ‘Russian’ site. Animation effects are represented almost on each page and a lot of photos and bright, eye catching images are also placed. The power distance dimension offered by G. Hofstede is apparent in hierarchical structure of the website. According to Marcus  and Gould high power distance is reflected in tall hierarchical website structures, either through the implementation of many pages with unstructured layout, or the opening of new browser windows for new pages, instead of the same browser window. This description completely depicts the structure of ‘Russian ’site: there are many sidebars and menus, new browser window opens for each new page. The homepage features a large collection of links, and describes clearly what lays behind them though the use of headings, subheadings and illustrations. This makes it possible for the visitor to find what he or she interested in immediately, navigation schemes intended to prevent users from becoming lost. These features may appeal to two different parameters: high uncertainty avoidance proposed by G. Hofstede to explain a society’s tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity; and by Lewis R.D. polyactivity – impatience and willingness to act quickly. 2.3 McDonald’s Site for German Customers German culture is more likely to be individualistic culture than collectivistic one, according to Geert Hofstede it means that individuals expected to be independent of others and look after themselves. We can see that pictures on the site promote individualistic values like personal time and freedom: individuals shown alone, enjoying themselves and usually products are placed with them. Individualistic culture is inclined to make a direct connection between the individual and the product. We can explain this effect by referring to Marcus and Gould, who suggested that the individualism and collectivism may influence the importance given to individuals versus products shown by themselves or in groups and that in individualism images demonstrated through materialism and consumerism. German is very low-context culture and as it explained by E. Hall more explanation is needed and very little is taken for granted in this cultures. As we can see the ‘German’ website is full of text information and large amount of wordage is used on each page, whilst only two pages have animated effects and on some pages the imagery is very poor. ‘German’ website can be described as a very transparent site, which may also appeal to the low context of this culture; so it provides a detailed overview of the rest of the site on the homepage and each subheading has a small picture  corresponding with the content of relevant page. It can also be explained by high uncertainty avoidance – there are attempts to reveal or forecast the results of implications of actions before users act. Navigation through the site is linear and new pages constantly open in the same browser window – this appeals to monoactivity of German culture, which by R. Lewis means that it can make only one action during definite time. In German time is monochronic and special attention devoted to the speed of actions; websit e with the structure mentioned above is not goal-oriented and users are expected to be willing to explore the site and seek for information. Social roles are not used to organize the information it means that all sections are obvious to all users and not sealed off from them; prominence given to customers and employees – these features may appeal to the relatively low power distance. 2.4 McDonald’s Site for American Customers In contrast to Ukrainian American is low-context culture. M. Hall described low-context cultures as those in which â€Å"the mass of information is vested in the explicit code† that is why these cultures are identified, direct, precise, dramatic, open, and basing on feelings or true intentions, people don’t communicate with gestures, the meaning depends on content and the spoken word, what means a verbal communication. These features are represented on the ‘American’ website: one can read a lot of information about different kinds of hamburgers, which is presented with text and with fewer occurrences of animations. Website is kept as practical as possible and has direct sources of information, for example additional information about components contained in food is placed below the page as boxes in which you can see the process of growth of this components and an information about it, and when you click this box a new page opens and the information appear a s text without illustrations. One more example is that only the main page consists of heavy images, pop-up effects, moving elements which accompanied by scaring music; this is one more proof of the low-context of American culture. On the ‘American’ website there is a promotion tab, when you click on it a new page opens as a game, this is a fast message for people. By Halls fast message are adept at creating quick  contacts, but may also be perceived as superficial. Based on the work of Kaplan [21] and Chen and Starosta, Choe [22] low-context culture tend to emphasize logic and rationality, based on the belief that there is always an objective truth that can be reached through linear processes of discovery. Choe said â€Å"thought patterns refer to forms of reasoning and approaches to problem solution and can differ from culture to culture†. ‘American’ website implies linear navigation throughout the site, with a consistent layout throughout the pages of the site. The website per forms the explorative function. 2.5 McDonald’s Site for Canadian Customers Canada is low-context culture. According to M. Hall cultural dimensions, in low-context cultures very little are taken for granted. Whilst this means that more explanation is needed, it also means there is less chance of misunderstanding particularly when visitors are present. Many overt and explicit messages that is simple and clear, outer locus of control and blame of others for failure; visible, external, outward reaction; flexible and open grouping patterns, changing as needed; fragile bonds between people with little sense of loyalty; low commitment to relationship (task more important than relationships); time is highly organized; product is more important than process. These features are represented on the ‘Canadian’ website: all pages are rich of text, especially a category Food Quality. Based on the work of Geert Hofstede low-context culture is more likely to be individualistic one, where emphasis is put on the goals and accomplishments of the individual rather than the group. Individuals are expected to be independent of others and look after themselves. When accomplishing goals, consideration of others is limited to include only oneself and one’s immediate family. Personal values include personal time, freedom, and challenge. For example on the ‘Canadian’ website there are some information that is family oriented. There is a section called Community in which one can find a subsection called Ronald McDonald House Charities which provide families of sick children a home-away-from-home or a place of peace and calm within a hospital. By Hall, perception of time is one more peculiarity of culture. Canada belongs to monochromic culture, where time is viewed as an  important, almost tangible phenomenon. People of such cultures are oriented towards planning and scheduling, so as to perform efficiency. As an example on the ‘Canadian’ website there is a category Restaurant Location, where you can put your address and site will show you the nearest restaurant. 3 Recommendations for Improvement of McDonald’s Websites 3.1 Cultural awareness in Web Design Nowadays a website is not just a collection of text; it is a conglomerate of images, multimedia, interactive features, animated graphics, and sounds. Cross-cultural web design nowadays requires dealing with design issues that include culture-specific color connotations, preferences in layout, animation, sounds, and other effects that are characteristic of today’s generation of websites. Formatting and navigation of the website also help attracting users’ attention and interest them in using the website. In order to do this successfully, the target group of the website must be studied. Research into how your target market’s culture affects their consumer behavior should be done. Conducting an ethnographic investigation — visiting the country, viewing how they shop and what they like, studying products which have been successful in the market and seeing how these strategies can be adopted is an important step for creating a multicultural website. Market rese arch can be done by surveying potential customers from the target market and interviewing cultural experts. While user participation is ideal in the designing process, a study of the design elements prevalent in the culture may also provide the web designer with some useful guidelines. Values and behavior indoctrinated through cultural influences may be reflected in design practices. Every national and cultural group in the world retains its own language, its own metaphors, its own identity, and thus, its own way of shopping Keeping abreast of cultural and current affairs in each of the target markets is one of the key factors, as a change in circumstances may necessitate changes to the site. Research has shown that certain colors have distinct connotations in different cultures. The implications should therefore be considered when choosing the palette for the website. Similarly to the impact of color, the appropriateness of the images across various cultures should be considered. Other symbols and  images just may not be culturally relevant in other areas of the world. Studies carried out into the impact of new technologies show that users show resistance to products with Western metaphors in favour of products localized according to their cultural customs and idioms. Choosing appropriate images for the site accordingly or being prepared to use different images in separate versions of the website can be useful while creating an effective one.[23] 3.2 Potential Improvements for the McDonald’s Websites of Particular Countries Before giving recommendations we would like to mention that we can assume that a successful and globe-spanning company such as McDonald’s has done extensive focus group testing of their website and consequently customized almost each website to appeal to its user group in each target culture, to ensure that product communication is as effective as possible. As a result it won’t be easy to recommend significant changes, but still there are some cultural issues that can be improved. Ukrainian website contains a lot of imagery, but taking into account the high context of this culture, it would be better to add more animation, because the site seems to be too constant. Taking into account that Ukrainian culture is collectivistic one not only logos of McDonald’s suppliers might be on the site; some images which corresponds with its values like family, physical condition and training could be used. Importance must be given to the products shown by themselves or with groups, not to the individuals. Also stress on the Ukrainian history and traditions should feature the site to attract users’ attention. In Ukrainian culture we can see high power distance, so the strong focus on expertise and certification might have been effective, but it’s not. This culture is suspicious about people so it is better to avoid too high concentration on this information; otherwise the site is unattractive and can arouse the suspicions. On the whole it can cause negative perception of the company; people may think that McDonald’s just trying to pool the wool over their customers’ eyes. One more important thing to be considered is opening of new page. On Ukrainian website new pages open in the same window but according to Marcus & Gould study for cultures with high power distance it is more convenient to use pages, which open in the new window of browser.  To match high uncertainty avoidance the site should be structured better: more sidebars and menus can be added to simplify the navigation across the site and to prevent the user from becoming lost. It is also important because of polyactivity of Ukrainian culture; people are unwilling to seek for information and to explore the site, they need to get the clear information quickly. On the Russian website more animation can be added, for example animation of moving people is really suitable for high-context culture and also some musical support on the main page is appropriate. Information should be organized according to social roles, for example there can be special section for managers or potential investors. Thi s can be effective because of high power distance inherent to Russian culture. Also according to these feature significant emphasis should be made on the social and moral order and its symbols like national colors or traditions. To correspond with high level of uncertainty avoidance in Russia the next improvements may be efficient: addition of tiny windows which will reveal more content information when placing a cursor over a link before clicking it, in other words forecast of the results or implications of acting before users act. Russian culture is relatively feminine it means that attention to the content of the site can be attracted by usage of poetry, common idioms, visual aesthetics and appeals to unifying values. German website contains a vast animation on the main page. It’s not the best choice for low-context culture like this one; it can bewilder people and decrease the attractiveness of the site. Low power distance also dictates some important characteristics: we can find a huge section devoted to the quality of food but for German culture it ’s advised to weaken the focus on the expertise, logos and certificates. Taking into account that German is individualistic culture we can say that more prominence should be given to youth and action, the section devoted to the employment can be expanded. Individualistic cultures are expected to be willing to provide personal information, so different employees can share their experience with those who want to start a job in McDonald’s. Emphasis might be done on what is new, unique and available only in this particular company. American website contains huge amount of animation on the main page, but for the low-context country it would be better if the site contains fewer amount of digital data, less-highly structured information, minor and infrequent emphasis on the  social and moral order (e.g., nationalism or religion) and its symbols, weak focus on expertise, authority, experts, certifications, official stamps, or logos. As an individualistic country the site should contain more information or pictures to maximize motivation of people, some i mages of success: demonstrated through materialism and consumerism. Also it’s good to use rhetorical style: controversial or argumentative speech and tolerance or encouragement of extreme claim. An important thing is to give prominence to youth and action. In American culture we can see low uncertainty avoidance, so to match this fact website should simplify the complexity with maximal content and choices (do more descriptions for quicker decisions). People from country with low uncertainty avoidance accept wandering and risk, so it would be good to do some quizzes online. Canadian website, as it is also low context culture, should give more prominence to citizens, customers, or employees. There should be no restrictions or barriers to access on the site; it should be transparent, integrated, implicit freedom to roam must be present. Taking into account that Canadian culture is individualistic one they should give importance for individuals, make an emphasis on truth and what is new and unique (on the Canadian site it is hard to understand which information is fresh, all articles are mixed and undated, so it is difficult to find something new. On the Canadian website here are no graphics, sound, and animation, but for masculine country it would be good for utilitarian purposes. Also it could contain game and competitions, because an attention gained through these features. The navigation should be oriented to exploration and control. Canada is a long-term oriented country, so in fact information on the site should be focused on truth and certainty of beliefs. It could contain some rules as a source of information and credibility, because the Canadian website is made a little freely, for example, when you what to return to the previous page the site let you on the other page, which you didn’t open and sometimes it hard to find what you saw before. Conclusion In the terms of globalized ways of satisfying people’ needs, there is a trend of gradual replacement of the companies’ market-orientation with the customer-orientation. Companies’ customer-orientation implies a continuous  and detailed process of analysis regarding the potential clients’ expectations, in this way, a strong connection between customers’ needs and the quality of offered products and services being assured. Learning the cultural differences in particular countries it’s easy to understand how to attract the customers and make their researching more productivity, funny and simple. When you understand the personal, national or organizational culture, then you can seek to align with them and hence gain greater influence. Hofstede notes that some cultural relativism is necessary: it is difficult to establish absolute criteria for what is noble and what is disgusting. There is no escaping bias; all people develop cultural values bas ed on their environment and early training as children. Not everyone in a society fits the cultural pattern precisely, but there is enough statistical regularity to identify trends and tendencies. These trends and tendencies should not be treated as defective or used to create negative stereotypes but recognized as different patterns of values and thought. In a multi-cultural world, it is necessary to cooperate to achieve practical goals without requiring everyone to think, act, and believe identically. By creating its own website, a company gets the possibility to influence in a positive way, the evolution of its activity. This way, the company becomes more efficient, with a more flexible internal functionality, more careful with the customers’ needs and expectations. But still, when creating a website, all features of particular countries must be considered to make clear appeal and improve the communication between company and customers. List of References 1 Chen, G., & Starosta, W. (1998). Foundations of Intercultural Communication. Boston: Allyn and Bacon 2 Marcus, A., & Gould, E. W. (2000). Cultural dimensions and global web user-interface design: What? So What? Now What? Proceedings of the 6th Conference on Human Factors and the Web. Austin, Texas.2 3 Sheridan, E. F. (2001). 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