Life is Beautiful: A Summary

In the movie â€Å"Life is Beautiful†, Guido, the Jewish- Italian, is the protagonist of the film. The whole movie spirals around him at all times. In the second part of the movie, Guido and his son were obliged to board the death train that packed likes sardines towards the concentration camp. Guido clearly knew that once they had disembarked from the train, there will be hardly any chance for them to return to where they belonged. Since Guido and his son, Giosue, stepped onto the train, not only they journeyed into the concentration camp they also voyaged into mountains of white lies which lied deep in the wonderful fantasies.In my opinion, I think that Guido made a right decision in lying to his son that the Holocaust events were a just a game. There are many reasons that Guido was right about in concealing the truth over his son’s eyes. One of which is because his son, Giosue, did not have to be exposed to the unfair reality at such young age. The exposure to the cr uel reality would only tarnish his childhood. It will be a heavy encumbrance for Giosue to live through his childhood under the scornful and mocking eyes of the so-called superior Italians knowing that just due to the fact that he is a Jewish people.Like any other parents, Guido was no different in protecting his son from the ruthless and unwanted veracity. It is obvious in the movie that Guido made no effort in showing his love for Giosue while in the concentration camp. From hiding the truth about the Holocaust events to sharing his hard-earned portion of food with his son, Giosue was showered bountifully with paternal loves. Guido kept telling Giosue that they were in a game, a real-life competition which the winner would be rewarded a real tank. Guido managed to keep Giosue in awes because he knew that tank was Giosue’s favourite toy.By creating wonderful fantasies over the hopeless situation, Guido swallowed down every moment of bitterness in exchange of his son’s ecstasy of becoming the winner of the â€Å"game†. This way of concealment revealed that Guido loved his son very much. Even in a harsh and hapless condition, Guido still managed to flash his smile to reassure his son that they were the top contender to earn the reward. Obviously, he never wanted a single bit of cruelty and unfairness to corrupt Giosue’s childhood.In other word, he wanted Giosue to be like other hildren, relishing his childhood with bundles of toys and stacks of joyfulness. Indeed, Guido had to mask the truth for the sake of Giosue’s future. By telling Giosue that the Holocaust events were just a game, Guido gave Giosue the might to survive through the inhuman treatments in the concentration camp. In the meantime, thinking deeply, Guido also instilled discipline and perseverance into Giosue’s little mind. By creating rules for the â€Å"competition†, Guido was actually training Giosue to be disciplined and meticulous in order to w in the â€Å"first prize†.Guido made titanic sacrifices behind all of his lies about the concentration camps. Even with the gun pointing at him from behind, his cheeky antic –marching comforted and lightened up Giosue. Till the end, his walls of white lies and machinations shielded his son from the cruel reality. Guido died with his wondrous fiction without having to fret over the future of Giosue as his life and the lessons he had learned were very real. Is that right for Guido to tell his son that the Holocaust events were just merely a game? I certainly think that Guido was respectable and undoubtedly right in plotting his moves.He moulded his seamless imagination and full-heart-content love into amazing fantasies to shelter his son and protect his son’s future. It is what all great parents will do. In the movie, Guido used his vast imagination to make the best out of the wicked fate of him and his family. Guido was a downright optimistic and creative person. He made good use of the situation and events to show his imagination which often leads into bursts of laughter. Guido created fictitious world for those around him, especially his wife, Dora and his son, Giosue. He always referred Dora as â€Å"princess† and claimed to be a prince himself.When Guido mounted on a horse to rescue Dora, he was in fact entertaining the fantasy of the knight rescuing the damsel in distress. Nevertheless, he was literally saving her from her surroundings and actually was whisking her away on a horse. Although they both knew the truth, they were willing to entertain the fantasy and play the game. In this way, Guido formed a way for him to cope with reality and impregnated it with beauty and wild fantasy. Guido also cultivated several coincidences so that he could appear to have controlled fate and performed trick.He was not delighting in fraud or deception, he actually enjoyed creating another world of wonders for someone else. This accentuates the idea that a person’s perception is essential and fundamental to his manipulations and hence he affects how they handle the rest of the world. Guido’s perfect life was brought to a halt when he and his family were forced to board the one-way train, however his creativity and imagination were never cease to exist. Guido’s imagination not only aided him in winning Dora’s hands over her fiance as well as shielded his son, Giosue from the spears of discriminatory treatments.When Guido told Giosue that everything in the concentration camp was just a game, he was creating a fiction, in other words –lies, to keep Giosue’s spirits up. Although his fiction seemed exaggerated, he aimed to protect his son from the wicked reality. At end of the film, Giosue had survived the concentration camp with perseverance and courage. Eventually, Giosue claimed his first prize, a ride on the real tank. In the movie â€Å"Life is Beautiful†, fantasy is truly believed can become reality.

Oligopoly in India Essay

A market structure dominated by a small number of large firms, selling either identical or differentiated products, and significant barriers to entry into the industry. This is one of four basic market structures. The other three are perfect competition, monopoly, and monopolistic competition. The three most important characteristics of oligopoly are: 1. An industry dominated by a small number of large firms 2. Firms sell either identical or differentiated products 3. The industry has significant barriers to entry. PRICING The members of an oligopoly change the nature of a free market. While they can’t dictate price and availability like a monopoly can, they often turn into friendly competitors, since it is in all the members’ interest to maintain a stable market and profitable prices. With four or five large firms responsible for most of the output of each industry, avoidance of price competition became almost automatic. If one firm were to lower its prices, it is likely that its competitors will do the same and all will suffer lower profits. On the other hand, it is dangerous for any single firm to increase its prices since the others might hold their prices in order to gain market share. The safest thing is to never lower prices and only raise prices when there is abundant evidence that the other firms will also raise prices. The largest or lowest-cost or most aggressive firm will often emerge as the price leader. When business conditions permit, the price leader will raise prices with the expectation that the others will follow. The practice of price leadership prevails in many industries: Competition does not exist in any form. Oligopolies that follow a price leader do not engage in price competition, but they still contest for market share with a variety of forms of non-price competition. Pepsi and Coke each spend billions on TV ads designed to entice the consumer to switch cola brands. SCALE OF OPERATION Oligopolistic firms that operate on a national or global scale are also huge in another sense – they are just plain big. Many have several hundred thousand employees and multi-billions of dollars in assets. Size is itself a source of power. ENTRY BARRIERS Oligopolies can become unstable when new firms attempt to gain entry. Of course the high cost of acquiring plant and equipment acts as a barrier to entry. It is also costly to enter an industry dominated by a small number of known trade names. Small firms already in the industry present a special problem. Some might try to grow beyond their established niches. The large firm will often simply purchase the up-and-coming small firm. Or the large firm or firms may rely on its established relationships with customers or suppliers to limit the activities of smaller firms. The new oligopoly is made up of multinational corporations that have chosen specific product or service categories to dominate. In each category, over time, only two to four major players prosper. Starting a new company in that market segment is difficult, and the few that do succeed are often gobbled up or run out of business by the oligopolies. MANIPULATING DEMAND The large firm is often in a position to create a demand for its own product through advertising. While this sometimes leads to actual product  improvement, it can also lead to the production of images rather than truly different products. A study of the tactics of brand names points out that good brand names are most important for the type of products that are â€Å"relatively undifferentiated in terms of product specifications or performance and where consumers are relatively satisfied with existing brands.† One conclusion of the study is that â€Å"†¦on the whole, branding is important only where the character of the product is not.† Few multinationals aspire to be monopolies. Monopolies attract government regulation and consumer anger (just ask Microsoft). Small oligopolies (such as Coke, Pepsi) make plenty of money and avoid the constant attention of the regulators. Oligopoly, then, is a compromise – a social adaptation to powerful technological trends. While the rules of perfect competition should both assure that prices reflect the true costs of production and that firms continue to improve their products and production processes, operating under these rules leads to the type of price competition that continually threatens the value of vast holdings of expensive and specialized production facilities. So we have accepted a set of economic rules that limit price competition but still seem to result in competition over product and production process development. Technology forced firms to become bigger, yet that very bigness put them at such risk that they had to become even bigger in order to control prices. OLIGOPOLY IN BEVERAGE INDUSTRY In the Indian context, the soft drink market though it may seem to be duopoly is essentially an oligopoly. Barring the two major cola giants Coke and Pepsi, every city also has local competitors and there is a large unorganized flavoured water market. Moreover, bottled water is also a competitor to the cola brands and in this category neither of the two cola companies are market leaders. However, as far as the cola flavored fizzy  drinks are concerned there are only two brands, Coke and Pepsi. Under such a situation economists would say there would be intense competition. Unless, the two parties collaborate with each other, which is certainly not the case in the cola market worldwide or in India. This implies that the primary battle is for market share and hence intensity of competition is high. Each and every move by a player attracts retaliation. 3 things important to be successful in this category (oligopoly of colas) are: 1. HIGH AWARENESS: This has two components-one is media awareness the other relates to point of consumption. The first one really means large advertising spends, and simple messages repeated umpteen times. Eg. lways Coca-Cola?or il mange more? Simple and memorable. The category leader dictates the awareness level. Once that has been established, the number two player needs to find a lever, which will ensure a position close to the leader, with less money spent. 2. EASY AVAILABILITY: Marketers in this category need to find innovative ways of ensuring availability of their brand at different consumption occasions and time. 3. HIGH EMOTIONS: The key differentiation in this category is emotion. Brand personality can make or break the brands in this category. In an oligopoly, it is foolish to cut price unless one of the two parties have a much lower cost base. That, too, is not the case in India. Both brands, Coke and Pepsi, invest heavily in advertising and in distribution through their franchise and their own systems. However, a great deal of attention is paid by both companies to cost, particularly in the development of a tightly effective supply chain system in which economies are squeezed out and, wherever possible both overheads and working capital are controlled. As a result it is extremely difficult to reduce prices. Indeed, it is counter-productive, as when prices are reduced in a particular area by one  of the cola brands, the second must follow. There have been some examples of price reduction, but this is generally the local franchise or the sales management of a particular area reducing the price. This is, however, generally not the case and prices have only been reduced in the recent past if there has been a reduction in Government taxes, either at the Central or State level. However, there has been some major initiative on the price front. The first took place some years ago when the brand Coca-Cola came back to India. At that time colas were sold in 200 ml bottles. Coca-Cola launched itself in all major cities in the 300 ml size at the same price as Pepsi, which was then in a 200 ml bottle. Pepsi was, however, prepared for Coca-Cola to launch in the larger bottle, which became the standard inmost parts of the country, making the price a parity issue between the two brands. A few years ago, Pepsi launched itself in one litre and 1.5 litre non-returnable PET bottles at a discount in comparison to a 300 ml returnable glass bottle, the traditional packaging in this product category. This resulted in a significant increase in the depth of consumption; amongst the loyal consumers in the larger towns. Coke followed Pepsi in each of the above moves in order to reduce the cost per glass to the consumer. The soft drink majors also pioneered a 500 ml non-returnable PET bottle, which was advertised almost totally on the cost of the consumer per 100 ml of cola. The great advantage of PET bottle is that they not only encourage high level of consumer but increased home consumption which was small compared to out of home consumption. The latest move to reduce price to the consumer was followed by Pepsi in April,2003 when it reduced the price of its 300 ml returnable glass bottle segment from Rs. 8 to Rs. 6 and priced 200 ml bottle at Rs. 5. However, Coke  still priced it 300 ml bottle at Rs. 8. Coke wanted to push the 200 ml â€Å"Chota Coke† pack in summer since they wanted to gain volumes so they priced 200 ml at Rs 5/-â€Å". The fresh price war follows an earlier onslaught when both Pepsi and Coke reduced prices by about 20% across the board just before the Union Budget for 2003-04 provided them with excise duty relief. In the recent past both the companies took aggressive steps and signed on thousands of new retailers in a drive into rural India that has pushed up sales steeply. Coca-Cola has made its beverages available in 40,000 additional villages in the last three years. As a result, the rural areas now contribute 35 per cent of the company’s sales compared with 25 per cent in 2000. Sales volume jumped over 125% in some rural areas. In order to service far-flung markets better, Coca-Cola has doubled the number of refrigerators in the market to 500,000 and added 5,000 new autos and light commercial vehicles to its fleet in the last one year. Pepsi also has also doubled distributors, cooling capacity and even the number of vehicles in rural areas. Thus, the contribution of rural areas to total sales has climbed from below 10 per cent to 10-15 per cent for Pepsi in the last couple of years. Pepsi has added more than 200 people to drive rural activation programmes and ensure improved coverage and market penetration. In addition, a new â€Å"hub and spoke† model has been put in place to drive the rural expansion plan. Both companies say there is untapped potential in the rural areas that will fuel quick growth in the coming years. e the rural expansion plan. In a competitive situation such as the one that exists in the cola market, the important thing is not the price; it is the value that the consumer  gets. And that always increases in proportion to the ferocity of the battle in the marketplace.

Political Geography of Britain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Political Geography of Britain - Essay Example Hence, an electoral system strongly determines a political system’s organization. For anyone interested with the political process, electoral systems are a significant object of study. This paper is on the electoral system of Britain, particularly focusing on its advantages and disadvantages. Britain uses the single member constituency with simple majority, also referred to as the First Past the Post system as her electoral system. For general elections purposes, Britain comprises single constituencies. Every party wishing to contest for the seat/constituency must present one representative or candidate to stand. In every constituency, each voter has one vote, which they cast for the representative or candidate of their choice. Elected as the Member of Parliament for a certain constituency is the candidate with the greatest number of votes. Subsequently, the party with the largest number of elected Members of Parliament normally forms the government (Britton, p1, 2008). Pritch ett (2003) asserts that such an electoral system’s mechanics have in general given support to the dominance of Britain’s parliament by two parties thereby permitting one party to form a governing majority alone. Various scholars associate several advantages as well as disadvantages to this kind of electoral system. As far as electoral systems are concerned, the First Past the Post system that Britain uses is relatively simple and straightforward for voters to comprehend. It requires each voter to place one cross only.

Jazz music concert Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Jazz music concert - Essay Example Jack Jones jazz band among others. As usual, the weekend of 27th June was no exceptional, Jack Jones band was competing with a new band in town called Ron Carter trio band. Both bands are led by Jack and Carter respectively. Jones performed some of his newly composed music jazz genre, and he tried convince the whole crowd why he wanted his band to be recognised the best band in jazz music. His music was well orchestrated and organised with most of the instrument tuned to their right tune, played in the right keys and rhythm. Indeed Jones band members tried to remain on the right keynotes always throughout the music play. However, there rose a problem when the saxophone player went off key, perhaps it was because of a change of song since it was a three-music nonstop competition.Ron Carter trio band, led by Carter, was as well on its right step to fight for their best position in the whole arena of jazz music. The team was similarly organised with all the instruments arranged in a wel l-choreographed manner to produce the best synchronised music. Their lead soloist was well prepared, and it seemed all went well for the band until some few minute to end when the lead guitar man played an off key note resulting to the presentation to halt for some few minutes to correct the mistake before restarting.In comparing both the presentation, I can start with analysing the first presentation of Jones.It was only interfered with the slight discord that was played by the saxophone player.

History and Evolution of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corp Research Paper

History and Evolution of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corp - Research Paper Example Nevertheless, they worked so hard that they were seen to be more hardworking and determined than men and had proved to be more organized than them as well. Following is the account of how their journey began and came to an end. History and Evolution of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corp In the year 1942, around 800 females had joined the WAAC ad began their elementary training in Iowa where they were properly equipped with arms and ammunition, given uniforms to wear and were assigned proper duties to be performed during the war. For the purpose of defining their goals and objectives, a manual was established which identified what they were supposed to achieve in clear words (Permeswaran & Yashila, 2008). The manual said that they had to replace men and be with them on equal terms. In those times however, it was a very critical move because women were not encouraged to come to terms with men on an equality basis, and men felt devalued seeing females standing with them involved in a furio us physical activity like war. Moreover, women had not participated in war previously on ground level. The only females to participate in war before this were nurses. Even though there was a lot of criticism on the women for being part of WAAC, there was a necessity arising in this regard due to the number of men decreasing because of the War. There were around 150,000 women who took part in the world war. They were also believed to be better than men in terms of being more organized, well-disciplined and hardworking. Even in an appalling situation where women were not given overseas pay or any other benefits like life insurance or medical coverage, their passion was enough of an evidence to prove their worth which they successfully did even after facing difficulties of initially getting the bill passed for females to participate in the World War as part of WAAC. It had become very difficult for people to accept women in this new role because most people believed that it was not the kind of job women were supposed to do. Opposing parties questioned that if women started to serve in the army then who would be responsible for the house work and that females were not smart enough to be part of the army, they were likely to make mistakes and have the tendency to act carelessly. The day the bill was passed officially, Oveta Culp Hobby was chosen as the Director of WAAC.She proved to be a very determined and hardworking lady and had proved all assumptions about WAAC wrong. According to her, women were there in the army to assist them in winning war and their roles would not exactly switch or become different from what they are in civilian life. She just believed it would help men in achieving success. In the year 1917, it was decided that women will play a role in the British Army as for being sent to France and Haig who was the then commander in chief wrote to the war office that women will be permitted to fight in the war in France and their services will be utili zed wherever appropriate. However, the kind of work they were supposed to do at that time was much more related to household than to anything else because physical labor was not what they ought to do after all. Selection in WAAC required two references and interview

Roles that political parties and interest groups play in mobilizing Essay

Roles that political parties and interest groups play in mobilizing electoral participation in contemporary U.S. society - Essay Example There are other minor parties within the system such as the Libertarian Party and the Reform Party. For the past century, political parties have played an important role in resolving political conflicts in the US. Political parties play an important role to a democratic society such as the US. It is clear that legislative politics may not be steady without political parties. Therefore, if legislators wish to achieve something and those that want to push their policies can do so using a political party (Ginsberg et. al 69). Consequently, it can be stated that political parties facilitate efficiency within democratic organizations. It can be stated that political parties mobilize voters that have similar interests towards voting in a particular way. Political parties perform a couple of important functions. They pool together the demands and interests of the voters and channel them to the appropriate authorities. It is important to note that political parties approximate the citizens to the government. Political figures are elected into power through parties and therefore take advantage of the party label for reasons of strategic voting as well as information economization (Ginsberg et. al 123). The party candidates belongs to enables voters to make more informed decisions on how their leaders are likely to behave while elected in power. Since national parties are viewed as vehicles of political competition, a limited market is left for the candidates. It has become clear that voters make their decisions based on political parties instead of candidates as they are afraid of wasting their votes. This is what has been taking place in the US since the start of the democratic political system. Voters have never considerably changed their decisions with regards to the choice of parties. They have repetitively adhered to the two party system (de facto). Even if there have been some attempts to integrate other parties into the political system, most of them have

Of Ocado Chief Executive Tim Steiner Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Of Ocado Chief Executive Tim Steiner - Essay Example wastage include indicating a â€Å"use by† label on their products and donating foods that exceed the guaranteed product life but are within product’s â€Å"use by† dates. Carbon emission and food wastage reduction are important initiatives because they uphold a clean and safe environment that benefits businesses and the community at large. Ocado takes deliberate initiatives to reward and appreciate its employees. The company’s employee benefits package includes allowing its employees to own its share with an aim to give them a sense of ownership over the company. It does this through its Ocado Sharesave Scheme that enables employees to save and own shares proportional to their savings. This is an important element of corporate social responsibility because employees are crucial to the success of any business. Charitable donations are an important element of Ocado’s corporate social responsibility. It has a charity committee that organizes events and devices ways of raising funds. Ocado has given to Macmillan Cancer Support, British Heart Foundation and NSPCC. Charitable donations show a company’s selflessness and

Psychosocial Effects of Adult ADHD Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Psychosocial Effects of Adult ADHD - Essay Example Oosterlaan, Logan and Sergeant referred to this condition as 'Response Inhibition' in their article, in Cambridge Journals. Earlier it was presumed that it was only a boy's disorder and never affected girls. Recent information has proved otherwise and now the actual ratio of boys: girls is 3:1. Till recently, hyperactive and impulsive behavior had always been considered as part of childhood and not exactly a problem. Also boys are given more attention, because their behavior is more aggressive and caught attention and hence, were treated accordingly. These are connected with poorer performance, less systematic behavior, loss of working memory, lack of focused attention, irritability, restlessness, inability to carry out specific instructions, and lack of concentration in any activity without being distracted. It is considered to be difficult to diagnose the inattentive kind, as behavior does not show it. According to unconfirmed data 4% to 5% of United States citizens have AD/HD related problems. It persists throughout a person's lifetime. Approximately one-half to two-thirds of children do not get completely treated and will continue have the same behavioral problems even as adults that will create tension for them on the job, within the family and in social relationships. It is supposed to be caused mainly by biological factors, said to be the 'influence in neurotransmitter activity' in the brain. Research leads us to believe that this has a definite genetic basis. Research conducted by NIMH using a positron emission tomography scanner to map out the working procedure in the brain has resulted in showing a certain unbroken connection between the ability to hold sustained attention and the activity level in the brain. In this research, the level of glucose used by various areas of brain which could be in control of impulses and quick decisions was carefully measured. Those areas in an affected person showed decreased activity, as a result of consumed lesser level of glucose. "In people with AD/HD, the brain areas that control attention used less glucose, indicating that they were less active. It appears from this research that a lower level of activity in some parts of the brain may cause inattention and other AD/HD symptoms." http://www.add.org/articles/factsheet.html Earlier diagnosis would solve the problem being carried forward into adulthood, but sometimes, this would not happen. This problem could be excessive, long term and exasperating to the person and people around him. Adult AD/HD is considered to be difficult only if it has created problems either at work place or in the social life of individual. If a certain handicap is felt in these areas, perhaps it should be treated clinically. Because the nature and severity of the problem could vary from person to person, it is not very easy to come to a conclusive diagnosis without any stray doubt. Sometimes, it is not rare to come across a family history of the problem. "Adult anxiety disorders have been shown to be familial. The familial patterns are likely due to a combination of genetic and environmental factors, Garfinkel et al

Single parents in the military Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Single parents in the military - Article Example The discussion in this paper is mainly about single parents, but not in the general population, the main focus would be the single parents in the military. The United States Army consists of combat, and aviation and water transport service forces (Lawrence, 2002). It is well-ordered, trained and well-equipped in order to be capable of combating on land. It has two major responsibilities and they are (1) to prepare the land forces for war, and (2) expand the peacetime components needed by the army to fulfill the war’s needs. In the early 1990s, the number or single parents in the military increased (Zellman, Johansen, Meredith, & Selvin, 1992). Civilian single parents already encounter huge problems with their children that leads to work disruptions, thus, these problems is also likely to occur to single parents in the military as they work with longer and unforeseen hours. In 1992, single custodial parents in the military reached a number or 66,000 and this caused a slight problem as not all of them were able to leave for the Persian Gulf War (Sagawa & Campbell, 1992). The Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces, then, asked the Pentagon to review their policies regarding deployment of military personnel. The single parents in the military are not only the ones having the said dilemmas; there were also the dual military families or those whose parents are both in the military. In the early 1990s, 2.9% of the active duty personnel are dual military families (Zellman et al. , 1992). Along with single parents, they composed 7% of the active duty armed forces and were also hindered to be deployed for the Persian Gulf War due to their incapability of leaving their family behind. The Commission proposed not to allow single parents and dual military families to be deployed for the sake of their children (Sagawa & Campbell, 1992). This paper would focus on answering the problem of how

Eva Smiths Diary Essay Example for Free

Eva Smiths Diary Essay George maintains his game-playing and point-scoring with Martha by assuming a teacher-like tone, while Martha is the pupil. He explains that the chromosome business is very simple, Martha, patronising her like shes a child, again continuing the games. George belittles her, implying shes a monster with a ravenous, almost sexual, appetite that eats [chromosomes] for breakfast. His sudden increase in conversation may be a means to hinder Marthas incessant flirting with Nick, since he is feeling rather threatened by Nick. Although George is speaking to Martha he is directing it at Nick. He links the idea of the banal unvarying race personally to Nick, referring to the smooth, blond, and right at the middleweight limit civilisation of seemingly glorious men. Nick fits this description perfectly, personifying the typical, superficially perfect American Dream, and by making his condemnation of the vision specifically related to Nick, George challenges him. George is contemptuous towards Nick, and as the stage directions read, ignores him when Nick tries to protest. He doesnt trust Nick, and George openly challenges him: I know when Im being threatened. This demonstrates his acknowledgement of both the sexual threat Nick poses, and of the battle between art and science. George is not fooled by Nicks false courtesy as seen in the early stages of the play. Nicks guise of decorum is gradually beginning to uncover. Being a scientist makes him the victim of Georges criticism, and a contributor in the construction of a monotonous master race. Consequently, Nick does not have an opposing response to this vision since he plays a role in its development displayed through his joke of being the wave of the future. It also reveals elements of Nicks arrogance when he says it. He tries to, as seen in the stage directions: make light of it all, in a sarcastic reply to Georges attack, but there is a sense of overconfidence about it. Nick seems unable to take criticism and when he tries to interrupt George, he is impatient or says it grimly, showing how he wants to cease Georges belittling of him and his profession, and his frustration at George. Nick obviously dislikes and holds contempt to George. He gets very irritated with Georges comments about scientists being ants, demanding: Are you finished? Nick is becoming infuriated with Georges taunting, but tries to control himself by trying to make light of it all. The underlying tensions in Nicks relationship with Honey begin to show clearly. He snaps at her when she drunkenly asks: You never told me, and his angry outburst, as seen by the stage directions, [shocks] her. Nick unleashes his impatience and resentment onto Honey, showing that they are not the perfect couple that they appear to be. Here, Albee breaks down the image of the American Dream which Honey and Nick are supposed to embody. Nick calls himself a personal screwing machine in response to Marthas flirting with him. Martha surprisingly doesnt play a domineering part in this extract. She doesnt seem very interested in the totalitarian vision of the future, until George mentions Nick. Marthas responses: Hunh! Awww Goody, are not ones made with great enthusiasm or with interest, although she is impressed at the start of Georges explanation of chromosomes to her. When Martha does comment it does not exhibit anything that we dont already know about her, such as her sexual forwardness. Martha is subtly developing her relationship with Nick, flattering him constantly. She remarks how its not a bad idea if everyone looked like him, and salaciously says So, everyones going to look like you, eh? Marthas obvious flirting could either be taken seriously, or as just another game to annoy George. Along with her advances towards Nick, she gets at George by putting him down, teasing him about his paunch. Martha and Georges childish games are a common part of their interaction, and her mocking him is all part of the game. This extract is essential in showing how there is a gradual development of characters and their opinions, especially George. How the relationships between characters are portrayed in this extract is significant: they are beginning to develop, and their true nature is progressively being exposed. Yet Albee does not simply convey the characters and their relationships with each other, but perhaps even a portrayal of a wider society. In this extract, Albee criticises the concept of the American Dream, the idea of perfection through George, and successfully shows how all that glitters is not necessarily gold. (1263 words) Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE John Steinbeck section.

Container Shipping Industry

Container Shipping Industry Outline the evolution of the structure in the container shipping industry and discuss the extent to which the structural changes are explained by increasing size of ships entering Introduction In the past especially in the last twenty years international container shipping industry and the related trade has been increasing at a tremendous rate. The period between 1980 and 2004 shows that international maritime trade grew at 2.4% compared to this the containerised cargo has increased at 8.6% with an increase of 600% over that period compared to 70% of the maritime trade. This phenomenal growth can be attributed to the many things including the growing importance of transhipment activities. As more shippers understood the advantages of container shipping ports increasingly made changes to the infrastructure and adapted to handling of cargo using containers. This growth of world container traffic has also led to an increase in the size of ships resulting in challenges and opportunities for the container shipping industry. And there is no instance of such a spectacular growth in the transportation industry. This paper outlines the evolution of the container shipping industry h ighlighting the main reasons behind the growth and development of the industry, moreover it also discusses the increasing size of the ships and its relationship with the container shipping industry. (Ircha, 2006. Volk) The Factors Behind the Growth of Container Shipping Industry Volk has studied the container shipping industry and point out four factors which have helped the container shipping industry in achieving its tremendous growth. Following are the four factors: (Volk) Significant Increase in Productivity The origins of containerisation can be found in the fall out from the 1956 Suez Crisis when the when the blocking of the Suez canal leading to an increase in demand for transportation this led to an investment of the shipping industry into ships, but the end of the crisis meant that there was an over supply of ships and eventually led to a prolonged recession in the shipping industry. In addition to this shippers are always seeking to minimise cost as the freight level generally doesnt cover the costs, this cost cutting potential led to the introduction of container ships and the LASH ships, but the container ships were much more successful. The introduction of the 20 feet and the 40 ft container led to far-reaching changes to the transportation industry, the productivity of the container shipping is 4 to 8 times to that of the traditional shipping. This enormous productivity led to the shippers being profitable even when the freight rates were low and thus remained competitive. However to really gain from the containerisation concept a lot of investment was needed in the transportation channels. Countries have gradually adapted to this change and have done it at their own pace. This is the reason that the structural changes have been taking place even today in many of the Asian, African, Baltic and Latin American Countries. The Containerisation of shipping is still in the process of penetrating many national markets this is the reason for its greater development compared too the general transportation market. Structural Changes in Shipping Due of Containerisation The structural chages in Cargo shipping industry led to the success of the container shipping industry. first many of the ports which were important were unable to make appropriate changes like creation of quays, installation of careanes etc. Due to this many important ports like Liverpool, and San Francisco were left behind. Because of concentration od cargo on a few ports led to the development of hinterland connections, for example Rotterdam and Antwerp have effective inland shipping and. Not all of the shipping industry was able to adapt to the change brought about by containerisation, because in addition to shipping the shippers had to invest in containers too. This limited the number of shippers whoi were able to containerise their business. Major difference is that has occurred because of containerisation is the increase in the efficiency of shipping. In the past ships used to spend weeks standing at ports, the trips between Northern Europe used to take eight weeks, however with the introduction of containers the trips time has halved to four weeks. With significant increase in the capital investment and fewer number of ports, and increase in the speed of ships and efficiency. Shippers now realise that the ships cannot be profitable sitting at ports as a result the idea of offering of multiple loops has emerged. Because the larger ships with containers could not reach all ports and since many poiorts did not have the capacity or the finances to support containerisation, ship rotation and feeder shipping, a network of shipping feeders has evolved. These ships function both inter-regionally and intra-regionally. There has been an evolution of the trading routes along with the evolution of containerisation. In the past the routes between different regions of the world were quite clearly defined, however with the intention of creating more efficiency, for this new concepts like the pendulum concept and the round-the-world concept evolved. The decrease in the transportation was and is passed on to the customer with increased cost reduction, the volume of cargo being transported from far-flung areas has become extremely cheap as the large ships with containers are able to achieve economies of scale. Increase in Trade Volume and its Relationship with Economies of Scale The increase in containerised trade has induced the shippers to use larger and larger ships and the large size of ships has led to economies of scale. The strategies adopted by the shippers to deal with this interdependency is to understand the limitations of investment in ships, generally ships last for about 25 year on average, therefore to cope with the steady increase in demand many shippers order ships which have extra capacity to deal with the future increase. Some shippers try to increase their market share so they can invest in more ships. The increase in capacity is not insignificant as it determines the volumes whish can be transported. Bigger ships also mean more containers, this is the reason that there is extremely stiff competition because the container ship markets have newer ships all the time increasing the competition as the customers benefit because of increased size of ships. Low transportation costs have simulated global trade as products and goods become more and more competitive on a global platform. This is the reason that containers are used for general cargo but also for break bulk cargo like transportation of salt from Australia to Europe. In addition to price container shipping is not only reliable, timely and has more geographical outreach, that industries and producers produce goods which can be containerised. In addition since the size of ships is increasing even today the transportation costs will continue to decrease as the growth of containers is more than proportionate. Deregulation and Liberalisation Deregulation and trade liberalisation occurred in the 90s particularly the Asian and the Latin American countries. Chinas entrance in world trade has also been a major part of this liberalisation. Because of this container industry has experienced an added impetus to growth. Structural Change due to Increase in Ship Size Gradually over the years, specialised container ships have steadily increased in capacity and dimension shippers try to find the economies of scale in an ever competive market. In 2004 half of the ships ordered were big enough to have a capacity of 5500 TEUs at the minimum, in addition the 36 percent of the all container ships planned for building have a capacity of 7400 TEUs. These huge ships are now becoming more common in the key trading paths which serve Asia. New orders for China Shipping Container Lines range between 8500 and 9600 TEUS. It is estimated that the new ships will be 334 metres long and 42.8 metres wide and have anticipated drafts of 15 metres or more. Even bigger ships depend on better engine technology for the vessels propulsion system. (Notteboom2004) It is believed that the next increase in ship size will be 12,000 TEUs or even more, as the limitation in the engines mean that it will take two engines for the ships larger then 10,00 TEUs. It is estimated that the maximum size of ships would be approximately 18,000 TEUs. This is based on the fact that Malaccan Straight between Indonesia and Malaysia has the relevant depth limits (Gilman 1999). Bigger container ships need: Approach channels and berths which are deeper Channels and turning basins which are wider larger container terminals which have more storage capacity and warehouses on land so that they can satisfactorily handle higher volumes of export and import containers. Outreach which is both higher and longer mechanized ship-to-shore support cranes, An extremely proficient and well-organised work force working round the clock to guarantee swift ship turnaround Cullinane et al (1999) have found that economies of scale exist in the case of Europe-Far East and trans-Pacific routes in ships with 8,000 TEU even if the limitations of ports are taken into consideration. As for trans-Atlantic route the range of 5,00 to 6,00 TEUs is ideal. However today there is less knowledge about the economies of scale related to super-big container ships. Some believe in the case of 18,000 TEUs the cost saving are negligible as they would lack flexibility. Adding post-panamax capacity can give a short-term competitive edge to the early mover, putting pressure on the followers in the market to upgrade their container fleet and to avert a serious unit cost disadvantage, i.e. the ‘me too syndrome as indicated by. A boomerang effect eventually also hurts the carrier who started the price war.   While others like Waals and Wijnolst,( 2001)insist that there would be cost saving based on hub-feeder arrangement. It is clear that the increase in scale of vessels has decreased the slot costs in container industry, however it is also significant that larger carriers have not been able to achieve cost saving from economies of scale (Lim, 1998). Moreover inefficient slot utilisation and the tendency to buy more cargo at lower rates can lead to lowered revenues. Graham states that the techniques like cost cutting by post-panamax building will not be helpful and instead will prevent the shipping industry from achieving stability. To him the danger of a brutal cycle of increase in ship scale, continuous building and decreasing margin is detrimental to the industry. he goes on to say that this increase leads to short term reduction in cost which pushes competitors into investing in still larger vessels this is confirmed by Helmick et al (1996) who thinks that it is a boomerang effect hurting the shipper who started it in the first place. Conclusion Containerisation has been revolutionary in terms of changes brought about in the transportation industry, and especially in the case of container shipping industry the change has not only led to its tremendous growth but also lowered prices. From the above discussion it becomes obvious that containerisation and subsequent steady increase in ship sizes has led to many changes however some people argue that the exercise to find achieve economies of scale is unending and this will lead to an increase in vessel size, which may go beyond 12,000 TEUs in the next few years. This is because shippers have tried to achieve savings in terms of fuel economy and economies of scale in larger ships, this is to have a larger market share and be successful in the sector. Larger ships do have lower costs per TEU than smaller ships. From the perspective of the ports, the larger vessels will be favoured in the longer rroutes, like Trans-Pacific, trans-Atlantic and Far East- Europe routes, with vessels larger than 8,000 TEUs. Ports have been gearing themselves up for bigger vessels trying to provide facilities to accommodate the huge sizes, this entails huge costs and structural adjustments, and however the incentive is to become hub ports, other ports have to make appropriate changes to remain competitive. References Cullinane, K., Khanna, M. and Song, D.-W. (1999) â€Å"How Big is Beautiful: Economies of Scale and the Optimal Size of Containership, Liner Shipping: Whats Next?† Proceedings of the 1999 IAME conference, Halifax, 108-140. Gilman, S., 1999, The size economies and network efficiency of large containerships, International Journal of Maritime Economics, 1(1) Graham, M.G. (1998). Stability and competition in intermodal container shipping: finding a balance, Maritime Policy and Management, 25(2), 129-147 Helmick, J.S., Wakeman, T.H., Stewart, R.D. (1996). Technology, intermodal transportation and port productivity: throughput maximization and environmental sustainability, The Journal of Urban Technology, 3, 11-38. Ircha, M C. (2006). Characteristics Of Tomorrows Successful Port in Crowley, Brian Lee (Ed.) The AIMS Atlantica Papers #4 http://www.aims.ca/library/Ircha.pdf. Lim, S.-M. (1998) â€Å"Economies of Scale in Container Shipping,† Maritime Policy and Management, 25: 361-373 Notteboom T E. (2004). Container Shipping And Ports: An Overview. Review of Network Economics Vol.3, Issue 2, 86-106 http://www.rnejournal.com/articles/notteboom-RNE_june_04.pdf Volk B. Growth Factors in Container Shipping. Elsfleth, Department of Marine Studies http://www.amc.edu.au/mlm/papers/AMC3_GRO.pdf Waals, F., Wijnolst, N.(2001). Malacca-max: container shipping network economy, Proceedings of the IAME 2001 conference, Hong Kong, 191-207