The festival that Ashland built Essay Example For Students

The festival that Ashland built Essay Business is booming at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Is everybody happy? Sort of. Ashland, Oregon sits at the foot of the Siskyou Mountains like a favorite pair of boots at the foot of a bed, 20 miles outside of Medford, a cow patties toss from Interstate 5. The nearest major metropolitan area is Portland, more than 300 miles away, and the nearest professional baseball team resides 400 miles to the south in San Francisco. Certainly there are more convenient places to produce Shakespeare, but none more popular. We will write a custom essay on The festival that Ashland built specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Back in 1970, 172,334 people made the trip to see the Bard performed under the stars on Oregon Shakespeare Festivals outdoor stage, most of them coming from more than 150 miles away. Then, the town of Ashland was little more than a gas stop buffeted by a couple of restaurantsand modest ones at that. Outside under a gibbous moon in Ashland, seeing Shakespeare was a matter of sweating (if the 100-plus daytime temperature lingered too long) or shivering (when the cold night wind whistled down the mountains and cut through your skin like a lance). City Shakespeare it was not. Nineteen-seventy was also the year the 600-seat Angus Bowmer theatre was christened, paving the way for an entirely new era of theatre in Ashland. Indoors, air-conditioned, versatile and modern, the Angus Bowmer opened with a production of Tom Stoppards Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, thus whetting the OSF audiences appetite for new and more challenging non-Shakespearean work. OSF has been growing like a well-tended weed ever since. More than 400,000 people attended the festival last year, bringing close to $68 million in revenue to the tiny town of Ashland. The much-anticipated $7.6-million Allen Pavilion of the outdoor Elizabethan stage was also unveiled last summer, and new artistic director Henry Woronicz took the creative reins from the companys long-time overseer Jerry Turner, who held the position for 21 years. To be sure, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is poised at the end of one era and the beginning of another, as it was in 1970, and has been many other times in its venerable history. Business is booming, and the popularity of the festival is at an all-time high. But success has come at a price. The economic growth that was so vital and welcome during the 1980s has arguably reached a point of diminishing returns. Because their fates are so symbiotically linked, both OSF and the city of Ashland are discovering that too much of a good thing can be a strain. As OSF has grown, so has the city of Ashland. Once upon a time the venerable Mark Antony Hotel was virtually the only place in Ashland where you could get a room and a meal. Ashland has since swelled to the point where it now has more than 100 restaurants and, according to the most boastful of Chamber of Commerce brochures, the highest number of bed and breakfasts per capita in the nation. So many upscale clothing stores, restaurants, wine shops, boutiques and espresso bars have opened in the last five years that locals euphemistically refer to the phenomenon as the Carmelization of Ashland. Indeed, while many of the 14,000 people who live in Ashland year-round still drive overhauled Volkswagen Beetles, one now finds a conspicuous overrepresentation of Lexuss, Jaguars, BMWs and Mercedes Benzs parked along the main drag during the summer. Predictably enough, real estate in Ashland has also skyrocketed. Land in and around Ashland is now the most expensive in Oregon. Though the relationship between the city and the festival is reportedly very amicable, longtime residents still occasionally wake up bewildered that the festival and its hundreds of thousands of patrons have virtually taken over their town. A sign posted by Citizens for a Poodle-free Ashland in one of Ashlands more renegade countercultural hangouts hints at the tongue-in-cheek tolerance of the locals for the yuppification of their city, but the perception of who actually owns Ashland depends entirely on who you ask. PATRONS OF THE OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL tend to think fondly of Ashland as their town, but most of them visit only for four or five days per year, so the feeling isnt necessarily mutual. To the Deadheads and politically correct hippie wannabes who play frisbee in the park and busque for quarters on the streetcorner, the festival itself is viewed as a kind of cultural Disneyland where upper-middle class white people come to have their sense of Western cultural superiority reaffirmed. To the people who descend on Ashland for the ski season after the festival closes on Nov. 1, Ashland is a ski town, period. Festival crowds are something they are happy to avoid. Students of Southern Oregon State College, located a mile outside of Ashland, can hardly wait for festivalgoers to leave so that they can reclaim what they see as their turf. To be sure, Halloween partygoers during the late 1980s bid the festival such an enthusiastic farewell that the police had to intervene. And to the businesspeople who live and work in Ashland, of course, those same festivalgoers are the backbone of their existence, earning them an average of $53,000 per year of the $68 million per anum the audiences unload on the local economy. Indeed, one of the great and mysterious charms of Ashland is how it can possibly be so many things to so many different people. Visitors tend to see in Ashland exactly what they want to see, and the contradictions are staggering. Like so many small American towns that have been discovered by urban professionals looking for a bucolic getaway, the great challenge of the future is whether Ashland can continue to grow and embrace the contradictory forces that sustain it without destroying the very character that makes it such a wonderful place to visit. .ubed583199675af4ae9cd9b7d247f26e1 , .ubed583199675af4ae9cd9b7d247f26e1 .postImageUrl , .ubed583199675af4ae9cd9b7d247f26e1 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ubed583199675af4ae9cd9b7d247f26e1 , .ubed583199675af4ae9cd9b7d247f26e1:hover , .ubed583199675af4ae9cd9b7d247f26e1:visited , .ubed583199675af4ae9cd9b7d247f26e1:active { border:0!important; } .ubed583199675af4ae9cd9b7d247f26e1 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ubed583199675af4ae9cd9b7d247f26e1 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ubed583199675af4ae9cd9b7d247f26e1:active , .ubed583199675af4ae9cd9b7d247f26e1:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ubed583199675af4ae9cd9b7d247f26e1 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ubed583199675af4ae9cd9b7d247f26e1 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ubed583199675af4ae9cd9b7d247f26e1 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ubed583199675af4ae9cd9b7d247f26e1 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ubed583199675af4ae9cd9b7d247f26e1:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ubed583199675af4ae9cd9b7d247f26e1 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ubed583199675af4ae9cd9b7d247f26e1 .ubed583199675af4ae9cd9b7d247f26e1-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ubed583199675af4ae9cd9b7d247f26e1:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: First Act of 'The Crucible' EssayTHE FESTIVAL IS CAUGHT SMACK DAB IN THE MIDDLE of that challenge, and the theatres administration is all too aware of the pitfalls. The new Allen Pavilion was built as much to keep increasing traffic and party noise out as to keep the actors voices in, and the street adjacent to the pavilion is still blocked off during showtime to keep the noise level down. For many years, OSF enticed people to become dues-paying members of the festival by offering preferential treatment on ticket reservations. Now it is impossible for OSF to promise good seats to everybody exactly when they want them because membership has become so popular. Tickets for sh ows in the tiny 140-seat Black Swan theatre are particularly difficult to reserve, with a limit of two per customer, creating what OSF management calls the Black Swan problem, their biggest public relations bugaboo to date. Though staff people say there is still room for the festival to market its shoulder seasons in spring and fall, the festival already plays to 95 percent of capacity and is rapidly reaching the audience saturation point. Those who have been around the festival for a while say that growth has always been a mixed blessing in the festivals 57-year history. And now that the Allen Pavilion has been built and the companys new Portland branch is in full swingPortland Center Stage was launched in 1988 with a five-play October-to-March season and a separate administrative and production staffexecutive director William W. Patton is inclined to think that enough is enough. In fact, he says, Nobody wants to grow any larger than we are now. Our primary concern at the moment is to deepen the artistic integrity of the work. Patton was the festivals first paid employee back in 1953, when fewer than 16,000 people per year made the pilgrimage to Ashland. For him, change has been a constant, and the new multimillion dollar Allen Pavilion is a perfect metaphor for the direction in which he wants the festival to move. The pavilion was built largely to solve problems that had grown along with the city of Ashland itself. Noise from traffic and the park behind the former Elizabethan Theatre had gotten so bad that people sitting in the back third of the theatre could only decipher about half of the words. Actors were forced to shout their lines in order to be heard, straining their voices even in the most intimate scenes, to the point where people up front began complaining that the productions were looking more and more ridiculous. Actors were becoming reluctant to accept parts on the outdoor stage, and many people were beginning to feel that the viability of outdoor Shakespeare in Ashland was being threatened. The idea was to create a sound barrier to the encroaching world outside while simultaneously improving the acoustics and intimacy inside. The futuristic stadiumlike structure wraps around the seating area, and the back third of the seats have been raised into a secondtier balcony, creating an acoustic shell that reflects sound back into the theatre. An entirely new lighting system housed in the perimeter of the shell has quintupled the technical capabilities of the theatre, the stage itself was extended by three-and-a-half feet, and two new vomitorium entrances have doubled the number of entrances and exitsall of which have turned the formerly beleaguered space into a directors playground. Its like a microwave oven, actor Mark Booher tells people on his backstage tours. Now that we have it, we cant remember how we got along without it. In keeping with the festivals current growth-control thinking, no new seats were added when the pavilion was constructed, though it would have been a perfect opportunity to do so. We built this to improve the quality of our productions, not the quantity, reminds Patton, and the pavilion has done just what he and other advocates of the project promised it would. In fact, the acoustics are so good inside the Allen Pavilion that not only can the actors be heard, but so can every cough, sniffle, rustle, slurp, sneeze, whisper and crackle of a cellophane candy wrapper. In the past, nobody cared if people talked to their neighbors or popped cans of soda in the middle of a scene, but veteran Ashland theatregoers now find themselves having to be on their best behavior in these sensitive new surroundings. The problem was so noticeable last year that management is considering banning soft drinks and food in the future to minimize distractions. Except for a few people reluctant to give up their view of mountains silhouetted by stars, reactions to the pavilion during its first year were mostly positive, especially from people who remember how bad the noise problems were getting. Mention the new pavilion in the OSF members lounge and faces beam with enthusiasm. Its wonderful, says Audrey Bernstein, a member from San Diego who has been coming to Ashland for more than 12 years. When you walk in, it just feels more like I imagine things must have felt in Shakespeares day. Its very exciting. The wind doesnt come down the mountain and smack you in the cheek like it used to, either, adds Carol Tomas, another longtime OSF member. But the flipside to added wind protection is that the pavilion traps more heat on sweltering midsummer days, taking longer to cool down at night. THE OVERWHELMINGLY POSITIVE RESPONSE TO THE Allen Pavilion is also good news to fledgling artistic director Henry Woronicz, not only because he was the one who advised the board of directors six years ago to build the structure, but because now that most of the problems associated with the outdoor stage have been solved, Woronicz can turn his attention to other more pressing issues facing him as artistic directornamely the fresh artistic vision he wants to implement. .u5eabfd87a20bd3945ffd6bc8b20958cd , .u5eabfd87a20bd3945ffd6bc8b20958cd .postImageUrl , .u5eabfd87a20bd3945ffd6bc8b20958cd .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u5eabfd87a20bd3945ffd6bc8b20958cd , .u5eabfd87a20bd3945ffd6bc8b20958cd:hover , .u5eabfd87a20bd3945ffd6bc8b20958cd:visited , .u5eabfd87a20bd3945ffd6bc8b20958cd:active { border:0!important; } .u5eabfd87a20bd3945ffd6bc8b20958cd .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u5eabfd87a20bd3945ffd6bc8b20958cd { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u5eabfd87a20bd3945ffd6bc8b20958cd:active , .u5eabfd87a20bd3945ffd6bc8b20958cd:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u5eabfd87a20bd3945ffd6bc8b20958cd .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u5eabfd87a20bd3945ffd6bc8b20958cd .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u5eabfd87a20bd3945ffd6bc8b20958cd .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u5eabfd87a20bd3945ffd6bc8b20958cd .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u5eabfd87a20bd3945ffd6bc8b20958cd:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u5eabfd87a20bd3945ffd6bc8b20958cd .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u5eabfd87a20bd3945ffd6bc8b20958cd .u5eabfd87a20bd3945ffd6bc8b20958cd-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u5eabfd87a20bd3945ffd6bc8b20958cd:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Henry V Play Review EssayHiring Woronicz to pick up where Jerry Turner left off is considered by many OSF observers to be an extremely conservative move, if only because Woronicz has spent most of his adult life performing Shakespeare. Woronicz has been a beloved member of the acting company in Ashland for years, but some worry that, if he doesnt know anything else, he cant do much more than maintain the status quo. Woronicz himself gets a mischievous twinkle in his eye when the charge of conservativism comes up, because he knows why people say it and isnt very comfortable with the reasons. Woronicz agrees that relatively traditional productions will continue to be staged outdoors under his reign, though he will try to entice more diverse and prestigious directors to Ashland (a record four women directed plays in Ashland last year, and more than 10 percent of the acting company were people of color, a distinct change in the companys cultural diversity over past years). But where Woroniczs artistic touch will be felt most is in the Angus Bowmer and tiny Black Swan theatres. Speculation runs rampant about what exactly Woroniczs vision might look like, but at least a few clues about where he intends to guide OSF can be gleaned from last years program of plays, which he co-produced with Turner, particularly La Bete, the first non-Shakespearean play he chose to direct in his new role as artistic director. La Bete bombed on Broadway in 1991, but Woronicz was attracted to the language of the playwit-laced rhyming couplets mimicking Moliereand thought it would perfectly complement the festivals Shakespeare. He also thought that 32-year-old playwright David Hirson deserved a second chance, and liked the fact that the play took not-so-subtle satirical jabs at the staid arts-patron establishment, including the National Endowment for the Arts and OSFs own loyal but conservative supporters. I was looking for something that would jump out at peoplesomething with a little more bite to it, says Woronicz. On opening night, with Ray Porter playing the lead role of Valere, a bombastic pseudo-genius hired to add some zest to a lackluster 17th-century acting troupe, La Bete received one standing ovation at the end of Valeres monumentally self-absorbed 22-minute opening soliloquy in the middle of the first act, and another at the final curtain. Critics didnt embrace the play as warmly, but critics dont go unscathed in La Bete either. THOUGH DEVELOPMENT OF NEW PLAYS WILL NEVER be a main focus of the festival, Woronicz intends to keep challenging OSF audiences with increasingly adventurous work by up-and-coming playwrights. During the Turner era, OSF audiences were often treated to Turners own translations of his favorite playwrights, Ibsen and Strindberg. Eager to put his own stamp on OSF, Woronicz rattles off names such as Caryl Churchill, Steve Tesich, Steven Dietz and John Guare as examples of the kind of work he wants to produce. Woronicz is all too aware of OSFs lingering national reputation as a place that does safe plays for vacationing, relatively unsophisticated, middle-class audiences, and has made it his personal mission to see that theatre in Ashland gets the respect he thinks it deserves. Its easy for us to get lulled into complacency here, says Woronicz. People will come to whatever we put up, and thats both a blessing and a curse. As artists, we want to take this opportunity to breathe some life into some areas of the operation that may have gotten stale. For a theatre thats arguably the largest regional theatre in the country, with a $12-million budget, a company of 65 actors, four theatres in two cities producing 16 plays a year, we should be able to find some room to support new writers. Keeping his word, Woronicz has made sure that in addition to a full slate of Shakespeare next year, OSF audiences will also have the opportunity to see Caryl Churchills latest play, Mad Forest, written in response to the fall of Romanias Ceausescu regime, as well as Light in the Village by John Clifford, The Baltimore Waltz by Paula Vogel, Tony Kushners adaptation of Corneilles The Illusion, Georges Feydeaus A Flea In Her Ear, and in Portland Lips Together, Teeth Apart by Terrence McNally, and Spunk by George C. Wolfe. The largely white artistic staff will also take a multicultural microstep forward this year when Clinton Turner-Davis, only the second African-American can ever to direct an OSF production, directs August Wilsons Joe Turners Come and Gone. Privately, under his breath, Woronicz also whispers about the possibility of finding a small fourth theatre somewhere in Ashland where his more esoteric side can be indulged. For now, however, his pet solution to the Black Swan problem is to use it as a venue for more experimental, artistically adventurous work, since it will be packed to the gills no matter what goes up, making the popularity factor almost irrelevant. Somewhere between managing, directing, holding hands and sleeping, Woronicz also wants to get back onto Ashlands outdoor stage and have a go at Hamlet once more before he turns 40. Like the festival and the city of Ashland itself, Woronicz is in the midst of a middle-age transition. He has gotten where he is by stretching himself to the limit, as have OSF and Ashland. Ten years from now, neither the festival or Ashland will be same as they are today. Continuous growth has been relatively kind to them in the past, and one can only hope that future change will be managed intelligently to preserve the magic and character of both. As almost half a million people a year can attest, Shakespeare and sage-brush have never gone so well together. With any luck, the Bard will be able to kick his boots off and hang out in the hills of southern Oregon for a long time to come.

The Role of Social Media in Modern Society

The Role of Social Media in Modern Society The recent developments in wireless technologies have introduced new means and directions of communication. Million of people all over the world are now engaged in political, economic, cultural, and educational discourses due to the vast expansion of the World Wide Web. Indeed, social media has transformed people’s lifestyles and has introduced a new pattern of social interaction.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Role of Social Media in Modern Society specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Just several years ago, people many people did not even suspect of the possibilities that such popular social networks as Facebook and Twitter can provide in terms of communication. Nowadays, Facebook has become one of the largest networks in the world by means of which people can share and exchange views, images, and photos. However, apart from changes to social structures, the social networking systems have managed to go beyo nd and influence business, education, and politics. With this in mind, social media has a multifaceted impact on the modern society because it affects all spheres of life, including business, culture, politics, education, and economics. Today social media cannot be regarded as a means of spending spare time because it has introduced the biggest shift since the times of the Industrial Revolution. Therefore, the spread of online communication can also be considered a revolutionary shift. Indeed, social networks have altered the traditional image of social communication and have provided new incentives and tools of information exchange. Facebook and Twitter have become essential tools for initiating environmental activities and spreading news and services that can reach thousands of potential activists (Kutsko). As statistics shows, Facebook dominates in Google in terms of weekly traffic in the United States, which proves the fast-growing tendencies in using the social network for othe r purpose than communication and social interaction (Kutsko). Social media has quickly penetrated the educational field. It has also introduced online learning, which is becoming more popular among international students all over the world. Indeed, Facebook has managed to reach more than 200 million users in less than a year (Kutsko). Therefore, more and more students share their opinions and create online communities to advance their learning and improve performance. The possibility to discuss educational challenges is a beneficial perspective for students. In addition, the research studies conducted by the U.S. Department of Education have discovered that online students outperformed those who are engaged in a traditional learning scheme.Advertising Looking for essay on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Finally, social media has become an integral part of business and marketing activities. Because ev ery credible business premises on ethical and moral values dictated by society, adoption of social networking sites is essential for promoting products and services. In fact, social media allows business to gain immediate feedback about their products. Moreover, it also creates opportunities for predicting the needs and demands of consumers. In conclusion, social media has reached every facet of human activities. It has become an integral part of communication means. Online networks, such as Facebook and Twitten, have penetrated to social and cultural realms and have provided new patterns of acting in a real environment. Virtual space, therefore, have become one more source by means of which people can introduce their educational and business activities. Finally, online networks become powerful tools for advertising products and services, as well as for attracting new marketing targets. Overall, social media can be considered as a foundational shift in daily activities and lifestyle s. It is also a step up toward a new communication environment. Kutsko, Evan. â€Å"Social Media Revolution†. 7 Jan. 2011. YouTube. Web. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBXOjEZUIm8

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Essay Example for Free

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Essay ? Charles Dickens wrote this novel because he was keenly touched by the lot of poor children in the middle decades of the 19th century. This is the reason which motivated Dickens in doing this, before writing this novel. Before he decided to this he thought of publishing leaflets instead. On the other hand some critics have suggested that Scrooge’s redemption underscores what they see as the conservative individualistic and patriarchal of Dickens Carol Philosophy. Dickens own experiences influenced him a lot in why he wrote this novel and how he cares so much for the children, who were forced to hard labour in the workhouses from such young age as 12. Before the â€Å"New Poor Law† was introduced in 1834, a high percentage of young children were forced t work to make sure that them and their families did not die of starvation. There was a well known prison called the â€Å"The Marshelsea†, it became know in the 19th century around the world through the writing of the English novelist Charles Dickens. His father which was there in 1824 for a debt of ? 40 and 10 shillings however Dickens most traumatic experience was when he was forced to leave school at the young age of 12 to work in a factory instead. Dickens already had ideas of how to use these types of experiences in a novel. Some of the social conditions such as the new poor law have been shown in the â€Å"Christmas Carol† in this particular quote: â€Å"The Treadmill and the the poor law in full vigour then? † â€Å"Both very busy sir†` This quote proves to us that Dickens used his novel to express the social conditions through it. Dickens used Scrooge as the main character to show that wealthy people always have a responsibility to help those less fortunate. He clearly shows this view at the end of the novel where he gives a young boy money to buy a turkey for the Crachit family. The family isn’t the richest but has a really warm heart. Crachit tries showing Scrooge that life is not all about money and also that he should try to move on and forget about Bella. Scrooge had a really bad experience when Bella marries someone else because she told him that he cares about money more than her. Scrooge somehow had to overcome this tragic event in his life and since then he has not been able to celebrate a successful eve without thinking of her for even a moment. In much earlier in the novel 3 old men come up to Scrooge asking for money to donate to people for Christmas, however Scrooge is a cold hearted person so instead of donating a few shillings he says â€Å"Bah Humbug. † The main character of â€Å"A Christmas Carol† is Ebenezer Scrooge. He is an elderly man who lives in London, his sister died leaving a son whose name is Fred. In addition to this Ebenezer has no family. He is a very rich banker. Scrooges clerk Bob Crachit is a middle–aged man who has six children. Ebenezer is thin and has a slight hunchback, coal grey hair and a wrinkled old face, on which he has reddish eyes, a long pointed nose and thin blue lips as cold as ice. Like his employee Bob is very well dressed. Let’s take a look at Scrooge first, before he got visited by the spirits he was a very stingy person and only cared about his own interests. He couldn’t manage to share his money and was not sensitive to the suffering of others. Ebenezer was even harsh to his employee who never cheated, is reliable, hardworking and had to endure the bad behaviour on him. Bob is satisfied with not owning anything and having no money at all. Bob is satisfied with not owning anything and having no money at all, however the only things that matter for him and make him happy are the small but the most important things in life which is his family. After Scrooge got visited by the ghosts he changed positively and you could even say that was similar to Crachit. Just like he likes Christmas, is a good and open to others, joyous and happy. He even started to share money with the poor and expressed his feelings by helping others. In my opinion Scrooge turned into a better character and I admire his sudden transformation into a better human being. Bob Crachit’s characteristics are that he is poor, has a big family, young and takes care of his close ones, joyful and nice. The crachit family live in a small cosy home but they don’t have enough money to decorate it with luxuries because the most important thing for them is too have enough money for coal/fire so that they would be warm, however most importantly all they want to happen is for Tiny Tim to be a healthy again. The miraculous transformation that Scrooge has made makes us aware that good change is never too late. Also that money cannot buy happiness you just have to share it with other people to make something good of it. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. (2017, Feb 22).

Voluntary environmental management initiatives Essay

Voluntary environmental management initiatives - Essay Example This defines the basic approach the company takes in implementing the system. If the focus is on compliance, then the benefits that the company will expect are reduction in their liabilities. (A Strategic Approach to ISO 14001) This is an EMS and the company is likely to consider it a cost. On the other hand, if the company's objective is to improve their products, design and processes, with the attendant benefits of pollution reduction, but more importantly customer satisfaction, then it could be a VEMI and the company would consider this an investment. The company, in this case, will not be worried about the certification per se, but about the satisfaction of the stakeholders. This does not, of course, mean that the certification is not necessary or is useless, but the company in question is pursuing real results in terms of pollution reduction and improvement in the processes and products, leading to customer and stakeholder satisfaction. (A Strategic Approach to ISO 14001) To answer the question - 'Why are VEMI's important' - The first thing that we need to understand is that it is more realistic than an ISO 14000-oriented EMS. To elaborate, there can be no uniformity in the framework to be used to implement EMS systems - this will differ from company to company, industry to industry. For instance, a retailer may focus on how environment friendly the suppliers are; while a chemical company may focus on how to develop products that cause less harm to the environment and how to recycle the waste products. Even the expectations in the ISO context - that the company has a commitment to ensure compliance, that it seeks to improve its systems on a continuous basis and that it aims to control pollution - cannot be evaluated in the same way for different facilities. (A Strategic Approach to ISO 14001) To take the example of the first expectation - commitment to compliance - different nations have varying levels, strictness and coverage in their environmental regulations. Since ISO 14000 stipulates compliance with regard to the location of the company seeking certification, it may be that a company located in a country where there are less number of laws, will be able to show compliance sooner and with much greater ease. (A Strategic Approach to ISO 14001) The chance of companies getting the certification by adhering to certain minimum regulation requirements is also high. Hence, for real environment management in letter and spirit, it may be necessary to motivate companies to take up VEMI, where they are genuinely interested in environmental improvement. VEMI will therefore be the instrument through which real environment management systems with responsible environment friendly actions take place. Voluntary initiatives or programmes are of three types, according to Lyon and Maxwell. They can be unilateral commitments in which case business organisations voluntarily set up environmental initiatives or programmes. The organisation and not the government take the initiatives in this kind of programme. They can also be public voluntary programmes, where more than one firms agree to adapt the standards established by a public body, like an environmental agency. They can also be negotiated agreements where the government industry

Arms And The Man Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Arms And The Man - Essay Example The second act takes place four months later after the war ends and Sergius and Major Petkoff return. Though Raina and Sergius declare eternal love, they are only acting and their real feelings are very different. Sergius soon begins flirting with the maid Louka, and Raina’s thoughts keep returning to her chocolate crà ¨me soldier. Bluntschli comes back to return a coat he has borrowed from the Petkoffs and now that the war is over he is welcomed by Sergius and Major Petkoff and even helps them in moving their armies since as a pragmatist, he is willing to fight for whichever side pays. Bluntschli makes fun of Raina's romantic pretentiousness; though he is secretly attracted to her. Things come to head when Louka in trying to get Sergius for her self-tells him about Raina and Bluntschli. Sergius gets jealous and challenges Bluntschli to a duel, he accuses Raina of secretly trysting with Bluntschli, but they both deny this. Bluntschli tries to help Sergius repair things with R aina, but it is too late as Sergius’s philandering with Louka also comes out also. During all this, a letter arrives informing Bluntschli that his father has died and that he must return to Switzerland immediately. Sergius finally rejects his romantic ideals and declares his intention to marry Louka. When Bluntschli discovers Raina is twenty-three and not a teenager as he had thought he quickly asks her parents for her hand in marriage. When they find out how wealthy he is, they agree, and after some token resistance, Raina submits 1.

Memento analysis Essay Example for Free

Memento analysis Essay The movie that is going to be discussed is â€Å"Memento†. The theme of the movie is based on cognitive psychology that includes the realm of human perception, thought process and memory. Various cognitive responses such as memory, planning, as well as intelligence and problem solving are highlighted during the course of the movie. The central character in the movie, Leonard Shelby, damages his hippocampus, which subsequently affects his ability to make new memories. The hippocampus is a part of the brain that is important and responsible for creating and recalling memories, as a result of which Leonard has lost the ability to generate short-term memory. Leonard, in the movie is an insurance agent who through the course of the movie attempts to track his wife’s killer and the man responsible for his current state. Leonard’s condition post accident and the death of his wife, can draw parallels with anterograde amnesia, because he doesn’t seem to remember new things, however he retains memories leading up to the accident. The movie Memento continues Hollywood’s fascination with the psyche of the human mind and the genesis of movies based on amnesia is a recurring theme. While the movie does reasonably well in bringing to light the plight of people suffering from anterograde amnesia and similar neurological disorders following brain trauma, it does offer enough loopholes to guarantee criticism from experts. Leonard believes that he does not have amnesia. This is a slight aberration from the true picture of a patient with anterograde amnesia because they do not seem to lose track of who they are and the condition they are suffering from. It can be argued that some patients with a more seething disease do offer a mixed profile, into which Leonard’s character can fit. Also, another aspect of cognition is the evidence, that Leonard is still capable of using his procedural memory that includes doing routine things and following certain procedures like driving a car. His declarative memory on the other hand is functional up to the point of his accident. Declarative/explicit memory is essentially conscious memory, while procedural memory is more of a subconscious or unconscious action that can be done. Additionally, with the hippocampus part of his brain being destroyed, Leonard is incapable of moving things from his short term memory to his long term memory, and thus forgets things if not written down or taken note of. Short-term memory lasts or stores items for less than 20 seconds, unless rehearsed. Thus, in order for him to remember things, and have enough time to write them down, he rehearses them, which allows him to remember them for a longer period of time, and if interrupted that memory is lost. This was portrayed very well in the movie when he hits Natalie. Natalie throws all of the writing utensils out and then hassles Leonard about his wife and his condition trying to get a reaction so she could in essence set Leonard up, and this she did accomplish. After hitting Natalie, she leaves the house and Leonard rehearses what has just happened while looking for a writing utensil, however there are none to be found. Further, Natalie did not go anywhere when she left the house, she stays in the car and hence, when she slammed the door, purposely, Leonard stopped the rehearsal, and essentially forgot what he was doing, when she comes back into the house, Leonard has no recollection of hitting her. Thus, although his hand is sore, Leonard does not remember anything that had just occurred, this is due to a stop in rehearsal, and with nothing written for him, he cannot remember what has occurred recently. Leonard is always prepared with something to write on, he always has his camera and his pictures that allow him to remember things; in essence he keeps generating a working memory through out the course of the movie to catch the killer. Thus, planning is somewhat prevalent in this movie however, although planning requires knowledge about the problem space, or understanding of the constraints of the problem space to mentally construct it well, this is not always available to him. Thus, he is unable to use partial planning, because he did not always think of the outcome that might occur, such as when he killed Natalies boyfriend, and realized he was not the one responsible after he had done it, instead of thinking ahead, before he had done it. However, with his pictures he was able to get back to particular destinations, and with direction, even if simple, but written down, he was able to use them and plan ahead. Further, in relation to the murder of Natalies boyfriend, counterfactuals were also used, and Leonard is trying to imagine past events differently than they actually did and thus, he burnt the picture that he took of the event because that was the only recollection that he had of the situation. Furthermore, drives, emotions, and problem solving are all clearly used in this movie as well. Drives, are generally associated with bodily needs whereas emotions are generally associated with more complex personal and social needs, in this case finding the individual who caused Leonard so much pain by raping and murdering his wife, and damaging his memory is very important. In addition, heuristics were also commonly utilized and, heuristics undoubtedly allow individuals to avoid searching paths that are unlikely to lead to a solution, and this is exactly what Leonard is doing with all the facts he was collecting to narrow down the suspect to find out who raped and murdered his wife. Basically, by slowly collecting and putting together different facts about the rapist and murder of his wife, Leonard was emotionally driven to find the individual responsible for essentially ruining his life. His emotions and feelings of anger, sadness, and love were all affected by his motivation and drives from the pain that was within him due to his present circumstance. In the movie, many of the cognitive aspects were relevantly presented and shown in a realistic manner however, at times in the movie, things that were not rehearsed or written were remembered, which at times did not allow for it to be fully realistic. This was evident when Dodd was involved, and in the closet and Leonard woke up, and saw that there was a gun in the drawer of the hotel room and it was not his room or his gun, and so when Teddy got there he showed him the gun in the drawer, which probably would not have been remembered realistically. Thus, to improve, and make this aspect of his condition more realistic, not only at this point in the movie, but throughout the movie would have been for Leonard to actually rehearse things out loud, until he had written things down to clearly show that rehearsal is necessary for things not to be forgotten. 1: Cipolotti L, Bird CM. Amnesia and the hippocampus. Curr Opin Neurol. 2006 Dec;19(6):593-8. Review. 2: Mayes AR, Isaac CL, Holdstock JS, Cariga P, Gummer A, Roberts N. Long-term amnesia: a review and detailed illustrative case study. Cortex.2003 Sep-Dec;39(4-5):567-603. Review. 3: Kopelman MD. Disorders of memory. Brain. 2002 Oct;125(Pt 10):2152-90. Review. 4: Aggleton JP, Brown MW. Episodic memory, amnesia, and the hippocampal-anterior thalamic axis. Behav Brain Sci. 1999 Jun;22(3):425-44; discussion 444-89. Review. 5: Mishkin M, Vargha-Khadem F, Gadian DG. Amnesia and the organization of the hippocampal system. Hippocampus. 1998;8(3):212-6. Review. 6: Tulving E, Markowitsch HJ. Episodic and declarative memory: role of the hippocampus. Hippocampus. 1998;8(3):198-204. Review.

The Selfishness Of Man in Steinbecks Grapes of Wrath Essay -- essays

The Selfishness of Man Cultural and economical pressures often lead people to behave corruptly. In John Steinbeck?s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, set in the dustbowl era, people act out of greed rather than out of consideration or kindness. Tom Joad and his family have been run off their land by inconsiderate, money hungry businessmen who do not care about the impact homelessness will have on the evictees. The story revolves around the Joad Family?s trip (joined by former preacher Casey) from Oklahoma to California, along route 66, where they expect to find work. Though Casey and the Joads are goodhearted and honest people, they are the victims of dishonesty and dupery when they realize that the jobs they have come so far to acquire pay them much less than they were originally promised. The book focuses on the family?s struggle to survive, while exhibiting the evil and manipulative power which the tenant owners and businessmen of the era possessed. Throughout the novel, Steinbeck demonstrates the impacts and consequences of man's selfishness and inhumanity by exemplifying the wicked and egotistical actions of the tenant owners and businessmen. In the beginning of the novel, before Casey and the Joads set out on their journey, the selfishness and inhumanity of the businessmen and tenant owners becomes apparent. In one of the ?plotless? chapters, the reader is exposed to the hardships which the farmers are forced to face while being evicted from their land. Businessmen, sent from the bank, would come to the farmers land in cars and explain to the farmers that they need to get off their land. They would tell the farmers that unfortunately, with the technological advances being made, a tractor can do the work of twelve families- h... ... rendering the much needed food useless. The inconsiderate actions displayed by the businessmen and orchard owners show their selfishness and inhumanity, and exemplify their carelessness and indifference towards suffering humans. Steinbeck portrays the wealthy men of the era as heartless and egotistical people who only care for themselves. His message through the portrayal of these wicked men is one of simplicity, egotism, greed, selfishness, and heartlessness are all traits which a man shouldn?t possess. The themes which run throughout the novel are as valuable today as they were in the mid 1900?s, and Steinbeck urges his reader to recognize that. His depiction of the selfishness of man serves to teach about human nature, and by acknowledging the harmfulness of the greedy and corrupt businessmen, one can learn how to act morally and ethnically responsible.

Health Care System Budgeting Procedures

Larry Scanlan, in his article about hospital budgeting, presents seven keys to a successful budget. These â€Å"reality keys†, as he calls them, are designed to help insure that the CFO and CEO are able to navigate through a difficult process. The first of these is accountability. He recommends communicating about the status of financial performance in all areas, and instituting a compliance plan that monitors and responds quickly to problems. Teamwork and a high sense of management integrity are essential. The budget is everyone's responsibility, not just management. The second key is to know your market. The budget process should mesh seamlessly with the strategic plan. Management should have a clear enough understanding of their market, so that they can respond to changes quickly and accurately. The third key is to know how the institution's revenue is generated. Physicians are the key to revenue, and management should be actively involved in physician service, retention, and recruitment. This will allow management to accurately predict volume from admissions and subsequent revenue. The fourth key is to base the budgets on reasonable objectives. Scanlan discusses basing budget numbers on realistic achievements, rather than â€Å"what the boss wants.† The budget should have specific action steps, responsibility, and timelines and milestones so that progress can be monitored and corrective action taken when needed. The fifth key deals with keeping the operating margin healthy. The margin must be realistic and as accurate as possible. â€Å"Without a rigorous approach to establishing a realistic operating margin, the CEO, CFO, and management team may face a daunting shortfall of budgeted margin to meet cash requirements.†1 The sixth key is to monitor the process. Actual results must be captured and variances generated when there is a difference between the budget and the actual results. It makes absolutely no sense to create a budget if the institution is not going to monitor results against it. The variances can point out corrective action that is required. Finally, the last key is to have a contingency plan in effect to cover adverse occurrences. While it is impossible to plan for every contingency, some occurrences can be foreseen. Labor costs and equipment expenses can be estimated with some accuracy. Scanlan argues that it is important for the CEO and CFO to set the tone and direction for the planning and execution of the budget process. It is their responsibility to keep the budget grounded in reality. â€Å"By using the keys to budget reality, you can monitor performance, identify trends, and make course adjustments in a timely manner.†2

Damien Peter Parer

Damien Peter Parer (1 August 1912 – 17 September 1944) was an Australian war photographer. He became famous for his war photography of the Second World War, and was killed by Japanese machinegun fire at Peleliu, Palau. He married Elizabeth Marie Cotter on 23 March 1944, and his son, producer Damien Parer, was born posthumously. He was also the uncle of Australian politician Warwick Parer and film-maker David Parer. He was cinematographer for Australia's first Oscar winning film, Kokoda Front Line, an edition of the weekly newsreel, Cinesound Review which was produced by Ken Hall. Damien Parer was born at Malvern in Melbourne, the tenth child of Teresa and John Arthur Parer, a hotel manager on King Island, Tasmania. In 1923, he and his brother, Adrian, were sent as boarders to St Stanislaus' College in Bathurst and St. Kevin's College, Melbourne . He joined the school's camera club, and decided that he wanted to be a photographer, rather than a priest. However, finding a job as a photographer in depression-era Australia proved difficult, and so he resumed his education at St Kevin's in east Melbourne. While at this school he won a prize in a photographic competition run by the Melbourne newspaper, the Argus, and used the money to buy a Graflex camera used by professionals. Parer obtained an apprenticeship with Arthur Dickinson. He said later that he learnt most about photography from Dickinson and Max Dupain. He finished his apprenticeship in 1933 and, sometime later, obtained work with the director, Charles Chauvel, on the film Heritage, where he met and became friends with another up and coming filmmaker of the time, John Heyer. At the conclusion of that film, and with the help of Chauvel, he obtained work in Sydney, and so moved there in 1935. By World War II, Parer was experienced at photography and motion pictures, and was appointed as official movie photographer to the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). His first war footage was taken on HMAS Sydney after it had sunk the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni. Soon after, he was aboard HMS Ladybird while it was bombarding the sea port of Bardia in Libya. His first experience at close quarters was during a troop advance at Derna. Parer filmed in Greece and in Syria, covering the action from aircraft, the deck of a ship and on the ground with the infantry. After Syria he travelled to Tobruk in August 1941 before covering the fighting in the Western desert. By mid-1942 Parer was in New Guinea ready to cover the fighting against the Japanese. During this phase of the war, he filmed some of his most famous sequences, some at Salamaua and, most notably, those used in Kokoda Front Line. This documentary won its producer, Ken G. Hall, an Academy Award for documentary film-making. Parer was killed by Japanese gunfire while filming a United States Marine advance in Peleliu on the island of Palau.

Definition and Examples of Foreigner Talk

Definition and Examples of Foreigner Talk The term foreigner talk refers to a simplified version of a language thats sometimes used by native speakers when addressing non-native speakers. Foreigner talk is closer to baby talk than to pidgin, says Eric Reinders. Pidgins, creoles, baby talk, and foreigner talk are quite distinct as spoken but nonetheless tend to be perceived as similar by those adult native speakers who are not fluent in pidgin (Borrowed Gods and Foreign Bodies, 2004).As discussed by Rod Ellis below, two broad types of foreigner talk are commonly recognizedungrammatical and grammatical.The term foreigner talk was coined in 1971 by Stanford University professor Charles A. Ferguson, one of the founders of sociolinguistics. Characteristics of Foreigner Talk We know that in addition to increase in volume, decrease in speed, and a chunky, word-by-word delivery, Foreigner Talk exhibits a number of peculiarities in its lexicon, syntax, and morphology, most of them consisting in attrition and simplification.In the lexicon, we find most noticeably an attrition in terms of the omission of function words such as a, the, to, and. There is also a tendency to use onomatopoetic expressions such as (airplanes) zoom-zoom-zoom, colloquial expressions such as big bucks, and words that sound vaguely international such as kapeesh.In the morphology, we find a tendency to simplify by omitting inflections. As a consequence, where ordinary English distinguishes I vs. me, Foreigner Talk tends to use only me.(Hans Henrich Hock and Brian D. Joseph, Language History, Language Change, and Language Relationship. Walter de Gruyter, 1996) Two Types of Foreigner Talk Two types of foreigner talk can be identifiedungrammatical and grammatical. . . .Ungrammatical foreigner talk is socially marked. It often implies a lack of respect on the part of the native speaker and can be resented by learners. Ungrammatical foreigner talk is characterized by the deletion of certain grammatical features such as copula be, modal verbs (for example, can and must) and articles, the use of the base form of the verb in place of the past tense form, and the use of special constructions such as no verb. . . . There is no convincing evidence that learners errors derive from the language they are exposed to.Grammatical foreigner talk is the norm. Various types of modification of baseline talk (i.e. the kind of talk native speakers address to other native speakers) can be identified. First, grammatical foreigner talk is delivered at a slower pace. Second, the input is simplified. . . . Third, grammatical foreigner talk is sometimes regularized. . . . An example . . . is t he use of a full rather than a contracted form (will not forget instead of wont forget). Fourth, foreigner talk sometimes consists of elaborated language use. This involves the lengthening of phrases and sentences in order to make the meaning clearer.(Rod Ellis, Second Language Acquisition. Oxford University Press, 1997) Foreigner Talk and Pidgin Formation Even if conventionalized foreigner talk is not involved in all cases of pidgin formation, it seems to involve principles of simplification which probably play a role in any interactive situation where the parties have to make themselves understood to each other in the absence of a common language.(Mark Sebba, Contact Languages: Pidgins and Creoles. Palgrave, 1997) The Lighter Side of Foreigner Talk Manuel:  Ah, your horse. It win! It win!Basil Fawlty:  [wanting him to keep quiet about his gambling venture] Shh, shh, shh, Manuel. You   - know - nothing.Manuel:  You always say, Mr. Fawlty, but I learn.Basil Fawlty:  What?Manuel:  I learn. I learn.Basil Fawlty:  No, no, no, no, no.Manuel:  I get better.Basil Fawlty:  No no. No no, you dont understand.Manuel:  I do.Basil Fawlty:  No, you dont.Manuel:  Hey, I do understand that!(Andrew Sachs and John Cleese   in Communication Problems. Fawlty Towers, 1979)

Portfolio Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Portfolio Analysis - Essay Example Logically, then, the risk and return of an individual security should be analysed in terms of how that security affects the risk and return of a portfolio in which it is held. As mentioned in Finance for Non-Financial Managers by Lawrence W Tuller, Diversifiable risk is also known as company-specific, or unsystematic, risk. Market risk is also known as non diversifiable, or systematic, or beta, risk; it is that risk remains after diversification. Diversifiable risk is caused by such random events as lawsuits, strikes, successful and unsuccessful marketing programs, winning or losing a major contract, and other events that are unique to a particular firm. Since these events are random, their effects on portfolio can be eliminated by diversification- bad events in one firm will be offset by good events in another. The riskiness of a portfolios declines as the number of stocks in the portfolio increases. The smaller the correlation coefficient (the movements of two variables with respect to each other), the lower the risk in a large portfolio. If we could find a set of stocks whose correlation were negative or zero, all risk could be eliminated. Consider Stock M with the beta coefficient of 2 i.e. ... This is due to the diversification of risk in a portfolio. (2) Explain carefully how diversification leads to the construction of the Markowitz efficient frontier. Answer: As explained by Eugene Brigham and Gapenski, the computational procedure for determining the efficient set of portfolios was developed by Harry Markowitz and first reported in his article "Portfolio Selection", Journal of Finance, March 1952. Markowitz developed the basic concepts of portfolio theory. With only two assets, the feasible set of portfolios is a point within the curve. However if we increase the number of assets, we would obtain an area under the curve. The points A,B,C and D represent single securities. All other points with in the curve, including its boundaries, represent attainable set. The above Curve boundary from A to D however defines the efficient set of portfolios, which is also called efficient frontier. Portfolios to the left of the efficient set are not possible because they lie outside the attainable set. Portfolios to the right of the boundary line (interior portfolios) are inefficient because some other portfolio would provide either a higher return with the same degree of risk or a lower risk for the same rate of return. Markowitz efficient frontier model. The optimal portfolio for each investor is found at the tangency point between the efficient set of portfolio and one of the investor's indifference curves. This tangency point marks the highest level of satisfaction the investor can attain. The investor's risk/return trade off function is based on the standard economic concepts of utility theory and the indifference curves. Here we have 2 Stock holders. Mr Y and Mr Z. Mr Y is more risk

The European Union is often referred to as an international Essay

The European Union is often referred to as an international organisation sui generis (of its own kind). What makes the European - Essay Example Therefore the EU is primarily regarded as a supranational organization since it requires the transfer of some measure of sovereignty to the organs of the EU. Moreover, many decisions made by the EU are enforceable irrespective of member state cooperation and coordination.4 For example, in Cassis de Dijon the European Court of Justice ruled that a member state could not impose qualitative restrictions on goods from another member state.5 Moreover, in Kramer, it was held that where the EC had competence in a policy area, the member state could not act on its own accord.6 Thus the ECJ has ruled against the exercise of state sovereignty in giving force to the idea of a supranational EU. It has also been argued however, that the EU is nothing more than an example of regional integration since much of the political and economic integration networks within the EU, like all other regional organizations, depend on Member States’ voluntary compliance.7 In this paper it is argued, that a lthough the EU may share some similarities with regional and international organizations, it is substantively different and can best be described as a supranational organization and is the only one of its kind. The most important differences between the EU and other international organizations is the concept of shared sovereignty. From its inception, with the implementation of the Treaty of Rome 1957, the founding of the European Economic Community which only constituted 6 states, was an agreement in which each of the states â€Å"agreed to limit, but not totally transfer national sovereignty† in terms of â€Å"economic policy to a set of common institutions†.8 By virtue of the Treaty of Rome 1957, Member States agreed to common economic policies and the removal of trade barriers.9 While this alone would have made the founding arm of the EU similar to the World Trade Organization, the Treaty of Rome went farther requiring the establishment of a European Bank, policies for increasing employment and an amalgamation of transport and agricultural policies.10 In addition, sovereignty was transferred from among the Member States in terms of keeping with the common market principles to a Council of Europe, a Commission and a Court of Justice.11 With more states joining the Community, the Treaty of the European Union 1993 was signed in 1992 and is also known as the Maastricht Treaty which â€Å"absorbed the former† Community.12 The new Treaty (which has been amended to further clarify the functioning of the EU, by the Treaty of Lisbon 2007) went beyond economic union and added a pillar of political and legal union among the Member States.13 The Maastricht Treaty established a European Parliament and a Court of Auditors which expanded on the institutions developed by the Treaty of Rome 1957.14 In addition, the Maastricht Treaty established citizenship of all citizens of Member States.15 This aspect of citizenship not only cedes some measure of sove reignty to the EU, but also sets the EU apart from any other