Washington Square Essay -- Argumentative Henry James Essays

Washington Square In Putt's book Henry James: A Readers Guide, he speaks in a chapter about Washington Square. Within this chapter he goes over the role that Catherine plays in the story. She ultimately chooses spinsterhood, and not to defy her father, and to be the good daughter. The theme of avoidance o f marriage, spinsterhood, is something that is focused on by James in much of his work (Putt 46). Putt dwells on the fact that the father was a cruel man, and gives extraneously long quotes from James's original text to make a small point. I think that this author would have been much more effective if he would have narrowed down his thought in this chapter. Putt touches on a lot of things concerning Washington Square, such as the intrusion of the narrator, in the second person no less, and the analysis of the novel by some Doctors out in the field. It seemed to me that Putt could have been more successful by keeping it short and sweet, and not giving brief synopsis of the entire novel. The novel, Wa shington Square, Putt says in this chapter, is not even long enough to be considered a novel. Please tell me why. Putt offers no explanation as to why he believes this is so, and really should not have put in his own two cents anyway. Once again this jump in topic indicates a real strain to try to keep up with the subject that the author wishes to discus. He asks more questions than he answers and to me that was very frustrating. If Putt was really trying to be objective, he could at least have gotten the answers he sought so that the rest of us would not have to ponder the answer for him. Putt seemed to me to be very critical of this work of James, although he does not deny that this is definitely one of James's best pieces. ... ... speaking of Morris Townsend's selfishness, both the doctor and Mrs. Montgomery admit that everyone is selfish. But the doctor proceeds to admit that he does not hide it well (one assumes the doctor does a much better job hiding his selfishness), and Dr. Sloper then admits to looking past Morris as a person: "You see I am helped by a habit I have of dividing people into classes, into types. I may easily be mistaken about your brother as an individual, but his type is written on his whole person" (James 87). This admission shows that Dr. Sloper's sense of Morris Townsend's character is biased and prejudice. Therefore there is no dichotomy in Dr. Sloper, and the novel does prove to be morally simple. Works Cited Hall, Donald. Afterword. Washington Square. By Henry James. New York: Penguin, 1979. James, Henry. Washington Square. New York: Penguin, 1979.

Consequences of Syrian Conflict Essay

*Syria is now mired in an armed conflict between forces loyal to President Bashar al Asad and rebel fighters opposed to his rule. -Since major unrest began in March 2011, various reports suggest that between 22,000 and 25,000 Syrians have been killed. -U.S. officials and many analysts believe that President Bashar al Asad, his family members, and his other supporters will ultimately be forced from power, but few offer specific, credible timetables for a resolution to Syria’s ongoing crisis. -In the face of intense domestic and international pressure calling for political change and for an end to violence against civilians, the Asad government offered limited reforms while also meeting protests and armed attacks with overwhelming force. -Nonviolent protests continued, but their apparent futility created frustration and anger within the opposition ranks. -An increasing number of Syrian civilians have taken up arms in self-defense, although armed rebel attacks alienate some potential supporters. -The government accuses the opposition of carrying out bombings and assassinations targeting security infrastructure, security personnel, and civilians in Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, and other areas. -Accounts of human rights abuses by both sides persist, with the majority attributed to security forces and military units. Backgrounds *Syrians have long struggled with many of the same challenges that have bred deep dissatisfaction in other Arab autocracies, including high unemployment, high inflation, limited upward mobility, rampant corruption, lack of political freedoms, and repressive security forces. -These factors have fueled opposition to Syria’s authoritarian government, which has been dominated by the Baath (Renaissance) Party since 1963, and the Al Asad family since 1970. -President Bashar al Asad’s father—Hafiz al Asad—ruled the country from 1970 until his death in 2000. *Since taking office in 2000, President Asad has offered and retracted the prospect of limited political reform, while aligning his government with Iran and non-state actors such as Hamas and Hezbollah in a complex rivalry with the United States and its Arab and non-Arab allies (including Israel). -Syria’s long-standing partnership with Russia has remained intact and is now the focus of intense diplomatic attention because Russia is one of the regime’s only remaining defenders. -As unrest emerged in other Arab countries in early 2011, Asad and many observers mistakenly believed that Syria’s pervasive police state and the population’s fear of sectarian violence would serve as a bulwark against the outbreak of turmoil. -Limited calls in February 2011 to organize reform protests failed, but the government’s torture of children involved in an isolated incident in the southern town of Dara’a in March provided a decisive spark for the emergence of demonstrations. -The use of force against demonstrators in Dara’a and later in other cities created a corresponding swell in public anger and public participation in protests. -The government organized large counterdemonstrations. -For much of 2011 and early 2012, a cycle of tension and violence intensified, as President Asad and his government paired limited reform gestures with the use of military force against protestors and armed opposition groups. -Violence was initially limited to certain locations but now has affected most major cities, including Damascus and Aleppo. -Members of different elites may seek compromise with the opposition, but there has been little public dissent from top regime figures. -Defections from the armed forces and from the political and business elites continue, and international sanctions and the disruptions of the conflict are creating hardship for ordinary Syrians. -As the conflict has dragged on, protestors and opposition fighters have defiantly resisted government crackdowns, in spite of the arrest of thousands of citizens and documented cases of torture and regime-instigated massacres. -The regime argues that opposition violence and abuses make a negotiated solution impossible, and President Asad refuses to leave power. -In an August 2012 report, the United Nations Human Rights Council commission of inquiry on Syria found: 2 reasonable grounds to believe that Government forces and the Shabbiha( is a term used in the context of the Syrian civil war to describe armed men in civilian clothing who assault protesters against the government of President Bashar Al-Assad.) had committed the crimes against humanity of murder and of torture, war crimes and gross violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including unlawful killing, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, sexual violence, indiscriminate attack, pillaging and destruction of property . -The commission found reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes, including murder, extrajudicial execution and torture, had been perpetrated by organized anti-Government armed groups. Consequences *Latest news from Syria shows that the West is not going to stop, continuing efforts to consolidate the â€Å"opposition† and give the military resistance more centralized character, with the division into districts and Action Front of the rebel army. *At the same time, the regular army of Syria increasingly showing signs of weakening. *Actually,the consequences of the fall of the Syrian regime are significantly differentiated for Russia, China and Iran but more vulnerable to such threats is the Islamic Republic, however a detailed consideration of these issues is beyond the scope of this article. -One can only assume that at the critical point, these countries are more prefer to engage in a post-conflict settlement of fragmented Syria, which will allow them to maintain a semblance of respect for their interests and lost regional role and influence, rather than spending more resources to preserve the regime. *Meanwhile, the consequences of military action in Syria, regardless of the outcome, can have an impact on the situation in Central Asia and in particular in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and then create the conditions for the tension in Xinjiang along the entire borders of these countries. *Now in Syria, according to public information, in addition to the Free Syrian Army and various local rebel groups there are several number of groups of jihadist orientation, fighting in the ranks of the representatives of the Arab countries, as well as immigrants from Europe and other regions of the world, representing essentially gang mercenaries, under the auspices of the West, Turkey and the Arab monarchies. -But, for the countries of Central Asia, as well as Russia and China, should be of particular concern the so-called group of â€Å"Dzhebat al Nusra† (Jabhat al-Nusra=(â€Å"The Support Front for the People of Syria†), is a militant group operating in Syria.) or â€Å"Al-Nusra front to protect the Levant.† *According to the latest information, in the ranks of this group, which is considered by many experts as branch of al-Qaeda, involved citizens of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia (natives of the North Caucasus), as well as citizens of the China (ethnic Uighurs). (Rim(8090))

Banking in a Digital Age - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1921 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Research paper Did you like this example? Q1. What types of Information Systems and business processes were used by NTUC before migrating to the new digital systems? What were the problems associated with the old systems? Before migrating to the digital systems, NTUC Income relied on EBao Technology. This consisted of: HP3000 mainframe hosted the core insurance applications as well as the accounting and management information system. The COBOL program maintained by Incomeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s in-house IT team. One of the issues observed with the old system was the Business process, transaction processing for policy Underwriting was a batch process and information was not available to agents and advisors in real time. Voluminous documents were manually sorted and stored in warehouse, retrieval of same took days to accomplish resulting in lost opportunities and cross sales. Another concern with COBOL was launching new products ranged from a few weeks to months resulting in decreased productivity and revenue and wasted manpower hours. The HP 3000 frequently crashed coupled with hardware failures resulted in many downtime days. Incomplete daily data was a costly and tedious process. The biggest difficulty faced was the many possible breaches in data protection resulting from their systems reliance on paper forms and manual storage and retrieval of all documents. Q2. Describe the digital systems capabilities at NTUC after migrating to the new system. How did the systems resolv e their problems? Explain. NTUC was in a crisis and needed to change. In order to power engines forward, they used Digital Systems. Best energy is a crisis. (Stapleton, Digitial technology in financial services, 2015) Income switched to the Java-based eBao Life system in 2003. This new software comprised three subsystems. Policy Administration, Sales Management and Supplementary Resources. This change from paper to digital systems immediately solved the problem of agents accessing clientsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ files in real time. This resulted in the many cross sell opportunities that were previously lost, being opened up. (See fig 1)[1] It also allowed Tan to push his company forward in terms of generating business as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“telecommuting staff members had faster access to information, almost as fast as those in the office.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (Stapleton, NTUC Income, 2015)This push forward by Tan is a prime example of good customer relationship management as it addresse s all their marketing sales and services with their customer at the core. (see fig 2)[2] (Laudon and Laudon, 2014) The improved methods for generating business had an instantaneous effect on NTUCà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s profitability as is evident in the case study. The new digital system vastly improved the process of developing and launching new products. The company moved from waiting weeks or months for a product launch to just a few days with the new system. Coupled with accessing customer information in real time this allowed targeted smart selling practices, selling the customer what they needed rather than product pushing. (Bibby, 2012) The HP 3000 systems meant agents of NTUC were frequently experiencing system failures resulting in lost revenue and a loss of trust in their system. The eBao technology solved two of the issues NTUC were facing. Firstly a real à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" time hot back up disaster recovery centre was implemented, meaning in the event of a system failu re operations could be switched quickly to the disaster recovery site without the need to rely on the restoration of previous day data (Stapleton, NTUC Income, 2015). Secondly, with the destruction of paper forms and storage systems in favour of online alternatives and a hot back up recovery centre, the company are less likely to breach data protection laws. Q3 Speculate on how the new digital systems provided a basis for the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Orangeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  strategy. Could Orange have been possible with the old systems? Explain. The new digital systems provided an opportunity for Income that Tan Suee Chieh seized with both hands. He had foresight to realise Big Data is what a company needs to provide tailored products to its consumers (Brad Brown, 2011). Although what NTUC had access to would not be considered Big Data in todayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s digital world, it was a major step up from the paper based system they had. Tan began the transformation to digital systems by first introducing what he called à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“cultural revolution.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  In response to the success of his company he responded à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“it rested on cultural change, and by culture I mean peopleà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s attitudes and behaviour. We were extremely strong in values like trust, but we needed to be much better in terms of professionalism and adopting a more dynamic or commercial approach towards running the business.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (Bibby, 2012) Tan understood that as a leader he needed to change the culture within his organisation, however he realised in order to do this he could not look at à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“changing cultureà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  instead he needed to focus on a business problem and then assess how culture within the company would help or hinder this (Schein, 1985). With Income, the problem was obvious, their dated storage and paper based systems were holding them back from becoming the world leading insurer Tan envisioned. Tan used his four yearsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ experience from Incomes board of directors and his twenty yearsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ experience with Prudential to aid his assessment of culture within the company (Bibby, 2012). Once the Cultural Revolution had been well established, Tan began his Orange revolution. This was about à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“doing things differentlyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“changing the rules outside the company, and change the way the game is played in the insurance industryà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (Bibby, 2012) Orange Force was one of the first à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Orange momentsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Tan had. These brightly coloured motorbikes were only made possible because of the introduction of the wireless technology system brought in to replace paper based ones. The introduction of these technologies meant systems were always accessible, a crucial feature for Orange Force who required access to customers insurance records at the roadside. Orange Speak is centred on putting customer needs first and ensuring customers get a à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“fair dealà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . This aspect of the orange revolution focuses on customer centricity, a factor that is still promoted on the Income website. They promote the fact their 7 branches assist 1,400 walk in customers and 2,500 phone calls on a daily basis. These interactions are aided by the fact any advisor can access customer records quickly and securely to deal with each customerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s individual need. Orange Speak is another aspect of orange revolution that would not be possible without digital systems. The implementation of these digital systems meant information became available to advisors in real time. This allowed for opportunities to cross-sell according to consumer needs and only target products consumers needed not the ones that helped agents meet their sales targets. Income were now able to become smart in the way they handled their data, they could now pair advisors and customers according to need and specialism, a chore that would have been arduous with a paper based system. In recent years, orange revolution has focussed on expanding its value added services such as the motor service centre and their new born gift initiative (Income, 2015). The abolishment of paper in favour of digital has clearly improved profits at Income (Stapleton, NTUC Income, 2015). By reinvesting some of these profits back into his company in the form of Value Added Services, Tan is ensuring his company remains a global leader and maintains their reputation of putting the customer first. Q4. Set out three important lessons for Irish retail banking can be drawn from the NTUC case study. What are the implications of these lessons for your bank? Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Banking in a Digital Age" essay for you Create order CUSTOMER CENTRIC. Clearly evident from the Case study, prior to the migration to the digital web-based system, NTUC customer care was low priority. From inception to execution the customer process was tedious, lengthy and impersonal. The client profile was minimal resulting in staff being unable to ascertain whether the prospect was new or existing. NTUC had the foresight to acknowledge that change was needed to ensure success. In a recent recorded lecture on the topic of CRM, Dr Larry Stapleton said à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“what we want to be able to do is track and analyse how the firm interacts with its customers.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  NTUC has provided us with the evidence that this methodology is something that must be considered to the highest degree by businesses in todayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s environment. (Stapleton, Digital Systems and the Customer: Customer Relationship Management Systems 1, 2015) The implications of this for our Bank are that in order to survive and gain the competitive edge, we need to prioritise the customer each time every time. Our competitors can offer similar products and price and promote online switching deals, however, ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s through service and anticipating their needs that will gain us the edge and win. We need to have a deep understanding of our customers and have the ability to analyse vast amounts of data on their behalf. DIGITALISE By moving from paper based HP3000 to the online digital systems of Ebao, NTUC have significantly improved the security of their clients data. All forms are now stored digitally and are backed up electronically reducing the risk of loss and misplacement. A study by Galliher et al in 2008 gives strength to the argument that NTUC are now less at risk of security breaches by using digital forms. Galliher compared results of 60 volunteers, 30 completing paper forms and 30 completing electronic, the results showed only 3% of those gathered electronically had errors, compared to 35% of those gathered on paper. (James M. Galliher, 2008) Currently, our bank still relies on paper based lending applications prior to submission for approval. These forms then have to be manually filed into binders by advisors. This provides numerous opportunities for error, omission and misplacement. The department for finance has since 2009 been promoting paperless banking, heralding the work of Danske B ank who went completely paperless in 2006 and reaped the rewards in terms of cost saving and improved customer satisfaction. (Finance, 2009) INTREGATION OF SYSTEMS By moving to their new platform Income clearly had set a strategy to achieve Competitive advantage and by applying Michael Porterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s competitive forces we can undoubtedly understand the importance of the firmà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s environment. (Fig 3[3]) The single view approach facilitated more products and coupled with the customer centric design ensured New Entrants and Customer forces were complied with as now the profiling could distinguish whether the clients were new of existing. By providing a platform for New Orange strategy, this gave the very important competitive edge and improved customer service. Through the integration of NTUCà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s systems, they were successful in irradiating Porters five forces. This is a lesson we could look into in our bank as the threat of substitution, new entry, competitive rivalry and supplier power are still a very real issue for us. Bibliography Bibby, A. (2012). Profile of a chief executive. Voice Magazine. Brad Brown, M. C. (2011). Are you ready for the era of big data? McKinsey Quarterly. Department of Finance. (2009, 06 05). Finance gov ie. Retrieved from https://www.finance.gov.ie/sites/default/files/NIBrespon09_0.pdf James M. Galliher, T. V. (2008). Data Collection Outcomes Comparing Paper Forms With PDA Forms in an Office Based Patient Survey. Annals of Family Medicine, 154-160. Kennetch C. Laudon, J. P. (2012). Management information systems. Harlow: Pearson. NTUC Income. (2015, Apr 01). NTUC Income. Retrieved from https://www.income.com.sg/ Schein, E. H. (1985). Organizational Culture and Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc. Stapleton, D. L. (2015). Digital Systems and the Customer: Customer Relationship Management Systems 1. Banking in a Digital Age. Dublin: Institute of Bankers. Stapleton, L. (2015, February Sat 7th). Digitial technology in financial services. Dublin: Institute of Bankers. Stapleton, L. (2015). NTUC Income. Dublin: Institute of Bankers. [1] Diagram taken and adapted from Laudon and Laudon, 2014 page 385 [2] Diagram taken and adapted from Laudon and Laudon, 2014 page 382 [3] Diagram taken and adapted from Laudon and Laudon, 2014 page 124 and 125