Three Gorges Dam Brochure Essay Example for Free

Three Gorges Dam Brochure Essay In his book â€Å"The International Development of China† in 1919. In it he wrote that a dam that could manage to produce 30 million horsepower (22,371 V) worth of electricity was conceivable downstream the Three Gorges Mountains. The River on which it would be built was the Yangtze River is the third largest river in the world at 3,837 Miles long, behind the Nile and Amazon Rivers. In 1932 the nationalist government led by Chiang Kai-Shek began the first round of work on the Three Gorges Dam. In 1939, the Japanese forces took control over Yichang and occupied. With the fear of the Japanese advance a designed entitled the â€Å"Otani Plan† was completed. Sun Yat-Sen The dam’s construction was stalled until 1944 when the chief designer of the United States Bureau of Reclamation John L. Savage scouted the area and devised a scheme for what they called the â€Å"Yangtze River Project†. As a result 54 Chinese engineers went to the United States for training in 1944. A lot of economic, survey and environmental study was taken out in the following years concerning the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. In 1947 however at the height of the Chinese Civil War work was once again abandoned at the site. Sun Yat-Sen’s Book A painted depiction of the Chinese Civil War John L. Savage of the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation The Communist Victory In 1949 the Communist Party of China (CPC) led by Mao Zedong won the Chinese Civil War against the Kuomintang Emblem of the (CPC) Mao Zedong (Chinese Nationalist Party). Mao supported the project of the Three Gorges Dam but preferred beginning with the Gezhouba Dam project first. Mao’s introduction of China’s â€Å"Great Leap Forward†, and the Cultural Revolution greatly hampered the progress of the construction of the Three Gorges Dam once again. The Great Leap Forward The Great Leap Forward was a major program undertaken by the People’s Republic of China between 1958 and 1961which consisted of both economic and social campaigns. The plan had many objectives. To begin with, it plotted to use China’s enormous population to move from an agricultural economy to a modern Communist civilization through the collectivization of the farming industry and a hasty process of industrialization. The campaign was based on a hypothesis known as the Theory of the Productive Forces. Reforms included the mandatory process of collectivization (farming being taken out as a joint venture by the people) and the banning of private farming. This policy was enforced on the rural people through social pressure. Propaganda Posters that were popularly displayed all over China during the â€Å"Great Leap Forward† Era. They display a picture of Success and progress contrary to the true results (1958-1961). Mao was informed beforehand of the ominous possibility of a disaster due to grain shortages but instead sped up the campaign. This would prove to be a great disaster and lead to the Great Chinese Famine, eventually more than 15 million and possibly 26 million people would die of starvation between 1959 and 1961. The â€Å"Great Leap Forward† was officially abandoned in late 1961. The Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution was Mao Zedong’s attempt to regain prominence fter his marginalization in early 1962, due to the failure of the â€Å"Great Leap Forward†. The Revolution was a socio-political movement which took place between 1966 and 1976. The goal of the movement was to impose socialism in China through the removal of capitalist, traditional and cultural elements of Chinese society and the impose Maoism within the Propaganda Poster for the Cultural Revolution Communist Party of China. Mao suspected that burgeois elements were infiltrating the Government and Chinese society and were trying to re-establish Capitalism in China. Mao suggested that the only way to remove these elements was through a violent class struggle. The Chinese youth, inspired by Mao’s declaration and ideology formed Red Guard groups across the country. The movement eventually quickly spread into the military, middle-class urban workers and even the Communist leadership itself. People from all walks of life from senior officials to teachers were purged as they were accused of being anti-Socialist. Some officials who were purged would even form China’s next Government and included Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shaoqi. Propaganda Posters during the â€Å"Cultural Revolutionâ€Å" Era. This period consisted of an immense personality cult for Mao and the promotion of his infamous â€Å"Little Red Book† (1966-1976) During the Cultural Revolution Mao’s personality cult grew greatly, often to immense proportions. The Cultural Revolution greatly impacted on China’s economy and social fabric. Persecution became commonplace and millions suffered in the violent struggles that took place across the country. Many abuses were committed including torture, rape, imprisonment, harassment and seizure of property. A massive segment of the Chinese population was displaced, either by fear or force. The most notable manner however was when youths were transferred all around the country. Historic monuments and artifacts were destroyed or damaged. Religious and cultural sites were ransacked. After Mao Mao would officially call an end to the campaign in 1969, but it would still continue until 1971. Mao Zedong would die later 5 years later on September 9th, 1976. He left a nation traumatized by his loss but also with hunger, poverty and persecution. Both the â€Å"Great Leap Forward† and the Cultural Revolution greatly hampered the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. Both these campaigns would have a long lasting effect on China and diverted much attention away from it’s construction, to more pressing domestic concerns. Back in 1956 however, Mao Zedong, as a response to floods on the Yangtze two years earlier, had written and published a poem which he called â€Å"swimming†. In the poem he described his interest in a dam on the Yangtze River. In the summer of 1957 Mao Zedong initiated the Hundred Flowers Campaign. The Campaign consisted of letting other ideas and solutions â€Å"bloom† in a burst of free speech to the Chinese people. However this campaign was short lived and lasted barely six weeks. Many engineers however during this time had spoken out against the idea of building a dam, but were subsequently imprisoned after the campaign ended. A Propoganda Poster for the â€Å"One Hundred Flowers Camapign, 1957. Top: Mao’s â€Å"Swimmingâ€Å" Poem Mao Zedong in his Mausoleum Bottom Right:Time Magazine’s issue for Mao’s Death,1976. The Comeback The Three Gorges Dam reappeared as a topic in the 1980’s. The National People’s Congress (NPC), the highest and only legislative structure in China, voted in 1992 in favor of the dam. Out of a total of 2,633 delegates, 1,767 voted in support of the dam, while 177 voted against, a further 664 forfeited the vote and 25 abstained. On December 14th, 1994 the dam’s construction began. The initial date that was expected for completion and full operation was mid 2009, however the many other components of the dam including the underground power plant to process the energy produced is expected to delay the date of completion and operation to 2011. The Ship lift area of the dam is predicted to be completed by the year 2014. The Hall Where the Construction for the Dam was approved in The Great Hall of the people, the meeting place for the NPC Map marking the location of the Three Gorges Dam Panorama of the Three Gorges Dam The Three Gorges Dam Specifications The Three Gorges Dam is made primarily of concrete   and is 2,335  m (7,661  ft) long, with the level of the dam being 185 metres (607  ft) above sea level. The Three Gorges Dam used 27,200,000 cubic metres (35,600,000 cu  yd) of concrete, 463,000  tonnes  of steel, and moved about 102,600,000 cubic metres (134,200,000 cu yd) of earth. The reservoir the dam has created is about 660 kilometres (410  mi) in length and 1. 2 kilometres (0. 70  mi) in width. It contains 39. 3  km3  (31,900,000 acre/feet) of water and has a total surface area of 1,045  km?. On completion, the reservoir flooded a total area of 632  km? of land. Power Generating Capacity The Three Gorges Dam is by far the world’s largest Hydroelectric dam. It boasts 29 700 MW turbines and a total capacity of 20,300 MW. By the time of completion it will have 32 generators with a 50 MW power generating capacity each, which will make for a grand total of 22,500 MW. The annual total amount of electricity production is anticipated to be well over 100 TWh’s. The Three Gorges Dam was constructed for five main reasons. First of all because of China’s ever ballooning population, the Chinese Authorities, with rising demand, simply needed a project that would provide electricity to cope with increased requiremets. Secondly, the Yangtze River was notorious for it’s floods which are thought to have killed more than 1 million people. The Yangtze also ran along major Chinese cities like Wuhan, Shanghai, and Chonqing. Because of this the Chinese needed a means to tame the river and control its behavior. Thirdly, the reservoir that the dam would create could provide the precedent to build an efficient irrigation system for the farms in the area. Fourthly, the area of Hubei province, where the dam was built, needed a water treating facility to cope with increased demand for freshwater. Finally the Yangtze River needed a ship dock to deal with the increased ship traffic.

Natureview Farm Case

Natureview Farm Case Natureview Farm is a company that manufactures organic yogurt and is the industry leader with 24% market share. Its manufacturing process including the special recipe, longer shelf-life, no artificial ingredients, and product variety differentiated the brand and positioned it distinctively. The yogurt was produced in Vermont and sold in natural food stores only. The current predicament is for them to create a strategic plan, based primarily on distribution-oriented options, to exceed the $20 million revenue mark by the end of FY 2001. This was fueled by the withdrawal of the venture capitalist firm. The distribution strategies revolve around staying in the natural foods stores or further expanding out in to the supermarket channel. Therefore, the problem definition is that there is a need to expand and increase customer base to drive sales which would result in increases in revenues to meet corporate objective. Appendix 1 has a SWOT analysis that will help guide the rest of the discu ssion. Appendix 2 briefly explains the three options in question and has a financial forecast for all three options if they were pursued. Option 1 seems to attain the highest revenue and profit. The firm however would be risking entering the mass market distribution channel which would be a significant shift with its current operations i.e. both the marketing and operations of the firm would need to be re-aligned to meet the large distribution channel. Setting up and effective execution may not be reliably predicted given the 12 month implementation plan. Moreover, horizontal channel conflicts would also possibly be occur due to the customers buying the same product at a cheaper price at a more accessible location. This would give the supermarkets more channel power due to them being able to drive higher sales. Overall, the 8oz market has a 3% expected growth rate, and this number needs to be taken into account as well since it’s not as high as some of the other realized trends which will be discussed below. Option 2 has the next best revenue but not a great profit margin. Again, similar to the previous option, the firm would be entering the mass market distribution channel with all the risks highlighted above including horizontal channel conflict. With this option, the growth rate of the size of the yogurt is at 2% per year; however, the gross profit per sale is relatively high at 43.6%. Again, there is a slower growth rate present here but what’s more important to note is the lack of support provided by retailers for this size of the product. Given that a significantly smaller population purchases the larger tubs, the supermarkets place it in the lowest shelves in-stores and thus, may be overlooked in most scenarios. Finally, Option 3 gives a better profit than the former but not sufficient revenue. Nevertheless, this option highlights the trend and the researched growth rate of 12.5% with the children’s market and multi-pack sales which is an opportunity to capitalize on. This option also bears the least amount of risk due to minimal investment, maintaining and enhancing relationships with existing intermediaries and channel partners, and not having to undergo marketing changes such as brand positioning, or significant production changes. Gross profits with product sales here are 37.6%. There are some critical issues and analysis that need to be investigated before recommending which option be best for Natureview Farm. The first critical issue is that of keeping the company’s existing stance in mind: â€Å"We owe it to our customers, our suppliers, and our distribution partners to make the right strategic choices†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The second is that of not being able to secure other financing options for the company which implies that high-risk initiatives need to be chosen with extra caution. The channel flow analysis in Appendix 3 shows the differences between the supermarket channel and the natural foods channel. The relationship of the incentive compatibility with the service output of bulk-breaking is important since bulk-breaking is one of the primary value-added services that the intermediaries provide, which in turn increases the price of the yogurt for the end consumer. In addition, the product shelf-life is another factor that’s relevant with regard to service output demands. Both these factors are high in demand for the natural foods channel but not the supermarket channel which implies higher incentive compatibility with the former channel partnership. Consumers in turn would also want to be able to purchase a product that lasts longer and is broken down for them already. In the supermarket channel it can also be seen that there are more responsibilities added for Natureview to deal with such as merchandising, payments such as the slotting fee, and added promotions. The natural foods channel has these responsibilities eliminated and has further benefits such as tracking paperwork being down with the intermediaries and the information being passed upstream to Natureview. This does end up increasing the cost due to the additional work done by the intermediaries. The key issue is the horizontal conflict that could potentially occur due to channel power shifts and lack of control from the natural foods channel. Research showed that 67% of the US consumers find that price is a barrier to them purchasing the organic yogurt; this implies that these price sensitive individuals would be more inclined in purchasing the product at the supermarket. Based off the analysis, the best alternative to go forth with would be Option 3. This is mainly because it is the best channel that would avoid any horizontal conflicts stemmed because of a power struggle between the two separate channels. Option 3 also capitalizes on a growing trend in the market and the natural foods industry is expected to grow at 20% annually as well. It would be of interest to maintain and enhance the existing relationships with the channel partners since adding the supermarket channel into the system would make the partnership with the natural foods channel incompatible due to lack of incentives. Furthermore, this is the least risky option that they can invest in with higher returns on investment in comparison with the other options. With existing happy customers, a premium brand position, and strong partnerships with distributors like Wholefoods, Natureview can leverage its equity sources to increase revenue and market share by manufacturing the multipacks tar geted towards the younger population. The decision matrix in Appendix 4 further supports this recommendation. Appendix 1 – SWOT Analysis SWOT ANALYSIS – NATUREVIEW FARM STRENGTHS: No artificials, natural ingredients Market leader with 24% share in Natural Foods Channel Highest shelf-life products Strong Channel Partner Relationships WEAKNESSES: Highly dependent on brokers Only in natural food channel/not supermarket Still a small share in the full yogurt market OPPORTUNITIES: 12.5% growth rate with multi-packaged products for children Supermarket channel THREATS: Not sufficient capital and financing options No experience with supermarket channel Competition intensifying; Horizon Organic with 19% market share Cannibalization of sales Appendix 2 – Three options: Financial forecast Option 1 Forecasted Income Statement (Isolated) Price = $0.74 Revenue $25,900,000 COGS $10,850,000 Gross Profit $15,050,000 Expenses Advertising $2,400,000 Sales $200,000 SGA $320,000 Marketing $120,000 Slotting Fee $1,200,000 Trade Promotions $3,840,000 Broker Fee $1,036,000 Net Income $5,934,000 Option 2 Forecasted Income Statement (Isolated) Price = $2.7 Revenue $14,850,000 COGS $5,445,000 Gross Profit $9,405,000 Expenses Advertising $0 Sales $160,000 Marketing $120,000 Slotting Fee $2,560,000 Trade Promotions $4,096,000 Broker Fee $594,000 Net Income $1,875,000 Option 3 Forecasted Income Statement (Isolated) Price = $3.35 Revenue $6,030,000 COGS $2,070,000 Gross Profit $3,960,000 Expenses Advertising $0 Sales $0 Marketing $250,000 Slotting Fee $0 Trade Promotions $0 Cost of Complementary Cases $150,750 Broker Fee $241,200 Net Income $3,318,050 All the tables presented above have used data from the case for the numbers. The cost of each SKU is derived from Exhibit 3. The Expenses have been derived from the options described in the case. The statements are isolated i.e. they do not take into consideration existing operations and sales of products through the nature foods channel – they are only assessing the options themselves at an individual level. Appendix 3 – Channel Flow Analysis and Incentive Compatibility Supermarket Channel 15% Markup 27% $0.74 Natureview Physical possession à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Ownership à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Promotion à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Payment (Slotting Fee) à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Merchandising à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Ordering à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Payment à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Sales data à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Riskingà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Negotiationà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Distributor Physical possessionà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Ownershipà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Promotionà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Paymentà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Merchandising à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Ordering à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Payment à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Sales data à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Riskingà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Negotiationà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Retailer Physical possessionà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Ownershipà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Promotionà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Payment à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Sales data à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Riskingà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Consumer Natural Foods Channel 7% Markup 9% 35% $0.88 Naturev-iew Physical possession à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Ownership à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Free product caseà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Ordering à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Payment à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Sales data à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Tracking paperwork à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Riskingà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Negotiationà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Natural Foods Wholesaler Physical possession à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Ownership à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Free product caseà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Ordering à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Payment à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Sales data à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Tracking paperwork à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Riskingà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Negotiationà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Natural Foods Distributor Physical possessionà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Ownershipà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Stocking shelvesà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Bulkbreakingà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Payment à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Sales data à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Riskingà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Free product caseà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Ordering à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Payment à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Riskingà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Negotiationà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Retail-er Physical possessionà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Ownershipà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Payment à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Riskingà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Consumer Appendix 4 – Decision Matrix

Catch 22 and a few good men :: essays papers

Catch 22 and a few good men Catch-22 is a novel about the Second World War. It is set on the island of Pianosa, which is off the coast of Italy. It is set in the end of the war while the Germans are on the run and being pushed out of Italy. The book focuses on a bomb group, more specifically a squadron in which a bombardier named Yossarian is assigned to. Yossarian is very upset because all these people he doesn’t even know (the Germans) are trying to kill him. The novel is very hard to understand because of the way it is written. It is helpful in books about the military to have a time-date group so you know what is going on. This book doesn’t have that and is so full of flash backs and flash-forwards that it made my head spin. It wasn’t poorly written but it was hard follow. It has many technical errors such as having helicopters for search and rescue while helicopters weren’t used in military service until the Korean War. The story is a good one but paints a picture of military life as a joke almost. Most of the servicemen in this book had no discipline and did pretty much as they pleased. Yossarian goes through the whole story trying to get out of his squadron and go home. His problem is the commander of the group keeps raising the number of missions required to fly before the rotate home. Every time he gets close the raise the number on him again. Through it all he tries all these schemes to get sent home he acts sick and tries to act crazy. When he tries to acts crazy he thinks that he has a perfect plan to get sent home since there was a rule that anyone who was crazy was unfit to serve in the rigors of combat, but the rule said they had to ask to be grounded. When he goes to get himself grounded he discovers there is a catch. Catch-22 says that anyone who asks to be grounded is not crazy because recognizing danger is the process of a rational mind and anyone with a rational mind is not crazy. That is the main story line of the book.

Beloved: The Human Condition :: essays research papers

Toni Morrison's novel, Beloved, reveals the effects of human emotion and its power to cast an individual into a struggle against him or herself. In the beginning of the novel, the reader sees the main character, Sethe, as a woman who is resigned to her desolate life and isolates herself from all those around her. Yet, she was once a woman full of feeling: she had loved her husband Halle, loved her four young children, and loved the days of the Clearing. And thus, Sethe was jaded when she began her life at 124 Bluestone Road-- she had loved too much. After failing to 'save' her children from the schoolteacher, Sethe suffered forever with guilt and regret. Guilt for having killed her "crawling already?" baby daughter, and then regret for not having succeeded in her task. It later becomes apparent that Sethe's tragic past, her chokecherry tree, was the reason why she lived a life of isolation. Beloved, who shares with Seths that one fatal moment, reacts to it in a complet ely different way; because of her obsessive and vengeful love, she haunts Sethe's house and fights the forces of death, only to come back in an attempt to take her mother's life. Through her usage of symbolism, Morrison exposes the internal conflicts that encumber her characters. By contrasting those individuals, she shows tragedy in the human condition. Both Sethe and Beloved suffer the devastating emotional effects of that one fateful event: while the guilty mother who lived refuses to passionately love again, the daughter who was betrayed fights heaven and hell- in the name of love- just to live again. Sethe was a woman who knew how to love, and ultimately fell to ruin because of her "too-thick love" (164). Within Sethe was the power of unconditional love for her children-- she had "milk enough for all" (201). Morrison uses breast milk to symbolize how strong Sethe's maternal desires were. She could never forget the terror of the schoolteacher robbing her of her nurturing juices, she crawled on bleeding limbs to fill her baby's mouth with her milk, and finally, she immortalized that grim summer day when she fed Denver her breast milk-- mingled with blood. The bestial image of milk and blood further fortifies the eminence of maternal instinct by portraying the value of a mother's milk as equal to that of her blood. And the

Classification Essay - Three Types of Dieters :: Classification Essays

Three Types of Dieters A sad fact in American society is that thousands of people search for the elusive dream of being thin. On any given day, one finds neighbors, friends, and relatives on some kind of diet. Dieters assume various disguises, but the noteworthy ones are the "bandwagoneer," the "promiser" and the "lethal loser." Everyone wants to lose weight quickly and effortlessly; therefore, any fad diet promising overnight results becomes the new "call" of the "bandwagoneer." She tries the grapefruit diet or the watermelon diet, but she decides her stomach cannot possibly deal with all of that fruit. The next day the television advertises a new wonder pill that allows the user to lose up to ten pounds in one week, and the "bandwagoneer" answers the "call." Although the magic pill does not produce the desired weight loss, she never gives up hope for a new "wagon" to hitch onto. Once again, this dieter is lured by advertisements of instant spot reduction--liposuction. She crosses over the safety line into a danger zone of unknown procedures, performed by unqualified physicians. Some dieters lose their lives in the search for a beautiful body. The stomach staple is another dieting tool that dieters try. The staple yields a large weight loss, but the dieter endangers her health because of excess loss of body fluids. The "bandwagoneer" is always listening for the newest cure on the dieting market. A family wedding or a special dance is a logical reason for a woman to decide it is time to take off her few, unwanted pounds; however, decisions made in haste are hard to keep, and the "promiser" soon fails in her attempt. She is the dieter with only fifteen pounds to lose, and, as each year flies by, she decides dieting is harder than eating what she wants to, and much less fun! She promises to lose the extra weight for her ten-year class reunion, but her weight-loss pledge is not kept. Some women become "promisers" during their pregnancies, and they broadcast to all within hearing distance that they will lose the extra pounds as soon as the baby is born. The "tomorrow promiser" and the "Monday promiser" are the dieters with whom most people are familiar and whose excuses they know.

Admission essay for a postgraduate in fashion marketing

As soon as I completed my undergraduate course, I realized that my future career would be in fashion, even though my education was in tourism management.Today, looking back at a extensive experience I accumulated in the field, I feel that time has come for me to improve my educational background so that my theoretical knowledge matched my practical skills. I am confident that gaining a postgraduate education in Fashion Marketing will open my eyes to new exciting opportunities for my business.My path in the fashion industry began right after graduation when I went to Italy to study art history and photography. I took up a franchise in my own country, an endeavour that started out as a hobby, as a tribute to my long-term love of fashion and design, but soon it turned into my vocation. My flair for good design, a good understanding of the industry, and a passionate love for what I was doing helped me open two stores of my own within a short time. Our company holds the Franchise Havaiana s Brazilians sandals in Ecuador, represented by 60 points of sale all over the country.In the process of strenuous work directed at business growth, I realized that I also wanted to leverage my entrepreneurship skills and abilities to improve the life of our community. With this purpose in mind, I joined the ranks of the local Chamber of Commerce.At the time, this is the job that enables me to make a difference in the life of people around me through initiating a host of projects and meeting with other businessmen in an effort to make conditions for business improve in the area. After two years of my engagement in the chamber, I can look back at a number of successful projects including training courses, seminars, and effort to improve the process of cloth imports in Ecuador.My entrepreneurial experience, the fact that I own two companies at the age of 22, and my participation in the Chamber of Commerce gave one popular Ecuadorian magazine grounds to nominate me for the â€Å"Woman of the Year† award. Although I did not win this highly competitive award, I did enjoy giving interviews and teaching other women how to run their own business.Now that I have ascertained that fashion business can become the cause of my life, I am eager to complement my practical experience with theoretical foundations. Since my first degree is in Tourism Management, I believe that my professional knowledge will be seriously augmented by courses specifically related to fashion and marketing in particular. Knowing how to best market fashion products to diverse target groups, I will be able to make a greater contribution to the fashion industry and grow my business at an accelerated rate.The reason for my choice of the program was its excellent reputation in professional circles. Another important factor was the London location. Enjoying London life, I would be thrilled to study in a city where fashion is part of popular culture and the very atmosphere is saturated with new idea s.This degree will advance my goal of representing a variety of fashion brands and starting my own brand at some point in the future. I plan to follow my educational philosophy in all courses I am about to take, pursuing two goals: share the knowledge and experience I have acquired during my work as entrepreneur and integrate practice with theory.I know I have the potential and enough background to put to use the knowledge acquired in the fashion industry. After participating in so many fashion weeks, I know a lot of brands and their personnel, so that my solid reputation in the business world can allow me to receive propositions from other companies to represent them in Ecuador.One thing I know about making such partnerships a success is that I have to be in love with the brand and have a strong belief in its future. Another is that I have to improve my education in the area to substantiate my experience with a solid theoretical background. To this point, I could always make my dre ams come true. I am confident that enrolment in the program can help me realize my ambitious plans for the future.

Education in “The Republic” & “Discourse on the Arts and Sciences”

The role and significance of education with regard to political and social institutions is a subject that has interested political philosophers for millennia. In particular, the views of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, as evidenced in The Republic, and of the pre-Romantic philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau in his Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, present a striking juxtaposition of the two extremes of the ongoing philosophical and political debate over the function and value of education. In this paper, I will argue that Rousseau's repudiation of education, while imperfect and offering no remedy to the ills it disparages, is superior inasmuch as it comes closer to the truth of things than does Plato's idealized conceptions. To do so, I will first examine Plato's interpretation of the role of education and its function in shaping the structure of society and government and in producing good citizens. I will then introduce Rousseau's view of education and the negative effects of the civilized culture which it produces, and using this view, will attempt to illustrate the naivete and over-idealization of Plato's notions. Finally, I will attempt to demonstrate that it is Rousseau's view, rather than Plato's, that is ultimately more significant in assessing the actual (vs. idealized) merits (or lack thereof, in Rousseau's case) by which education should be judged with regard to the nurturance of good citizens. For Plato, the question of the role of education arises near the end of Book II (377e), after a discussion of both the necessary and consequent attributes of Socrates' kallipolis or â€Å"Ideal City. Such a city, Socrates argues, will, before long, have need of both a specialization of labor (in order for the greatest level of diversity and luxury of goods to be achieved) and of the establishment of a class of â€Å"Guardians† to protect the city from its envious neighbors and maintain order within its walls (i. e. , to police and govern the city). This, in turn, leads inexorably to the question of what attributes the Ideal City will require of its Guardians, and how best to foster such attributes. The early, childhood education of the Guardians, Socrates argues, is the key. What, then, asks Socrates, should children be taught, and when? This quickly leads to a discussion of censorship. Socrates cites a number of questionable passages from Homer which cannot, he thinks, be allowed in education, since they represent dishonorable behavior and encourage the fear of death. The dramatic form of much of this poetry is also suspect: it puts unworthy words into the mouths of gods & heroes. Socrates suggests that what we would call â€Å"direct quotation† must be strictly limited to morally-elevating speech. Nothing can be permitted that compromises the education of the young Guardians, as it is they who will one day rule and protect the city, and whom the lesser-constituted citizens of the polis will attempt to emulate, assimilating, via the imitative process of mimesis, to the Myth (or â€Å"noble lie†) of the Ideal City in which justice is achieved when everyone assumes their proper role in society. The process of mimesis, is, of course, yet another form of education, in which those of Iron and Bronze natures are â€Å"instructed† and inspired by the superior intelligence and character of the Gold and Silver members of the Guardian class. It is therefore a form of education without which the polis cannot operate. Thus, for Guardian and ordinary citizen alike, the education of the young and the continuing â€Å"instruction† of the citizenry are crucial. In addition to these aspects, Plato also conceives of another function of education, and one which is quite significant in its relation to Rousseau's views. For Plato, education and ethics are interdependent. To be ethical, in turn, requires a twofold movement: movement away from immersion in concrete affairs to thinking and vision of unchanging order and structures (such as justice) and then movement back from dialectic to participation and re-attachment in worldly affairs. It is a temptation to become an abstract scholar. But the vision of the good is the vision of what is good for oneself and the city — of the common good. If one does not return to help his fellow human beings, he becomes selfish and in time will be less able to see what is good, what is best. An unselfish devotion to the good requires an unselfish devotion to the realization of this good in human affairs. Just as the purpose of understanding order and limits in one's own life is to bring about order and restraint in one's own character and desires, the understanding of justice requires application in the public sphere (through education). A man who forgets the polis is like a man who forgets he has a body. Plato thus advocates educating both the body and the city (for one needs both), not turning one's back on them. If education is, for Plato, the means by which man comes to fully realize (through society) his potential as a human being and by which society as a whole is in turn elevated, for Rousseau it is quite the opposite. Education, argues Rousseau, does not elevate the souls of men but rather corrodes them. The noble mimesis which lies at the heart of education in Plato's kallipolis is for Rousseau merely a slavish imitation of the tired ideas of antiquity. The ill effects of this imitation are manifold. Firstly, argues Rousseau, when we devote ourselves to the learning of old ideas, we stifle our own creativity and originality. Where is there room for original thought, when, in our incessant efforts to impress one another with our erudition, we are constantly spouting the ideas of others? In a world devoid of originality, the mark of greatness, intelligence, and virtue is reduced to nothing more than our ability to please others by reciting the wisdom of the past. This emphasis on originality is in marked contrast with Plato, who finds no value in originality, deeming it antithetical to a polis otherwise unified by shared Myths of the Ideal City and of Metals. Rousseau rejects this â€Å"unity†, rightly denouncing it as a form of slavery , in which humanity's inherent capacity for spontaneous, original self-expression is replaced with the yoking. of the mind and the will to the ideas of others, who are often long dead. In addition to suppressing the innate human need for originality, education (and the appetite for â€Å"culture† and â€Å"sophistication† that it engenders) causes us to conceal ourselves, to mask our true natures, desires, and emotions. We become artificial and shallow, using our social amenities and our knowledge of literature, etc. , to present a pleasing but deceptive face to the world, a notion quite at odds with the ideas of Plato. We assume, in Rousseau's words, â€Å"the appearance of all virtues, without being in possession of one of them. Finally, argues Rousseau, rather than strengthening our minds and bodies and (a critical point) moving us towards that which is ethical, as Plato contends, education and civilization effeminate and weaken us physically and (perhaps most significantly) mentally, and cause us, in this weakness, to stoop to every manner of depravity and injustice against one another. â€Å"External ornaments,† writes Rousseau, â€Å"are no less foreign to virtue, which is the strength and activity of the mind. The honest man is an athlete, who loves to wrestle stark naked; he scorns all those vile trappings, which prevent the exertion of his strength, and were, for the most part, invented only to conceal some deformity. † Virtue, as opposed to Plato's conception, is an action, and results not from the imitation inherent in mimesis, but rather in the activity — in the exercise — of the body, mind and soul. Education, however, demands imitation, demands a modeling upon what has been successful. How, then, do we rightly assess the merits of education with regard to its it molding of the public character — in its ability to produce â€Å"good† citizens. The answer to this hinges, I submit, on how we choose to define the â€Å"good† citizen. Clearly, if obedience (or â€Å"assimilation to a political ideology†, or perhaps â€Å"voluntary servitude†) is the hallmark of the good citizen, then we must regard Plato's disposition towards education as the proper one. However, obedience, despite its obvious centrality to the smooth operation of society (as we would have social chaos were it completely absent), has its useful limits. Over-assimilation to a political idea or â€Å"blueprint† is every bit as dangerous — indeed, far more so — as the utter under-assimilation of anarchy. For those inclined to dispute this, I would urge them to review the history of Nazi Germany as perhaps the definitive example of what sad, awful spectacles of injustice we humans are capable of when we trade in our mental and spiritual autonomy for the convenient apathy and faceless anonymity of the political ideal. Furthermore, if , as Rousseau contends, our civilization is such that, â€Å"Sincere friendship, real esteem, and perfect confidence [in each other] are banished from among men,† what is the quality of the society for which education — any modern education — purports to prepares us? When, â€Å"Jealousy, suspicion, fear coldness, reserve, hate, and fraud lie constantly concealed under †¦ [a] uniform and deceitful veil of politeness,† what is left to us to educate citizens for, other than the pleasure we seem to derive in pedantic displays of hoary knowledge? If we remove the civility from â€Å"civilization†, what remains to us that any education will remedy?