Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Religion Essay

Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Paganism are among the principal religions in Ethiopia. Yet, Ethiopia is a chiefly Christian nation whereby most of the Christians are Orthodox Tewahedo Christians (Merahi, 2002). Nevertheless, there are still Christians residing in the country who are either Roman Catholic or Protestant. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is lead by a patriarch and is associated to the communion of the Armenian Orthodox Church, Malankara Orthodox Church of India, Coptic Orthodox Church, and the Syrian Orthodox Church. Christianity started in Ethiopia upon the arrival of the two Syrian Christians named Frumentius and Aedissius (Meinardus, 2006). They went to Aksum and began to inform people about the Christian faith and Jesus Christ. The two had also persuaded King Ezana, who was the ruler of Aksum during the early fourth century. They became successful in converting the king to become Christian. As a result, the king officially declared Christianity as the chief religion in the entire kingdom in 341 AD. Afterwards, he commanded Frumentius to proceed to Alexandria where he was sanctified bishop having the name of Abba Selama in 346 AD. Frumentius then went back to Ethiopia and was hailed as its first bishop and established the first Ethiopian Church (Meinardus, 2006). With the institution of the Christianity in whole kingdom, Ethiopia became a dominant Christian empire until the fifteenth century. Discussion Ethiopian Orthodox Church is considered as the primordial of all Eastern Christianities though the Armenian Orthodox Church is also termed as the oldest strand of Christianity (Yesehaq, 1997). There are, at any rate, three distinct organizations of Tewahedo Church with their own governments in North America and Addis Ababa, Jerusalem, and even in Europe and Jamaica. Occasionally Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is referred as Copic for the reason that until before the fifties the leader of Ethiopian Church was chosen from Egypt and this custom was modified when Haile Sellassie ascended the throne (Merahi, 2002). The doctrine of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is broader than any other Christian associations. The Ethiopian more contracted Old Testament doctrine is consisted of the books included in the Septuagint and recognized by other Orthodox Christians (besides Enoch, Jubilees, 1 Esdras and 2 Esdras, 3 books of Maccabees, and Psalm 151) (Yesehaq, 1997). Nonetheless, the three books of the Maccabees are indistinguishable in label only and rather various in substance from those of the other Christian churches which contained them. The arrangement of the other books is quite diverse from other groups’, in addition. The Church, moreover, has, to some extent, an imprecise wider doctrine that is comprised of more books (Meinardus, 2006). All contemporary written bibles confine themselves to the more contracted canon. Prior to the revolution, there were many Ethiopian clergy since Orthodoxy is generally bestowed in frugal order. Some say that all through the Red Terror, which began in 1975 and lasted for three years, over 200 thousands priests were put to death in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Orthodox priest is the greatest expression of the distinction involving Western and Eastern Christianity. The Ethiopian Orthodoxy claims that there is only one nature of Christ and such is entirely celestial (Yesehaq, 1997). In effect, the Orthodoxy established to realities, the Material reality, which belong to man; and Celestial or Divine reality, which belong to God. Alongside with the Roman Catholic doctrine and principles, the Ethiopian Orthodoxy does not admit the concept of purgatory and argues that there is only Heaven and hell. Another difference in terms of the history of Christianity in the Roman Catholic Church and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is that, the latter directly moves away from the earthy matters such as social and political spheres (Marsh, 2004). The Ethiopian Orthodoxy is only concerned about spiritual upbringing and nothing more which is in opposition with how the Roman Catholic Church influenced the founding of the earliest form of government. The Ethiopian Orthodoxy, on the other hand, has been disparaged for its passive character when it comes to politics and government. However, the separation among the social and divine concerns or aspects is an inherent theory and not merely an issue of stratagem and diplomacy. The sole character of Christ is to give emphasis to the idea that there are two realities founded on diverse doctrines (Merahi, 2002). The Orthodox iconography refused to accept the amendment of the art breakthroughs through realism, together with the third dimension point of view. The Orthodox artists believed that God’s time and space are prearranged in a different way from man’s reality (Yesehaq, 1997). The well-known upturned point of view in symbols expressed their consideration that in beatific reality the distant is close and the close is distant. There are various corollaries of the Ethiopian Orthodoxy belief on religion, including the notion of Trinity as well as the philosophy of history. The division between the Western Church and the Orthodox Church is not just about historical such as the thousand years of the Byzantine Empire (Marsh, 2004). However, such is a theological as well as philosophical in thought. There is no way that the Orthodox Church would admit the concept of evolution as how the Catholic Church, in a way, accepts it. In an analysis, there is very modest development entrenched in the Orthodox mindset which is predominantly observed in the Ethiopian Orthodoxy. As how the Orthodox Church expressed the principle, man does not progress gradually. But what is more appropriate to say is that man reaches his full transformation through God’s radical character which He uses to make us updated in every way it may serve for us. In this line of thinking that the Ethiopian Orthodoxy and the Protestant thought are the same (Marsh, 2004). The two regard the role of the Church as one’s personal institution and not merely a social establishment. Having this Orthodox character, the Ethiopian Christianity, on no account, had full-blown â€Å"holy wars† and had been more predisposed to missionary activities (Meinardus, 2006). The Ethiopian Orthodox Church co-existed with various leaders and administrations, lived alongside with pagans and Muslims and had no record of rectification or â€Å"religious wars† as how the Western Christianity underwent (Marsh, 2004). Summary To sum up, the Ethiopian Orthodox (Tewahedo) Christian religion has been regarded as one of the most foremost strands of the Christian religion. Though many of its features as well as its character have an enlarged difference in relation with other strands of Christianity such as the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestantism, it still goes with the principle of one all-powerful and absolute God. The great differences revealed between the Western Christianity and the Eastern Christianity are said to be observed in the entirety of the Ethiopian Orthodoxy. While the Western Christianity is hailed as one of the foundations of government primarily in the European regions, the Eastern Christianity, particularly the Ethiopian Orthodoxy, remained distant with the workings of politics and societal affairs. The Orthodoxy reveals itself as a religious organization which holds no concern on political activities in opposition with how the Western Christianity does. For the Ethiopian Orthodoxy, religion is something which is very personal. With this, Ethiopian Orthodoxy lasted for so may years surpassing other religious associations without undergoing intricate changes and amendments.

Memorable and Striking Essay

How Charles Dickens Creates Characters That Are Both Memorable and Striking  One of Charles Dickens’ greatest strengths is his ability to create characters that are both believable and memorable. Dickens appealed to all classes of society: to intellectuals and simple folk alike. In ‘Great Expectations’, which was published as a weekly serial, examples of his strengths fill the novel, and this is perhaps why ‘Great Expectations’ has remained as popular now as it was when it was first written. It was not until 1823 that Charles and his family moved to London from Portsmouth. Up until this time he had a happy family life and was doing well at school, already he was a great reader. However life in London was very different, the family had no money, Dickens could not go to school and his father was imprisoned for debt. At the age of eleven he had to work in a shoe-blacking factory and this left a long lasting impression. This experience was relatively short-lived, the family situation improved and he was able to return back to school from there to working in a lawyers office, teaching himself shorthand. By the age of twenty he had become an established newspaper reporter and started to write short stories in his spare time as well as directing and acting in amateur dramatics. Even by his mid twenty’s Dickens’ ability to absorb and portray information was remarkable. Partly due to his tremendous literacy knowledge (for example he read Defoe, Fielding when he was very young) and also as a result of his employment (he frequently reported on Parliament for example) he was able to use his detailed knowledge of London life and people in his writing.  In this essay I intend to discuss the characters of Pip, Joe Gargery, Miss Havisham and Abel Magwitch, because I think these four between them demonstrate Dickens’s expertise at blending character, plot and setting within the novel. One of the techniques that Dickens uses is first person narrative. The book is written from the point of view of Pip who narrates using personal pronouns such as ‘me’ and ‘I’. This technique is effective because it shows the viewpoint of a character (namely Pip) who is able to use personal details and clearly describes surroundings.  Pip is the person on whom the whole novel revolves; the novel starts and ends with Pip. The dictionary’s definition of a pip is ‘ a small hard seed of an apple, pear or orange’. This is relevant to Pip in a way because he is a person who should develop or grow from a ‘small bundle of shivers.’ However, his circumstances at the beginning of the novel give us the impression that this will not allow him to develop. During Pip’s early childhood, he is unjustly suppressed and bullied by his sister, and to a lesser degree, by Pumblechook at the Christmas dinner and the rest of the village.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"You would have been disposed of for many shillings†¦and Dunstable the butcher would have come up to you as you lay in your straw,†Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"You come along and be dosed.†Ã‚  Pip is regularly fed tar water for any simple wrongdoing by his sister who also chastises him regularly with the ironically named ‘Tickler’. Although Pip has the friendship of his brother-in law Joe, this is not enough to stop him developing into a timid, undernourished yet sensitive child. Pip next has pressure put upon him when he goes to Satis House and has his first encounter with Estella and Miss Havisham. Pip’s overwhelming love for Estella and his change in attitude and behaviour towards others hide the real values of life. He becomes ungrateful to Joe and from time to time, his conscience tells him he has behaved badly but finds it difficult to change. It is quite easy to criticise Pip for his change of feeling towards his life long friend Joe, but we must understand that he has been deeply affected by the bullying which he had suffered in his early years at the hands of his dominating sister, as well as his need to improve his life-style. Pip is also rather gullible, we can see this in his encounter with the convict – he really believes that the convict namely Magwitch will tear his liver out; this is because of the atmosphere of death in the graveyard. Also the way that Magwitch speaks in his rough and raspy voice.  When Pip meets Estella, he is taken in by her charms. For the first time he becomes aware of the social differences and background between them. This makes him feel dissatisfied with his life, he feels ashamed of his home, of his ‘coarse hands’ and ‘thick boots’ and the first realisation that life could be better enters his mind. Unfortunately Pip becomes rather distant from his peers and when he finds out he is to come into fortune (his ‘Great Expectations’), he is quick to drop his childhood friends and family in case they embarrass him. Although sometimes he feels guilty about this, he still acts this way. Moving to London and meeting Herbert Pocket again inspires Pip to be more like him, a young gentleman.  However, Pip leaves behind one of the only true gentlemen in the novel Joe Gargery is a blacksmith who is married to Pip’s sister.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"A giant of a man, with fair hair curly hair and mild blue eyes.†Ã‚  Joe is an honest, kind and simple man who becomes a father figure to Pip. Throughout the novel he is one of, the few characters who does not really change. Joe shows the dignity and strength of a gentleman as he is still loyal to Pip, despite Pip’s neglect of Joe. He is able to accept his wife’s harsh personality without showing his true feelings and he finds it difficult to stand up to her strong will. Although partly educated, he is always willing to learn, and is very proud at Pip’s good fortune, and is happy to stay in the background whilst Pip is in London receiving his training to ‘become a gentleman’. Miss Havisham is a bitter old woman whose heart and mind are as decaying as the house in which she lives. When Pip first meets Miss Havisham ‘†¦the strangest lady I have ever seen†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ she is wearing ancient yellowed bridal clothes and he notices that everything in the room is gloomy, faded and old. All the clocks and her watch have stopped at eight forty am. ‘I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢

Accounting Business And Corporate Banking

Internal and External Audits of Westpac The financial declaration of Westpac Group is prepared and presented as per the conditions stipulated under Australian Accounting Standards (AAS) Interpretations as declared by AASB Corporation Act 2001 as well as banking at 1959 modified. In addition to this, the financial statement also complies with IFRS and ISB. As per the declaration of the auditor independence stipulated 307c of the Corporation Act, there exists no contravention of the requirement of independence of the auditors under Corporation Act 2001 in association to audit. Furthermore, there also exists no contravention of any professional conduct code in association to audit. Corporate Governance of Westpac encompasses the major principles for serving the rights of the shareholders. Board is committed to highest standards in aligning with Corporate Governance in recognizing fundamental for all the activities. This involves regular analysis of improved government practices for monitoring the global developments as per best practices in Corporate Governance[2]. Corporate Governance Statement of Westpac sets out the given principles covering the main aspect such as: The management of Westpac confirms with ASX Corporate Governance Principles as well as Recommendations namely third edition declared by Corporate Governance Council of ASX Limited. This tactics refers to the commitment of the company towards achievement of excellence in governance stipulations. Business Strategy of Westpac involving in conducting customer-focused those will deliver superior customer experience as well as broadening of customer relationships. In other words, driving operational efficiency for Westpac in balancing risk and reward As per the Director report presented in the annual declaration of the company, Westpac intends to attract and retain talented workforce. This means the company also adopts innovative recruitment strategies, superior working conditions for meeting up altering expectations of the employees and developing right people for right job. The company has retained â€Å"Employer of choice for Gender equality provided by workplace Gender equality agencies†. The company also abides by legislative liabilities â€Å"Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998†, Accident Compensation Act (1985), Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1986. Employee working at Westpac is provided with efficient formal as well as training session at the time of induction programs[4]. Commitment to employees at Westpac involves staff member receiving adequate training as well as development selected on merit basis. 2. It reveals conducting appropriate research for determining the Australian Accounting Standards in case for reporting as well as non-reporting entities. By summarizing, it can be noticed that Board list entity after approving from entity financial statements for given financial period. From the financial records, information are taken out regarding the reporting standard and non-reporting entities in compiling with appropriate accounting standards for rendering true and fair view of financial position[5]. The general purpose of financial report for preparing financial statement in accordance with Australian Accountant Standards from the Corporations Act 2001 Shim J, Siegel J and Shim J,  Financial Accounting  (McGraw-Hill 2012) 'Westpac - Personal, Business And Corporate Banking' (Westpac.com.au, 2016) accessed 10 November 2016 'Westpac - Personal, Business And Corporate Banking' (Westpac.com.au, 2016) accessed 10 November 2016. Jae K Shim, Joel G Siegel and Jae K Shim,  Financial Accounting  (McGraw-Hill 2012). Westpac - Personal, Business And Corporate Banking' (Westpac.com.au, 2016) accessed 10 November 2016. Westpac - Personal, Business And Corporate Banking' (Westpac.com.au, 2016) accessed 10 November 2016. Westpac - Personal, Business And Corporate Banking' (Westpac.com.au, 2016) accessed 10 November 2016.

The Necessity of Parent and Community Cooperation and Collaboration in Essay

The Necessity of Parent and Community Cooperation and Collaboration in Early Childhood - Essay Example In order to understand this issue and address it effectively, it is vital to answer the following questions: a) how do differences of alteration in society and families have an impact on children and early childhood programs? b) Why are parent/family and community involvement essential in early childhood programs? c) What are the benefits that accrue to parental and community involvement in early childhood programs? And finally, d) How can early childhood professionals encourage and support programs for involving families and communities? In the event that the above questions are addressed in the most appropriate manner; then we can be able to understand how important it is to engage both the parents and the community in early childhood programs.To begin, it is essential to note that parental or community involvement should not only be limited financing or volunteering to the schooling programs of the children. As a matter of fact, the legislation extends the right of parents and com munity to be involved in the daily running of the school programs through continued support and participation in the school’s governing structures ((Powell, 2009). As much as this partnership creates a framework for formal parent involvement, however, the home-school partnership should not be restricted to this. For instance, if we focus on the University of South Africa, they saw the need to introduce a Certificate of Parent Involvement in order to prepare teachers to implement effective school, family, community partnerships. ... As a matter of fact, legislation extends the right of parents and community to be involved in the daily running of the school programs through continued support and participation in the school’s governing structures ((Powell, 2009). As much as this partnership creates a framework for formal parent involvement, however, home-school partnership should not be restricted to this. For instance, if we focus on the University of South Africa, they saw the need to introduce a Certificate in Parent Involvement in order to prepare teachers to implement effective school, family, community partnerships. Changes in the society are also likely to influence the manner in which early childhood programs are governed. In this regard, it is vital to design the curriculum around the Epstein model of family and community and school partnerships (Epstein, 2005). This is because the early childhood field’s interest in parental involvement is based on various powerful ideas in regards to paren tal or communal responsibilities and influences. Indeed, early childhood programs aimed at shaping the relationship between parents, community and schools should actively support the parents to maximize program impact on children (Bredekamp, 2007). This is an idea that has been consistently bolstered by theories and scientific evidence that seeks to highlight on the lasting impact of families and communities on the development of the child. Parents have also been acquainted with the understanding and the apprehension of program goals and curriculum that seeks to promote the healthy child development. This is usually done through parenting education strategies. Secondly,

The Theory of Utilitarianism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Theory of Utilitarianism - Essay Example This paper illustrates that the actions of Cooper meet utilitarianism by the fact that the outcome of his actions benefits both himself and others. His liver donation helps the family of those who are in need of the organ and brings joy to that family. Cooper’s actions also make him and his family happy for the act of saving another person’s life through considering their previous experience. Furthermore, everybody who knows him acknowledges his action as the right thing. Our actions according to utilitarianism should emulate Cooper’s in ensuring benefits to the majority and not a single individual. In our daily actions and decision, we should consider benefits to others and not personal gains. Cooper does this and goes far enough to ensure that he saves the life an anonymous individual and feel right while risking his own. However, act like that of Cooper is too extreme in risking personal life while there are many other options that can benefit the majority. Co oper and his family passed through fear of all the risks before and during the surgery.

Comparative Essay about two short story Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Comparative about two short story - Essay Example The first story, Prisoner on the hell plant, is based on the character Artie who has a lot to suffer in his life. Artie is a loner in this cruel and harsh world, a person who just lost his mother and considers himself to be a reason for the loss. He has a history of mental illness and when he came out of the asylum, Artie had a clear view of life in his mind. He wanted his life to improve and to be successful. Artie had been trying to improve his living standards, to get a good job and to worsk and support his mother. But, one day he receives the news of his mother committing suicide and the life he had been dreaming of shattered and the sky fell upon him as he realized what he had lost. Since the receiving of this new, Artie had been trying to figure out a way to find why his mother committed suicide. He had been making out reasons to make himself feel a little less guilty but, all he was left behind was the guilt that he made his mother commit suicide. Even though he was not, people around him were telling him that and consoling him. They were there for him and telling him that he was not at all guilty but Artie felt like he was going insane again and now that he has lost his only hope in the world, there is no chance for him to be a successful man he had dreamt of. Similar scenario is face by Marjane in ‘The Veil’. Marjane is a young girl with big dreams. Dreams of a world where all would be equal and no person would see the other with a sense of superiority. Marjane studies in the school at a time when revolutionists had called for different schools for the two sexes and wearing the veil was made necessary for the girls in school. This new law was not accepted by many and protests were going around in the country by groups both favoring and against this. Her class fellows did not like wearing the veil that much and most of them would remove it whenever they get a

Should high schools offer vocational education, or should students go Essay

Should high schools offer vocational education, or should students go to trade schools for practical job training - Essay Example It can be said beyond doubt that academic education plays an important role in sharpening and broadening the minds of the students, however practical application of the theoretical studies do much more. Providing vocational education in the high schools also diversify the curriculum, providing students with greater learning and experience. If a person wishes to pursue a career in a technical field, he needs to have a solid foundation and practice to ensure a successful career. This foundation can be made if high schools offer optional vocational education to its students. Vocational education also prepares the students for their practical life by granting them exposure to the practical works (Copa). If the students get vocational education during their high school, they can also polish their skills by working part time in the related field; so that by the time, their high school is finished, they would be ready to follow their respective careers. Providing vocational education in hig h school also allows the students to recognize their interests so that, in future they can opt for a career that suits their liking (Felder and Glavin). The market for skilled technical labor is constantly on the rise. Technical workers are hugely in demand and thus get high compensations for their work.

Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Case Study - Essay Example Retrospectively, some self protection views are presented also that can aid Mr. Pecker in avoiding such problems in the future This report can be construed to be a recommendation with regard to Mr. Corky Pecker’s legal position with TMP Operations Pty Ltd as well as any value that the company may offer later on. A summary of the corporate structures during normal operations and immediately after voluntary administration (VA) shall be given first. This summary shall be given with a timeline of events that led to the VA decision. A review of the actions that are open to the administrator for recovering value to pay creditors is given afterwards. An outline of the liabilities and defences of Mr. Pecker shall be given in case the company is liquidated. However, in case the company is saved, advice is given to Mr. Pecker for structuring. Furthermore, many legal, practicable, remedies are given that can be used to assist a negotiating restructure in case negotiations along these lines fails. At the end, the possible role of Mr. Pecker in avoiding these risks he faces now shall be given, for his future use. However, this report shall be limited in scope; it shall only report as to the application of the Corporations Act 2001 (CA, 2001). TMP Operations Pty Ltd (TMPO) is a subsidiary wholly owned by TMP Holdings Pty Ltd (TMPH), with Don Corleone (DC), Rhonda Sadler (RS), Hubert Burdock (HB) and Corky Pecker (CP) as directors. Appendix A (a diagram) explains the corporate structure in more detail; Table A.1 therein gives the timeline of events that led to the VA. Peter Gibson (PG) is the financial advisor and accountant of the group, with legal advice dispensed by RS, while DC retained Martha Stewart (MS) as well. When the TMPO board decided to enter VA, Helen Gleeson (HG) was nominated the administrator. Investigating TMPO’s affairs will be

Global car paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Global car paper - Essay Example imum to reduce costs, and thus, they resort to outsourcing of manufacturing of different components of the car to countries where they can find comparatively cheaper labor as opposed to domestic labor. This paper deals with the American Dodge Ram Pickup Truck and tries to find out where different components of the car are actually manufactured. The paper also discusses whether the car’s manufacturer follows a standardized approach or a customized one when producing the car. The Dodge Ram Pickup Trucks provide a basic truck loved by most Americans, and these trucks are built keeping in mind the capability and durability factors that Americans value and honor. The pickup truck primarily falls under the Ram division of one of the internationally well-known car manufacturing companies, the Chrysler. The finesse the car represents along with its practicality and usability facilitates enough influence needed for customers to buy it. However, although most American cars cannot boast an ‘all-American-built’ label with their cars, the Dodge Ram Pickup can afford this tag, as â€Å"70%† of the car is built in North America itself (‘Global Car,’ 2010). A close inspection into the company and its manufacturing processes reveals how different parts of the car are actually manufactured in different parts of the world. Therefore, it is rightfully asserted in the video that the Dodge Ram Pickup Truck is actually a â€Å"symbol of world economy,† as it shows how America is not independent of its manufacturing of the car and how different countries come together and forge a world economy whose ultimate product the car is (‘Global Car,’ 2010). This car, like every other car, basically has â€Å"750-900 parts,† most of which is built in America, but the rest is outsourced to Europe, and far east countries such as India and China etc (2010). The supply chain process involved in the manufacture of the pickup truck involves companies such as â€Å"Tyson Krupp, Berck† in

Roman Empire Culture Essay Example for Free

Roman Empire Culture Essay Wikipedias entry on the Fall of the Roman Empire is a comprehensive and multifaceted survey of the scholarship which seeks to indicate a certain period or event or series of events which caused the fall of the Roman Empire. One of the main differences between the Wikipedia entry and a traditional encyclopedia entry is the extensive analysis with which the Wikipedia entry is able to devote to sub-sections and sub-theories under the general banner of discussion.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The question of assigning a specific date for the fall occupies a great deal of the Wikipedia article. The traditional date acknowledged is September 4, 476 when Romulus Augustus, Emperor of the Western Empire, was deposed by Odoacer. But the Eastern Empire continued until the fall of Constantinople nearly a century later in 1453. Other dates in contention are 395, the year of the death of Theodosius, the last time the Empire was united; the crossing of the Rhine by Germanic tribes in 406 after the withdrawal of the legions to battle Alaric I; or the disintegration of the western legions following the death of Stilicho in 408. Many scholars disdain the term â€Å"fall†, preferring to describe what was happening as a â€Å"complex transformation†.   The Wikipedia entry while seeming to dwell inordinately on a specific time or date of the fall is in actuality providing the researcher with a varied primer on the myriad theories which attend the question of historical dates of the Roman Empires fall.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Though the tone of the Wikipedia entry is scholarly, the lengthy digressions and somewhat scattered patterns of information make the entry less streamlined than a typical encyclopedia entry. In addition, the numerous off-site links and cross-references can prove to be distractive. And although the Wikipedia entry itself closely resembles scholarly writing there can be no assurance regarding the veracity of off-site links.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The most obvious bias that is apparent in the Wikipedia entry is resounding insistence that there is a date of collapse for the Roman Empire. The entry cites Edward Gibbon who argues the Roman population lost its way by allowing the Germanic tribes and other barbarian mercenaries a greater role in defending its interests. Gibbon claims Christianity was a contributing factor as well, turning the populations attention to other-worldly as opposed to here-and-now events.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Rather than examine contradictory theories in detail, the Wikipedia entry consumjes most of its energy revealing the survey of theories which argue for a date of collapse for the Roma Empire.   Wikipedia surveys the   â€Å"Pirenne Thesis†, wherein Henri Pirenne argued the Empire continued until the Muslim conquests in the 7th century, which disrupted Mediterranean trade routes and depressed the European economy. Pirenne sees the crowning of the Frankish King Charlemagne as the first Holy Roman Emperor in 800 as a continuation of the Empire.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   But it is J. B. Bury’s contention in his â€Å"History of the Later Roman Empire†which receives critical attention in the Wikipedia article. His theory is that what amounted to a â€Å"perfect storm† of events combined to spell the downfall of the Empire:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   *Economic decline   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   *Germanic expansion in the population and military   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   *De-population of Italy   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   *The treason of Stilicho   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   *The murder of Aetius and the lack of a leader to replace him   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Bury says the Empire could have survived any of these events separately, but could not overcome the convergence of them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   William Carroll Bark’s â€Å"Origins of the Medieval World† reasons that basic economics was the Empire’s undoing. As a pre-cursor to feudalism, the tenant farmer’s obligation was to pay a fixed assessment of taxes on his grain supply. The oppressive taxes kept the farmers impoverished and unlikely to move into the more prosperous middle class. In fact, what middle class there was was forced to become collectors of the taxes for the inefficient central government. Government coffers suffered as a result. Also, the scarcity of gold late in the Empire made matters worse. Inflation of the currency in relation to its value in gold resulted in more people demanding payment in gold. The government’s cash-flow problems required them to seek cheaper mercenaries as defenders.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Radovan Richta says technology contributed to the Empire’s demise. The Germanic invention of the horseshoe and use of the new Chinese compass allowed mercenaries quicker access to Roman defenses.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Arnold Toynbee and James Burke also examine economic causes at the root of the Empire’s fall. The Romans had no budgetary system and wasted available resources as a result. The economy was basically based on plunder rather than production of new goods, and that declined along with territorial expansion. Landowners were exempt from taxation, making revenue production inefficient and unfair. The middle-class, the backbone of any free economy, was nearly non-existent. Exports were scarce. Military and bureaucratic costs increased. In overthrowing Romulus Augustus, the barbarian conqueror Odoacer assumed neither the title nor the responsibility of governance.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   William H. McNeill in â€Å"Plagues and Peoples† notes a 20-year-long plague in the late second century killed half of Europe’s population. The reduced tax base was unable to support the government and military and the resultant economic and social decline also killed the Empire.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚   Further theories of the cause of collapse proliferate through the Wikipedia article. So much so that one begins to feel that each sub-section of the article has been contributed by an enthusiast of that particularly pet-theory, sacrificing a general tone of scholarship for a tone of   specificity and personal   expertise. Examples of this include Wikipedias survey of Peter Heathers theory: that the threat posed by the Sassanid Persian Empire has been overlooked as a cause for the Roman Empires fall. He used archaeological evidence to suggest the Romans were stretched militarily by their preoccupation with the Persians, allowing a succession of Huns, Goths, and Germanic barbarians access to their territory.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A researcher who is searching for a very good primer regarding the abundance of theories which exist in scholarship to examine the historicism of the Roman Empires fall will find excellent information in the Wikipedia article, as a general and unverified outline of the scholarship. However, a deep-researcher would probably find the entry inconsistent, erratic, and of little value for serious scholarship as a go-to source; rather the Wikipedia seems to serve better as a thumbnail sketch of info and links to other sources of potential value. REFERENCE   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Fall of the Roman Empire. wikipedia.com. Retrieved from the Internet March 16, 2007.

The Royal Dutch Shell Company Commerce Essay

The Royal Dutch Shell Company Commerce Essay In this essay, I select The Royal Dutch Shell Company and write to analyze its secret to become successful. This international firm has lots of special experience for todays Chinese companies to learn because they are aspiring to rush out to the world. I will focus on four aspects, which are firms international strategy and policies analysis; international management and decision making style; macro analysis on how to change to survive and the companys globalization and adaption analysis functional analysis, including a brief financial information description. We will also give our own opinions and critics through the whole article. Royal Dutch Shell Group is the worlds second largest oil company and headquartered in The Hague, the Netherlands. It is composed by Royal Dutch Company and British Shell Company. It is a major international manufacturer of oil, natural gas, chemical and petroleum (PricewaterhouseCoopers CI LLP, March 14th, 2012). It is also the worlds largest automotive fuel and lubricating oil retailers. It has rich experience in the aspects of financing, management and operation. It develops its business in about one hundred and forty five countries, with almost one hundred and twenty thousand employees. (PricewaterhouseCoopers CI LLP, March 14th, 2012). Oil and gas production accounts for three percent and 3.5% respectively of the worlds total output. As the Netherlands largest industrial company, it has ranked the first in the fortune global top 500 list. 1.2 Brief Introduction to the Company Structure The structure of Shell Company is very unique. Subsidiary companies all over the world are managed collectively by Royal Dutch Shell Company and Shell Transport and Trading Company, including Royal Dutch holding sixty percent, Shell holding forty percent. The largest shareholder of Royal Dutch Shell Company is the investment company of Dutch royal family (Dai, Shells Way to Success., July 15, 2006). Royal Dutch Shell Group has the long-term vision of development business. The company developed on the basis of operating foreign oil and other commodities trade. It has more than one hundred years business history in many countries and its long-term cooperation partners spread over various fields. The investment scale of many Shell projects (whether upstream or downstream) is very large (Armstrong, March, 2010), and the operation cycle of these projects proceed for decades. As a result, the Royal Dutch Shell establishes and uses complex perspective plan technology research the future development Firm Strategy 2.1 Long Term Goals Royal Dutch Shells long-term goal as published states that they will, meet the energy needs of society in economically, socially and environmentally viable ways. The Royal Dutch Shell firm is continually trying to expand its business and profits with environmentally safe methods; however the extent to which an oil company can keep the environment safe is still questionable. Peter Voser, Shells CEO, said, Shells strategy is innovative and competitive explaining how 2011s dividends reached over 10 billion US dollars, and he is expecting further growth in 2012 as well (Solutions for Business). IEA describes this as the Industrys resurrection which promises huge benefits for the US economy and subsequently economies around the world (Crooks, Ed; Guy Chazan, 2012). The International Energy Agency or (IEA) is a multinational regulatory energy committee who have stated that as little as five years ago, oil and gas productions were on an inexorable downward trend in the US but Shells strateg y is innovative and competitive (Crooks, Ed; Guy Chazan, 2012). Shells stock price fell rapidly during this time. They are still recovering from oil crisis. The resulting fallout left many oil companies around the world wounded and many economies damaged, however Shell has helped the North America revitalize its economy. Royal Dutch Shell is striving to achieve its goal of finding ways to viably meet societys energy needs while increasing its profits in the world economy. 2.2 Macro Effect: Global problems Shell faces many global-macro level problems and the majority of them are difficult to resolve. First, the power difference between high and low levels in the workplace is very large. Shell macro-executive responsiveness may not be effectively projected upon local communities and the developing world (Wheeler, Fabig, Boele, 2002). Wheeler argues that the executive decisions made on the corporate level are not effectively being passed down the lower levels. Daniels describes this vertical differentiation in his book International Business: Environments and Operations as a problem that all companies must address (Daniels, Radelbaugh, Sullivan, 1998). Along with communication problems, price fluctuations also affect the companys profits. The Washington Journal reports, because weak US gas prices drag down [Shells] earnings, they are considering converting natural gas to road fuels to sell at higher prices (Williams, Shell Sets Sights on Natural Gas to Fuel Growth). This is still very early however and it will take nearly a decade before results are seen from any investment Shell decides to make. Royal Dutch Shell faces another major problem-the global energy shortage. As fossil fuels combust the create carbon dioxide and water. This chemical process is irreversible. Shell must also worry about their long term growth potential because of the fundamental economic principle of scarcity. Shell has decided to increase their global efforts to exploit and research renewable energy sources in the face of this problem. An external committee consisting of representatives from five different countries conducted an investigation on Shells ability to withstand with this ever changing and volatile market. Upon the investigations conclusion, the committee stated, [Shell has] successful management of its complex operations in the midst of global economic turmoil (Solutions for Business). The fact that five professionals concluded that Shell is doing well during this difficult time says a lot about the quality of this multinational company. Shell publically acknowledges the, Global economy w ill very likely see, continued volatility in the future (Solutions for Business). In fact Royal Dutch Shell recently had to write down its assets value according to a recent Wall Street Journal article resulting in a shift in North American Energy production (Williams, Shell Profit Hit by Weaker Oil, Gas Prices, 2012). Shell is facing many macro-level problems that are not completely in their control; they are working very hard to lessen the effects that the global recession and resource scarcity are placing on them. International Management and Decision Making Style Shells Special Management and its Reasons 3.1.1 Shell Has a Large Scale Royal Dutch Shell Group, as an oil company which has a long history and hires a large scale of employees, an appropriate management is very important for it to operate well and become successful. Shell has its own distinct management style as a multinational joint company with capital from the Netherlands, America and Britain (PricewaterhouseCoopers CI LLP, March 14th, 2012). 3.1.2 Characteristic of the Industry Determines Its Integrated Management The capital intensive characteristic of the oil industry and Shells large scale both determine its integrated management (Liu, 2008) and decision making style rather than hierarchical management or any other styles. 3.1.3 Structure of Senior Management 3.2 The Two Parent Companies Are Relatively Independent The Royal Dutch Company and British Shell Company are two parent companies of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. They each registered independently in the Netherlands and in the United Kingdom (PricewaterhouseCoopers CI LLP, March 14th, 2012). Although according to the contract, the two parent companies exchanged shares, but they have their own decision-making bodies and are responsible to their shareholders respectively. The two parent companies are not constituent parts of the group and do not participate in the groups operations directly. However, they have the right to appoint board members in their own holding companies in the group and charge interest from these companies. 3.3 Shell Service Companies Play an Important Role The Shell Group has total 11 service companies to bear management and service functions assigned from the headquarters. These companies main task is to provide consulting services for all group companies and associated companies and subsidiaries in their business. Service companies are divided by business, regions and functions (PricewaterhouseCoopers CI LLP, March 14th, 2012). 3.3.1 Management Approach on Service Companies The Shell Group takes an integrated matrix management approach to conduct organizational management on its service companies. For instance, the service company in The Hague, the Netherlands focused on technical services but the service company in London, the UK focused on commercial services (Lei, 2007). The reason is that the Netherlands have some best technological universities in the world while London is the global trading center with much financial resource. From a functional point of view, this allocation of service companies can maximize the groups profit as well as optimize its management. 3.3.2 Segregation of Service Companies and Coordination Bureaus In order to facilitate regional coordination, service companies are also segregated geographically. The Shell Group established five Coordination Bureaus, which are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, the CIS and Eastern Europe, the Western Hemisphere and Africa and Far East and South Asia (PricewaterhouseCoopers CI LLP, March 14th, 2012). 3.4 Business Company Is Mainstay of the Group 3.4.1 Business Company Definition The Shell Group has more than 300 business companies in more than 100 countries around the world. Their business scope includes oil, natural gas, coal, chemicals, and metals. Each business company is an independent organization and many of them are mutually associated. They are not wholly-owned by Shell because their Shareholders are various, including other companies, governments or individual investors. Where if more than 51% of these companies stocks are owned by the Shell Group, they are called the Group companies, the rest are called the associated companies. 3.4.2 Operational Mode of Business Company Management personnel in each business company are solely responsible for the companys own operations and long-term approach to development. A business company can either draw on the experience from service companies, or obtain other companies experience via them (Pender, March 16, 2002). The five-year plans and annual plans of a business company have to be viewed so that it can receive opinions from service companies. Therefore, a business company has to consult the planning, finance, personnel and other departments in service companies and then report to their corresponding regional coordination bureau. The regional coordination bureau will analyze and provide researches on the aspects of regional resources, market conditions and the groups ability to provide support (Dai, Royal Dutch Shells Secrets., March 15, 2003). After this procedure of research coordination, if the regional coordination bureau agreed, they would report to the groups board of directors for an approval. 3.5 Shell Keeps Pace with the Time From what mentioned above, the Shell Group has an integrated management model. Recently, the Shell group keeps up to date and takes a reform on its management structure. It developed its commercial companies in accordance with professional divisions, such as Shell Chemical, Shell Refinery, Shell Exploration and Exploitation and other business sectors (Knott, 2012). Shell also incorporated research institutions into respective companies, conducting these actions will improve the groups competitiveness continuously. Macro analysis 4.1 Global Adaption Once the Royal Dutch Shell decided to step into the global market, they need a complete international strategy to adapt the complicated problems and challenges. However, the challenges they faced could be the opportunities they own in some degrees. Obviously, Royal Dutch Shell have turned the challenges to opportunities successfully which due to their core international strategy. It covers the operating decentralization, international HR management and emergency mechanism (Pender, March 16, 2002). 4.1.1 Operating Decentralization Oil resource has a large relevance with the geopolitics situation which means the local political changes would have huge influence on the Royal Dutch Shells subsidiary company settled in that place (Liu, 2008). For this reason, Royal Dutch Shell has adapted the strategy which implements the operating decentralization. 4.2 Investment Diversification Investment diversification can maintain a favorable balance among their entire pattern. Royal Dutch Shell has oil and gas exploitation operation in more than 50 countries and areas, with refinery established in about 30 areas the corporations sales network covers more than 100 countries and areas (Pender, March 16, 2002). The political systems and wars are two of the most impact factors to the Oil Corporation. Yet the Royal Dutch Shell constructed a global investment network. Once one of the invested places suffered in war or the new political system changes put the company into an unfavorable situation, Royal Dutch Shell would cancel or transfer the investments (OHara, 2001). For example, on 20 August, 2012, Royal Dutch Shell announced that they achieved the oil concession of Skifska which is located in the Black Sea, Ukraine (Pender, March 16, 2002). That is a locality successful this year. However, just few months ago, Royal Dutch Shell had withdrawn from Libya due to its unstable social environment. 4.3 Product Diversification Though the Royal Dutch Shell has a wide product diversification network, their products only limited in energy sources and chemical industry which are relevance and cooperation to their familiar industry areas. There are four main products divisions. 4.3.1 Oil and Gas Products The oil and gas industry is the core business which is most important earning source. Its manufacturing equipments take over more than 80% of the total amount while the sales income occupies over 85% of the total sales (PricewaterhouseCoopers CI LLP, March 14th, 2012). Beside it as a supplier for several airline companies, Royal Dutch Shell is the biggest crude oil producer in offshore, USA. In order to cooperate with its oil and gas business among the world, Royal Dutch Shell has a strong, efficient shipping chain. 4.3.2 Chemical Products In order to provide raw materials to subsidiary companies in Europe which could decline the costs and increase the competitiveness of the products, Royal Dutch Shell established chemical raw materials manufacturing factories in the Middle East where have abundant chemical raw materials resource. Over 80% of the chemical products would sell in Europe (Dai, Shells Way to Success., July 15, 2006). The main products involves in the catalyst, agrochemical and plasticizer market. 4.3.3 Coal Products Though the price of coal has a trend of decline, they require amount is increasing. The oil market has presented a trend that the supply is excess than the demand, it is more important to focus on the development of coal. Royal Dutch Shell provides coal products in over 70 countries and now they are making an effort on the expansion on the markets in North America and Hong Kong (Hua, 2008). 4.3.4 Non-Metallic Materials Products This kind materials representative as aluminum and bauxite. The non-metallic material products are part of the products diversification. It contributes to the implement of products diversification. A health balance could be maintained by adjustment of income in different areas. 4.4 International HR Management It is hard to say which country that Royal Dutch Shell belongs to as the international human resources is the tradition among the group.à £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€š ¬ 4.4.1 Global Talented Person Mechanismà £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€š ¬ The employees chosen standard that Royal Dutch Shell adapted is faced the international human resources. Which country that the employee comes from is not important if the employee meets the standard. As the data in annual report, 2011, Royal Dutch Shell has about 5700 international employees come from 76 different countries who work in its branches among 100 countries (PricewaterhouseCoopers CI LLP, March 14th, 2012). The global talented person mechanism contributes its operation and management level into an international high level. Royal Dutch Shell has over 1000 joint ventures with other companies because of their multicultural environment. For example, the subsidiary company in Australia which mainly operating in steelmaking had surpassed the Nippon Shell. The president of the company is cone from Australia who has a wide human relationship. 4.4.2 Relative Independence Management Compare with its global talented person mechanism, the management to different local subsidiary companies have relative independence. The subsidiary companies in charge of their own operation business. The central offices in London and The Hague are in charge of providing financing institutions and technology skills to all the subsidiary. In this situation, the subsidiary companies can handle the emergency accidents by themselves with flexibility and subjective initiative (Heinrich C. C., 2005). Meanwhile, Royal Dutch Shell does not just give up the control of the subsidiary companies in different areas in the world. The experienced managers come to local branches and companies with their international management knowledge. It promises the concentration of the whole group which prevents the abruption. Functional Analysis International Financial Analysisà ¦Ã…“ ªÃƒ ¥Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ‚ ½Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ Ã‚  à ¦Ã‚ Ã…“à §Ã¢â‚¬ ¹-à ¦Ã‹â€ Ã‚ ªÃƒ ¥Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃ‚ ¾121130_1à ¦Ã‚ Ã…“à §Ã¢â‚¬ ¹-à ¦Ã‹â€ Ã‚ ªÃƒ ¥Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃ‚ ¾121130_4 From the statement above we can see that Shell group in recent years keeps a good developing trend: sales, operating profit, net assets and increase year by year, Current ratio, average working capital rate of return, net profit/average net assets indexes, such as keep rising trend; Total debt/working capital is reduced year by year (PricewaterhouseCoopers CI LLP, March 14th, 2012). 5.2 Shells Revenue in Geographic Area In the statement we can see that in the Europe Asia Oceania Africa and the USA, the revenue are growing rapidly especially in the year 2010 to 2011. It is the reason why Shell can be the second column in the fortune magazine of global top 500 in 2011 rank only behind the Wal-Mart and on the top beyond Wal-Mart in July 9, 2012.à ¦Ã‚ Ã…“à §Ã¢â‚¬ ¹-à ¦Ã‹â€ Ã‚ ªÃƒ ¥Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃ‚ ¾121130_3 5.3 Conclusion of Financial Condition From the statement we also can see that the intangible assets, property, plant and equipment and equity-accounted investments growth the fastest in Asia. It is because in China, the Shells five core businesses are has made great strides in development such as exploration and production business and engaged in oil production. Also Shell has all over the country 250 cities of lube oil sales network and more than 40 shell brand gas station in Beijing Tianjin Chengdu and other big cities (Weiser, 2010). Meanwhile we noticed that the growth in other Americas is not as quick as in other areas. Through the discussion, we thought maybe these areas economic environment is not so good to do investment. Conclusion As one of the biggest multinational enterprises in the world Royal Dutch Shell plc is certainly one of the global economic giants pushing forward our global economy. It has demonstrated excellent functional ability evident through its marketing and sales numbers. It has a clear published company goal and moves closer to it by executing its long-term macro strategy. Although it faces numerous problems, Shell is using innovative and decisive ways to counteract the adverse effects of the global market while adapting to fit its customers. In conclusion, the Royal Dutch Shell Company is an excellent company worthy of investment with solid prospects for future growth.

Managed Health Care :: essays papers

Managed Health Care Of the approximately 257.8 million individuals currently living in the United States of America, every one of them has a need for effective, affordable and accessible health care coverage and services. Within the past thirty to forty years, the scope and cost of health care coverage and services has drastically changed, altering the manner in which health care was previously managed. There are several factors that have affected the cost of health care coverage over the course of the past two to three decades. One of these factors is the introduction and rapidly increasing enrollment in managed health care insurance plans. Managed care health insurance plans can, in most cases, help to alleviate the rising costs of effective medical coverage. Another important factor that has affected health care costs is the invention and implementation of new medical technologies. As prominent researchers and economic analysts have discovered, there is a distinct and direct correlat! ion between advancing medical technologies and rising health care costs. Medical innovation has been proven time and again to be an important determinant of health care cost growth. It would appear that managed care health insurance plans, which attempt to lower health care costs, and highly expensive new medical innovations and procedures are at cross purposes, pulling against one another in very different directions. Market-level comparisons have found the cost growth of health care in markets with greater managed care penetration to be generally slower than that of non-managed care health insurance markets. However, managed care is unlikely to prevent the share of gross domestic product spent on health care from rising unless the cost-increasing nature of new medical technologies changes. Managed care health insurance plans differ greatly from indemnity fee-for-service, or FFS, insurance plans. Since the early 1970's, rapidly growing enrollment in managed care health insurance plans has transformed the health insurance market in the United States. Virtually nonexistent in most markets three decades ago, managed care health plans covered 63 percent of the nation's employees by 1994. Managed care incorporates a range of features that allow the insurer greater influence in the process of care delivery. Managed care plans aggressively contract for lower prices from physicians and hospitals and attempt to constrain the use of health care services by monitoring providers and changing provider incentives. Health insurance providers that operate under the fee-for-service concept grant the consumer much more freedom of choice concerning doctors and treatment programs, thus freeing the consumer of any feelings of discontent with "interfering" insurance companies. ! Consumers of indemnity plans, however, pay a price for that freedom by way of drastically higher rates and

Customer Relationship Management Essay -- Business CRM

As a Business Administration major I have learned there are several different components that make up a successful business, and it is important that everyone work together to achieve a common goal. The ultimate goal of most companies is to create a product or service that will gain a place in the market and stay there. Customer relationships are the most important factor for companies to consider when aiming toward success. What can companies do to improve customer relationships? Improving customer loyalty means the customer keeps coming back even if they are not always completely satisfied with the product. When I think about what brings customers back, and the most important part of a company’s success, it is undeniably customer relationship management. With it being easier for customers to shop from their home or office, and the growing competition making it easier to switch, the relationships become increasingly more important every day. Focusing more effort on cus tomer retention and loyalty in customer relationships would improve their chances of surviving in the market. Companies are now turning to this business strategy supported by information technology. These customer service programs are designed to assist in a company’s business operations. Companies like Siebel, E.piphany, Oracle, Broadvision, Net Perceptions, Kana and others have designed products that do everything from track customer behavior on the Web to predicting their future moves to sending direct e-mail communications. Customer Relationship Management can improve: Contact and account management, sales, marketing and fulfillment, customer service and support, and retention and loyalty. The part that deals specifically with the needs of the cust... ...to, what promotions to send to certain customers, and can inevitably save marketing dollars in the process. The management part of the programs is equally important. Once companies see progress or no progress with a customer they have to decide on an appropriate action. Companies do not want to sit back and watch customers disappear. Measuring the benefits will help companies identify their best customers and eliminate negative information flow between customers and the company. Customer Relationship Management has impacted the business world and changed the way customers are handled and the way customer satisfaction is valued. Murphy, John A. (2001). The Lifebelt: The Definitive Guide to Managing Customer Retention. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. (2001). Harvard Business Review on Customer Relationship Management. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Advertising essay :: Business Marketing

Advertising Advertising is a process and mechanism usually used by some people or some companies trying to sell us products, services and others using different ways of publishing to attract their own customer advertising is an important source of income In some developed countries such as United States, where the advertisers job is based on media (Newspapers, Television, magazines, radio) used to push people to drive thru their own The advertisers use media to get people to use their products, Points at issue are: _How ads are developed _How the world of advertising touch our life and our community. Long time ago, the advertising mechanism appeared in newspapers. The advertisers tried to find their customers. Advertising mechanism appeared for the first time in newspapers, letters and fax? Were the advertisers trying to catch people by telling them a lot about their products or services, what they are ways to use them and what benefits we get? This process staying in progress, most of advertisers become more powerful day after other using different ways such as TV, magazines, Internet? Advertising has been moved from one person doing it to big companies of advertising around the world and affecting a numerous number of them. Today businesses are usually based on advertising, especially in e-commerce, where these companies use technology provided by the Internet to sharing and letting customers know about their products. This is the way used by huge cartels attracting and having their own customers. The 20-century represents a very interesting issue where a part of sciences and stilling ahead a studies in the most important university around the world being a major implicating a different specializations such as, business management, advertising, business management..Became involved in economic world. Today, advertising is provided by e-commerce the most powerful way to attract customers. These developments push the ads companies to spend billions of dollars of in advertising campaigns, internet, TV, magazines , newspapers, ?trying to sell us their different kinds of products and services. Advertising moves today anywhere, anytime, in homes, in our life, in every things we use It Touches our minds, our eyes, anything we think about it. All of these affect our lives, everyone becoming like a robot directed by advertisers and publishers.

Bag of Bones CHAPTER TWENTY

I didn't see them at first, which wasn't surprising; it seemed that half of Castle Rock was on the town common as that sultry Saturday afternoon edged on toward evening. The air was bright with hazy midsummer light, and in it kids swarmed over the playground equipment, a number of old men in bright red vests some sort of club, I assumed played chess, and a group of young people lay on the grass listening to a teenager in a headband playing the guitar and singing one I remembered from an old Ian and Sylvia record, a cheery tune that went ‘Ella Speed was havin her lovin fun, John Martin shot Ella with a Colt forty-one . . . ‘ I saw no joggers, and no dogs chasing Frisbees. It was just too goddam hot. I was turning to look at the bandshell, where an eight-man combo called The Castle Rockers was setting up (I had an idea ‘In the Mood' was about as close as they got to rock and roll), when a small person hit me from behind, grabbing me just above the knees and almost dumping me on the grass. ‘Gotcha!' the small person cried gleefully. ‘Kyra Devore!' Mattie called, sounding both amused and irritated. ‘You'll knock him down!' I turned, dropped the grease-spotted McDonald's bag I had been carrying, and lifted the kid up. It felt natural, and it felt wonderful. You don't realize the weight of a healthy child until you hold one, nor do you fully comprehend the life that runs through them like a bright wire. I didn't get choked up (‘Don't go all corny on me, Mike,' Siddy would sometimes whisper when we were kids at the movies and I got wet-eyed at a sad part), but I thought of Jo, yes. And the child she had been carrying when she fell down in that stupid parking lot, yes to that, too. Ki was squealing and laughing, her arms outspread and her hair hanging down in two amusing clumps accented by Raggedy Ann and Andy barrettes. ‘Don't tackle your own quarterback!' I yelled, grinning, and to my delight she yelled it right back at me: ‘Don't taggle yer own quartermack! Don't taggle yer own quartermack!' I set her on her feet, both of us laughing. Ki took a step backward, tripped herself, and sat down on the grass, laughing harder than ever. I had a mean thought, then, brief but oh so clear: if only the old lizard could see how much he was missed. How sad we were at his passing. Mattie walked over, and tonight she looked as I'd half-imagined her when I first met her like one of those lovely children of privilege you see at the country club, either goofing with their friends or sitting seriously at dinner with their parents. She was in a white sleeveless dress and low heels, her hair falling loose around her shoulders, a touch of lipstick on her mouth. Her eyes had a brilliance in them that hadn't been there before. When she hugged me I could smell her perfume and feel the press of her firm little breasts. I kissed her cheek; she kissed me high up on the jaw, making a smack in my ear that I felt all the way down my back. ‘Say things are going to be better now,' she whispered, still holding me. ‘Lots better now,' I said, and she hugged me again, tight. Then she stepped away ‘You better have brought plenty food, big boy, because we plenty hungry womens. Right, Kyra?' ‘I taggled my own quartermack,' Ki said, then leaned back on her elbows, giggling deliciously at the bright and hazy sky. ‘Come on,' I said, and grabbed her by the middle I toted her that way to a nearby picnic table, Ki kicking her legs and waving her arms and laughing I set her down on the bench; she slid off it and beneath the table, boneless as an eel and still laughing. ‘All right, Kyra Elizabeth,' Mattie said. ‘Sit up and show the other side' ‘Good girl, good girl,' she said, clambering up beside me. ‘That's the other side to me, Mike' ‘I'm sure,' I said. Inside the bag there were Big Macs and fries for Mattie and me. For Ki there was a colorful box upon which Ronald McDonald and his unindicted co-conspirators capered. ‘Mattie, I got a Happy Meal! Mike got me a Happy Meal! They have toys!' ‘Well see what yours is.' Kyra opened the box, poked around, then smiled It lit up her whole face She brought out something that I at first thought was a big dust-ball For one horrible second I was back in my dream, the one of Jo under the bed with the book over her face Give me that, she had snarled It's my dust-catcher. And something else, too some other association, perhaps from some other dream I couldn't get hold of it. ‘Mike?' Mattie asked. Curiosity in her voice, and maybe borderline concern. ‘It's a doggy!' Ki said ‘I won a doggy in my Happy Meal!' Yes; of course A dog. A little stuffed dog. And it was gray, not black . . . although why I'd care about the color either way I didn't know. ‘That's a pretty good prize,' I said, taking it. It was soft, which was good, and it was gray, which was better Being gray made it all right, somehow Crazy but true I handed it back to her and smiled. ‘What's his name?' Ki asked, jumping the little dog back and forth across her Happy Meal box. ‘What doggy's name, Mike?' And, without thinking, I said, ‘Strickland.' I thought she'd look puzzled, but she didn't. She looked delighted. ‘Stricken!' she said, bouncing the dog back and forth in ever-higher leaps over the box. ‘Stricken! Stricken! My dog Stricken!' ‘Who's this guy Strickland?' Mattie asked, smiling a little. She had begun to unwrap her hamburger. ‘A character in a book I read once,' I said, watching Ki play with the little puffball dog. ‘No one real.' ‘My grampa died,' she said five minutes later. We were still at the picnic table but the food was mostly gone. Strickland the stuffed puffball had been set to guard the remaining french fries. I had been scanning the ebb and flow of people, wondering who was here from the TR observing our tryst and simply burning to carry the news back home. I saw no one I knew, but that didn't mean a whole tot, considering how long I'd been away from this part of the world. Mattie put down her burger and looked at Ki with some anxiety, but I thought the kid was okay she had been giving news, not expressing grief. ‘I know he did,' I said. ‘Grampa was awful old.' Ki pinched a couple of french fries between her pudgy little fingers. They rose to her mouth, then gloop, all gone. ‘He's with Lord Jesus now. We had all about Lord Jesus in VBS.' Yes, Ki, I thought, right now Grampy's probably teaching Lord Jesus how to use Pixel Easel and asking if there might be a whore handy. ‘Lord Jesus walked on water and also changed the wine into macaroni.' ‘Yes, something like that,' I said. ‘It's sad when people die, isn't it?' ‘It would be sad if Mattie died, and it would be sad if you died, but Grampy was old.' She said it as though I hadn't quite grasped this concept the first time. ‘In heaven he'll get all fixed up.' ‘That's a good way to look at it, hon,' I said. Mattie did maintenance on Ki's drooping barrettes, working carefully and with a kind of absent love. I thought she glowed in the summer light, her skin in smooth, tanned contrast to the white dress she had probably bought at one of the discount stores, and I understood that I loved her. Maybe that was all right. ‘I miss the white nana, though,' Ki said, and this time she did look sad. She picked up the stuffed dog, tried to feed him a french fry, then put him down again. Her small, pretty face looked pensive now, and I could see a whisper of her grandfather in it. It was far back but it was there, perceptible, another ghost. ‘Mom says white nana went back to California with Grampy's early remains.' ‘Earthly remains, Ki-bird,' Mattie said. ‘That means his body.' ‘Will white nana come back and see me, Mike?' ‘I don't know.' ‘We had a game. It was all rhymes.' She looked more pensive than ever. ‘Your mom told me about that game,' I said. ‘She won't be back,' Ki said, answering her own question. One very large tear rolled down her right cheek. She picked up ‘Stricken,' stood him on his back legs for a second, then put him back on guard-duty. Mattie slipped an arm around her, but Ki didn't seem to notice. ‘White nana didn't really like me. She was just pretending to like me. That was her job.' Mattie and I exchanged a glance. ‘What makes you say that?' I asked. ‘Don't know,' Ki said. Over by where the kid was playing the guitar, a juggler in whiteface had started up, working with half a dozen colored balls. Kyra brightened a little. ‘Mommy-bommy, may I go watch that funny white man?' ‘Are you done eating?' ‘Yeah, I'm full.' ‘Thank Mike.' ‘Don't taggle yer own quartermack,' she said, then laughed kindly to show she was just pulling my leg. ‘Thanks, Mike.' ‘Not a problem,' I said, and then, because that sounded a little old-fashioned: ‘Kickin.' ‘You can go as far as that tree, but no farther,' Mattie said. ‘And you know why.' ‘So you can see me. I will.' She grabbed Strickland and started to run off, then stopped and looked over her shoulder at me. ‘I guess it was the fridgeafator people,' she said, then corrected herself very carefully and seriously. ‘The ree fridge-a-rator people.' My heart took a hard double beat in my chest. ‘It was the refrigerator people what, Ki?' I asked. ‘That said white nana didn't really like me.' Then she ran off toward the juggler, oblivious to the heat. Mattie watched her go, then turned back to me. ‘I haven't talked to anybody about Ki's fridgeafator people. Neither has she, until now. Not that there are any real people, but the letters seem to move around by themselves. It's like a Ouija board.' ‘Do they spell things?' For a long time she said nothing. Then she nodded. ‘Not always, but sometimes.' Another pause. ‘Most times, actually. Ki calls it mail from the people in the refrigerator.' She smiled, but her eyes were a little scared. ‘Are they special magnetic letters, do you think? Or have we got a poltergeist working the lakefront?' ‘I don't know. I'm sorry I brought them, if they're a problem.' ‘Don't be silly. You gave them to her, and you're a tremendously big deal to her right now. She talks about you all the time. She was much more interested in picking out something pretty to wear for you tonight than she was in her grandfather's death. I was supposed to wear something pretty, too, Kyra insisted. She's not that way about people, usually she takes them when they're there and leaves them when they're gone. That's not such a bad way for a little girl to grow up, I sometimes think.' ‘You both dressed pretty,' I said. ‘That much I'm sure of.' ‘Thanks.' She looked fondly at Ki, who stood by the tree watching the juggler. He had put his rubber balls aside and moved on to Indian clubs. Then she looked back at me. ‘Are we done eating?' I nodded, and Mattie began to pick up the trash and stuff it back into the take-out bag. I helped, and when our fingers touched, she gripped my hand and squeezed. ‘Thank you,' she said. ‘For everything you've done. Thank you so damn much.' I squeezed back, then let go. ‘You know,' she said, ‘it's crossed my mind that Kyra's moving the letters around herself. Mentally.' ‘Telekinesis?' ‘I guess that's the technical term. Only Ki can't spell much more than â€Å"dog† and â€Å"cat.† ‘What's showing up on the fridge?' ‘Names, mostly. Once it was yours. Once it was your wife's.' ‘Jo?' ‘The whole thing JOANNA. And NANA. Rogette, I presume. JARED shows up sometimes, and BRIDGET. Once there was KITO.' She spelled it. ‘Kito,' I said, and thought: Kyra, Kia, Kito. What is this? ‘A boy's name, do you think?' ‘I know it is. It's Swahili, and means precious child. I looked it up in my baby-name book.' She glanced toward her own precious child as we walked across the grass to the nearest trash barrel. ‘Any others that you can remember?' She thought. ‘REG has showed up a couple of times. And once there was CARLA. You understand that Ki can't even read these names as a rule, don't you? She has to ask me what they say.' ‘Has it occurred to you that Kyra might be copying them out of a book or a magazine? That she's learning to write using the magnetic letters on the fridge instead of paper and pencil?' ‘I suppose that's possible . . . ‘ She didn't look as if she believed it, though. Not surprising. I didn't believe it myself. ‘I mean, you've never actually seen the letters moving around by themselves on the front of the fridge, have you?' I hoped I sounded as unconcerned asking this question as I wanted to. She laughed a bit nervously. ‘God, no!' ‘Anything else?' ‘Sometimes the fridgeafator people leave messages like HI and BYE and GOOD GIRL. There was one yesterday that I wrote down to show you. Kyra asked me to. It's really weird.' ‘What is it?' ‘I'd rather show you, but I left it in the glove compartment of the Scout. Remind me when we go.' Yes. I would. ‘This is some spooky shit, se?or,' she said. ‘Like the writing in the flour that time.' I thought about telling her I had my own fridgeafator people, then didn't. She had enough to worry about without that . . . or so I told myself. We stood side-by-side on the grass, watching Ki watch the juggler. ‘Did you call John?' I asked. ‘You bet.' ‘His reaction?' She turned to me, laughing with her eyes. ‘He actually sang a verse of â€Å"Ding Dong, the Witch Is Dead.† ‘Wrong sex, right sentiment.' She nodded, her eyes going back to Kyra. I thought again how beautiful she looked, her body slim in the white dress, her features clean and perfectly made. ‘Was he pissed at me inviting myself to lunch?' I asked. ‘Nope, he loved the idea of having a party.' A party. He loved the idea. I began to feel rather small. ‘He even suggested we invite your lawyer from last Friday. Mr. Bissonette? Plus the private detective John hired on Mr. Bissonette's recommendation. Is that okay with you?' ‘Fine. How about you, Mattie? Doing okay?' ‘Doing okay,' she agreed, turning to me. ‘I did have several more calls than usual today. I'm suddenly quite popular.' ‘Uh-oh.' ‘Most were hangups, but one gentleman took time enough to call me a cunt, and there was a lady with a very strong Yankee accent who said, ‘Theah, you bitch, you've killed him. Aaa you satisfied?' She hung up before I could tell her yes, very satisfied, thanks.' But Mattie didn't look satisfied; she looked unhappy and guilty, as if she had literally wished him dead. ‘I'm sorry.' ‘It's okay. Really. Kyra and I have been alone for a long time, and I've been scared for most of it. Now I've made a couple of friends. If a few anonymous phone calls are the price I have to pay, I'll pay it.' She was very close, looking up at me, and I couldn't stop myself. I put the blame on summer, her perfume, and four years without a woman. In that order, i slipped my arms around her waist, and remember perfectly the texture of her dress beneath my hands; the slight pucker at the back where the zipper hid in its sleeve. I remember the sensation of the cloth moving against the bare skin beneath. Then I was kissing her, very gently but very thoroughly anything worth doing is worth doing right and she was kissing me back in exactly the same spirit, her mouth curious but not afraid. Her lips were warm and smooth and held some faint sweet taste. Peaches, I think. We stopped at the same time and pulled back a little from each other. Her hands were still on my shoulders. Mine were on the sides of her waist, just above her hips. Her face was composed enough, but her eyes were more brilliant than ever, and there were slants of color in her cheeks, rising along the cheekbones. ‘Oh boy,' she said. ‘I really wanted that. Ever since Ki tackled you and you picked her up I've wanted it.' ‘John wouldn't think much of us kissing in public,' I said. My voice wasn't quite even, and my heart was racing. Seven seconds, one kiss, and every system in my body was red-lining. ‘In fact, John wouldn't think much of us kissing at all. He fancies you, you know.' ‘I know, but I fancy you.' She turned to check on Ki, who was still standing obediently by the tree, watching the juggler. Who might be watching us? Someone who had come over from the TR on a hot summer evening to get ice cream at Frank's Tas-T-Freeze and enjoy a little music and society on the common? Someone who traded for fresh vegetables and fresh gossip at the Lakeview General? A regular at the All-Purpose Garage? This was insanity, and it stayed insanity no matter how you cut it. I dropped my hands from her waist. ‘Mattie, they could put our picture next to â€Å"indiscreet† in the dictionary.' She took her hands off my shoulders and stepped back a pace, but her brilliant eyes never left mine. ‘I know that. I'm young but not entirely stupid.' ‘I didn't mean ‘ She held up a hand to stop me. ‘Ki goes to bed around nine she can't seem to sleep until it's mostly dark. I stay up later. Come and visit me, if you want to. You can park around back.' She smiled a little. It was a sweet smile; it was also incredibly sexy. ‘Once the moon's down, that's an area of discretion.' ‘Mattie, you're young enough to be my daughter.' ‘Maybe, but I'm not. And sometimes people can be too discreet for their own good.' My body knew so emphatically what it wanted. If we had been in her trailer at that moment it would have been no contest. It was almost no contest anyway. Then something recurred to me, something I'd thought about Devore's ancestors and my own: the generations didn't match up. Wasn't the same thing true here? And I don't believe that people automatically have a right to what they want, no matter how badly they want it. Not every thirst should be slaked. Some things are just wrong I guess that's what I'm trying to say. But I wasn't sure this was one of them, and I wanted her, all right. So much. I kept thinking about how her dress had slid when I put my arms around her waist, the warm feel of her skin just beneath. And no, she wasn't my daughter. ‘You said your thanks,' I told her in a dry voice. ‘And that's enough. Really.' ‘You think this is gratitude?' She voiced a low, tense laugh. ‘You're forty, Mike, not eighty. You're not Harrison Ford, but you're a good-looking man. Talented and interesting, too. And I like you such an awful lot. I want you to be with me. Do you want me to say please? Fine. Please be with me.' Yes, this was about more than gratitude I suppose I'd known that even when I was using the word. I'd known she was wearing white shorts and a halter top when she called on the phone the day I went back to work. Had she also known what I was wearing? Had she dreamed she was in bed with me, the two of us screwing our brains out while the party lights shone and Sara Tidwell played her version of the white nana rhyming game, all that crazy Manderley-sanderley-canderley stuff?. Had Mattie dreamed of telling me to do what she wanted? And there were the fridgeafator people. They were another kind of sharing, an even spookier kind. I hadn't quite had nerve enough to tell Mattie about mine, but she might know anyway. Down low in her mind. Down below in her mind, where the blue-collar guys moved around in the zone. Her guys and my guys, all part of the same strange labor union. And maybe it wasn't an issue of morality per se at all. Some thing about it about us just felt dangerous. And oh so attractive. ‘I need time to think,' I said. ‘This isn't about what you think. What do you feel for me?' ‘So much it scares me.' Before I could say anything else, my ears caught a familiar series of chord-changes. I turned toward the kid with the guitar. He had been working through a repertoire of early Dylan, but now he swung into something chuggy and up-tempo, something that made you want to grin and pat your hands together. ‘Do you want to go fishin here in my fishin hole? Said do you want to fish some, honey, here in my fishin hole? You want to fish in my pond, baby, you better have a big long pole.' ‘Fishin Blues.' Written by Sara Tidwell, originally performed by Sara and the Red-Top Boys, covered by everyone from Ma Rainey to the Lovin' Spoonful. The raunchy ones had been her specialty, double-entendre so thin you could read a newspaper through it . . . although reading hadn't been Sara's main interest, judging by her lyrics. Before the kid could go on to the next verse, something about how you got to wiggle when you wobble and get that big one way down deep, The Castle Rockers ran off a brass flourish that said ‘Shut up, everybody, we're comin atcha.' The kid quit playing his guitar; the juggler began catching his Indian clubs and dropping them swiftly onto the grass in a line. The Rockers launched themselves into an extremely evil Sousa march, music to commit serial murders by, and Kyra came running back to us. ‘The jugster's done. Will you tell me the story, Mike? Hansel and Panzel?' ‘It's Hansel and Gretel,' I said, ‘and I'll be happy to. But let's go where it's a little quieter, okay? The band is giving me a headache.' ‘Music hurt your headie?' ‘A little bit.' ‘We'll go by Mattie's car, then.' ‘Good thought.' Kyra ran ahead to stake out a bench on the edge of the common. Mattie gave me a long warm look, then her hand. I took it. Our fingers folded together as if they had been doing it for years. I thought, I'd like it to be slow, both of us hardly moving at all. At first, anyway. And would I bring my nicest, longest pole? I think you could count on that. And then, afterward, we'd talk. Maybe until we could see the furniture in the first early light. When you're in bed with someone you love, particularly for the first time, five o'clock seems almost holy. ‘You need a vacation from your own thoughts,' Mattie said. ‘I bet most writers do from time to time.' ‘That's probably true.' ‘I wish we were home,' she said, and I couldn't tell if her fierceness was real or pretend. ‘I'd kiss you until this whole conversation became irrelevant. And if there were second thoughts, at least you'd be having them in my bed.' I turned my face into the red light of the westering sun. ‘Here or there, at this hour Ki would still be up.' ‘True,' she said, sounding uncharacteristically glum. ‘True.' Kyra reached a bench near the sign reading TOWN COMMON PARKING and climbed up on it, holding the little stuffed dog from Mickey D's in one hand. I tried to pull my hand away as we approached her and Mattie held it firm. ‘It's all right, Mike. At VBS they hold hands with their friends everywhere they go. It's big people who make it into a big deal.' She stopped, looked at me. ‘I want you to know something. Maybe it won't matter to you, but it does to me. There wasn't anyone before Lance and no one after. If you come to me, you'll be my second. I'm not going to talk with you about this again, either. Saying please is all right, but I won't beg.' ‘I don't ‘ ‘There's a pot with tomato plants in it by the trailer steps. I'll leave a key under it. Don't think. Just come.' ‘Not tonight, Mattie. I can't.' ‘You can,' she replied. ‘Hurry up, slowpokes!' Kyra cried, bouncing on the bench. ‘He's the slow one!' Mattie called back, and poked me in the ribs. Then, in a much lower voice: ‘You are, too.' She unwound her hand from mine and ran toward her daughter, her brown legs scissoring below the hem of the white dress. In my version of ‘Hansel and Gretel' the witch was named Depravia. Kyra stared at me with huge eyes when I got to the part where Depravia asks Hansel to poke out his finger so she can see how plump he's getting. ‘Is it too scary?' I asked. Ki shook her head emphatically. I glanced at Mattie to make sure. She nodded and waved a hand for me to go on, so I finished the story. Depravia went into the oven and Gretel found her secret stash of winning lottery tickets. The kids bought a Jet Ski and lived happily ever after on the eastern side of Dark Score Lake. By then The Castle Rockers were slaughtering Gershwin and sunset was nigh. I carried Kyra to Scoutie and strapped her in. I remembered the first time I'd helped put the kid into her car-seat, and the inadvertent press of Mattie's breast. ‘I hope there isn't a bad dream for you in that story,' I said. Until I heard it coming out of my own mouth, I hadn't realized how fundamentally awful that one is. ‘I won't have bad dreams,' Kyra said matter-of-factly. ‘The fridgeafator people will keep them away.' Then, carefully, reminding herself: ‘Ree-fridge-a-rator.' She turned to Mattie. ‘Show him the crosspatch, Mommy-bommy.' ‘Crossword. But thanks, I would've forgotten.' She thumbed open the glove compartment and took out a folded sheet of paper. ‘It was on the fridge this morning. I copied it down because Ki said you'd know what it meant. She said you do crossword puzzles. Well, she said crosspatches, but I got the idea.' Had I told Kyra that I did crosswords? Almost certainly not. Did it surprise me that she knew? Not at all. I took the sheet of paper, unfolded it, and looked at what was printed there: d go w ninety2 ‘Is it a crosspatch puzzle, Mike?' Kyra asked. ‘I guess so a very simple one. But if it means something, I don't know what it is. May I keep this?' ‘Yes,' Mattie said. I walked her around to the driver's side of the Scout, reaching for her hand again as we went. ‘Just give me a little time. I know that's supposed to be the girl's line, but ‘ ‘Take the time,' she said. ‘Just don't take too much.' I didn't want to take any, which was just the problem. The sex would be great, I knew that. But after? There might be an after, though. I knew it and she did, too. With Mattie, ‘after' was a real possibility. The idea was a little scary, a little wonderful. I kissed the corner of her mouth. She laughed and grabbed me by the earlobe. ‘You can do better,' she said, then looked at Ki, who was sitting in her car-seat and gazing at us interestedly. ‘But I'll let you off this time.' ‘Kiss Ki!' Kyra called, holding out her arms, so I went around and kissed Ki. Driving home, wearing my dark glasses to cut the glare of the setting sun, it occurred to me that maybe I could be Kyra Devore's father. That seemed almost as attractive to me as going to bed with her mother, which was a measure of how deep I was in. And going deeper, maybe. Deeper still. Sara Laughs seemed very empty after having Mattie in my arms a sleeping head without dreams. I checked the letters on the fridge, saw nothing there but the normal scatter, and got a beer. I went out on the deck to drink it while I watched the last of the sunset. I tried to think about the refrigerator people and crosspatches that had appeared on both refrigerators: ‘go down nineteen' on Lane Forty-two and ‘go down ninety-two' on Wasp Hill Road. Different vectors from the land to the lake? Different spots on The Street? Shit, who knew? I tried to think about John Storrow and how unhappy he was apt to be if he found out there was to quote Sara Laughs, who got to the line long before John Mellencamp another mule kicking in Mattie Devore's stall. But mostly what I thought about was holding her for the first time, kissing her for the first time. No human instinct is more powerful than the sex-drive when it is fully aroused, and its awakening images are emotional tattoos that never leave us. For me, it was feeling the soft bare skin of her waist just beneath her dress. The slippery feel of the fabric . . . I turned abruptly and hurried through the house to the north wing, almost running and shedding clothes as I went. I turned the shower on to full cold and stood under it for five minutes, shivering. When I got out I felt a little more like an actual human being and a little less like a twitching bundle of nerve endings. And as I toweled dry, something else recurred to me. At some point I had thought of Jo's brother Frank, had thought that if anyone besides myself would be able to feel Jo's presence in Sara Laughs, it would be him. I hadn't gotten around to inviting him down yet, and now wasn't sure I wanted to. I had come to feel oddly possessive, almost jealous, about what was happening here. And yet if Jo had been writing something on the quiet, Frank might know. Of course she hadn't confided in him about the pregnancy, but I looked at my watch. Quarter past nine. In the trailer near the intersection of Wasp Hill Road and Route 68, Kyra was probably already asleep . . . and her mother might already have put her extra key under the pot near the steps. I thought of her in the white dress, the swell of her hips just below my hands and the smell of her perfume, then pushed the images away. I couldn't spend the whole night taking cold showers. Quarter past nine was still early enough to call Frank Arlen. He picked up on the second ring, sounding both happy to hear from me and as if he'd gotten three or four cans further into the six-pack than I had so far done. We passed the usual pleasantries back and forth most of my own almost entirely fictional, I was dismayed to find and he mentioned that a famous neighbor of mine had kicked the bucket, according to the news. Had I met him? Yes, I said, remembering how Max Devore had run his wheelchair at me. Yes, I'd met him. Frank wanted to know what he was like. That was hard to say, I told him. Poor old guy was stuck in a wheelchair and suffering from emphysema. ‘Pretty frail, huh?' Frank asked sympathetically. ‘Yeah,' I said. ‘Listen, Frank, I called about Jo. I was out in her studio looking around, and I found my typewriter. Since then I've kind of gotten the idea she was writing something. It might have started as a little piece about our house, then widened. The place is named after Sara Tidwell, you know. The blues singer.' A long pause. Then Frank said, ‘I know.' His voice sounded heavy, grave. ‘What else do you know, Frank?' ‘That she was scared. I think she found out something that scared her. I think that mostly because ‘ That was when the light finally broke. I probably should have known from Mattie's description, would have known if I hadn't been so upset. ‘You were down here with her, weren't you? In July of 1994. You went to the softball game, then you went back up The Street to the house.' ‘How do you know that?' he almost barked. ‘Someone saw you. A friend of mine.' I was trying not to sound mad and not succeeding. I was mad, but it was a relieved anger, the kind you feel when your kid comes dragging into the house with a shamefaced grin just as you're getting ready to call the cops. ‘I almost told you a day or two before we buried her. We were in that pub, do you remember?' Jack's Pub, right after Frank had beaten the funeral director down on the price of Jo's coffin. Sure I remembered. I even remembered the look in his eyes when I'd told him Jo had been pregnant when she died. He must have felt the silence spinning out, because he came back sounding anxious. ‘Mike, I hope you didn't get any ‘ ‘What? Wrong ideas? I thought maybe she was having an affair, how's that for a wrong idea? You can call that ignoble if you want, but I had my reasons. There was a lot she wasn't telling me. What did she tell you?' ‘Next to nothing.' ‘Did you know she quit all her boards and committees? Quit and never said a word to me?' ‘No.' I didn't think he was lying. Why would he, at this late date? ‘Jesus, Mike, if I'd known that ‘ ‘What happened the day you came down here? Tell me.' ‘I was at the printshop in Sanford. Jo called me from . . . I don't remember, I think a rest area on the turnpike.' ‘Between Derry and the TR?' ‘Yeah. She was on her way to Sara Laughs and wanted me to meet her there. She told me to park in the driveway if I got there first, not to go in the house . . . which I could have; I know where you keep the spare key.' Sure he did, in a Sucrets tin under the deck. I had shown him myself. ‘Did she say why she didn't want you to go inside?' ‘It'll sound crazy.' ‘No it won't. Believe me.' ‘She said the house was dangerous.' For a moment the words just hung there. Then I asked, ‘Did you get here first?' ‘Uh-huh.' ‘And waited outside?' ‘Yes.' ‘Did you see or sense anything dangerous?' There was a long pause. At last he said, ‘There were lots of people out on the lake speedboaters, water-skiers, you know how it is but all the engine-noise and the laughter seemed to kind of . . . stop dead when it got near the house. Have you ever noticed that it seems quiet there even when it's not?' Of course I had; Sara seemed to exist in its own zone of silence. ‘Did it feel dangerous, though?' ‘No,' he said, almost reluctantly. ‘Not to me, anyway. But it didn't feel exactly empty, either. I felt . . . fuck, I felt watched. I sat on one of those railroad-tie steps and waited for my sis. Finally she came. She parked behind my car and hugged me . . . but she never took her eyes off the house. I asked her what she was up to and she said she couldn't tell me, and that I couldn't tell you we'd been there. She said something like, â€Å"If he finds out on his own, then it's meant to be. I'll have to tell him sooner or later, anyway. But I can't now, because I need his whole attention. I can't get that while he's working.†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ I felt a flush crawl across my skin. ‘She said that, huh?' ‘Yeah. Then she said she had to go in the house and do something. She wanted me to wait outside. She said if she called, I should come on the run. Otherwise I should just stay where I was.' ‘She wanted someone there in case she got in trouble.' ‘Yeah, but it had to be someone who wouldn't ask a lot of questions she didn't want to answer. That was me. I guess that was always me.' ‘And?' ‘She went inside. I sat on the hood of my car, smoking cigarettes. I was still smoking then. And you know, I did start to feel something then that wasn't right. As if there might be someone in the house who'd been waiting for her, someone who didn't like her. Maybe someone who wanted to hurt her. Probably I just picked that up from Jo the way her nerves seemed all strung up, the way she kept looking over my shoulder at the house even while she was hugging me but it seemed like something else. Like a . . . I don't know . . . ‘ ‘Like a vibe.' ‘Yes!' he almost shouted. ‘A vibration. But not a good vibration, like in the Beach Boys song. A bad vibration.' ‘What happened?' ‘I sat and waited. I only smoked two cigarettes so I don't guess it could have been longer than twenty minutes or half an hour, but it seemed longer. I kept noticing how the sounds from the lake seemed to make it most of the way up the hill and then just kind of . . . quit. And how there didn't seem to be any birds, except far off in the distance. ‘Once, she came out. I heard the deck door bang, and then her footsteps on the stairs over on that side. I called to her, asked if she was okay, and she said fine. She said for me to stay where I was. She sounded a little short of breath, as if she was carrying something or had been doing some chore.' ‘Did she go to her studio or down to the lake?' ‘I don't know. She was gone another fifteen minutes or so time enough for me to smoke another butt and then she came back out the front door. She checked to make sure it was locked, and then she came up to me. She looked a lot better. Relieved. The way people look when they do some dirty job they've been putting off, finally get it behind them. She suggested we walk down that path she called The Street to the resort that's down there ‘ ‘Warrington's.' ‘Right, right. She said she'd buy me a beer and a sandwich. Which she did, out at the end of this long floating dock.' The Sunset Bar, where I had first glimpsed Rogette. ‘Then you went to have a look at the softball game.' ‘That was Jo's idea. She had three beers to my one, and she insisted. Said someone was going to hit a longshot homer into the trees, she just knew it.' Now I had a clear picture of the part Mattie had seen and told me about. Whatever Jo had done, it had left her almost giddy with relief. She had ventured into the house, for one thing. Had dared the spirits in order to do her business and survived. She'd had three beers to celebrate and her discretion had slipped . . . not that she had behaved with any great stealth on her previous trips down to the TR. Frank remembered her saying if I found out on my own then it was meant to be que ser, ser. It wasn't the attitude of someone hiding an affair, and I realized now that all her behavior suggested a woman keeping a short-term secret. She would have told me when I finished my stupid book, if she had lived. If. ‘You watched the game for awhile, then went back to the house along The Street.' ‘Yes,' he said. ‘Did either of you go in?' ‘No. By the time we got there, her buzz had worn off and I trusted her to drive. She was laughing while we were at the softball game, but she wasn't laughing by the time we got back to the house. She looked at it and said, â€Å"I'm done with her. I'll never go through that door again, Frank.†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ My skin first chilled, then prickled. ‘I asked her what was wrong, what she'd found out. I knew she was writing something, she'd told me that much ‘ ‘She told everyone but me,' I said . . . but without much bitterness. I knew who the man in the brown sportcoat had been, and any bitterness or anger anger at Jo, anger at myself paled before the relief of that. I hadn't realized how much that fellow had been on my mind until now. ‘She must have had her reasons,' Frank said. ‘You know that, don't you?' ‘But she didn't tell you what they were.' ‘All I know is that it started whatever it was with her doing research for an article. It was a lark, Jo playing Nancy Drew. I'm pretty sure that at first not telling you was just to keep it a surprise. She read books but mostly she talked to people listened to their stories of the old days and teased them into looking for old letters . . . diaries . . . she was good at that part of it, I think. Damned good. You don't know any of this?' ‘No,' I said heavily. Jo hadn't been having an affair, but she could have had one, if she'd wanted. She could have had an. affair with Tom Selleck and been written up in Inside View and I would have gone on tapping away at the keys of my Powerbook, blissfully unaware. ‘Whatever she found out,' Frank said, ‘I think she just stumbled over it.' ‘And you never told me. Four years and you never told me any of it.' ‘That was the last time I was with her,' Frank said, and now he didn't sound apologetic or embarrassed at all. ‘And the last thing she asked of me was that I not tell you we'd been to the lake house. She said she'd tell you everything when she was ready, but then she died. After that I didn't think it mattered. Mike, she was my sister. She was my sister and I promised.' ‘All right. I understand.' And I did just not enough. What had Jo discovered? That Normal Auster had drowned his infant son under a handpump? That back around the turn of the century an animal trap had been left in a place where a young Negro boy would be apt to come along and step into it? That another boy, perhaps the incestuous child of Son and Sara Tidwell, had been drowned by his mother in the lake, she maybe laughing that smoke-broken, lunatic laugh as she held him down? You gotta wiggle when you wobble, honey, and hold that young ‘un way down deep. ‘If you need me to apologize, Mike, consider it done.' ‘I don't. Frank, do you remember anything else she might have said that night? Anything at all?' ‘She said she knew how you found the house.' ‘She said what?' ‘She said that when it wanted you, it called you.' At first I couldn't reply, because Frank Arlen had completely demolished one of the assumptions I'd made about my married life one of the biggies, one of those that seem so basic you don't even think about questioning them. Gravity holds you down. Light allows you to see. The compass needle points north. Stuff like that. This assumption was that Jo was the one who had wanted to buy Sara Laughs back when we saw the first real money from my writing career, because Jo was the ‘house person' in our marriage, just as I was the ‘car person.' Jo was the one who had picked our apartments when apartments were all we could afford, Jo who hung a picture here and asked me to put up a shelf there. Jo was the one who had fallen in love with the Derry house and had finally worn down my resistance to the idea that it was too big, too busy, and too broken to take on. Jo had been the nest-builder. She said that when it wanted you, it called you. And it was probably true. No, I could do better than that, if I was willing to set aside the lazy thinking and selective remembering. It was certainly true. I was the one who had first broached the idea of a place in western Maine. I was the one who collected stacks of real-estate brochures and hauled them home. I'd started buying regional magazines like Down East and always began at the back, where the real-estate ads were. It was I who had first seen a picture of Sara Laughs in a glossy handout called Maine Retreats, and it was I who had made the call first to the agent named in the ad, and then to Marie Hingerman after badgering Marie's name out of the Realtor. Johanna had also been charmed by Sara Laughs I think anyone would have been charmed by it, seeing it for the first time in autumn sunshine with the trees blazing all around it and drifts of colored leaves blowing up The Street but it was I who had actively sought the place out. Except that was more lazy thinking and selective remembering. Wasn't it? Sara had sought me out. Then how could I not have known it until now? And how was I led here in the first place, full of unknowing happy ignorance? The answer to both questions was the same. It was also the answer to the question of how Jo could have discovered something distressing about the house, the lake, maybe the whole TR, and then gotten away with not telling me. I'd been gone, that's all. I'd been zoning, tranced out, writing one of my stupid little books. I'd been hypnotized by the fantasies going on in my head, and a hypnotized man is easy to lead. ‘Mike? Are you still there?' ‘I'm here, Frank. But I'll be goddamned if I know what could have scared her so.' ‘She mentioned one other name I remember: Royce Merrill. She said he was the one who remembered the most, because he was so old. And she said, â€Å"I don't want Mike to talk to him. I'm afraid that old man might let the cat out of the bag and tell him more than he should know.† Any idea what she meant?' ‘Well . . . it's been suggested that a splinter from the old family tree wound up here, but my mother's people are from Memphis. The Noonans are from Maine, but not from this part.' Yet I no longer entirely believed this. ‘Mike, you sound almost sick.' ‘I'm okay. Better than I was, actually.' ‘And you understand why I didn't tell you any of this until now? I mean, if I'd known the ideas you were getting . . . if I'd had any clue . . . ‘ ‘I think I understand. The ideas didn't belong in my head to begin with, but once that shit starts to creep in . . . ‘ ‘When I got back to Sanford that night and it was over, I guess I thought it was just more of Jo's â€Å"Oh fuck, there's a shadow on the moon, nobody go out until tomorrow.† She was always the superstitious one, you know knocking on wood, tossing a pinch of salt over her shoulder if she spilled some, those four-leaf-clover earrings she used to have . . . ‘ ‘Or the way she wouldn't wear a pullover if she put it on backward by mistake,' I said. ‘She claimed doing that would turn around your whole day.' ‘Well? Doesn't it?' Frank asked, and I could hear a little smile in his voice. All at once I remembered Jo completely, right down to the small gold flecks in her left eye, and wanted nobody else. Nobody else would do. ‘She thought there was something bad about the house,' Frank said. ‘That much I do know.' I drew a piece of paper to me and jotted Kia on it. ‘Yes. And by then she may have suspected she was pregnant. She might have been afraid of . . . influences.' There were influences here, all right. ‘You think she got most of this from Royce Merrill?' ‘No, that was just a name she mentioned. She probably talked to dozens of people. Do you know a guy named Kloster? Gloster? Something like that?' ‘Skuster,' I said. Below Kia my pencil was making a series of fat loops that might have been cursive letter l's or hair ribbons. ‘Kenny Auster. Was that it?' ‘It sounds right. In any case, you know how she was once she really got going on a thing.' Yes. Like a terrier after rats. ‘Mike? Should I come up there?' No. Now I was sure. Not Harold Oblowski, not Frank, either. There was a process going on in Sara, something as delicate and as organic as rising bread in a warm room. Frank might interrupt that process . . . or be hurt by it. ‘No, I just wanted to get it cleared up. Besides, I'm writing. It's hard for me to have people around when I'm writing.' ‘Will you call if I can help?' ‘You bet,' I said. I hung up the telephone, thumbed through the book, and found a listing for R. MERRILL on the Deep Bay Road. I called the number, listened to it ring a dozen times, then hung up. No newfangled answering machine for Royce. I wondered idly where he was. Ninety-five seemed a little too old to go dancing at the Country Barn in Harrison, especially on a close night like this one. I looked at the paper with Kia written on it. Below the fat l-shapes I wrote Kyra, and remembered how, the first time I'd heard Ki say her name, I'd thought it was ‘Kia' she was saying. Below Kyra I wrote Kito, hesitated, then wrote Carla. I put these names in a box. Beside them I jotted Johanna, Bridget, and Jared. The fridgeafator people. Folks who wanted me to go down nineteen and go down ninety-two. ‘Go down, Moses, you bound for the Promised Land,' I told the empty house. I looked around. Just me and Bunter and the waggy clock . . . except it wasn't. When it wanted you, it called you. I got up to get another beer. The fruits and vegetables were in a circle again. In the middle, the letters now spelled: lye stille As on some old tombstones God grant she lye stille. I looked at these letters for a long time. Then I remembered the IBM was still out on the deck. I brought it in, plonked it on the dining-room table, and began to work on my current stupid little book. Fifteen minutes and I was lost, only faintly aware of thunder someplace over the lake, only faintly aware of Bunter's bell shivering from time to time. When I went back to the fridge an hour or so later for another beer and saw that the words in the circle now said ony lye stille I hardly noticed. At that moment I didn't care if they lay stille or danced the hucklebuck by the light of the silvery moon. John Shackleford had begun to remember his past, and the child whose only friend he, John, had been. Little neglected Ray Garraty. I wrote until midnight came. By then the thunder had faded away but the heat held on, as oppressive as a blanket. I turned off the IBM and went to bed . . . thinking, so far as I can remember, nothing at all not even about Mattie, lying in her own bed not so many miles away. The writing had burned off all thoughts of the real world, at least temporarily. I think that, in the end, that's what it's for. Good or bad, it passes the time.