Thursday, September 5, 2019

Introduction To Business Strategy Of Cricket Marketing Essay

Introduction To Business Strategy Of Cricket Marketing Essay Organizational strategy gives an idea about the organization that what the organization want to achieve and the they the processing to achieve their wants. It basically includes the purpose of the organization. Its considering that goals and objectives, and the plans and methods to achieve. A strategy also involves the determination of the entire basic long term goals as well as objectives of the organization.   At the same time, it adopts the courses of action that is necessary and the allocation of all the resources needed to achieve the goals. A business strategy is a report that shows the plans of the entire business. It is a plan that is often used so that they can attract financing from big investors as well as creditors. This is a plan designed to give information regarding a new venture so that they can convince financial backers to invest in the said business. It describes the market opportunities that the business intends to develop, the process on how they are going to do it and the resources that are required to make it possible. Business strategies demonstrate the following roles: 1. It is applied to encourage people to invest in an organization. 2. It is also a tool used to assure creditors about the credit worthiness of the organization. 3. Another role is to persuade banks to lend or perhaps invest money. 4. Last, but not least, business strategy helps you stay focused on the important for your business in order to achieve your goals. It saves your time, energy and money. And since this is necessary, a strategy needs to: Show the lender or the investor that they have a big chance of being repaid and that they will be getting good returns on their investment. Build the necessary confidence for the firm and the capabilities of the owner. Show the investors that there is a very good market for the service or product that you offer. Show you a clear picture where youre heading and how to get there. A good business strategy is the base ingredient for a successful business. However, there are many different kinds of business strategies. The best business strategy should be able to guide your company into a direction wherein the expected internal pressure due to business continuity meets the great demand of the fast changing world for the revolutionary business plans. There are basically three types of strategies in which business holders must concern themselves: 1. The plain strategy or the strategy in general. This refers to how a specific objective will be achieved. The strategy in general mainly concerns the relationship between the results we want to have and the resources that are currently at our disposal. 2. Next is the corporate strategy which defines the market and the business wherein a certain company will operate. Corporate strategy is usually decided through the context of being able to define the companys mission and vision. This is the same as being able to recognize what the company does, why it exists in the first place and what it intends to become in the future. 3. The last type is the competitive strategy which describes a given business the basic that is needed for it to be able to compete. This type of strategy is centered on the companys capabilities, its strengths and weaknesses. This is used in relation to the market characteristics as well as the corresponding abilities, strong points and weaknesses of the competitors. Definition Johnson and Schools define strategy as follows: Strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long-term: which achieves advantage for the organization through its configuration of resources within a challenging environment, to meet the needs of markets and to fulfill stakeholder expectations. Cricket The game Cricket is I have selected for this assignment. Cricket is a sport, which is played between two teams of eleven players each by bat and ball. There are 15 players in one team but only eleven can play. A cricket match is played on a grass field (ground), in the centre, there is a pitch of which is a flat strip of ground 22 yards long. At each end of the pitch, there is wicket of a set of wooden stumps. A player from the fielding team (called the bowler) drive forward a hard, fist-sized cork-ball in from one wicket towards the other. The ball usually bounce once before reaching a player from the opposing team (called the batsman), who defends the wicket from the ball with a wooden Bat. The batsman, making runs between the wickets, with the help of non-striker till he is not given out. Non-striker is standing in near the bowlers wicket and plays an inactive role, to make runs. The other members of the fielding team stands in various positions around the field as fielders. The match is won by the team that scores more runs at the end of the match. Cricket was established before approximately hundred years ago in England. Cricket is the most popular sport in the South Asia, such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka,. It is also a major sport in other countries such as England and Wales, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Bermuda, and West Indies. Batting and bowling are the main factor of the cricket. The aim of the batting team is to score runs as much as possible. When both batsmen successfully move to their respective opposite ends of the wicket one run scored. The aim of the bowling team is to get each batsman out or dismissal and prevent the score of batting team. Dismissals are achieved in a different ways. The most directive way is that the bowler bowl the ball in such a way that it escape the batsmans guard and hits the stumps, unload the bails. While the batsmen are trying to get run and the fielders may to knock stumps by the ball before the batsman has reached the crease which is nearer to the stumps. Other way is that while the fielding side catches the ball before it touch the ground. Once the batsmen are not attempting to score any more runs, the ball is dead and is bowled again (each attempt at bowling the ball is a ball or a delivery). When a batsman dismissal on zero (0) run, called duck out, while batsman di smissal without facing a single delivery, called diamond duck out. The game is divided into overs there are six delivery of balls in each over. At the end of an over, the batting and bowling ends will be change and the bowler will replaced by another bowler of the fielding side. The two umpires also will change positions at this time, and sometimes the fielding positions also may be changed by the captain. When one batsman is given out by the umpire, he will replace by the another batsman to lineup his team. When the tenth batsman is given out, the innings of the batting team will end i.e. all out, since there are always must be two batsman on the pitch. ( in limited overs Cricket, the innings end either when the batting team is all out or the fix number of overs are bowled by the fielding. This type of cricket called as One-day-International. At the end of an innings the two teams exchange roles, the fielding team becoming the batting team and batting team becoming fielding team. The team which has score more runs at the end of the completed match, that team win the match. There are different types of the completing the match for illustrate there may be restrictions on the number of overs. The number of balls in each inning etc. A draw is not an uncommon result in Test cricket, if the team that is last to bat has not scored enough runs to win but has not been dismissed before the end of the play. Cricket is just a game between two teams, which are fighting for win. In cricket there are three types of format i.e. One Day International (ODI), Test Cricket, 20-20 cricket. In ODI there are limits 50 overs per an innings. Both team is bat and bowl alternately. Each team can play only one inning per match. Earlier there are 60 overs in an innings but now its decease up to 50 overs. Test Cricket is the five days game. There are 90 overs of limit in one day or one day ( 8 hours play ). In earlier there are six days game but now its decrease up to the five days. Both team can bat and bowl two time i.e. both team can play two innings. While in 20-20 cricket there are only 2 overs in an innings. This type of cricket recently started in 2007 to play. Pestle analysis It is very important that an organization considers its environment before beginning the marketing process. Environment analysis should be continuous and fees all aspects of planning. The organization al marketing environment is made up of : The internal environment e.g. staffs, office technology, wages and finance etc. The micro-environment e.g. external customers, agents and distributors, suppliers, competitors etc. The macro-environment e.g. political forces, economic forces, social cultural frces and technological forces. P Political Factors E Economic Factors S Social Cultural Factors T Technological Factors Pestle analysis of Cricket 1 Political Factors The political arena has huge influence upon the regulation of cricket and spending power of charm and other games. Now a days political affairs are increasing in the sports. The lead member of selection committee, selecting his state players for the team, though there are other guy is expected for that place in team. Some time selection committee selecting the players by receiving money i.e. corruption. 2 Economic Factors Economic factor is strongly affecting this game. People/players need to consider their economic power/budget. Economic factor is most affecting factor of the sports. If you want to increase our skills and ability and potentiality highly, you have to pay the high rates of fees. In India, many youngsters are good cricketer, but due t their financial problem they are not able to pay high fees. Even if you want to play in major tournament like Rangy Trophy and Tulip Trophy, there is also u have to pay lot. 3 Social Cultural Factors The social and cultural factors influences on games vary from country to country. Its important that such factors are considered. This factor is not more affecting in India. In the earlier, when cricket was discovered, many number of families are not ready to accept this game because its not our game. But today whole the situation is change. Cricket is most popular game in all over the world. 4 Technological Factors Technological is vital for competitive advantage, and is a major driver of globalization. In earlier, there are no more safe guards for the batsmen, so its very tough for them and to play. But now a days, different sports companies are providing their best safe guards for the batsmen such as, helmeted, hand gloves, thumped, allured etc. So, its providing safety to the players and preventing their injuries. Five forces 1 internal game plan Every team have to clear their internal game plans. Batsmen are trying to scoring as much as they can, and bowlers are trying to take wicket and preventing the scoreboard. Here captain is play an important role, he has to change the game plan when its needed. So he should prepare and be ready with alternates plans. Fielders are also helpful to preventing competitors score. 2 External game plan Team should know the strangeness of their competitors. They should not under estimate their competitors. Every team should make proper game plan against their competitors. They should analysis on their competitors, and find out their strong nesses and weaknesses. 3 Environment Environment is most affecting factors in this game. They should know about the environment, where is they are going to play game. Different country are mostly playing in their country and also they are getting their coaching and trainings. Thus different teams are habitual to play in different environment e.g. in Asian Cricket teams such as Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan are likely habitual in high tempera where as the western or Wales country like England, Australia, New Zealand etc are likely habitual to play in cold weather. So when ever they are on tour to another country they should manage and settle their self in different weather. 4 Technology Technology is also important for players. Players can give their best performance by better technologies. Now-a-days new bats, are better than old, safety gourds are providing better safety rather than old on. Training is needy when new technology comes and players are unaware about it. So they need proper training of it that how to use it. 5 Training Training is one of the important factor. Every players or team members need training. Without training they cannot give their best performance. Selection committee prefer those players who are well trained by the technicians and coach. There is one guy who is regularly following them and notice their improvement, he is call as a coach. Success Factor The team has to make game plan for the match. Moreover they should make alternate game plans for the match. Alternates plan very useful when its needed. Batsmen are comes on the field to maximize the score as much as they can, bowlers are comes on the field to get wickets and prevent the score of competitors. Fielders are helping bowlers by their fieldings and preventing the competitors score. Team analysis For team analysis I have selected two teams. One is India and another is Australia. Both team are good, but only one team can win the match. In India, there are very experience players such as, Sachin Tendulkar, Veranda Sewage, Zaire Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh. Sachin hits 48 ODI and 51 TEST Century with 44 batting average approximately. He made more than 29000 runs in Cricket ( include ODI and TEST). Sewage well known for his classic outstanding starts. Sewage likely hitting the balls to pulling the scoreboard fastly. Harbhajan Singh and Zahir Khan are leading bowlers of India. Both were taken more than 200 wickets in ODI and Test respectively. Moreover, there is one guy who is leading the whole team i.e. MS Dhoni. He is good batsman. He always keep their mind cool in every stressfully situation. He take their own decision to win the match. Yuvaraj Singh and and Suresh Riana also can be hard hitter. They both are strong while they are on field. Other side, in Australia there is a one leading captain named Ricky Pointing. He won two times World Cup tournament for his team. There are very good batsman such as Shane Watson, Mike Hussey, David Hussey, Michael Clark, Cameron White. etc. They are very good batsman and all are able to change the game. Shane Watson is always keep his strike rate high that means team run rate is also high. Michael Hussey, Michael Clark and Cameron White can be hard hitter when its needy for team. Moreover there are Doug Bollinger, Brett Lee, Michael Johnson are good bowlers. While there talenders also can bat well. They all can good fields, while they are on ground. Conclusion Plus points are not necessary to win the match. May be some times a team has to lose the match though they have more plus points rather than their competitors. Some times their one mistake can be cause of your lost. Though only one team can win the match, which one will give their best performance in in stressfully situation.

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

Changes in Family and Marriage Structure :: Sociology

Marriages and Families â€Å"Changes† Imagine that, if in the 1920’s someone would have predicted that by the year 2000 one out of two marriages will end in divorce. The number of single parents will triple and lots of them will never marry. Stay at home moms will become almost obsolete and, gay people will want to get married and adopt children. Oh my, could you imagine the look on their faces? Families are defiantly different now than they were then, but the world is also different. Does this mean than families are deteriorating or are they stronger than ever? Maybe they are just changing and are still as strong as they once were. So many changes have taken place within the family. Some of them are higher divorce rates, more working mothers, more homosexual families, and a huge increase in children born out of wedlock. Many argue that most of the family’s problems come from the mother working outside of the house. The fact is that working mothers is nothing new. Mothers have always done something to help out, even if it was sewing, baking, or working on the land. In today’s world it’s very hard to make ends meet with only one income. Children benefit in some ways from their mom working. In this materialistic culture children want to have all the nice things and what’s hot. Working mothers spend on average just as much quality time with their children as non working mothers. Divorce, single parents, and unmarried parents have always existed. It is no doubt that the rates of them have increased dramatically. Is this a bad sign? This doesn’t mean that families are weak. It only means that people’s morals have changed. Families are not perfect, but they are strong. We also have more freedoms than we did in the 1920s. Women can now leave their husbands when things are unbearable. Women didn’t have as many choices then. Just because families seemed good then don’t mean that they were. It’s not something we should try to live up to. After all we are talking about a time when slaves were legal and treated badly. On the opposite side men don’t get to really be full time fathers after divorce. Divorce defiantly affects children. It is also better for children if they don’t have to live in a household of anger and unhappiness. Of

Tuesday, September 3, 2019

The Pilgrimage to Cathedral of Compostela :: Religion

The Pilgrimage to Cathedral of Compostela In the twelfth century one the most popular destinations for pilgrimages was to the city of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. The shrine of St. James the Great is in the Cathedral of Compostela and it is what attracted so many people. The saint's shrine was believed to be a healing shrine for all sorts of problems. The religious relics that the Cathedral contained held a special power for the pilgrims by curing them of their problems. The pilgrims used the road to Santiago as a test of their faith and love for God. At the same time that they were testing their religious devotion they were also contributing to generating massive information. The pilgrims were creating and recycling information and taking that information on the road to more people. Two ways that the pilgrims were putting information out was by visiting the shrines on the way to the cathedral and at the actual Cathedral of Compostela and through the book of Codex Calixtinus. A pilgrimage was essentially a course of movement along a sequence of shrines along a road until one reached a final destination (usually a large cathedral or religious site). Besides the remission of sin, a reason for a person to go on a pilgrimage was to search for the renewal of physical or mental health. In the twelfth century, there was a deeply rooted belief in Christians that plague, leprosy, fever, migraines; even toothaches were all caused by sins. A doctor did not heal the person as well as saint could and thus, pilgrimages were occurring all the time. Not just people who were ill went on the pilgrimage, people seeking religion or adventure also set out on the road of Compostela. The pilgrims that were on the road to Santiago came from a wide variety of backgrounds. The route of Compostela became literally a cultural highway. The pilgrims "founded churches, monasteries, and hospitals; they robbed and killed, composed stories, legends, poems and songs, and slept rough in the hostels provided for them" (Tate, Pg. 1). Most importantly, the pilgrims talked. They talked about St. James, about the church, and about their different ideas and beliefs. By doing so they were exchanging information that otherwise would not be available to them. They talked about the history pertaining to St. James and at the same time learned through the shrines themselves at the Cathedral about the Moors, Charlemagne and other historical figures. The Pilgrimage to Cathedral of Compostela :: Religion The Pilgrimage to Cathedral of Compostela In the twelfth century one the most popular destinations for pilgrimages was to the city of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. The shrine of St. James the Great is in the Cathedral of Compostela and it is what attracted so many people. The saint's shrine was believed to be a healing shrine for all sorts of problems. The religious relics that the Cathedral contained held a special power for the pilgrims by curing them of their problems. The pilgrims used the road to Santiago as a test of their faith and love for God. At the same time that they were testing their religious devotion they were also contributing to generating massive information. The pilgrims were creating and recycling information and taking that information on the road to more people. Two ways that the pilgrims were putting information out was by visiting the shrines on the way to the cathedral and at the actual Cathedral of Compostela and through the book of Codex Calixtinus. A pilgrimage was essentially a course of movement along a sequence of shrines along a road until one reached a final destination (usually a large cathedral or religious site). Besides the remission of sin, a reason for a person to go on a pilgrimage was to search for the renewal of physical or mental health. In the twelfth century, there was a deeply rooted belief in Christians that plague, leprosy, fever, migraines; even toothaches were all caused by sins. A doctor did not heal the person as well as saint could and thus, pilgrimages were occurring all the time. Not just people who were ill went on the pilgrimage, people seeking religion or adventure also set out on the road of Compostela. The pilgrims that were on the road to Santiago came from a wide variety of backgrounds. The route of Compostela became literally a cultural highway. The pilgrims "founded churches, monasteries, and hospitals; they robbed and killed, composed stories, legends, poems and songs, and slept rough in the hostels provided for them" (Tate, Pg. 1). Most importantly, the pilgrims talked. They talked about St. James, about the church, and about their different ideas and beliefs. By doing so they were exchanging information that otherwise would not be available to them. They talked about the history pertaining to St. James and at the same time learned through the shrines themselves at the Cathedral about the Moors, Charlemagne and other historical figures.

Monday, September 2, 2019

Family and Gender Relations :: essays research papers

Assignment One – Short Essay ] Topic: Family and gender relations Drawing on the concepts of globalisation and globalism discussed in your textbooks and the Reader, address the following question: Does globalisation represent a radically new period in human history? Jan Scholte (2000:39) wrote about globalisation, that the only consensus is that it is contested. â€Å"People have held widely differing views regarding definition, scale, chronology, impact and policy (Scholte 2000:39). Use of the term globalisation is high and yet a common understanding of its meaning and where it fits in the history of mankind is frequently vague and based on assumption rather than evidence (Scholte 2000:1). Using one definition from many, of globalisation and globalism and the changes through history that sociologists have used to make sense of the phenomenon, this essay will demonstrate that while globalisation represents both a new and old period in human history, it can only be called radical in its recent state. The working definition of globalisation used in this essay, has been separated from Jan Scholte’s five broad definitions (2000:15). Deterritorialisation or supraterritorioality is based on the process of change to geography in which territorial boundaries become less important (Scholte 2000:16). This concept encompasses all other definitions that Scholte identified, as it has a wide focus which allows each to be occurring because of this change in geography. Robin Cohen and Paul Kennedy’s definitions of globalisation (Cohen and Kennedy 2000:11) are not in opposition with the concept of supraterritoriality, describing it ‘as the ways in which the world is being knitted together’ and ‘the objective, external ties that bind us together’. To fully understand globalisation it is necessary to differentiate it from globalism. It is described as the ‘subjective realm’, unlike globalisation which refers to a series of ‘objective changes in the world that are partly outside us’ (Cohan and Kennedy 2000:34). To simplify, this describes the collective way in which the world views itself as a result of globalisation. Globalism is seen as a result of globalisation and as such quite a new phenomenon (Cohan and Kennedy 2000:34). It is quite important to make this differentiation as many times when writers are referring to globalisation as new phenomenon they are using examples that are in fact forms of globalism, a distinctly different concept. Is globalisation a new or old? Opinions on this tend to cross over while identifying different phases. Cohen and Kennedy believe that globalisation can be traced back through history, but that its processes have accelerated in recent years (Cohan and Kennedy 2000:34).

Sunday, September 1, 2019

Marketing Consumer Group: Child Help Organization Inc.

ChiledHelp.org is a foundation that prevents and treat abused children.   ChildHelp.org has a mission to, â€Å"to meet the physical, emotional, educational, and spiritual needs of abused and neglected children. We do so by focusing our efforts in the areas of treatment, prevention, and research.†[1]  Ã‚   They function on the premises that: every child has a purpose to help the community, giving unconditional love is the beginning of healing, and that these unfortunate children deserve the best that the community can give.[2]This wasn’t always how Childhelp.org was.ChildHelp.org was founded in 1959 by two American actresses, Sara O'Meara and Yvonne Fedderson.   It started when they went to Japan after the war to entertain the US troops, a practice to maintain the morale of the soldiers.   While they were there, they noticed 11 desperate orphaned Amerasian children on the street suffering the cold.   Out of the kindness of their hearts, they decided to bring t hem to an orphanage, later on realizing that these 11 orphans had been rejected by the orphanages due to lack of space and the ethnicity of the 11 children.   Eventually, they found a woman in a hut who was already caring for Amerasian children.   Mama Kin, as she was called, made an agreement with the 2 actresses to take in the 11 children if O’Meara and Fedderson could find financial support. [3]O’Meara and Fedderson did and their efforts were recognized resulting in the establishment of 4 orphanages under their lead in Japan.At that time, they were called International Orphans, Inc. (IOI).   In 1966, they were invited to the White House and were asked to do the same thing for Vietnamese-American children.   They were able to build 6 orphanages, but when the Americans pulled out of Vietnam, the actresses were instrumental in the â€Å"Baby Lift† Operation wherein the Vietnamese children were pulled and were adopted off to very willing and loving Americ an parents.[4]In 1978, the foundation was asked by the White House to put their attention and efforts to abused children in the United States.   This is the point where they changed the focus of their foundation, from orphans to abused children and thus they changed their name to ChildHelp.org.[5]Since then ChildHelp.org has created numerous programs to help abused and neglected children.   They have advocacy centers in 8 regions, namely, Michigan, California, Tennessee, Colorado, Georgia, Virginia, Washington D.C, and Arizona which houses two centers, one in Phoenix and the other in their headquarters in Scottsdale.   Each center coordinates with other institutions in the area.For instance, in Phoenix, a partnership has been established between Child Help and Safe Child Center at Flagstaff Medical Center to attend to tribal rural areas.   In Georgia, the Good Touch / Bad Touch program, a violence prevention program and now considered a premium educational product, is being endorsed and given to schools by ChildHelp.org so that the children, as well as the teachers and administrators can be properly educated about sexual abuse.[6]   In Tennessee, a foster family program is being endorsed so that sexually abused children can live in a safe foster home.These kinds of programs that involve the community are one of the ways that ChildHelp.org creates awareness throughout the community.Another strategy that they use, which is often used by most people, is that they have Hollywood celebrities to endorse their product.   In the case of ChildHelp.org it is not a product that they are promoting but they are creating awareness by using their celebrity patrons.   Due to the founders Hollywood connections, a movie was created to pay tribute to the work of O’Meara and Fedderson.   This movie, entitled For the Love of a Child, was an immediate eye opener for the whole of America.   With this movie, not only was the problem of child abuse put to the forefront, but also, the mission of ChildHelp.org was advertised to allow people to contribute to and help these abused children.Another way of promoting and pushing the cause of ChildHelp.org is by affiliating companies and corporation to the program allowing the employees to donate via their employers to ChildHelp.org.   Apart from a straight donation, people can buy items from ChildHelp.org, the profits of which will go to their programs or people can volunteer for programs or become a foster parent. [7]ChilHelp.org has gone a long way from Japan and its orphanages.   It cannot be doubted the effort that Sara O'Meara and Yvonne Fedderson have put into this foundation, making them extremely deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize.   From these two people a lot of children have been given proper futures and families.   It started in a small hut Japan and transformed into a fortress of love and care.   It has also transformed itself numerous times to address the needs of childr en, whatever they may be, in Asia and in America.   Although, the focus may have changed from orphanages to abused children, the core remains the same – children have a purpose and with enough love from the community they will be able to achieve it.Reference:ChildHelp.Org. 12 September 2007.   Child Help Inc.. 12 September 2007. < http://www.childhelp.org/home>Good Touch/ Bad Touch. 12 September 2007.   Child Help Inc. 12 September 2007. â€Å"For the Love of a Child†.   LifetimeTV.com. 12 September 2007.   12 September 2007.https://childhelp.6connex.com/event/SpeakUpBeSafe/login

Saturday, August 31, 2019

Bite Me: A Love Story Chapter 14

14. The Samurai of Jackson Street II Katusumi Okata had lived among the gaijin for forty years. An American art dealer, traveling through Hokkaido in search of woodblock prints from the Edo period, had come into Katusumi's father's workshop, seen the boy's prints, and offered to bring Okata to San Francisco to create prints for his gallery on Jackson Street. The printmaker had lived in this same basement apartment since. He'd once had a wife, Yuriko, but she had been killed in front of him on the street when he was twenty-three, so now he lived alone. The apartment had a concrete floor covered by two grass mats, a table that held his printmaking tools, a two-burner stove, an electric kettle, his swords, a futon, three sets of clothes, an old phonograph, and now, a burned-up white woman. She really didn't go with anything else, no matter how he arranged her. He thought he might make a series of prints of her-her blackened, skeletal form posed about the apartment like some demon wraith from a Shinto nightmare, but the composition wasn't working. He walked up to Chinatown and bought a bouquet of red tulips and put them on the futon beside her, but even with the added color and design element, the picture wasn't working. And she was making his futon smell like burned hair. Okata was not used to company, and he wasn't sure how to keep up his end of the conversation. He had once made friends with two rats who came out of a hole in the brick wall. He had talked to them and fed them on the condition that they not bring any friends, but they hadn't listened and he was forced to mortar up the hole. He figured they didn't speak Japanese. To be fair, however, she wasn't doing very well holding up her side of the conversation, either-lying there like a bog person dipped in creosote, her mouth open as if in a scream of agony. He sat on a stool next to the futon with his sketch pad and a pencil and began to sketch her for a print. He had very much admired the great cape of red curls that streamed out behind her when he'd seen her on the street, and he was sorry that all but a few strands had burned away in the sun. A shame. Perhaps he could draw the red curls in anyway. Make them swirl around the blackened rictus like one of Hokusai's waves. He knew what she was, of course. He was still healing from his encounter with the vampire cats, and it took no little bit of sketching to fill in the details, especially as her fangs were pointing prominently at his ceiling right now and they were far too long and sharp to be those of a normal burned-up white girl. He filled three pages with sketches, experimenting with angles and composition, but on the fourth page he found that a sadness had overcome him that he could not chase away with the moment created in making a drawing. Katusumi retrieved his wakizashi short sword from the stand on his work table, unsheathed it, and knelt by the futon. He bowed deeply, then put the point of the sword on the pad of his left thumb and cut. He held his thumb over her open mouth and the dark blood dripped over her teeth and lips. Would she be like the cats? Savage? A monster? He held the razor-edged wakizashi ready in his right hand, should a demon awake. But if he'd been able to raise his beloved Yuriko, even as a demon, wouldn't he have? All the years that had passed, kendo training, drawing, carving, meditating, walking the streets unafraid, alone, hadn't they all been about that? About making Yuriko live? Or not living without her? When the burned-up girl jerked with a great, rasping intake of breath, cinders cracked off her ribs and peppered the yellow futon and water began to flow from the swordsman's eyes. RIVERA AND CAVUTO Marvin the cadaver dog took them to the Wine Country. There they found Bummer and Lazarus, the Emperor's dogs, guarding a Dumpster in an alley behind an abandoned building. Marvin pawed the Dumpster, and tried to stay on task while the Boston terrier sniffed his junk and the golden retriever looked around, a little embarrassed. Nick Cavuto held the lid, ready to lift it. â€Å"Maybe we should call the Wong kid and see if our sunlight jackets are done, then open it.† â€Å"It's daylight,† said Rivera. â€Å"Even if there are, uh, creatures in there, they'll be immobile.† Rivera still had a very difficult time saying the word â€Å"vampires† out loud. â€Å"Marvin says there's a body in there, we need to look.† Cavuto shrugged, lifted the lid of the Dumpster and braced himself for a wave of rotten meat smell, but there was none. â€Å"Empty.† Bummer barked. Marvin pawed at the side of the Dumpster. Lazarus chuffed, which was dog for, â€Å"Duh. Look behind it.† Rivera looked in. Other than a couple of broken wine bottles and the rice part of a taco combo plate, there was nothing in the Dumpster, yet Marvin still pawed at the steel, which was the signal he had been trained to give when he'd found a corpse. â€Å"Maybe we should give Marvin a biscuit to reset him or something,† said Rivera. â€Å"No corpse, no biscuit, that's the rule,† said Cavuto. â€Å"We all have to live by it.† At the mention of a biscuit both Bummer and Marvin stopped what they were doing, sat, looked dutiful and contrite, and gave Rivera the â€Å"I need and deeply deserve a biscuit† look. Frustrated with what biscuit whores his cohorts were, Lazarus went to the side of the Dumpster and started pawing the space between it and the wall, then tried to stuff his muzzle in behind it. Cavuto shrugged, pulled on a pair of form-fitting mechanics gloves from his jacket pocket, and pulled the cement blocks from under the Dumpster's wheels. Rivera watched in horror as the realization hit that he was probably going to get Dumpster schmutz, or worse, on his expensive Italian suit. â€Å"Man up, Rivera,† Cavuto said. â€Å"There's police work to be done.† â€Å"Shouldn't we call some uniforms in to do it? I mean, we're detectives.† Cavuto stood up and looked at his partner. â€Å"You really believe the movies when James Bond kills thirty guys hand to hand, blows up the secret lair, gets set on fire, then escapes under water and his tux doesn't even get wrinkled, don't you?† â€Å"You can't just buy one of those off the rack,† Rivera said. â€Å"It's a high-tech fabric.† â€Å"Just give me a hand with this thing, would you?† Once the Dumpster was in the middle of the alley, the three dogs more or less dogpiled in front of the boarded-up window, Marvin doing his highly trained, â€Å"There's a dead guy in here, give me a biscuit† paw scrape, Bummer barking like he was announcing the big sale event down at Yap-mart and everything had to go, and Lazarus rolling out a long, doleful howl. â€Å"Probably in there,† said Cavuto. â€Å"Ya think?† said Rivera. Cavuto was able to work his fingers between the sheet of plywood and the window frame and pulled it out. Before he could even set it aside Bummer had leapt through the window into the darkness. Lazarus pawed the windowsill, then leapt after his companion. Marvin, the cadaver dog, backed away, then ruffed twice and tossed his head, which translated to, â€Å"No, I'm good, you guys go ahead, just give me my biscuit. I'll be over here-well, would you look at that-those balls definitely need some tongue attention. No, it's okay, go on without me.† Marvin had a nose that could distinguish as many different odors as the human eye could colors, in the range of sixteen million distinct scents. Unfortunately, his doggie brain had a much more limited vocabulary for giving name to those scents and he processed what he smelled as: dead cats, many, dead humans, many, dead rats, many, poo and wee, many flavors, none fresh, and old guy who needs a shower; none of which would have given him pause. The smell that he couldn't file, that he didn't have a response for, that stopped him at the window, was a new one: dead, but not dead. Undead. It was scary, and licking his balls calmed him and kept his mind off the biscuit that they owed him. Rivera shone his flashlight around the room. The basement appeared empty but for piles of debris and a thick layer of dust and ash over the floor, textured with the paw prints of hundreds of cats. He could see the movement of Bummer and Lazarus just at the edge of the flashlight's beam. They were scratching at a metal door. â€Å"We'll need the crowbar out of the car,† said Rivera. â€Å"You're going in there?† asked Cavuto. â€Å"In that suit?† Rivera nodded. â€Å"There's something down there, one of us has to.† â€Å"You're a goddamn hero, Rivera, that's what you are. A real, dyed in the worsted wool and silk blend hero.† â€Å"Yeah, there's that, and you can't fit through the window.† â€Å"Can too,† said Cavuto. Five minutes later they were both standing in the middle of the basement, fanning their Surefire ballistic flashlights through the dust like they were wielding silent light sabers. Rivera led the way to the steel door that the hounds were going at as if someone had duct taped it to a fox. â€Å"You guys, shut up!† Rivera snapped, and much to his surprise, Bummer and Lazarus fell silent and sat. Rivera looked back at his partner. â€Å"That's spooky.† â€Å"Yeah, and praise Willie Mays that's the only spooky thing going on here.† Cavuto was a deeply religious San Francisco Giants fan and genuflected whenever he passed the bronze statue of Willie Mays outside the ball park. â€Å"Good point,† said Rivera. He tried the door, which didn't budge, but it was clear from the arc plowed into the dust and ashes that it had been opened recently. â€Å"Crowbar,† he said, reaching back. Cavuto handed him the crowbar and at the same time drew his gun from his shoulder holster, a ridiculously large Desert Eagle.50-caliber automatic. â€Å"When did you start carrying that thing again?† â€Å"Right after you said the v-word out loud at Sacred Heart.† â€Å"It won't stop them, you know.† â€Å"It makes me feel better. You want to hold it while I pry the door?† â€Å"If there's a-one of them-in there, they'll be dormant or whatever you call it. It's daytime, they can't attack.† â€Å"Yeah, well, just in case they didn't get the memo.† â€Å"I got it.† Rivera fit the crowbar in the door jamb and threw his weight against it. On the third push, something snapped and the door scraped open an inch. Bummer and Lazarus were up instantly, with their noses in the gap. Rivera looked back at Cavuto, who nodded, and Rivera pulled the door open and stepped away. A pile of shelving and junk blocked the doorway, but Bummer and Lazarus were able to thread their way through it and were in the room, barking in frantic, desperate yelps. Through a gap in the junk, Rivera played the beam of his flashlight around the small storeroom, over barrels, shelving, and piles of dusty clothing. â€Å"Clear,† he said. Cavuto joined him in the doorway. â€Å"Clear, my ass.† The big cop kicked his way through the barricade, holding his flashlight high in one hand and the Desert Eagle trained on a row of barrels on the right side of the room, where Bummer and Lazarus were currently indulging a hurricane-level doggie freakout. Rivera followed his partner into the room, then approached the barrels while Cavuto covered him. Beyond the barking, he heard a faint metal tapping coming from one of the barrels. The barrel was upside-down and had held some kind of solid, the label said something about water-filtering mineral. It was sitting on its lid, which was only partially crimped on. â€Å"Something's in there.† â€Å"Plug your ears,† said Cavuto, cocking the hammer on the Desert Eagle, and aiming for the center of the barrel. â€Å"Are you high? You can't fire that thing in here.† â€Å"Well there's can't and there's shouldn't. I probably shouldn't fire it.† â€Å"Cover me, I'm pushing it over.† Before Cavuto could answer Rivera grabbed the edge of the barrel and shoved with all his might. It was heavy, and fell hard. Bummer and Lazarus rocketed around to the exposed lid and were pawing at it. â€Å"Ready?† said Rivera. â€Å"Go,† said Cavuto. Rivera kicked the edge of the lid and it clanked off, then landed with a dull thud in the thick dust on the floor. Bummer rocketed inside while Lazarus frisked back and forth outside. Rivera drew his weapon and moved to where he could look into the barrel. He was met first by a gray storm of hair, then two crystal blue eyes set in a wide, weathered face. â€Å"Well that was unpleasant,† said the Emperor, around the sloppy bath of dog spit he was receiving from Bummer. â€Å"I'll bet,† said Rivera, lowering his weapon. â€Å"I may require some assistance extricating myself from this container.† â€Å"We can do that,† said Cavuto. Cavuto was fighting back a very bad case of the empathy willies, imagining himself spending a night, maybe longer, upside-down, shoved inside a barrel. He and the Emperor were about the same size. â€Å"You in pain?† â€Å"Oh no, thank you, I lost the feeling in my arms and legs quite some time ago.† â€Å"I'm guessing you didn't get in there on your own, did you?† said Rivera. â€Å"No, this was not my doing,† said the Emperor. â€Å"I was roughly handled, but it appears to have saved my life. There wasn't enough room in the barrel for any of them to become solid. There were hundreds of the fiends around me. But you saw them as you came in, I'm sure.† Rivera shook his head. â€Å"You mean the cats? No, there are tracks everywhere, but the place is empty.† â€Å"Well that's not good,† said the Emperor. â€Å"No, it's not.† Rivera was distracted. He'd been playing his flashlight beam around the room, looking for something to help them get the Emperor out of the barrel. He stopped the beam on a spot by the shelves where the dust hadn't been stirred by their rescue efforts. There, as clearly as if it had been made in plaster of Paris to send home for Mother's Day, was a single human footprint. â€Å"That's not good at all,† he said. From outside the window Marvin barked three times quickly, which Rivera thought was a warning, but translated from dog to: â€Å"Hey, can I get a friggin' biscuit out here, or what?†

Friday, August 30, 2019

Public Administration and Theories Essay

In the United States of America President Woodrow Wilson is considered to be the father of public administration. He was the first president to hire social scientists in government and as a result as other presidents came along such as Freanklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson public administration evolved to what it is today (Henry, 2013, p. 342). President Lyndon Johnson is the one that implemented the idea of policy analysis in the federal government in the 1950’s at the same time that this idea of public administration/policy analsysis was evolving in the government it was also emerging in academia. There was various theories and models emerging as public administration evolved throughout history. Two models that came to be is the organized anarchy and elite/mass model. The organized anarchy model according to Nicholas Henry (2013) is, â€Å"The Basics to the model is the presence of three streams, problems, politics, and policies† ( p.345). The problems stream is where the public and policymakers focusing on a particular problem, defining the problem, and figuring out whether the problem can be solved by implementing new policy or just letting the problem go away. The second stream is politics where it involves the government agenda where issues are listed and discussed by various individuals in government such as elected appointees, members of Congress and interest paties. The last stream in this model is policies where there’s a list of policies that may resolve whatever the issue is. The organized anarchy model is also known as the â€Å"garbage can† model. According to William Newman (2013), â€Å"The Garbage Can model of decision is used to illustrate how the foreign policy process is an organized anarchy; decision making is the intersection of four streams–choice opportunities, problems, solutions, and participants. The model helps identify both institutional and persuasion-bargaining variables and highlights their interactions as streams  are connected to produce policy†. The main weakness of this policy is there is a lot of ambiguity where there’s not set goals defined and at times because of the ambiguity not all issues are resolved and/or discussed. Another model that came out of the evolution of public administration is the elite/mass model. In the elite/mass model policy is developed and implemented by the elitethen flows downward to the masses (Henry, 2013, p. 343). Society is split into two sectors where those who have power are considered to be the elite and those that have no power are the masses. The public policies that are implemented consists of values of the elite, which as a result the elite shape how those of the masses think. Public officials and administrators implement all the policies that has been decided by the elite and people of the masses have no choice but to accept these policies which in turn shape what their values are to be. The weakness of this model is that policies are implemented based off of a small gropu of people (elites) that is not representative of the masses as a whole. This model creates a separation of two sectors where the only individuals that are valued are those that have money, they are the ones that are in control and have power to shape the environment that everyone lives in that includes the masses who’s voices are never heard or taken into consideration. According to Ali Farazmand (1999), â€Å" The linking elites and the operational elites within organizations have a primary task of assuring stability, compliance with organizational rules, and cohesion and control among members of their organizations. They are the agents of the strategic elites located at the apex of modern organizations in government, corporations, nonprofit institutions, and political parties†. This idea that there’s various levels of elites within the group as a whole and as result of these vaious levels of elite there’s cohesion because they control the masses. References Henry, N. (2013). Public Administration and Public Affairs 12th edition. Pearson Education Inc. Persuasion-Bargaining and Institutions in an Organized Anarchy: Clinton Administration Decisions on China, 1993-1994, American Review of Public Administration 43, Issue 3 (May 2013): p. 347 – 367. The Elite Question Toward A Normative Elite Theory of Organization. Administration and Society, Vol. 31 No. 3, July 1999 p. 321-360. Sage Publications Inc.