The business plan of Super Stars sports facility Essay

The business plan of Super Stars sports facility - Essay Example This paper discusses that Super Stars will be a sports organization which will be focused on enhancing and inculcating sports values among the community members in Bradford city in the United Kingdom. Currently, there are very few multi-sports facilities in Bradford and hence the company hopes to fill this gap. The kind of sporting activities that will be trained includes swimming, skiing, skate boarding, athletics, rugby, golfing, gymnastics, football and hockey. The organizations planned keys to success involves putting the customers wants first and working hard towards satisfying them. The organization will also use appropriate marketing facilities for its services, creating a conducive environment for its operations, purchase quality sports equipments and hiring qualified staffs to assist in the management of the activities. The Super Stars sports facility hopes to target people who have the passion for getting physically fit. It will provide all the necessary facilities that are required in order for people to exercise and attain maximum satisfaction. The members will be both adults and the children and it involves both genders. The sports facility will be a member’s only facility. The membership will be divided into a adult membership, students membership and junior membership. The juniors include children between the age of 5 and 14 years. The adults are those above the age of 14. The membership fee for the junior plan will be 40 pounds plus a 240 pounds annual subscription fee. The adults’ membership fee shall be 50 pounds plus an annual subscription fee of 360 pounds. ... However, students will be granted a fee waiver to encourage them to engage in sporting activities which include a 45 pounds membership fee plus a 300 pounds annual subscription fee. At the beginning of its operations, Super Stars sporting organization will use funds from the government and community contributions to finance its operations. The government has advanced 9,000,000 pounds towards the setting up of the facility. It hopes that the community will contribute 2,000,000 pounds. These funds will be used to purchase the necessary equipments, setting up the entire business, hiring trainers, and maintenance of the facility and equipments. The organization hopes to achieve 52, 000 pounds at the end of the first financial year. By the end of five years the facility hopes that the profits will have increased to around 250,000 pounds per year. Vision Statement The vision statement is a description of the picture of the organization in the long term or in the middle term. It is a clear picture of the organization that describes its desired outcome that seeks to energize, inspire, influence, and enables one to have a mental picture of what the organization hopes to attain( shank, 2005,p.75). It represents a framework for an individual’s comprehensive strategic planning and refers to the inspiration of the organization. It involves the articulation of the organizations dreams and hopes. It helps the organization in making a choice between the current and the future courses of action. It puts together the goals and objectives of the organization. In connection to sporting activities, the vision statement is set so as to provide it with a blueprint for success and set a foundation for what the long term goal is (Elitesportleader, 2012, p. 1). An effective vision

Buddhism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 4

Buddhism - Essay Example It is considered that the religion was founded on teaching of Gautama Buddha (500 B.C.E). The traditional date of the birth of the Buddha is 560 B.C.E. The Buddha is believed to have been born in northeastern India, and was a prince. He followed ascetic way of life and devoted himself to meditations and spiritual development. One day, he meditated near the Ganges River, and came to conclusion that asceticism did not work and did not help a person to achieve spiritual development. He understood that a person should eat a sufficient amount of food to have a good heath, should take enough rest but not too much, and meditate. In 525 B.C.E, the Buddha achieved Enlightenment and began to preach (Lyons and Peters 1985). As with other major world religions, the history of Buddhism has long been characterized by an ongoing tension between attempts to preserve traditional ideals and modes of practice and the need to adapt to changing social and cultural conditions (Lopez 2002). Many developmen ts in Buddhist history, such as the infusion of esoteric rituals, the arising of forms of devotionalism and lay movements, and the assimilation of warrior practices, reflect the impact of widespread yet fundamental social and cultural changes on traditional religious structures. ... In 480 BC was established the first Buddhist Council at Rajagriha in Bihar. At this council, the Vinaya and Sutra texts were standardized. As with most religions, the early years of Buddhism are shrouded in obscurity. But the period between that event and the reemergence of Buddhism into the light of history around 250 B.C.E. is somewhat unclear. Buddhist tradition holds that there was a meeting, or council, held immediately following the Buddha's death (Lopez 2002). The major concern of this meeting was to stabilize the Buddhist scriptures by coming to an agreement as to what were the accepted scriptures as spoken by the Buddha. For a variety of reasons, no such agreement seems to have been reached, although there was some general agreement on the basic message of the Buddha. Leaving the canon, that is to say the total collection of Buddhist scriptures, open in this way was to lead to disagreements later in Buddhist history. The second Buddhist Council at Vaisali marked the first di vision of the Buddhist Order (386 BC). In 244 BC, the third Buddhist Council called by Asoka. This council fixed the canon of Theravadin Buddhism (Lyons and Peters 1985). To other regions of the world, Buddhist tradition was spread with merchants. For instance, Buddhism was introduced to Southeast Asia in C. 200. Since C. 300, Buddhism is a prominent religion in China and begins to penetrate Korea. c. 750 Buddhism officially established in Tibet (beginnings of the Vajrayana school). c. 800 Ch'an and Pure Land Buddhism become dominant schools in China; establishment of Tendai and Shingon schools in Japan. Only, in 1893 World Parliament of Religions

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks Essay Example for Free

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks Essay ABSTRACT. Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks is a kind of special wireless ad hoc network, which has the characteristics of high node mobility and fast topology changes. The Vehicular Networks can provide wide variety of services, ranges from safety and crash avoidance to internet access and multimedia applications. Attacking and misusing such network could cause destructive consequences. It is therefore necessary to integrate security requirements into the design of VANETs and defend VANET systems against misbehaviour, in order to ensure correct and smooth operations of the network. In this paper, I propose a security system for VANETs to achieve privacy desired by vehicles and traceability required by law enforcement authorities, in addition to satisfying fundamental security requirements including authentication, nonrepudiation, message integrity, and confidentiality. Moreover, we propose a privacy-preserving defense technique for network authorities to handle misbehaviour in VANET access, considering the challenge that privacy provides avenue for misbehaviour. The proposed system employs an identitybased cryptosystem where certificates are not needed for authentication. I show the fulfilment and feasibility of our system with respect to the security goals and efficiency. 1 INTRODUCTION VEHICULAR ad hoc networks (VANETs) are receiving increasing attentions from academic and deployment efforts from industry, due to the various applications and potential tremendous benefits they offer for future VANET users. Safety information exchange enables life-critical applications, such as the alerting functionality during intersection traversing and lane merging, and thus, plays a key role in VANET applications. Valueadded services can enhance drivers’ traveling experience by providing convenient Internet access, navigation, toll payment services, etc. Other applications are also possible including different warning messages for congestion avoidance, detour notification, road conditions (e.g., slippery), etc., and alarm signals disseminated by emergency vehicles (e.g., ambulance) for road clearance. The attractive features of VANETs inevitably incur higher risks  if such networks do not take security into account prior to deployment. For instance, if the safety messages are modified, discarded, or delayed either intentionally or due to hardware malfunctioning, serious consequences such as injuries and even deaths may occur. This necessitates and urges the development of a functional, reliable, and efficient  security architecture before all other implementation aspects of VANETs.Fundamentally,VANET security design should guarantee authentication, nonrepudiation, integrity, and in some specific application scenarios, confidentiality, to protect the network against attackers. Besides the fundamental security requirements, sensitive information such as identity and location privacy should be reserved from the vehicle owner’s perspective, against unlawful tracing and user profiling, since otherwise it is difficult to attract vehicles to join the network. On the contrary, traceability is required where the identity information need be revealed by law enforcement authorities for liability issues, once accidents or crimes occur. In addition, privilege revocation is required by network authorities (e.g., network administrator) once misbehaviour is detected during network access. It is less difficult to prevent misbehavior of unauthorized users (i.e., outsiders)since legitimate users and roadside units (RSUs) can simply disregard communication requests from outsiders by means of authentication. Nevertheless, misbehaviour of legitimate users of VANETs (i.e., insiders) is more difficult and complex to prevent, the reason being that insiders possess credentials issued by the authority to perform authentication with peer vehicles or RSUs who canbe  easily tricked into trusting the insiders. Consequently, the insiders misbehaviour will have much larger impact on the network and will be the focus of this paper. I proposed system in this paper and many recent proposals on VANET security provide the option of using anonymous credentials in authentication, rendering it even more complex to handle misbehaviour in VANETs, since the user identity is hidden and cannot be linked arbitrarily which curbs the punishment of misbehaving users. Contributions. Given the conflicting goals of privacy and traceability, and the challenges in designing a privacy-preserving defense scheme for VANETs,  i motivated to propose a security system that can effectively and efficiently solve the conflic ts and challenges. Specifically, my main contributions in this paper include: 1. I propose a pseudonym-based scheme to assure vehicle user privacy and traceability. 2. I design a threshold signature-based scheme to achieve nonframeability in tracing law violators. In this scheme, an innocent vehicle cannot be framed by a corrupted law enforcement authority due to rolesplitting mechanism. 3. A novel privacy-preserving defense scheme is proposed leveraging threshold authentication. It guarantees that any additional authentication beyond the threshold will result in the revocation of the misbehaving users. This defense scheme differs from others mainly in that it yields flexibility in the revocation (i.e., not all types of misbehaviour should be punished). Moreover, the dynamic accumulators in the threshold authentication technique facilitates each user to place further restrictions (besides the threshold) on other communicating users, which is an attractive feature to service providers. 4. My design incorporates mechanisms that guarantee authentication, nonrepudiation, message integrity, and confidentiality. 2 RELATED WORK There is a large body of research work related to the security and privacy in VANETs. The most related works are on the design of privacypreserving schemes. Raya and Hubaux [1]investigated the privacy issue by proposing a pseudonym-based approach using anonymous public keys and the public key infrastructure (PKI), where the public key certificate is needed, giving rise to extra communication and storage overhead. The  authors also proposed three credential revocation protocols tailored for VANETs, namely RTPD,RC2RL, and DRP [5], considering that the certificate revocation list (CRL) needs to be distributed across the entire network in a timely manner. All the three protocols seem to work well under conventional public key infrastructure (PKI). However, the authors also proposed to use frequently updated anonymous public keys to fulfillusers requirement on identity and location privacy. If this privacy preserving technique is used in conjunction with RC2RL and DRP, th e CRL produced by the trusted authority will become huge in size, rendering the revocation protocols highly inefficient. A lightweight symmetric-key-based security scheme for balancing  auditability and privacy in VANETs is proposed in [2]. It bears the drawback that peer vehicles authenticate each other via a base station, which is unsuitable for inter vehicle communications. Gamage et al. [6] adopted an identity-based (IDbased) ring signature scheme to achieve signer ambiguity and hence fulfill the privacy requirement in VANET applications. The disadvantage of the ring signature scheme in the context of VANET applications, is the unconditional privacy, resulting in the traceability requirement unattainable. Group signature-based schemes are proposed in [4] where signer privacy is conditional on the group manager. As a result, all these schemes have the problem of identity escrow, as a group manager who possesses the group master key can arbitrarily reveal the identity of any group member. In addition, due to the limitation of group formation in VANETs (e.g., too few cars in the vicinity to establis h the group), the group-based schemes [4]may not be applied appropriately. The election of group leader will sometimes encounter difficulties since a trusted entity cannot be found amongst peer vehicles. There are also a number of defense techniques against misbehaviour in VANET literature besides those in [1]. An indirect approach via the aid of infrastructure is used in [4].The TA distributes the CRL to the infrastructure points which then take over the TA’s responsibility to execute the revocation protocol. The advantage of this approach is that vehicles never need to download the entire RL. Unfortunately, the conditional anonymity claimed in [4]. only applies to amongst peer vehicles, under the assumption that the infrastructure points are trusted. The infrastructure points can reveal the identity of any vehicle at any time even if the vehicle is honest. Recently, Tsang et al. [7]proposed a blacklistable anonymous credential system for blocking misbehavior without the trusted third party (TTP).The blacklisting technique can be applied to VANETs as: if the vehicle fails to prove that it is not on the blacklist of the current  authenticator, the authenticator will ignore the messages or requests sent by this vehicle. Although not proposed specifically for VANETs, the proposal in [7] has a similar claim as the capability of a TTP (network authority in this paper) to recover a user’s identity in any case is too strong a punishment and highly undesirable in some scenarios. The downside of this  technique is the lack of options to trace misbehaving users, since any user in the system(misbehaving or not)will by no means be identified by any entity including the authorities. I proposed a privacy-preserving defense scheme against misbehavior in [8] leveraging threshold authentication technique. This scheme and the scheme in [3] both preserve user privacy, and simultaneously provide trace ability (i.e., tracing law violators by enforcement authorities in [3] and tracing misbehaving users by network authorities in [8]). The major differences between these schemes are the different technical realizations of the privacy and traceability schemes, due to the different application 3 SYSTEM MODEL We describe the functionalities of our security system and define security requirements in this section. 3.1 Overview Major entities in a VANET environment are depicted in A VANET system diagram. As mentioned before, traceability is needed by law enforcement authorities (LEAs) who require the identity of a violating vehicle to be disclosed for investigating the cause of accidents or crimes. Due to the seriousness of liability issues, if a single authority (e.g., the police) is fully capable of revealing the vehicle identity, this privilege may be abused. It is desirable if two or more authorities (e.g., the police, judge, special agents, and other possible law enforcement authorities) are granted distributed control over the identity retrieval process. One benefit in doing so is that corrupted authorities (the number being less than the threshold) cannot arbitrarily trace vehicle users to compromise their privacy. Another benefit is that malicious authorities cannot falsely accuse (or frame) honest users. Such role-splitting is not required for network authorities since the threshold authentication technique in our defense scheme prevents a network authority from falsely accu sing honest users. The proposed security system primarily consists of techniques addressing the privacy, traceability, nonframeability, and revocation (only by network authorities) issues. The  logic diagram of the entities interactions is depicted in logic diagram, where the arrowed lines indicate the direction of packet flow or physical communications, the bracketed numbers near each line index the major events or procedures between the connected entities. The vehicle users are split into access group owners and members, whereas the RSUs can only be access  group owners. The entities and events/procedures are described in what follows. 3.2 Entities and Procedures The entities in this system are the regional transportation authorities (RTAs), law enforcement authorities (LEAs),network authorities, roadside infrastructure including border RSUs for pseudonym management and regular RSUs (simply RSUs) for Internet access, and vehicle users. Considering practical scenarios, the RSUs in this system are mainly responsible for providing infrastructure access and network services. The RSUs are assumed to be operated by third-party service providers (SPs) who have business contracts with the RTA to build access infrastructure in the RTA’s region. The RSUs are thus not owned by the RTA and have no preestablished trust relationship with the RTA. On the other hand, borders RSUs are owned and operated by the RTA, and can be considered as the agents who are delegated with the RTA’s authority. These entities are involved in the following procedure:  may be caused by malfunctioning hardware and thus is incidental. These types of misbehavior share a common feature, i.e., their occurrence or frequency is low, specifically, lower than a predetermined threshold. Threshold authentication-based defense further consists of six sub-procedures: Membership registration: RSUs and vehicle users register with the RTA to use VANETs. Upon successful registration, a member public/private key pair (mpk;msk) is issued to each RSU and vehicles. The RTA associates the member’s credential with the issued public key and includes this pair of information into a credential list IDlist. Access group setup: RSUs and vehicles setup their own access groups, the member of which is granted privilege to communicate with the access group owner. The group owner adds members to the group and updates related public information. Each added member obtains an access key mak for the group. Access group revoking: The access group owner revokes the granted privilege when deciding to stop communications with a member, due to some decision criteria for misbehaviour. The access group owner removes the member from the access group and updates related public information. Threshold authentication: This procedure is executed between an RSU and a vehicle, or between peer vehicles. We call the authenticator in this procedure Alice who announces the threshold k possibly different for each user being authenticated. The  authentication succeeds if and only if the following conditions are met simultaneously: the user Bob authenticating with Alice is a registered member of the VANET system, Bob is a legitimate member of Alice’s access group (if Alice is an access group owner) whose member privilege has not been revoked, and the authentication threshold has not been exceeded. Alice records the authentication transcripts in AUTHlog: Tracing: This procedure is used by Alice to trace a misbehaving member Mn who attempts to authenticate more than k times. Alice relies on the AUTHlog and public information, and obtains Mn’s credential n as the procedure output which is reported to the RTA.Revocation/recovery: Upon receiving the complaints from other entities in the system as the output of Tracing, the RTA decides if the misbehaving member’s credential needs to be revoked. The RTA then performs the identity recovery by looking up the same pseudonym lookup table PLT (cf.System setup above) which also records the correspondence between the credential n and identity IDn. Note that for the ease of presentation, we assume the RTAs to act as network authorities for the defense scheme in this paper. In reality, when the roles of RTA and network authority System setup: This procedure is executed by the RTA for initial VANET system setup including domain parameter publication, public/private key assignment for entities in the system to perform desired tasks, and database creation for storing necessary records (i.e., the pseudonym lookup table PLT). Pseudonym generation and authentication for privacy: RTA and border RSUs execute this procedure to assign pseudonym/private key pairs to both vehicles traveling in their home domain and vehicles from other RTAs’ domains, so that these vehicles are able to authenticate with RSUs and other vehicles to obtain services and useful messages. Threshold signature for nonframeability: This procedure is invoked by LEAs to share the secret information for recovering a guilty vehicle’s identity. Meanwhile, it prevents corrupted authorities from gathering full power to accuse an innocent vehicle. The functional component of this procedure is the threshold signature. Threshold-authentication-based defense: Designed for the network authorities, this procedure is used to revoke a misbehaving vehicle’s credential, refraining the vehicle from further disrupting system operations. As the core of this procedure, the threshold authentication  technique provides a mechanism to allow certain types of misbehavior that should not result in revocation. For instance, the misbehavior  are separate, the network authority can simply take charge as the RTA in the above sub procedures. Nonetheless, in the execution of Revocation/recovery, the network authority needs to establish trust with or be delegated by the RTA in order to access the PLT. When we mention network authorities in what follows, we implicitly refer to RTAs in the network authority role. 3.3 Security Requirements I define the security requirements for a VANET security system, and will show the fulfillment of these requirements after presenting the design details. 1. Privacy: The privacy requirement states that private information such as vehicle owner’s identity and location privacy is preserved against unlawful tracing and user profiling. 2. Traceability: It is required where the identity information of violators need be revealed by law enforcement authorities for liability purposes. The traceability requirement also indicates that a misbehaving user will be identified and the corresponding credential revoked, if necessary, by network authorities, to prevent this user from further disrupting system operations. Certain criteria have to be met for the traceability of a misbehaving user as explained in the next section. 3. Nonframeability: Nonframeability requires that no entity in the system can accuse an honest user for having violated the law or misbehaved. 4. Other requirements: A secure VANET system should satisfy several fundamental requirements, namely, authentication, nonrepudiation, message integrity, and confidentiality where sensitive information is being exchanged, to protect the system against unauthorized-message injection, denial of message disseminations, message alteration, and eavesdropping, respectively. Nonrepudiation also requires that violators or misbehaving users cannot deny the fact that they have violated the law or misbehaved. 4 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK I have presented the VANET security system mainly achieving privacy, traceability, nonframeability, and privacy-preserving defense against misbehaviour and reducing traffic in the network. These functionalities are realized by the  pseudonym-based technique, the threshold signature, and the threshold authentication bas ed defense scheme. The ID-based cryptosystem facilitates  us to design communication and storage efficient schemes. Our future work consists of simulating the proposed security system and experimenting it in real VANET settings. REFERENCES [1] M. Raya and J-P. Hubaux, â€Å"Securing Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks,† J. Computer Security, special issue on security of ad hoc and sensor networks, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 39-68, 2007. [2] J.Y. Choi, M. Jakobsson, and S. Wetzel, â€Å"Balancing Auditability and Privacy in Vehicular Networks,† Proc. First ACM Int’l WorkshopQoS and Security for Wireless and Mobile Networks (Q2SWinet ’05), pp. 79-87, Oct. 2005. [3] J. Sun, C. Zhang, and Y. Fang, â€Å"An Id-Based Framework Achieving Privacy and Non-Repudiation in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks,† Proc. IEEE Military Comm. Conf., pp. 1-7, Oct. 2007. [4] X. Lin, X. Sun, P.-H. Ho, and X. Shen, â€Å"GSIS: A Secure and Privacy-Preserving Protocol for Vehicular Communications,†IEEE Trans. Vehicular Technology, vol. 56, no. 6, pp. 3442-3456, Nov. 2007. [5] M. Raya, P. apadimitratos, I. Aad, D. Jungels, and J.-P. Hubaux,â€Å"Eviction of Misbehaving and Faulty Nodes in Vehicular Networks,† IEEE J. Sele cted Areas Comm., vol. 25, no. 8, pp. 15571568,Oct. 2007. [6] C. Gamage, B. Gras, B. Crispo, and A.S. Tanenbaum, â€Å"An Identity Based Ring Signature Scheme with Enhanced Privacy,† Proc.Second Int’l Conf. Security and Privacy in Comm. Networks (SecureComm ’06), Aug. 2006. [7] P. Tsang, M.H. Au, A. Kapadia, and S.W. Smith, â€Å"Blacklistable Anonymous Credentials: Blocking Misbehaving Users without TTPs,† Proc. ACM Conf. Computer and Comm. Security (CCS),pp. 72-81, 2007. [8] J. Sun and Y. Fang, â€Å"A Defense Technique against Misbehavior in VANETs Based on Threshold Authentication,† Proc. IEEE Military Comm. Conf., Nov. 2008.

Development of Logistics Industry in China

Development of Logistics Industry in China Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Background With the expansion of the globalization and the rapid development of the Information Technology (IT), the logistics industry has become one of the most important industries in the 21st century. The scope and role of logistics have changed dramatically over recent years. In the past, logistics played a supportive role to primary activities such as marketing and manufacturing. Now logistics has expanded from its traditional aspects: transportation and warehousing to purchasing, distribution, storage management, packaging, manufacturing and customer service. More importantly, the role of logistics has changed from cost absorbing to an important of competitive advantage for logistics companies. Modern theory of logistics in China was introduced in 1980s. Since its economic reformed and opened up in 1978, Chinas economy keeps booming, with a growth rate of nearly 10% in annual GDP which has become a global manufacturing centre. (Appendix 1) After China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, foreign companies were allowed to invest in China at the beginning but only in form of joint ventures that Chinese partner took up the majority. At the end of 2005, this restriction was completely phased out. At present, state-owned, private, and foreign logistics companies are all equally allowed to entry and compete in logistics industry in China. Chinas logistic industry has been experiencing fast growth because of sustainable economic growth. The logistics industry reported an annual growth rate of 31% in 1999, 35% in 2000, and 55% in 2001, and was expected to continue to expand rapidly in the future. (LI FUNG RESEARCH CENTRE, 2008) According to Exhibit 1, the average annual growth rate of the logistics industry in China was 22.2%, added value has reached to RMB 1.4 trillion in 2006 up 13.9% over 2005; and in 2007, the added value even reached to near 1.7 trillion up 20% over 2006. It is expected that Chinas logistics market value will continue to maintain an annual growth of 20% in 2010. Exhibit1: Total volume and growth of Chinas logistics industry 1.2 Total logistics market size The GDP of China was above RMB 10 trillion in 2002 that achieved a real growth of 8%. In the 10th Five-year Plan, China government is forecasting an average growth rate 7% per year from 2002-2007. According to the forecasts by State Development Planning Commission (SDPC), the GDP will be quadruple, about US$4.3 Trillion by 2020. In a detailed survey by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP), the total logistics market was estimated at RMB1, 788 billion, 20% of the GDP in 2000. In 2002, it was estimated that the total logistics market of China were about RMB 2 trillion. According to HK Trade Development Council, leading logistics companies in China such as UPS, FedEx and DHL-Sinotrans have all recorded annual growths in over 30% on operations in China and there are more outsourcing contributes to the growth of professional logistics companies. 1.3 Players in the China Logistics Market Chinas logistics market is fragmented. Government registration shows there are about 700,000 logistics companies in China and many of them are small, poorly managed with fundamental infrastructure and technology. (Alan Dixon, 2008) Those of the players are lack of nationwide competences and customer target is narrow which mainly focus on simple transportation and warehousing activities. Competition is intense, especially in the low-end market. Traditionally, Chinas logistics market is dominated by the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) which provide 90% of the logistics services in China. 1.3.1 State-Owned Players There are many state-owned players in China logistics market. Before China joined WTO, Chinas logistics industry was a monopoly industry which could only be managed by state-owned enterprises (SOEs), mostly for transpiration and warehousing. The characteristics of the SOEs are small-scale local enterprises, slow product renovation, poor management, production plans following from various government agencies. Because of government investment and monopolistic operation, these enterprises obtained large assets and became relatively large-scale business organizations. Relying on their sufficiency capital and existing market share, these enterprises became leaders in China logistics industry at that time. The following is a list of SOEs that ranked top 5 in 2008 in China logistics industry: China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (COSCO); China Railway Express Company Limited (CREC); China Post Logistics Company Limited (CPLC); China Railway Container Transport Company Limited (CRCTC). COSCO Logistics COSCO Logistics is a branch of China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) which was established in 2002. Because of the existing market share and advantaged infrastructure, it ranked number 1 in China logistics companies from 2002 to 2008. (Cen, 2005) COSCO Logistics has 300 logistics facilities, covering 90% of the China market and the competitive advantage is shipping transport. 1.3.2 Private Players Since the mid-1990s, Chinas private domestic logistics firms started to develop themselves such as St-Anda, PGL, China Overseas logistics and so on. The private logistics companies are in medium-size which keeps the rapid growth in the market because of achieving in efficiency and effectiveness and they are more focused on geographies, service and customers. But they are lack of sufficient financial supporting for market expansion and ineffective management to support high growth and profitability. (Fu. and Gwi, 2004) EAS International Transportation Ltd (Shanghai). This company was established in 1985. In the past twenty years, EAS has acquired tremendous achievement in building the unique operation platform to develop modern logistics business according to the demand of customers. 1.3.3 International Logistics Players (ILCs) Although the domestic companies dominate the general China logistics market, ILCs are also playing a very important role and their market shares are increasing rapidly. The most famous international logistics players in China are: DHL, TNT, UPS, FedEx and so on. DHL DHL entered China in 1981 and in 1986 it used joint venture with Sinotrans, one of the biggest SOEs in China logistics industry. DHL-Sinotrans has the biggest market shares in courier service. In the past twenty years, DHL has invested about $273 million in China. (Cen, 2005) Nowadays, many foreign logistics organizations have built good relationship with Chinese logistics companies by using joint ventures. Foreign companies have competitive advantage in technology and management, when they are integrated with experiences and existing service network of Chinese firms that they could be brought into full play. Therefore, Chinese logistics companies usually face Merge and acquisition (MA) risk. Many inland Chinese cities offer lots of commercial opportunities to foreign logistics companies but it need time for foreign companies to fully penetrate into the Chinese market. 1.3.4 Third Party Logistics companies (TPLs) Third Party Logistics companies (TPL) is a new concept for most of the Chinese companies. A TPL company normally provides process-base services rather than a function-base logistics service, which generally toward to the integration and fully control of a part or whole process of customers logistics network. (Fu. and Gwi, 2004) Because small or middle sized companies may not always achieve economics of scale in operating, which is even one of the advantages for third-party logistics companies. But due to the fundamental infrastructure of China logistics industry and developing technology, the TPLs are still need time to further improve the internal management in order to be expert in handling business. 1.4 Major modes of Transport in China After enter 21st century, the construction of transport infrastructure keeps rapidly increasing in China. 1.4.1 Ports Since China government opened ports to foreign investment companies in 2002, Chinese port facilities had taken huge steps that tremendous increased the capacity. In 2003, the total investment in Chinese port construction was US$2.2 billion, and in 2004, the Ministry of Communication has reported this figure was to reach nearly US$4.3 billion. Currently, Chinas coastal cities such as Dalian, Tianjin, Qingdao, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, which dominant regional logistics centres are completed new berths building. (Exhibit 2) In Shanghai for example, in 2003 the container throughput are 11.28 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) that is expected to increase to 14.5million TEUs in 2004 and in 2005, the TEUs of capacity has expanded 2M more. (Richard Brubaker ¼Ã…’2005) Although such huge investment and abroad expansion, Chinese ports need to keep up with the increasing demand by use foreign terminal operators more. Exhibit 2: Logistics hubs in China. Source: Beijing Readies Logistics Stimulus, 2008 1.4.2 Road China government heavy invests on China transport infrastructure, so the road transport becomes the prior choice for inland distribution. During the Five-year Plan from 2001 to 2005, transport infrastructure has been built significantly including 250,000 kilometers of highways and 24,700 kilometers of expressways. (Fu. and Gwi., 2004) By the end of 2006, the total length Chinese highway has reached 3,457,000 kilometers and 77,000 kilometers of railways. 1.4.3 Rail Compare with China road and port infrastructure, Chinas railway infrastructure has received relatively low levels of investment. The Ministry of Railways plans to increase Chinas existing rail network from 72,000 km to 100,000 km by 2020. (Woosir, 2009) Use of the Chinese rail system increased 6% year on year from 2003 to 2004, the modest increase is because the weak demand of rail transportation. There are many problems cause the weak demand for logistics companies, such as poor handling practices, delays, unpredictable delivery times, theft and a general lack of infrastructure. However, despite these issues exist, the heavy subsidization still makes Chinas railway become the cheapest transportation compare with shippers. 1.4.4 Inland Waterways The most significant Infrastructure on inland waterways is the Yangtze River, which increased 8% from 2003 to 2004. (Richard Brubaker ¼Ã…’2005) Yangtze River can handle ships up to 6000 tonnes totally, however, the capacity of canals and low bridges are relative in low level because of the dry season in China. There are many waterway projects such as Gorges Dam which can serve to extent dry seasons and keep water levels low. 1.4.5 Air freight Chinas airfreight sector is developed rapidly which has become the second-large domestics airfreight market in the world. According to Boeings World Air Cargo Forecast, the market has grown at more than 20 percent annually since 1991. (Richard Brubaker ¼Ã…’2005) The airports are fast developed by three economic zones: the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), the Pearl River Delta (PRD), and the capital city of Beijing. Moreover, the agreement between China mainland and Hong Kong gives Hong Kong airlines greater opportunities that access to the mainland. But the China airfreight is limited by insufficient infrastructure. In the coastal cities, the airfreights are more developed than that in inland cities. 1.5 Statement of the Problems Since China jointed WTO, the logistics industry developed rapidly. But there are lots of problems during the development; here the researcher mainly focuses on cost, productivity and expansion of China logistics industry. 1.5.1 High Cost Since China became one of the members in WTO, China logistics industry developed rapidly which kept high growth among all the industries. But the most important factor that slow down the development of China logistics industry is the high logistics cost. Chinas logistics expenditures took up 20% of the GDP in 2000 whereas logistics spending accounted for 10.3% of United Statess GDP, 14% of Japans GDP, and 10% to 13% of European Unions GGP. (Exhibit 3) The annual growth rate of total logistics expenditures is 10.29% in 2002, 12.99% in 2003, 16.76% in 2004 and 12.86% in 2005. (Song H. and Wang L., 2004) Statistics published by China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing shows that Chinas total logistics expenses reached RMB3.8414 trillion in 2006, up 13.5% year on year at current price, a growth 0.6 percentage points higher than in 2005. The rate of total logistics expense of GDP was 18.3%, 0.2 percentage points lower than in 2005. In 2007, the total logistics cost increased by 18.2% to 4540.6 billion yuan compare with 2006. Exhibit 3: Cost of moving and storing goods (as share of GDP). The total logistics cost in China generally includes three cost components: transportation, inventory storage and management cost. In 2004, the total cost amounted to US$ 352 billion, grew by 16.6% compare with 2005. Of this total, transportation cost took up the largest portion which accounted US$ 200 billion and had the highest growth rate which was 56.9% of total. On the other hand, inventory storage and management cost were US$ 102 billion and US$ 49 billion, accounting for 29.1% and 14% of the total logistics cost respectively (Exhibit 4). Exhibit 4: Total logistics cost and its composition, 2003-2007. Source: CFLP, 2007 Adding the costs of packing, transport, storage and damage cost, the ratio of total logistics costs to total industry production ranges from 40% to 60% in China logistics industry, whereas in the United States this percentage is close to 20% (Zhang Z.Y. and Andres M.F., 2006). So general speaking, the transportation costs in China logistics industry are twice as expensive as in developed countries such as US. Japan and European countries. 1.5.2 Low in productivity The ratio of total logistics cost to GDP represents the efficiency of logistics operation in the economy which means the productivity of logistics industry. It is also used as an indicator to the level of development in logistics industry. In general, the higher the percentage, the less efficient is the logistics industry. Exhibit 5 shows the total logistics cost as a percentage of GDP in the 10th Five-year Plan period (2000-2005) in China. Although the total logistics cost as a percentage of GDP has a downward trend that decreased from 19.4% in 2000 to 18.57% in 2005 and the total cost savings in the 10th Five-year Plan period are 109 billion RMB; according to exhibit 3, the logistics cost are higher than that in US, Japan and developed countries which means China logistics industry is still in high inefficiency. As predicted by the CFLP, the ratio of total logistics cost in China to GDP will continue higher which resulting inefficiency of modern logistics industry. CFLP predicted t hat total logistics costs during the 11th Five-year Program period (2006-2010) will grow at 10% annually, 2% higher than that of the 10th Five-year Plan period. It also forecasted that the total logistics cost will reach 5,400 billion RMB in 2010, the ratio of total logistics cost to GDP at around 16.8% and cost savings yield during the period will be around 435 billion RMB. (Ling Feng research centre, 2006) Exhibit 5: Total logistics cost as a percentage of GDP, 2000-2005. 1.5.3 Slowly expansion/outsourcing One of the most significant drivers of growth in the global logistics industry is the trend of mergers and acquisitions. Although many big China logistics companies have established overseas offices from the 1980s and 1990s to support their international transportation, their businesses are heavily depend on agents which means the Chinas global logistics network is still weak. For example, Sinotrans has business in nearly 200 countries, but there are only 40 overseas offices and most of the international businesses are done by the agents. In this situation, the expansion for China logistics industry is very slow. So, the global market share of China logistics industry is still relative low. As Contrill claimed, â€Å"dont expect a wave of Chinese 3PLs to land on Western shores soon. The pace of change in China is slow by Western standards and there is much to do in the home market†. (Cen Xuepin, 2005) 1.6 Research objective The objective of this research is twofold. To understand the development of China logistics industry in the last decade. To investigate the factors affecting the development of China logistics industry and recommend the solutions to improve on the problems to further develop logistics industry in China. On meeting the two objectives, this paper will develop a framework to address the factors that affect the development of China logistics industry. 1.7 Research questions Three questions will be discussed in this article: 1: Review the development of logistics industry in China in last decade? 2: What are the factors that affect the development of China logistics industry? 3: How to solve the current problems to further improve logistics industry in China? 1.8 Significance of study In this article, the author introduces the development of China logistics industry in last decade. Also, this paper will contribute by indicating and analyzing some of the problems that affect development of China logistics industry according to questionnaires and interview by managers in logistics companies in China. The theoretical framework is based on an extensive review of the hypothesis in literature review (Chapter 2) to ensure the main factors that affect development of China logistics industry. After that, the searcher will give readers recommendations that solve the problems in China logistics industry. 1.9 Limitations of the research Because of time restriction (from September to November, 2009), this thesis will be finished within 3 months, the research will cover the detail of logistics management (Transportation, Warehousing and IT supporting) as specific as possible. Because of the location of sampling in Shanghai, China, the researcher has to come to China but only around 1month, so it is time limited to the questionnaire distributing and receiving which may cause low response rate. There are many problems that influence the development of logistics industry in China; in this paper, the author only focus the above 5 main problems. Because some logistics companies are not public listed companies, it is difficult to find the data from the current annual reports released by these companies, so the researcher may analyze data in these companies using the previous annual report. (Eg: Annual Report of company A in 2006 or 2007) Some of the questions in questionnaires are directly related to the internal strategy of company management, so managers may do not want to answer which will cause the low response rate also. 1.10 Chapter Outline Chapter one Introduction: This provides the readers with background information of the study which creates a pictorial flow of the main research, research objectives, background of study, problems and significance as well as the limitations faced by the researcher are clearly stated in this chapter. Chapter two Literature review: This chapter explores relevant literature; it basically dealt with pertinent literature on problems of current China logistics industry with discussions on related research variables such as government policy and regulations, transportation cost, warehousing and storage, IT supporting and infrastructure. Also, 3 indicators to development of China logistics industry are given to be as dependent variable when analyzing the correlation with independent variables. Chapter three Methodology and Data collection: This chapter describes the research design used to conduct this research. This chapter will further disclose the ways used in analyzing data collected, limitations of the methods used and how the data are collected. This section concludes with discussions of the data gathering techniques and the data analysis procedures that are used to answer the hypotheses and research questions to readers. Also, theoretical framework is given to show the relationship between independent variables and dependent variables. Chapter four Results and discussions: This chapter outlines results of data analysis, provides discussion of research findings and builds bridges between objectives, findings and relevant literature. The result section summarizes the analysis of the data and present findings of the study with respect to the hypothesis and research questions, while the discussion section reviews the findings of the study in the context of the theoretical framework of the study. Chapter five Conclusions and recommendations are provided in this chapter together with discussions on the future of the study. This chapter concludes the research and documents the implications of the study with recommendations for future research. Chapter 2 Literature Review 2.1 Definition of logistics â€Å"Logistic† is the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the flow and storage of goods, services using related information from their point of origin to point of destination for the purpose of fulfilling customer requirements in efficient and effective way. (Raymond F. B. and Wm. B. M. Jr, pp: 45-55, 2004). Luo Wenping and Christopher Findlay (2002) said that the provision of logistics services requires inputs from a number of service providers; including the providers of transport and warehousing as well as other value-adding activities. Basically, logistic is business flow that connects packaging, distribution, storage and warehousing integrated Information Technology (IT) to transfer goods and service to the end users to satisfy their requirements. The concept of logistics has undergone many significant changes. Luo Wenping and Christopher Findlay, (2002) divided the development of logistics into three stages: Stage 1: Physical distribution or outbound logistics system (during 1960s and 1970s). Organizations attempted to systemically manage a set of interrelated activities including transportation, distribution, warehousing, finished goods, inventory levels, packaging, and materials handling to delivery finished goods to customers in efficient way. Stage 2: Integrated logistics management (during the 1970s and 1980s). Firms began to recognize the additional opportunities for savings by combining the inbound side (materials management) with the outbound side (physical distribution). Initially, this provided potential savings by having a single transportation manager who could coordinate inbound and outbound transportation. Companies also become aware of the opportunities to view the whole process, from raw materials to work-in-process inventory to finished goods, as well as managing the whole process from a systems perspective which could lead to more efficient operation. Stage 3: Supply Chain Management (from 1980s to 1990s). Logistics management is one of the parts of Supply Chain Management (SCM) that companies expanded their purpose on the logistics processes to include all the firms involved, making use of partnerships/alliances between manufacturing companies and their suppliers/vendors, customers (channels of distribution), and other related logistics parties such as transportation and public warehousing companies. 2.2 Third Party Logistics (TPLs) Third party logistics and related concepts are most often developed by researchers or consultants in collaboration with businesses demanding or offering third party services. Thus, the definitions reflect the phase of third party cooperation (Tage Skjoett-Larsen, 2000). Alessandra Marasco, (2008) used the following definition: â€Å"Third-party logistics involves the use of external companies to perform logistics functions that have traditionally been performed within an organization. The functions performed by the third party can encompass the entire logistics process or selected activities within that process†. According to this definition, third party logistics includes any form of externalization of logistics activities previously performed â€Å"in-house†. Through interviews with a number of North European third party service providers, Prabir K, B. and Helge V. (1996) have pointed out the following definition: â€Å"A logistics alliance indicates a close and long-term relationship between a customer and a provider encompassing the delivery of a wide array of logistics needs. In a logistics alliance, the parties ideally consider each other as partners. They collaborate in understanding and defining the customers logistics needs. Both partners participate in designing and developing logistics solutions and measuring performance. The goal of the relationship is to develop a win-win arrangement†. This definition emphasizes the strategic dimension of the concept and presupposes that several characteristics are fulfilled before the relationship between buyer and seller of logistics functions can be characterized as TPL. These characteristics include certain duration, joint efforts to develop further cooperation, a customerization of the solution, together with a fair sharing of benefits and risks. 2.3 Measurement the development of logistics industry Logistics has dramatically evolved from a supportive role characterized as passive and cost absorbing, to a primary role and critical factor in competitive advantage (Fu Chinchin and Gwi Ok Kim, 2004). Companies experiencing growing pressure to reduce costs and provide better service can improve their logistics by outsourcing to third-party logistics (3PL) firms, an option that can improve both efficiency and effectiveness, so logistics outsourcing has become a rapidly expanding source of competitive advantage and logistics cost savings. 2.3.1 Productivity Alan Stainer (1997) believe that, in measuring logistics performance, a comprehensive strategy of measurement is necessary for the successful planning, realization and control of the different activities which comprise the business logistics function. He also pointed out that, there should be a family of measures. This is a balanced collection of four to six performance measures, usually including productivity, quality and customer satisfaction, which together furnish an all-inclusive view of results but, individually, also provide a diagnostic value. Within this performance scenario, productivity can be seen as a measurement of resource utilization, including the time element. Alberto G. Canen and Ana Canen, (2002, number: 2.pp: 73-85) points out, the productivity philosophy and its improvement has been a high priority, in the first instance, in manufacturing, then in marketing, and later in physical distribution and materials management. Thus, the time is now ripe to focus on the whole logistics process. The term productivity is often ill-defined but, basically, its measurement is that of a prescribed output to the resources consumed. It can be divided into three main types: Partial measures being a ratio relating output to a single input, such as labour, materials or capital. Total factor or value-added productivity being based on sales less bought-in goods, materials and services. Total productivity measures being a ratio of total output to total input. There is a clear link between productivity and performance improvement, as purported by Lynch and Cross (1995, pp. 63-91). They show performance as a pyramid which is filtered down from the corporate vision, with market and financial measures as the main resultants, supported by customer satisfaction, flexibility and productivity as core business processes. Despite this emphasis on performance, previous research by the author (Stainer and Stainer, 1995), based on a survey of both manufacturing and service industries in the UK, France and Germany, suggests that the implementation of formal productivity programmes is still marginally behind that of the US a decade ago. Further analysis of the survey divulges the use of these three productivity measures for all respondents, as well as for those respondents employing productivity measures in the field of logistics. 2.3.2 Cost The total Logistics cost as a percentage of GDP has widely been used as an indicator of the development level of the Logistics industry in many developed countries. In general, the higher the percentage, the less efficient is the Logistics industry, which means the cost affect the development of logistics industry. The costs associated with logistics activities normally consist of the following components: transportation, warehousing, order processing/customer service, administration, and inventory holding (e.g. Lambert et al., 1998; Saccomano, 1999). Not surprisingly, total logistics costs often represent a large portion of total supply chain costs, especially when the supply chain is extended to the global market. As more organizations are outsourcing their products or services to global suppliers, it becomes increasingly critical to understand and evaluate the various logistics cost components in order to assure the profit margin. 2.3.3 Expansion /outsourcing Elliot Rabinovich, Robert Windle and Martin Dresner, (1999) said that: the outsourcing of logistics functions to partners, known as â€Å"third-party logistics providers†, has increasingly become a powerful alternative to the traditional, vertically-integrated firm in logistics industry. A growth in the number of outsourcing partnerships has contributed to the development of more flexible organizations, based on core competencies and mutually beneficial longer-term relationships. Overall, some 60 per cent of Fortune 500 companies report having at least one contract with a third-party logistics provider. Such buyouts and mergers enable logistics players to build up their infrastructure and service scale, both of which are critical to remaining competitive. By merging their operations and collaborating on technology, complementary services partners can also scale up their logistics capability without having to invest heavily in infrastructure. The result is lower cycle-time, streamlined business processes and lower manpower costs, which in turn boosts companies productivity and profitability. The development of logistics outsourcing broadly defined in this paper as long and short-term contracts or alliances between manufacturing and service firms and third-party logistics providers has been largely based on the needs that companies have to obtain cost savings and to concentrate on their core competencies. They also indicated that, the market and firm characteristics influence the decision to contract multiple combinations of third-party logistics services. These services range from single transportation activities to integrated warehousing, distribution, and information management activities. Also several authors have indicated that across many industries logistics outsourcing has become a rapidly expanding source of competitive advantage and logistics cost savings in logistics industry. For example, Elliot Rabinovich, etl (1999) reported that some firms routinely have achieved up to 30 per cent to 40 per cent reductions in logistics costs and have been able to greatly streamline global logistics processes as a consequence of outsourcing. Other studies, however, have indicated that some logistics outsourcing arrangements are not successful. These

The Influence of Popular Culture on Societys Self-Perception Essay

The Influence of Popular Culture on Society's Self-Perception Popular culture has an undeniable influence on how society perceives itself. When examining mass culture, one must keep in mind the equilibrium between how much we, as a society, affect the way popular culture is constructed and to what extent popular culture influences the way we view ourselves and shapes our ideologies. An aspect of popular culture that may serve to greatly exemplify this theory of society as both the affecter and the affected is the genre of magazines targeted at young women. Though these publications are targeted as the representation of our society’s adolescent females, they actually have a great influence over the ways in which teens view and construct certain social ideologies. This essay will shed light on the influences these publications have in shaping, regulating, and defining young women’s perceptions of femininity, sexuality, and romance. Consequently, it will also reveal an irony in the fact that â€Å"women’s magazines†, wr itten for (and mostly by) women actually mold their beliefs and actions into those that reinforce female subordination through the traditional standards of a patriarchal society. For the purpose of analysis, I will focus on three publications for women, each with a slightly different audience according to the age and class brackets targeted and the subjects offered. In her analysis of one of Britain’s women’s magazines called Jackie, McRobbie identifies four codes that form the content of these publications: those of fashion and beauty, romance, personal and domestic life, and pop music (Christian-Smith,8). The magazines I will examine all exemplify the four factors of McRobbie’s codes. The first publication is a magazine called Twist. From the content, one may infer that the main target of this magazine is a high school age bracket. The cover stories include â€Å"Make-him-Melt Prom Hair and Makeup†, â€Å"Is it Love or Lust†, â€Å"Real Guys Reveal What Their Mixed Messages Really Mean†, â€Å"New Zit Zappers†, and â€Å"Celeb’s Happiness Secrets†. Inside, the reader finds pop music icons, advice on how to act and look to find a member of the opposite sex, advertisements targeted at younger consumers of cheaper goods, and pictures of stereotypically attractive teenagers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The second magazine I will be discussing is Complete Woman. This magazine is aimed at a ... ...logies? A broader representation of other forms of society would be necessary to dissolve the stereotypes that mass culture has come to represent. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Twist Magazine, May 2000. Heinrich Bauer Publishing, L.P. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Complete Woman Magazine, June/July 2000. James L. Herlock, Publisher. 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Marie Claire Magazine, May 2000. Hearst Communications. 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Christian-Smith, Linda. Becoming a Woman Through Romance. Routledge, Inc. 1990. 5.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Modleski, Tania. Feminism Without Women. Routledge, Inc. 1991. 6.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lewin, Ellen. â€Å"Writing Lesbian Ethnography† reprinted in Women Writing Culture. University of California Press. 1995. 7.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Craik, Jennifer. â€Å"I Must Put My Face On† 1989. reprinted in Feminist Cultural Studies I. Edward Elgar Publishing. 1995 8.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Winship, Janice. â€Å"Handling Sex† 1981. reprinted in Feminist Cultural Studies I. Edward Elgar Publishing. 1995 9.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lutz, Catherine. â€Å"The Gender Of Theory† reprinted in Women Writing Culture. Univ. of California Press. 1995 10.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Coward, Ruth. Female Desire. Palladin Books. 1984. 11.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Schlesinger, Philip. â€Å"From Production to Propaganda?† reprinted in Culture and Power. Sage Publications. 1992

The Evil Iago of Shakespeares Othello Essay -- GCSE English Literatur

"How shall I murder him, Iago?" This one line, spoken by Othello, in Shakespeare's play of the same name speaks volumes of the evil and deceitful nature of the character being spoken to, Iago. The ability to turn a noble, self controlled, respected man such as Othello into a raving, murderous lunatic can only be had by an evil man such as Iago. Iago is conniving, vengeful, vain, ruinous, dishonest, egotistical and paranoid. This makes him one of the most evil men in all of literature. The first of many examples of Iago's villainy occurs in scene one of act one. His vain ego has been hurt. Othello has chosen a "bookish theoric" to be his lieutenant instead of Iago. Iago has this to say of Othello's choice: Forsooth, a great arithmetician, One Michael Cassio, a Florentine, A fellow almost dammed in a fair wife, That never set a squadron in the field Nor the division of a battle knows More than a spinster--unless the bookish theoric, Wherein the togaed consuls can propose As masterly as he. Mere prattle without practice Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had th' election; And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof At Rhodes, at Cyprus, and on other grounds Christianed and heathen, must be beleed and calmed By debitor and creditor. This countercaster, He, in good time, must his lieutenant be, And I--God bless the mark!--his Moorship's ancient. This position is one Iago expected, not only because of his seniority in battle, but also because of his seniority with Othello himself. Iago clearly shows his vengefulness when he tells Roderigo: â€Å"Call up her father.Rouse him, make after him, poison his delight...†&n... ...bolical plan. He has traded "wife for wife" as Othello has smothered, albeit regretfully, Desdemona. When discovered by Emilia, Othello confesses, saying it was Iago that persuaded him to murder her. Emilia tells Othello too late of the lies told by her husband and she dies at the hands of Iago for her confession. Iago's lies have come to a crescendo and Othello realizes he has been deceived. Othello then commits suicide and we find, in this case, in order for love to conquer all, evil must triumph. As is the case oftentimes in real life, there is no happy ending. Iago is, for the literary world, evil incarnate. He lies and deceives with half-truths, to achieve his revenge, causing distrust and ultimately murder and suicide. This makes Iago one of the most evil, but most memorable characters, if not in all of literature, at least in all of Shakespeare.

‘Educating Rita’ by Willy Russell Essay

Rita, Frank and their relationship change throughout the play. Rita’s education and confidence both grow as the story progresses. Frank’s attitude towards life declines dramatically en route for the middle of the play but there is hint of improvement at the end. Their relationship undergoes many changes during the play. They grow apart, slowly and eventually reach a point where their separation is much needed and inevitable, although their feelings towards each other are of affection once again. At the beginning of the play Rita is a stereotypical working class girl, with little education and a lot of determination. She uses a lot of slang and colloquial language, ‘stupid bleedin† handle’ and ‘off me cake’, which shows her lack of education and her class. Rita appears ro be a confident girl, but she uses humour to cover up her nerves, ‘that’s what I do. Y’ know when I’m nervous.’ Rita is also a lively, talkative person and very blunt and forthright. She shows this when she ‘takes the pencil from Frank and scribbles out the letter ‘S’.’ Rita has a particularly determined character. At the start of the play she knows that she wants an improved life, with choices and she knows an education will give her that. So she is making sure she is going to get it, even at the cost of her marriage. When Rita leaves Denny she still wants to learn and discuss her ‘Macbeth’ essay immediately. At the beginning of ‘Act 2 Scene 2’ Rita is seen oiling Frank’s door. This shows her determination and that she follows through her word, does what she says she will. Russell uses stage directions to show Rita’s energy, ‘the door bursts open and Rita flies in.’ The words ‘flies’ and ‘burst’ convey bubbly, lively movements and therefore her energetic character. At the start of this play Frank is a stereotypical upper-middle-class man. He is apathetic sarcastic and relatively independent. Frank uses Standard English and Received Pronunciation, showing his high class and good  education. He asks ‘pardon?’ instead of ‘what?’ and explains that the Open University is ‘supposed to embrace a more comprehensive studentship.’ Frank is not dependant on anyone, but he drinks a lot and I think that he relies on alcohol a great deal. Therefore I would not say he is totally independent. Frank is very sarcastic and quick witted. He uses his sarcasm as a defence mechanism, or to make a point. He doesn’t use it nastily or to hurt anyone. ‘I sometimes get an urge to throw something through it†¦a student usually.’ This shows him using sarcasm for humour but it also shows his disinterested, lazy attitude to life. Frank is bored of his life but, unlike Rita, he cannot be bothered to change it. He finds himself dull and tells Rita that she is ‘the first breath of air that’s been in this room for years.’ He does not want Rita as a student as he sees her as a lot of work, this shows his lazy attitude. However, the audience could also see this as a selfless and considerate moment. He does not want to take Rita on as a student as he does not think he is capable of teaching her. Frank is extremely clever and refers to high culture, such as ‘T.S Elliot’ and ‘Yeats’, showing his high education and understanding. At the start of the play Frank is bored, funny, sarcastic, clever and shrewd. Frank and Rita get to know each other well and are very close, at the beginning of the play. They flirt and compliment each other, ‘he doesn’t half get on my tits/Frank: Good. You’ll have to show me some evidence/Rita: Y’ dirty sod.’ And ‘Right now there’s a thousand things I’d rather do than teach, most of them with you my dear.’ They trust one another and show this through discussion of their personal issues, ‘I live with a girl. Ex-student. She’s very caring, very tolerant, admires me tremendously and spends a great deal of time putting her head in the oven.’ They then go on to discuss Julia and Franks relationship. Their ability to talk freely to each other shows that they are at ease in each  other’s company, relaxed and confident around one another. Nevertheless, their relationship is not always easy. It is hampered by their different frames of reference. At one point Frank thinks Rita is joking about T.S Elliot the poet, when in fact she is referring to Elliot Ness, ‘y’ know, the famous Chicago copper who caught Al Capone.’ At another point Rita is calling Frank a ‘Flora man’ from the advert for the butter: flora. Frank assumes she means flora as in flowers. However, Frank and Rita have a mutual understanding of each other, which helps them work through and get beyond their misunderstandings. Their differences intrigue and fascinate one another. This helps keep their relationship alive and fresh. In the middle of the play we see dramatic changes in Rita. Right at the beginning of ‘Act 2’ Russell indicates a change by Rita entering wearing ‘new second hand clothes.’ Rita is at a very difficult point in her change. She has come so far and cannot go back to where she used to be, but she is finding it difficult to carry on, she is half way and stuck in between two worlds. Rita chooses to persevere. Rita has much more confidence and is using humour to hide behind less. She is more educated and has been influenced by lots of people over the summer. Her confidence shows when she tells Frank about summer school. She explains how she asked a question even though everyone was looking at her and ‘two thousand people had seen me stand up.’ She then goes on to say, ‘after that I was askin’ questions all week.’ Before summer school Rita wouldn’t have dared do something like that. As well as her confidence improving she is now using more Standard English, although still using colloquial language. Summer has had some less positive effects on Rita, too. She has been very influenced by Trish and although she has now got a better understanding of literature she still does not have her own views. She has merely swapped Frank’s opinions for Trish’s opinions. Frank comes back from holiday even more fed-up with life than before. Rita asks him what France was like, marvelling at the opportunity to go abroad. Frank gives an uninterested answer of ‘well – it was rather hot.’ He is very dismissive, taking for granted the occasion of going abroad and his answer is slightly hostile and cold. He seems to be more apathetic and very low, not recognising that he has got so much going for him. ‘it is indeed because I have got so much going for me that I do it†¦I need the drink to help me step delicately through life.’ This comment shows that he is still using sarcasm, it shows his sad view on his life and he tells us that he ‘needs’ drink. This informs us that he has become very reliant on drink. He is worse than he was before, turning up to lectures drunk and not taking anything seriously. He does not even bother to hide the drink anymore. He carries it, in his briefcase, to lectures. The briefcase symbolises work, so to carry alcohol in it shows just how little he cares. Frank now chooses to ignore his education; †Rubyfruit Jungle† is excellent.’ He is reverting to how Rita was. Whereas, Rita now has a view, shows her understanding and expresses it formally. They have echoed each other. Frank’s language has also changed. He is reiterating phrases from Rita, ‘completely off me cake,’ and he has picked up some of her slang. He is still sarcastic, but sometimes in a hostile, jeering way, like when he shouts names at Rita ‘Charlotte? Or Jane? Or Emily?’ At the mid-point in the play Frank is hopeless, he challenges Rita saying ‘and we’ll all live happily ever after?’ Saying this squashes dreams, is sarcastic and apathetic and takes a completely pessimistic outlook on life,  his decline is continuous. Their relationship dwindles when they meet again after summer. The changes in Rita have a big role to play in the downward spiral of their relationship. Rita is becoming more independent, She needs Frank less, he begrudges her this and it causes tension. ‘Don’t y’ like me now that the little girl’s grown up, now that y’ can no longer bounce me on daddy’s knee an’ watch me stare back in wide eyed wonder at everything he has to say?’ They understand each other less and know little about each other’s lives. ‘It struck me there was a time you told me everything,’ Frank is wistful and shows a sense of longing. He feels Rita slipping away, ‘I can’t bear you anymore,’ he tells her, ‘you don’t have to put in a visit out of sentimentality.’ They no longer have a close relationship and Frank misses and feels bitter about that. They become increasingly resentful towards each other. Frank start to get jealous and resentful of Trish, this feeling fuels further conflict. ‘Will you kindly tell Trish that I am not giving a tutorial to a Dalek.’ This remark shows coldness in their relationship, the warmth, flirting and friendly banter has gone. At the end of the play Rita has more choices than before, she is educated, confident and able to think for herself. Rita is undecided what the next step in her life should be, but she now has a choice and this is what she set out for: to be able to choose. ‘I might go to France. I might go to my mother’s. I might even have a baby. I dunno. I’ll make a decision, I’ll choose. I dunno.’ She is educated now and has passed her exam. Arguably more important is that she is no wise. She can think for herself, think logically and develop her own opinions. ‘You woulda loved it if I’d written Frank knows all the answers across me paper, wouldn’t y’?’ However, Rita did not and this shows  her education and thinking skills. She uses Standard English more now, such as ‘scholarly neckline.’ Again showing her education. Rita is no longer hiding behind humour, but she is genuinely confident and still funny. Probably the biggest change in Rita from beginning to end is that she now understands Frank’s views and realises he was and is on her side. ‘She places a Christmas card with the others already there.’ The card is a token of friendship and signifies her realisation that what she had was not all that valuable. Her realisation shows how she has matured, changed her way of thinking and now feels more kindly for Frank. Frank is now sober and hints that he will make a change in his life. There is now some optimism. He is trying to think well of his move to Australia, ‘things are just beginning there’ this implies he will take this as an opportunity to start fresh, ‘it’d be good for us to leave a place that’s just finishing for one that’s just beginning.’ Frank accepts the changes in Rita and shows his thoughtful side when he gives her the dress. He also has a realistic moment and says, ‘I was rather pissed when I bought it.’ He is not pretending to be a reformed character and he is reminding the audience of his drinking and old habits. Frank is now using Standard English again, ‘metaphorically. And as it was metaphorically the sentence was reduced from the sack to two years in Australia.’ He is still humorous, ‘Forsters lager they call it,’ and is sarcasm is still there, but it is no longer hostile. Although Frank is in a worse position than at the start of the play there is hint of improvement and a better life. Rita’s response to Trish’s suicide and Frank’s realisation of the need to change has resulted in a greater mutual understanding and a friendlier relationship. ‘I knew how much it had come to mean to you.’ Frank did not like Rita in the middle of the play but understands why she was like that. They both accept the changes in each other. Rita now appreciates all the help Frank gave her, ‘ I came to tell you you’re a good teacher.’ Frank realises her learnt a lot from Rita, too, ‘all I’ve ever done is taken from you. I’ve never given anything/Frank: that’s not true. You’ve†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ They understand that they have got to go their separate ways now, and move their lives on, but they part on good terms. Rita begins as a stereotypical working-class girl, with a poor education, who hid behind humour. She goes through a series of changes and ends the play as a confident, wise, educated young lady, ready to make her own choices and get on with her life. Frank begin as a upper-middle-class man, he was very sarcastic, had a poor attitude towards life and relied on drink. As the book progressed he developed a serious drinking problem, became more and more apathetic and finally reached a point where he was on the verge of being sack. He eventually starts to get things into perspective and hints at a brighter future. The relationship between Rita and Frank began well, they complimented and trusted one another. They drifted apart and argued in the middle, but reconciled their relationship and parted on good terms. I think the main change in Rita was that she started with no choices, she had a hunger for more and great determination, which resulted in her gaining the ability to choose, and to choose wisely. I think this change in Rita was conveyed very well because as the story progresses we saw her make many decisions along the way. We saw how the choices she had to make got bigger  and bigger and how her ability to deal with the choices got better and better. The book finished with her thinking about the biggest choice; whether to have a baby or not. I think Frank’s character was portrayed well via his language and through his drinking habits. I really enjoyed the book and thought Russell kept me interested by adding new details along the way, we learnt more about the character’s private lives as the story continued and this was an added interest. I think that the book had a good ending, as it was realistic. It showed how what they had done throughout the book and what choices they had made affected their position at the end of the book. This emphasised the theme of choice again.