Outsourcing To India And China Essay Example for Free

Outsourcing To India And China Essay Outsourcing can be defined as transferring the jobs from the UK to India, China and other third world or low –wage countries. There are many advantages of outsourcing. The following paragraphs explain the relationship of outsourcing and the supply and demand economics theory(Cooke, 2005; pp 173 -180). BODY It is good business senses for multinational companies now outsource from many developing countries (like China and India). In fact, many organizations in the United Kingdom have outsourced their operations, set –up, maintenance of their computer systems and networks and production to other countries. A survey done on 162 European firms showed that half of the interviewed companies had outsourced most of their information technology jobs. These outsourced contracts form only 24 percent of Information Technology jobs. Definitely this had climbed up to 36 percent in 1998 in the United Kingdom alone. The main reason for the increase in outsourcing is the corporate priority to reduce labor and material costs. For, it costs higher to pay a European worker to do the same jobs in the United Kingdom (Bounfour 2003; pp. 84 -92). Likewise, production, call center and other jobs outsourced to China or India would cost less in terms of labor and raw materials (Richardson 1999; pp. 74-94). Evidently, it is good business senses for multinational companies now outsource from many developing countries. (Domberger 1998; p. 84 -90). It is good and bad for the UK economy for multinational companies now outsource from many developing countries (like China and India). Outsourcing is good because the public can buy the same quality products at lower prices. It is also good because lower labor cost will increase net profits. It is bad for the UK labor sector. Outsourcing has changed the labour demand in the UK. Outsourcing has caused the labour jobs especially in the manufacturing sector to decline in the UK and other European Union member states such as France and Germany according to the study by Hijzen et al in 2005. Thus, the imported products and raw materials from low –wage third world countries has greatly affected the UK companies’ demand for European manufacturing and Information Technology workers for the period 1995 to 2000. Also, outsourcing has caused a . 6 percent employment in the European Union countries. Obviously, it is good and bad for the UK economy for multinational companies now outsource from many developing countries (Barrell, Choy and Kirby 2006; pp 63 -67). There are gainers and losers from outsourcing UK jobs. First, the people hired to do the outsourcing jobs in India, China and other third world and low –wage countries will gain from outsourcing contracts. The companies that outsource the jobs will gain because now they will pay lesser labour wages for the same quality job. And, it costs lesser to outsource to China, India and other countries because the raw materials there are definitely cheaper. Further, the biggest gainers here are the entire UK and EU market because they can now buy the goods at lower prices as a result of some outsourcing companies’ reduction of their selling prices brought about by the lower labour and materials costs and expenses(Lever, 1997; pp. 37-42. The losers are the workers in the United Kingdom and the European Union member states because they are fighting a losing battle to the low wage workers in outsourcing country recipients. But the biggest losers are the competitors in the UK and EU market because the UK company that has outsourced production and IT jobs can now lower their selling prices and still earn the same old profit margins which their competitors in the same industry cannot afford to for fear of losing money(Maromonte, 1998; pp. 13-25). Economics’ supply and demand theory states that as the prices of goods decrease, then the demand for the products will increase. Glaringly, there are gainers and losers from outsourcing UK jobs. Outsourcing has many advantages and disadvantages.  The supply and demand theory explains that outsourcing jobs will increase demand for products being sold because prices of goods will decline. The competitors and UK work workers are the greatest losers from outsourcing. The UK and EU market(customers) and the company that have outsourced jobs are the greatest winners from outsourcing. Conclusively, outsourcing will benefit more people (market) than if it is not implemented. UK business, including the competitors must now jump into the boat of outsourcing to survive until the next century.

Mother Courage: The Hole In The Cheese :: essays research papers

Mother Courage contains a quote that pulls the entire play together so innocuously; it's hard to believe that Brecht originally intended it to be so symbolic. Yet, there it is, in scene six, the chaplain rhetorically asks, "What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?" This line operates on the three essential layers of the play: the level of the character, of the playwright (plot), and of the audience. On "face" value, this line is said about peace. The chaplain believes that the image of peace as the norm and war as an abnormal event is backward. He sees war as the standard occurrence (the cheese) and peace as merely an interim incidence (the holes in the cheese). Thus peace is nothing without a backdrop of war upon it; a hole is only a hole - it contains nothing. The substance of life is war.But the chaplain's line wouldn't be as significant if it didn't have a more global meaning. In the light of the plot, "What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?" is a question that Mother Courage should ask and apply to herself. Clearly the cheese is Swiss Cheese specifically, and more generally all of her children. Mother Courage only thinks about a certain part of her children - their use to her in her business. She has an odd sort of motherly care for her children; abstractly, she has affection for them, but it's only abstract. The only concrete feelings she expresses toward her children is that they should listen and depend on her; as long as they stay and work with her, she will keep them safe. But she can't understand that their identities are so crucially different than the tiny roles she has given them in her life. She only sees the hole, but her children are real people with real ambitions. Swiss Cheese has such a desire to be honest and useful, but she only sees a simpleton. Kattrin can't voice her feelings, but it's clear that she's a strong woman like her mother, and yet Mother Courage slams her (unintentionally) in every interaction they have. Kattrin is treated like an unwanted wage slave. Mother Courage cannot see the substance of her children, and when it is lost, cannot find what she thought they were because her reality was a hole. Their use to her was a hole framed in substance, and when the substance is lost, the hole is exposed to never have existed.

Kaleidoscopic: An Analysis of “The Wasteland” by T.S. Eliot Essay

T.S. Eliot’s â€Å"The Wasteland† is known for its kaleidoscopic and fragmented form, with the converging of different styles from different movements of poetry; the employment of a wide range of metaphorical devices (from allusions to the decidedly Christian quest for the Holy Grail, to references about ancient Greece, and more pagan origins – the diversity of allusions from different cultures only serves to raise the universality of the poem’s theme); and the wealth of convolutions of the poem as a whole, jumping from one scene to another in an abrupt and disconcerting lack of traditional cohesion. There are rapid shifts not only in imagery and perspective, but also in setting, and in subject. And yet the poem is unified by its overall theme of despair – despair and futility in the midst and at the inevitable end of man’s search for peace and contentment. Man subjects himself to a baffled search for spiritual peace, when, in the end, he must be resigned that the search is, after all that time, futile, even never-ending. It is this futility and despair that grounds the â€Å"fragments† of the poem, the so-called â€Å"bigger picture,† making it into that which the poem strives to attain. A technique that Eliot employs is the deliberate â€Å"scattering† of connected passages that discuss one subject. As an exploration of the theme, he carries it further by â€Å"dissecting† the subject, offering hints and foreshadowing in earlier parts of the poem, then places the other divisions into a variation of sections. Malcolm Bradbury and James McFarlane, in their introductory essay â€Å"Name and Nature of Modernism† for Modernism, 1890-1930, encapsulates the fragmented form of the poem: â€Å"Modernist works frequently tend to be ordered, then, not on the sequence of historical time or the evolving sequence of character, from history or story, as in realism and naturalism; they tend to work spatially through layers of consciousness, working towards a logic of metaphor or form† (p.50). The Modernist poem’s multiplicity in layers exploits the poetic form in that insights and epiphanies are not procured at face value, that the reader must take it upon himself to discover and explore the layers and exposition. Also, the collage-like quality of this Modernist poem tore through the traditional forms of poetry and poetics, in its audacious experimentation. Jerome Rothenberg and Pierre Joris in their introductory essay for Poems for the Millennium say, â€Å"A characteristic of modern art (and poetry) so defined . . . has been the questioning of art itself as a discrete and bounded category† (p.8). The poet and the poem continue to push at the boundaries, insisting that the boundaries should not even be existent – an intention that â€Å"The Wasteland† succeeds in carrying out. Although the many convolutions and intricacies in â€Å"The Wasteland† evoke the initial impression of fragmentation, there are interlocking themes and content, if not passages reminiscent of others, found throughout the poem. Part of Eliot’s poetics is, underneath all the references from other fragments of literature and all levels of allusions, there are images that shall mirror another, and then another, though they may be as subtle as a single word in a line, through they may be scattered throughout the entire length of the poem. One example of this resonance can be found in Eliot’s mention of drowning, or death by water. The â€Å"narrative† is prophesied near the beginning of the poem, lines 46 and 47 say, â€Å"Here, said she, / Is your card, the drowned Phoenician sailor,† followed with the ominous statement, â€Å"Fear death by water† in line 55, found in the same section. It is essential to note that among the ancient Mediterranean people, it was the Phoenicians who became known for expertise in sailing and navigation, mastering the rather challenging task of sailing against the wind, making headway little by little, by tacking back and forth (Black). Eliot provides this information through a prophesy by one of the many characters in the poem, Madame Sosostris, a clairvoyant. This adds another dimension to the resonance of the passage because, as well as being part of a group of references, its very position as being the first the readers encounter in the poem provides and carries out its intention of foretelling the future. Eliot then continues to explore this theme, in almost teasing narrative, throughout the poem. The next reference is found in part three, or The Fire Sermon. In line 220 – 221, the sailor is mentioned again in, â€Å"At the violet hour, the evening hour that strives / Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea.† Interestingly, this is imparted in the form of another prophecy of sorts – this time from the blind seer Tiresias. This passage offers a kind of build-up by narrating the usual routine of a sailor in one of his less tragic days at work. The statement is an aside, a mere commentary at the larger picture painted by The Fire Sermon, although in its simplicity and subtlety, the passage succeeds in presenting that the Phoenician sailor is supposed to come home from a hard day (and night’s) work at the sea. Which makes it all the more tragic, as these resonant images culminate, fittingly enough, in part four, titled Death by Water. Everything comes together in this part of the poem. The skilled yet unfortunate Phoenician sailor is named, Phlebas, and we witness his fate, that which has long been hinted at from different parts of the poem. Phlebas dies, â€Å". . . a current under sea / Picked his bones in whispers (line 315).† And he dies, not for want of expertise in his profession, but by forgetting â€Å". . . the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell / and the profit and loss (lines 313 to 314)† – readers get the impression that Phlebas was preoccupied, in reflection of matters known only to him. In him readers behold another character of Eliot’s, who emulates a theme of the poem, that human beings are in a continuous search for some sort of peace or contentment, yet they must resign ourselves to a life of futility and despair. Death by Water concludes with a note, some words of caution, still reminding the reader of the Phoenician sailor’s skill, his promise, regardless of his tragic death: â€Å"O you who turn the wheel and look to windward, / Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.† Aside from being a critique of traditional form and the very definition of art and poetry, the poem also became a critique of the current social condition. Published in the aftermath of World War I, which had been the most destructive war in history at that point, many believed that the poem was an â€Å"indictment of post-war European culture and as an expression of disillusionment in contemporary society, which Eliot believed to be culturally barren.† Despair was the consensual mood of nations, and salvation seemed bleak at the time. â€Å"The Wasteland† encapsulated that consensus, that attitude, displaying one of the characteristic of Modernism, which â€Å"is the one art that responds to the scenario of our chaos† (Bradbury and McFarlane, 27). And the stylized fragmentation of the poem serves to thrust that aim further, form functioning to serve the subject matter. â€Å"The Wasteland† as a Modernist poem employs daring experimentation of style, from sudden shifts in form and style and subject, to the division of narrative style and exposition. Passages reminiscent of each other are found throughout the poem, carrying with it the theme of the poem like an interconnection of veins throughout a human body. It is a critique of the times, and of the times before that had shaped the current situation. As Rothenberg and Joris state, â€Å"The most interesting works of poetry and art are those that question their own shapes and forms, and by implication the shapes and forms of whatever preceded them† (p. 11). Works Cited Black, Bob. â€Å"Borne by the Wind: The Lure and Lore of Sailing.† Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. CD-ROM. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2005. Bradbury, Malcolm and James McFarlane. Modernism, 1890-1930. Sussex: Harvester Press, 1879. Harmon, William. â€Å"T.S. Eliot.† Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. CD-ROM. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2005. Ramazani, Jahan, Richard Ellmann and Robert O’Clair, eds. The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry. New York: W. W. Norton, 2003.   Rothenberg, Jerome and Pierre Joris, eds. Poems for the Millenium: the University of California Book of Modern and Postmodern Poetry. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

Conditions Often Mistaken for Plantar Fasciitis

Plantar fasciitis is a painful condition affecting feet that you can feel with every step you take.  The main symptom of plantar fasciitis is pain in the arch of your foot. Its usually localized at the sole of your foot, but the pain can be perceived as radiating throughout parts of your foot, ankle, and lower leg. That means plantar fasciitis might be confused with other conditions affecting your foot. A number of conditions can cause foot pain and be mistaken for plantar fasciitis. These conditions typically must be evaluated and ruled out before a diagnosis of plantar fasciitis. Ruptured Plantar Fascia In plantar fasciitis, the plantar fascia has micro-tears throughout the tissue. With a ruptured plantar fascia, the tears are larger and represent a significant injury. The two conditions have similar symptoms, but they are differentiated by the severity of pain and cause of the injury. A ruptured plantar fascia is almost always significantly more painful than plantar fasciitis. It also usually has a precursor, either plantar fasciitis or significant trauma. If you suffer from plantar fasciitis, it could worsen, weakening the plantar fascia to the point that it ruptures. If your foot is otherwise healthy, then it usually occurs during trauma or significant impact to your foot. Rupturing your plantar fascia is usually accompanied by a â€Å"pop† resulting in severe pain and an inability to bear weight on that foot. Swelling and bruising often soon follow. Surgery and other medical procedures might be needed to help the plantar fascia mend. Arthritis Arthritis is a common condition many people suffer from somewhere in the body. When arthritis occurs in the lower leg, ankle, or some part of the foot, the pain can be perceived the same way as pain from plantar fasciitis. Not only can the location of pain from arthritis be confused with plantar fasciitis pain,  but also the occurrence of pain can be similar. Arthritis pain usually is worse when the arthritic joint is being used. When the joint is at rest there might be no pain, the same pattern you see in plantar fasciitis. So you might have arthritis in your heel and not notice it until you take a step. Arthritis can be more painful when the body part is cold. The first step in the morning might be the most painful of the day with both plantar fasciitis and arthritis of the foot, simply because the anatomy is cold and tight and has not warmed up. The pain may dissipate with either as the foot warms up and blood flows more robustly. To diagnose plantar fasciitis, arthritis must usually be ruled out. Arthritis can be diagnosed with a more thorough workup by your doctor. Imaging tests might be needed. Stress Fracture Another condition commonly mistaken for plantar fasciitis is a stress fracture. A stress fracture is normally a partially broken bone. Instead of being broken all the way through, the bone is only cracked along a surface. Stress fractures usually are shallow along the surface of the bone but might be deep. Some stress fractures are a single crack in the bone, while others might be an  interweaving of small cracks, like the cracked shell of a hard-boiled egg. If the stress fracture is in your heel, toe, or metatarsal, then the pain might seem to be coming from the same spot as plantar fasciitis and feel like an injured plantar fascia: The more pressure you put on it, the more pain you feel. A stress fracture usually is distinguished from plantar fasciitis by pinpointing the location of the pain. Pain from a stress fracture also doesnt tend to dissipate the same way that pain from plantar fasciitis does as the fascia gets warmed and loosened up.   If the pain comes from the top of the foot, it is more likely to be a stress fracture in the metatarsal, which is prone to developing such fractures. If the pain is in the bottom of the foot, it is more likely to be plantar fasciitis. Pain from a stress fracture in the heel bone often seems to be coming from the same place as does plantar fasciitis. An x-ray typically can identify or rule out a stress fracture as the cause of your pain, even if the probability of it being plantar fasciitis is much higher. Circulatory Issues Issues with your circulatory system, such as bad circulation or cardiovascular problems, can cause symptoms similar to plantar fasciitis. Your feet are the body parts farthest from your heart and tend to feel the effects of poor circulation first. Are your feet ever cold while the rest of you is warm, and not because youre walking on a cold floor? Gravity and weight are also factors. Your blood pressure is higher in your lower body, especially in your feet, than it is in your upper body because theres  more pressure on it. Inflammation in your feet and lower legs—from being on your feet for a while, for example—can further constrict blood vessels. Not only does blood flow down to your feet, but it also must be pumped back up. The weakening of those support systems, the one-way valves in your veins, results in varicose veins. All this can lead to pain, which can be caused by weaknesses in the blood vessels resulting in a backup of blood flowing, creating painful pressure. Pain may also be caused by a lack of oxygen and nutrients getting to the tissue in your feet because of poor blood flow. Instead of your foot falling asleep, you might feel a deep, throbbing ache. Pain also can be caused by blood clots, which can lead to life-threatening situations. Because circulatory issues are serious, they should be thoroughly vetted and ruled out if youre having pain in your foot, even if you think its probably plantar fasciitis. This is especially true if you have varicose veins, tingling or swelling in the foot, or the same symptoms in both feet because plantar fasciitis is typically  a single-foot injury. Your doctor can evaluate your cardiovascular health by monitoring your blood pressure and blood oxygen level. The doctor might also suggest an EKG and a cardiovascular stress test to find out whats going on. Nerve Entrapment Nerves can cause extreme pain when compromised. The pain might not be felt where the nerve is compromised but at the end of the nerve structure, where the nerves chemical signals are parsed out to the cells that receive them. Nerve entrapment syndrome sometimes is confused with plantar fasciitis. In nerve entrapment syndrome, pressure is placed on a nerve by some other body part, such as a bone, muscle, or cyst.  When a nerve is trapped or pinched by other tissue, that tissue squeezes it and the nerve sends out a pain signal. This can happen to many nerves in your body, but the one most commonly mistaken for plantar fasciitis is the tibial nerve, which runs down the back of your leg. When the tibial nerve is pinched or entrapped near the ankle, it is called tarsal tunnel syndrome. The tibial nerve is most often entrapped there because its a mass of nerves, ligaments, and muscles squeezing through a skeletal structure called the tarsal tunnel, similar to the wrists carpal tunnel. If the tibial nerve is pinched, then you feel pain in the bottom of your foot much like with plantar fasciitis. Unlike plantar fasciitis, you might also feel tingling or numbness in the bottom of your foot. You should be able to replicate the symptoms without placing weight on your foot. If you can perform the same motions and pinch the nerve with your foot elevated, then the pain is most likely not coming from the plantar fascia. Sciatica Sciatica is another nerve-induced pain that can be mistaken for plantar fasciitis. Sciatica comes from farther away than tarsal tunnel syndrome, however. Sciatica is a pinching or irritation of the nerve in your spine. Your spine is composed of a number of bones, or vertebrae. Between each vertebra is a disc, similar to a gel pad, that cushions the vertebrae against each other and allows for flexibility of the spine. A disc might get irritated and, like most irritated body parts, become inflamed. The inflammation usually results in swelling in one small part of the disc, which makes the disc act like an old rubber inner tube. If there is a weak spot in the wall of an inner tube, it will bulge when you inflate it. The disc bulges, and if it takes more damage, it can rupture.  This is a herniated disc. The main nerve column in the body runs along the spine. The sciatic nerve, one of the body’s largest nerves, runs in this nerve bundle. When the disc bulges or ruptures, it can put pressure on part of the sciatic nerve, resulting in sciatica. This often sends a shooting pain down your leg, but the pain might be felt in your foot. As with other nerve pain, you might also feel a tingling or numbness, which can differentiate sciatica from plantar fasciitis. Fat Pad Atrophy Atrophy of the heels fat pad also might be confused with plantar fasciitis. As you age, this fat pad becomes thinner. Other factors might affect the thinning, but science doesnt fully understand whats happening. This fat pad is the first cushion for your gait. The pad can become so thin that it doesnt cushion the heel bone, and the heel suffers from repetitive trauma that can result in painful irritation, inflammation, a bone bruise, or a stress fracture. The pain often occurs in the same location as pain from plantar fasciitis. The pain might also be worse in the morning and dissipate as you loosen up. A doctor usually can determine if this is causing the pain by examining the thickness of the heel’s fat pad. Achilles Tendon Rupture Like a ruptured plantar fascia, an Achilles tendon rupture may create symptoms similar to plantar fasciitis. A ruptured Achilles tendon is a major tear in the thick tendon that runs along the back of your ankle from your calf to your heel. With a ruptured Achilles tendon, you have difficulty bearing weight on the foot. The pain can be severe and doesnt necessarily dissipate when you are off your feet. Another difference between a ruptured Achilles tendon and plantar fasciitis is that the pain with a ruptured Achilles usually is felt along the back of the heel; with plantar fasciitis, pain is more likely to be felt along the front of your foot. Tendonitis Tendonitis is similar in nature to plantar fasciitis, as the tissue that makes up the plantar fascia is the same type of tissue that makes up a tendon. Tendonitis can occur in any tendon within your body, and there are several tendons in your foot. Tendonitis in any foot tendon can result in pain when you step and stretch the tendon. The pain also should dissipate as the tendon warms and loosens up. The tendon in the foot most likely to develop tendonitis is the Achilles tendon along the back of your foot. You can usually distinguish between Achilles tendonitis and plantar fasciitis by the location of the pain.  Achilles tendonitis generally results in pain along the back of the heel, while plantar fasciitis generally means pain in front of the heel.   Bursitis Bursitis is another repetitive stress injury that can occur throughout the body. Bursae in the foot can become inflamed and develop bursitis like their more commonly stricken brethren in the knee, elbow, shoulder, and wrist. An inflamed bursa is tender and exudes pain when its compressed. If this occurs in the foot, especially in a bursa at the bottom of the foot, it can present symptoms similar to plantar fasciitis. Bursitis can be differentiated from plantar fasciitis by direct pressure. Since an inflamed bursa is tender and plantar fascia has little sensitivity, massaging it without much pain would indicate plantar fasciitis. If massaging  or just touching it causes a lot of pain, then it is more likely to be bursitis.