Candide by Voltaire Essay

1) What is the relationship between Candide’s adventures and Pangloss’s teachings? In Candide, we see lives filled with struggles and tragedy. Although Candide witnessed and fell victim to worldly evils of cruelty and suffering, he maintained his optimistic views through much of the novel. Candide picked up this idea of optimism through Pangloss’s teachings. Although he did not see any good reasons to disbelieve Pangloss’s teachings while living in the Baron’s castle, once in the outside world, Candide experiences many tragic events that make him, and the reader, question the philosophy of optimism. Candide’s adventures, starting when he is kicked out of the Barons castle, clearly represented an imperfect world, full of atrocities that contradicted Pangloss’s teachings. The events that break apart Pangloss’s teachings begin almost immediately when Candide is thrown in the streets to live on his own. He runs into recruiting officers of the King of Bulgars. They have him toast to the health of their king, but then beat Candide severely and put irons on his legs. Luckily though, the king comes by and tells them to spare Candide since he is innocent. Soon after that, Candide witnesses an awful, bloody battle between two armies. This horrible spectacle shows us how hateful and violent people are in this world. Later, he finds a beggar who turns out to be Pangloss. Pangloss shares some of the horrible things he had been put through and that Candide’s one and only love had been raped and her entire family had been murdered when the Baron’s castle had been taken over. Once with Pangloss, he has many new adventures. While out at sea with Pangloss and Jacques, a violent storm occurred and destroyed their ship. Many innocent passengers are killed including Jacques, who died saving a sailor. The innocent passengers’ deaths disprove Pangloss’ theory since it appeared the bad that came out of the shipwreck led to nothing good for them; instead, only brought them to their deaths. When the sailor, Pangloss, and Candide get into Lisbon, an earthquake destroys most of the city. A  tidal wave also crushes ships in the port. In an effort to prevent another earthquake, wise men take ridiculous actions against the slightest wrongdoing. Candide and Pangloss end up getting arrested. Pangloss is hanged and Candide is beaten badly. The ridiculous actions taken place prove to be futile when another earthquake erupts the next day. All of the bad that came from the first earthquake provided no good. Pangloss had been hung for no reason and Jacques, a good man, had died from the storm out at sea. The reader is left wondering how these horrible events could result in a greater good. Candide finds that God might have spared one place on earth, El Dorado. He finds this seemingly perfect city, yet does not want to stay because is still in love with Cunegonde. The king gives him and Cacambo a few sheep and some gold. This portion of the story brings a little light, yet the whole world cannot be like El Dorado, and people who do live in perfect worlds cannot even appreciate it because they have nothing to compare the high points against. Since life is always perfect, they live in lethargic boredom and cannot truly appreciate how well off they truly are. We also see times of happiness and good fortune that restore Candide’s faith in optimism throughout the book. Such periods include when we find Pangloss survived, and the points in the book when Candide and Cunegonde get to be together, even for short amounts of time. Towards the end of the story, Candide begins to question Pangloss’ philosophy more and more. Although we find events that support optimism, we find more counterexamples. Although Pangloss and the Barons son are found alive, they tell Candide their escapes from death, and the tortures they had been put through afterwards. Soon after they free Pangloss and the Baron’s son from slavery, the men go and find Cunegonde, the woman Candide had been searching to live with and love for his entire life. When they do find her, she is extremely ugly and Candide no longer wants to marry her. Although he is no longer attracted to her, he is a man of his word and feels he must do his duty to take care of her and love her. Now, he is stuck with a woman he no longer lusts over. Candide has finally found what he had been sacrificing for all of his life to find, yet is not satisfied with what he has acquired  for his hard work. Throughout the entire story of Candide, we are bombarded with horrendous events that happened to an individual to disprove Pangloss’s teachings. Candide’s adventures encountered such atrocities as murder, rape, slavery, and prostitution. The bad events that occur in Candide, help show that the world is not perfect, and that not everything happens for the greater good in the end. Candide’s adventures, great in number, show us how bad others lives turned out as well as their friends and families lives were hurt as well, such as the old woman. In the end, Candide finally realizes that optimism is not a flawless philosophy, and that the idea of working hard and enjoying life is better than waiting around for the good you think will happen. Candide’s adventures helped to contradict optimism and ultimately changed Candide’s beliefs from optimism to a realization of reality. Candide begins to live a simple life, working hard to avoid boredom, vice, and pov erty.

Gm 591 final course project Essay

Walgreens is one of the fortune 500 companies and among the fastest growing retailers in the country. Walgreens as of April 30 operated 8307 location in all 50 states including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. This includes 7855 drugstores, 146 more than a year ago, including 21 stores acquired over the last 12 months. The company also operates infusion and respiratory services facilities, specialty pharmacy and mail service facilities. They also have a take care health system subsidiary which manages more than 700 in-store convenient care clinics and worksite health and wellness canters. This research is based on the problem facing the company on how executive decision making in the company has caused a negative impact and low productivity level among employees due to their decision to discontinue having Express Script (ESI) as their third party provider. The result of this research is to determine how corporate decision has impacted employee morale and thus resulting in high employee turnover. Which as a result led to several questions arising as to how to deal with the Express Script debacle, which are as the follows? 1) How do we make up for the ESI loss? 2) How do we empower the employee by boosting their morale after taking drastic measures (Job elimination, reduction in hours, Extreme pay cut) to make up for the lost profit? 3) How has corporate decision impacted the morale of employee productivity and personal growth? Walgreens has always provided good customer service, but changes in the competitive environment and in consumer behavior and expectations have caused them to intensify their focus. Walgreens’ mission is to win the hearts and pockets of their customers by providing that â€Å"wow† experience and delight score from customer appreciations. As a manager with the company, my role is to support the strategy by focusing on the strategy to deliver an outstanding customer experience through enhanced employee engagement by encouraging actions that will advance the experience to extraordinary levels for all customers. Also, to help all team members adopt an extraordinary customer care by listening and acting out customer’s expectations for the care and commitment they want to experience. PROBLEM STATEMENT With the tremendous growth and opportunity to expand, Walgreens was hit by hard times due to a proposed rejection by Express script (ESI) a major pharmacy third party provider. This decision led to different changes within the organization called â€Å"Rewiring growth† and field transformation. Walgreens took a stand and made a tough decision not to sign the 2012 contract with ESI. The result of this decision was a lost in the pharmacy sales with projected amount totalling almost six billions dollars’ worth of business lost to their competitors. (Walgreens Company Correspondent on ESI Debacle) Even though, the company thought they made the right decisions on behalf of their customers, patients and employees by not agreeing to the proposed terms and agreement by the ESI, they made a huge mistake because the bottom line of the whole debacle is that we lost totally. The board of directors and top executives won’t admit they are wrong, they didn’t think they will lose and after ESI told them what they want and Walgreens was still insisting that demands be met. They thought ESI was bluffing and after December 31st 2011, they dropped Walgreens from their network services. LITERATURE REVIEW A Literature review was conducted to determine how alienating Walgreens from the ESI network has caused a major constraint on the payer, patients, and employees. Each party used different strategy to keep their patients’ in their network. Walgreens began putting signage out encouraging consumers to talk to their insurance plans about excluding them from the network and for Medicare members to choose plans that aren’t run by Express Scripts. Walgreens also gave out a pamphlet about what happens when you remove them from the network. It goes as follows: Key Statement: Excluding Walgreens from a pharmacy network will result in little to no savings for most sponsors and patients, and in some cases will raise costs, while causing significant patient disruption and risking gaps in care, and increasing administrative costs on plan sponsors. As part of this document, they are encouraging payers to consider directly contracting with them and/or creating a custom network (if their PBM contracts allow for that). They state that their costs are comparable to other retailers or within 2% of their costs. They say that 90-day retail generates a 6-8% savings compared to 30-day retail based on the pricing that they offered to Express Scripts. However, since Walgreens decided not to comply by agreeing to sign the contract, ESI had no choice but to drop them from their network. This decision was a far cry from what they anticipated because they thought a resolution will occur before the end of the year. While both parties are dug in, it is a lose-lose situation for this debacle to stay unresolved, but after Jan 31st 2012, it became a win-lose situation for both ESI and Walgreens respectively. That being said, a lot of changes happened at Walgreens in order to make up for the loss which is as follows: This creates greater use of the Walgreens discount card and/or cash business at Walgreens especially for lower cost generics. Alienating Walgreens creates a disruptive force in the FTC review of the proposed Medco acquisition. Another PBM jumps in to do a creative deal with Walgreens which limits their long-term ability to work with Express Scripts. Express Scripts ends up in a shotgun relationship with CVS. The terms of PBM contracts get changed going forward based on new terms regarding retailers. This validates the integrated model of CVS and Caremark This creates a large number of limited networks. This creates a wave of direct contracting between payers and pharmacies. Walgreens becomes a much more vocal voice in the retail world through NCPA and other organizations. Between this and the merger of Express Scripts acquisition of Medco, the landscape in the PBM market was drastically different by early 2012. (http://georgevanantwerp.com/2011/09/08/walgreens-and-express-scripts-the-plot-thickens) ANALYSIS Walgreens has lost millions of dollars in prescription sales this year, and saw its second-quarter profit decline almost 8 percent because of its departure in January from Express Scripts — the nation’s largest network for filling drug prescriptions. (El Paso times, May 19, 2012) â€Å"Walgreens executives give no signs they will try to negotiate a new deal with Express Scripts and said Walgreens will weather the storm with cost cutting and going after new business.† (El Paso times, May 19, 2012) As a result of this decline, a lot of changes have taken immediate effect to affect the store level employees, like, extreme pay cuts, reduction in hours, hiring freeze, position eliminations etc. In return, this has left a lot of employee very unhappy and disgruntled about their jobs, which brings out a low morale and unsatisfactory job results. Most employees are very upset about the decisions the top management had made because in the end, it only affects the employee because obviously, the chairman of the company wasn’t affected based on the bonus he received in the amount of 10.6 million dollars in cash last year. This is a 36% increase in his salary, a lot of employees were very upset when they read the report on Google and demanded an explanation why our President and CEO is getting a raise when the company is losing almost 6 billion dollars in sales. Here is an excerpt from the associated press: â€Å"An Associated Press analysis of a regulatory filing shows Gregory Wasson received compensation worth $10.9 million in fiscal 2011, up from $8 million the previous year. Walgreen Co. is the largest drugstore chain in the U.S., with more than 7,700 stores. Wasson, 53, has been Walgreen’s president and CEO since February 2009. All portions of Wasson’s compensation grew. His salary rose 12 percent to $1.2 million. His stock awards climbed 67 percent to $5.6 million, the value of his options increased 30 percent to $2.2 million and his non-equity performance bonus went from $1.7 million to $2.7 million. His perks in 2011 were worth $339,977, up from $194,577.† (http://townhall.com/news/business/2011/11/18) The negative consequences brought on by the decision made by Walgreens executives include lower employee morale, disgruntled employee, high turnover rate, excessive tardiness and insubordinate behavior. Ultimately, management will think twice in the future before making a huge decision like this, so employee performances and morale will not suffer. â€Å"Acknowledging management’s responsibility for morale and turnover opens the door to creative solutions†. (Hacker, 2000, preface p.xvii) SUGGESTIVE SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEM Walgreens has decided to use different strategies to increase revenue to make up for the ESI loss by implementing the following strategies: a) Filling in more prescription volume – by attracting at least 18 new patients per store, they could replace the business lost in their dispute with ESI. b) Suggestive selling – this is a tool can use in the store every team member to increase profit c) Promoting private brand – by upsell more private brands, the merchandising team is providing updated product guides and fresh package graphics. d) Incorporating the well experience into their daily living – to be known for providing a new selection of health services that create value for both consumers and healthcare systems. e) Prescription savings club – They have signed up more than 700,000 new patients for the prescription savings club (PSC) since January. The PSC card offers savings on more than 8,000 brand name and all generic medications. f) Reinvent their cost structure through continuous improvement and innovation g) Expand across new channels and markets h) Delivering outstanding customer experience through enhanced employee engagement i) Transforming the traditional drugstore to a â€Å"retail health and daily living† store j) Transforming community pharmacy to play a greater role in healthcare through integration and expanded services. These are some of the ways Walgreens has planned to help fill the potential $6 billion revenue gap created when their negotiations with express scripts was unsuccessful. (Walgreens World Magazine January, 2012) REFLECTION Despite all this key strategies, Walgreens is still in the hole with their stock price down to $31.02 from $44, the hiring freeze, field transformation, rewiring growth and job elimination. I will recommend, at this point that Walgreens needs to put their ego aside and renegotiate their contracts with ESI because the worst is yet to happen. Since Express Script and Medco merged in March more patients are leaving the network, what happens then when CVS Caremark decided to pull the plug on us? Work cited 1) (Hacker, 2000, preface p.xvii) 2) (http://townhall.com/news/business/2011/11/18) 3) (http://georgevanantwerp.com/2011/09/08/walgreens-and-express-scripts-the-plot-thickens) 4) Walgreens World Magazine 5) Walgreens Company Correspondent on ESI Debacle 6) El Paso Times Magazine

Intro Geo 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Intro Geo 1 - Essay Example By forming this organization, the United States, Canada and Mexico looked to strengthen the already trade ties between the three nations. The elimination of trade barriers was seen as helping all three nations increase the economic opportunities available in their homelands, but no nation had to give up sovereignty. The EU expects formerly sovereign nations to now bow to a new governmental body in Brussels. This sort of arrangement would meet with incredible resistance in America. The United Nations as it currently is constituted would not be an effective mechanism to decide which countries can use military intervention in their behalf. The problem with the United Nations stems from the fact that the nations of the Security Council have most of the real power. Wealth, military might and resources are so incredibly concentrated in this handful of countries, that even if the rest of the world opposed an action by a Security Council state, there is little they really could do other than protest or make official statements denouncing the action. For the United Nations to be the safe keeper of the world’s militaries, there would need to be some mechanism to give small countries and equal voice with large, powerful countries (Sanders). This is unlikely to happen because it would require great concessions on the parts of powerful

Visitor centre Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Visitor centre - Essay Example Considering that the terrain is a pond, the piles are designed such that the loads from the footings are transmitted to the underlying strata with enough bearing capacity to support the load without settlement. Notice that all columns are within the wall perimeter, both internal and exterior walls. Since all exterior walls shall be of glazing, it would be aesthetically appropriate to have the glazing occupy the full width of a span then being split into two with a central column. As mentioned previously, the footings will convey the loads to the piles which in turn are supported by rigid strata. Lateral loads (wind, ground movement) are countered by beams connected to the columns. The only beams inclined from the horizontal are the roof beams which support the grass roof. The structure in this scheme is fairly stable as long as the beams are of the adequate size and the beam-to-column connections are sufficiently anchored to each other. The only issue would be the stability of the foundation, thus a comprehensive geotechnical study has to be done to determine the most suitable type of foundation. Scheme 2 is recommended for the proposed structure. The addition of intermediate beams to support the slab would translate to the reduction in the size of the members. Although more columns can be introduced in the structure, it may not be economical for the reason that more foundation must be made to support it. However, more columns would result in less loads carried by each footing, there is the danger of differential settlement to deal with. Ultimately, an extensive geotechnical study must be conducted to determine the best foundation in this case. When the type of foundation is determined, the structural framing can then be designed to suit the type of foundation whether be it pile or mat foundation which almost is the case for small bearing capacities typical of soft soils. The structure shall have bigger girders (column-to-column) beams and smaller intermediate beams. References: McCarthy D., (2006) Essentials of Soil Mechanics and Foundations: Basic Geotechnics. Salmon C., Johnson, J., Malhas, F. (2008) Steel Structures: Design and Behavior. USA: Prentice

The History and Practices of Voodoo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The History and Practices of Voodoo - Essay Example In the documentary, Witchcraft & Magic, Patrick Macnee suggests that â€Å"voodoo is generally perceived as tribal black magic practiced in primitive cultures.† Ross Heaven, the first white priest of Vodou in Europe, explains that â€Å"Vodou is a spiritual tradition of Africa and Haiti† (Heaven 7). Brandi Kelley, the Director of the Voodoo Museum in New Orleans, states that â€Å"voodoo is a compromise between African voudon and Catholicism† (Macnee). While all of these statements are applicable, the history of voodoo and its evolution is somewhat nebulous. In the book for middle school students, The Real Monsters, Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen discusses perception and reality, â€Å"sometimes movies and books portray voodoo as a dark and evil religion that is dominated by black magic and pin-struck voodoo dolls. In reality, these things are not a part of traditional voodoo practices† (45). Bardhan-Quallen relates the observations of photographer Lynne Warberg, who has documented Haitian voodoo for years. â€Å"Participation in voodoo ritual reaffirms one’s relationships with ancestors, personal history, community relationships—and the cosmos. Voodoo is a way of life† (qtd. in Bardhan-Quallen, and Cochran 45). Slavery played a defining role in the history of voodoo. ... Linking their deities [†¦] to Catholic saints, slaves could pretend to pray to St. Barbara, for example, while really delivering their wishes to the vo-du thunder god, Songo† (Davis 8) Open to suggestion and seeking answers within the social constructs that confined them, slaves developed a new religion in which â€Å"transplanted voudon borrowed freely from native Indian cultures, European witchcraft, and other non-voudon African slave religions, for example the Kongo-based palo mayombe. And it co-opted precisely as much Catholicism as locally necessary to prevent the African content from being crushed by the Europeans† (Davis 8). In the words of Rod Davis, a reporter who researched and studied Voodoo for his book, American Voudou: Journey into a Hidden World, â€Å"Voudou took as many guises as necessary to survive, [†¦] hoodoo, root medicine, spiritual healing, ju-ju, black magic, and dozens of other euphemisms and forms† (75). Davis states that †Å"in different areas, voudou has different rituals and doctrines† (9). One can deduce that differing circumstances in each location, as well as other religions and cultures in the region, influenced the evolution of the religion. According to Davis, â€Å"in Haiti, the religion metamorphosed into vodun or vaudoux; in Cuba, Santeria; in Brazil, candomble; in Trinidad, Shango Baptist; in Mexico, curanderismo; in Jamaica, obeah. In the American South, it became voodoo and, in the most extreme caricature, hoodoo, the petty hexing (pins in dolls, love potions, etc.) which most people, black and white, confuse with the real thing† (Davis 9). In discussing people’s attitudes toward voodoo in early

Analysing the global marketing environment Assignment

Analysing the global marketing environment - Assignment Example Background This report is based on the examination of the global marketing environment of the popular cookies brand of New Zealand, Cookie Times, in the global market, especially in United States. Cookie Time Ltd (CTL) is one of the most popular cookie brands in New Zealand. This is located in Christchurch and makes snack foods since 1983. The mascot of the brand is known as Cookie Muncher. It is a commercial, innovative snacking company. One of the fundamental business structures of the company comprises of franchised distribution, retail, as well as manufacturing operations with special focus on the opportunities of foreign licensing and franchise. Chocolate Chunk Cookie was the first launched product in the New Zealand market intended for individual sale. With unparalleled operational excellence and dynamic entrepreneurship, CTL is dominating the domestic cookie and cracker market for more than 28 years. Their passion lies in building strong customer satisfaction base and network by providing unmatched quality products with extravagant taste (Franchise opportunities, Cookie Time, n.d.). The company’s portfolio includes highly innovative and popular products like glutten-free cookies and smart cookies with authorized certification from the National Heart Foundation. The mainstream sweet cookie was launched in the market in 2006 with prior consultation with the Ministry of health, NZ Parent Teachers Association and the Heart Foundation. In 2010, the first full scale retail space of the company, the Cookie Time Bar was established in Queensland which serves great hot cookies and milk with a nostalgic ambience. The outlet shop of the company outside the Christchurch factory is a landmark site which is well known for its giant cookie frontage. The head quarters and the food science laboratory are also established here. For distribution of the products to more than 6000 domestic retail outlets 40 independent franchisees work rigorously across time (Corporat e Profile, Cookie Time, n.d.). Reports show that about one-third the people of United States of America (US) have no time to take their meal. Only one-third of them take regular three meals in a day. The others depend on easily available food items and snacks and skip their meals. The unhealthy consumer behavior leading to rampant obesity has led majority of the American population to convert their dietary mechanism towards a more healthy process. As a result CTL finds a great opportunity to enter this market with its products which are rich in high proteins, high fibre, natural ingredients with low fat and sugar which guarantees healthy diet (Cookies in the US 2006, p. 6). That is why the study is done to find out whether there is proper global environment of the marketing Cookie Time in the country. 1. Environmental analysis 1.1 Economic Environment The economic setting can modify quite fast. Effects of rapid business decline in a country or region will adversely affect the busine ss environment of any organization within that geographical boundary. However new strategies are to be formulated and implemented at the simultaneously for maintaining sustainability. The fall in consumer’s income changes their consumption pattern by cutting down expenses by barred consumption on some products. As a direct consequence many companies including

Business evulation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Business evulation - Essay Example The fact that partners come from administration, finance, and the sales departments of other successful companies in the market ensures that the company’s departments will be component especially the three which are crucial for the success of any company. Another strength that the company has is the fact that its management structure is well suited for new ideas and contribution meaning that the decisions and policies undertaken by the company will comprise both new and old ideas which will help in the company realising success. Another strength that the company possesses is the various number of services the company is offering. This means that the company will be able to attract income from various sectors of the market since the company is diverse. Weaknesses The fact that the company is very new in the marketing and branding market is a weakness. This is due to the fact that the marketing and branding industry is characterised by a lot of customer loyalty thus many consume rs in the market are loyal to existing brands making it hard for new companies to penetrate the market(Kotler, Etal, 2006.). LaunchMe is currently a small business establishment which is a major weakness since the company is not able to hire many employees. This is due to lack of resources to support a huge staff. As a result, many huge companies with huge projects will forego LaunchMe since they will assume it will be unable to launch huge projects. Another weakness that the company faces is fact that it is operating in the United Kingdom only. This will greatly limit its consumer coverage which is essential for such a company in order for it to attract as many customers as possible. Opportunities Investments opportunities, innovation, and technological revolution provides the LaunchMe company with the opportunity to grow remarkably. This is because current trends are showing that the economy of the United Kingdom is steadily getting back to its where more and more investors are pu tting in their cash to small companies such as LaunchMe which are expected to bring back revenue in the future. The fact that the company aims at focus at business owners and entrepreneurs both in the United Kingdom and the international market presents a great opportunity for growth of the company since the rich people in the country are always interested in starting up new business hence providing a steady market for LaunchMe’s products and ser ices. The branding and marketing industry is a growing industry with new developments and innovations (Belch, 2002). This is not only in the United Kingdom but in the whole world (Wheeler, 2006). This creates an opportunity for the company to both grow geographically and financially. By venturing into other countries in Europe and eventually the while world the company will be able to increase in both size and outreach resulting in the company enjoying more revenue. Threats There are major players who pose threats to the company in t erms of unfair competition. Such companies include Addison Whitney, Siegel and Gale among others. Such companies are a threat to the company since they have a well established customer base meaning they enjoy a lot of customer loyalty. It is a known fact that customer loyalty can result to monopolistic features to