Representations of Men in Advertising

What is a man? This question may be odd to hear, but it's a question that is answered constantly by advertisers in print ads and television commercials, all with different approaches. But he question the advertises are asking is â€Å"What images of men will sell my product? â€Å". There is the image of the rebel, the masculine heroes, the violent or aggressive man, or the classic ‘Gentleman'. In recent years we see advertisers moving closer towards the image of the ‘modern man'. The modern man, also known as the metro-sexual man, can be defined as well groomed, health and body conscious, and well dressed. The deconstruction of the two advertisements, Ralph Lauren and Michelob Ultra, accentuate this image and show its influence on the male audience. The Michelob Ultra advertisement preys on the modern mans body image perceptions, and uses them to create a desire for their product. The ad depicts an athletic swimmer, of whom we are to believe consumes the product, getting out of the pool, a picture of the product, and the heading â€Å"Lose the Carbs. Not the taste†. The caption â€Å"†¦ this is your fountain of youth† insinuates that this product will keep you healthy youthful, while being able to enjoy alcohol. There is a famous quote from Edgar A. Schoaff that reads, â€Å"Advertising is the art of making whole lies, out of half truths†. This ad from Michelob is a perfect example of this. In reality, the beer still contains carbs, almost the same amount as regular beer, but using an almost irrelevant idea of low carbs and transforming it into a, for lack of a better term, ‘healthy' beer. This misleading idea forces easily persuaded body conscious males to believe in their product. Ultimately, this kind of advertising manipulates males thoughts and plants false images of an unattainable body. The ‘modern man' look has grown increasingly more popular due to advertisers push to make men obsessing over their own body image. The advertisement for Ralph Lauren targets these image wise men and positions themselves as the ‘right' image. The ad is almost completely in black and white, with just the brand name, â€Å"Ralph Lauren† standing out in the background. The contrast makes for a striking and eye catching advertisement, with a hint of panache. It depicts three young men hurdling over a tennis net, boasting their clothes and style. Thre three men are racing, playing off men's stereotypical competitiveness and pursuit to be the best. The ad suggests that Ralph Lauren will help you get there. David Foster Wallace sums this up with his quote, â€Å"It did what all ads are supposed to do: create an anxiety relievable by purchase†. The anxiety is the endeavour to be the best and the brand will help you in that objective. Therefore, this ad boasts itself as an image of what the modern man should strive for. As a result of the many advertising archetypes presented and beliefs about normalcy, young men are growing up being bombarded by different representations and images of males and find it impossible to not fall victim of them. Young men are often enticed to emulate what they see on the television, hear on the radio or read on a newspaper ad. The allure of the lifestyle presented in advertising is most often great enough to coax the consumer to buy into it. These facts are supported by the aforementioned advertisements. Both similar in regards to target audiences, and give impressions of the modern man. One of perfect body aspirations, and the other a pursuit for the perfect look. But both simultaneously give people ambitions to be the modern man.

Really Trying to Mean

It is no accident that the best writers tend to be amongst the most voracious and most thoughtful of readers. To be called into meaningful existence a text cannot stand by itself; that is, it cannot live outside of culture. When we say that a particular text means something, we are incorporating our own ideas as readers into what we think the author meant, ultimately producing another version of what the text really means. This is a significant delineation that brings forth the notion of reading, writing, and interpretation in the realm of discourse. Worlds collide in the act of interiorizing alphabetic literacy. Truth and meaning become contingent upon the heterogeneity of thought that is necessary to determine how a text relates to the reality of the reader. In Ong’s words, â€Å"The text has no meaning until someone reads it, and to make sense it must be interpreted, which is to say related to the reader’s world. † Following this lead we can say that we create meaning but we are not the original creator because the reading from which we base our conceptions has been in existence since before Socrates himself. To build from this past, Jaspers locates the reality and the implications of historical thought when he writes, â€Å"It is impossible not to form an image of the historic Socrates. What is more, some image of Socrates is indispensable to our philosophical thinking. † We have an indispensable point of reference to discourse in the image of Socrates in our reading of Socrates so that ‘today no philosophical thought is possible unless Socrates is present, if only as a pale shadow. † The import of this type of reading, a reading with a historical point of reference to the current reality, is in the veins of Western thought going back to Socrates while at the making Socrates present in today’s dialogue, if only as a pale shadow. Jaspers and Ong are alluding to the notion of a certain kind of synthesis, as Taylor will help to flesh out. Taylor questions what this all ultimately means to philosophy and to our lives, â€Å"What is the real significance of Socrates in the history of [Western] thought? [Simply put, he] created the intellectual and moral tradition by which [Western civilization] has ever since lived. The role of Socrates is, as Ong and Jaspers also believe, is a never ending presence in the paradigm of Western civilization. Socrates is therefore still very much alive in philosophy today. His image alone represents the ongoing debates taking place at conferences, in mid-terms, and in the public dialogue. The reality of his death defies the fact t hat he maintains a presence today. Speaking of letters and reading between the lines of history will allow us to create another reality than the one of alarm clocks, lunch breaks, and taxes – a debate that resonates all the way back to before Socrates drank the hemlock.

Evaluation of 2 Essays Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Evaluation of 2 Essays - Essay Example The second essay was written by Eric Mortenson of the Willamette Valley in Oregon, originally published in the Oregonian, and he is a farmer and discusses how his family saved their farm and their heritage by going organic and selling locally. The two essays examined are supporting almost completely opposite positions on farming and food consumption, but they are not really at odds, because they are talking about two different subjects: consumption and production. Both essays make logical sense and they prove their points very well. Pelletier discusses the futility of trying to get everyone to consume locally, even if it were the answer to global warming. He shows that doing this for food consumption would be difficult enough, if not impossible, and that it would simply not make a useful difference unless all consumption becomes local, and he shows that this simply cannot be done, because the local climate cannot support enough warm weather fruit and the land cannot support profitable meat ranching. He says that only 48% of local consumption is covered by local production. Of course, coffee, tea, chocolate, cotton and many more products cannot be produced locally in Vancouver. If this extends around the world, many people would be hungry, and hungry people make wars, which have the biggest carbon footprint of all human activities. Pelletier cites evidence that if everyone switched to locally produced consumption, it would knock civilization back to the stone age, with poor diets, horse and buggy transport and wood-burning stoves for heat. We could survive this if it were an absolute necessity, but he argues that it is not even very useful. Pelletier says it is a common misconception that consuming only locally produced food would actually lower its carbon footprint. Pelletier says that trains and boats have lower carbon footprints than the small trucks that deliver locally. Eric Mortensen has turned his farm into organic production

The effect of culture in International Marketing Essay

The effect of culture in International Marketing - Essay Example It is known that culture has a profound influence on peoples’ lifestyles, their preferences & tastes; this is important knowledge for marketing managers as tastes greatly affect purchasing behavior and trends. In addition, the nation’s attitude toward culture would impact on consumers’ behaviour, consumers’ lifestyle and beliefs. Therefore the power of culture causes consumption lifestyle among society. Hofstede and Trompenaars indicated that there is a level of cultural influence to purchasing around most of the countries, and an understanding of consumption practices can be made if the key attributes cultural influences are well known. As mentioned above, internationalization is closely associated with the standards of products, and this is in turn associated with proper coordination and execution of functions in the firm’s quality departments. The internationalization process of organizations is demonstrated by universal exchange theories. Considerations for internationalization are divided into two categories i.e. macroeconomic and microeconomic theories. (Dierkes 1999). Microeconomic scholars like Levitt, Ohmae, Howl, and Vernon have studied and written a lot on what inspires many organizations to strive so that they can achieve international recognition in terms of product ranges and market presence. The answer to internationalization practice by many firms is found in macroeconomic theories. The theories are concerned with and consider mostly on what factors and considerations inform many firms’ decisions to go international. The international product life cycle (IPLC) theories from Raymond Vernon (1966) explain the distribution methodology of companies’ expansion across national boundaries. The theory shows that many product lines are in the first place produced and processed in certain nations with the target of being sold on the international market. It very well and

Your assignment is to identify what you regard as the chief ethical Essay

Your assignment is to identify what you regard as the chief ethical problems in your professional life. Then determine a method of arriving at the best solutions to these problems - Essay Example For instance, I do sometimes come across employees checking their own email accounts during the time they should be working for the organization. There also happen to be employees who happen to be organizational bullies and do not desist from harassing their subordinates and colleagues while being engaged in the day to day activities in the organization. Sometimes, I also come across instances when my juniors engage in fraudulent behavior that happens to be considered a major ethical breach. In such instances, where the acts and decisions of individual employees amount to a larger organizational loss, I do adhere to utilitarian ethics while acting. If the working of an individual employee harms the well being and viability of the larger organizational environment, I seldom hesitate from taking a swift and decisive action against such employees (Schminke, 1998, p. 141. If the issue happens to be minor like checking of personal email, I issue a swift warning to the concerned employee. In case of graver acts like a fraud, I make it a point to take a serious decision against the concerned employee, so that it would deter the other employees from indulging in unethical behavior while serving the organization. Employee working conditions do present major ethical dilemmas for most of the managers and I do not happen to be an exception. Many a times, I come across situations, when the working conditions of the employees happen to be less than satisfactory. I also have to grapple with situations when I feel that a particular employee is not being paid in consonance with the time and efforts being put by one. In such scenarios I believe that utilitarian ethics do not serve me well while taking decisions to ameliorate the situation. In such situations I take ethical decisions that involve opting for the nobler hypothesis amongst the range of available approaches and possibilities. While taking decisions I make

The Strategic Management of Economy Hotel in China (Proposal) Essay

The Strategic Management of Economy Hotel in China (Proposal) - Essay Example In the hotel industry a similar approach should be used. This study focuses on a specific part of the hotel industry: the low budget hotels. The strategic management framework of the sector’s hotels is explored by referring to the case of a specific country: China. The above country has been chosen because of the following two reasons: a) because of its position as a major competitor in the global economy and b) because of its significant achievements in regard to the development of the hotel industry. This study aims to show that the strategic management practices used in the sector’s hotels in China have a key role in the industry’s development; the improvement of certain of these practices, as suggested in the study, could secure the sector’s growth, a fact that would highly benefit the country’s economy. Introduction Economy hotels, as businesses, have been highly expanded worldwide. The strong financial pressures developed in the international market especially from 2007 onwards had a key role in this phenomenon. In addition, the development of technology has led to the radical decrease of distance between regions; travelling for covering various needs, including business, education or health, has become highly popular at the level that the time involved can be quite short. The establishment of hotels of low budget has been considered as a necessity so that the housing needs of an area’s visitors are covered at low cost; such perspective has been proved to increase the area’s popularity, as a tourist destination but also as a business center. Under these terms, the growth of economy hotels sector can be considered as expected. Countries that aim to secure their economic growth have emphasized on the development of the particular sector; China is an example of this trend. As in other countries, in China also, the sector’s rate of growth is not standardized; for example, during the recent global recessi on the profits for the hospitality/ tourist industry in China were reduced (Chon et al. 2013). This study aims to help to identify these problems so that solutions are retrieved based on the low cost philosophy that characterizes the sector’s businesses. Research Background and Motivation China is considered as one of the most powerful economies worldwide. The flexibility of the Chinese economy seems to be its major advantage. Indeed, the growth of China is not based on strict and standardized economic rules; rather, emphasis is given on innovation and the continuous monitoring of market trends (Freed 2011). Economy hotels have become quite popular in markets worldwide. The growth of the sector is indicated in the figures/ data included in the table of Figure 1 below. Figure 1 – Growth of economy hotel sector in China, up to 2012 (Shen 2013, p.1) The willingness to identify the strategic management needs of the economy hotel industry in China has been the key motivatio n for the development of this study. According to a recent report the economy hotels sector represents just 30% of China’s hotel industry, a percentage though that it is expected to be significantly increased in the future (PR Newswire 2013). At the same time, the competition in the sectors seems to be limited, as about 47% of the sector’s hotels are owned by three brands: ‘Home Inns Group, Hanting Inns and Hotels and 7 Days Group Holdings’ (PR Newswire 2013). The strategic management characteristics of the sector should be identified and

Critically analyse the extent to which the classical doctrine on Essay

Critically analyse the extent to which the classical doctrine on communication of acceptance is relevant in modern contractual relations - Essay Example eement.1 The acceptance of an offer is crucial to formation of contract and question arises how and why an offer must be accepted to become a contract. Because there should be meeting of minds. An agreement can be verbal or in writing and in both cases how the acceptance reaches the offeror is important. The doctrine of communication of acceptance requires that it should be made within a reasonable time. In the following pages, the position relating to communication of acceptance is discussed. While dealing with acceptance, it is necessary to discuss the other ingredients of agreement. The objective test employed by the courts for an agreement having been reached is the presence of â€Å"offer and acceptance. 2 As is well-known, an offer is said to be made when one person proposes to another to do or abstain form doing some thing in order to get the consent of the other to the act or abstinence. An offer can be verbal, in writing, by conduct or by combination of these forms.3 An offer also can be made to an individual, a group of persons or to the world at large.4 An acceptance is made when the person to whom the proposal is made signifies his consent thereto and it should be absolute and unqualified. The acceptance must be communicated in the usual and reasonable manner except when the offeror stipulates a particular manner of acceptance.5 In other words, the acceptance of the offeree implies that the offeree has accepted the offer in the same terms and conditions of th e offeror without any reservation.6 Thus, it follows that an agreement comes into existence only when acceptance is received by the offeror so as to ensure that the offeror is not bound by his offer without his knowledge. The place of receipt of acceptance is generally regarded as the place of conclusion of contract. This applies to instantaneous methods such as verbal, telephone, telex and facsimile.7 In such forms of messages, the sender is notified as to its receipt or otherwise by the

Project Management The effectiveness of the plans Essay

Project Management The effectiveness of the plans - Essay Example Project management is the planning, organizing, directing and controlling of company resources for a relatively short-term objective that has been established to complete specific goals and objectives. For planning and organizing the resources, Program evaluation and review technique(PERT) and Critical Path Method (CPM) are widely used techniques for better planning and control in project management. It forms the basis for all planning and predicting and these techniques provide the management with the ability to plan for the best possible use of resources to achieve a goal within the stipulated time and allotted budget. These techniques which were used for defense during the World War II, are now used by business managers across the world to get a visibility of the activities involved in the project so that repetition of activities is reduced. It helps the management to handle the uncertainties involved in the program by analyzing how much time is required for each activity and which activity is crucial for the timely completion of the project. It is useful for the management to collect all the relevant information for making decisions. The major deficiency of other methods such as the Gantt, milestone or bubble chart is the inability to show the interdependencies between event s and activities, which is overcome in the network analysis. The foremost advantage of PERT is that it requires planning in detail to create a network of activities. Network development and critical path analysis reveal interdependencies and problem areas that are not very clear if other methods are used. The technique lays its focus on determining where the greatest effort should be made for a project to stay on schedule. The next greatest advantage of network analysis is that the business manager can know about the probability of meeting specified deadlines by development of alternative plans. Another advantage of this analysis is that we can evaluate the effect of changes in the program. For example this technique can evaluate the effect of contemplated shift of resources from the less critical activities to the activities that are identified as probable bottlenecks. Thus resources and performance tradeoffs can be evaluated. This analysis also helps to present even the most complicated data into a diagram which can be presented to the custo mer/ management which makes the understanding and decision making easier. The network diagram and the calculation of total float is shown in the appendix - 1 and 2 respectively. The total project duration is 73 days and the critical path for the project includes the activities A, B, I, J, L, M, N, O, P, R. If the project starts on May 5th, 2008, the earliest date it will be completed is 13th August, 2008 if it is assumed that there are 5 days working in every week. From the analysis, we can say that when there is a 4 day delay during Q or E, there will not be any change because these activities are not a part of the critical path. When activity P is finished one day in advance, then the whole project will

Project Outline Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Project Outline - Assignment Example rorists and other extremists groups can take advantage of this huge traffic at the ports to smuggle devices and other weapons that they can use to disrupt the peace and economic development of the country. The abstract also explains the need for security in the U.S. Seaports. Introduces the major concept and points in the paper, and states the thesis. Shows how the United States is one of the countries with the largest coastlines across the entire globe and provides a number or sea ports and sea shores to use in both transport activities, especially the exports and imports trade, whereby the country brings in new products from other countries while exporting its own products to different other countries. The introduction also illustrates how avenue of transport creates congestion at the seaports, offering possibility of security lapses for terrorist. It describes the Seaport industry in the United States. It illustrates how seaports act as entry and exit points for goods from the U.S, as well as into the U.S. The section also shows how these seaports are America’s gateways to the global trade because they facilitate both domestic and international trade, thereby connecting the United States to the rest of the world. It also describes seaports in the U.S. and the locations. It examines seaports as possible insecurity gateways leading to terror attacks. It demonstrates the mechanisms of enhancing security at the ports. These include security checks and frisks to ensure that only the allowed goods and services pass through the ports, and keep out illegal or banned products from entering or leaving the country. Measures also include checking for radioactive emissions or charges found in containers or luggage carried by passengers who use these ports. This is done to limit terrorist attempts and suicide bombers. The government set rules and regulations to govern the maritime operations are also discussed including programs such as CSI and CBP. This part

Separation of ownership and control for modern corporations Essay

Separation of ownership and control for modern corporations - Essay Example Existing Studies in Ownership and Control On the basis of a written test on British firms, they realized that the "separation of ownership from management, consecutively, thrust a gigantic rough defense alongside licensees has been created that need almost no cost direct the general welfare, that they or their stories provided by alarm company. Division of property, command creates a situation that benefits the holder and the director could obtain and achieve over and over again diverge, and where numerous confirmation facades, who executed for the expression, paid jobs, could fade away. Their arguments were strengthened in 1960 when at the discretion of managers was to be welcomed as the best alternative to maximize revenues intact, or that the man vowed to go to a car that stifle financial giving as a whole. Mallin (2009) argued that the market for the administration rather than management, law, questions of "modern society", but Selwyn (2010) on the effectiveness of this mechanism . Pessimism led to the Heath (2007), the sentence "The eclipse public company and a copy of a partnership with a high level of debt. Partnerships and leveraged acquisition of the controlling shareholders, the German and Japanese banks have been very fond of monitors. Recently, the British public company, obviously, with a large external auditors, shareholder activists, powerful and self-defense for investors, once again loved International. But support for the latest proposals, which the controllers as powerful as ever. Plates with low power require ample insurmountable obstacles to his arrest, and guidelines to extend the anti-block holder owners to avoid the use of control. On the appointed day, very little is known about the control of the company outside the United States. Detail how the control that Berle and manual means of private property and the separation of ownership and control were considered applicable unanimously. But over the past two years, support was found that th is view was questioned. Cabrelli (2009) describes two types of organization of ownership and control - what they call "the insiders and outsiders of the system’s foreign trade regime match Berle and means the U.K.the property is removed in the middle of a large number of foreign investors. In the UK, the majority of capital was carried out economic organizations, mainly the capital promises of pensions and life of the company. The United States, one after another, investors are more prevalent. But in no country of origin control organizations or individuals that contain a lot of servings in the company. As a result they use little direct control over business. Objectives What is the main goal? Nevertheless, it is impossible to give a definitive answer to this query, since the amount of building is an artificial creature, not human. It is important to recognize exactly who controls the company. We will consider all Con terms of contracts (Rajan 2010). This view provides a comm ercial company will try to maximize the wealth of investors in the company's activities, which increase the present value of the share of life. Agency Costs, And a Set of Contracts Perspective The very idea of contract claims that a business enterprise can be regarded as a set of contracts: one of the claims agreement residual claim (equity) company by assets and cash flows (Harold 2006). Validity of the agreement could be developed as a relationship "principal-agent. Components of control group of institutions and investors in equity (share holders) are the principles (Davis and Michael 2001). It is expected that auditors and investors, left alone, try to make their own cherishing. Investors are, independently, may disappoint controllers differ from the interests of investors through the development of appropriate incentives for controllers, and then Mon monitoring their behavior. This, unfortunately, is

Particular sectors of the population Essay Example for Free

Particular sectors of the population Essay Abstract The point of this paper is to help the reader grasp the different aspects of human identity construction with regards to ones race and/or ethnicity. This is a topic that is incredibly important to all races of people regardless of economic class or whatever else is seemingly more important. It is quite impossible to go throughout life without forming an idea of who you are or where you have come whether you care to make it a part of your daily life, have no choice or acknowledge it when it is convenient; without that knowledge I find it difficult to fully make the most of life. Through the readings from the semester and class discussions I have come to the conclusion that White ethnics choose to either assert their ethnicities thickly or thinly, or they chose to incorporate it into their lives symbolically. Blacks on the other side of the spectrum lack choice in their racial identity because their race is visible and so it is assigned to them. Asians have both the ability to choose to assert their specific ethnicities but they are racially assigned. The issue with racial and ethnic construction is that it is born of social construction-what others believe of your race to be true. This can make the identity construction process much more difficult depending upon your racial or ethnic background. Regardless, I find this to be an important part of the identity construction journey. How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone. These words were spoken by the infamous French fashion designer, Gabrielle â€Å"Coco† Chanel. In America today, these words could not ring truer in the subject of identity. â€Å"Who am I? †, â€Å"Where do I come from? † All questions of self reflection which undoubtedly each individual asks themselves on a daily basis. These questions are not elaborate in structure but hold a great deal of weight to them and contain countless answers. White ethnics face the decision of whether or not to include their ethnicities into their identity construction; their racial invisibility gives them the choice to identify. Racial minorities self define differently from those of the white majority-there often is no choice. There are many different facets of identity construction that create the varying formulas with which Black Americans must create their racial identity. The blatant visibility of race for Blacks creates many of the difficulties that they face in the United States varying from the generalized stereotypes, entry into the coveted middle class of America. These are some of the factors that determine whether or not a positive Black identity is being formed. Lastly, Asian Americans, have found themselves in that strange middle ground of identity construction; their struggle is not exactly like that of Black Americans but they are also not easily accepted like the dominant white group. The unique factors that help Asian Americans shape their identity are the same ones that make it difficult for others outside of their race to define them. It is with this unusual combination that Asian Americans have been given the convenient ability to choose to assert their specific ethnicities and to assimilate like white ethnics while still feeling the effects of racial constraint and having their race assigned to them like Black Americans. White Ethnic Identity Construction Today we look at the possible ways the white racial group define themselves; how they appear to others of their same race as well as to non-whites and the impact of American societal expectations on the self, ultimately creating a portrait of how white ethnics construct their ethnic identity throughout the generations and the evolution of ethnic value over time. It is all too common to hear an individual say â€Å"I don’t care what people think of me† or â€Å"Their opinion doesn’t matter,† although that may be their thought process, little do they know that it is the interaction with other human beings that helps form each person’s sense of self and that every person’s opinion of you matters a great deal. â€Å"Identity cannot exist apart from a group†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Gans, 1991, p. 430). Each person bounces their personality off of other people and it is from their reactions to us that we base our identities on. This idea is called â€Å"The Looking Glass Self† developed by Charles Cooley. Cooley argues that every time we interact with another person, we see ourselves in a mirror that they hold up to us and our reflections shape our sense of self (Butler-Sweet, 2011, Sep. 20). Essentially our self definitions are based on how others see us. We cannot escape it, the society that we live in is based on interaction with other people and humans, by nature are visual; we judge first by what we see. This is why race is the defining factor in American society but mainly for non-whites. The white race in America is dominate, however, it is not dominate because of the race itself but because of the culture that was formed from it. This idea of â€Å"whiteness† stems from European ideals where historically white ethnics had the most education and were Christians opposed to the non-Christians who were also not white. When Europeans came over to America they brought these ideals with them and used them as a foundation for the new culture they were creating that placed large emphasis on church, family, and accumulating wealth and with that social status (Zack, 1998, p. 61). These ideals were the foundation of American culture and since this culture was created by whites, American became synonymous with white, white became the norm and therefore transparent. If you are white in America it is highly unlikely that you will notice your race on a daily basis unless you are placed in a situation where you are surrounded by non-whites and forced into awareness. It is a definite advantage to have your race be invisible to everyone; when you are accustomed to seeing something, you do not think about it. That being said, according to the â€Å"Looking Glass Self†, hardly anyone, white or non-white will reflect a white person’s whiteness to them. Having race viewed as insignificant in a white individual’s identity. Due impart, to the diminished importance of race to white identity construction, ethnicity among white ethnics is a choice. White ethnics can decide if they want their ethnicity to be a part of what shapes their identity and if they do chose to assert an ethnicity they chose once again if they want to assert it thickly or thinly. Growing up in Connecticut, I know that there is not as wide a variety of ethnicities as there could be among white ethnics but in a few of the less suburban areas in Connecticut, namely New Britain, certain white ethnics choose to thickly assert their ethnicity. In New Britain there is a large population of Polish white ethnics; they speak the language and have ethnic markets and restaurants. They choose to incorporate their ethnicity into their everyday lives and associate with those of that same ethnicity. On the flip side, in my suburban hometown of Farmington, Connecticut, there were a decent amount of Polish people who attended my high school however, most choose to thinly assert their ethnicity mostly by only claiming their ethnicity when it came to soccer or eating polish food during the holidays. The importance of ethnicity to white ethnics is often asserted thinly if at all. The amount of emphasis placed on the value of ethnic identity among whites is not the same as it has been in times past; the emphasis has now been placed on American culture and what is considered valuable. If white ethnics choose to include their ethnicity in their identity today, it would most likely be symbol of what once was. When Europeans first came to America from whichever country, their original ethnic background was everything. The language, food, traditions, clothing and music was a constant influence on their everyday lives as first generation Americans. Community ties to people of your same ethnicity were incredibly important as it was an extension of your immediate family. Being the â€Å"new kids on the block† so to speak, was what kept these ethnic communities very tightly knit however, each generation after began to slowly back away from those original ties and started to assimilate into the dominate American culture. The acculturation process starts in second generation white ethnics where original ethnic traditions that they grew up with become not as important because now, fitting in to the dominate culture is the way to progress. The third generation white ethnic, has fully assimilated into American culture and has little interest in their ethnicity because by now they have figured out that in being a white ethnic, they fit into the dominate culture and ethnicity is not necessary. It may not necessarily be a hindrance to their economic, intellectual or social success, but it also is not a part of them that they feel needs to be asserted; it is at this point, that ethnic symbolism begins to show up (Gans, 1991, p. 430). Through intermarriage and acculturation, third generation white ethnics and beyond often know little about their ethnicity or by now ethnicities. Sometimes there are so many ethnicities to choose from, from either parent that a white ethnic will simply pick out the stereotypes of a certain ethnicity in their genetic arsenal that they feel they can identify most with as a way of feeling ethnic of their ethnic identity. Physical traits are often used as the indicator for which ethnicity a white ethnic will chose to identify with; one of my closest friends is Luxembourgian, German, Scandinavian, Swedish, Norwegian, and Scottish. Despite the fact that her last name itself is German, she chooses to associate her fair skin, blonde hair and blue eyes with her Scandinavian and Swedish ethnicities; this is probably in large part due to her mother’s family who’s history holds more interest to her as well as people who look the most like her. She uses her physical features as symbols of her ethnicity, nothing more. It is often that if one side of the family is more vocal about a certain ethnicity or ethnicities within the family that as a result, the children will associate more with that ethnicity or ethnicities (Waters, 1998, p.60). The majority of white ethnics are of the upper middle class in American society because the race is not a constraint for them and so they have access to jobs and to education that non-whites may not have. This American culture or â€Å"whiteness† by itself leads to a sense of monotony to some white ethnics and so the symbolic ethnicity comes into play as a way to liven things and bring back a since of individuality; to not be â€Å"just American† (Waters, 1998, p. 90). Non-whites in America maintain their ethnicity and embrace it because they are not given as equal a chance to assimilate into the dominate culture and without that opportunity, they are cut off from the jobs, that would provide money to become educated and progress in the American way and therefore stay very rooted in their original culture and maintain a strong sense of community which many white ethnics do not have. The constraints of white ethnic identity are few. The invisibility of whiteness gives white ethnics a definite upper hand and even further so, when it comes to their ethnicity they can make the choice. The possibilities for white ethnic identity and furthermore, their identity as a whole would seem to be very flexible. They lack only, it would seem when it comes to the sense of community. In the American culture, as it has evolved into today, the majority population’s focus is on wealth and social status and so nothing else comes to matter. White ethnics as a whole suffer little if any because, being the dominant race and culture; it is rare to find any door closed; the invisibility of their race gives them an unseen advantage which racial minorities do not have. Black Racial Identity Construction As mentioned previously in discussing white ethnic identity construction, Cooley’s Looking Glass self was a prime factor in how identity is shaped, particularly for Black Americans. The mirror that is continuously held up to each Black person is a constant reminder that their race is a large part of how others define them. Unlike the dominant White group, race is nowhere close to being invisible for Blacks. W. E. B DuBois applies the basic idea of Cooley’s looking glass self, most specifically to the Black minority group with this concept of a â€Å"double consciousness† (Butler-Sweet, 2011, Nov.3). Much like the looking glass, the double consciousness stresses that you will never be able to truly see yourself if you are of the Black minority group because others will see your race first and automatically reflect a negative image. If this double consciousness continues it can create, what Cornell West calls a Nihilistic threat; internalizing the negative impressions of your racial group and therefore yourself. Beverly Daniel Tatum points out in her book â€Å"‘Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? ’† that young children do not view racial differences as an issue but rather as a topic of curiosity, however, as the child reaches, what she calls, the â€Å"encounter stage† around adolescence race becomes very noticeable and if parents are not careful, their child will internalize all of the negative connotations of what it is to be Black (p. 55). The rest of that child’s life they will be reminded daily of their race, not necessarily in demeaning racial slurs, but in indirect forms of racism and prejudices. Unlike their White counterparts, Black Americans do not have the privilege of letting their race be invisible in society. Being the dominant group, White is expected and accepted-their race is invisible but as a minority group, Blacks do not have the choice of blending in; race is not only an assigned part of one’s identity if you are Black but it is thickly assigned which creates the boundaries and sense of separateness among the different racial groups. Identifying oneself as Black is essential for a member of the Black minority group if they wish to avoid self conflict. Wishing that you were not Black or attempting to be something other than Black only exasperates the issue. This negative view has to do with prejudices which transformed into stereotypes about Black Americans and translated into the negative Black identity which Black adolescents begin to form and even take with them into adulthood. Ones view of what it means to be Black can be fuelled primarily through stereotypes which can lead to a disdain of your own race. This could be expressed in a need to be the opposite of all those stereotypes, which was manifested as the Black kid not sitting at the all Black table (Tatum, 1997, p. 67). He refused to associate himself with those of his race because of the stereotypes that were reflected through â€Å"the looking glass. † This can at times be rectified later in life through exposure to positive examples of Black peoples, particularly those who are college educated. According to the double consciousness, the fact that you are Black is already assigned and therefore asserting it further, is unnecessary. The idea that having a positive Black identity is contingent upon putting your race first is redundant because it is already visible to everyone you come in contact with. It is as if you are a book and your race is the plastic covering around it; people cannot open the book because the plastic is sealed so tightly around it. In order for there to be a positive black identity all that is necessary is a full acceptance of your race and the positive aspects of it. The presence of positive Black role models in the life of a Black youth early on encourages a positive Black identity and expels most of the widely spread negative stereotypes. (Tatum, 1997, p.55). With largely widespread negative views on Black Americans as a whole and stereotypes being perpetuated regularly it is easy for a Black person to feel victimized; caged into a role even. The most readily available images of Black people in the media are often those that portray blacks in dire, downtrodden striates or extreme poverty. Sadly, this generalized portrait of Black Americans is overly, the dramatized and filled with gang violence, illegal drug sale, and so on. This type of life has been glorified in popular music; rappers especially speak of having been poor and having to live in the projects-the only way to survive being crime. Whatever is most commonly projected will be the easiest to accept as your only choice if you are Black. Lack of funding in lower income communities, the majority of which are populated by Black Americans, create low grade schools decreasing the ability or even the possibility for Black minorities to go on to higher education. America is a country built on capitalism; if one group cannot keep up with the dominant group financially they will fall back. Only 30% of Black Americans are impoverished but as a whole, are widely accepted as poor because of the media’s attention on densely populated, majority black communities (Butler-Sweet, 2011, Nov. 10). When this negative view becomes the norm, it is hard for Black youth to see much else, which is often why the minority of Blacks who rise above the negative stereotypes their racial identity is questioned by others of their same race. Since the idea of a middle class and the suburbs is a social class largely dominated by the dominant white group, some would find Black Americans as a part of that middle class to be an oddity. It is automatically assumed that because the White race is dominate in American society that they would have the jobs, the wealth, education and ability to enter seamlessly into the middle class realm and above. However, racial prejudices and stereotypes have made it so that it is quite uncommon to find a Black family in a predominantly White suburb; the symbol of the middle class. Somehow, through hard work, sacrifice or well-off parents, Blacks have managed to go on to higher education and thereafter; higher paying jobs, earning them a spot in the middle class. Unfortunately, this kind of success among Black people of the middle class does not sit well with those that live below it. It is the truest statement to say that personally, growing up in a largely White suburb, endured an intense inquisition about my racial affiliation from my Black peers who were bused in from Hartford. I was told that I â€Å"dressed White†, â€Å"talked White†, and many a time that I was in fact White or an â€Å"Oreo† as they would put it. Many of my White friends would joke around with me that I was not Black. There is nothing more offensive than being told, in so many words, that because your parents were educated, held well paying jobs, bought a house in the suburbs and educated you in a majority White school system, that you were no longer Black; worse even, being scrutinized and ignored by people of your own race because of a difference in social class. Tatum speaks of the same issues in her book, she even states how important it is for young Black people in predominantly White communities to connect with other Black peers to share experiences and increase awareness of daily life outside of the suburbs (Tatum, 1997, p.69-70). One would think that coming to a university with a larger community of Blacks than in my high school would open doors, but sadly I find that the divide is almost completely the same. The Black friends I have made since attending the University of Connecticut have been ones that share a similar background as myself; rarely do non-suburban Black people and I become friends and it is not for lack of effort on my part. I would like to think that I keep a positive attitude towards both Whites and Blacks but because of the stereotypes so deeply ingrained in many of us, it is difficult to lay them down and redirect our way of thinking. It is this reason, among others why other racial and sometimes ethnic minorities have difficulty being accept in America, Asian Ethnic and Racial Identity Construction The entrance into America for Asians is considered to be the first wave of immigration. This wave is relatively recent beginning in the early 19th century with the Chinese who immediately moved out west where the work they were given was largely agricultural. Like all immigrants coming into the United States, the Chinese, Japanese and later other groups like Filipino, Korean, and Vietnamese, among others, all faced discrimination from the dominate White group. When the Chinese first entered they were very hardworking and skilled while working on the transcontinental railroad but having not been in America long enough and having so many Chinese coming in their seemingly flawless work ethic was viewed as a threat by their fellow White workers. After the Chinese Exclusion Act was put into action in 1882, Japanese immigrants began to make their way into America but the same thing happened to them. Their advanced skills in agriculture were considered a threat to the Whites. They were taking their jobs and since farmland is not something that goes away, the Japanese were able to establish themselves a little better than the Chinese (Butler-Sweet, 2011, Nov. 28). The manner in which the group entered into the United States is the reason why their history is so important to their formation of a positive Asian American identify. The entrance of the various Asian groups into the United States and the acceptance of them were bound to be a bit difficult. The size of the group was large enough to be considered a threat to the dominant white group and because they had a tendency to settle down together, making it difficult for them to assimilate into American culture. The second wave of Asian Immigration is a part of present day America and this idea of being threatened by the skillfulness of Asians is still something that the dominant group feels and makes a point to mention often. In the first wave of immigration, the Chinese and Japanese succeeded because the work they found in the United States involved the use of skills they had already cultivated in their specific countries and so the excelled. Here in this second wave it is the same thing; whatever the Asian group is good at in their places of origin are the skills they will take with them when immigrating and that is why this idea of the Model Minority Myth has been created (Monk, 1996, p. 31). Asian American’s ability to succeed so effortlessly it seems, in large part can be attributed to the fact that much like the dominant White group, Asian Americans have the ability to assert their specific ethnicities. Similar to Black Americans, Asian Americans have an assigned race; when it comes to their ethnicities, which hold more value to them than their race, it is of greater significance to how they identify. However, non-Asian groups tend to lump every Asian ethnicity under one â€Å"Pan Asian† label but Asian Americans refuse to accept this (Kibria, 2002, p.73-74). Instead of agreeing with the reflection they see from other people about their race, as mentioned previously in regards to Cooley’s â€Å"Looking Glass Self†, Asian Americans place a great amount of emphasis on their specific country of origin and its traditions and cultures in order to define themselves. In the first wave of immigration, Asian Americans would settle in closely knit communities with their specific ethnic group; in those communities, they would all help each other out making it easier to survive in America. Even today, there are large communities of Asian Americans who choose to live close to each other to keep that sense of having a culture and traditions that separate them from everyone else. Having these tightly knit communities makes it easier for Asian Americans to succeed because they have a constant support group and people to fall back on if they need it (Monk, 1996, p. 37-38). Being in such constant close contact with those who share your culture background and infuse it into daily life definitely helps with forming a positive Asian American identity, regardless of outside influences. Some of the dominant White group believes that if given the chance, over time Asian Americans could have the potential to fully assimilate to American culture and become ultimately â€Å"white. † This idea of racial ethnogenesis is that the later generations of Asian Americans as well as incoming groups of Asians will simply begin to blend into American culture to the point that they will just embrace the racial category they have been placed in and forget about their ethnic background (Kibria , 2002, p. 14). What would this do for the identity construction of Asian Americans? Would their full assimilation into American culture really improve their quality of life anymore? The identity construction of Asian Americans would be so unlike every other identity if they simply assimilated completely into American culture. Letting go of cultural ties and accepting the general name for people of your same race will not improve the quality of life significantly because their race is still visible. Again, culture is a choice, race is not. Although Asian Americans are capable of choosing their ethnic identity and asserting it like the White ethnics, they also share the disadvantage of being assigned to their race like Black Americans because their race like Blacks is very visible. Since their race is visible it creates this aspect of constraint which makes it difficult for people to not see your race and therefore puts limits on how people will treat you or what jobs you can attain. Regardless of the success Asian Americans have in academics and achieving higher paying jobs, there is still a â€Å"glass ceiling† they have to deal with (Monk, 1996, p. 42). The visibility of their race keeps them from being hired as corporate CEOs or being in leadership positions in general. Excelling most commonly in mathematics and sciences often places Asian Americans in behind the scenes type of work that pays well but does not require them to be out in the open as public figures in the corporation. The added factor of an accent for more recent immigrants can also serve as additional restriction to entering into the higher echelons of business (Monk, 1996, p. 43). The positive connotations that come with being Asian American as well as the negative can have an adverse affect in identity construction. Being considered to be a â€Å"Model Minority† definitely can create some hostility especially for second and third generation Asian Americans. When non-Asians assume that you get A’s in school and that you are inherently good at mathematics it becomes a burden (Kibria, 2002, p. 87). Just the same, negative stereotypes about the foods that different Asian American cultures eat or assuming that because certain physical features are similar among the different ethnic groups, they are all the same, can create negative feelings about being Asian American and that is not good for the development of a healthy ethnic or racial identity. The saying â€Å"Asian Invasion† (Monk, 1996, p. 44) is very common I personally even have used it in jest and so have some of my Asian friends; I assumed that its use was okay. Generally, my second generation Asian friends will use this term when talking about either the Asian students who are studying abroad on campus, or in regards to first generation Asian Americans. This makes me wonder if my friends have assimilated enough into the dominant white culture that they no longer can see themselves associating with the incoming Asians. It is hard to determine whether the statement is meant as a joke or a commentary against ethnic Asians. Conclusion Having explained the different forms of identity construction through the examples of White ethnics, Black Americans and Asian Americans it has been made clear that identity construction cannot be viewed the same for a ethnicities and races. White ethnic identity comes in many different shapes sizes and forms ranging from symbolic, non-exisistent, or thinly asserted to a large part of how one identifies or thickly asserted. The option to pick and chose which part of your heritage you prefer over another or not at all is how white ethnics construct their identities. The majority of white ethnics who choose the route of symbolic ethnicity opposed to asserting either thinly or thickly a certain ethnicity is often because the dominant American culture has become of greater value to their identity than anything else and choosing an ethnic symbol to place on themselves is what will separate them from the rest of their fellow white ethnics or bring them closer to someone who holds the same ethnic symbol. Just the same, the constant pressures placed on Black Americans to play multiple roles are a difficult task. Shaping a positive identity of any kind is difficult but to shape a positive Black identity in America holds a certain amount of extra weight to it. Black Americans struggle trying to advance themselves because of the constant racial stereotypes reverberating in the background. If you do manage to elevate into the higher ranks of American life your racial loyalty will then be questioned. Is it possible that over time these stereotypes will dissipate or is there a reason they are kept alive? The unique combination of both ethnic choice and racial constraint makes Asian American identity construction the most interesting form of identity construction so far. Since the first wave of immigration into the second one, Asian Americans have dealt with a slew of racial injustices in America but they have also gained a great deal of merit mostly for being the â€Å"ideal† so to speak. Being hard workers and keeping close ethnic ties have made Asian Americans competition for White ethnics. In the future, whether or not they will completely assimilate or not is questionable and what toll it will take on their identity construction. Having the option to choose a part of your identity which no one can see will never outweigh your racial assignment. What is it, or is it possible to have a truly positive White ethnic or Black or Asian racial identity in America? The constant changes in society make it impossible to know.

Variations of Squat Techniques

Variations of Squat Techniques The Ultimate Exercise The smell of sweat, rubber and rust swirl through the air as an athlete prepares to step under a squat bar loaded with the next weight he is about to move. As the athlete steps under the bar, he thinks about his position and form. Then removes the weight and using proper technique, moves the weight for multiple repetitions before returning the weight back to the rack. The squat is a movement that is extremely useful for people of all ages or gender. This is because it is a natural movement that is found in everyday life. It also has other health benefits that can help improve things like joint pain, muscle mass and tone, as well as cardio vascular health. With proper technique and form, the squat can improve multiple aspects of life. There are many different styles of squatting. Although at the core of it they all are the same motion, each squatting style has its own benefits compared to the others. Some different examples of squat styles include the style most people think of when they think of squatting. This is back squat. There is also front squat and overhead squat. Within each of these styles there are also different variations to these motions to create improvements in different aspects of life. The back squat is the most recognizable form of the squat. This style in itself has many benefits, but to unlock these benefits you must make sure that you have the proper form and technique. This is imperative for your health and safety. According to Dariusz Czaprowski, Ryszard Biernat, and Agnieszka Kà ªdra in their article â€Å"SQUAT – RULES OF PERFORMING AND MOST COMMON MISTAKES Squat – methodology of teaching,† they break down learning the squat into three stages Stage one talks about reshaping the body so that the movement starts with a â€Å"hip hinge (Czaprowski 4).† Czaprowski also states that when people begin their attempt at a squat, they usually begin with bending their knees. This causes â€Å"shearing and compression forces† on the knee. This is why the hip hinge should be the first action when completing the squat. (3) The motion of the squat is the next important stage. This motion is best described in â€Å"Back Squat Exercise: A Primer† by John M. Cissik. He breaks done the motion of the squat into three different phases. These phases are broken down into â€Å"Start, Descend, and Ascend† (Cissik 29). Cissik starts talking about the Start position by saying, At the beginning of the back squat, the barbell is positioned on the squat rack. The athlete should step underneath the bar so that it rests on the back of his/her shoulders. The bar should be positioned where it is comfortable or the athlete. The athlete should stand up and step out of the squat rack. The feet should be even and between hip width and shoulder width apart with the weight on the athlete’s heels. The athlete should look straight ahead or slightly up. Before beginning the descent, the athlete should inflate the chest and pull the shoulders back, this action tightens the muscles along the spine helping to protect the lumbar vertebrae. (29) By performing the steps given here by Cissik, the athlete will have a very safe starting position. One the athlete is in the start position, Cissik then explains step by step the safe way of descending with the weight. This is very important because improper form, as stated before, can take away from the benefits of the exercise as well as increase the possibility for injury. The second phase is the descend. This phase is described by Cissik by saying, From the start position, the athlete descends by pushing the hips back and unlocking the knees. As this is done, the weight remains on the heels. The athlete should squat down until the thighs are parallel to the floor, unless there is an injury that would modify this. As the athlete is descending, the chest needs to remain inflated with the shoulders pulled back. (29) At the bottom of the descend phase immediately starts the third and final stage of the squat the Ascend (Cissik 29). At this point in the squat the athlete is at their lowest point. The article then explains how to perform the Ascend phase: Once the athlete has reached the bottom position, the athlete should reverse directions and stand up. As this is done, the hips and shoulders need to rise up at the same speed to prevent the athlete from toppling forward. The athlete needs to remember to keep the chest inflated and the shoulders back throughout the ascent. (Cissik 29) After the completion of the Ascend phase the athlete has then completed the entire squat. With an understanding of the form and motion of the back squat, why would someone want to add this into their workout program? There are multitudes of benefits that are cited in multiple articles and journals including increased mobility, strength, functional strength, as well as many other benefits to be described later in this paper. The main benefits that many people, men and women, should be interested in are that the squat increases functional strength as well as an increase in flexibility and strength. These will benefit not only in moving weight at a weight room, but also in doing daily activities. The squat motion is an extremely primal motion that has been used since human beings have been on the earth. They have used this motion to hunt food, gather food items such as berries and vegetables, and move obstacles. This is why when an athlete does a squat they not only work their lower body, but they also are working the nervous system (Vales). The squat is also found throughout our day. The functionality of this movement allows us to do things like lift heavy objects and jump to reach an object. The squat also aids in creating proper posture (Cohen). Although men are normally viewed as the type of athlete that would perform a squat, there are also many benefits for women. These include (but are not limited to) aiding in conception and the birthing process, weight loss, muscle toning, and improve balance (Daniel). Squatting in the later weeks of pregnancy helps in the birthing process by opening the pelvic area. This creates a shorter delivery time. It also creases a safer environment for a woman and her baby. Squatting increases balance and leg strength. Gains in these areas decrease the risk of falls protecting both the woman and child (Martinez). Some of the main benefits of a squat come for an athlete or someone trying to become fit. The squat not only helps with the functionality of daily live but also helps with muscle growth, increases testosterone production, increases speed as well as vertical jump, and tones abs and muscles (Vale). Other than the well-known back squat there many other variations of squatting you can incorporate into a workout to activate different muscle groups for specified training. The main squat variations other than your typical back squat include the Front Squat, Over-Head Squat, Zercher Squats, Anderson Squats, Bulgarian Split Squats, and One-Legged Squats. Each of these squats use the same general motion, but all have different techniques to improve your specific areas of fitness (Smith). The first variation most typically used after the Back Squat is the Front squat. This style of squatting consists of holding a barbell across the shoulders on the front side of the body. Placing the bar here trains the quadriceps, core, and the upper back more by putting a greater emphasis on these areas. This squat is also much easier to perform correctly due to the position of the center of gravity. By including this lift into a workout regimen, athletes will gain greater strength in the core and upper back as well as increase balanced leg strength (Smith). The front squat is also a better alternative for people struggling with some back problems. This is because the Front Squat decreases spinal compression as well as spinal flexion and Torque (Behar). The author, Jeff Behar, explains in his article â€Å"7 Benefits of Front Squats† by explaining â€Å"The difficulty of the exercise [The Front Squat] results in less weight being able to be used. Less weight on the bar, equals less spinal compression.† He also tells readers that â€Å"By carrying the bar in the front, you reduce spinal flexion. This makes the Front Squats a safer leg exercise for your back† (Behar). After the Front squat in popularity is the Over Head Squat. This movement helps increase balance, mobility and muscular control by holding a barbell over the head. Also, this variation of the squat helps perfect the Snatch lift. Smith explains this by saying â€Å"The overhead squat strengthens the midpoint of the barbell snatch and is essential to mastering that particular lift.† This lift also emphasizes hip mobility more than any other variation of the squat (Smith). Another squat style that can help you in other aspects of lifting exercises is the Zercher Squat (Smith). In the article, Smith explains the motion of the squat by saying â€Å"With your elbows bent at your side, place the barbell in the crook of your bent elbows. Squat until your elbows go between your knees or the bar touches your thighs. Thats one advantage of the Zercher: It tells you when you reach depth.† This movement is accepted by many lifters that do deadlift due to the similar base of a deadlift movement (Smith). After performing many of these styles, athletes may notice that they â€Å"Bounce† at the bottom of the movement. The Anderson Squat was designed to take away this bounce and create a more honest lift from the bottom of the squat. This lift also helps with control at the bottom of the squat movement. This will help with your other squat movements (Smith). The motion is explained by the author when he says Simply place the barbell on the safety pins in a rack at a height that would be at or near the bottom position of your squat. Be sure to pause between reps with the bar on the safety pins. This will ensure you dont cave to the temptation to bounce for assistance. (Smith) All of the variations of the squat motion talked about so far have required the use of both legs activating at the same time. The last two are different in the fact that you use one leg at a time. The One-Legged squat and Bulgarian Squat both require balance and strength to be performed, but when mastered they both train balance (Smith). This is because your body is more stable when you stand on two legs. The Bulgarian Split is performed similarly to the back squat with position of the barbell. The difference comes when you place one foot behind you. The squat motion is explained by Smith in his article by saying â€Å"Place one foot a few feet behind you on a bench or raised platform. Keeping an upright torso, begin by pushing your hips back, like in a back squat. Allow your back leg to bend at the knee.† This squat uses unilateral movement to correct imbalances between the right and left side of the body. This style of squat can also be done using a Front Squat bar position (Smith). The final squat variation is the One-Legged Squat. This is described by Smith as â€Å"The ultimate test of unilateral strength like the one-armed push-up or pull-up.† This is because the athlete is squatting their bodyweight on a single leg. This variation is very useful in developing balance. Once this motion is mastered, the athlete can then perform the movement while holding light weights (Smith). Although there are many forms and variations to the squat, they all are the same basic motion at its core. This is why the squat is essential to any fitness program. With so many benefits, the squat is so essential to the holistic health and fitness of any athlete at any fitness level. Works Cited Behar, Jeff. 7 Benefits of Front Squats.MuscleMagFitness.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 July 2014. http://www.musclemagfitness.com/fitness-and-exercises/weight-lifting/7-benefits-of-front-squats.html. Cissik, John M. Back Squat Exercise: A Primer.Modern Athlete and Coach(2011): 29-31.UF OneSearch. Web. 25 July 2014. http://metis.findlay.edu:2113/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=da7d75bd-90ab-4944-a0c0-7d198225b8c0%40sessionmgr110vid=2hid=115. Cohen, Ron. A New Persective on Squats, Lunges, and Living Life.Contemplative Fitness. N.p., 6 Mar. 2010. Web. 25 July 2014. http://contemplativefitness.me/2010/03/06/a-new-persective-on-squats-lunges-and-living-life/. CZAPROWSKI, DARIUSZ, RYSZARD BIERNAT, and AGNIESZKA KÊDRA. SQUAT – RULES OF PERFORMING AND MOST COMMON MISTAKES Squat – methodology of teaching.Polish Journal of Sport Tourism19 (2012): 3-7. Web. 23 July 2014. http://metis.findlay.edu:2113/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=95bf5c29-9499-438b-88cb-6403cb194804%40sessionmgr115vid=2hid=115. Daniel, Harri. Benefits of Squats for Women.BenefitOf.com. N.p., 8 June 2011. Web. 25 July 2014. http://benefitof.net/benefits-of-squats-for-women/. Martinez, Eliza. Squats Exercise for Pregnant Women.The Nest. Demand Media, n.d. Web. 25 July 2014. http://woman.thenest.com/squats-exercise-pregnant-women-1072.html. Smith, Christopher. Meet The Squats: 7 Squat Variations You Should Be Doing.BodyBuilding.com. N.p., 10 July 2013. Web. 25 July 2014. http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/meet-the-squats-7-squat-variations-you-should-be-doing.html. Vales, John. The 15 Benefits of Squats.Outlaw Fitness. N.p., 2014. Web. 25 July 2014. http://www.outlawfitnesshq.com/the-15-benefits-of-squats/.

The Indian real estate sector

The Indian real estate sector The Indian real estate sector plays a significant role in the countrys economy. The real estate sector is second only to agriculture in terms of employment generation and contributes heavily towards the gross domestic product (GDP). Almost 5 per cent of the countrys GDP is contributed to by the housing sector. In the next five years, this contribution to the GDP is expected to rise to 6 per cent. According to Jones Lang LaSalle, faster economic growth in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) could result in the property markets of those nations recovering at a faster rate than the UK and US real estate markets. It has also been suggested that Indias property sector could begin to improve from late 2009 and may attract up to US$ 12.11 billion in real estate investment over a five-year period. Almost 80 per cent of real estate developed in India is residential space. According to the Tenth Five Year Plan, there is a shortage of 22.4 million dwelling units. Thus, over the next 10 to 15 years, 80 to 90 million housing dwelling units will have to be constructed with a majority of them catering to middle- and lower-income groups. It is for this reason that residential properties in India, particularly in Mumbai and Delhi, are viewed as very good investments as per a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Urban Land Institute, a global non-profit education and research institute. In the 2009-10 budget, developers of affordable housing projects (units of 1,000-1,500 sq ft) have been granted a tax holiday on profits from projects initiated in the financial year 2007-08. Such projects would have to be completed before March 1, 2012. At the same time, the finance minister allocated US$ 207 million to grant a 1 per cent interest subsidy on home loans up to US$ 20,691, provided the cost of the home is not more than US$ 41,382. This subsidy is expected to give a further boost to the housing sector. An apartment is a self-contained residential unit or section that occupies a part of a building. It can be either owned or rented. Some apartment-dwellers own their apartments as cooperatives, in which the dwellers or residents own shares of a corporation that owns the building or development. In condominiums, residents own their apartments and share ownership of the public spaces. Living in apartments is gaining popularity in India. The Sahara Group has already decided to build 217 townships across India. Their allure lies in the convenience that they offer in terms of safety and security and maintenance of utilities like electricity and water. A central maintenance system obviates the need for hiring outside help for minor problems like leaking taps or electric short circuits. Stand-alone homes also require incurring additional costs like buying/leasing land, licensing, duties, etc. Apartments enable maximization of space utilization and reduce demand on public resources. People are also able to avail of additional amenities like gymnasiums, swimming pools, etc. at affordable prices. There is a gap in the literature, however, with regard to the value drivers that dictate purchase decisions of residential property in the country. Similar studies exist for other countries but were found wanting in the Indian context, especially when it comes to apartments. Through this paper, we aim to do the very same, i.e. establish which factors dictate purchase decision and to what extent. We will also correlate these preferences with the demographic profiles and characteristics of our respondents and hence arrive at a greater and much deeper understanding of these issues. We see immense utility for our paper, especially for builders and property dealers who can use our findings in structuring their own business activities. RESEARCH BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS: Even though consumer behaviour is generally assumed to be an important part of real estate valuation, buyer preferences are generally not considered during the valuation process. It is basically reduced to the confirmation of a bid price which may or may not be met by the buyer. Efforts are being made to address this fault and many papers have been written on the analysis of motivations of residential property purchasers, attempting to explain them using models such as bounded rationality and hedonic pricing. Hedonic Pricing, or Hedonic Demand Theory as it is also known, decomposes the item of interest into constituents and evaluates the importance of each of them and their contribution to the overall valuation. These factors can be both internal characteristics of the good or service and external factors. In the case of real estate valuation, internal characteristics include layout, structure, etc of the property while status of neighbourhood, proximity to schools, etc are the exter nal factors. Factor Analysis enables us to do just that. It is a statistical method that reduces the number of variables by grouping two or more of them into unknown or hidden variables known as factors. Further analysis is then conducted by looking at the variation among these factors and evaluating their relative performance. These factors are taken to be linear combinations of the original variables plus error terms (Richard L. Gorsuch, 1983). Factor analysis seeks to do precisely what humans have been engaged in doing throughout history that is to make order of the apparent chaos of the environment (Child, 1990). It has great use in evaluating consumer behaviour. Charles Spearman is credited with its invention. He used it in the formulation of the g Theory as part of his research on human intelligence (Williams, Zimmerman, Zumbo Ross, 2003). Over the years it has found uses in fields as diverse as psychometrics, marketing, physical sciences and economics. It can be used to segment consumers on the basis of what benefits they want from the product/service (Minhas Jacobs, 1996). It has evolved as a technique over the years, with many researchers working on fine-tuning and improving the analytical process. Bai Ng (2002) developed an econometric theory for factor models of large dimensions. It focused on the determination of the number of factors that should be included in the model. The basic premise of the authors was t hat a large number of variables can be modeled by a small number of reference variables. Marketing strategies based on customer preferences and behaviour often make use of this technique during the market research phase (Ali, Kapoor Moorthy, 2010)[14] and while devising and changing the marketing mix (Ivy, 2008). Factor Analysis has also been used in ground water management to relate the spatial distribution of different chemical parameters to various sources (Love, Hallbauer, Amos Hranova, 2004). The facility of segmentation that factor analysis offers has been extended to the real estate sector and all studies thereof. Regression analyses are subject to aggregation biases and segmented market models yield better results. This segmentation is done using factor analysis Watkins, 1999). Property researchers have also dedicated a lot of attention to researching the preferences of property buyers and identifying the drivers of property value. A study in Melbourne, Australia (Reid Mills, 2004) analyzed the purchase decisions of first time buyers and tried to determine the most influential attributes that affect the purchase decision using factor analysis. The research findings of the paper indicated that financial issues accounted for approximately 30 percent of the variance in the decision of first time owners to buy housing. This related to timing, the choice of housing, and the decision to buy new housing. Apart from that the choice of housing is dependant on Site Specific fac tors (Location) and the decision to buy new housing is dependent on Lifecycle factors, such as family formation, marital status or the size of the existing house. Another study determined that brand, beauty and utility play a defining role in property value (Roulac, 2007). The findings of the paper explain why certain properties command premium prices, relative to other properties. It came to the conclusion that for value determination of high priced properties the overall perception of the brand is the most important factor followed by utility and beauty. Brand names are also very important especially in metropolitan markets as they add to the appeal, distinctiveness of the property. Another way to attract buyers attention is through the mix of neighborhood amenities offered (Benefield, 2009). Neighborhood amenities like tennis courts, clubhouses, golf courses, swimming pool, play park and boating facilities significantly impact property values. Hedonic pricing models in which buye rs are assumed to evaluate property specifics and location attributes separately when they purchase a home have also been used to study housing markets like that of Shenzhen, China (Xu, 2008). The findings suggest that the marginal prices of key housing attributes are not constant. Instead, they vary with the household profile and location. Cluster analysis involves the grouping of similar objects into distinct, mutually exclusive subsets known as clusters. The objective is to group either the data units or the variables into clusters such that the elements within a cluster have a high degree of natural association among themselves while the clusters remain relatively distinct from one another. Mulvey and Crowder (1979)[22] presented and tested an effective optimization algorithm for clustering homogenous data. Punj and Stewart (1983)[23] reviewed the applications of cluster analysis to marketing problems. They presented alternative methods of cluster analysis to evaluate their performance characteristics. They also discussed the issues and problems related to use and validation of cluster analysis methods. The application of cluster analysis in strategic management research was studied by Ketchen and Shook (1996). Their paper chronicles the application of cluster analysis in strategic management research. They analyzed 45 published strategy studies and offered suggestions for improving the application of cluster analysis in future inquiries. They believed that cluster analysis is a useful tool but the technique must be applied prudently in order to ensure the validity of the insights it provides. Since Marketing researchers were introduced to discriminant analysis half a century ago, it has become a widely used analytical tool since they are frequently concerned with the nature and strength of the relationship between group memberships. It is especially useful in profiling characteristics of groups that are the most dominant in terms of discrimination. Morrison (1969) explained how discriminant analysis should be conducted using canned applications and how the effect of independent variables should be determined. However, care must be taken when applying discriminant analysis. The potential for bias in discriminant analysis has long been realized in marketing literature. Frank, Massy and Morrison (1965) showed that sample estimates of predictive power in n-way discriminant analysis are likely to be subject to an upward bias. This bias happens because the discriminant analysis technique tends to fit the sample data in ways that are systematically better than would be expected by chance. Crask and Perreault (1977) looked at the validation problems in small-sample discriminant analysis. http://www.ibef.org/artdispview.aspx?in=60art_id=25260cat_id=381page=1. http://planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/welcome.html. http://www.pwc.com/en_US/us/asset-management/real-estate/assets/emergingtrend s2009.pdf. http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2009-10(I)/ubmain.htm. http://www.sahara.in/press03.html. Australia Richard Reed and Anthony Mills, Identifying the drivers behind housing preferences of first-time owners, February 2004, Journal of Property Management, Vol 25 Issue 3 , Published by Emerald Group Publishing Limited. China Ting Xu, Heterogeneity in housing attribute prices: A study of the interaction behaviour between property specifics, location coordinates and buyers characteristics, International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, 2008, Vol 1, Issue 2, Published by Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Consumer behaviour in the valuation of residential property: A comparative study in the UK, Ireland and Australia, Jacqui Daly, Stuart Gronow, Dave Jenkins and Frances Plimmer, Journal of Property Management, 2003, Volume 21 Issue 5, Page 295 314. A Bounded Rationality framework for property investment behaviour, Anne de Bruin and Susan Flint-Hartle, Massey University, New Zealand. An application of the hedonic price model with uncertain attribute The case of the Peoples Republic of China, Zan Yang, Journal of Property Management, 2001, Volume 19 Issue 1, Page 50 63. Factor Analysis, Richard L. Gorsuch, 1983, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Charles Spearman: British Behavioral Scientist, Williams, R. H., Zimmerman, D. W., Zumbo, B. D. Ross, D. (2003), Human Nature Review. 3: 114-118. Benefit segmentation by factor analysis: an improved method of targeting customers for financial services, Raj Singh Minhas and Everett M. Jacobs, International Journal of Bank Marketing, 1996, Volume 14 Issue 3, Pages 3-13. Buying behaviour of consumers for food products in an emerging economy, Jabir Ali, Sanjeev Kapoor and Janakiraman Moorthy, British Food Journal, 2010, Volume 112 Issue 2, Page 109 124. A new higher education marketing mix: the 7Ps for MBA marketing, Jonathan Ivy, International Journal of Educational Management, 2008, Volume 22Issue 4, Pages 288 299. Love, D., Hallbauer, D.K., Amos, A. and Hranova, R.K. 2004. Factor analysis as a tool in groundwater quality management: two southern African case studies. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 29, 1135-1143. Property valuation and the structure of urban housing markets, Craig Watkins, Journal of Property Investment Finance, 1999, Volume 17 Issue 2, Page 157 175. Identifying the drivers behind housing preferences of first-time owners, Richard Reed and Anthony Mills, February 2004, Journal of Property Management, Vol 25 Issue 3. Brand+Beauty+Utility=Property Value, Stephen E. Roulac, Journal of Property Management, Vol 5 Issue 5, Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Justin D. Benefield, Neighborhood amenity packages, property price, and marketing time, 2009, Journal of Property Management, Vol 27, Issue 5, Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Ting Xu, Heterogeneity in housing attribute prices: A study of the interaction behaviour between property specifics, location coordinates and buyers characteristics, International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, 2008, Vol 1, Issue 2, Emerald Group Publishing Limited. John M. Mulvey and Harlan P. Crowder, Cluster Analysis: An Application of Lagrangian Relaxation, 1979, Management Science, Vol. 25, No. 4, INFORMS. GirishPunj and David W. Stewart, Cluster Analysis in Marketing Research: Review and Suggestions for Application, 1983, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 20, No. 2, American Marketing Association.

Essay --

In the past decade, both the USA and Ireland have experienced huge economic downturn for a number of different reasons. The crisis in the US was largely due to subprime mortgages and mortgage-related securities defaulting between 2006 and 2008. The Irish crisis was more due to the large borrowing by the banking sector from overseas banks which led to overpriced property and unsafe lending by banks for property development. Some people argue that the collapse of the American economy had a large impact on the Irish economy which collapsed in the years following the US crisis. First, let’s focus on the US crisis and the main reasons behind it. The problem began when banks started to issue ‘Ninja Loans’. These were loans that anybody could take out and they didn’t require you to have a job, assets or any type of income. They were offered on teaser rates that jumped by up to 2%. The main issue with these loans was that they were non-recourse, that is, the banks couldn’t chase the owners for money. They only had the house as a security and this made it very easy for people to walk away fr...

Alcoholism :: essays research papers

The following essay will introduce you to pros and cons of drinking. It will also give you a clear understanding in why you shouldn’t drink alcohol. Alcohol is a depressant; it impairs your ability to drive, slows down your reaction time and causes you to make some risky decisions that you wouldn’t normally take. This essay will also help you comprehend how and why things happen, because of alcohol. Alcoholism can kill in many different ways, and in general, people who drink regularly have a higher rate of deaths from injury, violence, and some cancers. The earlier a person begins drinking heavily, the greater their chance of developing serious illnesses later on. Any protection that occurs with moderate alcohol intake appears to be confined to adults over 60 who have risks for heart disease. Adults who drink moderately (about one drink a day) have a lower mortality rate than their non-drinking peers, their risk for untimely death increases with heavier drinking. Alcohol may not cause cancer, but it probably does increase the carcinogenic effects of other substances, such as cigarette smoke. Daily drinking increases the risk for lung, gastric, pancreatic, colorectal, urinary tract, liver, brain cancers, and leukemia. About 75% of cancers of the esophagus and 50% of cancers of the mouth, and throat are attributed to alcoholism. (Wine appears to pose less danger for these cancers than beer or hard liquor.) Smoking combined with drinking enhances risks for most of these cancers dramatically. When women consume as little as one drink a day, they may increase their chances of breast cancer by as much as 30%. In the liver, alcohol converts to an even more toxic substance, which can cause substantial damage. Not eating when drinking and consuming a variety of alcoholic beverages are also factors that increase the risk for liver damage. People with alcoholism are also at higher risk for hepatitis B and C, potentially chronic liver diseases than can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer. People with alcoholism should be immunized against hepatitis B; they may need a higher-than-normal dose of the vaccine for it to be effective. Alcohol has widespread effects on the brain. The use of alcohol, however, eventually produces depression and confusion. In chronic cases, alcoholism can lead to mental disturbances. Alcohol can also cause milder problems, including headaches (especially after drinking red wine). Except in severe cases, the damage is not permanent and abstinence nearly always leads to recovery of normal mental function.

Concert Review and Bio: Tchaikovsky Essay -- essays research papers

Classical Concert   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Who likes classical music anyway? That is a question that you may have found me asking a few months ago. As I have listened to the music in class and on my CD that came with the text book, I have noticed that I am growing a little bit more fond of this style of music. I had never really given it a chance until I started attending my younger sister’s concerts and really paying attention to the music. I have realized that classical music isn’t half bad. modern rock is still the music for me, but I have really learned to like and respect classical music over the last few months. The last classical concert I attended was a Christmas themed concert last week. Along with Christmas favorites and carols, they played a song called Trepak, by Tchaikovsky. I had heard of Tchaikovsky before, but had never seen any of his music performed live.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  My first impression of the concert was that the players were all dressed in black slacks or skirts and white tops. Some of them were wearing festive Santa Clause style hats and some even had garland wrapped around their instruments. The orchestra played first. They were all seated in a very specific order, facing the audience with the conductor standing on a podium in front of them. As they began to play I was very impressed with the level of skill that they played with, being only in high school. It sounded as if I was listening to a...

Like Water for Chocolate Essay

Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Squalevella Bantam Doubleday Dell Pub (Trd); ISBN: 0553472550 Copyright 1994 CHAPTER ONE. JANUARY. Chrutnuw Ro/ INGREDIENTS 1 can of arOin 1/2 choriw aaye oreyano 1 can of chitej rrano 10 haro ro PREPARATION: Take care to chop the onion fine. To keep from crying when you chop it (which is so annoying!), I suggest you place a little bit on your head. The trouble with crying over an onion is that once the chopping gets you started and the tears begin to well up, the next thing you know you just can’t stop. I don’t know whether that’s ever happened to you, but I have to confess it’s happened to me, many times. Mama used to say it was because I was especially sensitive to onions, like my great-aunt, Tita. Tita was so sensitive to onions, any time they were being chopped, they say she would just cry and cry, when she was still in my greatgrandmother’s belly her sobs were so loud that even Nancha, the cook, who was halfdeaf, could hear them easily. Once her wailing got so violent that it brought on an early labor. And before my greatgrandmother could let out a word or even a whimper, Tita made her entrance into this world, prematurely, right there on the kitchen table amid the smells of simmering noodle soup, thyme, bay leaves, and cilantro, steamed milk, garlic, and, of course, onion. Tita had no need for the usual slap on the bottom, because she was already crying as she emerged, maybe that was because she knew then that it would be her lot in life to be denied marriage. The way Nancha told it, Tita was literally washed into this world on a great tide of tears that spilled over the e dge of the table and flooded across the kitchen floor. That afternoon, when the uproar had subsided and the water had been dried up by the sun, Nancha swept up the residue the tears had left on the red stone floor. There was enough salt to fill a ten-pound sack-it was used for cooking and lasted a long time. Thanks to her unusual birth, Tita felt a deep love for the kitchen, where she spent most of her life from the day she was born. When she was only two days old, Tita’s father, my great-grandfather, died of a heart attack and Mama Elena’s milk dried up from the shock. Since there was no such thing as powdered milk in those days, and they couldn’t find a wet nurse anywhere, they were in a panic to satisfy the infant’s hunger. Nancha, who knew everything about cooking-and much more that doesn’t enter the picture until later offered to take chargeof feeding Tita. She felt she had the best chance of `educating the innocent child’s stomach,† even though she had never mauled or had children. Though she didn’t know how to read or write, when it came to cooking she knew everything there was to know. Mama Elena accepted her offer gratefully, she had enough to do between her mourning and the enormous responsibility of running the ranch and it was the ranch that would provide her children the food and education they deserved-without having to worry about feeding a newborn baby on top of everything else. From that day on, Tita’s domain was the kitchen, where she grew vigorous and healthy on a diet of teas and thin corn gruels. This explains the sixth sense Tita developed about everything concerning food. Her eating habits, for example, were attuned to the kitchen routine: in the morning, when she could smell that the beans were ready, at midday, when she sensed the water was ready for plucking the chickens, and in the afternoon, when the dinner bread was baking, Tita knew it was time for her to be fed. Sometimes she would cry for no reason at all, like when Nancha chopped onions, but since they both knew the cause of those tears, they didn’t pay them much mind. They made them a source of entertainment, so that during her childhood Tita didn’t distinguish between tears of laughter and tears of sorrow. For her laughing was a form of crying. Likewise for Tita the joy of living was wrapped up in the delights of food. It wasn’t easy for a person whose knowledge of life was based onthe kitchen to comprehend the outside world. That world was an endless expanse that began at the door between the kitchen and the rest of the house, whereas everything on the kitchen side of that door, on through the door leading to the patio and the kitchen and herb gardens was completely hers-it was Tita’s realm. Her sisters were just the opposite: to them, Tita’s world seemed full of unknown dangers, and they were terrified of it. They felt that playing in the kitchen was foolish and dangerous. But once, Tita managed to convince them to join her in watching the dazzling display made by dancing water drops dribbled on a red hot griddle. While Tita was singing and waving her wet hands in time, showering drops of water down on the griddle so they would â€Å"dance,† Rosaura was cowering in the corner stunned by the display. Gertrudis, on the other hand, found this game enticing, and she threw herself into it with the enthusiasm she always showed where rhythm, movement, or music were involved. Then Rosaura had tried to join them-but since she barely moistened her hands and then shook them gingerly, her efforts didn’t have the desired effect. So Tita tried to move her hands closer to the griddle. Rosaura resisted, and they struggled for control until Tita became annoyed and let go, so that momentum carried Rosaura’s hands onto it. Tita got a terrible spanking for that, and she was forbidden to play with her sisters in her own world. Nancha became her playmate then. Together they made up all sorts of games and activities having to do with cooking. Like the day they saw a man in the village plaza twisting long thin balloons into animal shapes, and they decided to do it with sausages. They didn’t just make real animals, they also made up some of their own, creatures with the neck of a swan, the legs of a dog, the tail of a horse, and on and on. Then there was trouble, however, when the animals had to be taken apart to fry the sausage. Tita refused to do it. The only time she was willing to take them apart was when the sausage was intended for the Christmas rolls she loved so much. Then she not only allowed her animals to be dismantled, she watched them fry with glee. The sausage for the rolls must be fried over very low heat, so that it cooks thoroughly without getting too brown. When done, remove from the heat and add the sardines, which have been deboned ahead of time. Any black spots on the skin should also have been scraped off with a k nife. Combine the onions, chopped chiles, and the ground oregano with the sardines. Let the mixture stand before filling the rolls. Tita enjoyed this step enormously, while the filling was resting, it was very pleasant to savor its aroma, for smells have the power to evoke the past, bringing back sounds and even other smells that have no match in the present. Tita liked to take a deep breath and let the characteristic smoke and smell transport her through the recesses of her memory. It was useless to try to recall the first time she had smelled one of those rolls-she couldn’t, possibly because it had been before she was born. It might have been the unusual combination of sardines and sausages that had called to her and made her decide to trade the peace of ethereal existence in Mama Elena’s belly for life as her daughter, in order to enter the De la Garza family and share their delicious meals and wonderful sausage. On Mama Elena’s ranch, sausage making was a real ritual. The day before, they started peeling garlic, cleaning chiles, and grinding spices. All the women in the family had to participate: Mama Elena, her daughters, Gertrudis, Rosaura, and Tita, Nancha, the cook. And Chencha, the maid. They gathered around the diningroom table in the afternoon, and between the talking and the joking the time flew by until it started to get dark. Then Mama Elena would say: â€Å"That’s it for today.† For a good listener, it is said, a single word will suffice, so when they heard that, they all sprang into action. First they had to clear the table, then they had to assign tasks: one collected the chickens, another drew water for breakfast from the well, a third was in charge of wood for the stove. There would be no ironing, no embroidery, no sewing that day. When it was all finished, they went to their bedrooms to read, say their prayers, and go to sleep. One afternoon, before Mama Elena told them they could leave the table, Tita, who was then fifteen, announced in a trembling voice that Pedro Muzquiz would like to come and speak with her. After an endless silence during which Tita’s soul shrank, Mama Elena asked: â€Å"And why should this gentleman want to come talk to me?† Tita’s answer could barely be heard: â€Å"I don’t know.† Mama Elena threw her a look that seemed to Tita to contain all the years of repression that had flowed over the family, and said: â€Å"If he intends to ask for your hand, tell him not to bother. He’ll be wasting his time and mine too. You know perfectly well that being the youngest daughter means you have to take care of me until the day I die.† With that Mama Elena got slowly to her feet, put her glasses in her apron, and said in a tone of final command: . II â€Å"That’s it for today.† Tita knew that discussion was not one of the forms of communication permitted in Mama Elena’s household, but even so, for the first time in her life, she intended to protest her mother’s ruling. â€Å"But in my opinion â€Å"You don’t have an opinion, and that’s all I want to hear about it. For generations, not a single person in my family has ever questioned this tradition, and no daughter of mine is going to be the one to start.† Tita lowered her head, and the realization of her fate struck her as forcibly as her tears struck the table. From then on they knew, she and the table, that they could never have even the slightest voice in the unknown forces that fated Tita to bow before her mother’s absurd decision, and the table to continue to receive the bitter tears that she had first shed on the day of her birth. Still Tita did not submit. anxieties sprang to her mind. Doubts and the next week she didn’t speak a single word to her. What passed for communication between them resumed when Mama Elena, who was inspecting the clothes each of the women had been sewing, discovered that Tita’s creation, which was the most perfect, had not been basted before it was sewed. â€Å"Congratulations,† she said, â€Å"your stitches are perfect -but you didn’t haste it, did you?† â€Å"No,† answered Tita, astonished that the sentence of silence had been revoked. `Then go and rip it out. Baste it and sew it again and then come and show it to me. And remember that the lazy man and the stingy man end up walking their road twice.† â€Å"But that’s if a person makes a mistake, and you yourself said a moment ago that my sewing was . â€Å"Are you starting up with your rebelliousness again? It’s enough that you have the audacity to break the rules in your sewing.† â€Å"I’m sorry, Mami. I won’t ever do it again.† With that Tita succeeded in calming Mama Elena’s anger. For once she had been very careful, she had called her â€Å"Mami† in the correct tone of voice. Mama Elena felt that the word Mama had a disrespectful sound to it, and so, from the time they were little, she had ordered her daughters to use the word Mami when speaking to her. The only one who resisted, the only one who said the word without the proper deference was Tita, which had earned her plenty of slaps. But how perfectly she had said it this time! Mama Elena took comfort in the hope For one thing, she wanted to know who started this family tradition. It would be nice if she could let that genius know about one little flaw in this perfect plan for taking care of women in their old age. If Tita couldn’t marry and have children, who would take care of her when she got old? Was there a solution in a case like that? Or are daughters who stay home and take care of their mothers not expected to survive too long after the parent’s death? And what about women who marry and can’t have children, who will take care of them? And besides, she’d like to know what kind of studies had established that the youngest daughter and not the eldest is best suited to care for their mother. Had the opinion of the daughter affected by the plan ever been taken into account? If she couldn’t marry, was she at least allowed to experience love? Or not even that? Tita knew perfectly well that all these questions would have to be buried forever in the archive of questions that have no answers. In the De la Garza family, one obeyedimmediately. Ignoring Tita completely, a very angry Mama Elena left the kitchen, and for that she had finally managed to subdue her youngest daughter. Unfortunately her hope was short-lived, for the very next day Pedro Muzquiz appeared at the house, his esteemed father at his side, to ask for Tita’s hand in marriage. His arrival caused a huge uproar, as his visit was completely unexpected. Several days earlier Tita had sent Pedro a message via Nancha’s brother asking him to abandon his suit. The brother swore he had delivered the message to Pedro, and yet, there they were, in the house. Mama Elena received them in the living room, she was extremely polite and explained why it was impossible for Tita to marry. â€Å"But if you really want Pedro to get married, allow me to suggest my daughter Rosaura, who’s just two years older than Tita. She is one hundred percent available, and ready for marriage At that Chencha almost dropped right onto Mama Elena the tray containing coffee and cookies, which she had carried into the living room to offer don Pascual and his son. Excusing herself, she rushed back to the kitchen, where Tita, Rosaura, and Gertrudis were waiting for her to fill them in on every detail about what was going on in the living room. She burst headlong into the room, and they all immediately stopped what they were doing, so as not to miss a word she said. They were together in the kitchen making Christmas Rolls. As the name implies, these rolls are usually prepared around Christmas, but today they were being prepared in honor of Tita’s birthday. She would soon be sixteen years old, and she wanted to celebrate with one of her favorite dishes. â€Å"Isn’t that something? Your ma talks about being ready for marriage like she was dishing up a plate of enchiladas! And the worse thing is, they’re completely different! You can’t just switch tacos and enchiladas like that!† Chencha kept up this kind of running commentary as she told the others-in her own way, of course-about the scene she had just witnessed. Tita knew Chencha sometimes exaggerated and distorted things, so she held her aching heart in check. She would not accept what she had just heard. Feigning calm, she continued cutting the rolls for her sisters and Nancha to fill. It is best to use homemade rolls. Hard rolls can easily be obtained from a bakery, but they should be small, the larger ones are unsuited for this recipe. After filling the rolls, bake for ten minutes and serve hot. For best results, leave the rolls out overnight, wrapped in a cloth, so that the grease from the sausage soaks into the bread. When Tita was finishing wrapping the next day’s rolls, Mama Elena came into the kitchen and informed them that she had agreed to Pedro’s marriage-to Rosaura. Hearing Chencha’s story confirmed, Tita felt her body fill with a wintry chill: in one sharp, quick blast she was so cold and dry her cheeks burned and turned red, red as the apples beside her. That overpowering chill a lasted a long time, and she could find no respite, not even when Nancha told her what she had overheard as she escorted don Pascual Muzquiz and his son to the ranch’s gate. Nancha followed them, walking as quietly as she could in order to hear the conversation between father and son. Don Pascual and Pedro were walking slowly, speaking in low, controlled, angry voices. †Why did you do that, Pedro? It will look ridiculous, your agreeing to marry Rosaura. What happened to the eternal love you swore to Tita? Aren’t you going to keep that vow?† â€Å"Of course I’ll keep it. When you’re told there’s no way you can marry the woman you love and your only hope of being near her is to marry her sister, wouldn’t you do the same?† Nancha didn’t manage to hear the answer, Pulque, the ranch dog, wentrunning by, barking at a rabbit he mistook for a cat. â€Å"So you intend to marry without love?† â€Å"No, Papa, I am going to marry with a great love for Tita that willnever die.† Their voices grew less and less audible, drowned out by the crackling of dried leaves beneath their feet. How strange that Nancha, who was quite hard of hearing by that time, should have claimed to have heard this conversation. Still, Tita thanked Nancha for telling her-but that did not alter the icy feelings she began to have for Pedro. It is said that the deaf can’t hear but can understand. Perhaps Nancha only heard what everyone else was afraid to say. Tita could not get to sleep that night, she could not find the words for what she was feeling. How unfortunate that black holes in space had not yet been discovered, for then she might have understood the black hole in the center of her chest, infinite coldness flowing through it. Whenever she closed her eyes she saw scenes from last Christmas, the first time Pedro and his family had been invited to dinner1 the scenesgrew more and more vivid, and the cold within her grew sharper. Despite the time that had passed since that evening, she remembered it perfectly: the sounds, the smells, the way her new dress had grazed the freshly waxed floor, the look Pedro gave her . . . That look! She had been walking to the table carrying a tray of egg-yolk candies when she first felt his hot gaze burning her skin. She turned her head, and her eyes met Pedro’s. It was then she understood how dough feels when it is plunged into boiling oil. The heat that invaded her body was so real she was afraid she would start to bubble-her face, her stomach, her heart, her breasts-like batter, and unable to endure his gaze she lowered her eyes and hastily crossed the room, to where Gertrudis was pedaling the player piano, playing a waltz called the Eyes of Youth.† She set her tray on a little table in the middle of the room, picked up a glass of Noyo liquor that was in front of her, hardly aware of what she was doing, and sat down next to Paquita Lobo, the De Ia Carzas’ neighbor. But even that distance between herself and Pedro was not enough1 she felt her blood pulsing, searing her veins. A deep flush suffused her face and no matter how she tried she could not find a place for her eyes to rest. Paquita saw that something was bothering her, and with a look of great concern, she asked: â€Å"That liquor is pretty strong, isn’t it?† â€Å"Pardon me?† â€Å"You look a little woozy, Tita. Are you feeling all right?† â€Å"Yes, thank you.† â€Å"You’re old enough to have a little drink on a special occasion, but tell me, you little devil, did your mama say it was okay? I can see you’re excited-you’re shaking and I’m sorry but I must say you’d better not have any more. Yo u wouldn’t want to make a fool of yourself.† That was the last straw! To have Paquita Lobo think she was drunk. She couldn’t allow the tiniest suspicion to remain in Paquita’s mind or she might tell her mother. Tita’s fear of her mother was enough to make her forget Pedro for a moment, and she applied herself to convincing Paquita, any way she could, that she was thinking clearly, that her mind was alert. She chatted with her, she gossiped, she made small talk. She even told her the recipe for this Noyo liquor which was supposed to have had such an effect on her. The liquor is made by soaking four ounces of peaches and a half pound of apricots in water for twenty-four hours to loosen the skin1 next, they are peeled, crushed, and steeped in hot water for fifteen days. Then the liquor is distilled. After two and a half pounds of sugar have been completely dissolved in the water, four ounces of orange-flower water are added, and the mixture is stirred and strained. And so there would be no lingering doubts about her mental and physical well-being, she reminded Paquita, as if it were just an aside, that the water containers held 2.016 liters, no more and no less. So when Mama Elena came over to ask Paquita if she was being properly entertained, she replied enthusiastically. â€Å"Oh yes, perfectly! You have such wonderful daughters. Such fascinating conversation!† Mama Elena sent Tita to the kitchen to get something for the guests. Pedro â€Å"happened† to be walking by at that moment and he offered his help. Tita rushed off to the kitchen without a word. His presence made her extremely uncomfortable. He followed her in, and she quickly sent him off with one of the trays of delicious snacks that had been waiting on the kitchen table. She would never forget the moment their hands accidentally touched as they both slowly bent down to pick up the same tray. That was when Pedro confessed his love. â€Å"Sen on to Tita, I would like to take advantage of this opportunity to be alone with you to tell you that I am deeply in love with you. I know this declaration is presumptuous, and that it’s quite sudden, but it’s so hard to get near you that I decided to tell you tonight. All I ask is that you tell me whether I can hope to win your love.† â€Å"I don’t know what to say . give me time to think.† â€Å"No, no, I can’t! I need an answer now: you don’t have to think about love, you either feel it or you don’t. I am a man of few words, but my word is my pledge. I swear that my love for you will last forever. What about you? Do you feel the same way about me?† â€Å"Yes!† Yes, a thousand times. From that night on she would love him forever. And now she had to give him up. It wasn’t decent to desire your sister’s future husband. She had to try to put him out of her mind somehow, so she could get to sleep. She started to eat the Christmas Roll Nancha had left out on her bureau, along with a glass of milk, this remedy had proven effective many times. Nancha, with all her experience, knew that for Tita there was no pain that wouldn’t disappear if she ate a delicious Christmas Roll. But this time it didn’t work. She felt no relief from the hollow sensation in her stomach. Just the opposite, a wave of nausea flowed over her. She realized that the hollow sensation was not hunger but an icy feeling of grief. She had to get rid of that terrible sensation of cold. First she put on a wool robe and a heavy cloak. The cold still gripped her. Then she put on felt slippers and another two shawls. No good. Finally she went to her sewing box and pulled out the bedspread she had started the day Pedro first spoke of marriage. A bedspread like that, a crocheted one, takes about a year to complete. Exactly the length of time Pedro and Tita had planned to wait before getting married. She decided to use the yarn, not to let it go to waste, and so she worked on the bedspread and wept furiously, weeping and working until dawn, and threw it over herself. It didn’t help at all. Not that night, nor many others, for as long as she lived, could she free herself from that cold. TO BE CONTINUED Next month’s recipe, Chabeta weooina Cake. CHAPTER TWO. FEBRUARY. Chabefa Wany Cake INGREDIENTS. 175 aranw refinco granetlate0 uyar 300 yram cake flour, fteo’ three tim& 17eay arateo peel of one lime PREPARATION: Place five egg yolks, four whole eggs, and the sugar in a large bowl. Beat until the mixture thickens and then add two more whole eggs repeat, adding the remaining eggs tw o at a time until all the eggs have been added. To make the cake for Pedro and Rosaura’s wedding, Tita and Nancha had to multiply this recipe by ten, since they were preparing a cake not for eighteen people but for 180. Therefore, they needed 170 eggs,which meant they had to arrange to have that number of good eggs on thesame day. To get that number of eggs together, they preserved all the eggs laid by the best hens for several weeks. This preserving technique had been employed on the ranch since time immemorial to ensure a supply of this nourishing and indispensable food throughout the winter. The best time to preserve eggs is August or September. The eggs must be very fresh. Nancha preferred to use only eggs laid the same day. The eggs are placed in a cask containing crumbled sheep fodder, allowed to cool, and then covered completely. This will keep the eggs fresh for months. If you want them to keep for more than a year, place the eggs in an earthenware crock and cover them with a ten-percent lime solution. Cover tightly to keep the air out and store in the wine cellar. Tita and Nancha had chosen to use the first method because they didn’t need to keep the eggs fresh for that many months. They had placed the cask containing the preserved eggs between them under the kitchen table and were taking the eggs out of it as they put the cake together. When she had beaten barely a hundred eggs, the phenomenal energy required for the task began to have a bad effect on Tita’s mood. To reach the goal of 170 seemed unimaginable. Tita beat the mixture while Nancha broke the eggs and added them to it. A fit of trembling shook Tita’s body and she broke out in goose bumps when each new egg was broken. The egg whites reminded her of the testicles of the chickens they had castrated the month before. Roosters that are castrated and then fattened up are called capons. The family had decided to serve capons at Pedro and Rosaura’s wedding because they would impress everyone with the quality of the dinner, as much for the amount of work required in their preparation as for the extraordinary flavor of the birds themselves. As soon as the date of the wedding was set for the twelfth of January, they ordered two hundred roosters to be bought for castrating and fattening up. This task fell to Tita and Nancha. Nancha because of her experience and Tita as punishment for feigning a headache to avoid her sister Rosaura’s engagement. â€Å"I won’t stand for disobedience,† Mama Elena told her, â€Å"nor am going to allow you to ruin your sister’s wedding, with your acting like a victim. You’re in charge of all the preparations starting now, and don’t ever let me catch you with a single tear or even a long face, do you hear?†