The Rights Of Women And People Of Color - 1396 Words

In the past two centuries the primary groups which had to fight for such rights were women and people of color. Now in the twenty-first century, a new group which knows no color and/or gender are verbally attacked for such ideas. This community is the homosexual community. Although there is more of a tolerance of homosexual citizens, in general they are still discriminated because often times one is not willing to accept a different lifestyle but rather practice ignorance to the situation. The idea of love for one another is nothing new. It is something that one learns overtime and practices over time. It is a fundamental human right for one to receive respect from peers despite being different. But rather punish one for practicing†¦show more content†¦Fr. Osterreicher argues in his essay â€Å"Nostra Aetate† that all people, despite many different backgrounds are all the same, â€Å"All men form but one community. 1 This is because all stem from one stock which God created to the people the entire earth (cf. Acts 17:26)† (Osterreicher 2). This is not mainly a religious issue but a personal issue that affects us all and for that a call to tolerance means understanding one individual and his/her life. Another way that such a just world is possible is if one refuses to be ignorant and believes in stereotypes. As human beings, we are called to love one another and respect another as well as opinions and lifestyle and yet it is often difficult to do such a thing. There are many reasons why it is difficult to accept a person because of who they are. The most common reason is as said before, one is taught the various prejudices about a group. This happens for many reasons. Often times the ignorance is bliss mantra wins out in philosophy and becomes the normal thought. One is ignorant because one is afraid to challenge the status quo due to retribution. The community is however not the only ones at fault. Usually it also the stereotypes told by outside sources that cause such fear and lack of knowledge. Such is the case for homosexuals in America and other parts of the world. In the 1980’s it was rumored that the AIDS epidemic was started with homosexual

Physician Assisted Dying Cases Essay - 644 Words

Tony Nicklson, a father of two, starves himself to death after the Supreme Court rejects his request to â€Å"die with dignity† with the help of medical professionals. A graduate student faces ten years in jail for shooting his dying brother after the court refused his plea to die. A retired magistrate, suffering from multiple sclerosis, refuses to take any medication or palliatives to help the fight to change the law on physician assisted dying. These are some of the recent headlines telling stories of people fighting to legalize physician aid in dying (PAD). Currently, PAD is illegal in most states except for Oregon, Washington, Montana and Vermont. I believe that PAD is an essential constitutional right, and should be legalized in all†¦show more content†¦Legalizing PAD doesn’t mean legalizing euthanasia. The key difference between these two practices is who administers the lethal dose; Euthanasia requires the physician or other party to administer the leth al dose, which places the responsibility of the physician, whereas PAD requires the patient to take the dose him/herself. In other words, with euthanasia the physician is in control, while with PAD the patient is in control of his own destiny. Advocates for â€Å"the right to die† have been attempting to legalize PAD since 1906. Oregon was the first state in the U.S. to pass the law in 1994. Since then there have been more than 135 legislative proposals in 27 states, most of these bills were either defeated, withdrawn by sponsors, languished with no action taken or are pending like in Pennsylvania, Maine, Massachusetts and New Jersey. To advance the implementation of PAD laws, I suggest establishing several educational programs to raise the public awareness of this matter. Also, to ensure proper compliance with the guidelines, a medical legal committee should be established to investigate the underlying facts of each case reported. Such committee should also keep records and stats for each doctor, hospital and state performing PAD. Opposing parties to PAD usually argue that this practice lowers the value of life and might lead to a higher number of patients giving up on their treatment; however,Show MoreRelatedThe Ethics Of Physician-Assisted Suicide1381 Words   |  6 PagesPhysician-assisted suicide can be the withholding of essential care, but it can also be the administration of lethal drugs either by the patient themselves or by a medical professional to end suffering from incurable diseases (Richmond, 2014). Is it fair to make someone live in chronic pain for the rest of their life when there are options? If someone has tried all options to live and have come to terms with no more options, is it okay to help them end their life? The choices do not come easy andRead MoreThe Case Of The Hippocratic Oath1269 Words   |  6 Pagesdoes not give the patient the right to die with dignity. With advances in medicine, physicians are able to extend a person s life. Unfortunately, medicine is not able to accept t he patient to die as they choose. Hospices are able to make a patient comfortable and feel no pain but again the patient is left to die as the body systematically shuts down. Careful consideration should be given when assisted dying should be instituted and counseling of the patient and the family should be an integralRead MoreEuthanasia And Physician Assisted Suicide1629 Words   |  7 Pagesillnesses or major health problems, assisted suicide creates options to reduce the amount of suffering the patient must enduring. Dying with dignity could be beneficial for not only the person who is dying, but also the person’s family and loved ones. 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For physician-assisted suicide to even be considered the patient must be of sound mind when they are requesting the physician-assisted suicide. To guarantee that the process is carried out correctly a doctor or a witness should be there to prove consciousness. The patient must be diagnosed with a terminal illness, if they are not then there is a possibility for a life. There are many pro’s and con’s to physician-assisted suic ide. If a person is terminally ill theyRead MoreThe Legalization Of Physician Assisted Suicide1720 Words   |  7 PagesIt is obvious discussing physician-assisted suicide is a very controversial issue that is discussed daily by those who wish to die to avoid loss of dignity and also by those who think it is unethical. For physician-assisted suicide to even be considered, the patient must be of sound mind when they are requesting death with dignity. Physician-assisted suicide should be a legal option for people who are unable to end their own lives. However, there should be safeguards to prevent any sort of abuseRead MoreWhy Physician Assisted Suicide Should Be An Available And Accessible Option For Patients1551 Words   |  7 Pages Dying On Your Own Terms Jenell Mote Mohave Community College Nursing I NUR 121 Ms. Goss March 30, 2016 Dying On Your Own Terms Dying on your own terms is a very controversial topic. It seems that both sides of the argument feel very strongly about their position. In this paper, I will argue that physician assisted suicide should be an available and accessible option for patients that are opting to end their lives on their own terms. Choosing to utilize physician assisted suicide can decreaseRead MorePHI 103 Final1311 Words   |  6 Pagesï » ¿ Should Physician-Assisted Suicide Be Legal? Eileen K. Cordova PHI 103 Instuctor James Hardy July 11, 2013 SHOULD PHYSICIAN ASSISTED SUICIDE BE LEGAL Physician-assisted suicide has been a controversial topic for over a decade now. 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Physician assisted suicide (PAS) is only considered a when a patient has a terminal illness and expresses their right to end their life with a physician. This scenario typically takes place when a patient is suffering severely from a terminal illness and it is only a matter of time before they will die. Advocates for PAS have typically had a loved one who is or was suffering through their final stages

Sunshine Chapter 19 Free Essays

string(56) " way I would have chosen to†¦leave this existence\." And Paulie had taken the early shift this morning. (He’d offered.) Okay. We will write a custom essay sample on Sunshine Chapter 19 or any similar topic only for you Order Now My little excursion through nowheresville must have taken no time at all. One of the standard features of nowheresville, maybe, that made a kind of sense, but you didn’t really expect your very own alarming out-of-this-world experiences to align with the science fiction you’d read as a kid. The science fiction you’d outgrown in favor of Christahel and The Chalice of Death. My eyes wandered involuntarily to the gem-festooned goblet. I had to admit my reading had sort of prepared me for an overheated fantasy like this room. About nowheresville I was on my own. Con didn’t look as if he’d suffered any ill effects from his coma, or whatever it had been. I wondered what passed for a near-death experience in a vampire? A slightly misplaced stake? He’d been able to go out foraging, anyway: the bread and the apples were both fresh. â€Å"I wouldn’t have expected you to†¦choose to sit next to a fire,† I said, at random. Sitting next to a fire seemed like the sort of thing only silly, show-offy vampires would do. Like human kids playing chicken in No Town. He didn’t say anything. Oh, good, we’re playing that game again. I ate another apple. He raised his head and shook his hair back in an almost human gesture. Almost. â€Å"We do not need heat as you do,† he said, and I expertly translated the â€Å"we† and â€Å"you† into â€Å"vampires† and â€Å"humans.† â€Å"But we may enjoy it.† Enjoy. I didn’t enjoy thinking about vampires enjoying things. The things they tended to enjoy. â€Å"I enjoy it,† he said, and, surprising me enormously, added, â€Å"it is the warmth of life and the heat of death.† Life as defined by warmth to a chilly vampire? Death by burning, death by the sun? Or the original death of being turned? Maybe he had been harmed by his coma: it was making him introspective. As being bounced off walls appeared to be doing to me. I took a deep breath. â€Å"I – I have had a – a feeling that all was not well with you – for some time,† I said. â€Å"I think it began the night you – healed me. But it took me a while to – to figure out that that was what I was picking up. If I was. If you follow me.† â€Å"Yes,† he said. He didn’t say anything more for the length of time it took me to eat a fourth apple. Hey, they were small. Was it rude to eat, er, food, in front of a vampire? I’d done it before, of course. But if there was a future in congenial vampire-human relations there were grave (so to speak) etiquette questions to be addressed. â€Å"Will you tell me what happened to you?† I said, half irritated at the need (apparently) to drag it out of him, half astonished at my own desire to know. What was this, friendship? Big irony alert. Here we’re both agonizing over this Carthaginian bond business and maybe it’s only that we’re learning to be friends. I could get into fireside sitting as the warmth of life too, probably. Hey, he was still a vampire and I was still a human and there was some other weird stuff, like transmuting and poisoned wounds and nowheresville. Not to mention going out in daylight. But if we were supposed to be friends, I was going to have to get used to the fact that he wasn’t the chatty type. He said, musingly, as if he was listening to his own words as he spoke them, â€Å"I was more wearied by the effort to heal your wound than I realized at once. I had not, you see, ever attempted anything similar before. As I told you, I had to†¦invent certain aspects. Guess others. I am not accustomed to not knowing what I am doing.† One of the advantages of very long life. Lots of time for practice. â€Å"I was careless after I left you. I permitted myself to be preoccupied. I was†¦sensed. By one of Bo’s gang. I needed to escape, and not to let her trace you through me. Another maneuver I am unaccustomed to is protecting the whereabouts of a human.† I had the feeling he was saying something more than, â€Å"And they weren’t going to get anything out of me other than my name, rank, and serial number.† I wondered what a vampire address book would look like: would it have alignments rather than street numbers? What would an alignment index look like? Could one vampire steal another vampire’s address book? â€Å"The first one called for assistance, of course; and they were very†¦persistent, when they caught the trace of you on me as well. I eluded them eventually. It was not easy. I came here. As you found me.† Naked in a dark empty stone room. Vampire convalescence gone wrong. â€Å"You mean you had been like that over a month? You schmuck, why didn’t you call me before?† He looked up at me, and there was undeniably a faint smile on his face. It looked a little grotesque, but not too bad, considering. Nothing like as awful as his laugh, for example. â€Å"It never occurred to me.† I had said to Yolande: Vampires don’t call humans, do they? He looked back at the fire. â€Å"Even if it had, I do not think I would have done so. It would not have occurred to me that you could assist in any way.† â€Å"You called me. You called my name. Once. I wouldn’t have found you if you hadn’t.† â€Å"I heard you calling me. You asked me to answer you.† â€Å"I called you to call me.† â€Å"Yes. Sunshine, do you wish me to apologize again? I will if you desire it. I could not have rescued myself. I was†¦too far away. But I heard you, and I could still answer. You came and†¦brought the rest of me back with you. I am grateful. I thank you. That is not the way I would have chosen to†¦leave this existence. You read "Sunshine Chapter 19" in category "Essay examples" The balance between us has tipped again.† â€Å"Oh, the hell with the damn balance,† I said. â€Å"What I’m thinking is, if you hadn’t needed to protect me, it would have been a lot easier, right? I weaken you, don’t I? Aside from your having got tired already bailing me out that night.† With the blood of a doe. There were times, like now, when the feel of light and warmth was†¦different too. Different like seeing in the dark was different – but differently different. Different in a way I knew didn’t come from a vampire. Is this simple nowness of awareness some gift from her? For a moment there were three of me: there was the human me. There was my tree-self. And my deer-self. Surely we outnumbered the vampire-self? â€Å"Weakened,† he said thoughtfully. â€Å"I think your interpretation of weakness may be distorted. I am physically stronger than any human. I can go without sustenance for longer than any human. But you can derive sustenance from bread and apples, which I cannot. And you can walk under the sun, which I cannot. How do you define weakness?† I was thinking about my experience of bringing the rest of him back. It was a little difficult not to think about comparative weakness when only one of you could fling the other one across a room and into a wall and you were the one that got flung. Okay, I was not going to pursue that line. I sighed. He had already told me he couldn’t stand against Bo alone. Choosing me as an ally might have made more sense to me if getting calories out of bread and apples and going around in daylight had any discernable relevance to the issue. â€Å"Where am I?† I thought he looked puzzled. Another of those vampire-senses-are-different moments, I suppose. â€Å"This is my†¦home,† he said at last. â€Å"You don’t call it home,† I said, interested. â€Å"No. I might call it my†¦earth-place, perhaps. I spend my days here. I have done so for many years.† â€Å"Earth-place? Then we are underground?† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"What about the fireplace?† He looked at me. â€Å"Doesn’t the smoke say ‘Someone’s here’?† â€Å"The smoke is not detectable in the human world.† Oh. Vampires would hold a lot more than one-fifth of the global wealth if they patented a really good air filter. The cynical view of the Voodoo Wars is that the Others had done us humans a favor, by killing enough of us off and thus lowering the level of industrial commerce to a point that we hadn’t managed to commit species suicide by pollution yet, which we otherwise might well have. Even if they looked at it this way, which I doubted, this would not have been pure philanthropy. Demons and Weres, whichever side of the alliance they’d been on, need most of the same things we do, and vampires†¦well. Maybe it depends on your definition of â€Å"philanthropy.† I looked around a little more. The only light was from the fire, and my dark vision was sort of half-confounded by something about this place, maybe just the thundering excess. Still, I could see a lot, and it was all pretty bizarre. The fur I was wrapped up in appeared to be real fur, long and silky, in jagged black and white stripes. I couldn’t think what animal it might be. Something that didn’t exist, perhaps, till a vampire killed it. With the slinky black shirt – and the bruises – I felt like something off the cover of this month’s Bondage and Discipline Exclusive. All I needed was ankle bracelets and a better haircut. The buttons on the back of the sofa I was lying on were tiny gargoyle faces, sticking their tongues out or poking their fingers up their noses. Every now and then they weren’t faces at all, but pairs of buttocks. The sofa itself was some kind of purple plush velvet†¦except that the shadows it laid were lavender. Well , if I could travel through nowheresville I suppose I shouldn’t protest about shadows that were lighter than their source, or about furs from animals that didn’t exist. My knowledge of natural history in black and white didn’t extend much beyond skunks and zebras anyway. Maybe it did exist, whatever it was. The fur could have been dyed, but somehow this didn’t suit my idea of vampire chic. Actually Con didn’t suit my idea of vampire chic. This hectic Gothic sensibility was a surprise. â€Å"Interesting decorating principles,† I said. He glanced around briefly, as if reminding himself what was there. â€Å"My master had a sense of the dramatic.† I was riveted both by my master and had. As in used to have, as in dead, rather than undead? â€Å"Your master?† I said experimentally. â€Å"This is his room.† Silence fell. Con returned to staring motionlessly at the fire. So much for leading questions. I sighed again. Con, to my surprise, stirred. â€Å"Do you wish to hear about my master?† he said. â€Å"Well, yes,† I said. There was a pause, while he, what? Organized his thoughts? Decided what to leave out? â€Å"He turned me,† he said at last. â€Å"I was not†¦appreciative. But I was apt to his purpose. As there was no going back I agreed to do as he wished.† Another pause, and he added, with one of those more-expressionless-than-expressionless expressions, like his more-than-stillness immobility: â€Å"A newly turned vampire is perhaps more vulnerable than you would guess. I was dependent on my master at first, whether I wished it or not, and I†¦chose to let him teach me what I needed to know to survive. That was many years ago, when this was still the New World.† Eek, I thought. Three or four hundred years ago, give or take a few decades, and depending on which Old World explorers you are counting from. That can’t be right: if he was that old, he shouldn’t be able to go out in moonlight. â€Å"He wished to rule here, when the Liberty Wars came, at least†¦unofficially.† The standard human slang was below ground and above ground. Unofficially would be below ground: being the biggest, nastiest junkyard dog of the dark side. Officially would still be pretty unofficial: control another two-fifths of the world economy, presumably, and make our global council into a bit of window-dressing. â€Å"He might have succeeded, but he had bad luck, and a powerful and bitter enemy with better luck. There were not many of my master’s soldiers left after the Liberty Wars. I was one. Much of my master’s vitality left him with the ruin of his ambition. He turned collector instead. Those of his soldiers that had survived the Wars left or were destroyed, one by one, till only I remained. When my master also was destroyed, I was left alone.† I was glad of the warmth of the fire. Con’s voice was low and, as ever, dispassionate, and I had no clue whether he’d been, you know, fond of his master in any way, maybe after he’d got over being un-appreciative of having been turned. What purpose had Con been apt for? I was sure I didn’t want to know. Good. One question that probably wouldn’t get answered that I didn’t have to ask. Why had Con stayed when everyone else left? I remembered him saying a month ago: There are different ways of being what we are. His master before the Liberty Wars sounded like your common or garden-variety world-takeover odin vampire thug, and a powerful one at that. So why had Con stayed? Con who didn’t even run a gang now. More questions not to ask for fear he would answer. But I didn’t have much clue about the working range of vampire emotion. Blood lust. What else? (Other kinds of lust? Maybe it had been†¦life lust, earlier. No, I wasn’t thinking about that.) Did Con get over being unappreciative by getting over being able to feel appreciative? No – Con had just told me he was grateful for being rescued. But gratitude might be a human concept, applicable merely to a situation that demanded some kind of courtesy, as pragmatically meaningless as thank you. Well, at least he’d, hmm, felt that courtesy was demanded. And then there was Bo. The inconvenient bond between Con and me that we were trying to, um, strengthen, without, um, intensity, was because of Bo’s threat to both of us. I did not like where this thought was going. â€Å"Your master’s bitter enemy†¦was it Bo?† â€Å"No. Bo’s master.† Oh well that made it all better immediately. I stuffed a handful of fur in my mouth to stop myself from whimpering. Con looked up at me. Perhaps he thought the bread and apples hadn’t been enough and I was still hungry. â€Å"I destroyed his master. It’s only Bo now.† I bit down on the fur. Pardon me, I thought, if I don’t find this information overwhelmingly reassuring. Only Bo. And his gang, which had chained Con up in a house by a lake not too long ago from which he escaped only by a very curious chance. Con might not fall for that one again but no doubt there were other possibilities. Bo could be assumed to be the resourceful kind of evil fiend. Another of those possibilities had almost got Con a month ago, for example. Why didn’t Con want to post an ad in the sucker personals – there had to be hidden vampire zones on the globenet – asking for his old comrades in arms to return for a bit and give him a hand? He could pass out the contents of his master’s old room as reward, since he didn’t seem too interested in them. If those were real gemstones in my absurd goblet, it was probably worth the national debt of a medium-sized country. Why didn’t he just run a gang, like a normal vampire of his age? Who should have to because he couldn’t go out in moonlight any more. There were so many questions I didn’t want to know the answers to. I pulled the fold of fur back out of my mouth again, and tried to smooth it down. Teethmarks, not to mention spit, probably lowered its value. I felt horribly tired, and alone, despite my companion. Especially because of my companion. I picked up the goblet again – it nearly took two hands; two hands would certainly have been easier, I was just resisting the idea of needing two hands – and teetered it toward my mouth. As it had seemed a long time before the wine hit the bottom pouring it in, it seemed rather a while before it touched my lips, tipping it back out. Drinking straight from the bottle, however, didn’t seem like an option. Not in this room. In Con’s room maybe – the empty one with no furniture. And no fire. I wanted mountains of dough to turn into cinnamon rolls and bread, I wanted an unexpected tour group on a day we’re short of kitchen staff, I wanted a big dinner party to ask for cherry tarts, I wanted to curl up on my balcony with a stack of books and a pot of tea, I wanted Mel’s warm, tattooed arm around me and daylight on my face. I wanted to go home. I wanted my life back. I had been here before. I had once had all that, and I drove out to the lake one night to get away from it. â€Å"What is this thing, anyway?† I said, heaving the goblet up. I conceded, and used two hands. It could be a loving cup. First prize in vampire league sports. You didn’t fill it with champagne, of course; you cut off the heads of the losing team and poured their blood in. Champagne later maybe when they ran out of the hard stuff. â€Å"It is a Cup of Souls from the ceremony of gathering at Oranhallo.† â€Å"What?† I put it down hastily. Just stop asking questions, Sunshine. No wonder it goddam tingled against my goddam hand. Nobody knows where Oranhallo is. Well, nobody who knows is telling the rest of us. It’s not a big issue on the Darkline but it is one of the things that keeps coming up. Among the people who think it exists somewhere you could describe by latitude and longitude, none of the plausible guesses are anywhere near New Arcadia. But there isn’t any consensus on whether it is a geographic place or merely a part of the rite. It is a big magic handlers’ rite, done by clan. The Blaises probably knew how (and where) to do it, but I didn’t. I didn’t know anything about cups of souls or ceremonies of gathering, but I didn’t want to. â€Å"It is one of the few articles in this room that my master was given,† said Con. â€Å"Usually there was some constraint involved.† I bet there was. â€Å"Why would a magic-handler clan want to give something like this to a master vampire? Especially a master vampire.† â€Å"It was not freely given,† Con said after another of his pauses. â€Å"But it was offered and accepted as payment for a task he had undertaken that was to their mutual benefit. There was some choice about the conclusion to this task. This reward was proposed as persuasion to make one choice instead of another. The Cup carries no taint that might distress you.† And your gracious dining accessories don’t run to wineglasses from Boutique Central. â€Å"Then why does it buzz against my skin?† I said crossly. â€Å"Perhaps because it was the Blaise clan that possessed it,† said Con. I jumped off the sofa, staggered, bumped into the little table, and heard the goblet crash to the floor as I ran off into the darkness. I didn’t get far; Con’s master had been a very enterprising collector, and I wasn’t up to the weaving and zigzagging to make my way through the spoils. I collided with something that might have been an ottoman almost at once, and hit the floor even harder than the goblet had, although I didn’t spill. Further note on vampire emotions, if any: don’t expect a vampire to understand the turbulence of human family ties – including broken ones – or maybe it’s that vampires don’t get it about cowardice, and how a good sound human reaction to unwelcome news is to try and run away from it. I picked myself up. More bruises. Oh good. It wasn’t going to be a mere matter of high-necked T-shirts this time; I was going to need an all-over bodysuit plus a bag over my head. I turned around slowly, balancing myself against some great furled spasm of plaster that might have counted, in these surroundings, as an Ionic pillar. Con was standing up, facing me, his back to the fire, haloed by its light. Maybe it was my state of mind, but he suddenly looked far larger and more ominous than he had since before I knew his name. I couldn’t see his face – maybe my dark vision had been further unsettled by my fall – but there was something wrong about his silhouette against the firelight; something wrong about him being surrounded by light at all. I remembered what I had thought that first time, by the lake: predatory. Alien. He wasn’t Con, he was a vampire: inscrutable and deadly. I made my way back toward the fire. I don’t know if I wanted to reclaim Con as my ally, if not my friend, or if it was that there was no point in running away. I had to pass very close to him to reach the fire; there was only one gap among all the arcane bric-a-brac that would let me through. I knelt on the hearthrug – at least there was a hearthrug, even if the hairy fanged head at one end of it didn’t bear close examination – and held my hands out toward the fire. It felt like a real fire. More important, it smelled like a real fire, and when I leaned too close the smoke made my eyes sting. It spat like a real fire too, and since there was no fireguard a spark fell onto the hearthrug. I glanced down; the hearthrug was unexpectedly unprepossessing, the fur short and brownish and patchy, having had sparks fly into it before. A few new burns wouldn’t ruin its looks because it didn’t have any. I felt hearthrugish. I’d never worried about my looks much; I had always had other things to worry about, like making cinnamon rolls and getting enough sleep. But I was beginning to feel rather too burn-marked. Like I’d been lying too near a fire with no fireguard. Did I hear him sit down near me? You don’t hear a vampire coming: I knew this by experience. But this wasn’t any vampire; this was Con. I’d already promised to help him, if I could, because I needed his help. No. I hadn’t promised. But it didn’t matter. The bond was there. I hadn’t ratified any contract, I’d woken up one morning to discover fine print and subclauses stamped all over my body. If I wanted a signature, it was the crescent scar on my breast. It meant I heard him coming even when I didn’t hear him coming. I waited a moment longer before I turned to look at him. Vampire. Dangerous. Unknowable. Seriously creepy. This one’s name was Constantine. We’d met before. Well. â€Å"What do we do now?† I said. â€Å"I take you home,† said Con. â€Å"Okay, that’s today. What about tonight? Tomorrow?† I said. â€Å"We must find Bo.† My stomach cramped. Maybe it was just the apples. I also had to learn that shilly-shallying was not a vampire gift. I wondered if I could teach him to say â€Å"perhaps† and â€Å"not before next week.† I knew this wasn’t going to be a matter of loading up on apple-tree stakes (or table knives) and knocking on Bo’s front door. â€Å"You don’t know where he, uh, lives.† â€Å"No. I had only begun to search, since our meeting by the lake. He is well defended and well garrisoned.† I glanced up at the invisible ceiling. Given the furnishings the ceiling was probably phenomenal. Or antiphenomenal: like Medusa’s head or the eye of a basilisk. â€Å"I hope you are better defended,† I said. â€Å"I hope so too.† I didn’t like hearing a vampire talk about hope. â€Å"My master specially collected things that defend, or could be turned to defense. He felt that his attempt to win what he desired by aggression had failed, and he wished his subsequent seclusion to be uninterrupted.† Gargoyles and tchotchkes: the vampire arsenal. â€Å"I have always preferred solitude, and have improved on his arrangements. I have some reason to believe that if I never left this place no one would be able to come to me.† â€Å"You are forgetting the road through nowheresville,† I said. Feelingly. â€Å"I am not forgetting,† he said. â€Å"I am assailable by you in a way I am assailable to no one and nothing else.† How to cite Sunshine Chapter 19, Essay examples

Strategic Direction Sustainability

Question: Discuss about the Strategic Directionfor Sustainability. Answer: Strategic Direction for the Sustainability The strategic direction and the sustainability of the business model is one of the important aspects of the long term perspective of the business. Sustainability is the approach where the organisation secures the future of the business to keep the business running like the current operation (Colbert and Kurucz, 2007). In this approach the future business need and adjustment according to that is also get the high priority. The company Voyage is currently going through the same type of crisis where the current dip in the profit figure forced the management to derive effective strategic direction for the business to have the sustainable status of the business. The seriousness of the problem can be understood from the operational data of the business. The sales number of the yachts is showing the trend of the business. The sales number is decreasing as the figure showers that the company was able to sell 39, 32 and 29 yachts for the year 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively. Looking at the rejection number the situation is also grim there. The number of rejection is 4, 5 and 5 for the year 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively. These figures show the rejection is on rise and sales are slowing down. That means the designs or the marketing of the product is not effective and that is affecting the sales. The private distribution channel is used for the sales process in the organisation. This is also not resulting in the sales figure (Wheelen and Hunger, 2011). Looking at the scenario the business reduced the production of the yachts and the reduction figures are 50, 47 and 43 for the year 2013, 2014 and 2015. But at the same time the inventory figures are rising and there the figures are 195880000, 451332000 and 688681000 for the year 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively. That means in spite of slowing down the operation the business cannot meet the target sales (Castro and Chousa, 2006). The situation becomes much clearer from the 2015 budget. There the business planed to manufacture 43 yachts but against the 43 yachts produced the organisation is able to sale only 29 of them. The actual figure is 32.3% lower than the budgeted figure. The liquidity figure is also decreasing as the cash balance is dropping (Penman and Penman, 2007).In 2015 the actual cash balance is 100523000 against the 172728000 budgeted amount. If the scenario keep on going the business would have serious liquidity crisis. From the operational data it is clear that the business need to clear the inventory and increase the cash balance figure. On the other hand the financial data show that the sales revenue figure is decreasing in the business. The figure dropped from 1124615000 to 986609000 to 891469000 for the year 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively. The figure drops 9.6% in the year 2015 whereas the cost of sale dropped 8.9% during the 2014 to 2015. That means that some of the marketing expense for the entertainment of the high net worth in selling process may not be producing the sales value (Penman and Penman, 2007). In that context the business need to rethink about the sales strategy. The profitability figure is on the downward trend. The drop in profitability is 19.4% from the year 2013 to 2014. The figure for the 2014 to 2015 is 54.36%. This is huge problem for the business (Castro and Chousa, 2006). This kind of drop in profitability trend would lead to loss making situation for the business. That means there is not only urgent need to increase the revenue but also with improved margin in the business (Hamel, 2012) . The actual profit figure is 29.9% lower than the budgeted figure in the business. This means that there is serious budget planning in the business and that is why the differentness is high. Now the proposal for the business strategic improvement is to exploiting the social media marketing platform and selling the high end product to the mid segment of the market. The product and service differentiation technique would reduce the risk of the business and may increase the number of sales and total sales revenue. But the margin would be low in the mid segment. At present the business has large inventory position and those are made from the input of the marketing department to follow the current market design trend (Peteraf et al., 2014). To avoid the potential write-off situation of the stocks, the business should use the discounts to sell the products rather than incurring the expense in the marketing promotion through the entertainment of the high net worth individual client. The margin would improve in the mid segment if the organisation follows the different promotion technique in the social media setup rather than incurring high expenses for the entertainment. The inp ut from the marketing department about the design requirements need to be further specified and researched with increasing the production efficiency, so that the rejection figure can be reduced. The business need to create two separate brands for two different segments (Wheelen and Hunger, 2011).In that case there would not be perception problem in the mind of two different customers. This approach would help the company to sell the product to the high net worth individual with higher margin and at the same time the mid segment would also find high value in the luxury yachts (Hamel, 2012). Now the customise facility would only be there in the high segment of the market to increase the value proposition of the customer. For the mid segment there would be standard up to date high end luxury yachts. In the mid segment the sales figure need to increase so that organisation can benefit from the economic scale. Reduction in the promotional cost, use of high economy of scale cost cutting i n the operational process would help to maintain the good margin in the mid segment. All of these approaches would increase the cash flow with reduced inventory; enhance the profit margin and reduction in the risk of the business because of diversification. Style of Budgeting Two type of budgeting are applicable in this type of scenario. The authoritative style of budgeting is the approach where the top management of the organisation decides the goals of the organisation and then make the budget according to those goals. In this type of budgeting the involvement of the mid and low level of management and other employee are low in the organisation (Pilkington and Crowther, 2007). There are some advantages in the authoritative style. The decision making is fast and the control factor is high in this type of budgeting. In the current situation the Voyage is going through some difficult phase where the profitability and sustainability is at stake. In this situation the prompt action is needed and that may suit authoritative style. This approach would make the process fast and the coordination with the marketing, finance operation and other department of Voyage would be effective (Hope and Fraser, 2013).The implementation of the diversification plan would be f ast and the process would be controlled one. But there are other roles of budgeting like communicating the goals, motivating the employees in the goal persuasion. In the authoritative style of budgeting the other staffs and management may feel low motivation because of lower participation level. Because of the low motivation the other management may not effectively communicate the plans (Pilkington and Crowther, 2007). So at the end the goal may not be achieved because of the lack of coordination. The current situation in Voyage is difficult and a well coordinated and motivated approach would be useful. On the other hand the participatory approach the impacted management and the staffs participate in the budgeting process. In the Voyage the marketing department provides the inputs in the manufacturing process. The marketing department provides estimation for the budget for the entertainment of high segment customer to promote and sell the product. The operation department are concerned about the manufacturing facility and stock position. The finance department would be concerned about the margin in the business. In that context the participative approach would be useful to consider the individual plan and goals of the department and different level of management, in the persuasion of diversification goal persuasion. This approach is useful for setting some realistic goal where the other management and employees are motivated to pursue it (Chong et al., 2006). The other management levels also feel responsible in this type of budgeting as they were in the participation process. This w ould help in the better implementation of the process. But in this type of budgeting the top management of the organisation need to provide the leadership. Otherwise the self imposition of the budgetary plan would lack in persuasive force the result would not be according to the expectation. Increase in profitability in Voyage means the efficiency in production, increase in sales, and proper investment in different sales channel development and cost reduction in the operation. This all round approach would be possible in the participatory budgeting approach with the adequate involvement of the top management (Hope and Fraser, 2013). The involvement of the top management would enhance the decision making ability of the process. The evaluation of the performance would be based on the reality rather than an imposed target by the top management of the company. The budget of 2015 shows that there is greater variation in the actual and the budget figure. The actual profit is 29.9% lower t han the budgeted figure (Chong et al., 2006). The actual performance missed the budgeted figure by one third. The participative budget would help in the reduction of difference and low level of stock pile up. Taking the entire thing under consideration the predicative budget is appropriate in the organisation. Pricing Strategy The pricing strategy is useful for mainly three reasons. That is to increase the profit or sale or to maintain the status quo. The aggressive pricing policy by the competitor would impact the sale and the profitability of the Voyage. In that context the new pricing policy would be useful for the organisation to maintain or increase the profit level with increasing sale or through increased margin of the business. There is various pricing policy that the organisation can follow and those are mentioned below. Cost plus pricing- in this type of pricing the fixed and variable cost are calculated for per unit basis. Then a desired profit level is added with the cost value in percentage basis to arrive at the product pricing (Jain and Haley, 2009).This is easy process and be changed when required with less complication. In this approach the efficiency part is overlooked for the increase in margin. Penetrating pricing- to increase the market share with increasing sales volume in this type of pricing the price of the product are kept at low level of the market price. This type of pricing is useful for new market entry or in low market share position. After the achievement of the market share the price of the product are gradually increased. Economic pricing- in this strategy the price of the product or the service is kept at minimum to reach high sale volume (Jain and Haley, 2009).The high sale volume would help to achieve the economy of scale. In this approach the overhead cost, cost of marketing are kept low to produce the product in such low cost. Skimming- this type of pricing is useful for the innovative product type and in this approach the price are kept relatively high at the beginning. The reduction of the price happens after recovery of the large investment. Premium- in this strategy the price is set above the price set by the competitor (Hinterhuber, 2008). This policy is useful for the unique product that has great value for the customer. [Source: www.marketingteacher.com] To understand the best pricing policy for the Voyage, the above matrix would be useful for the purpose. The product of the company is the high end luxury yachts. That means the quality of the product is high. Till date the organisation is selling the product in high price by following the premium pricing strategy. But in recent time the competitor is playing on price to achieve greater market share. Now the business has two options. That is to decrease the price for a while by following the penetrating pricing strategy to capture the bigger market share. On the other hand the company can add much more value to its product and increase the price a bit to increase profit with increase in the margin. The penetrating pricing policy is useful for the new entrant as they low limited value perception in the mind of customer. But Voyage is in the market for long and there is high value proposition for the customer of the company (Hinterhuber, 2008). In that context the penetrating pricing wo uld reduce the value perception. That is why the company would use the premium pricing with the development of new value for the customer. Reference Castro, N. R., Chousa, J. P. (2006). An integrated framework for the financial analysis of sustainability.Business Strategy and the Environment,15(5), 322-333. Chong, V. K., Eggleton, I. R., Leong, M. K. (2006). The multiple roles of participative budgeting on job performance.Advances in accounting,22, 67-95. Colbert, B. A., Kurucz, E. C. (2007). Three conceptions of triple bottom line business sustainability and the role for HRM.People and Strategy,30(1), 21. Hamel, G. (2012). What matters now.Strategic Direction,28(9). Hinterhuber, A. (2008). Customer value-based pricing strategies: why companies resist.Journal of business strategy,29(4), 41-50. Hope, J., Fraser, R. (2013).Beyond budgeting: how managers can break free from the annual performance trap. Harvard Business Press. Jain, S. C., Haley, G. T. (2009).Marketing planning and strategy. Cincinnati South-Western Publishing Company 1985.. Penman, S. H., Penman, S. H. (2007).Financial statement analysis and security valuation(p. 476). New York: McGraw-Hill. Peteraf, M., Gamble, J., Thompson Jr, A. (2014).Essentials of strategic management: The quest for competitive advantage. McGraw-Hill Education. Pilkington, M., Crowther, D. (2007). Budgeting and control.Financial Management,3. Wheelen, T. L., Hunger, J. D. (2011).Concepts in strategic management and business policy. Pearson Education India.