Christian and Wiccan beliefs Essay

Two miles south of where Mary Anne lived, I encountered Sheila, a 36 year old self-professed astrology and tarot card reader working part-time for a local pharmacy. My initial data revealed that Sheila belonged to the Wiccan Rede principle which is currently considered radical among traditional Wiccan groups. Fortunately, Sheila was at home on her day-off and was talking animatedly with a client in her front porch. While waiting for her client to leave, I was allowed to wander around her house which was surrounded by huge trees making her home look gloomy. After a few minutes, I was ushered in and Sheila welcomed me graciously knowing full well about my intentions. She began by explaining how their group had grown lesser over the years as the other wiccan practitioners complained on the religious incorporation of Christian and Wiccan beliefs. Sheila added that the element of Wicca which includes fertility and reincarnation is incorporated in the key points of the divinity of Jehovah, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit as retained from Christianity that was also quoted in Guiley (1999). According to her, the combination of two religions, which was traditionally at odds with one another, is frequently criticized by members of other wiccan sects. For her, there is no other One God as the greatest and the Lord of all and that the Earth is the Goddess of common Wicca. She has equated the Holy Spirit as a Feminine deity that may be regarded as the Great Mother Goddess similar to the Christian thought. With this in mind, she showed me a picture of the Madonna and Child and claimed that the Holy Spirit is actually embodied in the Virgin Mary. Their small liberalized group was initiated by the BTW or the British Traditional Witchcraft coven. They were widely criticized according to her because many Wiccan practitioners consider Christianity to be incompatible with the pagan philosophy. She added that the merging of Christian and pagan beliefs was considered a lambaste to the Wiccan religion since the Christian faith is male-dominated and an insufficient acceptance of true Wiccan belief. She explained that Wicca, as a ditheistic religion may contain a male god and female goddess giving equal emphasis to the aspects of both divine beings. Admittedly, she said that the principal tenets of Christian Wicca elevate the status of a God which altogether makes it different as there is no equality between the male and female according to Guiley (1999). In the elements of nature symbolically represented by different objects, the Christian wicca believes in the instance of crystals and stones as objects for the element earth, and seashells for the water element in Salomonsen (2002). Sheila added that their group also worships and observes the eight sabbats of the year and the full moon. Most of the practitioners in their group may practice in solitaries but do attend gatherings and other community events but reserve other rituals when they are alone. Their initiation into a coven begins with a one-year study before the actual initiation that spins a religious dedication. She related her initial experience at the thrill of being able to join the coven six years ago which had been a long time dream for her. She had already ventured in yoga and Asian Buddhism before finally exploring the Christian wicca. Sheila unlike Mary Ann does not want to show me her altar and her wares but pointed out a small hut beside the family house as her â€Å"solitary camp† to prevent family members from disturbing her. For Sheila, wicca should not be mistaken for witchcraft as they are simply a religion with ethical standards to live by.

ASIA PACIFIC BUSINESS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

ASIA PACIFIC BUSINESS - Essay Example Looking at the economic growth and development of Asia Pacific, clearly, such developments were due to state policy recommendations (Kraemer, Gurbaxani and King, 1992). For instance, in China and South Korea it emerges that the competitiveness of the economies was sharpened by an active role played by the state in both cases. In the realization of economic development in Asia Pacific region, the state is active in pursuing trade and industrial policies, fostering of human resource development, and in managing the financial sector. As such, the transition of most economies in this region from import-substituting to export-led growth strategies was a strategy to move from interventionist economy to market free economy. The countries affected included Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea, and China. Although this was a measure put in place, no doubt the state intervention continued to arbitrate in the pursuit of trade and industrial policies especially in the period of 1960s through 1970s. The refore, the involvement has continued to manifest through the protection of import-competing sectors in the Asia Pacific region. The region in the 1980s had higher real tariff rates for imports in order to spur their growth rate and protect their industries. The real tariff rates in China and Taiwan, for instance, was 7.60 in 1983 as compared to that of US, which was at 3.24 while Singapore was at 1.83. This was an indication that Taiwan among other countries of Asia Pacific region was ready to protect their locally produced goods. During the transition period to export growth in the region, the states supported numerous mechanisms, which included the creation of uniform and almost equilibrium exchange rates. These exchange rates would then replace the multiple rate structures that were in operation at the time. The support of the state was evident during the time they waited for share of permissible imports to increase then they

Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 16

Case Study - Essay Example However; the company development has gone unnoticed due to poor marketing strategies. The company has avoided external capital for 15 years and it has also developed a fear of venture capital and this has prevented it to rise in profitability for long. The company recently partnered with which has strengthened TEOCO without changing the culture of our organization. This paper therefore seeks to analyze the business environment and strategies of TEOCO Company analyzing various factors that contribute to its success. Over the years there have been external forces and industry conditions that have contributed to its performance. The external forces that include competition have affected the company’s performance to a greater level. This competitors Vibrant and Broad margin have been at the forefront in the provision of the same products. The competitors had low prices and this gave TEOCO Company really tough time to make profits and this affected the performance. The company conditions also affected the company performance at a greater extent. There has been a partnership agreement with TA Associates. The firm had made a minority equity investment of $60 million in TEOCO.This has boosted the capital base of the TEOCO company which was at the verge of collapsing. This has enabled the company to further increase its profitability. TA Associates which is the largest private equity firms in the country, managing more than $16 billion in capital by 2009, had an impressive network of relationships. This is important in the growth of TEOCO which tend to enjoy the free marketing of their services. The partnering company has also extensive knowledge of the industry. This enables TEOCO to be able to develop the products that are needed in the market. This enables the company to be able to meet the demand of the of the current market through having a shared knowledge of the

Super Bowl Ads Do They Work Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Super Bowl Ads Do They Work - Research Paper Example Because of such high viewership of Super Bowl, it serves as a unique platform for advertisers and marketers to sell their product. The commercial airtime during Super Bowl broadcast is most expensive and therefore, companies create their most unique and expensive advertisements to be aired during Super Bowl game. As a result, watching and discussing the broadcast's commercials has become a significant aspect of the event. DATA ON COSTS In 2011, Super Bowl game had the largest television audience of a U.S. program ever and therefore, companies willingly paid up to $3 million for a 30 second slot during Super Bowl broadcast. This year the viewership of the Super Bowl game reached 111 million people, some of which tuned in to watch the game, while many of the others tuned in to only watch the commercials. The high price tag of the commercials assures that they will be spectacular and innovative in most cases. The commercials are often highly anticipated, generating much buzz even before the game is played usually because of their innovation or sense of humor. (Reporter, 2011) WHY SPEND THE ADVERTISING DOLLARS Thomas Harpointner, CEO of the e-business and interactive consulting company AIS Media, says "The Super Bowl commercials are the most talked-about commercials on the planet," he said. "And that's what makes the commercials and the opportunity to advertise on the Super Bowl so special. So for a company that is just launching, or launching a new product line, or is making a big company shift, the Super Bowl offers a unique platform." (Schy, 2010) Therefore, companies avail this opportunity of Super Bowl platform to advertise their product even at a very high cost. They make special and high budget ads to be aired specially during Super Bowl game, which has also made Super Bowl advertising as one of the most watched out time of the year for marketers as well. EXPLORATION OF SOME SUCCESSFUL COMPANIES SUCCESS OF PEPSI CO. SUPER BOWL ADS In 2010, for the first time in 23 years Pepsi did not run an ad during the Super Bowl itself despite the fact that it was the official NFL sponsor. However, in 2011, Pepsi Co. became one of the game's biggest ad spenders when it bought three 30-second Pepsi Max spots, along with three spots for Doritos in the game on Fox. This marked the partnership of Pepsi Co.’s Doritos and Pepsi Max brands to launch a campaign in which consumers were to submit ads for the slots to be run during Super Bowl broadcast. Entrants will submit creative ads via a dedicated site at crashthesuperbowl.com, out of which ten ads will be shortlisted and announced in January. Then, consumers will vote for their favorite ads after which PepsiCo executives would be selecting the final two ads. Each of the ten finalists will receive $25,000 in prize money and a trip to Dallas to attend the game in a private luxury suite. The six winners will be awarded a maximum of $5 million, depending on the success of their ads in USA Today's Ad M eter panel, and a contract to create additional ads for the two brands in 2011. The idea turned out to be in favor of Pepsi Co. as according to Ace Metrix, analytics agency, the Pepsi ads scored higher than most beer brands, says CEO Peter Daboll, "certainly Doritos and Pepsi Max are the anti-celebrity ads. I mean, basically, people filmed these in their garages, and they actually did better than some of the high-priced ads

Death Marches of the Holocaust Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Death Marches of the Holocaust - Essay Example fall into enemy hands alive to tell their stories to Allied and Soviet liberators (2) The SS thought they needed prisoners to maintain production of armaments wherever possible (3) Some SS leaders, including Himmler, believed irrationally that they could use Jewish concentration camp prisoners as hostages to bargain for a separate peace in the west that would guarantee the survival of the Nazi regime (Holocaust Encyclopedia). Thus, one is clear that the Germans prevented the prisoners escaping from the concentration camps, and if anybody attempts to escape or protest against this injustice, they would either be severely tortured or killed. Evacuation The evacuation of the soldiers was so brutal that thousands of prisoners were forced to move through a worst climate. According to Yehuda Bauer, on January 18, 1945, about 66,020 â€Å"†¦starving prisoners were marched out of the camp shivering in the bitter winter cold dressed in the now familiar thin, striped clothed and wearing, for the most part, only wooden shoes or sandals where their feet were not covered in rags† (Bauer 1). The words of Bauer exactly portray the picture of the Death marches. He further adds that the prisoners were treated as animals and â€Å"were either forced to march on foot, driven relentlessly and senselessly through the snow-covered countryside, beaten and starved, anyone lagging behind would shot without mercy; or they were herded, 80 to 100 persons or more, onto uncovered railway cars without water or food for days on end† (Bauer 1). Historical analysis reveals that the Death Marches continued for about four months till the defeat of the Germans. After effect of the evacuation As stated earlier, the Death Marches, as the names symbolizes, were really marches of death. Jennifer Rosenberg... This essay discusses that the evacuation of the soldiers was so brutal that thousands of prisoners were forced to move through the worst climate. On January 18, 1945, about 66,020 â€Å"†¦starving prisoners were marched out of the camp shivering in the bitter winter cold dressed in the now familiar thin, striped clothed and wearing, for the most part, only wooden shoes or sandals where their feet were not covered in rags†. The words of Bauer exactly portray the picture of the Death marches. He further adds that the prisoners were treated as animals and â€Å"were either forced to march on foot, driven relentlessly and senselessly through the snow-covered countryside, beaten and starved, anyone lagging behind would shot without mercy; or they were herded, 80 to 100 persons or more, onto uncovered railway cars without water or food for days on end†. Historical analysis reveals that the Death Marches continued for about four months till the defeat of the Germans. Some of the studies have identified that even after the death marches still there remained about 70000 prisoners in the concentration camps. It has also been identified that at least a quarter of a million prisoners were sent on death marches which lasted for weeks and hundreds of kilometers. The death marches continued to the very day of German fall. It was unparallel in history that majority of the survivors are of the opinion that it would be better to be killed in the gas chambers than undergoing all these tortures. Thus it unearths the fate of the prisoners in the Death Marches.

Halil Inalcik and Marshall Hodgsons views on the Ottoman Empire Term Paper

Halil Inalcik and Marshall Hodgsons views on the Ottoman Empire - Term Paper Example There was an accepted mode of coexistence that was not occasionally as disruptive as a society as such would be in the modern world. This, however, did not mean that the different religious factions existed in absolute peace without any animosity or bad blood. On the contrary, there were documented cases of massacres and discrimination all over the empire that seemed to have been sparked by hatred and a religious bias.   The breakdown of the empire of the Seljuk Turks was the catalyst in the formation of the Ottoman Empire1 which was one of the few surviving empires at the time. The Ottoman Empire started as one of the small states that were formed after the initial breakdown and existed as thus for a longer period of time before the reign of Muhammad II saw the absorption of all neighboring Turkish states in one unified monarch that was referred to as the Ottoman Empire. The rulers in the Ottoman Empire were primarily the descendants of Ghazi warriors who were very successful in t he formation of a superpower in Europe at the time when all the other empires around them were disintegrating2. The Ottoman Empire existed peacefully with the other nations around it except for the occasional war that was primarily aimed at expanding trade routes or spreading the holy word of Islam. An alliance between the French and the Turks was formed later on with the driving force being a common enemy in Austria Hapsburg and Spain although it did not have much in the bearing of war. The then leader Sulayman (popularly referred to as Sulayman the magnificent) of the Ottoman Empire was responsible for creating this alliance. He was instrumental in the organization of the judicial system among many other accolades that he had and he was arguably one of the most successful rulers of the empire if not the greatest. In addition, his reign saw the flowering of Turkish literature, Ottoman architecture, and arts which served to expand the reach of the empire as scholars were attracted b y them. Furthermore, traders also followed suit as the world was beginning to have an appreciation for the arts and literature although every culture had its own. The leader of the Ottoman Empire was popularly referred to as the sultan. The sultan was primarily charged with upholding the Muslim canonical law among many other implied responsibilities which were overshadowed by the fact that he was viewed as the representative of the Muslim God, Allah, on the ottomans. After the death of Sulayman, the Janissaries, who were largely Christians converted to Islam and trained to be deadly in war gained power and this was the cue for the empire to begin crumbling. Corruption then became the order of the day as the holders of the office of the day were charged with fleecing the people as they scrambled to keep what they would for themselves at the expense of the very people they were meant to be representative of. The first signs of the waning power of the empire lost in the battlefront, wi th enemies aligning with Austria in a bid to ceasing parts of the territory that was initially under the Ottoman Empire.

Juvenile Courts Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Juvenile Courts - Coursework Example Some juveniles lacked the cognitive capacity to judge between the â€Å"good† and â€Å"bad† calling for proper counselling and rehabilitation for a given duration. According to the article, the intent of juvenile court establishment has changed with time. Juvenile courts were not meant to punish juvenile offenders but to give guidance through rehabilitation and counselling programs (Soulier & Charles, 2010). Juveniles, as mentioned in the article, lack the cognitive capacity to commit an offense intentionally. This is because they are still in the developmental stage and through rehabilitation and counselling, they get to realise their mistakes or offenses. Today, some juvenile offenses are channelled to the adult courts and this is contrary to the initial juvenile court act as depicted by the article (Soulier & Charles, 2010). In the adult courts, criminals or offenders are subjected to harsh and weighty punishments that tend to be unbearable to the juvenile. A juvenile being in the developmental stage, should be advised and engaged in activities that boost their cognitive stamina or capacity. Many juveniles who have been incarcerated tend to repeat similar offenses due to lack of proper guidance. Some juveniles may also commit an offense due to psychological or mental problems. This makes it necessary to conduct medical examination on a juvenile and administer possible psychological or mental therapies. All these activities should be within the jurisdiction of a juvenile court. According to the author’s notion, abolishing juvenile courts is ideal and important to the society. Juveniles in the contemporary world are treated as adults and this makes it difficult to reduce juvenile delinquency. Jailing of juveniles destroy their future because of the stigma and lack of cognitive stamina growth to differentiate good and bad (Soulier & Charles, 2010). Counselling and rehabilitation creates both psychological and mental awareness of