Is Going Green an Empty Fad or a Powerful Tool for Competitive Essay

Is Going Green an Empty Fad or a Powerful Tool for Competitive Advantage for Modern Organization - Essay Example Several techniques like utilizing the energy of sun and wind, saving water, using laptops, fluorescent bulbs, conserve power cost, planting trees, taking ayurveda medicines etc,. Pharmaceutical medicines should be replaced by natural remedies and medications so that home remedies like using of natural herbs can cure the ailments in a healthier method. Green living is a easy method which everyone can adopt in their daily life. One can plant trees to defuse carbon dioxide, recycle the mobile battery, use biogas as a fuel, use solar cooker, solar fan and build eco-friendly houses. (Martin, 2010) Benefits of going green Going green will soon be identified as a cost of business. Turning to Eco-friendly can reduce the cost because it is noted that companies reduce what they use .Thus the development generates increased revenues from better products and can also make new business. Business going green is not just an empty fad because fad always has followers and can change within a short term. But green living will sustain in the lifestyles of people. With various awareness programs people today are enough conscious about the green living and they not only preserve the environment but also contribute towards it. Living green does not suggest to build eco-friendly houses which can be expensive but it suggest to utilize the natural energy like installing skylight roofs or using low watt bulbs, gardening, saving bills by investing solar panels or using of smoke free vehicles. (GGI, 2010; ANERN, 2010).For industries to acquire a leadership role in the world fight the requirement of greener tomorrow has increased drastically. Industries are nowadays being recognized and awarded foe taking actions to go green. Subsequently India’s top companies and industries are adopting ecological sustainability in the business practice. Various industries like automobiles, IT, Thermal power stations, and banking sectors are adopting green technologies in their business for healthier improvement in their business. Under are few examples of the industry which have adopted green technology:- Energy sector: Energy sector played the major role in focusing on green technology .For instance. Suzlon Energy, one of the greenest companies with world’s third largest producer of wind-turbine having a factory in Pondicherry, which works with wind energy.  It focuses on the best practices to fuel stable growth  and expansion in markets. (Thambi, 2010) Another company, Origin Oil, a Los Angels based company with emerging leader in growing biomass and pollution absorbent.  Ã‚  It is aiming at transforming algae through growth and extraction process. Algae are a source of renewable oil which is one of the competitors of petroleum and it can use as diesel, plastics fuel and gasoline. It is believed that the changing technology will lead to much modernizat ion in the future. (OriginOil, 2010).ONGC’ a India based company has also launched green projects among the local society .The project regarding the Mokshada Green Cremation saved 70% of wood and the burning time per resources. (India Syndicate, 2009) FMCG Sectors Lately FMCG sectors also were not left aside in

Dehydration of Methylcyclohexanol Essay Example for Free

Dehydration of Methylcyclohexanol Essay A common Sophomore Organic Chemistry laboratory experiment that has great potential for further research is the acid catalyzed dehydration of simple alcohols. The classic dehydration of 2-methylcyclohexanol experiment that was introduced in Journal of Chemical Education in 1967 Taber(1967)JCE:44,p620. The rather simple procedure of distilling an alcohol with an aqueous acid has spawned several investigations that have resulted in formal journal articles. At the same time, the experiment has retained its popularity in the Sophomore Organic Chemistry laboratory curriculum. In one line of inquiry it has been observed that a mixture of 2-methylcyclohexanol diastereomers gives rise to a mixture of three isomeric alkenes Todd(1994)JCE:71,p440; Feigenbaum(1987) JCE:64, p273; Cawley (1997) JCE:74l, p102. Explaining the presence of the three alkene products requires an intense synthesis of information communicated in a typical SOC textbook. The continued popularity of this experiment is corroborated by the observation that Googling the phrase â€Å"Dehydration of 2-Methylcyclohexanol† on January 13th, 2008 returned no less than 20 hits for online student handouts and/or guides for this SOC laboratory experiment. Moreover, this experiment provides fertile ground for experimentation and innovation that has not yet been fully explored. At Dominican University, the SOC students performed this experiment during the Fall 2007 semester with not only the dehydration of 2-methylcyclohexanol (Aldrich 153087) but also the 4-methyl (Aldrich 153095) and 3-methyl (Aldrich 139734) positional isomers. The reaction products were submitted to GC-FID analysis. As predicted from the Journal of Chemical Education articles, three methylcyclohexene products were observed. Their relative abundance measured by peak height was 80, 16, and 4%. The alkene products represented by these peaks apparently correspond to 1-methycyclehexene, 3-methycyclehexene, and methylenecyclohexane respectively. [pic] The dehydration of 4-methylcyclohexanol produce two products, that can be distinguished by our current GC column, at 90 and 10% with retention times that match 3-methycyclehexene and 1-methycyclehexene respectively. My current theory is that the retention times 3 and 4-methycyclohexene could not be distinguished with GC column and temperature program. However, there is still the issue of how 1-methycyclehexene is produced from 4-methylcyclohexanol. [pic] The dehydration of 3-methylcyclohexanol yields two products, that can be distinguished by our current GC column, at 80 and 20% with retention times that match 3-methylcyclohexene and 1-methycyclehexene respectively. [pic] Samples of 1-methyl and 3-methyl cyclohexenes purchased from Aldrich chemical confirmed two of compound assignments for the dehydration of 2-methylcyclohexanol. Obviously, it remains to separate the 3 and 4-methylcyclohexene by GC. There are several advantages of studying the dehydration of methylcyclohexanols in the first semester of Organic Chemistry: 1) The experiment involves reactions that are typically studied during first semester: E1, E2, and the 1,2-hydride shift. It is a time-tested protocol that has been run in hundreds of labs by thousands of students. 2) Analysis of the experiment involves the understanding of all three mechanisms mentioned previously and how they may compete with each other. In other words, it is a simple experiment that demands a rather involved interpretation of results. 3) It shows that textbooks â€Å"rules† such as the Zaitzev’s rule in this case, are not necessarily rules as such, but rather astute observations of general trends that can vary experimentally depending on the reactant and the reaction conditions. 4) Analytically, we are observing/measuring the presence of 3 known methylcyclohexene and methylenecyclohexane products that can be separated and detected by Gas Chromatography. I believe that the product mixtures can also be analyzed by NMR. 5) The reaction lends itself to an inquiry format that involves the study different reactants and reaction conditions on the ratio of products. In fact, this experiment, in my opinion, is an ideal candidate for a multi-institution collaborative study that combines and interprets student data. want to pursue point #5 further by first grappling with the current literature concerning the â€Å"Evelyn Effect.† The JCE article by David Todd, â€Å"The Dehydration of 2-Methylcyclohexanol Revisited: The Evelyn Effect† observes a kinetic effect that can be explained by proposing that in a mixture of cis/trans 2-Methylcyclohexanol the cis isomer reacts much faster than the trans isomer to give predominately 1-methylcyclohexene. The formation of 1-methylcyclohexene from cis-2-methylcyclohexanol would involve an â€Å"E2-like† anti-elimination of proton and the protonated alcohol. The dehydration of the trans isomer would go through a E1 mechanism that requires the formation of a carbocation before elimination of a proton. A follow-up study by Cawley and Linder: â€Å"The Acid Catalyzed Dehydration of an Isomeric 2-Methylcyclohexanol Mixture† involves a detailed kinetic study. Students began with a 36.6/63.4 cis/trans mixture of 2-methylcyclohexanol with a cyclohexanol impurity (% impurity was not reported). They performed thy typical reaction+distillation and collected fractions at 4, 8, 16, 24, and 28 minutes. They also collected a 0.1 mL volume of the sample of the reaction mixture at each of these time intervals. These fractions were analyzed by 1H NMR and GC for composition. The cis/trans rate constants for the dehydration of reaction were determined to be 8.4/1.0 – much less than 30/1 ratio reported in 1931 by Vavon and Barbier. An intriguing study! It would be very interesting to have the raw (student) data on this one. Very little is said about the product ratios in the distillate fractions, they just report that they obtained 2.1% methylenecyclohexane and not the 4% previously reported. The dehydration of methylcyclohexanols provides a fecund problem to explore. The key is to develop methods to determine the distribution of alkene products in terms of % total alkenes. There are four possible positional isomers: I. methylenecyclohexane (Aldrich, Acros, 1192-37-6); II. racemic 3-methyl-1-cyclohexene (Acros, 591-48-0); III. 1-methyl-1-cyclohexene (Aldrich, Acros 591-49-1) IV. racemic 4-methyl-1-cyclohexene (Aldrich, Acros 591-47-9). Two of the alkene positional isomers contain an asymmetric carbon. The obvious place to start is by studying how the alcohol structure affects the product distribution of alkenes. There are 5 positional isomers of methylcyclohexanol: I. cyclohexanemethanol (Aldrich 100-49-2); II. 1-methylcyclohexanol (Aldrich 590-67-0); III. racemic cistrans 2-methylcyclohexanol (Aldrich 583-59-5) IV. racemic cistrans 3-methylcyclohexanol (Aldrich 591-23-1) V. cistrans 4-methylcyclohexanol (Aldrich 589-91-3). Three of the alcohols are present in cis and trans diastereomer pairs: cis 2-methylcyclohexanol (Aldrich 7445-70-1) trans 2-methylcyclohexanol (Aldrich 7445-52-9) cis 3-methylcyclohexanol (5454-79-5) trans 3-methylcyclohexanol (7443-55-2) cis 4-methylcyclohexanol (Aldrich 7731-28-4) trans 4-methylcyclohexanol (Aldrich 7731-28-4). In addition there are 4 entaniomer pairs among the alcohol starting materials. Most of them are commercially available, for a price. [pic] Besides the structure of the alcohol, what other variables may be explored? 1) One variable for this reaction that could be investigated is the nature of the catalytic acid. Aqueous acids, such as the 85% H3PO4 typically used for this experiment, contain some water which is also product of the reaction. I may also add that, the amount of acid is not always in catalytic proportion to the substrate. In my current protocol 0.075 moles of acid is used to dehydrate 0.2 moles of alcohol. Non-aqueous acids may give different results. Acidic resins are an interesting substitute for aqueous acids. For example, John Ludeman and Kurt Field of Bradley University presented a poster at the 2006 ACS Great Lakes Regional Meeting on the use of Dowex 50WX2-100, Amberlite IRC-50S, and Amberlyst 15, for the dehydration of alcohols. 2) Another variable would be the reaction conditions. In the current paradigm, the alkene is distilled away from the reaction mixture. Presumably, it is being distilled away as it is formed. An ad-hoc observation is that students seem to get somewhat different product ratios if they distill is carefully or if they â€Å"crank up the heat† and distill it quicker. What if the reaction mixture was refluxed to equilibrium before distillation? Would we see more thermodynamic products? 3) Reaction conditions could be changed in other ways too. Microwave irradiation is currently being explored as an alternative to heating reactions. Possibly, sonication could also be performed on the alcohol. 4) Another avenue to explore may be different strategies to push the reaction towards the products other than distilling off the alkene. For example, removing water with molecular sieves may be tried. The last installment of this series will explore the logistics of â€Å"dehydration of methylcycohexanols† as a collaborative experiments. The most straightforward collaboration would be to perform the â€Å"dehydration of methylcycohexanols† experiment in the same way and compare the relative yield of alkenes as measured by GC from different starting alcohols. Comparisons could be made with past data or concurrently collected data from different institutions. This may be seem fairly straightforward, but there will most likely be discrepancies that could will need to be explored. One aspect to make note of would be the source and composition of the methylcyclohexanols used a starting materials. Sigma-Aldrich has †¢ 1-methylcyclohexanol #M38214; †¢ 2-methylcyclohexanol #66320, #215295, #178829, #24113, #153087, †¢ 3-methylcyclohexanol #139734; †¢ 4-methylcyclohexanol #66360, #104183, #104191, #153095; †¢ as well as just plain methylcyclohexanol #66370. An experimental variable that is hard to control is rate of heating. Students who crank up the hot plate to get done quickly (even though they were told not to) may get different results than those students who go slowly and maintain an even temperature. Different GC columns and methods may also give results that need to be corroborated.

The Influence Of Martin Luther King Jr Cultural Studies Essay

The Influence Of Martin Luther King Jr Cultural Studies Essay Martin Luther King, Jr., a Baptist preacher born months before the crash of 1929 that led the Great Depression, is perhaps best known for leading this country to end segregation. After years of nonviolent struggle, including boycotting buses in Montgomery, and a march on Washington, King gave a speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial that changed the world. Many scholars believe that Kings speech was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. I believe the inspiration came from sources much closer to home. The Declaration of Independence, by Abraham Lincoln, and the Bible are the sources that I believe to have fundamentally inspired Martin Luther Kings speech, I Have a Dream. As a child raised in a middle-class neighborhood, King had more privileges than most of his peers. He was heavily influenced by his father, a preacher, and his mother, a teacher. He had mild run-ins with segregation in his childhood. He was forced to attend school separate from his childhood friends and eventually, he and his friends were no longer allowed to play together. From the research of his life, there appears to be one event that made a lasting impression upon King. After a speech competition in Valdosta, Georgia, King had received a second place prize, but his victory was short-lived. During the long bus ride home, the blacks were made to stand so that white riders could sit. It seemed that even though the Civil War ended in 1865, over 80 years later the black man was not much further along than in the days directly following the war. It makes me wonder were Lincolns efforts on the part of the slave all in vain? On August 28, 1963, King began his speech with the same four words as Abraham Lincolns Gettysburg Address; perhaps this was to remind us of Lincolns shared vision. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. This reference to Lincolns speech is perhaps more meaningful since King was speaking in front of the Lincoln Memorial during this address. History states that Lincolns authority and position were granted to him by the Declaration of Independence. In that document, our founding fathers declared, We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. By reminding the listeners, including the millions watching his speech on television, King hoped to jump-start his audiences minds in to agreement with him by joining his argument with those of the founding fathers and Abraham Lincoln. King uses the agreement with the founding fathers and Lincoln to strengthen his civil and legal argument as basis to his premise that things were not yet as they should be. To strengthen his moral argument further, and perhaps most interestingly, King seems to have numerous biblical references within the text of his speech. This should not be that surprising, given that he had been the son of a preacher and preacher himself since the age of 17. However, it seems important that the first opportunity for a black man to address the nation for all of the wrongs done to his people, that King decided to quote from the bible. King chose to take the high road in this speech. He could have ridiculed America for its treatment of black men and women, but instead he reminded us all to relinquish the cup of hostility by saying, Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. This phrase reminds us of Jeremiah 2:13: For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water. He reminds us of our history, our past release from captivity, referring to slavery, but he is encouraging us not to choose hatred and return to bondage. Kings words, It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. refer to the promise of Psalms 30:5: For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. While it seems that the Lord has been angry with us, by allowing our continued oppression, King says to America, he reminds us that we are not finished. That although the chains of captivity may have been lifted by Lincoln, they are not yet removed. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream, refers to Amos 5:24, But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. Kings then offers up a vision that all the listeners and viewers by television can grasp, I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together, is almost a direct quote of Isaiah 40:4-5: Every valley shall be exalted, and very mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. King closed his speech by applying the inspiring words of Galations 3:28, And when this happens, . . . we will be able to speed up that day when all of Gods children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, Im free at last. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. Martin Luther King, Jr. helped right a nation. Given the chance to cast stones, he chose instead to cast a vision. A vision that one day men and women in America would actually one day be equal and free to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. This vision is not new. Our Biblical history tells us that Jesus cast the same vision before us thousands of years ago. Throughout the bible, God gave his people a choice between life and death. By standing on the promises of the Declaration of Independence, the actions of Abraham Lincoln, and the tenets of the bible, Kings speech, I Have a Dream speech simply reminded us to choose life, to appreciate life, and to respect our brothers and sisters no matter their race or creed.

Symbols and Symbolism in The Mask of the Red Death :: Mask Masque Red Death Essays

Symbolism in The Mask of the Red Death Thesis: Poe uses symbolism to unfold this gripping tale of terror. I. The first symbol in the story is the name of the Prince himself, Prince Prospero. II. The ebony clock is another major symbol within this tale. III. The black room is the most prominent symbol in the story but is not clear until the end. The mood of this story is set as a description of the Red Death is laid out for the reader. "The 'Red Death' had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or hideous." (Poe 72) This disease left scarlet stains upon it victims skin. Any victim of this disease was totally shunned by his fellow man. The final throws of this " Red Death " were an agonizing half hour of torment and seizure. Prince Prospero could no longer bear witness to this, so in fear of his life he took himself one thousand of his royal comrades and enough servants for all to a secluded abbey. He was sure the seclusion from the Red Death would save his life. He was wrong! Poe uses his supporting character Prince Prospero, to show the wealth of royalty in this story. This character's speaks of wealth and happiness. Prospero's wealth was so vast that he was easily able to support one thousand of his royal comrades, hundreds of servants, and a seemingly endless number of parties. However, it is very ironic that the prince of prosperity was the first to die. He was murdered by the main character of the story "The Red Death" itself. I believe this was to show the reader that one can not turn their back to society's problems without feeling the effects. The giant ebony clock screamed with the symbolism of the group's short amount of time left in this world. This clock had an over powering chime every hour. The chime paused its victims with disconcert and trepidation. This sound was so clear, and loud that it was heard by all, and even the most joyous grew pale. In the end the clock died just as the "Red Death" had taken its last victim, "And the life of the ebony clock went out with that the last of the gay" (75).

Analysis of Act 1 Scene 1 of Measure for Measure

Act 1 Scene 1 at its most basic interpretation is encircling the thoughts and actions of three characters; the Duke, Escalus and Angelo. The reader observes the Duke of Vienna telling Escalus, an his advisor, that he is leaving the city and would like to leave Angelo in his place. Escalus agrees with the Duke's choice and Angelo is summoned. Angelo appears surprised and slightly reluctant of the Dukes offer but accepts it readily. However if the reader decides to prove deeper inside the scene, it becomes clear that the seemingly simple interpretation above conceals a more complex scenarios. Firstly the scene is set the city of Vienna in approximately 1604, the reader is made aware it is Vienna when Escalus states, ‘if any in Vienna†¦'The reader is left to wonder whether the play is set in Vienna because of it beautiful historic acitchecture or it dazzling surrounding. Or if perhaps there is a more fundamental reason such as the plays context, whether for instance the themes running rife throughout the play are so diverse and unconventional for its time, that Shakespeare feared situating it in more familiar surroundings such as England. These imminent revelations help to captivate and develop the curiosity of the reader. The language used in measure of measure is Elizabethan, formal and conventional of its time. The play is composed of words such ‘t'affect' and ‘y' are' which were frequently used during that period. The play is constructed within iambic pentameter are subsequently blank verses. The fact that the verses do not rhyme may indicate to the reader, the sincerity of the issues stirring inside the play. As in most plays, the characters within it help guide the play through its stages. Measure for Measure is not an exception. The Duke appears to be an intelligent and sensitive man who cares about the welfare of his citizens, this is emphasised utters statements such as ‘The nature of our people, Our city's institutions, and the terms For common justice†¦' and ‘ I love the people' although he seems to be dismayed by the by the decay in his city and wishes to reform it. The Duke speaks with formal, somewhat legalistic language of a ruling, noble figure. He uses the royal ‘we' and regards the citizens of Vienna â€Å"our people,† the city is â€Å"our city†. Again demonstrating his status as well as his care for his citizens. His diction is quite elegant in some places; he makes use of alliteration, stating that with his â€Å"special soul† he has chosen Angelo. The Duke also uses paradoxical terms that convey the duties of a ruler; he says he will lend Angelo both his â€Å"terror† and his â€Å"love† to rule with, showing how a ruler must be authoritarian, yet caring for his subjects. This causes the reader to ponder just why he is leaving and what drives the urgency. The Duke seems to confide earnestly in Escalus his advisor. Escalus seems to genuinely respect and look up to the Duke, along with a strong fondness towards Duke. The reader becomes increasingly aware of this throughout the scene. A classic example is when Escalus chimes ‘I'll wait upon your honour' just before the Duke's departure. As a result the reader is not sure whether Escalus agreed with the Duke's choice because of his fondness for the Duke or if hemade an objective decision and agreed. The puzzling issue is likely to befriend the reader and subsequently encourage them to read on. The reader is made aware that Escalus is an intelligent man, when to the Duke reports to Escalus, ‘since I know your own science exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice my strength can give you. Then no remains but that, to sufficiently, as your worth is able'. The reader is left to wander how substantial Escalus's role will be in the remainder of the play. Lastly we are introduced to Lord Angelo. The Duke and Escalus both seem to be immensely confident in Angelo's capabilities. Highlighted with phrases such as when Escalus states ‘ if any in Vienna be worth to undergo such ample grace and honour it is Lord Angelo' and when the Duke states to Angelo that: ‘There is a kind of character in thy life that to the' observer doth thy history fully unfold. Thyself and thy belongings are not thine own so proper as to waste thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee'. Angelo is portrayed as a young trustworthy, righteous able man. However he although he does accept the offer humbly he does express reluctantly and concern as times. For example when he pleads, ‘let there be some more test made of my mental before so noble and so great a figure be stamped upon it'. The reader cold possibly perceive this as warning to his behaviour in the rest of the pay. Angelo's righteous appearance subtley disturbs the reader; the reader is subsequen tly left to ponder whether there is something sinister under this loveable exterior. The imagery of a coin could possibly signify Angelo becoming corrupt and obsessed with money. After the reader's brief introduction to the setting, chracteters and subsequent situation the scene leaves the audience crying what next. As although it is a short scene the reader is overwhelmed with a variety of themes and potentialities. Such as the Dukes intentions. For instance why this imminent departure? Also the reason for the portayl of Angelo is it possibly to contradict his behaviour within the rest of the play. The scene could also be a breeding ground for lots of themes for instance, how power can curopt or how responsibility is handled. To summarise although Act 1 scene 1 appears docile in appearance, the volcano is bubbling with possible revelations waiting to erupt, possibly mirroring the potential pattern for the rest of the play.

Dave Matthews Band Report essays

Dave Matthews Band Report essays Imagine standing on a stage, overlooking 70 tiered rows in what is possibly the most beautiful amphitheater in the world. As Dave Matthews and his fellow band mates walk on stage, the crowd cheers wildly. You are at Red Rocks and the scene is set for the Dave Matthews Band. Red Rocks Amphitheater is located in Morrison, Colorado, 15 miles west of Denver. It provides seating for 9600, and has some of the best acoustics found anywhere on Earth. Since 1941 it has been home to many concerts and performers and is the perfect backdrop for a live performance. Recorded on August 15, 1995, "Live At Red Rocks 8.15.95" was created at the height of the bands musical talent and at the bottom step of their climb to fame. It was shows like this that left fans mesmerized by the funky, jazz-infused riffs that the band played. It is this kind of energetic and intimate live music that keeps the fans coming back. The members of the Dave Matthews Band (or DMB for short) are each very unique, especially in the instruments that they play. This is what makes the band and its music really work. Dave Matthews provides lead vocals and acoustic guitar, Boyd Tinsley plays the violin, Stefan Lessard is on bass guitar, Leroi Moore blows the woodwinds, and Carter Beauford plays the drums. Matthews is a very talented musician. He provides very unique singing styles and an abstract, awkward ability to play the guitar. Tinsley plays the violin like no other. It is odd to find a band with a violin, but his talent forces it to work. Lessard, who joined the band when he was only 16, provides funky bass lines that fill in the empty spots. Leroi Moore plays flute, saxophone, and clarinet which mixed with modern instruments, create an odd combination of sounds, finally Carter Beauford, known for his excellent improvisational skills and perfect fill-ins, lights up the drums with a talent that few have. These fiv e musicians joined together on the night of Augu...

Conjugating the Regular French Verb Choisir (to Choose)

Conjugating the Regular French Verb 'Choisir' ('to Choose') Choisir, to choose, pick, decide, is conjugated as a regular French  -ir  verb. Regular verbs share conjugation patterns in person, number, tense and mood. Verbs with infinitives that end in  -ir  are the second largest category of regular French verbs, after French verbs ending in  -er. Generally speaking, there are five main kinds of  verbs in French: regular  -ir, -er, -re,  stem-changing and  irregular. Once youve learned the rules of conjugation for regular verbs, you should have no problem conjugating them, and this holds true for the regular  -ir  verb  choisir. Conjugating Regular French -ir Verbs To conjugate choisir and all other regular  -ir  verbs, remove the infinitive ending (-ir)  to find the stem (also called the radical), then add the appropriate simple conjugation ending/s shown in the table below. Note that the conjugation table below does not include  the  compound tenses, which consist of  a form of the auxiliary verb  and  the past participle.  Choisir  normally requires the auxiliary verb  avoir  in  compound tenses and moods. For example:  Jai choisi deux là ©gumes verts. I picked two green vegetables.   Other Regular French -ir Verbs Here are just a few of the most common regular  -ir  verbs. Remember, they all have regular conjugations, meaning they all follow the same conjugation patterns, which are those shown in the table. Simply take off the infinitives  -ir  ending and add the appropriate conjugated ending to the stem  in each instance. abolir   to abolishagir  Ã‚  to actavertir  Ã‚  to warnbà ¢tir  Ã‚  to buildbà ©nir  Ã‚  to blesschoisir  Ã‚  to chooseà ©tablir  Ã‚  to establishà ©tourdir  Ã‚  to stun, deafen, make dizzyfinir  Ã‚  to finishgrossir  Ã‚  to gain weight, get fatguà ©rir  Ã‚  to cure, heal, recovermaigrir  Ã‚  to lose weight, get thinnourrir  Ã‚  to feed, nourishobà ©ir  Ã‚  to obeypunir  Ã‚  to punishrà ©flà ©chir  Ã‚  to reflect, thinkremplir  Ã‚  to to fillrà ©ussir   to succeedrougir  Ã‚  to blush, turn redvieillir  Ã‚  to grow old Choisir: Uses and Expressions Choisis ce que tu veux.  Ã‚  Take your pick.Choisis lun ou lautre.   Choose one or the other.Tu as choisi ton moment  ! You picked a swell time!bien / mal choisir   to choose carefully / badlyElle a choisi de rester. She decided to stay.Je nai pas choisi.  Cest arrivà © comme à §a. It wasnt my decision; it just happened.  Il a toujours choisi la solution de facilità ©. He always chose the easy way / solution. Simple Conjugations of the French Regular -ir Verb Choisir Present Future Imperfect Present participle je choisis choisirai choisissais choisissant tu choisis choisiras choisissais il choisit choisira choisissait nous choisissons choisirons choisissions vous choisissez choisirez choisissiez ils choisissent choisiront choisissaient Pass compos Auxiliary verb avoir Past participle choisi Subjunctive Conditional Pass simple Imperfect subjunctive je choisisse choisirais choisis choisisse tu choisisses choisirais choisis choisisses il choisisse choisirait choisit choist nous choisissions choisirions choismes choisissions vous choisissiez choisiriez choistes choisissiez ils choisissent choisiraient choisirent choisissent Imperative (tu) choisis (nous) choisissons (vous) choisissez

Women in Trucking By Women, For Women

Women in Trucking By Women, For Women It is never easy to be a woman in a male-dominated industry, particularly one that is also dangerous and isolated, like trucking. Over at the Roadmaster’s Driving School Blog, Ellen Voie is raising awareness for Women in Trucking (WIT), an organization formed in 2007 by women drivers seeking to support and aid one another. As minorities in the industry, women still face more safety concerns and logistics issues than male truckers. Women in Trucking provides self-defense presentations, secures association discounts with partners, and lobbies for loading docks and truck stops to provide more women-friendly amenities like bathrooms and personal hygiene products. Most importantly, WIT confronts the ingrained sexist attitudes that seek to deter women from entering the industry at all.To celebrate women in leadership roles, WIT also holds an annual â€Å"Influential Women in Trucking† event, sponsored by Navistar, and an annual â€Å"Salute to Women Behind the Wheel† e vent each March. They also feature guest bloggers monthly to share the personal stories of drivers across the country.Currently, 16% of WIT’s membership is comprised of men who want to show their support for female drivers, so whether you’re a man or a woman, consider joining Women in Trucking to demonstrate your commitment to leveling the playing field and welcoming new drivers with professional courtesy and respect.Check them out online at  womenintrucking.org.

An Overlook and Analysis of the Coca Cola Company Term Paper

An Overlook and Analysis of the Coca Cola Company - Term Paper Example As the paper outlines the company thus needs to analyze their internal environments for threats and opportunities in order to maintain their position in the ever dynamic competitive field. These different environments fall under the Pestle analysis that help the company managers to make macro decisions on policy changes. These include taxes, new laws, trade barriers and government policy changes among others. At the coca cola company economical challenges are posed by inflation due to economic crisis in most countries. The customer purchasing power is reducing to high oil and product prices. There is also a high rate of unemployment. Moreover, competition from other brands such as Pepsi is increasing. However, the company does not plan to cut down the price of their products. Socially, the lives of customers especially women is changing. Most of them are going out to work. It has resulted in the need for time management and the preference for healthier foods.   This study stresses that in the 1970s a subsidiary group in India wanted the company to share their secret formula under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act. They declined and had to halt their operations for 16 years. The producers have been forced to provide exclusive territories to distributors. In addition, the European Commission alerted EU members to ban the sale of coca cola products due to a recent poisoning of 100 children in Belgium as a result of wrong use of carbon dioxide. In India, Protestants wanted the ban of coca cola claiming that the company was depleting ground water. There are also claims in India that coca cola possesses some amounts of pesticides that pose a risk to life. Hence, the need to ban it. The Coca Cola Company has a broad supply chain, which causes a great challenge in the development of tactical and strategic decisions. It is because of this that it faces strategic management issues globally. For instance, the same set of rules is not applied through out the company leading to an insufficient metric system for the company. As a result, there is a difference in simple things like the stock out and fill rate. These enhance the need for corporate level strategies as well as market and product development. Project management at the Coca Cola Company involves both logistics and procurement activities. Through purchasing and the involvement of ITC Infotech and consultation in SAP, there has been an improvement in supply chain management. Nonetheless, the company needs to find ways of investing in profits for future growth and earn more market shares and profits.  

Network Security Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Network Security - Term Paper Example The rapid growth of networking has also come with its own challenges, mainly in the area of network security. Maiwald defines security as the â€Å"freedom from danger, fear or anxiety: safety† (4). He also defines a network as an interlinked system. Therefore, network security can be defined as the safety of interlinked systems. There are to kinds of networks: synchronous network and data networks. Synchronous network systems are made up of switches, which makes them immune to malicious attacks. However, data network systems contain routers that are computer based, making them susceptible to all kinds of malicious attacks. The internet is perhaps the best known and most widely used data network on the globe today. A few years ago, the computer system was seen as a harmless piece of technology and not many people cared really for computer security. To many people at the time, most computer operations and software were illogical, thus the risk of hackers was quite low (Kaufman, Radia and Speciner 43). However, since the mid 1980s, networked computer workstations became common and with this came the issue of information and network security. More and more people are able to read and understand computer algorithms, meaning that the likelihood of a system being hacked into is very easy. Organizations are forced to share networks with distrustful organizations and individuals. The world of network security is quite hostile since a small percentage of the population can cause untold damage to a global network. This is the situation that makes network security such an important matter in today’s highly networked society. There is need to protect the data and information that companies, institutions and individuals need protected by designing fool-proof network security systems. History of Network Security Widespread interest in network security gained ground in the 1980s when Kevin Mitnick hacked into the systems of several companies and made away with $80 million. This was the biggest computer-related crime by a single person in the history of the United States. The birth of the internet also marked the beginning of the interest in network security. In 1969, internet was developed after the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANet) was given the mandate to carry out research in networking. ARPANet was an instant success and before long, email applications had become quite popular (Pardoe and Snyder 223). Th InterNetworking Working Group (IWG) was given the responsibility of governing ARPANet by setting the standards for use. On the 1980s, TCP/IP, which is a common langu age shared by all computers connected to the internet, was developed. Thus internet was officially born. The mid 1980s saw a boom in the number of personal and commercial computers which led to many companies joining the internet bandwagon. In the early 1990s it was the urn of the public to get access to the internet, and this marked the birth of the World Wide Web (WWW) era. Today the internet is widespread all across the world and many people carry out their daily activities online (Maiwald 60). The actual history of internet security began in 1918 when an enigma machine that could convert plain text to encrypted messages was developed in Poland. 22 years later, Alan Turing broke the enigma code. The word hacker was first coined by students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The Telnet Protocol developed in the 1970s and this led to data networks being accessed by the public. The 1980s saw the rise of hackers and computer-related crimes. The Computer fraud and Abu se Act was enacted in 1986 to minimize cases of information stealing from military and federal offices (Kaufman, Radia and

Sources of finance For Expansion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Sources of finance For Expansion - Essay Example The most intriguing phenomena associated with IPOs are the poor performance in the long run. Generally the period of evaluation is from one to three years. Take any of the threshold IPOs that are sure to under perform. Researches have shown that this underperformance will last up to three to five years. Ritter and welsh (1992) clearly shown that there is 23.4 % for a three year buy and hold strategy. There are many explanations presented why IPO under perform when compared to any threshold. After beginning of the company its shares are sold to the public to accumulate the initial capital for the company. To purchase the necessary equipment and raw material the company needs this amount. Without the initial capital no company can begin their basic operations. The reason behind selling shares to the general public is, as the public constitute a large population who can generate huge amount of capital and they also constitute a large context of population who are also the consumers for the products being manufactured and sold by this company. The reason behind general public buying the shares of the companies are that the returns gives by the company on the shares purchased is proportional to the profit of the company. If the company is making huge profits then a part of the profit is divided and equally distributed to the shareholders with respect to there purchased quantity. Limited equi Rajinder Deane October 13, 2006 Page 3 Limited equity financing is used by most of the small or growth stage businesses. Whereas in debt financing, funds pour in from different quarters like from friends, relatives, etc. Venture capitalists are the most common source of equity funding. Venture capitalists may be institutional risk takers, financial institutions, wealthy persons, etc. and most of them specialize in industries. Commercial finance companies, financial institutions, banks, savings and loans, Lloyds Bank small business, etc. are some of the sources for debt financing. Because of their positive impact on the whole economy local and state government encourage the growth of the small companies. In debt financing additional funds comes from friends, family, relatives, and industry colleagues, etc when capital investment is smaller. When the equity to debt ratio of the firm is high then debt financing should be taken. If the proportion of the debt to equity ratio of the firm is high then it is advised that the owners should increase their equity investment, that way they cannot jeopardize firm's survival. Sincerely, Jack Stroth References 4hb.com. What is the Business Letter Format Retrieved October 12 2006, .

Not required,just answer the question Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Not required,just answer the question - Essay Example The fourth is, of course the last and the most important, the way it has changed our culture: the ways we think, learn, express and share as a society. Changes in culture are also a composite effect of the changes in the first three categories. Before the times of the internet, humanity as a whole witnessed the emergence of first the printed medium like books, magazines and newspapers and then of the audio and video---radio and television respectively. Each of these had a profound impact on the modern way of life, but then came the internet. To properly understand the true impact of the internet, one has to realize the ways it is different from the old media. The internet was different from these media because it made communication two-sided and interactive, at the click of a mouse. It meant that the audience could react fast, anonymously, and did not have to depend on a phone line and the mercy of a selector to express its reactions. The internet also eliminated boundaries; communication across the world became cheap. It gave the possibility for someone in Thailand to interact with another person in Sweden, and establish relationships based on common interests. The internet empowered through information, and gave equal and prompt access to a wealth of information to everyone across the world. Not only that, it made self-publishing through blogs, video-blogs and podcasts cheap and simple, making it impossible to curb the freedom of expression. While examining the first category, namely social organization, the first factor is the individual's power to move or create opinion, or propagate a way of life, which has increased exponentially. Anonymity has meant an obvious decrease in discrimination: race, color and age are secondary to the ability to prove a point in a given context. Internet can thus be a great leveler of social hierarchy. The ability to search for and connect with people with the same interests or points of view means the creation of strong virtual communities, which could be geographically diverse. This is radically different from earlier social communities that could be formed only by people in close physical vicinity. Online love, friendship, cybersex and searching for partners online introduce a change in social dynamics, where relationships can be formed outside real-world social occasions, thus weakening the previous role of social organization in personal relationships. Just as with social organization, the way politics is conducted has undergone a sea-change with the advent of the internet. Blogs, podcasts and articles on the internet influence public opinion more effectively than other media, because of their interactivity and the ability to support and empower individual opinion. The internet is increasingly becoming a part of modern campaigns also because of its affordability and ability to infiltrate to a younger base of the population. The changes brought about by the internet in the economy have been a hot topic of discussion for the past decade. It has been the biggest enabler in the creation of trans-national corporations, making cheap knowledge capital and skills accessible anywhere in the world. Internet has also spawned individual entrepreneurship, and ensured job-security. It has reduced costs across the board. An individual can now be self-employed, thanks to the millions of creative ideas that use anything from websites

Skoda Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Skoda - Case Study Example Volkswagen's experience assisted in fixing most of the mechanical problems that Skoda had initially experienced. Skoda UK sells Skoda cars through its network of independent franchised dealers and its most current popular models are the frabia, octavia, superb and the roomster. Its' market share is at 1.7% making it a very small player in the market for cars (The times 100 134). However it has managed to fit in the highly competitive market and fragmented market. It attributes this on it's concentration on owners experience rather than making large sales. It has regarded 'the human touch' from design through to sale. One of its identifiable and quantifiable strength is the willingness and ability of the Skoda's driver to recommend Skoda to a friend. It utilizes this strength to market its brand image as well as laying plans for future strategic development. According to the audit report in the times 100 (134), Skoda faced a crisis due to the oudated perception of the brand. The car had an image of low quality, design, materials and assembly which negatively affected its owners. This is due to the fact that people associated car ownership to the image. In 1999, Skoda managed to change its negative image and Skoda cars were no longer considered of low quality. Despite its effort of improving its image, the vehicle did not have a strong appeal ot the public. Analysis of case To improve its performance in the competitive car market, Skoda UK's management needed to assess its brand positioning. Brand positioning means establishing a distinctive image for the brand compared to competing brands. Its by so doing that it would manage to grow from a small player to a bigger player. From the audit report it obtained after a market research, Skoda UK was put into a good positionto take advantage of new opportunities and respond to threats. According to JD Power survey, Skoda has been in the top five car manufacturers for the past thirteen years. In Top Gear's 2007 customer satisfactionsurvey, 56,000 viewers gave their opinions on 152 models and Skoda was voted as the number 1 car maker (The Times 100 134). Skoda's Octavia model aloso won the 2008 Auto Express Driver Power best car. Skoda attributes the results to its strategic management strategy which foccused on building cars that their owners would enjoy. This was different from simply maximising sales of a product. Strategic management is a process in whih it guides a business so that it can compete and grow in its market. According to the Audit report provided, Skoda has a 1.7% market share making it a small player in the market for cars. The weakness was partly due to outdated perceptions of the brand. This can be attributed to its poor marketing strategies that it used. The company should have therefore focused on improving its image to improve the clientele base. Recommendations Skoda should focuss on the Niche segment by developing a B plus or economical cars which are financially friendly to customers earning below 3000 RMB. This is due to the fact that, most customers are not in a position to afford the car at its current price. It is therefore advisable that, the company considers the low income earners by developing and producing economical cars. Skoda should also

Medical uses of algae Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Medical uses of algae - Research Paper Example Their sexual organs are not found in protective coverings. In terms of physiology, they are basically autotrophic with all their materials from inorganic sources and photosynthetic producing complex carbon compounds from CO2 and light energy. Some algae are secondarily heterotrophic but retaining fundamental genetic affinities with their photosynthetic relatives. They include both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Algae both live and dead are being used by the humans. The fossil algal diatomite deposits in the shape of light but strong rocks are used as building materials and filtration media in water purification systems and swimming pools. Some fossil algae like Botryococcus are sources oil-rich deposits. Some other species of green algae are grown for obtaining bio chemicals for applications in medicine and cosmetics. The nuisance blue-green algae have beneficial uses especially Spirulina which is used as dietary supplement. The blue-green algae are better known as fresh water nuisance organisms which form as dense blooms affecting human activities through toxins generated by them, by clogging water courses and affecting recreational activities (Bellinger and Sigee). Alage has been described as organisms containing chlorophyll made up of one cell or grouped together in colonies or with many cells and at times joining together as simple tissues. Their sizes vary from unicellular of 3-10 um microns to giant kelps up to 70 mg long capable of growing 50 cm per day. They are found all over the earth in the sea, rivers, and lakes, also on soils and walls, in animal and plants (as symbionts-partners collaborating together) and it can just grow anywhere where light is available to conduct photosynthesis. Thus, alage are heterogeneous and identified in two major types: microalgae and microalgae. Microalgae grow in bentheic and littoral habitats and also in the ocean waters as Phytoplankton that comprises species such as diatoms, (bacillariophyta), dinoflagellates (dinophyt a), green and yellow-brown flagellates (Chlorophyta; prasino-phyta; prymnesiophyta; cryptophyta, chrysophyta and rhaphdiophyta) and blue-green algae (cyano-phyta) (Gamal 1). 2. Microalgae’s products and their biological activities Microalgal phyla provide chemical and pharmacological compounds besides bioactive compounds of marine resources back to compounds marine invertebrates which may vary from one compound to another but with a strong suggestion that dietary or symbiotic algae are one of the participants of these metabolites. For example, the blue-green algae, Lyngbhya majuscula is the source of aplysiatoxin found in sea hares which feed on this alga. Likewise, highly active anti tumour compounds, dollastatins 1 & 2 extracted from sea slugs are of blue-green algal origin. Further, eukaryotic algae and dinoflagellates metabolites are seen in shellfish and other invertebrates as toxins. Furthermore, Brevotoxins 3, ciguatoxins and dinophysiotoxins are examples of paralytic shellfish toxins (Gamal 2) Cyanophyta (blue-green algae or cyanobacterial) The blue-green algae’s structures resemble structural features of bacteria. They are classified because they contain

Not required,just answer the question Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Not required,just answer the question - Essay Example The fourth is, of course the last and the most important, the way it has changed our culture: the ways we think, learn, express and share as a society. Changes in culture are also a composite effect of the changes in the first three categories. Before the times of the internet, humanity as a whole witnessed the emergence of first the printed medium like books, magazines and newspapers and then of the audio and video---radio and television respectively. Each of these had a profound impact on the modern way of life, but then came the internet. To properly understand the true impact of the internet, one has to realize the ways it is different from the old media. The internet was different from these media because it made communication two-sided and interactive, at the click of a mouse. It meant that the audience could react fast, anonymously, and did not have to depend on a phone line and the mercy of a selector to express its reactions. The internet also eliminated boundaries; communication across the world became cheap. It gave the possibility for someone in Thailand to interact with another person in Sweden, and establish relationships based on common interests. The internet empowered through information, and gave equal and prompt access to a wealth of information to everyone across the world. Not only that, it made self-publishing through blogs, video-blogs and podcasts cheap and simple, making it impossible to curb the freedom of expression. While examining the first category, namely social organization, the first factor is the individual's power to move or create opinion, or propagate a way of life, which has increased exponentially. Anonymity has meant an obvious decrease in discrimination: race, color and age are secondary to the ability to prove a point in a given context. Internet can thus be a great leveler of social hierarchy. The ability to search for and connect with people with the same interests or points of view means the creation of strong virtual communities, which could be geographically diverse. This is radically different from earlier social communities that could be formed only by people in close physical vicinity. Online love, friendship, cybersex and searching for partners online introduce a change in social dynamics, where relationships can be formed outside real-world social occasions, thus weakening the previous role of social organization in personal relationships. Just as with social organization, the way politics is conducted has undergone a sea-change with the advent of the internet. Blogs, podcasts and articles on the internet influence public opinion more effectively than other media, because of their interactivity and the ability to support and empower individual opinion. The internet is increasingly becoming a part of modern campaigns also because of its affordability and ability to infiltrate to a younger base of the population. The changes brought about by the internet in the economy have been a hot topic of discussion for the past decade. It has been the biggest enabler in the creation of trans-national corporations, making cheap knowledge capital and skills accessible anywhere in the world. Internet has also spawned individual entrepreneurship, and ensured job-security. It has reduced costs across the board. An individual can now be self-employed, thanks to the millions of creative ideas that use anything from websites

Medical uses of algae Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Medical uses of algae - Research Paper Example Their sexual organs are not found in protective coverings. In terms of physiology, they are basically autotrophic with all their materials from inorganic sources and photosynthetic producing complex carbon compounds from CO2 and light energy. Some algae are secondarily heterotrophic but retaining fundamental genetic affinities with their photosynthetic relatives. They include both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Algae both live and dead are being used by the humans. The fossil algal diatomite deposits in the shape of light but strong rocks are used as building materials and filtration media in water purification systems and swimming pools. Some fossil algae like Botryococcus are sources oil-rich deposits. Some other species of green algae are grown for obtaining bio chemicals for applications in medicine and cosmetics. The nuisance blue-green algae have beneficial uses especially Spirulina which is used as dietary supplement. The blue-green algae are better known as fresh water nuisance organisms which form as dense blooms affecting human activities through toxins generated by them, by clogging water courses and affecting recreational activities (Bellinger and Sigee). Alage has been described as organisms containing chlorophyll made up of one cell or grouped together in colonies or with many cells and at times joining together as simple tissues. Their sizes vary from unicellular of 3-10 um microns to giant kelps up to 70 mg long capable of growing 50 cm per day. They are found all over the earth in the sea, rivers, and lakes, also on soils and walls, in animal and plants (as symbionts-partners collaborating together) and it can just grow anywhere where light is available to conduct photosynthesis. Thus, alage are heterogeneous and identified in two major types: microalgae and microalgae. Microalgae grow in bentheic and littoral habitats and also in the ocean waters as Phytoplankton that comprises species such as diatoms, (bacillariophyta), dinoflagellates (dinophyt a), green and yellow-brown flagellates (Chlorophyta; prasino-phyta; prymnesiophyta; cryptophyta, chrysophyta and rhaphdiophyta) and blue-green algae (cyano-phyta) (Gamal 1). 2. Microalgae’s products and their biological activities Microalgal phyla provide chemical and pharmacological compounds besides bioactive compounds of marine resources back to compounds marine invertebrates which may vary from one compound to another but with a strong suggestion that dietary or symbiotic algae are one of the participants of these metabolites. For example, the blue-green algae, Lyngbhya majuscula is the source of aplysiatoxin found in sea hares which feed on this alga. Likewise, highly active anti tumour compounds, dollastatins 1 & 2 extracted from sea slugs are of blue-green algal origin. Further, eukaryotic algae and dinoflagellates metabolites are seen in shellfish and other invertebrates as toxins. Furthermore, Brevotoxins 3, ciguatoxins and dinophysiotoxins are examples of paralytic shellfish toxins (Gamal 2) Cyanophyta (blue-green algae or cyanobacterial) The blue-green algae’s structures resemble structural features of bacteria. They are classified because they contain

Solution of Ms-95 Assignment Dec 2011 Essay Example for Free

Solution of Ms-95 Assignment Dec 2011 Essay Course Title:Research Methodology for Management Decisions Assignment Code:MS-95/SEM II /2011 Coverage:All Blocks Note : Answer all the questions and submit this assignment on or before 31st October 2011, to the coordinator of your study center. 1. Under the circumstances stratified random sampling design is considered appropriate? How would you select such sample? Explain by means of an example. 2. â€Å"Experimental method of research is not suitable in management field. † Discuss, what are the problems in the introduction of this research design in business organisation? 3. What is the meaning of measurement in research? What difference does it make whether we measure in terms of a nominal, ordinal, interval or ratio scale? 4. â€Å"Interpretation is a fundamental component of research Process†. Explain. Why so? Describe the precautions that the researcher should take while interpreting his findings. 5. Write shot notes on a) Criterion of good research. b) Dependent and Independent variable. c) Casestudy method. d) Components of a Research Problem. 1. Under the circumstances stratified random sampling design is considered appropriate? How would you select such sample? Explain by means of an example. Stratified sampling is commonly used probability method that is superior to random sampling because it reduces sampling error. A stratum is a subset of the population that share at least one common characteristic. Examples of stratums might be males and females, or managers and non-managers. The researcher first identifies the relevant stratums and their actual representation in the population. Random sampling is then used to select a sufficient number of subjects from each stratum. Sufficient refers to a sample size large enough for us to be reasonably confident that the stratum represents the population. Stratified sampling is often used when one or more of the stratums in the population have a low incidence relative to the other stratums. Stratified sampling strategies Proportionate allocation uses a sampling fraction in each of the strata that is proportional to that of the total population. If the population consists of 60% in the male stratum and 40% in the female stratum, then the relative size of the two samples (three males, two females) should reflect this proportion. Optimum allocation (or Disproportionate allocation) Each stratum is proportionate to the standard deviation of the distribution of the variable. Larger samples are taken in the strata with the greatest variability to generate the least possible sampling variance. A real-world example of using stratified sampling would be for a US political survey. If we wanted the respondents to reflect the diversity of the population of the United States, the researcher would specifically seek to include participants of various minority groups such as race or religion, based on their proportionality to the total population as mentioned above. A stratified survey could thus claim to be more representative of the US population than a survey of simple random sampling or systematic sampling. Similarly, if population density varies greatly within a region, stratified sampling will ensure that estimates can be made with equal accuracy in different parts of the region, and that comparisons of sub-regions can be made with equal statistical power. For example, in Ontario a survey taken throughout the province might use a larger sampling fraction in the less populated north, since the disparity in population between north and south is so great that a sampling fraction based on the provincial sample as a whole might result in the collection of only a handful of data from the north. Randomized stratification can also be used to improve population representativeness in a study. Advantages over other sampling methods †¢   Ã‚  focuses on important subpopulations and ignores irrelevant ones †¢   Ã‚  improves the accuracy of estimation †¢   Ã‚  efficient †¢   Ã‚  sampling equal numbers from strata varying widely in size may be used to equate the   Ã‚  statistical   power   of tests of differences between strata. Disadvantages †¢   Ã‚  can be difficult to select relevant stratification variables †¢   Ã‚  not useful when there are no homogeneous subgroups   Ã‚  can be expensive †¢   Ã‚  requires accurate information about the population, or introduces   Ã‚  bias. †¢   Ã‚  looks randomly within specific sub headings. =========================== There may often be factors which divide up the population into sub-populations (groups / strata) and we may expect the measurement of interest to vary among the di fferent sub-populations. This has to be accounted for when we select a sample from the population in order that we obtain a sample that is representative of the population. This is achieved by stratified sampling. A stratified sample is obtained by taking samples from each stratum or sub-group of a population. When we sample a population with several strata, we generally require that the proportion of each stratum in the sample should be the same as in the population. Stratified sampling techniques are generally used when the population is heterogeneous, or dissimilar, where certain homogeneous, or similar, sub-populations can be isolated (strata). Simple random sampling is most appropriate when the entire population from which the sample is taken is homogeneous.

Islamic fundamentalism: Causes, History and Effects

Islamic fundamentalism: Causes, History and Effects BACKGROUND Filipino Christians tend to relate Islam primarily with the issue of polygamy and jihad. Their objections to polygamy and jihad are very striking because Islam is perceived to be equivalent to these two issues in the Philippines. It is viewed as a religion of violence and sexual promiscuity (a view reinforced in the post-9/11 portrayal of well-known Muslims as global terrorists in international media); and lately, has been associated with terrorism on a global scale. What accounts for the Filipinos understanding of Islam? Why do the images of Filipino Muslims or Moros[1] in particular and Islam in general seem to be reduced to its adherents presumed tendency for violence and vulnerability to women? Are these images the result of mass media reports or have Filipino Muslims historically contributed to such overall impressions? Are these images created by the historical conflict between Muslims and Christians in this country? It seems that all Muslims are treated as a homogeneous group in the eyes of Filipinos, but are there differences among the ethnic groups in terms of the Islamic schools of thought that they represent? How do they understand and interpret Islam? Answers to these questions could lead us to begin understanding the dynamics of Islam in the Philippines, which unavoidably cannot be separated from the struggle of Filipino Muslims or Moros. Religion is oftentimes used as a motivation for its followers to legitimize actions towards the realization of individual or collective interests. In the case of Filipino Muslims, it is reflected in the various Moro struggles or movements such as the emergence of MILF, MNLF, and most especially the Abu Sayyaf [2] The history of Muslims or Moros in the Philippines reveals how religion became a unifying ideology for self-determination against colonial rule and injustice. If Filipinos tell the story of their nation as a narrative of resistance, subjugation and oppression, and revolt and emancipation, Moros tell theirs as one of continuing resistance and struggle against both colonial rulers and the colonized Christian majority. In their eyes they have always been free and self-governing (David 2002:73). The dichotomy between Moros and Filipinos has shown not only the Moros restless and relentless resistance but has also signified that they did not participate in building the Filipino nation. As a consequence, they have found it even more difficult than members of other ethno-religious groups in the country to see themselves as part of this imagined community (See Anderson, 2003 orig., 1983 for an elaboration of the concept of imagined communities). It is unfortunate, according to Filipino sociologist Randolf David, that Filipino leaders took for granted the membership within the Filipino nation of the sovereign Muslim sultanates of Sulu and Maguindanao, trusting that the force of a common racial origin would be sufficient to establish a national bond. It is even more sad that Filipinos who took over from the colonizers continued to practice the rituals of power of the colonial masters, treating Muslims differently, aggravating social inequality and alienating them further from the Philippine government. David noted that every post-war administration has launched its own wars of pacification in Mindanao, just as the Americans did (UP Newsletter, Feb. 21, 2003). This situation has pushed Moros or Filipino Muslims to identify themselves as the victims of an unjust and unfair Philippine government. As a consequence, greater self-determination or freedom from the Philippine government has become the pivotal issue in their struggle. The sociopolitical background of Moros has inevitably influenced the construction of Islam as their religion. Although Filipino Muslims differ in their level of aspiration for an Islamic state, Islam in the Philippines has nevertheless been connected in the public mind to their political aspiration and struggle for self-determination. This is not without basis. Perceived as the solution to the problems of Filipino Muslims, some of their leaders have recently advocated the implementation of Islamic law either under the auspices of the Philippine government or independently of it. Charting alternative futures for Muslim Filipino masses, Islam has begun to constitute an alternative ideology. The kind of Islam that says religion is inseparable from politics or the public sphere is usually referred to as fundamentalism by the western world. Found in countries like Egypt, where it originated as a result of social injustice and lack of equal opportunity for Egyptians[3], Islamic fundamentalism has also gained adherents in the Philippines in the context of persistent socio-political and economic issues that have been the basis of the struggle of Filipino Muslims through time. In light of a changing socio-political environment aggravated by September 11, 2001 and the resulting War on Terrorism-that Muslims all over the world decry because it virtually equates Islam with terrorism, there is a need to find out whether the fundamentalist perspective of some leaders of Muslim movements like the MILF, MNLF, and Abu Sayyaf is shared by other Muslims. It is also important to explore how Filipino Muslims in the Philippines view the issue of establishing an Islamic state, as well as elements of Islamic law, the position of women, democracy and other related issues, in response to the stimulus of the global environment and social and political actions of a predominantly Christian government in the Philippines. It is the researchers desire to see the connection between the religious and political ideas of Filipino Muslims in situ and compare these in the future, to the ideas of Indonesian Muslims, that led to the interest of this student, an Indonesian Muslim, in finding tentative answers to the above questions. After all, there is no single person or institution in Islam has had the authority or the right to decide the one true interpretation of the holy Quran and Hadits as the source of Islamic teaching since the death of the prophet Mohammad (d. 632 A.D). This situation is quite similar to what post-structuralists call the death of the author. Islam is one religion but its interpretations are as varied as its adherents or those who read its texts. Such condition has produced different strains of Islam such as moderate Islam, revivalist Islam, fundamentalist Islam, etc. As for any other sociological phenomena, one would see that the perspectives of Muslims regarding Islam in general and I slamic fundamentalism in particular, would vary with the geographic and socio-economic realities they are facing. This thesis does not attempt to look at the views of Muslim Filipinos all over the nation because time and logistical constraints prevent a nation-wide study. It tries, instead to focus on those who have migrated to Metro Manila and who live in an Islamic enclave within the old central city. The economic problems in Mindanao have pushed Moros to migrate to Metro Manila for a better life. From a sociological viewpoint, the move away from the Muslim heartland in Mindanao is expected to result in the change of behavior among the rural migrants. Contact with strangers is seen as a potential source of cultural shock, as strange environments disturb homogeneous ideals. The migrants learn not only to tolerate the attitude and customs of other people, but also to accept insecurity and instability as a normal state of the world. These characteristics could potentially work together to increase the incidence of what Wirth (1938) called the pathological condition including personal disorganization, mental breakdown, suicide, delinquency, crime, corruption, and disorder. The same contact could also eventually result in secularization or liberalization, as contact with people from different religious persuasion demands greater religious tolerance. Another factor that could mediate the way Muslim Filipinos in Metro Manila would think and act vis-à  -vis Islam is the loosening of kinship ties. Communal solidarity is replaced by a more rational type of solidarity, the kind that Durkheim (1893/1964) called organic solidarity. The close-knit community in rural surroundings is changed in an urban setting, tending to individualize experiences. It is important to note, however, that these processes, which in theory could result in a state of anomie as institutions in places of origin tend to diminish in influence and new urbanized institutions are adopted, may be counteracted by processes that enhance primordial identities. The case of the Philippines and of urban Muslims in Quiapo is a good example of how tensions between individuation and secularization on the one hand, and solidarity around religion and increasing religious fundamentalisms, on the other, are played out. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY This study seeks to understand Islamic fundamentalism in its human and social context, and to explore the impact of modernization and urban life (social context) on fundamentalist thought and practice among urban Muslims in Quiapo by abstracting possible observatims from the views of selected key informants. In particular this study wants to explore and describe the forms of Islamic fundamentalism of selected key informants in the Quiapo area and the factors that have shaped them in the context of the historical and social evolution of the Muslim community of Quiapo. This research also wants to explore the effects of the different factors, including urbanization, that shape the forms of Islamic fundamentalism and the way the fundamentalists live and construct their worldview ideologically. Explore further their views on the formation of an Islamic state, secularization, the implementation of Islamic law, democracy, and the position of women, among others. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY This study intends to contribute to the literature on Islam in the Philippines, complementing the studies on the window display enclave in Quiapo, Manila where Muslim migrants from Southern Philippines now live-a new habitat that differs significantly from the cultural and social environment of Muslim Mindanao. This study thus might not only enrich the sociology of religion in the country but also our initial understanding of urban-based Filipino Muslims, whose population is increasing significantly. More specifically, it will help us explore the modernizing effect of Metro Manila, if any, on the lifestyles, aspirations, and thoughts of selected Filipino migrant Muslims in the national capital region. Such an exploration would lay the groundwork for a systematic study of a more representative sample of urban-based Filipino Muslims in the future. Exploring the plight and worldview of Muslim urbanites, as gleaned from the experiences of the key informants, could also help enhance the capability of the government and Filipino Christians and those of other faiths to deal with the Muslim minorities in Metro Manila and in the larger Mindanao context in the spirit of greater pluralism. After all, pluralism is the aim of diversified societies in a rapidly globalizing world. Since the problems of Moros are essentially political, economic and social, trying to impose military solutions is doomed to fail anyway. No army, according to Randy David, can end this problem unless it is prepared to commit genocide (p.75). A sociological study therefore is a prerequisite to solving the Moro problems in Metro Manila particularly and in the country as a whole. This study also aims to find out whether the claim that there is no homogeneous ideology among Islamic adherents is valid. Like any other religion, Islam as practiced and professed is an interpreted faith. Similar to all other interpretations, is mediated by the socio-cultural context of the individuals who interpret it. Appreciation of the fact that there is no single Islam, hopefully, will foster multiple interpretations of Islam and bridge cultures to make for a pluralist and more tolerant society. SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY This study is exploratory and descriptive in nature. It aims to delineate how the Moro informants, with varying degrees of non-fundamentalist and fundamentalist Islamic views, as urban migrants constituting an ethnic minority in Quiapo, adapt and respond to the new social environment where they live. This study attempts to describe the impact of the modernizing process and complex urban life on the their religiosity (beliefs and practices vis-à  -vis Islamic fundamentalism) and aspirations. As such it hopes, as previously noted, to lay the groundwork for a more definitive and representative study of Islamic fundamentalism in the Quiapo area. Conducted in the Quiapo area among a purposively selected sample living in the barangays surrounding the Golden Mosque and Barangay 648/ Islamic Center, the study focuses on the everyday life of selected Muslims in a small geographic space. Failure to obtain permissions from the Muslim authorities to interview randomly selected respondents prevents the researcher from generalizing the findings. The conclusions in the study are therefore confined to the views of the key informants or the sample respondents and would not apply to Muslims in the Quiapo community, much less in Metro Manila. It is also difficult methodologically to capture the religious perspectives or worldviews of respondents because these have changed over time. Furthermore, for fundamentalisms that span both religious and political views, the contradictions between such views and between beliefs and practice do not make it easy to arrive at meaningful conclusions about them. The problem of attributing the observed beliefs and the perceived changes in religiosity to factors found in the urban environment is also worth noting. The study relies heavily on the reconstructions of the respondents of their biographies and the changes in their views from the vantage point of the present. Thus, the observed effects of adapting to life in Metro Manila on the respondents religious beliefs and practices as well as views on political and social issues may not correspond neatly to actual changes in these practices and views. At best the studys findings regarding Islamic religiosity and fundamentalism among selected Muslims in Quiapo and the possible effects of the urban environment on their manifestations explores and presents initial thoughts regarding possible sociological relationships that need further validation by future researchers. Finally, a major limitation of the study is the researcher`s lack of proficiency in the language of the Muslim community in Quiapo. His interpretations, therefore, are limited by the way he understood the answers to his questions or by the understanding of the translator. Moreover, as an outsider who does not speak the language in the site, he could have failed to fully capture the nuances of the spoken and body language of the respondents, and therefore, could not probe deeply into their worldview. Nevertheless, the proficiency of 80% of the respondents in some Arabic or English provided the researcher with direct access to their answers. Following the references cited in the literature review below, the characteristics of fundamentalism that were explored in this study are not be reduced to the violent dimension of Islamic fundamentalist religiosity which generally prevails in the mind of the Christian Filipino public. The study focuses on the views of Muslim respondents on five issues: 1) the tahkimiyah (sovereignty) or the secular state vs. Islamic state; 2) democracy and the implementation of syariah/ Islamic law; 3) literal interpretation of the Quran, 4) the rights of women, and 5) jihad. Focusing on these issues would allow the researcher to roughly construct preliminary segments of the worldview of selected Filipino Muslims in the Quiapo area and determine the level of influence of fundamentalist thought on them. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE The researcher draws from theories and ideas found in the literature in the Sociology of Religion in determining the data to be gathered and in analyzing his findings. This section brings together the literature on fundamentalism, city phenomenon and religiosity. Islamic Fundamentalism Historical and Doctrinal Survey One of the most controversial religious terms is fundamentalism. Within Christianity, Judaism, Islam and other faiths, the term is used to refer to the most conservative wing of a religion. Author Karen Armstrong (2000:12) in The Battle for God defines fundamentalism as embattled forms of spirituality, which have emerged as a response to a perceived crisis, namely the fear that modernity will erode or even eradicate their faith and morality. Bruce Lawrence in Defenders of God: The Fundamentalist Revolt Against the Modern Age (1989) views fundamentalism as the affirmation of religious authority as holistic and absolute, admitting neither criticism nor reduction; it is expressed through the collective demand that specific creedal and ethical principles derived from scripture be publicly recognized and legally enforced. Jeffrey K. Hadden and Anson Shupe (1989: 109-122), offered the following definition of fundamentalism: it is a proclamation of reclaimed authority over a sacred traditio n, which is to be instated as an antidote for a society that has strayed from its cultural moorings. They note that fundamentalists refute the split between the sacred and the secular that characterizes modernist thinking. It also involves a plan to bring religion back to center stage in public policy decisions. For Hadden and Shupe (1989:72) fundamentalism is an attempt to draw upon a religious tradition to cope with and reshape an already changing world. They both argue that around the world there is a common process of secularizing social change. This process contains the very seeds of a reaction that brings religion back into the heart of concerns about public policy. The secular is also the cause of resacralization(which) often takes fundamentalistic forms. From the definitions above, fundamentalism is seen as a radical reaction to the new social world (modernity) to the purity and originality of religious fundamentals and morality of a certain religion or faith. Modernity is viewed as a corrosive force making religious traditions less and less significant in individual and social affairs. The fundamentalists are anti-modern insofar as they are opposed to the perceived evils of modernity and their negative impact. To consider them anti-modern, however, is problematic due to the ways in which even self-styled fundamentalists are implicated in the culture of modernity. American fundamentalists, for example, come from a tradition of religious pluralism and the separation of church and state; the differentiating rationality of modern times is by no means alien to them. The attempt within different religions to go back to fundamentals and resist or turn back liberal or secular tendencies in theology, culture and society, regardless of historical religion-cultural origin was inspired either by a religious vision or sacred text. It is ironic that the globalization of modernity, with its power to change the world through technological developments and widespread communication in cyberspace, is associated with the rise of fundamentalist visions and texts. This phenomenon rejects the assumption of secularist thinkers that religion is a primitive superstition that will be outgrown by civilized, rational man. Some secularist thinkers (Marx, Freud, Nietzsche) confidently predicted its imminent demise. At best they said religion is a marginal and private activity, which could no longer influence world events. The world now realizes, however, that this is a false prophecy. It is true that modernity could undermine the essence of religiosity and to some extent strengthen its separation from social affairs. But modernity could have also created the fundamentalist attitude that reacts to modernity itself. The contradictory outcomes of modernity-the separation of the sacred from the secular on the one hand and their fus ion in fundamentalism, on the other hand, makes for the dialectics of social change, which hopefully will result in a better social order. The term fundamentalism has its origin in The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth, a series of pamphlets published between 1910 and 1915 [6] that served as a point of reference for groups of conservative American Protestants early in the twentieth century (Lecher, 1998:197, Rakhmat, 1998:260, An-Naim: Encarta Reference Library, 2003). By and large this was a response to the loss of religious influence and emerged in the context of the traditional revivalism experienced in America during the early twentieth century. This loss of influence, coupled with the liberalizing trends of German biblical criticism and the encroachment of Darwinist theories about the origin of the universe prompted a response by the conservative churchmen. At the time, the authenticity of the Bible, the origin of the universe, the birth of Jesus Christ, the crucifixion as the way of salvation and the second coming of the Christ were reinterpreted by liberal theologians in a new way to accommodate new scientif ic and technological discoveries. In 1920, a journalist and Baptist layman, Curtis Lee Laws, appropriated the term fundamentalist as a designation for those who were ready to do battle royal for fundamentals (www.religiousmovement.lib.virginia.edu/nmrs/fund.html). Originating historically within the Christian tradition, the term fundamentalism in Islam has been criticized and its use is regarded as misleading. John L Esposito (1996:43) of Georgetown University pointed out that the term fundamentalism is laden with Christian presuppositions and western stereotypes, and it implies a monolithic threat. More useful according to Esposito are the terms Islamic revivalism, Islamic activism, and political Islam, which are less value-laden and have roots within a tradition of political reform and social activism. Garaudy (1991:1) might sharpen the suggestion of Esposito by saying that the term fundamentalism is not merely limited to religion, but is also related to politics, society and culture. For him fundamentalism is the worldview erected on the basis of conviction (belief) whether it is religious, political or cultural, practiced and indoctrinated by the founder of that belief (1991:1). Akbar S. Ahmed further criticizes the appropriateness of usin g and applying the term fundamentalism to Islam. As we know it, in its original application, it means someone who believes in the fundamentals of religion, that is Bible and the scriptures. In that sense every Muslim is a fundamentalist believing in the Quran and the prophet. However the manner that it is used in the media to mean a fanatic or extremist, it does not illuminate either Muslim thought or Muslim society. In the Christian context it is a useful concept. In the Muslim context it simply confuses because by definition every Muslim believes in the fundamentals of Islam. But even Muslims differ in their ideas about how, and to what extent, to apply Islamic ideas to the modern world (Living Islam: 18-19). In light of the objections and considering the need to sharpen the meaning of fundamentalism as applied to Islam, observers use the term rigorism or in French integrisme to describe fundamentalism phenomenon. Referring originally to Catholic traditionalist group, integrism aims to integrate all aspects of life into religion and vise versa (Nasr, 1987:304; Watt, 1988:2; Gellner 1992: 2). Fundamentalism as integrism would then refer to reintegrating a social order under the canopy of one all-encompassing sacred tradition. Salvatore called those who looked at Islam as both a religion and a state, the equivalent of French integrists, the solutionists/ conflationist. For this group, Islam is the solution (Islam huwa al-Hall) for individual and social order (1998:84). The underlying idea for Islam as for any given faith is to be upheld firmly in its full and literal form or free of compromise, reinterpretation or diminution (Gellner 1992:2). The positive view of fundamentalism as a term used even within the Islamic tradition is expressed by Abdullahi Ahmed An-Naim (2003). The origin of the term according to Naim should not preclude its application to movements in the Islamic, Jewish, Hindu or another religious tradition if they share the same salient features and important traits. The defining characteristic of American Protestant fundamentalist movement for the author was firm, principled, and militant opposition to the inroads that modernism, liberalism, and higher Biblical criticism were making into the Protestant churches, and the supposedly Bible-based culture of the United State at large. Islamic fundamentalists according to Naim hold sufficiently similar beliefs in relation to Islam and the Quran. Moreover Islamic movements in North Africa and the Middle East use the corresponding Arabic term Ushuli/ Ushuliyya to describe themselves and their beliefs, and not simply as a matter of recent translation of the American term.[7] The call to affirm and implement the fundamentals of the faith, as distinguished from its incidentals, is an established and recurrent theme in Islamic theological and political discourse, as can be seen from the title of the book by al-Ashari (d. 935) al-Ibanah an Ushul al-Diniyyah (The Elucidation of the Fundamentals of the Religion). Other scholars who emphasize this theme in their work include al-Ghazali (d.1111), Ibn Taymiyyah (d.1328) and Ibn Abdul Wahhab (d. 1787). Adding legitimacy to the use of the term fundamentalism in Islam, Lawrence Davidson argued that there are two reasons for using it in analyzing Muslim movements: (1) The expression Islamic fundamentalism has come into wide usage in the West as well as in the Muslim world, where it is rendered in Arabic as al-Ushuliyyah al-Islamiyyah. Here the word ushuli can be translated as fundamentalist. In fact, it is so generally accepted that it is now the main descriptive expression recognized by all interested parties to describe the Islamic revivalist movements. (2) The term fundamentalism is sufficiently accurate to describe Muslims who see themselves as adhering to the ultimate fundamentals or foundations of their religion, and also to a literalist interpretation of the Muslim holy book, the Quran (Davidson, 1989: 16-17). Following the arguments for the use of fundamentalism to refer to Islamic revivalism, this thesis applies the term fundamentalist to Filipino Muslims who struggle for the unity of church and the public sphere including the state in the ideology of the independent Islamic state and society for Muslim Mindanao. Scholarly Analysis Lawrence (1989) views fundamentalism in the context of a struggle with modernism and modernity. To clarify the active defense of God from the inside, Lawrence examines how actors bring the resources of their tradition to bear on problems they encounter. Aspiring to bring the kingdom of God to the earth as a whole, the defenders of God have become important actors in this global scene. From Lawrences analysis we clearly see that fundamentalism is not a necessary consequence of something inherent in a religion. As a code of ethics and guide to the people on how to live in accordance with Gods will, religions hold is either undermined by a modernity that directs people to live according to human reason and freedom or enhanced by it. Fundamentalism represents modernitys giving rise to a deepening of religious faith. As modernity eroded the influence of the sacred, Lawrence argues that the Defenders of God actively called for a return to fundamentals. Jeff Hayness (1999) also asserts that religious fundamentalists, feeling that their way of life is under threat in the modern world, aims to reform society in accordance with religious tenets, to change laws, morality, social norms and sometimes the political configurations of their country. From another angle, Risebrodt (1993) noted that the increasing inability of traditional cultural milieus to reproduce themselves under modern (concretely: urban) conditions is the source for the birth of fundamentalism, a kind that he conceptualizes as a radically traditionalist movement. Risebrodt considers fundamentalism as the failure of traditionalists to adapt to modernizing projects. One can conclude from the literature that fundamentalism emerged as cultural and sociological reaction or an antithesis to social change from pre-modernwith traditionalist characteristicsto a modern era. When modernity erodes the traditional values, which are the characteristics of a pre-modern era, and traditionalists are unable to reproduce themselves under the modern era, fundamentalism is viewed as a viable and possibly the only alternative to choose. Other observers saw fundamentalism as one of the symptoms of or religio-political expressions in a post-modern era (Ahmed: 1992; Ahmed Donnan 1994). In 1988, Richard Falk (1988:379) observed that ours is a period of unexpected, varied, and multiple resurgence of religion of political force. He asserts that politicized religion (fundamentalism) is a form of post-modern protest against the mechanization, atomization, and alienation of the modern world. Religion, he argued, provides the materials with which to move beyond purely instrumental rationality and address core issues of the current human situation (Falk 1988: p.382). Tracing the rise of Islam revivalism and fundamentalism to modernity or post-modernity, the view of Islamic fundamentalism as a form of religio-political expression in the postmodern era can be seen as a-historical and a-sociological. In fact the Wahabiyyah movement led by Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab (1703-92) in the Arabian peninsula, which is so often been seen as prototype of Islamic fundamentalism, arose before the European penetration into that area. Moreover the raison dà ªtre of the Wahabiyyah movement is an internal purification-that is, the purification of Islamic practices at that time. The movement was thus born not as a reaction to western penetration, much less to modernization projects. It existed long before the modern and post-modern stages or at least in the early stages of modernity. To relate the birth of Islamic fundamentalism merely to Western influence is therefore a simplification of the complex religio-social realities of Islam. In fact, the ideological awareness of postmodernism as a rejection of modernism is found among only a few Muslims. The sociological situation of most contemporary Muslims worldwide, unlike their Western counterparts, puts them in pre-modern or modern periods rather than in a postmodern phase. Only Muslim intellectuals would comprehend the failure of modernitys projects and the return to religious fundamentalism as part of a postmodern outlook. And even if they do, the rejection of al-M aududi (1903-1979) or other Islamic fundamentalist movement and the modernization of Islam is only beginning, making a postmodern interpretation of fundamentalism an epistemological question rather than corresponding to a postmodernism stage of civilization. Fundamentalism in Islam is more appropriately seen as an extreme form of Islamic revivalism or Islamic awakening in Qutbs term. If the orientation of Islamic revival takes a form of religious intensification inwardly (inward oriented) at the individual level, the intensification in fundamentalism is aimed outwardly as well (outward oriented). Islamic revivalism or inward-intensification has involved the escalation of individual attachment to Islam while fundamentalism entails high commitment not only to transform individual life, but also communal and social life. Hence Islamic fundamentalism is often esoteric, emphasizing more on lawfulness or unlawfulness based on the Islamic law (halal-haram complex). In this regard, th