Friday, January 24, 2020

Shakespeare’s Othello is a Tragedy Essay -- Othel Literature Shakespea

Shakespeare’s Othello is a Tragedy A tragedy has many definitions, but the Merriam-Webster version defines it as: â€Å"a serious drama typically describing a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force (as destiny) and having a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion that excites pity or terror.† The latter part, about disastrous conclusion is true for Shakespeare’s tragedies, and Othello is no exception. Roderigo blindly follows Iago’s lead and while his contribution to the disaster is minimal at best, he still is able to feed Iago’s desire for revenge, as all the characters do. The only difference between Roderigo and the other characters is how he does it. Roderigo is madly in love with Desdemona and wants her for himself. The first sign of Roderigo’s desires comes from Barbantio when he speaks: â€Å"I have charged thee not to haunt my doors:/In honest plainness thou hast heard me say/My daughter is not for thee†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (I, i) Iago seduces Roderigo’s compliance in the disaster by dripping sweetened words of his attempts to sway Desdemona away from Othello. Roderigo, in his naà ¯ve and loving mind, give Iago the financial means to further his plot of disaster. Iago tells Roderigo that the money and jewels he spends go to Desdemona, but there is little evidence of this. And it seems unlikely that Iago needed large sums of money to exact his revenge on the Moor. He does it with words and a handkerchief, not rubies and emeralds. But Roderigo’s lust for Desdemona leads to his attempt to kill Cassio. After Iago has convinced Cassio to plea to Desdemona for his rank back, Iago is then able to convince Roderigo that the way to take Desdemona is to kill Cassio (IV, ii) because, according to Iago, Cassio and Desdemona are now sleeping together. It is ultimately his attempts to defile and kill Cassio that contribute the most to the tragedy. He causes Cassio to lose his rank (II, iii) and then attempts to kill him. The question Roderigo should’ve been asking himself is this: â€Å"If Desdemona is such a lovely, innocent creature, why does she jump from bed to bed? What makes me think that she’d stay in mine?† Emilia’s role in the tragedy seems very small at first. Iago mentions suspicions of unfaithfulness very early on (I, iii) but it is not these suspicions that Emilia contributes to her death and the death of others. Rather, it is the very simple action of... ... not a factor. So what drives Iago to commit all these acts? Jealousy is a major portion, but perhaps Iago views this all as a game as well. He prides himself on his wit and cunning and is appreciated for it by his peers. Perhaps it is ego that drives Iago to do all of this, a test of his skills to see if he can keep so many threads playing together and for his benefit. Almost all of his actions, plantings seeds of doubt (III, iii) or giving dangerous instructions (II, iii) lead to the tragic ending of the play. Even at the end, Iago refuses to explain his motives, by simply saying, â€Å"What you know, you know.† (V, ii). Perhaps this was Shakespeare’s way of saying not to look for a reason, but rather to appreciate what an amazing amount of cunning and patience this would’ve taken to pull off. In the end, Iago’s last words perhaps best suit the play. â€Å"What you know, you know.† Everything is presented for the entire world to see, with little hidden meanings to things and actions. Roderigo’s lust, Emilia’s fear and loyalty, Desdemona’s purity, Othello’s trust and insecurities, and Iago’s jealousy and ego contribute to the â€Å"disastrous conclusion that excites pity or terror.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Pharmaceutical Industry

Pharmaceuticalization can be defined as the â€Å"process by which social, behavioural or bodily conditions are treated or deemed to be in need of treatment, with medical drugs by doctors or patients† (Abraham 2010:604). According to Abraham (2010), pharmaceuticalization is currently on an upward spiral and this dramatic increase can be attributed to five different factors. These five explanations are biomedicalism, medicalization, pharmaceutical industry promotion and marketing, consumerism, and regulatory-state ideology or policy.Each of these explanatory factors are mutually interactive but competing and it will be explained how this is in the following paragraphs. The biomedicalization thesis is based upon the idea that advances in biomedical research can explain why there is an expansion of drug treatment in our society today. Biomedicalism theorists believe that people who were previously undiagnosed or untreated for certain disorders are now able to receive necessary me dication as a result of progression in medical science, but it is clear from his article that Abraham is not a biomedicalism theorist.Abraham provides surprisingly large amounts of evidence to back up his claim that the biomedicalization thesis is not a legitimate explanation for the increase in pharmaceuticalization. Abraham criticizes the fact that a lot of the scientific literature contains uncertainties and many studies lack replicability and therefore should be rendered unreliable. He also uses the example of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) to farther emphasize his argument.He does this by making the point that the brain imaging done in these studies were supposed to be measuring the levels of dopamine in the brains of the subjects but these samples could not be taken from living people so were instead inferred from dopamine metabolites in the blood or urine. This poor quality of science that the biomedicalization thesis is based upon raises many questions and inc reases the likelihood that this is not a valid cause for the increase in pharmaceuticalization (Abraham 2010).Abraham believes that medicalization is a more reasonable explanation for the rise in pharmaceuticalization. Pharmaceuticalization and medicalization often overlap but are nonetheless distinguishable. Medicalization can be defined as a â€Å"process by which non-medical problems become defined and treated as medical problems, usually in terms of illness or disorders† (Abraham 2010:604). The thought behind the increase in medicalization is that social deviance has gradually become redefined in a way that makes medical disorders part of the norm.ADHD illustrates this idea because in the past 40 years, the criteria necessary to be diagnosed with this disorder has broadened drastically and some studies in the US found that almost 50% of children now meet this criteria. Another relevant disorder would be bipolar disease, which has increased 50-fold since 1980 when it was f irst entered into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Abraham 2010). In our society today it is much more common to be diagnosed with a medical disorder and once consumers are made aware of a disorder’s existence, its regularity will skyrocket.The main way in which consumers are informed about new drugs or diseases is from marketing and promotion done by the pharmaceutical manufacturers. Drug companies are advertising their products much more now and are over exaggerating the benefits in hopes to establish a larger consumer base. They are putting all of their resources and funds into this marketing and even spending more on this than resource and development: â€Å"In the US, industry expenditure on marketing has been about double that on R&D- US$54 billion and US$26 billion in 200, respectively† (Abraham 2010:609).Pharmaceutical companies are even getting medical professionals on board to advertise their products either at medical symposia or in a television commercial by generously compensating them. This increased exposure to drugs makes consumers more informed about the availability of new drugs but not necessarily the risks that come along with them. In his article, Abraham mentions two forms of consumerism that have opposite effects of one another on pharmaceuticalization.The first type that he talks about is adversarial consumerism, which occurs when people are under the impression that they have been harmed by specific drugs and therefore pursue legal actions against pharmaceutical manufacturers. Adversarial consumerism is currently rising; in 2000, US plaintiffs received 4. 85 billion US dollars to settle 27,000 lawsuits against Merck and 894 million US dollars against Pfizer to settle lawsuits about various types of arthritis drugs. These figures can be compared with the mere 10’s of millions of dollars that Eli Lilly was charged with in the 1980s.This particular type of consumerism actually leads to a decr ease in pharmaceuticalization, which is sometimes referred to as de-pharmaceuticalization (Abraham 2010). The more powerful type of consumerism is called access-oriented collaborative and it is one of the reasons that there is an increase in pharmaceuticalization in our society today. This form of consumerism occurs when patients seek access to new drugs quicker than the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can approve them. This puts a lot of pressure on the FDA and forces them to cut approval times for highly demanded drugs (Abraham 2010).

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Personal Statement on Statement of Purpose for MBA Marketing

Abstract Marketing has become a key issue in the 21st century because of new developments and advancements taking place in the modern society. The consumers and marketers have are progressing and continuing to be diverse and complex. The old traditional marketing techniques are inefficient and are unable to satisfy the requirements of these individuals in the business world. Factors that have contributed to the decline in basic marketing strategies include development of new technology and cultural changes that have generated a disjointed market. My interest in the business field began when I was nine years old. During this time, I started to be involved in the real estate business my father owned at the time. Though working for my father, I learnt that being wealthy does not necessarily imply that a person will be an excellent businessperson. Basic knowledge of how certain things in the marketing world work are a vital component in the business world. Some of the things that attract me to this business field are the levels of creativity that is involved, and the dynamic atmosphere through which new ideas and challenges are experienced. My best skills include building and fostering new groups of people, leading teams, listening and critical analysis of problems. My prior education, in a Masters degree Business Administration, has provided me with an articulate standpoint on what interests me most in the business field. While attending the lectures, a number of classes and lectures focused on the various ways companies and large business entities are incorporating new marketing techniques to promote their products. These helped develop a creative perspective in terms of developing new marketing strategies that various organizations can apply in order to compete in the highly competitive world of business in the 21st century (Keillor, 2007). Areas of interest that I plan on doing further research that are associated with marketing include leadership, decision making, communications in marketing, brand management, promotions and prejudice. My decision to apply to this graduate school is based on the belief that this program provides the finest quality and skills necessary to prepare one for advancement in a career, in marketing strategy researc h. I plan to expound on knowledge I gained in my thesis and how it may be used by aspiring future organizations in marketing. To gain experience in the marketing and business world I have managed to work several different jobs both fulltime and part time. I have held three part-time jobs and four fulltime ones. Exposure to these different working environments has further developed my business skills. Additionally, I have been able to motivate myself to become a better businessperson, as well as an individual. Marketing in the business world of today is becoming a prerequisite in modern applications and advancement, in the business field. As the world continues to become more of a global community, the international marketing becomes a key element in determining the successes and failures of these organizations. Since the field of marketing is currently underdeveloped and ignored, an educational opportunity in this graduate school would allow me to attain my goals of developing new and effective marketing strategies. This will result in better and efficient marketing strategies being employed in Saudi Arabia and further increase my knowledge in the marketing sector. At the University of Majmaah, I was the first individual to come up with the International relation and cooperation section in the University. My responsibility was to supervise the operations of International relations and cooperation. Through this section, I was able to develop mechanisms of cooperation between the university and its higher education counterparts outside Saudi Arabia. Further, I was able to make and stimulate agreements of international cooperation within all academic aspects. Consequently, the international cooperation fostered patriotism by encouraging exchange of information, academic expertise and experiences for purposes of bettering and serving Saudi Arabia. Moreover, developing the international relation and cooperation at the University, assisted the university to acquire membership in related regional and international organizations. My educational background provides a strong foundation in the business and communication field.   I have a Bachelor’s degree in English language in which I scored a GPA of 3.53 out of 5. Additionally, I pursued a Masters in Business Administration scoring a GPA of 4.67out of 5.   I have served in positions that required leadership and other essential skills in the business field. As I currently lecture at the University of Majmaah, knowledge acquired in the graduate school will assist me in passing on vital marketing knowledge to my students. Apart from being a lecturer, I am the founder and chief executive officer for Wady Info Company, which specializes in IT business solutions. It offers services in research and development, analysis and innovation, consulting services and technical support. I have also served in the capacity of a senior marketing researcher for the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities. My responsibilities as the senior marketing researcher involved planning and implementing marketing strategies and ensuring that daily business activities were carried out without interruptions. I developed my analytical skills as a project manager for the Qassim information system by designing an advanced system for gathering the economic aspects of the Qassim province. I have been involved in several committees as a member. These include the Tourism Development Committee in Qassim province, Preparation Committee for National Day in Qassim Province, Preparation Committee for the Province Festivals and Preparation Committee for Developing Marketing and Communication tools in Majmaah University. In addition, I volunteered in the organization of the traffic system at Burayadah City festivals and shared my knowledge and experience in social gatherings. In the past, the centre of marketing has been on developing and fostering relationships with customers. New strategies are being sought to achieve the overall objective of marketing, which has always been to build stronger relationships with customers. As companies seek to incorporate social media marketing, they need to be aware that use of social media without an effective marketing strategy market cannot be of benefit to them. In addition, some companies are reluctant to make use of social media marketing as they are deeply rooted in the traditional marketing strategies. All what these companies need is the right approaches towards social media marketing so as they may realise profits. Companies respond to the changing marketing decisions by focusing on customers relationships. In addition, because of the dynamic customer markets, companies are forced to look for alternative ways that will increase customer loyalty in certain products. Furthermore, both new and old companies will have to align their customer management techniques because of the complex nature of the business processes. After finishing my graduate marketing studies, I plan to apply the new approaches and strategies of marketing that I will have learnt to expand business opportunities for small and medium sized enterprises within Saudi Arabia and in Middle East. In addition, the information I will acquire in the course of the program will assist me to develop and advise businesses on ways to incorporate the modern technologies that are being used in marketing and promotions of organizations (Keillor, 2007). Furthermore, understanding the role played by social marketing will assist in penetrating additional markets and in the process expand the businesses (Andreasen, 2006). Bibliography Andreasen, A., 2006. Social Marketing in the 21st Century. California: SAGE. Keillor, B.D., 2007. Marketing in the 21st Century. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group.