Target vs. Walmart free essay sample

Once an employee is hired, a lot of money is invested to ensure proper training of each and every employee. Target does their best to try and ensure they hire not only good team members, but great managers to lead the team members. After an employee is hired, they instill their motto of â€Å"Fast, Fun, and Friendly† into each employee. Target wants each employee to follow this motto. Even lingo at Target has made a positive impact. For example, Target does not call people who come and in shop customers, instead they call them guests. They want to ensure their guests feel at home. My research is about Target being the best in customer service compared to other retail chains. I am going to find studies, articles, and do an experiment with the class. I plan on showing evidence that because Target has implemented different techniques, which is what makes them successful. We will write a custom essay sample on Target vs. Walmart or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I used to never shop at Target because other retail stores are closer to my home. After working at Target and seeing how the store was put together and the type of training employees go through, I will always be a Target customer. While working at Target, I always thought to myself, â€Å"If only Wal-Mart would implement the technologies and training that Target employees receive, they would be unbeatable. † I have no idea why Wal-Mart won’t get walkies for every sales floor employee. When I walk into a Walmart, Meijer, Kroger, etc. , I know I will have a really hard time finding an employee who knows where the items are that I need. When I go into a Target, I have confidence that any sales floor person can help me. My research is from personal knowledge and from a journal article I found through the UC library website. In July 2010, Consumer Reports did a rating of 11 stores and in best to worst the stores ranked were: Costco, Dillard’s, Kohl’s, JCPenny, Target, Sam’s Club, Sears, Macy’s, Meijer, Wal-Mart, and Kmart. I’m not at all surprised that Wal-Mart was second to last and also not surprised that Target is right up there with department stores. Wal-Mart had the worst possible rating in: returns, checkout, store problems, and product quality of clothing items. In conclusion, if Wal-Mart would focus just as much attention on customer service as they do low prices, they would be unstoppable. Walkies may be a large expense, however, I believe they will pay for themselves. They will be able to find items quicker for customers, check out will run smoother, and because of the better customer service, they will see an increase in repeat customers. I worked at Target from _________________ I got to personally experience what great team work really is. In that time, I gained valuable skills that I’ll have for the rest of my life. Each Target store is a manager-led store. For the most part, Target does a really good job hiring excellent people who can lead teams. However, in my case, sometimes Target lets bad apples slip through the cracks. Target has a store leader, Executive Team Leaders for each department, team leaders for each department, two brand team members in softlines (clothing, shoes, and accessories) and one brand team in hardlines. From what I personally witnessed, if you have great managers team members will work together more effectively and be happy. In softlines, the ETL and team lead were very bias and cruel. Softlines constantly had people switching out of the department, were constantly complaining, and softlines had a higher turn-over rate. How Stores Stack Up! † Consumer Reports Vol. 75, Issue 7, p. 20-21 (July 2010) For my presentation to the class, I’m going to do an experiment. If the library allows me, I am going to borrow two walkies. If walkies are unavailable, I can use cell phones as a backup. I’m going to ask for 4 volunteers. There will be Team Target and Team Wal-Mart. I will give one pers on on each team an item that a customer is going to ask for (I will be the customer). I will then give Team Target the walkies. I will ask the people with the items to go anywhere they want to inside or outside of Flory, out of sight. I will then pretend I’m a customer and ask both people for the item that I sent with their team mates. I will have both teams use the current communication method that the stores they represent use. Team Target will get on the walkie and say, â€Å"Team, where can I find (whatever item it is I will give them)? † The other Target team member will say, â€Å"It’s in (and give their location). † Team Wal-Mart will use the guessing method and have to look for where their team member is. I will time them both and see who can help the customer faster.

A Special Gift Essays

A Special Gift Essays A Special Gift Essay A Special Gift Essay A customer has planned to go to the gift shop named â€Å"Samanikalo† to buy a special gift for her daughter. The salesman and the sales girl is dealing with the customer to choose a better gift for her daughter. The conversation begins as follow: Sales Girl: Hi, madam. How can I help you? Customer: I want to purchase a gift for my daughter to give it on her birthday. Sales Girl: How old is she? Customer : She is just nine years old. It should be something special and unique.Remember must be surprised too. Sales Girl: You know ours is the biggest gift shop in Malaysia isn’t? We have a large collection of gift items. We shall show you the latest items. Customer: Suggest me the items that can make my daughter happy. Salesman : Oh, sure madam. We would promote you to buy a doll named â€Å"Akka Chokka† which made in Abudabi. Customer: Let me see it first. Can you tell about the specialty of this doll?Salesman: Oh, of course. It greets in different languages, sings w onderful songs and shows emotional feelings. Customer: Can you show me? I want to see how it works. Salesman: ok. (Action) Customer: Oh, it’s really really beautiful. I really like it. Hope my daughter likes it too. Salesman: Yes, this doll is very popular among the female children. Sales Girl: Sure your daughter will like it. Customer: Can you tell me how to operate it?Salesman: Yes, press this green button and it will start greeting and when you press this yellow button it starts singing. Then, pull the string to show it’s emotional feelings. It’s too simple. Customer: All right. How much its cost for? Sales Girl: It would be for RM 100 only. Customer: Won’t you give some discounts ? Sales Girl: Yes madam, I can offer you ten-percent discount. Customer: That’s ok. Please pack it. Sales Girl: Here is your bill, madam. Customer: All right. Thank you. Sales Girl: Most welcome. Please visit us again.

Comparative economic systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Comparative economic systems - Essay Example With industrialization came the need for a skilled and diverse workforce where traditional work arrangements were no longer feasible. During the Cold War period the world was divided into two main camps with the West (USA, W. Europe) embracing a free market economic system and the East (USSR, China) embracing a command economic system. In a free market economic system a nation’s economic activities are the result of individual decisions by buyers and sellers reflected in the price of products and services in the marketplace. People have the freedom to develop their talents and abilities and take up work or enter professions according to individual choice. They can also produce and supply goods and services as private businesses freely within legal and contractual obligations. The free market economic system of the West adumbrating free enterprise has been (and continues to be) referred to as capitalism. Up until the end of the Cold War, capitalism was a term of opprobrium to the East where communism ( a term of opprobrium to the West) was the term used for a command economy where all economic activity of the nation was controlled centrally by the government (mediated by the Communist Party). No private individuals were allowed to own and operate the means of production of goods and services. Public ownership, except in very small scale, local economic activity, was the norm. As everyone knows, USA exemplifies the paradigmatic capitalist state while Soviet Russia and China used to exemplify communism. Things have changed for Russia and China since the 1980s (although the latter still holds onto the communist label) and what these changes are, how they have been adopted and the progress achieved are the concern of this paper. A third kind of economic system called socialism is adopted by some countries with most of the major industries,

As experts in the field, your marketing communications agency has been Research Paper

As experts in the field, your marketing communications agency has been asked to prepare a 'promotional plan' for an organisa - Research Paper Example The adaption of the second brand is due to the fact that products of the same nature exist but lack the ‘ah!’ factor. Through flavor and processing the best tobacco in 6teh world, Shishaah is presented as one of the purest form of rolled tobacco. The packaging of this product takes a rather more stylish look than the other products that trade in the same markets as the target markets for the Shishaah. The packaging includes the use of bio-friendly cover and a covered top presenting the illusion of an executive pen. By launching this product, the promotional plan aims at presenting a new tobacco product to the market to create a market share from those customers or cigarette smokers with the intentions to quit. While cigarette smoking and criticisms have led to reduced consumption of tobacco, the aim of this promotional plan is to launch a product that rates lower than cigarettes in terms of health – one that satisfies the smoking cravings of the regular smoker and the struggling quitters. In the past, various people, presumably users of conventional cigarettes have been documented filing law suits due to health problems that they associate directly with the consumption of tobacco from capable companies such as British American Tobacco (BAT) (Centers For Disease Control And Prevention a, 19). In this case, intense research on all possible effects of smoking Shisha have been identified and through the introduction of a better processed and flavored Shishaah major concerns are handled primarily. The selection of target market follows research results from a prefeasibility study that shows the number of people quitting cigarettes and their reasons for quitting. In addition, the number of quitters willing to take a break from conventional cigarettes presents an initial market as their motive for quitting conventional cigarettes is to try new products that may give a better feeling than the comfort sought from cigarettes. The target market mostly comprises of 25-50 year olds who are at their prime stage of developing their career foundations or at their active smoking phases (Centers For Disease Control And Prevention b, 33). The positioning of the Shishaah would be targeting all customers of the ages 25-50 and with a base income of more than $60,000 per annum. This target market is selected due to the fact that the product is released with the tagline ‘Shishaah! A product for the premium consumer’. Hence fore, the marketing positioning for Shishaah will be targeting middle to upper class customers within the industry. Competition in this area is presented by products such as Marlboro and Bucks as they are products, although not similar to Shishaah, that target the same cohort of consumers as the target market for the Shishaah. SWOT ANALYSIS Strengths With regards to the target market of Shishaah, a considerable number of active smokers in the UK alone stand over 13,700,000 within the urban settings alone. On th e international market, the US is estimated to have a total of 18% of adults smoking on a regular basis – the Center for Disease Control reports. The CDC also identifies that a majority of working US adults are quitting smoking due to reasons central to health issues. In this case, one of the strengths of Shishaah is creating

BUS303 MODULE 2 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

BUS303 MODULE 2 - Assignment Example Our divisions and a few other departments are faced with a 25% budget reduction this year. We need to come up with different ways to work with the budget cuts. The intension of our teams is to ensure that your relationship with the students is not impacted in any manner. We understand how difficult it can be to develop a strong rapport with the students and also the efforts put in by each one of you. Hence we have come up with one simple move, which will contribute to the overall issue to a great extent. Since we do not wish to impact any of the academic aspects of the university, hence one of the closest means to manage this issue is close to your office desk. Our aim is to work together as a team and to save money by working on our recycling efforts. One simple step by each one of you can help the university sustain itself and keep up its excellent performance. All staff is requested to empty their own trash baskets into the recycle bins in the basement. This will not only assist us as a team but will also prove to be beneficial for you as well in terms of small exercise. A simple step like this will reduce the overall departmental custodial costs to a great extent while also helping the environment by efficient recycling. This approach has been adopted by the Business Division team and has proved to be very effective for the cost-saving project. A sincere request is for you to empty your trash on a weekly basis or as often as you require. Unlike other universities we do not wish to cut down on any other services, and wish to be able to effectively cut costs by recycling. The approach used here is to appeal to the sense of reason in the organisation. Here since this mail is being sent out to well-educated individuals, with strong education background and knowledge of sustainability, the most effective approach is to use logical reasoning (Camp). The explanation in the memo will provide a

Decline And Fall Of Empires In The World History Essay

Decline And Fall Of Empires In The World History Essay Published on the Cappuccino Culture page of the Spectator web site on 23rd November 2009 under the heading Decline and Fall is an animated cartoon representing the relative sizes of empires from 1800 until the present day.  [i]  Each empire is represented by a blob that either increases or decreases in size over the period. The collapse of the red blob representing the British Empire, the biggest, is of course marked in the period from the end of the First World War. The only comment this web page elicits is one which notes, this was not interesting you stole three and a half minutes of my life. I offer this counter factual observation at the start of an essay which will set out to show that the British public do indeed have an interest of sorts in the history of their empire, but one that perhaps is not entirely at one with the views of historians. As a listeners comment on the BBC Radio 4 history of the empire puts it,  [ii]  half the world may hate the English for the su ccess that was the empire, the other half for the scourge inflicted upon them, but please stop it with the apologies. Put simply my argument is that while post colonial theories of empire may still be in the van for academics, the British publics view has developed a more Whigish tendency born of nostalgia. Niall Fergusson has come to be portrayed as the primary advocate of the notion of the benefits of empire. Niall Fergussons book, Empire: how Britain made the modern world,  [iii]  was accompanied by a television series on Channel 4. The success of the programme was to set up its presenter alongside the likes of Simon Schama and Kenneth Clarke, as a well known personality with his own cult of popularity. For Fergusson it raised a profile which is now established in neo-conservative circles in the US, and he has become a prolific commentator on current affairs for a number of media outlets. He is widely recognised as clever and provocative, and has continued to develop his controversial argument that the British empire was good for the world.  [iv]  While Fergussons forte is undoubtedly economics and finance, an area of scholarship where much of his other publications are situated, he does not skimp on ranging across the panoply of empire history including setting out where the British empire went wrong the horrors of slavery or the brutality that occurred at the Battle of Omdurma n. In asking whether the empire was on balance good or bad, his view can be summed in his own words that, no organisation has done more to promote the free movement of goods, capital and labour than the British empire in the 19th and 20th centuries. And no organisation has done more to impose western norms of law, order and governance around the world.  [v]   A Gallup poll taken in 1998 found a British populace who were unapologetic about the Empire. As the Economist noted, the politically correct idea that there was something shameful about colonising large swaths of the world had little resonance amongst the public.  [vi]  This was the same year that Tony Blair was busily articulating Britain as, Cool Britannia, a model 21st century nation to the Labour party conference. Whilst 60% of those polled regretted the empires passing, only 13% thought that the country could have retained its imperial possessions if it had wished. But the way Tony Blair talked about empire had changed to reflect this public mood. It had developed from what had been the normal reference in the leaders conference speech to decolonisation. By the 1997 conference the creation of a significant empire was one of a long list of British achievements. A minor change but perhaps significant given the New Labour ability at the time to sense and articulate the centre g round of the electorate. It is a tautological statement to say that nations develop differing narratives of their imperial legacy. Such narratives will help shape contemporary popular views. In particular, it will colour the judgement as to whether the loss of an empire was viewed as a defeat, and if so, whether there was a consequential impact on perceptions of national self esteem. Kumars comparison of the French and English experience is instructive.  [vii]  He notes that for the English the distinction between past and present is pointless: the future is viewed through the resource of a thoroughly assimilated history. This is contrasted with the turbulence of recent French history where the past remains alive. The result for Kumar is that the French now have a significant tradition of self reflection which manifests itself in a strong sense of nationalism and national identity. He contrasts this strongly with the English case. And in considering this more specifically within the context of empire, th e overall French perception was driven by their not being as successful as their imperial competitors, in either the scale of the empire they achieved, or the subsequent management of decolonisation. The end of the British Empire was not only rapid but also remarkably peaceful, notwithstanding some outbreaks of nationalist hostility. It was not accompanied by radical political upheaval: in Britain itself, all was calm. The British had seeming accepted the collapse of their empire with an equanimity bordering on indifference,  [viii]  which was a contrast with France and Portugal, where decolonisation was followed by political convulsion at home. As David Cannadine cogently puts it in a book of essays on Britains adjustment to the loss of empire, the British Empire may have been won in a fit of absence of mind, but as far as the majority of the population seems to have been concerned, it was given away in a fit of collective indifference.  [ix]  This is not a nation grieving a collective sense of loss. But such analysis maybe a little too simple. There could have been in the popular British psyche a deliberate trade off between the perceived benefits of keeping the empire as opposed to the alternatives. The eclipse of empire could have passed unnoticed against a backdrop to a shattering of the faith of imperial markets which occurred before decolonisation took place, and then after 1945 the social priorities that were accorded to the welfare state and industrial intervention to deliver material improvement.  [x]  It is clear this argument can be developed further to include other events in post war Britain such as the European Union dimension, and the unwillingness or ability to afford high levels of defence expenditure and its consequential impact. The reorientation from the east to Europe was well on the way by 1998 as the Gallup survey noted. 50% thought Europe rather than the empire meant more to Britain.  [xi]   A further complication to the popular view of empire can be developed, which is a tapestry of opinion that reflects the internal boundaries of the United Kingdom. The title of Condor and Abells work says it all in this regard, Romantic Scotland, tragic England, ambiguous Britain.  [xii]  The conclusions from the interviews that formed the basis of the research showed that in Scotland, respondents inferred heroic national character from Scotlands role in the Empire. Whereas in England, the story of empire was understood to represent a product of excessive nationalism. However, the concept of Britishness was in both groups understood to predate and postdate the history of empire. This is in fact just another way of saying that as a nation the British had assimilated the empire rise and fall to their own historical narrative. A consequence of the decolonising experience in Britain appears to have been that the recent teaching of history is devoid of content when it comes to the empire. Indeed if I recall both my O and A level history courses in the late 1970s, empire did not prominently figure. Such a notion was explored by a Prince of Wales summer school in 2003. The rub of the question was that if European imperialism was the most important historical trend of the 19th century, and the British Empire was the biggest and most important of the empires, why did it not it figure more prominently in schools teaching? As the Guardian reported, schools do week after week of British social history and only one week on the empire. In terms of significance it is not enough.  [xiii]   The knowledge of empire amongst a generation now one step removed from the Second World War and the decolonisation afterward is too superficial. Our aggravation Fergusson summed the point,  [xiv]  we can teach the British Empire without saying its either a good or a bad thing. It is both good and bad. One simply needs to know about it how it arose and how it declines. These questions arent in anyway politically loaded. Theres an incredible hangover from the 60s left that says anything about empire must be bad. Im in no way pushing my own interpretation of empire. Its just that it should be at the core of what we teach people about modern history. The reluctance of schools to teach the history of empire and even more the examination boards to set the syllabus is bamboozling and rather smacks of avoidance. But avoidance as a consequence of what embarrassment at the event or the analysis? An Ofsted report on the teaching of history in schools questioned whether a lesson on empire in a three year history course was sufficient given the subjects significance and concluded it was not.  [xv]  It found that pupils aged 16 would have had 3 or 4 lessons on the subject of empire in their previous 5 years at school. But this is not about providing a unitary explanation of empire in the classroom. The advice Ofsted gave to schools was that pupils should know about the empire and that it has been interpreted by historians and others in different ways. However, others in education were more strident in their criticisms. Dr Andrew Cunningham, a teacher, argued that while the empire might be forgotten in the UK, around the world this was far less likely to be the case where the imperial legacy was the English language, a strong sense of liberty, an impartial legal system and stable parliamentary government.  [xvi]  He also noted that the legacy lived on within the UK with an ethnically diverse populace drawn from across the former colonies and living together in relative harmony. In an increasingly globalised and interconnected world the existence of old links between peoples, such as language and law, are fundamental building blocks for future relationships. They together with immigration to Britain are important legacies from empire. The Commonwealth bruised and battered in the 1960s and 1970s retains a surprising utility as a dense global network of informal connections, valued by its numerous small states.  [xvii]  Whether or not this judgement shows a transition in the historical analysis of the empire by the BBC is only a question that the corporation itself might answer. But the analysis has moved on from that of an earlier BBC website for school children which starkly noted,  [xviii]  the Empire came into greatness by killing lots of people .. and stealing their countries. The issue of hindsight is key in considering historical perspective, and that is as true for analysis of the British Empire as for other events in the past. Time and distance aid the historian by answering the question of what happened next. It is only in the recent 10 to 20 years that histories of the British Empire can begin to be written by those for whom the ideology of decolonisation is a historical phenomenon. Now they are able to judge the claims and successes of what the Ghandis and company of the world constructed as well as assailed.  [xix]  In chronological terms, Fergusson fits neatly into the category of young historians that Richenberg had identified and to whom he offered such a proposition. As he says, many of the sins of dictatorship, tribalism and exploitation which the British committed in Africa have been overshadowed by those of their colonial successors. It is not that this legitimises the wrongs of the Empire, but it makes it easier for many to attempt to i nterpret what was a liberal empire as an intellectually flawed but not dishonourable attempt to solve problems. With little adjustment such observations would suffice for a publishing editors summary for the back cover of Fergussons book. While retrospection is an aid to comparative analysis it is also an equally useful tool for those who believe the legacies of empire might not always be viewed quite so benignly through such an optic. Jack Straw, when Foreign Secretary, identified Britains imperial past as the cause of many of the modern worlds political problems, including the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Kashmir dispute.  [xx]  Fergusson, perhaps predictably commented that Mr Straw was guilty of chanting the old National Union of Students refrain we are to blame.  [xxi]  Conversely though, there is a view for example that the partition in India/Pakistan was now far more important as the defining context for contemporary and future politics, than the legacy of the empire. Perhaps while retrospection helps it does need to be treated with a degree of caution. It is always easy to be wise after the event or as Barry Buzan from the LSE noted in the same article, like looking back at a game of chess; its much ea sier afterwards to work out what the moves should have been. In doing so he captured the views of other historians such as Andrew Roberts and J B Kelly. This gradual development of the view of Empire from apologist during decolonisation to now more benignly contemplative is most clearly reflected in the Commonwealth. Here former colonies are individual nations bonding of their own volition as equals. It shows too that the assimilation of history into a continuous narrative is not solely a British experience. As an institution during the 60s and 70s the Commonwealth was viewed by most as an irrelevance. Indeed during the 1980s, Britain was isolated over its stance on South Africa. Now it is a family of 54 member countries with membership across all the worlds continents, including 1.8 billion people, or 30% of the worlds population. Extraordinarily 50% of that combined population are under 25 and so, many are in some cases 2 or 3 generations removed from direct experience of colonial rule.  [xxii]   The Royal Commonwealth Societys website describes how all its members are united by agreed common values, principles, heritage and language. They also share similar systems of law, public administration and education and work together in a spirit of cooperation, partnership and understanding. The increasing status of the organisation is such that membership continues to grow to countries that were outside British colonial rule, for instance Rwanda. There is a binding of human experience and values implicit in what the Society says: it is not unrealistic or even nostalgic about the past but in effect says, we are where we are, lets look forward. Given the ethnic diversity of the British population, the Commonwealth is a link by which various disaporia can remain in touch around the world. The Commonwealth is for most of the British public the most visible living legacy of the empire, with its link championed by a monarch who has lived through the decolonisation process. A living body, not a colonial relic, the Commonwealth is a successful story which looks set to strengthen in the future. It has 5 of the worlds economically fastest growing countries (including India) as members and the connections arising from the legacy of British rule mean trading costs 15% less than elsewhere in the world.  [xxiii]  The Commonwealth has developed into a consensual, informal and adaptable organisation that could be uniquely useful. Such a view cannot help strengthen the bodys reputation in the British publics perception. As the number of Britons with recollections of colonialism are relatively few, such a modern image could well colour perceptions of empire and make its legacy appear benign. The passage of time might have started to heal some of the rawness that underpinned the harsher views of empire that were prevalent in the latter half of the twentieth century during the decolonisation process. The link between many of the liberation movements in the old colonies and Marxism was strong. The subsequent defeat of communism in west and the strengthening of liberal explanations of the benefits of market capitalism and democracy has also helped to soften the often black and white terms in which empires were viewed during decolonisation. But it is the case too that the political left might be leaving its traditionally hostile view of the colonial legacy behind. Clare Short as the Minister for International Development wrote to her Zimbabwean opposite number in 1998, (we are as a government) without links to our colonial interests.  [xxiv]   An example of overall softening of the retrospective views of empire was set out by Michael Palin in an interview when he became the new President of the Royal Geographical Society.  [xxv]  Believing that it might now be the time for Britain to stop fixating on the negative aspects of empire, he said, if we say that all of our past involvement with the world was bad and wicked and wrong, I think we are doing ourselves a great disservice. It has set up lines of communication between people that are still very strong. We still have links with other countries culturally, politically and socially that perhaps we shouldnt forget. Commenting on the interview the historian, Andrew Roberts,  [xxvi]  said, alleluia! Mr Palin is quite right to acknowledge that the British Empire has been taught in particularly abject way in recent years. But before we all get somewhat carried away, some sense of proportion is important. Historians do consider themselves the purveyors of what might be the inconvenience of truth. Though even they are sometimes forced to criticise the over enthusiasm of their profession. My point is ably demonstrated by David Anderson in a review of the work of the American historian Caroline Elkins.  [xxvii]  She had assessed the number of Africans killed by the British in the Mau Mau rebellion as 300,000. The figure had provoked considerable criticism including from Anderson who had personally researched the field. Noting the affect of such exaggeration was to give succour to defenders of the legacy of empire, he was quick to make the counter point. While the British were no more atrocious as imperialists that anyone else, they were no better. It is time we set aside British amnesia and squared up to the realities of our empire, he wrote. In British politics there has been for most of the 20th century amongst the left a perceived connection between colonialism and capitalism. The expectation was the demise of empire would facilitate the building of a socialist society. But even where over time the economic arguments against colonialism splintered or faded the principles of the right to national determination and a generalised internationalism survived.  [xxviii]  Movements such as that for Colonial Freedom, launched in 1954, had at heart a deeply held view that colonialism was an evil for British society as well as for the colonised because it was morally corrupting to the identity of the British self. If it is the development of broader political thinking in society that helps set the context for the acceptability or otherwise of fresh historical analysis, then there has been some perceptible recent shifts. A speech by Gordon Brown on Britishness in 2004 it drew both on leading historians of the British national story and cast a net into more right wing territory too. The reasoning was that it was politically disastrous for centre left parties to abandon the ground of national identity and patriotism.  [xxix]  As Brown reflected on the historical aspects of being British, there was a Whigish air to his account. Any sense that the political aspect of decolonisation is the pervading approach amongst historians has long started to ebb. Whilst the initial veer away from an Anglo-centric perspective on the break-up of empire still maintained some elements of a political theme, the focus has moved to the study of individual countries achievement of self-determination.  [xxx]  There is still a considerable way to go in the historiography of empire, for instance in terms of the study of womens history. Coincident with the increasing profile of Fergusson in the mid-noughties, a number of historians have delivered grounding breaking research into the legacy of empire along these new lines. Andersons research on the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya in the 1950s was one such case. Undermining the received wisdom of an orderly retreat and deals done at conferences is that empires are not glorious being concerned with the power relations, the domination, often de-humanisation, of one race by another. For Anderson the British empire was no different.  [xxxi]  His research has been more focused, not the coffee table book tableau view, but dealing with specific events or countries shining a light upward into how we might view the empire enterprise as a whole. The irony here though is not that Fergussons work is viewed as novel or controversial: rather it is the thesis that must be challenged, rather than challenge. However, Stephen Howes claim that Andersons work will transform our understanding of how the British Empire ended and force a wide re-evaluation of Britains modern history is pushing the point.  [xxxii]  The issue remains that a considerable body of the new work that is aimed at the wider readership is still Anglo-centric. The charge here is that Fergusson is not a heavyweight historian, with his works relying too heavily on secondary texts. As the reassessment of empire progresses with old mythologies being re-evaluated as opposed to rehashed there is a danger that work like Andersons are not permeating effectively enough into the popular histories  [xxxiii]  . Tapan Raychaudhuri in considering the legacy of empire from the Indian perspective argues that few serious historians in India see much that was good in Britains imperial record. However, there is little evidence to suggest that in terms of empires legacy with the British public that such a view has entered the genera l consciousness. The impact on Britain of the loss of an empire is different from that on the former colonial states who composed it. It can be hypothesised that the recent British experience was one of becoming a new nation born from a loss of identity (empire) rather than through the more normal moment of achievement of self-determination and sovereignty. The British and maybe its currently subordinate identities have only begun to value their status as a nation as they have lost its as an empire. Looking to the future, rather than embraced tradition, the past is a foreign country.  [xxxiv]  However, this thesis rather misses the point. The relationship to football that Robinson uses is not strong enough. Past results, whether triumphant or ignominious, are sustained in the pantheon of the football clubs history together with the folklore that accompanies them. It is no guide to future performance on the pitch but it is not dumped, as history becomes part of the living entity that is the club . Extrapolating to Britain, the same is true: history has not been forgotten but assimilated. The notion of popular imperialism is not a new one. Indeed the Falklands war in 1982 could be argued to be the last visible outpouring of such sentiment, though the peaceful return of Hong Kong is another somewhat less jingoist example. It should not be a surprise that a positive idea of the empires legacy or receptiveness (even amongst the cynicism of the Channel 4 commissioning editors) to the work of authors such as Fergusson does exist. The success of imperialism as a popular cultural phenomena during the 20th century was set out by MacKenzie.  [xxxv]  The empires popularity was a core ideology in Britain which later morphed into nostalgia. However, given natural human emotions, it would be hardly surprising that the visible and quick end of empire after 1945 would not evoke such sentiment. Equally the extent though that nostalgia was a means of escaping the harsh realities of the day is of course a moot point. Though as the Economist noted,  [xxxvi]  having taken the loss of empire relatively lightly, the British publics concept of identity had been fortified by a comforting set of images of national heroism derived from the Second World War. But nostalgia can be both melancholic as well as euphoric. In the late 1970s the economic and political challenges in Britain were different from today and discussion was focused on how their malaise coupled with the loss of an empire could be met.  [xxxvii]  Events like Suez summed up the sense of decline associated with decolonisation, but in the public consciousness, victory in the South Atlantic in 1982 has to some extent become linked with economic reform and major so cial readjustment. Today notions of nostalgia continue to be reinforced by newspaper articles,  [xxxviii]  for instance those covering the current troubles in Yemen. In an article headed, We regret driving out the British, ex-Marxist revolutionaries spoke nostalgically of imperial masters they had fought to remove. Whilst patently British rule is not going to return to Yemen, the continued theme of such articles together with similar ones that most of us have read with regard to the Indian sub-continent reinforce a narrative that underpins the articulation of the some of the putative benefits of imperial rule; albeit driven more by nostalgia than rigorous analysis. Whilst the revival of the neo-Whig view of empire is associated with Fergusson it is possible to see the earlier emergence of the same train of thought. Max Beloff noted that for younger historians coming of age when he was writing in 1995, an optimistic view of empire was not difficult to find, where the sins of empire had been redeemed by a legacy of democratic institutions and liberal ideas, notably represented by the Commonwealth.  [xxxix]  He continued, the history of the British Empire could be studied to see how this glorious consummation had been achieved. I would not be so bold as to argue that this was an executive instruction to Fergusson, but my point is that the structure of the argument was already there, albeit in an embryonic way. However, when Clements at a similar time made his plea for more analysis of the economics of empire as a means to aiding its public reassessment, he probably did not have the direction that Fergusson subsequently took in mind.  [xl]  Its conclusions were probably 180 degrees out from what he had anticipated. We have all engaged around the dining room table or at the pub in those rather spurious conversations along the lines of what if we hadnt won the first world war. Such counter factual analyses of history are popular but their value debateable. But it is unsurprising in the sense of the determination to provoke that Fergusson edited a book of counterfactual essays. Such work as Fergusson himself points out challenges conventional approaches to the study of history. E H Carr dismissed counterfactual history as a mere parlour game and red herring, while E

A Red Red Spirit :: Sylvia Plath Suicide Poetry Poems Essays

A Red Red Spirit Life and death, beginnings and endings. The death of one person: the ending of two lives, or the beginning of both? Sylvia Plath, tumbling through madness toward suicide, created a collection of poems titled Ariel, and used the theme poem to express the revelations she had while planning her own suicide. Thirty years later, the man who was blamed for her madness and death - her husband, British poet Ted Hughes - finally responded to the accusations with a set of his own poems he called The Birthday Letters. His poem Red is a direct response to Ariel. The two poems seek to present opposing views of Plath's madness and the "revelations" she found within insanity. One sees her death as a beginning, an entrance into a new state of consciousness. The other looks at it as an ending, as the loss of something unique and priceless. Sylvia Plath seems to suggest that her entire life had been meaningless, flat blankness, but that her madness had opened her eyes to a new world. Ted Hughes appear s to look upon her death in a distinctly different way. He sees it as violent, as an enormous loss, as a fallacy that ruined everything Plath had. Plath states her feelings in the first stanza of Ariel: "Stasis in darkness. / Then the substanceless blue. / Pour of tor and distances." Her words suggest that she believes her entire life had been meaningless, flat blankness, but that the outpouring of emotion that went into Ariel allowed her to see things differently. She speaks of "substanceless blue." Blue - the color of the sky, representative of light and knowledge. The "pouring" of lava - which forms tor - suggests that the enormous number of poems she created in a very short period of time allowed her to gain knowledge she had never had access to before. Even the title of the poem seems to suggest an evolution within the author. The name Ariel has two different meanings. First, it is the name of a spirit in Shakespeare's The Tempest. This spirit, near the end of the play, is released from her servitude to Prospero, and becomes a being of pure energy, free and beautiful. There is a direct connection between this image, and the image of Plath gaining some new revelation near the end of her life, causing her to view the world in some new and wonderful way.