Miranda Complex in Julia Alvarez’s How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents Essay

The article of Jennifer Bess who is an assistant professor of Peace Studies at Coucher College in Baltimore, Maryland, starts with a quotation from Alice Walker’ s book The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart: A diary like this, with so many blank pages, seems to reflect a life permeated with gaps, an existence full of holes. But perhaps that is what happens when one’s experience is so intensely different from anything dreamed of as a child that there seems literally to be no words for it. This quotation is a kind of foreshadowing of what Bess puts forward in her article. The article starts with the background of the Miranda complex which is stated in the article’s title. It is mentioned that there is a girl named Miranda in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. She has all the privileges of her father’s administration over an island; however she states that â€Å" I have suffered/ with there that I saw suffer! â€Å" because of his father’s authoritarianism. From the gender point of view, she carries the burden of oppression and powerlessness of Caribbean people and also the burden of oppression â€Å"the benefits and protection offered by colonizing father and husband. † She is a victim and an inheritor of the forces of colonialism at the same time. According to the article, Julia Alvarez studies this complex inheritance in her autobiographically based novel How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. Alvarez’s characters tell many truths about their history and shared identity through Garcia girls. At the beginning of the novel, Alvarez goes back to the history of Garcia family to the time of Miranda . There were conquerors â€Å"encircling her own wrists† and she passes on these conquistadors to the Garcia sisters in the novel. The novel then emphasizes the themes of loss and violation; on the one hand there is a comfort and strength when the Garcia girls experience the female alliance and the richness of their shared Dominican experience; on the other hand however, they feel the pain of oppression. Because the privileged women of color tell only some parts of the story, her novel involves the mixed voices of silent people and the history’s loses along with Garcia family’s role in violence and victimization. According to the article, Alvarez’s characters come across wit the absence of memories so she must dig into the collective memory in order to uncover what remains of â€Å"common experience broken in time. Just like Miranda, the character Yolanda sympathizes with the others who suffer, however; she cannot identify herself with them completely because of her privilege, just as she cannot identify completely with Americans and even with her own extended family on the island. Her identity is fractured, unlike Miranda who depends on her father to fill in the gaps of her past, Yolanda takes the responsibility and writes her own past; in short she â€Å"recaptures the self† through her self creation. Alvarez’s characters cannot recover the loses of the past but with the exploration of Miranda’s complex, they transform â€Å"mandate of silence† into a revolution of truth telling and self-invention. For the Bess, the novel’s missing words and missing stories forms its theme; however the theme is not only one of loss ; it is also one in which Miranda faces the price of her family’s privilege. In other words, Alvarez uses absences and silence to expose the complexity of her characters’ inheritance, an inheritance shared by all â€Å"who have been shaped by the legacies of western expansion. Bess uses a quotation from Almanac of the Dead referring the alienation that the Garcia girls experienced; In Almanac of the Dead, Leslie Marmon Silko explains through a storyteller that the theory of the Big Bang was â€Å"consistent with everything else that he had seen: from their flimsy attachments to one another and their children to their abandonme nt of the land where they had been born,† westerners and those who have inherited their culture all share the same fate of alienation as do Adam and Eve, â€Å"wandering aimlessly because the insane God who had sired them had abandoned† and expelled them (1991, 258). She continues with another quotation stating that Silko calls the European as the orphaned children and thinks that the girls suffer after their exile: As Silko continues, â€Å"the Europeans had not been able to sleep soundly on the American continents, not even with a full military guard. They,† Like their heirs in Carlos and Yolanda, â€Å"suffered from nightmares and frequently claimed to see devils and ghosts† Their past, divided by the â€Å"river of bodies† left by the Haitian massacre and by the massacre of the natives hundreds of years before, will forever keep the Garcias orphaned spiritually.

History of the U.S. Income Tax Essay

The income tax of the United States of America, be it federal, state and local, has changed over time. Different circumstances pushed the government to create taxation and to amend the existing taxation laws. During the pre-Revolutionary War era in the 1700s, taxes were not imposed by the colonial government as their need for tax revenue did not exist. The colonies, on the other hand, had greater responsibilities therefore, had greater need for tax revenue. Because of this, different types of taxes were imposed by the colonies. The southern colonies imposed taxes on imports and exports while the middle colonies imposed taxes on property and a poll tax on each adult male. The New England colonies, on the other hand, collected taxes through property taxes, income taxes and excise taxes. When the English Parliament realized the need for money to pay for the French war, it imposed different taxes to the American colonies through the Stamp Act which was enacted in 1765. Later on, this Stamp Act was revised to include taxes for permits, newspapers, legal documents and playing cards. The Townsend Act was later on enacted by the Parliament to include taxes for paint, tea and paper . After a decade of paying taxes, there was much resistance to the tax imposed by the Parliament. During the Boston Tea Party in 1773, colonists, dressed as Native Americans, threw 342 chests of tea from a ship of the British East India Company to the Boston Harbor. In 1775, Isaac Backus during the Massachusetts Assembly said that â€Å"It’s not all America now appealing to Heaven against injustice of being taxed†¦We are persuaded that an entire freedom from being taxed by civil rulers†¦is not mere favor from any men in the world but a right and property granted us by God, who commands us to stand fast in it† . Taxation is considered as one of the factors that led to American War for Independence hence, when America gained its Independence, Article 1, Section 9, Article 4 of the U. S. Constitution in 1787 declared that there be no capitation or any direct taxes imposed on the citizens. The national government had very little responsibilities during these times and relied only on donations given by the States for its revenue. However, in 1789, the Founding Fathers realized that it could not function at its efficiency if it relied only on other governments’ donations hence the Federal Government was granted the authority to impose taxes. The sensitivity to taxation was still existing at this point in time hence the government has to be careful on how it impose taxes so as to minimize resistance from its people. Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury in the 1790s, decided that a â€Å"sin tax† was imposed . Through the â€Å"sin tax†, only items which society thinks is deviant or vice were taxed such as distilled spirits, alcohol and whiskey. However, this still led to the armed revolt called Whisky Rebellion by a group of South Pennsylvania farmers. Still during the 1790s, the Federal Government imposed direct taxes to owners of houses, slaves and land. However, when Thomas Jefferson was elected to office in 1802, these direct taxes were removed and for the succeeding 10 years, only excise taxes were imposed. The reason for this was because he realized the inverse relationship of tax rates and tax revenue wherein the higher the taxes imposed on the citizens, the slower the economy grows hence the tax revenue declines. A cut in the rate of tax means that income for the family will become higher, expenditures become higher and hence, the economy experiences growth. During the 1812 War, the need for tax revenue resurfaced again hence taxes on the sales of gold, jewelry, watches and silver were imposed. Treasury notes were also issued to raise money. However, in 1817, the Congress revoked these taxes and for the next 40 years, government revenue was based on high customs duties and sale of government or public land . In 1861, when the Civil War erupted, the Revenue Act of 1861 was enacted. This Act restored the previous taxes on personal income. This tax was similar to the modern income tax because it was based on a gradual taxation of withholding tax from its source. A person earning $600 to $10,000 a year paid 3% tax. Persons with income higher than $10,000 paid a higher rate of tax. In 1862, the debt created by the war was rising at a rate of $2 million per day hence there was another need for the government to increase its revenue. Because of this, the Congress passed another tax imposition on items such gunpowder, playing cards, telegrams, iron, pianos, yatchs, drugs, among others. After the Civil War, the need for revenue declined and hence the income tax was abolished and only the excise taxes remained from 1868 to 1913. The War Revenue Act in 1899 was enacted to raise funds for the Spanish-American War. Government revenues, thru this Act, was raised through sales of bonds, tax imposition on recreational facilities, beer and tobacco. However, the Supreme Court realized that the people of America were becoming aware that the high tarrifs and excise taxes were not good to the economic welfare of the nation and that these taxes were usually paid by the less affluent citizens. Hence, there was an agreement that business income instead was imposed tax. By 1913, Congress enacted a new income tax law which imposes 1% to 7% for persons with income above $500,000. These people earning above $500,000 was only 1% of the total United States population . During World War I, the United States needed to increase its revenue again to fund the war. The 1916 Act raised the tax imposition from 1% to 2% and could go as high as 15% for those with income of more than $1. 5 million. By 1917, the government still needs further government revenue to pay for the war, hence the War Revenue Act of 1917 was enacted. Through this Act, exemptions were lowered and tax rates increased that those who earn $40,000 needs to pay 16% tax rate. In 1918, the tax rates were further increased. Those citizens paying 1% had to pay 6%. The highest rate in 1917 was 15% but during 1918, this was increased to 77%. Due to this increase in tax rates, government revenue increased from $761 million during 1916 to $3. 6 billion in 1918. After the war, the government revenue rose and the government decided to cut taxes to 1% bottom rate and 25% top rate . The Great Depression during the late 1920s and early 1930s pushed the government to once again increase the tax rates. The Tax Act of 1932 was enacted and by 1936, the bottom tax rate was at 4% and the top tax rate reached 79%. When the World War II came, another price hike came into place which altered the tax rates. Those with taxable income of less than $500 paid a bottom rate of 23% taxes while those earning taxable income of over a million dollars paid about 94% of taxes . The tax structure in the United States was also heavily altered in that the number of taxpayers increased from 4 million during 1939 to roughly 43 million during the World War II. Throughout all these years of implementing taxation, the government learned a very important lesson which until now is being valued by government officials and economists and has affected the tax laws enacted in the country – the marginal dollar is far more important to the economy compared to the tax rate being used. The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 was implemented with this important lesson in mind. Unlike the previous taxation laws, this Act was intended to focus on marginal tax rates and it also included consumption taxes. However, due to the deep recession experienced by the country in 1982, the government was once again faced with the need to increase tax rates to overcome budget deficits. Following the 1982 recession was an economic boom which lead the country to believe that marginal tax rates are very important for a strong economy. During the Reagan administration, tax rates were further reduced and had a broader base through the Tax Reform Act of 1986. This reduced tax rate from 50% to 28% while business taxes were reduced from 50% to 35% . In 1997, the Taxpayer Relief Actof 1997 was enacted. The significant party of this Act was the Per Child Tax credit which benefited the lower-income families. During the Bush administration in 2001, the government experienced a budget surplus of about $281 billion hence a tax cut was once again conducted . This tax cut included raising the Per Child Tax Credit from $500 to $1,000 per child, as well as increased the Dependent Child Tax Credit. Until now, this tax law is being implemented and is expected to boost economic growth for the country.

Nalysing the impact of Confucianism on customer behaviour and Literature review

Nalysing the impact of Confucianism on customer behaviour and perception of western brands - Literature review Example China has about 1.3million HNW individuals making it one of the most attractive wealth management markets and thus the high street fashion brands expand to China to make profits (BBC News, 2012). Sale of goods in china is exploding despite of tax importing the Chinese market. Online consumption of western product by the Chinese consumers by 11% in the next five years or so and sales of the brands will grow by twice by about 25% a year. China is the largest consumer of Louis Vuitton and accounts for about 15% of global sales (The Economist, 2011). The Chinese market have proved to be an important market for most of the western brands as the top five most recognised brands in China are imported overseas. In the Chinese market the top brands which have successfully made are Nestle S.A, Chanel, Samsung Group, Apple Inc, Sony Corp, Nike Inc, Starbucks Corp, Canon Inc and other brands. With other western and luxury brand such as Armani, Louis Vuitton and Gucci were also reported to show hi gh in rating among the western brands. Thus it was analysed and stated that China prefers foreign brands (China.org, 2012). The continued rise of consumers in China and rising demand for western brands has proved to be helpful for the luxury sector. The Chinese market is expected to become the leader in consumption of luxury brands by the end of 2014 and contributing about 40% of growth in the next 10 years overtaking Americans and the Japanese. China is predicted to have consumers who will be able to afford luxury brands and products (Smither, 2012). Americans fast food companies such as KFC, Mc Donald’s, Dunkin Donuts have succeeded in China and it is mainly because of the brand image possessed by them of being trustworthy and healthy. According to China market research group, the consumers view these brands as healthy as the Chinese fears tainted ingredients as compared to fats. Thus it quite clear that the way the consumers based in China tends to view the brands is diffe rent from how the brands are perceived in other countries. Thus the success depends on localising the brand. One such example is of Renault, which localised it product in order to appeal to the young professionals in China. The new initiative is to become part of larger trends of retailers who are offering localised services, special products to the Chinese consumers and access the lucrative market (Train, 2011). However there have been incidents when brands have not succeeded in creating brand image for the Chinese consumers. The main reason why brands tend to fail in China is they do not adapt to the concept of localisation of the product. Groupon which happened to close 13 of its stores in China is the latest example of western internet company to fail in Chinese market. The company failed mainly because of local understanding of the consumers, arrogance, management structure were the factors lead to failure of Groupon in China. These are the four main reasons for failure of Groo pons. Arrogance Groupon used to pay highest salary based on market standard and atract5ed the top employees of its competitors. The company also assumed that this

Governance and Public Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Governance and Public Policy - Essay Example As good governance, there is a marriage of the new public management with liberal democracy. As a socio-cybernetic system, it refers to the interdependence of socio-political-administrative actors. And finally as a self-organizing network, it refers to networks seeking to establish their own policies and manage their environments (Rhodes, 1997). Other authors emphasize different points relating to governance. Farazmand (2004) highlights the international element of governance, including the fact that effective governance is value-laden. Lowndes and Skelcher (1998) have an actor view of governance with various elements of governance relating to the outcomes of social processes, ensuring that the means by which actors relate to each other is founded on reality. Frederickson and Smith (2003), on the other hand seeks to view governance as an attempt to understand the institutional interactions in administration. All of the definitions support the fact that governance refers to more than the actions which governments do to accomplish their tasks. Governance in other words relates to the interactions between the public sector and the society as a whole in the management of public issues and problems. Rhodes’ (1997) definitions of governance also include other kinds of relations, including hierarchical and market-style relations. Strong arguments against the narrow perspective of governance are made by Schuppert (2007) who argues that a narrow definition makes it difficult to include the generally more successful elements of governance, including hierarchical governing. As pointed out by Wolf (2007), what is more important is to consider the... This essay critically discusses the ways the word governance is used by Rhodes, mostly with reference to Judt and to various examples and conceptualizations. Initially, a discussion of concepts was established in this study, followed by a critical analysis of these concepts. Rhodes discusses how new applications of governance have emerged. He also evaluates the contributions of actors and institutions outside the central administrators to the general processes of governance. Theoretical contributions impact on conventional applications, which usually picture government to be strong and centralised executives, managing the unified state. Governance as defined and described by Rhodes refers to various elements, including transparency, accountability, new public management, good governance, socio-cybernetic applications, and self-organizing network. Other discussions on governance raised by Judt, who emphasizes the importance of adopting liberal principles of democracy in securing favou rable outcomes in governance. Governance lost its link with the traditional past, mostly because traditions have been considered backward, often holding back development for various states, including third world countries. Governance is also now based on the dynamic relations between the different political actors of the state, using resources which allow for transparency and accountability and the political actors, who include the engaged citizenry, working with the state and the governing authorities.

Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 5

Marketing - Essay Example The main purpose of corporate strategy is to find ways to optimize the current business portfolios of a firm and how this can be changed to meet the stakeholder’s changing interests (Sudi,2003). An organization or a firm will have numerous business and operations ranging from a single industry to multiple industries. Hence, the corporate strategy can not be developed without integrating the various business strategies of a firm. Overall objectives and aims of an organization are formulated based on the overall functions and operations of an organization. Any corporate strategy that is developed without taking into account the various operations or businesses will fail to achieve the overall organizational objectives and aims. Also the goals and objectives of an organization must not be isolated but must be designed in a manner to achieve the vision of the organization, and must be interrelated. The corporate strategy is aimed at achieving this vision (Gallagher, 2010). Four ke y dimensions Asking the right question would determine the dimension of a well –developed business strategy. ... This key dimension determines the role of an organization in the market, the type and kind of products that they must put out or the type of service that is intended to be provided to the customers. What? To achieve a pre-dedicated objective and aim, what are the measures that must be undertaken must be seriously focused for the final goal achievement. This must include intervention from all aspects of the business and must involve the inclusion of role of newer technology, competition, the effect of globalization, the customers demand, the demographic trends and health care sector in terms of organizational staff well being. Hence the â€Å"what† answers the key portion of the plan. Who? Putting the right person to the job is as important measure in attainment of targets through proper guidance and leadership role. The leadership spectrum ranges from individual reasoning like planning, analysis, monitoring, evaluation and control. And these can be achieved through experience within an organization. The second feature that an employer must have is emotions that determine the quality of the person in terms of crisis. Hence the answer must be formulated on who would do the specific job and gain results for the organization. How? The execution of the plan must be addressed with this part of the question. All previously planned goals must be implemented for the achievement of objective and aims set by the organization. For this to happen six key supporting features must always be part of implementation process, which are ongoing actions planning, organization structure, development of human resource, the annual plan, monitoring and control and a overall linkage that combines all aspects of the implementation. An

Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 35

Marketing - Essay Example First, the strengths of the company must be identified. One of its strength is that it has been in the sausage business for 70 years. It is known for its company’s heritage and there is brand recognition already. Another strength of Saxonville is the nationwide distribution of its products, particularly its brats and breakfast sausage, through their national and regional brokers and their distributors. Aside from the company’s good reputation, the Vivio brand is considered to be of exceptional quality with great taste and texture. In terms of weakness, although Saxonville has nationwide distribution, it has very little distribution in stores in the Northeastern markets. Another drawback with the Vivio sausage is the customer’s perception that it may not be a good quality Italian sausage, since its manufacturer is of â€Å"German heritage†. It could be noted also that Saxonville does not spend much on advertising and market research which are very important for the success of a product. The packaging of the product needs a lot of improvement too. In terms of pricing, a weakness of the company is that management does not allow a decrease in Vivio’s price so it is unable to compete with other brands in terms of pricing. The Italian sausage market is a category which has shown an increasing growth rate. This is an opportunity for Saxonville to focus their efforts at further enhancing their Italian sausage line. An opportunity exists for Vivio because currently there is no national player for fresh Italian sausage. A major threat is that there are 29 local and regional brands of Italian sausage. Furthermore, some consumers prefer to purchase sausages which are â€Å"home-grown†, meaning produced in their own locality. The objective of Saxonville is to be able to launch a national Italian sausage brand which will help them achieve their profit objectives for the next fiscal year. The company wants that their Italian sausage be a

Final Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 5

Final - Essay Example He was also among the first philosophers to believe that kings did not have any rights over commoners. Hobbes had a strong conviction that no man has a natural right to dominate another man (Hobbes, 2013:21). He was also among the first people to express – in writing – that he trusted that all men were created equal. This seems to have been the genesis of the two ideologies of liberalism and conservatism. Hobbes represented the latter (Lieberman, 2013:54). At face value, Hobbes’ views appear to lean towards liberalism, but a closer look reveals a deeply entrenched conservative mindset that does not waver in the face of the strongest winds of liberalism. The fact that Hobbes often features – constantly – on the conservative side in liberalism versus conservatism debates shows that he was a conservative thinker (Mannheim, 2013:14). He is the epitome, the embodiment, the perfect example of what a conservative should be. Hobbes, while employed as an instructor to a young King Charles II, exerted so much influence on England’s throne that the king had to agree to be the first monarch to divide his ordained power over Britons with the British Parliament. In spite of this, there was a malicious angle to Hobbes’ views (Gert, 2013:34). For example, his theory of human n ature was that the inherent state of man was to be in conflict. In fact, Hobbes held this view so strongly that he termed the theory of peaceful times as nothing more than the absence conflict. In other words, his opinion was that the perpetual clashes between men, households and governments was as inherent and natural as sunset (Gert, 2013:14). Hobbes’ opinion was that mankind, by his true nature, is evil, conceited and ready kill another man because that is what mankind does. This notion resulted in what ultimately became the foundation of today’s contemporary conservative philosophy (Bunce, 2013:16). With this in mind, how can