The Truman Dissision Essay Research Paper A free essay sample

The Truman Dissision Essay, Research Paper A adult male of wisdom, truth and leading, these are the things brought to mind when we think of our really ain 33rd president, Harry S. Truman. On Thursday, May 8th, 1884, Truman was born. He was born in a six-room farmhouse in Lomar, Missouri and twelve old ages subsequently he prospered as a Missouri husbandman. For college, he attended the University of Missouri-Kansas City and merely took dark categories. While go toing at that place, he took school of jurisprudence, but did non graduate. Often he visited a Baptist church for moral support to steer him in the right way in life. These are the premier old ages of our shortly to be powerful president. In World War I, Truman went to France as a captain in the Field Artillery. When he came back to America, he married Elizabeth Virginia Wallace and opened a clothing store in Kansas City. We will write a custom essay sample on The Truman Dissision Essay Research Paper A or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page As an active Democrat, Truman was elected a justice of the Jackson County Court in 1922. He became a senator in 1943. During World War II, he headed the Senate war look intoing commission, look intoing into waste and corruptness and salvaging every bit much as 15 billion dollars in one twelvemonth. In 1945, Harry S. Truman became our 33rd national President. His vice-president was Alben William Barkley. He served for two footings and he ended his presidential term in 1953. Truman made some of the most critical determinations in history. Soon after V-E twenty-four hours, the war against Japan had reached its concluding phase. Truman urged Japan to give up because the U.S. might convey atomic arms into the war, but the supplication was rejected. In early August 1945, atomic bombs were dropped on the Nipponese metropoliss, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These two bombs yielded the resignation of Japan and an terminal to the American engagement in World War II. By 1946, the two bombs caused the decease of approximately 240,000 Nipponese citizens. The people of Japan do non hold an official ground forces because they do non believe in the spread of force after they stepped into atomic war and seting many lives at hazard. Because of Harry S. Truman s determination, today we are common with Japan. President Truman, I think is one of my favourite president s because of the action he took towards the war. Peoples may hold looked down on him because of the lives that were taken in the bombardments. But, I believe if the war continued, there would hold been six to seven times as many lives lost in the war. Equally shortly as he came into office, he tried to stop the war every bit shortly as possible and he ended up wining. These powerful actions made him a great leader and function theoretical account for all ages in our great state.

Narrative Essay Skills Essay Example

Narrative Essay Skills Essay Example Narrative Essay Skills Essay Narrative Essay Skills Essay Essay Topic: 8th Grade Narrative Writing Lesson plans and other teaching resources Action Chains Students learn to elaborate on an event in a narrative by expanding their sentences into action chains. Expanding single actions into an action chain provides the reader with a more detailed picture of an event in a narrative. This lesson is designed for grades 3-5. Active Beginnings This 3-page printable handout focuses on crafting strong leads. It is designed for elementary students and requires Adobe Reader or compatible application. Constructing Narratives: A Unit Plan for Taking Apart and Reconstructing Stories This lesson is designed as a project-based unit plan that will take students through the narrative process from deconstruction to construction. After initial discussion, students will use an interactive story map to deconstruct a short story. Students will use pictures to put together a PowerPoint-based storyboard that other students will use to construct a story. This unit is designed for grades 6-8. From Object to Story: Writing a Historical Narrative Featuring an Artifact from Ones Family History Students share observations about the history of familial artifacts. They then research the history and cultural significance of selected objects to prepare their own historical narratives. Includes short reading as prewriting activity. Getting Hooked: Introduction for a Narrative Students will be able to identify techniques for writing an introduction for a narrative and use them effectively. This lesson is designed for grades 2-4. Hands, Hands, Hands Writing a Narrative Essay from the Perspective of a Particular Hand The teacher will show pictures of six hands to students (pictures included with other handouts). After a brainstorming session, students will choose one hand that illustrates a particular story from their life. Then students will write a two page narrative essay about this story. These stories will be posted on a class blog to allow for feedback and discussion from classmates. In Search Of Wisdom: An Interview With An Elder Students develop interview questions, interview someone aged 60 or older, and write a narrative using that persons voice. Incorporating Flashbacks in Narrative Text - The Sinking of the U. S. S. Indianapolis Students watch a 2:25 video segment that shows an interview with one of the survivors of the U. S. S. Indianapolis who recalls the sinking of the ship and his survival. Students then create an original narrative that utilizes flashback to tell the survivors story. This lesson is designed for grades 8-10 and includes links to the downloadable video and all support materials. Make Kids Writing Shine: Using Beginnings and Endings to Teach Craft Strategies to build elementary writing skills. Scroll down for revision and assessment ideas, resources. Memory PreservationOne Relative at a Time After organizing and conducting an interview of a grandparent/senior citizen, students create a slideshow presentation using the information and memorabilia collected at the interview. This lesson plan includes rubric and model. It is designed for 8th grade. Narrative Writing Reading Core Skills Lesson Plan Creating a story is like magic! Grab your magicians hat and wand for this activity. Teach core curriculum concepts of narrative writing (story creation) through the use of characters, setting, and plot. Also teaches skills needed to meet language arts reading and writing core curriculum standards that require the ability to describe characters, settings, and major events in a story. Designed for elementary students. Nibble, Nibble, Little Mouse Students in grades 6-8 explore the implications of point of view in literature and write a narrative, retelling a traditional story from a different characters point of view. A Pictures Worth a Thousand Words Students are given a picture that tells a story. They brainstorm words and ideas, then write a story based on what they see. This lesson is designed for grades 6-8. Note: more ideas for teaching the personal narrative can be found on the Biography page. Prewriting Exercises for Personal Narratives Ten activities for personal narrative writing. Savvy Story Structurestudents learn to actively engage in reading by becoming more familiar with the elements of a story. Students will be required to think at a higher level and will enhance their understanding of selected passages and stories. Students should also begin to relate stories to their own lives. Designed for grades 3-5. Ten Narrative Writing Prompts These prompts are designed for high school and college students, but it might be possible to modify some of them for younger students. Tir Nan Og This 4:04 video offers many options: introduction to linear narrative, making predictions, sequencing, writing descriptions, adding dialogue. Using Music to Teach Personal Narrative Students use songs like Snapshots and Crossing the Border to reflect on their own experience. From the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Using Personal Photographs to Spark Narrative Writing The lesson plan asks students to bring in a photograph that has special meaning for them and to write about it. Using Pictures to Teach Narrative Writing with Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Students respond to pictures depicting segregation. They write a story from the point of view of someone in the picture. Writing to Photography/Photography to Writing A teacher designed this project with two goals in mind: (1) to improve students writing by incorporating photography into descriptive and narrative writing exercises designed to inspire more varied and creative perspectives, and (2) to enhance visual as well as verbal literacy.

How to Express Future Time in English

How to Express Future Time in English Legend has it that the final words of French grammarian Dominique Bouhours were, Je vais ou je vas mourir; lun et lautre se dit, ou se disent. In English that would be, I am about to or I am going to die. Either expression is used. As it happens, there are also multiple ways of expressing future time in English. Here are six of the most common methods. the simple present: We leave tonight for Atlanta.the present progressive: Were leaving the kids with Louise.the modal verb will (or shall) with the base form of a verb: Ill leave you some money.the modal verb will (or shall) with the progressive: Ill be leaving you a check.a form of be with the infinitive: Our flight is to leave at 10:00 p.m.a semi-auxiliary such as to be going to or to be about to with the base form of a verb: We are going to leave your father a note. But time is not quite the same as grammatical tense, and with that thought in mind, many contemporary linguists insist that properly speaking, the English language has no future tense. [M]orphologically English has no future form of the verb, in addition, to present and past forms. . . . In this grammar, then, we do not talk about the future as a formal category . . ..(Randolph Quirk et al., A Grammar of Contemporary English. Longman, 1985)[W]e do not recognize a future tense for English. . . . [T]here is no grammatical category that can properly be analyzed as a future tense. More particularly, we argue that will (and likewise shall) is an auxiliary of mood, not tense.(Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum, The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge University Press, 2002)There is no future tense ending for English verbs as there is in other languages . . ..(Ronald Carter and Michael McCarthy, Cambridge Grammar of English. Cambridge University Press, 2006)English has no future tense, because it has no future tense inflections, in the way that many other languages do, nor any other grammatical form or combination of forms that can exclusively be ca lled a future tense.(Bas Aarts, Oxford Modern English Grammar. Oxford University Press, 2011) Such denials of a future tense may sound paradoxical (if not downright pessimistic), but the central argument hinges on the way we mark and define tense. Ill let David Crystal explain: How many tenses of the verb are there in English? If your automatic reaction is to say three, at least, past, present, and future, you are showing the influence of the Latinate grammatical tradition. . . .[I]n traditional grammar, [t]ense was thought of as the grammatical expression of time, and identified by a particular set of endings on the verb. In Latin there were present tense endings . . ., future tense endings . . ., perfect tense endings . . ., and several others marking different tense forms.English, by contrast, has only one inflectional form to express time: the past tense marker (typically -ed), as in walked, jumped, and saw. There is therefore a two-way tense contrast in English: I walk vs I walked: present tense vs past tense. . . .However people find it extremely difficult to drop the notion of future tense (and related notions, such as imperfect, future perfect, and pluperfect tenses) from their mental vocabulary, and to look for other ways of talking about the gramm atical realities of the English verb.(The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge University Press, 2003) So from this perspective (and keep in mind that not all linguists wholeheartedly agree), English doesnt have a future tense. But is this something that students and instructors need to be concerned about? Consider Martin Endleys advice for EFL teachers: [T]here is no harm done if you continue to refer to the English future tense in your classroom. Students have quite enough to think about without being troubled by such matters and there is little sense in adding to their burden needlessly. Yet, underlying the dispute is an important issue that does have an obvious bearing on the classroom, namely, the difference between the way the present and past tenses are marked on the one hand, and the way the (so-called) future tense is marked on the other.(Linguistic Perspectives on English Grammar: A Guide for EFL Teachers. Information Age, 2010) Fortunately, English does have a future with plenty of ways of expressing future time.

Integration of reality into the works of william hogarth in the Research Paper

Integration of reality into the works of william hogarth in the eighteenth century - Research Paper Example This brief essay will work to analyze the ways in which William Hogarth’s works during eighteenth century Europe engendered many such forms of tacit transmission as well as seeking to incorporate elements of political, fictional and religious motifs. It should be noted that although this analysis will look at many of Hogarth’s works, it will not be specific to pointing out every layer of double entendre that might exist; rather, the research will be concentric on understanding and grappling with the major trends that Hogarth worked to enumerate upon within each of the pieces which will be analyzed. As such, the following research will be divided into sections which work to analyze the different means of conveyance that Hogarth employed as well as seeking to detail the specific motifs and themes that these means of conveyance sought to impress upon the viewer. The first of these paintings which will be analyzed was painted in 1754 and entitled, â€Å"An Election: Chairi ng Member†. This painting is extraordinarily unique due to the fact that it incorporates a host of both political, cultural, and religious motifs that bear discussion as a means of understanding some of the diverse themes and emotions that the artist was attempting to convey. The first of these themes is the pied piper that can be seen in front of the gathering of rowdy townspeople. In this way, all of the action and movement is behind this piper. Such a prominent exhibition in the foreground of the photo evokes the strong sense that Hogarth is attempting to convey to the reader. This strong sense is concentric around the fact that even though elections can be understood as an expressions of a participatory nature, the fact of the matter is that people still behave as if in a group and in a senseless manner. This cultural theme of the pied piper is further illustrated in a religious context by the inclusion of a small group of swine directly in the process of running off the s ide of the bridge that is pictured. This of course is reminiscent of the unclean spirits that Christ cast into the group of swine in Samaria that subsequently threw themselves into the Sea of Galilee. As such, the artist makes a firm connection between the religious imagery depicted and the cultural imagery of the pied piper. By presenting high levels of nuanced detail, Hogarth was able to evoke imagery that sought to express various elements within current society as well as to impress upon the reader a host of ideas and correlations that other artists did not. Furthermore, the artist seeks to convey an image that depicts the ridiculous nature of democracy in the form that it existed during his time. In this way, the artist seeks to represent the citizens in the foreground and the background as zealots that feverishly push and pull for the given belief system of their choice and fight against those that defy such a belief system. However, what is most interesting and almost unnotic eable is the fact that the aristocrats within the society look out from their second story windows onto the raucous below with amusement. In this way, the artist seeks to represent a face of politics that has continued to haunt our system until the current time; the fact that the ultra rich are often times directing the fate of politics unbeknownst to the workers who fight and die for the values that the super-rich espouse. The second painting of Hogarth’

Team Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Team - Essay Example Social groups of relative similarities functioned and develop them own system of values and accordance making them united in their own concept and apart from the other social groups. Thus with this concept, cultural diversity has predominantly existed as how society themselves strive and develop to the point of their current state. However, this innate and basically natural concept in the society has been always a massive hindrance for the establishment of social unity and uniformity especially on the principal level of a team. Since the team-building concept’s main agenda is the establishment of a uniting factor and bond among its members, their own personal and cultural diversity has always been a challenge for the said aim. Common problems and challenges such as uniqueness in the dominant language, dissimilarities with social norms and acceptable principles, differences concerning perception and opinions, and others often become a problem in the team-building aspect. In general, diversity produces stratification and division thus unification is being hindered. Indeed, cultural diversity in the aspect of team building is one of its main weaknesses. However, cultural diversity in a certain team can also serves as its potential strength producing advantages apart from its common disadvantages. Having a culturally diversified group is also beneficial because it can basically cover much more grounds than groups of only single culture. This concept is true because having a multicultural society in a single group will produce more and significantly different opinions and ideas and with the merging of these different ideas, a single group can produce a statement or an idea that is generally valid since it actually addresses point of views from each culture. It is like having a representative from each culture joining together to create a concept that will unify their principles and eliminate their differences. In

Compare three pre-20th Century poems about London Essay Example for Free

Compare three pre-20th Century poems about London Essay I am going to compare three very different poems about London. The first poem is London by William Blake, written around 1800. Upon Westminster bridge is the second poem , by William Wordsworth, again written around 1800. The third poem by Mary Ann Evans in the mid-19th century is called In a London drawing room. William Blake was a man of strong opinions, he was a strange person who painted horrific art and walked around naked in his garden. He was a strict Christian and wrote hymns. People disliked him for his strange ideas and strong criticism of what he felt was wrong. William Wordsworth lived in the Lake District, and wrote poems about where he live; the countryside. Whilst visiting London he wrote a poem about what he could see from Westminster bridge. Mary Ann Evans lived in London she was a tomboy by the name of George Elliot. Her father was a vicar. She moved to London to live a more interesting life. Working for a printing company she realised how mistreated women were. The story behind Upon Westminster bridge is:- London looks very beautiful. Youd be sad not to be impressed. Its about what Wordsworth sees from Westminster bridge. His theme is simple; He likes what he sees. London has a very different theme: William Blake lives in London and cant stand it. The story is very simple the poet wanders through Londons streets thinking about what he sees. In a London drawing room also has a simple story; Mary Ann Evans is in a drawing room looking out into the street. Her theme is much more complex She talks about how London through this window is dull, grey and boring. When she says this she actually means thats how she feels inside and expresses it through her poetry. Upon Westminster bridge is a sonnet because it has fourteen lines praising Londons beauty, it has only one verse. It has a regular iambic rhythm all the way through: Giving the poem a joyful sound. There is no regular rhyming pattern but some lines rhyme. London uses quatrains which means it has four equal lines into four verses. London has a regular and joyful rhythm, which is ironic because of its sad message. The rhyming follows an ACBD pattern (A rhymes with line C-B rhymes with line D.) In a London drawing room has no verses, twenty lines which have each ten syllables in them. There is no regular rhythm, because of the regular enjambment. Cutting the sky with one long line of wall Like soled Fog: Far as the eye can stretch. The enjambment causes lines to run into each other. There is no rhyme a tall in the poem. There is a lot of figurative language in Upon Westminster bridge. wear The beauty of the morning; silent bare, This a personification because the city wears the beauty of the morning like a dress. The river glideth at his own sweet will: In line twelve names the river a he. This poem has a lot of imagery, one of them mentions valley, rock and hill, putting the picture of the valleys, hills and rocks on the horizon. In a London drawing room too uses figurative language, The world seems one huge prison-house and court, this is a similar because the world seems to be like a prison-house. A metaphor would be, Cutting the sky with one long line of wall, this is calling the row of houses a wall cutting the sky. The figurative language in London are, The mind-forgd manacles I hear. Means the people in London believe they are in manacles. The metaphor at the end of the third verse is about the old war soldiers begging outside wealthy houses, And the hapless soldiers sigh Runs in blood down palace walls. In Upon Westminster bridge most of the play on words are to keep the rhyme and rhythm in a pattern. London plays on words quiet a lot compared with Upon Westminster bridge. At the end of the first verse there is an element of alliteration, Marks of weakness. Marks of woe, woe is a much more powerful word to use than sad plus it alliterates with weakness. The second verse uses in every. Four times to get the point that this is serious across more strongly. The mind-forgd manacles I hear, is an alliteration of the letter M. On the last line, the last two words are marriage and hearse (car that carries a coffin) this is called juxtaposition; because marriage is associated with beginning and hearse is associated with the end they are opposites. This is an interesting way to end the poem. The only real play on words in in a London drawing room was the last line because the three last words are the only positive words (colour, warmth and joy) in the whole poem but just before it says with lowest rate of. So they might be positive but shes saying there is no colour, warmth or joy. I feel London is the most effective poem. This is because I like the irony in the rhythm and rhyme which sounds happy but its meaning is sad. I also like the Juxtaposition in the last line Marriage hearse. He uses clever words and sentences to put down London. I dont like In a London drawing room because it drags on so as to lose its meaning. Upon Westminster bridge I quite like because its cheerful but I still prefer the way London is written because it uses good words and clever poetry.

Emotions And Decision Making Essay -- essays research papers

A recently published article seems to lend new information as to the way in which emotions influence our decision-making process. While emotions and reasoning are considered inherently separate by some, new experiments are challenging that perception. A series of studies done by experimental psychologists now show us that emotion plays a very natural role in decision-making situations. The experiments, ranging in type from neuroimaging to simple classical conditioning, suggest that emotions can affect everything from simple judgments of other people to severe behavioral disabilities seen for example in sociopathic individuals. Emotion is now acknowledged as possibly the most basic of human operations and the basis for personal judgments. Fear especially has been studied extensively and is proving to be a very unconscious and automatic cognitive reaction. One fear-related study was conducted using simple classical conditioning: subjects were shown a picture of a person exhibiting stereotypical properties along with a frown used to convey a feeling of social threat (Mineka, 2002). Once the subjects were adequately conditioned, simply seeing that type of person would cause an increase in heart rate, suggesting fear, as well as provoke responses attributed to anger. The experimenters used these findings to infer that social fears are easily instilled in people simply because they for some reason have a negative image of them implanted in their head. Extensive studies of the rela...

Learning organization Essay

Marquardt (2002, p. 211) presented 16 steps necessary to build a learning organization. A closer look at our organization revealed that there is still so much to learn and change. Using Marquardt’s metaphor, our organization is still in the caterpillar stage, â€Å"earthbound† and â€Å"nonlearning† (p. 235). The major challenge keeping our company in this status can be linked to only two things, attitude of employees and leadership style. Unfortunately, the 16 steps proposed by Marquardt boil down to these two things. Employees have negative view about change. They are not willing to leave their comfort zones, take risks or commit to transforming the company. They lack the motivation to educate, improve and develop themselves professionally. The old, tested way of doing things remains the norm. However, the more disturbing fact is the lack of effort from the leaders. Based on Marquardt’s discussion, the main effort for change should come from the top, from the leaders. Presently, the leadership style in the company does not cater to the needs of a learning organization. The organizational culture does not empower the empoyees to express their creativity or explore their potentials. In short, our organization is 16 steps away from transformation. Based on the guidelines, to effect change, the leaders need to recognize their role as the agents of change. According to Marquardt’s book, â€Å"The first step is for leadership to commit themselves to transforming the company into a learning organization† (p. 210). Before that could happen, leaders should first of all need to recognize the need to transform our caterpillar ways to that of a butterfly. This step corresponds to the creation of an organizational vision. The company needs a more dynamic, interesting, inspiring vision to keep both leaders and employees stimulated into transforming and improving the company as well as creating an environment for continious learning.

Economic Activity as Reflected in Painting:

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY AS REFLECTED IN PAINTING: THE CONTRASTING VIEWS OF ECONOMISTS AND ART HISTORIANS [1] Manuel Santos-Redondo Universidad Complutense de Madrid [las diferencias con respecto al Documento de Trabajo disponible en la Web estan subrayadas] 1. Introduction The Moneychanger and his Wife is probably the picture most widely used to illustrate economic activity, and so it is (supposedly) well known by economists, managers, and accountants. The accounting book which appears in the picture is the origin of former AECA (Spanish Association of Accounting and Business Administration) logotype. It is a Flemish painting from the early 16th century. Not so many economists are, however, aware that there are two different versions of this picture: one by Quentin Massys, painted about 1514 (now in Paris, the Louvre), and another by Marinus (Claeszon) van Reymerswaele, painted in 1539 (now in Madrid, in the Prado). There are significant changes between the two versions. This being the Scholastic period and also the epoch of the commercial revolution in Europe, we would expect this picture to have some sort of economic meaning, and for the changes in the pictures to reflect these changes in economic activity and economic thought. We will argue in this paper that there does exist such a meaning; and that also the very important changes between Massys’s and Reymerswaele’s pictures have much to do with the economic changes in Europe in the beginning of the 16th century. Most art historians have seen in Massys' and Reymerswaele's paintings a satirical and moralising symbolism, The Money Changer and his Wife being the representation of greed. Others think that the picture shows economic activity in a respectable way. Flanders at that time was the centre of a flourishing industrial and commercial activity, and also was the centre of a mercantile trade in works of art. Both things led to a representation of the professional activity of moneychangers, goldsmiths, and bankers in a way that shows those activities as respectable professions. The second view is the one implicitly shared by economists when choosing this picture to illustrate many books on economics or business. Some scholars have proposed more subtle interpretations. Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson, the historian of economic thought who first aroused the interest of economists in the Spanish Scholastics of â€Å"School of Salamanca†, considers Massys' painting to be an illustration of the intention of Scholastics to make compatible the commercial customs of the time with Church doctrine on usury. According to her interpretation, Massys' painting would mean the money lender working and, at the same time, discussing with his wife the fairness of a particular commercial deal, helped by the religious book his wife is reading. It is important to notice that, 25 years on, the book in Reymerswaele’ painting is no longer a religious work but an accounting book. But art historians claim that there is still some symbolism in the painting which gives it a moralising and satirical intent. According to them, this symbolism was clear to contemporaries but not to us; or sometimes would have been intentionally difficult to notice for those contemporaries who were not in the same religious group as the painter or his client. For instance, the long, curved fingers of the bourgeois couple allegedly represented avarice. But Reymerswaele painted the fingers of Saint Jerome in the same way , so it must have an aesthetic intention and not a symbolic one. In the process of reviewing the different interpretations provided by art historians of this picture and other similar ones, we shall see that they are consistent with the views that most art historians share about the economy (as Hayek points out in his chapter of The fatal conceit, 1988, â€Å"The Mysterious World of Trade and Money†) rather than based on any objective interpretation of the painting and history. Thus, while the picture shows commercial and financial activity to be a normal, respectable occupation, most art historians see a moralizing and satirical intention. My view is that art historians’ prejudice towards commercial and financial activity leads them to a wrong interpretation of the paintings. When the painters wanted to be satirical and moralizing, they did it in a way that is clearly recognizable by us today. And that this is not the case with the The Moneychanger and his Wife, in either the version of Massys or that of Reymerswaele. 2. Quentin Massys Let us start with Quentin Massys,[2] The Moneychanger and his Wife, dated 1514. Figure 1]. It is probably derided from a lost work by Jan van Eyck, c. 1440. [3] On the table are placed coins, a set of scales, and various other tools of their trade. (â€Å"various other tokens of their wealth†, says the art historian Jean-Claude Frere, 1997, p. 186. This is our first difference in interpretation). The man is wei ghing gold coins with great care. At that time, coins with the same face value varied in the amount of gold they contained (and therefore in their real exchange value), because it was a normal practice to file them down, clip them, or to shake them together in a bag in order to collect the gold dust they produced. So, the moneychanger is simply going about his business, not counting his money as a miser would do. And, if you look at his face, it is not the face of a miser, but the face of a concentrating working man, carefully carrying out his job. His wife is looking at the coins and scales too; but she has a book in her hands. The book is a religious one, an illustrated â€Å"book of hours†. Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson, the historian of economic thought who first brought economists attention to the Spanish Scholastics of the â€Å"School of Salamanca†, considers Massys painting an illustration of the intention of the Scholastics to make compatible the commercial practices of their time with the Church's doctrine on usury. According to her interpretation, Massys painting portrays the money lender at work and, at the same time, discussing with his wife the fairness of a particular commercial deal, helped by consulting the religious book his wife is reading. [4] Many other interpretations of Massys’s work consider this picture as to be a oralizing one, in a much stronger sense than that of Grice-Hutchinson's view. The Encarta Encyclopedia says: â€Å"In The Moneychanger and his Wife, the subtly hinted conflict between avarice and prayer represented in the couple illustrates a new satirical quality in his paintings. â€Å"[5] (It is curious that the â€Å"Web Gallery of Art†, together with the Encarta article, provides this contradictory explanation: â€Å"The painting remains in the Flemish tradition of van Eyck, with the addition of a profane sense of beauty, sign of a new world†). [6] Another scholar says this about Massys: â€Å"Painters also began to treat new subjects. Men like Quentin Massys, for example, played an active role in the intellectual life of their cities and began to mirror the ethical concerns expressed by humanist thinkers with new paintings that used secular scenes to impart moralizing messages. Vivid tableaux warned against gambling, lust, and other vices. â€Å"[7] At the bottom of the painting there is a circular mirror; we can see the tiny figure of a man wearing a turban. [Figure 2] For some reason, the following is the explanation of the art historian Jean-Claude Frere: â€Å"a side window, under which we can just make out the tiny figure of a thief. He would seem to be spying on the couple as they count their gold, while they would seem to be oblivious to his presence, blinded by their greed†. [8] Let us leave aside the greed and concentrate on the tiny man. Is he a thief? I don't know. But I'm sure he is not â€Å"spying on the couple as they count their gold†: I am not an art historian, but it seems clear to me that the man is inside the room, he is reading a book and looking out of the window to the street. In think that this is not a casual mistake: it is consistent with art historians’ interpretation. Symbolism, a source of moralistic interpretation My view is that art historians explanation of The Moneychanger and his Wife as a satirical work containing symbolic allusions hidden from contemporary observers, is merely a reflection of their own prejudices concerning certain economic activities. Let us consider the serious arguments supporting the symbolic explanations of paintings of the Flemish Renaissance, in order to be able to judge when a painting has this meaning and when has not. The famous art historian Erwin Panofsky held that the Early Flemish painters had to reconcile the â€Å"new naturalism† with a thousand years of Christian tradition. Based on St. Tomas Aquinas, who thought that physical objects were â€Å"corporeal metaphors for spiritual things†, Panofsky (Early Netherlandish Painting, 1953) maintains that â€Å"in early Flemish painting the method of disguised symbolism was applied to each and every object, man made or natural†. [9] There are other historical sources that point to a symbolic meaning in the painting of Quentin Massys. In his painting Portrait of a Merchant and his Partner,[10] [Figure 3] there is a clearly legible inscription, in French: â€Å"L'avaricieux n'est jamais rempli d'argent†¦ N'ayez point souci des richesses injustes, car elles ne vous profiteront en rien au jour de la visitation et de la vengeance. Soyez donc sans avarice†. This is a paraphrase of the Gospel of St Luke, ch. XII, 15, 21-34; Saint Matthew, ch. VI, 19-21. Jean Cailleux says that the main character in the painting â€Å"est soumis a la parole evangelique. Il est vraiment fidele dans les richesses injustes. Il ne cede pas a la sollicitacion du Tentateur qui, derriere lui, le visage tordu par lavarice et la soif du lucre, lui propose des comptes fantastiques†. 11] Painting and Economic Activity at Flanders We can expect the Flemish painters to be familiar with market oriented economic activity and the money world, because of the society in which they lived. Flanders at that time was the center of a flourishing industrial and commercial world, and also was the center of a mercantile trade of works of art. Both things led to a representation of the professional activity of moneychan gers, goldsmiths, and bankers in a way that shows those activities as respectable ones. Most Flemish artists were familiar with this world because of their own craft of painting, which was indeed market oriented. Massys was the most important of Antwerp painters of his time; and this means his shop was an example of how artistic production was organized in Antwerp, and formerly in Bruges. It is not at all odd that Flemish painters should portray business people. Massys worked for religious confraternities, and also painted portraits and other profane subjects, sometimes satirical, in response to commissions from humanists and scholars. Frere says that Massys was â€Å"perfectly attuned to the new mercantile conception of art. Antwerp was already established as an active and liberal center for trade in art† (1997, p. 186). Both Antwerp and Bruges had a regulated guild system for painters at the beginning of the sixteenth century. It is important to notice not only the art of the painter, but also the evolution of the master's workshop. At the beginning of the Renaissance, training in a craft took place in workshops regulated by civic authorities: apprenticeship was followed by admission to a guild. By the end of the century, â€Å"workshops had become more like shops nowadays, turning out goods for a flourishing private market accountable to no one. And change came without a defining moment and without artists missing a beat. Workshop assistants had certain preparatory tasks, including grinding pigments, laying grounds, and the transfer of under-drawings. Experienced assistants took on subsidiary passages, including background or stock figures. Assistants also made copies to keep pace with demand, and they had access to the master's designs once they set up for themselves. Workshop copies ranged from straightforward replicas to transpositions into other media and from large commissions to private, devotional images. â€Å"[12] The conventional portrait of a rich man But this familiarity of artists with a commercial society does not lead them automatically to portray business people in their trade, as â€Å"occupational portraits†: the common way to portray a business man was in a way that showed him as a religious man, or as an intellectual in his house, surrounded by works of art and literature. The best known example is The Arnolfini Portrait by van Eyck, but there are many others. In the triptych The Last Judgement, painted in 1480 by the Flemish painter, working in Bruges, Hans Memling, we can see the portraits of Tomaso Portinari and his wife, naked inside the scales; and those of Angiolo Tani and his wife, Catarina Tanagli, kneeling on the floor at prayer. [Figure 4] Both Portinari and Tani were important business men working in Bruges branch of the Medici company. In the Italian Renaissance, Lorenzo de Medici is portrayed as one of the Magi in Gozzoli’s Journey of the Magi, 1459. 13] It was quite common to include the donors' portrait in a religious scene. Tomaso Portinari and his wife, Maria Baroncelli, were also directly portrayed by Memling, at prayer. [14] (The fact that Antwerp was a rapidly enriched city and lacked a traditional aristocracy, may well have been an important reason for the artist representing economic activity in the portraits of businessmen , instead of the traditional â€Å"rich and cultured† portrait). 3. Marinus van Reymerswaele Let us now move on to the other version of the portrait and to a different year. Marinus van Reymerswaele[15] The Moneychanger and his Wife, [Figure 5] painted in 1539, is inspired by Massys. [16] This is the explanation of the painting provided by the Spanish Association of Accounting and Business Administration, AECA, which in 1979 chose as the symbol of the association a section this painting. [Figure 6] â€Å"The painting which has inspired our logotype is internationally famous as an image of financial activity during the Renaissance: it shows a scene typical of the counting house of a banker of the period. The subject of the pair of moneychangers shows us a new profession which has appeared in the period, a profession related to the world of finance, taxes and commercial accounts. Reymerswaele adapts the subject of the banker and his wife from Massys’s painting now in the Louvre in Paris. In Reymerswaele’s painting, the bourgeois married couple are seen counting out gold and silver coins, and the husband is weighing them with great care in a small set of scales, since most of them would be clipped or scraped. The coins are probably the product of tax-collection, an exchange of foreign currency or the repaying of a loan. This would imply the use of the abacus which the banker has at his right on the table, and then the setting out of accounts in the accounts book which the wife is holding in her delicate fine hands. â€Å"[17] Compare the explanation of this picture given by the AECA with the moralistic and over-sophisticated explanations of the art historians. The changes Between 1514 and 1539, many things have changed. In particular, the accelerated growth of the economy that stemmed from the discovery and colonization of the New World, and the religious transformation known as Lutheran Reformation. Reymerswaele was himself involved in the Lutheran Reformation. (We know that in 1567, being an old man, he took part in the sack of Middelburg cathedral, and was severely punished (six years of banishment and public humiliation). Reymerswaele specialized in everyday scenes of flourishing Flanders, with great realism, which gives his works a considerable documentary interest. (Paintings by masters of Northern Renaissance realism often recorded official contracts or acts. The Lawyer's Office, 1545, by Reymerswaele, [Figure 7] is a remarkable example of this practice. Recent research has demonstrated that the documents, which form the background of the painting, refer to an actual lawsuit begun in 1526 in the town of Reymerswaele on the North Sea). [18] His subjects were businessmen: usurers, notaries, tax gatherers; but what could be seen as â€Å"occupational portraits† are always stressed as moralizing: Another art historian says â€Å"usuriers, changeurs, avocats, notaires, percepteurs d'impots, monde apre et rapace de l'argent toujours plus puissant dans le metropole enrichie. †¦ ] L'art de Marinus [Reymerswaele] presente une accentuation presque caricaturale, qui donne a l'ouvre sa portee moralisante† (Philippot, 1994, p. 173). Puyvelde considers that, in the genre painting by Marinus van Reymerswaele, the realist portrait turns into a caricature of rapacious and greedy businessmen. In Reymerswaele The Moneychanger and his Wife, he says, â€Å"l'esprit de lucre est plus nettement marque dans les physionomies et les doigts maigres† (Puyvelde, p. 13; we will turn to the fingers latter). The study of the gold coins that appear in the painting shows that â€Å"the coins are mostly Italian and are all of types minted before 1520† (Puyvelde, p. 17). This could mean that the painting is a trial effort done by Reymerswaele, before his first clearly datable painting, Saint Jerome, of 1521. The importance of Puyvelde's argument is not the exact date, which I cannot dispute, but the fact that Puyvelde considers The Money changer and his Wife closer to a portrait than to a satire, as ompared to later works by Marinus: later in his career, Reymerswaele would have abandoned portraiture and turned to satire and caricature (â€Å"pamphlet†, says Puyvelde). [19] The public appears to have had a preference for satire, and Marinus sought to satisfy the public with pleasant humorous pictures which enjoyed great popularity among collectors of the period. Other paintings contain inscriptions which refer to the taxes charged on beer, wine or fish. In one of the copies or i mitations of The Lawyer's Office, titled The Notary's Study, the document the notary is reading has been deciphered: it appears to be a parody of legal slang. Even the signature on the document in French reads â€Å"Notaire infame et faussaire†. [20] Usually museum guides reflect the views of art historians. Referring to Reymerswaele The Moneychanger and his Wife, a guide to the Prado says: â€Å"In this painting we find all the characteristics of Northern European painters: minute detail, fine quality raw material, an empirical approach to reality, and above all, the naked sordidness with which Van Reymerswaele approaches one of the principal evils of his time: usury, the greater of all possible sins in a commercial society such as Flanders. Corruption and fraud affected all levels of society, even the clergy, producing a critical reaction on the part of writers, theologians and artists. â€Å"[21] Reymerswaele was not the only painter who developed Massys portraits; several other Flemish painters did. Again, there are significant differences in their style, differences which influence the overall â€Å"tone† of the picture either as â€Å"occupational portrait† or â€Å"caricature†. My point is that a common spectator of today can spot the difference. Corneille van der Capelle painted Le Percepteur d'impots et son Garant and Le Percepteur d'impots et sa Femme,[22] [Figure 8] in which we can notice a real, kind portrait of the businessmen, quite far from any caricature. But, even given the very different styles, I find no moral satire in Reymerswaele The Moneychanger and his Wife, as compared to his other works. In Reymerswaele version, the religious book has disappeared. This is an obvious change, since Marinus was a Protestant and wouldn't have accepted any other religious book for daily reading than the bible. But there is no bible in Marinus painting. Instead, there is a hand-written book, with no illustrations, which seems to be an accounting book. The characters in Reymerswaele painting are most elegant, with luxurious clothes, and long, delicate fingers. This is also thought by some scholars to be satirical: â€Å"Long, curved fingers were, in XVI century, a sign of greed or avarice, so an apparently domestic subject can also be full of moral meaning†. [23] Long, curved fingers and noses use to represent Jews and, by extension, greed or avarice in Christian iconography. It may be important to notice that Jews played an important role in Antwerp’s economic activity. The money market was controlled by the Italian Lombards, and Jews could only act as minor money-lenders. The Jews lent mainly small amounts of money for shorter periods of time to less wealthy people such as butchers and bakers. Scarcity was an excellent situation for Jewish money-lenders. As a consequence, the y had many clients among the common people who probably had great difficulties in paying them back. This fact may have reinforced the strong anti-Semitism prevalent at that time. There were a massacre of Jews in Antwerp in 1350, and then many Spanish and Portuguese â€Å"marranos† came to settle there after 1492 and 1497, expelled from Spain and Portugal. [24] I haven’t fully explored yet the possibility of the satirical portraits being racist or anti-Semitic). But the long fingers can imply other things: they can be an esthetic technique to make people appear more mystical, unmaterialistic, attractive. We could interpret thus the fingers of Reymerswaele’ Saint Jerome, in 1521. [Figure 9] And Saint Jerome transmits you the idea of ascetic sanctity, the antithesis of greed. Although, again, some scholar says that Reymerswaele painting of Saint Jerome is â€Å"stressing the crabbedness of scholarship†. Even if that is correct, it would not be the crabbedness of greed). To me, the long, curved fingers of the moneychanger and his beautiful wife imply simply elegance. This is my personal impression. If I then look at other paintings by Reymerswaele, for instance, the two Tax Gatherers (also The Misers), described by the same scholar as â€Å"exceedingly ugly and covetous†, I don't need to be his contemporary to notice the satirical meaning. [25] After comparing their clever interpretations with what a spectator sees in these pictures, I would recommend that the meaning of a painting, as given by art historians, not be accepted uncritically: their judgments appear to be based upon certain prejudices, in this case concerning commercial and financial practices, rather than any objective analysis of the painting. 4. Other Flemish â€Å"occupational portraits† If you look at other paintings of the same school, it is easy to find examples of â€Å"good†, non critical or satirical, representation of moneychangers, goldsmiths, and bankers. Adriaen Isenbrant Man Weighing Gold (c. 1518),[26] [Figure 10] is described in this way by Jean E. Wilson: â€Å"This sensitive portrait of a banker or, perhaps, a moneychanger reveals the sitter's evident pride in his occupation. The portrait also serves as an example of the widening interest in portraiture, which had gradually extended to members of the business sector† (Wilson 1998, p. 196). But another scholar points out that â€Å"the act of weighing coins may allude both to the man's profession and to his contemplation of higher values, comparable to Saint Michael's weighing of souls on Judgment Day†. [27] In Hieronimous Bosch's The Table of the Deadly Sins,[28] 1480, [Figure 11] avarice is shown as a judge who is being bribed. This is completely different from the activity of the banker: what Bosch shows us is not a profit-seeking commercial practice which is therefore sinful, but an act of corruption which would be taken to be immoral equally in a commercially oriented society or in an ideal world described by Scholastic theologians. Another example of an â€Å"occupational portrait† is the Portrait of a Merchant [Figure 12] by Jean Gossaert (c. 1530),[29] thought to be a portrait of Jeronimus Sandelin, a real merchant from Zealand, in Flanders. There is nothing satirical about it: it is a purely â€Å"occupational portrait†. But the National Gallery of Art Brief Guide says this: â€Å"the sitter's furtive glance and prim mouth are enough to inform us of the insecurity and apprehension that haunted bankers in the 1530s, when the prevailing moral attitude was summed up by the Dutch humanist Erasmus, who asked, â€Å"When did avarice reign more largely and less punished? â€Å"[30] St. Eloy (Eligius) in His Shop, 1449, by Petrus Christus,[31] [Figure 13] is the clear representation of a goldsmith working in his shop and attending two clients: a rich, well-born bridal couple. It seems to be a representation of the goldsmith's trade, with the excuse of the portrait of a saint (hardly a subtle ploy, since St. Eloy is the patron of goldsmith's guild). The goldsmith sits behind a window sill extended to form a table, a pair of jeweler's scales in one hand, a ring in the other. Only his halo suggests that the painting deals with legend. On the right is a display of examples of the goldsmith's craft. The picture may very well have been painted for a goldsmith's guild (the one in Antwerp). St. Eligius is the Patron of metalworkers. As a maker of reliquaries he has become one of the most popular saints of the Christian West. Eligius (also known as Eloy) was born around 590 near Limoges in France. He became an extremely skillful metalsmith and was appointed master of the mint under King Clothar of the Franks. Eligius developed a close friendship with the King and his reputation as an outstanding metalsmith became widespread. It is important to notice that most prominent features in the life of St. Eligius can be seen both as indications of sanctity and the best professional characteristics of a good goldsmith. In the goldsmith's trade, skills were as important as reliability, as Adam Smith notices in Wealth of Nations: â€Å"The wages of goldsmiths and jewelers are every-where superior to those of many other workmen, not only of equal, but of much superior ingenuity; on account of the precious materials with they are intrusted†. [32] Eligius is praised for both qualities. From his biography, we can see how important this reliability of his goldsmith was, for the king to become Eligius' protector: â€Å"The king gave Eligius a great weight of gold. Eligius began the work immediately and from that which he had taken for a single piece of work, he was able to make two. Incredibly, he could do it all from the same weight for he had accomplished the work commissioned from him without any fraud or mixture of siliquae, or any other fraudulence. Not claiming fragments bitten off by the file or using the devouring flame of the furnace for an excuse. â€Å"[33] The portrait Saint Eligius by Petrus Christus is a fine example of the â€Å"occupational portrait†, describing a goldsmith's shop, the only religious connection being the halo and the fact than the saint is the patron of the guild. The true â€Å"moralizing† pictures of the Flemish School Look at the painting The Ill-Matched Lovers, c. 1520, [Figure 14] by Quentin Massys:[34] again you don't need to be a contemporary of his to notice the satirical intention. (It is important to notice that the theme of love between the old and the young was extremely popular in sixteenth century, and we can agree that both the popularity and the moral view has changed on this subject in modern times. The meaning of the painting, however, hasn't changed at all, because the artist doesn't paint the old man with tenderness and love and mature elegance, but as undignified uncontrolled, despicable desire). There are other paintings by Marinus which shows a clearly satirical approach, or at least an ugly expression which does not imply pride in the profession: see The Lawyer’s Office, 1545, and The Misers [Figure 15] (also known, in different versions, as The Tax Gatherers or The tax gatherer and his guarantor). This one shows â€Å"two tax collectors, or rather a treasurer, or an administrator with his clerk, the collector with a winking grimace†¦. The treasurer enters in a book the sums received for the taxes†¦ with his right hand counts and weighs the coins†¦ â€Å"[35] Both of them look clearly satirical for a modern observer. 5. Conclusion This paper has compared the rival interpretations provided by economists and art historians of the painting The Moneychanger and his Wife. The painting is seen as an â€Å"occupational portrait†, showing a banker in his office, carefully weighing coins simply because this is one of most prominent features of his trade. It is a clearly secular subject, much more so in Reymerwaele's version: the religious books in the woman's hands has been turned into an accounting book. We could expect Flemish painters to be familiar with market oriented economic activity and the money world, because of the society in which they lived. Flanders at that time was the center of a flourishing industrial and commercial world, and also was the center of a mercantile trade in works of art. [36] Both things led to a representation of the professional activity of moneychangers, goldsmiths, and bankers in a way that shows those activities as respectable ones. In the process of reviewing the different interpretations provided by art historians about this picture and other similar ones, we have seen that they are consistent with the views that art historians share about the economic activity, rather than based on any objective interpretation of the painting and history. Thus, while the picture shows commercial and financial activity to be a normal, respectable occupation, most art historians see a moralizing and satirical intention. This paper maintains that art historian’s prejudice towards commercial and financial activity leads them to a wrong interpretation of the paintings. LIST OF ILUSTRATIONS 1. The Moneychanger and his wife, by Quentin Matsys, 1503-1505. 2. The Last Judgement, by Hans Memling, 1480. Portrait of Angiolo Tani and his wife. 3. The Moneychanger and his wife, by Marinus van Reymerswaele, 1539. 4. Saint Jerome, by Marinus Reymerswaele. 5. Logo of the Spanish Association of Accounting and Business Administration (AECA). 6. Adriaen Isenbrant, Man Weighing Gold, fist half of the sixteenth century. 7. St. Eloy (Eligius) in His Shop, by Petrus Christus, 1449. 8. The Table of Deadly Sins, 1480, by Hieronimous Bosch. 9. Portrait of a Merchant, by Jean Gossaert, c. 1530. 10. The Ill-Matched Lovers, by Quentin Mastsys. 11. The Misers, or The moneylenders, by Marinus van Reymerswaele, 1545. 12. Marinus van Reymerswaele, Two Tax-Gatherers, 15–, National Gallery, London. [Yamey, p. 52, Plate XVI] 13. Marinus van Reymerswaele, Two Tax-Collectors, 15–, Alte Pinakotheck, Munich. [Yamey, p. 54, 29 XVI] 14. Map of Flanders and Antwerp. 15. The Lawyer's Office, by Marinus van Reymerswaele, 1545. 16. Portrait of a Merchant and his Partner, by Quentin Metsys. 17. The taxgatherer and his Wife, by Corneille van de Capelle (Corneille de Lyon? ) BIBLIOGRAPHY Ainsworth, Maryan Wynn (et al. (1994), Les Primitifs flamands et leur temps (sous la direction de Brigitte Veronee-Verhaegen et Roger Van Schoute). Louvain-la-Neuve: La Renaissance du Livre. Benezit, E. (1976), Dectionaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs (nouvelle edition, entierement refondue, revue el corrigee sous la direction des heritiers de E. Benezit). Libraire Grund. Vol. 7. â€Å"Marinus Van Roejmerswaelen† Campbell, Lorne, et al. (1978) â€Å"Quentin Massys, Desiderius Erasmus, Pieter Gillis and Thomas More†. The Burlington Magazine, Vol. CXX, n? 908, november, pp. 716-724. Cassagnes, Sophie (2001), D’art et d’argent. Les artistes et leurs clients dans l’Europe du Nord (XIVe -XVe siecle), Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes. Frere, Jean-Claude (1997), Early Flemish Painting, Paris: Terrail. Friedlander, Max J. (1967) [1929] Early Netherlandish painting. Vol 1, The van Eycks–Petrus Christus, Brussels: La Connaissance, and Leyden: A. W. Sijthoff. Genaille, Robert (1967), Dictionnaire des peintres flamands et hollandais, Paris: Larousse. Grice-Hutchinson, Marjorie (1993) â€Å"Santo Tomas de Aquino en la historia del pensamiento economico†, in Ensayos sobre el pensamiento economico en Espana. This essay, lectured to receive the Honoris Causa Doctorate from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, is not in the English version of the same book). Hayek, Friedrich August (1988), The fatal conceit. The errors of socialism, London: Routledge. Chapter 6, â€Å"The Misterious World of Trade and Money†. Mackor, Adri:  "Are Marinus' Tax Collectors collecting taxes? † Bulletin du Musee National de Varsovie XXXVI (1995; n? 3-4) pp. 3-13. Mackor, Adri: â€Å"Marinus van Reymerswale: Painter, Lawyer and Iconoclast†, Oud Holland 109 (1995) pp. 191-200. Mund, Helene (1994), â€Å"La copie†, in Ainsworth (et al. ) (1994), pp. 125-141. Panofsky, Erwin (1971) [1953], Early Netherlandish painting: its origins and character (2 vols. ) London: Harper and Row. Panofsky, Erwin (1993) [1955], Meaning in the visual arts, Penguin. Philippot, Paul (1994), La peinture dans les anciens Pays-Bas. XV-XVIe siecles. Paris: Flammarion. Puyvelde, Leo van (1957), â€Å"Un Portrait de Marchand par Quentin Metsys et les Percepteurs d'Impots par Marin van Reymerswale†, Revue Belgue d'Archeologie et d'Histoire de l'Art, vol. 26, pp. 3-23. Silver, Larry (1984), The paintings of Quinten Massys with catalogue raisonne, Oxford. Montclair, N. J. : Allanheld & Schram. Smith, Adam (1976) [1776], An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Comps. R. Campbell, A. S. Skinner y W. B. Todd. Oxford : Clarendon Press. Van Houdt, Toon (1999), â€Å"The Economics of Art in Early Modern Times: Some Humanist and Scholastic Approaches†, History of Political Economy, 31(0), Supplement 1999 (Economic Engagements with Art, edited by Neil De Marchi and Craufurd D. W. Goodwin, London: Duke University Press), pages 303-31. Vanhoutte, Edward (1997), â€Å"In your seed all the nations of the Earth shall be blessed. Importance and unimportance of the Jews of Belgium from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment†,. Guest-lecture. Lancaster (UK): Lancaster University, 6 february. In . VVAA (1994), El Prado, Barcelona: Lunwerg. Wilson, Jean E. (1998), Painting in Bruges at the close of the Middle Ages. Studies in Society and Visual Culture. Pennsylvania : University Press. Yamey, Basil S. (1989), Art and Accounting, New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ———————– [1] The author wants to thank John Reeder for his useful comments. A previous version of this paper, with the title â€Å"The Moneychanger and his Wife: from Scholastics to Accounting†, is in Internet, [http://www. ucm. es/BUCM/cee/doc/00-23/0023. tm]. [2] Quentin Massys (1465/66 – 1530), also Matsys, Metsys, Metsijs, Massijs. Famous Flemish painter, the founder of the Antwerp school, he was probably born in Leuven, Belgium. He was the main painter of his epoch. [3] Yamey (1989), pp. 24, 45. [4] Grice-Hutchinson (1993), pp. 203-205. [5] â€Å"Massys, Quentinâ₠¬  Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2000, . In the same Encarta website, Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY, says that Massys painted â€Å"a witty commentary on greed. The banker's wife pretends piety by leafing through a religious book, while stealing a glance at her husband's gold. [6] â€Å"Web Gallery of Art†, . The pages says that â€Å"the comments were compiled from various sources†. [7] National Gallery of Art (Washington D. C. , USA), 2000, â€Å"Antwerp in the Early 1500s†, . [8] Jean-Claude Frere, Early Flemish Painting (1997, pp. 187-188). [9] Wilson (1998), p. 191; quoted from Panofsky, Early Netherlandish painting, 1953, p. 142. â€Å"Every perceptible thing, man made or natural, becomes a symbol of that which is not perceptible†, says Panofsky (â€Å"Abbot Suger of St-Denis†, 1946, in 1955, p. 161) following Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite. 10] Quentin Massys, Portrait of a merchant and his partner (Paris, collection M. Cailleux) . [11] Puyvelde (1957, p. 5), quoting from Jean Cailleux, Les Richesses injustes, Reforme, Paris, n? 72, 3 aout 1946. In Antwerp, a tax-collector was obliged to have a surety or guarantor, who had the right to supervise the collection of money and its recording. The tax-collector is â€Å"shown as a respectable person, accompanied by his guarantor, malicously rendered with a pronounced scowl†. Yamey (1989, p. 54), confronts this van Puyvelde’s interpretation with other art historians’ view. 12] â€Å"The Boys in the Back Room†, written by John Haber in the Website â€Å"Postmodernism and Art History: Gallery Reviews from Around New York†. The informations refers to the exhibition â€Å"From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting†, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 1999. . [13] Benozzo Gozzoli (1420-1497), Italian painter. Procession of the Magi, 1460, Medici Riccardi Palace, Florence. [14] The Triptych The Last Judgement, now in Gdansk, Narodowe Museum, was painted by Memling (also Memlinc) in 1477. Angiolo Tani is painted in the outside of the wings. Tani had been the head of the Bruges branch of Medici Bank from 1455 to 1465. Tomaso Portinari was his successor in the position. Memling, Tommaso Portinari, 1470, tempera and oil on wood, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Maria Maddalena Baroncelli (Mrs. Tomasso Portinari), 1470, tempera and oil on wood, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. For details, see Ainsworth et al. (1994), chapter â€Å"Hans Memlinc†, pp. 462-466. [15] Marinus (Claeszon) van Reymerswaele (also Roymerswaele) is a Flemish painter (c. 1495-1566). He received his first artistic training as an apprentice to an Antwerp glass painter named Simon van Daele in 1509. Known as a painter of genre and satire, Reymerswaele was famous enough to have been mentioned by the Florentin historian Guicciardini and the art historian and painter Vasari. [16] Reymerswaele (or his workshop) made a lot of copies of this subject. Puyvelde (1957, p. 15) claims that the two paintings in the Prado and the one in the Collection of the State of Babiera, signed in 1538 and 1539, are inspired by Massys The moneychanger and his wife. Puyvelde considers that most other copies are inspired by Massys Tax Gatherers. 17] â€Å"El cuadro inspirador del logotipo es conocido internacionalmente como una imagen de la actividad economica del Renacimiento, especialmente de la financiera, ya que en el se muestra una situacion caracteristica de lo que podria considerarse un banquero de la epoca. El tema de la pareja de cambistas pone de manifiesto el surgimiento de una nueva profesion renacentista relacionada con el mundo de las finanzas, de los impuestos y de las cuentas mercantiles. Marinus toma de Quintin Metsys el tema del banquero y su mujer, que se expone en el Louvre de Paris. En el cuadro de Marinus, el matrimonio burges recuenta las monedas de oro y plata y el pesa en una pequena balanza, con gran delicadeza, aquellas, ya que la mayoria de las mismas eran raspadas o recortadas. Posiblemente provendrian de una recaudacion de impuestos, de una cambio de monedas o de la devolucion de un prestamo, lo que implicaria despues controlar o calcular la operacion con el abaco que tiene a su derecha sobre la mesa y a efectuar anotaciones en el libro de Contabilidad que ella tiene entre su bellas y delicadas manos†. From AECA's Website, 1999. 18] â€Å"Recent research has demonstrated that the documents, which form the background of the painting, refer to an actual lawsuit begun in 1526 in the town of Reymerswaele on the North Sea. The suit arose between three heirs of Anthonius Willem Bouwensz and Cornelius vander Maere, the latter having purchased a salt refinery from the heirs of Anthonius. Difficulties began when Cornelius vander Maere refused to make the initial payment and subsequently had his goods seized. The legal transactions lasted until 1538, by which time the property under dispute had probably been ubmerged or destroyed by storms. Ironically, the court fees still had to be paid. † New Orleans Museum of Art, Information written by Joan G. Caldwell. [http://www. noma. org/MARINUS. HTM]. The Museum owns one of the many versions of the painting: â€Å"Several versions of this composition exist in Munich, Amsterdam, Cologne and Brussels. While the Museum's version is apparently the last in the series, it is painted with the greatest detail, thus clearly revealing the documents in the lawsuit†. [19] Puyvelde (1957), pp. 7-18; â€Å"le veritable portrait fait place a la caricature de l'homme de affaire rapace† (Puyvelde, 1957, p. 13; also, p. 20). [20] Puyvelde (1957), p. 23. [21] â€Å"Es esta tabla encontramos todas las caracteristicas de los pintores nordicos: el detallismo, las calidades materiales que se aprecian a la perfeccion, la aproximacion empirica a la realidad, y sobre todo, la sordidez descarnada con la que Van Reymerswaele aborda uno de los principales males de su epoca: la usura, el mayor pecado posible dentro de una sociedad comerciante como era la flamenca. La corrupcion y la estafa afectaban a las capas de la sociedad, llegando al clero y provocando la reaccion de escritores, teologos y artistas†. CD-ROM La Pintura en el Prado, 1996, Editorial Contrastes. [22] Corneille van der Capelle, Le Percepteur d'impots et sa Femme. Jadis Sigmaringen, Pince of Hohenzollern collection. [23] The illustrated book El Prado (Barcelona: Lunwerg, 1994), p. 389. [24] Vanhoutte (1997). [25] â€Å"Web Gallery of Art†, description of the painting The Tax Collectors, 1542 (Wood, 103,7 x 120 cm. Alte Pinakothek, Munich), : â€Å"The Tax Collectors by Marinus Van Roymerswaele appears to be a deliberate caricature; the painter's Calvinist background clearly comes through in his depicting the tax collector's greed with a fierse grimace and claw-like hands, whilst the administrator records the money in the ledger, maintaining his proper distance. Marinus van Reymerswaele was a painter of three themes, all more or less caricatural. He painted a numbe r of straightforward S. Jeromes, all derived from Durer's picture of 1521 (Lisbon) but stressing the crabbedness of scholarship. The other two themes are interdependent: two exceedingly ugly and covetous Tax Gatherers and a Banker and his Wife (the banker counting his profits). The Banker is closely related to Massys's picture of the same subject, and it may be that the Tax Gatherers derive from Massys's borrowings from the caricatures of Leonardo da Vinci. There are about thirty versions of the Tax Gatherers (the best is in London, National Gallery; another has the date 1552), and what nobody has so far explained is why so many people should want to own a picture of tax collectors (and excessively ugly ones at that) gloating over their imposts. There are also examples in the British Royal Collection and in Antwerp, Berlin, Ghent, Madrid, Munich and Vienna. † The Website says on the Welcome page that â€Å"the comments were compiled from various sources†. [26] Adriaen Isenbrant (? ) Man Weighing Gold, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Friedsam Collection. Adriaen Isenbrant is also known as Hysebrant or Ysenbrant. He was active in Bruges, 1510 – 1551. He was first mentioned in 1510 when he became a master in the Bruges painters' and saddlemakers' guild. He was recorded as a stranger, but his native town was not mentioned. Between 1516/1517 and 1547/1548 he was listed numerous times as a vinder or minor offical of the guild and in 1526/1527 and 1537/1538 was a gouverneur or financial officer. Because of the uncertainty, some authorities prefer to use the name Isenbrandt in inverted commas or with or with question mark. See the Website of the National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C. , [27] Bauman, G. , â€Å"Early Flemish Portraits 1425-1525†, M. M. A. Bull. XLIII, Spring 1986, pp. 46 f. On the contrary, Wehle, H. B. , and M. Salinger, M. M. A. , A Catalogue of Early Flemish, Dutch and German Paintings, 1947, pp. 100 f. , â€Å"identify the sitter as a banker or a money changer and consider the portrait to be purely secular, not a ‘donor's likeness in a religious ensemble'†. References provided by Sandra Fritz, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Catalog. [28] The Table of the Deadly Sins, 1480, by Hieronimous Bosch (c. 1450-1516). Oil on panel, 120 x 150 cm. Prado Museum. Bosch is the name given to the Dutch painter Hieronimus van Aeken. [29] Jan Gossaert (c. 1478 – 1532), Portrait of a Merchant, c. 1530. Oil on panel, . 636 x . 475 m Washington, National Gallery of Art, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund. [30] National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA, Brief Guide, in . [31] Petrus Christus (fl. 1444-c. 1470), St. Eloy (Eligius) in His Shop, 1449, oil on panel, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. [32] Smith (1976), I. x. b. 18. [33] The Life of St. Eligius, 588-660, paragraph 5. The Life of Eligius, bishop and confessor, was written by Dado, bishop of Rouen (his friend and contemporary). Eligius lived from 588 to 660. The full text is in . [34] Quentin Massys, Ill-Matched Lovers, c. 1520/1525, oil on panel, 0'432 x 0'630 m. National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C. Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund. [35] Marinus Van Reymerswaele, The Misers, 1531. Oil on wood. Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, . [36] â€Å"Bruges et surtout Anvers ont donc cree les premiers marches publics consacres a l’art en Occident†, Cassagness (2001), p. 264.

Child Labour Speech Essays

Child Labour Speech Essays Child Labour Speech Essay Child Labour Speech Essay Honorable Judges, respected teachers and dear fellows, Assalam-o-alaikum. I want to open my thoughts in this speech on child labour. Could you imagine living in the west as a child and being chained to a loom to weave a carpet in a poorly lit and dirty building? Being deprived of your education and childhood all for Just a few pennies a day? Child labour is a familiar topic, yet you might be wondering what it means. Child labour is simply the employment of children as wage earners. Children of any age can be a victim of child labour and it is a huge problem in third world countries. Even in Canada we have children as young as seven delivering newspapers, but in Canada children get paid fairly. In other countries like India, children can be chained to looms and forced to make carpets. They are forced to work in sweatshops, making toys and firecrackers for very low pay. Child labour was a serious problem during the Industrial Revolution in Great Brittan in the 1700s and the problem started to touch the other regions of globe with the development of technical resources. The said labour was getting very much low amount as remuneration as compared to the elder labour. There was another reason for low payment to children. Being so small creature the children were unable to participate in labour unions and held strikes to demand for their rights. Child labour was also offered with cheap facilities of education and other fringe benefits. In 1802, British Parliament made the first laws against child labour. They law said the employment of children less than nine years of age in cotton mills was not allowed. Similar Conditions existed in the United States. In 1832, about 40% of all factory workers in New England were between those ages of seven and sixteen. So, in 1836, Massachusetts passed the first state child labour law. This law prohibited the employment of children under 1 5 in any factory unless the children were attending school. By 1860, however, only a few states had outlawed factory employment of children under ten or twelve years of age and in 1890 almost 20% of U. S. children were still employed full time. In 1916, the first federal child labour law passed the U. S. congress, setting standards for hiring children. They had to be sixteen or older to work in mines and quarries, fourteen or older for other types of work and could not e employed longer than eight hours per day and forty-eight hours per week. The law also prohibited night work for children under sixteen. In 1938, the Fair Labour Standard Act was passed to promote child labour reform. Children fourteen and fifteen years old are permitted to work only a limited number of occupations outside of school hours and the law requires employers to pay child labourers U. S. minimum wage. Try to ensure that the products you buy are not made by children. Do some research on the manufacturers and the laws of the country that how old you are or how young, can make a difference. Thank you very much.

A Thousand Splendid Suns and A Streetcar Named Desire

A Thousand Splendid Suns and A Streetcar Named Desire â€Å"A Thousand Splendid Suns† and â€Å"A Streetcar Named Desire† are two texts written in different countries: Afghanistan and America which causes their context to be different due to politics and religion but there are similarities such as the roles, expectations and struggles that the women within these societies have. The main female characters in â€Å"A Streetcar Named Desire† are called Stella and Blanche whereas the main female characters in â€Å"A Thousand Splendid Suns† are called Mariam and Laila. Stella and Mariam have similar expectations such as the providing for their husbands, producing children and being subjected to domestic violence. Mariam manages to relieve some of her pain through the arrival of Laila’s child but one can say she is not completely painless until her death. Stella never manages to escape or relieve any of her pain as she stays with her husband, Stanley and her sister ends up in a mental asylum. Laila and Bla nche are two women which their societies may class as fallen women; Laila has a child out of wedlock and due to deaths in the family as well as the suicide of her husband Blanche turns into a highly sexualized woman who relies on alcohol. Laila struggles throughout her life with the loss of her family members, her abusive marriage and the war raging in Afghanistan but she escapes this pain and ends up with her first love. Blanche does not recover; she is sent to a mental asylum therefore one can say that she is truly one of the only women within the two novels that is in a constant state of despair and as she is a single woman, her struggles as well as expectations differ from the other female characters.    In both texts, one can notice that certain women such as Mariam and Stella have roles; one of these roles is to become a housewife and provide for their husbands and family. Mariam is forced to marry Rasheed when Nana commits suicide; the Taliban encourage girls under the age of 16 to enter marriage especially when they have no one to provide for them and Amnesty International reported that 80 percent of Afghan marriages were by force. Mariam’s role of a housewife develops upon marrying him as Rasheed expects her to cook and clean for her as these are the traditional roles of a wife in Afghanistan due to the Taliban regime not allowing them to go out to have an education and get a job. Mariam always ‘does as she is told’ which suggests that she not in control of herself and instead Rasheed is in control of her. On the other hand, when she does not do what is expected of her such as cooking a tasty meal, Rasheed forces her to chew rocks until her teeth bleed. The i magery provided in the moment she is forced to do this, is shocking and one can presume that even the strongest of women would struggle with the pain. Similarly, Stella is pressurised to act like a perfect housewife by Stanley; he expects her too cook. One night, he states ‘How about my supper, huh? I’m not going to no Galatoires’ for supper!’; he is demanding his supper from Stella the minute he has walked through the door. She seems to be unsurprised by his remark which indicates that she receives these comments from him often and it seems as if it would never occur to him that he can make his own food because his beliefs are that the kitchen is the woman’s work place. One can compare this with the way in which Rasheed treats both Laila and Mariam in respect to the expectations of completing the household chores; he does not want to lift a finger much like Stanley. One can see that a comparison between the two texts is the recurring theme of domestic violence. In ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’, ‘Rasheed was the most disappointing and abusive person in Mariam’s life, as his abuse was sexual, mental and definitely physical’. It is clear to see when Mariam becomes pregnant, has a miscarriage and he goes into a violent fit of rage upon hearing about it. He goes into a fit of rage as he expects Mariam to give him children as he is her wife and that is one of the roles of the wife in the Islamic culture in Afghanistan. Like many women in abusive relationships, she questions and blames herself for the abuse; ‘Had she ever been a deceitful wife? she asked herself. A complacent wife? A dishonorable woman? Discreditable? Vulgar? What harmful thing had she willfully done to this man to warrant his malice, his continual assaults, the relish with which he tormented her?’. The repetition of the questions throughout her thought process shows that she is searching for a reason that would allow Rasheed to beat her but the reader can see that there is never a valid reason to beat a young and vulnerable woman. If it weren’t for her inner strength being ‘as hard and unyielding as a block of limestone’ she would probably have died a lot sooner than she did. Furthermore, one can see that Rasheed causes Laila suffering and she struggles through their relationship so that her baby is safe; in a sense, she puts her child before herself. He is very controlling as he wishes her to wear a burka to cover herself from other men and he openly mocks other ‘afghan men who did not mind that their wives walked among strangers with makeup on their faces and nothing on their heads’. Laila does stand up to him and she can challenge him because she is an intellectual but he becomes violent; he ‘shoved’ the ‘barrel’ of a gun in into her ‘mouth’. Hosseini is portraying the message that women cannot compete with a man’s physical power therefore it is a weapon that they will use in volatile situations with women as they will come out the victor. Comparably, in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ one can see that if Stella fails to do the tasks that she is expected to do or if she is ordered to do something and does not then Stanley becomes violent. Susan Koprince stated that Stella ‘wants to believe that the batterer is truly sorry for his abusive behaviour and that he will never harm her again’ but as readers are witness to Stanley abusing her verbally and physically multiple times therefore he can be classed as a several offender. Stanley orders Stella to be quiet whilst playing poker with her friends, she does not, stands up to him and he rushes towards her in a frenzy. She has nothing to protect herself from him and she states ‘You lay your hands on me and I’ll –‘; the fact that she does not finish her sentence show that she is truly helpless and has no choice but to take the beating from him. The Stage directions say ‘she backs out of sight. He advances and disappears. T here is the sound of a blow. Stella cries out’; these stage directions describe Stanley hitting her and the sound of her crying with pain; this is a rare point in the play in which one see’s Stella struggling with the failing to tasks that are thrusted upon her in a patriarchal society. Unlike in ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’, ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ has a single, female character who has a different role and struggles to the other married characters or those with children. Blanche is the one of the main female character in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’. On first appearances, she oozes southern elegance and charm as she is dressed in ‘white’ and dripping in ‘pearls’; she grew up on a southern estate known as ‘Belle Reve’ which means beautiful dream and it means that her family once had money. Blanche believes herself to be ‘a woman of intelligence’ as she was educated and took up a position of a school teacher once earning her qualification. Similarly, to Blanche, Laila is provided with an education but then she must give up studying when the Taliban take over. In the late 20th century, prior to the rise of the Taliban, women in Afghanistan were making strides toward equality as they enjoyed the right of education and employment. Kabul was the epicentre for women’s advancement in Afghanistan prior to the Civil War and Taliban Control as 50% of the students and 60% of the teachers at Kabul university were women; Kabul is the city in which Laila grew up. Her father wanted her to study because he believed that ‘society has no chance at success if its women are uneducated’ and due to his motivation to educate her, Laila enjoys going to school to learn. However, this freedom to be study is taken away from her when the Taliban came to power in 1996 as they stated ‘girls are forbidden from attending school. All schools for girls will be closed immediately’. The use of the word ‘immediatel y’ indicates that the Taliban believed young girls, like Laila, were a threat to their strict religious regime therefore their education needed to be stopped quickly. The Feminist Majority Foundation stated ‘under Taliban rule woman have been stripped of their visibility, voice and mobility’; in a sense, they had their freedom taken away from them and Laila was subjected to this as well. Blanche’s role is to oversee Belle Reve when there were no male heirs to take over the property and when Stella moved in with her ‘Pollack’, Stanley. Unexpectedly, her family were plagued with several deaths such as her ‘Father, Mother, and Margaret’ which she describes as ‘the long parade to the graveyard’; the use of the word ‘long’ emphasises the fact that a lot on individuals died in a short amount of time. Furthermore, Blanche married young, to a man known as Allan Grey. He had tenderness ‘which wasn’t like a man’s’ but he ‘wasn’t the least bit effeminate looking’ therefore it came to a shock to her when she found him in bed with another man but the three of them went dancing together afterwards and accidently Blanche blurted out that she was ‘disgusted’ by him, a few minutes later he went out and shot himself therefore Blanche blamed herself for her husbandâ⠂¬â„¢s suicide. After these events occurring one after the other, her faà §ade of a perfect woman starts to fall and she moves in with her sister, Stella. Her struggle with suicide and its consequences can be compared to Mariam as her mother, Nana, commits suicide and her last words are ‘I’ll die if you go, I’ll just die’; it is clear that Nana will end her life if Mariam chooses to leave her. Thus, one can say that she is trying to guilt trip Mariam into staying with her and as Mariam does not, she commits suicide which causes Mariam to feel responsible for her mother’s death throughout her life, much like how Blanche feels about her husband. Blanche struggles to live up to the expectations of a modern woman in American society as she relies on drink to give her confidence. Upon arriving at her sister’s, she seems to be nervous as she is shaking. Therefore, ‘she springs up’ and ‘removes a whiskey bottle’ from a cupboard then ‘she pours a half tumbler of whiskey and tosses it down’. It is obvious that Blanche was actively seeking out alcohol to calm her nerves down and when she finds it she ‘tosses’ a strong alcohol down her throat as if it were nothing. To hide the fact that she has had a drink ‘she carefully replaces the bottle and washes out the tumbler at the sink’ so that her sister does not come home, start asking questions and get angry about her secretive drinking. Blanche argues that ‘one is her limit’ but Stanley argues ‘there’s some people that really touch it, but it touches them often’ and he gives the imp ression that he knows Blanche is an alcoholic and that she is lying about the amount she drinks. After the death of her husband, Blanche seeks male companionship to give her confidence, sooth her loneliness and to occupy her mind from the guilt she feels however she looked for it in the wrong places by selling her body for sex and praying on young boys in the school that she taught at in Laurel. Blanche states ‘the Hotel Flamingo is not the sort of establishment I would dare to be seen in!’; the Hotel Flamingo was a hotel in which men could pay prostitutes to have sex with them and Blanche refuses to admit that she had multiple encounters with men there. It is evident to the reader that Blanche is struggling with the demands of being a woman regarded as ‘proper’ and in her failure to be one, one can say that she has become a fallen woman. Additionally, Stanley states ‘she was kicked out before the spring term ended. And I hate to tell you the reason that step was taken. A seventeen-year-old kid she got mixed up with – and the boy’s dad learned about it and he got in touch with the high-school superintendent. And there was practically a town ordinance passed against her.’ The fact that Blanche gets ‘mixed up with’ a ‘seventeen-year-old kid’ shows the extent of her internal suffering, it is so severe that she preyed on a child to make her feel adequate for herself and society. Conclusively, one can see that all four of these women have expectations to live up to but due to external factors such as death, warfare and children born out of wedlock, sometimes they are unable to fulfil them and the consequences are severe such as being shunned by society or being abused by the male figures in their life. In Afghanistan and in America, even though the countries have different political set ups, there is the common trend that women must live up to higher expectations than men. One may presume that due to the Islamic faith in Afghanistan being dominant, that women in Afghanistan have less freedom but when one looks for the finer details, women in America at the time of the novel is set, have just as little.

Production Challenges at Shuzworld Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Production Challenges at Shuzworld - Term Paper Example To increase production efficiency, the managers have the great responsibility of realigning operations including the production flow layout, making changes to the staffing plan, as well as other logistics such as warehousing and distribution. This memorandum looks at three key issues at the Shuzworld namely improvement of the current workflow, the introduction of a new project, and staffing plan in order to increase efficiency and output). The memorandum also looks at some short-term scheduling techniques and rules that can be used to achieve efficient movement of units through Shuzworld production systems. Re: Improvement of the Current Workflow The current workflow in the plant can be improved through the process of assembly line balancing. According to Heizer and Render (2011) in order to produce at a particular rate it is important that management is aware of the current work methods, tools and equipment that are in use. The length of time that each task requires must also so be determined. Additionally, the sequence in which each task should be performed must be identified. The precedence diagram which is shown below illustrates the precedence relationship among the tasks to be performed on the workboot assembly line, the time taken to carry out the tasks labeled A to H, and the tasks which can be done at the same time. Although the current Workboot Assembly Schedule indicates that there are eight tasks involved in the production, it is clear that tasks B and C can be performed simultaneously to save time. The same logic applies to tasks E and F such that performing these tasks simultaneously with further save the time spent on production. The restructuring of the production process in order to allow processing of multiple tasks can lead to reduced production time. Using this logic, 3 minutes will be saved between tasks A and D and the same amount of time saved between D and G. Therefore, the total amount of time saved after restructuring will be 6 minutes . Task C takes 3 minutes but when performed simultaneously with C (8 minutes), it will take 8 minutes to complete both tasks. Similarly, it will take 4 minutes to complete both tasks E and F thereby saving 3 more minutes. Therefore, the total time taken for production of Workboot will be reduced to 40 minutes. The correct number of workstations can be found after making a determination of the cycle time. The calculations are as follows: Cycle time = Production time available/units required = (8hrs/day* 60mins per hr)/48 units per day = 480/48 = 10mins/cycle The cycle time of 10 minutes can then be used to determine the minimum number of workstations as follows: Minimum number of work stations = Total task time (?ti)/cycle time = 46/10 = 4.6 or 5 stations The information suggests that the minimum number of work stations required is 5. However, the cycle time is 10 minutes and so only tasks that can be done in 10 minutes or less can be performed at the same work station. This means th at Task A takes 10 minutes and will be done at one workstation; Task B and C can be done together in a total of 9 minutes at another workstation; Tasks D takes 8 minutes and can be done at another workstation; Tasks E, F and G takes a total of 10 minutes and can be done one workstation while Task H takes 9 minutes and will therefore be performed at another workstation. Therefore, a total of 5 workstations are required. The layout would therefore appear as follows: The most following tasks heuristic were used to assign jobs to