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William Thompson

Dr. Sievers

First Year Seminar

03 September 2019

“Two Cents” on a Growing Issue

Knowledge is power, but at what cost? In today’s day and age, pursuing a higher education has never come with a higher price tag. As current young adults attempt to pursue their dreams with the help of a college education, they must also face the inevitable consequences that come with joining America’s growing student debt crisis. Ironically, paying off these necessary years of additional education comes hand in hand with adding to the decline of today’s creative thinkers, inventors, and the population of those who holster the ability to change our world for the better. How can we expect members of today’s society to put themselves out there if they are faced with the pressure of finding jobs for the sole purpose of paying off their unavoidable debts? This only keeps our vast middle class at a stationary, if not lower, tier in our population and prevents our country from significant economic growth. This spiraling issue has been swept under the rug for far too long and must be recognized before our nation suffers from irreparable repercussions. 

Year by Year, college seems to be increasing their tuition fee. Parents and children are however trying to achieve the American dream which is only possible through education. It is for such reasons taking student loans has been on the rise. Education has become expensive and bills can only be paid with the help of the student loans. Federal Financial aid records have indicated that the students are taking the riskiest debt which is the unregulated private student loans. In this kind of funding, student do not have any kind of protection and may end up paying absurd interest rate (Carey, pg. 1-6). The higher education debt is on another level. In the year 1993, only about 32% of students borrowed money to attend college but now, almost every single individual in college has a student loan. Lending money to students has become a business opportunity to some. Many money lending companies have emerged. Some seem to be exploiting students with very absurd interest rates.

Often, we have argued that getting higher education translates into one getting quality education thus a guarantee to living a better life, but is this true? I believe it’s not. High tuition fees have resulted in students taking in part time jobs to try and help their parents settle some bills. Taking part time jobs means that a student needs to try and balance between school and work. The famous saying you cannot serve two masters at a time may apply here. It is high likely that the student may not be able to create a perfect balance and their academics may become affected leading to failing grades. Students are unable to create time to study or complete their studies thus by the end of the four years they may not end up receiving the quality education that we often seem to praise.

We must first discuss the “easy way” to avoid this nationwide financial crisis. Of course there is the chance of being born into a wealthy family, but how many of us can actually relate? The obvious solution: community college. In a situation easier said than done, let’s face it, we as a society tend to look down on those who “choose to stay at home” for another two years. Not only have we contributed to this societal cloud of shame, but we must also consider the other downside of community college. Four year universities are more likely to offer specialized classes and a wider scope of studies for students to explore. This increases the desire for those up and coming dreamers to attend a university in which they can discover their personal interests and undergo new social experiences (Renehan, pg. 78-90). Other thought of solutions may include scaring the children of today into participating in the American armed forces. While this of course is no decision to be looked down on, we must consider whether or not these partakers are ready for such a personally grueling experience. 

The preference towards four year universities leads us to one of the most pressing causes of the student loan crisis: rising tuition prices. As the demand for higher education increases, so does its financial damage. In recent studies, paying off your student loans has become increasingly more difficult. The past few years have shown borrowers struggling to pay just one of their monthly bills within a three-month period. Though, this pressure towards further schooling has been nearly half a century in the making. The infamous generation of baby boomers has notoriously taken a fruitful country and slowly turned it into a financial disaster waiting to happen. The large part of today’s population born between 1946 and 1964 has dug a deep enough economic hole to bury their children and leave a lasting impression on later generations (Tinto, pg. 8-125). Spending most of our country’s resources on themselves, not only has our education system suffered, but today’s college students are watching themselves fight harder than ever for a place in our world at their parent’s expense. Seeing as this growing concern does not affect them directly, this group that also pertains to the majority of active political voters lacks the passion to pursue solutions to turn their negative accomplishments around. 

The young adults of today as a result may never have time to truly enjoy the financial freedoms that our country has to offer. The irony of drowning in student loans is hard to ignore: more education in hopes for a higher-paying job, leading to descending deeper down the hole of debt, only to inevitably work longer in order to pay it all off. Overall this cycle can take you down a seemingly never-ending spiral that holds today’s young minds back from achieving their real dreams. They are forced to chase high-stress, prestigious job titles that they cannot genuinely enjoy and will eventually burn them out. Looking closer at the personal effects, as students suffer so does their credit. This only adds to the stress of becoming financially stable. These debts prevent borrowers from investing in other basic needs that affect more than just the growing student loan crisis. For example, it is not an uncommon occurrence for recent graduates to return to their childhood home and depend on their parent’s support as they slowly grow secure enough to depend on themselves. In turn, this growing, and yet convenient short-term solution may directly affect the real estate market. This same effect can be seen as the younger generations should be reaching the stage in which they should be checking off staple achievements in most people’s lives, such as buying a car on their own or starting a family. Similarly, in the grand scheme of things this overall negatively affects our country’s national economic growth. 

High tuition fees are key factor in the increased number of student drop out. Most of the students start up college with the hope that eventually they will be able to cover all the cost the associated but as they proceed they realize this may impossible for four years. Some of these students have often argued that paying the high tuition fees is not worth it eventually when they graduate and even then it is not a guarantee that they will get employment opportunities. According to the Congressional digest, high drop out of college students may be a threat to the job poll as eventually there may be employment opportunities that require expertise, but the number of people who could feel out these positions may not be enough (Congrsssional Digest, pg. 9). When everyone decides to opt for unskilled labor, what happens to careers that need expertise? According to Forbes Magazine, market demand may be weak but there are certain sectors that utilize skills that still has high demand for graduates such engineering, nursing, welding, plumbing, electrician, computer technicians and doctors. If we are not able to address the issue of affordable education, the high demand will not be catered for.

On a smaller scale, a notable chunk of our population may be facing greater consequences than the rest. Women in particular are considerably more affected than men seeing as there are more women pursuing degrees than men on average. While it is easy to commend this minority on achieving a greater sense of ambition statistically, the unforgettable wage gap prevents women from paying off their debts as efficiently as they should be expected to in comparison to men. Despite the fact that for years we have often tried to ensure equality is achieved, this has not been the case. The gender disparity can still be seen as most top positions in organizations are given to the men while the women get lower position. It is for a fact that positions determine one’s income and thus most women have a lower income than the men thus still strain to ensure that they get to pay off their loans, all their bills are catered for and they are still able to provide basic housing needs for their families.

As a country, it is important to come up with solutions that will ensure we save our students from this burden. Most students work hard to ensure they pass and secure jobs so that they can enjoy life but paying off student loans does not make this easy. First as a nation we need to have a clear discussion on free public college. Often when this point is raised, it is met with a lot of resistance. When we talk of free tuition college, it doesn’t have to completely translate to free education where students pay nothing at all. What if students do not have to pay tuition fees but can pay for other charges such as accommodation, books, and other college charges. With the revenue that the government collects, I believe there needs to be a budget allocation for university funding to ensure universities are able to run their day to day activities but at the same time are able to provide quality education to the students at a lower cost. The college may not even be free but rather subsidized to a certain amount.

Free college education has often been met with resistance that quality of education will decline. My greatest question to this argument is understanding how the quality of education declines, does it decline because more people will be able to get university admission or does it decline because the universities are unable to run their day to day activities? If it is the former, then the solution is expansion of facilities to ensure that everyone is accommodated. A growth in economy is contributed by an increase in the literacy level of its citizens as this ensures that more people are literate thus can secure jobs and there is also a high likelihood of getting more inventions. It is for a fact that most third world countries are not as developed because the illiteracy levels are high. Ensuring that everybody is able to get an undergraduate degree not only benefits the individual but is also a benefit to the nation (Wiener, pg. 224-226). There have been nations that have been able to implement free college education successfully without altering the quality of education. Some of these nations that we can borrow a leaf or two from include Norway, Sweden, Finland, Slovenia, Germany and France.

We need to stop looking down on community colleges as a society. As parents and education stakeholder’s students need to understand that getting a community college degree is okay and they can compete for jobs equally with those in other universities. It is sad that most students do not perceive community college as an option because many associate attending it with failing. There are very good community colleges out there that have produced good graduates excelling in their careers yet they did not have to pay so much fee. Before we attain free tuition fees in America, how about we embrace community colleges as a solution for its affordable rates? Most people look down on community colleges because they are ill equipped. It is thus important that the government both federal and state ensure community colleges are equipped and have all amenities that facilitate learning.

Conversation on making college affordable has been happening for the longest time. In the year 2015, Barrack Obama proposed making two-years of community college free to students who qualifies (Samuels, pg. 123-165). April 2019, Senator Elizabeth Warren proposed a $1.25 trillion education bill which would help eliminate tuition and fees for public universities. According to her proposal, the funding for this project would be obtain from Ultra-Millionaire wealth tax as 0.1% of Americans have over 50 million dollars in asset (Abigail). The bill did not get all the support to move forward but he fact that these conversations are happening means there is so much hope in making education affordable. This will bill to look out for in 2020 during the election campaigns. There are states that are implementing legislation that will ensure that community college is affordable. In 2017, San Francisco made community college free for everyone and the funding was to be obtained by using of tax from properties selling for more than 5 million. This has seen an increase in number of people enrolling in college.

Colleges that are offering tuition free education are also emerging. They include college of Ozark; they are able to do this through the help of donors. The students too have to work for at least 15 hours every week in the school campus. Deep Springs College also in California, a male only school offers full financial reward to its attendees. Others include Alice Lloyd College, Berea College, Curtis Institute of Music, Barkly college, Webb Institute and United State Service Academies. With emergence of such colleges, education becomes an obtainable dream There are 11 other states including Oregon, Arkansas, Nevada, Tennessee, New York, Delaware, Kentucky, Rhode Island, Indiana, Maryland and New Jersey have created programs where college students are getting free 2-year college tuition in certain community colleges. These initiatives are a great way of ensuring that getting an education in the United States does not have to be a burden.

Everyone nowadays want to pursue education to the highest levels because of the importance it is associated with. With education, individuals are able to access better jobs, better opportunities, learn new thigs, acquire new skills as well as create a platform where you can associate with other people. This dream however may be derailed by lack of money and increased tuition fees. The government needs to be a leading stakeholder in trying to ensure that students are able to pursue their dream careers without having to take up loans. Works Cited

Abigail J Hess. “51% Of Young Americans Support Tuition-Free Public College.” CNBC, CNBC, 2 Oct. 2019, https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/01/56percent-of-young-americans-support-free-public-college-how-it-might-work.html.

Carey, Erin Dillon ad Kevin. “Drowning in Debt: The Emerging Student Loan Crisis.” Charts You can Trust (2009): 1-6.

“Free Community College.” Congressional Digest, vol. 94, no. 4, Apr. 2015, p. 9. EBSCOhost, login.proxy.kennesaw.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=101913975&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Tinto, Vincent. “Dropout from higher education: A theoretical synthesis of recent research.” Review of educational research 45.1 (1975): 89-125.

Renehan, Stewart. “Rising Tuition in Higher Education: Should we be concerned.” Visons for the Liberal Arts (2015).

Samuels, Robert. Why Public Higher EducationShould be free:. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2013.

Wiener, Jon. “Aiming Higher: Make College Tuition Free.” Nation, vol. 300, no. 14, Apr. 2015, pp. 224–226.

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“We Don’t Want To Know”-HIV Case Study

One of the health communication campaigns that connect to this story is community-based communication. Chanda and Thandi are a conservative married couple living in a remote village in Zambia. They choose not to get tested for HIV owing to a combination of cultural and personal factors. The text mentions that non-governmental organizations working in the field informed them of the importance of getting tested. Still, Thandi insists it is not her decision to make, so they agree not to get tested alongside her husband. This is a form of community-based communication as there is a presence of a third party that intervenes and tries to convince them to get tested.

HIV stigma greatly impacts Chanda’s and Thandi’s ultimate decision not to get tested. She says that she cannot get tested at the local hospital in the community as she does not want other people to see them there. She says that once the villagers spot them at the clinic, they will automatically assume that they are sick. This stigma makes people stay away from the clinic and testing altogether for fear of being labeled. Another form of stigma is reflected in how discussing issues pertaining to HIV is considered taboo. Thandi also says that although she might want to get tested, she cannot raise the issue with her husband as he might think that she is cheating on him, which is not the case.

In my viewpoint, the best communication approach to applying to this case of Chanda and Thandi is the informative approach. I would recommend this approach as it would expose them to the harsh truths about the impact of the pandemic. I would provide them with information about the number of lives the pandemic has claimed. I think that this strategy would be effective because by showing them raw footage and painting the real picture about the potential danger they are placing their lives in, they would have a change of heart.



Human Resource Management and Sustainable Competitive Advantage

(Author’s name)

(Institutional Affiliation)

Abstract

People have been cited as the key source of sustainable competitive advantage in organizations. People may refer to an organization’s customer base or the organization’s workforce and human capital. As the theories of competitive advantage demand, for resources to be considered as sources of sustainable competitive advantage, they must be valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable (Barney, 2007). Because an organization’s customer base may not meet this criterion for sustainable competitive advantage, this paper assumes human resources as the key sources of sustainable competitive advantage. Research studies illustrate that human resources are valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable, this making them a source of sustainable competitive advantage for organizations. Human resources are considered as valuable sources because they are closely linked with increased financial quality for organizations. Human resources are also considered as rare because.. in addition to this, human resources are inimitable owing to their uniqueness in their respective organizations and non-substitutable because substitution is only applicable to other resources other than human capital.

Key Words: Sustainable Competitive Advantage, Human Resources, Value, Rareness,

Inimitability, Non-substitutable

Introduction

One of the keys to the survival of any business organization is gaining competitive advantage. The term competitive advantage refers to the processes and procedures through which businesses set themselves as leaders in the market. It is whereby organizations develop differentiation strategies from their competitors; thus, granting these organizations a business advantage over their competitors (Barney, 2007). Building on the concept of competitive advantage, sustainable competitive advantage refers to the protracted benefit of employing all inimitable value-creating strategies based on a distinctive combination of organizational resources and capabilities. Current studies on the issues are aimed at identifying the different sources of superior performance of firms in their respective competitive markets. Accordingly, these studies have identified various sources of sustainable competitive advantage ranging from technology, human resource management, and capital equipment among other things.

Organizations that are classified as having a competitive advantage are those that have the ability to identify value creating sources and strategies and implementing these strategies in their operations (Barney, 2007). More specifically, human resource management has been cited as the most important asset for an organization’s attainment of sustainable competitive advantage. This is because human resource management concerns the provision of workforce for the achievement of organizational goals and objectives. Human resources involves the management of human capital which is a necessary tool for the achievement of sustainable competitive advantage for firms and organizations.

This paper examines human resources as a source of sustainable competitive advantage. The paper explains why people are the key source of sustained competitive advantage for organizations in relation to the socio-economic and business context of human resource management. The paper provides an analysis of human resources as a source of sustainable competitive advantage based on value, rareness, inimitability, and substitution.

Human Resources as a source of Sustainable Competitive Advantage

As mentioned earlier, people, who refer to the human resources of any organization, are one of the sources of sustainable competitive advantage in organizations and firms. As the concepts of sustainable competitive advantage explain, for a resource to be considered a source of sustainable competitive advantage, it should have the ability to add value to the organization, be rare and inimitable, as well as, lack substitutes (Barney, 2007). Researchers argue that in order to understand how human resources are sources of sustainable competitive advantage, individuals need to analyze human resources based on these four facets of sustainable competitive advantage. Accordingly, the analysis needs to include both human resource functions and activities in the organization for proper comprehension of how human resources are a source of sustainable competitive advantage.

Value of Human Resources

Just as other sources of sustained competitive advantage, the people who make up the workforce in the organization are valuable to the organization. This is because, these people provide the organization with an array of skills and capabilities that are necessary for the organization to attain sustainable competitive advantage. As Dyer explains, employees are unique to the organization, and the skills and capabilities of a particular employee are different in each organization (Dyer, 1993). This means that employees contribute differently in the organization, thus implying a sense of value addition by each unique employee. Understanding the value of human resources in the organization is a complex and multifaceted process that requires a measurement of the demand and supply of people or labor in the organization (Hatch & Dyer, 2004). The demand for human resources in the organization refers to the ability for substitution of employees. Put simply, it is whereby employees have similar skills and for that reason can be substituted for each other in the organization. Supply, on the other hand, refers to the productive capacity of the employees in the organization. This refers to the contribution of each employee in the organization for the achievement of organizational goals and objectives.

According to the human capital theory, when the demand and supply of human resources is homogenous, meaning the organization has similar jobs that require similar skills, the organization experiences no variance in individual contribution of employees in the organization (Wright et al., 1994). In such a case, human resources can be considered as having no value to the organization. However, if the demand and supply of human resources in the organization is heterogeneous, meaning that organizations have different jobs requiring different skills and capabilities, then human resources can be considered as valuable to the organization. In most organizations today, the latter is the most notable characteristic of human resources, thus implying a sense of value addition by human resources in the organization. Building on this idea, human resources has been linked with financial value in terms of employee remuneration and company profits. Put simply, the amount of money spent on employees, and the amount of money made by these employees through their performance. Researchers argue that high quality human resource management equals high financial value for organizations (Pfeffer, 1996). Therefore, if an organization invests in their human resources, there is the possibility that the organization will increase its financial value.

Rareness of Human Resources

The second requirement of sustainable competitive advantage is that sources need to be rare, meaning that it should be infrequent and exceptional. Arguably, the rareness of human resources is not based on numbers but the skills and capabilities that each employee in the organization possesses. All competing organizations have access to a wide workforce both within the organization and without. The key to having human resources as rare commodities lies in the recruitment and selection of the employees joining the workforce in an organization. In this particular case, skills and capabilities go beyond educational and technical skills, and instead they are highly focused on the employees’ cognitive skills and capabilities (Hatch & Dyer, 2004). In human resource management, cognitive skills refer to employees’ unique mental abilities that allow them to carry out their duties and responsibilities effectively and efficiently. Unlike the job-specific skills and capabilities, which may be similar in competing organizations, cognitive skills are unique to each organization. This is because the development of cognitive skills and abilities is dependent on the training and development provided by the human resource department.

It is the role of the human resource department to establish training and development programs for their employees. This not only keeps the employees updated in the current trends in the industry, it also allows them to develop various skills that promote sustainable competitive advantage for the organization (Pfeffer, 1996). The rationale behind this is explained by Jackson et al. in their study, who states that organizational employees are in constant competition with each other. He continues on to state that the human resource department is responsible for this competition as it provides incentives for good performance and productivity (Jackson et al., 2003). Organizational employees devise various ways in which they can outdo each other so as to receive benefits. One of these ways may be through the development of smart business skills for the attainment of sustainable competitive advantage for the company. Cognitive ability is said to have a strong and positive association with individual job performance in the workplace. Organizations that manage to have a strong workforce with strong cognitive skills and abilities is likely to demonstrate an increased economic value for the firm. Cognitive ability is a necessary tool for organizations because it assures the organization of adaptability and flexibility to future problems and threats from competitors. In his argument on the topic, Boxall Explains that cognitive ability is distinctively distributed in the population, which implies that organizations that have high cognitive ability levels are, therefore, rare (Boxall, 1998).

Because employee cognitive abilities are not guaranteed for all organizations, and for that reason are hard to come by, the organization that successfully manages to have a combination of employees with diverse cognitive abilities is said to be rare. Not all human resource departments have the capacity to ensure that their organization’s workforce is well equipped with the necessary combination of employees with cognitive abilities. Accordingly, those organizations that have this are said to be rare, thus gain a competitive advantage over their competitors in the industry (Wright et al., 1994). This, therefore, illustrates how human resources can be sources of sustainable competitive advantage through being rare.

Inimitability of Human Resources

For a resource to be considered a source of sustainable competitive advantage, it should also be inimitable, meaning that it cannot be copied by other organizations. Inimitability of human resources is examined on the basis of the organization’s unique human resource practices and strategies. This includes the remuneration and benefits offered for employees, as well as, all other human resource practices that involve the preservation of employees in the organization. These activities may or may not be imitable but in essence should not be. Competitors to an organization should not have the ability to imitate the human resource practices in a particular organization, if this organization is to be considered as having attained a sustainable competitive advantage. However, as Pfeffer explains, there are three main ways through which human resources may be examined to determine their inimitability. These include organizational history, elemental indistinctness, and socio-economic complexity (Pfeffer, 1996). In terms of organizational history refers to the activities and practices of an organization’s human resources that date back to when the charter of the organization in the industry. It refers to the human resource activities that have been practiced over time in the organization, hence becoming part of the organizational culture. Having a unique history in human resources assures organizations of attaining sustainable competitive advantage because this history cannot be imitated by organizations in the same industry. Elemental indistinctness exists when an organization’s resources and capabilities and the organization’s competitive advantage over its competitors cannot be easily understood (Wright et al., 1994). Put simply, competing firms should not have the ability to understand an organization’s human resources as being a source of sustainable competitive advantage.

If competing firms are unable to identify how an organization utilizes its human resources for competitive advantage, then it will be impossible for them to imitate human resources for their organizations (Hatch & Dyer, 2004). Lastly, social complexity of human resources describes the complexity of the social aspects of human resources that make them impossible to, systematically, manage or influence. Social complexity may be brought about through the combination of a diverse workforce with each employee originating from a different background hence providing different capabilities for the organization. Further, inimitability of human resources is analyzed based on ability and behavior of the employees in the workplace. Although employees may have the ability to perform certain tasks in the organization, this does not guarantee that they will behave in accordance with the organization’s requirement. Inimitability comes in when an organization can successfully boast of having a workforce that can perform as opposed to one that has the ability to perform. Ensuring performance in human resources is key to reducing the possibility of imitation by competitors, as they cannot imitate employee performance for sustainable competitive advantage (Wright et al., 1994). Each organization has its own unique human resource culture and practice that is responsible for employee performance. This human resource culture has been identified as one of the hardest to imitate owing to its long-term nature and the uniqueness across all organizations. This, in turn, illustrates how human resources can be sources of sustained competitive advantage through their inability to be imitated.

Substitution of Human Resources

The last condition for sustainable competitive advantage is that all sources should not be easily substitutable. Put simply, this means that sources of competitive advantage should not provide the opportunity for substitution by competitors. In the search for competitive advantage, it is natural that if a competitor cannot imitate the sources of competitive advantage, then they can provide substitutes to these resources. Though substitution implies a lower quality of resources for the organization, it also suggests some benefits such as reduced costs, and increase in quantity among other things. For that reason, substitution poses a great threat to competitive advantage for firms and organizations (Hatch & Dyer, 2004). Organizations that successfully manage to provide resources that cannot be substituted are, therefore those that attain sustainable competitive advantage in their respective industries. Human resources are considered as sources of competitive advantage owing to the simple fact that unlike other resources, they cannot be substituted. Substitution of human resources for competitive advantage would imply a reduction in the quality of human resource activities in the organization. For example, the substitution of cognitive ability, which may be a source of competitive advantage, would means that the employees in the competing organization cannot enjoy the benefits of cognitive ability for sustainable competitive advantage. As Pfeffer explains, substituting human resource activities, does not inherently, result in gaining sustainable competitive advantage in organizations (Pfeffer, 1996). If competitors to an organization need to attain sustainable competitive advantage, then it would not be a viable approach for them to take on substitution for the achievement of this. However, competitors can substitute other resources such as technology and financial resources. This, therefore, illustrates how human resources can be a source of sustainable competitive advantage owing to the fact that it cannot be substituted.

Conclusion

It is correct to assume that people are the key sources of sustainable competitive advantage in an organization. As the paper explains, people in this case refer to the human resources available for organizations. Human resources provide the necessary human capital for organizations to perform their operations accordingly, for the achievement of the set goals and objectives (Hatch & Dyer, 2004). Because sustainable competitive advantage demands that organizations provide for their customers exclusive high quality products and services. As previously mentioned, human resources meet the criterion for sources of sustainable competitive advantage, and for that reason, they have been cited as the key sources for market leadership. Because human resources are unique to each organization, they are rare, and inimitable, thus qualifying for the first requirements of sustainable competitive advantage. Additionally, human resources cannot be easily imitated or substitutable from organization to organization, hence passing the last two requirements for sustainable competitive advantage. Based on the analysis presented in this paper regarding human resources as a source of market leadership, it is therefore, safe to assume that indeed human resources are sources of sustained competitive advantage.

References

Barney, J. & Clark, D. (2007). Resource-based theory: creating and sustaining competitive

advantage. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.

Boxall, P. (1998). ‘Achieving competitive advantage through human resource strategy: towards a

theory of industry dynamics’. Human Resource Management Review, 8(3): 265-288.

Dyer, L. (1993). Human resources as a source of competitive advantage. New York: Industrial

Relations Centre, Queen’s University.

Ferligoj, A. et al. (1997). Competitive Advantage and Human Resource Management in SMEs in

a Transitional Economy. Small Business Economics, 9(6): 503-514.

Hatch, N & Dyer J. (2004). Human Capital and Learning as a Source of Sustainable Competitive

Advantage. Strategic Management Journal, 25(12): 1155-1178.

Jackson, S. et al. (2003). Managing knowledge for sustained competitive advantage: designing

strategies for effective human resource management. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Pattanayak, B. (2003). HR Perspective in Sustainable Competitive Development: A Proposed

Model. Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, 38(3): 335-343.

Peccei, R. & Rosenthal, P. (2001). ‘Delivering customer-oriented behavior through

empowerment: an empirical test of HRM assumptions’. Journal of Management Studies, 38(6): 831-57.

Pfeffer, J. (1996). Competitive advantage through people: unleashing the power of the work

force. United Kingdom: Harvard Business Press.

Wright, P. et al. (1994). ‘Human resources and sustained competitive advantage: a resource

based perspective’. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 5(2): 301-326.

“Kew Gardens” by Virginia Woolf

From the oval-shaped flower-bed there rose perhaps a hundred stalks spreading into heart-shaped or tongue-shaped leaves half way up and unfurling at the tip red or blue or yellow petals marked with spots of colour raised upon the surface; and from the red, blue or yellow gloom of the throat emerged a straight bar, rough with gold dust and slightly clubbed at the end. The petals were voluminous enough to be stirred by the summer breeze, and when they moved, the red, blue and yellow lights passed one over the other, staining an inch of the brown earth beneath with a spot of the most intricate colour. The light fell either upon the smooth, grey back of a pebble, or, the shell of a snail with its brown, circular veins, or falling into a raindrop, it expanded with such intensity of red, blue and yellow the thin walls of water that one expected them to burst and disappear. Instead, the drop was left in a second silver grey once more, and the light now settled upon the flesh of a leaf, revealing the branching thread of fibre beneath the surface, and again it moved on and spread its illumination in the vast green spaces beneath the dome of the heart-shaped and tongue-shaped leaves. Then the breeze stirred rather more briskly overhead and the colour was flashed into the air above, into the eyes of the men and women who walk in Kew Gardens in July.

The figures of these men and women straggled past the flower-bed with a curiously irregular movement not unlike that of the white and blue butterflies who crossed the turf in zig-zag flights from bed to bed. The man was about six inches in front of the woman, strolling carelessly, while she bore on with greater purpose, only turning her head now and then to see that the children were not too far behind. The man kept this distance in front of the woman purposely, though perhaps unconsciously, for he wished to go on with his thoughts.

“Fifteen years ago I came here with Lily,” he thought. “We sat somewhere over there by a lake and I begged her to marry me all through the hot afternoon. How the dragonfly kept circling round us: how clearly I see the dragonfly and her shoe with the square silver buckle at the toe. All the time I spoke I saw her shoe and when it moved impatiently I knew without looking up what she was going to say: the whole of her seemed to be in her shoe. And my love, my desire, were in the dragonfly; for some reason I thought that if it settled there, on that leaf, the broad one with the red flower in the middle of it, if the dragonfly settled on the leaf she would say ‘Yes’ at once. But the dragonfly went round and round: it never settled anywhere of course not, happily not, or I shouldn’t be walking here with Eleanor and the children. Tell me, Eleanor. D’you ever think of the past?”

“Why do you ask, Simon?”

“Because I’ve been thinking of the past. I’ve been thinking of Lily, the woman I might have married…. Well, why are you silent? Do you mind my thinking of the past?”

“Why should I mind, Simon? Doesn’t one always think of the past, in a garden with men and women lying under the trees? Aren’t they one’s past, all that remains of it, those men and women, those ghosts lying under the trees,… one’s happiness, one’s reality?”

“For me, a square silver shoe buckle and a dragonfly”

“For me, a kiss. Imagine six little girls sitting before their easels twenty years ago, down by the side of a lake, painting the water-lilies, the first red water-lilies I’d ever seen. And suddenly a kiss, there on the back of my neck. And my hand shook all the afternoon so that I couldn’t paint. I took out my watch and marked the hour when I would allow myself to think of the kiss for five minutes only it was so precious the kiss of an old grey-haired woman with a wart on her nose, the mother of all my kisses all my life. Come, Caroline, come, Hubert.”

They walked on the past the flower-bed, now walking four abreast, and soon diminished in size among the trees and looked half transparent as the sunlight and shade swam over their backs in large trembling irregular patches.

In the oval flower bed the snail, whose shell had been stained red, blue, and yellow for the space of two minutes or so, now appeared to be moving very slightly in its shell, and next began to labour over the crumbs of loose earth which broke away and rolled down as it passed over them. It appeared to have a definite goal in front of it, differing in this respect from the singular high stepping angular green insect who attempted to cross in front of it, and waited for a second with its antenna trembling as if in deliberation, and then stepped off as rapidly and strangely in the opposite direction. Brown cliffs with deep green lakes in the hollows, flat, blade-like trees that waved from root to tip, round boulders of grey stone, vast crumpled surfaces of a thin crackling texture all these objects lay across the snail’s progress between one stalk and another to his goal. Before he had decided whether to circumvent the arched tent of a dead leaf or to breast it there came past the bed the feet of other human beings.

This time they were both men. The younger of the two wore an expression of perhaps unnatural calm; he raised his eyes and fixed them very steadily in front of him while his companion spoke, and directly his companion had done speaking he looked on the ground again and sometimes opened his lips only after a long pause and sometimes did not open them at all. The elder man had a curiously uneven and shaky method of walking, jerking his hand forward and throwing up his head abruptly, rather in the manner of an impatient carriage horse tired of waiting outside a house; but in the man these gestures were irresolute and pointless. He talked almost incessantly; he smiled to himself and again began to talk, as if the smile had been an answer. He was talking about spirits, the spirits of the dead, who, according to him, were even now telling him all sorts of odd things about their experiences in Heaven.

“Heaven was known to the ancients as Thessaly, William, and now, with this war, the spirit matter is rolling between the hills like thunder.” He paused, seemed to listen, smiled, jerked his head and continued:

“You have a small electric battery and a piece of rubber to insulate the wire isolate? insulate? well, we’ll skip the details, no good going into details that wouldn’t be understood and in short the little machine stands in any convenient position by the head of the bed, we will say, on a neat mahogany stand. All arrangements being properly fixed by workmen under my direction, the widow applies her ear and summons the spirit by sign as agreed. Women! Widows! Women in black”

Here he seemed to have caught sight of a woman’s dress in the distance, which in the shade looked a purple black. He took off his hat, placed his hand upon his heart, and hurried towards her muttering and gesticulating feverishly. But William caught him by the sleeve and touched a flower with the tip of his walking-stick in order to divert the old man’s attention. After looking at it for a moment in some confusion the old man bent his ear to it and seemed to answer a voice speaking from it, for he began talking about the forests of Uruguay which he had visited hundreds of years ago in company with the most beautiful young woman in Europe. He could be heard murmuring about forests of Uruguay blanketed with the wax petals of tropical roses, nightingales, sea beaches, mermaids, and women drowned at sea, as he suffered himself to be moved on by William, upon whose face the look of stoical patience grew slowly deeper and deeper.

Following his steps so closely as to be slightly puzzled by his gestures came two elderly women of the lower middle class, one stout and ponderous, the other rosy cheeked and nimble. Like most people of their station they were frankly fascinated by any signs of eccentricity betokening a disordered brain, especially in the well-to-do; but they were too far off to be certain whether the gestures were merely eccentric or genuinely mad. After they had scrutinised the old man’s back in silence for a moment and given each other a queer, sly look, they went on energetically piecing together their very complicated dialogue:

“Nell, Bert, Lot, Cess, Phil, Pa, he says, I says, she says, I says, I says, I says”

“My Bert, Sis, Bill, Grandad, the old man, sugar,

Sugar, flour, kippers, greens, Sugar, sugar, sugar.” The ponderous woman looked through the pattern of falling words at the flowers standing cool, firm, and upright in the earth, with a curious expression. She saw them as a sleeper waking from a heavy sleep sees a brass candlestick reflecting the light in an unfamiliar way, and closes his eyes and opens them, and seeing the brass candlestick again, finally starts broad awake and stares at the candlestick with all his powers. So the heavy woman came to a standstill opposite the oval-shaped flower bed, and ceased even to pretend to listen to what the other woman was saying. She stood there letting the words fall over her, swaying the top part of her body slowly backwards and forwards, looking at the flowers. Then she suggested that they should find a seat and have their tea. The snail had now considered every possible method of reaching his goal without going round the dead leaf or climbing over it. Let alone the effort needed for climbing a leaf, he was doubtful whether the thin texture which vibrated with such an alarming crackle when touched even by the tip of his horns would bear his weight; and this determined him finally to creep beneath it, for there was a point where the leaf curved high enough from the ground to admit him. He had just inserted his head in the opening and was taking stock of the high brown roof and was getting used to the cool brown light when two other people came past outside on the turf. This time they were both young, a young man and a young woman. They were both in the prime of youth, or even in that season which precedes the prime of youth, the season before the smooth pink folds of the flower have burst their gummy case, when the wings of the butterfly, though fully grown, are motionless in the sun.

“Lucky it isn’t Friday,” he observed.

“Why? D’you believe in luck?”

“They make you pay sixpence on Friday.”

“What’s sixpence anyway? Isn’t it worth sixpence?”

“What’s ‘it’what do you mean by ‘it’?”

“O, anythingI mean you know what I mean.”

Long pauses came between each of these remarks; they were uttered in toneless and monotonous voices. The couple stood still on the edge of the flower bed, and together pressed the end of her parasol deep down into the soft earth. The action and the fact that his hand rested on the top of hers expressed their feelings in a strange way, as these short insignificant words also expressed something, words with short wings for their heavy body of meaning, inadequate to carry them far and thus alighting awkwardly upon the very common objects that surrounded them, and were to their inexperienced touch so massive; but who knows (so they thought as they pressed the parasol into the earth) what precipices aren’t concealed in them, or what slopes of ice don’t shine in the sun on the other side? Who knows? Who has ever seen this before? Even when she wondered what sort of tea they gave you at Kew, he felt that something loomed up behind her words, and stood vast and solid behind them; and the mist very slowly rose and uncovered. O, Heavens, what were those shapes? Little white tables, and waitresses who looked first at her and then at him; and there was a bill that he would pay with a real two shilling piece, and it was real, all real, he assured himself, fingering the coin in his pocket, real to everyone except to him and to her; even to him it began to seem real; and then but it was too exciting to stand and think any longer, and he pulled the parasol out of the earth with a jerk and was impatient to find the place where one had tea with other people, like other people.

“Come along, Trissie; it’s time we had our tea.”

“Wherever does one have one’s tea?” she asked with the oddest thrill of excitement in her voice, looking vaguely round and letting herself be drawn on down the grass path, trailing her parasol, turning her head this way and that way, forgetting her tea, wishing to go down there and then down there, remembering orchids and cranes among wild flowers, a Chinese pagoda and a crimson crested bird; but he bore her on.

Thus one couple after another with much the same irregular and aimless movement passed the flower-bed and were enveloped in layer after layer of green blue vapour, in which at first their bodies had substance and a dash of colour, but later both substance and colour dissolved in the green-blue atmosphere. How hot it was! So hot that even the thrush chose to hop, like a mechanical bird, in the shadow of the flowers, with long pauses between one movement and the next; instead of rambling vaguely the white butterflies danced one above another, making with their white shifting flakes the outline of a shattered marble column above the tallest flowers; the glass roofs of the palm house shone as if a whole market full of shiny green umbrellas had opened in the sun; and in the drone of the aeroplane the voice of the summer sky murmured its fierce soul. Yellow and black, pink and snow white, shapes of all these colours, men, women, and children were spotted for a second upon the horizon, and then, seeing the breadth of yellow that lay upon the grass, they wavered and sought shade beneath the trees, dissolving like drops of water in the yellow and green atmosphere, staining it faintly with red and blue. It seemed as if all gross and heavy bodies had sunk down in the heat motionless and lay huddled upon the ground, but their voices went wavering from them as if they were flames lolling from the thick waxen bodies of candles. Voices. Yes, voices. Wordless voices, breaking the silence suddenly with such depth of contentment, such passion of desire, or, in the voices of children, such freshness of surprise; breaking the silence? But there was no silence; all the time the motor omnibuses were turning their wheels and changing their gear; like a vast nest of Chinese boxes all of wrought steel turning ceaselessly one within another the city murmured; on the top of which the voices cried aloud and the petals of myriads of flowers flashed their colours into the air.

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“The Best War Ever” and the Second World War

Introduction

“The Best War Ever” book by Michael C. C. Adams tries to dismiss the various misconceptions which surrounded the Second World War. Adams who is the author of the book suggests that the United States applied the promulgation of the myth that the Second World War was going to be “the best war ever” and thus it was able to influence its citizens that this war was certainly a noble war. Whereas post-war America was going through, “prosperity and a burgeoning middle class” (Adams, p.46) as stated by Adam, the government exploited towards the “best war ever” myth over the duplicitous demonizing of radical ideologies; particularly those of communism who exhibited diverse ideologies to their own. The myth that was used was intuitive from various factors. The external setting of both fields of the warfare, the extreme propaganda by the government, glamorization of Hollywood as well as the tremendous economic affluence. Therefore from this paper, it is evident that the Second World War was not good as individuals may be made to think as it had several challenges. Misconceptions, propaganda, economic crisis and the media industrialized the Second World War into a decently defensible experience in the United States.

Misconceptions and Propaganda

Majority of Second World War occasions have been mythologized by both Hollywood as well as the government propaganda, and therefore throughout the years, the individuals who lived during the war have maintained this mythology. Adams thus has pursued to uncover these narratives for being fabricated and oversimplified, and he sought to afford the fundamental facts which enable a more accurate comprehension of the World War II besides the widespread cultural vicissitudes surrounding it, and that is before and after the war. According to Adams( page 58), the war was not as good as the government made the citizens believe but it applied several tricks, for instance, the media exploitation use of misconceptions plus propaganda.

In “The Best War Ever” the myths which are predominantly elaborated by Adams majors around the conciliation of Germany, the splendid combat, inhibiting discrimination of the troops as well as how the second world war ended this kind of depression. Under each sub-myth Adam seems to be frequently arguing and while he seems to be exaggerating the right things, he is raising disputed aspects. Some of these controversial aspects comprise of the bombing of sixty-one Japanese towns with napalm which resulted into six hundred and seventy-two casualties. Consequently, the American Gls also did some activities like mistreating the prisoners and soldiers, precisely when combatting in the Pacific.

The Media

Michael Adams scrutinizes the part that the media played in creating of the myth that the Second World War was a noble war. In his discussions, he seems not to doubt that the war was essential and however he contends that it was made to appear a good and a civil battle by the broadcasting media. The government together with them included censored all systems of media. Adams further stresses that the reporters were unable to provide the American individuals a vivid picture of what was happening in the war. It is indeed that if the individuals were able to find out what was going on, they could have engaged in this war as according to Adams viewpoint, every battle is brutal as well as bloody. The attractive all-American mama’s lads who were regularly publicized on posters all over the nation were the similar men being murdered and murdering others across the ocean (Adams, p. 89). According to the media and the government, the individuals were not prepared to get the news regarding the American boys being killed or mutilated.

Economic Crisis

Moreover, Adams expands his argument on the myth of the war of fixing an economic crisis. According to him, in the Second World War, the unemployment crisis changed when sixteen million workers joined the military and thus leaving the other individuals at home to take advantage of the economic opportunities. By comparison, the Gulf War was fought by professionals who had already joined the forces, to make sure there existed no preoccupation of the worker pool. Adams discussions of the American war machine highpoints the most crucial in the United States strategic initiative. He describes the home front’s ignorance of the war reality, some distress in the army from interfering generals to ethnic as well as gender discrimination in national plants, and mounting alienation amid the civilians and the soldiers. Therefore there were prevalent social problems at that time while it was considered a great era of America’s prosperity and thus the country was not unified as it appeared. There was rampant discrimination against the minority, the traditional custom behaviors were broken as women plus children took the wartime roles, and the individuals experienced a deterioration in the family ethics.

In defending his arguments, Adams collected his material from poems, magazines, advertisements, journals, movies, drawings besides other various monographs. From Adam’s cases, readers can undoubtedly observe Adams striking back at some prolific historians like Stephen Ambrose who in 1992, propagated the good war myth of the Second World War in his book “Band of Brothers” which was afterward turned into a prevalent HBO ministries going by the same name (Adams, p.93). Adams defended his statements with that evidence which he says that they propagated and also amplified the same myth.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is evident from the above discussion that the Second World War was characterized by many issues like misconceptions and propaganda which activated this war. Therefore as depicted, the Second World War was not free of flaws as it may be thought for example from the Adams book title “The Best War Ever” which can be regarded to be ironically established. The book expresses the manner in which Americans tend to reflect on the war. Adams performs this by tearing down the misconceptions about the termed “good war” by revealing an open history of war (ex. Word Count: 972).

Works cited

Adams, Michael CC. Living hell: The dark side of the Civil War. JHU Press, 2014.

Adams, Michael CC. The best war ever: America and World War II. JHU Press, 1994.

“Membership of the Institutions of the European Union is Incompatible with Parliamentary Sovereignty”

Concerns about political and economic unification are more common in the United Kingdom than in any other European Union member state. National legislatures seem to lose some of their sovereignty if the European Union is given increased powers. Since the United Kingdom accepted the Treaty of Accession in 1972, 2,900 regulations and 410 directives have been incorporated to English law. The legal proceedings involving Factortame that occurred in 1990 and 1991 are another source of concern where European Community law prevailed against the Merchant Shipping Act of 1988. Many individuals believe that these rulings call into doubt the sovereignty of Parliament. The immutable concept of parliamentary sovereignty, which is the cornerstone of the British legal system, helps to guarantee that parliament retains control. Unlike many other nations, the United Kingdom lacks a codified constitution that outlines the scope of the government’s authority. Because laws may be modified at any time, treaties can be broken, and EU membership is never really binding, the only thing that restricts Parliament’s power is the sovereignty of future legislatures. A person or organization cannot use English law to invalidate or overturn a law created by Parliament since Parliament has the sovereign authority to pass or alter any legislation at any moment, yet, EU membership dictates a number of laws especially where conflict arises, thus raising the question of incompatibility.

No other institution has the authority to prevent Parliament from adopting new legislation, changing current legislation, or repealing any laws. The admission of the United Kingdom into the European Union posed the greatest challenge to the authority of parliament. This is because, where national law and EU law disagree, EU legislation is seen as having more weight. When this occurs, member states are obligated to amend their domestic legislation to conform to the applicable EU norm. Before enacting the European Communities Act in 1972, the United Kingdom was aware of the limitations on its sovereignty imposed by European Court of Justice case law. The European Communities Act of 1972 granted the United Kingdom the legal right to join the European Union. By merging EU legislation into domestic law, Section 2(1) of the Act granted all EU laws legal effect in the United Kingdom.

There is a correlation between Parliamentary Supremacy and EU membership, ensuring that these two institutions operate in tandem with national and European Union Community laws. It is crucial to keep in mind that only in cases where EU member states have chosen to delegate authority to the EU does EU law predominate. These include the infrastructure, environmental regulations, and the common market, among other things, but remains irrelevant in regards to social policy and taxes. The EU’s supremacy in legislative matters is not always acknowledged, however. For instance, directives do not supersede until they have been implemented into national law and are relevant, but EU rules do because of their immediate effect on national law. Regulations that are “directly effective” and provisions that are “directly applicable” are two different categories of legal impact recognized by the European Union. According to Article 288 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the only types of legislation that may be deemed as “directly applicable” are treaty provisions and regulations. They immediately become a part of national law as a consequence of the member states’ participation in the EU and do not need the adoption of any enabling legislation by the member states. This suggests that the member countries do not need to pass any enabling legislation. The term “directly effective” was created by the European Court of Justice in the context of Case 26/62 Van Gend en Loos and is not contained in any treaty. Any provision that is clear and unambiguous enough to be used as evidence in legal actions before national courts is referred to by this phrase. Directly applicable rules need new legislation from each member state in order to implement EU directives into their own national legal systems.

Parliamentary Supremacy is a crucial idea in the British Constitution, granting Parliament supreme legislative authority. This concept serves as the basis for the judicial system as well, seemingly invalidating any sense of legislative primacy, emphasizing that EU law is superior. When there is a dispute between a component of EU law and a component of the law of a member country (national law), the concept of the primacy of EU law mandates that EU law takes precedence. This concept is often called “precedence.” If this were not the case, EU member states might simply allow their national laws to take priority over main or secondary EU legislation, making it impossible to implement EU policy. The concept of EU law’s preeminence has evolved through time as a result of the case law (jurisprudence) published by the Court of Justice of the European Union. Despite a short term introduced to the Lisbon Treaty, it is not codified in any EU treaty. In Van Gend en Loos v. Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen (Case 26/62), the European Court of Justice ruled that regulations set by European institutions must be incorporated into the legal systems of EU states, which must then comply with these laws. Consequently, EU law has priority over national legislation. The supremacy of EU law must be applied to all national acts, irrespective of when they were adopted relative to the relevant EU statute. As EU law is now seen as superior to national law, the concept of primacy strives to guarantee that all EU countries provide the same level of protection under EU law.

Even when European Community law and domestic law clash, European Community law is more important and takes precedence. This essentially violates the notion of sovereignty, since Parliament is no longer the ultimate lawmaking body, and some aspects of Community law may reverse its decisions and influence the legislative process. The term emphasizes the supremacy of European law over national law, even where the two are incongruous. Alternatively, it is essential that European law continue to take precedence over national law in order to ensure consistency across the Community and the formation of a single market. Individual member states of the European Union giving their own national laws precedence over European Community law would be detrimental to the legal standing of the Community as a whole and may possibly threaten its very existence. This argument is supported by a 1979 ruling of the European Court of Justice in Hauer v. Land Rhineland-Pfalz. In that judgement, the court found that subordinating Community law to national law would undermine the creation of a coherent single market, eventually leading to the disintegration of the Common Market.

All immediately applicable European legislation is incorporated in the body of national law, whether it has already been established or will be developed in the future. A “directly applicable law” is a piece of European law that applies directly to the legal system of a Member State without the need for further legislation. As a result, any rights or duties established by the treaty must have immediate legal force in England. This contradicts the constitutional concept of parliamentary sovereignty since directly applicable European legislation is instantaneously merged into national law in the United Kingdom without the necessity for Parliament to adopt or reject the measure. If directly applicable Community law, such as a rule or provision of a Treaty Article, and domestic law, such as a legislation, are in conflict, there is a danger of misunderstanding. Because paragraph (1) of section 2 clearly states that directly applicable legislation becomes an instant component of national law, Community law will take precedence over national law. Given that Parliament in the United Kingdom is obligated to approve immediately relevant European Union legislation, one may argue that Parliament is no longer the supreme authority for making laws.

The precise shape that European Community law takes, which might be any of a number of different forms, influences how it impacts the national legal systems of Member States. When establishing which types of European regulations take precedence over local law, it is critical to differentiate between immediately applicable and directly effective legislation. There are laws that apply instantly and laws that have an immediate effect. As previously indicated, directly applicable laws are those that are incorporated into the relevant Member State without the need for additional legislation to be approved by the relevant Member State. While something is only considered to have direct impact if it provides people with rights on which they may depend and which are protected by their own national courts. Given this, it is logical to infer that the question of whether private parties may enforce directly applicable laws in sovereign state courts falls within the purview of direct impact. Direct horizontal and vertical collisions are also conceivable. The term “vertical direct impact” refers to a situation in which a Member State’s courts may apply the law against it. Horizontal direct effect, on the other hand, refers to a situation in which a law may be used against another person in a Member State’s courts.

Nonetheless, as Britain entered the European Union voluntarily and retains the legal ability to withdraw at any moment, it can be argued that the country’s parliament maintains supremacy and sovereignty. That Parliament maintains its sovereign status as the institution with the most authority, as shown by the option to leave the Community, is without dispute. Leaving the EU would give the British government complete control over domestic policy again. British courts would uphold a British legislation even if it were found to be in conflict with European law, so long as the Act in issue expressly declared that its provisions should take precedence over European law. However, proving this is difficult since it presumes the British government will violate the terms of the treaty, which is very improbable. UK participation in the EU has had a direct and profound impact on the constitutional principle of parliamentary sovereignty. No longer can Parliament be considered the supreme legal power, capable of passing or rescinding any legislation at will. In addition, laws need to be consistent with various aspects of Community law; this obviously lessens sovereignty while highlighting the preeminence of Community law, and highlighting the incompatibility of two sovereign institutions governing the UK and the European Union Community.

Bibliography

Brack, Nathalie, Ramona Coman, and Amandine Crespy. “Unpacking old and new conflicts of sovereignty in the European polity.” Journal of European Integration 41, no. 7 (2019): 817-832.

Connolly, Christopher K. “Independence in Europe: secession, sovereignty, and the European Union.” Duke J. Comp. & Int’l L. 24 (2013): 51.

Egeberg, Morten, and Jarle Trondal. “Why strong coordination at one level of government is incompatible with strong coordination across levels (and how to live with it): The case of the European Union.” Public Administration 94, no. 3 (2016): 579-592.

Elliott, Mark. “United Kingdom: Parliamentary sovereignty under pressure.” Int’l J. Const. L. 2 (2004): 545.

Ene, Marilena. “Van Gend en Loos Case.” Tax Mag. (2021): 304.

Ewing, Keith. “Brexit and parliamentary sovereignty.” The Modern Law Review 80, no. 4 (2017): 711-726.

Gordon, Michael. “The UK’s Sovereignty Situation: Brexit, Bewilderment and Beyond….” King’s Law Journal 27, no. 3 (2016): 333-343.

Heppell, Timothy, Andrew Crines, and David Jeffery. “The United Kingdom referendum on European Union membership: The voting of conservative parliamentarians.” JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies 55, no. 4 (2017): 762-778.

Otjes, Simon, and Harmen Van Der Veer. “The Eurozone crisis and the European Parliament’s changing lines of conflict.” European Union Politics 17, no. 2 (2016): 242-261.

Trindade, F. A. “Parliamentary Sovereignty and the Primacy of European Community Law.” Mod. L. Rev. 35 (1972): 375.

“The Calm”

“We can’t be together.” Were the words that left Calixta and Alcee heartbroken after their passionate caresses in Assumption. Calixta never expected to see Alcee in Assumption after four years of not hearing anything from him. His family left New Orleans because of the depression, and they had to end their relationship. After that, they never expected to see each other and so they moved on. Calixta met Bobinôt who she thought she loved; but deep down she knew she would never find someone who would make her as happy as Alcee did.

Finding him in Assumption was a surprise for the both of them, and they could not hold their selves back. Calixta remembered how he held her tightly as he kissed and kissed her. They were speechless, and all they wanted was each other’s touch. She was caught in the moment that she let of her worries aside until she remembered she was now carrying another man’s child. She pushed Alcee back and looked into his eyes as she tried to regain her breath.

“I’m with child, Alcee. We can’t be together.” Calixta’s eyes began to water as she remembered how heartbroken they both were. What broke her heart even more is that Alcee stayed loyal. He did not find another woman; he always knew they would find each other again. They had to part ways. However, a couple months later Alcee moved back to New Orleans where they would see each other often. Alcee, couldn’t stand to see her with Bobinot so he would be out of sight whenever he would see them in town.

Calixta heard the front door open and she was shaken out of her thoughts. She saw Bobinot and Bibi walk in, they were going back to town today. It had been a week since the storm.

“We’re ready to go, Calixta. Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?” Bobinot asked.

Calixta shook her head, “I have enough to do today, I’ll be wasting my time with the two of you. The two of you go along, and if the weather gets bad stay inside an’ be careful.” Calixta replied as she walked them out to where the horse was waiting for them. Bobinot helped Bibi get onto the horse then he hopped onto the horse himself. Bibi waved at his mother and she smiled waving back at him.

“Be careful now,” She called out to them as she watched them ride out of sight.

She walked back into the house and waited by the side window. Calixta knew he would come, she knew that he had been observing their home and waiting for the right opportunity to come back. Minutes passed and she heard a knock at the door. Her heart started to beat faster as she walked up to the door and opened it to see him again. As soon as she opened the door Alcee approached her and Calixta stepped back.

“Alcee, we have been through this before. We can’t do this.” Calixta told him. Alcee was shocked by her words. How could she say this after what happened last week?

“Calixta, I know you are scared but we can make this work. I promise to be careful. I don’t want to cause you no trouble.” Calixta shook her head, and as much as she wanted to be with this man the world wouldn’t have it.

“Alcee, listen to me. You have a wife an’ I have a husband, we have children. Think about the children.” They had created new lives, but it wasn’t with themselves and they had to face reality even though it was heartbreaking. Alcee stood still and looked down at the ground not knowing what to say. He knew Calixta was right, but he didn’t want to admit it because he only wanted to be with her. He could only think back to days when they were together, and they would talk about their future. The future that they were currently living in separate lives.

“I am sorry our lives ended up like this, and it’s my fault for not waiting for you.” Calixta said breaking the silence, “I have a four-year old son, and you have your own babies. We can’t be selfish and think about us no more.”

“Calixta, I don’t want you to blame yourself.” Alcee finally spoke up. He really didn’t know what to say. He was angry that their lives had to end up this way, but he had also made other life decisions where he had to take responsibility. He knew Calixta was right, and if they were able to move on, then they would just need to continue with the lives they now had. He loved Calixta, and didn’t want to risk the life she had created with Bobinot. After all these years, he still cared for her happiness even though he wasn’t the one providing that happiness for her.

Before walking down the steps of the porch Alcee grabbed Calixta’s hand and pulled her in for one final kiss. Even though it was seconds, the kiss held all the emotions that were bottled inside them. Alcee looked into her blue eyes one last time before walking down the steps.

Tears ran down Calixta’s face as she watched the love of her life walk away for the third time in her life. She wanted to run after him, but instead held herself back and closed the door not wanting to know in which direction he went or if he was still out there.

A couple hours passed by and Calixta could not stop replaying the three times she saw that man walk away from her life only to leave her inconsolable each time. Why was it that their lives had to end up this way? She thought to herself. Before she could get herself deeper in her thoughts she heard the front door open once again snapping her out of thoughts. She quickly got up and walked over to greet Bobinot and Bibi.

“Oh! You are back already? How was the trip?” Calixta asked them as she helped Bibi take off his boots.

“It was good. I brought you back more shrimp since you were so delighted the last time I brought some.” Bobinot took out the can of shrimp and handed it to Calixta.

“Oh, Bobinot you are too good to me!” She replied grabbing the can and walking over to the kitchen. She started to prepare for dinner as Bobinot talked to her about their trip to town.

Alcee Laballiere wrote to his wife that night, Clarisse, that night. It was a letter describing how much he missed her, and needed her back. He missed his babies, and wanted them to come home as soon as possible. He wrote that he realized he could not bear being without them, and he was wrong.

Clarisse received the letter

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How Technology impacts communication

In the modern world, communication has become easier due to technology. Unfortunately, personal communication among individuals has been reduced. Moreover, the use of computers is favored when people want to communicate, and it is normally done in the comfort of one’s home. It is a fact that communication and technology go hand in hand. Since the internet was introduced, communication science has advanced to new levels. There is a need to know the extent, which technology has influenced personal contact (Olsen, 2012.1). People have become obsessed with using their computers to communicate and have forgotten how to interact with people face to face.

This paper seeks to give a critical analysis concerning technology and its impact on communication. At the same time, find out the benefits as well as disadvantages that have been brought about by technology in terms of communication.

Critical analysis on how personal communication has been affected by advancements in technology.

The introduction of social websites such as twitter and Facebook has made people communicates with ease. Those who utilize the networking sites, constantly update their status in an attempt to communicate with others. According to research, as compared to twenty years back, the social circles sizes in America have reduced (Ford, 2012, 1). This evidence is obtained from people lives that were self reported, and the numbers are extremely high. The latter is according to research conducted by the American Life Project and the Pew Internet. Moreover, they found out that people who prefer using computers at home are more social, as compared to those who do not. Also, the former has high chances of going to cafes and parks, and this is after 2512 individuals were interviewed (Ford, 2012, 1).

Most people prefer to communicate while using their computers at home due to the advantages, which exist. Internet connectivity is available in many American homes and thus makes it easy to communicate. Rather than having to travel and meet up with people, which is often expensive, people prefer to chat or send emails. One can easily communicate with others regardless of where they are in the globe, in a short time span (Tapscott, 2008.45). Communication costs have reduced drastically, and communication speed increased due to the internet. For example, the use of video conferencing makes it easy to communicate during real time. In turn, people have become addicted to using computers at home and thus, losing out on socializing through personal contact.

Quality is another feature why most people prefer to communicate using computers as it provides vast knowledge to the user. Tasks such as finding out what a certain word means in a foreign language are obtained just by clicking a mouse. Furthermore, communication retrieval and storage is easy due to technology (Olsen, 2012.1). In contrast, the latter is often difficult to achieve when engaging in verbal communication. The internet makes it easy to avoid contacting people all the time for the purpose of clearing doubts. One will conveniently use their computers at home without having to walk around asking people for the information they need.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it seems that people have benefited from technological advancements, which have influenced communication. Personal communication might be reduced as people prefer communicating through devices that are at home. Fortunately, many physical barriers have been eradicated and in turn, reduced expenses that would have been incurred through travelling. Indeed, communication has improved due to technology, as many people are able to communicate.

Work Cited

Olsen. Stephanie. Does Technology Reduce Social Isolation. The New York Times. HYPERLINK “http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/does-technology-reduce-social-isolation/” http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/does-technology-reduce-social-isolation/ on January 12 2012.

Tapscott, Don. Grown up Digital: How the Net Generation is changing your world. New York: Mc-Graw Hill, 2008.Print.

Ford, Martin. Technology making jobs obsolete. Econ future. HYPERLINK “http://econfuture.wordpress.com/2011/11/07/technology-making-jobs-obsolete/” http://econfuture.wordpress.com/2011/11/07/technology-making-jobs-obsolete/ on December 7 2012.