Chinese Face Reading Essay Example for Free

Chinese Face Reading Essay Picking up personality can be a very fun and adventurous process. Many cultural societies have many ways to do it and so many people to test; you’re never going to get the same results. One very interesting way of determining someone’s personality is Face Reading. This is a type of physiognomy that can show you your hidden personality, history, current situation, your future, even how well your health is. Face reading was developed from Ancient China by a man known as Mr. Guiguzi (481-221 B. C. ). Although it is one of many ways of measuring personalities, face reading has twelve ways of being used. The first method is called Fortune House, or also known as â€Å"Fude Gong†. This method shows whether your life is going smoothly or not. When reading someone’s face with Fortune House, the face should be round and smooth with no markings or scars that are out of the ordinary. If there happens to be any marks or scars, they will show any issues you have, such as illness, bad relationships, financial troubles, etc. The second method of face reading is Parents House, or â€Å"Fumu Gong†. It tells you whether you had a good or not so good childhood with your parents. This procedure reads the face by its forehead. If it is big, round and/or shinning, means the individual had an excellent relationship with his parents and had an enjoyable life as a child. However, if the forehead was ugly and/or damaged, then the person had a painful and difficult life when he/she was young. The next way is called Career House, or also known as â€Å"Guanlu Gong†. This method is somewhat similar to the Fortune House because it is searching for round and smooth features on a face as well. If your cheek bones stick out and have eyebrows that project, you will most likely have a better chance of having a successful career. House of Travel, or â€Å"Qianyi Gong†, would be another style of face reading someone. It is designed to examine how your travels from one place to another would be positive or negative. When you have a feature of scars or lines on your face, means you shouldn’t go anywhere at all. So whenever you would like to go out to eat at a restaurant and need to drive or take a bus, it might be safer to have a pizza delivered to where ever you are staying. Another method is Assets House (Tianzai Gong), which emphasizes the eyes as an indicator of your intelligence, temperament, and financial assets. If your eyes are set deep into your head, or if you are constantly looking high, you are considered an idiot. Narrow eye lids would represent impatience in an individual. Large pupils, clean and clear whites, and large eyes are favorable characteristics of a person’s Assets House. Health House (Jie Going) governs whether your body has excellent health or is ill. Wrinkles, stains, or other marks anywhere that is found shows that you need to go to the clinic for a checkup. However, having none of the disliked features on the face means you have nothing to worry about when it comes to your health. Any characteristic from the eyebrows and above will symbolize House of Siblings (Xiongdi Gong). This particular type of face reading decides your friendship with other people in your life. It also shows how well your genetic make-up is when the person was conceived. Thick, dark, long, and smooth eyebrows that are high above eyes tell the face reader that the subject is a brave, affectionate, and relaxed person. However, if your face shows the opposite of these facial features including scars and lines, you basically have completely different qualities. Life House (Ming Gong) will tell the person how easy or challenging your life would be. The level of difficulty in your life is determined by how close the eyebrows are to each other, and any dimples and/or marks. If smooth and shinny like the other face reading styles, shows a comfortable an easy journey in his/her life. Like the other face reading methods, House of Children (Ernu Gong) looks for smooth and round features for positive outlook in the individual. If the face seems to be gentle and round, shows that you have a successful love and sex life. Although, if you show moles or other disfeatures, you may have issues when it comes to sex and you may have a difficult time parenting your children in regards to their development and well-being. House of Marriage (Qigie Gong) shows the reader whether or not the man/woman’s marriage is going well. So fundamentally, when somebody has a gentle, smooth, and clean face, it indicates a happy marriage. A receding and/or scarred face with moles means you have a wife that you might wish to divorce. Wealth house (Caibo Gong), is quite different from most of the other Houses. This style of face reading is determined by the nose. If a nose that is large and round with nostrils that does not show and a straight bridge, then the person has excellent health, a positive attitude, and has a sufficient and satisfying amount of wealth. When the nose has certain deficiencies, the person will meet these three possible situations. If the subject is to have a crooked nose with unhidden nostrils, shows that they have a problem with their money, career, and personality. If it shows any blood vassals, indicates that he/she is on the verge of becoming bankrupt. And if the nose turns into a bloody red, it signals that tragedy and an unpleasant life will be stepping up to his/her door soon. Finally, the Popularity House (Nupu Going) is the house that governs your relationship with your friends and acquaintances, and what will come to be when you grow much older. When the face is round and smooth, then the individual is graced with popularity, and when the old age comes, you will have much support from others. But, if it is not round or smooth, you need to prepare yourself for supporting yourself instead of others helping. An excellent example of some of these face reading methods is a well known person, Quasimodo, also named as â€Å"The Hunchback of Notre-Dame†. He is a man with a face that most people would not be attracted, and is definitely unable to straighten his back. His facial features show how much his life is painful. They also show how he has had a rough and emotional time growing up when he was an infant. A disfigured face brings you nothing but negativity and misery in that person’s life. But having attractive facial features will always give you the upper-hand when reading an individual’s face. All the styles of face reading are determined by how smooth the face is, the amount of scars, lines, moles, shape of the nose, and wrinkles the face has. Each feature of the face tells about your past, what is happening now, and what is yet to come.

Malaysia Is A Multicultural Society Media Essay

Malaysia Is A Multicultural Society Media Essay Introduction Malaysia is a multicultural society of which the population is made up by different types of ethnic groups includes Malays, Chinese, Indian and the Native. In fact, different ethnic groups have their own history, culture, belief system, value and language, there is thus unity among different ethnics is important in Malaysia (Economic Planning Unit, 2011). However, Malaysia has faced racial and ethnic tension due to the socio-economic and cultural differences after the independence of Malaysia in 1957. This racial conflict has lead to the development of several government policies such as the New Economic Policy and National Development Policy. Having realised the importance to maintain and enhance the unity among people of different ethnics, the 1 Malaysian concept was introduced in 2009. Under the notion of 1 Malaysia concept of People First, Performance Now, the government is trying to promote unity in the society by considering fair distribution and access in economic in the country (1Malaysia, 2012). It is therefore very important to promote the 1 Malaysia Concept and encourage the acceptance of the citizens of Malaysia. One way promoting the concept to the public is by means of the mass media. In the past, mainstream media like television, newspaper and radio has played an important role in promoting governments ideology and policies (Hashim, 2011). This thus suggested that media is able to play an important role in promoting the 1 Malaysia concept. It has the capabilities to educate the public on the importance of unity by promoting the understanding and the acceptance of other ethnic culture. . Regardless, the mainstream media in Malaysia always been known as a great contribution on nation-building and social cohesion, rather than on freedom of information (Kenyon Marjoribanks, 2007). It focuses primarily on positive stories reporting that is biased to the political elite (Anuar, 2000). This because most of the mainstream media outlets are basically owned by the government of Malaysia or privately owned by the parties that have close relationship to the Prime Minister or the members of component parties of the Barisan Nasional coalition government (Hassan, 2012). Therefore, the aim of this study is to discuss about the ways of the mainstream media are used to encourage the acceptance of the 1 Malaysia Concept the citizens of Malaysia and whether this approaches will generate the desired outcome. Discussion The mainstream media in Malaysia plays a critical important role in realising 1 Malaysia Concept. The first approach of the mainstream media is used by government as the channel to educate the ideas of 1 Malaysia to the large public. The traditional media such as the television, radio and newspaper have always been the core media of information dissemination (Hashim, 2011). For instances, the largest conglomerate Media Prima as well as a number of television radio channels and Malay, Chinese, English-language newspapers such as Utusan Melayu, The Stars and Sinchew are owned and controlled by the government (Weiss, 2012). As such, the government policies are easily to get any publicity and free space in these mainstream media. The messages of 1 Malaysia Concept from these mainstream media often portrayed the desired images of 1 Malaysia, of which the people of different races live together in harmony (Hassan, 2008). Other than that, mainstream media always has been the supportive bac kbone to the 1 Malaysia Concept as the effort with the government to strengthen peace and harmony in the country. As a supportive argument to the previous discussion, the agenda setting theory explains the powerful influence in the media that able to create public awareness on important issues (Mccombs, 2002). The media cannot tell what the people to think but has the ability to inform the people what to think about (Cohen, 1963). In other words, mainstream media raise the importance of an issue such as 1 Malaysia through the repetition of news (Hashim, 2011). The racial riot that happened in the past has caused Malaysians sensitivity to the issue that is related to ethnicity and races. Thus, national unity has become the top agenda to the public and thus it has become a political discourse in Malaysia. By taking this opportunity, the Malaysia Government has utilised the mainstream media in disseminates the messages and information regarding the 1 Malaysia Concept. Likewise, the government are telling the public the ideas that they wish the public to accept and support. Eventually, 1 Malaysia Co ncept is aims to strengthen the unity and harmony of people from different ethnics. Therefore, the mainstream media has successfully created the perception of the public that unity among differences ethnics as the important agenda in Malaysia which then attract their attention toward the 1 Malaysia Concept. Example in each occasion of the important festival such as Merdeka Day celebration, Hari Raya Festivals, Chinese New Year celebrations and Deepavali, the Prime Minister would deliver the speech with the association with the spirit of 1Malaysia. By that time, every mainstream television channel in Malaysia such as TV1, TV2, TV3, NTV7, 8TV and TV9 will have to broadcast his speech. In another example, we always can see the mainstream newspaper published a full page of advertisement that is related to the 1 Malaysia policies along with the tagline people first, performance now. In addition, mainstream media is being used by government to remind or reinforce 1 Malaysia concept to the public. As we can see, everyday Malaysian citizen and also foreigner have been bombarded by with the messages of 1 Malaysian Concept by the mainstream media. The 1 Malaysia logo is ubiquitous due to mass advertising and commercials in mainstream media (Hashim, 2011). Along with the logo, the tagline people first, performance now has become the identification of 1 Malaysia Concept to the public through the repetition in mainstream media. In fact, mainstream media has help to promote 1 Malaysia by keep emphasise on the tagline since People First, Performance Now in 2009 and the only move on to Generating Transformation in 2010, Transformation Successful People Prosperous in 2010 and till the recent theme Promises Fulfilled in 2012 (1Malaysia, 2012). The purpose is to reinforce perception and behaviours of the public. The repetition of showing the logo and tagline of 1 Malaysia hav e indirectly effect on informing the public what the government is focusing on this concept. The same example can be seen when the public service announcements related to 1 Malaysia are often been aired and published on government and privately owned television, radio and newspaper. The PSA usually related to various ethnic festivals that celebrated in Malaysia and thus signify the meaning that freedom of festival celebration. Nevertheless, mainstream main media has portrayed these different ethnic celebrations the public by showing the Malaysian are celebrating with each other in the festival regardless of race and religion (Hashim, 2011). In addition, we often can see the ministries or any government agencies tied up 1 Malaysia tagline in every program such like 1 Belia, 1 Malaysia by the Ministry of Youth and Sports and other programs such Bantuan Rakyat 1 Malaysia. Thus, the government programs usually connotes with the 1 Malaysia identity by mainstream media. The role of the mainstream media is not just to disseminate the 1 Malaysia Concept but also to advocate and shape the attitudes of the public. In fact, the mainstream media has effectively created bandwagon effect in mass business advertising by using 1 Malaysia Concept. 1 Malaysia has eventually received support from various organisation including profit and non-profit organisation. These organisations usually associate their brands product or service with 1 Malaysia Concept (Hashim, 2011). Television and radio commercials created by businesses organisation would likely to include the message of unity with the presence and the voice of different races and ethnics. The first example of organisation association with the promotion of 1 Malaysia is Petronas Corporation. In fact, Petronas has been famous with their social corporate advertisements with the purpose of promoting national unity. Since 1 Malaysia Concept has been introduced in 2009, Petronas has created the advertisements tha t associate with the 1 Malaysia Concept every year in the major Malaysias festival such as Merdeka Day celebration, Hari Raya Festivals, Chinese New Year celebrations and Deepavali. The messages in the advertisement usually consist of implied meaning and also able to arouse audiences emotion. Furthermore, large national corporations such as Media Prima, Astro, Tenaga Basional Berhad and Telco such as Telekom, Maxis and Celcom have also come up with the commercial that are related to 1 Malaysia Concept. The commercial often tied up with the concept of 1 Malaysia where the messages of unity has been delivered. The commercials are basically known as issue advocacy advertisement which the advertisement is not intended to sell the product or services, but rather to change the publics perception and behaviour through political branding (Barrons Dictionary, n,d). In fact, the commercial by in the mainstream media usually showing Malaysia different races particular Malay, Chinese and Indian interact or either get along with each other. Would it generate the desired outcome? In my opinion, the usage of mainstream media may not able to generate the desired outcome of the 1 Malaysia Concept. By highlighting the mainstream media are used by government to encourage the acceptance of 1 Malaysia Concept, several social science theories have been selected to support on my opinion. According to limited-effect theory, the media rarely have direct influence on the individuals. The theory also explains that an individuals behaviour and attitudes are not easily changed by their reception and people usually tend to ignore political media content. Although mainstream media are used by government to promote 1 Malaysia Concept, it is still not sufficient enough to encourage the acceptance of the citizen of Malaysia. The definition gives an insight that the people in nowadays is no longer passive and vulnerable only to media content. People are able judge the media content according to their own interpretation from what they have perceived. Individual may exposed themselves to mainstream media in their daily routine, but they might not been influence by the 1 Malaysia Concept by merely just looking at it. As indicated in the previous point, the limited-effect theory also explains two-step flow of media influence. Media does not have direct influences to the population which from the mainstream media, the 1 Malaysia Concept are usually affect to the mass population through the dissemination by the opinion leaders. The opinion leaders must be someone that is credible and usually an active media user. People constantly turn to opinion leader for advice particular when come to something that is new in the society like 1 Malaysia Concept instead of getting the source of information from the media. Therefore, mainstream media is less influential compare to the human communication. Moreover, human behaviour attitudes and belief is hard to predict and influences because it may change from time to time. The main factor that determines a person attitude is positive, negative or maybe neutral. A person attitude towards 1 Malaysia Concept might be changed based on the personal experiences, environment and etc. Therefore, the selective exposure explains that people tend to expose themselves to messages that are consistent with their pre-existing attitudes and belief. The mainstream media might be able to influence those who are supportive and have positive perception toward the government policies. However, for those people that tend to have negative attitudes and belief towards the government such as the citizen that support to the opposition political parties, the outcome may be different. If the opinion leader that has been encountered consists of positive or negative beliefs and value towards the government policies, the followers might been influenced by him. Besides, 1 Malaysia Concept has faced up with various challenges including the new media technologies. The uses and gratification theory argued that different people use the media for different purposes (Sheldon, 2007). One of the assumptions of this theory explains that the audiences have the choice to select different kind of media. Thus, the audiences use the media more own their own benefits than the media can manipulate them. The audiences have the right or control to received any information from the media rather than been influenced by it. In fact, people now have much choice of media compare to the past, Mainstream media such television, radio and newspaper has compete with the new media. The internet technologies allow freedom of expression where everyone can write, criticize and comment anything on the internet. The alternative online news organization like Malaysiakini and Malaysia Today who always stand to challenge of the governments effort, aims primarily to present new s, especially from the different perspectives that not already covered by mainstream media (George, 2006). Thus, it has become one of the challenges for 1 Malaysia Concept to be full accepted by public. This is due to the development of internet technologies allow the users closer to the reliable information compare to the other media (Hashim, 2011). Therefore, because of internet, human behaviours changed and mainstream media has been view as a medium to brainwash the audience for the government interest. When 1 Malaysia concept has been shown in the mainstream media, the audiences will tend to doubt about motives behind it. Therefore, the internet has affect the people perception and thus becoming active and sensible media users who do not simply accept and agree with government policies particular has been shown in mainstream media. In addition, most the younger generations are seldom exposed themselves to the mainstream media. On the other hand, mainstream media has become alternative medium for information to some group of people. Internet served as a new inspirational medium of information without barriers. According to Ramasubramaniam (2011) explained people that with minimal interracial direct contact or which their source for information is only the mainstream media are more easily been manipulated by the government policies. The audience that only exposed themselves to only one source of information which had been controlled by the government are more vulnerable to accepting the information from the mainstream media. Conclusion As a conclusion, mainstream media in Malaysia has perceived as an important role in the government policies like 1 Malaysia Concept. This is because most of the mainstream media ownerships are closely tied to the government and ruling political party. Therefore, 1 Malaysia Concept being one of the government policies has the advantage being spread through the mainstream media in the country. The three main approaches of the mainstream media in Malaysia are used by the government are to educate the meaning of 1 Malaysia Concept and thus to reinforce and advocate the acceptance of the concept by citizen of Malaysia. However, these approaches would not bring the desired outcome of 1 Malaysia Concept because only the mean of mainstream media is not sufficient enough to influences the attitudes and beliefs of an individual. Besides, human communication is more effective than mainstream media when particular related to something that is new. The emerging of the new media like internet technologies has also bring a significant impact to the mainstream media, thus it has become one of the greatest challenges for the 1 Malaysia Concept. Therefore, mainstream media is important to educate about 1 Malaysia concept but not to encourage the acceptance of the citizen of Malaysia.

Discipline In The Classroom: Past And Present Essay -- corporal punish

Discipline in the Classroom: Past and Present Throughout the history of classroom education, many different types of disciplinary systems have been applied by teachers and other authority figures in schools for the sole purpose of controlling student behavior. These systems include corporal punishment, psychological abuse or neglect, and assertive discipline. Although two of these three topics are illegal at this time, they were all widely used in schools across the country a short time ago. Corporal punishment in general can be defined as the infliction of pain or confinement as a penalty for an offense committed by a student. During the time that corporal punishment was used by schools all over the United States and Canada, parents did not have any say in school discipline. It was completely up to the school authority figures on the type of punishment and the severity of the punishment given to the student. The classroom teacher had the most say in the matter since it was the teacher who usually administered the punishment to the students. Because of this, some teachers (who especially liked the idea of physical punishment) took advantage of the minor guidelines set by the principal to protect students from excessive physical beatings. These guidelines varied from school to school, but often included length, width and thickness of the paddle or any other weapon used, the amount of times the student may be struck by the weapon, and other minor details about other types of physical punishment. The list of weapons that were acceptable for teachers to use include long: rubber hoses, leather straps and belts, sticks, rods, straight pins, hard plastic baseball bats, and arrows. If at the time a teacher did not have his/her weapon, they would often resort to punching, kicking, slapping and shaking as ways to "get children's attention". Besides these common manoeuvres of punishment, other and often more painful techniques were used by teachers. Children in a class for the learning disabled claimed that their teacher, and her aide banged their heads into their desks until some students were unconscious, twisted their arms, and even tried strangulation. Another teacher shook hot tabasco sauce in the mouths of the troublesome student and smeared it in their faces. When parents found out about this specific act of cruelty, they we... ...hment. This includes writing certain things out 1000 times, to copying a page of a dictionary for homework. This is an all around unpleasant thing to do, and is probably one of the better systems used. Throughout all the different discipline plans, each teacher must be positive but stern while punishing students. Verbal apprehensions in private also may have a positive effect on misbehaving students. Of all the different types of discipline studied, Assertive discipline has the most positive results on students. It has been proven to be better at stopping students from unacceptable behaviour, as well as not damaging them emotionally, or physically. Both Physical and emotional abuse have a very negative effect on students at the time, and the emotional scars created last a life time. Bibliography Canter, Lee and Marlene Canter. Assertive Discipline. Santa Monica, CA: Lee Canter and Associates, 1992 Hyman, Irwin A. Reading Writing and the Hickory Stick. Toronto: Lexington Books, 1990. McManus, Mick. Troublesome Behaviour in the Classroom. New York: Nichols Publishing, 1989. "World Book Encyclopedia". Toronto: World Book Inc, 1991 edition. pp.88- -89

Columbine Film Review :: essays research papers

Bowling for Columbine: The Media’s Falsity A common theme throughout Michael Moore’s documentary, Bowling for Columbine, is the fact that the media is able to produce fallacies and fear in the American public. Michael Moore says, â€Å"American media is being pumped with fear†. As Americans, we are bombarded with media everyday through televisions, magazines, and radio. But most of us do not stop to ponder its effects within our culture. Fear and violence are strongly correlated, and it is amazing how the media is able to play off that fear. Everyday you can not watch the news without being exposed to violence. The media however uses violence to invoke fear and then use that fear as a manipulating and influential power. For example, isn’t it startling that most of the rapists, murderers, and criminals depicted on the news all seem to fit the same profile? Being a regular news watcher, I am appalled at the way the media has shaped our minds into believing that all law offenders seem to be tall dark African American males between the ages of 19-25! It seems as though the nation has used this profile as a scapegoat for societal problems. Likewise, with the Columbine incident the media was desperately searching for someone or something to blame for the incident so that the public could rest a little easier. However, this desperate search for understanding usually creates more problems and not to mention stereotypes. In the case of the Columbine shooting, a favorite scapegoat among the media was Marilyn Manson. The media accused Manson as being an influential figure to the two high school shooters. To me this seemed like a cheap way out. Blaming this already controversial celebrity, was a quick answer that was easy to feed and be accepted by the American public. Manson’s reaction to this was that the president was as much to blame as he was. But of course the media would never blame the president; the public would never buy it. Just like if a picture of a 50 year old white male in a nice suit was put up to describe a raging rapist or serial killer, the public would have a much harder time accepting this image over an image of a 20 year old African American male. This solidifies the idea that the media will take anything and spin it in a way that will make it much more â€Å"believable†.

George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four 1984 :: essays research papers

1984 Essay After reading Orwell’s 1984 and examining Stalin’s rule over Soviet Russia it is safe to say that the two are very similar. Many features of Big Brother and Oceania mimic those of Stalin and the USSR. As well, the ability to change the truth and rewrite the past was abused for both regimes. Also, the Party and it’s enemies are actual representations of real people who were against Stalin and the USSR. Finally, Big Brother and Stalin did have some differences though very few. By discussing these points, a comparison of the totalitarian leaders Big Brother and Stalin can be made. Many features of Orwell's imaginary superstate Oceania are from Soviet reality: the Komsomol (Young Communists) appear as the â€Å"Anti-Sex League†, the young informers of the Pioneers turn up as the â€Å"Spies†, Soviet Five-Year Plans shrink into Oceania Three-Year Plans, and easily available vodka into Victory Gin. Like Stalin's USSR, Oceania has its renegades and backsliders who are arrested at night, questioned by interrogators for counterrevolutionary activities and then either sent to the "saltmines" or "vaporised". As in Russia, the "comrades" of Oceania are given news bulletins consisting almost entirely of lists of industrial production figures, most of which are announced as "overfulfilled" and none of which are really true. As well, there are constant powercuts and shortages, all essentials being obtained through the underground "free market". Winston's job of alteration in the Ministry of Truth consists of books and periodicals that are rewritten and photographs changed to reflect the "correct" or the latest view of past events was similar to events that happened in the USSR. One of Stalin's corrections of the past was the Soviet-Nazi pact of 1939, this is very similar to the alliance of Oceania with its arch-enemy Eurasia against its former ally Eastasia. "Oceania was at war with Eastasia: Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia." Big Brother, the all-seeing leader who murders his rivals, declares "a new, happy life" and, from posters and telescreens, rules over people conditioned by terror to love him, is of course Stalin himself. As well, Oceania's evil figure Emmanuel Goldstein, the counter-revolutionary author of "the book", and who the Party wages an endless struggle with was much like how Trotsky was portrayed to the Soviet people. Stalin's NKVD jailed millions for the imaginary crime of "Trotskyism" just as Big Brother's Thought Police repressed the followers of Goldstein.

Reaction Paperâ€Nonfiction Essay

When reading I came across some interesting non-fiction story and letter written by well known authors. They were all good but there was two that I had the most reaction to. When I came across these two letters I felt like I had a connection with the author. The letter Salvation by Langston Huge, when I read could relate to it cause I to come from a christen background, and in the story by Lam about his mother I felt like keeping family tradition should always remain I a person life. So I thought it would be good to explain my reaction in detail by stating the strategies, themes and what makes these non-fiction stories. In the story â€Å"Who Will Light the Incense When Mother’s Gone† by Andrew Lam, the author Lam give the reader a personal account of his life. While at a birthday party for his mother who was turning seventy, he overheard his mother ask his aunt, â€Å"Who will light the incense we I’m gone†? This was a traditional thing that see did, the light of the incense was done to acknowledged the dead, and to talk to them and ask for help from them. He then struggles with himself wondering why he doesn’t feel the need to want to continue this life long tradition. When looking through this story I found out that Lam used biographic strategy to help the read fully understand his point of view. With this strategy lam was able to give the reader an indebt description of what it was like for him growing up, as a young Americanized Vietnamese man. He make mention that his mom often ask him to speak their native tongue, when he was a teen. His response was â€Å"what good is it to speak it? It not like I’m going to use it when I move out.† At end of the story the read is left with mixed emotion, will he every commit to his families tradition and start to light the incense or will he continue to live his life the same he always has. When reading the story â€Å"Salvation† by Langston Hughes I thing that he also used the strategy biographic criticism, which he uses to explain to the reader how he feels about h is childhood conversion. As he goes through his story he used this strategy as a base in which to convey to the reader the problem he had growing up. In the story he was twelve and was participating in his aunt’s church revival. It was the last day of the revival, which meant that the youth of the church was to be saved. During the days leading up to this event, his aunt tells him that to be saved he will see a light and Jesus appear and then he will be saved. He and the other youth was brought to the front of the church, Langston never saw Jesus and was pleasured to be saved. He explains to the reader that he was not sure what he was feeling. At the end of this story he explains that this event that he went through was a lonely one. He is then seen crying and his aunt again blames it on him being saved but Hughes says it was because he lied to God and to his aunt. This form of writing is seen throughout the whole story. The fact that is a form of biography show the reader a part of himself that otherwise would not been seen. While reading â€Å"Who Will light The Incense When Mother Gone† by Andrew Lam, I had several different type of felling. The way lam tell the story about mother and his family traditions, made think and try to relate to both him and his mother. In some way I could relate to Lam, I the youngest of five and in some sense my family had some tradition. Although are way wasn’t as intense as Lam and his family. It was too driven by religion. I grow up in a christen family with my father being a preacher. So I would have to attend church almost three times a day. During the summer I would go to church base camps. It was like a routine every year. As I grown older I started to form my own idea about life, and with this new found freedom I was able to pick what church I wanted to attend on Sunday, I also didn’t have to go at all. So as I stop going my d Dad would pressure even more to live the life he wanted. Even now I go to church, but I often thing it is because I was told to. On the other hand I can understand where is mother is coming from. I think that Lam’s mother only want to preserve what little bit of her legacy, and when she is gone she knows that there is no hope of that. Every sense she moved from Vietnamese her kid had become Americanized and is slowly losing all touch of their heritage. She just wants to know that not all things from her pass will we erased. As for the theme of from â€Å"Salvation† by Langston Hughes, the reaction I had was very personal. I have never been in that type of situation, I have been in places where people was in a sense forced to life changing decision. Like Langston I too attended week long revival, like Langston I was told what to look for and what feeling to expect while attending church. I was a little upset to see the way he was treated in this essay. As a preacher son I to know a lot about religion, and what I read was not the correct approach. To force you believes on any one like that is to me morally incorrect. He was told what to feel and see and he failed to see that, so he didn’t want to get up, like the other kids. I think that he should have just told his aunt how he felt and it would had saved him a lot of grieve. In these stories one most consider that they are non-fiction, simply for the reason that they are realistic account of the author’s lives. Both stories are narrated by the authors themselves, the authors write about certain events conflicts that they both went through at a young age. They then used their creative writing skill to get the reader interested with the subject they were writing on. Although based on a fact or actual experience, both writers have to use their imagination to rewrite their experiences, to make the feelings or ideas that were needed to convey to the readers. The authors have used their skills and styles to capture the audience imagination as the stories go on. Since the reader had not experienced what the author was going through, the authors were challenged to bring the reader into their lives when they were just young men. This was done to help the reader to understand the ages and, mental state of the two authors. On the other hand the reader must also use some sense of imagination to recreate the scenes in the stories.

Torstar Case Report

Group-based case report Torstar Corporation BUSN81 Theory of Corporate Finance 2011 Autumn 1. Introduction The case of Torstar Corporation suggests the plan and result of repurchasing its Class B shares in December of 1997. Besides this, the situation of its business structure, capital structure and expenditures, future plan are also described in the case. Therefore, the purpose of our case study is to state, analyze and drew to some important conclusions about Torstar Corporation, and try to estimate its power to compete with a new national newspaper. . Background Torstar Corporation was incorporated on February 6, 1958 and published Canada’s largest newspaper Toronto Star. It had two main rivals which are Sun Media Corp. and the Globe and Mail. One launching second national newspaper by Southam Inc. would also be one competitor of The Star. Since 1975, by acquisition of domestic and international book publishing and supplementary educational products, Torstar found its three major business, newspapers, book publishing and supplementary education. After the acquisition of Troll in fiscal 1997, it also has one 3-year-time plan to acquire more companies which fit with its core business at the reasonable price. As of March 31, 1998, Torstar share structure included 5 million Class A voting shares and 34 million Class B non-voting shares. Since they believed prevailing Class B stocks were undervalued, they began to repurchase it back from December 17, 1997. In 1997 the debt-to-total-asset ratio was 18%, and management believed that 30% was more appropriate. Actually they also suppose that they could carry a 50% debt-to-total-asset ratio if they had a suitable strategic acquisition. Therefore, based on this background, we will analysis the effects of repurchasing stocks of Torstar, the advantages and disadvantages of its leverage ratio and its ways to investment. Then by adding some assumptions, one prediction of Torstar’s power to compete with new launching rival is possible. 3. Analysis 4. 1 Overview of Cash Flow, debt, Operating Situation and Income The company was doing well so far, until 1997. The cash flow, operating situation and the income were all healthy. We can conclude that from the Balance-Sheet the company had adequate cash  flow, exhibit 3 shows that the operating cash flow kept increasing from 1995 to 1997 with the free cash flow, this was enough cash for Torstar facing with some possible risky. The only problem is that how to stop the continued increasing free cash flow since too much cash means increasing costs of keeping cash and decreasing market value of cash. The amount about $50,000 would be a good expectation. The three main business of newspaper, book and supplementary education were operated well, they had sustainable increasing revenue and stable expenditure, so the profit was increasing positively after 1993 acquiring the business of supplementary education, especially in 1997, it got a rapid increasing of net income. See the return of equity below, it shows a well increasing on return of investors. (Base on Net Income over Total Equity) The debt ratio was a little bit low as our analysis, it had space to increase. But how? Increasing dividend payment or repurchase in the open market? We analyzed these two possible ways below. 3. 2 Dividend policy Torstar Corporation has a stable dividend policy recent years which was to pay out 30 to 35 percent of the previous year’s operating cash flows. Cash dividend was paid regular quarterly which was keeping $0. 26 per share in 1997. Dividend empirically decreased in the propensity of firms due to its benefits are not attractive than repurchase, but it is still important for management. Advantage of payout dividends * Dividends may appeal to investors who desire stable cash flow but do not want to incur transactions cost from periodically selling share of stocks * On behalf of stockholders, paying dividends can keep cash from investors * Dividends can be used to reduce agency cost of managerial discretion * Managers may increase dividends to signal optimism concerning future cash flow * Disadvantage of payout dividends * Dividends are double taxed * Dividends can reduce internal sources of financing. Dividends may force the firm to forgo positive NPV projects or to reply on costly external equity financing * Firms often view dividends as a commitment to their stockholders and quite hesitant to reduce an existing dividends. Once established, dividend cuts would adversely affect the firm’s stock price as a negative signal As illustrated by Torstar, a stable cash flow in paying dividends implied a well operating status. The sale of Hebdo provided additional financial flexibility in 1997, free cash flow increased rapidly as can be seen in Appendix. An extra or special cash dividend and share repurchase are two choices to payout adequate cash. Special dividend is expressly not intended to be a recurring event, but as mentioned above, paying dividends with the tax drawback and may produce a negative signal when fluctuating. So keeping the stable payout ratio was a better choice for Torstar. 3. 3 Repurchase Compared with dividend payout, shares repurchase have the listed effects on Torstar Corp, * Send a costly signal to investors that stock of Torstar is a good investment. Recent investments seem to cause side-effect on investor’s confidence about the company. As mentioned in the article, institutional investors treat Torstar as a ‘pure play’ investment into the area of newspaper and book publisher. But from year 1995 to 1997, acquisitions into children’s supplementary education products are viewed as not favorable. They hope Torstar Corporation can continue the historical expansion of the newspaper and book division. In order to mitigate the side-effect caused by recent investment. Repurchase would result in fewer shares outstanding and thus higher equity value per share which leads to a better performance of the stock. It also sends a signal to the market that the management believes the stock is undervalued. The price of the stock would go up. As a result of the repurchase sends a strong signal to the investors. The signal is costly as a repurchase would use up corporate cash and hard to mimic. * Increase the EPS which shows great confidence of future performance Repurchase would decrease the number of shares outstanding which leads to directly change of EPS of the Torstar Corporation. In the interim financial statements, the EPS shows great improvements after the repurchase. (Show in Figure 1) Figure 1 EPS change in 1997 * Availability of excess cash from operations By checking the interim financial statements, cash provided by operating activities of Torstar Corporation face an increase in the year 1997, from 25. 6 million to 130 million dollars. The retained cash from operation activities is too much as the normal on-going capital expenditures was expected to be 25 million to 30 million dollars. Additionally, Capital cycle in the publishing industry is approximately six years and Torstar Corporation has recently modernized its plant. There’s no major capital expenditures were forecast for the near future. Thus, excess cash should be paid out. By checking the retained cash in the Quarter 1, 2008, the operating cash is 27. 97 million dollar. It is sufficient for on-going capital expenditure. (shown in figure 2) Reduction in excess cash would reduce the agency cost of managerial discretion as the manager has fewer resources to pursuing consuming perks. Figure 2 Cash provided by operating activities Compared with the dividends payout, repurchase is tax efficient as dividends is taxable. Compared with dividends payout, repurchase avoid price drop results from dividend issuance. Institutional investors are happy when the performance of the stock is good. High price shows the strong performance of the stock. * Optimize capital structure. Torstar’s long-term debt outstanding was reduced from 321 million in 1996 to 197 million in 1997 result in a debt-to-total assets ratio of percent. While the management believed that a 30 percent target debt-to-assets ratio was more appropriate. Too less debt may cause the loss of tax shield and influence the value of the firm. While at this level of debt-to-assets ratio, the risk is still acceptable. Torstar Corporation still has excess debt capacity for future capital expansion. Thus repurchase can decrease the shares outstanding, and also decrease the value of assets. It would push up the debt-to-assets ratio to the appropriate level. By using the interim financial statements, we get the trend of debt-to-assets ratio. In December 31 1997, the decrease of debt-to-assets ratio is mainly a result of the long-term debt decreasing from 510. 007 million to 197. 322 million dollars. And in March 31 1998, the increase in debt-to-assets ratio is a result of repurchasing shares (decreasing in value of total assets). 4. Conclusion After analyzing, we all agree with the activity the Torstar hold, stock repurchasing transfer a strong and credible signaling to the market that the company is in a good situation and will do better in the future, the debt ratio increases and the market value will also goes up. We estimate that Torstar will keep increasing in the next financial year. 5. Appendix Cash Flow Analysis (CDN$000) | 1995| 1996| 1997| operating cash flow| 78. 3| 102. 9| 130. 0| dividends| 30. 9| 35. 1| 40. 3| Capital expenses| 20. 3| 29. 8| 26. 6| free cash flow| 27. 2| 38. 0| 63. 1| Dividends | 1st Q 1997| 2nd Q 1997| 3rd Q 1997| 4th Q 1997| Dividends($000)| 10120| 9965| 10080| 10095| Average shares| 39151| 39107| 39060| 39044| Dividends per share| $0. 26| $0. 26| $0. 26| $0. 26|