Language Use in Kaskus Essay Example for Free

Language Use in Kaskus Essay A. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Computer-mediated communication refers to any form of communication enabled through the use of computers. In the computer-mediated communication literature, the term generally refers to communication modalities dependent on computer-based networks or meta-networks, particularly the Internet and commercial online services. Language plays an important role in the communication activities in the computer-mediated communication. The language itself is used by people as a communication tool. Specifically, as i mentioned above that computer mediated communication (CMC) is about anything(communication) that use computer as a media to transfer information, to talk with other persons, to discuss issues or something like that. While we know that on CMC, for right now internet with its world wide web (network) is the only tool and the only way to get connected with others, i don’t see any alternative beside internet. In internet there are many people with different language background, different social background and of course different culture and manners. What’s become my curiousity is how people with these so many differences talking and discussing to each others, how can they understand each others without being rude to others. But i’m not going to conduct a linguistic research of language use in the internet generally globally, because there has been a lot of research on this subject. But, what becomes my interest is how indonesian people with different social and culturul background talking and disccussing a topic in Kaskus, one of the biggest and largest online forum in Indonesia. Kaskus, with more than two millions users from all over indonesia is a populer online service to discuss and to sell products. Kaskus has an easy  peasy access, has a discussion thread about almost everything like computer, books, entertainment and many more. Kaskus user are from all over indonesia which have different culture and social background, in this case sometimes user doesn’t pay attention to the forum rules, nettiquette and sometimes being sarcastic, i’ve found this several time in kaskus. This case indicating that some of user do not know the nettiquete and language rules used in kaskus forum. So why i’m here try to observe and doing a research on how kaskuser (kaskus user) use the language, what style are used, and what kind of expressions in kaskus forum that is used to show respect, manners, and and self expressions like anger, happy etc. B. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM From the title and the background of the study i formulate the research questions as follows : 1. What are the general forum rules applied in kaskus? 2. How far kaskuser pay attention to the forum rules in discussion thread? 3. What are the form of languages style used in kaskus? 4. What are the meaning of those language expressions/style? 5. Who use the language? The gender, the age. C. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY This research is aimed to gather information about the language use in kaskus forum, especially how those language are used to express manner and ethical relations between the kaskuser. D. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The significance of this research is to bring a data to enrich the linguistic analysis in indonesia especially in computer-mediated communication subject. This research is also will be useful for those who use internet as a communcation tool generally and for kaskuser who love to join discussion in kaskus so they are will never again feel worried about being rude to others, bacause this research will bring them information how to use the language properly and how to communicate ethically to others E. SCOPE AND LIMITATION The research is limited only on the language use, the style and the way kaskuser interact with others, the researcher will not analysis where the language comes from and how the language changed. CHAPTER II THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK A. INTERNET Internet, according to Merriam Webster Dictionaries is an electronic communication network that connects computer networks and organizational computer facilities around the world. B. KASKUS Kaskus is an Indonesian internet forum site which claims itself as the largest Indonesian online community. It ranks as the top 10 most popular website in Indonesia (weasel words), positioning at 241 worldwide according to Alexa.com. It was established on November 6, 1999, by three Indonesian students (Andrew Darwis, Ronald Stephanus, and Budi Dharmawan) in the United States. In August 2012, Kaskus has more than 4,000,000 registered accounts and more than 650,000,000 total posts. In August 2005 and September 2006, PC Magazine Indonesia voted Kaskus as The Best Indonesian communities twice (2005 2006). Registration is required for new users to participate in the community, and every registered member has access to more than twenty regional and subject-related sub-forums. The community runs on the vBulletin forum software. C. NETTIQUETE Cyberspace contains many different cultures, which some writers have called virtual communities. Each of these communities has its own rules and customs. But many rules apply throughout almost all of cyberspace and the rules of internet is called nettiquete. Nettiquete comes from word Internet and Etiqutte. Virginia Shea Stated that The word etiquette means the forms required by good breeding or prescribed by authority to be required in social or official life. Etymologically, it comes from the French word for ticket. If you know the etiquette for a particular group or society, you  have a ticket for entry into it. (Virginia Shea,1994) D. COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION 1. Computer mediated communication (CMC) involves exchanges of information in textual, audio, and/or video formats that are transmitted and controlled by the use of computer and telecommunication technology. It must be noted that CMC is the basis of interpersonal interaction via groupware systems. An interesting definition of CMC is given by December (1997): Computer-Mediated Communication is a process of human communication via computers, involving people, situated in particular contexts, engaging in processes to shape media for a variety of purposes. 2. Chrispin Thurlow, laura lengel and Alice Tomic (2004) define Computer Mediated Communication into 3 cores : a. Communication While trying to ground CMC into a proper understanding we have to know what exactly is communication. * Communication is dynamic, One of the most well known ways of thinking about communication is the idea of a sender, a message and a receiver, in computer terms, might be regarded as an ‘information-processing’ perspective. Instead, communication is better understood as a process which is much more dynamic. The meaning of messages does not reside in words, but is much more fluid and dependent on the context, shifting constantly from place to place, from person to person, and from moment to moment. * Communication is transactional, Even though people still sometimes like to think of communication as the exchange of messages between senders and receivers, communication is really about the negotiation of meaning between people. Individuals are both speakers and listeners and these roles switch back and forth all the time in any one conversation. Once again, this also means that communication is constantly changing as two (or more) people interpret each other and are influenced by what the other says. In other words, it’s a transaction between them. Most theorists would agree that communication simply cannot happen outside human social interaction. It is really only when someone recognizes and/or responds to something you say or do that communication can be said to have occurred. * Communication is multifunctional, Consciously or unconsciously, communication serves many different functions and usually  serves more than one function at any given time. For example, communication may be used to influence people’s behavior or attitudes, to inform people, to seek information, to exert control over people, to befriend or seduce people, to entertain and please people, and so on. Although for the sake of analytical convenience, scholars do sometimes distinguish between the interactional (or relationship-focused) and informational (or content-focused) domains of communication, it’s usually impossible to separate the two. Think about famous chat-up lines like ‘Can I buy you a drink?’ or ‘Do you have the time?’ Although both appear to seek information, the intention is clearly relational! * Communication is multimodal, However important it may be, language is of course just one of many ways we have of communicating. Verbal messages always come packaged with other messages (or ‘metamessages’) formed by different ways of making meaning – what are usually called nonverbal modes of communication. In fact, more often than not it is these other modes of communication which are relied on more than the verbal mode. The best example of this is when someone is lying to us: ‘Look me in the eye and tell me you didn’t do it!’ The range of nonverbal codes is vast and accounts for much of the social information we glean: vocal (e.g. tone of voice, accent, volume, pauses), movement (e.g. facial expression, gestures, posture), physical appearance (e.g. height, weight, skin colour), artefacts (e.g. lighting, dà ©cor, fashion), and use of space (e.g. body orientation, touch, distance). b. Mediated Depending on how much we already know about human communication, we will more than likely know that all communication is mediated to some extent or other. According to Chambers’ Twenty-first Century Dictionary, the verb to mediate means to convey or transmit something or to act as a medium for something. In turn, a medium is something by which, or through which, an effect is produced. In other words, mediation is simply the process or means by which something is transmitted – whether it’s a message, a feeling, a sound, or a ghostly apparition! In the case of communication, we’ve already indicated that communication is always channelled by, and dependent on, its context for meaning. Communication is therefore mediated through our interactions with people and by means of any number of different verbal and nonverbal  modes. Communication can never exist in a vacuum.We will probably have heard about the phrase ‘channels of communication’. These can be social (or cultural), psychological (or mental), linguistic (or symbolic) or material (or technical). It’s in this way that scholars usually identify several layers of contextual variables which influence – or mediate – communication. Broadly speaking these fall into three main categories : psychological, e.g. our perceptions, mental maps, and prototypes; social, e.g. our relationships, stereotypes, and individual experiences; cultural, e.g. the myths and ideologies of whole societies of people. c. Computer Having confronted the relative complexity of the terms ‘communication’ and ‘mediated’, it may disappointing to know that even the term computer cannot be taken for granted. Almost everything nowadays involves computers in some way or other, and, consequently, almost everything we do is in some way or other mediated by computers. Think, for example, of the digital technology which drives our telephone exchanges, brings television channels into our homes, tells us the time, and so on. What’s more, with such things as video conferencing, webcams and voice recognition, technological changes are taking us nearer and nearer to the kind of face-to-face (or just FtF) communication we’ve been used to all along. It’s in this way that the computerization, which drives so many areas of our lives, is becoming more and more invisible. Indeed, Pixy Ferris (1997) previously proposed that CMC should also be broad enough to include office automation, â₠¬ ¢ (Chrispin Thurlow, laura lengel and Alice Tomic :2004) CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A. RESEARCH APPROACH AND DESIGN The reseacher use qualitative discriptive aproach. Qualitative research refers to inductive, holistic, emic, subjective and process oriented methods used to understand, interpret, describe and develop theory on a phenomenon or a setting and is a systematic, subjective approach used to describe life experiences and give them meaning (Morse Field 1996:199; Burns Grove 1998:35). Brink and Wood (1998:335) cite Benoliel’s (1984) description of qualitative research â€Å"as modes of systematic inquiry concerned with understanding human beings and the nature of their transactions with themselves and with their surroundings†. Leininger (1985:5) defines qualitative research as the methods and techniques of observing, documenting, analysing, and interpreting attributes, patterns, characteristics and meanings of specific, contextual or gestalt features of a phenomenon. B. DATA COLLECTION 1. Data Source The data is mainly taken from discussion thread in kaskus, like discussion thread, results of observations etc. 2. Instrument of Collecting Data * Doing observations * Interview (By Chating and PM or Private Message) * Making a Poll or Voting * Taking screenshot/ image * Questionaire C. DATA ANALYSIS The data will be analyzed using Miles and Huberman Theories where there are 3 Steps in ana lyzing the data : 1. Data Reduction. The data that has been collected from observations, questionaire and interviews are selected and sorted. The data that can represents the theme of the research will be analyzed. 2. Data display The data will be displayed after getting a summarizing. In data display the data that have been reducted then will be compressed, organized without risking the loss of information. 3. Drawing and veryfying conclssion The reasons for reducing and displaying data are to assist in drawing conclussions. While drawing conclussions logically follows reduction and display of data, in fact it takes place more or less concurrently with them. Thus possible conclussions may be noted early in the analysis, but they may be vague and ill-formed at this stage. They are held tentative pending further work, and have been analysed. Conclussions will be in the form of  preposistions, and once they have been drawn, the data need to be verified. D. EXAMPLE OF DATA SAMPLE 1. Red Font Colour 2. The Using of Capital Letters 3. Kaskus emoticon 4. Kaskus Terms Like Agan, Bata, Cendol, Sundul REFERENCES * http://kaskus.co.id * Creswell, J. W. 2003. Research Design: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. SAGE. Thousand Oaks. USA. * Thurlow, Crispin. Lengel, Laura. Tomic, Alice. 2004 Computer Mediated Communicatio (Social interaction and The Internet). SAGE. Thousand Oaks. USA. * Shea, Virginia. 2004. Netiqutte. Albions Books, USA

Rise And Rise Of Dhirubhai

Rise And Rise Of Dhirubhai Dhirubhai once said: Our dreams have to be bigger, our ambitions higher, our commitment deeper and our efforts greater. This is my dream for Reliance. In fact, this is my dream for India. Indeed Dhirubhai has been successful in bringing his dream to reality. From a humble beginning, Dhirubhai Ambani was successfully able to build up the largest Business conglomerate in India in a span of just 25 years. Today, the turnover of Reliance Industries forms 3% of the entire GDP. This tremendous growth in such a small time is the result of the large amount of hard work, dedication and excellence that Dhirubhai Ambani brought in to the culture of Reliance Industries. As they say, there are two sides of the coin. While there is no doubt that Dhirubhai Ambani was a highly intelligent and dedicated manager, he was not perfect, in the right sense. For a long time Dhirubhais ethics have been a matter of debate. While some consider him as a shrewd businessman, the others dont approve of certain things he did. History Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani was born on 28th December 1932, in Chorwad Gujarat into a Modh family of moderate means. He was the second son of a school teacher. Right from childhood Dhirubhai was precocious and highly intelligent. He was highly impatient of the oppressive grinding mill of the school classroom. Chose work that used his physical ability to the maximum rather than cramming school lessons. At the age of 16, Dhirubhai moved to Aden, Yemen. He worked there as a clerk for A. Besse Co. For two years. Later he was promoted to manage the companys oil filling station at the port of Aden, when A. Besse became the distributors for Shell. Ten years later, Dhirubhai returned to India and started a business Reliance Commercial Corporation with a capital of Rs. 15000.00. The primary business of Reliance Commercial Corporation was import polyester yarn and export spices. The business was setup in partnership with Chambaklal Damani, his second cousin who was also there with him in Aden. The first office of Reliance Commercial Corporation was set up in Narsinathan Street at Masjid Bunder. It was a 350 sq. Ft room with a telephone, one table and three chairs. Initially they had two assistants to help them in their business. In 1965, Chambaklal Damani and Dhirubhai Ambani ended their partnership and Dhirubhai started on his own. It is believed that both had different temperament and a different take on business. While Mr. Damani was a conscious trader and did not believe in building yarn inventories, Dhirubhai was a known risk taker and he considered that building inventories with anticipating a price rise and making some profit is good for growth. During this period, Dhirubhai and his family used to stay in a one bedroom apartment in Bhuleshwar. In 1968, he moved from the chawl to an upmarket apartment at Altamount Road, in South Mumbai. His first car was a premier Padmini. In 1970s he bought a white Cadillac car. Dhirubhai started his first textile mill in Naroda in the year 1966. Textiles were manufactured using polyester fibre yarn. Dhirubhai started the brand Vimal, named after his nephew. Extensive marketing of the brand in the interiors of India made Vimal a household name. Franchised retail outlets were started to sell only Vimal brand of textiles. In the year 1975, a technical team from the World Bank, visit this unit and certified it as excellent even by developed country standards. Banks and financial institutions repeatedly turned him down when he needed money the most. He was just not in the same league as other businessmen of his time. This made him an out of the box thinker. Dhirubhais first public offering of 28.2 lakh equity shares in the then Reliance Textiles in November 1977 was oversubscribed nearly seven times. The issue fetched him Rs 3 crore, a big sum by the standards of those days. Between 1979 and 1982, Reliance made four debenture issues. In 1979 it was for a worsted mill; in 1980, for modernising its textile mill; in 1981, to manufacture polyester filament yarn at Patalganga. In 1982, he topped it all with a record Rs 50-crore issue for expansion and diversification. Dhirubhai treated his shareholders like family members. Such royal treatment endeared him to his investors, says Kisan Ratilal Choksey, Chairman of KR Choksey Shares and Securities, a leading Mumbai brokerage firm. Dhirubhai understood the power of equity funding for his mega projects, says Devesh Kumar, Managing Director of Centrum Broking. In that sense, he was a visionary, way ahead of his times, and an out-of-the-box thinker, he adds. He always made sure that the investors got returns commensurate their investments. Marriages, businesses, studies abroad of the investors have been said to be financed by Reliance. He coined the term Mega Issue. His faith in retail investor also gave a leg up to BSE and its 30-share sensitive index, Sensex. Lured by Reliances power to deliver dividends and higher stock prices, thousands flocked to the market. Dhirubhai was a visionary, because he looked at the future a future he knew he may not even be around to enjoy. But that what propelled him and his stakeholder benefited from his search for a better future. In 1982 Ambani began the process of backward integration, setting up a plant to manufacture Polyester filament yarn. He subsequently diversified into chemicals, gas, petrochemicals, plastics, and power and telecom services. RIL bought IPCL from the government of India to become Indias largest petrochemical player.   After the launch of the refining arm of reliance, Reliance achieved a huge cashflow position and has never looked back. Mukesh Ambanis statement that RIL will be like a makoda where even if a few legs are hurt, the organism will be hale and hearty and not stop its march forward. Behind the Scenes Despite his affability, some of his old colleagues describe Dhirubhai as a dark character-not just because of the darkish skin he inherited from his father-but for the ambition and risk taking he hardly concealed. He exported spices, often at a loss, and used replenishment licenses to import rayon. Later, when rayon started to be manufactured in India, he exported rayon, again at a loss, and imported nylon. Ambani was always a step ahead of the competitors. With the imported items being heavily in demand, his profit margins were rarely under 300 percent In the 1950s the Yemini administration realized that their main unit of currency Rial was in disappearing. After investigating the matter it was realized that all Rials were routed to the Port City of Aden. There a young man in twenties was placing unlimited buy orders of Yemini Rials. During those days the Yemini Rial was a pure silver coin and was much in demand at the London Bullion Exchange. Young Dhirubhai would buy Rial, melt it in pure silver and sell it to bullion traders in London. Reliance expanded its equity base through frequent rights and bonus issues to shareholders, while financial institutions converted 20 per cent of their loans into equity in September 1979. But the use of convertible debentures catapulted Dhirubhai Ambani into the big league in the capital markets. Dhirubhai had anticipated the governments policy with regards to the convertible debentures and the Series I issue of partially convertible debentures by Reliance in October 1979 raised Rs 70 million. Although Reliance was not alone in trying the long disused instrument but from late 1980 the issues of partially convertible debentures coming from Reliance in quick succession, raising Rs 108 million in September from its Series 11 and Rs 240 million from its Series 111 the next year, and Rs 500 trillion from Series IV in April 1982. Dhirubhai capped that by obtaining from Sen Gupta clearance to do what should normally be legally impossible: converting the non-convertible portions of the four debenture issues into equity. This proved to be a master stroke. By this method, dubbed a brilliant and unconventional move by many, Dhirubhai-Reliance was able to chop Rs 735 million off its debt book in 1983, and turn it into comparatively modest equity of Rs 103 million, while reserves were raised by Rs 632 million. Instead of an annual interest bill of Rs 96.5 million on debentures, the dividend burden from the extra equity was only around Rs 36 million. This transmutation allowed Reliance to continue raising more quasi-debt, with its E Series of partially convertible debentures in October 1984 which raised another Rs 800 million. This reduced the debt equity ratio and further increased the attractiveness of the Reliance stock which was becoming an outperformer on the Indian Stock exchanges. Reliance always used to persuade the regulators with respect to its debenture issues. This did not mean that all its issues were approved without any hurdles. All questions being raised were not disposed of by Reliances policy of SALAM. On one occasion, the regulator rejected the premium that Reliance was seeking to put on an issue, on the ground that projected profitability had not been indicated. Without a pro-forma balance sheet for the current year-an extension of results to date-it could not be accepted. In 1982, Dhirubhai created waves in the stock markets when he took on a Kolkata-based cartel of bear operators that had sought to hammer down the share price of Reliance Industries. The cartel badly underestimated the Ambani ability to fight back. Not only did Dhirubhai manage to ensure the purchase of close to a million shares that the bear cartel offloaded, he demand physical delivery of shares. The bear cartel was rattled. In the process, the bourses were thrown into a state of turmoil and the Bombay Stock Exchange had to shut down for a couple of days before the crisis was resolved. After this incident many questions were raised by the press. People could not understand that how; a yarn trader till a few years ago was able to raise such a huge cash flow in the time of crisis. The answer stood in a story detailed how companies registered in the tax haven, Isle of Man, with ridiculous names like Crocodile Investments, Iota Investments and Fiasco Investments had purchased Reliance shares at one-fifth their market prices. Curiously, most of these firms were controlled by a clutch of non-resident Indians who had the same surname, Shah. Yet another article detailed how the group had been the beneficiary of a loan mela a number of banks had loaned funds to more than 50 firms that had all purchased debentures issued by Reliance Industries In 1993, Reliance was in the bidding for several oilfields in the Arabian Sea. The government oil search corporation had discovered the fields but did not have the funds to build the huge production rigs, gas compressors and pipelines that were needed. Several contacts among rival bidders were alleging that the tender was being rigged in favour of Reliance. Indian politicians and bureaucrats are masters at tilting an open and transparent tender into a one-horse race, by techniques such as keeping the weighting of bidding factors uncertain or secretly promising later concessions to compensate for underbidding. In the event, Reliance swept the field, and a director with one of the losers told me: We were shafted, and for the wrong reasons. Corporate Rivalry Reliance frequently, routinely, put any criticism or opposition to its actions down to motives of envy or a desire to pull down anyone achieving success. Throughout every crisis caused by exposure of alleged manipulations, its publicity took on a self-pitying Why is everyone always picking on us? tone. But the record tends to show that it was Dhirubhai and Reliance who often made the first move to put a spoke in a rivals wheels, whether it was Kapal Mehra of Orkay Silk Mills, Nusli Wadia of the Bombay Dyeing Group or, latterly, the Ruias of the Essar group. Coincidentally with disputes with Reliance, various rivals were hit with government inspections, tax problems, unfavourable press reports and physical attacks. The mid-eighties were a period during which the Reliance group got locked in a bitter turf battle with Bombay Dyeing headed by Nusli Wadia. The two corporate groups were producing competing products Reliance was manufacturing purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and Bombay Dye ing, di-methyl terephthalate (DMT). Wadia lost the battle and reportedly became the source of information for many of the articles against the Ambanis that subsequently appeared in  The Indian Express. In 1985, the Mumbai police accused a general manager in a Reliance group company of conspiring to kill Wadia, a charge that was never established in a court of law. Many years later, a newspaper owned by the Ambanis would accuse Wadia of illegally holding two passports and played up the fact that he was Mohammed Ali Jinnahs grandson. Year 1986 was a crucial one for Dhirubhai. He suffered a stroke in February that year. A few months later, the  Express  began publishing a series of articles attacking the Reliance group as well as the Indira Gandhi regime for favouring the Ambanis. These articles were co-authored by Arun Shourie who, ironically, later as Union Minister for Disinvestment in the Atal Behari Vajpayee government, presided over the sale of 26 per cent of the equity capital of the former public sector company, Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited (IPCL), to the Reliance group. By gaining managerial control over IPCL, the Reliance group would now be able to dominate the Indian market for a wide variety of petrochemical products. Ramnath Goenka, once a friend of Dhirubhai, and owner of The Indian Express was also considered to be close with Nusli Wadia. On many occasions, Ramnath Goenka tried to intervene between the two warring factions and bring an end to the enmity. As the days passed by The Indian Express carried a series of articles against Reliance Industries and Dhirubhai in which they claimed that Dhirubhai was using unfair trade practices to maximise the profits. As Reliance had a close relationship with The Indian Express, Ramnath Goenka did not use his staff at the Indian Express to investigate the case but assigned his close confidant, advisor and chartered accountant S. Gurumurthy for this task. Apart from S. Gurumurthy, another journalist Maneck Davar who was not on the rolls of Indian Express started contributing stories. The end to the tussle came only after Dhirubhai Ambani met with a stroke. While Dhirubhai Ambani was recovering in San Diego, his sons Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani managed the affairs. The Indian Express had turned the guns against Reliance and was directly blaming the government for not doing enough to penalise Reliance Industries. The battle between Wadia Goenka and Ambanis had become so big that it became a national crisis. It was not as if Indian politicians had not helped other industrialists in the past. However, the difference in the business-politics nexus at that time lay in the fact that by the time the Reliance groups fortunes were on the rise, the Indian economy had become more competitive. Thus, it was not enough for those in power to promote the interests of a particular business group. It became necessary to simultaneously put down the competition. Managing the Environment Dhirubhai, more than many of his fellow industrialists, understood and appreciated the importance of managing the environment, a euphemism for keeping politicians and bureaucrats happy. Ideas are no ones monopoly. Those who criticise me and Reliances growth are slaves to tradition, if not to outright conservatism and complacency; the criticisms were put down to jealousy. But the same Man also felt you have to sell your ideas to the government. Selling the idea is the most important thing, and for that Id meet anybody in the government. I am willing to salaam anyone. His willingness to salaam anyone and his cultivation of junior staff and newcomers had by the early 1980s created a huge network of friends in politics, government ministries and financial circles. Earlier, goodwill had been cemented by gifts of the famous suit-lengths of material. After the float of Reliance in 1977, Dhirubhai was able to allocate parcels of shares or debentures from the promoters quota of any issue, wit h a profit virtually guaranteed by the gap between issue and market prices or by the prospect of conversion. He made no secret of the fact that he did not have an ego when it came to paying obeisance before government officials be they of the rank of secretary to the Government of India or a lowly peon. It is hardly a secret that Dhirubhais support base would easily cut across political lines. Very few politicians have had the gumption to oppose the Ambanis, just as the overwhelming majority of journalists in the country preferred not to be critical of the Reliance group. The Indian media, most of the time, has chosen to lap up whatever has been doled out by the groups public relations executives. The bureaucracy too has, by and large, favoured the Ambanis, not merely on account of the fact that many  babus have got accustomed to receiving expensive hampers on the occasion of  diwali. Indira Gandhis return to power opened a golden period for Dhirubhai Ambani. In 1979, his company barely made it to the list of Indias 50 biggest companies, measured by annual sales, profits or assets. By 1984, Reliance was in the largest five. Dhirubhai himself had become one of the most talked and written about persons in India, gaining a personal following more like that of a sports or entertainment star than a businessman. It was also the period when Dhirubhai made the most rapid part of his transition, in the bitter words of a senior non-Congress politician in 1996, from supplicant-the most abject kind of supplicant-to influencer and then to controller of Indian politics. Dhirubhai A legend People close to Dhirubhai said that there were three Dhirubhai Ambanis. One was unique, larger than life, a brand name. He was one of the most talked about industrialists, and for Gujarati people he has tremendous emotional and sentimental appeal. He is their ultimate man, and has inspired many emulators. The second Dhirubhai Ambani is a schemer, a first-class liar, who regrets nothing and has no values in life. Then there is the third Dhirubhai Ambani, who has a more sophisticated political brain, a dreamer and a visionary, almost Napoleonic. People always getting the three personalities mistaken. Dhirubhai was one man who tried to look beyond the obvious, who dared to dream and dared to achieve his dream. He did not let anything stop him. No restriction was strong enough to stop Dhirubhai Ambani. Whether what Dhirubhai has been claimed to do, he actually did or not, there is certainly no denying the fact that there is no businessman in India who attracted as much adulations as he did. He was more than a legend in his lifetime. He successfully convinced 4 million middle class households to invest their hard earned savings in Reliance Industry Groups. He fondly referred to his shareholders as family members and conducted annual shareholder meetings in the atmosphere of large melas attended by hordes. Dhirubhai Ambani was different man to different people. To his millions of investors, who had seen their share prices multiply, he was a business messiah. To one writer, he was a Frankensteins Monster created by Indias experiments with close government control of the economy. The strictly controlled import licences given to registered exporters of textiles, allowing import of raw materials worth a certain percentage of their export earnings. Like many others, Dhirubhai realised that these import or replenishment licences (known as REPS) were as good as money, even though some of them were officially not transferrable and imports had to be made by the actual user of the materials. By paying higher margins than any other traders, Dhirubhai soon became the main player in the market for REP licences. The margins were tiny in the trade itself but his dominance also put him in the position of being able to turn on and off much of the supply of yarn into the Indian market. Conclusion Dhirubhai Ambani built his company through outstanding abilities and drive on many fronts: as an innovative financier, an inspiring manager of talent, an astute marketer of his products, and as a forward-looking industrialist. The energy and daring that showed itself in his early pranks, practical jokes and trading experiments developed into a boldness and willingness to live with risk that few if any other Indian corporate chiefs would dare to emulate. His extraordinary talent for sustaining relationships, and sometimes impressing men of standing, won him vital support from both governments and institutions. The dark side of his abilities was an eye for human weakness and a willingness to exploit it. This gained him preferential treatment or at least a blind eye from the whole gamut of Indian institutions at various times.

Causes of Stress Among School Teachers

Causes of Stress Among School Teachers The effects of stress upon a persons life can be profound. Different studies have shown that job related stress affects work satisfaction and over all happiness. Increasing stress is becoming recognized occupational hazard in the educational profession. In a country like Pakistan we cannot ignore the situation in educational setting. Teachers` agitations and class boycotts are common practice that shows their dissatisfaction. Both quantity and quality of education are not good. There may be many causes of stress in teachers. To investigate the causes and the nature of stress is of vital importance for improving the quality of education. The present study will be an effort to investigate the causes of stress and to get an orientation of how to explore it on a larger scale. Statement of the problem: The proposed study will investigate the causes of stress among school teachers. Significance of the study: Receiving little practical attention from governmental side education department especially school situation is very bad. Working staff in school is very much frustrated and every one from principal to lowest rank servant complains about his status and neglected condition. It is clear that every one face some kind of stress which is evident in his lake of interest in job. This disinterestedness leads to poor teaching environment and also creates administrative problems for the head of the institution. To improve the situation in school it is must to create stress free environment. But nothing can be improved without knowing the factors involved in creating stress among the staff especially the teachers who are responsible for the better running of the system. So this study will be very important for those who are concerned with the education system; e.g. the following can take help of this study: Heads of educational institutions Education planners Education department Society stakeholders who thinks teachers accountable Delimitations of the study: The research will follow the conceptual theoretical framework developed on the basis of review of related literature. However, the study will restrict itself to primary investigation of government high schools only in district Peshawar only. Hypotheses of the study: The following hypotheses will be tested: there is significant difference between salary of teachers and the level of stress there is significant difference between level of stress and traveling to reach  their place of duty. there is significant difference between personal conflict among teachers and stress in teachers there is significant difference between class size and stress in teachers there is significant difference between level of stress in teachers and lengthy courses there is significant difference between level of stress in teachers and Heavy work load on them there is significant difference between level of stress in teachers and Authoritarian behavior of the principal there is significant difference between level of stress in teachers and lake of rule and discipline in school there is significant difference between level of stress in teachers and lake of community support Sample of the study: Since the research will be restricted to schools of one district only, therefore to see the meaningful effect the sample will comprise 60% of the whole population of teachers in the district. Brief Review of related literature Definition of stress It is not easy to define the concept of stress. Usually it is associated with the less pleasant aspect of life (Sharp, 1977).Hans selye(1956)defined stress as the non specific response of the body to any demand. it was used as a substitute for anxiety conflict and emotional distress. To Bower(1984) it is any force that brings some change in an organism for better or worse. There are many more definitions but their description equates stress with distress. However the literature about stress do not conform this meaning. It refers to a wide range of physiological changes and environment pressures in the health illness literature. It becomes clear when Selye further distinguishes in his definition of stress between eustress, that is an exciting and pleasant kind of demand and distress that is threatening ,unpleasant or even harmful demand. This distinction between eustress and distress lies in the perception of the person. The above discussion leads us to general definition as Sharp has given.Aaccording to him stress is an individual perception and assessment. This definition is broad and means that every thing which we feel with our five senses is a source of stress. The definition also makes it clear that the perception and assessment of the environment is not the same by each individual. For example for a person, moving to a new town might be a source of distress because of some painful loss. The above definition illustrates that stress is the fact of life. We cannot escape from it anywhere. Without stress life means death. So for living a better life we should understand it. Theoretical perspective Stress theory begins with the experiments of Hans Selye (1956) who described stress as biological syndrome; Experiments on rates show that if the organism is severely damaged  by acute non specific cocoas agents such as an exposure to cold, surgical  injury, production of spinal shocka typical syndrome appears, the symptoms  of which are independent of the nature of the damaging agent and represent  rather the nature of damaging agent as such. The apparent state of this syndrome is called stress, which brings biological changes in the organism. Selyes observation was that stress reaction was general and occurred in response to any number of different stimuli. He saw this reaction as an adoptive syndrome of this organism in response to external stress. The form this syndrome takes place is called general adaptation syndrome (GAS). GAS consists of three phases,(i) alarm reaction (ii) resistance (iii) exhaustion. In the first stage the system assesses the situation and prepare for fight or flight but the overall resistance is to a stressor initially decreases. During the resistance the body becomes adapted to the presence of the stressor and begins to resist its impact. It may mean fighting or controlling ones self trying. The exhaustion starts if the stressor continues and the body reaches the end of its capacity for resistance, the result may be a collapse, illness, mental disorder or even death. In general the current rese arch suggests that the stress response is not a simple biological response to no specific stressors but rather a complex, interrelated process including the occurrence of stressor, how it is seen physiologically by the organism, under what circumstances the stressor occurs, how the organism characteristically reacts and what the resources are that the organism has, available for dealing with the stressors. The concept of a general stress reaction may be viable but only if we assume that it represents the sum of a great many psychological and physiological factors rather than a specific all or non response to the occurrence of a stressing event Empirical perspective Stressful life events:- Halms and Rahi (1967) developed the Social Readjustment Scale for measuring the intensity of 43 life events. Newman (1983) found that the intensity of stress depends on the persons impression of the life event and his coping strategies. Two different interpretations have been offered about why life events may be tied to physical or psychological disturbance. One view suggests that all change is stressful and the source is not important. The total amount of life change in a given period should predict subsequent stress responses. The second view focuses on undesirable or negative changes as the primary stressors. In a number of studies, this factor i.e. the undesirable change was more closely related to disturbance than was total change. Apparently there is not a direct relationship between occurrence of crises events and the observed physical and psychological disturbance of crises state. It is difficult to know when a crises event is about to occur. Many of t he important life events occur by change. Two factors will influence the extent to which crises event s lead to crises states. One is persons interpretation of the event. The second is the effectiveness of the persons coping strategies. The hassles of daily life: there are countless minor stress events that have low intensity but greater frequency. According to Lazarus ,et al (1985) these daily life hassles are important sources of stress. They have developed hassles scale on which individual indicates the extent to which he has been hassled by common event during the past month. The list of these hassles includes household, time pressure, inner concern, financial and work. The effects of these hassles also apply to health. Work as a source of stress:- work can also be a source of stress. The factors that make work stressful are work overload, work under load, employees role and change in the work environment. Stress in teachers:- work stress has been recognized as occupational hazard of teaching and its causes have been fairly well established(Smith and Milstein, 1984). According to Kyriacou(1987) teachers experience more work stress than most other occupational groups and according to Pankhurst(1982) they are more distressed than the general population. Nagy and Davis (1985) have found that junior and secondary school teachers in one place are about as stressed as their colleagues elsewhere. At organizational level there are many factors that contribute to teachers stress. Students discipline: managing disruptive students is invariably among the top ranked items in teacher stress. Among various manifestations of school discipline problem i.e. disruptive students, threats of personal injury, verbal abuse, and assault on colleagues are represented three or four times, in the list of top ten stressors. This is evident from the various surveys of teaching stress (Goodlad 1984). Bloch (1978) studied the effects of violence on teachers and compared their symptoms to those of combat neurosis. These teachers suffered from anxiety, insecurity, nightmare, fatigue, irritability, headaches, ulcers and number of other emotional and physical symptoms. Lazarus (1966) pointed out that anticipation of a threat may be as stressful as an actual stress. According to Lortie(1975) teachers who fail to keep control over students soon find that teachers are intolerable work. A related issue is that of students lack of interest. According to Goodlad when teachers were asked, what is this schools biggest problem? they answered, Lack of students interest. Teachers do feel enormously frustrated and deprived of crucial sense of gratification when working with students who are uncaring and unconcerned about learning. These students are not only personally frustrated but they also contribute to a class tone often leading to further discipline problem, that make it more difficult for a teacher to do effectively in the class room. Administrative insensitivity: The complaint is usually linked to the issues of students violence and school discipline. Many teachers think administrators are neither supportive nor sensitive to students violence and do little about enforcing rules or promoting a secure learning environment. Teachers feel that administrators are too content with their proper work in offices and avoid dealing with problem students. Stress has been found to be significantly related to principals participation in problem solving and not supporting the teachers (Jackson, S.E. et.al 1986) Involuntary Transfers This source of stress is much related to teachers. Being a principal my self I witness this phenomenon in teachers community in everyday life. Many teachers are not satisfied with their place of duty and a large number of them complain this when they are prompted and transferred to other station which is not their choice. Such transfer notices demoralize teachers and they think about retirement. Large class size Classrooms generally require structure children attention and the most effective classrooms are generally those in which teachers can individualize lessons to meet the needs of each child. The task becomes difficult with the increase in size of the class. Because large class size provides fewer opportunities to interact individually with each student, the teacher feel less involved and less effective. Moreover with the increase in class size classroom management becomes more difficult. Overcrowded classrooms then are seen weakening the likelihood of effective teaching. Inadequate Salaries Teachers also complain of their low salaries. They compare their salaries with other professional groups and their work at school level with that of the teachers at college level. This situation becomes stressful for teachers. To meet their expenditure they search for other ways. They do private tuition, which is also a blame for teachers to earn from their own school students. Parents and society at large expect from teachers and invest them with an enormous degree of responsibility. Politicians continually declare that our children are our nations future. In response to such statement teachers ask, where are the financial rewards that equate with such important task? This situation shows that inadequate salary is a source of stress for teachers. Role ambiguity, Role conflict and Role overload Role ambiguity is associated with a lack of clarity regarding workers rights, rsponsibilities, methods, goals, status and accountability. Although in some ways teachers role is defined quite explicitly, that is to teach children well, in other ways with regard to school discipline and accountability ambiguity arises. Role conflict occurs when inconsistent, incompatible or inappropriate demands are placed upon an individual. Sutton (1984) pointed to common sources of role conflict for teachers. They are expected to provide quality education to their students, yet they are not allowed to use the best instructional methods or curriculum materials available. They are responsible for maintaining discipline but do not have the authority for doing so. Teachers may also experience role conflict when they are told to perform task that is outside the domain of their professional work. Role overload is one of the common complaints of those who, with their own needs, interest, motivation and achievement level are a big number, for any one person to handle. Role overload may also occur from the efforts necessary to work effectively with children who are seemingly unprepared or unmotivated to attend school. Sutton has pointed out two distinct, though equally dysfunctional responses to work overload. In the first case teachers feel forced either to do low quality work or to not finish the work at all which is psychologically as well as physiological problem. Stress results from either response. This is a general list of work related stressors for teachers. In any given school a number of idiosyncratic stressors impinge upon teachers, their existence is a junction of the type of individuals who have taught and who have learned in that particular setting. Societal Factors Unconcerned parents; parents beliefs, an integral part of the educational process and parental support of childrens work, strongly influence school success. The teachers generally welcome parental involvement in schools but majority parents are not supportive to teachers. Unsupportive parents come under two major varieties; not involved and too involved. In the first group are those parents who are not available.Incapable, uninterested in their childrens education and those who put whole responsibility of educating of their children on teachers. In the second group are those parents who have decided that the real education is only possible if parents constantly monitor what occurs in the school. These parents feel that their child is being overlooked by the teacher and that only constant pressure on their part will rectify the situation. Although all parents are not of such kind but generally parents are perceived by teachers as either unhelpful or unavailable or intrusive. Public criticism; the typical comments about teachers from public include: they have much offs, get much for the little they cannot do anything else etc. charged with the educating and socializing so many children teachers are reminded of their failures and rarely praised for their successes. This evaluation of teachers by the public in such a way make them stressful. Public demand for accountability; apparently it is reasonable to say that public should hold teachers accountable for the success of their work. The public pay taxis ad pay teacher salaries and have right to expect some performance levels. However from the prospective of teachers the demand for accountability is too often the means by which teachers autonomy and sense of professionalism are trampled upon by those who know little about education and educational evaluation. Most troubling to teachers is their feeling that society expects them to educate, socialize every student who comes to school regardless of the social, economic and psychological difficulties some of these students bring with them. If parents, psychologists social workers have failed why teachers should be accountable for all the problems. This demand of accountability is also a source of stress for teachers. Procedure of the study Based upon the objective of the study an occupational stress inventory will be developed regarding job related stress events. In developing the items in the inventory discussion with the local teachers and study of the related literature will be focused. Teachers opinion about stress inducing problems will be given more importance. Like previous researchers Likert Scale will be used for obtaining data about job related stress. BIBLIOGRAPHY Bloch, A.M. (1978). Conflict Neurosis in inner city schools, American journal of Psychiatry, 135, 189-192. Bowers. (1984).n being unconsciously influenced and Informed. American Journal of Psychiatry, 135, 1 Goodlad.J.I. (1984). A place called school, New York ,McGraw-hill. Holms, TH Rahi (1967). The Social Readjustment Scale. Journal Psychosomatic Research, 11, 213-218. Jackson, S.E, et al. (1986). Towards an understanding of the burnout phenomenon Journal of applied psychology, 19 (4) 630-640. Kyriaco, C. (1987). Teacher stress and burnout: An international review of Education and Research 29(20) 146-152 Lazarus, R.(1978). A strategy for Research on Psychological and Social factors of hypertension. Journal of Human Stress, 4, 35-40. Lortie, D. (1975).school teacher. Chicago: university of Chicago press Nagy, D. Davis (1982). The relationship of Type A and B personalities in Farber B.A (1991) Crises in Education, California Jossy-Bass inc. Newman, J, E. Beehr, T.A (1979). Personal and organizational strategies for handling job stress: a review of research and opinion, Personal Psychology, 32, 1-43. Pankhurst, F. (19820 Stress, health and absenteeism in teaching, National Education, 19 (1) 39-51 Selye, H. (1956). The stress of life. New York. McGraw Hill Sharp, R.F. (1977) Thrives on stress. London Souvenir Press Smith, D.Milstein, M.(1984) Old wine in new bottles. Urban Education, 39-51

Vietnam War History :: essays research papers

Sometime between 200 B.C. and A.D. 200, the intermingling of the Red River Delta's early inhabitants resulted in a distinct Vietnamese people. Virtually from the outset, the Vietnamese were ruled by the Chinese, and they would continue to be until A.D. 938. During the centuries of Chinese control over the Red River Delta, two independent states rose to power in what is now central and southern VietNam. From the first to the sixth centuries, the kingdom of Funan held sway aver the Mekong Delta and the region that is now Cambodia; the kingdom was over thrown by the Mon-Khmer, who founded the Cambodian empire. Along the coast of central VietNam, the kingdom of Champa ruled from the late second century until the 15th, when it was conquered by the Vietnamese, who expanded steadily southward after expelling the Chinese. In the 17th and early 18th centuries, the Vietnamese would wrest the Mekong Delta from Cambodia, essentially completing the formation of their country. Of the more than a dozen dynasties that have ruled independent VietNam, three are considered "great." The first was the Ly (1009-1225), whose rulers established Hanoi as their capital in the year 1010, naming it Thang Long, the City of the Soaring Dragon. (It was not until 1831 that the name Hanoi-City in a Bend of the River-came into use.) The Ly built new roads, dikes, and canals, and they vigorously promoted agriculture. In 1044 - 22 years before William the Conqueror invaded England the Ly founded VietNam's first postal service. The Ly dynasty ended in overthrow by the Tran, who established the second great dynasty (1225-1400). In 1407, the Chinese reconquered VietNam, but this time their rule lasted only two decades. In 1428, they were driven out by the Vietnamese hero who established the third great dynasty, Le Loi. The Le dynasty, which held power until 1524, introduced a series of remarkable reforms. Arts, literature, and education were promoted. Large landowners were forced to distribute their holdings to the land less. Legal reforms gave women nearly equal rights with men. In the 17th and 18th centuries, VietNam was split by warring factions. Northern VietNam was ruled by the powerful Trinh Lords, the south controlled by lords of the Nguyen line. In 1786, three brothers, the Tay Son, briefly reunited the country, but even as they fought to depose the Trinh and Nguyen lords, their empire began fragmenting.

Charles Darwins Theory of Evolution :: Natural Selection, Evolution Essays

In The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin poetically entailed, "There is grandeur in this view of life . . .." Personifying Nature as the ultimate breeder, Darwin infers and hypothesizes what is arguably the most fundamental and profound scientific manifesto that governs what we now know about modern science and the science of discovering our past. His two theories of Natural Selection and Sexual Selection effectively bridge the gap that his predecessors could not. These concepts are imperative as their implications paved the way for Darwin's explanation of Evolution. The term "Survival of the Fittest" has been made synonymous with Darwinian ideology, yet to fully understand this idea we need to know what it truly means to be "fit." As discussed in class, being fit does not necessarily imply fitness on a physical or mental level. Rather, the principle entails how well-suited one is for its environment or a readiness for a species to adapt, whether to a new habitat or possibly changes in food, shelter, climate, etc. Through small, almost unnoticable change, over large periods of time, organisms develop physiological and/or anatomical features that invariably help the organism live or live easier. It is important to note that this does not infer that the process of adaptation takes place for the mere purpose of only "bettering" a species or self-improvement, rather modifications are a supplemental benefit. Darwin stated that, "if they be in any degree profitable to the individuals of a species, in their indefinitely complex relations to the organic beings and to their physical conditions of life, will tend to the preservation of such individuals . . .." In some cases this modification can be a detriment to a species. Take for example a species of like-moths in England preceding and during the Industrial Revolution. Before the manufacture of goods in large quantities, two types of moths, white and gray would rest on the bark of trees where birds would prey upon the m. The barks of trees were mainly white, which helped the white moths immensely in that they were camouflaged from their predators. Conversely, the gray moths were clearly noticeable and were thus preyed upon heavily. With the advent of machinery, dust and smoke turned the barks of trees from white to gray, which shifted the predatorial tendencies from gray moths to white. Thus we are able to infer that while the adaptation of color was beneficial to a group of species for a certain extent of time, it does not guarantee that Mother Nature will not shift her favor at some other point in time.

Shakespeare And Frost - Masters Of Their Trade :: essays research papers

"The art of the poet is to explore the very questions of human existence". The art of poetry is a deep and involved process, which when used properly to infer an existentialist message, can turn lines of ink into a work of art. Major and famous authors of times past and present have frequently, and continue to deal with these issues of human existence. Two of these masters, William Shakespeare and Robert Frost are examples of writers who have made the step from poetry to works of art. This is shown in Frost’s On a Tree Fallen Across the Road and in Shakespeare’s Sonnet No. 30 where major existentialist and metaphysical themes are dealt with. Frost’s On a Tree Fallen Across the Road, includes major metaphysical and existentialist themes that are clearly portrayed by the poet, Frost, in a story about travellers who’s journey has been bared by a hurdle, represented by a fallen tree. "The tree the tempest with a crash of wood, Thrown down in front of us is not to bar Our passage to our journeys end for good." The first three lines of this stanza already expose this existentialist message. When read literally we see a group of travellers whose passage has been impeded by a tree which has fallen across the path of these travellers, however when we read deeper into the passage we find Frost referring to "Our journey", a term commonly used in existential writing as a description of life, and the tree a representation of the problems or hurdles faced in life. In his poetry Frost commonly refers to life as "his journey" and in this instance Frost has written about the unexpected challenges, distractions and hurdles thrown into life, which can side track or take our minds of the "journey" at hand. Frost continues his existentialist theme by going on to say: "We will not be put off our final goal We have it hidden in us to obtain." Frost believes that every individual has the ability to reach the goals they have set while on their "journey", and every person needs to have goals set, otherwise their would be no need to partake this journey, therefore answering this question "why are we here", and along with his use of natural imagery, simple language and symbolism Frost is able to deal with the major existentialist question and concepts. Shakespeare And Frost - Masters Of Their Trade :: essays research papers "The art of the poet is to explore the very questions of human existence". The art of poetry is a deep and involved process, which when used properly to infer an existentialist message, can turn lines of ink into a work of art. Major and famous authors of times past and present have frequently, and continue to deal with these issues of human existence. Two of these masters, William Shakespeare and Robert Frost are examples of writers who have made the step from poetry to works of art. This is shown in Frost’s On a Tree Fallen Across the Road and in Shakespeare’s Sonnet No. 30 where major existentialist and metaphysical themes are dealt with. Frost’s On a Tree Fallen Across the Road, includes major metaphysical and existentialist themes that are clearly portrayed by the poet, Frost, in a story about travellers who’s journey has been bared by a hurdle, represented by a fallen tree. "The tree the tempest with a crash of wood, Thrown down in front of us is not to bar Our passage to our journeys end for good." The first three lines of this stanza already expose this existentialist message. When read literally we see a group of travellers whose passage has been impeded by a tree which has fallen across the path of these travellers, however when we read deeper into the passage we find Frost referring to "Our journey", a term commonly used in existential writing as a description of life, and the tree a representation of the problems or hurdles faced in life. In his poetry Frost commonly refers to life as "his journey" and in this instance Frost has written about the unexpected challenges, distractions and hurdles thrown into life, which can side track or take our minds of the "journey" at hand. Frost continues his existentialist theme by going on to say: "We will not be put off our final goal We have it hidden in us to obtain." Frost believes that every individual has the ability to reach the goals they have set while on their "journey", and every person needs to have goals set, otherwise their would be no need to partake this journey, therefore answering this question "why are we here", and along with his use of natural imagery, simple language and symbolism Frost is able to deal with the major existentialist question and concepts.

Creative writing – The assassin

Alison Cazer was looking out of the window thinking about the day ahead. Alison was a fashion designer and had her own business in London. She heard a noise and turned round to see her friend Lucy waiting in her office. Alison was so excited to see her; she wanted to tell her about all the brilliant things that had been planned for her today. She told Lucy about the good news; the meeting with Jacques Lording – the owner of Elicit a local rival company. ‘ I can't believe he rang me and asked to know more information about my products – I'm astounded. I mean why would he want to know more about my products, maybe he is thinking to merge with me. That would be brilliant because then together we would be bigger than Chars and hopefully that would put them out of business. Alison was going to meet Jacques in a large Victorian house in a little village called Axton. It was a little different than she expected but he said it was because he wanted a low-key meeting with no press watching their backs. Phil Cichloid was the assassin. He was a butler at the nearby Victorian house though this was just a cover up and had been given a contract by the director of a Chars. The plan was to kill Alison so then there will be no rival company for Chars to compete with because Alison put all the money in to the business, therefore Chars would make much more money. The director of Chars had been given a tip off about the merger and had to take action, the only way to do this was to kill Alison. It was the assassin's first killing but he still remained calm and very professional. The assassin was told to target Alison because she owned a rival business and was also thought of as rich and selfish by lots of jealous people as well as the director of chars. The assassin knew the time and location of when he was going to strike as he was told by the director who knew everything. The director was definitely right in one sense – yes she was rich, but not at all selfish. In fact she was totally opposite. She was a caring, bubbly, and down to earth girl. The house at which Alison was going to meet the manager was quite posh. Though from the outside it looked very dull and isolated this was on purpose, it is so nobody even thought the meeting would take place in a scruffy house therefore no press would be there. The bricks were grey and the windows black with dust. It was raining outside; the ivy on the wall made anyone who came near the house feel trapped and lonely but inside it was totally opposite. It was bright and warm. There was a barn besides the house. The debris of brick from the barn made the field besides the house look like a graveyard. The assassin was lying low behind the house on a hill, known to the locals as death hill because it was so steep you could hardly walk up it and anybody who got to the top would be almost dead. The assassin knew she would be surrounded by bodyguards, which is why he got so high up on the top of death hill. He also knew the boss of elicit would arrive soon after Alison so he had to be quick. Nobody could see the assassin but he could see his target perfectly well. He got into his position on the top of the hill he heard a car behind him. His rifle was a 1987pg with a range of 100m plenty far enough to reach Alison. He lifted his rifle in wait of the car coming up the drive, with excitement rushing around his body; he was disappointed when the car carried on straight down the lane. The assassin again heard a car this time he new it was Alison he could tell, you could see the 2 rings on her left hand reflecting the light and also the car had another 2 people in, he could only guess these were the bodyguards. He got his rifle ready and was now ready to strike. Alison turned up the drive and started driving up the long, winding, dislodged driveway. She heard a scrape; she got out of the car and saw a massive scratch on the back of her Lotus Elise. She was thinking about turning around- how could the boss of elicit see her car in such a state the only thing that changed her mind was the thought of been late for the boss, that was the last thing she wanted to do so she decided to carry on down the lane. The assassin at this stage was very calm, as though he was doing this as an honour. He was getting a bit frustrated, as this job was taking longer than expected and wanted to get onto his next job. He could see Alison coming now and got into his final position. She thought she had come to the wrong place, she had expected something more like Buckingham Palace, she knew there was something wrong but she carried on down the lane. She was about to turn the car around when her bodyguards saw a light coming from inside the house, somebody must be in she thought and went to investigate with the help of the bodyguards. She got out of the car and was just about to knock on the door when she remembered something; she had forgot to lock the door. ‘How stupid of me she thought, why didn't I lock it in the first place'. Alison locked the car door and looked around astounded at the dullness of the house and its surroundings – did the boss really want to meet her here? It started raining heavy so she put her hood up, this blocked her view of what was going on around her. Her bodyguards noticed something in the bush to the side of her and left her on her own while they went to investigate. She was just about to knock on the door. Before she could hear it she had already felt it, right through her stomach. She tried to scream but no sound would come out of her mouth. She tried to get her mobile but she couldn't move. She felt helpless and knew secretly that her world was coming to an end. The bodyguards rushed to her but knew there was nothing they could do, one went to get help and the other was trying to comfort her. There was no signal on her mobile phone and they couldn't get in the house. She grabbed her stomach in hope that in some miracle way it may stop the bleeding and she may have a chance to survive even though she knew she had no chance. Her trousers were wet with blood; she didn't dare look down frightened at what she may see. She was finding it hard to breath now, she tried to look around to see who had done this terrible thing to her but she couldn't see more than a metre. She dropped to the ground, the bodyguard tried to help her but there was nothing he could do, the pain was unbearable now; she knew she had to fight the pain or lose everything she had, her wonderful family and friends. She again tried to move but the pain was holding her back like some sort of barrier. She started to feel dizzy, she took one last look at her hand and fell to the ground with the rain pouring on her and blood slowly surrounding her body as the bodyguard went in search of the person who had done this. The assassin smirked, he moved quickly packing his things together as fast as he could. He ran to the car making sure he destroyed every bit of evidence he had made. He was unruffled, calm, cold and motionless. His car was on the other side of the hill so nobody noticed he was there, he made sure that he had got everything and set off down the drive. He took one last look behind him to check that Alison was dead and that his job had been done properly and made his way to his next job leaving Alison to die in her own pool of blood.