Mcdonaldization Of Society Essays - Fast Food,

Mcdonaldization Of Society The way that Burger King and other fast food restaurant chains do business and markets their products to consumers is due to the change in our society to where the consumer wants the biggest, fastest, and best product they can get for their money. This change in society can be attributed to a process known as McDonaldization. Although McDonaldization can be applied to many other parts of our society, this paper will focus on its impact on Burger King and Taco Bell restaurants. My belief is that the process of McDonaldization has lead our generations toward a more a much more efficient lifestyle, with much less quality. From my observations and studies of these fast food resturants, several themes have become apparent to me. The first and overall theme that emerges from the idea of fast food is that the employees of these establishments seem to work more as machines, rather than people offering a service to the public. A second theme that can be identified from my observations would b e that the people visiting these fast food restaurants are more or less searching for the most efficient way to get what they want, giving little or no regard to the quality put into it. According to Ritzer, the founder of the concept of McDonaldization, it is the process by which the principles of the fast food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world. Upon walking into Burger King restaurant, I found that most of the people waiting in line to place their orders or receive their order were younger or middle-aged, and had children or were students. All of these people shared a common attitude of being hungry and impatient. The people gave little to no regard to how hard the employees behind the counter were working or struggling to work faster. Many patrons were short tempered, rude, or incredibly ill-tempered when placing their orders yet the employees still smiled at the next person in line, repeating the same phrases over and over, Can I help the next person in line please, or, Would you like a drink or fries with that? These repetitive phrases and actions of the employees of both Burger King and Taco Bell were small examples of the machine-like theme identified in the work setting of fast-food restaurants. Employees were taught to disregard disgruntled patrons and move through the line as fast as possible so that each patron would be served in a timely and satisfying fashion. Just as a machine would pull items in at the beginning of the assembly line and throw them out at the other end of the line, so did the employees treat the patrons of their establishment. This is achieved by calling them to the counter and filling their order then sending them on their way with a kind, almost sarcastic, Thank you, have a nice day! Upon visiting Taco Bell, another fast-food restaurant, I found the same scenarios as Burger King, and in some instances, more obvious examples of machine-like employees. The areas that were designated for the filling and preparation the orders were clearly out of the public view, so that patrons would not be able to see the assembly line on which their lunches were being prepared. The food is prepared and heated in stainless steel containers, sour cream, guacamole, and hot sauce are all squirted out of hand held stainless steel, sauce guns, and the tortillas are kept in a, steaming box, for several hours until they are all used to make burritos and tacos. These are just the examples of how the food is prepared, the ay in which the employees work is much more detailed. The employees stand along a counter and fill the orders in an assembly line fashion. One worker pulls the tortillas out of the steamer and shoots sauce onto it then slides it down to the next worker who may add the chee se or meat. This worker will then slide it down to the next worker who might be responsible for adding the lettuce or tomatoes. Finally the burrito is slid down to the next

Learn How to Make a Suggestion in English

Learn How to Make a Suggestion in English When you make a suggestion, youre putting forward a plan or an idea for another person to consider. People make suggestions when theyre deciding what to do, offering advice, or helping a visitor. Learning how to make a suggestion is a good way to improve your English conversational skills. If you already know how to tell time, ask for directions, and hold a basic conversation, youre ready to learn how to make a suggestion! Try out this role-play exercise with a friend or classmate to practice. What Shall We Do? In this exercise, two friends are trying to decide what to do for the weekend. By making suggestions, Jean and Chris make a decision that theyre both happy with. See if you can identify where the suggestion is. Jean: Hi Chris, would you like to do something with me this weekend? Chris: Sure. What shall we do? Jean:Â  I dont know. Do you have any ideas? Chris:Â  Why dont we see a film? Jean:Â  Thats sounds good to me. Which film shall we see? Chris:Â  Lets see Action Man 4. Jean:Â  Id rather not. I dont like violent films. How about going to Mad Doctor Brown? I hear its quite a funny film. Chris:Â  OK. Lets go see that. When is it on? Jean:Â  Its on at 8 p.m. at the Rex. Shall we have a bite to eat before the film? Chris:Â  Sure, that sounds great. What about going to that new Italian restaurant Michettis? Jean:Â  Great idea! Lets meet there at 6. Chris:Â  OK. Ill see you at Michettis at 6. Bye. Jean:Â  Bye. Chris: See you later! When Jean says, Id rather not. I dont like violent films. How about going to Mad Doctor Brown? I hear its quite a funny film, he is making a suggestion. More Practice Once youve mastered the dialogue above, challenge yourself with some additional role-playing exercises. What suggestions would you make if a friend said to you: Why dont you/we go to the movies tonight?You/we could visit New York while youre/were there.Lets go to the travel agents this afternoon to book our ticket.What about asking your brother for help?How about going to Hawaii for your vacation?I suggest you/we take all the factors into consideration before we decide. Before answering, think about your response. What will you suggest? What related information should you tell your friend? Think about the necessary details, such as time or location. Key Vocabulary If youre being asked to make a decision, that suggestion usually comes in the form of a question. For example: Would you like to...?(What) shall we go...? If someone else has made a decision and they want your opinion, it may be made as a statement instead. For example:Â   Lets go...Why dont we go...How about going...What about going...

A Specific Dimension of English Usage by a Subculture Essay

A Specific Dimension of English Usage by a Subculture - Essay Example For example, if someone has developed a code that is questionable, some hackers may call for a ‘sanity check.’ A sanity check is the â€Å"act of checking a piece of code...for completely stupid mistakes.†1 This implies that at the time of writing the code the hacker was not in his or her right mind. As another example shows, when hackers talk about how something is ‘fab,’ they very rarely mean that something is fabulous. Rather, they are saying that something is fabricated. For example, someone who ‘fabs’ a chip is creating a silicon foundry. These are just small examples of how hacker slang is used within the continuum of the community. Of course, there are pages and pages worth of slang that one could use, so hacker slang would have to be learned over time. However, it could be done. These illustrations of hacker slang show just how particular the hacker community can be when describing various elements of their lives as code designers and code breakers. III. Analyzing Hacker Slang There are several reasons why hackers use slang. Every word that is said is intentional, even if hackers use emoticons in their conversations online. If one analyzes hacker slang, one will realize that every little symbol and word can carry double and even triple entendres, with multiple shades of meaning behind every keystroke. This is the fascinating world of hacker slang. People in the hacker community use this slang intentionally so that outsiders cannot understand it. Just like getting into any community or group to be accepted, one has to ease into the culture of a particular group. For example, a homeless man doing a presentation for venture capitalists on Wall Street wouldn’t walk into a boardroom, full of executives wearing rags, with a cardboard sign saying â€Å"Will work for food.† Rather, he’ll find the wherewithal to buy or rent a nice suit, prepare a resume and then go pitch his idea for the presenta tion. In order to ‘fit in,’ one must look and act the part. IV. Explaining the Usefulness of Hacker Slang The usefulness of hacker slang is a rite of passage within the hacker community. People build code together, work on open source software and freeware together; they become a small, close-knit community—but online. â€Å"The special slang vocabulary of hackers helps hold their culture together—it helps hackers recognize each others’ positions within the community and expresses shared values and communities. However, as with most slang cultures, not knowing the slang or using it inappropriately defines one as an outsider.†2 So, not only does hacker slang keep the people who are not in the hacker community at the fringes but it can as well help hackers know who is in the community that they don’t know—much like any other secret language would do. ‘White hat’ hackers — or ethical hackers — are, probab ly, more important for companies and are useful to prevent Distributed Denial of Service attacks on organizations with complicated systems which are in source code. ‘White hat’ hackers, as they are known, is a slang for the fact that these people find vulnerabilities in companies’ codes on purpose in order to save them millions of dollars so that they don’t get hacked by ‘black hat hackers’ (unethical hackers). â€Å"‘

Oral history Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Oral history - Essay Example Mr Skipper, a supporter of the Democratic Party has had quite an interesting career with because of the all the issues and controversy surrounding his dismissal as county superintendent and his unending support for the vocational, adult, and special education of the minorities. He was an activist and this is apparent from his demands that all students should have equal access to text books and his conflicts with the religious leaders over high school play Mrs. Best Not only has Mrs Best campaigned very eagerly for the right of the women particularly married women to be in high level teaching jobs, she has also fought for the rights of school which have a majority of ethnic students to have better access to the state funding and textbooks. Skipper His record reflects his struggle as he spoke against racism and lay stress over the "cultural pluralism vs. "melting pot" issue. He created much controversy with his proposals to teach Communism and sex education in the classroom. Dick debates whether the Superintendent should be an administrator or a primarily an educator and the fear of politicizing this office. Yes she has played a vital role to get the

Conflict Resolution In African Countries Politics Essay

Conflict Resolution In African Countries Politics Essay Africa as a continent is faced with rampant conflicts in some of its countries with consequent negative effects to the economic, political and social lives of their citizens and neighboring countries. A study by Africa action, an activism website for Africa, states It is important to note that most of Africa is not at warà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ However, where conflicts do exist, they affect not only the stability of the countries involved, but also their neighbors and the entire sub-region. The political class often uses ideologies to stay in office and sometimes resort to conflicts in the form of violence. Conflict resolution, being a basic human activity, is conducted in forms that often vary across cultures. Different methods have been used in the past to try to resolve these conflicts including military deployment; dialogue between conflicting parties; and even negotiations. THESIS: Whenever there is scarcity of resources there is bound to be conflict as people try to share the resources. Conflict is thus as old as humanity. Conflict is defined as the underlying issue in dispute between or among parties and conflict resolution as the elimination of causes of the underlying conflict. Conflict resolution in African countries Africa as a continent is endowed with enough resources to keep the world moving for years. It is indeed the resources from Africa that brought industrialization to life; ranging from raw materials to labor. It is thus absurd that majority of African countries are categorized under third world countries and are faced with frequent deaths due to diseases, civil wars, poverty, and natural calamities. Civil wars and political unrests have been the major setbacks to development in Africa. Where there is peace, corruption comes in the way. Allocation of resources has always been a cause of disagreement in countries frequented by conflicts in Africa. Okoth et al states: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦State power in African countries has been the major arena of privilege -the religious, business, and other arenas provide fewer opportunities and it has been accessible to ambitious men of humble origin. The quest for political power is thus motivated by the desire to control state resources and their authoritative allocation. (46) African political class, thus try so hard to achieve political positions in their respective governments and once they get there, they work even harder to maintain these positions. They then indulge in allocation of state resources to theirs kinsmen and close friends with no regard whatsoever to the common man who labors so much and gets no say in the fruits of his labor. This scenario, more often than not leads to a section of the country feeling left out in the allocation of state resources taking up arms in an attempt to oust the incumbent political class out of government. In an attempt to try to hold on to power and the status quo, the political elite often resort to ideologies to save their skins. Nzunga points out that the current state of most African countries cannot be dissociated from the Berlin Treaty of 1885, which divided the continent into zones of European influence. Before this year, most communities in this continent ran their own affairs in relative independence, within a clearly understood ethnic region. He points out that the greatest injustice the colonial masters committed was, undoubtedly, the imposition of their language and culture on the colonized minority groups. Because of the way the colonial masters divided the African continent without regard to the various cultures of ethnic communities that were in existence before them, these ethnic communities found themselves in the same borders forming countries. The political elite is well aware of this fact and whenever things are not going well for them they go back to their ethnic cocoons making them believe that it is their tribes in threat of extinction by the others. This often leads to ethnic clashes as witnessed in the Rwanda genocide and Kenya. Okoth et al notes that the politically motivated ethnic violence in Kenya in 1991-1992 on the re-introduction of multi-party politics can thus be explained in terms of this misuse of the state to the advantage of a few, and the consequent instigation of parochial identities by political leaders for their own selfish interests (52). Others, in the case of Nigeria, resort to their religious affiliations clashing Christians against Muslims. Political ideology is thus a tool used by the politicians to cause conflict while they desperately cling to power for selfish reasons while the common citizen suffers. Sadiki is quick to point out that an observation of conflict trends in Africa indicates that intrastate armed conflicts, which were on the rise between 1990 and 1998, have significantly decreased in number. Many conflicts on the continent have been settled and others are in the process of being resolved, generally through peaceful means. This is an indication that as far as African states are concerned, military deployment has not been successful in resolving conflicts rather it fuels it. This is evident in southern Sudan where military deployment from the north for over a decade failed to resolve the conflicts until peaceful negotiations were introduced. Despite the military deployment by the AU and UN peacekeepers in Somalia, the state is still in chaos as violent conflicts thrive. In Kenya, for example, the 2007-2008 post election violence only escalated when police tried to intervene. It took the efforts of a third party, Kofi Annan, to lead peaceful negotiations between the two parties in conflict to resolve the conflicts. In the present day, conflicts in Egypt and Tunisia over corruption and equitable allocation of state resources cannot be resolved through military might. In conclusion, with studies showing the similarities in the causes of conflicts in African countries, one thing that stands out is that we should not wait for conflicts to occur and try to resolve them. Instead, African countries should put constitutional measures in place that will ensure corruption and resource allocation issues are dealt with from the roots upwards.

The Motivation for the Crucifixion of Jesus :: essays research papers

The Motivation for the Crucifixion of Jesus Why was Jesus executed? In answering this question in historical terms, we must first look at the events leading up to his arrest and ultimately, his execution. We know that Jesus performed that symbolic gesture of 'cleansing'; the temple, by overturning the money changers tables, and most believe that this act was symbolic of destruction, not purification. Paula Fredrickson, author of From Jesus to Christ writes: 'Through this disruptive gesture, Jesus symbolically enacted the enpending apocalyptic destruction of the Temple…that God's kingdom was at hand.'; So basically, his gesture, as Fredrickson states: 'would have been readily understood by any Jew watching, as a statement that the Temple was about to be destroyed by God, and accordingly that the present order was about to cede to the Kingdom of God.';   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  So in doing this, Jesus obviously made a lot of people mad. Most obviously were the chief priests in the temple because he did it during Passover (one of the holiest holidays), knowing Pontius Pilate was around for crowd control, and to announce so liberally that the freedom of their people was at hand, would incite a threat to the Roman stronghold. It is known that Pontius Pilate was not a nice guy to begin with, and he was not happy to be in Jerusalem during its most crowded time of the year. Passover is a holiday celebrating the Jews freedom from slavery, so he was there as crowd control. Paula Fredrickson states in an interview: 'He had a reputation for crucifying untried prisoners…Pilate was legally responsible to be in Jerusalem when it was most crowded. He was in a bad mood already when he got into town…hearing that someone was a trouble maker would be enough.'; So all he needed to do was find someone to take his frustrations out on. Enter Jesus . The priests basically handed him over to Pilate. In the gospel of Luke, the priests call Jesus a blasphemer. Was he turned over to Pilate because of their desire to keep the peace, or was it out of jealousy that maybe Jesus knew something they didn't, or was it merely out of ignorance? There is no evidence that he committed some blasphemy, so he was handed over to Pilate for what? He was a threat to the priests' stronghold over the temple, if Jesus was right, then there would be no need for them.

Comparison of Julius Caesar and Abraham Lincoln

Julius Caesar is remembered as one of the history greatest general, and a popular leader of the roman republic. Julius Caesar would always compare himself to Alexander the greatest. For almost 15 years Julius Caesar led armies against enemies. Abraham Lincoln was also remembered as one of the greatest in American history at his time, he was the 16th president of the United States of American. He was born on February 12, 1809; Lincoln was 51 years old when he was elected president.Abraham Lincoln was a leader in the union of the civil war; he impacted on American history because he help get rid of slavery and also kept our union together as one. Slavery was a big issue in the United States Abraham managed to bring the country closer to equality. Julius Caesar was one of the first leaders to publish the newspaper, he made the Roman calendar, and the month of July was named after him.Julius Caesar effectively transformed the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire under his rule. He made p olitical alliances that helped him rise in power, then he started a civil war won and became dictator for life in the Roman world in 48 B. C. Julius and Abraham were both assonated. Julius Caesar helped poor people. He took the money from the rich and gave it to the poor. Unfortunately the rich didn't like this. Most of the rich people were in the senate.One day when Caesar went to the senate they all teamed up against him and stabbed him to death. Julius Caesar had too much control and power, Rich people wanted to rid himself. Abraham Lincoln was the first president to die of assassination. Abraham Lincoln was killed because of his promotion of voting rights for blacks. He was shot once in the back of his head by John Booth this shot immediately dropped him to the floor.