Muslim Night Essay Example for Free

Muslim Night Essay An event called ‘Muslim Night’ was held on Saturday, May 7, at MLIC 3rd Floor, IUJ. This annual event starting from 7 pm was initiated and implemented by Muslim Student Association (MSA). Some of students at IUJ come from Muslim countries; they are from Soth East countries : Indonesia and Malaysia; Middle East : Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan; South Asia : Bangladesh, Pakistan; and Africa Sudan. Those countries have a value or culture influenced by Islam. Entitled ‘Muslim heritage in our world’, the event is expected to be cross-cultural understanding and value sharing for Muslim. Muslim culture has many heritages to the world, especially some inventions that still used till today. The inventions are from many aspects such as economy, science, engineer,etc. A short opening speech was delivered by Professor Ahmed. He said that more than 3 billion people in the world hold Islam. â€Å"This contributes significant influence to enrich world culture† added he. Islamic values cannot be separated from the way of Muslim life. Islam which means submission brings peaceful to any human beings. This is reflected from Islamic greeting ‘Assalamual’aikum’ which means to give peace upon to the addressee. The President of MSA – Nur Adib Najamuddin in this occasion said that †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ (mohon diisi ya mas, maaf waktu saya lagi moto di luar) President of IUJ, Masakatsu Mori through his email is welcome this event. However, he was absent due to his scheduled appointments in Tokyo. This event is open for all IUJ’s community. More than 250 participants student, staff, and faculty members were joining in. Much information about Islamic values and culture are available in the form of booklet and poster. Nasheed song describing Islamic culture was heard during the event. The Muslim Night 2011 provided some activities such as (1) a short movie presentation with the title â€Å"1001 Inventions and the Library of Secrets’ which tells about pioneering scientists and engineers from the history of Muslim civilization, such as Al Zahrawi, Al Jazari, and others. The film starred by Sir Ben Kinsley has won Cannes Festival France 2010 for best educational film and New York Film Festival 2010 as the best movie. (2) Islamic corner provided a free writing name in Arabic calligraphy for the participants and it was recorded that almost 200 participants wanted to be written their name in Arabic, (3) and ethnic food and drinks from various Muslim countries, such as South East Asia, Middle Asia, and South Asia.

Excellence Is Your Best Weapon For Fighting Racism :: essays research papers

Excellence is Your Best Weapon for Fighting Racism The Bible says that "the poor will always be with us." An similar statement is that racism will always be with us. So, the question is, "What should we do about it?" There are many ways to fight racism: you might march, protest, complain, or beg the government for help. Some of these methods have worked well in the past. However, I think the best and most effective weapon today for fighting racism is excellence. Excellence will bring down more racial barriers than all the marching and shouting in the world. To develop the weapon of excellence, we must take advantage of all the educational opportunities that are available to us. Even though the doors of opportunity are not always opened equally to everyone, there are still ways to be what you want to be, go where you want to go, and have what you want to have. And it does not matter where you live, how poor you are. You still have the ability to succeed. As long as you have your health and can think, success is possible. Accepting the fact that the doors of opportunity are not opened equally to everyone, one thing that is equal for everyone is time. There is the same number of hours in the day for all of us. How you use these hours is your choice. You can use them on the playground or you can use them to play the books. Playing on the playground might give you some hours of immediate enjoyment, but playing the books will give you long-term gratification. African Americans and other minorities can no longer use the excuses of being poor or living in a bad neighborhood or small town to keep us from achieving excellence through education. In some cases, the poorer you are the more educational opportunities that are available to you. Poverty should not be an excuse for not working up to your potential. No matter how poor you think you are, there is always someone who is poorer. Please do not be embarrassed by or ashamed of the size your home town. Many individuals from small towns have become very successful and risen to the top of their professions. If President Clinton can change his address from Hope, Arkansas to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C., then you know it is possible to fulfill your aspirations, whatever they might be. President Clinton's rise to the top of his profession suggests to me that whether you are a big time runner from New York City, or a guy who runs around the block in Fall

Price, Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Activities Essay

Ferraris are a luxury good, known for their performance and prestige with prices of up to  £500,000. In this study there will be an effort to evaluate if a Ferrari would still be as desirable if it was available at  £20,000. To do this we must examine the relationship between the behaviours of consumers and price with a further examination of marketing activities. Firstly we need to define what consumer behaviour, price and marketing activities are, by understanding the consumer we can then create products that meets their wishes and needs which is vital in achieving success. An investigation of the Utilitarian (rational) consumption model will follow allowing the identification of driving factors that affect consumer’s decisions. This allows the introduction of Pricing, viewing towards perceived quality and value. The contrasting Hedonic view allows the introduction of socio-psychological factors on consumer behaviour such as personality and social class. We must appreciate our level of involvement with the product and what factors this may cause. This will allow us to fully appreciate whether the change in price will result in the Ferrari still being as desirable as when it was at a higher price. The study of consumer behaviour â€Å"is the study of the processes involved when individuals or groups select, purchase, use or dispose of products, service, ideas or experiences to satisfy needs and desires† (Soloman et al, 2002, p4). Therefore by studying what factors affect how and why consumers make these consumption decisions, marketers may be able to understand and therefore adapt to these decisions. Consumer behaviour incorporates ideas from many different disciplines such as psychology, sociology and economics. (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2000), in a marketing context we take note of all these concepts and try to come to a balanced answer. A full examination of consumer behaviour looks at how consumers maximise their utility (satisfaction) based on a cost-benefit analysis of price and product scarcity, this was thought of the Utilitarian or rational way of behaviour. (Baines et al, 2011). The key determinant is that the functional benefits must be greater than the costs exp ended. Very often we would class the cost expended as being the price paid for an item, this is a difficult term to classify but is best explained by Baines, Fill and Page (2011), (p331) â€Å"we consider price as the amount the customer has to pay or exchange to receive a good or service†. This however fails to mention that how consumers â€Å"perceive a price-as high, as low, as fair- has a strong influence on both purchase intentions and purchase satisfaction.† (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2000, p 144). For example a passenger who paid  £1 for his Ryanair flight will feel more satisfied one who paid  £71 due to purchasing at a later date. Here we look at whether a Ferrari is still as desirable at a lower price, to do this we must examine how customers affect to a change in prices, known in economic terms as the elasticity of demand. This measure how much demand will shift as a result of a change in price. To do this we can look at how in rational thinking consumers wish the be nefits to outweigh the costs, the benefits of buying a new Ferrari may be the quality and value you get for the price you paid. However as each person has a different wished level of quality we use the term ‘perceived quality’, often based on â€Å"informational cues that they associate with the product† (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2000, p145). Looking at the relationship between the perceived qualities and pricing often it is thought that price reflects quality (Baines et al, 2011). This is challenged by the aspect we take our perceived quality from many cues, not just price, such as more extrinsic values such as brand image. Therefore it can be classes that â€Å"consumers use price as a surrogate indicator of quality if they have little or no information to go on† (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2000, p150). The idea of brand image as a cue introduces the more hedonic concept of feelings, desires and perceptions into the consumer’s decision. As already discussed prices and quality are not measured in purely rational terms they encompass our perceptions of the product, price and measure of quality. Our perceptions are personal to us and it is vital for marketers to understand what factors may affect these perceptions. To do this we must understand how consumption may be irrational (hedonic) involving the â€Å"multi-sensory, fantasy and emotional aspects of consumers’ interaction with products† (Soloman et al, 2002, p37). This view stresses that we purchase products because of how they make us feel or look to others. This is sometimes classed as emotional or socio-psychological buying (Baines et al, 2011). The stark difference between utilitarian and hedonic consumption can be seen in the process of proposition acquisition. We draw up a motive for acquiring the product; this may be out of functional (rational) or desire (irrational) means. We then gather information on the product drawing up a shortlist of brands, followed by an evaluation of the proposition. When it comes to the purchase of the item it is important to consider â€Å"the personal importance a person attaches to a given communication message† (Baines et al, 2011, p 90) this is classes as the person’s involvement. As discussed in Fill (2009, p174) the characteristics involved with involvement can be seen in three phases, that of contextual elements, the influencers and the outcomes. Our level of involvement with a product can play a role in the price fairness we perceive for this product. At states of low involvement where â€Å"the purchase suggests little risk to the consumer† (Fill, 2009, p176) we require little information and use past experiences to make our decisions. However at high levels of involvement where, â€Å"a consumer perceives an expected purchase that is not only of high personal relevance but also represents a high level of perceived risk† (Fill, 2009, p 176), consumers will invest a great deal of time researching the item to reduce the perceived risk and will draw on extrinsic information and may draw more on hedonic terms. The relationship between price and involvement can be seen at both levels, at low levels price allows individuals to discriminate between low-involvement purchase decisions as â€Å"price, packaging, and point of purchase displays and promotion’s work together to cue and stimulate an individual into trying a product.† (Fill, 2009, p 180) At high levels of involvement price is not such a determining factor, with other factors playing a more significant role. Involvement does not juts affect the importance placed on price it also affects how a product is marketed to the consumer. This raises Ratchfords (1987) thoughts of involvement being linked with feeling and thinking. He sought to think how people thought about products and class them as high/low involvement and whether they were a product you bought rationally, what you thought of the product, or irrationally, how the product made you feel. In this instance the purchase of a Ferrari which would have been a high involvement/feeling product there is â€Å"a need for emotional advertising† (Baines et al, 2011, p91). With the shift in price it can be argued that the product has now became a high involvement/thinking product so more informative advertising is needed. Further links between price, consumer behaviour and price can be seen in Fill (2009, p 181) arguing that at low levels of involvement consumers will â€Å"decide upon their usual brand until they notice a price promotion† ,this then may be become there habitual buying pattern. As discussed earlier at high levels of involvement, more emotional and informative advertising is used there are many reasons for this including that factors such as lifestyle, social class and personality can all affect our hedonic consumption. In the sphere of personality there are three main approaches. Firstly the psychoanalytic approach Freud outlined how we are driven by subconscious drives in three parts our ID, Ego and Superego. It is argued that certain products are bought to fulfil our needs and urges such as the purchase of a Ferrari. The reduction of price may then not allow us to fulfil this urge. A differing approach is that of Trait theory, where we are classified by our types of personality. The purchase of a  £500,000 car may be seen as fulfilling one personality type, by reducing the price to  £20,000 the market segment may change and as â€Å"car manufacturers†¦ market products on the basis of personality types† (Baines et al, 2011, p96) this may ch ange the whole marketing process and the way this process is presented. The final school of thought is the Self Concept Approach that we â€Å"buy goods†¦ for the brand they represent and its relation to the buyer’s perception of their own self-concept or personality.†(Baines et al, 2011, p96). In this model it may be argued that price is a determinant factor as we may buy to show we can pay high prices to others. Added to this is the idea that the brand gives you a self-image therefore a change in the price can affect the branding and may lead you to a different purchase decision. The price change may also change what reference group a Ferrari would belong to it may no longer be an aspiration so may become less desirable. The change in price may however be beneficial when looking at consumer behaviour in relation to lifecycle and social class. Focussing on lifecycle â€Å"we hypothesize that people in the same stages of life purchase and consume similar kinds of products† (Baines et al, 2011, p108), a £500,000 Ferrari may fall into the stage of empty nest 1, where there is large disposable income, the shift downwards in price will allow a Ferrari to become more accessible to different stages of the lifecycle, thus making it more desirable to these groups. To conclude pricing, consumer behaviour and marketing activities are all linked. By determining whether the consumption is either rational or irrational we can investigate the level of involvement one may have with that product. This then allows us to look at how perceived values, price and quality link with the way the consumer behaves. As consumer behaviour study evolves from â€Å"early emphasis on rational choice†¦to a focus on apparently irrational buying needs† (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982, p132) we are able to investigate other factors that may relate to consumer behaviour such as lifestyle, social class and what level of involvement is involved. As we can see in rational decisions there is a link between price and behaviour, with the benefits outweighing the costs, the same can be said at decisions of low involvement. However other extrinsic factors have to be considered when making higher involvement decisions. The decrease in price therefore may make the Ferrari more desirable if you are making the purchase at a low involvement level however at a higher level other factors need to be considered to give a true representation of its desirability. Reference List Books and Ebooks Baines, P. Fill, C. Page, A., (2011), Marketing, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press Fill, C. (2009), Marketing Communications : Interactivity, Communities And Content., 5th ed., Harlow: Pearson Education Limited Schiffman, L,G. and Kanuk, L,L. (2000), Consumer Behaviour, 7th ed., London: Prentice Hall International (UK) Limited Solomon, M., Bamossy, G., Askegaard, S. and Hogg, M. K. (2006) Consumer behaviour: a European perspective, 3rd ed., Harlow: Financial Times. Lecture Notes C18FM1 2012/2013 Online Journals Holbrook, M, & Hirschman, E (1982),. ‘The Experiential Aspects of Consumption: Consumer Fantasies, Feelings, and Fun’, Journal Of Consumer Research, 9, 2, pp. 132-140, Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 22 October 2012.

A Traditional 12 Step Aa Meeting - 1879 Words

I went to a traditional 12 step AA meeting. It was a long timers group, which had individuals who have been attending AA for a while now and those who have been sober for at least 10 years or more. It was at Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church, located in Johnstown, Pa. The meeting was from 7:30pm to 8:30pm. They started off the meeting by reading the preamble. The preamble, which was found and quoted from the District 41- Alcoholics Anonymous, Johnstown, Pa website (2015), â€Å"Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for AA membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions. AA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy; neither endorses nor op poses any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.† After the preamble they had one of the attendees of the group read the 12 steps. The group was composed of both white and African American men and women. The majority of those who were in attendance were males and they were white. A lot of their stories were that they were so depressed that they didn’t know what to do with themselves and that they felt like their lives were falling apartShow MoreRelatedSelf Help For Individuals With Co Occurring Mental Health And Substance Use Disorders1601 Words   |  7 Pagestherapy) as well as self-help groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA). 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Your final exam is on Wednesday, September 12, 2012; You will have from 8:15AM to 9:45AM to complete the final exam. There are no make up dates for the final exam. From Chapter 1: 1. According to Shavelson (2001), author of Hooked, which three words define harm reduction? A. any positive change