The Swimming Race by Benjamin Tammuz Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Swimming Race by Benjamin Tammuz - Essay Example Someone placed this evil seed in his head and now he cannot get rid of it. Revenge is blind, it sees no excuse no distraction, it just goes in for the kill. The Swimming Race (1951) by Benjamin Tammuz is a great story about war and revenge. It tells that the victorious have complete autonomy over the defeated and oppressed. They do whatever they want to do with them. Problems don’t necessarily lie outside the individual. It is the interpretation of mind that turns an incident into a problem. The talk of a man dominated world has been around. When I read the Hand of Wax I immediately agreed with the authors thinking. If someone suffers in this world, it is not because of the circumstances (the male dominant society) but because of the victim’s acceptance to suffering. When the narrator of The Swimming Race (1951) goes to check the dead body of Abdul Karim, he looked as if aware of the narrator’s win on swimming contest (Tammuz 84). It is a bitter truth but most of the times we are our own worst enemies. Sometimes we cannot control our emotions, sometimes you're just blinded by revenge. It is a man's nature, his evil nature that pushes him to commit the crime, to shed blood, to kill to seek revenge. We built prisons around ourselves and cry feeling trapped. But passively we derive comfort from such a place. Our minds get used to the dark pessimistic environment that freedom seems strange. An unknown dimension can be very daunting. It might also require taking care of responsibilities. Most of the times the ‘victims’ in the story let things happen. Many times it is only a look of contempt against a stubborn thick-skinned man. This approach of passive aggression only lets things accumulate. It is also an indication to ‘him’ (the stubborn male) that there won’t be any serious consequences for letting him be. Be it, drinking, gambling or the husband putting a shield between his wife and him in the case of Hand of Wax.

Transformation of Shell - 4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Transformation of Shell - 4 - Essay Example From the results of a series of exercises conducted by several private management consultants, the company began to shift from their strict business attitude to social and environmental performance. As a result, the leadership attitude of the officials also changed; they geared up for taking more responsibilities. Similarly the Shell revised ‘General business Principles’ with regard to the results obtained from the integrity works. In addition to this, the company developed its own Web Site facilities in order to get timely feedback and suggestions from the public. Likewise, the shell international conducted ‘written and face to face’ conversations with stakeholders to remove their dissatisfaction. These changes were necessary for the Shell international since they had suffered a lot of internal as well as external problems such as Brent Spar issue, Nigerian human rights, and Shareholder campaigns. The resistance of Greenpeace to the disposal of Brent Spar at sea attained media coverage which reduced the company’s reputation among the public. The Shell also faced a consumer boycott which caused the decline of their sales volume to a large extent. Similarly â€Å"Shell’s return on average capital employed (ROACE), a common measure of performance in the petroleum industry, showed that the company lagged behind many of its competitors† (Lawrence, 2000, p.533). In addition to this the Shell executives had to compete with discount retailers at retail level which led them to reduce their efficiency in business operations. At the earlier stages the company had followed a matrix form of organization which resulted in red tapism and delayed decision making. The close analysis would make us think about the essential changes Shell required for taking advantage of maximum opportunities from the business. The Shell international had forgotten the basic principle that customers are the crucial part of a business without whom a business can