How CRM be Applied in the Life Insurance Company Dissertation

How CRM be Applied in the Life Insurance Company - Dissertation Example This research will begin with the statement that most businesses, including Ping an Life insurance company, have invested a lot in Customer Relations Management and expect to see the Return on Investment (ROI) in due course. The present research has identified that CRM strategies are meant to help improve the company’s operations and steer the company to achieve more success as far as attracting and retaining customers and clients are concerned. The author has rightly presented that the importance of CRM in this more competitive business environment coupled with rapid technological changes and effects of globalization, the significance of CRM cannot be underestimated. Ping an Life insurance company certainly recognizes the importance of CRM in the modern business environment and has moved swiftly to put in place measure to attract more customers and retain them. There exist however a lot of challenges and limitations in the implementation of the company’s CRM strategies which make it rather difficult for the company to achieve its full potential. This is especially so because CRM requires a business to change their operation strategies from product centered approaches and put more focus on the customer as the focal point in the company’s marketing endeavors. Such a shift will always be difficult for companies like Ping an Life that have been in operation for a very long time and who have been relying on the older methods and techniques of marketing. This research study has investigated and studied the CRM strategies of Ping an Life insurance company and evaluated how they are performed and come up with various recommendations for improvement. These recommendation are aimed at enabling the company achieve even much greater results with their CRM strategies. The recommendations are as follows; Since most of the company’s clients have been directed to the company through referrals from existing clients, the first recommendation would be to strengthen the reward system. Existing clients should be motivated to pass positive messages to their friends and family about the company and encourage them to come work with Pin an Life company. The existing clients should be given rewards, whether its discounts or otherwise for each and every new client brought to the company (Al-Ghamdi, Sohail & Al-Khaldi, 2007). The other recommendation that is crucial to the company’s CRM strategy is the use of technology. The company should adopt a technological approach by using the internet to track prospects and communicate with them (McGregor, 2012). There are also plenty of application software that can help improve the CRM strategy of the Ping an Life insurance company. The company should identify one that suits their operations and work with it. The company also needs to manage the new change by incorporating views of all stakeholders in the company and prepare them for the impending change. This will include collecting thei r views about the impending changes in marketing and how other departments will be affected and addressing each concern. The members of staff will then be trained on how to deal with customers in the new dispensation Conclusion It is no doubt that Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is becoming a very essential element of businesses. The ability of businesses to attract and retain a large portion of their clients and prospects gives them a very huge competitive advantage in the highly competitive business world. The significance of CRM in the Asian business environment is also becoming apparent, especially in China with a majority of the big companies and corporations having strong Customer Relationships Management strategies. The insurance company Ping an Life has had numerous challenges in the past regarding to its marketing strategies and the importance given to Customer Relations Management cannot be understated. The big attention bestowed on Customer Relations Management is as a result of the rapid developments and changes in

New and Improved Rewards at Work Research Paper - 2

New and Improved Rewards at Work - Research Paper Example The most important goal for an employment compensation strategy is to offer better rewards for right employee actions for success of the company. In order to make competitive compensation packages for employees, companies need to consider what their rivals are offering so that they do not end up running into losses by offering more than the equilibrium package in the industry or offering less than the minimum, because this will make it impossible for them to recruit and retain staff. Best packages are sometimes those that are preferred by employees while at the same time appear to be competitive in the particular industry. One advantage with compensation schemes is that they are able to underpin organizational culture, something that is highly desired by companies. The government governs every aspect of employee compensation within the public sector. In many instances, this leaves no room for innovative ideas towards formulation of important compensations schemes. Companies that are highly innovative in engaging their employees record high returns that are sometimes double those of rival companies which do not engage their employees adequately (Pollitt, 2081) The first way to creatively engage your skilful employees is by putting them in a position where they can have direct contact with consumers of their products. In many industries, employees design products and dispatch them for sale, yet they have no idea about the impact of the products on the lives of their end users (Grant, 2007; Grant, 2008). A good example is the automotive industry where automotive engineers design cars of all kinds worldwide but they never gets the chance to have direct feedback from drivers of the cars, authors as well compose many pieces of literature to millions of faceless readers but never meets them for feedback. Meeting end users as a product developer has been known to enhance prosocial motivation as well

Employability as Educational Performance Indicator

Employability as Educational Performance Indicator Definition of Employability Employability has been used as a performance indicator for higher education institutions (Smith et al, 2000) and represents a form of work specific (pro) active adaptability that consists of three dimensions: career identity, personal adaptability and social and human capital (Fugate et al, 2004). At the same time, Knight and Yorke (2004) have put forward the four broad and interlocking components of USEM account of employability: Understanding (of the subject discipline) Skilful practices in context Efficacy beliefs Meta-cognition Nabi (2003) mentioned that employability is about graduates possessing an appropriate level of skills and attributes, and being able to use them to gain and remain in appropriate employment. From a human resource development view, employability is a concept that emerged through the 1990s along with a growing perception among employees that they cannot count on their employers for long-term employment. Employability is a promise to employees that they will have the skills to find new jobs quickly if their jobs end unexpectedly (Baruch, 2001). Prior to this, Harvey (2001) has defined employability in various ways from individual and institutional perspectives. Individual employability is defined as graduates being able to demonstrate the attributes to obtain jobs. Commonly, institutional employability relates to the employment rates of the university graduates. However, Harvey argued that employment outcomes of graduates are not an indicator of institutional employability. He presented an employability-development model shown in Figure 1. The model illustrated a multi-perspectives view of employability with all related stake-holders. Employability and Higher Education: Key issues Despite the burgeoning research on employability and availability of a wide range of models purporting to explain it, employability itself remains a contentious concept open to a ‘plethora of micro-interpretations (Harvey, 2003). This can make the task of curriculum development particularly difficult. [p5] The growing importance of employability According to McNair (2003), graduate employability has become a more important issue for institutions. This is: because of the changing nature of the graduate labour market, mass participation in HE, pressures on student finance, competition to recruit students and expectations of students, employers, parents and government (expressed in quality audit and league tables). On a broader level, it has been noted that higher education, through the generation and dissemination of knowledge, directly impacts economic competitiveness on a national and international level (Brown et al, 2003; CIHE, 2003; UUK, 2007; DIUS, 2008). The significance of the UK HE system to the wider economy has been generally acknowledged since the Robbins Report was published in 1963. However, this relationship has been made more explicit in recent years and it was with the publication of the Dearing Report (1997) that the connection found prominent expression. Dearing strongly expressed the need for a globally competitive economy containing highly skilled, highly trained and highly motivated graduates who could perform effectively on the worlds stage. This coupled with the further development of human-capital theory (Becker, 1975), which asserts that one role of government is to provide and nurture conditions which will increase the pool of skilled labour, has created a fertile forum for the discourse of ‘employability to flourish. The changing nature of the graduate-labour market Dearing (1997) stated that ‘learning should be increasingly responsive to employment needs and include the development of general skills, widely valued in employment; however, the labour market is changing dramatically and at a much faster pace than in the past. Emerging markets and rapid expansion of the knowledge economy means that the same set of employability skills which were in demand ten or even five years ago may not be required in the evolving graduate-employment market. Employers are increasingly seeking flexible recruits who can work effectively in the ‘de-layered, down-sized, information-technology driven and innovative organisations in existence today (Harvey et al, 1997: 1). Employers are seeking people who can do more than just respond to change, they need those who can lead change. McNair (2003) comments on the speed of labour-market development and notes that a higher percentage of the workforce is employed in small and medium enterprises (SMEs), a trend also reflected in graduate-employment statistics. While this may offer opportunities to gain early responsibility in less structured and hierarchical work environments, graduates need to have the skills to create rewarding graduate roles role in what Purcell and Elias (2004) refer to as ‘niche-graduate occupations. Niche-graduate occupations are those: where the majority of incumbents are not graduates, but within which there are stable or growing specialist niches that require higher education skills and knowledge (Purcell and Elias, 2003: 5). Students therefore need to be equipped with skills which enable them to ‘grow jobs to graduate level. HE has been criticised by some as being too slow to recognise the changing nature of the labour market and is producing graduates who are ill equipped to deal with the realities of graduate employment (CBI, 2006). Government policy to widen participation in HE, aiming to increase the proportion of 18-30 year olds to 50 per cent by 2010, will no doubt have a significant impact on the supply of graduates in the labour market. According to Elias and Purcell (2004) participation rates in UK HE almost doubled in the decade 1991-2001, from 1.2 million students to 2.1 million. Such rapid expansion has raised concerns that the increase in the number of highly qualified individuals may not be coupled with an equivalent rise in demand for their skills and qualifications (Brown and Hesketh, 2004; Brynin, 2002; Keep and Mayhew, 1996, 1999 in Elias and Purcell, 2004). While Elias and Purcell (2004) conclude that the expansion of HE at the end of the twentieth century has been primarily positive, Purcell et al (2005: 16) express concern that ‘the fit between the supply of graduates and employers demand for their knowledge and skills clearly falls some way short of ideal. There are mixed reports about whether demand for graduates will be affected by increasing participation in higher education. The supply of graduates has been steadily rising and there were 258,000 graduates in 1997 compared with 319,000 in 2007 (HESA, 2007). Despite rising numbers leaving HE, according to DIUS (2008), demand for graduates remains high and the latest report by the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR 2007) suggests that the number of graduate vacancies increased by 15.1 per cent in 2007. Both DIUS and AGR do however raise concerns about the mismatch between what employers are looking for and the skills graduates possess (see Chapter 2 for a more detailed analysis of skills). Despite much controversy about the impact of increasing student numbers, it is indisputable that graduates are facing a changing, more competitive labour market and they need to be prepared accordingly. The changing nature of the higher education landscape Beyond pressures facing graduates in the labour market, universities are facing increasing demands to account for what they do and prospective students and parents are becoming discerning ‘customers when shopping for the most suitable HEI (McNair, 2003). Given the importance of employability in the equation, institutions cannot overlook the significance of developing this aspect of provision. Allison et al (2002) allude to the pressures facing HEIs as evidenced by the publication of increasing numbers of performance indicators and guidance documents such as the QAA Code of Practice for Careers Education, Information and Guidance (2001) and the Harris Review of Careers Services (2001). Yorke and Knight (2002: 4) have expressed some concern about the way in which statistics on employment rates used in league tables can distract HEIs from the important task of enhancing employability. They state that: once employment rates become an institutional performance indicator (HEFCE, 2001), there is a pernicious backwash as institutions seek to ‘improve their scores since they know that these scores will end up in the so-called ‘league tables published in the press. Consequently: there is a danger that maximising the score will command more institutional attention than fulfilling the educational aim of enhancing employability. Higher Education in the UK has gone through considerable change during the last two decades. The move from an elitist system to one of mass participation has been highly significant. Shelley (2005) indicates that the number of 18-30 year olds in HE rose from 12 per cent in the 1980s to 43 per cent by 2002. This he points out has not been matched with commensurate levels of funding and between 1977 and 1997 government expenditure per student fell by 40 per cent. In recent years however funding levels have improved with HEFCE announcing a figure of  £6,706 million in recurrent funding for 2006-07 to universities and colleges in England (HEFCE, 2006). Increased funding levels have led to systems of accountability being put in place. These in turn have led to the development of managerial practices intended to promote new efficiency and customer-focused, customer-led policy frameworks which should ensure success in a new competitive market. In the eyes of commentators such as Bekhradnia (2005) the last decade has seen a mixture of successes and failures of managerial initiatives. For some commentators (e.g. Brown and Lauder, 1999; Green, 1993) these policy directives coupled with the emphasis placed on the contribution of HE to the global economy has led to the ‘marketisation and the ‘commodification of HE and its teaching. Brown and Lauder (1999) contend that there has been a movement towards a ‘neo-Fordist approach to HE in which teaching and learning is now emulating the Fordist manufacturing processes of the early twentieth century. This concept was characterised by the production assembly line ‘just-in-time unitisation production methods of manufacturing industries. For HE this manifests itself in several ways which Brown and Lauder describe as: learner organisations with emphasis on ‘numerical flexibility (i.e. outcome-related education and cost-driven agendas), mass production of standardised products (i.e. modularisation/unitisation of curricula), and emphasis on quality systems to ensure standardisation which result in a bland mechanistic experience of learning. [p9] Given the apparent consensus among the key stakeholders about which skills are important and on the need to address employability in HE, it seems strange that there is so little commonality in approaches taken by universities to enhance employability. There remains considerable debate on how best enhancement of employability can be achieved, and indeed the extent to which HE can influence this aspect of student development. In an extensive review of HE provision, Little (2004: 4) concludes that while there is: international concern that higher education should enhance graduate employability, there is little evidence of systematic thinking about how best to do it, let alone any model that can be badged as ‘best practice and adopted wholesale. Developing a common understanding of how to enhance employability is a highly complex issue, although Knight (2001) believes government and others persist in treating it in much the same way as ‘innovation, as ‘something simple, to be planned, delivered and evaluated (Knight, 2001 cited in Lees, 2002: 1). Attempting to form a coordinated and holistic approach to skill development, government has introduced many programmes and initiatives to promote skill development and these seem to have had some impact. The DfEE Higher Education Projects Fund 1998-2000, for example, included projects to develop key and transferable skills and Harvey, Locke and Morey (2002) have reviewed the trends in institutions approaches to embedding employability. They note that there has been a shift in HE from developing the specific employability skills within specialist modules to a more holistic approach where institutions are embedding employability and skills throughout the curriculum. They present examples of employability initiatives from different HEIs which were highly varied and based on differing philosophies. Perhaps it is inevitable that institutions and even individual departments and academics will vary widely in their approaches to developing employability as they will be operating in the context of their own frame of reference about education, and will be dealing with students who will vary hugely in their ability and ambitions. However, it is clear from the research on employability skills that the attributes which employers value and educators recognise as important are very similar, and there is hope that such consensus in thinking can contribute to a more coherent approach to curriculum development.

Piaget Essay -- essays research papers fc

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jean Piaget was born on August9, 1896, in the French speaking part of Switzerland. At an early age he developed an interest in biology, and by the time he had graduated from high school he had already published a number of papers. After marrying in 1923, he had three children, whom he studied from infancy. Piaget is best known for organizing cognitive development into a series of stages- the levels of development corresponding too infancy, childhood, and adolescence. These four stages are labeled the Sensorimotor stage, which occurs from birth to age two, (children experience through their senses), the Preoporational stage, which occurs from ages two to six, (motor skills are acquired), the Concrete Operational stage, which occurs from ages six to eleven, (children think logically about concrete events), and the Formal Operational stage, which occurs after age eleven, (abstract reasoning is developed here). (www.psychcentral.com). (Bee and Boyd 149). The focus of this paper will be on the Preoporational stage and how the child’s cognitive abilities develop according to Piaget.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Preoperational stage is Piaget’s term for the second major stage of cognitive development. It is in this stage that Piaget states that children acuire symbolic schemes, such as language and fantasy, that they use in thinking and communicating. Piaget saw evidence of symbol use in many aspects of children aged two to six. As a Pre-School teacher myself, I have witnessed many of the same behaviors that Piaget himself observed while developing his theory of cognitive development. Children this age begin to pretend in their play. The dramatic play area in my classroom is always one of the most busy areas of the room. The children love to role-play and create imaginary games. According to Piaget, such symbol use is also evident in the emergence of language and in the preschoolers primitive ability to understand scale models or simple maps. Dramatic play gives the children the chance to role-play. If they work through situations in their classroom, they’ll be better prepared for real-life scenarios. Through role-playing, children not only express emotions, but also exercise creativity and develop skills like cooperation and problem solving.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  During the Pre... ...get viewed children as little philosophers and scientists building their own individual theories of knowledge. By focusing on what children con do as well as what they cannot do, he was able to understand and explain their cognitive growth and development. His theory is a valuable â€Å"road map† for understanding how children think. However, many psychologists are convinced that Piaget gave too little credit to the effects of learning. For example; Children of pottery-making parents can correctly answer questions about the conservation of clay at an earlier age than Piaget would have predicted. According to learning theorists, children continuously gain specific knowledge; they do not undergo stage-like leaps in general mental ability. (Coon 109). Thus, the truth may lie somewhere between Piaget’s stage theory and modern learning theory. Works Cited 1. Coon, Dennis. Essentials of Psychology. 9th Edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2003 2. Bee, Helen and Boyd, Dennis. The Developing Child. 10th Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc., 2004 3. http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.cfm?term=Egocentrism 4. http://psychcentral.com/psypsych/Jean_Piaget Piaget Essay -- essays research papers fc Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jean Piaget was born on August9, 1896, in the French speaking part of Switzerland. At an early age he developed an interest in biology, and by the time he had graduated from high school he had already published a number of papers. After marrying in 1923, he had three children, whom he studied from infancy. Piaget is best known for organizing cognitive development into a series of stages- the levels of development corresponding too infancy, childhood, and adolescence. These four stages are labeled the Sensorimotor stage, which occurs from birth to age two, (children experience through their senses), the Preoporational stage, which occurs from ages two to six, (motor skills are acquired), the Concrete Operational stage, which occurs from ages six to eleven, (children think logically about concrete events), and the Formal Operational stage, which occurs after age eleven, (abstract reasoning is developed here). (www.psychcentral.com). (Bee and Boyd 149). The focus of this paper will be on the Preoporational stage and how the child’s cognitive abilities develop according to Piaget.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Preoperational stage is Piaget’s term for the second major stage of cognitive development. It is in this stage that Piaget states that children acuire symbolic schemes, such as language and fantasy, that they use in thinking and communicating. Piaget saw evidence of symbol use in many aspects of children aged two to six. As a Pre-School teacher myself, I have witnessed many of the same behaviors that Piaget himself observed while developing his theory of cognitive development. Children this age begin to pretend in their play. The dramatic play area in my classroom is always one of the most busy areas of the room. The children love to role-play and create imaginary games. According to Piaget, such symbol use is also evident in the emergence of language and in the preschoolers primitive ability to understand scale models or simple maps. Dramatic play gives the children the chance to role-play. If they work through situations in their classroom, they’ll be better prepared for real-life scenarios. Through role-playing, children not only express emotions, but also exercise creativity and develop skills like cooperation and problem solving.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  During the Pre... ...get viewed children as little philosophers and scientists building their own individual theories of knowledge. By focusing on what children con do as well as what they cannot do, he was able to understand and explain their cognitive growth and development. His theory is a valuable â€Å"road map† for understanding how children think. However, many psychologists are convinced that Piaget gave too little credit to the effects of learning. For example; Children of pottery-making parents can correctly answer questions about the conservation of clay at an earlier age than Piaget would have predicted. According to learning theorists, children continuously gain specific knowledge; they do not undergo stage-like leaps in general mental ability. (Coon 109). Thus, the truth may lie somewhere between Piaget’s stage theory and modern learning theory. Works Cited 1. Coon, Dennis. Essentials of Psychology. 9th Edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2003 2. Bee, Helen and Boyd, Dennis. The Developing Child. 10th Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc., 2004 3. http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.cfm?term=Egocentrism 4. http://psychcentral.com/psypsych/Jean_Piaget

Sense and Sensuality in Indian Religious Literature

A particular poem, Nurse 1126†³ taken from Sanskrit Poetry From Fiduciary's â€Å"Treasury', emphasizes the lustful emotions and romantic experiences that accompany the south winds as well as the significance of a reticular sense object that holds an extremely valuable place in Indian religious culture – sandalwood. The strange inclusion of the sense of smell and the sense object of sandalwood in this poem, which deals nearly exclusively with the sense of touch, raises a variety of questions pertaining to the significance of this inclusion and the relationship between the senses of touch and smell as well as the senses in general.Meanwhile, upon examination of the Kamala sutra the sense of smell and the scents of objects comes into play in a context of Indian literature associated not with esthetics poetry but with a much more technical and instructive guidebook. In this case, the sense of smell is used to convey not simply emotion but allows the reader to make a wide ra nge of inferences about characters, the text, and the values of the time period.Ultimately, despite stemming from the same sense of smell, the usage of this sense can differ widely between different genres of texts and even within a single genre conveying a multitude of emotions, facts that, though seemingly follow a trend, are in fact unique to the text. The aforementioned poem from Sanskrit Poetry From Fiduciary's â€Å"Treasury' expresses romantic and mysterious undertones through metaphors and the establishment of a particular mood or Rasa. This entire poem uses a complex and extended metaphor that draws upon the movement and qualities of the south winds to represent a seemingly mysterious and well-traveled lover.The winds are personified as having associated with and wooed a variety of women from regions such as Andorra, Tamil, Ceylon, and Kraal. This metaphor capitalizes upon the ethereal, fast-moving, gentle, caressing, and aromatic nature of air and the south breeze and app lies it to the poem's apparent description of a ascribable lover. This poem furthermore utilizes two specific moods or Rasa, which are emotional flavors that one tastes or feels upon experiencing the words of the writer. The two Rasa used in the poem are peacefulness and romance.The poem establishes a peaceful mood both by using a repetitive sentence structure which has a seemingly calming effect on the reader as well as by using light and airy words such as â€Å"tousled†, â€Å"kissed†, and â€Å"perfumed† that give the poem a quaint and dainty feel. The poem also gives of a feeling of erotic excitement by the description of the erotic actions of the breeze and its apparent metaphor for a desired lover. The breeze has apparently touched the breasts, hairnets, mouths, and cheeks of women from a variety of regions in India indicating the attractiveness of this lover and the great deal of experience and ability he has with women.The two Rasa, peacefulness and rom antic excitement, appear to complement each other and bring about a unique experience within the reader. Rather than feeling solely lustfulness that would usually be felt in poems that utilize only erotic excitement, the element of peacefulness evokes feelings of love in contrast with lust. Because of the peaceful Rasa, the reader perceives the well-traveled lover not as a womanlier but as a gentleman who truly loves and brings happiness to the women he meets. Upon reading the poem, one inevitably comes to the question of â€Å"why is that last line included in this poem? At first glance, it certainly appears that the line â€Å"gently the south winds blow, perfumed with sandalwood† does not fit with the rest of the poem that emphasizes the breeze's touch upon the breasts, hair, and bodies of women. Furthermore, what exactly is the importance and significance of the particular sense abject sandalwood that its scent was noted in the poem? Ultimately the inclusion of the sense of smell and the specific sense object, sandalwood, in the poem gives additional depth to the two Rasa expressed within the poem. Smell is often used in Indian literature to express erotic desire and passionate lust.For example, the lingering and distinctive scent of a long-gone lover brings about both lustful and mournful emotion as one realizes that he or she has lost their love. Smelling that scent would undoubtedly bring about happy and painful memories of that lost love. The inclusion of sandalwood then similarly affects the peaceful Rasa evoked by the gentle and repetitive nature of this poem. Sandalwood is conventionally used in Indian literature as a valuable scent known for its cooling, relaxing, and calming properties as well as for its relationship to love.Conventional Sanskrit poetry and literature often indicates that sandalwood grows in Southern India and is carried by south breezes northward, bringing love as it travels toward its northern mistress. Thus the aroma of the south breeze plays a pivotal role in both characterizing the advertorial lost-lover and establishing the two central Rasa used within the poem. Though not the central sense used within the poem, that honor obviously goes to touch, by including the sense of smell in the last line of the poem, the writer adds a great deal of depth in the poem that could not have been created solely through a description of touch.One could not have touched the bodies of the women that the south breeze has touched but one could have smelled the scent of the sandalwood that accompanies the breeze and felt the emotions brought about by it. Ultimately he sense of smell drives the poem drives poem forward by promoting the mysterious, lustful, and peaceful mood of the poem and by applying emotions that are associated with the smell of a lover to the metaphorical lover described within the poem. The Kamala Sutra, however, is a type of text that contrasts starkly with the flowing, soothing aesthetics of I ndian poetry.Gone are the descriptions of soft scented winds slowly caressing the bodies of young, beautiful lovers; in their place are descriptions of scented oils belonging to â€Å"women of the harem†, the scent of lust ND erotic desire and act, the proper scent of desirable men and women, and the scent of man's â€Å"worn-out† clothing. In this text, good or desirable scents and the corresponding sense object may correspond to wealth and power as the harem girls are said to have been given gifts of scented oils from kings and men of wealthy descent in return for bodily pleasures and favors.These gifts are described as â€Å"leftovers of a deity' indicating the importance and value placed upon scents due to the powerful emotional attachment and memory stimulation that can be drawn from this sense. Looking at the nature of the text, one can glean other characteristics of this sense – the Kamala Sutra is a guide-like manual on navigating the world of eroticism , sex, and romance. The sense of smell is present on nearly every page during descriptions of the smell of various objects, sexual and nonsexual. Thus, smell is quite clearly related to erotic sexual desire, even in sacred books of instruction.When reading through the Kamala Sutra it is seemingly impossible to come across an account of a sexual encounter without some description of one's scent or the scent of scarred clothing, sexual tension, and erotic desire, and one's breathing; sex and smell practically go hand in hand in this text. Ultimately this text reflects the Indian culture's view on the sense of smell – it has the gentle caress to stir love and romance, it has the sudden spark to kindle hot, erotic, sexual desire, and it has the power to create perceptions of grandeur, wealth, and power.While the two cited texts, poetry from Sanskrit Poetry From Fiduciary's â€Å"Treasury' and the instructive Kamala Sutra, may seem to use the sense of smell in a very similar mann er, their ascriptions and usage of the sense is in fact quite unique. The referenced Indian poem uses the sweet and desirable scent of sandalwood to convey emotions of romance and desire in order to add depth and aestheticism to the poem.Meanwhile, the Kamala Sutra uses the sense not to draw out emotion in the reader, as the text is more of sacred and instructive manual, but to give the reader the ability to infer characteristics of the their own lives or the lives of others, whether it be romance, erotic desire, or wealth and power. The difference lies in the desired outcome in the deader after using the sense of smell as a tool to convey information or emotion. The ability of this sense to convey a multitude of outcomes in readers represents the multifaceted nature of smell.Unlike other senses which are relatively concrete – the sense of touch is constant based on the object one is touching, the sense of sight is constant based on the object one is viewing – the sens e of smell is much more fluid and up to the interpretation of the subject. Because of this unique characteristic of the sense of smell, it allowed writers of Indian literature the ability to use the sense f smell to relate multiple emotions and inferences to the reader, with each being unique to the reader and unique in and of itself.While in contemporary American culture and literature, the sense of smell takes a back seat to the more concrete and reliable senses such as sight and touch, this is not so in Indian culture. Smell is used in all texts – poetry, instructive manuals, sacred texts – liberally due to its unique ability to convey multiple emotions and facts. Based on the two referenced works, smell occupies a sacred place in Indian literature and could seemingly be considered he foundation of love, sexual desire, and wealth and power as seen in the role it plays in this culture's literature.

Literature During the Early Period (1900-1930) Essay

The twentieth century ushered in the development of Filipino literature in English. Weeks after the capitulation of Manila, the U.S. Military Government was set up and, almost seven schools were re-opened as a necessary strategy to promote the pacification of the Philippines and the dissemination of common culture. English was first taught merely as a subject because the Spanish system of education then existing in the Philippines was allowed to continue. In April 1900, by virtue of President McKinley’s directives of the Philippine Commission, English became the official medium of instruction in the public schools. In order to accelerate the pacification drive, schools were established in all parts of the Philippines. The early teachers were taken in directly from the army. To augment the small number of American teachers, the Philippine Normal School, now Philippine Normal University, was founded in 1902 to train Filipinos in the art of teaching and eventually take charge of elementary education. In the same year, the Army transport, Thomas, brought six hundred American teachers to the Philippines who replaced the soldiers as teachers. They introduced to the Filipinos English and American literature in the form of works written by Irving, Chaucer, Milton, Donne, Shakespeare, Emerson, Hawthorn, Poe, Longfellow, Bryant, Keats, Shelley, Coleridge, Lamb, Joyce, Tennyson, Macaulay, and other famous writers. These were the writers w ho became the models of the early Filipino writers in English. At first, Filipino writing in English was quite formal and imitative, thus, the common reference to this period was known as Apprentice period. Influences from the Spanish language could be seen in the use of Spanish expressions and in ornate style. Grammatical expression were at times awkward and there was difficulty in the use of prepositions and pronouns. The first thirty years of Philippine literature in English produced little in the fields of drama and novel. Drama was hardly written, because vernacular plays and zarzuela still dominated the stage. The plays produced  were highly emotional, not intellectual experiences. The short stories produced during this period were either romantic tales of the past with legendary figures or were imitations of plots or themes taken from American and other sources. The most significant short story produced during the period was â€Å"Dead Stars† by Paz Marquez Benitez. Poetry was dominated by naà ¯ve sentimental love lyrics written in a loose rhetoric without much intellectual significance and overblown to achieve intensity. Verbal exuberance made the poems bombastic, artificial and insincere. The essay took a form similar to that utilized by British and American writers, but because the essay is a free form of composition, it soon developed its own personality. The Philippine essay in English is less inhibited by requirements inherent in other literary genres. It matured earlier in the favourable milieu and successfully projected Philippine customs and traditions. However, most critics agree that the early literary output in English can be considered definitely commendable. It can be favourably compared to the Colonial Period of American Literature in relation to English literature of those times. Footnote to Youth Jose Garcia Villa Dodong, who is 17 years old wanted to marry Teang. He wanted to go home so that he could tell his father and ask for his permission. At first, he was hesitant of saying it, but he wanted him to know. For Dodong, he is a well-grown man and can handle things like marriage. When he told his father about it, a long silence surrounded the house. His father asked him if he must marry because he was still young. But Dodong resented his father’s question, and finally was being permitted to get married. After 9 months, Teang gave birth to their first son named Blas. All of a sudden, Dodong felt guilty and ashamed to his mother because of becoming a father at a very young age. But when he saw his child, he could not control the happiness in him. Dodong did not want any more children, but he could not help them from coming. For six consecutive years, a new child came along. There were seven children in all. Teang did not complain even though she secretly regretted being married at an early age. She was very thin and shapeless now because of bearing many children and the hard work of taking care of them as well as the household. Sometimes, she wondered if she would have the same life if Lucio, her other suitor who was nine years older than Dodong, was the one she married. But she loved Dodong. Lucio got married after Teang’s marriage to Dodong, but he was childless until now. When Blas turns 18, he told his father, Dodong, that he wants to marry Tona. Dodong did not want his son to marry yet because he was young and Dodong already knew what comes next to it. Dodong did not object, but tried to make his son think twice before rushing to marriage. He does not want Blas to end up like him.