The Army is a Profession free essay sample

Is the Army a profession? Today, the Army is composed of brave men and women who have volunteered to serve our country. American citizens accept the Army’s code of ethics during their process of becoming an American soldier. The Army promotes professional development through military occupation specialties, education, and expertise. The Army develops soldiers into experts, proficient within defending our nation and the protection of human rights. Army professional development is a culture that is applied through ethics, leadership and loyalty. Throughout my experiences, service members of the Army are mostly motivated by the proficiency of craft and the outcome of self-discipline. Should the Army be considered a profession based on its code of ethics, professional development and culture? The Army’s Oath of Office, Army Values and Soldiers Creed promote the Army’s â€Å"code of ethics†. Men and women entering the Army swear to â€Å"support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (U. We will write a custom essay sample on The Army is a Profession or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page S Army Center of Military History, 2014). The Oath of Office is the foundation for men and women entering into the Army. The seven core Army Values are a benchmark of standards soldiers must uphold whether on or off duty. Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity and Personal Courage describe what it cost to be an American soldier. Service members are required to learn, recite and live the Oath of Office, Army Values and Soldiers Creed upon assuming the risk and responsibility of an American Soldier. Is the Army considered a profession to those who view it as a springboard into a civilian career? Many American’s serve our nations military for an initial enlistment. Some argue that every American should serve a minimal term. During an initial enlistment do soldiers fully indulge into the Army’s culture and professional development? How does this affect the Army as a profession? The Army White Paper specifies the Army as being a â€Å"Profession of Arms† in which the â€Å"Professional Soldier is an expert†. (Dempsey, 2010, p. 4). Is it possible for the Profession of Arms to occur without the Professional Soldier? Is it possible to become an expert within the profession of the Army without professional development? Professional development is the heartbeat of the Army. Senior leadership devote themselves to developing subordinate leaders and conveying expertise at the operational level. Published doctrines, regulations and policy letters are created from within and are used to relay knowledge of how the Army operates. Professional development is key to Army promotions. Army leaders measure the professionalism of subordinates and promote on the potential for increased responsibility. Army leaders uphold a strong code of ethics and promote its culture through professional development. Leadership is paramount to our Army profession. The Army’s greatest assets are the men and women wearing the uniform motivated by the proficiency of craft and the outcome of self-discipline. Service members accept the Army’s culture by assuming the risks and responsibilities associated with being a soldier. I believe it is virtually impossible to serve in the Army without being fully immersed. The professional soldier makes the Army a profession.

Accounting Differences Essays - Types Of Insurance, American Brands

Accounting Differences Essays - Types Of Insurance, American Brands Accounting Differences General Comments about the Insurance Industry Insurance Companies generate revenues by selling insurance policies. These policies provide a known amount of revenue for an unknown amount of losses offsetting that revenue. This can make the matching principle difficult. Some of the potential losses can come years after the insurance policy was written and the premiums received. The liabilities for these future losses are estimated by actuaries and are subject to a certain amount of interpretation by management. The accounting for the premium revenues is reflected in written vs. earned premium. Various statutory requirements are based on written premium, which is the amount of premium booked in a given accounting period. Earned premium is generally used for recognizing revenues for financial reporting. As insurance policies are written on an annual basis or longer, the premiums (revenues) are spread over the duration of the policy period even if the potential liability exceeds the policy period. The future liability is estimated and booked against the earned premiums. Some costs, however are not matched against this revenue, primarily commissions paid to the insurance agent that sold the policy. This expense is fully recognized at the time the premium is booked. These effects can have both positive and negative implications. In an era of declining written premiums, revenue can actually increase and expenses should decrease because of the costs incurred at the time the policy was written. Very few insurance companies in the United States actually make a profit by selling insurance. The profit is generally made from the investment income earned investing the premiums they receive now, but do not expect to pay out until some point in the future. This paper examines the published financial information of Reliance Group Holdings and Travelers Property Casualty Corp for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1998 and the third quarter reports for the quarter ending September 30, 1999. The letters to the shareholders are examined as well as the financial statements and subsequent notes. An outline of the accounting principles employed by both companies is provided as well as some basic ratio analysis. Reliance Group Holdings, Inc. 1998 Annual Report Letter to Shareholders from Saul Steinberg, Chairmen and CEO and Robert Steinberg, President and Chief Operating Officer. Operating income was up slightly over 1997. Net income was a record due to proceeds from sale of asset, Commonwealth Title. Reliance grew Shareholders Equity by $1.32 billion, highest it has ever been in the history of the company. This may not be significant accomplishment if the company had sustained steady operating and earnings growth over the long run. Reliance had 18% growth in property and casualty premiums, despite continued soft pricing environment and significant catastrophic losses as well as other weather related losses. Combined ratio for 1998 102.1. Combined ratio is a measure of premiums spent to cover losses and expenses. For every dollar in premium revenues, the company spent $1.02 in expenses and losses. Employee and management ownership aligns interests of employees with that of shareholders. The Steinberg's note a successful track record of putting innovative and specialized skills to work. In the third quarter of 1999 it will be noted that several of these innovations were not as profitable as they thought they were. Note disciplined underwriting approach. Reliance National Reliance Group Holdings largest profit center offering specialized property and casualty insurance and risk management services. They broke new ground in overseas expansion and e-commerce opportunities. These e-commerce opportunities are Cybercomp, a program to offer workmen's compensation insurance over the Internet. Reliance National's international sources generated 12% of the total premium in 1998, through offices in London, China and Argentina. Reliance Insurance This is considered a middle market company, writing insurance for small and mid size companies. The Steinbergs feel this is one of the few companies offering a full range of specialized products delivered locally. This means it is underwritten through local branch offices. Reliance National business is largely underwritten centrally, in their head office in New York. Reliance Reinsurance Reinsurance offers a method of limiting exposure for the generators of insurance policies. A reinsurer will take on a portion of a risk for a portion of the premium. Reliance Reinsurance got out of several less attractive lines of business and as they did not act soon enough as significant reserve adjustments

Cover Letter Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Cover Letter - Personal Statement Example In addition, I have taken a number of courses that prepare me for a career in the industry. For example, I took a diploma in professional jewelry as well as a bachelor’s degree in business management. In addition, course like hotel management have helped me learn about the relevance of hospitality and other interpersonal traits that are important in the luxury industry. In addition to the educational background, I have adequate working experience to fit into any category in the luxury industry. My working experiences include leadership posts, sales executive in luxury cars as well as advertisement internship. In addition, I speak two languages and I have found this to be a useful trait in an international industry. My education, life cultural interactions and work experience have prepared me to work in almost all sectors of the luxury industry. In addition to my dedication and work ethic, they all ensure that I am a valuable addition to your company I welcome the opportunity to discuss my skill set and the position. If you have any questions or want to schedule an interview, please contact me using this number (Insert Phone number) or this email address (insert email address). I look forward to hearing from

The Gold Rush Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Gold Rush - Essay Example The gold rush seemed to spell the beginning of the end for the people who lived in California when gold was found, it was also the beginning of equal rights for others who had long been oppressed by these same oppressors. There were several people already in California when gold was discovered. In addition to the white men that were moving into the west as a result of the Mexican-American War, there were plenty of Mexicans already living on the land of California, colonists sent by Mexico and Spain called Californios. Although many of the Mexicans who settled in California to work the ‘southern mines’ were experienced miners in the same sort of climate as they encountered in California, their expertise and success was resented by the white colonists. â€Å"In a little over two years, Americans came to resent the fact that foreigners -- particularly those from a country the United States had just defeated in war -- were making it rich off land that they now considered exclusively theirs† (Chavez, 1998). As a means of ‘evening up’ the playing field, the white settlers struggled to gain control of the legal institutions and thus bring about laws that favored them while s ignificantly reducing the resources and recourses available to the Mexicans or people of non-white descent. Another group of people had also been living on California land in the mid-1800s. They made up a variety of tribes and distinctly separate cultural groups, but history has clumped them together under the common term Native Americans. These people had long lived off of the fruits of the land, fitting themselves within the rhythms of the natural seasons and placing value on things that actually benefited them directly, such as food, clothing, shelter and workable metals or stone. Materials such as gold had little value to them because it was too soft to be dependable and did not provide any other direct benefit. However, these Native Americans

The Sublime and Architectural Theory Essay Example for Free

The Sublime and Architectural Theory Essay As Michael K. Hayes comments in Architecture Theory since 1968, a typology to emerge in the mid eighteenth century was a return of architecture to its natural origins, an example of the primitive shelter. This return and respect of nature was interestingly enough occurring across art, literature and landscape design simultaneously and internationally. It was as if people were warily eyeing the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution and entered into a love-hate tolerance of the machine age with the concepts of nature playing a reassuring role throughout these social and industrial evolutions. In reference to nature, the sublime countered many perceptions of the tamed environment through poetry, painting, national parks and urban design. The term sublime was first used to describe nature by British writers taking the Grand Tour of the Swiss Alps in the 17th and 18th centuries. The sublime was meant as an aesthetic quality in nature that was both beautiful and terrible, horrible and harmonious, appreciating the unexpected and dangerous forms found in nature that had been avoided in literature and art through the concepts of a more tamed and friendly environment. German philosopher Immanuel Kant reflects on the concept of boundaries between beauty and the sublime in his Critique of Judgment written in 1790. Distinguishing between the differences of beauty versus the sublime, beauty is connected with the form of the object, respecting the objects boundaries whereas the sublime is found in a formless object, boundless, unfamiliar and unexpected. The Romantic Period revealed a shift from the picturesque paintings of a controlled and safe landscape to paintings depicting the grotesque and beautiful as found in works such as Frederic Edwin Churchs Cotopaxi , oil on canvas 1826, an opposition to the classical ideals of perfection. The concept of sublime evolved through the machine age with a sense of self-forgetfulness, an awe-inspired feeling of well-being and security when faced with an object or place of superiority. It is a realization of unavoidable suffering that is to be accepted and that the difficulties in life will never be completely resolved. The terrible, beautiful and inescapable sublime resonated with the social instability found in the Modernist period. These two movements faced suffering brought about by the consequences of the Industrial Revolution. Inescapably crowded cities meant survival was dependent on the proximity to work. Leisure was a little afforded luxury. As John Mitchell much later on discusses in his book What Is to be Done about Illness and Health (1984), the attributes of a healthy life is a clean and safe environment, time for rest and recreation, a reasonable living standard, freedom from chronic worries, hope for the future, an adequate level of self-confidence and autonomy, and finally to have a worthwhile and fulfilling job. These well-being concepts were absent for many low and middle class families working in factories during the machine age and were threatened by social injustices of modern times. Throughout difficult times experienced in the Romantic period up through present day, the order and at times chaos of nature remained a constant influence in the perceptions of design and life. It would seem our societies distanced themselves from primitive nature through perfect geometry of the Classical movement, imitated nature through the rusticity of the hut and embraced the sublime during the Romantic period. It was as if a return to the most basic and natural state gave a sense of control over the uncontrollable, the forest/city was to be tamed, brought into rational order by means of the gardeners art; the ideal city of the late eighteenth century was thereby imaged on the garden The acknowledgment and connection of the roles of nature throughout our design history offered an outlying and abstract zeitgeist: a continuing spirit of admiration, reverence and fearful respect of our natural surroundings as they are impacted by our industrial and socially changing cities.

Teaching Philosophy Statement Essay -- Teaching Teachers Education Ess

Teaching Philosophy Statement â€Å"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops† (Henry B. Adams). I can’t remember when I decided that I wanted to become a teacher. I didn’t just wake up one morning and think to myself I want to be a teacher, it just seems that I always knew that I would teach. Both of my parents are teachers but they actually tried to persuade me to go into a different profession. Even though I was warned about the disadvantages of being a teacher, I knew I wanted to become a teacher. As a child one of my favorite games to play was school. I could play school for hours whether I was teaching my little sisters or a classroom of stuffed animals. I think that I loved playing school because I respected my teachers so much. I thought that my Elementary school teachers were the smartest people in the world. I loved pretending to be the teachers that I looked up to and admired. As I grew older I knew that I wanted to be an elementary school teacher because I wanted to work with children. I knew that I wanted to be a part of the enthusiasm that young children have for school and I wanted to someday be able to provide the knowledge for my students’ hunger to learn. I knew that teaching and helping children would be the most rewarding job that I could ever have. I want to be a teacher because I think that I can make a difference in a child’s life. I want to be able to make a shy child feel safe in my classroom. With patience I can help a slow child feel smart. I can help neglected or underprivileged children feel special. The satisfaction of making an unhappy or troubled child smile is one of the most important reasons that have helped me decide to become a teacher. I... ...’s degree in reading. I would also like to become nationally certified through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. I will use my past and present experiences to be the best possible educator that I can be. Although summer vacation and holidays off are good incentives for me to want to become a teacher, being an important figure in a child’s life is all of the inspiration that I need. I know that being a teacher is not a glamorous job but to me it is the most important position a person can fill. I have the want and desire to become the best teacher that I can possibly be and I am will to work my hardest and give it my best effort. If I can have a positive affect on the life of at least one child than I will feel that I have accomplished my goal. â€Å"What sculpture does to a block of marble, education is to an human soul† (Joseph Addison). Teaching Philosophy Statement Essay -- Teaching Teachers Education Ess Teaching Philosophy Statement â€Å"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops† (Henry B. Adams). I can’t remember when I decided that I wanted to become a teacher. I didn’t just wake up one morning and think to myself I want to be a teacher, it just seems that I always knew that I would teach. Both of my parents are teachers but they actually tried to persuade me to go into a different profession. Even though I was warned about the disadvantages of being a teacher, I knew I wanted to become a teacher. As a child one of my favorite games to play was school. I could play school for hours whether I was teaching my little sisters or a classroom of stuffed animals. I think that I loved playing school because I respected my teachers so much. I thought that my Elementary school teachers were the smartest people in the world. I loved pretending to be the teachers that I looked up to and admired. As I grew older I knew that I wanted to be an elementary school teacher because I wanted to work with children. I knew that I wanted to be a part of the enthusiasm that young children have for school and I wanted to someday be able to provide the knowledge for my students’ hunger to learn. I knew that teaching and helping children would be the most rewarding job that I could ever have. I want to be a teacher because I think that I can make a difference in a child’s life. I want to be able to make a shy child feel safe in my classroom. With patience I can help a slow child feel smart. I can help neglected or underprivileged children feel special. The satisfaction of making an unhappy or troubled child smile is one of the most important reasons that have helped me decide to become a teacher. I... ...’s degree in reading. I would also like to become nationally certified through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. I will use my past and present experiences to be the best possible educator that I can be. Although summer vacation and holidays off are good incentives for me to want to become a teacher, being an important figure in a child’s life is all of the inspiration that I need. I know that being a teacher is not a glamorous job but to me it is the most important position a person can fill. I have the want and desire to become the best teacher that I can possibly be and I am will to work my hardest and give it my best effort. If I can have a positive affect on the life of at least one child than I will feel that I have accomplished my goal. â€Å"What sculpture does to a block of marble, education is to an human soul† (Joseph Addison).

Culture and Language in Society Essay

In a world that is rapidly moving toward a predominantly technological and uniformed system, language and culture are becoming increasingly crucial to defining an individual. For many people, culture still completely dictates their way of life, as is evident in many religions, such as Hinduism, where the line between religious traditions and everyday life is blurred. Just as Henry Trueba can be quoted in Afforming Diversity, Whatever knowledge we acquire, it is always acquired through language and culture, two interlocked symbolic systems considered essential for human interaction and survival. Culture and language are so intricately intertwined that even trained scholars find it impossible to decide where language ends and begins, or which one of the two impacts the other the most (189). Without language, culture would be, as Trueba stated, virtually non-existent, as certain emotions can only be conveyed in certain languages. The same holds true for language, as it is often impossible to translate texts while retaining the same literary and emotional connotations the original version contained because certain words only exist in those languages. Moreover, language, especially in literature, leaves much up to interpretation, and translations often omit any ambiguity that the author may have originally intended. When searching for English versions of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, several versions are available, each translated by different individuals. In each of these books, differences can be observed in the way the plot is described, though they seldom make any difference in the larger scheme. Even the spelling differs (e. g. â€Å"Dunya† and â€Å"Dounia†) simply because of the way the translator thought the word sounded phonetically. By the same token, reading a Tang dynasty poem in Chinese differs greatly from the English translation. Though the English version manages to retain most of the poet’s original message, it lacks the fluidity and the poetic essence that can be found in the same poem in Chinese. As with all subjective issues, language is subject to interpretation, and to take away a literary work’s original language is to deduct from the piece as a whole. Knowledge, however, is not, as Trueba described, acquired solely through culture and language. It is not necessary for language to exist in order for us to know that fire is hot, or that water is wet. Though we may not be able to place these feelings with these specific words, we know that they exist because our sense of touch tells us so. If I chose to call â€Å"fire† â€Å"water,† the flames would still burn my hand when I touched it even if I had attributed a word that would normally extinguish the flames to it. By doing so, I have not changed the entity I have renamed, but have simply categorized it under a different label. A baby does not need to know the meaning of the word â€Å"hot† in order to know that a burning stove is extremely warm to the touch, or the meaning of the word â€Å"light† in order to know that it is brighter in the day than it is at not. After all, â€Å"a rose by any other name would be just as sweet† (Shakespeare, â€Å"Romeo and Juliet†). Ever since ancient days, culture and language have played integral roles in defining an individual and dictating one’s everyday life. The morals that we live by are directly related to our cultural values, which are evident in ancient texts, such as the Koran, Bible and Torah. These books, however, have been translated so many times that their meaning has no doubt been at least slightly changed. In the Jewish culture, the Torah must be recited in Hebrew, the original language of the Jews. In this instance, Hebrew is much more than just a language; it also symbolizes the religious beliefs and customs of the Jewish people, and in this way, much of their traditional culture can be retained. Likewise, Catholics conduct Mass in Latin (though it is not as common anymore) and like in Judaism, much of the culture is maintained that way as well. Language leads directly to culture and culture to language in a cyclical process so that the boundaries between the two become virtually nonexistent. By the same token, language (be it English, Russian, Greek or Japanese) would differ greatly from what we know today if culture were to cease to exist. Much of culture as we know it would be lost without language, as it would be next to impossible to carry on cultural traditions from generation to generation without a means of communication. Much of the vocabulary accumulated in languages is a direct result of cultural practices, traditions and innovations. Each time a new revolution in society or technology takes place, a string of new words is developed. It is estimated that a few dozen new words are added to the English language alone each year. 1 Common words such as â€Å"television,† â€Å"Internet,† and â€Å"telephone† would have meant nothing two short centuries ago. The word â€Å"silhouette† only came into existence after the French Minister of Finance under Louis XV, Etienne de Silhouette, began decorating his office with cheap, black paper cutouts. Back then, the word was associated with stinginess, as the people felt oppressed by the strict financial measures he set on the French in order to replenish the treasury, which had suffered as a result of wars with Britain and Prussia. 2 Today, however, the word is often used to described stylish, chic products, and can be found on cars like the Oldsmobile Silhouette, and shoes, such as Silhouette, a Dutch shoe store. As culture develops, language, too, must evolve to accommodate the new changes as people feel the need to identify objects and feelings with words. A person’s way of utilizing language can also tell a lot about his/her cultural background. For someone raised in a normal urban environment, the word â€Å"Negro† will have a very meaning as opposed to the individual who had grown up in the Ku Klux Klan. For the urban New Yorker, â€Å"Negro† would be a derogatory and offensive term that should never be used. For the Klan member, however, the term would equate to â€Å"ignorant and degraded and altogether sold to the devil. † Likewise, the word â€Å"woman† could be considered a derogatory insult depending on the context it is used in. For many women in this modern era, if a man were to say â€Å"Hey woman, get over here and help me with this,† it would warrant the man getting a slap across the face, because it not only is insulting, but also reminds women of the days when they were considered inferior to men. This attitude exists particularly in Western culture where women are considered equal to men (even still, discrepancies exist, particularly in positions of power and politics). In many Islamic countries, however, this kind of deprecating behavior towards women is acceptable to the point that a woman basically becomes her husband’s property. Calling someone â€Å"hey woman† would certainly not be regarded as derogatory or insulting by the majority of the people in these countries (e. g. Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan). For the women there, such behavior is acceptable because it is tolerated within their culture. The word itself is simply another label that describes who they are. In a culture that believes that women are inferior to men, sexism towards women in language would be common. Three centuries ago, the same attitude would hold true in Western civilizations as few women could hope to rise above the system and hold a position other than that of a housewife. It had been a belief that too much learning for women would result in â€Å"evil. † Thus, women often obtained an education only to the third grade level. Since society had deemed this acceptable and even necessary back then, calling someone â€Å"woman† would not be as offensive as it would be today. Though the word has remained unchanged, the connotation it carries differs greatly as a result in cultural changes. The number of languages one knows also reflects on the level of cultural awareness one has. The more languages one knows, the more likely it is he/she will have a deeper sense of the various cultures that exist in the world. Being bilingual in Chinese and English, I am able to understand Chinese culture better than someone who does not know the language because my view of the Chinese culture and traditions is subject only to my own interpretation, rather than that of a tour guide, publisher, author or another individual. As stated previously, it is impossible to translate everything word for word and thus certain phrases can only be communicated effectively in the original language, yet such expressions are often imperative to further understand a culture. For example, the words â€Å"Long live the people of the world† appear on the Tiananmen gate in Beijing. To translate it literally, however, the same phrase would be â€Å"May the people of the world live for 10,000 years. † Though the general meaning is the same, slight differences still exist. Language and culture are inextricably linked in defining an individual, society and nation. Without one, the other would cease to exist as we know it. Simply by listening to the language, or even a dialect, a person speaks, one can often tell a lot about their cultural background. Generally speaking, the Californian accent shows that the person is most likely laid back and easy going, while the Southern drawl may depict a person’s tendency to take things slowly. As it would be unlikely to find a member of the social elite speaking Ebonics (Black English), it would be safe to assume that the individual who speaks the dialect is from an urban environment, and is culturally aware of the urban scene. Just as Trueba had states, there is no division at which language ends and culture begins, as they continue in a cycle with one completing the other. In order to understand ourselves better, we must first understand our heritage, which is composed largely of language and culture. To find a definite distinction between the two would be impossible and would call for a change to language and culture as we presently know it.  https://www.hugedomains.com/domain_profile.cfm?d=tlsmarketing&e=com