Commercial Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Commercial Law - Essay Example The passing of any risk associated with preservation of the property sold or in the process of being sold is governed by Section 20(1) of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 which provides as follows:- â€Å"Unless otherwise agreed, the goods remain at the sellers risk until the property in them is transferred to the buyer, but when the property in them is transferred to the buyer the goods are at the buyers risk whether delivery has been made or not.†3 The purchase of the six speed drill appears to have vested in Alex prior to dispatch by the seller since he paid for the drill via credit card over the telephone. According to Section 20(1) of the Sale of Goods Act, 1979 the property was transferred to Alex and while in transit remains at his risk. However, the drill did not conform to specifications since it was a three speed drill rather than the specified six speed drill. As a result, Alex as buyer has a right to reject non-conforming goods. The law presumes that the parties intend that the goods will fit the description as provided for in the sale of goods’ contract. If at the time of shipment the goods do not comport with the contract description: â€Å"†¦if there was a quantitative defect in the goods amounting to a breach of a fundamental term or to a breach of condition, or to a breach of an intermediate term which cause him serious prejudice.†5 A buyer is therefore at liberty to reject goods for the most part if they fail to correspond with the description of the goods sold via the contract for sale. This is possible even when the buyer does not incur any damages or loss as a result of the non-conforming goods.6 However the courts have taken pains to limit the application of this rule by effectively narrowing the ‘concept of the description of the goods.’7 It was held in Christopher Hill Ltd. v Ashington Piggeries Ltd [1972] AC 441that a statement contained in a contract may

Fashion and identity relation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Fashion and identity relation - Essay Example The essay "Fashion and identity relation" focuses on the identity relation and fashion. Modernism is a movement that rejects traditional style and the way of life and embracing a new form of life which no one truly understands yet as no one has explored it yet. Then the idea of post modernism, which has brought an enormous debate in the fashion world, comes in question. Modernism embraced uniqueness of an individual the autonomous nature of mankind while at the same time shunning tradition. Postmodernism rejected the autonomous individual believing that greatness is in communal power and action. Culture can be defined as the characteristic of a particular group. It could be in terms of language, fashion, cuisine, social habits, music, and many more. Culture can be obtained through individual or group striving. It defines human nature as it is what creates purpose in all the actions of the human being. Because of these there exist cultural difference created by the barriers or if clea rly stated the boarders of life. These barriers can be either local or international, but it is what creates the distance and the variation inhuman behaviour across the globe. The current world embraces post modernity whereby everything is changing at a rate almost unrecognisable. The result of this is competition without an end. The competition is in terms of gender, social identity, politics and the like all only to try and fit or find a place of comfort within the society. Fashion gives the perfect solution to this.

KKK (Ku Klux Klan) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

KKK (Ku Klux Klan) - Essay Example It was said that the Klan's first leader is the famous general N.B. Forrest, the Calvary Confederate leader. He is called the 'Grand Wizard' or the 'Imperial Wizard'. This is the title given to the Klan's highest leader and was assisted by lower ranking officials of the group. The whole southern country was mapped, organized, and subdivided into several sectors down to the lowest ranks and individual members. 1 Later in 1869, the group became perpetrators of lawless violence and recklessness throughout the continent. Ku Klux Klan members were seen mostly at night, covered in white. They hold silent parades and covered their horses with the same white robes. People regarded the Klan as Confederate soldiers returning from the dead. The Ku Klux Klan spread terror all over the entire land. Their main targets are the blacks, the carpetbaggers, and the scalawags. They effectively kept black men from voting and from joining the electoral process, so as to control the polls, its results and politics in particular. They promote terror through whipping and lynching. And because the Klan became so powerful and uncontrollable, its leaders, headed by General Forrest, ordered and sought to disband the group. He resigned from his position as the Grand Wizard. But then, a lot of its off-shoots still functioned, and it continued on for the next few years.2 The Birth of the Second Ku Klux Klan It was 1915 when the Klan was revived, thus giving birth to the second Ku Klux Klan faction. This group was formed by William J. Simmons, who is a former minister and a popular fraternal order promoter. In October of the same year, he had prepared to reveal the campaign to form the group, together with friends of the same mindset. The second Klan is still focused on restoring the supremacy of the white race. It is promoting fundamentalism as a religion and had a hand in controlling politics during those time, although it professed that it is not a political group. Some of the Klan's noted members were elected as government officials, mostly congressmen and mayors. The Klan still continued on performing extreme measures to counter its assumed enemies, and most of these cases were unauthorized by their central leaders. 3 The most noted and remembered extreme activity undertaken by the second Ku Klux Klan is the murder of three civil rights workers in the summer of 1964, in Mississippi. It was the most horrible crime they committed in the entire regime of the second Klan - it was an execution, not merely an assassination. But in 1930, Ku Klux Klan experience a decline in its members, especially when state laws prohibited the use of masks and the propagation of secret societies. This decline of interest on its members is mainly due to the massive corruption, the wrong doings, and the amassing of wealth for personal gains by its leaders through the influence group.4 The Klan as Hate Group The major example of hate groups working with leaders of several or subsequent affiliations and at the same time working under a common name but covering a lot of distinct factions is none other than the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan was a hate group which did one too many illegal acts of intimidation and violence. The Klan was known to be responsible for the arson of the Black South Caroline Group of Churches, which is a predominantly black institution. The Klan

A Brand For Each Brand Position Strategy Marketing Essay

A Brand For Each Brand Position Strategy Marketing Essay The  brand position  or  brand positioning  is how the brand is perceived in the context of competitive alternatives. As brand consultants, when we develop brand positioning statement for clients, we include a target customer definition, brand essence, brand promise, brand archetype and brand personality, giving the  intended  brand position/positioning (as opposed to the actual brand position in the mind of the customer) greater depth. Brand Positioning Basics Positioning is something (perception) that happens in the minds of the target market. It is the aggregate perception the market has of a particular company, product or service in relation to their perceptions of the competitors in the same category. It will happen whether or not a companys management is proactive, reactive or passive about the on-going process of evolving a position. But a company can positively influence the perceptions through enlightened strategic actions. In marketing, positioning has come to mean the process by which marketers try to create an image or identity in the minds of their target market for its product, brand, or organization. It is the relative competitive comparison their product occupies in a given market as perceived by the target market. Re-positioning involves changing the identity of a product, relative to the identity of competing products, in the collective minds of the target market. De-positioning involves attempting to change the identity of competing products, relative to the identity of your own product, in the collective minds of the target market. The Process of Brand Positioning Generally, the product positioning process involves: Defining the market in which the product or brand will compete (who the relevant buyers are) Identifying the attributes (also called dimensions) that define the product space Collecting information from a sample of customers about their perceptions of each product on the relevant attributes Position. The process is similar for positioning your companys services. Services, however, dont have the physical attributes of products that is, we cant feel them or touch them or show nice product pictures. So you need to ask first your customers and then yourself, what value do clients get from my services? How are they better off from doing business with me? Also ask: is there a characteristic that makes my services different? Write out the value customers derive and the attributes your services offer to create the first draft of your positioning. Test it on people who dont really know what you do or what you sell, watch their facial expressions and listen for their response. When they want to know more because youve piqued their interest and started a conversation, youll know youre on the right track. 1) Lifestyle Louis Vuitton Brand Value: up 2% to $19.78 billion The most valuable luxury brand for the past five years, Louis Vuitton  continued to position itself as timeless and authentic. Its focus on its heritage as a travel brand helped it to retain its core customer-the jet setter. The brand increased prices, invested in creativity and heightened the focus on quality rather than compromising its brand value it is a high class brand for the super rich lifestyle. 2) Price Leadership LOreals Noisome brand face cream is sold in upscale beauty shops, whereas its Plenitude brand is available for one-sixth the price in discount stores-even though both are based on the same chemical formula this show the price leadership of LOreal as it is selling products of same formula at higher price at one place and lower at other place. 3) Attributes Iphone Iphone attributes are to provide the best user experience to its users. This smartphone has a faster processor because it has the custom A5 chip, which is the one that users will find on the iPad 2. Consequently the iPhone 4S is faster in processing speeds, downloads, and games. Another benefit it that the iPhone 4S is compatible with CDMA and GSM cellular bands therefore it can be used in more places around the world. Apple features the new Assistant, which has turned the iPhone 4S into a voice recognizing personal assistant. It is very useful to the blind and for hands-free texting, among other tasks. The iPhone 4S comes with a new camera with 8MP with easy editing features such as crop, rotate, enhance, and red-eye reduction. It also features a backside illumination sensor and a bigger aperture, which provides better low-light and The iPhone 4S comes with a new camera with 8MP with easy editing features such as crop, rotate, enhance, and red-eye reduction. It also features a backside illumination sensor and a bigger aperture, which provides better low-light and white balance correction. It also features face detection and image stabilization besides the capability to capture hd. 4) Product class BMW Z4 It is sports convertible car for speed lovers who want something different from Their car. While the brand says its buying audience is very different to its communications audience, it aims to target the 25-44 year old age bracket as part of its strategy to target a younger and broader market. The premium car brand is hosting a virtual vs. reality racing initiative at BMW World today (5 September) offering fans the chance to race F1 driver David Coulthard. 5) COMPETITION PEPSI Pepsi positions itself on points of difference as well as points of parity. Pepsis POD is their forward thinking attitude. I dont believe any of the other cola brands (including Coke) are very strong in that area. This falls into image differentiation. Pepsi has the image of being action oriented and I think that a large part of their target audience associate themselves with the brand because of that image. Pepsi also considers themselves the bold, refreshing, robust cola which Coke and other colas could also claim. These points of parity are product differentiations. 6) Occasion Wrigleys gum Wrigleys gum is an alternative at times when smoking is not permitted. Wrigleys Nicogum would be positioned as Herbal cure and not a drug-based one. To create a distinct image in the mind of the target market Wrigleys will have to educate consumers about the advantages of herbal treatment over a drug-based one. The benefits are, Herbs are provided in natural forms and are not addictive but acts  asa powerful nutritional supplement. Herbs provide physical and  mental well-being andare known to possess tremendous healing properties. Herbs are preferred source of  health care for 80% of the world. It reduces the need of smoking for avid smokers. 7) User Levis Dockers Levis Dockers are targeted primarily to men in there 20s to 40s as people need variety of cloths to wear in the office and college at a reasonable rate which can be purchased frequently and new things add up in the wardrobes. Dockers focused a lot on placing their product creating an authentic in store concept shop for the mens department to create a friendly and accessible environment and make the trial as easy as possible.   The communication strategy at the beginning of Dockers was based on their timelessness, sociability, high quality (wit the references to the Levis) and a classic, not high-fashioned way to wear.   8) Quality Toyota The Toyota name has earned a reputation for quality and integrity, as well as a commitment to responsible management and environmental practices. Ethical behavior extends beyond legal requirements. It means honesty, equity, social responsibility and integrity in everything we say or do.

My Educational Philosophy Essay -- Philosophy of Education Teaching

My Educational Philosophy Choosing a major is a very difficult decision to make for everyone. It has to be something that you can spend the rest of your life doing and should enjoy. When I think back to my elementary years through my senior year of high school, all I ever wanted to be was a dentist. I took the classes that would better prepare me in the dentistry field. There at the last second, I switched my major. It was first semester of my senior year of high school when my favorite teacher, Mrs. Fowler, asked me to teach Spanish to the kindergarten class at Piney View Elementary School. As soon as I walked into the classroom and saw the sixteen pairs of eyes gleaming at me, I realized that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I want to become a teacher and work with young children everyday. The thought of having my own classroom and being able to teach the children so many new things gets me so excited that I cannot even describe it. I cannot wait to graduate and start t eaching in my own classroom. When I was in elementary school I had every kind of teacher imaginable; nice, crazy, mean, scary, loony, and cool. Each one had their own way of teaching, which I enjoyed. The problem was more about some of their personalities. One thing that I learned was that it is not fair to teach your own child in a school. I think that the child should either go to a different school for that grade or if the school offers a different teacher then that is better. I know not all teachers who have their child in class treat them differently, but still I think that it is unfair to the other students. I want to be more like the cool teacher I had, Mrs. Ivey. She was a very understandabl... ...ished work and I will be there, by their side to help them if needed. To me, teachers are like guides, we walk students through steps of learning, and eventually one day the students will be on their own teaching someone else. In summary, I plan on using the behaviorism, progressivism, and essentialism philosophies. I believe that these three philosophies are important in my classroom. The most important goal in my profession is to prepare children to be the future leaders of our world. I want my students to enjoy life, have high self-esteem and know that I will always be there for them when they need someone. I am going to lighten their lives and they will do the same for me. I know everything is going to work out this way because I will make it happen. I have set my goals; they are in my grasp, all I have to do now is hold on to them.

Arthur Andersen Essay

In order â€Å"to offer high-quality accounting services†, Arthur Andersen (AA), a Northwestern accounting professor started a business to offer services to clients promoting â€Å"integrity and sound audit opinions over higher short-run profits†. The company’s â€Å"four cornerstones† was good service, quality audits, well-managed staff, and profits for the firm. Their strategy was to focus on quality and high standards of audits rather than profits, a very successful strategy that led to consistent growth over the years. Environmental, strategic, and organizational changes In designing the optimal architecture for a given firm, market conditions, technology, and government regulation should be taken into consideration as these are important factors and determinants of strategy. At the top is firm’s external business environment which comprises of technology, markets, and regulations all of which feeds down strategy, organizational architecture, incentives and actions, and firm value. In order to focus on generating new business and cut costs AA adopted a new strategy which involved evaluating its partners on how much new business they brought to the firm. This newly adopted strategy made it more about the numbers and making money. In order to reduce the costs they required partners to retire at the age of 56 years. With this strategy it led to the increased emphasis on revenue growth as well as expense reduction. There were new partners that rose to the top, Steve Samek, a prominent example of a partner that was able to turn a $50,000 audit fee into a $3 million audit engagement. Although some rose to the top, such a policy it led to fewer experienced auditors and fewer partners overseeing audits and signing off on inaccurate financial statements for companies that overstated revenues due to improper write off of assets. Another prominent change within the firm was when an Andersen engineer, Joseph Glickauf, demonstrated that computers were able to automate bookkeeping records. This was noted to be a â€Å"monumental change in the partnership† and allowed the company to enter the consulting business in 1954. They were able to help their clients automate their accounting records and they were able to develop the largest technology practice of any accounting firm. The firm’s external environment was also changing in 1930s as the federal government adopted new laws that required public companies to submit their financial statements to an independent auditor every year. Added regulations led increased revenues during this period and helped with the firm’s reputation and growth. In 1998 when Samek became the managing partner he formulated a new strategy the â€Å"2X† performance evaluation system which included advice on how partners should â€Å"empathize† with clients. Along with making organizational architecture changes he also changed the culture by making the dress code a relaxed and adopted a new logo that incorporated a rising sun. Enron’s Audit due to a few â€Å"bad partners† Arthur Andersen began auditing Enron’s books in 1986. Early 2001 Enron was considered the â€Å"premier energy company† with a market value of equity of approximately $75 billion and such a high market value meant that it was important to pay close attention to the books of Enron since there is heavy reliance on the auditor’s opinion. Enron’s engagement fees accounted for just a small portion of AA’s revenues but most of the revenues came from a Huston office that was set up in Enron’s Huston headquarters with the partner David Duncan. In evaluating Andersen’s claim that their problems on the Enron audit were due to a few â€Å"bad partners† I would disagree because of the close relationship that the two companies shared along with a poorly developed organizational architecture. The Huston headquarters had over 150 Andersen professionals on site that seemingly knew or were aware of the accounting scandal but chose to ignore it. Professional judgment and independence also was not practiced as noted â€Å"there were so many people in the Huston office with their fingers in the Enron pie if there was an auditor who did not want sign off on an audit they would be fired. This was not the only crisis that AA was involved in which made outsiders questioned their practices and overlook their claim. There were lawsuits against Arthur Andersen. Prior to the Enron scandal AA had settled a dispute with the Securities and Exchange Commission paying more than $7 million for accounting and auditing work of Waste Management Corporation. Additionally, the SEC sued an Andersen lead partner on the Sunbeam Corporation audit. These crises along with their claim that their problem with the Enron audit was due to a few â€Å"bad partners† was merely the result of an unsound organizational structure along with policies and practices that the firm implemented. The unsound organizational structure of Arthur Andersen changed the motivation of employees within the firm and changes within the firm over the years one of which was the compensation of partners did not allow for integrity when work was being done for these public companies. What could have been done differently? The organizational architecture of Arthur Andersen seemed to have gone a different route from what it was intended for and much of the success that Arthur Andersen was short term and partner based. Policies that were implemented led partners to engage in mischievous acts to gain more business. Slowly their policies and practices became more about money rather than quality audits using the right protocols. Other than management who were involved in mischievous acts I would recreate or polish existing polices to realign it to their initial strategy which was to provide â€Å"quality accounting services to clients and promote integrity and sound audit opinions over higher short-run profits†. It is noted that an ill designed organizational architecture can result in poor performance and company failure and AA made material changes that changes their business environment and strategy which led to their collapse. Their flawed organizational architecture made it hard for new talent (other than partners who were all about numbers) to be discovered. It became more about making your numbers so I would also design a system that allowed for inefficient management to be replaced by new talent who are not only about creating value for the firm but also to fill in gaps that may be in architecture. Andersen and multitask principle agent theory Incentive conflicts existed at Arthur Andersen. At AA there was management and partners that acted in their own self interest through maximizing their own utility at the expense of the other partners that was vested in the company. This also seemed to be a recurring problem that affected the company because on multiple occasions a partner was accused acting in their own self interest. Conflict of interest with alters the principal agent relationship also played a big part at the rise of the Enron scandal because a widespread concern among investors, regulators, and the public rose which may have motivated many AA professional on the Enron engagement to sign off on questionable accounting practices. Risky practices to reap short term benefits paved also paved the way for dishonesty and fraud. Relation between â€Å"hard† and â€Å"soft† elements of the firm’s corporate culture Hard and soft elements better known as the 7S Model is a model of organizational effectiveness was developed at McKinsey & Co. Consulting firm in the 1980’s. It proposes that there are seven factors within a firm that needs to be aligned and reinforced in order to be successful. Hard elements include structure, strategy and systems and the soft elements include shared values, skills, style and staff. Hard elements are influenced and identified by management. It is the formal architecture and primary determinant of a firm’s value. Soft elements on the other hand are those intangible elements that are influenced by corporate culture. AA for example organizational architecture, Samek tried to change the softer elements of AA’s corporate culture. For example, the dress code was relaxed, the wooden doors at AA’s office entrances were removed, and the firm adopted a new corporate logo, the rising sun. This gives the company a sense of direction and motivation and serves as a means for communicating and reinforcing firm goals. According to this model it is required that there is a balance between the hard and soft elements. As it relates to AA there was no good balance between both elements. At the pinnacle of this model are shared values a soft element which was a broken element that made the model hard to achieve at AA. There was no proper defined corporate culture at AA so there was nothing to link how people will behave in the firm or to hold the architecture of the firm up. The concept of shared values should starts at highest level (i.e. partners of AA) and they should instill these values to their senior management who must then continue the process till it reaches first year hires. However, if unethical behavior starts at the highest level the companies culture will be damaged before it reaches first year hires and the will adopt the unethical behavior In addition to changing Andersen’s organizational architecture, Samek tried to change the softer elements of AA’s corporate culture. For example, the dress code was relaxed, the wooden doors at AA’s office entrances were removed, and the firm adopted a new corporate logo, the rising sun. Were actions at Arthur Andersen unique? There may have been certain environmental factors (i.e. intense competition), opportunities, or lack of regulations and monitoring that may motivate other companies to partake in the same unethical decisions as AA. There may also be no telling whether or not other accounting companies practiced unethical decisions because they may be able to better conceal these unethical practices so it goes unnoticed. This situation was not unique to Arthur Andersen. The severity of the scandal made it hard for AA to bounce back whilst other companies may have been able to resolve issues dealing with unethical behavior to lessen the severity and make it seem miniscule to the public. There is beyond no doubt that after the fall of AA and Enron that top accounting companies started to ensure that their practices and organizational structure was sound to prevent the same crises such as that of AA from happening to their company. As a top partner of another accounting firm during Andersen’s demise I would closely review practices of the firm, and closely follow articles and regulations released by the SEC, GAAP, and other regulatory agencies regarding auditing procedures. Lastly, I would also ensure that the proper protocols are followed regarding existing, new, or prior engagements (i.e. practicing independence, professional judgment or skepticism). SEC proposed regulations in 2000 to limit consulting work by accounting firms Legislators were acting in the public’s interest as they may have noticed that the proposed regulation was flawed and may have stirred up controversy in the securities market. The proposal was under scrutiny as it was noted to be â€Å"fatally flawed† and existing regulations passed were challenged as it was noted that a more active role needed to be taken in making changes in the measurement and reporting system in support of better information to foster better decisions making by corporations, investors and the government. With the added pressure and intense lobbying by the â€Å"Big Five† accounting firms they may have not seen a problem in the company providing both services or felt the regulation needed to be refined. Enforcing ethical standards because of Andersen scandal Whilst it may not have been the main reason for the AICPA to release a set of standards for the conduct of CPAs, the Arthur Andersen scandal certainly gave rise to the development of the Code of Professional Conduct. When scandals pertaining to audit of financial statements occur the first person to blame is the firm of the CPA on the audit engagement. The AA scandal has definitely heightened the public’s awareness of the need for increased attention to all ethical business practices by professionals especially CPA who investors heavily rely on for their opinion. The AICPA is only to be blamed for not setting higher ethical standards for their members and making it a priority. They do not have control over unethical conduct of members but they can enforce and clearly state the ramifications. It is important to note that the firm that hires the CPA to perform services should also instill their own code of conduct. Appointment of a new oversight board Rather than continuing to be self regulated after the scandal, the appointment of an oversight board was necessary as they provide independent oversight of public accounting firms providing audit services. They register auditors, define, inspect, and enforce specific processes and procedures for compliance of audits as well as for quality control. Auditors of public accounting companies are inspected by the PCAOB not less than once every 3 years and except any deficiencies, the inspection report becomes public information after completion of an appeal period. The PCAOB further has authority to investigate and discipline violations of the Sarbanes Oxley Act, board rules, securities laws and professional standards. This oversight board will provides insight on all public accounting firms so investors are confident in relying on their opinions about a particular firm’s financial statement. The Sarbanes Oxley Act allowed more eyes from the outside to look in on the practices of these accounting firms.

Discuss Merle Hodge’S Crick Crack Monkey As a Novel Essay

Merle Hodge born in 1944, in Trinidad is the daughter of an immigration officer. After studying at the Bishop Anstey’s high school of Trinidad, she obtained the Trinidad and Tobago Girls Island Scholarship in 1962 which led her to the university college of London. She obtained a degree in French and later in 1967 a Master Philosophy degree. Merle Hodge traveled a lot in Eastern and Western Europe and when she returned to Trinidad she started teaching French in junior schools. Later she obtained a post of lecturer at the University of the West Indies. In 1979, she started to work for the bishop regime and she was appointed director of the development of curriculum. In 1983, she left Grenada because the bishop was assassinated and she is now working for the Women and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad. She wrote the novel Crick Crack Monkey in 1970 where she deals with the theme of childhood in the West Indies. The main protagonist called Tee lives with Tantie who is a working class woman. She later goes to live with her aunt Beatrice and she faces a new and different world from that of her Caribbean world: â€Å"Hodge’s story is presented through the eyes of a black, lower class girl of Trinidad in the 1950s.† The whole story is one presented from one point of view: Tee’s. She is left alone by her father who goes abroad after the death of her mother and she has to live with her lower class Tantie where she learns about being independent. Later in the story her aunt Beatrice takes her and she then has to adapt herself to the ‘white’ world. She faces a lot of cultural and identity conflict as she does not really know where she belongs or what culture is wrong or right. â€Å"However, looking at the story of â€Å"crick crack monkey† through the eyes of a young white girl, rather than a young black girl, the reader might see the injustice and the ethnic discrimination that a black person must endure. She would not be accustomed to being called a â€Å"little black nincompoop† (Hodge 457), and she would most likely not have to suffer a physical beating with a ruler (Hodge 456)† Tee becomes the narrator and Hodge guides the reader through an â€Å"intensely personal study of the effects of the colonial imposition of various social and cultural values on the Trinidadian female.† Tee narrates the diverse problems in her life in such a way that it is often complicated to split up â€Å"the voice of the child, experiencing, from the voice of the woman, reminiscing; in this manner, Hodge broadens the scope of the text considerably.† It has often been seen that the British have used various techniques to influence the viewpoints of the Caribbean people. â€Å"The people’s self awareness, religion, language, and culture has coped with the influx of British ideals and in coping, the people have changed to appease the islands’ highly influential British population.† Crick Crack Monkey is made to be a novel dealing with the conflict of cultures that Tee has to accept. We first meet Tee when her mother dies and she is portrayed as being surrounded by people. She experiences ‘crowd-scenes’ where she has all her family and friends around her to give her support. At Tantie’s house, she had Tantie’s loud presence and when she was absent she had the presence of other children. This in a way is made to reflect the Caribbean culture where every one is warm and caring and where the people like to stay together and entertain social relationships: â€Å"As Yakini Kemp notes, â€Å"she [Tee] is moving progressively toward the development of a positive self-image while she resides with Tantie† (24). Tee is made to be independent and having a voice for herself in the Trinidadian society. She has a confident personality which has been molded by the culture in which she was living. These episodes where Tee is made to be surrounded by the people of Trinidad are made to contrast with the isolation and the loneliness which Tee is made to feel at her Aunt Beatrice’s place: â€Å"these scenes set up a contrast to the loneliness the narrator-protagonists will experience once removed from their original environment and placed into a Western or Western-aspiring one. What Marjorie Thorpe has said about Crick Crack Monkey thus can also be said for Bedford’s novel: â€Å"Throughout the novel Hodge contrasts the warmth and congeniality of Tantie’s household with the loneliness and isolation which Tee experiences at Aunt Beatrice’s† (36) In Crick Crack Monkey Hodge makes the isolation felt by Tee become associated with cultural alienation. She had always been said to belong to an extended family culture where she feels part of the family but the western culture makes her feel out of place and she thus feels alienated from both cultures at a certain point. This alienation process is depicted through the fact that Tee has to move from an Antillean culture to a supposedly European culture: â€Å"In this novel Merle Hodge presents the process of alienation by depicting Tee’s transition from a typical Antillean tradition to that of a pseudo-European culture.† Tee is made to balance herself between the culture of Tantie who gives her â€Å"the promise of staying on with the original culture of the Caribbean islands† and between Aunt Beatrice who gives her a prospect of another culture: â€Å"Aunt Beatrice offers the lure of abroad – a culture that Tee slowly becomes familiar with but does not b elong to.† It is seen that, while Tantie and Aunt Beatrice represent different perceptions of cultures which were present in the island, Ma, Tee’s Grandma, represents another culture. She is the one who tells the children â€Å"‘nancy† stories and she is near to the Tee’s African roots. Tee visiting her grandmother makes her realize that: â€Å"Ma’s sayings often began on a note of familiarity only to rise into an impressive incomprehensibility, or vice versa, as in ‘Them that walketh in the paths of corruption will live to ketch dey arse†. The three women in Tee’s life makes her realize that each one belongs to a class and a culture which is seemingly different from each other and Tee is unable to even understand the culture of her Grandmother so she becomes alienated from the African culture in a way. She is left with Tantee’s culture and with Aunt Beatrice’s culture where both culture makes her in a way lose her own identity . In Merle Hodge’s Crick Crack Monkey, Tee’s education is responsible for her internalization of the European or the western culture. It is found in the novel that even before Tee is made to go and live with her Anglicized Aunt Beatrice she has to learn about their culture where things which she has learned in her Caribbean culture does not exist â€Å"Books transported you always into the familiar solidity of chimneys and apple trees, the enviable normality of real Girls and Boys who went a-sleighing and built snowmen, ate potatoes, not rice, went about in socks and shoes from morning until night and called things by their proper names, never saying â€Å"washicong† for plimsoll or â€Å"crapaud† when they meant a frog. Books transported you always into reality and Rightness, which were to be found Abroad. (61)† It has often been seen that the colonial education was part of massive artillery to colonize the mind of the people and that this helped to consolidate the colonialists power and culture. It is said that the ‘whole educational apparatus was geared towards cultural domination by consent’ and that in a way it completely destroyed the culture and the cultural education of the colonized people. They were in fact alienated from their own culture through the colonized education and they were made to create an environment where they would desire the Eurocentric culture. This is in a way what happens to Tee who is made to feel alienated from her own culture by the colonial education she is given. Tee’s education thus in a sense puts her in an unbearable state: â€Å"since her own world does not have the same cultural referents as the one she is taught to regard as â€Å"correct,† she is forever trying to â€Å"catch up,† always seeing herself in terms of a world which can never be her own because it is always elsewhere.† She is always lacking in her acceptance of this culture: â€Å"her whole socialization process comes to affirm that however many of the cultural standards prescribed by the educational system, her teachers, or Aunt Beatrice she adopts, she always falls short — and so do her teachers and Aunt Beatrice, who are similarly caught in a cycle of self-denial and self-hatred.† Tantie representing the Caribbean culture warns Tee not to get carried by the colonialist instructions and this warning comes in time when Hodge introduces the teacher, Mr. Hinds who â€Å"is bent on living an English reality in the face of the facts of the Caribbean because he holds Englishness as the highest value in his life, and so it is not surprising that â€Å"[e]everyone knew that Mr. Hinds had been up to England† because he is eager to let everyone know about it. His devotion to the metropolis assumes a worshipful attitude illustrated by his â€Å"daily endeavor to bring the boys to a state of reverence† towards a â€Å"large framed portrait of Churchill† (24).† He makes the colonial education, the center of his teachings and what he teaches the students does not even include the Caribbean reality that the children are living. He tries to instill the English culture in the students: â€Å"from apples to Christmas to snow and the haystacks the children learn about in their school primers — who do not have any lived knowledge of England, thus attempting to erase Caribbeanness in them as it has been erased in him.† There is one passage which addresses the issue of language, identity and of culture. Mr. Hinds being irritated with his students says, â€Å"‘Here I stand, trying to teach you to read and write the English language, trying to teach confounded piccaninnies to read and write. . . . I who have marched to glory side by side with His Majesty’s bravest men — I don’t have to stand here and busy myself with . . . little black nincompoops† (29). This in a way reflects the culture which is often adopted by the western world where people think that the way you speak is a representation of yourself proposed by Ashcroft. The students are made to reject their local language to adopt the language of the colonizer and the†use of the language highlights cultural specificity† when the vernacular language is inserted in the novel. The very rendering of the vernacular in written English gives it equal status to â€Å"mainstream† English and linguistically symbolizes an act of resistance and a cultural alternative – Creole culture — that, in the plot of the novel, is marked by a relative wholeness when juxtaposed to Mr. Hinds’ and Aunt Beatrice’s self-alienation, which is expressed in the above passage through Mr. Hinds’ concern with having his students learn â€Å"proper† English. According to Frantz Fanon: â€Å"Every colonized people — in other words, every people in whose soul an inferiority complex has been created by the death and burial of its local cultural originality — finds itself face to face with the language of the civilizing nation; that is, with the culture of the mother country. The colonized is elevated above his jungle status in proportion to his adoption of the mother country’s cultural standards. He becomes whiter as he renounces his blackness, his jungle. (18)† Mr. Hinds is the representation of the colonized man who tries to act white. He creates walls between himself and the children where he is in a way rejecting his own blackness and is trying to make them accept the culture of the colonized through language: â€Å"attempting to make them like himself, with language as a primary standard of culture, he also tries to prove his own cultural â€Å"redeemability,† the possibility of becoming English.† Tantie represents the Caribbean culture and thus she tries to preserve it in Tee. It seems that the culture in which Tee is living is mixed with the European culture and there are many agents of ‘westernization’ which are present in the society. Mr. Hinds seems only to be a puppet who has been employed to prepare Tee for her awaiting life at the household of Aunt Beatrice: â€Å"it is for good reason that Tantie warns Tee of such indoctrination in the vernacular, since the vernacular is the only cultural basis for Tantie (and potentially for Tee) from which to launch a defense.† The novel shows that the children have to go to Aunt Beatrice’s place in order to obtain the proper education and Tantie has to let the children live with Aunt Beatrice. In a way she knows that the colonial education and system is all that matters to succeed in the world. It seems that Aunt Beatrice’s westernized house is the only ‘proper’ place for the children to stay because it contains all the cultural values of the Europeans. At her arrival there it is immediately shown how the world of aunt Beatrice is different when Tee’s and Todan are made fun of because of their clothes and color: â€Å"Not only color and features are under scrutiny concerning their similarities and dissimilarities to European beauty standards, but so are clothes, as Tee finds out when her cousins inspect her wardrobe soon after her (second) arrival: â€Å". . . We are shown how with the phenomenon of â€Å"double consciousness,† Du Bois’ term: â€Å"While Du Bois speaks of African Americans looking at themselves through the eyes of racist whites, Tee looks at herself through the eyes of her cousins, who have so thoroughly imbibed a British colonialist world view that nothing appears to exist resembling even remnants of a Caribbean identity.† makes Tee feel aware of her color and of her clothes as compared to her colonized cousins. When Tee had gone to Aunt Beatrice’s place the first time, she used to beat up her cousins and later on when she goes there again she is in a way crippled by her education and through her indoctrination of the standards of the European culture. The first time she had Tantie’s culture fully present in her, she had all her Caribbeaness in her and had not been made aware that she has to judge herself by the standards of others and that the European culture was the scale along which she should judge herself and her achievements: â€Å"Tee has already been indoctrinated into standards of â€Å"Reality and Rightness† and she recognizes her cousins as being closer to the Anglophile standards instilled in her, quelling the resistance against their denigration that was still available to her when she drew her world view and strength from Tantie’s cultural orb.† In this new world which is different from the world of Tantie, all that represents the African culture is denigrated and shown to be insignificant. Aunt Beatrice in every way makes Tee feels that the white world and culture is supreme and the clothes she had brought is seen as ‘niggery’ and everything connected with Europeans is adorned and there is the example of the photograph of the ‘white ancestress: â€Å"Such veneration of â€Å"white blood† illustrates that Aunt Beatrice does not merely admire and strive to emulate English culture, but that her Anglophilia is ultimately rooted in racist and Darwinist beliefs in the superiority of bloodlines and â€Å"races.† Thus, in her eyes, African ancestry in and of itself is a liability, not merely African culturally acquired styles and behaviors. This explains her manic attempt to erase everything in herself, in her daughters, and in Tee, reminiscent of such ancestry†. She is in a way trying to ali enate the Caribbean culture in Tee just as Mr. Hinds had tried to do. Tee is made to feel alienated from the world she used to know. In this new world she is made to feel powerless and she feels that she cannot cope when she has to speak or when she dresses as she cannot and is not fully accepted in this Europeanized world of her cousins: â€Å"As Ketu Katrak has said, â€Å"Beatrice cultivates bourgeois values that despise blackness in every form — skin color, speech patterns, food† (66), and this is a legacy from which Tee cannot escape†. She does not belong to the culture of Tantie anymore and nor does she belong to the culture of the Aunt Beatrice ad she only feels torn between the two. This is shown when she cannot accept the food brought to her by Tantie and: â€Å"The final scene demonstrates that Tee now lives between the worlds, not belonging to either. Unable ever to be accepted fully into Aunt Beatrice’s household and Englishness, she is also alien to Tantie’s world.† Ketu Katrak says that â€Å"Colonized people’s mental colonization through English language education, British values, and culture result in states of exclusion and alienation. Such alienations are experienced in conditions of mental exile within one’s own culture to which, given one’s education, one un-belongs.† (62) Tee has received an education and a western culture which is very much unlike the culture of Tantie and which in a way makes her feel the dullness of her Caribbean culture and of Tantie’s world. Tee feels alienated and marginalized since the time she has started to learn the European culture and she did not feel this before in Tantie’s household. Tee’s alienation leads her to hopelessness and feelings that she is unworthy of living: â€Å"(Thorpe 37): â€Å"I wanted to shrink, to disappear. . . . I felt that the very sight of me was an affront to common decency. I wished that my body could shrivel up and fall away, that I could step out new and acceptable† (97). Though she does not actually contemplate killing herself, her self-hatred and eagerness to assimilate are the cultural equivalent of suicide.† Tee is found without a culture and ‘Aunt Beatrice’s self-negating and self-hating cultural influence’ on her seems to destroy her identity. Tee is unable to live in both culture and the novel: â€Å"thus ends on an ironic note: to save Tee, who is unable to return to the Caribbeanness she has known in Tantie’s household through having become socialized in the worship of Englishness, Tantie sends her to the ultimate source of this cultural negation: to the metropolis, to England† â€Å"Hodge goes to great pains to portray the cultural bankruptcy of playing monkey to the Great White Ancestor. In this important respect, the narrative, which in the fiction a mature Tee relates, places considerable vaule on the vulnerable African oral culture that so easily succumbs to the power of the written†. Crick Crack Monkey ending gives us a hope for Tee who goes to London and â€Å"The goal of the novel, it seems, is not to idealize a lost African past but to reveal the cultural sovereignty of Trinidad.† BIBLIOGRAPHY: Web sites: * BILL CLEMENTE: The A, B, C’s of Alienation and Re-Integration : Merle Hodge’S Crick Crack Monkey * httpClemente.htm * httpcrick crack monkey study guide.htm * The Two Worlds of the Child: A study of the novels of three West Indian writers; Jamaica Kincaid, Merle Hodge, and George Lamming * httpJamaica Kincaid, Merle Hodge, George Lamming.htm * Two Postcolonial Childhoods:Merle Hodge’s Crick Crack, Monkey and Simi Bedford’s Yoruba Girl Dan * http Jouvert 6_1 – 2 Martin Japtok, Two Postcolonial Childhoods Merle Hodge’s Crick Crack, Monkey and Simi Bedford’s Yoruba Girl Dancing.htm * http merle.htm books: * HODGE ,MERLE. Crick Crack, Monkey. Andre Deutsch, 1970; London: Heinemann, 1981; Paris: Karthala, 1982 (trans. Alice Asselos-Cherdieu). Lectures: * Lectures by Mrs. MAHADAWO on Island Literatures.