A Dirty Job Chapter 16

16 THE CALL OF BOOTY II: REQUIEM FOR A FUCK PUPPET Ray threw the door open so hard that the little bell went flying off its holder and tinkled across the floor. â€Å"Oh, jeez,† Ray said. â€Å"You won't believe it. I can't believe it myself.† Lily looked at Ray over her half-frame reading glasses and set down the French cookbook she'd been looking at. She didn't really need reading glasses, but looking over the top of them conveyed instant condescension and disdain, a look that she felt flattered her. â€Å"I have something I need to tell you, too,† Lily said. â€Å"No,† Ray said, looking around to make sure there were no customers in the store. â€Å"What I have to tell you is really important.† â€Å"Okay,† Lily said. â€Å"Mine's not that important to me. You go first.† â€Å"Okay.† Ray took a deep breath and launched. â€Å"I think Charlie may be a serial killer with ninja powers.† â€Å"Wow, that is good,† Lily said. â€Å"Okay, my turn. A Miss Me-So-Horny called for you. She wanted you to know that she's packing eight inches of luscious man-meat.† Lily held up Ray's cell phone, which he'd left under the register. â€Å"Oh my God, not again!† Ray cradled his head in his hands and fell against the counter. â€Å"She said she was eager to share it with you.† Lily examined her nails. â€Å"So, Asher's a ninja, huh?† Ray looked up. â€Å"Yes, and he's stalking a fuck puppet from my gym.† â€Å"Think you're living a rich enough fantasy life, Ray?† â€Å"Shut up, Lily, this is a disaster. My job and my apartment depend on Charlie, not to mention that he has a kid, and the new light of my life is a guy.† â€Å"No, she's not.† Lily wondered about herself, giving in so early – she didn't enjoy torturing Ray the way she used to. â€Å"Huh? What?† â€Å"I'm just fuckin' with you, Ray. She didn't call. I read all of your e-mail and IMs.† â€Å"That stuff is private.† â€Å"Which is why you have it all here on the store's computer?† â€Å"I spend a lot of time here, with the time difference†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"And speaking of privacy, what's the deal with Asher being a ninja and a serial killer? I mean, both? At the same time?† Ray moved in close, and talked into his collar, as if revealing a huge conspiracy. â€Å"I've been watching him. Charlie's been taking in a lot of stuff from dead people. It's gone on for years. But he's always having to take off on a moment's notice, having me cover his shifts, and he never explains where he's going, except soon after that happens, one of the dead people's things shows up in the shop. So today I followed him, and he was after a woman who goes to my gym, who we might have seen the other day.† Lily stepped back, crossed her arms, and looked disgusted with Ray, which was fairly easy, since she'd had years of practice. â€Å"Ray, did it occur to you that Asher handles estates, and that we've been doing much better business since he started doing more estates – that the quality of the merchandise is much higher? Probably because he gets there early?† â€Å"I know, but that's not it. You're not around as much now, Lily. I was a cop, I notice these things. For one thing, did you know that there was a homicide detective keeping track of Charlie? That's right. Gave me his card, told me to call if anything unusual happened.† â€Å"No, Ray, you didn't.† â€Å"Charlie disappeared, Lily. I was watching him, and he just blinked out of existence, right before my eyes. And last I saw him he was going into the fuck puppet's building.† Lily wanted to grab the stapler off the counter and rapidly drive about a hundred staples into Ray's shiny forehead. â€Å"You ungrateful fucktard! You called the cops on Asher? The guy who has given you a job and a place to live for what, ten years?† â€Å"I didn't call the black-and-whites, just this Inspector Rivera. I know him from when I was on the force. He'll keep it on the down low.† â€Å"Go get your checkbook and your car,† Lily barked. â€Å"We're going to bail him out.† â€Å"He probably hasn't even been processed yet,† Ray said. â€Å"Ray, you pathetic toss-beast. Go. I'll close up the store and wait for you out front.† â€Å"Lily, you can't talk to me that way. I don't have to put up with it.† Because he couldn't turn his head, Ray wasn't able to avoid the first two staples Lily put in his forehead, but by then he had decided it was best to go get his checkbook and his car, and backed away. â€Å"What's a fuck puppet, anyway?† Lily shouted after him, somewhat surprised at the violent intensity of her loyalty to Charlie. The policewoman fingerprinted Charlie nine times before she looked up at Inspector Alphonse Rivera and said, â€Å"This motherfucker got no fingerprints.† Rivera took Charlie's hand and turned it palm up, and looked at his fingers. â€Å"I can see the ridges, right there. He's got completely normal fingerprints.† â€Å"Well, you do it, then,† said the woman. â€Å"‘Cause alls I got on the card is smooth.† â€Å"Fine, then,† Rivera said. â€Å"Come with me.† He led Charlie over to a wall that had a big ruler painted on it and told him to face a camera. â€Å"How's my hair?† Charlie said. â€Å"Don't smile.† Charlie frowned. â€Å"Don't make a face. Just look straight ahead and – your hair is fine, though now you've got ink on your forehead. This is not that hard, Mr. Asher, criminals do this all the time.† â€Å"I'm not a criminal,† Charlie said. â€Å"You broke into a security building and harassed a young woman, that makes you a criminal.† â€Å"I didn't break into anything and I didn't harass anyone.† â€Å"We'll see. Ms. McKerny said you threatened her life. She's definitely going to press charges, and if you ask me, you're both lucky I showed up when I did.† Charlie wondered about that. The fuck puppet had started screaming and backed into her apartment, and he had followed her, trying to explain, trying to figure out how this was going to work, and at the same time paying way too much attention to her breasts. â€Å"I didn't threaten her.† â€Å"You said she was going to die. Today.† Well, they had him there. Charlie had, in all the confusion and screaming, mentioned that he had to get hold of her breasts because she was going to die today. In retrospect, he felt he probably should have kept that information to himself. Rivera led him upstairs and into a small room with a table and two chairs. Just like on TV, Charlie looked for a one-way mirror but was disappointed to see only concrete-block walls painted in easy-clean moss-green enamel. Rivera had him sit, but then went to the door. â€Å"I'm going to leave you here for a few minutes, until Miss McKerny comes down to file charges. It's more hospitable here than the holding cell. You want something to drink?† Charlie shook his head. â€Å"Should I call an attorney?† â€Å"It's up to you, Mr. Asher. That's certainly your right, but I can't advise you one way or another. I'll be back in five. You can make your call then if you'd like.† Rivera left the room and Charlie saw the inspector's partner, a gruff, bald-headed bull of a guy named Cavuto, standing outside the door waiting for him. That guy actually scared Charlie. Not as much as the prospect of having to retrieve Madison McKerny's breast implants, or what would happen if he didn't, but still scary. Cut him loose,† Cavuto said. â€Å"What, cut him loose? I just got him processed, the McKerny woman – â€Å" â€Å"Is dead. Boyfriend shot her, then, when our guys responded to the shots-fired call, did himself.† â€Å"What?† â€Å"Boyfriend was married, McKerny wanted more security and was going to tell the wife. He flipped out.† â€Å"You know all that already?† â€Å"Her neighbor told the uniforms as soon as they arrived. Come on, it's our case. We need to roll. Cut this guy loose. Ray Macy and some Goth-chef chick are waiting for him downstairs.† â€Å"Ray Macy is the one who called me, he thought Asher was going to kill her.† â€Å"I know. Right crime, wrong guy. Let's go.† â€Å"We still have him on the concealed-weapon charge.† â€Å"A cane with a sword in it? What, you want to go before a judge and tell him that you arrested this guy on suspicion of being a serial killer but he plea-bargained it down to being a huge fucking nerd?† â€Å"Okay, I'll cut him loose, but I'm telling you, Nick, this guy told McKerny that she was going to die today. There's some weird shit going on here.† â€Å"And we don't have enough weird shit to deal with already?† â€Å"Good point,† Rivera said. Madison McKerny looked beautiful in her beige silk dress, her hair and makeup perfect, as usual, her diamond-stud earrings and a platinum-diamond solitaire necklace complemented the silver handles of her walnut-burl casket. For someone who wasn't breathing, she was breathtaking, especially for Charlie, who was the only one who could see her hooters pulsing red in the casket. Charlie hadn't been to a lot of funerals, but Madison McKerny's seemed nice, and fairly well attended for someone who had been only twenty-six. It turned out that Madison had grown up in Mill Valley, just outside San Francisco, so a lot of people had known her. Evidently, except for her family, most of them had lost touch and seemed somewhat surprised that she had been gunned down by her married boyfriend who had kept her in an expensive apartment in the city. â€Å"Not like you vote ‘most likely' for that in the yearbook,† Charlie said, trying to make conversation with one of her classmates, a guy he'd ended up standing next to at the urinals in the men's room. â€Å"How did you know Madison?† said the guy, a condescending tone in his voice. He looked like he'd been voted â€Å"most likely to piss everyone off by being rich and having nice hair.† â€Å"Oh, me? Friend of the groom,† Charlie said. He zipped up and headed to the sink before hair guy could think of something to say. Charlie was surprised to see a few people at the funeral whom he knew, and each time he walked away from one, he'd run into another. First Inspector Rivera, who lied. â€Å"Had to come. It's our case. I've gotten to know the family a little.† Then Ray, who lied. â€Å"She went to my gym. I just thought I should pay my respects.† Then Rivera's partner, Cavuto, who didn't lie. â€Å"I still think you're kinky, and that goes for your ex-cop friend, too.† And Lily, who was also honest. â€Å"I wanted to see a dead fuck puppet.† â€Å"Who's running the store?† Charlie asked. â€Å"Closed. Death in the family. You know Ray called the cops on you, right?† They hadn't had a chance to talk since Charlie had been released. â€Å"I should've figured,† Charlie said. â€Å"He said he saw you go into the dead chick's building and just disappear. He thinks you have ninja powers. That part of the thing?† She bounced her eyebrows – a Groucho Marx conspiracy bounce – made less effective by the fact that her eyebrows were pencil thin and drawn on in magenta. â€Å"Yeah, it's kind of part of the thing. Ray doesn't suspect about the thing, does he?† â€Å"No, I covered for you. But he still thinks you might be a serial killer.† â€Å"I thought he might be a serial killer.† Lily shuddered. â€Å"God, you guys need to get laid.† â€Å"True, but right now I'm here to do a thing regarding the thing.† â€Å"You still haven't gotten her thing thing?† â€Å"I can't even figure out how to get it. Her thing is still in the thing.† He nodded to the casket. â€Å"You're fucked,† Lily said. â€Å"We have to go sit now,† Charlie said. He led her into the chapel, where the service was beginning. Behind him Nick Cavuto, who had been standing three feet away with his back to Charlie, made a beeline for his partner and said, â€Å"Can we just shoot Asher and find cause later? I'm sure the fucker's done something to deserve it.† Charlie didn't know what he was going to do, how he was going to retrieve the soul implants, but he really thought something would occur to him. Some supernatural ability would manifest itself at the last minute. He thought that all through the ceremony. He thought that when they closed the casket, during the funeral procession to the cemetery, and all through the graveside ceremony. He began to lose hope as the mourners dispersed and the casket was lowered, and by the time the ground crew started throwing dirt down the hole with a backhoe, he'd pretty much given up on having an idea. There was grave robbing, but that really wasn't an idea, was it? And even with his years of experience in the death-dealing business, Charlie didn't think he was up for breaking into a cemetery, spending all night digging up a casket, then cutting the implants out of a dead woman's body. It wasn't the same as swiping a vase off the mantel. Why couldn't Madison McKerny's soul be in a vase on the mantel? â€Å"Didn't get the thing, then,† said a voice beside him. Charlie turned to see Inspector Rivera standing not a foot away. He hadn't even seen him since they'd left the funeral home. â€Å"What thing?† â€Å"Yeah, what thing?† Rivera said. â€Å"They didn't bury her with those diamonds you saw, you know that, right?† â€Å"That would have been a shame,† Charlie said. â€Å"Sisters got them,† Rivera said. â€Å"You know, Charlie, most people don't stay to watch them actually cover the box.† â€Å"Really?† Charlie said. â€Å"I was just curious. See if they used shovels or what. How about you?† â€Å"Me? I'm watching you. You ever get over that thing with the storm sewers?† â€Å"Oh, that? I just needed a little adjustment in my medication.† It was an expression that Charlie had picked up from Jane. She wasn't actually on medication, but the excuse seemed to work for her. â€Å"Well, you keep an eye on that, Charlie. And I'll keep an eye on you. Adios.† Rivera walked off. â€Å"Adios, Inspector,† Charlie said. â€Å"Hey, by the way, nice suit.† â€Å"Thanks, I bought it from your store,† Rivera said without turning around. When was he in my store? Charlie thought. For the next couple of weeks Charlie felt as if someone had dialed his nervous system up past the recommended voltage and he was nearly vibrating with anxiety. He thought that perhaps he should call Minty Fresh, warn him of his failure to retrieve Madison McKerney's soul vessel, but if the sewer harpies weren't rising because of that, maybe the contact with another Death Merchant would put them over the top. Instead he kept Sophie home and made sure that she was never out of sight of the hellhounds. In fact, he kept the hellhounds locked in her room most of the time; otherwise they kept dragging him to his day planner, which had no new names. Only the overdue Madison McKerny and the two women – Esther Johnson and Irena Posokovanovich – who had appeared on the same day, but still had some time left before expiration – or whatever you called it. So he started his walks again, listening as he passed storm drains and manhole covers, but the darkness didn't appear to be rising. Charlie felt naked walking the street without his sword-cane, which Rivera had kept, so he set out to replace it, and in the process found two more Death Merchants in the city. He found the first at a used-book store in the Mission, Book 'em Danno. Well, it wasn't really a bookstore anymore – it still had a couple of tall cases of books, but the rest of the store was a bricolage of bric-a-brac, from plumbing fittings to football helmets. Charlie understood completely how it happened. You started with a bookstore, then you made a single innocent trade, a set of bookends for a first edition maybe, then another, you picked up a grab-all box at a yard sale to get one item – pretty soon you had a whole section of unmatched crutches and obsolete radio tubes, and couldn't for the life of you remember how you'd acquired a bear trap, yet there it was, next to the lime-green tutu and the Armadrillo penis pump: secondhand out of hand. In the back of the store, by the counter, stoo d a bookcase in which every volume was pulsing with a dull red light. Charlie tripped over a spittoon and caught himself on an elk-antler coatrack. â€Å"You okay?† asked the proprietor, looking up from the book he was reading. He was maybe sixty, skin spotted from too much sun, but he hadn't seen any in a while and he'd gone pasty. He had long, thinning gray hair and wore oversized bifocals that gave him the look of an educated turtle. â€Å"No, I'm fine,† Charlie said, ripping his gaze off the soul-vessel books. â€Å"I know it's a little cluttered in here,† the turtle guy said. â€Å"I've been meaning to clear it out, but then, I've been meaning to clear it out for thirty years and I haven't managed it yet.† â€Å"It's okay, I like your store,† Charlie said. â€Å"Great selection.† The owner looked at Charlie's expensive suit and shoes and squinted. It was clear he recognized the worth of the clothes and was qualifying Charlie as a rich collector or antiques hunter. â€Å"You looking for anything special?† he asked. â€Å"Sword-cane,† Charlie said. â€Å"Doesn't have to be antique.† He wanted to buy this guy a coffee and share stories of snatching soul objects, of confronting the Underworlders, of being a Death Merchant. This guy was a kindred spirit, and from the size of his collection of soul objects, all of them books, he'd been doing this longer than Minty Fresh. Turtle guy shook his head. â€Å"Haven't seen one for years. If you want to give me a card, I'll put out feelers for you.† â€Å"Thanks,† Charlie said. â€Å"I'll keep looking. That's part of the fun.† He started backing down the aisle, but he couldn't leave without saying something else, getting some kind of information. â€Å"Hey, how is it, doing business in this neighborhood?† â€Å"Better now than it used to be,† said the guy. â€Å"The gangs have settled down some, this part of the Mission has turned into the edgy, artsy-fartsy neighborhood. That's been good for business. You from the City?† â€Å"Born and raised,† Charlie said. â€Å"Just haven't been to this neighborhood much. You haven't had any weird stuff on the street last couple of weeks, then?† The turtle guy looked fully at Charlie now, even took off his giant glasses. â€Å"Except for the thumper sound systems going by, quiet as a mouse. What's your name?† â€Å"Charlie. Charlie Asher. I live over in the North Beach – Chinatown area.† â€Å"I'm Anton, Charlie. Anton Dubois. Nice meeting you.† â€Å"Okay,† Charlie said. â€Å"I have to go now.† â€Å"Charlie. There's a pawnshop off Fillmore Street. Fulton and Fillmore, I think. The owner carries a lot of edged weapons. She might have your cane.† â€Å"Thanks,† Charlie said. â€Å"You watch yourself, Anton. Okay?† â€Å"Always do,† said Anton Dubois, and he looked back to his book. Charlie left the store feeling even more anxious, but not quite as alone as he had five minutes before. The next day, he found a new sword-cane at the pawnshop in the Fillmore, and he also found a case of cutlery and kitchen utensils that pulsated with red light. The owner was younger than Anton Dubois, late thirties maybe, and wore a.38 revolver in a shoulder holster, which shocked Charlie less than the fact that she was a woman. He'd envisioned all the Death Merchants as being men, but of course there was no reason to think that. She wore jeans and a plain chambray shirt, but was dripping with mismatched jewelry that Charlie guessed was a self-indulgence she justified for being â€Å"in the business† the same way he justified his expensive suits. She was pretty in a lady-cop sort of way, with a nice smile, and Charlie found himself wondering if he should maybe ask her out, then heard an audible pop in his head as that bubble of self-destructive stupidity exploded. Sure, dinn er and a movie, and release the Forces of Darkness on the world. Great first date. Everyone was right, he really needed to get laid. He bought the sword-cane for cash, without quibbling, and left the store without engaging the owner in conversation, but he took a business card from the holder on the counter as he left. Her name was Carrie Lang. It was all he could do to not warn her, tell her to be careful of what might be coming from below, but he realized that every second he was there, he was probably increasing the danger to all of them. Watch yourself, Carrie, he whispered to himself as he walked away. That evening he decided to take action to ease some of the tension in his life. Or at least it was decided for him when Jane and her girlfriend Cassandra showed up at the apartment and offered to watch Sophie. â€Å"Go, find a woman,† Jane said. â€Å"I got the kid.† â€Å"It doesn't work that way,† Charlie said. â€Å"I was gone all day, I haven't spent any quality time with my daughter.† Jane and Cassandra – an athletic, attractive redhead in her midthirties, who Charlie promised himself he would have asked out if she hadn't been living with his sister – pushed him out the door, slammed it in his face, and locked it. â€Å"Don't come home until you've gotten some,† Jane shouted over the transom. â€Å"Does that work for you?† Charlie shouted back. â€Å"Just go find someone to do you, like a scavenger hunt?† â€Å"Here's five hundred dollars. Five hundred dollars works for anyone.† A wad of bills came flying over the transom, followed by his cane, a sport coat, and his wallet. â€Å"This is my money, isn't it?† Charlie shouted. â€Å"It's you that needs to get laid,† Jane shouted back. â€Å"Go. Don't come back until you've done the dance of the beast with two backs.† â€Å"I could just lie.† â€Å"No, you can't,† Cassie said. She had a sweet voice, like you'd want her to tell you a bedtime story. â€Å"The desperation will still show in your eyes. And I mean that in a nice way, Charlie.† â€Å"Sure, how else could I take it?† â€Å"Bye, Daddy,† Sophie said from the other side of the door. â€Å"Have fun.† â€Å"Jane!† â€Å"Relax, she just came in. Go.† So Charlie, thrown out of his own home, by his own sister, said good-bye to the daughter he adored and went out to find a total stranger with whom to be intimate. Just a massage,† Charlie said. â€Å"Okay,† said the girl as she arranged oils and lotions on a shelf. She was Asian, but Charlie couldn't tell from where in Asia, maybe Thailand. She was petite and had black hair that hung down past her waist. She wore a red silk kimono with a chrysanthemum design. She never looked him in the eye. â€Å"Really, I'm just tense. I don't want anything but a completely ethical and hygienic massage, just like it says on the sign.† Charlie stood at the end of a narrow cubicle, fully dressed, with a massage table on one side of him and the masseuse and her shelf of oils on the other. â€Å"Okay,† said the girl. Charlie just looked at her, unsure of what to do next. â€Å"Clothes off,† said the girl. She placed a clean white towel on the massage table near Charlie, nodded to it, then turned her back. â€Å"Okay?† â€Å"Okay,† Charlie said, feeling now that he was here, he needed to go through with it. He'd paid the woman at the door fifty dollars for the massage, after which she made him sign a release that stated that all he was getting was a massage, that tipping was encouraged, but did not imply any services beyond a massage, and that if he thought that he was getting anything but a massage he was going to be one disappointed White Devil. She made him initial each of the six languages it was printed in, then she winked, a long slow wink, exaggerated by very long false eyelashes, and performed the internationally accepted blow-job mime, with round mouth and rhythmic tongue pushing out the cheek. â€Å"Lotus Flower make you bery relax, Mr. Macy.† Charlie had signed Ray's name, not so much as a small revenge for calling the cops on him, but because he thought the management might recognize Ray's name and give him a discount. He kept his boxers on and climbed on the table, but Lotus Flower slipped them off him as deftly as a magician pulling a scarf from his sleeve. She draped a towel over his bottom and dropped her kimono. Charlie saw it fall and glanced back to see a tiny, seminaked woman rubbing oil on her palms to warm it. He looked away and slammed his forehead into the table several times even as he felt his erection struggling for freedom beneath him. â€Å"My sister made me come here,† he said. â€Å"I didn't want to come.† â€Å"Okay,† she said. She rubbed the oil into his shoulders. It smelled of almonds and sandalwood. There must have been menthol or lavender or something in it, because he felt it tingle on his skin. Every place she touched hurt. Like he'd dug a ditch to Ecuador the day before, or pulled a barge across the Bay with a rope. It was like she had special sensory powers, she could find the exact spot where he carried his pain, then touch it, release it. He moaned, just a little. â€Å"Bery tense,† she said, working her fingers up his spine. â€Å"I haven't slept well in two weeks,† he said. â€Å"That nice.† She reached across to work his rib cage and he felt her small breasts press against his back. He stopped breathing for a second and she giggled. â€Å"Bery tense,† she said. â€Å"I had this thing happen at work. Well, not at work, but I'm afraid I did something that could put everyone I know in danger, and I can't make myself do what needs to be done to fix it. People could die.† â€Å"That nice,† said Lotus Flower, kneading his biceps. â€Å"You don't speak English, do you?† â€Å"Oh. Little. No worries. You want happy ending?† Charlie smiled. â€Å"Can you just keep rubbing?† â€Å"No happy ending? Okay. Twenty dollar, fifteen minute.† So Charlie paid her, and talked to her, and she rubbed his back, and he paid her again, and he told her all the things that he couldn't share with other people: all the worries, all the fears, all the regrets. He told her of how he missed Rachel, yet how sometimes he would forget what she looked like and would run to the dresser in the middle of the night to look at her photo. He paid her for two hours in advance and dozed off, feeling her hands on his skin, and he dreamed of Rachel and sex, and when he woke up Lotus Flower was massaging his temples and tears were running into his ears. He told her it was the menthol in the oil, but it was the lonely coming up in him, like the pain in his back that he hadn't known he'd had until it was touched. She massaged his chest, reaching over his head and letting her breasts rub against his face as she worked, and when he rose again under the towel, she asked, â€Å"You want happy ending now?† â€Å"Nah,† he said. â€Å"Happy endings are so Hollywood.† Then he caught her wrists, sat up, kissed the back of her hands, and thanked her. He tipped her a hundred dollars. She smiled, put on her kimono, and left the cubicle. Charlie dressed and left the Happy Relax Good Time Oriental Massage Parlor, which he had walked by a thousand times during his life, always wondering what was behind the red door with brown paper taped over the window. Now he knew: the pathetic puddle of lonely frustration that was Charlie Asher, for whom there would be no happy ending. He made his way up to Broadway and headed up the hill into North Beach. He was only a few blocks from home when he sensed someone behind him. He turned, but all he saw was a guy a couple of blocks back buying a newspaper from a machine. He walked another half block and could see the activity on the street up ahead: tourists out walking, waiting for tables in Italian restaurants, barkers trying to lure tourists into strip clubs, sailors barhopping, hipsters smoking outside of City Lights bookstore, looking cool and literary before the next poetry slam, which would go off in a bar across the street. â€Å"Hey, soldier,† a voice at his side. A woman's voice, soft and sexy. Charlie turned and looked down the alley he was passing. He could see a woman in the shadows, leaning against the wall. She was wearing an iridescent body stocking or something and a mercury light at the other end of the alley was drawing a silver outline of her figure. The hair rose on his neck, but he felt something twinge in his loins as well. This was his neighborhood, and the hookers had been calling to him since he was twelve, but this was the first time he'd ever stopped and paid more attention than a wave and a smile. â€Å"Hey,† Charlie said. He felt dizzy – drunk or stoned – maybe all the toxins had broken loose from the long massage, but he had to lean on his cane to steady himself. She stepped away from the wall and the light silhouetted her, highlighting outlandish curves. Charlie realized he was grinding his teeth and his right kneecap began to bounce. This was not the street-worn body of a junkie – a dancer maybe, a goddess. â€Å"Sometimes,† she said, hissing the last s, â€Å"a rough fuck down a dark alley is the best medicine for a weary warrior.† Charlie looked around: the party a block ahead, the guy reading his newspaper under the streetlamp two blocks back. No one down the alley waiting to ambush him. â€Å"How much?† he asked. He couldn't even remember what sex felt like, but all he could think about right now was release – a rough fuck down a dark alley with this†¦this goddess. He couldn't see her face, just the line of a cheekbone, but that was exquisite. â€Å"The pleasure of your company,† she said. â€Å"Why me?† Charlie said, he couldn't help himself – it was his Beta nature. â€Å"Come find out,† she said. She cupped her breasts, fell back against the wall, and propped one heel up on the bricks. â€Å"Come.† He walked into the alley and leaned the cane on the wall, then took her uplifted knee in one hand, a breast in the other, and pulled her against him for a kiss. She felt like she was wearing velvet, her mouth was warm and tasted base, gamy, like venison or liver. He didn't even feel her undo his jeans, just a strong hand on his erection. â€Å"Ah, strong meat,† she hissed. â€Å"Thanks, I've been going to the gym.† She bit his neck, hard, and he squeezed her breast and thrust against her hand. She threw her uplifted leg around his back and pulled him hard against her. He felt something sharp, painful digging into his scrotum and he tried to pull away. She pulled him tighter with her leg. She was incredibly strong. â€Å"New Meat,† she said. â€Å"Don't fight me or I'll tear them off.† Charlie felt the claw on his balls and the breath caught in his throat. Her face was an inch from his now, and he looked for her eyes, but could see only an obsidian blackness reflecting the highlights from the streetlight. She held her free hand in front of his face and he watched as claws began to grow out of her fingertips, reflecting the streetlight like brushed chrome, until they were three inches long. She poised them over his eyes and he reached for his sword-cane against the wall. She knocked it away, and the claws were at his face again. â€Å"Oh no, Meat. Not this time.† She hooked a claw into his nostril. â€Å"Shall I drive it into your brain? That would be quickest, but I don't want quick. I've waited so long for this.† She released the pressure on his balls, and to his horror, he realized that he was still hard. She started rubbing his erection, pushing the claw deeper into his nose to hold him steady. â€Å"I know, I know – when you come, I'll put it in your ear and yank. I've taken off a half a man's head that way. You'll like it. You're lucky, if Nemain had been sent you'd be dead already.† â€Å"Bitch,† Charlie managed to say. She was stroking him harder and he was cursing his body for betraying him this way. He tried to pull away and her leg wrapped behind him crushed the breath out of him. â€Å"No, you come, then I'll kill you.† She pulled the claw from his nose and put it next to his ear. â€Å"Don't make me leave unsatisfied, Meat,† she said, but in that instant her claw caught the side of his scalp and he hit her as hard as he could in the ribs with both of his fists. â€Å"You fuckface!† she shrieked. She let her leg fall; yanked him aside by his penis, and reared back for a full slash of her claws to his head. Charlie tried to raise his forearm to take the blow, but then there was an explosion and a piece of her shoulder splattered on the wall, spinning her around. Charlie felt her release his penis, and he threw himself across the alley. She rebounded off the wall with both claws aimed at his face. There was another explosion and she was knocked back again. This time she came up facing the street, and before she could brace to leap, two more shots hit her in the chest and she screeched, the sound like a thousand angry ravens set afire. Five more quick shots and she was danced backward by the impacts; even as she went she was changing, her arms getting wider, her shoulders smoothing. Two more shots, and the next screech wasn't even remotely human, but that of a huge raven. She rose into the night sky trailing feathers and spattering a liquid that might have been blood, except that it was black. Charlie climbed to his feet and staggered out of the alley to where Inspector Alphonse Rivera was still in shooting stance, holding a 9 mm Beretta aimed at the dark sky. â€Å"Do I even want to know what the fuck that was?† Rivera said. â€Å"Probably not,† Charlie said. â€Å"Tie your coat around your waist,† said the cop. Charlie looked down and saw that the front of his jeans had been shredded as if by razors. â€Å"Thanks,† Charlie said. â€Å"You know,† Rivera said, â€Å"this could have all been avoided if you'd just taken the happy ending like everybody else.†

Cause and Effect Essay Example Essay

What is the leading cause of death in the U.S.? Many people would guess cancer, but they would be wrong. The leading cause of death over the past few years has been heart disease. Last year, heart diseases claimed the lives of more than 600,000 Americans. The most common of these is acute myocardial infarction, better known as a heart attack. Each year, about 720,000 Americans suffer from a heart attack. That averages to almost two thousand heart attack cases a day! So why are there so many heart attacks? The answer is simple: by eating unhealthily, not exercising, and smoking, millions of people put themselves at risk of suffering a heart attack. One of the main causes of a heart attack is an unhealthy diet. Because eating healthily costs more, people turn to cheap fast food instead. This fast food is loaded with cholesterol, an important lipid used in the membranes of cells. However, if a person eats too much cholesterol, the excess begins to build up along the wall of the person’s arteries. This substance, called plaque, inhibits the flow of blood to the heart. Consequentially, the heart has to pump much harder to circulate the blood. An unhealthy diet also leads to high blood pressure which further increases the build up of plaque and other fatty matter in the arteries. All of this plaque causes decreased blood flow to the heart which makes it weaker. Although the decreased flow of blood can cause heart problems later on, the real danger is the risk that a piece of the plaque could break off, leaving a gap. If this happens, red blood cells form a clot on top of the plaque which could result in the blockage of the entire artery, causing a heart attack. Maintaining a healthy diet is one of the best ways to lower the risk of having a heart attack. Another factor that increases the risk of having a heart attack is lack of exercise. The heart is a muscle and like any other muscle, it becomes stronger by exercising. Sadly, many people do not and the heart stays weak. It does not pump as well, leading to decreased capability in the future, and numerous health problems. Exercising also prevents clotting in the arteries, therefore lowering the chances of having the arteries blocked. Lazy people who sit and watch television all day miss out on this benefit, and increase the likelihood of a heart attack. Finally, exercise reduces inflammation in the arteries, optimizing blood flow and reducing the threat of a heart attack. Unfortunately, many people do not take the time to exercise, and they suffer from poor blood flow, inflammation of the arteries, and increased risk of heart problems. By not exercising, people put themselves in danger of suffering a heart attack. Finally, countless heart attacks are caused by smoking. Surprisingly, about one in every five deaths from heart disease is caused by smoking. Everybody knows that smoking leads to breathing issues and lung cancer, but what most people do not realize is that smoking also puts people at a higher risk of having a heart attack. The 4,000 or more poisonous substances in a cigarette harm blood vessels throughout the body, including the heart. They also increase the likelihood of blood clots in the arteries which cause heart attacks. Next, smoking causes the arteries to narrow which reduces blood flow further. This means that it does not take as big of a clot to cause a heart attack. Lastly, the carbon monoxide breathed in from smoking replaces the oxygen that would have been breathed in. The carbon monoxide then binds to the red blood cells and is distributed to the body instead of oxygen. This poisons the whole body, including the heart, and makes it have to do more work to supply the body with oxygen. By smoking these lethal substances, people put themselves in the clutches of the leading cause of death in the world. In a society where the fast-food industry booms, video games replace exercise, and cigarettes litter the streets everywhere, it is not surprising that so many people have heart attacks each year. Many people choose to eat unhealthily, lounge around all day, and smoke, endangering their overall health and putting themselves at risk of a heart attack. However, people always have a choice. Although all these things can cause a heart attack, they are not really the underlying problem. The irresponsible behavior and foolish decisions of people is really behind the leading cause of death in America.

Application for Admission to a Nursing Course

Right from a very young age I had always been interested in alleviating the pain and suffering of those around me. Irrespective of the fact as to whether the person suffering physically was a member of my family, a neighbor or a classmate, I would rush to offer my help and commiserations. My penchant for helping the sick and suffering even extended to animals and birds. There was a price to be paid for all this and it was the obtention of average grades. I graduated from high school in Washington and my grade point average was 2.90. Afterwards, I obtained a grade point average of 3.00 in the Camden County Community College. I had made some improvement in the community college. In addition to helping the injured and the sick, I allocated some time to running a performance car shop business.After some years of this activity, I realized that this was not my calling. My true calling was the nursing profession and after a great deal of careful analysis and planning I decided to make a mea ningful and legitimate foray into nursing.To this end, I decided to obtain a degree in nursing from the Saint Xavier University. I had realized to my great chagrin that in the absence of proper qualification, it would not be possible to realize my ambition of becoming an effective nurse.The Saint Xavier University or the SXU was founded by the Sisters of Mercy in the year 1846. This university has a reputation for the catholicity of its approach towards individuals hailing from different, ethnic, religious and national backgrounds.The fact that this university is sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy is clearly evident, because the nursing course at this university combines a greater amount of sympathy and empathy in contrast to similar courses offered by other universities.After all compassion has always been the hallmark of the Sisters of Mercy (About SXU, 2007). Thus, my ambition to help the sick and injured will be realized if I get admitted to the nursing program at the SXU.Referen cesAbout SXU. (2007). Retrieved October 7, 2007, from Sanit Xavier University: http://www.sxu.edu/about/

Final exam Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Final exam - Research Paper Example I interviewed two of the students who attended the festival, John and Stephen, and they attended the festival because they have a passion for music, particularly the guitar. In the interview, I asked the students about the course they were pursuing at the university, why they attended the festival, how they came to learn about the festival, and whether they would like to have similar festivals in the future. From the responses obtained, both interviewees were pursuing music as a major course, and that they attended the festival because they have a profound passion for music. Additionally, they noted that they learnt about the event through a poster and that they would like to have such events in the future. The turnout of the event was not pleasing and most of the students who attended the event were pursuing Music. This implies that the event was not publicized enough to grant a huge attendance. As a result, future events should be publicized not only through posters but also throug h word of mouth, posters, and announcements in gatherings. Task 2 I visited Nielsen Market Research Company on 2nd May. This was after I had informed the company about my visit and arranged for it. The organization takes immense pride in its focus group facilities. The company allowed me to be part of a focus group. The company’s focus group facilities are structured with the effort of experienced arbitrators and other company clients. The rooms provide a friendly surrounding for face to face interviews. The rooms can allow a capacity of not more than 30 people at a time. After arrival, I was directed to the focus group rooms where I was ushered in and offered a comfortable seat. I was involved in a focus group that aimed at identifying how to position Pepsi’s new low sugar drink. The discussion was controlled by a moderator. The walls were sound proof to avoid interruptions within the company and the room temperatures were controlled. The room was surveyed through cam eras, which I later learnt that the clients were watching us from a lounge within the company premises. Task 3 Product promotion aims at increasing the sales volume of the product. The effectiveness of such a promotion is determined through numerous factors such as increase in sales and recall among the consumers. Measures of the effectiveness of adverts can be direct or indirect. Direct measures aims at determining the relationship between the advert and product sales. Indirect measures determine factors such as product consciousness among the purchasers and customer recall. In the research to determine the effectiveness of condom adverts, the respondents were exposed to numerous questions. They were exposed to the following questions. i. Please name all the condom adverts that you can remember ii. Do you recognize this advert? (after exposure to the advert) iii. How many times have you seen the advert? a. Few b. None c. Many iv. Do you think the advert is relevant? a. Strongly Dis agree b. Disagree c. Agree d. Strongly Agree v. Would you buy the product? The respondents were exposed to the following adverts Advert 1 Advert 2 The

One page summary ISO9000 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

One page summary ISO9000 - Essay Example Various types of documents are required for ISO 9000 certification. Apart from the details of quality management systems, details of management responsibility, resource management, production realization, Measurement, analysis and improvement etc are required to submit by a company if it applies for ISO 9000 certification. The 1994 version of ISO certification emphasized quality assurance via preventive actions, instead of just checking final product whereas the 2000 version of ISO 9000 certification brought the concept of process management front and center (Process management" was the monitoring and optimizing of a companys tasks and activities, instead of just inspecting the final product). ISO does not itself certify organizations; but it provides certification through the accreditation bodies and certification bodies formed in different countries. These bodies charge some fees for giving ISO certification. ISO certification can create a more efficient, effective operation, incre ase customer satisfaction and retention, reduce audits, enhance marketing, improve employee motivation, awareness, and morale, promote international trade, increases profit and reduce waste. At the same time in order to get ISO certification an organization should spent a substantial amount of money, time and also it requires massive paperwork for

Plan organize and deliver group based learning Essay

Plan organize and deliver group based learning - Essay Example I’ve looked at this unit of competency to see how conflict resolution suited and noticed there is an entire section dedicated to it – ‘Deal effectively with issues, problems and conflicts’. I need your urgent help. Can you please provide a training session that deals simply with this issue for my new staff, ASAP. I had noticed there have been a few conflicts between my new and existing staff over various issues and feel this topic needs to be our first priority. I can give you 40 minutes next Tuesday morning to conduct the session. The following information may assist you with delivering this subject: 1. It is hoped that using mutual respect and open communication to discuss the issue that a resolution can be reached. This will include all parties concentrating on the problem and reaching a solution. No personal or derogatory comments from either party will be tolerated. 3. If conflict continues to occur due to this issue, mediation in the form of HR Personnel will be used to have a round-table discussion. If either employee is found to be in breach of the Town & City Cinemas Code of Conduct, reprimand steps will be taken. People should be treated as individuals with rights to be honoured and defended. Respect empowers others to claim their rights and to achieve their potential. Respect for the rights of other people is the basis on which individuals become members of a community and accept their social responsibilities to behave with integrity. The principle of taking personal and professional responsibility requires not only that people avoid doing harm to others but that they exhibit courteous behaviour upholding the standards expected of all members of the organisation as part of achieving a common good. In so doing they are expected to protect the rights of others and respect the diversity of cultures and peoples. Those well-positioned enough to assert their rights

Bird & Bird the Leader in Extensive Legal Services Provision Research Paper

Bird & Bird the Leader in Extensive Legal Services Provision - Research Paper Example It is stated in the case that â€Å"B&B lawyers wanted to be able to access case histories and other legal reference materials online from any of the firm’s 14 offices†. This is one of the highlighted issues that require the attention of the knowledge management (KM) team. Knowledge management system is very important to the business for it usually plays the role of organizing people and generating software and databases by using business expertise and experience. In response to the issue, a development team is created that includes the effort of KM team, information systems specialists and the personnel of 14 offices. The purpose of developing new system demands a team effort in order to meet the purpose of the information system. Another cited issue is all about the â€Å"searching capabilities for finding topic-related content within documents stored in the KM system† (Stair & Reynolds, 2010, p. 478). B&B lawyers are not satisfied with the result provided when using the traditional knowledge search because it generates long lists of results that are not relevant to the answer (Marcinko, n.d.). To address this concern, KM team adapted conceptSearching which is different and more flexible compared to the traditional keyword search. ConceptSearching has the ability to retrieve relevant information in a way that upon entering the natural sentences the nearest searched information is ranked according to relevancy (Chapline & Jytyla, n.d., p. 2). Through the collaboration of KM team, UCLogic and concept searching, a new expert system called â€Å"know-how† has been created. The designed user interface is important to make the usage of KM system easier for the users. The driver for change is B&B’s clients wherein the intention is to share the ways of doing business (White & Flutsch, 2006). Using the internal and external repositories for the new system is risky because there is a possibility that the storage capacity cannot handle the number of documents. Although technology  plays a relevant role in the society nowadays, it can never replace all the intelligence attributes of human beings.  

Major Paper 2500 words - subject religions of asia Essay

Major Paper 2500 words - subject religions of asia - Essay Example g of expansion of open communes, to promote education in Muslim nations, and to recognize and prioritize radical asylums so as to engage with greater efficient in the war against terror. According to certain approximations there is an estimated number of 1.2 billion Muslims globally, and of these around 60% are to be found in Asia. 15% are Arab Muslims and one third of the Muslim population is living in South Asia (Malbouisson, 2006). Islam in Southeast Asia is more temperate in nature as compared to in most of the Middle East. This is partially due to the manner in which Islam has developed in Southeast Asia. Islam was first introduced in Southeast Asia by traders instead of military invasions as was the case in most of South Asia and the Middle East. Buddhist, Hindu, and animist cultures in Indonesia also covered Islam. It was at the end of the seventeenth century that Islam reached most of Southeast Asia. Asian Islam is more politically varied as compared to the Middle Eastern Islam. In Asia Islam has been experiencing a renewal. RAND analyst Angel Rabasa clears out many elements that have contributed to this Islamic revival in Asia. Those factors are national as well as external. Domestically, the influence of globalisation and the effect of western tradition are responsible for it, particularly the influence of speedy industrialization and the resultant urbanization. In 1997 there was the Asian economic disaster due to which the dictatorial Suharto government was overthrown and it resulted in political space for Indonesian Islamists. Muslim nationalist rebels have been continuing their effort in the Philippines and Thailand whereas the Parti Islam se Malaysia has exerted through the political organisation so as to encourage an Islamist programme at the same time as in antagonism in Malaysia. External factors consist of the present circumstance of Iraq and Afghanistan, the Arab-Israeli dispute, the 1979 Islamic transformation in Iran, the taking out of

Theoretical perspective Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Theoretical perspective - Assignment Example haustive assessment, a nurse will understand the unique features and requirement of every family thereby developing an equally unique care plan, one that suits the family. Furthermore, the assessment criteria as propagated by the theory investigates and assesses every possible feature of a family thereby enhancing the process of obtaining holistic information that helps in diagnosing the psychological and physical wellbeing of every individual in a family. The above theory is the most effective in assessing families. It provides a simple assessment mechanism since it investigates basic demographic features. Additionally, the theoretical perspective is exhaustive since it strives to assess every possible feature that would help portray the uniqueness in both the physical and the psychological wellbeing of an individual. This way, a caregiver will understand the nature of the family unit and the factors affecting the health of every member of the family. Cultural care values rely on the uniqueness of the kinship, religious beliefs, language, worldview, politics, economy and technology among other basic factors (Leininger & National League for Nursing, 2001). The theoretical perspective investigates the effects of such factors thereby developing a holistic diagnosis to every individual in the family unit. Such is an exhaustive criteria often not achieved in other theoretical

Robert Wright's The Moral Animal--polygyny Essay

Robert Wright's The Moral Animal--polygyny - Essay Example This difference doesn’t make any sex better than the other. Rather, this difference is necessary for creating attraction in gender for others. Robert defines the woman to be the sex that makes greater contribution towards the sex cell. Owing to having the larger sex cell, it is more precious in the regard of resources, and hence difficult to find also. Women have the capability of nurturing the reproductive cells within them for 20 times while men have far greater capability to initiate the reproduction in women. The reproductive capability of the females is very small that makes the males to compete very much for it. As males can reproduce with one sperm per woman, they will be eager to get attracted to more females. Due to eagerness of men towards their sexual desires, they tend to marry more than one woman that sets the basis for Polygyny. Men are always on the lookout for infertile cells that are more attractive. After sometime from marriage, they start looking for another woman because their first wife is not attractive in her physical shape anymore. The psychology of females is entirely different. They want the effective meeting with men to produce the valuable genes that can result in offspring. They are not eager for number but for effectiveness rather. Women seek partnership with those males who have greater capability to help them in nurturing the offspring. As a result, you can easily correlate the choice of women to the status of men. Thus the desire for women is to seek the mate that can provide security and greater nurturing to the offspring. According to the Robert Wright, the genetic combination should be decided intelligently after properly analyzing the genetic environment and the status of males. After that, the partners have to choose suitable strategy for their reproduction. What females are interested in is â€Å"Male Parental Investment (MPI)†. The more the value of MPI, the securer the woman will feel

Images of Women in Religion - Christian Gnosticism and Buddhism Essay

Images of Women in Religion - Christian Gnosticism and Buddhism - Essay Example The absence of feminine symbolism in modern religious tradition is consistent with an orthodox stance specifically inclined to resist social and political transformations that took place in the second century and resulted in increased prominence of women in all activities of daily life, including religion. Karen Lang builds from the primordial belief that divinity knows no physical boundaries, including gender: â€Å"The early Buddhist and Christian Gnostic assumption that beings once were luminous, incorporeal, and asexual, and that this state of perfection can be regained, motivates their quest for enlightenment†. Buddhism and Gnosticism share the view that humanity’s fall from divine grace springs from earthly desires, such as lust. Women, historically linked with seduction and sexuality, were therefore viewed in Buddhist and Gnostic myths as impure. Female fertility paralleled the earth’s fruitfulness, â€Å"†¦ for they associate the enjoyment of a woman’s sexuality with tasting the earth, or its fruits†. Human imperfection was described through the impurities of women’s bodies, but this was not exclusively meant for women since both religions believed that all human bodies were impure and therefore imperfect. In both cases, owing to a pre eminently egalitarian message with prospects for study, teaching and prominent leadership positions in the community, women were attracted to Buddhist and Gnostic communities. Lang aims to clarify that religious tradition did not always discriminate against women.

Baz Luhrmann and Franco Zeffirellis film Essay Example for Free

Baz Luhrmann and Franco Zeffirellis film Essay Having watched two different film adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, it is clear to see that the two directors have used a number of different techniques, quite differently at times, to put across their particular interpretations of the play. These methods and different interpretations are very obvious if one studies the same scene as portrayed in each film. We looked at Franco Zeffirellis 1970s version of the play and Baz Luhrmanns recent adaptation produced in 1996 and focused on their interpretation of the scene where Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time. The first thing I noticed is that costume is very important in Zeffirellis scene. Juliet, played by Olivia Hussey, is wearing a traditional styled red and gold dress, which highlights wealth. It is not as detailed as most at the party which points to the fact that it is not just material wealth she has but also the huge amount of natural beauty she has. The bright red contrasts with her pale complexion and jet-black hair to make her look very striking. Romeos outfit is also very noticeable as he is wearing a mask. It adds to the air of mystery around him as Juliet meets him for the first time. It also helps to make a point about the nature of their attraction: when she first sees him, Juliet sees only Romeos eyes, yet is still drawn to him. Therefore, here there is something more than physical attraction. Instead, it seems to be a communion of souls since eyes are often considered to be the windows to this part of ourselves. The choreography of the scene also reveals something about Romeos feelings towards Juliet. His attention is fixed upon a lady which we assume to be Rosaline who is dancing and then twirls out of shot to reveal Juliet to R0meo. It is here that he proclaims he has never seen true beauty until now. It is showing to us that although Romeo thought he was in love with Rosaline, it is nothing compared to his feelings for Juliet. When the chance arises for Romeo to join Juliet in a dance, he dismisses other ladies for the opportunity to dance with Juliet. As the dancing gets faster, long shots are used to show the amount of people present at the party. The dancing changes and people begin to spin around in a circle; the camera shots change, letting people flow past the camera at a very high speed. It looks like flashes of colour flying through the shot; no faces can be seen  clearly. The fast dancing reflects the sheer excitement that they are feeling, that they are so in love that it is truly exhilarating. It is here that Franco Zeffirelli shows how love at first sight really can be true as amongst the chaos and frivolity of colour, the camera jump cuts to Romeo to the party of moving colour and to Juliet. He has done this to show how amongst the chaos of their feuding families, they have their own world where no one else matters except each other. When the bard starts to sing, Romeo and Juliet speak for the first time. As they do, the words being sung in the background have a large resemblance to their lives. It tells of their willingness to be together but their struggle to make it possible as they are torn apart by their feuding families. As the choreography reflects the emotions of the characters, the score that plays in the Zeffirelli film reflects their emotions again as when Romeo sees Juliet, he sees her beauty and the score changes to a softer, more gentle tune. Franco Zeffirelli contrasts Romeo and Juliet when they are together with the music. It changes from loud, frantic music to gentle, heavenly tunes, the score changes to a minor key as she is not sure about him and then surges as they kiss. In the play, Shakespeare also juxtaposes scenes that are chaotic with very calm peaceful ones. As I have said, the score changes as Juliet and Romeo are together and in the play, Shakespeare shows their love by constantly comparing scenes with them in to scenes with fighting, frantic happenings and chaos. In Baz Luhrmanns film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, the scene I have studied begins with Romeo played by Leonardo Di Caprio with his face submerged in water, washing his face, which clears his mind of drugs and he sees Juliet in a clearer light. The lovers first meeting is a sequence where each is on either side of a lavish fish tank. The lighting used is a pale blue, making it seem slightly surreal, almost dream like. As Romeo and Juliet playfully look at each other through the tank, camera shots cleverly portray their meeting to look like they are together inside the tank. In this scene, camera distances vary from medium close-shots to close-ups and  back again, their eyes are depicted throughout, as the camera shots change, it portrays them watching each other, discovering each other every feature, every move. The idea of social and physical barriers is presented by having the fish tank between the two of them, keeping them apart thus visualizing to the audience the other aspect of Romeo and Juliets love. The fish tank serves as a physical barrier between the two lovers, even though there are also a lot of emotional barriers. Even though Romeo is dazed from the ecstasy pill and his infatuation with Rosaline, it is the water that purifies and cleanses his mind and it the free, flowing nature of water that Luhrmann uses as a representation of love. When the two lovers kiss in the lift, the cameras encircle them, thus suggesting that Romeo and Juliet are at the centre of their own universe, in total disregard or lack of awareness of the social chaos as suggested by the blurred images around them. The way in which the imagery of water is used to symbolise their own world, camera shots, lighting and music also add to the depth of their love. The beautiful melody of Kissing You marks the initial meeting of Romeo and Juliet, and Desrees deep, soulful voice glides gently through the house as the strangers playfully observe each other through the fish tank. The score is a brave and eclectic mix of atmospheric music from Radioheads Talk Show Host to Wagners Liebstod. The emphasis is on music that is emotive and suitable for a particular scene rather than creating a soundtrack rooted in one genre as in the Zeffirelli adaptation. The Capulet Ball is one of the most outstanding sequences in the movie. The decorations are spectacular, and the costumes are magnificent. However, the party is not all just glitz and glamour. Upon closer investigation, we can see that it is also a perfect opportunity for Luhrmann to accentuate the individual motivations of the characters with clever use of costumes. Romeo is the knight in shining armour who has been sent to rescue Juliet, and Juliet is a bright angel, innocent and pure, who has been sent to relieve Romeos confusion and despair. Luhrmann supplements this image by showing Romeo and Juliet as innocent, beautiful and youthful. This is achieved by the continuous focus of the cameras on the freshness of their skin, their  sparkling eyes, flushed cheeks and pink lips in addition to the words of Shakespeare. In conclusion, these two films, although based upon the same play, come across very differently. The fact that Franco Zeffirelli has set his in the time Shakespeare intended it to and Baz Luhrmann has set his in 20th century Verona beach, Florida has a considerable amount to do with these differences. It is interesting to see that both directors have used the concept of the young couple existing in their own world, although both of them use different techniques to present this, their outcome is visualised to the viewer the same. Baz Luhrmann has had certain advantages to his film as he had technology to help him portray the initial meaning in a more dream like manner with the help of special lighting and specific camera shots. Also, this adaptation was a major Hollywood blockbuster with millions of dollars to be spent on it. Whereas, 40 years ago, I imagine that Franco Zeffirelli would have had to deal with a budget and obviously, did not have the technology to portray special effect s and sounds.

National Integration in Pakistan

National Integration in Pakistan To combine and bring together all the people of a country is known as national integration. It is a feeling which combines all the people irrespective of their colour, race, caste, region and religion etc. It is the only force with the help of which all types of people live together peacefully and considering themselves the members of single whole. 1 THE STATE OF NATIONAL INTEGRATION IN PAKISTAN Pakistan is facing the problem of national integration since its creation. The lack of national integration is a big problem. Owing to the absence of national integration Pakistan has been pushed to cruel circle. It has made Pakistan a sorry state of affairs, and has made Pakistan the centre of terrorist activities. Due to this problem Pakistan has become an instable and vulnerable state and a total breakdown of state machinery. This was not the problem at first. Pakistan was the result of integration on the basis of Islam. Unfortunately after the death of Quaid-e-Azam the country was isolated. National integration faced too many problems. At this rate, income inequalities, social injustice, political blow and other evils raised their heads. All of these made national integration weak and fragile. There is lack of consensus on important national issues in Pakistan. For that reason the provinces hate each other. The Punjab is being accused by the rest of three provinces i.e. Sindh, Kh yber Pukhtunkhwa and Baluchistan for exploiting their resources and not paying there just share. Sindh, Baluchistan, and Khyber Pukhtunkhwa are against the construction of Kala Bagh dame while Punjab wants to construct it. On the issue of NFC award the three provinces having the same reservation from Punjab. There are too much hurdles and difficulties in the way of national integration of Pakistan. It is necessary to vanish the sentiments of regionalism or provincialism languisticism or communalism etc. Some of the important reasons of the failure of national integration of Pakistan are as below: CRISIS OF LEADERSHIP After the death of Quaid-e-Azam there was hardly any leader upon whom the nation could be united. Every leader prefers his personal interest rather than national interest. They built up economic assets on illegal means. Thus they exploited the national purse on the coast of national interest and promoted personal interests. Therefore national integration remained weak and fragile.2 ECONOMIC DISPARITIES There is a big gap between rich and poor. The system of Pakistan has been structured such that the gulf between poor and rich become widen with the every passing day. Rich become richer and the poor become poorer and poorer. It strengthens the upper and privileged class of society. It never cares of the lower class of the society. Thus the economic inequalities led towards the weakness of the national integration.3 PROVINCIAL BIASES AND SOCIAL INJUSTICE Beside the lack of social justice and provincial biases are posing a threat to the basic existence of the country. It leads towards the destabilization of the state and shaking the basis of national integration of the country. The smaller provinces have developed the sense of deprivation. They think that they have been deprived of their just share in the national exchequer and of their just royalty. It has developed the age-old animosities among the provinces. Social justice is the only solution of national integration in Pakistan. The water dispute existed among the provinces. It has posed a major threat to national integration. The provinces have objections on the construction of Kala Bagh dam which has detracted the confidence and unity of the country. Likewise the dispute over NFC (National Finance Commission) award also posing serious threats to national integration. The provinces dont agree on the formula in which the resources are to be divided on the basis of population. This creates great hurdles in the way of national integration of Pakistan. The sense of regionalism has been fuelled by the lack of socio economic justice in the country. Regionalism has divided the whole nation into small and paltry classes. It has created fractions, groups, sects working for their vested interests. Jeye Sindh, Baluch Liberation Front and Baluch liberation army are struggling for the secession from federation. So the question of national integration remain unaddressed and at low priority. There is a trend of promoting personal interest, class interest, group interest and faction and regional interest instead national interests. Almost all parties are talking about Sindhies, Baluchies, Pukhtoons, and Punjabies and other small groups. There is no talk about Pakistan. This politics of regionalism has widened the gulf between different sections of the society. It has shaken the basis of national integration of Pakistan.4 MILITARY INTERVENTION Military intervention has weakened the basis of national integration. During military rule the small provinces has been deprived of there just share. East Pakistan seceded during military rule. The military regime failed to promote the sense of ones in the two wings of Pakistan.5 Baluchistan issue also emerged during military rule. POLITICAL INSTABILITY Political stability is the most important prerequisite for strengthening the national integration. Unfortunately Pakistan is lacking this requirement since very long. The political instability has widened the gulf between the ruling class and the ruled class. It has distorted the picture of Pakistan and made it retrogressive in all spheres. Political instability has posed a big threat to national unity and integrity. Lack of unity and integration has pushed behind the objectives for which Pakistan was created. It has also rhythm of national progress. As a result the nation has become hallow from within in terms of national integration.6 LANGUAGE PROBLEM Pakistani is a plural society. There are living many linguistic groups which is problem. Some time it poses serious threats for the geographical integrity of the state. Pakistan lost its eastern wing owing to many problem of which the language problem was one of the important problem. In todays Pakistan the difference of language is still a problem in the way of national integration of state. It is very much important for Pakistan to have a language policy which is helpful for the promotion of all languages equally. The current policy has created a sense among the small linguistic groups that the government is only promoting Urdu at the coast of regional languages. All the provinces have been divided into more than one linguistic group which contributing to the instability of country.7 MEDIA Media is a source of information and education. It is the most effective mean of change and information. Media is expected to play a positive role in image building of the state. It is the responsibility of media to promote national interest and national integration. In a democratic society the role of media is to be of a watchdog. It is the need of the time that our media should strive for building of soft and positive image of the state.8 Media is the link between the people of a country which propagate the news throughout the country and world by means of electronic devices known as electronic media i.e. radio, TV, net etc and by the means of print media i.e. newspapers, journals, and magazines etc. Media is the most effective source of communication. It enriches the people knowledge about the right and wrong. On the one hand media is breaking false news without proper investigation, yet on the other hand it inform us about the realities.9 POWER OF MEDIA Media is a link between people and societies. Without media they would have been isolated. In the current century media has very much powerful. With the help of media we came to know about the happenings around the world. It unveils the truth and injustice done to people. It rules over the mind of the people. Media educate the people and moulds their opinion, making and toppling the governments makes a hero a villain and a villain a hero. It changes the life style, thinking, culture and tradition of a society. Power of media can be judged through its role as a source of information, education and entertainment. It has changed the world into a global village.10 ROLE OF MEDIA IN NATIONAL INTEGRATION Pakistani media is playing very irresponsible role. Talk shows and political debates dont consider themselves subject to limits. In debates the participants using abusive language against each other. The anchor persons are fuelling the arguments and counter arguments. They dont care for the fact that what type of image they are going to develop publically. What the people will think about them. This trend is conveying a very negative massage inside and outside of the country. Media as opinion maker models the opinion of the people. These talk shows are creating prejudice among the workers of different political parties. And in some cases they get violent against each other.11 In the name of freedom of press media, some time crossing the limits. There is a race among the different channels for breaking news which led to a fierce situation. They are using negative tools for increasing the number of viewership.12 Media has to play a positive and productive role in a society. Education is one of the important factors in promoting national integration. On the same lines media has a very affective role in educating the society. The use of media especially of internet has a lot of contribution in educating society. It is the responsibility of media to unveil the true picture of society. But unfortunately most of the press is prejudice. They are propagating the distorted picture of reality as they want. Media should show responsibility. They should show love and affection instead of hate. They should play a constructive role in providing education to the people and show them the real picture of the world as it is. They should not sensitize the issues. Honest coverage is the spirit of journalism. The media can led the society towards betterment if they start factual reporting. These are some of the major flaws in media if these could be addressed justly they can play an active role in national integration. Ibid media persons and press should be devoted and self reliable. They should show great social responsibilities that would. 13 THE ROLE OF MEDIA IN NATIONAL INTEGRATION Media is the reflection of any country. It shows the way of living and behaviour of the people of any country. The way of expressing news, the way the politicians talking, in talk shows and political debates, show the attitude of the people of that country. The media is bound to spread reality and should be careful of its responsibilities. Media should aware the public without influencing their mind negatively the mind of public and make them able to protest in true manner which could result oriented. Mc Combs and Shaw consider the media as, the mass media sets the agenda for political campaigns, influencing public attitudes toward desired issues. Pakistani media is more responsible than any other media of the other countries of the world because Pakistan needs a big change and the media is the powerful source of change. Now-a-days media is easily accessible to all walks of life through various means electronic means and press i.e. TV, radio, mobile, internet, newspapers, journals, m agazines etc. Media is a force which moulding the opinion of the people. Media changes the approach of the people towards different issues which perform very important role in highlighting certain attributes of issues. Guardians of the media, i.e. news editors, play fundamental role in determining the media outline which become public outline after some time.14 With the appearance of new century the press has become independent. There are TV channels which give coverage to the issues around the country in Pakistan. Media has a lot of contribution in educating the public about issues, but unfortunately media has badly failed in changing the behaviour of the people towards many issues. Media broadcast issues in a way that it boost people instantaneously just after the news report while the people dont know that what they should do in that particular scenario and who they can play a constructive role. Media has to discourage strongly such type of negative approach of the general mass. Demonstrations and protests are good to build up pressure towards solution of any problem but there should be in a right way to demonstrate which should result oriented. With every passing day the reputation of Pakistani media has corrupted owing to its failure in systematically comprehending affairs. Instead of spreading true root cause of issues, media is just adding wordings over the issue and crisis. The coverage of political issues by our media is heavily episodic rather than subjective. There is a number of political talk shows on different TV channels in Pakistan. No programme out of these having an ending or concluding words that could be helpful for people to understand that what will be the possible solution to the problems facing by them. Every program discusses the one and the same issue with different names. Somewhere it is Capital Talk, somewhere it is Aaj Kamran Khan ki sath, To the Point, Kal Tak, Ikhtilaf, Jarga, Likin, etc etc. But no programme has a fruit full ending. There is no difference of information and viewpoint of different political figures. There is no ray of hope regarding the solution of any problem. No politician can g ive remedy nor they coming to the point of solution.15 Constitution of Pakistan gives fundamental rights to citizens. But media does not give importance to it. Instead they are interested in sensitization of issues and news. They are broadcasting such news where they can found something where fundamental rights of citizens are violated.16 Being the powerful pillar of the state media has to save the country form sudden slippage. Media is independent for a long time but it could not show positive role in changing the rebellious attitude of the people. Pakistani media should represent this country with immense care because this country is not only important for Islamic world but for the peace of the world as well. Media should be very much careful while representing this country in the globe and guiding the people of this country to bring out this country form the problems surrounding it. It is the responsibility of media to show the real picture of Pakistani nation to the world, its thinking on the global issues. It represents the culture of Pakistan. Thus media is on the most responsible position. It has to tell the world about Islam and Pakistan and the implications of Islam on Pakistan. Majority of the channels are highly politicised while they should for Islamic norms and values. Some of the channels are religious w hile some are representing secular group. These are representing Pakistan from two different perspectives. This type of media, with two totally different angles widening cultural gap in Pakistan which ultimately results in creating two rival groups in Pakistan. Our media showing the world two different cultures and directing the people to divide into two groups, with one fundamental thoughts and other secular thoughts. 17 For promoting a peaceful and balanced society it is important for all media channels to represent the real culture neither of Pakistan which is neither extremist nor vice versa. Francis Fukuyama, (1995) says that, A thriving civil society depends on a peoples habits, customs, and ethics- attributes that can be shaped only indirectly through conscious political action and must otherwise be nourished through the increased awareness and respect for culture. Unfortunately in Pakistan we are lacking a free and transparent political system, but we have an independent media. Media is more powerful than political parties. Hence media can play an important role in moulding the fate of society towards betterment. Pakistani culture is one and the same and that is Islamic. By dividing it into two divergent cultures creates democratic problems for our society. Media can bridge both the gulf which has been created by one way or other since the creation of Pakistan by playing positive and sensitive role. Some of the already existing groups are distorting the picture of Pakistan by developing false picture of Pakistan and Islam. To minimize the influence of such groups all Pakistani media should represent the true picture of Islam and Pakistan. The entire news and drama channels should adopt national dress symbols of Pakistan which at the same time is Pakistani and Islamic. Unfortunately models, actors, reporter and anchors of media channels follow such a way of speaking, negotiating and apparels which are not true picture of Pakistan and Islam. In a nutshell we can say that media should enhance its role in educating the people that they may be able to participate sensibly to influence the mess. Furthermore media have to build up its status among the society by touching the hidden bonds of society i.e. its culture. Though there are varieties of cultures in our society but all of them surrender to a common culture of Islam. Media has to communicate with the people of society as its part. Tariq Alvi says, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦..Stress the importance of culture, which may vary even within a country, in negotiating any complex deal you need to understand the values of the people you are dealing with, even if you do not accept their values yourselfà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦... Therefore media should be very much carful about the culture of Pakistan to integrate the people of Pakistan towards prosperity and development while living within Islamic boundaries.18 Media is being considered as the fourth pillar of the state. In this regard it is expected that it may play a very active role in promoting national integration especially our plural and heterogeneous and divergent society. But unfortunately it has been observed the so called independent media has created violence and hatred on many occasions. Recently Muttahidda Quami Movements leader Altaf Hussain and Pakistan Peoples Party leader Zulfiqar Mirzas speeches has been widely reported in our media which resulted in hundreds of mass killing in Karachi. Likewise medias strong campaign for Lal Masjid operation in 2007 had promoted extremist to kill thousands of soldiers and civilians in target killing and suicide attacks.19 Our media provides us entertainment in forms of Dramas, songs and movies and some funny programmes as hum sub umeed se hain etc. All these are surrounded by romance, love affairs, violence, glamour, big cars, big houses and a clash of poor and rich. All these in no way reflect our culture or represent our culture and civilization. Hardly we can see a programme with a positive and moral result in the democratization of our young generation.20 All these provided to us by media, are responsible for disaster and anarchy in our society. Media has badly failed in providing us role models that could unite our divergent society.21 Medias interest is market drivers and for the sake of rating. It can even compromise on national integration. The supporters of this media argues that media is beating the triumphant Aman ke Asha, which will stop the flow of water towards Pakistan. They projecting the marriage ceremony of Shoib and Sania Mirza, telecasting Altaf Hussains singing, the hatred remarks of Zulfiqar Mirza are breaking news for them for increasing rating and number of viewership. In this scenario how one can expect from media that they will promote national integration rather they are causing disintegration.22 The most recent example of rating is Malalas issue which have been given undue coverage. tens of children die almost every day in drone attacks no channel roused voice for any one of them. It makes the people to think who are being suffered that are they not been given that much projection and thus finally they came on violence against state and all other players of the game. This trend finally led towards destruction of national integration. Before the attack on Malala the media gave very unfair projection to Sharmin Obaid Channaoye. She has made a movie with the name of, Face Saving. In this she had highlighted an issue in which the husbands threw acid on the faces of females. In this issue she has given very negative picture of Pakistani society. She has represented the people brutal, merciless and cruel. She had used the innocent women for her movie. According to print media reports the women who was used for this purpose was not given her wage and neither was given medical treat ment. For her this alleged movie she was prised in Europe and USA and awarded with Oscar Award because she presented a highly exaggeratedly negative picture of Pakistan. Pakistani media given that lady very high projection and presented her as heroin of Pakistan. This kind of reporting and projection is very negatively impacting the image of Pakistan abroad. Media is selling negative news hypes. Media will never make breaking news of a positive development in the violence turned tribal area. Professor Inam Ullah of department of Journalism university of Peshawar says, If you tell any channel that 20 girls got admission in a school in Mohmand Agency no channel will broad cast this news because there is no sensitization in this news and channels dont take interest in such news. On the other hand if you told them that a school has been blown up in the same place or any other area then switch on your TV and tune any channel you will see that all channels are broad casting that news with any investigation and conformation. This is the interest of media. They are sensitizing the issues creating thrill. They are in race and competition. They dont care for national integration or any other positive activity. They just want to break the news before any other news channel breaks it.23 By promoting news with hype is just for the increase of viewers and earn maximum money by commercial advertisement. The people are also responsible for this trend of media. Media is selling what the people want to buy. It is now a business not a source of education or information. People like Indian movies, songs and programmes. TV channels broadcasting these things for increasing the number of viewership. If a channel even tries to telecast a debate on national integration the people dont like to watch it. According to this school of thought if media does not broad caste the hatred of the politician they have in their hearts they wont be able to do justice to themselves.24 Another irony is that media does not give equal coverage to each political party. They are broad casting a five hours press conference of Altaf Hussain directly from England while the next day they dont give 5 minutes time to another political party. They dont publish the manifesto some parties while giving coverage to the minute things of other political party. (amir jamati Islami sayed munawar Hassan interview with Wajahat Saeed Khan, Ajj TV talk show Ikhtilaf on Nov 2, 2012). This trend of media is damaging for national integration of our country. TV channels have no concern to play positive role to bridge the gap which has been created the absence of good governance in different section of society. They are just interested in sensitive news and want to break such news which can attract more and more viewers.25 Almost all TV shows are made for urban consumerist population a soft victim for advertisers. These shows are full of sumptuous cooking; ingredients are the product so of huge companies and plays in which families Banarasi Saris, gold jewellery, and full makeup in their daily lives at houses.26 When the working class are the lower and poor class of a society who are hardly living their lives, watch all these things a desire came in their heart for such lavish life. But their pocket does not allow them to afford. They get frustrated and thus a feeling of hate emerges inside them. they turned severely against the upper and privileged class of society and thus against the whole system. This finally poses many threats to national integration. This mindset is responsible for so many social evils. TV commercials also playing the same role. They ate are showing the products of big companies which are practically out of the range of the society at large. In these commercials the life is imaginary which can be seen only on TV screen but not possible in practical life. The culture is being represented neither in dramas and movies nor in TV commercials.27 With so much social estrangement between haves and have-not, can they identify with the country our media depicts? How we can expect them to have patriotic feeling or the right values? the writer of the article wrote her personal experience in such words, I remember a child show in which actress was asked if she would give a massage to children, enthusiastically she replied, khao, peyo aur maze karo,.28 this is the massage normally given by TV anchors and shows. When a child of poor parents receive such massage and then they demanding for such a life where ones concentrate is just upon eating, drinking and enjoyment, and his/her parents could not afford this both parents and child get frustrated and turned against the system. They will try to snatch this luxurious life form those who living it irrespective of the fact that he can live such life or not but at least the upper class should not live it. Instead of a massage could be given to care about the less fortunate, do study better, to be respectful towards their elders, to be honest in their dealing or not to litter and through garbage all over the place. Insight and aspiration for nation building could have been given. But do media persons care? 29 RELIGIOUS PROGRAMMES AND NATIONAL INTEGRATION There are so many so called religious programmes in which religious scholars appear who came on different TV channels and interpret Islam from their own perspective and point of view. They are crazy of popularity, money and modernity. There is a huge gap between the interpretation of modern ulama and the orthodox ulama. There are people who cannot bear either of the opponent group. They turned against each other and especially the followers of orthodox ulama even came on aggression which causes too many problems in our society. Dr Javed Ahmad Ghamdi, Dr Faroop (late) Dr Aamir Laiqat Hussain is among the modern ulam. Orthodox ulama have issued fatwas against them. The death of Dr Farooq is being connected with this opposition of ideas among orthodox and modernists. He was given threats to take his modern ideas back or then get ready for drastic consequences. CONCLUSION Without media neither we can formulate an opinion nor can resolve any problem. Media has the potential of projecting any culture and give a sense of belonging to people belonging to different backgrounds. But unfortunately there are many examples where media could not come up with the expectations of the people. From the above discourse it reveals that media in Pakistan does not deliver according to the needs of the nation. Their more concentration remains on market. How to increase the number of viewership, how to attract advertisers and how to break fresh news before any other do it. In this race and competition they often broadcast false and sensitive news. Media is the most responsible institution of any state. In a state like Pakistan its responsibilities are more sensitive than any other country. Today Pakistan is the focal point of the world. All the countries have interest in Pakistan and thus they analyzing the situation every minute. Being a responsible institution media in Pakistan should avoid sensitizing the news. All those news should not be telecasted which can rise the communal or ethnic crisis. Every day we observe that someone has committed suicide, someone has been killed for being shia or Sunni, a school has blown up in so and so area, target killing are going on in Karachi, a shrine of some famous personality has blown up by terrorists etc, etc. After careful analysis all this type of news are poison for national integration. It weakens the roots of national unity and feeling of oneness. A feeling of hatred emerges in the hearts of people against each other which led towards communal crisis, ethnic crisis, provincialism and regionalism. The media should avoid such type of news and reports. They should give very little coverage to such news and concentrate on positive news that the people may get hopeful for better prospects in future. Different talk shows on different TV channels are creating illusion among the people. The politicians who are supposed to guide the people in difficult times are talking in a highly uncivilized manner in TV programs which does not suite their status. Media should work as a beacon and candle. It can do anything to make hero a villain and a villain a hero. It should lead the nation in a right direction. They should not work as the agent of western media and organization as puppet in their hands as it has been working. It is the need of the day that the intellectuals should discuss this problem seriously. Media is a tool which can be used for positive purposes very fruitfully.

The use of the loose coupling theory

The use of the loose coupling theory Loose coupling theory proposes that different parts of an organization are loosely related to one another. This can be understood as that different divisions of an organization are loosely coupled with one another, i.e. activities in the higher education department are loosely coupled to those in the English department activities in one department have a minimal impact, or take a long time to show up, in the other. The main thesis of his article is to argue that there are seven pros and corresponding cons of loose couplings. According to Weick (1976), loose coupling is a cognitive response to an environment of constant change, in which connections, networks, diffusion, imitation, and social comparison are less prevalent. The loose coupling systems (LCSs) are uncoordinated and have greater differentiation among components, high degrees of specialization among workers, and low predictability of future action, including change. In general, loosely coupled systems probably are cheaper t o coordinate, but are very difficult to systematically change. The goal of Weicks article is to show that all organizations do not function with tight linkages some organizations, like educational systems, are more loose, which may create more difficult problems for researchers. The loosely coupled approach has a strong parallel in more recent approaches to viewing organizations as complex systems, which has attracted considerable interest among management and organizational theorists. Birnbaum argues that complex systems such as collegial or bureaucratic institution models provide insights to the analysis of LCSs. Complex systems are bottom-up phenomena, also defined as systems comprising large numbers of agents in highly connected webs, can display both high levels of order and disorder. Importantly, order in complex systems is usually a result of micro-structuring processes that provide for robust self-organization. This form of order is not dependent on hierarchical control but is distributed, and it can lead to system-wide stability (or instability). Complex systems do well when they engage in a search for healthier and better-off states, otherwise searches are directed from the top down, and system will likely settle into only moderately fit states. Al so systems must be relatively free to interact with other systems until good fitting strategies are found. Complex systems have slow response times not because they are any slower than simpler systems in detecting environmental threats and opportunities, but because the process of adjustment takes longer. Educational systems demonstrate considerable robustness and resilience in the face of both environmental and intended change, thus the key is to focus on relationships and the building of similar behavior based around trust. Weick (1976) notes that more loosely coupled organizations offer advantages in complex environments. More autonomous groups may be more sensitive to environmental change, and offer more simultaneously adaptation to conflicting demands at the institutional level. If problems develop in one part of the system, it can be sealed off from the rest of the system. Efforts to create a less loosely coupled system or to control and centralize have not altered the overall complex system, which still remains loosely coupled. The concept of LCS is crucial to Rhoades argument about strategic activity. While Weicks strengths and challenges related to LCSs are positioned in difficulties to change organizations systematically, Rhoades approach calls for development of strategic activity through managerialism. Rhoades emphasizes that managerialism and market approaches are two sets of ideas that recently have influenced educational decision-making processes. The problem with these ideas, especially in loosely tight educational organizations, is that although it provided some change, it may not provide a basis for future improvement in education, especially in student learning. Within this model there is an assumption that there is a tight coupling between education policy (e.g. curriculum) and how teachers teach. Where improved performance is sought it is pursued through the manipulation of formal mechanisms such as rules, procedures, rewards or changed evaluation. Bureaucratic hierarchies have however been in creasingly criticized for being non-responsive and inefficient means for organizing public administration. With respect to education, they have certainly proven resistant to change. Managerial initiative is important to Rhoades in moving the universities forward, which is in contrast with loose couplings assumption where planned change has a low predictability as is unlikely to be successful within loose coupling environment. Loose coupling concept also poses some problems for leaders who want to change their organizations. Pfeffer and Salancik (1978) were well aware of this problem of change in loosely coupled systems. They argued that administrators could get around it by finding ways to tighten the coupling patters in their organizations, such as reorganization and stabilization of exchange relationships. The idea was to reduce internal and external variability in the system so that it could be more easily controlled. Thus, loosely coupled organizations can embrace change because its impact is limited. For instance, the English department can change without any punishment if no other departments are affected by its changes the loosely coupled organization as a whole isolates and neutralizes disturbance; however, change is slow. External as well as internal influences are absorbed by this organizational structure. So, the individual departments are not themselves typically difficult to change; rather, the problem lies in getting the entire organization to change, in diffusing the change across the networks. Birnbaum (1988) clearly articulates that to strengthen academic leadership, one must reform structures, adopt more rationalized management systems, and increase the power of executive leadership to make faster, more efficient, and more effective decisions, but for leadership to be effective within LCS, communication has to be present as a sense of general openness in institutional governance and climate. Leaders create organized disorder in which dynamic things happen at multiple locales within the system, thus creating a new behavior rather than controlling organizational activities. Also, the application of data to interaction permits information to influence preferences and possibilities, and that leads to decisions grounded in reality. It is not only about collection, analysis, and dissemination of data, but also about different constituents being interested in that data a nd how it interacts (Birnbaum, 1988). The interaction leads not only to positive administrative decision-making, but also to being rational and looking for consensus among loosely coupled units. Complex organizations cannot function effectively over the long term without leaders to coordinate the activities, represent them, and symbolize the institutional purpose (Birnbaum, 1988). As to administrative decision-making, Weick (1976) notices that LCSs are difficult to change systematically, thus any decision-making change that has to be discussed will encounter a problem of systematic change. The issue with implementation of any administrative change will always come down to the fact that teaching is isolated work and improving instruction is strictly a matter of individual initiative. Thus, the problem with administrative decision-making in LCS is that colleges do not show any collective impact on student learning. The problem with it is also that decision-making is explicitly and directly concerned with the instructional core of education by arguing that educational institutions and their faculty and staff need to be accountable for student learning. Moreover, loose coupling implies that the source of an effect may be located at a considerable distance in time or organizational structure from the effect itself, thus amplification of non-linear cycles makes it p ossible for an insignificant decision to have a major effect as it moves through the system over time (Birnbaum, 1988, p. 71). Birnbaum describes this as butterfly effect and indicates that cause and effect are difficult to predict or determine in loose coupling model. Moreover, circular systems that he describes may also imply about administrative decision-making. He encourages thinking in circles as thinking of unintended consequences that may arise with complexity of how things interact. Although, institutional prestige, faculty morale, student enrollment, and sense of community are crucial for this model, the feedback loops are missing from this model as well as culture of the organization. Also, local adaptations will not always assist with generating efficient responses to system-wide challenges in a decision-making process. Loose coupling implies slow diffusion of central initiatives. As a consequence, the administrator would have to start projects earlier, start more project s, start projects in a greater variety of places, and even talk more frequently about those projects that have been started. The perspective of educational systems as being loosely coupled seems to be weak at explaining one major decision making fact that approaches to schooling have remained remarkably uniform across geography and time. If education systems are loosely coupled, diverse practices should emerge in response to differing local needs and differing ideas about education. Loose coupling can account for the diversity of ways in which units implement different decisions; for instance, the RCM is the way to find innovative options to strengthen individual units where the center does not correlate with units (Rhoades, 2000). In order to improve administrative decision-making, the administrator should emphasize the role of interaction among an organizations members, as well as collaboration and negotiation as methods to determine how decisions should be carried. 2. The Mode 2 knowledge production model is perhaps the most well-known term used to indicate the impact of changes for the university sector. Gibbons et. al.(1994) in the mid-1990s presented their Mode 2 theory saying that university researchers, who previously most often worked on internal disciplinary Mode 1 problems, were now more inclined to involve themselves closely in industrial and governmental research collaborations. Economical factors were seen to be the drivers, as closer relations between university research and industry developed to meet competition from the growing economies. This trend prompted new organizations such as think tanks or hybrid organizations, which often were places where the new front research was to be found. Gibbons et. al. referred to these as Mode 2 organizations, seeing them as generic for the whole research landscape. It seems that Mode 2 model especially in research area was a result of a general economic development towards post-industrialism. Moreover, mode 2 knowledge production model is application-based, and can be explored in an interdisciplinary fashion. As such, the emergence of Mode 2 production would not eclipse Mode 1 methods entirely. In a resource-seeking environment, Mode 2 would likely be more attractive to outside funding agencies and investors due to its application-based principles. Mode 2 may not lead to increased social accountability rather than being held to social values, Mode 2 knowledge would respond to market values, thus will privilege certain kinds of knowledge over others. In this sense, Mode 2 is related to academic capitalism that proposes market-relevant knowledge production. From an academic capitalism perspective, Mode 2 can have a tendency to focus on disciplines with well-known possibilities for commercial use, i.e. technology and medicine, whereas other disciplines may be mostly ignored. By the same token, since both concepts are normative, the system of norms may be well affected especially among traditional researchers within social sciences. In this area, internal interests for research questions seem to be far away from industrys interest for commercial products or the governments interest for useful results. However, one can make an argument supporting Mode 2 and somehow against the notions of academic capitalism. It has to be noticed that Mode 2 would not push research outside of the university, but rather that applied science and the facilities for training researchers would make university-industry relations stronger. For instance, the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 and related intellectual property legislation profoundly affected the commercial poten tial of government-sponsored research and still allowed research to be conducted within the realm of universities walls. Thus, technology transfer was quite symbolic and the Act was a step toward developing a social exchange between university science and society. In this sense, Mode 2 can be seen as a positive engine that transformed the public research model. Moreover, knowledge production is crucial because knowledge society seen through the lens of academic capitalism would focus more on the activities of higher education institutions in the two countries in a particular regional sphere. Thus, the argument may take us to propositions of globalization and internationalization. A critique that may arise from academic capitalism proponents is the fact that there is no support for a merger of interests between researchers and industry. Researchers at the institutes (or centers of excellence) instead devote their precious time to a shorter research perspective that is strictly coming from the industry or directed toward it. This process was seen as influenced by reductions in state-support, an explanation quite close to the one put forward by Slaughter Leslie (1997). Thus, Mode 2 may jeopardize a strictly public focus of research universities when these start heavily getting involved with the industry. Even though Mode 2 involves multidisciplinary teams brought together for short periods of time to work on specific problems in the real world, this concept, from strictly academic capitalism critique, may not show any organizational diversity, which is at the core of academic capitalism. Also, academic capitalism may criticize Mode 2 as a concept of political i deology rather than a descriptive theory that academic capitalism claims to be. As for similarities, both concepts apply that there are three major actors in science university, industry and government and these extend beyond their former specific areas and change their former roles in closer collaborations for the benefit of economic development of society, thus academic capitalism partly confirms the claims of rising Mode 2. From the perspective of institutional theory, Mode 2 is a problem related to institutional structures. From an institutional theory standpoint, there are templates for organizing institutions that are implicitly understood and translated to new members of an organization. Moreover, these templates are interpretive schema, underlying values and assumptions, similar to mental models (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983; Scott, 1995). Templates of institutional behavior create resistance to change. One concept within the institutional theory that has regularly been applied to higher education institutions to explain change is institutional isomorphism (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983), which suggests that institutions do not change as a result of a competitive market, external pressures or efficiency, but rather through the force of homogenization, striving to be like other types of colleges perceived to be elite. Mode 2 contrasts with institutional theory in the sense of the concept of change because influence of market and other external forces (such as NGOs or TNOs) create a high degree of heterogeneity among institutions. Institutional isomorphism also suggests that institutions tend not to be distinctive in their identity development or image, while Mode 2 emphasizes on organizations that do not have to necessarily conform to the rules and belief systems prevailing in the existing environment. For instance, older and well-established universities with strong cultures will have more specific power to resist change, while other institutions may be more vulnerable to market ideas. Since universities are complex and conflicted organizations, the institutional isomorphism that is projected by institutional theory may be one of the limitations of this theory to encourage distinctiveness and diversity of HED institutions. A critique that might arise from the institutional theory perspective is that the institutions have to learn to share their resources (physical, intellectual and  ¬Ã‚ nancial) with other kinds of knowledge producing institutions. According to Janson (2002), this task may be very difficult to accomplish considering that universities have held the monopoly among knowledge producers. Mode 2 is a threat to this status quo by encouraging alliances as well as collaborative relationships with other knowledge producers. Another critique from an IT standpoint is that Mode 2 would change standards of evaluation and accreditation as well as success and progression that would encourage more of a multidisciplinary context. For IT proponents, disciplinary boundaries are important, thus not only is traditional career path model being challenged by Mode 2, but also the nature of the undergraduate curriculum. Mode 2 is not the only knowledge production model that is challenging the more traditiona l, basic sciences model, but globalization and internationalization as well. According to Gibbons (1994), knowledge is transdisciplinary, problem-oriented, application-based, team-driven, multi-sited, partnership-based, socially useful, heterogeneous, quality controlled, re ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ective and responsive, and less hierarchical than disciplinary knowledge of the kind produced in universities, that is being characterized as typically centered on disciplines, with academic hierarchies, more norm-concentrated, authoritative in regards to social behavior as well as concerned with homogeneity. Another critique is that it will be hard to protect academia from worldwide economic trends as well as production of knowledge in purely economic terms. Because Mode 2 is strictly defined in economic terms, all institutions may have a tendency for duplication and may follow one economic trend in order to survive. Scott (1995) indicates that, in order to survive, organizations must conform to the rules and belief systems prevailing in the environment because institutional isomorphism, both structural and procedural, will earn the organization legitimacy (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983; Meyer and Rowan, 1977). The institutional theory claims that change is less likely to happen within or among organizations, while Mode 2 encourages change especially toward the private sector being more entrepreneurial and challenging the traditional values found especially in higher education institutions. While institutional theory supports traditional values of HED institutions, Mode 2 encourages growth o f those hybrid organizations that capitalize on connections to teaching, research, and service. 4. The most important differentiation is that the concepts of globalization and internationalization that are characterized by glonacal agency heuristic (GAH) are situated above the level of nation-state. GAH as a method of thought focuses on institutions, positions, agency, and structure at three levels: national, local, and global. The concept focuses on colleges and universities (and units and faculty within them) as global agents, encouraging studies of activity and stratification regionally and internationally. However, it is not a method of positioning yourself relative to others. Globalization is not universal, because it does not feel the same for everyone, thus it is not inevitable. In this respect, globalization is uneven and asymmetrical. Moreover, the pressure that it is felt as an institution most of the time mediates. For instance, even if the pressure comes from a national or global context, the local arena may be able to mediate things. For instance, Raytheon company has a heavy involvement on the University of Arizona, however does not have hardly any on Pima Community College. On the other hand, the PCC has a pressure from auto repair industry in cooperation with Jim Click to have mechanics to fix cars. Thus, GAH provides a different response of institutions to globalization. It seems that for GAH there is no separation between globalization and internationalization because both are a total of complex interactions of human and institutional agencies at local, national, and global levels. Marginson and Rhoades (2002) define two types of agency: human agency and institutional agency. For them, it is all about positioning things not individuals. For instance, a supranational agency such as the World Bank has an im pact in developing countries, and the whole impact is being driven by market forces; thus individuals do not shape the globalization process. It takes a lot of agencies to understand what is going on and understand and find a point of where we could resist the impact. According to GAH there is limited analysis of the complex agencies and processes that define them; no global dimension to analyze yet. Thus, with it more comparative studies need to be conducted to know human agency better and also local dimensions institutions and agents. While depicting GAH, the authors base their concept on Clarks description of academic profession that is structured by a triangle, in which market-state is a starting point, from which everything spills over to disciplines and professions as well to government and management. Knight (2004) replies to this issue with the process of internationalization that is supposed to be happening on a continuum basis. Her concept of internationalization is chara cterized similar to Clarks description as a triangle, in which interactions may be of hexagonal shape, but the whole process of internationalization will happen on a continuum basis. For Knight, globalization/internationalization is binary and is an omnipresent force that institutions have to respond to. It is similar to the Newtonian account of action and reaction. However, unlike Marginson and Rhoades, she is interested in institutions approaches (the ways in which they internationalize) and their rationale (why you are doing it explanations and goals), and how they interconnect (by preparing students to exist in global society or bringing in faculty from around the world). Thus, reciprocity is of important value to this concept. It is up to you how you are changing the world. So in that sense, Knight disagrees with Marginson and Rhoades that there is opportunity for everyone to progress. It is worth mentioning that the concept of internationalization is often confused with globalization (Altbach, 2004). The main difference is that globalization may not be unalterable, but internationalization is a process involving many choices. Globalization tends to concentrate wealth, knowledge, and power in those already possessing these elements, thus diminishing the importance of peripheries. International academic mobility similarly favors well-developed education systems and institutions, thereby compounding existing inequalities. Initiatives and programs, coming largely from the north, are focused on the south. The key here is that Altbach summarizes programs and activities relevant to the American study abroad tradition while Knight emphasizes on internationalization as a process. For Knight, internationalization is a two-way street that serves important needs. For Altbach, the concept is focused largely on the south-north spectrum, where students move primarily from south to north, where north controls the process. In this sense, Altbachs approach is based on radical dependency theory that relies on neo-colonialism core. Also, I got an impression that Knights concept of internationalization is not focused on economic (mostly financial) ends. Instead, internationalization is supposed to enhance research, knowledge, and cultural understanding. For instance, one of the initiatives may include study-abroad experiences or enrichment of curriculum through offering a major in international studies or other area studies. Deeply in the core, it does not seem that the process is intended to bring financial profits, but strategically implemented will enhance competitiveness and institutional prestige. However, the process itself, if not controlled, may focus too much on institutional strategies and policies while excluding national governments. In the same aspect, I could sense a tint of skepticism in Altbachs approach in regards to an economic trend of globali zation. Even though he acknowledges the trend and claims it is inevitable, he emphasizes on negative aspects of internationalization as a process that will further diminish the intellectual as well as cultural sides within the developing countries. In addition, Knights definition of internationalization seems to limit itself to the teaching function of the institution by concentrating on the expansion of international curriculum. Although both articles of Altbach and Knight are written in the same year, it seems that Altbach hardly mentions supranational organizations while Knight already acknowledges the new trend proclaiming that not only institutions and national policy makers alone are driving the internationalization, but supranational organizations as well. The tendency for Knight is to look at challenges that globalization presents us from an insider perspective how institutions as well as individuals react to globalization through internationalization, while Altbachs approach can be seen from the outsider perspective that acknowledges institutions, but not the processes and individuals within.