Heritage of Blue Highways Essay -- Blue Highways

Heritage of Blue Highways In the country travelers' Bible, Blue Highways, William Least Heat Moon takes a journey into his Native American heritage as well as into the heart of American culture. As a person of mixed ancestry, Least Heat Moon wishes to seek the history and experiences of his past in his travels. He is especially interested in the Native American element of his heritage because he had no knowledge of his ancestry as he was growing up. At the point at which he begins his journey, after being a student and scholar of Renaissance literature, Least Heat Moon is able to identify more freely with his past ("Whispers..." 58-60). After completing his exploration, Least Heat Moon rewrote the manuscript of his book six times and struggled to find literary agents and publishers. Eventually Least Heat Moon changed the title of the book to Blue Highways, and his luck began to change. Throughout several stops within the book, Least Heat Moon relates episodes in the history of his Native American ancestors' lives and experiences. He even changed his name from William Trogdon to his Native American title: William Least Heat Moon. The author explains, "My father calls himself Heat-Moon, my elder brother Little Heat-Moon. I, coming last, am therefore Least" (4). He took the name in order to identify with his ancestry and to honor his Native American kinsmen. However, one critic thought the changing of his name to be less than genuine saying, "It does not come from Osage country but from Boy Scout make-believe" ("Whispers..." 58-59). Even though William Least Heat Moon knew very little about his Native American past, he was able to recall a long-forgotten family story about one o... ...er the Nez Perce were forced out of here in the eighteen seventies and the Army sold off their horses" (250). Least Heat Moon often tells how the Native American way of living was not harmful to the land and how their ways were quickly overtaken by the dominating white ways of today. Throughout Blue Highways, William Least Heat Moon identifies many Native American traditions as well as his own Native American ancestry. Even though Least Heat Moon changed his name to clearly identify with his Native American ancestry, he didn't choose it in order to forget about his other lineage. He explains, "I will choose for heart, for spirit, but never will I choose for blood" (5). The main goal of his trip was to head for undiscovered parts of America, but it also provided the chance for Least Heat Moon to connect with his Native American past.

Acer Case Study

From the beginning, Acer had been a component and equipment manufacturer for relabeled electronic products marketed and sold by recognized global companies. Along with the booming of the PC industry, came the need to produce PC components faster, cheaper and more efficiently. When a company faces market saturation, the most effective way to growth is to engaged in expanding its operations, and increase marketing and selling activities to another markets.With this case, Acer determined that they would take the company into the global electronics and personal computer playing field. This means that even though Acer makes their computers in Taiwan, they want to expand globally. To proceed with this process, Acer has to build a strong brand image with China. According to Stan Shih, his visions that building a stronger market base in greater China is the key to expand globally.Shih states, â€Å"The market in China is very critical for Taiwanese to become global companies† Shih bel ieves that if greater China becomes the home market, that Acer will be able to get the critical economies of scale, and they can develop and innovate new products that will succeed in China as well as the rest of the world. And He figured that Acer could take advantage of the benefits that regionally local markets offer in regards to competition, and to have a product on China’s turf. 2. How does the â€Å"global market/local market† paradox figure into Stan Shih's strategy for Chinaï ¼Å¸Answerï ¼Å¡Acer have a good chance to make China as their home market so Acer can capture critical economies of scale that will allow Acer to develop innovative new product for global market. And the other hand, Acer can use their image as global brand to building strong home market.3. Can Acer become the world’s third largest PC company behind Dell and Hewlett-Packard ?Answer : Yes it can be, Acer Inc. is a leading marketer of notebook and desktop PCs. The company, which post ed sales of $11.3 billion in 2006, alsoproduces other products such as flat-screen monitors and personal digital assistants. And Shih has discovered that building brands in the business-tobusiness market is easier than building brands in the business-to-consumer market.â€Å"Business-to-consumer brands have more value but also face more challenges†. Acer use more local than their compete and acquired US based gateway and Acer sell product in europe with low price that the advantage to become the third largest PC company behind Dell and HP.

Affirmative Action and Hosea Martin Essay - 688 Words

Affirmative Action and Hosea Martin Hosea Martins article on affirmative action aims to defend the practice of hiring people not just on their qualifications but by their race as well. He does so by using his own experience in the work place along with some personal, unsupported opinions of his own regarding hiring practices and education. Martin also attempts to defend affirmative action programs as being fair and non-discriminatory by emphasizing that every single one of us...had been hired for reasons beyond our being able to do our jobs. (Martin qtd. in Hicks, 219). Martin begins by trying to explain how no one is actually hired on their qualifications in this meritocracy. Everyone has an unfair†¦show more content†¦He asserted that the officer did not receive a job on the basis of his qualifications but on the fact that he belonged to a certain fraternity. The implication here is that there was something wrong or even laughable about hiring him because ...he was a member of Phi-something fraternity.(220). Many people join fraternities and sororities not to engage in keg parties every Friday night, but to be able to network after graduating from college. There are also many fraternities that are academically based such a Phi Theta Kappa here at BCC, of which I am a member. Organizations such as this look good on a transcript and sometimes are even the deciding factor in admission to graduate school. To compare a persons race or circumstance of birth to being an active and voluntary member of an organization is patently absurd. Using this experience as a premise for argument is even more so. Lastly, Martin touches on the subject of education. In his article he presents only one statistic,~ the percentage of minorities enrolled in medical school in 1980 (10%) as compared to 1960 (5%). These statistics do not however show the percentage of those who actually graduate. It is a proven fact that students who are not properly prepared for postsecondary education and are admitted on the basis of race or gender do not fare as well as truly qualified white students. Robert M. ONeil,Show MoreRelatedLook How Far We ve Come : Dr. Martin Luther King1205 Words   |  5 PagesLook how far we’ve come†¦ Dr. Martin Luther King is most well known for his ‘I have a Dream speech’ well I too would one day like to live in the land of the free, free from persecution or discrimination due to race, gender, socioeconomic status or any other reasons. For my term paper I’ve chosen to reflect on two films â€Å"Dear White People† and â€Å"Selma† as well as ponder the state of race relations in the US currently in light of the protests and evident police brutality rampant across the nation.