Handmaid’s Tale †the character of Offred Essay

Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale houses a very authentic range of characters, in a complex world. Set in the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian and theocratic state, where a reproduction rate is rapidly decreasing, some women are labeled as handmaids and assigned to elite couples that have difficulty conceiving. The personality of one character in particular, however, may seem hasty and misunderstood at first glance. But given the circumstances, she proves to hold the values of humanity: she has her own set of opinions, flaws, and habits; has regrets; and a balance of courage and fear. Furthermore, the setting this character must survive in is not much different from today’s society. The government is deemed corrupt, fear of punishment is instilled, and the leaders ensure that the citizens adhere to the law. Finally, the aid and support that she receives, the faith and hope she has, and the development of friendships she makes also has a likeness to ordinary relationships in our world. Hence, the novel’s protagonist, Offred is a relatively relatable individual, especially in terms of her character, her surroundings and her supporting roles. Offred conveys a sense of reality in her personality as she is not perfect and has her own set of opinions, flaws, and habits. For instance, Offred has many moments and flashbacks where she reminisces about her past. This implies that she has regrets and obstacles in her life, just as every human being does. When Offred describes her appearance, albeit briefly, it signifies the insecurities that she keeps bottled up inside â€Å"I am thirty-three years old. I have brown hair. I stand five seven without shoes. I have trouble remembering what I used to look like. I have viable ovaries. I have one more chance† (Atwood, 143). Had she been proud of what she looked like, she most likely would have gone into more detail, but the lack of words plainly states that she thinks nothing special about herself. At one point that she mentions that she does not like to look at herself in the mirror. This shows that she does not look at her self as superior and she is also self-conscious of her own appearance. She also possesses a certain attributes that any person would possess; she is rebellious and disobedient in constricting situations. This is what makes her more interesting and what sets her apart from the rest. Although Moira, Offred’s best friend, was an even more revolutionary character, she seemed too daring to be true. A real life person would not be likely to pull off stunts that Moira had accomplished, for example escaping from the Red Centre â€Å"She had both hands on the lid when she felt something hard and sharp possible metallic jab into her ribs from behind. Don’t move, said Moira, or I’ll stick it all the way in, I know where, I’ll puncture your lung†, â€Å"I couldn’t believe how easy it was to get out of the Center. In that brown outfit I just walked right through. I kept going as if I knew where I was heading, till I was out of sight† (Atwood, 130, 244). Offred had just enough courage and just enough fear to seem realistic. Keeping these points in mind, it is clear that Offred could have been an ordinary character in our society. The Republic of Gilead, as strange as it may seem, actually has some similarities to the modern day and this is primarily seen by Offred’s response to its laws and regulations that they instill. To her, the government appears as corrupt as most governments in this world, and dictators still thrive, just as they do in Offred‘s society. Offred responds to this by doing nothing, which would be the decision of most people if forced to live under these conditions. The leaders of Gilead, after all, employ obedient enforcers to make sure that citizens abide by their laws. She mentions this in the book when she retells how the changes in her nation started. She describes in full length that she, along with all women in the U. S. , were forced from their jobs by men in uniform carrying machine guns â€Å"Not fired, he said. Let go. You can’t work here anymore, it’s the law† (Atwood, 176). The fear of punishment is instilled, akin to the terrors of being imprisoned or given a death sentence in our world. Penalties are dreaded so much in Gilead, for most of the time they are unjustly given out and they vary from hanging to ‘Salvaging’; which is being beaten to death â€Å" The three bodies hang there, even with the white sacks over their heads looking curiously stretched, like chickens strung up by the necks in a meat shop window; like births with their wings clipped, like flightless births, wrecked angels† (Atwood, 277). Offred ultimately responds passively, on account of this fear, and because liberal ways are shunned in Gilead. Margaret Atwood was right in not giving Offred any extraordinary abilities to surpass or overthrow the tyrants that ruled over her life as it would result in a loss of Offred’s relatable self. Relationships with other people are a necessity of life that defines human existence. As Offred progresses with day-to-day life, she develops these friendships, which ensure that she exists. The friends and allies that she made were essential for keeping her sanity intact because without any shoulders to lean on in times of sorrow, a person’s mental capacity could break. Amongst her friends were Cora, whom Offred was not very close with but did not have any tension with, Ofglen, Moira, her best friend, and Nick, the Commander’s chauffeur that Offred opens up to and confides in towards the closure of the story. Offred frequently finds herself seeking support and knowledge in people who share the same beliefs and opinions as her, most significantly from Ofglen and Moira. This portrays the doubts about her world that she holds: another human quality. From Ofglen, she realizes that she is not alone in thinking that their country is corrupt and that something must be done to change things â€Å"At last Ofglen speaks. â€Å"’Do you think God listens,’ she says, ‘to these machines? ’ She is whispering: our habit at the Center†(Atwood, 168). However from Moira, Offred finds out that escaping from their strict nation is not as easy as she had thought, as Moira could not even arrive at such a courageous feat. Without her supporting roles, Offred could have been an ignorant citizen in Gilead that was brainwashed into believing every word that the government fed them. If that were the case, Offred’s connection to the readers would have been lost. Furthermore, Offred turns to hope and faith to console her and help her to move on with life. Just as her friends helped her, these virtues aided in protecting her wellbeing; though forced, since she had nothing else to look to. The hope that Offred’s husband is still alive is very similar to the feelings of families in modern day society that pray for the safe return of their lost, loved one from war or other degrees of separation. Faith is introduced to Offred when she acknowledges the pillow in her room with the word ‘faith’ printed on it â€Å"There’s a hard cushion on it, with a petit point cover: FAITH, in square print surrounded by a wealth of lilies† (Atwood, 57). The fact that it is something she can read implies that there is still hope, as not everything has been taken away from her. This knowledge strengthens her belief that change will come, though subconsciously since Offred never mentions it. The faith that she puts into the Commander also ties into the trust she gives him when playing games, reading magazines and when he brings her to Jezebel’s â€Å"He wanted me to play Scrabble with him†, â€Å"He sits me down, and sits himself down beside me. He puts an arm around my shoulder† (Atwood, 144, 236). Trust is a very common issue that people have trouble giving out. But in examining these elements it is clear Offred’s confidantes have impacted her life and how they make her into a real character. The Handmaid’s Tale is appealing due to its main character, Offred, who shows a great deal of realism in a world of impossibilities. Her character itself is strong-willed, but moderate, and is the perfect mix of what it is to be human. Through her, many of the readers can see a bit of themselves in Offred. She is an excellent example of how a regular person would behave if they were thrust into the world of The Handmaid’s Tale.

Decoding Apple’s Balance Sheet Apa Format Essay

Decoding Apple’s Balance Sheet In March of 2009, Apple had its best March quarter revenue and earnings in Apple history (Apple). In order to see how this occurred, it is important to look over the financial statements of Apple. There is a lot of information available to investors who are interested in investing in a company. By looking specifically at the balance sheet of Apple I am going to determine if investing in Apple is a good idea or a bad idea. Some things I am going to consider are Apple’s assets, liabilities, and shareholder’s equity. These areas should give me insight to how the best quarter in Apple history ame to be. Looking at the current assets of Apple, cash and cash equivalents went down from 1 1. 8 billion dollars to 4. 4 billion dollars. This may look bad at first, but all of the other assets must be added to this in order to get an overall picture of the assets. Short- term marketable securities went up from 10. 2 billion dollars to 20. 5 billion dollars. This helped Apple’s assets grow tremendously. Accounts receivable fell to 1. 9 billion dollars from 2. 4 billion dollars. With the rest of the current assets fgured in, inventories, deferred tax assets, and other current assets, the total current assets ose to 33. billion dollars from 32. 3 billion dollars. That was a rise of 1. 5 billion dollars (Apple). It is important to take into account the rest of the assets. For example, long-term marketable securities rose 1. 5 billion dollars, property, plant and equipment rose 0. 91 billion dollars, goodwill stayed the same, acquired intangible assets fell 0. 017 billion dollars, and othe r assets rose 0. 56 billion dollars. Now that we know how each asset was affected during this quarter, we come to the final numbers, which are total assets rose 3. 6 billion dollars. Apple grew its assets substantially during this quarter. I would think Apple would be a good company to invest in. Before I made any decisions I would investigate the balance sheet further in order to compare liabilities and shareholder’s equity with the previous quarter. This will give me a better understanding of the financial situation of the company (Apple). Current liabilities are in the first section of liabilities and shareholder’s equity. The following accounts are current liabilities and how they fared. Accounts payable went down from 5. 5 billion dollars to 3. 9 billion dollars. Accrued expenses went down 1 billion dollars. Deferred revenue went up from 4. 8 billion dollars to 7 billion dollars. The total change in current liabilities was a decrease of 0. 4 billion dollars. The other two liabilities categories, deferred revenue (non-current) and other non-current liabilities, rose collectively 0. 7 billion dollars. This gives the total liabilities a rise of 0. 3 billion dollars. This amount compared to current assets is not as significant. So far Apple is still looking like a good investment because the assets of Apple rose 1. 5 billion dollars whereas their liabilities only rose 0. billion dollars. It is now time to take a look at the final category of the balance sheet, the shareholder’s equity (Apple). The value of shareholders equity, common stock, rose from 7. 1 billion dollars to billion dollars. Accumulated other comprehensive income rose . 07 billion dollars. Total shareholder’s equity rose 3. 3 billion dollars. So adding together the rise of 0. 4 billion dollars in liabilities with the 3. 3 billion dollar rise of the shareholder’s equity, we get the same amount, 3. 7 billion dollars, as we got for the rise in total assets. The balance sheet balances (Apple). With the rise in assets, which led to the rise in retained earnings, I think Apple would be a good company to invest in because they are growing their business. I would want to look at past financial statements, specifically the balance sheets, in order to compare assets, liabilities, and shareholder’s equity from past quarters, but from the information presented on the balance sheet from this quarter I would be willing to invest in Apple. References Apple reports second quarter results. (2009, April 22). Retrieved August 29, 2010, from http://www. apple. com/pr/library/2009/04/22results. html

Risk Management Practices in Sea Ports Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Risk Management Practices in Sea Ports - Essay Example The risks that a port might be exposed to can be assessed and evaluated to further determine the costs for implementing a risk management plan. "Compliance with existing rules and regulations does not necessarily make for a safe port" (Lloyd's Register). This is very true and unfortunately many ports around the world rely on regulations alone to manage their port assets, this however can be detrimental to the overall need for a safe seaport. Lloyd's register is a company that assesses ships systems in order to provide improve their overall quality as well as facilitate safety for the crews, employees and customers. There are many in dependent company such as Lloyd's register that provide this service in an endeavor to help seaports meet and implement the standards required of them to maintain a favorable environment conducive to human life. Therefore physical assets are protected as well as maintained by ensuring that standards and policies are followed and continuously evaluated to guarantee that they meet the standards and policies set forth by government agencies. Seaports must deal with potential threats daily due to their easy access and vulnerability. The advent of seaports dealing with ongoing threat efficiently is more likely with a substantial well thought of risk management plan. ... Thus seaports have to use this to determine the level of risk management required. Costs can be a factor, however the cost of implementing a risk management plan is far trivial to the benefits that can be derived from it. Risk assessments will help a seaport determine if they are areas in which they can improve, and possibly provide training to make employees aware of any changes in procedures that may have been made as a result of the analysis derived from the assessments. Risks have varying consequences, and this is potentially important to seaports. Accidents can pose severe threats not only to the vessels, crews, and cargoes but also the public, environment, property, and local and regional economies (National Research Council Staff, 169). Accidents can be caused by human error or technical malfunctions; this ultimately puts individuals in contact with seaports on a day to day basis at risk. In the past there have been incidents that have prompted agencies to re-evaluate their procedures and measures taken to ensure the safety and protection of physical assets. A prime example of this would be the Exxon Valdez spilling that occurred on March 24, 1989. It was an environmental horror that occurred at sea and affected both wildlife and plants. Its departure area was Alaska at the Valdez oil terminal and bound for California. The main cause of this incident was attributed to human error brought on by exhaustion as well as insufficient traffic system. T he movement of hazardous or dangerous cargoes is not reviewed until a major marine accident occurs (National Research Council Staff, 169). This applies to the Exxon Valdez disaster, had proper measures and procedures

Research proposal Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Research proposal - Dissertation Example The advancements in digital communications technology and the further strengthening of multilateral trade ties have created an environment in the 21st century more receptive than that which characterised international business a few decades ago. A greater understanding and familiarity with other countries’ cultures, laws, and social institutions has greatly diminished the uncertainty and distrust that held countries back from openly participating in international trade and business. Furthermore, the faster pace of technology transfer and development of productive capacity in less developed economies have created new markets that provide added impetus for cross-border trade. The United Kingdom is one such developed economy that may itself benefit from, as it may benefit others through, increased participation in other markets. A country which presents attractive opportunities for expanded trade relations is Ecuador. The prospects have to be examined further, however, and a basi s for the formulation of a viable marketing strategy has to be established before concrete plans could be drawn. 1.2 Research aim This study aims to examine implications and directions for strategic marketing that U.K firms may explore in their effort to establish a presence in the Ecuadorean market. Existing macroeconomic and industrial data for Ecuador, industry information on U.K. firms, and the use of established strategic theory in a competitive environment shall provide the context and constraints within which the aim is to be attained. 1.3 Objectives In order to satisfactorily accomplish the above-stated aim, the proposed study seeks to attain the following objectives: 1.3.1. To describe the social, political, economic, technological, ecological, and legal situations in Ecuador that may impact upon the business opportunities of foreign firms wishing to enter the market, using the PESTLE country analysis framework; 1.3.2. To identify industries in Ecuador where U.K. firms may successfully enter and create a significant impact, citing particular advantages and disadvantages, through use of Porter’s Diamond Framework. 1.3.3. To suggest strategic directions that U.K. firms may take for the industry or industries identified, in order to initially effect entry, and thereafter to sustain competitive performance in the Ecuadorean market, through the three fundamental marketing strategy paradigms, namely (a) standardization-adaptation, (b) concentration-dispersion, and (c) integration-independence. 1.4 Research questions The study shall strive to achieve the aforestated objectives, guided by the following research questions to which it shall provide relevant answers: 1.4.1 What are the social, economic, political, technological, ecological, and legal conditions existing in Ecuador that may influence the business environment? 1.4.2 On the basis of the results of the environmental scan on Ecuador, what possible industries may be engaged in by U.K. firms see king to enter the market in this country? 1.4.3 In relation to the industries identified, what possible strategic marketing directions may U.K. firms adopt in entering into and sustaining performance in these markets? 2. Literature review 2.1 International marketing strategy In deciding upon entering a foreign market, a firm takes on considerable risks, but foresees that there is an opportunity to earn considerable returns as

Cross culture and human resource management 03015 Essay

Cross culture and human resource management 03015 - Essay Example Kennedy (2008) however focus in aspect of competition that urged the business houses to look for new markets and customer groups in order to enhance their scope of business and signified competition as one of the primary drivers in the inclusion of cultural factors in the business domain. Focusing on the functional aspect of the human resource processes of the business, Hampden-Turner (2009) stated that the two most essential roles of the HR managers is to ensure employee engagement and commitment towards their organizational responsibilities. This research is focused on establishing a subsidiary for British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline in India. The process of developing the subsidiary will undergo through many cultural challenges and analysis of the business environment of India. For the initial market research process, GSK will send some British managers for understanding the process of designing the functions for the India based subsidiary. The group of managers selecte d include 3 male and 2 female individuals out of which the female managers are married and will be travelling with their families. This also brings in the aspect of adapting to the social structure of India for all the managers. The personal reflections of the managers will also be considered in forming the report regarding the cultural environment of India. The responsibilities of the subsidiaries will be mainly related with evaluation of the critical cultural and environmental factors that can influence the operations of GSK. Culture is one of the most crucial aspects of the human behaviour, their decision making processes and choices made while taking actions for fulfilling their goals. Based on this assumption the observation of Bate (2008) highlighted that culture influences the decisions and behaviour of a group of people and forms the basis of differentiation of one group from another. Thus, culture can consider as means for segregation of the global population based on their

Business Intelligence - Assignment 2 Case Study

Business Intelligence - Assignment 2 - Case Study Example They did their best for their business to be competitive among market. However, they are running their business on website and have other small databases handling small different departments of organizations; moreover, giving best at their marketing department but though that is not enough to compete business in this technical world of computers. In other words, IT world has change the way to trade; the way of in-house management and the way to sale their production. The CEO, Mr. Peter Rada of Teen_R_Us concede this when he attended industry conference where business intelligence was discussed. He was keen to implement Business Intelligent solution for his business consisting of a web analytics, the data ware house, an OLAP system and data mining capabilities. A companied with Mr. Ben Etton, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company and Mr. Jean Price, the senior accountant of the company worked out on this new technical change for the company and ask for different proposals explaining business system with its components in detail and their specific implementations. They set their budget that affords a system in every two years and though wants the priority implementations of the whole system in ten years. Business Intelligence is a collective word, which describes a deep analysis on the trade made for last few years. This is a system, which shows up with concepts and methods to improve business. In other words, business intelligence is the name of analysis made upon the past information of the organization along with providing data management of the organization using different latest tools and technologies. It more over allows the business users and other management to keep the records of all critical activities took place in form of data mining carrying in a collective data called data ware house. This business intelligence system provides reports in a style that are practically used by senior managers, leads and other members of team. These reports help the business royals to take actions in positive successive way towards their organization. Though making decisions on information provided by the organization doesn't covers the whole business; as business is the name of management of production and it's trading. Data Mining may allow analyzing for the futuristic step taken for the company's growth; data warehouse might keep the records of all trades but more important to all this is to make the production in demand. To satisfy the customers by giving the best in services. To make more and more customers by providing them with products they need in a comfortable price range. This all is about marketing which may be performed by web analytics; i.e., providing the trade online to its customers in a form of website. More parleying about business information is that it's a process to enhance business in a competitive means giving advantage to business by using the available data for decision-making. Major five steps for business intelligence are as follows: Data Sources Data Analysis Situation Awareness Risk Assessment Decision Support Data Sources: Business intelligence system needs data extraction and that can be done from report, emails, memos, documents, images, sounds, formatted texts, web pages and other list. The data is sourced electronically so that it can further used by the business intelligence system installed on an electronic machine like computer. Though,

Managerial Report Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Managerial Report - Case Study Example But there is one more chance that he would counter offer another reduced amount of 600,000 (probability of 0.5) If john takes the case to court it may happen that court award him with damages of $1,500,000 (probability of 0.3) and may award $750,000 (probability of 0.5). There is also one more chance that he would not be given even a single penny (probability of 0.2). Detailed analysis of the above situation suggest that according to the given probabilities of the all the situations option of offering john $400,000 would be beneficial because there are chances that he may accept this offer actual outflow may range from $0 to $1,500,000. But chances of both are very low. Event of high chances are payment of $750,000 (which is equal in outflow of 1st option) and payment of $600,000 (which is lower than the first option). Other results may be payment of $400,000 (again lower than first option) zero payment (most favorable event in this whole situation) and payment of $1,500,000 (most disastrous situation). Except this last situation all the other options are beneficial. Although first option is safe and result in an outflow of $750,000 but there are no chances that allied would pay any other amount bigger than this. But option 2 is little risky as it can result in a payment of bigger amount of $1,500,000. But as result of all probabilities is also less than the amount of 1st option therefore it seems worthwhile

Supply chain management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Supply chain management - Essay Example Many managers of the supply chain are now coming to the realization that the traditional approaches are not sufficient in keeping up with the changes. These traditional approaches do not give the incentives or even means to make continuous changes that are necessary to remain competitive. In order for them to stay in business, the managers of the supply chain need to act, as well as think, differently with the changes that they are required to institute being profound. What makes a difference between leaders and â€Å"laggers† is the ability to give services and products in a sustainable and consistent way that are reflective of higher agility, higher transportation speed, lower prices, and higher quality (Wisner et al, 22). Some of the concepts that would be proposed in the pursuit of achievement of the goals are environmental sustainability, quality practices and better designs, and lean manufacturing. These concepts need to be assessed and their adoption facilitated in New Zealand. In recent times, New Zealand has seen a significant increase in awareness, generally, of strategies of quality improvement, supplier integration, and lean manufacturing. ... It is, therefore, vital that all producers comprehend good agricultural practice and their supply chain (The Agri-chain Center 1). The supply chain also consists of quality assurance where freshly produced goods have quality assurance services that are inclusive of product assessments with basis on sound knowledge of the product, as well as a thorough comprehension of plant pathology after harvesting. The consumer is the next link in the supply chain; they have an increased awareness in relation to quality and safety of the products. The organization must ensure that they meet the demands through a conduction of consumer and climate survey (The Agri-chain Center 1). Product safety solutions are yet another link in the supply chain management. The organizations offer a wide array of product-safety training, as well as support options that adhere to the necessities of consumers and the regulatory institutions (The Agri-chain Center 1). In the transportation of products internationally, organizations also require that imported goods on the high seas to the consumer comply with bio-security requirements of the Ministry for Primary Industries. These organizations now have at their disposal an array of services that ensure they achieve compliance with the Ministry of primary Industries. Finally, there is training for most organizations in areas of quality and safety of products, as well as bio-safety (The Agri-chain Center 1). Over the last fifteen years, most organizations in New Zealand are now making genuine improvements as they move to customer focused and quality based strategies of supply chain management away from strategies and tactics based on cost (Wisner et al, 32). There are also significant increases in the awareness, generally, on strategies of

The Savage World Essay Example for Free

The Savage World Essay Thorstein B. Veblen viewed society anthropologically and utilized psychology than relying on the laws of economics.   He believes that the human nature predominantly is like a beast or he lives in a savage world meaning that in order to survive one must get use into a predatory life cycle that life is the struggle of the fittest.   That savagery is a death to the weakest.   To support his claim that the society where man lives is a savage world, he concluded that the human nature itself is beast as he wrote in his book the Theory of the Leisure Class when he elaborated on â€Å"conspicuous consumption† (Heilbroner).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   He made mentioned about the relations between the balance of expense, salary, and the return of investments with regards to hedonistic concept or the materialistic points of view of man equated in his own instinct to survive.   Man adaptation to use the means for an end in his own term which he has coined evolutionary which mean that the economic life history of a person is to habitually seek realization by doing something which includes invention and use of modern technologies like for instances that businessmen are replaced by engineers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The goods of this earth are for man’s usage but not in any circumstance should the ends will justify the means.   Man can be a savage by nature but he is still a free individual who could think rationally: that the means are only to serve the end or purpose or material things are only needed by man to survive but it can never be his only reason for existence.   Money makes the world go round and indeed it helps but if the means are prioritized over man and dignity of labor put aside then human existence will become a beastlike existence.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   However, Veblen observes the reality of a consumerist world but again concluded that putting the material over the good of the human person depletes man’s existence to survive and perhaps jeopardize his own dignity. He believes strongly that a person do not only work to accumulate money but also to invigorate his pride.   In him work has a greater dimension unseen by the barbaric man whose only pleasure is money.   In his writings he identifies the leisure class as the savage of work and the consumerist class. These are the capitalists who retard and distorted the industry, whereas the middle class work for perfection and for the support of their children whom he referred to as nobler.   He further mentioned that the leisure class is like parasites living by the innovativeness of other men.   The aloof skeptic called them robber barons for which dishonesty became a virtue and dug further to why by nature man is selfish. He acknowledges further that it is the contemporary savage who had accumulated too much wealth and is not really proud of his work but only in the public display of his wealth.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Veblen’s pessimistic but realistic view of the world he lives in made him one of the best worldly philosophers of the twentieth century.   He’s works are still read today because it warns the future from permanent depression that if man continues to tolerate inequality of labor, inequitable partitions of wealth and the tolerance of not withholding the entrepreneurs in the accumulation of too much profit then we will be doomed to live a place in which Veblen calls the savage world.   Veblen a genius and nonconformist in character made him isolate himself from a drastic world of the greedy and preferred to die a simple death at his cabin.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Economic prosperity or world progress is still within the bounds of the hands that work together for a common good but not for those who seek ones own personal gratification. Works Cited Heilbroner, Robert Louis. The Worldly Philosophers.   (2007). 05 December 2007 http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/The-Worldly-Philosophers.id-163,pageNum-3.

Blockbuster Hbr Case Essay Example for Free

Blockbuster Hbr Case Essay One of Blockbuster’s biggest value drivers is geographic location. Most people, especiall in urban areas live pretty close to a Blockbuster location. Availability of titles is also a value driver that not all video stores can provide. Their reputation is also a value driver. Economies of scale are one of Blockbuster’s largest cost drivers. The ability to negotiate with movie studios with leverage while their competitors can’t as effectively win lower prices for inventory purchases gives a huge advantage. The aforementioned reasons are ammunition to defened against competitors. Geographic location and leveraging the brand name recognition are two of the most important advantages that Blockbuster has that none of its competitors can easily overcome. After the formation of Blockbuster, the first major technological substitute to come along was the DVD (the digital versatile disc) and the DIVX (digital video express disc). There was a fierce battle between these two rival substitutes as they waged war. Both were looking to become the sole technology that would replace VHS. Blockbuster remained on the sidelines for the first few years after these technologies were introduced even though 8 major motion picture studios had committed to either DIVX or DVD (6 for DIVX and 2 for DVD) Once Antioco had made a decsion as to back DVD for a multitude of reasons, Blockbuster’s decision would lead to the demise of DIVX. Antico decided that DVD offered the most promise. They were more widespread, DVD player units were more readily available and they were cheaper. About a year after Blockbuster decided to back DVD, Circuit City decided to give up on the DIVX technology. Blockbuster also faced competition from consumer’s decsion to buy DVDs as opposed to renting them(sell through). Antioco saw this as a potential threat and decided to sell through used DVDs at a discount at Blockbuster stores. Along with some promotions, such as a free rental with the purchase of a movie, Antioco’s plan was expected to triple Blockbuster’s share of the video sales market. In 2003 Disney developed a technology much like DIVX called EZ-D. The plan was eliminate the return of rented videos as the disc would be discared 48 hours after opening because a chemical would render it useless. The technology ultimately failed as Blockbuster did not back the technology because for just a few dollars more (EZ-D discs retailed at $5-$7) consumers could outright purchase a DVD with unlimited use. One of the newest substitutes to threaten blockbuster is online video sales. This market is cannabilizing Blockbuster’s sell through numbers and Blockbuster is countering with their own online sales. Another is home delivery service. Even though this service had promise with more than a few firms, they all failed for a multitude of reasons and never posed a real threat. Netflix, a video subscription service with no late fees is also a substitute that Blockbuster is facing. After much initial success, Blockbuster decided to start their own subscription pricing model in which consumers can pay a flat fee each month for unlimitied rentals at their retail outlets. Eventually adding the feature where consumers can opt to either receive/return the discs through the mail similar to netflix or to receive/return them at a retail location to satisfy an immediate need. This option gives them a competitive advantage over Netflix.

BRIC Relevance And Vision In New World Order

BRIC Relevance And Vision In New World Order 19. The 21st century is the century of BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India China) as was the 20th century of America. However one should not forget that there was a period of recession during the early part of 20th century. As per the studies carried out by the experts, there wont be continuous growth every year without any disruption. In fact, the economist were surprised by the occurrence of events in 2008-09. However, they were not surprised that such a thing has happened, as it is a cycle that repeats sooner or later in the world economy. But the fact remains that just because there was an economic crisis in 2008, the relevance of BRICs does not end. In fact it has become more relevant as the emerging economies of BRIC are now driving the world economy.  [7]  The state of the world economy in the coming decade will be largely dictated by the turn of events in the BRIC countries Brazil, Russia, India and China. As all are with large population, hungry for growth, they are alr eady influencing the global commerce and they have the potential to redefine and influence it even further. The BRIC countries have large, young populations base to further exploit this growth potential. The growing importance and influence of BRIC economies is largely due to rapidly growing market due large middle class population which offers lucrative markets for the world industries. 20. The very fact that BRIC economies have shown consistent economic growth over the last decade and their increasing role in the economic activities in the world, Goldman Sachs who first introduced the term has now become more confident on the relevance of BRIC. German economy has already been taken over by China in 2008, and Japan in 2010. As per estimates of Goldman Sachs, Chinese economy will overtake US by 2035. As per reports, India is among the first 10 of the 30 fastest-growing areas in the world, thus it is likely to influence world economy in a major way and faster than expected by the experts.  [8]   21. The leaders of BRIC nations have gained influence over the last decade as their economies have registered faster growth than those of developed countries. The BRIC countries along with the other emerging economies from the developing world have started playing important role in the decision making at various forum of trade, banking and climate change. The relevance of the BRIC economies in the present world order can be gauged from the following facts :- (a) The BRIC economies is more than 22 % of the world economy. (b) The real economic growth of China have consistently averaged at 9.75 percent since 1999, 7 percent in case of India and Russia, and 3.3 percent for Brazil. The global financial crisis of 2008 saw contraction of Russian and Brazil economy in 2009. However India and China continue to remain on a growth path, thus driving the recovery of world economy. (c) As per the experts, the BRIC economies are expected to register further growth in the coming years, thus attracting industries and FDI. (d) Brazil, being an dominating player in agricultural and mining sector, will be a major player in the world market after exploiting its oil reserves. After a period of rapid for last five years, though, its economy has gone into recession in early 2009 but has revived strongly and registered a healthy growth of 9 % in 2010. (e) Russia, being one of the worlds major oil and gas producer, has been affected by the economic slowdown of 2008, in spite of the economic slowdown its economy has registered a healthy growth of about 4 % in 2010 which is largely assisted by recovery in oil prices. (f) Indian economy is emerging strongly and is likely to grow at the rate of 8 %. The government and consumer spending is likely to further boost the growth. (g) The BRIC nations are trying to build consensus on reducing the dependence on U.S. dollar as a global reserve currency, the options of basket of currencies or a system of drawing rates has been suggested by the forum. (h) The BRIC nations have increased their influence at various forum of trade and banking and are dictating terms at these international forums, thus ensuring that their interests are addressed. (j) India and Brazil, both being considered as strong contender for permanent seat in United Nations Security Council, however a lack of consensus among the nations in UN on the issue of UNSC reforms has long stalled the reform process. (k) The BRIC economies have developed a common position on global climate negotiations, however there are differences among them on the issues of carbon footprints. Russia, has already ratified the Kyoto protocol in year 2004. However developing countries like India and Brazil are not agreeing to legally binding targets of emissions being enforced from 2013. (l) Chinese economy has already overtaken Germany and Japan in 2008 and 2010 respectively and is likely to overtake US economy by 2035. (m) As per experts, India will achieve its highest economic growth rate in next few years which will be higher than that of China and will overtake Japanese economy by 2030. (n) As per economic experts, the currencies of BRIC countries will be appreciating upto 300% in next three to four decades, thus likely to be the favourite destination for investment in future this will give further boost to BRIC economies in coming future. (o) In next three to four decades, the BRIC economies, taken together will overtake the economies of United States and the developed economies of Europe. (p) In BRIC countries, a population of about 200 million with incomes above $ 15,000 is likely to get added in the world economy, giving boost to the global economic growth. This is equal to the populations of UK, Germany and France taken together. (q) The BRIC countries together represents almost 42% of the worlds population; This offers a lucrative market of about 2.7 billion people to the world industries, thus making them a favourite destination for investment. These market also represents enormous future purchasing power, which is yet to be tapped. (r) Reduced reliance on foreign debt. The consistent growth rate registered by BRIC economies over the last few years has helped them repay loans taken during the period of previous economic crisis, however with the increasing FDI in these countries, the reliance on foreign debt is getting reduced. (s) Riding the roller coaster. The BRIC economies have registered consistent economic growth rate even during the economic crisis of 2008, however experts wonder that how long these economies can register positive growth rate without a dip and why these economies have not been affected by the slowdown. The world-wide slowdown in economic activities could not have a significant impact on investments in these countries. The reason identified by the experts is that as these are emerging markets with strong economic status and purchasing power, thus they have become the favourites FDI destinations, boosting their economic growth rates and increasing economic activities in these countries. 22. As per studies carried out by Goldman Sachs which predicts that India and China, respectively, will remain major global player for considerable time as suppliers of services and manufactured goods, while Brazil and Russia would emerge and established themselves as major suppliers of raw materials. Thus the BRIC economies are complementing each other with Brazil and Russia together forming the natural commodity suppliers to Indian and Chinese industries. The economic analysts at Goldman Sach released a follow up report which is further to its initial report of 2004 on BRIC. As per this report,  [9]  the number of people in BRIC countries with an income of $3,000 and above will get doubled within next three years and reach a figure of 800 million by 2020. This rise in people with an income of $ 3000 and above represents a massive increase in the middle class in these countries. This rise represent further rise in demand of commodities which will not be restricted to only basic commodities but also have an impact on the demand of expensive goods. The analysts further predicts that between 2007 and 2020, per capita GDP in Indias will quadruple in terms of US$. It further predicts that the Indian economy will overtake US economy by 2050 and BRIC nations as a bloc will overtake economies of G7 nations taken together by 2032. Vision 25. India and China both are driving the world economy, thus helping in recovery of world economies from the effects of the economic crisis and being close neighbours, have become major trading partners. The BRIC nations have exploited the global economic crisis, as a means to improve their economic relationships and co-operation with the poorer developing countries. The BRICs have considerably increased their economic presence in the African countries as well as granted loans to African countries. India has provided loans of more than $200 million at the same time China has invested approximately $4000 million as foreign direct investment. Russia and Brazil has invested more than $3000 and $4000 million in Africa. Through huge economic assistance, the BRICs are not just providing aide to these countries, but also showing their capability to provide financial help to the developing world. This has helped in improving trade ties and getting access to the markets of the poorer economie s which are likely to evolve more strongly in coming future. 26. The globalization and ever growing demand for energy and other raw material, along with the trend of outsourcing helped stimulate the BRICs economic growth. India dominating in service outsourcing sector, termed as back office of the world. Brazil and Russia have vast energy and mineral resources, and China has emerged as worlds manufacturing plant, being termed as shop floor of the world by experts. Indian economy is presently growing at the rate of 8.5% a year, and Chinas at more than 10.5%, and the combined GDP of BRIC countries is US $ 5.2 trillion in 2006 and is growing even stronger day by day. 27. The BRIC thesis proposed by Goldman Sach suggests that, India and China will emerge as the leading players in the field of services and manufactured goods, respectively, similarly Russia and Brazil will become key suppliers of raw materials thus complementing India and China. Thus BRIC countries have the potential to form a dominating economic bloc in which all members complement each other thus boosting each others growth. The BRIC forum in present form cannot be considered as a political alliance or a formal trading association. The leaders of BRIC nations have taken steps to further increase political and economic co-operation, with a view to increase their influence on major trade accords, or as a means of gaining political concessions from the US, civil nuclear deal between India and US is an apt example of success story of this policy. 28. Goldman Sachs  [10]  suggests that the economic potential of BRIC countries has the potential of making them the four most dominant economies in next three to four decades. The BRIC thesis was first proposed by Jim ONeill, global economist at Goldman Sachs. The BRIC countries together accounts for almost 40% of the population and encompass 25% of land in the world. Taken together they hold a combined GDP of approximately 16 trillion dollars. As given above, in almost every field, the BRIC countries are emerging as the leading players in the world. These countries are among the fastest growing economies and emerging markets. 29. The opportunities that the BRIC have for further economic integration in various sectors are evident. Brazil and Russia will continue their leadership roles in developing and trading natural resources, while India and China will remain global leaders in manufacturing, services and technology. All four economies have bounced back from the recession and are now sustaining the global recovery. On current trends, the groups combined share in global gross domestic product should reach 60 percent by 2050. The countries growing economic weight has turned BRIC into a formidable bloc in the new multi-polar world order. 30. The rapid expansion of the emerging economics and BRIC in particular, present both opportunities and challenges in the new world order. There are significant opportunities to form new alliances as BRIC economies present potential growth which will spread the benefits of their development and robust economy to other regional economies as well. However the BRIC economies have to maintain the sustained growth rate to catch up with the more developed economies of the world. 31. The BRICs are becoming superpowers in the economic world. There is no doubt, that they have become much more important today than ever before. But whether they would surpass the expectations is to be seen in near future. However the fact remains that BRIC economies will be playing a key role in global efforts to tackle climate change. Though, it is true that today developed economies are responsible for the majority of greenhouse gases (GHG) already in the atmosphere, however developing countries are expected to account for 75% of GHG emissions over the next 25 years. Owing to its rapid industrialisation and growth, China has emerged as the worlds second-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, and is likely to be the highest emitter by 2020 surpassing US. As per experts, its in the BRICs own interest to reduce their emissions and pollution, and to pursue a cleaner path of development. The BRICs already face a number of environmental problems, including air and water pollution, rising strains on water supplies and resource depletion. 32. Though the BRIC countries have differences on various issues, however economic experts feel that they will play a important role in international politics in near future. As the debates on the implementation of emission control by developing countries and Kyoto Protocol are still on, it is believed that the BRIC countries are the ones who will be most affected in future, and therefore should play an essential role in the new developments on these issues. But the question remains whether these countries will be able to develop an alternate world order? Will they be able to reduce the level of US presence in their own region? BRIC has successfully taken its toddler steps and it will depend on the participating countries to develop it further. 33. Indias membership of BRIC bloc and India Brazil and South Africa, IBSA bloc and its effort for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council is part of grand strategy for the evolving multi-polar world order. India has a tremendous potential to shape and influence the emerging multi-polar world order as well as playing dominant role in it, through its strategy of multi-alignment. However, it will have to be less ideologically driven and more strategically savvy to achieve this goal.

Urban Legend of Photos of Hikers on the Appalachian Trail :: Urban Legends

Lost Among the Leaves: Secret Photos of Hikers on the Appalachian Trail This story, which I have named â€Å"Lost in the Leaves†, is a very detailed and place specific version of the unexplained photographs legends. While unexplained photograph legends often involve humorous pictures taken as a practical joke, there is also a darker streak of these legends. These are legends where mysterious photographs reveal just how near a person was to death through photographs developed after the fact. The fear in these is of what could have happened. In this version however, the photographs serve to warn the endangered as well. This urban legend thus allows other interpretations for why the photographs were taken, and shown to the endangered party. I collected this urban legend from a Freshman here at the University. It was told to him as a scary story when he was hiking along the Appalachian trail, about five years ago. Have you ever been on the Appalachian Trail? OK. The man who proposed it had a utopian vision of a long, tenuous string of outposts stretching from Maine to Georgia, such that adventurous young men and women, possibly disenfranchised by society and the economy, could trek from one end of the country to the other sharing each night with similarly disposed adventurers. Each outpost was to consist of dozens of beds, a kitchen, a chess set sitting on the porch. The idea was every traveler should feel at liberty to pursue the trail at whatever speed they desired, with the assurance that wherever their feet took them they would find welcome. Reality falls a little short of this vision -- most of the shelters are actually three-sided cabins with four bunks-- Mouse infested-- But still, finding a structure of obviously human origin in the wilderness is a comforting thing. Sometimes, on the trail, you'll come across an artifact of a previous traveler -- say -- a rope swing -- that is obviously constructed with such care that it seems to carry something of the soul of the person who put it there. I remember once coming to the top of a mountain and finding a meadow that was bare grass except for one tree in the middle -- and from that tree hung a rope swing that looked to have been there for decades. The Appalachian Trail convinces those who follow it of the existence of ghosts. Benevolent ghosts.

Essay --

In this essay I would like to reflect what I have personally learn more about Thai culture from my intercultural interaction with a Thai person as well as through my in depth reading about Thai culture and history. Thai culture characteristics, behaviors, and values share many similarities and differences with my Taiwanese culture. The person who I interviewed with had given me a great insight into Thai way of thinking and ways of life. Although I have been living in Thai for so many years, but with my Taiwanese upbringing culture I have learn some of the prominent Thai culture, believes, values, and characteristics to be too difficult to understand. In this essay, you will find discussion and examples of Thai prominent cultures, values, believe and Thai historical events and people who had played a great role in changing Thais ways of life. Next, follow by the discussion of Taiwanese culture and Thai culture in comparison and contrast. In the end of the essay, I will propose some of the ways I believe can help to cope with some of Thais cultural shocks. When looking at a broad picture of Thai nation, one can easily identified that Thai is a agricultural society. Rice is what Thai people eat on the daily basis. Yet, Thailand is one of the world biggest exporters in rice product. There is also a saying in Thailand that, â€Å"Farmer is the backbone of the nation.† Here, farmers is not actually the ‘backbone’ or the physical backbone of Thai nation, but backbone in this phrase metaphor the crucial organ in the person body to survive. This shows that Thailand rely heavily on agriculture product and activities. Believe and activities in relation to the agricultural background of Thais, including worshiping â€Å"Pra-mae-po-sop† (Goddess of R... ...s to show friendliness. It is as though strangers are accepted as member of the kin group. Since I am a Taiwanese living in Thailand for so many year, I know some of the ways to cope with these cultural shocks. Here, I would like to suggest you can handle cultural shock in Thai culture. People of different culture may had experience frustration, confusion, tension, or even embarrassment when encounter with another culture. There are two choices you can to can choose from: one is try to observe, listen, inquire which can result in understanding . Another is criticize, rationalize, and withdraw which can result in alienation and isolation. However, some may choose other alternatives such as by gathering information and learn about new culture as much as possible. Second, is to make socio-cultural adjustments. And third is adapting , sharing, experiencing and enjoy.

Communication and professional relationships with children, young people and adults Essay

Principles Effective communication is the key for developing and maintaining positive relationships with others. It helps build trust and encourage others to seek advices and share relevant information. We can strengthen or weaken someone’s trust in us by what we say and do. To strengthen a relationship, be honest and open with them, and try to understand their point of views. Help develop a relationship with children by doing things that build their trust in you. This will show them how to trust others and behave in a way which helps others trust them. Communication is a two way process and it is an active process that involves listening, questioning, understanding and responding. How we listen to others is just as important as what we say to them. The most effective form of listening for building good relationships is empathic listening. empathic listening means listening with the intention of really understanding what the other person means and how the other person feels. make an effort to see things from their point of view, they will feel supported and understood, and are much more likely to open up and tell us about what’s happening in their lives and how they feel. Effective communication is not just about the words we use, but also about the way we are speaking and the body language. If we all use effective communication, we are more likely to communicate information to one another if we have positive relationship. Misunderstandings always lead to bad feeling and resulted in people reluctant to give beneficial support. The principle of relationship building with children and adults are that if others are comfortable in our company, they will be more likely to communicate effectively. To build a positive relationship, mutual respect is essential. Respecting others means being considerate towards them, thinking  about their feelings and accepting that they may have different views and opinions to you. When you take all consideration to respect people, they would in turn respect you. Good relationship also involves giving to others, for example, your time, consideration, kindness etc. When we give, it’s most likely that others will give back and it’s a mutual benefit. Mutual benefit is about two people will try to find a way to cooperate with each other because they want each other to benefit and keep the good relationship last. It may not always be easy to find a way that works for both people, but if we take the time to understand each other, we are more likely to find a solution. Take time to listen to others. Focus on what they are saying to show that you are interested and respond appropriately. Tune in to their body language to try to work out what they are feeling and expressing. Try to see things from their point of view. Understanding make others feel comfortable around us. We can help children to understand that everyone is different and everyone see the world in different ways. If they accept and learn to value these differences in others, they are more likely to develop good relationships with others. In addition, the differences between the people in these relationships will inspire them to open their minds to creative ideas and new ways of thinking, and this build and strengthen a relationship. In order to adapt our communication effectively, we need to understand who we are talking to and in different situations. The context of our communication makes a difference both in the way we engage with others and in the way they interpret our communication. Hold conversations at the appropriate time and place. Formal occasions like ceremonies and business presentations require more formal language and dress. Informal occasions like hanging out with your family or friends allow you to be more relaxed and casual. Jokes and slang words exchange with friends may not be appropriate at the work place or in school. Know your audience, think about cultural and language differences. Language  and the meaning of words have different meaning in different culture. Slang words can be normal in one culture can be offensive in another culture. However, the spoken word is not the only way in which we communicate to each other, it’s also the way we respond to others via email, notes, letters, phone messages and text messages. These non-spoken forms of communication can be an issue if they are misread by others, therefore they require a conscious choice of words. We also need to consider the words we choose base on the audience’s age, education, background and literacy level of the person we talk to. Use appropriate words that they can understand so they may be find more easier and comfortable to connect and communicate with us. Body language can be interpreted differently in different situations and different culture, for example, eye contact is generally a good way to connect with the person we are talking with, but in some culture, it’s not polite to so. Skills Effective communication is a vital part of a Teaching Assistant’s role. It’s essential to send the right messages across to prevent any misunderstanding and offending others’ feelings, especially children learn to communicate through the responses of others. To be able to have effective communication with children and young people, listening and building empathy are two of the essential skills for communication. Actively listen to the child that are trying to talk to you and make eye contact in a calm, open, non-judgemental, non-threatening way and use open questions to acknowledge what had been said. Make them know that you are interested in what they have to say and make them feel their contribution is valued. When they are talking, give them sufficient times to process their thoughts and opportunities to express themselves. Some children need a little bit of confident to speak up and by given some time to ‘warm up’, they will be able to do so. Be able to adapt styles of communication to the needs and abilities of children and young people who do not communicate verbally, or communicate in different ways. For example, spoken language, visual communication, play, body and sign language, information and communication technologies to meet the needs of the individual child or young person and their families and carers. Children should feel relaxed and comfortable in school to be able to have effective communication. We should encourage them to ask questions and put their ideas forward, as communication is a two-way dialogue and process rather than a one-way flow of instructions. This can in turn build respectful, trusting and supportive relationship with children and young people. To have a positive relationship with children and young people, we will need to adapt our behaviours and communications accordingly. Different ages of children will have different requirements. Younger children may need more reassurance, more cuddle and physical contacts while older children want more space to be independent and help and support to lead them on the right path. While dealing with children in a variety of different situations, we must also consider the individual needs of the children. Some children will need us to be extra patient for them to get a word out. They might be feeling anxious or nervous and need to take their times to ease themselves before speaking up. Or some children require a one-to-one dealing only they are comfortable to talk to the adult. In order to build an effective communication with children, the behaviour that we need to adapt are, tones of voice, gestures, body language, eye contact and showing respect. Although these behaviours are also similarities when communicating with adults, however, when communicating with children, we need to do so at the child’s own level, be very clear and unambiguous in what we say. Asking question to check understanding, by showing understanding of the importance of giving attention so that the child feels that their contributions are valued and boost their self-esteem. Take time to listen to them and give them opportunity to encourage them for  communication. Showing understating of the importance for them to express themselves and to be heard so that they will be able to express themselves with ease and in their own manners, words and time. When communicating with adults, we need to be respectful and consider their point of views, needs and preferences. Use method that appropriate to adult than the methods that we use in children. We may have higher tones when speaking to a child and making funny voices to attract the child’s interest, we may not do so when communicate with an adult. We also need to show understanding and respond positively to their views and suggestions, give information when requested. Ensure to them that there is organisational policy with respect to confidentiality and the exchange of information, importance of the confidentiality of shared information. Clarify any uncertainties in understanding. When communicate in an effective way we will build and effective and positive relationship with children, young people and adults. It’s also important to adapt our communication style to meet the needs of other adults in a fair, non-judgemental and effective manner. For example: 1. someone who speak English as an additional language – We may need to speak slowly and repeat what we are saying and check their understanding. Or we may need to provide a interpreter if the information is difficult to convey. 2. Someone with a hearing impaired – make sure to face the person when speaking to them and make eye contact so that they can lip-read. We may need sign language or someone who knows sign language to communicate with them. 3. Someone who has special needs in communication – speak clearly and slowly or use visual aid such as pictures, photographs, objects, symbols, written words and flashcards to make them more easier to understanding. Being sensitive and considerate to potential difficulties in communication is essential. It’s important to be aware that people are different, man y are come from different culture and adult can find communication difficult. Always respect others and their point of views and never make assumptions and come to the conclusion of what others are trying to communicate with us. There will always be a time when you disagree with somebody, they’re often inevitable. When disagreements build, conflict occurs. Managing conflict require skilful techniques. These techniques helps dealing with disagreements and the way we cope with it is important. Often disagreements are down to lack of communication with others and as a direct result of misunderstanding. Always clarify the issued at hand and try to resolve the situation as soon as possible. The longer a problem is allowed to go on, the more difficult it will be to resolve it. This could resulted in bad feeling for each other. When a disagreement arise with children, where they are being disobedient, we would have to point out the boundaries and explain in a calm but firm way that it is not wise to cross the boundaries. Sometimes adults may not have the same ideas and has their own perspective on what has caused the conflict. It is best we deal with the conflict with calmness, listen carefully to their point of view and politely put forward our point of view or may need to work alongside other to explain why things need to happen in a different way in school. If necessary take time to make an appointment with the parents or carers to discuss situation in further details to cle ar out any misunderstanding. Sometimes certain situation can be sensitive, always deal with the issues not the emotions and the people involved. We can also deal with a difficult situation with positive body language, approach and speak in positive manners, remain calm and polite to make others feel ease and willing to resolve any disagreement. Regulations Anyone who work with children in any setting need to be aware that all information must be treated confidentially as stated in the Data Protection Act 1998. It is important that all member of staff must be familiar with the legislation and follow the guidelines. The Data Protection Act 1998 is the law that protects personal privacy and upholds individuals’ rights. The act also gives rights to the people the information is about. By law, everyone in the workplace must follow the rules set out in the act and help to protect individuals’ rights. When working in children’s setting, there is certain information that has to be gathered in order to work effectively.  However, we can only ask for information which is directly relevant, such as: health or medical information records from previous schools records for children who have special education needs. Contact number and address The act helps to make sure that the information held on computers and in some paper-based systems is managed properly. We must protect personal information by following the eight principles of good practice: processed fairly and legally processed for limited purpose and in an appropriate way relevant and sufficient for the purpose accurate and keep up to date kept for no longer than necessary processed in line with the individual’s right kept secure only transferred to other countries that have suitable data protection controls Confidentiality is important within the school. All records are stored safely so that access is restricted to only those who are involved. We should not pass on information without following the correct procedures. It can have a serious impact on parents and their children. We are abusing our profession position by betraying their trust. It is essential that we reassurance parents that all of their information is kept in confidential manner. Assure them that information will not be discussed with anyone. If for some cases, information of a child needs to be share with other professional such as the social service, parent consent would need to be given. Although not all information is confidential. There may also be cases where information on pupils need to be accessible to all staff, for example, where pupils have specific medical conditions such as asthma, so that all staff are aware of these pupils. As a matter of good practice practitioners should inform children, young people and families about their service’s policy on how information will be shared and seek their consent. All information is strictly confidential except if we are made aware of the child’s situation that may or has caused harm to them. For example: when we suspect that the child is being abused when there has been an injuries, illness or similar manner that medical staff need the information on how it might have happened the child is at risk of a sexual abused We should at all time let the individual knows that we will not be able to keep confidentiality if they disclose something which we cannot keep to ourselves for these reasons as a safeguarding and the welfare of the child.

A Firearms Violence on Teens

Despite nationwide gun-free school laws that prohibit possession of a firearm on or near the property of a public or private school, students are bringing guns to school and using them against their fellow students and teachers with increasing frequency. What possesses these students to gun down their classmates? How are these students getting access to firearms? Who is ultimately responsible for these tragedies? What stresses contribute to these shootings? And how are parents and educators missing the warning signs that these children have reached the breaking point? Over the past few years, there have been an astronomical number of school shootings across the country, sending policy makers, parents, teachers, and other concerned citizens into a tailspin. These events are becoming more frequent and have shattered the sense of safety that children should have when they are in school. Shootings by students, some as young as 10, have occurred at sickeningly regular intervals in urban towns like Pearl, Mississippi, Jonesboro, Arkansas, Fayetteville, Tennessee and most recently Littleton, Colorado, where 12 students and 1 teacher lost their lives at the hand of two teen shooters who took their own lives. Firearm violence falls second only to automobile-related deaths, as the leading cause of injury-related death, in the United States. By the year 2003, firearm fatalities are projected to become the United States leading cause of injury-related death, unless the violence is curbed. In 1991, Texas and Louisiana saw firearm fatalities surpass automobile fatalities, and Virginia and Nevada also have continued this trend. In fact, the firearm death rate is increasing faster than any other cause of death except AIDS related fatalities. Recent public attention has focused on the problem of gun violence in the nation†s schools. A 1994 Gallup poll of Americans, for the first time, fighting, violence, and gangs have moved to the top of the list to tie with lack of discipline as the biggest problem facing schools. It is difficult to determine what effect the threat of violence has upon the learning of each student, but clearly education takes a back seat to one†s own sense of security and well being. According to a survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, one in 20 high school students carry a gun and one in five students would tell a teacher if he or she knew of another student carrying weapons to school. Theories differ about where young people get their guns. School security experts and law enforcement officials estimate that 80% of the firearms students bring to school come from home, while students estimate that 40% of their peers who bring guns to school buy them on the street. The United States has weaker firearm regulations and higher numbers of deaths involving firearms than all other industrialized nations. The greatest tragedy of gun violence is the tremendous numbers of children and youth killed or injured each year by firearms. These numbers continue to increase at alarming rates. According to Gunfree.Org, in 1985, the number of firearm homicides for youth 19 years and younger was 1,339, in 1995, it was 2, 574. In 1995, guns accounted for 84% of homicides of persons 13 to 19 years of age. Averages of 14 youth each day are killed by gunshots. A group studying juvenile violence in Multhomah County, Oregon identified the inadequate response of the juvenile justice system to students expelled for possessing weapons in schools, the need for additional efforts to detect weapons, and anti-violence education in schools as primary concerns. We must, as a society, recognize that there is a cycle of violence and that violence breeds more violence. There is no single answer to the problem of violence. A multi-faceted approach is needed. Prevention must be a priority. According to a ‘Public Health† Approach, recognition of three levels of prevention activities is essential: Primary prevention: These are interventions directed at people who have no obvious risk factors for development of violence. An example would be teaching grade school children to deal constructively with anger and conflict. Secondary prevention: These activities are directed to those who show clear-cut risk factors for violence. An example would be training in anger management for people who have a history of arguments or fighting. Tertiary prevention: These activities are directed toward minimizing the danger caused by those who have displayed violent behavior. Examples include interventions to allow gang-established patterns of serious or repeated violence. Any approach to violence must include education carried out in various ways and settings including collaboration among community groups, businesses, the schools, and government. Most of all, the parents must get involved. Schools offer the opportunity to reach a substantial percentage of the youth population and teach them skills aimed at the reduction of violence. Teachers are able to identify early on problem youth and families. Schools represent an important site to convey the message of society against weapons and violence. An important part of the anti-violence prevention strategy aimed at all youth is increasing the efforts to detect weapons in schools. While schools are already vigilant about responding to individuals when specific knowledge is available about weapons possession, this approach has not addressed concerns and perceptions that a number of weapons are present in schools undetected. Expanding the commitment to zero tolerance for weapons in schools would also better communicate to youth community standards, assuming that adequate consequences are in place. Most weapons are found through reporting by a concerned student. Such reporting should be praised. The National School Safety Center offers a checklist derived from tracking school-associated deaths in the United States from July 1992 to the present. Through studying common characteristics of youth who have caused such deaths, the following behaviors are a sampling of indicators of a youth†s potential for harming him/herself or others: History of tantrums and uncontrollable angry outbursts. Habitually makes violent threats when angry. Has previously brought a weapon to school. Has a background of drug, alcohol or other substance abuse or dependency Preoccupied with weapons, explosives, or other incendiary devices. Little or no supervision and support from parents or a caring adult. Reflects anger, frustration, and the dark side of life writing projects. Often depressed or has significant mood swings. Following the horrific shooting in Littleton, President of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Michael Beard, remarked, â€Å"As a country, we must do a better job of protecting young people. We must turn of the flow of guns into our communities. This is an adult problem that deserves an adult response. It is our responsibility.† If we, as adults, do not step forward and take action to prevent even one more senseless act of violence, the youth of today will never have a tomorrow.

Taj Mahal

128 ebba koch EBBA KOCH THE TAJ MAHAL: ARCHITECTURE, SYMBOLISM, AND URBAN SIGNIFICANCE Much has been written on the Taj Mahal, but little has been said about its architecture. There has been only one interpretation of the symbolism of the mausoleum,1 and the urban situation of the monument in the city of Agra has been almost entirely neglected. In brief form, this essay presents the main results of a recently completed monograph in which I address these issues. 2 The Taj Mahal is the Mughals’ great contribution to world architecture, and, as the contemporary sources reveal, it was conceived as such from the very beginning (? . 1). In the words of Shah Jahan’s early historian Muhammad Amin Qazwini, writing in the 1630s: And a dome of high foundation and a building of great magni? cence was founded—a similar and equal to it the eye of the Age has not seen under these nine vaults of the enamel-blue sky, and of anything resembling it the ear of Time has not heard in any of the past ages†¦it will be the masterpiece of the days to come, and that which adds to the astonishment of humanity at large. 3 Not only was the monument to be a magni? cent burial place for Mumtaz Mahal, Shah Jahan’s beloved wife (d. 631), but also—and this is explicitly pointed out by the emperor’s main historian {Abd al-Hamid Lahawri—it was to testify to the power and glory of Shah Jahan (r. 1628–58) and Mughal rule: They laid the plan for a magni? cent building and a dome of high foundation which for its loftiness will until the Day of Resurrection remain a memorial to the sky-reaching ambition of His Majesty, the Sahib Qiran-Thani (Second Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction of the Planets Jupiter and Venus), and its strength will represent the ? rmness of the intentions of its builder. In other words, the Taj Mahal was built with posterity in mind, and we the viewers are part of its concept. I came to study the Taj Mahal in the conte xt of a survey of the palaces and gardens of Shah Jahan that I have been conducting since 1976 as part of a larger survey of Mughal architecture. With the assistance of Dr. Yunus Jaffery from Dr. Zakir Hussain College in Delhi,5 I have established from the Persian sources a corpus of thirty-? ve Shahjahani palaces (sing. dawlatkh? na) and garden residences (sing. b? gh), of which twenty-four proved upon ? ld investigation to exist in varying sizes and states of preservation. In the whole of Islamic architecture, this is the largest extant body of palaces built by a single patron. Entirely new measured drawings of seventeen palaces were prepared by the Indian architect Richard A. Barraud, who drew them on the basis of measurements he and I made during extensive ? eldwork,6 which I undertook because many of these complexes are hardly or not at all recorded. Altogether, Mughal architecture, like the Islamic architecture of India in general, is not well documented.The art historian cann ot rely on measured drawings to the same extent possible for the better-documented areas of Islamic architecture or for Western historical architecture in general. The pioneering surveys of the Archaeological Survey of India from the end of the nineteenth and the ? rst half of the twentieth centuries included several Mughal sites, but only a few—such as the monographs of Edmund W. Smith on Fatehpur Sikri and on Akbar’s Tomb at Sikandra—were published. 7 More often than not, when one wants to have an exact plan of a building one has to go and measure it.On the other hand, while establishing this basic documentation, the art historian is confronted by all the questions the discipline has developed in the span of its existence, during which the approach has moved from formal assessment and analysis towards contextual studies. I began my survey of the palaces at Agra and, during the 1980s, spent months in the Red Fort, measuring and photographing its buildings. From here the Taj Mahal was always before my eyes at a distance across the river Yamuna, popularly called Jamna (? g. 2), and one of these views eventually became the cover image of my book Mughal Architecture (1991), in which he taj mahal: architecture, symbolism, and urban signi? cance 129 Fig. 1. Agra, Taj Mahal (1632–43), mausoleum and flanking buildings seen from the upper level of the gate. (Photo: Ebba Koch, 1996) I dealt with the Taj Mahal for the ? rst time, albeit only brie? y. 8 I felt overwhelmed by its perfection, splendor, and sheer size. Eventually I realized that as a scholar I was not alone in my awe of the famous building. The vast literature on the Taj Mahal comprises surprisingly few serious scholarly studies and, as I pointed out at the beginning, there is as yet no monograph or modern analytical treatise dedicated to its architecture. At the same time I came to realize that many answers to my questions about Shah Jahan’s palaces and gardens lay in the Taj Mahal as the ultimate project of his architectural patronage. The ? nal incentive to study it in detail came in 1994, when the editors of the second edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam asked me to write the article on the building. 10 This started my project of newly documenting and analyzing the entire mausoleum complex; I am the ? rst Western scholar since India gained independence in 1947 to have received permission for such an undertaking, through the generosity of the Archaeological Sur- ey of India. With Richard Barraud I have been measuring and photographing the buildings of the complex in intermittent expeditions during the last ten years. 11 The survey has brought me into the remotest corners of the Taj Mahal, and this close encounter with the architecture has revealed the contribution of the anonymous workmen who inscribed their mason marks on the stones. 12 I began my analysis by looking at the entire complex of the Taj Mahal and at its urban situation. I could not help noticing that the Taj Mahal invites an approach that coincides with what since the 1970s might be termed a â€Å"deconstructive reading. According to Jaques Derrida, the main propagator of this method of disassembling and questioning established notions, all Western thought is based on the idea of centers—Origin, Truth, Ideal Form, Fixed Point, Immovable Mover, Essence, God, and Presence—that guarantee all meaning. The problem with these centers is that they attempt to exclude. In doing so they ignore, repress, or marginalize others. 13 Even those 130 ebba koch Fig. 2. Taj Mahal, mausoleum flanked by mosque (right) and Mihman Khana (left), seen across the river Jamna. (Photo: Ebba Koch, 1985) ho are tiring of deconstruction will see that the idea of center-and-margin illustrates the perception of the Taj too tellingly not to be included in this discussion. Traditionally, the white building of the mausoleum takes the position of the center in the conception of th e beholder, who hardly notices the large complex at the end of which it stands. Due to the prominence of the tomb, its surrounding architecture has received very little attention—in other words, it has been marginalized. It thus seems important ? rst to consider the entire complex, especially its subsidiary courtyards, which emerge as integral components of its design.In addition, I have extended the investigation of the surroundings of the Taj to its larger environment, to its relationship to the city of Agra. ANALYSIS OF THE COMPLEX The mausoleum is set at the northern end of the main axis of a vast oblong walled-in complex that mea- sures 896. 10 x 300. 84 m (? g. 3), which works out to 1112. 5 x 374 Shahjahani gaz. Of this complex, the tomb garden and its forecourt are fully preserved; we measured it as 561. 20 x 300. 84 (300) m, that is, 696 x 374 (373) gaz (? g. 4). 14 The Shahjahani linear yard, called gaz or zir? , corresponds to about 81–82 cm, or 32 inches; o ur ? eld studies have shown that it was not an exact unit but a relative, proportionally used one, the length of which could vary slightly, even within one and the same building complex. For the overall length of the Taj complex, the average gaz ? gure comes to 80. 55 cm. The tomb garden consists of two main components: a cross-axial, four-fold garden—in the form of a classical ch? rb? gh (? g. 3: B)—and, towards the river, a raised terrace on which are placed the mausoleum and its ? anking buildings (? g. 3: A).In this, the Taj Mahal garden follows the form of the typical garden of Mughal Agra, the waterfront garden. As I have shown elsewhere, this is a speci? c form of the ch? rb? gh developed by the Mughals in response to the the taj mahal: architecture, symbolism, and urban signi? cance geographic conditions of the Indo-Gangetic plain, and more speci? cally for the riverfront situation at Agra. Here the water source was not a lively spring on a mountain slope, as i n the Mughals’ native Central Asia, but a large, slow-? owing river, from which the desired running water had to be brought into the garden by means of water lifts.Accordingly, the Mughals conceived a garden type to take advantage of this waterfront situation; the main building was not placed in the center of the garden, as in the classical Mughal ch? rb? gh, but rather on an oblong terrace (kurs? ) running along the riverfront. The garden component was on the landward side of the terrace. This shift towards the riverfront provided the main garden pavilions with the climatic advantages of running water and presented a carefully composed front to viewers on a boat or across the river (? g. 2). From the garden itself, the buildings presented an equally satisfying backdrop (? . 1). 15 URBAN CONTEXT Mughal Agra consisted of two bands of such riverfront gardens lining the Jamna, of which only a few survive today. The key to my reconstruction of this riverfront scheme, which formed the urban context of the Taj, is a plan of Agra dating from the 1720s, in the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum in the City Palace in Jaipur; to my knowledge it is the earliest plan of the city (? g. 5). 16 It shows forty-four garden complexes (including the Agra Fort) along the river and gives their names, which are usually those of their owners, in Devanagari script. 7 Information about these gardens can also be pieced together from the Mughal histories and eulogistic descriptions of Agra, in which gardens of members of the imperial family and of nobles are occasionally mentioned, especially in the context of an imperial visit. Another source is topographical descriptions of Agra written in Persian by local informants for British administrators after the British took Agra in 1803. In his Tafr? h al-{im? r? t (1825–26), Sil Chand describes the gardens of Agra by the same names as feature on the Jaipur plan. 8 The main owners of the riverfront gardens of Agra were the emper ors Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, members of their imperial family, and their nobility the amirs and man? abd? rs. Even Mumtaz Mahal had a garden at Agra, which she bequeathed to her daughter Jahanara; what is left of this Bagh-i Jahanara is now known by the corrupted name Zahara Bagh and lies south of the 131 Ram Bagh, originally Nur Jahan’s Bagh-i Nur Afshan (? g. 5: 3 and 4; ? g. 6). 19 The evidence indicates that most of these gardens followed the riverfront design, with the main building on a terrace overlooking the river and a ch? rb? gh on the landward side. 0 ANALYSIS OF THE COMPLEX RESUMED The design of the Taj garden thus introduces an established Mughal residential garden type into the context of a monumental imperial mausoleum. The waterfront scheme not only determines the shape of the funerary garden of the Taj, it is also a key element in the planning of the entire Taj complex. At the part of it to the south of the garden is a large rectangle (? g. 3: C) whose centr al square forms the Taj forecourt, called jilawkh? na by Shah Jahan’s chroniclers, the of? cially appointed court historian {Abd al-Hamid Lahawri and Muhammad Salih Kanbu, who wrote on his own account.Both provide us with almost identical detailed descriptions of the entire Taj Mahal complex, on the occasion of its of? cial completion on 17 Dhu ’l-Qa{da 1052 (February 6, 1643). 21 Both historians are remarkably consistent in their use of architectural terms; I follow their terminology. The jilawkh? na square (? g. 3: 11) is framed on both of its shorter sides by two smaller courtyard enclosures. An open bazaar street (? g. 3: 12a, 12b) divides these courtyards and provides the main access to the jilawkh? na and, beyond that, through a monumental gateway (? g. 3: 9), to the tomb garden.The northern pair of courtyards contained the residential quarters for the tomb attendants, the khaw p? ras (? g. 3: 10a, 10b). The southern pair contained subsidiary tomb gardens of less er wives of Shah Jahan, whose identity is still under debate (? g. 3: 13a, 13b). These tomb enclosures echoed the design of the main tomb garden on a smaller scale because they followed the characteristic waterfront scheme of a cross-axial ch? rb? gh combined with an oblong terrace on which stood the tomb structure and its ? anking buildings. (These buildings, with one exception, are no longer preserved. On the outside of the Taj complex are three buildings, two to the west (? g. 3: 20, 21) and one to the east; the latter represents another subsidiary tomb complex of this type (? g. 3: 13c). The waterfront scheme is thus transferred to a landlocked situation in these miniature replicas of the main garden. Not only that, but the waterfront garden is also used as the ordering scheme for the entire sub- 132 ebba koch Fig. 3. Site plan of the Taj Mahal with terms derived from the Persian descriptions by Lahawri and Kanbu of 1643: A. riverfront terrace (kurs? ), B. tomb garden (b? gh), C . omplex of the forecourt (jilawkh? na), D. complex with cross-shaped (ch? r s? ) bazaar and four caravanserais (sar? }? ), 1. mausoleum (raw ¬a), 2. mosque (masjid), 3. assembly hall (mihm? n kh? na), 4a–f. wall towers (burj), 5. pool (haw ¬), 6. first temporary burial site of Mumtaz Mahal, 7a, b. garden wall pavilions ({im? rat) popularly called Naubat Khana (Drum House), 8. double arcaded galleries to the south of the garden (? w? n dar ? w? n), 9. gate (darw? za), 10a, b. quarters for tomb attendants (khaw p? ra), 11. forecourt (jilawkh? na), 12a–f. bazaar streets (b? z? r), 13a–c. ubsidiary tombs (maqbara) all popularly called Saheli Burj (Tower of the Female Friend), 14. gates (darw? za): 14a. popularly called Fatehpuri Gate, 14b. popularly called Fatehabad Gate, 15. gate (darw? za) popularly called Sirhi Darwaza, 16. caravan> the taj mahal: architecture, symbolism, and urban signi? cance 133 Fig. 4. Plan of the preserved complex. (Drawing: Richard A. Barraud and Ebba Koch) serai (sar? }? ) known since the eighteenth century as: 16a Katra (Market) Omar Khan, 16b. Katra Fulel (Market of Perfumes), 16c. Katra Resham (Silk Market), 16d. Katra Jogidas, 17. entral square (chawk), 18a, b. west and east gates of the bazaar and caravanserai complex, 19. south gate of the bazaar and caravanserai complex popularly called Dakhnay Darwaza, 20. outer western tomb, 21. mosque popularly called Fatehpuri Masjid. (Drawing: Richard A. Barraud and Ebba Koch) 134 ebba koch Fig. 5. Plan of Agra, drawn with added numbering after a plan painted on cloth datable to the 1720s, 294 x 272 cm, in the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum, City Palace, Jaipur (cat. no. 126): 3. Ram Bagh (Bagh-i Nur Afshan), 4. Zahara Bagh (Bagh-i Jahanara), 9. Tomb of I{timad al-Dawla, 17.Mahtab Bagh, 20. Taj Mahal, 28. Agra Fort. (Drawing: Richard A. Barraud and Ebba Koch) sidiary complex of the Taj. In order to understand the complete design, we must turn to contemporary desc ription and look at eighteenth- and nineteenthcentury plans (compare ? gs. 3 and 7). 22 From these it becomes apparent that south of the jilawkh? na there was another courtyard complex with a cross-axial arrangement (? g. 3: D). It was formed by open, intersecting bazaar streets (? g. 3: 12c, 12d, 12e, 12f), which corresponded to the walkways of the garden, and four squarish sar? }? , that is, caravanserais or inns (? g. 3: 16a, 16b, 16c, 16d), taking the place of the four gar- den plots. We meet here with a unique and highly creative transfer of a ch? rb? gh design onto a complex of utilitarian civic architecture. Hence the con? guration of the rectangular unit containing the jilawkh? na and the cross-axial unit to its south echoed the waterfront scheme of the Taj garden. The entire complex of the Taj Mahal thus consisted formally of two units following the waterfront design—that of the Taj garden, a true waterfront garden, and that of the landlocked variant of the subsidiar y units.The tomb garden and the subsidiary complex were the taj mahal: architecture, symbolism, and urban signi? cance 135 Fig. 6. Plan of preserved and reconstructible building substance of the so-called Zahara Bagh, identified as Bagh-i Jahanara (late 1620s to 1630s), Agra. (Drawing: Richard A. Barraud and Ebba Koch) connected not only formally but also functionally. The utilitarian unit serviced the funerary unit of the tomb garden. By imperial command the upkeep of the tomb was ? nanced by the income generated from the bazaars and caravanserais, in addition to that of thirty villages from the district of Agra. 3 The service unit was the counterpart (qar? na)24 of the tomb complex, linked to it by design and function. The two zones, the funerary and the â€Å"wordly,† relate also to the dialectics of the Islamic concept of d? n waduny? }, the domains of the spiritual and the material life. 25 Furthermore, the addition to the mausoleum complex of quarters for merchants and foreign travelers ensured â€Å"that the whole world should see and admire its magni? cence,† in the words of the French jeweler and traveler Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who was in Agra in 1640–41, and again in 1665. 6 Its reception through world travelers—jah? n-naward? n or rawandah? – 136 ebba koch yi {? lam, as the Mughals called them27—thus forms an integral part of the concept of the Taj Mahal. Of this two-part service unit, the southern cross-axial component is the great mystery of the Taj Mahal: we do not really know how much of it survives. Hardly anybody who walks through the southern gate of the jilawkh? na (? g. 3: 15) and enters the narrow street with the marble inlay workshops realizes that this area, known as the Taj Ganj, was originally part of the Taj complex.Here a densely built city quarter has grown up in which the architecture of Shah Jahan has been buried almost entirely; today one can make out only fragments of the wings of the original bazaars and caravanserais. The four gates of the central square or chawk are preserved (although two only in part) and protected by the Archaeological Survey of India (? g. 8). The Taj Ganj is, however, an integral part of the Taj Mahal, an indispensable component of its planning. It has been lost, but there is no doubt that it should be given back to the Taj by some means.I am planning to do this in the form of an architectural model that will reconstruct the entire complex of the Taj Mahal, the River Jamna, and the imperial garden called Mahtab Bagh on the opposite side of the river. The model will enable visitors to understand that the Taj is unique not only because of the grandness of the tomb building but also because of the carefully planned creative design, the scale, and the multifunctional complexity of the entire compound. It will also draw attention to the Taj Mahal as a constituent part of the urban scheme of Agra.I envisage placing the model in the new Visitors ’ Center at the Taj Mahal, in the eastern and western courtyards of the khaw p? ras (? g. 9), today called, respectively, Fatehabad Gate Court and Fatehpuri Gate Court. The Taj Mahal Visitors’ Center is part of a new initiative for â€Å"the conservation and restoration†¦of the Taj Mahal and surrounding areas and a new site visitor management,† realized since 2001 in a partnership between the Indian government, represented by the Archaeological Survey of India, and the private sector—the Indian Hotels Company Ltd. that is, the Tata Group of Hotels. The project is monitored by the Taj Mahal Conservation Collaborative, directed by the conservation architect Rahul Mehrotra and by Amita Baig, and advised by a body of global experts of which I am part. 28 Fig. 7. Plan of the entire Taj Mahal complex with designations of the main buildings in Persian, late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, Museum fur Indische Kunst, Berlin, MIK 10060. the taj mahal: architecture, symbolism, and urban signi? cance 137 Fig. 8. Taj Mahal, bazaar and caravanserai complex (fig. : D), gate of the central chawk (square) leading to the northeastern caravanserai today called Katra Fulel (fig. 3: 16b). The area is now built in and over by the city quarter Taj Ganj; in the background can be seen the gate of the Taj Mahal garden, behind it part of the mausoleum, and to the right the Mihman Khana. (Photo: Ebba Koch, 1999) THE TAJ AS BUILT ARCHITECTURAL THEORY The reconstruction of the original complex of the Taj establishes the determinant role of the waterfront garden in its planning.The complex of the Taj Mahal not only explores the potential of the waterfront garden as an ideal funerary and a utilitarian worldly form, it also expresses canonically the architectural principles of the period. We have no texts to turn to because the Mughals had no written architectural theory, and one wonders to what extent they were affected by the ancient Shastric traditi on of building theory. The Sanskrit texts translated in an extensive program under Akbar did not include the outstanding Indian genre of art and architectural theory, the shilpa sh? stras and v? st? sh? tras, respectively; theorizing about art was not a Mughal literary preoccupation. True, it was hardly a major theme elsewhere in the Islamic world, but one would have expected the Mughals to become interested in the ancient Indian textual tradition of art theory, all the more since, like the Muslim dynasties in India before them, they continued to absorb Indian artistic conventions into their art and architecture, and even newly revived them. However, the fact that no texts exist does not mean that architectural theory was absent from Mughal thinking, especially in the time of Shah Jahan.My investigations have shown that theory was laid down in the architecture itself. As in painting—and I have tried to establish this for the historical images illustrating Shah Jahan’s history, the P? dsh? hn? ma29—the ruler’s buildings and formal gardens express these concepts so systematically that we can derive them from their form itself. The Taj is 138 ebba koch Fig. 9. Taj Mahal, view from the roof level of the gate towards southeast onto the khaw p? ra (quarter of attendants) now called Fatehabad Gate Courtyard (fig. 3: 10b) and the subsidiary tomb to the east of the jilawkh? na (fig. 3: 13b). Photo: Ebba Koch, 1995) â€Å"built architectural theory,† which can be read almost like a literary text once we have mastered the grammar and vocabulary of the architectural language. The buildings speak to us â€Å"with mute eloquence† (bazab? n b? zab? n? ), as Lahawri puts it. 30 We note here the purest expression of a consistent formal systematization characteristic of the entire art of Shah Jahan; it represents a distinctive and outstanding contribution speci? c to this period. The principles of Shahjahani architecture, which interact closely with one another, can be identi? ed as follows: 1. Geometrical planning. . Symmetry. Favored in particular is bilateral symmetry, for which we even have a term in contemporary descriptions of buildings, namely, qar? na,31 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. an Arabic word that expresses the notion of pairing and counterparts but also of integration, thus ? tting conceptually into the ideas of universal harmony that played a great role in the imperial ideology of Shah Jahan. In a typical Shahjahani qar? na scheme, two symmetrical features, one mirroring the other, are arranged on both sides of a central, dominant feature. Hierarchy. This is the overriding principle, which governs all the others.Proportional formulas expressed in triadic divisions. Uniformity of shapes, ordered by hierarchical accents. Sensuous attention to detail. Selective use of naturalism. Symbolism. the taj mahal: architecture, symbolism, and urban signi? cance 139 Fig. 10. Agra Fort, courtyard now called Machchhi Bhawan, originally the â€Å"Ground Floor Courtyard of the Hall of Private Audiences† (Dawlat Khana-i Khass), south wing with marble baldachin for Shah Jahan’s throne, 1630s (Photo: Ebba Koch, 1980) A palace wing of the so-called Machchhi Bhawan (1630s) in the Agra fort illustrates these principles very clearly (? . 10). The wing consists of uniformly shaped arcades with a hierarchical accent in the center, in the form of the emperor’s marble baldachin. The central feature and the identical arcades on both sides express in a triadic division bilateral symmetry, or qar? na. The baldachin attains its hierarchical accentuation by the use of nobler material—namely, white marble—and with selective naturalism: it is formed of organic baluster columns, decorated with naturalistically sculpted acanthus leaves that also appear in stucco as decoration of the interior cupola.These elements are shaped with sensuous attention to detail and are in stark contrast to the plainer arcades of the wings. The organic plant forms of the baldachin symbolize the emperor, whose throne stood below it, as the generator of blossoming and wellbeing. 32 This is underlined by the pot with over? owing leaves out of which grows each of the four columns—a p? r? a ghata or p? r? a kalasha, in Indian architecture an ancient symbol of growth, fecundity, and prosperity (? g. 11). 33 This example is meant to suggest that the same principles govern the entire architecture of Shah Jahan— palaces, gardens, mosques, and mausoleums.They are, however, expressed most grandly and most consistently in the Taj Mahal, whose architecture epitomizes the Shahjahani system. THE PRINCIPLES OF SHAHJAHANI ARCHITECTURE AS EXPRESSED IN THE TAJ MAHAL First, a rational and strict geometry is ensured by the use of grid systems based on the Shahjahani gaz. Different modules are used for the garden and the subsidiary 140 ebba koch gate (darw? za) to the garden (? g. 3: 9), the fore court (jilawkh? na) (? g. 3: 11) and its southern gate (? g. 3: 15), the square (chawk) (? g. 3: 17), and the southern gate of the bazaar and caravanserai complex (? g. : 19). These elements are ? anked on both sides by pairs of identical buildings: the mosque (masjid) (? g. 3: 2) and the assembly hall (mihm? n kh? na) (? g. 3: 3), two garden wall pavilions (cim? rat), now called Naubat Khana (? g. 3: 7a, 7b), and, to accentuate the corners of the enclosure wall and the terrace step, three pairs of tower pavilions (burj) (? g. 3: 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d, 4e, 4f). The elements of the subsidiary unit (? g. 3: C, D) are arranged in the same mirror symmetry. Integrated into the overall qar? na symmetry are centrally planned elements, namely the four-part garden (b? gh) (? g. : B), the four-part bazaar-and-caravanserai complex (? g. 3: D), the miniature ch? rb? ghs of the subsidiary tombs (? g. 3: 13a, 13b); the individual buildings of the mausoleum (? g. 3: 1) and gate (? g. 3: 9) are raised ove r central plans (compare ? gs. 3 and 4). Each element plays an indispensable part in the composition; if just one part were missing, the balance of the entire composition would be destroyed. Bilateral symmetry dominated by a central accent has generally been recognized as an ordering principle of the architecture of rulers aiming at absolute power—a symbol of the ruling force that brings about balance and harmony.For Earl E. Rosenthal, this is expressed in the palace built into the Alhambra in Granada by Charles V in 1526 as a statement of the Christian Reconquista of Spain, â€Å"a striking symbol of the strati? cation of aristocratic society under centralized authority. †35 Third, triadic divisions bound together in proportional formulas determine the shape of plans, elevations, and architectural ornament of the Taj. A leitmotif is the tripartite composition consisting of a dominant feature in the center ? anked by two identical elements; the con? uration relates in turn to hierarchy as well as to qar? na symmetry (? gs. 1 and 12). Fourth is the hierarchical grading of material, forms, and color down to the minutest ornamental detail. Particular striking is hierarchical use of color: the only building in the whole complex faced entirely with white marble is the mausoleum. All the subsidiary structures of the Taj complex are faced with red sandstone; special features such as domes may be clad in white marble (? gs. 1, 2, 12). This hierarchic use of white marble and red sandstone is typical of impe- Fig. 11.Marble baluster column of the baldachin of Shah Jahan’s throne, topped with an acanthus capital and growing out of a pot with overflowing acanthus leaves, the Indian pur? a ghata. (Photo: Ebba Koch, 1979) complexes, and even individual buildings have their own grid. The unit of the garden and the riverfront terrace is based on a grid with a 23-gaz module, and the unit of the jilawkh? na and bazaar and caravanserai complex on a 17-gaz mo dule. In the planning of the mausoleum a 7-gaz module is used and in that of the gate a 3-gaz module. 34 Second, there is perfect symmetrical planning with emphasis on bilateral symmetry (qar? a) along a central axis on which are placed the main features. The main axis running north-south is represented by the garden canal and the bazaar street in its extension. On it are set the dominant features: the mausoleum (raw ¬a) (? g. 3: 1), the pool (haw ¬) (? g. 3: 5), the the taj mahal: architecture, symbolism, and urban signi? cance 141 Fig. 12. Taj Mahal, Mihman Khana (Photo: Ebba Koch, 1996) rial Mughal architecture, but here it is explored with unparalleled sophistication. It represents the clearest link to pre-Islamic Indian Shastric concepts and expresses social strati? cation.The Mughals elaborated here an architectural praxis that already had been adopted by the early sultans of Delhi and that conforms to older Indian concepts laid down in the Shastric literature. The Vishnud harmottara, an authoritative compilation composed in Kashmir in about the eighth century, recommended white-colored stone for Brahmin buildings and red for those of the Kshatriyas, the warrior caste:36 â€Å"White, it would seem, is opposed to red as the purity of the Brahmin is opposed to the ruling power of the Kshatriya. † The synthesis of the two colors had an auspicious connotation. 7 By using white and red in their buildings, the Mughals represented themselves in the terms of the two highest levels of the Indian social system: architecturally speaking, they were the new Brahmins and the new Kshatryas of the age. Until Aurangzeb, the Mughal emperors were concerned to de? ne themselves as rulers in Indian as well as Muslim terms; the historian {Abd al-Qadir Bada}uni (d. 1004/1595–96), who was an orthodox Muslim and wrote a history of Akbar on his own account, criticized the emperor for letting himself be addressed as an incarnation â€Å"like Rama, Krishna, and ot her in? del kings. 38 Fifth is the uniformity of shapes, ordered by hierarchical accents: for instance, only one type of columnar support—the Shahjahani column—is used in the entire complex. It has a multifaceted shaft, a muqarnas capital, and a base formed of multicusped-arched panels39 and is always combined with a multicusped arch. The proportions and details of the columns may vary according to their position in the complex. In the galleries on both sides of the gate (? g. 3: 8a, 8b) they form monumental arcades (? g. 13, and cf. ?g. 10); on the roof level of the mausoleum similar arcades on a smaller scale are set in the back sides of the p? ht? qs (portals), and Shahjahani half-columns 142 ebba koch Fig. 13. Taj Mahal, galleries south of garden on both sides of the gate (fig. 3: 18), Shahjahani column with faceted shaft, muqarnas capital, and base formed of four multicusped panels, each enriched with a flowering plant in relief. (Photo: Ebba Koch, 1995) Fig. 14. Taj Mahal, roof level, pillar with paired Shahjahani half-columns of roof chhatr? (kiosk), behind the back side of the p? sht? q (porch) with gallery formed of Shahjahani columns and multicusped arches. (Photo: Ebba Koch, 1996) ?ank the pillars of the four marble chhatr? (kiosks) surrounding the main dome (? g. 14). This uniformity is true of the entire architectural vocabulary and its decoration; it applies to the paneling of the walls with shallow multicusped niches and cartouches, and to the treatment of vaults. One type of decorative facing is used for the main vaults and the half vaults of the mausoleum and gate (? gs. 15, 16)—a network developed from points arranged in concentric circles, which Shah Jahan’s authors described as q? lib k? r? , or mold work, because in the original plaster form of the vault the pattern was applied by means of molds (? g. 15).The design was transferred into marble in the central dome and half vaults of the p? sht? qs of the mausoleu m (? g. 16). Sixth, the principle of sensuous attention to detail is expressed most exemplarily in the ? owers of the mausoleum dado and in the exquisite pietra dura (literally, â€Å"hard stone†: gemstone inlay) decoration of the cenotaphs of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan and the screen that surrounds them (? gs. 17, 18, 20, 21). Seventh, in the Taj the selective use of naturalism emphasizes hierarchy. The most naturalistic decor appears in the chief building of the entire complex, the mausoleum (? s. 17, 18, 20, 21). Eighth, the sophisticated symbolism in the architec- the taj mahal: architecture, symbolism, and urban signi? cance 143 Fig. 15. Taj Mahal, garden gate, half vault of the southern p? sht? q showing plaster facing with q? lib k? r? , that is, a network forming kite-shaped compartments developed from stars arranged in concentric tiers. (Photo: Ebba Koch, 1996) Fig. 16. Taj Mahal, mausoleum, central dome with q? lib k? r? in marble relief. (Photo: Ebba Koch, 1996) 1 44 ebba koch brought to its ultimate monumentalized design; thus it was raised to a level above the sphere of mortals.The concept of the eschatological house also governs the elaborate program of the inscriptions, designed by Amanat Khan Shirazi. Z. A. Desai and Wayne Begley have shown that passages of the Qur}an selected for the inscriptions focus on themes of the Last Judgment, divine mercy, the reward of the faithful, and Paradise (? g. 19). 42 Such themes are entirely ? tting for the mausoleum in their evocation of the abode prepared for Mumtaz in Paradise. Begley, however, uses the evidence for another, less close-at-hand reading and sees in the Taj Mahal an architectural realization of an Islamic cosmological scheme—namely, the oncept of the Throne of God on the Day of Judgment, as envisaged and recorded in a diagram by the thirteenth-century Spanish mystic Ibn al-{Arabi in his Fut t al-Makkiyya (1238). 43 Why then, as Maria Eva Subtelny has pointed out, 44 is the famou s Throne verse (Qur}an 2:255) extolling God’s majesty45 absent from the inscriptional program of the Taj Mahal? Begley’s interpretation ignores not only that, but also the use of an established Agra garden plan for the layout of tural program expresses, as I have suggested, the concept of the mausoleum as earthly realization of the mansion of Mumtaz in the garden of Paradise.This is clearly formulated by Lahawri in the of? cial history of the emperor’s reign: †¦the exalted mausoleum, which imitates the gardens of Rizwan [the guardian of Paradise], and which gives an impression of Paradise (literally, the holy enclosures) (raw ¬a-i mu}all? ki az riy?  ¬-i Ri ¬w? n hik? yat kard wa az ha }ir[rat al-] quds nish? n dahad). 40 Mughal eulogistical references have a complexity of their own; while they may represent a purely literary convention, they can also have a direct bearing on the work of architecture or art that they praise.In order to arrive at their meaning, the metaphors used in such eulogies thus have to be carefully evaluated against the evidence brought forth by formal analysis. 41 In the Taj Mahal, every aspect of the architecture supports the concept of the paradisiacal mansion. It is expressed in the overall planning of the entire complex. The waterfront garden, a typical residential garden form of Agra, was realized in ideal forms and Fig. 17. Taj Mahal, p? sht? q of mausoleum, marble dados with rows of naturalistic flowers representing heavenly flowerbeds. (Photo: Ebba Koch, 1978) he taj mahal: architecture, symbolism, and urban signi? cance 145 Fig. 18. Taj Mahal, p? sht? q of the mausoleum, dado flowers of mixed botanical species, detail. (Photo: Ebba Koch, 1978) the mausoleum. 46 He also disregards another highly relevant aspect, that is, the ? oral decoration that forms an integral part of the building. In a direct appeal to our senses, the concept of the paradisiacal garden house is expressed in the delicate ? ow ers that appear on the dados, at the eye level of the beholder. They are carved in sensuous detail and represent naturalistic but not necessarily identi? ble botanical species47 that transform the lower walls of the mausoleum into ever-blooming paradisiacal ? owerbeds (? gs. 17, 18). The naturalistic decoration culminates in the interior, in the central ensemble of the cenotaphs of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan and the screen that surrounds them. These are covered with spectacular ? owers and plants inlaid with semi-precious stones, in commesso (composition) di pietre dure; the Mughals called the technique parch? n k? r? (literally: â€Å"driven-in work†) (? g. 20). The poet Abu Talib Kalim tells us that the painterly effects that could be obtained with parch? k? r? made it possible to create the desired naturalistic ? owers, permanent and thus superior images of their counterparts in nature: On each stone a hundred colors, paintings, and ornaments Have become apparent through the ch isel’s blade. Fig. 19. Taj Mahal, interior of the central hall, south arch. End of the inscription of Qur}an 39:53–54, with the colophon of the calligrapher, reading â€Å"Finished with His [God’s] help; written by the humble faqir Amanat Khan al-Shirazi, in the year one thousand and forty-eight Hijri [1638–39], and the twelfth of His Majesty’s auspicious accession. (Photo: Ebba Koch, 2001) 146 ebba koch Fig. 20. Cenotaphs of Mumtaz Mahal (1632) and Shah Jahan (1666) in the main tomb hall. (Photo: Ebba Koch, 1981) Fig. 21. Cenotaph of Shah Jahan in the lower tomb chamber (â€Å"crypt†). Detail of poppies and yellow flowers set in cartouches, inlaid with semi-precious stones in pietra dura/parch? n k? r? technique. (Photo: Ebba Koch, 2002) the taj mahal: architecture, symbolism, and urban signi? cance The chisel has become the pen of Mani48 Painting so many pictures upon the translucent marble (? b-i marmar). †¦.Pictures become manifest from every stone; In its mirror behold the image of a flower garden. They have inlaid flowers of stone in the marble: What they lack in smell they make up with color. Those red and yellow flowers that dispel the heart’s grief, are completely out of carnelian and amber. †¦. When of such stones the surface of a tomb is made, The deceased will [want to] clasp the flower pictures to her heart. 49 147 and to provide a lasting memorial to his fame. Strict formal principles served to express within each work of art and each building the hierarchy and timeless order of Shahjahani rule.With their successful appeal to our senses, the seductive aesthetics make the message the more persuasive. It is the fusion of the intellectual and the sensuous that has made the Taj Mahal such a successful monument up to the present day. Lastly, the close connection between form and meaning in Shahjahani art makes it a methodological exemplar of general art-historical relevance; it reminds us tha t formal analysis should not be in opposition to a contextual approach but rather a starting point for art as history.Institute fur Kunstgeschichte University of Vienna NOTES Author’s note: A visiting fellowship from the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University in autumn 2002 enabled me to work on the manuscript of Taj Mahal, and to present my ? ndings in a lecture in the Aga Khan Program Lecture Series on Nov. 14, 2003, which forms the basis of this article. I thank Gulru Necipoqlu, David Roxburgh, Jeffery Spurr, Andras Riedlmayer, and Sunil Sharma for their interest in my research and their help during my stay in Cambridge.For supporting my project of the documentation and analysis of the Taj Mahal, I wish to thank the Jubilaumsfonds der Osterreichischen Nationalbank, the Bundesministerium fur Unterricht und Kulturelle Angelegenheiten, Austria, and Mr. E. Alkazi. 1. W. E. Begley, â€Å"The Myth of the Taj Mahal and a New Theory of its Symbolic Meanin g,† The Art Bulletin 61 (1979): 7– 37. Begley’s interpretation of the building as a replica of the Throne of God became widely known, probably because of its eccentricity and also because there was no proposed alternative; it even made its way into the popular travel guide literature: see Lonely Planet: India, 8th ed. Hawthorne: Victoria, Australia, 1999), 392. 2. The Complete Taj Mahal and the Riverfront Gardens of Agra (London: Thames and Hudson, forthcoming 2006). 3. Mu? ammad Am? n Qazw? n? , P? dsh? hn? ma, British Library Asia, Paci? c, and Africa Collections (henceforth BL APAC), Or. 173, fol. 234b (librarian’s refoliation 235b), my translation; cf. the translation of this passage in W. E. Begley and Z. A. Desai, Taj Mahal: The Illumined Tomb: An Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Mughal and European Documentary Sources (Cambridge, MA: Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture and Seattle: University of Washington Press, ca. 989), 42. 4. {Abd al-Yam? d L? hawr? , The B? dsh? hn? mah (Persian text), ed. M. Kab? r al-D? n A? mad and M. {Abd al-Ra m (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1865–72) vol. 1, pt. 1, 403, my trans. ; cf. the trans. of this passage in Begley and Desai, Taj Mahal: The Illumined Tomb, 43. 5. I thank Dr. S. M. Yunus Jaffery for his continuing assistance in reading and translating Mughal source material. On both cenotaphs of Shah Jahan, which were placed next to those of Mumtaz after his death in 1666, the decoration with paradisiacal ? owers was given preference even over inscriptions.Inscriptions had decorated the sarcophagus-like element of both cenotaphs of Mumtaz, the one in the lower and the other in the upper tomb chamber, and full ? owering plants appear only on the platform of her upper cenotaph. But both of Shah Jahan’s cenotaphs are covered all over with ? owers (? gs. 20, 21); the only epigraphy appears in the form of a brief historical epitaph at the south end of each cenotaph. The w eight given to ? oral decoration is in tune, on the one hand, with the overall concept of the mausoleum as paradisiacal garden house, but the exclusively ? oral decoration of the emperor’s cenotaphs makes a more speci? statement, relating, even after his death, to the use of ? ora in his court settings to express imperial propaganda. The court poets and writers tell us that Shah Jahan was â€Å"the spring of the ? ower garden of justice and generosity,†50 the renewer (mujaddid) under whose rule â€Å"Hindustan has become the rose garden of the earth, and his reign†¦has become the spring season of the age in which the days and nights are young. †51 CONCLUSION From our investigations, the reign of Shah Jahan emerges as a time when the visual arts were most consistently and systematically explored as a means of promulgating imperial ideology.The written texts and the arts were seen as equally necessary means to represent the ruler and his state for a wider pub lic 148 6. ebba koch My ? eld research provides the material for a constantly expanding archive, which today comprises several hundred architectural drawings prepared mainly by Richard A. Barraud and ca. 50,000 photographs taken by myself. E. W. Smith, The Moghul Architecture of Fathpur-Sikri, Archaeological Survey of India: New Imperial Series (henceforth ASINIS) 18, 4 vols. (1894–98, repr.Delhi: Caxton Publications, 1985); idem, Akbar’s Tomb, Sikandarah near Agra, Described and Illustrated, ASINIS 35 (Allahabad: Superintendent Government Press, United Provinces, 1909). In the second Indian edition (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2002), 98–101. The most useful studies are Muhammad Abdulla Chaghtai, Le Tadj Mahal d’Agra (Brussels, 1938); R. A. Jairazbhoy, â€Å"The Taj Mahal in the Context of East and West: A Study in Comparative Method,† Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 24 (1961): 59–88; Dieter Brandenburg, Der Taj Mahal in Agra (Berlin, 1969); R.Nath, The Immortal Taj Mahal (Bombay, 1972); and Lisa Golombek, â€Å"From Tamerlane to the Taj Mahal,† in Islamic Art and Architecture: In Honor of Katharina Otto-Dorn, ed. A. Daneshvari, Islamic Art and Architecture, 1 (Malibu, 1981), 43–50. Muhammad Moin-ud-din, The History of the Taj (Agra, 1905), recorded for the ? rst time the inscriptions of the Taj; his pioneering effort was superseded by Begley and Desai, Taj Mahal: The Illumined Tomb. For excellent photographs by Jean Nou, see Amina Okada and M. C.Joshi, Taj Mahal (New York, London, and Paris: Abbeville Press, 1993): unfortunately the illustrations are only partly identi? ed. For further literature on the Taj Mahal, see Ebba Koch, â€Å"T? dj Ma? all,† Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed. (henceforth EI2) (Leiden: Brill, 1960–2004), vol. 10, 58–60, and idem, Complete Taj Mahal. Koch, â€Å"T? dj Ma? all,† ? g. 4 presents my new overall plan of the complex for the ? rst time. A brief assessment based on this survey is idem, â€Å"The Taj Mahal,† in The Seventy Architectural Wonders of Our World, ed. Neil Parkyn (London: Thames and Hudson, 2002), 57–61.We measured the buildings with metal and plastic tapes and with a laser measuring instrument called Disto Basic, made by Leica. Based on our survey, Richard Barraud did the scale drawings by hand; I took the photographs with a Nikon FS Photomic. All plans and photographs illustrating this article are part of this survey. A selection is published in Koch, â€Å"Taj Mahal,† 60. Jaques Derrida, â€Å"Structure, Sign, and Play,† Writing and Difference, trans. A. Bass (Chicago, 1978). The width of the complex at the southern, jilawkh? na, end measures 300. 84 m; at the riverfront it is 300 m. This is explained by Richard A.Barraud in his pioneering study â€Å"The Modular Planning of the Taj Mahal,† based on our measurements and illustrated with three drawings, in Koch, Complete Taj Mahal. Barraud refutes Begley’s assumption that the planning of the Taj can be reconstructed by putting a decimal grid over the whole complex and explaining away the features that do not ? t into it. See Begley and Desai, Taj Mahal: The Illumined Tomb, ? gs. 13–15, and W. E. Begley, â€Å"The Garden of the Taj Mahal: A Case Study of Mughal Architectural Planning and Symbolism,† in Mughal Gardens: Sources, Places, Representations, and Prospects, ed. J. L. Wescoat, Jr. and J.WolschkeBulmahn (Washington, DC, 1996). In earlier publications I have given differing measurements of the complex. In Koch, â€Å"T? dj Ma? all,† 58, a misprint occurred in the rendering of the gaz equivalents of the preserved part, which are indicated as 690 x 313 gaz instead of 696 x 374 gaz. In my essay in Seventy Architectural Wonders, 61, the overall length of the complex is given as 897. 3 x 300 m, because we took it from the outer face of the southernmost g ate, which projects 1. 20 m from the enclosure wall. From this comes the overall length of 1114 gaz cited in Koch, â€Å"T? dj Ma? all,† 58, which differs from the one given here as 1112. gaz. Ebba Koch, â€Å"The Mughal Waterfront Garden,† in Gardens in the Time of the Great Muslim Empires: Theory and Design, Supplements to Muqarnas, 7, ed. Attilio Petruccioli (Leiden, New York, and Cologne: Brill, 1997), 140–60, repr. in Ebba Koch, Mughal Art and Imperial Ideology (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001), 183–202. Cat. no. 126. The plan is painted on cloth and measures 294 x 272 cm. I have studied it since the mid-1980s and discussed it in several publications: see Ebba Koch, â€Å"The Zahara Bagh (Bagh-i Jahanara) at Agra,† Environmental Design 2 (1986): 30– 37; idem, â€Å"The Mughal Waterfront Garden† in M.C. Beach, Ebba Koch, and Wheeler Thackston, King of the World: The Padshahnama: An Imperial Mughal Manuscript from the Roya l Library, Windsor Castle (London: Azimuth Editions and Washington, DC: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 1997), cat. no. 29, 185–87 and cat. no. 45, 209–10, ? g. 132. I thank Dr. B. M. Jawalia, Keeper of Manuscripts, for assisting me in reading the inscriptions of the plan in July 1985 and Feb. 1986, and Dr. A? ok Kumar Das, then Director of the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum, Jaipur, for the permission to study and to publish it. As no. 45 on the line drawing of ? g. I have added a further complex, which represents the Chhatri of Jaswant Singh (d. probably 1678), a well-preserved funerary complex that does not appear on the Jaipur map. L? lah S? l Chand, Tafr? h al-{im? r? t, compiled for James Stephen Lushington, Acting Collector and Magistrate of Agra, 1825–26, BL APAC, Pers. Or. 6371. I have used the copy prepared in 1836–37 for James Davidson, Sessions Judge, Agra, BL APAC, Pers. ms. 2450. Koch, â€Å"Zahara Bagh (Bagh-i Jahan ara). † For a full discussion of the Agra riverfront scheme, see Koch, Taj Mahal, chap. 1. L? hawr? , B? dsh? hn? ma, vol. 2, 322–31; and Mu? ammad O? li?Kanb? , {Amal-i O? li? , 3 vols. (Lahore, 1967–72) vol. 2, 315– 20; both trans. Begley and Desai in Taj Mahal: The Illumined Tomb, 65–82. On Mughal historiography, see the new study by Stephan Conermann, Historiographie als Sinnstiftung: Indopersische Geschichtsschreibung wahrend der Mogulzeit (932–1118/ 1516–1707) (Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2002), 422 (on L? hawr? ) and 125, 395–96, and passim (on Kanb? ). In his painstaking assessment, Conermann regrettably does not consider art and architecture as sources of history, as I have pleaded for in the introduction to Mughal Art and Imperial Ideology, xxiii–xxvii.The ? rst dated plan of the entire complex is by the British landscape artists Thomas and William Daniell, who had it prepared in Agra in 1789 and published in th eir Two Views of the Taje Mahel at the City of Agra in Hindostan Taken in 1789 (London, 1801). A similar plan, but painted on cloth, is in the 7. 8. 9. 15. 16. 17. 10. 18. 11. 19. 20. 21. 12 . 13. 14. 22. the taj mahal: architecture, symbolism, and urban signi? cance Museum of the Taj Mahal (acc. no. 22), in the pavilion set in the western wall of the garden; another plan of this type, 280 x 85 cm, is in the Museum fur Indische Kunst, Berlin, no. I 10 060.It has been published in Pratapaditya Pal, Janice Leoshko, Joseph M. Dye III, and Stephen Markel, Romance of the Taj Mahal, exhibition catalogue (London: Thames and Hudson and Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1989), 55, ? g. 41. The plans differ in the areas of the jil? wkhana and the caravansarais. L? hawr? , B? dsh? hn? ma, vol. 2, 329–30; Kanb? , {Amal-i O? li? , vol. 2, 319–20. See also Begley and Desai, Taj Mahal: The Illumined Tomb, 75, 81. For the term, see below. For d? n wa-duny? , see L. Gardet , â€Å"D? n,† EI2, vol. 2, 293–96, in particular 295. Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, Travels in India, 2 vols. English trans. V. Ball, 2nd ed. ed. William Crooke (London: Oxford University Press, 1925; repr. New Delhi: Oriental Books Reprint Corporation, 1977), vol. 1, p. 90. See, e. g. , L? hawr? , B? dsh? hn? ma, vol. 1, pt. 1, 155. The aims of the venture have been laid down in Taj Mahal Agra Site Management Plan, brought out by the Taj Mahal Conservation Collaborative together with the Archaeological Survey of India (March 2003); for my mission statement, delivered on Sept. 28, 2001, at the end of the ? rst advisors’ meeting on the conservation of the Taj Mahal (Sept. 25–28, 2001), see 5–6; for the model, see 66–67 and 70, ? g. 12.Ebba Koch, â€Å"The Principles of Shah-Jahani Painting,† in Beach, Koch, and Thackston, King of the World, 131–43; repr. in Ebba Koch, Mughal Art and Imperial Ideology, 130–62. L? hawr? , B? ds h? hn? ma, vol. 1, pt. 1, 149. See, e. g. , L? hawr? , B? dsh? hn? ma, vol. 2, 327 with regard to the Taj Mahal, namely, the placement of the Mihman Khana and mosque to both sides of the mausoleum. This concept of rulership is explained in more detail below. On the adoption of the p? r? a ghata in Mughal architecture, see R. Nath, History of Decorative Art in Mughal Architecture (Delhi, Varanasi, and Patna: Motilal Banarsidass, 1976), 6– 10.Barraud, â€Å"Modular Planning of the Taj Mahal,† in Koch, Complete Taj Mahal. E. E. Rosenthal, The Palace of Charles V in Granada (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985), 249–50. See Priyabala Shah, trans. , Shri Vishnudharmottara, a Text of Ancient Indian Arts (Ahmedabad: The New Order Book Co. , n. d. [1990]), 268, 271. Brenda E. F. Beck, â€Å"Colour and Heat in South Indian Ritual,† Man: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, n. s. , 4: 553–72; the quoted passage is on 559. Beck investig ates the use of the two colors, red and white, in South Indian ritual; her ? ndings tally with the recommendations of the Vishnudharmotara. Abd al-Q? dir Bad? }? n? , Muntakhab al-Taw? r? kh, English trans. (vol. 2) W. H. Lowe, 2nd ed. (Bengal: Asiatic Society, 1924; repr. Delhi: Idarah-i-Adabiyat-i-Delli, 1973), 336. For Akbar representing himself on Indian terms, see Ebba Koch, â€Å"The 149 39. 40. 41. 23. 24. 25. 26. 42. 27. 28. 43. 44. 45. 46. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 47. 34. 35. 36. 48. 49. 37. 50. 38. 51. Intellectual and Artistic Climate at Akbar’s Court,† in John Seyller, The Adventures of Hamza: A Monument of Early Mughal Painting (London: Azimuth Editions and Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2002), 18–31.Koch, Mughal Architecture, 93. L? hawr? , B? dsh? hn? ma, vol. 2, 323; trans. E. Koch; cf. trans. of Begley and Desai in Taj Mahal: The Illumined Tomb, 66. E. Koch, introduction to Mughal Art and Imperial Ideology, xxiii–xxiv; see also idem, â€Å"Diwan-i {Amm and Chihil Sutun: The Audience Halls of Shah Jahan,† Muqarnas 11 (1994): 143–65, in particular 149–52, repr. in Mughal Art and Imperial Ideology, 229–54, in particular 242–43. For a compilation and translation of the inscriptions, see Begley and Desai, Taj Mahal: The Illumined Tomb, 195–244; for a discussion of their meaning, see W. E.Begley, â€Å"Amanat Khan and the Calligraphy on the Taj Mahal,† Kunst des Orients 12 (1978–79): 5–39; W. E. Begley, â€Å"The Myth of the Taj Mahal and a New Theory of Its Symbolic Meaning,† The Art Bulletin 61 (1979): 7–37. Begley, â€Å"Myth of the Taj Mahal,† in particular 25–27. Personal communication, Toronto, Dec. 5, 2002. For the frequent use of the Throne Verse in epigraphical programs, see E. D. Cruikshank Dodd, â€Å"The Image of the Word: Notes on the Religious Iconography of Islam,† Berytus 18 (1969): 35–61, 59; S. S . Blair, Islamic Inscriptions (New York: New York University Press, 1998), 69, 198, 214.I pointed this out in Mughal Architecture, 99; and in â€Å"The Mughal Waterfront Garden,† 143–44, repr. in Mughal Art and Imperial Ideology, 196; but I could not convince Laura Parodi, â€Å"‘The Distilled Essence of the Timurid Spirit’: Some Observations on the Taj Mahal,† East and West 50, 1–4 (Dec. 2000): 535–42, in particular 539, where she considered my interpretation of the â€Å"ideal paradisiacal garden for the deceased† as â€Å"reductive† and preferred Begley’s Throne of God hypothesis. I have come back to the issue in the introduction to Mughal Art and Imperial Ideology, xxiv.Both Begley and Parodi overlook the fact that, however spectacular their realization, the themes of Shahjahani art were conventional, as be? tting a ruler aspiring to classical equilibrium. Robert Skelton ? rst drew attention to the ambivalence of these ? oral creations in â€Å"A Decorative Motif in Mughal Art,† in Aspects of Indian Art: Papers Presented in a Symposium at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Oct. 1970, ed. Pratapaditya Pal (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1972), 147–52. The founder of the Manicheans, and in Persian lore the ultimate painter. Ab? lib Kal? , P? dsh? hn? ma, Persian ms. , BL APAC, Ethe 1570, fol. 164a margin; my translation differs somewhat from that of Begley and Desai, Taj Mahal: The Illumined Tomb, 83. I thank Sunil Sharma for his advice. Bah? r-i gulist? n-i {adl u karam: Y? jj? Mu? ammad J? n Quds? , Zafarn? ma-i Sh? h Jah? n, BL APAC, Persian ms. Ethe 1552, fol. 129a. Kanb? , {Amal-i O? li? , vol. 3, 24; see also Ebba Koch, â€Å"Mughal Palace Gardens from Babur to Shah Jahan (1526–1648),† Muqarnas 14 (1997): 143–65, quotes on 159; repr. in Mughal Art and Imperial Ideology, 203–28, quotes on 227.