Planning and design phase

Planning and design phase CHOICE OF PROJECT MANAGER AND TEAM MEMBERS The initial phase of the Sodor project involved the formation of the project team and the nomination of the project manager. Group 12 is made up of 4 Nigerians and 1 Vietnamese which reflects a multicultural team with each nationality possessing peculiar personality traits. The objective of the first meeting was to nominate a Project Manager and to define and agree on ground rules for project team meetings. To ensure equal participation of all team members, it was agreed that the rotational project manager system will be adopted whereby each individual in the group would serve as the project manager for 1 week each throughout the 5 week duration of the Sodor project. It was agreed that meetings will be scheduled 3 times a week by the project manager lasting no more than 2 hours each. At each meeting, specific tasks is assigned to each team member to be submitted at the next meeting day. CONTRACTOR SELECTION CRITERIA The contractor selection criteria adopted by the team is the Trade-off technique. This technique uses a scoring system to quantify specific attributes of the various contractors and provides a numerical output, the highest of which represents the best contractor choice. The use of this technique provided the best possible contractors to manage the various stages of this project. MANAGING CONFLICTS Some of the conflicts experienced by the Group 12 team in the management of the Sodor oil terminal include: Team members attitudes: Some of the team members lack motivation and commitment to participate in the project team. This is manifested as absences from team meetings, late comings to team meetings, and lack of verbal contribution to team discussions. This issue was addressed by the project manager in charge who spoke with the team members concerned. Choice of Contractors: The proposal to use Trade-Off for contractor selection was initially resisted by some team members who where in favour of using a more subjective technique. It was finally accepted after an appraisal of the objectiveness of Trade-off was done by the proponent. CONSTRUCTION CHANGE CONTROL   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  All changes which include Contractor changes, Scope, Cost, and schedule changes proposed by the project sponsor passed through a Change management process which begins with a brainstorming session by the project team on the costs and benefits of adopting the change. The changes agreed on by the project team is then reflected on the Gantt chart. Due to the choice of contractor selection technique, the changes proposed by the project sponsor during the project lifecycle had a minimal impact on the actual cost and schedule. CLOSE OUT   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The close out process involved a review of the final Sodor terminal project plan to confirm scope, cost and schedule deadlines have been met. The lesson learned document was then prepared which showed the various conflicts that occurred throughout the project and how they where managed by the team in order to provide lessons for the future. The final project plan was then presented to the project sponsor and the Group 12 team was deformed by the project manager. INTRODUCTION   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Teamwork has been found to be an essential ingredient responsible for the success or failure of projects. The effective use and management of teams for projects has been noted to be a key determinant for how successful a project will be; however, the effectiveness of a team depends on the ability of the team members to interact appropriately with one another to produce a common output. DEFINITION Hoegl(2004) defined teams as a social interaction between two or more people within an organization who share a common task. Teams have also been described as a group of people who hold themselves mutually accountable to each other and who work together to achieve a common purpose(Scholtes et al,2003). The above definitions take into account the fact that for a team to exist, certain basic ingredients need to be in place which include; mutual accountability, constancy of purpose, and a shared responsibility for success or failure. The benefits of teamwork in project management cannot be overemphasized. Teams help in the mobilization of diverse resources to a project as compared to that achieved by a single individual. Church(1998) also noted that teams provide the flexibility to use the mobilized resources thus helping to continue with the project in the event of a particular individual being indisposed. Perhaps the greatest value of teams in managing projects rests with the ability of teams to provide a synergy of the efforts of the individual team members whereby the results achieved is greater than the arithmetic sum of the contributions of the individual members to the team. FACTORS THAT AFFECT TEAM EFFECTIVENESS Team size and choice of members: Hackman(1987) suggested that there is no ideal team size for a project. Furthermore, the team size chosen is dependent on the scope of the project. In contrast, Hoegl(2003) proposed that ideally a project should be reduced to a level where the work package can be managed by a team of between 3-6 people. This helps to avoid the confusion that may arise from Too many Cooks spoiling the broth. The choice of team members also plays a role in determining team success. Trent(2003) proposed that the membership of a project team should be made up of people with the right skills and competencies to tackle the particular task at hand. A set of objective criteria should be used in choosing the members of a project team. Team leadership: Trent(1996) suggested a direct relationship between leadership effectiveness and team effectiveness. The results that a team produces depends largely on the calibre of the leadership. Teams that lack a strong and effective leadership are more likely to fail(Zenger et al,1994). The effectiveness of a leader depends on the possession of skills, experience, and the will to assume responsibility for the team performance. Resource availability: The availability of resources plays a major role in the ability of a team to produce results. Peters and OConnors(1980) postulated that the availability of specific resources can either promote or interfere with a team effectiveness. The resources needed by a team to be effective varies depending on the project scope. It may include financial, Human, and Environmental resources. Establishment of clear goals: Zander(1980) postulated that teams with clear and measurable goals perform better than teams with fuzzy goals. This is as a result of the use of clear goals by teams as a baseline through which team results can be measured. Furthermore, the use of clear and concise goals also helps the team in planning for what they can achieve within a particular timeframe. Reward and Recognition: The relationship between appropriate reward structures and team effectiveness cannot be overemphasized(Bullock and Lawler,1984). Developing a reward system that focuses on the entire team rather than individuals help in improving team motivation and hence its effectiveness. It is a fact that people are motivated to achieve results if they feel that the results provide value to the organization and this value is acknowledged by the organization. SODOR OIL TERMINAL PLANNING AND DESIGN   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The need to have a plan for the management of the Sodor oil terminal cannot be overemphasized. Grachev et al(2006) using 3M corporation as a case study proposed that a key benefit of planning upfront for a project is the creation of well defined project goals. The goals help to give direction to a teams project. Other benefits of planning include; it helps the team members in the coordination of individual tasks by providing clearly stated assignments. Furthermore, the project plan also enables the team to have an overview of the project schedule, costs and constraints which the team can then use as a baseline to measure actual project progress.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The planning and design of the Sodor oil terminal started with the identification of the Cost, Schedule and Scope goals from the data derived from the Project Sponsor. These goals where then integrated into a sequential structure by the use of the MS Project ® to produce the Sodor oil terminal preliminary Gantt chart. Multiple adjustments to scope, cost, and schedule data was proposed by the project sponsor which resulted in iterative changes to the project plan leading to changes in the project cost and time of completion. The final Sodor oil terminal plan is a comprehensive document showing the actual budget, time of completion, scope of the project, and the approved contractors selected for the project. Christina(2009) proposed that key factors that affect team success at the planning and design phase include; Well-Defined Goals: The definition of clear project deliverables has been shown to improve the success rate of project teams. Pinto and Slevin(1988) proposed that clearly defined and structured goals is a significant factor that determines the effectiveness of teams and hence the success rate of projects. The goals of the Group 12 team where clearly stated and well defined at the onset of the project which was to deliver a project plan within 98 weeks at no more than the stated project budget provided by the project sponsor. Management Support: Pinto and Slevin(1988) suggested that the support upper management gives a team helps in facilitating team success. This occurs by facilitating the release of resources to the project team hence ensuring their efficiency and helping to remove administrative bottle necks. Group 12 received the support of the project sponsor in the designing of the sodor plan especially with respect to weekly review meetings to assess the current status of the project plan and proffer ways to bring the plan back on track. Cross-Cultural teams: The importance of having multiple individuals from different cultures in a team has been proposed to impact positively on team results(Earley and Mosakowski,2000). Ochieng and Price(2009) also suggested that the effective use of proper communication techniques to handle cultural differences in a team helps in promoting project success. Multiple cultures in a team brings together people with different skills, competencies, and personal attributes dedicated to a common purpose. The multicultural environment of Group 12 provided a pool of diverse ideas derived via brainstorming from which the best possible solution was agreed on and translated into the Sodor project plan. Team experience and continuity: Pinto and Slevin(1988) suggested that the inclusion of individuals with specific project experience into a team helps in promoting its success. This is because this individuals already have a knowledge of the critical factors needed to ensure the success of the particular project from the lessons learned from past projects managed by them. Scott-Young(2009) suggested that the stability of a team throughout the project lifecycle helps in ensuring team success. Stable teams have been shown to maintain the consistency of ideas generation and are not susceptible to the distraction that tends to occur from a team member joining or leaving the team(Akgun and Lynn,2000). The use of team members with a wide range of experience managing projects like healthcare, education, and engineering played a key role in the results of Group 12. This is due to the diverse nature of the knowledge pool available for planning the project. The stability of the Group 12 team th roughout the project lifecycle also played a key role in the design of the sodor project plan. CONSTRUCTION AND CLOSEOUT Handling Conflicts: The absence of conflicts in a team has been proposed to be a pointer to the failure of the team(Saj-Nicole and Damon). The presence of conflicts and how the conflicts are managed indicates how successful the project team will be. The nature of the conflicts i.e. conflicts relevant to the project scope, serves to provoke a generation of ideas from the project team on the best way to manage the crises. Several conflicts arose during the management of Group 12; an example will be the, Who to choose as the project manager? The way it was managed was to have a face to face meeting with the project team, everybody laying their individual ideas on the table, then arriving at a decision mutually beneficial to everyone which is to have a rotational project manager system with each member of the project team ‘having a taste of the pie of being the project manager for 1 week each. This solution helped during the construction phase of the plan because all the team membe rs felt a sense of belonging and making a positive contribution to the team. Leadership: The proposal by Akgun and Lynn(2000) on the positive benefits of leadership continuity to the project team success is largely not applicable to the Group 12 project team. This is because the use of a single leader throughout the project lifecycle will have led to the presence of domineering tendencies being shown by the individual chosen which may affect certain decisions made during the formulation of the construction plan. It will also have led to project team members being made to feel they are not a part of the team. Hence in a bid to avoid this scenario, the rotational project manager system was proposed and adopted. Lessons-learned documentation: The preparation of the lessons learned document is an essential part of the project team closure phase(PMI,2008). The lessons learned document captures the lessons learned at various milestones in the planning of the project. The final meeting of the Group 12 team was a brainstorming session to identify various challenges we had during the creation of the Sodor project plan and how the challenges where managed. CONCLUSION This paper details how the Group 12 team managed the Sodor project from design to the closeout phase. It explains in detail the various factors responsible for the success of the team in arriving at the final project plan; and also the various challenges Group 12 team had and how those challenges where managed to produce positive results. The paper sheds light on the key factors that affect various stages of the project and how they where harnessed and utilized positively by the Group 12 team. REFERENCES Scholtes, P.R. Joiner, B.L. Streibel, B.J(2003) The team handbook.3rd Edition, Oriel Incorporated, USA. PMI(2008) A Guide to the Project management body of knowledge. 4th Edition, PMI, Newton square, USA. Hoegl, M(2004) ‘Smaller teams-better teamwork: How to keep project teams small. Business horizons, Vol.48, Nos.3, pp.209-214. Church, A.H(1998) ‘From both sides now: the power of teamwork-fact or fiction?. Team performance management, Vol.4, Nos.2, pp.42-52. Hackman, J.R(1987) ‘The design of work teams. In: Lorsch, J.W(1987) Handbook of organizational behaviour, Prentise-hall, USA, pp.315-342. Trent, R.J(2003) ‘Planning to use of work teams effectively. Team performance management: An international journal. Vol.9, Nos.3, pp.50-58. Zenger, J. Musselwhite, E. Hinson, K. Perrin, C(1994) Leading teams:mastering the new role. Irwin, Homewood, USA, pp.14-15. Trent, R.J(1996) ‘Understanding and evaluating cross-functional sourcing team leadership. International journal of purchasing and materials management. Vol.42, Nos.2, pp.29-39. Peters, L.H and OConnors,E.J(1980) ‘Situational constraints and work outcomes: the influences of a frequently overlooked construct. Academy of management review, Vol.5, Nos.3, pp.391-397. Zander, A.F(1980) ‘The origins and consequences of group goals. Retrospections on social psychology. Oxford university press, New York, USA. Bullock, R.J and Lawler, E.E(1984) ‘Gainsharing: a few questions and fewer answers. Human resources management. Vol.23, Nos.1, pp.23-40. Grachev, M.V. Rogovsky, N.G. Bobina, M.A(2006) ‘3M: Role model for emerging markets? Thunderbird International Business review, Vol.48, Nos.6, pp.803-821. Iles, P and Hayers, P.K(1997) ‘Managing diversity in transnational project teams. Journal of managerial psychology. Vol.12, Nos.2, pp.95-117. Pinto, J.K and Slevin, D.P(1988) ‘Critical success factors across the project lifecycle. Project management journal. Vol.19, Nos.3, pp.67-75. Cohen, S.G and Bailey, D(1997) ‘What makes teams work: Group effectiveness research from the shopfloor to the executive suite. Journal of management. Vol.23, Nos.3, pp.239-290. Scott-Young,C(2009) ‘Team management for fast projects: an empirical study of process industries. International journal of operations and production management. Vol.29, Nos.6, pp.612-635. Akgun, A.E and Lynn, G.S(2002) ‘Antecedents and consequences of team stability on NPD performance. Journal of technology management, Vol.19, pp.263-286. Earley, P.C and Mosakowski, E(2000) ‘Creating hybrid team cultures: and empirical test of transnational team functioning. Academy of management journal. Vol.43, Nos.1, pp.26-49. Ochieng, E.G and Price, A.D.F(2009) ‘Managing cross-cultural communication in multicultural construction project teams: the case of Kenya and UK. International journal of project management. Vol.10, pp.101-106. Saj-Nicole, A.J and Damon, B(2009) ‘How to pick a good fight. Harvard business review. Vol.87, Nos.12, pp.48-57. Christina, S(2009) ‘Team management for fast projects: an empirical study of process industries. International Journal of operations and production management, Vol.29, Nos.6, pp.612-635.

Challenge the Power of Government Essay

The Internet has recently become the object of detailed research. This research is being conducted in numerous areas of science, including politics. The claims that Internet threatens the power of government are becoming too frequent to ignore them; this is why it will be interesting to address these issues once again, and to objectively evaluate whether such claims have any grounds. Thesis statement: the power of the Internet does not challenge the power of government, but on the contrary, creates favorable conditions for promoting the governmental policies and political positions. The question of the Internet power and its possible impact on the power of physical governments is directly connected with the definition of Internet, its current functions, development, and opportunities which it provides to its users. The direct connection of Internet and globalization processes is viewed as the major challenge to the power of governments all over the world. This political position may seem correct and grounded at first glance. Going deeper into the issue, one will find certain misunderstandings and misconceptions, which relate to what real role Internet plays today. Lessig (2000) writes about Internet as the structure of norms, the power of which can be strengthened or disabled by its users. He emphasizes the fact that â€Å"Cyberspace is an architecture first. It is a platform that gets designed. It is constituted by a set of code – by software and hardware that makes cyberspace as it is† (Lessig 4). First, if the Cyberspace is a mere architecture, governed by the software and hardware, why do politicians raise the issue of Internet challenging the power of governments? It is hardly possible to imagine, that any hardware could challenge the power of any government in the world. Simultaneously, if the issue is relevant, the Internet cannot be called â€Å"mere architecture† (Lessig 4). It means that the current state of the Internet is something more than architecture. Possibly, it is the set of communicational, social, and other norms which allow the Internet users impact (or not impact) the power of government and other political structures. Thus, Lessig’s statement contradicts itself but deserves attention within the framework of the current discussion. Farrel (2006) discussed the issues of the Internet political impact in connection with the globalization processes. â€Å"Globalization, and in particular the rapid increase in the flows of financial resources and information across the borders, has important consequences both for policy interdependence and for the role of the state† (p. 354). While did the dissemination of cross-borders in the Cyberspace lead to the uncontrolled spreading of gambling, pornography, extremist political material, about which Farrell wrote, and how did this relate to the power of government? If the dissemination of cross-borders in the Cyberspace has become uncontrollable, does it mean that government is too weak to invent effective measures of such control? I would assume that the physical weakness of state governments and state policies to put the Cyberspace under control is more relevant in this discussion; there is no challenge to the power of government. Moreover, it is only partially a challenge to government’s power; those who view the Internet as the challenge to the political power of the government tend to admit its weakness. However, the situation is better to be described as follows: the power of the Cyberspace creates new conditions for the world governments to exercise their power and to invent new instruments of power. The only problem is that governments do not yet understand, how the Cyberspace issues should be addressed, but hopefully, it is the matter of time. The challenge, about which cyber libertarians tend to speak, should not be addressed as the striving to neutralize the power of government. This challenge should be equaled to the opportunity, which government should properly address in order to retain its power and to spread its control onto the Cyberspace, too. The Internet has initially been designed â€Å"as a technology that would be resistant to centralized control† (Boas 8). The absence of the centralized control was always connected with the already mentioned dissemination of the cross-borders in the Cyberspace (Farrell 354). This is why cyber libertarians try to convince the public that the Internet challenges the power of government. Let’s view the issue through a different prism. â€Å"In our transnationally linked and globally integrated world, both borders, and the attendant sharp distinction between the domestic and the foreign, are again losing meaning. In an interdependent global economy, basic issues such as unemployment and income inequality are no longer domestic problems subject to domestic solutions. Once more, it is far from clear, who is independent and who is not† (Kobrin 10). The argument to which cyber libertarians relate in their argument is rather weak in the light of the numerous international agreements, which regulate the globalization processes in the physical world. The bright examples of the international agreements (the GATT, the WTO, and the EU) create favorable conditions to assume that the Cyberspace can also be subjected to such agreements and regulations, if properly addressed by governments and other international organizations. Obviously, there is no challenge to the power of government but again, it is the vast area of opportunities to create a powerful set of political and legal norms to control the Cyberspace users’ behavior. The issue of territory and the elimination of geographical borders in the Internet can easily be compromised by the creation of international agreements and regulatory bodies. Such step will only prove the power of international governments. Stating that the Internet challenges the power of the Government is rather weak due to the inherent ambiguity of the power in general (Kobrin 15). In order to speak how and why the Cyberspace challenges the power of government, one should primarily determine what he (she) means under the word â€Å"power† – does it imply the possibility to tax the operations taking place within the e-commerce space, or the possibility to regulate and control the spreading of the extremist political information in the Cyberspace? â€Å"The Ukraine experience demonstrates that, under certain circumstances, online activists can affect politics in regimes where there us no thriving independent media sector. For starters, activist websites can become an alternative source of news and commentary in countries where traditional media are under state control†. (Drezner 3) Evidently, the discussion of the Internet creating challenges to the power of government can be held only within the environment, where the public trusts the blogs more than it trusts its own government. The political events in Ukraine, Georgia and other countries are the evidence of the government’s weakness and public mistrust. In these conditions not only the Internet, but any other instrument may serve the means of changing the political regime or challenging the government’s power. The Internet in these states challenges the power of the government due to the fact, that the government itself is incapable of governing numerous issues in the nation’s civil reality. The Cyberspace is viewed as the attempt to change the existing social conditions, but again, challenging the power which does not exist or is underdeveloped in the state is hardly possible. In the developed states, the self-regulation of the Cyberspace is far from being a challenge to the power of government. On the contrary, it is the means of aligning the needs and goals of the nation with its technological advancement. It has been mentioned, that the Internet is the vast area of opportunities for the national governments to create a set of norms and regulations, similar to the WTO and the GATT in the physical world. It is difficult not to agree to Farrell, that â€Å"private actors are increasingly serving the channels of influence, or the proxies for states. In other words, private actors are not creating self-regulatory realms that are outside the reach of states. Instead, they are increasingly coming to serve as vectors of state influence† (p. 16). In the countries, where the power of government is sufficient for the public to trust it and to respect it, the Internet cannot but serve the means of promoting the state political, social, cultural and economic positions. Moreover, the level of self-regulation in these states is surprisingly aligned with the high degree of governmental control towards the Cyberspace users’ behavior. The U. S. policy was initially aimed at providing the Internet users with the opportunities for self-regulation. This opportunity was never anticipated to challenge any state authority and was a purposeful step of the governmental structures. When the governmental authority is supposed to be challenged by the Cyberspace, such claims are at least misleading. As long as they are connected with the self-regulation of the Internet, they are easily denied; the self-regulation of the Cyberspace is gradually disappearing and is being replaced by the limits both democratic and non-democratic governments set onto the private actors and the objects they try to access (Farrell 16). This is why, the current political conditions and the current (surely, powerful) position of the Internet does not allow stating that the Cyberspace challenges the power of government. Conclusion The issue of the Cyberspace challenging the power of the Government should be objectively considered. At first glance, these claims may seem relevant, but obviously, the Cyberspace cannot challenge the power of Government for the following reasons: 1. In powerful developed democratic societies the Government possesses efficient methods of regulating the Cyberspace individuals; the Internet is viewed as the means of promoting the influence of the Government, and not challenging it. 2. In underdeveloped and young states the Internet seems to challenge the centralized power, when population views it as an alternative and more reliable source of information. However, such situation is the proof of the government’s weakness and the underdevelopment of the state power as such; definitely, the Internet cannot challenge something that does not exist or is at the initial stage of its development. Works cited Boas, T. C. Weaving the Authoritarian Web: The Control of Internet Use in Non-Democratic Regimes. University of California, Berkeley, 2005. Drezner, D. W. Weighing the Scales: the Internet’s Effect on State-Society Relations. University of Chicago, 2005. Farrell, H. â€Å"Regulating Information Flows: States, Private Actors, and E-Commerce†. Annu. Rev. Polit. Sci. 9 (2006): 353-74. Farrel, H. The Political Economy of the Internet and E-Commerce. Draft Book Chapter. Kobrin, S. J. â€Å"Neomedivalism and the Postmodern Digital World Economy†. The Journal of International Affairs, Spring (1998): 361-86. Lessig, L. Architecting for Control. Lecture Given at the Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna, AS, 2000.

Role of the Gods in the Odyssey

Religion has always been an important part of culture, in present times and even dating back to the times of the Trojan War and before. No matter what religion a person practices or believes in the role of the certain gods believed in has always been important. In three separate pieces we have read we have seen the importance of the gods, or God, play a key role in the development of the literature. In Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, the gods are key in Odysseus’ return to Ithaca after twenty years. Whether it is helping Odysseus or delaying him, they play a major role in the development of the story.In Psalm 139, the scripture passage taken from the Bible, God is a very obvious factor. Even in the poem by William Owen â€Å"Dulce et Decorum Est† God again plays a major role once we dive deeper than the words are saying. The role of the gods, or singular God in Catholicism, plays a key role, sometimes unspoken, part. In The Odyssey we see in the first book three m ajor gods that make an immediate impact on Odysseus’ journey home. Zeus, Athena, and Poseidon all are important in their own way in either helping Odysseus or trying to stop him.Zeus, king of the gods, is characterized as a mediator between Athena and Poseidon, the former helping Odysseus and the latter trying to stop him from reaching home. Athena does all she can to help out the mortal Odysseus, even appearing to him and his son Telemachus in disguise to point them in the right direction. Poseidon, however, hates Odysseus for blinding his son and tries his hardest on multiple occasions to kill Odysseus and his men. Zeus, for being king of the gods, does not have the most important religious role in this epic poem.He is mostly seen as a babysitter between Athena and Poseidon, allowing Athena to help Odysseus but at the same time punishing the people who help out Odysseus. At one point, after Poseidon voiced his anger, he turns a Phaeacian ship to stone right when it returns because they helped Odysseus return home. His only involvement with Odysseus seems to be when he is trying to please both Athena and Zeus. Athena is a very key character in this poem. She takes a liking to the human Odysseus because of the intelligence and cunning that he naturally has. She personally gets involve in the lives of Telemachus and Odysseus by coming hem in disguise and helping them throughout their separate journeys. The grey-eyed goddess, as she is referred to many times, is responsible for setting Telemachus on the path to find out more about his father, and gives him the courage to stand up to the suitors who have invaded his father’s house. The goddess is seen helping Odysseus in almost every book, most notably the last four where she gives him strength when fighting the suitors, helping Odysseus and Telemachus reach Laertes’ house peacefully, and even makes the suitor’s parents forget about their children’s deaths and restores peace to Ithaca.Athena makes the homecoming of Odysseus a happy one, helping him and his family time and time again so that they are reunited. Poseidon, god of the sea, holds a nasty grudge against Odysseus throughout the story. Odysseus, after the famous â€Å"Nobody† trick, foolishly tells the Cyclopes Polyphemus his name as he is sailing away after blinding him. Poseidon, who is Polyphemus’ father, is outraged that a mortal blinded his son, and take it upon himself to make sure Odysseus never gets back home. Poseidon causes storms to break Odysseus’ boats and kill his men, while wrecking havoc on Odysseus just about every chance he gets.He goes so far that he asks Zeus to sink the Phaeacians ship, a race of people who adore Poseidon. Poseidon holds a major grudge against Odysseus, however he cannot stop him from reaching home. In the Christian scripture passage Psalm 139; taken from the Bible, we see that God has many of the same characteristics on the gods in The Ody ssey. It is described in the scripture passage that God has a perfect knowledge of all of us, which draws the comparison to the gods of Ancient Greece. God knows everything there is to know about us and what we are doing; he is all seeing and all powerful.Much like the gods of Ancient Greece sitting high above everyone on Mount Olympus, they see everything that is happening below them. Another powerful comparison is the unseen god factor. God always sees us, as humans though we never see him, much like when Odysseus and Telemachus see Athena; she is always disguised, never showing her true form. Zeus never appears, he sends his messages in forms of eagles, as signs to be interrupted by humans, much like God uses miracles to show his presence and existence. We are presented with two separate pieces of literature that have very similar comparisons in religion.Wilfred Owen’s famous poem â€Å"Dulce et Decorum Est† actually makes no mention of religion in it, but it is obv ious to see that whatever god you pray to has no part in wars and stopping the death and violence. It brings us to ask ourselves the question of why would any god let these atrocities happen? British citizens not fighting in World War 1 thought that these men were dying heroic deaths, but Owen gives us an insight into how badly these men suffered when they went off to war. The gruesome deaths, the never ending violence and having to watch a comrade die are just a few of the horrible things that are seen in this poem.It leads us to belive that war is not worth it, in any sense, and that a sensible god would not allow it. Odysseus, after ten years of fighting the Trojans and seeing many of his close friends die, then had to suffer for an additional ten years. The men in World War 1 signed up for their own premature deaths, and there was no religious power to stop these cruel actions. All three of these pieces give us significant insight on our Common Core questions. However, it ties i n most importantly to our understanding of what it means to be human.Most obvious in all three pieces we see the â€Å"human† aspects of our lives, the fact that we can die while gods or God cannot. We are not as powerful as gods or God, we cannot control our fate, and it is already written out for us by whomever we pray to in each respective religion. We must make the most of the time and life we are given because we do not have a long time on this planet. To be human means that we must be able to recognize our own abilities, our own strengthens and weaknesses, and know that there is a higher power controlling our fate.

The French Expression Jarrive

The French expression jarrive means Im on my way to wherever the listener might be (downstairs in the lobby, outside the building, at home, etc). Surprisingly, it can also mean Ill be right back, when youre already with someone and need to leave for a moment. In other words, it can be used whether or not youre actually face to face with the person youre talking to: both Im on my way there and Im on my way (back) here. Expression: JarrivePronunciation: [zha reev]Meaning: Im on my way, Ill be right there / down / out / backLiteral translation: Im arrivingRegister: normal Examples (Au tà ©là ©phone)- Salut Christophe, je suis devant limmeuble.- Daccord Hà ©là ¨ne, jarrive.(On the phone)- Hi Christophe, Im in front of the (your) building.- OK Hà ©là ¨ne, Im on my way, Ill be right out.(A linterphone)- Bonjour, cest le facteur. Jai un colis pour vous.- Merci, Monsieur, jarrive.(On the apartment entry phone)- Hello, its the mailman. I have a package for you.- Thank you, sir, Ill be right there/down.Houp, jai oublià © mon portefeuille - jarrive.Oops, I forgot my wallet - Ill be right back.A classic: you catch the waiters eye as he rushes past your table, and without slowing down, he says jarrive. While less common, its also possible to use other subjects, such asIl arrive - Hell be right here/there, Hes on his way.On arrive - Well be right there, Were on our way.