Acme Omega

The other plant, located in Cleveland, was purchased by investors and renamed Omega Electronics. The Omega investors hired a new president who had worked in research and development for a large computer manufacturer. Some new research engineers were hired and several Copernicus personnel remained with the company but in new positions. Acme and Omega often competed for contracts to supply components to several large electronics manufacturing firms in the US. Both companies prospered in the mid-sass and early sass as computerized electronics equipment boomed.Acme had annual sales of over $170 million and employed 350 people. Omega was somewhat smaller with sales of $140 million and about 275 people. However, Acme was consistently more efficient and profitable than Omega. Acme – A close-up. Acme's president, Fred Taylor, attributed his company's success to the fact that he and his managers ran a â€Å"tight ship. † They retained the same basic structure that the division h ad when it was part of Copernicus because it was efficient for high volume production of electronics components such as switching devices and printed circuit boards.Taylor noted that, â€Å"Acme regularly undercuts the competition cause of their focus on efficient production. We are regularly the profit leader in this business. † Acme's structure is shown in Figure 1 . Workers are generally satisfied at Acme, but a few managers recently left the company because of the lack of flexibility or variety in their jobs. One recently departed manager stated that Taylor â€Å"knows one way of doing things -? his way. † He went on to say, â€Å"Fried's a good manager, but he did not provide us with much information or much freedom to make decisions. He makes all of the critical decisions himself. Revised version based on J. F. Vega and J. N. Handouts, from The Dynamics of Organization Theory, 1979, 1 984, West Publishing Figure 1 Acme Electronics Organizational Chart President Taylor UP Marketing UP Operations UP Personnel UP Finance Controller Plant Manager Production Research & Development Design Purchasing Shipping Omega – An inside view. Simon Herbert, former head of research and development at Snell Computers, was chosen as president of Omega. Based on his research and development experience at Snell, he claimed that he did not believe in a formal organizational chart.Although he said that his people loud be fit into departments similar to those at Acme, he felt that such departments formed artificial barriers between deferent functional specialists. Herbert stated that, â€Å"we are small enough so that people can usually communicate face-to-face when necessary. † Instead, Omega used a team-based structure that was adapted to fit new projects. Most of Omega's contracts were small and customized. Production runs were generally short. One manager noted that much of his time was taken up trying to understand problems and communicate solut ions.The Head of the Production Design Team noted, â€Å"Simon spends too much time trying to understand problems and communicate with everyone. † Most important decisions get made by the top management team. Part II In 1 993, the electronics component business began to change dramatically. Many of the old circuit boards disappeared from product designs and were replaced by increasingly complex chips. Miniaturization swept the electronics industry. Many complex office machines included on-board processors – basically dedicated computers. Such was the case in the copier industry.In July 1 993, Global Xerography, the company that spun off Acme and Omega, name to the two firms requesting component production for a new generation of copying machines. The component was essentially a specialized processor and memory Engineering unit that would power the copying machine. Once the copiers were in full production, the contract could be worth as much as ASS-$30 million per year. Both Acme and Omega bid on the contract for the initial 100 prototype processor memory components. Although Acme's bid was slightly lower than Omega's, XX decided to award both companies contracts for 100 units each.Ex.'s project manager told both Taylor and Herbert that speed in placement and production of the prototypes was essential. XX had already promised delivery of the new generation copiers by January 1, 1994. Customers were counting on the new products and once word of the new design got out, it would only be a matter of time before competitors began imitating the new design. Not only that, but investors were counting on the new design to add to Ex.'s profits. These demands for speed meant that XX, Acme, and Omega would need to engage in simultaneous design. Design of the components would need to begin before the final copier design was complete.Acme and Omega would have no more than two weeks to produce the first 1 00 prototype components or they would delay final product ion of the copiers. Part Ill As soon as F-red Taylor received the design specifications (July 6, 1993), he sent an email to Purchasing requesting that they determine the necessary parts to be purchased and initiate purchasing. At the same time, Taylor sent the specifications to the Design Department for design and production rendering. Engineering was then given the task to take the output from the Design Department and create the production system for the actual reduction of the prototypes.Production was to take the system and create the actual production facility and schedule production of the prototypes. Taylor sent emails to all department heads stating that speed of production was essential and that all departments should work as efficiently as possible. On July 9, Purchasing discovered that a particular chip supplied by their authorized supplier was unavailable and could not be shipped for at least two weeks. As there were few suppliers for this particular chip, the Purchasing manager assumed that Omega would face the same problem and he did not Reese to find an alternative supplier.He also informed Taylor of the problem who in turn decided that the company should go forward with production without the missing chip. The chip could be inserted once the other production processes had been completed. The Design Department was instructed to design the component in such a way that the missing chip could be inserted later. On July 1 1, Design informed Taylor that the missing chip and would substantially increase the time necessary to assemble the completed components. Taylor saw no alternative and gave approval to go forward with the design and production.The Design Department then gave purchasing specification for the chassis that would hold the memory and processor unit. Since this was a small prototype production, the company's standard procedure was to find an outside source for the metal work. On July 14 Taylor asked for a progress report and was dismayed to learn that Purchasing was still waiting for the chips and for bids on the chassis. Taylor was shocked by the lack of progress and demanded that Engineering begin fabricating the chassis internally. By July 17, all of the necessary parts (except the chip) were available and Engineering had begun producing the hashish.Production had already designed the manufacturing process, so once the parts began flowing production of prototypes began. In their haste to begin production, the Production Department and the process engineers had not consulted extensively with the Design Department or Engineering (who produced the chassis that held the memory and processor unit). The result was a production system that was rather awkward and inefficient. However, there was not sufficient time to stop now and rework the manufacturing process.Taylor and the manufacturing foreman both agreed that the kinks in he system could be worked out after the production of the prototypes. One concern voiced by t he Design team was whether the missing chip could easily be inserted at the end of the production run. That was not clear. On July 18, at about the same time that the first batch of prototypes was coming off the production line, the missing chips arrived. The designers were correct to raise concerns about inserting those chips. The process required technicians to partially disassemble the units and insert the chips. The process was messy and time-consuming.As the last of the 100 units was assembled on July 20, Taylor received a call from the project manager at XX informing him of a design error that the engineers at Omega had discovered on the previous day. Apparently, the original specifications from XX had reversed the installation of a voltage transformer. The XX engineers checked the information from Omega and found that a mistake had been made in the original design. Taylor said that the Acme units were completed and ready to ship. The designer explained that the error had to b e corrected first. The prototypes that Acme had produced would not work.The new design pacifications would be emailed later in the day. When the new specifications arrived, Taylor met with the Production manager to determine what needed to be done. It was determined that the units would once again need to be partially disassembled. The transformers would need to be removed and reinserted. This required substantial labor and re-soldering of the transformers. All of the disassembly and reassembly of the units caused damage to the chassis and some components. The finally reassembly, packaging and shipping of the first 50 units was completed on July 29.However, none of the units were inspected or tested. The final 50 units were shipped on August 2. At Omega, Simon Herbert called a meeting department heads on July 6 after receiving the email of specifications from XX earlier in the day. He told the department heads that they should look over the design specifications so they could begin production as soon as possible. The next day the department heads met to discuss the project and form a project team. At the end of the morning meeting the department heads had designated engineers, designers, production people and a purchasing agent to the new component design-production team.The team began to work closely to determine the necessary components, identify suppliers, and create a production system. Purchasing determined that one particular chip would not be available locally for two weeks. One engineer suggested that they search for alternative suppliers. At the same time, the engineers also determined that it would be faster to produce the chassis internally rather than sending specifications out for bids from contractors. The team also determined that they could modify the design for installing the missing chip at the end of the production process if they were unable to find an alternative source.On July 9 purchasing reported that they found an alternative source fo r chip in Thailand. The chips would be shipped by express mail on July ID and would arrive at Omega on July 13. Although the chips from Thailand were somewhat less expensive, the cost of shipping resulted in the final cost being about 15% higher. The purchasing agent made the decision to purchase the Thai chips without consulting with other team members or with Herbert. By July 17 the production team assembled five sample units to determine if the assembly process would work correctly.The manufacturing process irked flawlessly, however when the units were tested on the bench, they did not work. When the engineers and designers inspected the five sample units, it was obvious to them that the transformers were installed incorrectly. The units were disassembled; the transformers were removed and re- installed; and the units were reassembled. The resulting sample units performed up to specifications. Herbert called the project manager at XX to discuss the problem. On the morning of July 1 8, the project manager confirmed that the original design specifications were in error and that the Omega team was correct.

The Affects of the Media on Society

The term media can be defined as a wide variety of things. For the purpose of this paper, it will be defined as the American Heritage Dictionary defines it; as â€Å"†¦an agency, by which something is accomplished, conveyed, or transferred† (2000). The co.uk/todd-gitlin-summary-on-media/">media’s role in society is an extremely prevalent topic especially in today’s day and age. The media has continuously been used as a scapegoat for the lack of other excuses for abnormal behaviors in America’s teenagers. This was obvious with the April 1999 shooting at Columbine High School near Denver, CO. The media is the easiest and most common thing to blame for teen’s behavior. Their video games, their music, everything that they listen to or watch on their own time is to blame for their behaviors, rather than poor parenting, lack of support at school or lack of noticing on anybody’s behalf that something was wrong with these two boys. Columbine is the number one instance that pops into our minds from recent memory when we contemplate the notion of media affecting our society and our societal behaviors. It was taken to the point that Marilyn Manson was being interrogated in regards to how he felt about the massacre. Parents, teachers and community members alike all believed that his music had a major influence on Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the two gunmen, and their actions that day in April. To this day, it is still a widely debated subject as to what caused these two teenagers to kill twelve of their classmates and one of their teachers before killing themselves. As far as teen behavior in general goes, it is common that society blames the media for the actions of the youth even when they as a society are the ones that create the media and the guidelines for it to be presented to the youths. Video games are the main thing that society is blaming, but television shows such as â€Å"Jackass† and â€Å"Viva La Bam† are holding their own in the lineup of things to blame. Teenagers are in a moldable, mutable state in the first place without being influenced by images of idiocy and lack of respect for everything. Thus, the reason behind why parents are putting their foot down in regards to video games such as â€Å"Vice City† and the recent â€Å"Super Columbine Massacre RPG!† The creators of the video game â€Å"Super Columbine Massacre RPG!† are not just sitting back listening to the criticism of their game. They have something to say about the reason it exists in the first place. They say â€Å"†¦This game is intended to deepen the understanding of the shooting and its possible causes. What the player takes out of it is ultimately dependant upon what the player puts into it† (Ledonne, 2005). It is easy to blame video games for abnormal behaviors, but in reality, people are just indirectly blaming themselves. Society demands a certain type of media, and so, that is what they get. They get a game full of violence, killing, stealing cars, etc. All because that is what society is begging the video game industry to produce whether they know it or not. This is not to say that there are teenagers out there that are indeed being influenced by this craze that has swept the nation in recent times. According to an article on the SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) website, in Sarasota, Florida apparently â€Å"†¦Influenced by the movie Jackass, three trespassing teens leap[t] from atop a condominium building aiming for the pool. Two ma[d]e it. One hit[] the side, fracturing both legs and an arm and cracking his pelvis†¦.† (Wallace, 2003). Although it is easy to claim that the media, such as video games and television, has a minor affect on teens in today’s society this is not always true. There are always going to be those few kids that think it would be fun to do what they see on TV or on their videogames. Overall, when all media, including video games are taken to account, it is fairly clear that although we cannot completely blame the media for the actions of teenagers in America, we can blame it for a lot of what they do. A teenager’s main goal in life is to be cool. Simple, clear cut. They just want to be part of the cool crowd. So what do they do? They look to things that the cool crowd watches, wears and how they act. They then try to mimic these things in a futile attempt to become cool. Sometimes, teens get out of hand, and things such as the kids in Sarasota, FL happen. It is only then that we realize how much of an influence the media does indeed have on us, and not just us but our posterity as well. Citations (2000). Medium. Retrieved February 12, 2007, from The American Heritage ® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition Web site: http://www.bartleby.com/61/51/M0195100.html Ledonne, Danny (2005). Super columbine massacre RPG!. Retrieved February 12, 2007, from Super Columbine Massacre RPG! Web site: http://www.columbinegame.com/ Wallace, Stephen G (2003). Short Circuit. Retrieved February 13, 2007, from SADD:Students Against Destructive Decisions Web site: http://sadd.org/oped/short.htm

The Shooting of Michael Brown Essay

Michael Brown was an 18 year old black man who was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri 08/9/2014. Michael had intensions to go to college with no previous criminal record. The death of Brown sparked subsequent events in Ferguson and became a national controversy touching on much larger national issues of race, justice, and police violence. This event grew even more national attention when police reacted to protesters, even those acting peacefully, with military-grade equipment such as armored vehicles, tear gas, rubber bullets, and sound cannons. Ties between local residents and their government arose again when heard the investigation into the shooting, inherently secretive grand jury proceedings and subsequent reactions which controlled by mostly whit politicians despite Ferguson’s majority black population. One of the main reasons this shooting grew national attention was the fear commonly held by many parents is that black lives matter les s, particularly in the face of increasingly heavily armed police who carry tremendous legal freedom. Allegedly, Wilson claimed that Brown was charging at him and he fired 6 gunshots at the unarmed man. Brown died 150 ft. from the car, despite earlier statements that Brown died just 35 ft. from the vehicle. Two of the six shots were fired at the head of the unarmed man. Eyewitnesses who went public said Brown and Wilson had a confrontation at the officer’s SUV. Brown ran and Wilson chased after Brown and shot the teenager to death as he attempted to surrender. Constitutionally, police officers are allowed to shoot to protect their life or the life of another innocent party, and/or to prevent a suspect from escaping but only if the officer has probable cause to think the suspect’s committed a serious violent felony. Officers must demonstrate that their actions were objectively reasonable given the circumstances and compared to what other police officers might do (According to David Klinger, University of Missouri-St. Louis Professor). Wilson needed to demonstrate that he feared for his life not just when Brown was by the car, but even after he started shooting, he needed to establish that Brown continued to pose a threat to him until the last fired shot. Brown’s family urged a Michael Brown law following Grand Jury’s Decision not to indict Officer Wilson. NAACP, National Action Network, and others have been working with the family to create a law where it requires that every police  officer in every American city is required to have video body cameras that record every move they make. The benefits of officers wearing body-worn video technology include evidence that both officers and civilians acted in a more positive manner when they were aware that a camera was present, new opportunities for effective training of law enforcement officers presented by the use of cameras, and useful evidence of interactions was often captured on video (as reported on the white house petitions gov page). This would be a Consequentialism solution where the consequences of one’s conduct are the ultimate basis for any judgment about the rightness or wrongness of that conduct. Hopefully, this Law will clear up the major hurdles the black community continue to face in the United States 21st Century.

The presupposition of the democratic sort of regime is freedom Essay

The presupposition of the democratic sort of regime is freedom (1317a40) - Essay Example Therefore, what is wrong with the principle that allows one to live in the custom that they desire? Indeed, this idea seems to constitute intuitively of the true definition of freedom and it does in a sense. This is because what everyone wants, on top of all else, is to be happy. Thus, every want is aimed indirectly or directly at attaining the ultimate good. What we can ascertain from this is that, in the deepest sense, what individual wants is to live a life of virtue because a virtuous life is a happy one. Aristotle starts out in Politics by discussing the origins of the city of Polisor. He seems to be clearly fascinated by this form of life that is not so old, and the possibilities that the city offers for human excellence (Aristotle et al 41). Aristotle sees it as being emergent from various natural communities such as villages and families, as well as from the relationships that are present between master and slave, parents and children, and between husband and wife. The manner in which these relationships are ordered and the communities that they are found in calls for an appropriate set of rules. Aristotle makes an argument against people who claim that every rule is the same, insisting on fundamental differences between political rules, mastery of slaves, and household management. This can be taken to indicate the basic freedom sense in Aristotle’s Politics. ... This life lets them engage with other people who are not servants or members of their family, although they are also free. Citizens can participate in the molding of their individual futures, as well as the wellbeing and futures of their community in this life. When the city and the city’s constitution fail, then freedom is lost. Despotic rule can be considered as importation of slave domestic management mode to cities that are inhabited by nominally free people. Tyranny is explained as a form of politics that has serious flaws because of its perversions to the tyrant’s sole interests (Aristotle et al 97). Aristotle considers the two manifestations freedom as democratic freedom and as it happens in the best city possible. Aristotle devotes a lot of time in his considerations of the different types of democracy. He views democracy for its weaknesses and strengths. However, he contends that democracy is driven by freedom (Aristotle et al 101). The fact that persons learn to be governed, and how to govern, is a strong feature of democracy. Using a constitution that has its prime grounded in freedom ensures that elections are done on a majority vote basis since everyone is equal. Aristotle is quick to acknowledge that the majority will often achieve judgment that is better than would be if a few people on their own made it. A more radical form of democracy, which is not sans precedence, is whereby offices are given through lots. However, this position on democracy is not uncontested. Aristotle recognizes three human life conditions that lead to justice claims, which are virtue, wealth, and freedom. It is here that we see the differences that exist between aristocrats,

Have social movements been successful in achieving their objectives in Essay

Have social movements been successful in achieving their objectives in Latin America - Essay Example The good thing about these social revolts is their capacity to bring forward advantages on the part of various social movements which continue to evolve, making them more sophisticated and expert on achieving their objectives. In this paper, the proponent tries to explore significant proofs which substantially points out social movements in Latin America to have been successful in achieving their objectives. The case of Rural Landless Workers Movement The Rural Landless Workers Movement (MST) is a case of how a social movement has been successful in Latin America based on the achievement of its objectives. There are specifically two important points MST has substantially done in order to fulfill its objectives. The first point is its ability to maintain strong level of leadership towards its members. It has become a highly structured group knowing that it involves thousands of members. In groups like this, a modern approach in leadership is necessary in order to unite the team with o nly one vision and goal. Furthermore, MST learned enough the power of taking advantage on achieving allies. As a result, MST was able to combine forces with other social movements in Brazil. The very presence of these various social movements in Brazil alone is a substantial proof that people have seen them as potential tools in achieving objectives through a specific social transformation. All of these proved that social movements in Brazil can be the best and powerful way on how the masses of people substantially can achieve their personal claims in a society where everyone seems to have varying social, political, and economic needs. The (MST) in Brazil, having more than 300,000 members and consisting of 350,000 peasant families, is a highly organised social movement in Latin America with allies in other social movements such as urban Homeless Movement, the Catholic Pastoral Rural (Rural Pastoral Agency), sectors of the trade union movement (CUT), the left-wing of the Workers Part y (PT) and academic faculty and students (Petras, 2009). This social movement is capable of organising effective tactics in allocating land for their thousands of landless rural workers and their families on the lands of giant latifundistas, plus being able to succeed in placing their agrarian reform on the national agenda, and elected â€Å"Lula† Da Silva of the Workers Party in the 2002 presidential elections (Petras, 2009). MST is a picture of a highly sophisticated social movement having been able to penetrate the core foundation of social transformation. Its ability to create a better foundation for its entire movement is a specific proof that it has substantially created a remarkable way on how to obtain its specific objectives. Its ability to organise a large social group of 300,000 members and 350,000 peasant families was enough to create a strong allies with other social movements. What is depicted in this issue is the thought that in Brazil alone, social movements h ave become so widely considered and even have created a powerful force to influence the ongoing social transformation. This is the very reason why MST for instance was substantially able to penetrate and influence

Internet usage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Internet usage - Essay Example Today, the negative impacts of increasing internet use reduce the scope of internet to a notable extent. This paper will perform a cause and effect analysis of the internet usage. Effects of internet usage According to Wilder, one of the most noticeable effects of increased internet usage is that it promotes socialization, which is a dynamic learning process whereby individuals and organizations change over time (204). Since internet influences cultural transitions, this global network significantly contributes to the pace of socialization. Since internet allows users to interact with people from various cultures, individuals obtain the opportunity to learn more about different cultural practices, norms, and beliefs. However, it is often observed that people use internet to abuse other cultures emotionally rather than to adopt from the good aspects of those cultures. Hence, sometimes internet promotes a negative socialization process due to its unfair usage. Evidently, high rate of i nternet usage has greatly benefited people to be independent as it helps people to attain knowledge without any external assistance. Today, professors do not need to provide teaching notes to students since there is a bundle of relevant information available in the internet. Although this condition may improve students’ academic efficiency, overdependence on internet would sometimes result in adverse academic results. For instance, every piece of information provided in the internet may not be correct or accurate as every person is free to post his writings or personal views on the internet. Hence, wrong or misleading information would often cause troubles to an individual’s academic career. Another positive benefit of internet is that it provides employment to millions of people. Due to the increased internet usage, the scope of internet based jobs is still increasing and this situation gives hope to a global economy struggling from the recent global recession. At som e particular levels, the negative effects of internet outweigh the internet’s positive effects. To illustrate, cyber-terrorism significantly diminishes the scope of internet. The internet based terrorist activities such as deliberate disruption of computer networks cause serious consequences in the cyber world. Professional hacker teams use computer viruses to obtain unauthorized access to an organization’s or a country’s confidential data. Under such circumstances, the victim may sustain serious damages or losses which in turn would outweigh the anticipated benefits from those data. In addition, studies point out that porn websites and other violence promoting factors in internet result in social as well as cultural disintegration. Finally, the growing popularity of social networking websites like Facebook causes time wastage, and hence the overall productivity declines. As Lukoff points out, â€Å"exposing children and youth to video games and the internet of ten does not engage their major learning style that is through their sensorimotor system, and thus have negative effects on their cognitive development† Lukoff, 104). Causes of internet usage While discussing the dramatically increasing internet browsing data, it can be undoubtedly stated that need of information is the most important factor boosting worldwide internet usage. It is clear that internet is a potential source for every kind of information under the sun. The internet meets the information needs of each and every category of people,

Helper Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Helper - Assignment Example While in the past, the Port of Savannah was boosted by the export of American goods such as â€Å"flax, silk and cotton to Europe and the rest of the world† (Machalaba n. p.), at present, the port is now revitalized by ships that bring Asian goods deep into the American continent. The second important point is that economic activity in Savannah is such an important economic hub for the region, generating almost 120,000 jobs (Machalaba n. p.). The third point is that Savannah also benefitted from the booming port industry in the U.S., given that other busy ports, such as those of Los Angeles and Long Beach cannot handle the volume of business anymore (Machalaba n. p.). Another alarming point is that half of the retail goods that Americans consume come through ports, imported from Asian countries (Machalaba n. p.). Finally, businessmen of Savannah pins their hopes for the continued surge of Savannah on wooing big box retailers (Machalaba n. p.). Works Cited Machalaba, Daniel. â €Å"How Savannah Brought New Life to Its Aging Port.† logisticsatlanta.com. Logistics Atlanta, n. d. Web. 27 May 2011.

Psychology in Practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Psychology in Practice - Essay Example Others have mentioned the idea of similarity and relatedness, indicating that a person is more likely to help another based on a genetic appraisal of the situation and the desire to help those of his or her specific gene pool. Another prosocial idea is that persons behave according to the theory of reciprocal altruism, in which persons help others in the expectation of receiving something in return. Persons might also help others when faced with guilt or the need to repay a good deed that was previously done to them. This is known as guilt or reparative altruism (Wetering). On the other hand, situations exist in which persons might not be inclined to help. Situations of moralistic aggression may arise, in which people feel that others are taking advantage of their altruistic tendencies, and in such cases they might not be inclined to help. Such is often the case in larger cities where cheaters are apt to exist. Subtle cheating and mimicry abound, through which people might pretend to be in distress in order to elicit altruistic behaviour. Such situations are likely to cause moralistic aggression to arise in persons as a protective mechanism (Wetering). The social setting also determines the type of behaviour one can expect from a person. According to the Darley and Latanà © study done in 1968, a person is more likely to help another if he or she is the only available helper in the situation. This theory is akin to others concerning crowds. Areas that are crowded or busy tend to contain people who are less likely to help in a dire situation. This might be due to their being in a hurry or it might hinge on the idea that crowds or busier areas are more likely to contain opportunistic persons. In such cases patterns might also obtain so that despite such variables as cultural or societal norms, in a crowd, the bystander

Currency Act Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Currency Act - Essay Example The government could decide to sidestep the initial referendum because of its own notion that such votes are not legally binding; in this respect it would be correct (Mendelsohn and Parkin 47-51). The fact remains, however, that the original Currency Act held that the pound sterling could not be changed as the official currency of Great Britain until a referendum had been held. By bypassing this element of the original Act, the British government could be held accountable for the changed currency in any way prosecutors saw fit. The change from the pound sterling into the weaker euro could mean that any number of businesses would face monetary challenges in the way of investment, wages and ultimately in profit; if the right people with the means to bring the issue up did so, the government would have to admit it simply ignored the referendum aspect of the original Currency Act. Despite the fact that an amendment or repeal to the Currency Act is, in effect, illegal without referendum, the establishment of the euro as the official currency of Great Britain would not be too difficult a feat if the government was decided on a course of action. This is particularly true because of the European Monetary Institute.

Essays Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Essays - Essay Example There is no other better way in which I feel that I can express my inner self so very effectively. I get to know myself and find a way to understand my beliefs and interests when I listen to soul music. It also gives me so much comfort that I cannot find in any other way. This is also called improvisation; that is, expressing oneself through the use of sounds. Music is composed of sounds originating from known objects, but this composition is such that it is interesting to listen to. Self-expression through music is a long known phenomenon and I found it really working when I applied it on myself. And more specifically, soul music is that genre of music that I have found to be very soothing and rhythmically comforting to my own soul. I totally agree with Aristotle that the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. Just like individuals belonging to different cultural, socio-economic and intellectual backgrounds combine to form integral parts of a strong society, I am also a combination of parts which I call experiences which have combined together to form the whole of myself. I was raised in a single parent household which taught me how to become independent at a very young age. This experience of being raised by a single parent inculcated in me much responsibility and concern toward my parent and household. I worked as a volunteer in a children’s shelter which told me how to be kind to the young ones. Serving in rural communities in Africa every year gave me the experience of practical and responsible life. Staying awake at nights burning the midnight oil gave me a sense of effort and toil to achieve my ambition. These are only the examples of many experiences that are integral parts of my life an d which combine together to form the whole of me. Through the addition of these experiences into my life, the total sum has been such a personality that is full of concern, kindness, love and care toward my elders, young ones

300 - a Gender Analysis Essay Example for Free

300 a Gender Analysis Essay Gender The film industry has created the conventional gender roles of society into their movies; A majority of films have supported some of the male and female stereotypes. In the history of the film industry, the role of men is primarilythat of the stereotypical working class man or hero, while the roles of women are primarily portrayed as being somewhat inferior to men. In the 1930s through the 1970s, men held the leading roles in films while women played smaller roles. Men were typically employed, successful gentlemen, while the woman’s only job was a housewife. The film industry was mostly dominated by men. In terms of jobs, women were given mostly family roles and rarely were shown outside of their homes, while men had successful careers and did many activities outside of home. â€Å"Women were shown doing housework and men were the beneficiaries of their work† (â€Å"Women’s roles in the film industry† Women in film). As women were given a more active role in society, the gender roles in movies changed. However, many types of gender stereotypes in films still exist. Action genre movies in particular account for many of the gender stereotypes in the film industry today. Men are typically portrayed to be the hero, while women are often portrayed as sexual objects. In the movie 300, the Spartan men served and protected the city of Sparta, while the Spartan women did domestic chores and bred more warriors. Because this movie was set back in 480 BC society portrayed men to be superior to women. Some of the main characters in 300 are prime examples for the different gender roles. King Leonidas is the proud, triumphant King of Sparta. In the film, the character Leonidas possesed as a couple different male stereotypes. King Leonidas is portrayed as the hero throughout the different action sequences. Throughout the movie Leonidas takes charge of his troops and leads them into battle. Leonidas is hero not only because he is the King of Sparta, but also because he is the commander of the troops. Before King Leonidas leaves for battle with his three-hundred Spartans, he confronts his wife and refrains from saying â€Å"My queen, my life, my love,† because he, like all other Spartans, is not soft and does not want to show emotion to his queen (Zack Snyder. 00). The narrator speaks of how Spartan men are raised like brutes and are â€Å"hard warriors† (Zack Snyder. 300). This particular phrase is important to the story because it reflects the gender role of men during that time period. King Leonidas can also be classified as the family man stereotype. Throughout the film he trains his young son for battle. He plays the role of protector not only for his individual family, but also for Spart a. In the movie 300, King Leonidas represents many male stereotypes. In contrast, the character Queen Gorgo stands for many female stereotypes in the movie. The queen portrays the domestic female stereotype. In the film Queen Gorgo cares for her young son and stays at home while her husband, King Leonidas, is fighting for their country. Like many of the women in the film, Queen Gorgo performs many domestic tasks such as retrieving food and water for her family, as well as looking after her child. Queen Gorgo is also a sex object. She is easily seduced by her King. She bribesone of the councilmen with sex. At times in the film the Queen, among many other women, wear little clothing. The 300 Spartans also wear little clothing in the film. Due to the lack of clothing, the Spartans show their ripped and brute physique to reinforce the male stereotype of being brawny and strong. Lastly, the queen represents the female stereotype of beauty. The queen is an attractive woman with a small frame, much like how the media portrays what a woman should look like. Her attractive looks and sexual qualities are a large part of Queen Gorgo’s character. Queen Gorgo represents an abundance of the female stereotypes in society. The captain of the Spartan troops also shows male stereotypes. The captain is a close ally of King Leonidas. Throughout the film, the captain portrays the male stereotype of being a family man. The captain’s son, Astinos, is barely old enough to be in battle with the Persians. The captain is skeptical of allowing his son to enter battle, but decides to encourage him to serve their country. Throughout the different battles with the Persians, the captain protects his son from harm. When Astinos is killed by Persians, the captain goes on an extremely violent tirade and kills every Persian in sight due to his overpowering vengeance. After the death of his son, the captain proclaims to the king that his heart is filled with hate, and King Leonidas replies â€Å"Good. † King Leonidas feels that it is necessary for a soldier to feel hatred toward his enemies. This particular scene portrays another male characteristic of not showing emotion towards a certain subject. The captain is another character that shows the male stereotype present in this film. Although many of the characters in the movie portray the prevalent male and female stereotypes in society, there are a few characters that stray away from these social formalities. Councilman Theron is an example of one of the characters that does not abide to the brute and warrior stereotypes in the film 300. Theron is no older than the Spartan men who fight for their city, but he lacks the physical strength that the Spartan warriors possess. Because Theron is not a typical man in Sparta, he wears a gown that is similar to the gowns worn by Spartan women. Along with Councilman Theron, there are other men that are on the council of Sparta. These men are far less in physical size than the Spartan warrior and are given duties that are similar to women. The men in the council are unique to the majority of men in Sparta that serve their city. Since the men wear â€Å"woman-like† clothing, it labels women’s apparel to be very revealing. These men reinforce some of the women stereotypes prevalent in the film. There are also some specific scenes in the movie that break some of the male and female stereotypes. Directly after Astinos is killed in battle, the Captain begins to break down and cry. The captain immediately showed his emotion for the loss of his son. This scene in the movie shows how even the most masculine man has to show some emotion at some point in time. In the end of the battle against the Persians, after King Leonidas has been shot by many arrows, he stands up and shouts, â€Å"My queen, my life, my love† (Zack Snyder. 300). This phrase is contradictory to the general actions of Spartans, and men in general, because it shows emotion. Both of these sequences in the film show how every man must show emotion, regardless of who they are. 300 demonstrated the many male and female stereotypes in society. Although most of the men were relatively similar, there were a few men in Sparta who went against the normal gender role. Like many other action movies, 300 showed various roles that supported some of the gender roles in the film industry. The main characters primarily demonstrated the conventional gender roles, but they also expressed some contradictory qualities. The film industry provides arious different types of gender roles through movies. advertising. Home | Saint Marys College, Notre Dame, IN. 20 Apr. 2009 ;lt; http://www. diigo. com/05lfx Women in Film. Yahoo! GeoCities: Get a free web site with easy-to-use site building tools. 20 Apr. 2009 ;lt; http://www. diigo. com/05lfw 300 Movie Spartans. Mens Movie Guide. 20 Apr. 2009 ;lt; http://www. diigo. com/05lfv 300 (Widescreen Single Disc Edition). Dir. Zack S nyder. Perf. Gerard Butler, Lena Headey. DVD. Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures International, 2006.

Sneakers War Essay Example for Free

Sneakers War Essay Marketing Management SNEAKER WARS 2007 Nike never lacks for boldness. The Beaverton sneaker goliath recently offered the German National Soccer Federation $778 million to sponsor its national soccer team for 10 years in an audacious move to rattle its German rival adidas and long-time sponsor of the German team. Nikes new chief executive, Mark Parker, upped the boldness quotient again on Feb. 6, when he outlined an ambitious plan to grow revenues by $8 billion in five years. In his first major initiative since inheriting the top spot (Chief Executive) in January, 2006, Parker explained to investors at Nikes annual analyst conference how the company aims to grow to $23 billion in global revenue by 2011. The comprehensive long-term strategy calls for reshaping the management structure; redefining Nikes relationship with its fast-changing, digitally driven consumer; and adding 100 new company stores worldwide in three years. Were fundamentally changing the way we organize the company, Parker said. Nike is as hungry and as driven as weve ever been before and becoming more focused and more competitive. While analysts and investors applauded much of Nikes new strategy, some questioned whether the company could actually do it. After all, revenues would need to rise 53% over five years, or average about 9% a year, to reach the target of $23 billion. Its going to be challenging to achieve $8 billion in new sales without turning around slumping sales in Europe, Japan, and the U. S. basketball market a crucial $3 billion to $3. billion market segment. I think its going to be tough for them, said John Shanley, financial analyst for Susquehanna Financial. Basketball, for example, is shrinkin g in terms of sales. They have 96% of the market share in the $100 or more price point. How do you get high single-digit growth when you already have more than 96% of the market? Nike executives fell short in offering specific details to some of these questions and focused more on painting a broader picture of the new strategy. They stressed a multi-pronged approach that includes reorganizing the Nike brand into six main athletic divisions running, basketball, soccer, womens fitness, mens training, and sport culture that are expected to generate 75% of the brands growth. The company had previously divided the brand into three segments: footwear, apparel, and equipment. Growth is also expected to come from emerging markets and potential acquisitions. But Nike Brand President Charlie Denson said the company can reach the $23 billion target without new acquisitions. As for new markets, China is expected to become Nikes second biggest market behind the U. S. , potentially chalking up $1 billion in sales. Nike is building a strategy for growth across China that will foster new connections with Chinese youth, a market share plan designed to reap benefits far beyond the Beijing Olympics next year, top executives said last week. By tapping into swelling consumerism, label consciousness and new social freedoms among Chinas youth, Nike hopes to cement and expand its current position as the leading athletic footwear and apparel brand in the worlds most populous country, currently the companys fourth-largest market. With about $600 million in current annual sales, Nike believes China has the potential to be the companys second-largest market behind the United States with revenue of $1 billion within five years. The company estimates some 50 million Chinese youth play basketball. We think our opportunity there is to connect more deeply with local culture, Parker said, explaining Nikes overall China strategy. Parker said Nike will create products and retail and digital experiences designed to resonate with wired, hip and willing-to-spend Chinese youth living in different cities and regions. Ultimately, thats going to be our best foundation for growth going forward, Parker said. China is a prime component in the global Nike puzzle that will help push total sales for the Beaverton, Oregon-based company toward a target of $23 billion by 2011. Nike also views India, whose population growth rate is rising faster than China’s and Russia as potential $1 billion markets. Although the budget for Nik es 2008 Beijing Olympics strategy has not yet been planned, Nike Brand President Charlie Denson said that commitment would be major. But, Denson said, We are looking beyond Beijing. A recent Just Do It campaign that aired on Chinese television featured a young woman basketball player and a young male skateboarder who spoke of their lives and dreams through sports. A popular Internet-based advertising campaign that followed the television advertisements encouraged teenagers to send in their own stories. While soccer and basketball are the most popular sports among Chinese youth, Nike also sees a huge market for its sports culture footwear and apparel lines that capture the allure of sports without the performance aspects. Trevor Edwards, Nikes vice president of global brand and category management, explained that Nike is trying to encourage Chinese youth to find their individual voice. The Just Do It campaign and others, Edwards said, communicated that we were a brand about opportunity; we were a brand about hope. Nike sponsors 22 out of 28 Chinese sports federations. While the best-known Chinese athlete in the United States, basketball centre Yao Ming, is signed with Reebok, a division of Adidas AG , popular Chinese hurdler and Olympic gold medallist Liu Xiang is a Nike athlete. Even though much of Nikes marketing campaign in China is based on youth individuality, Nike wants to make sure their footwear fits the millions. To that end, Nikes engineers and physiologists back at their headquarters have been collecting data about Chinese feet. But the company will not say whether specific footwear lines will be launched for China. Nikes India business has grown 40% since last year thanks in part to its efforts in cricket. Nike executives also said they plan to invest aggressively in other potential billion-dollar markets such as Russia and Brazil. Back in the USA, Nikes efforts to add new retail stores and elevate its partnership with existing retailers is a big part of its new strategy. This effort comes at a time of sluggish sales from some of its biggest retailers mall-based chains Foot Locker (FL) and Finish Line (FINL). Nike executives said the company plans to grow its direct-to-retail business to 15% of total sales, or $3. 5 billion, from 12% today. The segment includes its own stores, factory outlets, and an e-commerce division, which executives expect to see a significant increase in revenues over the next five years. For the planned retail investment, Nike will increase capital spending to $475 million annually, up from just under $400 million, Nike said. Gary DeStefano, president of Nikes global operations, stressed its retail goal is to make Nike a better retail partner: This is not about Nike vs. the retailers, he said. This is a partnership. We believe this could be a growth strategy. But probably Nikes boldest bet is on the consumer. In the eyes of Parker, this new and evolving digitally driven consumer is reshaping the retailing landscape. The power is now in the onsumers hands, and Parker believes Nike and other consumer brand companies need to adjust to the new market dynamics. Consumers have never held as much power as they do today, Parker said. And clearly the power has shifted to consumers. Nikes Denson said this fundamental shift can be captured in the way the company studies its consumer profiles. In the past, managers used to consider 18- and 22-year-olds as part of the same demo graphic target. Now he says they are treated as separate and distinct markets when it comes to age, interests, and tastes. We spent the last 30 years trying to bundle things, and now its almost the reverse and we have to un-bundle things, Denson said, explaining Nikes new efforts to tailor products to individual consumers. Despite these fundamental changes in how Nike approaches its customers and its reshaped management structure, some things never change. Nike remains its audacious self and competitive juices still run strong. It still has goals to dominate markets where it is not already No. 1, and it’s redoubling efforts to unseat rival Adidas as the worlds top supplier of soccer shoes and apparel. Its recent bid to sponsor the German national team is part of its 2010 goal to dominant the football brand, said Nike marketing vice-president Trevor Edwards. We believe its time to create separation. This is not a game of chicken. Some things never change. Adidas expects growth overseas, particularly in Asia, to push sales at its Reebok division to US$5 billion ($7. 42 billion) over the next three to five years, up from US$3 billion, adidas chief Herbert Hainer said yesterday. The worlds second-largest sporting goods maker after Nike also said it expected to cut costs including at Reebok, which it acquired last year by about 87 million euros ($1. 6 billion) this year. That will more than offset integration costs, resulting in an overall cost savings of about 10 to 20 million euros, Hainer said. For the Reebok brand, the main growth driver will be Asia and to a certain extent Europe as well. Key markets like Germany and France are underdeveloped, as is Russia. Emerging markets have a huge potential and we will grow in the US, but by far not at the pace of Asia. Much of that growth will come toward the latter part of that period with the brand expecting only modest revenue growth, said Paul Harrington, president and CEO of the Reebok brand. Adidas, the German based sporting goods giant, bought Reebok in a US$3. 8 billion deal, looking to complement its strength in Europe with a major US brand that had greater strength in the fashion segment. But the Reebo k brand has been a drag on Adidass performance thus far. In November 2006, the German company lowered its 2007 profit growth forecast to 15 per cent from 20 per cent, citing trouble at Reebok. Adidas shares have slid almost 14 per cent since the Reebok takeover closed on January 31, 2006. Rival Nikes shares have risen about 24 per cent over that time. Reeboks sales have been lagging in the United States and the United Kingdom, though adidas plans a big expansion for the brand in Asia, including about 3200 stores in China, India and Russia by 2010. It is to open 200 stores in China and 90 in Russia this year. The brand is also eyeing an expansion in Japan, South Korea, Turkey, Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe. In Brazil, Argentina, Switzerland and Spain, where the brand is still sold by third-party distributors, the company is working to buy out those contracts, but some may have to run their course through to 2012. At present, about 40 per cent of the Reebok brands sales come from North America and 40 per cent from Europe. Part of what makes the expansion outside the United States so appealing is that profit margins tend to be higher in the rest of the world, Hainer said. You have much higher quantity on the US market, but much more value, higher profit margins on the European or Asian market. Adidas plans to reposition its Reebok brand to target athletics apparel consumers who value individuality, with a goal of broadening beyond an urban youth target audience and re-emphasizing Reeboks roots as an athletics performance brand. The strategy comes as Germany-based adidas ramps up its investment in Reebok a year after acquiring the brand and then seeing Reebok sales fall into a slump. The revised brand strategy builds off the edgy I am what I am campaign Reebok adopted four years ago by embracing hip-hop culture and youth-oriented entertainment alongside its traditional athletics performance market. The new strategy will maintain the I am what I am theme in many of Reeboks advertisements. But it also will position Reebok as an American-inspired global brand that celebrates individuality in sport and life, according to Adidas. Reebok President and Chief Executive Paul Harrington said the brand will gently shift emphasis toward suburban consumers of all ages without abandoning the urban youth targeted by I am what I am. Reebok also will try to reconnect with consumers who value athletic performance over fashion. While I am what I am wont go by the wayside, It may not be as loud as it was when we first launched it, Harrington said in an interview at Reeboks Canton headquarters, where he was joined by Adidas CEO and Chairman Herbert Hainer. The street-influenced I am what I am campaign helped Reebok connect with youth by featuring endorsers such as rappers 50 Cent and Jay-Z. But some industry analysts said the campaign risked alienating customers who prize performance over fashion and marked too sharp a departure for a brand that gained traction pitching aerobics shoes to women in the 1980s. Were not going to move totally away from music, but were going to reach for a broader audience, Harrington said. Adidas hopes Reebok will double its U. S. business and narrow Beaverton, Oregon-based Nike Inc. s market leadership. But adidas said in November last year (2006) that sales of Reebok-branded shoes and other apparel fell 7 percent in the first nine months of last year, compared with the same peri od in 2005. Adidas also conceded that Reeboks profit growth this year would fall short of initial expectations, and it said it intended to increase Reebok investment this year. Among other things, Reebok has been hurt by a recent decline in the once-hot market for retro-styled sneakers that mimic styles from the 80s a trend that Reebok helped drive, said John Horan, publisher of Sport Goods Intelligence, a Glen Mills, Pennsylvania-based industry newsletter. Since Adidas completed the Reebok deal in January 2006, analysts have speculated as to how the one-time athletics sneaker and apparel rivals would position the two separately managed brands to avoid competing against one another in the same market niches. The strategy announced Thursday will be launched with two Reebok campaigns this year. The first is a Run Easy campaign beginning this spring emphasizing the fun and joy of running, rather than its blood, sweat and tears aspect and winning. Reebok plans to launch a broader campaign in August targeting a variety of athletes as well as lifestyle apparel consumers around the theme Best On/Best Off suggesting that Reebok products offer the best in apparel both on and off the playing field. New products Reebok plans to introduce this year include a running shoe created especially for women, a new Allen Iverson model basketball shoe, and an apparel collection endorsed by actress Scarlett Johansson. Andrew Rohm, a former Reebok marketing employee and now an assistant professor of marketing at North-eastern University, said the revised strategy reflects an attempt by Reebok to create a new niche to complement the Adidas brand, whose traditional strength has been in athletic performance, especially soccer. I think it may be a reflection of looking less at sheer sales volume, and more in terms of owning a unique space, and becoming more of a niche player than they have tried to be in the past, Rohm said. Reeboks Harrington said the revised marketing strategy will help position the brand for a comeback. It really positions us for growth in the back end of 2007, he said. Puma, the maker of athletic shoes, shirts and other sporting goods, said its fourth-quarter profit fell 26 percent as it tries to broaden its product base and expand into new regions. But the company, the worlds third-biggest maker of sports apparel behind Nike Inc. and adidas AG, said it expected sales and earnings in 2007 to increase in the higher single-digit figure range, largely on demand for its licensed products. Overall, we are very pleased with 2006 and our start to (the latest restructuring phase), as we set some ambitious targets and are on track or ahead on all accounts, Chief Executive Jochen Zeitz said in a statement. But more important than the past is the future and weve put ourselves in a solid early position to deliver on our objectives. Puma earned euro32. 8 million (US$43 million) in the last three months of 2006, down from euro44. 1 million in the same quarter of 2005. Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had expected a profit of euro34 million (US$44. 6 million). Sales rose 38 percent to euro480 million (US$629. 7 million) from euro349. 2 million a year ago, still less than the euro492 million (US$645. 4 million) analysts had predicted. For the year, Puma earned euro263. 2 million (US$345. 3 million), down nearly 8 percent from euro285. 8 million in 2005, just below analysts estimates of euro264 million (US$346. million). Sales rose 33 percent to euro2. 37 billion (US$3. 11 billion) from euro1. 78 billion in 2005, just under estimates of euro2. 38 billion (US$3. 12 billion). The sales increase was led, in part, by better-than-expected demand for its shirts and helped by the afterglow of the 2006 soccer World Cup, in which Puma sponsored the champion Italy. It is also a key supplier to many African teams. Since Zeitz was named CEO and chairman of the company in 1993, Puma has returned to profitability and increased sales and expanded its research and development, marketing and branding programs. Its latest restructuring effort is aimed at expanding the companys reputation as a maker of lifestyle brands clothes, shoes and accessories, such as eyeglasses and expand in more regions and categories. For the year, Puma posted strong sales in North and South America, with sales reaching euro724. 1 million (US$949. 95 million), up 51. 8 percent from 2005. In Asia and the Pacific, sales more than tripled to euro486. 5 million (US$638. 24 million). In Europe, the Middle East and Africa sale increased 5. 1 percent to euro1. 15 billion (US$1. 51 billion). The companys backlog of orders a key indicator for future sales performance was at euro1. 12 billion (US$1. 47 billion) at the end of 2006, up 4. 7 percent from euro1. 07 billion in 2005. Shares of Herzogenaurach-based Puma were up nearly 2 percent after the results were released but fell back more than half a percent to euro288. 01 (US$377. 84) in Frankfurt trading. References: Business Week Online Can Nike Do It? By Stanley Holmes 7 February 2007 Reuters News Nike striving to be brand about hope in China By Alexandria Sage 12 February 2007 New Zealand Herald Reebok to race in Europe and Asia 3 February 2007 Associated Press Newswires Adidas shifting Reeboks brand identity By MARK JEWELL 2 February 2007 Associated Press Newswires Athletic apparel maker Puma says 4th-quarter profit drops 26 percent By MATT MOORE 19 February 2007 Questions 1. Conduct a SWOT analysis of the key players in the sneaker industry and critically analyse their influence within the industry and the market. (25 marks) 2. Evaluate all significant trends in the environment and assess what impact each is likely to have on the sneaker industry. (25 marks) (Total = 50 marks)

Cultural Identity and Belonging in Muslims

Cultural Identity and Belonging in Muslims Religious conversion, cultural identity and national belonging: The world of Bulgarian Muslims (Pomaks). Introduction It is always interesting to immerse in the mysterious past and to discover how the sense of national identity is created and transformed over the years. Throughout olden times and until now, cultural margins have shrunk or expanded, established nations and minorities within these have interacted with and influenced each other, religious and cultural conversions have frequently taken place and in the melting pot of history new distinctive uniqueness has begun to exist. This is particularly valid when the case of Bulgarian Muslims is discussed. Moreover, it is important to recognise here that the world of Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks has been a subject of endless speculations and ethnic and political claims over the years and it is still very much unknown to the Western European ethnological and historical research literature. Much of the translated work that refers to the Pomaks is from Greek, Serbian, Turkish or Macedonian origin. Therefore it is, fair to say that the story of this Muslim enclave that inhibits mostly Bulgarian territories and speaks Bulgarian language, must be considered from a Bulgarian point of view and this is the main aim here. Consequently, this essay will examine the world of Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks, their religious conversion from Christianity to Islam and the formation and transformation of their cultural identity and sense of national belonging. To accomplish all this, the essay will firstly discuss the religious conversion of the Pomaks, its background, character, mode and outcomes and how it has laid the foundations of Bulgarian Muslims’ cultural identity. In addition, this paper will comment on the transformation of the cultural identity and sense of national belonging of Bulgarian Muslims. Finally, it will conclude with thoughts on self-perception, perception of others and future hopes. Definition of the term Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks Before elaborating further on all abovementioned points, there is a need to establish and define the term Bulgarian Muslims and describe it in Bulgarian context. In order to achieve this, two reliable sources will be cited. Commenting on the issue of cultural belonging and religious identity of Muslims in Bulgaria, Kemal Karpat, a Turkish historian and researcher, states that: The Muslim identity of these populations consisted outwardly of certain objective symbols and acts such as names and ritualsand at their place of origin they tended to identify themselves with Islam in terms of social behaviour, rather than in terms of a political systemand possessed a passive communal Muslim identity (1990, pp. 131-132). In his The hijra from Russia and the Balkans: the process of self-definition in the late Ottoman state, he argues that the largest population group â€Å"in the area that is now Bulgaria†, was the Muslim population group. In terms of spoken language, he endorses that â€Å"they spoke Slavic† (1990, pp.132-134). In his Turkish brutality in Bulgaria and in the Balkan Peninsula (2007, pp. 41-62), the well-known Bulgarian historian, researcher and writer Hristo Krasin, presents a different point of view to that of Kemal Karpat. He argues that all modern Bulgarian population has a strong Bulgarian ethnic origin and comprises of four groups. The first group consists of Bulgarians, who speak Bulgarian language and are Eastern Orthodox Christians. The second one consists of Bulgarians, who recognise themselves as Bulgarian speaking Muslims with Bulgarian or Turkish national identity. The third one consists of Bulgarian speaking Muslims, who recognise themselves as ethnic Turks because their Bulgarian national identity was partially erased over the centuries due to the aggressive assimilation politic of the Turkish Empire. The last group consists of Bulgarian individuals, who speak Bulgarian and Turkish languages. They recognise themselves as ethnic Turks, whose religions are Christianity and Islam and whose Bulgarian national identity was fully erased under centuries of Turkish Islamic brutality in Bulgaria. This classification of ethnic and religious groups only appears to be straightforward. In the context of the tricky ethic and religious relationships in Bulgaria and in the Balkans, nothing is ever simple. Hence, the purpose of this essay is not to involve the reader in a discussion of the suggested categorisation or its validity or reliability but to establish some clarity into the complicated issue of ethnicity and identity of the Bulgarian-speaking Muslims and their ethnic, cultural and national identity and self-perception. Subsequently, this paper will confine itself to the Bulgarian-speaking Muslims, further referred to as Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks. Religious conversion: Pomaks until 1878 As it already beginning to emerge, the case of the Pomaks is complicated and a number of debates around it, display very strong positions and conflicting opinions. In order to appreciate all points of view and in search for the truth, it is imperative to consider the historical background of the issue. The existence of closed Muslim societies in Bulgaria is the direct inheritance of five centuries long Turkish rule over the Balkan Peninsula (Todorova, 1998, p.3). Even though there is no reliable data or figures to inform of population characteristics or major population shifts, some research has been done and there are number of existing theories that explain the size and grouping of Muslim population on the Peninsula. In his Turkish brutality in Bulgaria and in the Balkan Peninsula (2007, p. 23), Hristo Krasin has attempted to assess the character and the effects of these movements. He claims that there were not any significant population transfers from Anatolia to the Balkans between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries and that the military formation send to take the Peninsula over, comprised only of soldiers and there no women travelling with the army. In her Identity (Trans) Formation among Bulgarian Muslims, Maria Todorova, a researcher from The University of California (1998, p.4) argues that the â€Å"chief historiographical controversy centres on the explanations for the sizeable Muslim population in the Balkans: Colonisation versus Conversion theory†. Furthermore, she suggests that â€Å"by the sixteenth century the settler colonisation process had stopped and yet the percentage of Muslims in the region continued to grow. Thus, the hypothesis offered is that â€Å"there were a great number of personal conversions to Islam among the non-Muslim population of the Balkans, respectively Bulgaria† (Todorova, 1998, p.6). In addition, a whole range of reliable academic research and publications from Bulgarian and Turkish authors, such as Omer Barkan from Istanbul University, Elena Grozdanova from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the Albanian historian Sami Pulaha (all cited in Todorova, 1998, pp. 2-5), refer to data to evidence rapid Muslim population growth in Bulgaria between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries due either colonisation or conversion. In an attempt to join this debate and in discussion of the concrete but complex case of the Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks, it must be suggested here that although there is evidence to support both theories, the majority of all available sources, also supported by official documents and survived the time registers of the Ottoman empire, shape the idea that religious conversion on a massive scale took place in Bulgaria and respectively in the Balkans (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1982, vol. 3-7). The question is how the conversion from Christianity to Islam was carried out and the answer to this question is directly connected with Pomaks’ self-identification as Muslims and consequently gives some light into their actions and behavioural characteristics as citizens of the Ottoman Empire until the nineteenth century and independent Bulgaria after that. To discuss the mode of the religious conversion of the Pomaks and emphasise its importance for the formation of their cultural identity and national belonging, it must be made clear here that â€Å"conversion may occur in one or more of three ways: through voluntary association, by pressure, and by assimilation. Syncretism and strong cultural resistance can also complicate the conversion process† (The Applied History Research group, 2000, pp.1-3). There is another raging debate in Bulgarian and Balkan historiographical research literature about the mode of Pomaks’ conversion to Islam and the co-existence of Bulgarian Christians and Bulgarian Muslims. On the one hand, there are these, who argue that the conversion was forced upon the Christian population of Bulgaria and over the centuries, and especially the seventeen century, there was a mass conversion to Islam in across the country and especially in the mountain Rodopi region. There is a huge amount of literature, both academic and journalistic, supported with reliable and substantial evidence that the alleged obligatory conversion took place. In his Genocide and Holocaust against Bulgarians (2006, p.63), Bulgarian academic historian and writer Georgi Voinov claims that the systematic and focused compulsory conversion to Islam was one of the favourite methods of control and ruling in the Ottoman Empire, well known for its strong assimilation aspirations in order to promote pan-Turkism. To sustain his assertions, Voinov cites numerous sources, based on authentic literature, written by survivors or witnesses from fourteenth to eighteenth centuries. He also claims that there are official registers of the Ottoman Empire that had also captured those events and give objective information and statistics of all the atrocities that took place in the name of Islam and in order to erase Bulgarian national identity among the Bulgarian population (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1982, vol. 3-7). All abovementioned sources affirm that Islam in Bulgaria was not accepted voluntary but under duress. In the History Reader: The Rodopi mountain through the centuries (1966, p. 78), Bulgarian historian Peter Petrov cites a source from the sixteenth century that talks of 325 thousand young Bulgarian youths forcefully converted to Islam and taken to Anatolia to commence military service in the Turkish army. Only the boy’s number was known, for the girls, no-one has ever known. It is claimed, that conversion took place in 1515 and under the command of Selim Pasha. There are also endless lists from administrative Ottoman registers reporting evidence that Islam was not accepted on voluntary basis. Mass conversions took place in 1620, 1633, 1669, 1705, 1720, 1803, all of those through fire and sword, drowning in blood any resistance from the local Christian population (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1982, vol. 3-7). On the other hand, there are those academic writers and journalists, who for one reason or another and in an attempt to politicise the issue of Bulgarian Muslims, are nowadays trying to reassess historical events. Special attention is given to the religious and cultural conversion in Bulgaria. In the recently published second edition of his book The Mohammedan Bulgarians (2007, pp. 5-12), Bulgarian researcher and writer Stojan Raichevski asserts that change to Islam was forced upon the Christian Bulgarians by the power of the sword to a minimal degree but there were many other, more important reasons and economic factors, that played a key role, such as preferential taxation and trading agreements for Muslims in the Empire, the greed of the Greek Orthodox clergy, the conflict between the Bogomils and the Orthodox Church, etc. In addition, Kemal Karpat comments that at the time when their land was conquered, the Slavic speaking Muslims were under the authority of their local feudal lords and accepted Islam as the new faith as it supposedly was close to their native faith of Bogomilism, a mixture of Christianity, paganism and Manichaeism. In doing so, they hoped to preserve their land holdings and ethnic identity. Furthermore, according to the Applied History Research group of the University of Calgary (2000, p.1), â€Å"although conversion by pressure cannot be termed voluntary, the degree of force and coercion varies greatly. Indeed, military conquest was typically followed by the application of subtler pressures, such as commercial or judicial sanctions, to enforce the requirement of the new rulers†. Economic pressure was just as effective as an unrestrained military subjugation. Thinking objectively and considering all points of view and available data, one does not doubt here that many factors acted as an incentive to mass Islamic conversions in Bulgaria. What is interesting to communicate through this piece of work is that the combination of the different modes of conversion: by voluntary association, by pressure, and by assimilation, was accompanied with syncretism that determined some degree of cultural adaptation. It did, in turn, also provoke fierce cultural resistance and martyrdom from a large part of the Christian population. Hence, here was the historical picture in Bulgaria. On the one hand, those Bulgarians, who surrendered their religion for one reason or another, became Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks. They continued speaking Bulgarian language and the local area dialect, build their houses in Bulgarian architectural traditions, saved some elements of their old dress code, continued to recognise themselves as Bulgarians but built mosques, celebrated Eid and enjoyed preferential treatment from the Ottoman rulers. However, over the centuries they were exposed to the influences of their adopted Islamic religion and the aggressive pan-Turkism promoted in the Ottoman Empire and through blending of various aspects of different cultural customs and religious rituals or syncretism, somewhat new cultural arrangements took place. Bulgarian Muslims adapted culturally to the life in the Empire and although preserving their Slavic language and some sense of Bulgarian national identity, their levels of cultural adaptation reached much greater heights than those among the Christian Bulgarian population. Due to this fact and over the centuries, the Pomaks have tried to self-define themselves in terms of national conciseness and have become vulnerable to influences and an object of hatred or even political struggle. On the other hand, while Bulgarian Muslims were going through the process of cultural assimilation, the larger part of the Bulgarian population withstood the pressure, continued to observe their faith and traditions, regularly rebelled against the Turkish rulers and took part in more than fifty military conquests against the Turks, led by different European rulers. All Bulgarian uprisings against the Ottoman Sultans, fourteen in total in Bulgaria itself (Voinov, 2006, p.26), were drowned in blood. What needs clarification here is one, not very well popularised fact: Bulgarian Muslims took active part in the suppression and crushing of many of the rebellions. This, in turn, raises many questions, with one most imperative. What were the reasons that in the same ethnic population group, some of its members took the way of conversion and cultural adaptation but the others chose cultural resistance, martyrdom and self-martyrdom? How could these two groups live in relative peace under Ottoman rule but when an uprising against the Turks took place, Bulgarian Muslims ferociously and viciously attacked their Christian neighbours and fought on the side of the Turks, committing acts of unheard of cruelty and brutality? Their participation in the crushing of the April uprising of 1876 is notorious and it was described by the American writer and journalist Janarius Aloysius McGahan, who was one of the greatest war correspondents in the nineteenth century. In his American witness (2002, 3rd Ed.), Bulgarian historian Teodor Dimitrov has published McGahan’s notes about the atrocities in Batak, Bulgaria, and they read: â€Å"We spoke with many women, who had been through all stages of torture without the last one, death. The procedure, as it seemed, was the following: the Turks would take a woman, undress her, putting aside her valuables, gang-rape her and the last one, who had her, would kill her or let her go, depending on his mood†. What McGahan does not note here is that the Turks were not alone in the slaughter of the rebels. They are aided by their helpers’, the local Pomak population, Greeks and other small ethnic groups. Thus, Christian Bulgarians fought for freedom, while Muslim Bulgarians took part in the massacre of their uprising. What could have possibly provoked someone to behave in such a way? According to Doinov et al. (2001, p.112), â€Å"the shown cruelty was an outburst of the deep national and religious hatred against the oppressed nationalities in the Ottoman Empire, that has been groomed and encouraged for centuries by the ruling powers†. However, something else was at work there too. Kemal Karpat (1990, p.136) explains that Balkan Muslims, although living in a hostile Christian European world, remained largely apolitical. However, their â€Å"passive cultural-religious consciousness was easily converted to a dynamic Muslim identity when the circumstances required†. Perhaps when Bulgarian Muslims were faced with an unconditional act of resistance in the â€Å"most dramatic form: suicide and self-martyrdom† (2000, p.3), those acted as catalyst and the Pomaks replied with repression and brutality. Ekaterina Peychinova, Director of the Museum of History in Batak describes what drove the oppressors mad: For three days and three nights the people inside the church held together, and the shooting outside did not stop for a minute. At the end of the third day they gave in and opened the gates of the church. But then they had only two options: either become Muslims or die. Every single one of them chose death. (cited in Ivanova, 2008, p.1) The horrific power of those events and the depth of feelings and emotions are overwhelming. Keeping in mind that Bulgarian Christians and Bulgarian Muslims are from the same ethnic origin and the same blood flows in their veins, have religious and cultural conversion, syncretism and assimilation have changed the latter so much that they could commit such acts and have identity switch over, allowing for full degradation of human values? This essay does not have the ambitious goal to answer all those questions. History gives the answers and it will do the same here too. Many years have gone since those ghastly days and Pomaks’ sense of cultural identity and national belonging has evolved and changed again as Bulgarian Muslims themselves were at the receiving end of numerous assimilation governmental campaigns and strategies from 1878 until now. Cultural identity and national belonging of Bulgarian Pomaks Due to the fact that the Bulgarian speaking Muslims took an active part in the suppressing the April uprising of 1876, they did not enjoy friendly treatment from their Christian neighbours. With the advancement of the Russian armies in 1878, retaliation began and a substantial part of the Pomaks immigrated to the Ottoman empire, refusing to live under the rule of the â€Å"giaurs† or infidels. Many others took part in the Rodopi mutiny and lived in the so-called Pomak republic for about eight years until 1886, when the participating villages were included in the Ottoman Empire but only until the Balkan wars (Todorva, 1998, p.9). Furthermore, in the Ottoman Population: 1830-1914 (1985, p.78), Kemal Karpat cites Ottoman statistics, indicating that the total population of the Empire rose by about 40% in the period 1860-1878 due to coercive measures by Russia and Bulgaria. He mentions that among the Balkan migrants there were large groups of Slavic-speaking Bosnians, Herzegovinians, Montenegrins and Pomaks with a negative sense of ethnic identity, as they considered themselves as Muslims but not Osmanlis (Turks). Thus, judging by the actions of the Pomaks, the question that must be asked here is: did the Pomaks have a Turkish or Bulgarian cultural and national identity at the end of the nineteen and beginning of twentieth century and is it possible to differentiate between religious and ethnic belonging? The Pomaks, who immigrated to the Ottoman Empire, had their cultural identity politicised and defined as Muslim and Turkish under the influence of the local political and ethnic culture (Karpat, 1990, p.137). Unfortunately, the Pomaks, who stayed in Bulgaria, did not have the opportunity to decide for themselves freely because during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, they were subjected to a number of keen campaigns to accept and recognise them as part of the Bulgarian nation or â€Å"narod†, starting from 1920-s and continuing until the mid-80-s. In 1942, the first ever mass attempt to change the names of the Bulgarian Muslims to Bulgarian names took place. It was a result of the work of the Pomaks’ own organisation, called â€Å"Rodina† or Motherland. Consisting mainly of teachers, â€Å"Rodina† strove to improve the position of the Pomaks in Bulgarian society and to save them from the growing resentment and marginalisation. In the context of the Third Bulgarian Kingdom (1878 – 1944) and its nationalistic ambitions and assimilative tendencies, it is important to acknowledge here that Motherlands’ actions were justified in terms of seeking a national, cultural and linguistic unity of the Bulgarian society and the difficulties that the Pomaks could have faced, if tried to fit in that society. What is questionable here is the Pomaks desire to fit in. Although the Pomaks have, at that point, lost the very close contact with their original cultural authority, the Ottoman Empire, they were still in favour of their religious affiliation and were not willing to adapt to the fresh, language-based identity actively promoted by the modern Bulgarian state at that time (Todorova, 1998, p. 11). Another problem here is the attitude of the Christian Bulgarians, whose national consciousness was determined by religious and linguistic boundaries. Were they ready to forget the Ottoman rule and April 1876 and to accept the Pomaks as part of the Bulgarian nation and allow assimilation? Could adaptation and adoption take place and the complex issue of national identity, belonging and unity be resolved peacefully and once and for all? What is better: common national identity and national unity or multi-cultural society? During communist rule in the 1960-s, 1970-s and 1980-s, various Bulgarian governments tried to resolve the issue through numerous heavy-handed assimilation campaigns, when all Muslim names were changed to Bulgarian names, an attempt was made to form a united Bulgarian nation in order to neutralise nationalistic ambitions and claims from neighbouring Turkey. After the democratic reforms from 1989, all ethnic and religious groups in Bulgaria gained the freedom to self-identify themselves and promote their national and religious distinctiveness. All Muslim names were restored and seemingly the great effort to create a united Bulgarian national identity had ended. Hence, the national identity and cultural belonging of the Pomaks are somewhat fluid and non-defined, and the coming generations will have the chance to accomplish the process of integration or affiliation as they choose. It is, however, ultimate to accept the lessons of history and to abolish all attempts to forcefully create a single identity with identical religious or national characteristics. Cultural conversion through co-operation and co-existence is frequently welcome by small or big population groups, whilst conversion by pressure, conflict and aggressive assimilation is rejected and leads to confusion, hatred and frequently violent resistance. Conclusion In conclusion, it must be recognised here that the case of Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks is of complex nature and the issue of defining their national identity and cultural belonging is still unresolved. There are many more questions to ask and answer and many more avenues to explore in order to establish which one of the national identity constituents is the most influential and possess the ultimate formative power. Consequently, it is the greatest regret of this work that it is impossible to analyse or develop fully all themes, ideas and debates in connection with the cultural identity, national belonging and self-perception of the Pomaks, when the number of words is restricted and there is lack of the research available. However, one humbly hopes to have offered here, merely an attempt of discussion on the important issues of cultural and religious identity and how they shape the very centre of the human concept of self. Finally, it must be emphasised here that the writing of this essay has been a vast learning experience for the author, an opportunity to study, investigate and explore the world of Bulgarian Muslims and be taught lessons that put historical and contemporary events into perspective. Bibliography Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1982). History of Bulgaria. Sofia: BAN Press, vol. 3-7. Dimitrov, T. (2002). American witness. 3rd Ed. Geneva: Geneva press. Doinov, D., Jechev, N. Kosev, K. (2001). The April uprising and the fate of the Bulgarian nation. Sofia: Academic Press â€Å"Professor Marin Drinov†. Ivanova, M. (2008). St. Nedelya church in Batak. Available from: http://www.pravoslavieto.com. (Accessed: 12 April 2008). Karpat, K. (1985). Ottoman Population: 1830-1914. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Karpat, K. (1990). The hijra from Russia and the Balkans: the process of self-definition in the late Ottoman state. In: Eickelman, D. Piscatori, J. (Ed.). Muslim Travellers: Pilgrimage, migration, and the religious imagination. Los Angeles: University of California Press, Chapter 7, pp. 131-152. Krasin, H. (2007). Turkish brutality in Bulgaria and in the Balkan Peninsula. (Turskite porazii v Bulgaria i na Balkanskia Poluostrov). Sofia: Svetovit Press. Petrov, P. (1966). History Reader: The Rodopi mountain through the centuries. Sofia: BKP Press. Rajcevski, S. (2004). The Mohammedan Bulgarians (Pomaks). (Balgarite Mohamedani). Sofia: Bulgarian Bestseller Press. The Applied History Research Group. (2000) Old World Contacts. Available from: http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history. (Accessed: 14 April 2008). Todorova, M. (1998). Identity (Trans) Formation among Bulgarian Muslims. Gainesville: University of Florida Press. Voinov, G. (2006). Genocide and Holocaust against Bulgarians. (Genotsidad i Holokostat sreshtu Balgarite.) Sofia: Arateb Press. Cultural Identity and Belonging in Muslims Cultural Identity and Belonging in Muslims Religious conversion, cultural identity and national belonging: The world of Bulgarian Muslims (Pomaks). Introduction It is always interesting to immerse in the mysterious past and to discover how the sense of national identity is created and transformed over the years. Throughout olden times and until now, cultural margins have shrunk or expanded, established nations and minorities within these have interacted with and influenced each other, religious and cultural conversions have frequently taken place and in the melting pot of history new distinctive uniqueness has begun to exist. This is particularly valid when the case of Bulgarian Muslims is discussed. Moreover, it is important to recognise here that the world of Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks has been a subject of endless speculations and ethnic and political claims over the years and it is still very much unknown to the Western European ethnological and historical research literature. Much of the translated work that refers to the Pomaks is from Greek, Serbian, Turkish or Macedonian origin. Therefore it is, fair to say that the story of this Muslim enclave that inhibits mostly Bulgarian territories and speaks Bulgarian language, must be considered from a Bulgarian point of view and this is the main aim here. Consequently, this essay will examine the world of Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks, their religious conversion from Christianity to Islam and the formation and transformation of their cultural identity and sense of national belonging. To accomplish all this, the essay will firstly discuss the religious conversion of the Pomaks, its background, character, mode and outcomes and how it has laid the foundations of Bulgarian Muslims’ cultural identity. In addition, this paper will comment on the transformation of the cultural identity and sense of national belonging of Bulgarian Muslims. Finally, it will conclude with thoughts on self-perception, perception of others and future hopes. Definition of the term Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks Before elaborating further on all abovementioned points, there is a need to establish and define the term Bulgarian Muslims and describe it in Bulgarian context. In order to achieve this, two reliable sources will be cited. Commenting on the issue of cultural belonging and religious identity of Muslims in Bulgaria, Kemal Karpat, a Turkish historian and researcher, states that: The Muslim identity of these populations consisted outwardly of certain objective symbols and acts such as names and ritualsand at their place of origin they tended to identify themselves with Islam in terms of social behaviour, rather than in terms of a political systemand possessed a passive communal Muslim identity (1990, pp. 131-132). In his The hijra from Russia and the Balkans: the process of self-definition in the late Ottoman state, he argues that the largest population group â€Å"in the area that is now Bulgaria†, was the Muslim population group. In terms of spoken language, he endorses that â€Å"they spoke Slavic† (1990, pp.132-134). In his Turkish brutality in Bulgaria and in the Balkan Peninsula (2007, pp. 41-62), the well-known Bulgarian historian, researcher and writer Hristo Krasin, presents a different point of view to that of Kemal Karpat. He argues that all modern Bulgarian population has a strong Bulgarian ethnic origin and comprises of four groups. The first group consists of Bulgarians, who speak Bulgarian language and are Eastern Orthodox Christians. The second one consists of Bulgarians, who recognise themselves as Bulgarian speaking Muslims with Bulgarian or Turkish national identity. The third one consists of Bulgarian speaking Muslims, who recognise themselves as ethnic Turks because their Bulgarian national identity was partially erased over the centuries due to the aggressive assimilation politic of the Turkish Empire. The last group consists of Bulgarian individuals, who speak Bulgarian and Turkish languages. They recognise themselves as ethnic Turks, whose religions are Christianity and Islam and whose Bulgarian national identity was fully erased under centuries of Turkish Islamic brutality in Bulgaria. This classification of ethnic and religious groups only appears to be straightforward. In the context of the tricky ethic and religious relationships in Bulgaria and in the Balkans, nothing is ever simple. Hence, the purpose of this essay is not to involve the reader in a discussion of the suggested categorisation or its validity or reliability but to establish some clarity into the complicated issue of ethnicity and identity of the Bulgarian-speaking Muslims and their ethnic, cultural and national identity and self-perception. Subsequently, this paper will confine itself to the Bulgarian-speaking Muslims, further referred to as Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks. Religious conversion: Pomaks until 1878 As it already beginning to emerge, the case of the Pomaks is complicated and a number of debates around it, display very strong positions and conflicting opinions. In order to appreciate all points of view and in search for the truth, it is imperative to consider the historical background of the issue. The existence of closed Muslim societies in Bulgaria is the direct inheritance of five centuries long Turkish rule over the Balkan Peninsula (Todorova, 1998, p.3). Even though there is no reliable data or figures to inform of population characteristics or major population shifts, some research has been done and there are number of existing theories that explain the size and grouping of Muslim population on the Peninsula. In his Turkish brutality in Bulgaria and in the Balkan Peninsula (2007, p. 23), Hristo Krasin has attempted to assess the character and the effects of these movements. He claims that there were not any significant population transfers from Anatolia to the Balkans between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries and that the military formation send to take the Peninsula over, comprised only of soldiers and there no women travelling with the army. In her Identity (Trans) Formation among Bulgarian Muslims, Maria Todorova, a researcher from The University of California (1998, p.4) argues that the â€Å"chief historiographical controversy centres on the explanations for the sizeable Muslim population in the Balkans: Colonisation versus Conversion theory†. Furthermore, she suggests that â€Å"by the sixteenth century the settler colonisation process had stopped and yet the percentage of Muslims in the region continued to grow. Thus, the hypothesis offered is that â€Å"there were a great number of personal conversions to Islam among the non-Muslim population of the Balkans, respectively Bulgaria† (Todorova, 1998, p.6). In addition, a whole range of reliable academic research and publications from Bulgarian and Turkish authors, such as Omer Barkan from Istanbul University, Elena Grozdanova from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the Albanian historian Sami Pulaha (all cited in Todorova, 1998, pp. 2-5), refer to data to evidence rapid Muslim population growth in Bulgaria between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries due either colonisation or conversion. In an attempt to join this debate and in discussion of the concrete but complex case of the Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks, it must be suggested here that although there is evidence to support both theories, the majority of all available sources, also supported by official documents and survived the time registers of the Ottoman empire, shape the idea that religious conversion on a massive scale took place in Bulgaria and respectively in the Balkans (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1982, vol. 3-7). The question is how the conversion from Christianity to Islam was carried out and the answer to this question is directly connected with Pomaks’ self-identification as Muslims and consequently gives some light into their actions and behavioural characteristics as citizens of the Ottoman Empire until the nineteenth century and independent Bulgaria after that. To discuss the mode of the religious conversion of the Pomaks and emphasise its importance for the formation of their cultural identity and national belonging, it must be made clear here that â€Å"conversion may occur in one or more of three ways: through voluntary association, by pressure, and by assimilation. Syncretism and strong cultural resistance can also complicate the conversion process† (The Applied History Research group, 2000, pp.1-3). There is another raging debate in Bulgarian and Balkan historiographical research literature about the mode of Pomaks’ conversion to Islam and the co-existence of Bulgarian Christians and Bulgarian Muslims. On the one hand, there are these, who argue that the conversion was forced upon the Christian population of Bulgaria and over the centuries, and especially the seventeen century, there was a mass conversion to Islam in across the country and especially in the mountain Rodopi region. There is a huge amount of literature, both academic and journalistic, supported with reliable and substantial evidence that the alleged obligatory conversion took place. In his Genocide and Holocaust against Bulgarians (2006, p.63), Bulgarian academic historian and writer Georgi Voinov claims that the systematic and focused compulsory conversion to Islam was one of the favourite methods of control and ruling in the Ottoman Empire, well known for its strong assimilation aspirations in order to promote pan-Turkism. To sustain his assertions, Voinov cites numerous sources, based on authentic literature, written by survivors or witnesses from fourteenth to eighteenth centuries. He also claims that there are official registers of the Ottoman Empire that had also captured those events and give objective information and statistics of all the atrocities that took place in the name of Islam and in order to erase Bulgarian national identity among the Bulgarian population (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1982, vol. 3-7). All abovementioned sources affirm that Islam in Bulgaria was not accepted voluntary but under duress. In the History Reader: The Rodopi mountain through the centuries (1966, p. 78), Bulgarian historian Peter Petrov cites a source from the sixteenth century that talks of 325 thousand young Bulgarian youths forcefully converted to Islam and taken to Anatolia to commence military service in the Turkish army. Only the boy’s number was known, for the girls, no-one has ever known. It is claimed, that conversion took place in 1515 and under the command of Selim Pasha. There are also endless lists from administrative Ottoman registers reporting evidence that Islam was not accepted on voluntary basis. Mass conversions took place in 1620, 1633, 1669, 1705, 1720, 1803, all of those through fire and sword, drowning in blood any resistance from the local Christian population (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1982, vol. 3-7). On the other hand, there are those academic writers and journalists, who for one reason or another and in an attempt to politicise the issue of Bulgarian Muslims, are nowadays trying to reassess historical events. Special attention is given to the religious and cultural conversion in Bulgaria. In the recently published second edition of his book The Mohammedan Bulgarians (2007, pp. 5-12), Bulgarian researcher and writer Stojan Raichevski asserts that change to Islam was forced upon the Christian Bulgarians by the power of the sword to a minimal degree but there were many other, more important reasons and economic factors, that played a key role, such as preferential taxation and trading agreements for Muslims in the Empire, the greed of the Greek Orthodox clergy, the conflict between the Bogomils and the Orthodox Church, etc. In addition, Kemal Karpat comments that at the time when their land was conquered, the Slavic speaking Muslims were under the authority of their local feudal lords and accepted Islam as the new faith as it supposedly was close to their native faith of Bogomilism, a mixture of Christianity, paganism and Manichaeism. In doing so, they hoped to preserve their land holdings and ethnic identity. Furthermore, according to the Applied History Research group of the University of Calgary (2000, p.1), â€Å"although conversion by pressure cannot be termed voluntary, the degree of force and coercion varies greatly. Indeed, military conquest was typically followed by the application of subtler pressures, such as commercial or judicial sanctions, to enforce the requirement of the new rulers†. Economic pressure was just as effective as an unrestrained military subjugation. Thinking objectively and considering all points of view and available data, one does not doubt here that many factors acted as an incentive to mass Islamic conversions in Bulgaria. What is interesting to communicate through this piece of work is that the combination of the different modes of conversion: by voluntary association, by pressure, and by assimilation, was accompanied with syncretism that determined some degree of cultural adaptation. It did, in turn, also provoke fierce cultural resistance and martyrdom from a large part of the Christian population. Hence, here was the historical picture in Bulgaria. On the one hand, those Bulgarians, who surrendered their religion for one reason or another, became Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks. They continued speaking Bulgarian language and the local area dialect, build their houses in Bulgarian architectural traditions, saved some elements of their old dress code, continued to recognise themselves as Bulgarians but built mosques, celebrated Eid and enjoyed preferential treatment from the Ottoman rulers. However, over the centuries they were exposed to the influences of their adopted Islamic religion and the aggressive pan-Turkism promoted in the Ottoman Empire and through blending of various aspects of different cultural customs and religious rituals or syncretism, somewhat new cultural arrangements took place. Bulgarian Muslims adapted culturally to the life in the Empire and although preserving their Slavic language and some sense of Bulgarian national identity, their levels of cultural adaptation reached much greater heights than those among the Christian Bulgarian population. Due to this fact and over the centuries, the Pomaks have tried to self-define themselves in terms of national conciseness and have become vulnerable to influences and an object of hatred or even political struggle. On the other hand, while Bulgarian Muslims were going through the process of cultural assimilation, the larger part of the Bulgarian population withstood the pressure, continued to observe their faith and traditions, regularly rebelled against the Turkish rulers and took part in more than fifty military conquests against the Turks, led by different European rulers. All Bulgarian uprisings against the Ottoman Sultans, fourteen in total in Bulgaria itself (Voinov, 2006, p.26), were drowned in blood. What needs clarification here is one, not very well popularised fact: Bulgarian Muslims took active part in the suppression and crushing of many of the rebellions. This, in turn, raises many questions, with one most imperative. What were the reasons that in the same ethnic population group, some of its members took the way of conversion and cultural adaptation but the others chose cultural resistance, martyrdom and self-martyrdom? How could these two groups live in relative peace under Ottoman rule but when an uprising against the Turks took place, Bulgarian Muslims ferociously and viciously attacked their Christian neighbours and fought on the side of the Turks, committing acts of unheard of cruelty and brutality? Their participation in the crushing of the April uprising of 1876 is notorious and it was described by the American writer and journalist Janarius Aloysius McGahan, who was one of the greatest war correspondents in the nineteenth century. In his American witness (2002, 3rd Ed.), Bulgarian historian Teodor Dimitrov has published McGahan’s notes about the atrocities in Batak, Bulgaria, and they read: â€Å"We spoke with many women, who had been through all stages of torture without the last one, death. The procedure, as it seemed, was the following: the Turks would take a woman, undress her, putting aside her valuables, gang-rape her and the last one, who had her, would kill her or let her go, depending on his mood†. What McGahan does not note here is that the Turks were not alone in the slaughter of the rebels. They are aided by their helpers’, the local Pomak population, Greeks and other small ethnic groups. Thus, Christian Bulgarians fought for freedom, while Muslim Bulgarians took part in the massacre of their uprising. What could have possibly provoked someone to behave in such a way? According to Doinov et al. (2001, p.112), â€Å"the shown cruelty was an outburst of the deep national and religious hatred against the oppressed nationalities in the Ottoman Empire, that has been groomed and encouraged for centuries by the ruling powers†. However, something else was at work there too. Kemal Karpat (1990, p.136) explains that Balkan Muslims, although living in a hostile Christian European world, remained largely apolitical. However, their â€Å"passive cultural-religious consciousness was easily converted to a dynamic Muslim identity when the circumstances required†. Perhaps when Bulgarian Muslims were faced with an unconditional act of resistance in the â€Å"most dramatic form: suicide and self-martyrdom† (2000, p.3), those acted as catalyst and the Pomaks replied with repression and brutality. Ekaterina Peychinova, Director of the Museum of History in Batak describes what drove the oppressors mad: For three days and three nights the people inside the church held together, and the shooting outside did not stop for a minute. At the end of the third day they gave in and opened the gates of the church. But then they had only two options: either become Muslims or die. Every single one of them chose death. (cited in Ivanova, 2008, p.1) The horrific power of those events and the depth of feelings and emotions are overwhelming. Keeping in mind that Bulgarian Christians and Bulgarian Muslims are from the same ethnic origin and the same blood flows in their veins, have religious and cultural conversion, syncretism and assimilation have changed the latter so much that they could commit such acts and have identity switch over, allowing for full degradation of human values? This essay does not have the ambitious goal to answer all those questions. History gives the answers and it will do the same here too. Many years have gone since those ghastly days and Pomaks’ sense of cultural identity and national belonging has evolved and changed again as Bulgarian Muslims themselves were at the receiving end of numerous assimilation governmental campaigns and strategies from 1878 until now. Cultural identity and national belonging of Bulgarian Pomaks Due to the fact that the Bulgarian speaking Muslims took an active part in the suppressing the April uprising of 1876, they did not enjoy friendly treatment from their Christian neighbours. With the advancement of the Russian armies in 1878, retaliation began and a substantial part of the Pomaks immigrated to the Ottoman empire, refusing to live under the rule of the â€Å"giaurs† or infidels. Many others took part in the Rodopi mutiny and lived in the so-called Pomak republic for about eight years until 1886, when the participating villages were included in the Ottoman Empire but only until the Balkan wars (Todorva, 1998, p.9). Furthermore, in the Ottoman Population: 1830-1914 (1985, p.78), Kemal Karpat cites Ottoman statistics, indicating that the total population of the Empire rose by about 40% in the period 1860-1878 due to coercive measures by Russia and Bulgaria. He mentions that among the Balkan migrants there were large groups of Slavic-speaking Bosnians, Herzegovinians, Montenegrins and Pomaks with a negative sense of ethnic identity, as they considered themselves as Muslims but not Osmanlis (Turks). Thus, judging by the actions of the Pomaks, the question that must be asked here is: did the Pomaks have a Turkish or Bulgarian cultural and national identity at the end of the nineteen and beginning of twentieth century and is it possible to differentiate between religious and ethnic belonging? The Pomaks, who immigrated to the Ottoman Empire, had their cultural identity politicised and defined as Muslim and Turkish under the influence of the local political and ethnic culture (Karpat, 1990, p.137). Unfortunately, the Pomaks, who stayed in Bulgaria, did not have the opportunity to decide for themselves freely because during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, they were subjected to a number of keen campaigns to accept and recognise them as part of the Bulgarian nation or â€Å"narod†, starting from 1920-s and continuing until the mid-80-s. In 1942, the first ever mass attempt to change the names of the Bulgarian Muslims to Bulgarian names took place. It was a result of the work of the Pomaks’ own organisation, called â€Å"Rodina† or Motherland. Consisting mainly of teachers, â€Å"Rodina† strove to improve the position of the Pomaks in Bulgarian society and to save them from the growing resentment and marginalisation. In the context of the Third Bulgarian Kingdom (1878 – 1944) and its nationalistic ambitions and assimilative tendencies, it is important to acknowledge here that Motherlands’ actions were justified in terms of seeking a national, cultural and linguistic unity of the Bulgarian society and the difficulties that the Pomaks could have faced, if tried to fit in that society. What is questionable here is the Pomaks desire to fit in. Although the Pomaks have, at that point, lost the very close contact with their original cultural authority, the Ottoman Empire, they were still in favour of their religious affiliation and were not willing to adapt to the fresh, language-based identity actively promoted by the modern Bulgarian state at that time (Todorova, 1998, p. 11). Another problem here is the attitude of the Christian Bulgarians, whose national consciousness was determined by religious and linguistic boundaries. Were they ready to forget the Ottoman rule and April 1876 and to accept the Pomaks as part of the Bulgarian nation and allow assimilation? Could adaptation and adoption take place and the complex issue of national identity, belonging and unity be resolved peacefully and once and for all? What is better: common national identity and national unity or multi-cultural society? During communist rule in the 1960-s, 1970-s and 1980-s, various Bulgarian governments tried to resolve the issue through numerous heavy-handed assimilation campaigns, when all Muslim names were changed to Bulgarian names, an attempt was made to form a united Bulgarian nation in order to neutralise nationalistic ambitions and claims from neighbouring Turkey. After the democratic reforms from 1989, all ethnic and religious groups in Bulgaria gained the freedom to self-identify themselves and promote their national and religious distinctiveness. All Muslim names were restored and seemingly the great effort to create a united Bulgarian national identity had ended. Hence, the national identity and cultural belonging of the Pomaks are somewhat fluid and non-defined, and the coming generations will have the chance to accomplish the process of integration or affiliation as they choose. It is, however, ultimate to accept the lessons of history and to abolish all attempts to forcefully create a single identity with identical religious or national characteristics. Cultural conversion through co-operation and co-existence is frequently welcome by small or big population groups, whilst conversion by pressure, conflict and aggressive assimilation is rejected and leads to confusion, hatred and frequently violent resistance. Conclusion In conclusion, it must be recognised here that the case of Bulgarian Muslims or Pomaks is of complex nature and the issue of defining their national identity and cultural belonging is still unresolved. There are many more questions to ask and answer and many more avenues to explore in order to establish which one of the national identity constituents is the most influential and possess the ultimate formative power. Consequently, it is the greatest regret of this work that it is impossible to analyse or develop fully all themes, ideas and debates in connection with the cultural identity, national belonging and self-perception of the Pomaks, when the number of words is restricted and there is lack of the research available. However, one humbly hopes to have offered here, merely an attempt of discussion on the important issues of cultural and religious identity and how they shape the very centre of the human concept of self. Finally, it must be emphasised here that the writing of this essay has been a vast learning experience for the author, an opportunity to study, investigate and explore the world of Bulgarian Muslims and be taught lessons that put historical and contemporary events into perspective. Bibliography Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1982). History of Bulgaria. Sofia: BAN Press, vol. 3-7. Dimitrov, T. (2002). American witness. 3rd Ed. Geneva: Geneva press. Doinov, D., Jechev, N. 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