Women X Men at work

Comparing Men and Women at work

 

Since the entry of women into the labor market, comparing men and women in the workplace, has become increasingly necessary. Since women entered in the labor market, the society has been realizing the main differences at work between genders. Thus, the main differences are women multi-ability compared to men, differences in life objectives, and also, satisfaction at work.

 While women have the ability to do so many things at the same time, men don’t, and this skill reflects at work. In lots of researches it’s a consensus that men can think up three things at the same time, but just can do one thing at a time, while women, can do sixteen things at the same time. Some scientists says that this skill comes from the women necessity of homemaking, managing their career, and taking care of their children at the same time, while the men role consists in how they will earn money and spend it. And, this is a sex difference maybe unchangeable, just because since women are girls they are “trained” to have this skill. For instance, as child a woman has balanced different aspects of her life, she also has helped her mother at home, has helped the teacher at school, has had hobbies, has done her homework, and has practiced piano and dance. Moreover, this difference is frequently observable at work, while a woman can talk at telephone, sends an e-mail, has lunch, manage her house and children, and talk with her boss. While a man, just can send the e-mail at that time, for example. Thus, men don’t have the multi-ability of women, what can be clearly distinguished at work.

 Another comparative point between men and women at work is the life objectives between then. While women had been prepared all their lives to be mothers, men just were prepared to win money. So most of time women quit their job to take care of their babies, or just stay in conflict about having babies or continuous their career. Because of these, in most companies only a minority of women are vying for the CEO position, compared to men who make up the majority of senior executives, including the CEO. By this reason, sometimes men don’t worry to get more challenges, or travel around the world with the company that they work, or accept a promotion, while a women can think more in her life, and her family lives, and sometimes deny this type of motion. However, this actual generation, thinks different and they are thinking in don’t have children, or just have one child, or no one, women are increasingly thinking on their career and thinking less in constructing a family with children. Thus, women and men have different life objectives, which can impact on their work.     

 Another difference between women’s and men is the satisfaction at work. Women are more flexible and can adapt themselves faster, what makes then more satisfied than men at work. Men create such high expectations about their careers that end up frustrated when they don’t reach the expected goals. Furthermore, women working in labor market sectors that are predominantly male or have a balanced proportion of male and female workers jobs, have high job satisfaction, while men, who work in predominantly female or gender-proportionate jobs, have significantly lower job satisfaction. The reason why women are more satisfied working with more men or with the same proportional of men and women relates to their perceptions of fewer income problems, flexibility of hours, and use of job skills, and, maternity benefits. Thus, women and men have different standard of satisfaction at work.

  Thus, there are so many differences between women and men at work. However, men and women have to learn how working together and learn to be competitive with each other. Moreover, there is too much women get into the labor market and companies have to figure out with women multi-ability, differences in life objectives, and also, satisfaction at work to improve the company climates.

Writing 5 – Global Warming – other view

        Scientists around the world continually warn for the risks of global warming and its causes, and blame mainly the human activity, which increased the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, for the climate changes. Although they are correct when mention the temperature rising in the last century they do not consider in their forecasts facts as the temperature growth rate, inexperience with long term climate systems and new coming technologies. Ponder these aspects is extremely important to not wrongly take decision that have economical effects. 

        According to IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), the temperature on the earth will rise from 1.1 to 6.4°C during the XXI century if the human activity does not change. These rates are an absurd because during the last century the global surface temperature increased only 0.74°C and in the last 5 years the warming rate has been constant, which implies in a growth of 1.7°C for this century. Moreover, according to Tom Harris, CEO of Natural Resources Stewardship Project, the annual temperature has decreased between 1998 and 2007, in contrast to the carbon dioxide concentration which has increased 4%. In addition, there were two periods of warming in last century: from 1910 to 1945 and from 1970 lasting until now. If we compare these two periods the warming rate was statistically equal in both periods, remembering that the first period had less influence of human beings and more of sun’s temperature increasing. Thus, it is not possible to blame just the human activity for the warming; there must be other unknown climate factors.

          It is fact that the earth temperature increases according to the dioxide carbon concentration rising, but it is not the only neither the main factor. Two Russian solar physicists, Galina Mashnich and Vladimir Bashkirtsev, have made a bet of $10,000 with the Britain climate expert James Annan that the earth will cool over the next decade. Corroborating to their argument that the global temperatures are driven more by changes in the sun’s activity than by the emission of greenhouse gases is the Medieval Warming Period: between the 10th and 14th centuries, the North Atlantic region faced a warmer climate, which was followed by a cooler period, named Little Ice Age. Hence, as we only have statistical information about climate since 1850 it is too ambitious to predict a century with only 150 years of sampling. It is necessary to analyze the long term.

          The model used to estimate the earth’ surface temperature for the XXI century is based on our actual reality. It assumes that in 100 years we will be under the same technology existing today. This is meaningless, because it is notorious the evolution of industries technology in the last 50 years. The automobile industry is an example: since 70s they started to reduce their size due to new computer-based technologies. Another example is the possibility people have today to work at home due to the huge existing connectivity; this means less people using cars and polluting less. While new coming technologies are unpredictable, investments in developing new technologies must be carefully evaluated. The urgent need to find alternative energy sources has led to a lack of supply of corn and sugar around the world. The lands previously dedicated only to food, now it is also explored for ethanol, which generates a price increase at food market and impacts the economy. Thus, it must be seriously reevaluated the climate warming forecast, otherwise decisions will be taken in a haste, without estimating other impacts.

          Considering all the exposed above, people must be more critical when talking about global warming. It doesn’t mean stopping all the actions taken to reduce the carbon dioxide emission, but to understand that there are other factors involved in global temperatures changes. If the week weather forecasts have accuracy of 70% for only the first three days, it is irrational to think that IPCC is right. Thus, the IPCC should not only revise their forecasts but also show people that there is a great margin for error, because it is a long term forecast and there is no solid statistical data to make inferences with high accuracy.

Women Orgasm versus Men Orgasm

    A research made in the Portugal revealed that 27% of the Portuguese women rarely or never have an orgasm during a sexual relation, while only 1% of the Portuguese men that have the same problem. Why is it so different for a man to have an orgasm than for a woman? Orgasms in men and women are very different for many reasons: physiological, psychological and cultural. A woman usually takes longer to reach an orgasm, but when she does, it last longer then in a man. Most man has orgasm in every sexual relation he has. That doesn’t happen to the majority of women, but women can have multiple orgasms while men can’t and men takes longer then women after a sexual relation to be able to have another relation. It is not an easy achievement, but it is possible to, both man and woman to have a healthy sexual relationship, but it might involve a great deal of intimacy, practice and tranquility between the couple.

    For women, customarily is more difficult to have an orgasm than for men because of a series of facts: men normally take less time to reach an orgasm, and when they do, some men “call it a night”, after they “are done”, they don’t make an effort to make their partner reach an orgasm; women need more psychological and physical stimulus then men to reach an orgasm, specially a vaginal orgasm, which is more difficult, because they take longer to be stimulated enough to be able to have pleasure during the penetration; a large number of women don’t know their body good enough to know what they like, and when they do know, some are ashamed to “guide” their partner during a sexual relation; a lot of couples don’t talk about their sex problems, decreasing their chances of solving them; and innumerous other factors can be the cause of a women’s difficulty to have an orgasm. Men tend to have less difficulty to get an orgasm. Men’s most common sexual problem is the opposite: premature ejaculation. 30% of men suffer from premature ejaculation. But, having a premature ejaculation or not, more than 95% of men say that they have orgasm every time they have a sexual relation. It can be harder for women to reach an orgasm, but when they do, theirs last longer then a man’s orgasm.

    Another difference between men and women is that it is possible for women to have multiple orgasms, that is, to have one orgasm after another in a very short period of time. Not many women can have multiple orgasms because it requires her being very comfortable and having a deep intimacy with her partner, among other things. But that is an advantage that only women have. Men are not physiologically able to have multiple orgasms because they need some time after an ejaculation to be able to ejaculate again. They are not able to ejaculate one time after another in a matter of seconds.

    The fact that men cannot ejaculate continuously in a short period of time, explains why it takes a few minutes for a man to be able to have another erection, therefore, another sexual relation. Women, on the other hand, after having sex, can be physiologically prepared to have another sexual relation in seconds.

     Orgasms have different meaning for men and for women. The reason for that fact remains a question unanswered, because it involves cultural, anthropological, psychological and physical issues. 75% of men can reach an orgasm very fast, in the first minutes of a sexual relation. For women it isn’t so easy, only 25% of women reach an orgasm during a sexual relation, but women’s orgasm lasts from twenty seconds to two minutes, while it lasts only a few seconds for men. Aside the difference between a man and a woman’s orgasm, there is a universal consensus that the intense pleasure of an orgasm is genuinely related to self-control and self-esteem. Therefore, to the intense pleasure of an orgasm be possible, couples need to invest more in sexual “games”, in the romantic and sexual environment than in the worry of reaching an orgasm. Orgasm should be a consequence of a pleasurable sexual relation, not is objective.

My Worst Trip Ever

When I was about seventeen years old, I took a trip to Miami with my mother for fun since there had been a long time we had traveled abroad. Our plan was to go shopping at Miami malls and also to take a brief trip to Disneyland. I had been there before, when I was a kid about 10 years old, but I wanted to go to Disneyland and the rollercoaster park again because I couldn’t go on the rollercoasters when I was little due to my height.

I was extremely happy to go there again. It felt like I was going to an exciting, full of adventure world that could make me forget about all my problems all at once. In addition, the parks would be places where I could eat different food from what I was used to. I would see different people speaking a strange, intriguing and sophisticated language because it was how it sounded to my ears, where every little detail would be different from the stale routine of going to school that I was used to.

After some days I had been in Miami, I didn’t feel as happy as I thought I would be, because my mother and I didn’t speak English very well. I still knew a bit more English than her back then, since I had English classes at school once a week and there had been some years she hadn’t had any contact with the English language. As a result, we had trouble communicating with native speakers and they probably had trouble trying to figure out what we were trying to say. This strange feeling became more intense, because one of the taxi drivers tried to deceive us by bringing us to a small waterpark near by that had been closed for months and then charging us for it. Besides, we hadn’t planned many activities to do so that we had a huge amount of free time that wasn’t filled up. Furthermore, going to the malls for shopping wasn’t a great joy either, for me, at that time, since going shopping was boring and deterrent. We had spend 15 days in Miami and we had just 5 or 6 days to go to the parks that I was looking forward to.

Arriving at Disneyland brought me a jubilant sensation of delightful adventures to come, making my expectations considerably high on that part of the trip. Afterwards, my hopes all fell apart. I remember being excited about going places trying to drag my mother all around to the attractions, not wanting to waste a tiny single bit of time being idle. The disaster all happened when I ate a love apple at one of the parks. Later on the next day, I begin to feel sick, and suddenly, I saw myself throwing up several times and having diarrhea. It hit me so violently, that I could say I had vomitted countless times in the past 20 hours that afternoon. I had nothing in my stomach and I would puke just a mix of water and stomach bile. The whole next day turned out to be the same scatological outcome. I was so weak that I could barely walk. It was when my mother decided to call a doctor.

The doctor prescribed some pills to me and suggested to avoid eating solid food or any kind of dairy. I was slowly getting better, even though, I’d still vomit occasionally. The next day I remained near the room walking around the hotel sometimes so I wouldn’t be as disappointed. The next 3 following days I would go to the parks but I was prohibited of going on any attraction that would give me some sort of excitement in order to avoid throwing up. Yet, I wouldn’t care if I’d throw up later, I just felt a strong desire to eventually go on those rollercoasters. Then, the fateful day came, the day we had to fly back home to Brazil. Even when I was in the plane to fly back, I remember vommiting, which afterwards lead my mother to bring me to a doctor in Brazil. It was very frustrating for me because since I was a 10 year old I had a dream of riding those rollercoasters and again, we had been so far away from home and I couldn’t do it.

Nevertheless, I tried to take some good lesson from that experience, and it dawned on me that that trip lacked planning. Consequently, if I wanted not to have so many problems and a awkward trip like that, one of the solutions would be that I’d have at least to learn how to communicate with natives from the place I was in properly, so I decided to take English lessons apart from school. Today, that decision has shown results, because I understand and speak much better English that I used to.

Books: the tool for independent learning

“Books are men of higher stature; the only men that speak aloud for future times to hear,” stated E.S. Barrett. It’s widely known that the spot students ought to learn to read is in elementary and high school. Although teachers and parents have been worried about teenage literacy, they have not been teaching them how to understand what they’re reading and develop some critical point of view of it. Without this essential tool, teens will become adults that won’t enjoy reading, who will be puzzled with texts because they’re not used to them and don’t know how to decipher documents. These teens can decode words, but they can’t get the real meaning of the text, or even analyze them critically. People should not read a text without analyzing it because they don’t know how to deal with unknown vocabulary while reading, can’t remember what they have read later on and take no practical lesson from it whatsoever.

The first problem is that readers who don’t look up unknown words in the dictionary have problems understanding the piece of writing while they’re reading it. Due to that, focusing on unknown words while reading is an important step in a text’s recognition process. Moreover, these unknown words can be written down and used on new sentences so that not only their meaning is recognized, but also it gradually becomes active vocabulary. This process is useful because it is difficult for a person to grade what is essential information and what is not on a text if he doesn’t fully understand the message the author is trying to convey. For example, a common mistake that Karina M., a 18 year old student, makes when summarizing a text is to underline almost every word in the text. She also underlines isolated words that if put together make no sense. She says she gets confused often with the meaning of the words and also because she tries to do the task as fast as she can. Hence, to improve people’s awareness and power of judgment when confronted to a text, they must be sure of what they’re doing, and looking up words is a crucial way to keep on track.
Second, people can’t remember what they read because they do not work on their texts, but simply read them. In fact, they do not exercise their memory skills so there is no substantial information that works as a hook to retrieve it fresh from somebody’s memory. The attempt to figure out what the author’s message is must be practiced by asking questions even before reading the text and while doing it, as in: What are the main ideas exposed? What are the authors’ arguments? What is his thesis? And so on. Rania Mutzin, a 27 year old lawyer, works in a prominent lawyer firm, using these techniques every time she has to analyze a difficult text before her. For her last monograph, she had orchestrated everything to have a clear vision of her paper. She says: “The schematization of ideas facilitates learning and the retention of basic textual information.” For this reason, studying and analyzing a text makes people able to remember what they have read easier.

Third, reading a text and not understanding it makes impossible for the reader to take any lesson from the reading. It leads people to be unable to take a stand based on the ideas exposed on the text, because they cannot make use of their critical reasoning. Most of the time, these people don’t like to be reading, which is correlated with their effort to work on the document, which directly affects their understanding of it. Reading is a tool that leads to autonomous learning which is a precious path to succeed in life. Gina W. Freeman, 32 years old, is a self learner who decided to learn French by reading books. She remembers the first book she has ever read in French. Although the book was fairly easy, she took a long time to go through it. She states that looking up words in the dictionary and analyzing what the message the author was trying to reveal made her ability to read gradually faster and easier as she kept reading more and more books. Nowadays, she can read advanced books in French and even more, now she can discuss a wide range of subjects in French as well. She says: “My previous knowledge of French was very limited.” Accordingly, it’s important to study a text, because the effort and the valuable time spent doing it will be paid off with learning.

Consequently, the study of a piece of writing develops several positive outcome. It has been shown that it is not enough to know how to read a text. It is necessary to understand it; otherwise, it becomes an empty action. The importance of knowing deeply the content of a text is a essential ability for independent learning later on in life. Thus, it is important to develop the ability to analyze texts critically. Also, the acquired ability of self learning leads people to climb the corporate ladder to success. After all, men will only reach higher stature in life through books.

Investing on Yourself

Fear, anxiousness, confusion, nervousnes, yet happiness. These are common feelings that a traveler to a new country will experience during his interchange course. Even though studying abroad is a worthwhile experience, the person must know how to deal with disappointment. Nowadays, taking an interchange course has become easier than some years ago, and there are plenty of options to choose where and how it will be, including price options. Everyone should have a student exchange experience because it’s a way to become more independent, to learn new activities and to see the life from a new perspective.

Taking a student exchange is an excellent choice because it helps students become more independent. Remember that your topic sentence can have only one main idea. Having to get by on their own pushes students to grow, forcing them to learn. This trip gives students freedom to learn from their actions but in an easygoing way while they’re having fun. Alyssa Morton went to Ireland for 2 months and then backpacked with her girl friends around Europe for a year, having occasional jobs. She says that “ going on an exchange program made me learn how to get by by myself, and now whenever I’m lost, I’m able to keep myself calm and ask someone that seems trustworthy for directions or find my way back.” She added that she has learned how to locate herself and use public transportation in an unknown place. Ron Morton, 50 years old, Alyssa’s father states that the trip was profitable for Alyssa because she has learned a little more about how the world is by herself, which is more appealing and useful than learning through people’s advices. Consequently, becoming more independent and learning how the world works is an advantageous lesson that the person will bring for the rest of his life.

Also, learning new activities while traveling is fun and also helps people relax. There are plenty of activities to do while in an exchange course like kayaking, English courses, French courses, mountain biking and so forth, according to the place someone has traveled to. These activities occupy spare time while providing enjoyment, which could be difficult to schedule in a daily routine. Laura Rodrigues, 48 years old, decided to travel abroad for 6 months to learn French as an exchange elderly student. Her relatives were very supportive of the idea, especially her daughter. “When my mom came back, she seemed a whole new person. She looked 5 years younger so happy she was.” Her daughter also added that her mother seemed ready for anything she wanted to do now. For instance, after going to the gym in France, she realized she has time for it now and she has carried this wholesome habit on.” Furthermore, engaging in new activities has been proven to enhance people’s quality of life, which makes an exchange experience a interesting way to meet this objectives. Very often, traveling abroad changes the person inside and out. It happens because any experience people have affects who they are and how they interpret occurrences around them. Being in touch with a new culture broadens people’s mind and makes them able to see other perspectives, angles and usually makes them more tolerant toward differences. Samantha Burns, 28 years old, is a proof of this: “My homestay was awkward to me during the first week. Their religious beliefs and the fact they would pray every day probably 5 or 6 times daily scared me at first. But then I got used to it and learned to respect their differences.” Thus, making part of a new group changes view points and bring maturity and tolerance to the integrants because they are in contact with new models of behavior and life.

Considering all the good improvements that an exchange course can provide a person with such as independence, maturity and learning, it’s evident that whoever is able to have this experience shouldn’t postpone it because it will be a worthwhile personal investment. Furthermore, taking a break from routine is crucial for the health of our minds and body, and going abroad on an exchange course has shown its ways of improving people’s lives.

Writing 4 – DOGS versus CATS

 

The dogs versus cats debate has raged on for all time. Although many people say that having a cat is better than a dog because they are cleaner, demand lower attention and cost less, some aspects such as companion, trainability and usefulness must be considered, when comparing dog to cats behavior.

Research has been proving that having pets brings healthy benefits, specially for those suffering from stress related illness or depression. Dogs are the most recommended, because they demand more attention and thus let you focus on them rather than focusing inward on yourself all the time. Contrary to cats, dogs need to exercise, so it propels people out the door. These walks also force pet owners to socialize instead of sitting around feeling sorry for themselves, which can help improve their mood. It gives people a routine, a thing to do. The owner cannot lie in bed all day, he/she has to get up and take care of the dog. On the other hand, cats are more independent and their behavior is totally different. A cat doesn’t celebrate when the owner gets home at the end of the day or answer a call for playing, they prefer to take a lazily nap. Also, the loyalty of dogs is unpaired: they will bark to wake you up if the house is on fire or if he finds anything suspicious going on like thieves or if the owner is injured, while cats will just quietly sneak out the back door. Thus, considering the concept of companion, a dog matches much more than a cat.

Both dogs and cats, in the past, got close to the men due to the easiness to get food and at this time start the domestication of them. However, the origin of both had a great impact on the interaction with the human being and, consequently, the trainability aspect. While dogs ancestors used to live in group, cats ancestors used to live alone, in caves. Leaving on pack of hounds, dogs developed a sense of hierarchy and affection, where they need to obey the alpha dog in the group in order to receive protection and food. This is the reason why dogs are easier to train: they are more obedient and recognize the position of a leader. When a puppy is raised by a human, the alpha position is assumed by the human and the dog will obey instinctively because they are attached, feel protected and are properly feed. Cats, that have a historical of leaving and hunting alone didn’t develop this feeling of attachment and loyalty, typical of animals which live in groups. So, the obedience is higher in the dogs making any training easier with them.

 The most important aspect about the differences of cats and dogs is the usefulness. Dogs are useful in many tasks: they are used by the police to look for drugs and missing people, they are trained to assist blind, deaf and disabled people, they work as shepherd in farms, they can also be a guardian dog. The reason of cats being in general at the same size and structure, differing just on hair, is a proof of its low usefulness. Dogs proven to be so useful in some tasks that many breeds were created, trying to improve some characteristics. As example, the Bloodhound was created for hunting and later experts found out it would be great for rescuing tasks, because it has a keen scent; Labrador and Golden Retrievers are the most appropriate as a guide dog, because they have easy temperament, proper size (large enough to comfortably guiding and small enough to fit under a table restaurant) and versatility. Hence, its notorious that a dog is much more useful than a cat and really helps who takes care of it.

Therefore, dogs integration with human beings is complete: they understand their role and give affection back. Cats are more selfish and have not developed themselves to fully interact with men. Maybe cats can be better as bibelot but not as companion. Thus, it is impossible to say that cats are better than dogs.

Collect Call from Iphone 3GS – Ricardo Bollier

Are you ready to buy the new Iphone 3GS? Better your pocket be ready too. As technology extends to new stages, providing more conveniences for the society making our lives more simple and practical, the longing to have the updated equipment is a endless run, due to the fact that technology changes faster everyday. Normally, the price that you pay for a brand new apparatus is high; however, Apple Company inverted this rule while bringing the Iphone with a modest price in US: US$ 300. Two years after that, they launched the new Iphone version 3GS that you can buy with even less money. Nevertheless, this new price advantage implemented in US didn’t arrive at Brazilian market, which was anxious to get a high quality product with a reasonable price. That brings us the question why the same product can have such different values? In our case, the Iphone 3GS commercialized in Brazil has such a higher cost comparing to the same product sold in US due to the abusive taxes, the telephone servide companies’ profit and luxuries status of the new Macintosh gadget that arrived in our country.

The First reason why the Iphone 3GS price is high in Brazil has to do with the exorbitant taxes that the government applies to cell phones made outside the country. “The tax amount is more expensive than a airplane ticket to US plus the money to purchasing the same mobile” said Roberto Silva, a 24 years old student, to Veja Magazine published on October 27th. He and his friends have declined to buy the new Apple gadget, once they have found about the Iphone’s price. However, what many costumers don’t know is that more than an half of the price is composed of suffocating taxes. According to Abinee (Associação Brasileira da Indústria Elétrica e Eletrônica) on its report released on 2009, the tax percentage for an imported cell phone can be more than 60%, including IPI, ICMS, Broker costs and PIS/Confins. “It’s is an awful burden for the costumers that don’t see these amount returning in high-quality public services” said Antonio Amorin, Abinee President. Therefore, these heavy duty that are imposed to Iphone 3GS by Brazilians law, as a barrier for cell phones made outside the country, will maintain its price up high for the Brazilians customers.

The second reason why the Iphone 3GS has a steep price comparing with the American is based also on the profit margin set by the telephone service companies. On the last two decades occurred a revolution in the telephone service that is offered to the clients. From poor governmental service to specialized private assistance, an ocean of investment was dropped from all tele companies in order to make this radical change. Ricardo Saldanha, 54 years old and 20 years working as a TI engineer for a cell phone company, remember this period. “It was more expensive than starting from scratch, because we needed to replace all old equipment used by the preceding governmental companies”. Consequently, to recover all these funds spent by all telephone corporations, the profit margin for their services are considerable high. In addition, while the US company that is allowed to purchase the Iphone can require a two years contract with the buyer, the Brazilian companies, by law, can only make a one year contract, what also influences to rise the cell phone prices. João Castro, 34 economist, said to Valor Econômico printed last Sunday that “bigger the investment, bigger the risk for the telephone companies; and the only way to get out of this risky situation is to get a higher profit and, as a result, charging high prices for their products”. Thus, making the Iphone value higher, the telephone companies want to increase their profit and through these earnings regain part of the investment they have made in this mobile service market.

The third cause why the Iphone 3GS is on the stores with at least three times more expensive than the American ones, is the frenzy of thousands consumers that see the new Apple good as an icon of status and keep crowding the stores and vanishing the available units, independently of the price. Three weeks after the Iphone 3GS has been launched in Brazil, it was almost impossible to find it available on some stores. The telephone corporations are celebrating the sales but also are complaining the low quantity of Iphone 3GS exported by Apple. “If, for any chance, 300 Iphone just appear in my store, I guarantee you that I could sell it in less then 3 days” said proudly the VIVO manager of the Villa Lobos Mall store, Marcos Pereira. At the same store, Silvia Nakata, 28, Ambev Sale Manager, was disappointed for not finding the new Apple mobile. “Everybody in my department wants to have one 3GS Iphone and some of them keep on showing them to all colleagues as a status certificate”, she said. According to Dr. Waltenberg, 65, psychologist, on his interview about the Iphone phenomenon published by UOL on October 1st, everyone wants to reach a status level higher than your own possibilities for the moment, “if you can’t buy a mansion, you will want at least to buy a nice car to show everybody; if can’t afford an expensive car, you will buy something else to get the others attention and now the Iphone is the new heat, latter it will be placed for something else”. As long as the 3GS phone sales are on fire due to the huge demand, it will follow the economic law, manipulating the price to stay at stratospheric level. In conclusion, as long as the Iphone is considered as a powerful status icon by the customers, the demand will sustain the elevated cost for the fashion and innovative cell phone created by Apple.

Even though Brazil has a lower GDP and a inferior per capita income comparing with same US indexes, according to 2008 IMF database report publised on Febuary, the new Iphone 3GS is purchased in Brazil with a very upper price contrasting with what is paid by the Americans for the same product. This occurs because of the massive taxes, the profit hungry of the telephone companies and the status sensation that the new Macintosh mobile provides. However, this huge price gap between identical products commercialized in Brazil and abroad, appears not only with mobiles but also with several others technological items that are not made in our country. As long as the new technologies produced outside are doomed to have offensive high values, it will be available only for a small part of the society, not reaching its full capacity of promoting innovation everywhere and to anyone. Until the High-Tec is perceived as a shared progress that should be accessible to the majority, the Iphone 3GS new buyers will need to pay the bitten bill.

Volatile relationships

Is the famous priest’s statement “until death do us part” still valid nowadays? Not as it was in the old days.  In the past, society, influenced by religious rules, which were powerful at that time, used to give to marriage a sacred value considering divorce shameful and a subject to discrimination. In fact, until the 70’s, a divorced woman was treated as she had a contagious disease, prohibited to have a normal life. However, the number of divorces has been increasing significantly over the past ten years. According to a research published in the newspaper Folha de São Paulo on September 21st, the divorce rate increased by 20% in comparison to the figures of ten years ago.  Four in ten couples are separated, mostly couples who have been married for a short time, for instance, two or three years after they got married, they are getting divorced. The main reasons why people decide to break up their marital relationship are the lack of regular sexual activity, the discrepancy in personalities and the economic independence of women.

The first reason why marriage ends in divorce is the low frequency of sexual relation. To a lot of couples, rather than sex being a loving act, it turns into an angry argument that pulls them apart. As a matter of fact, when one partner doesn’t want to have sex as often as the other, this unbalanced interest in sex leads to frustration. A recent study by the Creighton University Center for Marriage and Family shows that 80% of the married couples who got divorced engaged in sex less than 118 times a year which is considered by the study a low frequency rate. Sex therapists, according to this study, state that when couples are not able to enjoy moments of intimacy or simply do not want to have sex in a healthy frequency the end of the relationship is near as sex is one of the three supports of the marital union together with finances and mutual respect. If one is not working, the other two are affected and as a result there is the deterioration of the marriage. Therefore, the lack of regular sexual activity makes couples divorce.  

The second reason why husband and wife separate is the interaction between people with different natures. Sharing a space with another person means that all that is done will bear on someone else. The main concern is how to deal with the consequences of the acts.  Living in harmony is the target of a married couple which demands a real commitment to the relationship. According to the psycologist Paula Carvalho in her article “Divorce: Main Causes & Effects” published in Men’s Health magazine on September 30th,  divorce is a consequence of a failure in the process of living together. She says that “the lack of  understanding and the lack of patience are examples of this failure”. Paula Carvalho ends her article stating that ”someone wise once said that it takes two wholes to make a marriage, not two halves”. Thus, couples who have personality differences or irreconcilable differences meaning different expectations about  life are condemned to separation.

The third reason why couples divorce is the women’s self-reliance. Women, in the present times, with access to better and higher education and consequently higher salaries, are less willing to put up with traditional roles and expectations. “Our grandmothers actually tolerated all kinds of temper tantrums because they could not find any other way to survive” says Diane Parker, sociologist. However, women have now all the independence and all the liberties to choose the man they want to get married and also to brake up the relationship whenever they want to. A survey conducted by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers shows that 85% of women consider to divorce if they are not happy in the marriage. Since survival is not the main concern anymore, women do not see any other obstacle to their search for happiness, and even splitting up is preferable to staying together for the children or to keep up social appearances. As a result, women empowerment favours the couples’ separation.

People give up their marriages mostly because of  problems with sexual life, irreconcilable differences and the women’s financial situation enhancement. There are many different and complex causes and reasons for divorce, though, such as poor communication, financial problems and infidelity, each of them specific to that particular couple’s marital relationship, their individual experiences and personal problems. On the other hand, divorces often happen because people rarely discuss their expectations in detail prior to marriage, are less willing to work on their marriages afterwards, and would like quick solutions rather than having to resolve issues. Therefore, people could have been divorcing for trivial reasons.

Iphone versus blackberry

Nowadays, cell phones are more than only a cell phone, they have a lot features that can make people think and act all the time with their cell phones. In order to improve theses features, two brands of cell phones have been remarkable on the market, blackberry and Iphone. The mainly difference between both are design, e mail and applications. Both brands have been facing the challenge of being the first one on selling cell phones.

The iphone has made a revolution in the world with their new design; the touch screen made the iphone a model as a cellphone. The new design includes high resolution screens, which contributes to increase the use of the internet, like downloading films and music with the greatest image. On the other hand, Iphone have a bad reputation for being fragile because of touch screen face, but you have many options on the market that help you protect it, from rubber sleeves to hard plastic cases. The blackberry is remarkable in the corporative world, who focused mostly on e mails and calendars feature being behind i phone in terms of design. The Blackberry boasted their cameras and videos after realized their lack of technology, but they still have a long way to achieve.

In terms of e mails, Blackberry is faster than iphone and the corporative environment still prefer being connect faster than design, the e mail service of blackberry is simply the best one. A blackberry set up with Microsoft Exchange Server and they have intelligent e mail service, which downloads the messages immediately on the phone and indicates that a new message has been received. The iphone still has a lot to improve in terms of corporative entities, apple should develop tools to increase the e mail features. The I phone sometimes fail to synchronize as well as the blackberry, it´s difficult to check your e mails in time and some accounts  doesn’t ´t work in iphone.  The iphone does not synchronize calendar and contacts information wirelessly and the blackberry can do this automatically..

The iphone has a lot of applications and there are a thousand of developers doing a millions of applications for iphones everyday. Ever minute I phone has a new application, like games, HP calculator and  programs to boast features and cell phone capacity, but many of them cost money.   The Apple cell phone is a very attractive and revolutionary phone, you can find all kind of programs do you need. Comparing apps in iphone and blackberry, the download with iphone is easy and fast to do it. The process of deleting and install programs in iphone is easy and it takes a few seconds,  however, in blackberry this process require more time and patient. These are the mainly differences between iphone and blackberry that boast cell phone competition

There are a few differences between the two of mobiles phones, both have their own characterizes and features, but Apple can be remarkable of proving they are invincible in design. The iphone good looking made a revolution in terms of design and won the heart of all the consumers in a worldwide scale. As long as innovation in technology exists, the challenge of being the first one in sales mobile phone will still continues.