Are we free or determined Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Are we free or determined - Research Paper Example On the contrary, when people talk about freedom to do something, it is constructive freedom (Fromm 12). It is, therefore, reasonable to argue that freedom can as well be determined by the objective of the people at a particular time. On the other hand, to be determined is the opposite of being free. Being determined primarily means that the people cannot act out of free will since they are controlled by some socio-political systems. This paper seeks to address the question on freedom and human determination in light of the views of Descartes Rene, Erich Fromm, and James Rachels and Stuart Rachels. In his 1994 book, German-born psychologist and prominent sociologist Erich Fromm looks into the dynamic link between man and the concept of freedom. Fromm addresses the concept of freedom from both the positive and negative side. The sociologist gives the relationship between man and freedom a psycho-sociological approach. His point of reference is the promotion of Nazism in German and Euro pe at large. According to the psychologist, the negative sense of freedom refers to any freewill associated with emancipation. Emancipation involves struggles by a nation to overcome undesirable management by some government or social organization. The struggle colonies were involved in during the freedom struggle is the most apt illustration of this freedom. According to Fromm, this freedom can be disastrous if it does not contain significant aspect of the positive sense of freedom (Fromm 21). In his opinion, Fromm thinks that fighting for emancipation is not a way of running away from trouble but rather a way of moving from one trouble to another. This way, human beings are said to be running away from freedom because doing away with an unwanted government will lead to the creation of another rule that is the same as the former. The sociologist explains that the manner in which Adolf Hitler rose to power can be explained by the struggle for emancipation, without bearing in mind wh at exactly is suitable for a country (Fromm 34). By Hitler rising to power, the Germans had not solved a problem. In any case, they had left a terrible situation and plunged their country into more serious problems. The rise of capitalism made human beings realize that they could work independently to determine their futures. They realized that they were being transformed into slaves whose work was to meet socio-economical duties. At this point, people stopped thinking of the idea of going to a state office, which was characterized by unnecessary red tape management, as being viable. It is at this point that human beings began focusing on self employment and identity management. According to Fromm, it is during this time that people realized the need for open and liberalized thinking. Employing such individualized ideas affected people’s perceptions of religion (Fromm 56). People began to develop individuated thoughts about the Supreme Being. It is for this simple reason that up to this day, some people still question the existence of God. Still, the churches and other religious institutions influence people’s thoughts on the existence of God and various religious doctrines. Fromm explains that the human race is not free. Like Rachels and Rachels in their book Problem Form Philosophy, he argues that the human race is influenced and determined by various socio-political structures and systems. The sociologist

Beyonce target market report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Beyonce target market report - Essay Example Doing this led to a different way to turn imperfect competition into one that was based around moving outside of the competition. The more that different individuals could become a target the more likely they would be able to respond to the products and services in a positive manner (Wedel, 2000). The concept of market segmentation is used for several reasons within the market. The foundation of this is to create a strategy within a corporation and outside of a business for the right responses. When a business has an undifferentiated market, which doesn’t focus on the characteristics of demographics and individuals, then it may not be able to reach them as well. When a market is segmented, it is able to create a different approach which targets individuals that are in need of a product or service. More importantly, the segment is able to move outside of other competitors who have similar products or services. As this is done, there is the ability to create a different approach to the business and to the needs of specific individuals (Dickson, Ginter, 1987). The concept of multidimensional segmentation can be combined with the main aims that are used within different companies. When looking at different levels of purchase behavior and the way that potential customers respond to a specific concept, there is the ability to create different products or services that relate to the individuals needs. Doing this is able to create a specific understanding of what is occurring in the market as well as what the behaviors are of those that are a part of the market (Blattberg, Sen, 1974). The target market that will be used is in relation to the singer, Beyonce. Beyonce is a renowned R&B artist from the US and has won several Grammys through her music, acting and modeling. Beyonce began her career through the R&B band, Destiny’s Child, which gained prestige throughout America. She then broke into a solo artist that was able to create a

Anti-tumour Immunity through GP-100-TLR Agonist Conjugation

Anti-tumour Immunity through GP-100-TLR Agonist Conjugation Enhancing anti-tumour immunity through gp-100-TLR agonist conjugation. Introduction Soluble cancer vaccines remain an area of high interest to researchers with the ability to enhance immune responses against present cancers and induce protective immunity against future cases. In developing new vaccines finding ways to increase the immunogenicity of cancer antigens is a major challenge(1-3). The addition of Toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists is one strategy which can successfully boost immune cell activation and response to cancer antigens. By stimulating TLRs, these agonists increase expression of several co-stimulatory molecules on antigen presenting cells (APCs) such as CD80/86 and CD40(4-6).They also increase tumour peptide loading onto type 1 2 Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins. Together this leads to greater activation of tumour-specific effector immune cells such as CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells resulting in increased tumour clearance via their cytotoxic activity. Vaccine formulations which have included antigen and TLR agonists as a mixture have had pro mising results with many in clinical trials(4, 7, 8). Despite this, few have assessed the effect of chemically conjugating these constituents, a strategy which could increase efficiency of both TLR activation and peptide loading onto MHC(9-12). Many conjugation strategies that do exist today capitalise on the use of pH and redox sensitive linkers. Differences in pH and redox environments intracellularly enable triggerable release of these vaccines whilst protecting antigen and agonist from degradation extracellularly where they are administered. Research into the use of Glutathione-sensitive disulphide linkers has demonstrated that the immune response to model antigen Ovalbumin'(OVA) could be increased through linkage to the TLR agonist, CpG oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN)(10, 11). Our research aims to repeat this using both stable and reversible linkers as well as a more clinically relevant, tumour associated antigen (TAA) called gp-100 expressed on melanomas. In addition, we aim to ass ess the effectivity of different TLR agonists within conjugates including Polyinosinic polycytidylic acid (Poly I:C) and two different classes of CpG ODNs, B and C respectively. Each of these agonists activate different signalling pathways within antigen presenting cells leading to unique cytokine profiles and T-cell responses. Poly I:C for example, is a potent activator of TLR3 which activates the TRIF pathway inducing release of type 1 interferons such as IFN Beta(6, 13, 14). This increases MHC-I expression and stimulates a Th1 type immune response which favours cell-mediated immunity including CD8+ T-cell activation. In comparison, CpG class B and C stimulate TLR 9 activating the MYD88 pathway and release of proinflammatory cytokines IL-6 and IL-17. This results in enhanced CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses, B cell activation and antibody production(10, 11, 15). Both types of response have potential to give clinical benefit in different ways highlighting the potential of these conju gates in tumour treatment. Finally, we will also assess how the composition of the TAA effects its presentation on MHC. To assess this, a smaller Gp-100 peptide which does not require intracellular processing will be compared to a longer peptide requiring processing. This project will assess which conjugates enhance anti-tumour responses in mice and how they achieve this looking specifically at Dendritic cell activation and CD8+ T-cell proliferation and cytokine production. Hypotheses In terms of CD8+ responses, T cell proliferation and cytokine release, I hypothesize that Poly I:C reversibly linked to processed gp-100 will be the most effective inducing a strong Th1 response and IFN-B cytokine release. This is because Poly I:C stimulates several intracellular signals in addition to TLR3 including RIG-1 and MDA-5. This would lead to increased release of proinflammatory cytokines including IL-6, IL-12, IL-1B and IFN-B. Specifically the release of IFN-B would induce a strong anti-viral-like Th1 T cell response through increased expression of MHC-1 molecules on APCs and inducing release of IFN-Y, TNF-A and IL-2 from CD4+ T cells. As well as this factor, TLR3 is exclusively expressed on myeloid dendritic cells, the most effective dendritic cell subset in presenting antigen, and not expressed on plasmacytoid dendritic cells. Secondly, I Hypothesize that CpG class C will induce the most cytokine production in dendritic cells including the cytokines IL-6, IL-12, IFN-A and IL-1B. CpG molecules stimulate TLR9 which is expressed in the endolysosomal compartment of plasmacytoid dendritic cells exclusively. As a dendritic cell subset, plasmacytoid DCs are well known for their proinflammatory cytokine production at levels much higher than other DC subsets. CpG class C in particular stimulates the release of IFN-a in addition to IL-6, IL-12 etc. stimulating both a Th1 response and a B cell response. Aims and objectives Aims Produce gp-100-CpG ODN and gp-100-Poly I:C reversible and stable conjugates with either processed or non-processed Gp-100 peptides Measure dendritic cell subset activation through expression of MHC-II, CD40 and CD86 molecules and cytokine release (IL-12, IL-6, IL-1B, IFN-A and IFN-B ) Measure Tumour specific T cell activation (CD4+ and CD8+), proliferation using carboxyfluorecein succinimidyl ester (CSFE) and cytokine release (IFN-Y, IL-2,TNF-A) Methods The proposed project for the year will focus on three main objectives 1) Produce gp-100-CpG ODN and gp-100-Poly I:C reversible and stable conjugates with either processed or non-processed Gp-100 peptides. First, we will modify free amino groups on the lysine residues of each gp-100 peptide (processed amino acid sequence: KVPRNQDWL vs unprocessed: CAVGALKVPRNQDWLGVPRQL) and TLR agonists (suspended in a modification buffer ph. 8). Then we will link these together with either the stable linker (HYN) or the reversible linker (HYN-SS) in a ph. 6 conjugation buffer separately. Product concentration after each individual modification step will be measured using Nanodrop1000 at 280 m after desalting excess product using vivspin 500 filter. Final product conjugation will be confirmed using the reversed phase liquid chromatograph at the School of Pharmacy which will allow us to visualise each individual product according to their differing polarities, and quantify their ratio. Our second objective is to Measure dendritic cell subset activation through expression of MHC-II, CD40 and CD86 molecules and cytokine release (IL-12, IL-6, IL-1B, IFN-B, IFN-A). To achieve this, we will isolate bone marrow cells from C57BL/6 mice and treat with GM-CSF to produce CD11c+ dendritic cells. These will then be treated with either individual TLR agonists, TLR agonist-gp100 mixtures or TLR agonist-gp100 conjugates (reversible or non-reversible). After 24hrs of treatment these cells with be stained with fluorescent antibodies for CD80, CD40, CD11C, and MHC-II, viewed on the Gallios flow cytometer in Pathology and analysed using Kaluza software. This experiment will be repeated at least three times to enable statistical analysis, which will be performed using Graph Pad prism software. Cytokine release from these cells will be measured using an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for IL-6, IL-12, IFN-B and IFN-a. Our third objective is to Measure Tumour specific CD3+ T cell: activation (CD8+), proliferation (CSFE) and cytokine release (IFN-Y, IL-2). This will be achieved through isolation of splenocytes from Pmel (T-cells specific to gp-100) transgenic mice and sorting of CD8+ cells using the Automacs machine at Pathology. These cells will then be stained using CSFE and co-cultured separately with C57BL/6 BMDCs treated according to objective 2. After 72hrs cells will be analysed using the Gallios flow cytometer to measure T-cell activation (CD3+) and proliferation (CSFE). To measure cytokine release, cell cultures will undergo an ELISA for IFN-Y and IL-2. Proposed Budget Mice C57BL/6 x 10 @ $50 each$500 PMEL x 10 @ $50 each$500 Antibodies CD86-PE$300 CD11c-APC$300 CD40-PECy7$300 CD8a-APC$300 CD3-PE$300 MHC-I$300 MHC-II FITC$300 Cell culture reagents IMDM Media$400 Foetal calf serum$500 Cytokine detection Cytokine detection kit$2000 Conjugation reagents S4FB Linker$450 S-SS-4FB Linker$350 S-HYNIC cross linker$850 2-Hydrazinopyradine.dihydrochloride$450 2-Sulphobenzaldehyde$450 CpG class B$500 CpG class C$500 Poly I:C$500 Vivspin filters$200 Total$9250 References 1.Obeid JM, Hu Y, Slingluff CL. Vaccines, adjuvants and dendritic cell activators Current Status and Future Challenges. Seminars in oncology. 2015;42(4):549-61. 2.Guo C, Manjili MH, Subjeck JR, Sarkar D, Fisher PB, Wang X-Y. Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines: Past, Present and Future. Advances in cancer research. 2013;119:421-75. 3.Schlom J. Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines: Current Status and Moving Forward. JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 2012;104(8):599-613. 4.Kaczanowska S, Joseph AM, Davila E. TLR agonists: our best frenemy in cancer immunotherapy. Journal of leukocyte biology. 2013;93(6):847-63. 5.Pradere J-P, Dapito DH, Schwabe RF. The Yin and Yang of Toll-like Receptors in Cancer. Oncogene. 2014;33(27):3485-95. 6.Maruyama K, Selmani Z, Ishii H, Yamaguchi K. Innate immunity and cancer therapy. International immunopharmacology. 2011;11(3):350-7. 7.Iribarren K, Bloy N, Buque A, Cremer I, Eggermont A, Fridman WH, et al. Trial Watch: Immunostimulation with Toll-like receptor agonists in cancer therapy. Oncoimmunology. 2016;5(3):e1088631. 8.Dowling JK, Mansell A. Toll-like receptors: the swiss army knife of immunity and vaccine development. Clinical Translational Immunology. 2016;5(5):e85. 9.Flanary S, Hoffman AS, Stayton PS. Antigen delivery with poly(propylacrylic acid) conjugation enhances MHC-1 presentation and T-cell activation. Bioconjugate chemistry. 2009;20(2):241-8. 10.Herbath M, Szekeres Z, Kovesdi D, Papp K, Erdei A, Prechl J. Coadministration of antigen-conjugated and free CpG: effects of in vitro and in vivo interactions in a murine model. Immunology letters. 2014;160(2):178-85. 11.Kramer K, Shields NJ, Poppe V, Young SL, Walker GF. Intracellular Cleavable CpG Oligodeoxynucleotide-Antigen Conjugate Enhances Anti-tumor Immunity. Molecular Therapy. 2017;25(1):62-70. 12.Slutter B, Soema PC, Ding Z, Verheul R, Hennink W, Jiskoot W. Conjugation of ovalbumin to trimethyl chitosan improves immunogenicity of the antigen. Journal of controlled release : official journal of the Controlled Release Society. 2010;143(2):207-14. 13.Ammi R, De Waele J, Willemen Y, Van Brussel I, Schrijvers DM, Lion E, et al. Poly(I:C) as cancer vaccine adjuvant: knocking on the door of medical breakthroughs. Pharmacology therapeutics. 2015;146:120-31. 14.Cho HI, Barrios K, Lee YR, Linowski AK, Celis E. BiVax: a peptide/poly-IC subunit vaccine that mimics an acute infection elicits vast and effective anti-tumor CD8 T-cell responses. Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII. 2013;62(4):787-99. 15.Scheiermann J, Klinman DM. Clinical evaluation of CpG oligonucleotides as adjuvants for vaccines targeting infectious diseases and cancer. Vaccine. 2014;32(48):6377-89.

Southern Masculinity in Faulkner’s The Unvanquished Essay -- Faulkner?

Southern Masculinity in Faulkner’s The Unvanquished The narrator of Faulkner’s The Unvanquished is apparently an adult recounting his childhood. The first person narrator is a child at the story’s outset, but the narrative voice is lucid, adult. Telling the story of his childhood allows the narrator to distinguish for the reader what he believed as a child from what he â€Å"know[s] better now† (10). The difference affords an examination of dominant southern masculinity as it is internalized by Bayard and Ringo, and demonstrates the effects on the boys of the impossible ideal. The initial indication that narrator Bayard may be an adult recounting his childhood comes with the past tense in the story’s opening line: â€Å"Behind the smokehouse that summer, Ringo and I had a living map† (3). Other summers have passed between the narration and the action of the story; this summer is â€Å"that summer,† not last summer or the summer before, presumably. Temporal distance is suggested in personal and episodic description, as well: â€Å"[Louvinia] used to follow us up and stand in the bedroom door and scold us until we were in bed†¦[b]ut this time she not only didn’t wonder where we were, she didn’t even think about where we might not be.† The differences in language between narrator and character are dramatic, as well. Bayard’s inadequate description of the railroad to Ringo (â€Å"only hearsay†), though not articulated in the narrative, is undoubtedly inferior to the narrator’s description of t he railroad: It was the straightest thing I ever saw, running straight and empty and quiet through a long empty gash cut through the trees and the ground too and full of sunlight like water in a river only straighter than any river, with the crossties cut off e... .... There are two attainable models of masculinity for Ringo in the story. Joby is defeated, withered, frustrated, subservient â€Å"even† to white women. He can live and function in southern society, but only as a slave. The other, Loosh, is angry, defiant, independent, subservient only to the point that he must be until he escapes or is set free. He cannot live in southern society except as a slave, so at first chance, he leaves. The narrator, with appropriate distance from the action, hints that Ringo will shed the stagnant familiarity of slavery, and risk reinvention like Loosh has. Ringo’s infatuation with the railroad appears to the boy Bayard to be part of their regular game of one-upmanship, but the adult narrator â€Å"know[s] now it was more than that with Ringo†¦[it was] the motion, the impulse to move which had already seethed to a head among his people† (81).

Black House Chapter Twenty-two

22 THIS TIME THERE'S something that isn't quite silence: a lovely white rushing he has heard once before. In the summer of 1997, Jack went up way north to Vacaville with an LAPD skydiving club called the P.F. Flyers. It was a dare, one of those stupid things you got yourself into as a result of too many beers too late at night and then couldn't get yourself out of again. Not with any grace. Which was to say, not without looking like a chickenshit. He expected to be frightened; instead, he was exalted. Yet he had never done it again, and now he knows why: he had come too close to remembering, and some frightened part of him must have known it. It was the sound before you pulled the ripcord that lonely white rushing of the wind past your ears. Nothing else to hear but the soft, rapid beat of your heart and maybe the click in your ears as you swallowed saliva that was in free fall, just like the rest of you. Pull the ripcord, Jack, he thinks. Time to pull the ripcord, or the landing's going to be awfully damn hard. Now there's a new sound, low at first but quickly swelling to a tooth-rattling bray. Fire alarm, he thinks, and then: No, it's a symphony of fire alarms. At the same moment, Wendell Green's hand is snatched out of his grip. He hears a faint, squawking cry as his fellow sky diver is swept away, and then there's a smell Honeysuckle No, it's her hair and Jack gasps against a weight on his chest and his diaphragm, a feeling that the wind has been knocked out of him. There are hands on him, one on his shoulder, the other at the small of his back. Hair tickling his cheek. The sound of alarms. The sound of people yelling in confusion. Running footfalls that clack and echo. â€Å"jack jack jack are you all right† â€Å"Ask a queen for a date, get knocked into the middle of next week,† he mutters. Why is it so dark? Has he been blinded? Is he ready for that intellectually rewarding and financially remunerative job as an ump at Miller Park? â€Å"Jack!† A palm smacks his cheek. Hard. No, not blind. His eyes are just shut. He pops them open and Judy is bending over him, her face inches from his. Without thinking, he closes his left hand in the hair at the nape of her neck, brings her face down to his, and kisses her. She exhales into his mouth a surprised reverse gasp that inflates his lungs with her electricity and then kisses him back. He has never been kissed with such intensity in his entire life. His hand goes to the breast beneath her nightdress, and he feels the frenzied gallop of her heart If she were to run faster, she'd catch her feet and fall, Jack thinks beneath its firm rise. At the same moment her hand slips inside his shirt, which has somehow come unbuttoned, and tweaks his nipple. It's as hard and hot as the slap. As she does it, her tongue darts into his mouth in one quick plunge, there and gone, like a bee into a flower. He tightens his grip on the nape of her neck and God knows what would have happened next, but at that moment something fall s over in the corridor with a huge crash of glass and someone screams. The voice is high and almost sexless with panic, but Jack believes it's Ethan Evans, the sullen young person from the hall. â€Å"Get back here! Stop running, goldarnit!† Of course it's Ethan; only a graduate of Mount Hebron Lutheran Sunday school would use goldarnit, even in extremis. Jack pulls away from Judy. She pulls away from him. They are on the floor. Judy's nightdress is all the way up to her waist, exposing plain white nylon underwear. Jack's shirt is open, and so are his pants. His shoes are still on, but on the wrong feet, from the feel of them. Nearby, the glass-topped coffee table is overturned and the journals that were on it are scattered. Some seem to have been literally blown out of their bindings. More screams from the corridor, plus a few cackles and mad ululations. Ethan Evans continues to yell at stampeding mental patients, and now a woman is yelling as well Head Nurse Rack, perhaps. The alarms bray on and on. All at once a door bursts open and Wendell Green gallops into the room. Behind him is a closet with clothes scattered everywhere, the spare items of Dr. Spiegleman's wardrobe all ahoo. In one hand Wendell's holding his Panasonic minicorder. In the other he has several gleaming tubular objects. Jack is willing to bet they're double-A Duracells. Jack's clothes have been unbuttoned (or perhaps blown open), but Wendell has fared much worse. His shirt is in tatters. His belly hangs over a pair of white boxer shorts, severely pee-stained in front. He is dragging his brown gabardine slacks by one foot. They slide across the carpet like a shed snakeskin. And although his socks are on, the left one appears to have been turned inside out. â€Å"What did you do?† Wendell blares. â€Å"Oh you Hollywood son of a bitch, WHAT DID YOU DO TO M â€Å" He stops. His mouth drops open. His eyes widen. Jack notes that the reporter's hair appears to be standing out like the quills on a porcupine. Wendell, meanwhile, is noting Jack Sawyer and Judy Marshall, embracing on the glass- and paper-littered floor, with their clothes disarranged. They aren't quite in flagrante delicious, but if Wendell ever saw two people on the verge, dese are dem. His mind is whirling and filled with impossible memories, his balance is shot, his stomach is chugging like a washing machine that has been overloaded with clothes and suds; he desperately needs something to hold on to. He needs news. Even better, he needs scandal. And here, lying in front of him on the floor, are both. â€Å"RAPE!† Wendell bellows at the top of his lungs. A mad, relieved grin twists up the corners of his mouth. â€Å"SAWYER BEAT ME UP AND NOW HE'S RAPING A MENTAL PATIENT!† It doesn't look much like rape to Wendell, in all truth, but who ever yelled CONSENSUAL SEX! at the top of his lungs and attracted any attention? â€Å"Shut that idiot up,† Judy says. She yanks down the hem of her nightgown and prepares to stand. â€Å"Watch out,† Jack says. â€Å"Broken glass everywhere.† â€Å"I'm okay,† she snaps. Then, turning to Wendell with that perfect fearlessness Fred knew so well: â€Å"Shut up! I don't know who you are, but quit that bellowing! Nobody's being â€Å" Wendell backs away from Hollywood Sawyer, dragging his pants along with him. Why doesn't someone come? he thinks. Why doesn't someone come before he shoots me, or something? In his frenzy and near hysteria, Wendell has either not registered the alarms and general outcry or believes them to be going on inside his head, just a little more false information to go with his absurd â€Å"memories† of a black gunslinger, a beautiful woman in a robe, and Wendell Green himself crouching in the dust and eating a half-cooked bird like a caveman. â€Å"Keep away from me, Sawyer,† he says, backing up with his hands held out in front of him. â€Å"I have an extremely hungry lawyer. Caveet-emporer, you asshole, lay one finger on me and he and I will strip you of everything you OW! OW!† Wendell has stepped on a piece of broken glass, Jack sees probably from one of the prints that formerly decorated the walls and are now decorating the floor. He takes one more off-balance lurch backward, this time steps on his own trailing slacks, and goes sprawling into the leather recliner where Dr. Spiegleman presumably sits while quizzing his patients on their troubled childhoods. La Riviere's premier muckraker stares at the approaching Nean-derthal with wide, horrified eyes, then throws the minicorder at him. Jack sees that it's covered with scratches. He bats it away. â€Å"RAPE!† Wendell squeals. â€Å"HE'S RAPING ONE OF THE LOONIES! HE'S â€Å" Jack pops him on the point of the chin, pulling the punch just a little at the last moment, delivering it with almost scientific force. Wendell flops back in Dr. Spiegleman's recliner, eyes rolling up, feet twitching as if to some tasty beat that only the semiconscious can truly appreciate. â€Å"The Mad Hungarian couldn't have done better,† Jack murmurs. It occurs to him that Wendell ought to treat himself to a complete neurological workup in the not too distant future. His head has put in a hard couple of days. The door to the hall bursts open. Jack steps in front of the recliner to hide Wendell, stuffing his shirt into his pants (at some point he's zipped his fly, thank God). A candy striper pokes her fluffy head into Dr. Spiegleman's office. Although she's probably eighteen, her panic makes her look about twelve. â€Å"Who's yelling in here?† she asks. â€Å"Who's hurt?† Jack has no idea what to say, but Judy manages like a pro. â€Å"It was a patient,† she says. â€Å"Mr. Lackley, I think. He came in, yelled that we were all going to be raped, and then ran out again.† â€Å"You have to leave at once,† the candy striper tells them. â€Å"Don't listen to that idiot Ethan. And don't use the elevator. We think it was an earthquake.† â€Å"Right away,† Jack says crisply, and although he doesn't move, it's good enough for the candy striper; she heads out. Judy crosses quickly to the door. It closes but won't latch. The frame has been subtly twisted out of true. There was a clock on the wall. Jack looks toward it, but it's fallen face-down to the floor. He goes to Judy and takes her by the arms. â€Å"How long was I over there?† â€Å"Not long,† she says, â€Å"but what an exit you made! Ka-pow! Did you get anything?† Her eyes plead with him. â€Å"Enough to know I have to go back to French Landing right away,† he tells her. Enough to know that I love you that I'll always love you, in this world or any other. â€Å"Tyler . . . is he alive?† She reverses his grip so she is holding him. Sophie did exactly the same thing in Faraway, Jack remembers. â€Å"Is my son alive?† â€Å"Yes. And I'm going to get him for you.† His eye happens on Spiegleman's desk, which has danced its way into the room and stands with all its drawers open. He sees something interesting in one of those drawers and hurries across the carpet, crunching on broken glass and kicking aside one of the prints. In the top drawer to the left of the desk's kneehole is a tape recorder, considerably bigger than Wendell Green's trusty Panasonic, and a torn piece of brown wrapping paper. Jack snatches up the paper first. Scrawled across the front in draggling letters he's seen at both Ed's Eats and on his own front porch is this: Deliver to JUDY MARSHALL also known as SOPHIE There are what appear to be stamps in the upper corner of the torn sheet. Jack doesn't need to examine them closely to know that they are really cut from sugar packets, and that they were affixed by a dangerous old dodderer named Charles Burnside. But the Fisherman's identity no longer matters much, and Speedy knew it. Neither does his location, because Jack has an idea Chummy Burnside can flip to a new one pretty much at will. But he can't take the real doorway with him. The doorway to the furnace-lands, to Mr. Munshun, to Ty. If Beezer and his pals found that Jack drops the wrapping paper back into the drawer, hits the EJECT button on the tape recorder, and pops out the cassette tape inside. He sticks it in his pocket and heads for the door. â€Å"Jack.† He looks back at her. Beyond them, fire alarms honk and blat, lunatics scream and laugh, staff runs to and fro. Their eyes meet. In the clear blue light of Judy's regard, Jack can almost touch that other world with its sweet smells and strange constellations. â€Å"Is it wonderful over there? As wonderful as in my dreams?† â€Å"It's wonderful,† he tells her. â€Å"And you are, too. Hang in there, okay?† Halfway down the hallway, Jack comes upon a nasty sight: Ethan Evans, the young man who once had Wanda Kinderling as his Sunday school teacher, has laid hold of a disoriented old woman by her fat upper arms and is shaking her back and forth. The old woman's frizzy hair flies around her head. â€Å"Shut up!† young Mr. Evans is shouting at her. â€Å"Shut up, you crazy old cow! You're not going anywhere except back to your dadblame room!† Something about his sneer makes it obvious that even now, with the world turned upside down, young Mr. Evans is enjoying both his power to command and his Christian duty to brutalize. This is only enough to make Jack angry. What infuriates him is the look of terrified incomprehension on the old woman's face. It makes him think of boys he once lived with long ago, in a place called the Sunlight Home. It makes him think of Wolf. Without pausing or so much as breaking stride (they have entered the endgame phase of the festivities now, and somehow he knows it), Jack drives his fist into young Mr. Evans's temple. That worthy lets go of his plump and squawking victim, strikes the wall, then slides down it, his eyes wide and dazed. â€Å"Either you didn't listen in Sunday school or Kinderling's wife taught you the wrong lessons,† Jack says. â€Å"You . . . hit . . . me . . .† young Mr. Evans whispers. He finishes his slow dive splay-legged on the hallway floor halfway between the Records Annex and Ambulatory Ophthalmology. â€Å"Abuse another patient this one, the one I was just talking to, any of them and I'll do a lot more than that,† Jack promises young Mr. Evans. Then he's down the stairs, taking them two at a time, not noticing a handful of johnny-clad patients who stare at him with expressions of puzzled, half-fearful wonder. They look at him as if at a vision who passes them in an envelope of light, some wonder as brilliant as it is mysterious. Ten minutes later (long after Judy Marshall has walked composedly back to her room without professional help of any kind), the alarms cut off. An amplified voice perhaps even Dr. Spiegleman's own mother wouldn't have recognized it as her boy's begins to blare from the overhead speakers. At this unexpected roar, patients who had pretty much calmed down begin to shriek and cry all over again. The old woman whose mistreatment so angered Jack Sawyer is crouched below the admissions counter with her hands over her head, muttering something about the Russians and Civil Defense. â€Å"THE EMERGENCY IS OVER!† Spiegleman assures his cast and crew. â€Å"THERE IS NO FIRE! PLEASE REPORT TO THE COMMON ROOMS ON EACH FLOOR! THIS IS DR. SPIEGLEMAN, AND I REPEAT THAT THE EMERGENCY IS OVER!† Here comes Wendell Green, weaving his way slowly toward the stairwell, rubbing his chin gently with one hand. He sees young Mr. Evans and offers him a helping hand. For a moment it looks as though Wendell may be pulled over himself, but then young Mr. Evans gets his buttocks against the wall and manages to gain his feet. â€Å"THE EMERGENCY IS OVER! I REPEAT, THE EMERGENCY IS OVER! NURSES, ORDERLIES, AND DOCTORS, PLEASE ESCORT ALL PATIENTS TO THE COMMON ROOMS ON EACH FLOOR!† Young Mr. Evans eyes the purple bruise rising on Wendell's chin. Wendell eyes the purple bruise rising on the temple of young Mr. Evans. â€Å"Sawyer?† young Mr. Evans asks. â€Å"Sawyer,† Wendell confirms. â€Å"Bastard sucker punched me,† young Mr. Evans confides. â€Å"Son of a bitch came up behind me,† Wendell says. â€Å"The Marshall woman. He had her down.† He lowers his voice. â€Å"He was getting ready to rape her.† Young Mr. Evans's whole manner says he is sorrowful but not surprised. â€Å"Something ought to be done,† Wendell says. â€Å"You got that right.† â€Å"People ought to be told.† Gradually, the old fire returns to Wendell's eyes. People will be told. By him! Because that is what he does, by God! He tells people! â€Å"Yeah,† young Mr. Evans says. He doesn't care as much as Wendell does he lacks Wendell's burning commitment but there's one person he will tell. One person who deserves to be comforted in her lonely hours, who has been left on her own Mount of Olives. One person who will drink up the knowledge of Jack Sawyer's evil like the very waters of life. â€Å"This kind of behavior cannot just be swept under the rug,† Wendell says. â€Å"No way,† young Mr. Evans agrees. â€Å"No way, Jos? ¦.† Jack has barely cleared the gates of French County Lutheran when his cell phone tweets. He thinks of pulling over to take the call, hears the sound of approaching fire engines, and decides for once to risk driving and talking at the same time. He wants to be out of the area before the local fire brigade shows up and slows him down. He flips the little Nokia open. â€Å"Sawyer.† â€Å"Where the fuck are you?† Beezer St. Pierre bellows. â€Å"Man, I been hittin' redial so hard I damn near punched it off the phone!† â€Å"I've been . . .† But there's no way he can finish that, not and stay within shouting distance of the truth, that is. Or maybe there is. â€Å"I guess I got into one of those dead zones where the cell phone just doesn't pick up â€Å" â€Å"Never mind the science lesson, chum. Get your ass over here right now. The actual address is 1 Nailhouse Row it's County Road Double-O just south of Chase. It's the babyshit brown two-story on the corner.† â€Å"I can find it,† Jack says, and steps down a little harder on the Ram's gas pedal. â€Å"I'm on my way now.† â€Å"What's your twenty, man?† â€Å"Still Arden, but I'm rolling. I can be there in maybe half an hour.† â€Å"Fuck!† There is an alarming crash-rattle in Jack's ear as somewhere on Nailhouse Row Beezer slams his fist against something. Probably the nearest wall. â€Å"The fuck's wrong with you, man? Mouse is goin' down, I mean fast. We're doin' our best those of us who're still here but he is goin' down.† Beezer is panting, and Jack thinks he's trying not to cry. The thought of Armand St. Pierre in that particular state is alarming. Jack looks at the Ram's speedometer, sees it's touching seventy, and eases off a tad. He won't help anybody by getting himself greased in a road wreck between Arden and Centralia. â€Å"What do you mean ? ®those of us who are still here'?† â€Å"Never mind, just get your butt down here, if you want to talk to Mouse. And he sure wants to talk to you, because he keeps sayin' your name.† Beezer lowers his voice. â€Å"When he ain't just ravin' his ass off, that is. Doc's doing his best me and Bear Girl, too but we're shovelin' shit against the tide here.† â€Å"Tell him to hold on,† Jack says. â€Å"Fuck that, man tell him yourself.† There's a rattling sound in Jack's ear, the faint murmuring of voices. Then another voice, one which hardly sounds human, speaks in his ear. â€Å"Got to hurry . . . got to get over here, man. Thing . . . bit me. I can feel it in there. Like acid.† â€Å"Hold on, Mouse,† Jack says. His fingers are dead white on the telephone. He wonders that the case doesn't simply crack in his grip. â€Å"I'll be there fast as I can.† â€Å"Better be. Others . . . already forgot. Not me.† Mouse chuckles. The sound is ghastly beyond belief, a whiff straight out of an open grave. â€Å"I got . . . the memory serum, you know? It's eatin' me up . . . eatin' me alive . . . but I got it.† There's the rustling sound of the phone changing hands again, then a new voice. A woman's. Jack assumes it's Bear Girl. â€Å"You got them moving,† she says. â€Å"You brought it to this. Don't let it be for nothing.† There is a click in his ear. Jack tosses the cell phone onto the seat and decides that maybe seventy isn't too fast, after all. A few minutes later (they seem like very long minutes to Jack), he's squinting against the glare of the sun on Tamarack Creek. From here he can almost see his house, and Henry's. Henry. Jack thumps the side of his thumb lightly against his breast pocket and hears the rattle of the cassette tape he took from the machine in Spiegle-man's office. There's not much reason to turn it over to Henry now; given what Potter told him last night and what Mouse is holding on to tell him today, this tape and the 911 tape have been rendered more or less redundant. Besides, he's got to hurry to Nailhouse Row. There's a train getting ready to leave the station, and Mouse Baumann is very likely going to be on it. And yet . . . â€Å"I'm worried about him,† Jack says softly. â€Å"Even a blind man could see I'm worried about Henry.† The brilliant summer sun, now sliding down the afternoon side of the sky, reflects off the creek and sends shimmers of light dancing across his face. Each time this light crosses his eyes, they seem to burn. Henry isn't the only one Jack's worried about, either. He's got a bad feeling about all of his new French Landing friends and acquaintances, from Dale Gilbertson and Fred Marshall right down to such bit players as old Steamy McKay, an elderly gent who makes his living shining shoes outside the public library, and Ardis Walker, who runs the ramshackle bait shop down by the river. In his imagination, all these people now seem made of glass. If the Fisherman decides to sing high C, they'll vibrate and then shatter to powder. Only it's not really the Fisherman he's worried about anymore. This is a case, he reminds himself. Even with all the Territories weirdness thrown in, it's still a case, and it's not the first one you've ever been on where everything suddenly started to seem too big. Where all the shadows seemed to be too long. True enough, but usually that funhouse sense of false perspective fades away once he starts to get a handle on things. This time it's worse, and worse by far. He knows why, too. The Fisherman's long shadow is a thing called Mr. Munshun, an immortal talent scout from some other plane of existence. Nor is even that the end, because Mr. Munshun also casts a shadow. A red one. â€Å"Abbalah,† Jack mutters. â€Å"Abbalah-doon and Mr. Munshun and the Crow Gorg, just three old pals walking together on night's Plutonian shore.† For some reason this makes him think of the Walrus and the Carpenter from Alice. What was it they took for a walk in the moonlight? Clams? Mussels? Jack's damned if he can remember, although one line surfaces and resonates in his mind, spoken in his mother's voice: â€Å"The time has come,† the Walrus said, â€Å"to talk of many things.† The abbalah is presumably hanging out in his court (the part of him that isn't imprisoned in Speedy's Dark Tower, that is), but the Fisherman and Mr. Munshun could be anywhere. Do they know Jack Sawyer has been meddling? Of course they do. By today, that is common knowledge. Might they try to slow him down by doing something nasty to one of his friends? A certain blind sportscaster-headbanger-bebopper, for instance? Yes indeed. And now, perhaps because he's been sensitized to it, he can once more feel that nasty pulse coming out of the southwestern landscape, the one he sensed when he flipped over for the first time in his adult life. When the road curves southeast, he almost loses it. Then, when the Ram points its nose southwest again, the poisonous throb regains strength, beating into his head like the onset of a migraine headache. That's Black House you feel, only it's not a house, not really. It's a worm-hole in the apple of existence, leading all the way down into the furnace-lands. It's a door. Maybe it was only standing ajar before today, before Beezer and his pals turned up there, but now it's wide open and letting in one hell of a draft. Ty needs to be brought back, yes . . . but that door needs to be shut, as well. Before God knows what awful things come snarling through. Jack abruptly swings the Ram onto Tamarack Road. The tires scream. His seat belt locks, and for a moment he thinks the truck may overturn. It stays up, though, and he goes flying toward Norway Valley Road. Mouse will just have to hang on a little bit longer; he's not going to leave Henry way out here on his own. His pal doesn't know it, but he's going on a little field trip to Nailhouse Row. Until this situation stabilizes, it seems to Jack that the buddy system is very much in order. Which would have been all well and good if Henry had been at home, but he's not. Elvena Morton, dust mop in hand, comes in response to Jack's repeated jabbing at the doorbell. â€Å"He's been over at KDCU, doing commercials,† Elvena says. â€Å"Dropped him off myself. I don't know why he doesn't just do them in his studio here, something about the sound effects, I think he might have said. I'm surprised he didn't tell you that.† The bitch of it is, Henry did. Cousin Buddy's Rib Crib. The old ball and chain. Beautiful downtown La Riviere. All that. He even told Jack that Elvena Morton was going to drive him. A few things have happened to Jack since that conversation he's reencountered his old childhood friend, he's fallen in love with Judy Marshall's Twinner, and just by the way he's been filled in on your basic Secret of All Existence but none of that keeps him from turning his left hand into a fist and then slamming himself directly between the eyes with it. Given how fast things are now moving, making this needless detour strikes him as an almost unforgivable lapse. Mrs. Morton is regarding him with wide-eyed alarm. â€Å"Are you going to be picking him up, Mrs. Morton?† â€Å"No, he's going for a drink with someone from ESPN. Henry said the fellow would bring him back afterward.† She lowers her voice to the timbre of confidentiality at which secrets are somehow best communicated. â€Å"Henry didn't come right out and say so, but I think there may be big things ahead for George Rathbun. Ver-ry big things.† Badger Barrage going national? Jack wouldn't be entirely surprised, but he has no time to be delighted for Henry now. He hands Mrs. Morton the cassette tape, mostly so he won't feel this was an entirely wasted trip. â€Å"Leave this for him where . . .† He stops. Mrs. Morton is looking at him with knowing amusement. Where he'll be sure to see it is what Jack almost said. Another mental miscue. Big-city detective, indeed. â€Å"I'll leave it by the soundboard in his studio,† she says. â€Å"He'll find it there. Jack, maybe it's none of my business, but you don't look all right. You're very pale, and I'd swear you've lost ten pounds since last week. Also . . .† She looks a bit embarrassed. â€Å"Your shoes are on the wrong feet.† So they are. He makes the necessary change, standing first on one foot and then the other. â€Å"It's been a tough forty-eight hours, but I'm hanging in there, Mrs. M.† â€Å"It's the Fisherman business, isn't it?† He nods. â€Å"And I have to go. The fat, as they say, is in the fire.† He turns, reconsiders, turns back. â€Å"Leave him a message on the kitchen tape recorder, would you? Tell him to call me on my cell. Just as soon as he gets in.† Then, one thought leading to another, he points to the unmarked cassette tape in her hand. â€Å"Don't play that, all right?† Mrs. Morton looks shocked. â€Å"I'd never do such a thing! It would be like opening someone else's mail!† Jack nods and gives her a scrap of a smile. â€Å"Good.† â€Å"Is it . . . him on the tape? Is it the Fisherman?† â€Å"Yes,† Jack says. â€Å"It's him.† And there are worse things waiting, he thinks but doesn't say. Worse things by far. He hurries back to his truck, not quite running. Twenty minutes later Jack parks in front of the babyshit brown two-story at 1 Nailhouse Row. Nailhouse Row and the dirty snarl of streets around it strike him as unnaturally silent under the sun of this hot summer afternoon. A mongrel dog (it is, in fact, the old fellow we saw in the doorway of the Nelson Hotel just last night) goes limping across the intersection of Ames and County Road Oo, but that's about the extent of the traffic. Jack has an unpleasant vision of the Walrus and the Carpenter toddling along the east bank of the Mississippi with the hypnotized residents of Nailhouse Row following along behind them. Toddling along toward the fire. And the cooking pot. He takes two or three deep breaths, trying to steady himself. Not far out of town close to the road leading to Ed's Eats, in fact that nasty buzzing in his head peaked, turning into something like a dark scream. For a few moments there it was so strong Jack wondered if he was perhaps going to drive right off the road, and he slowed the Ram to forty. Then, blessedly, it began to move around toward the back of his head and fade. He didn't see the NO TRESPASSING sign that marks the overgrown road leading to Black House, didn't even look for it, but he knew it was there. The question is whether or not he'll be able to approach it when the time comes without simply exploding. â€Å"Come on,† he tells himself. â€Å"No time for this shit.† He gets out of the truck and starts up the cracked cement walk. There's a fading hopscotch diagram there, and Jack swerves to avoid it without even thinking, knowing it's one of the few remaining artifacts which testify that a little person named Amy St. Pierre once briefly trod the boards of existence. The porch steps are dry and splintery. He's vilely thirsty and thinks, Man, I'd kill for a glass of water, or a nice cold The door flies open, cracking against the side of the house like a pistol shot in the sunny silence, and Beezer comes running out. â€Å"Christ almighty, I didn't think you were ever gonna get here!† Looking into Beezer's alarmed, agonized eyes, Jack realizes that he will never tell this guy that he might be able to find Black House without Mouse's help, that thanks to his time in the Territories he has a kind of range finder in his head. No, not even if they live the rest of their lives as close friends, the kind who usually tell each other everything. The Beez has suffered like Job, and he doesn't need to find out that his friend's agony may have been in vain. â€Å"Is he still alive, Beezer?† â€Å"By an inch. Maybe an inch and a quarter. It's just me and Doc and Bear Girl now. Sonny and Kaiser Bill got scared, ran off like a couple of whipped dogs. March your boots in here, sunshine.† Not that Beezer gives Jack any choice; he grabs him by the shoulder and hauls him into the little two-story on Nailhouse Row like luggage.

Houzit Homewares Essay

Company Introduction For this particular marketing assignment we are looking at an organisation based in the leafy suburb of Brisbane. The business is a home wares stores chain by two friends and business partners who have invested quite a huge sum of money and are running the business smoothly, but as always see the need for more growth and more profits on balance sheet. The strategies of the business have to completely match or outlive that of the rivals of the business so as to meet and obtain any growth. The current size of the organisation is not as big as some of the rivals in the area. The chain compromises of 15 stores and has a big head office and a management centre at Milton. Staff is also not as huge as some of the other hotels in the area. The strengths of the business are casual professional attitude to dealing with customer which many of them love as it gives them a feeling of home away from home and other strength of the business is the good repute that it has built over the years in the homewares world with its quality fittings etc. The weakness of the business being some of the rivals have better shelf products and have better prices and better visibility and presence in the market. Houzit business, in order to further the profits and help more financial and presence growth would have to take some steps and apply some marketing strategies and tactics in order to gain that profitability. Organizational Review This assignment is divided into two tasks: Task 1 is the preparation of a report and Task 2 relates to the development of a marketing plan for Houzit. Houzit is considered to be a famous chain of homewares stores in Brisbane offering wide range of bathroom fittings, mirrors, bedroom fitting and decorative items to its customers. The analysis of each of the aspect of the company overview is provided under the following heads. Strategic direction and Organizational objectives The strategic directions of Houzit can be ascertained from the company’s vision and mission. Houzit is a national retail brand that is satisfying the home makers’ needs by providing them unique, wide variety of quality homeware products with an easy payment procedure. The mission of the company asserts that the organization is planning to move towards enlargement of its business by ensuring its presence in all the major cities of Australian market by the year 2020. The basic focus of the company is on three parameters: Quality, Unique items and Selection The following are the stated objectives of the organization (Houzit): To bring an annual sales increase of $ 5 million by moving the sales figures from $15 million per year to %20 million per year during the next three years period. To enhance the list of loyal customers from 10,000 to 15,000 Considering Brisbane as a potential market, brand recognition need to be established so that one out of every 3 people will recognise the Houzit brand in a random survey that is conducted in 18 months’ time. Current size, capabilities and resources of the organization Houzit has completed almost five years of its operations. This part basically relates to the characteristics of each of the store that is under the platform of Houzit. Current size of each of the Houzit store: 1000-1500 m2 Capabilities: Each of the Houzit store has a capacity to generate the following sales breakup Bathroom fittings: 30% Bedrooms furnishings: 35% Mirrors and decorative items: 20% Lighting fixtures: 15% Resources: 15-20 fulltime employees along with number of casual workers Gaps between the objectives and the current capabilities and resources Gap analysis serves as the tool that will help to decide between multiple marketing options (Precision Group, 2009). The objectives that are set by Houzit are difficult to be achieved with the current capabilities and resources. It is because company has limited number of employees. In addition to it, the focus with which company operates to have its stores as bright and comfortable for shopping is not in alignment with the legislations that are put forth by the government. In this manner Houzit will have a gap between the objectives set for the company and the current strategies, capabilities and resources of the company. Opportunities With the help of external environment analysis, a company will be able to  develop a list of opportunities and threats that are provided by the environmental factors (David, 2006). This section of task 1 highlights the two major opportunities for Houzit along with their analysis. The first marketing opportunity that will be chosen to meet the demand in growth of overall business all across metropolitan Brisbane and as well as other parts of Australia would be mobility business, which encompasses the help of mobile apps and mobile webpages and desktop apps and desktop dedicated pages to online commerce of the business to be visible and appealing to the customers all around. They cannot just live by having a website and no online store in this modern day and age where everything from a small pin to an aircraft is being traded online. Most successful business people know where they fit in. It’s important because knowing what you have to offer determines how you approach the business. And one of the early questions for the business starter is one of growth: most of the small companies that get noticed in the media are of the fast-growing variety. But fast growth also means higher risk – the cash flow problems of a fast-growing business can be the same as an insolvent company. So decide if you want to grow fast – which will mean taking debt or giving away equity – or whether you are happy with manageable size and predictable revenues.   There’s nothing wrong with a conservative strategy: think of all the lawyers, accountants, retailers and tradies who may only employ two or three people but they are successful because their skills, products or technology are such that they can create a premium. So, having decided what the business owes you, and what kind of growth you will need to achieve it, you will need to do what the best business people do: plan. The clichà © goes that businesspeople don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan. Harsh but true. Even a one-page business plan is better than winging it. Making a plan and committing it to paper forces you to focus not only on your strengths, but your weaknesses. Since Houzit does not have any online presence whatsoever leaving aside their only presence in yellow pages and online address directory. So, after having realised that their current online presence is unable to generate any  business online which is budding day by day in every sector of life, we should contract a company specialist in building webpages and mobile apps and mobile webpages Mobile SBMS to create a totally new website. The new website will need to allow for growth in the e-commerce sector as well as providing the ability for continual updating of the website to showcase new products, services and their ever growing portfolio. This is only going to come across as a reality if the business is ready to provide the backend services in the warehouses on a large scale as if the demand outstrips the supply, it is going to bring about negative reputation from the customers and in today’s world online reputation is something that the business strive on. The outcome is an e-commerce website designed with the Mobile branding behind it, incorporating all 3 arms of their business. The time frames for the project have to be extremely tight and the company that should be employed to do the job should be the one which can be trusted upon in terms of punctuality and efficiency. The second marketing opportunity is to offer more and more unique products than rivals of Houzit in home ware sectors which cannot be attained while they are making the products in Australia on a small business line. The current trend in home wares is toward handmade rather than mass produced items and this creates an opportunity for getting started in import. Import will solve two sides of the business and will serve both the marketing strategies right as this will help in meeting the backend demand that would be generated by having online presence and increasing e-commerce business. There are things to consider before you go ahead and start buying. The first thing to do is to find out if you are legally allowed to import the product into Australia and if you need a permit. Some materials are banned or will need special treatment. For example, some items need to be quarantined and fumigated due to possible pest contamination. * Items made with plant or animal products such as bamboo plates or bone carvings. * Packaging materials are often made of wood and plant materials. * Decorative touches to your products may be made of plant materials. You need to list what materials were used in the making of the product so that you can have them properly treated. ICON has a list of import requirements for all  commodities including what documentation you will need. Sourcing and manufacturing and controlling the quality of home wares can be a big job. Each item that you choose is subject to different standards and import regulations. Does it meet the Australian Safety Standards? Drawstrings on blinds can be hazardous. There could be lead in your chinaware or even in the paint that it was decorated with. Have them assessed for safety. What about the duty payable? Some tariffs may be reduced depending on where your item was made but that requires a certificate of origin. Customs need your records including product list, insurance and freight papers so they can calculate the duty payable and ensure smooth Customs clearance. You also need to be sure that your goods have the correct classification so that the right amount of duty is paid.