The London Stock Exchange Information Technology Essay

The London Stock Exchange Information Technology Essay The London Stock Exchange has for over 300 years produced detailed market information for companies and investors. Technological innovations have transformed this service and from a bi-weekly paper publication, the LSE today continuously remit electronic information to all the financial markets across the globe in real time. These innovations, however, suffered a major setback when a new computer system commissioned in 1989 ended up to be one of the decades biggest failures when its implementation was terminated in 1996. Background Information Transfer and Automated Registration of Uncertified Stock, otherwise known as TAURUS, was a system meant to wholly change the way of conducting business at the London Stock Exchange in 1989, by automating the sale and purchase of securities. Had it succeeded, it would have dematerialized stock certificates and instead, ownership of the various stocks would have run through a computer database, this would have saved the London Stock Exchange millions of pounds annually and further reduced the risk of purchasers going bankrupt before settlement. However, the implementation of TAURUS did not go as planned and was terminated four years after being commissioned. This failure gave birth to CREST, a computer system whose implementation was commissioned by the Bank of England after taking lessons on organizational change and project management from the failure of TAURUS. Problems that Contributed to the Failure of TAURUS One of the reasons that led to TAURUS failure as a computer system at the LSE was the fact that it attempted to solve too many mini problems. This was as a result of the design and implementation team attempting to take care of most of the individual interests of the players at the LSE. The LSE has many firms whose individual trading methods vary, and the thought of incorporating their needs while keeping the overall objective of the system was far-fetched. The idea that a system should always aim at solving the overall problem by factoring in common minor concerns was basically overlooked in the case for TAURUS (Ackoff, 1989). It is a project management policy that one objective is set and all efforts in implementation should be geared towards its achievement. It was therefore a failure on the part of the LSEs management to be distracted from this, and instead, prioritized individual stakeholder needs. The other problem was the size and structure of the design team. For efficiency, a change implementation team should have very clear structures for a smooth transition, the TAURUS system design team should have been as slim as possible to avoid coding mistakes given that this was a project that would overhaul transactions at the LSE-this was not the case for TAURUS. TAURUS employed hundreds of people, an action that led to numerous coding mistakes and confusion as there was no clear structure of operations. This happened at a time when the world had not fully embraced technology, which was a recipe for failure. That is exactly what happened when several code mistakes appeared in the system. The other problem against TAURUS was the government interest in the project, which led to the creation of an issue involving a 150-page of document containing complex regulations to be followed. The governments document was so big that it did not give the design team a free hand to make feasible decisions with regards to the system. The government clearly revealed that the political interests in TAURUS were not comprehensively explored and that adequate stakeholders had been overlooked. It would have been proper to know and clearly define the interest and input of the government. Had this happened, it would have led to a simpler regulatory document that would not only be precise with regards to the design teams scope of operations, but also acceptable to all. The design team should have been given the freedom to make realistic alterations in case of a technical difficulty towards the achievement of the overall objective. Having cast on hardline operational regulations, the objective was not easy to realize as every change outside the regulations came with serious legal implications. The strict and complex regulations led to numerous redesigns, causing delays and eventually the project costs went out of control. The design team also made another mistake of choosing the software that needed several modifications to meet the different demands. This meant that they were relying on unproven software, which was very risky. Reasons for the Success of CREST CREST, a system that is still in use today, went live in 1996 and was completed within both the allocated budget and schedule. The reason for its success was that its development and implementation team learnt from the mistakes made in implementing TAURUS. CREST had a small staff of just 20, with four to five experienced members supervising the entire project. It had a minimalist approach with a design to perform only a pair of processes, which made up nearly 90% of all transactions of the LSE, unlike the 21 attempted by TAURUS. This meant that the overall project objective was very clear and all the human and material resources were properly directed towards their achievement. The slim design team also meant that modifications were closely monitored which provided minimal room for mistakes. The project equally made use of tested computer software (TCS). The use of TCS in CREST meant that the implementation was done with just a few problems to be solved, and there was no problem in c oding-solutions were readily available. Organizational Change in TAURUS and CREST An organization must always undergo some kind of change to cope with the dynamic business environment. In the case of the LSE, the need to incorporate technology in its operations was inevitable at the end of the 1980s. However, this change was resisted the end result was the failure to implement the multi million pound TAURUS project for a few reasons. One, there was no proper structure to implement the new system. TAURUS was a mandatory system and needed to accommodate the interests of all stakeholders who severally and individually had an idea of their own inputs. The management of the LSE should have spent time and resources in identifying the common individual needs of these stakeholders to design a system that could have addressed the common needs. If this were the case, TAURUS design team would have worked towards achieving what CREST later achieved. It is by failing to address these common needs that individual players at the LSE insisted on their inputs to be incorporated in to the system and still achieve the overall objective. Two; change will always be resisted in any organization by people who feel that the new order is not in their best interests. The LSE management had no clear structure or definitive planning strategy. The project was carried out in fragments without bringing it together and this was bound to cause delays as merging fragments of the system that may not be fully compatible could lead to further re-writing complications. This gave room for speculation with regards to system mismanagement. Some stakeholders thought that if this system had been successfully implemented then it could have had an effect on power as a way of getting rid of their jobs, and the whole LSE process would be completely changed. This thought created an enemy within, thence implementation could not have been successful. The appropriate mode of action was for the management to conduct education to the stakeholders and familiarize them with the new way of transaction with the aim of letting them know that computerization was a tool that would improve how they did business at the LSE and not an impediment as they thought. This would have helped in the stakeholders embracing and offering support to the implementation of TAURUS. Success of an organizational change is entirely dependent of how much the new way of doing things is accepted by the relevant stakeholders. Principles and Methodologies of Project Management In The Case Of TAURUS and CREST The main principles of project management are purpose, relevance, feasibility, accuracy and accountability (Maylor 2005). The main purpose in the case of TAURUS and CREST was to computerize the LSE, a purpose that was achieved by the implementation of CREST, but not TAURUS. It was very important that all the stakeholders understood and embodied this principle and to do so, the management had the task of conducting a project familiarization campaign whose success would be measured by the stakeholders understanding of the projects significance to the current business operations, its contribution to business policies and production of a document with stakeholder recommendations. These parameters would ensure that all interested parties owned and accepted the project. Worries about job losses, shifts in political influence at the LSE upon its implementation would be minimal and the result would be a successful implementation and transition into the new system. It was equally important that the LSE stakeholders understood the relevance of a computer system to their transaction. One should not be taken by surprise if it emerged that among the stakeholders opposed to the new system were interested groups that did not see the need for TAURUS at the time. It is universally known that change, be it organizational, political or otherwise, will always be resisted by people who cannot see any major differences between the old and proposed new ways of doing things. Having faith in the accuracy accountability of TAURUS would have further facilitated the stakeholders acceptance of the system. Interest groups will always want the assurance that the new order is safe for their businesses to be able to build the needed faith and rule out the possibility of other interests taking advantage of the new system. When a majority of stakeholders do not clearly understand a new idea, they are bound to front an opposition up to a point when they understand the pr os and cons of the new order in totality. These principles and their parameters must always be taken into account for a successful implementation of a project and when ignored or partially considered, failure is always the end product as was in the case at the LSE. There are scientifically acceptable methodologies in project implementation and these include: Critical Path A project can be broken down into a number of tasks that have to be performed and in the preparation of a project schedule, the project manager has to figure out what the tasks are, how long they will take, what resources they require, and in what order they should be done ( Maylor, H. (2005), Project Management). All these elements have a direct correlation to the schedule. Omission of a task would then lead to the projects incompletion, underestimation of the length of time or the amount of resources required for the task would also mean missing the schedule. The schedule can also be blown if a mistake in the sequencing of the tasks is made. TAURUS design team had problems with following the critical path because of the large number of staff involved in its design which created duplication of duties and coding problems. This was however not the case in CREST which had a slim design team and for that, CREST went live not only within its schedule but also within the allocated budget. A project manager should always build the project schedule by listing in order, all the tasks that need to be completed, assigning duration to each task and allocating the required resources. It is always important to determine predecessors-what tasks must be completed before, and successors-tasks that cannot start until after, for each task. This makes project implementation very simple and straightforward. A typical example is to think of a project as getting dressed in the morning. The task of putting on a shirt may have a longer duration if it is a buttoned dress shirt than if it is a pullover, and it does not matter which order one completes the task of putting on right or left shoe as long as he or she completes putting on pants before starting wearing shoes. When a project, however big, is looked in such simple terms, success will always be the end result. However, there is always some difficulty in managing a project schedule in that there are seldom enough resources and enough time to complete the tasks sequentially. In this case, tasks have to be overlapped so that several can happen at the same time. Were it not for this sequential running of coding during CRESTS design, it would not have been live in 1996. A Project Managers key duty is to manage the critical path and this is what separates the success of a manager. Materials The biggest material in the TAURUS and CREST project was the staff. Managing human resources entails having the right people, with the right skills and proper tools, in the right quantity, and at the right time. It also means ensuring that those people know what needs to be done, when, and how-and finally, it means motivating them to take ownership in the project too, something that was perfected in the design and implementation of CREST. The opposite was however the case in TAURUS. There were so many people doing the same thing at the same level resulting into multiple mistakes and ultimately failure. Materials also include operation manuals and hardware, computers in the case of TAURUS and CREST. TAURUS had three volumes of specification manuals each two inches thick. This was a recipe for confusion in a project of this magnitude. This further emphasizes on the fact that, for a successful project implementation, a manager must match the right human resource to the correct tools and materials. Cost Every project task will have a cost, whether it is the cost of the labor hours of a computer programmer or the purchase price of a cubic yard of concrete. In preparing the project budget, each of these costs is estimated and a total figure arrived at. Some of these estimates are likely to be more accurate than others. A company usually knows what it will charge each of its projects for different classifications of labor. Concrete for example, is priced in a very competitive market so prices are fairly predictable. With the numerous modifications to TAURUSs design software which had not been well tested earlier on and a number of coding mistakes, the cost of implementing TAURUS went way beyond the allocated budget. This was not the case in CREST, the project managers managed every task and with the thin and clear structures in place, the allocated budget was never surpassed. It is therefore important to note that the total project cost can only be contained and properly managed by clo sely monitoring individual task costs during the implementation process. Therefore, a project manager should not take his or her sights of the performance and costs of component project tasks. Conclusion The TAURUS and CREST projects present a wonderful example of issues that should not be overlooked in the implementation of projects and in the process of bringing to life organizational change. It is important to take into account several facts before the implementation of a new idea or way of operations. It is also important that everyone involved understands and is in a position to offer prompt answers to the following questions: What are the anticipated benefits of the system? Are there any existing cultural issues that the new order will overhaul? If so, what are they? How can they be overcome? Are all the stakeholders input factored into the new order? To what extent is the government involved and if not, how can it be involved? Do the stakeholders understand how the implementation will alter their operation and are they prepared for the alterations? These are just but a few of the basic questions that the implementation team should be able to confidently give answers to before resources are committed to a project or a new way of doing business. The implementation of TAURUS clearly failed to answer most of the questions and the end result was a totally new computer system known as CREST after several years of wasted man hours, millions of sterling pounds and embarrassment not only to the LSE bur also to the Bank of England. CREST as a computer system answered most if not all the questions that TAURUS failed to provide. It particularly adheres to the basic methodology of sticking the set critical path as a tool in not only getting the job done in time but also within the allocated budget and with minimal avoidable mistakes. The issue of getting the right number of people holding the required qualifications for the work at hand and making use of the relevant tools was well understood and put in practice in CREST. This is a confirmation that scientifically proven ways of project management should always be put to practice and their strict adherence is what makes the difference between success and failure for a project manager and an organization seeking to implement change. The project management policy that a singular or a clear list of set objectives should always be in place and all implementation efforts geared towards their achievement is a lesson that can never be taken for granted. As by the saying too many cooks spoilt the broth so did the many individual interests at the LSE that contributed to the failure of the implementation of TAURUS. Focus shifted to what was not the main reason for the computer system and confusion followed. It should be understood that organizational change is an inevitable part of business and any institution not prepared for change cannot survive the dynamic business environment today. It is therefore important to take lessons from CREST during and after implementation of a new order to not only improve ways of doing business but to also minimize the huge losses that come with the failure to totally implement a new project or to do it the wrong way.

Treating and Preventing Meningitis and Encephalitis Essay -- Biology M

Treating and Preventing Meningitis and Encephalitis The diseases, meningitis and encephalitis, cause various problems in the brain and should be avoided at all costs. Various preventative measures can be taken to avoid them. When one does contract one of the diseases, treatments are available to help cure them, but the treatments do not have a 100 percent success rate. Because of its viral and bacterial tendencies, antibiotics are used at times to attack the diseases as are various vaccines to help prevent contraction of the diseases. In the process of painting the famous Sistine Chapel, Leonardo Da Vinci accidentally uses the wrong color paint to paint Adam's finger. Should he wait until the paint is dry and can no longer fix the mess he made, leave it as a mistake, or take off the paint immediately and fix it? Of course taking care of the blemish as quickly as possible would be the best choice. Much like in this hypothetical scenario, one would want to treat a case of meningitis or encephalitis with the utmost urgency. The horrible effects of the diseases make them advisable to avoid and also advisable to treat promptly when contracted. Due to its tendency to be both a viral and bacterial disease, meningitis can prove difficult to treat. Its dual tendencies also mean that various methods are used to attack the disease. In order to treat meningitis, different aspects of the disease must be discovered first. The type of organism causing the infection, the age of the patient, and the extent of the infection must all be taken into account (WebMD, sec. 8). Any time meningitis is found, immediate treatment with antibiotics is required, and continuation of antibiotic treatment depends on whether a bacteria or a virus is causing th... ...edicine. 6 Oct. 2005. 27 July 2006 . â€Å"Encephalitis.† Kids Health. Jan. 2005. Nemours Foundation. 27 July 2006 . â€Å"Encephalitis.† WebMD. 15 Oct. 2004. 27 July 2006 . Hicks, Rob, Dr., and Trisha Macnair, Dr. â€Å"Meningitis.† BBC. Dec. 2005. 27 July 2006 . â€Å"Meningitis.† Emedicinehealth. 10 Aug. 2005. 27 July 2006 . â€Å"Meningitis.† WebMD. 28 Feb. 2005. 27 July 2006 . â€Å"Meningitis.† Wikipedia. 20 July 2006. 30 July 2006 . â€Å"Meningococcal Disease.† Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 12 Oct. 2005. Department of Health and Human Services. 27 July 2006 . Treating and Preventing Meningitis and Encephalitis Essay -- Biology M Treating and Preventing Meningitis and Encephalitis The diseases, meningitis and encephalitis, cause various problems in the brain and should be avoided at all costs. Various preventative measures can be taken to avoid them. When one does contract one of the diseases, treatments are available to help cure them, but the treatments do not have a 100 percent success rate. Because of its viral and bacterial tendencies, antibiotics are used at times to attack the diseases as are various vaccines to help prevent contraction of the diseases. In the process of painting the famous Sistine Chapel, Leonardo Da Vinci accidentally uses the wrong color paint to paint Adam's finger. Should he wait until the paint is dry and can no longer fix the mess he made, leave it as a mistake, or take off the paint immediately and fix it? Of course taking care of the blemish as quickly as possible would be the best choice. Much like in this hypothetical scenario, one would want to treat a case of meningitis or encephalitis with the utmost urgency. The horrible effects of the diseases make them advisable to avoid and also advisable to treat promptly when contracted. Due to its tendency to be both a viral and bacterial disease, meningitis can prove difficult to treat. Its dual tendencies also mean that various methods are used to attack the disease. In order to treat meningitis, different aspects of the disease must be discovered first. The type of organism causing the infection, the age of the patient, and the extent of the infection must all be taken into account (WebMD, sec. 8). Any time meningitis is found, immediate treatment with antibiotics is required, and continuation of antibiotic treatment depends on whether a bacteria or a virus is causing th... ...edicine. 6 Oct. 2005. 27 July 2006 . â€Å"Encephalitis.† Kids Health. Jan. 2005. Nemours Foundation. 27 July 2006 . â€Å"Encephalitis.† WebMD. 15 Oct. 2004. 27 July 2006 . Hicks, Rob, Dr., and Trisha Macnair, Dr. â€Å"Meningitis.† BBC. Dec. 2005. 27 July 2006 . â€Å"Meningitis.† Emedicinehealth. 10 Aug. 2005. 27 July 2006 . â€Å"Meningitis.† WebMD. 28 Feb. 2005. 27 July 2006 . â€Å"Meningitis.† Wikipedia. 20 July 2006. 30 July 2006 . â€Å"Meningococcal Disease.† Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 12 Oct. 2005. Department of Health and Human Services. 27 July 2006 .

A Review of Studio67 Restaurant Business Plan

All businesses need capital to invest. The capital may come from the pockets of the proprietors, or from lending institutions. Most businesses end up borrowing part of the capital in order to start up. The amount of loan depends on the size of the business.Lending institutions base the amount of loan and the interest of loan from the â€Å"feasibility study† of the business. If the projected return of investment has a positive and increasing figure in the next years, then it is likely that the business can get a loan with a lower interest. Thus, it is mandatory that any business submits credible, realistic, and well-researched feasibility studies of the business they are interested for the loan to get approved. (Do's and Don't of Writing a Business Plan).A Review of Studio67 Restaurant Business PlanStudio67 is a â€Å"medium-sized† restaurant in Portland, OR, that focuses mainly on serving ethnic dishes using purely organic ingredients. The business plan is brief and co ncise. The words used, too, are simple enough for any reader to understand.It gave organized parts of describing what the business is all about: the target market, its financial projection for three years, and its strategies. I can't say, however, it is a good business plan. There were a lot of parts lacking. There are questionable parts too. First, how did the business come up with the figures used in the financial projection? The figures must be based on real studies and where are they? The â€Å"Market Research† part then, is lacking. This is the part where studies from similar businesses went through.The SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis should be included too. What I see in the business plan presented were all good things of the business, but it doesn't project the threats ( in example: competitors, labor issues). (Do's and Don't of Writing a Business Plan). One questionable part here is the ownership. The statement â€Å"the restaurant will s tart out as a simple sole proprietorship, owned by its founders,† contradicts itself. (Studio67, 2.1).A sole proprietorship is owned by only â€Å"one person,† so who among the founders will be the name appearing as the sole proprietor? If all the founders own the business, then it should be called partnership. Next, the start up capital mentioned coming from the pockets of the owners is $40,000. (Studio67, 2.2). However, this contradicts 7.0 Financial Plan part of the proposal, where it said it expected to raise â€Å"$30,000.†The break-even analysis 7.1 was bleakly explained, even its chart is not what a break even chart looks like. This part should be omitted if it can't be explained right at all. This analysis should be given after all the other financial statements were presented. If I was the financier, I will reject this proposal due to lacking parts of the study. It didn't show the real market analysis to make it feasible enough.However, if the market res earch was given and the figures are credible, I can approve the $100,000 loan because the return will be realized in 3 years. The projection of sales for the first year, however, is huge, too huge to become credible for an exquisite restaurant like Studio67.I don't believe the figures projected to say it could sustainably develop the business for a long time; however, it can be possible to obtain, if the proposal comes up with better, more specific marketing strategies.ReferencesOrganic Restaurant Business Plan: Studio 67 Restaurant. 1996-2008. Palo Alto Software,Inc.Retrieved June 5, 2008.[http://www.bplans.com/Sample_Business_Plans/Restaurant_Cafe_And_Bakery_Business_Plans/Organic_Restaurant_Business_Plan/Executive_Summary_fc.cfm].Do's and Don’ts of Writing a Business Plan. Arkansas Small Business Development Center.Little Rock, Arkansas: University of Arkansas at Little Rock – College of Business Donald W. Reynolds Center for Business and Economic Development. Retri eved June 5, 2008. [http://asbdc.ualr.edu/business-information/1001-business-plan-writing.asp].  

Aboriginal Political Movement in Australia - 2511 Words

Question: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples have since colonization been politically active. Discuss drawing from readings and research about various forms of political engagement. Since the beginning of European colonization in 1788, Aboriginal people have experienced displacement, have been the targets of genocidal policies and practices, and have had families destroyed through the forcible removal of children. Decades of colonial exploitation and a prolonged systematic attempt to destroy Aboriginal people and culture have led to legislations and policies that are punitive and restrictive towards Aboriginal people. Such legislation reflects the dominant society’s perceptions of Aboriginal people and how they ought to be†¦show more content†¦Aboriginal people did not have access to amenities, such as cinemas, hotels, cafà ©s and swimming pools, and suffered prejudice and suspicion as well as verbal and sometimes physical abuse (**). In the town of Walgett they decided to picket the Walgett Returned Service League Club (RSL) as a protest against the treatment of Aboriginal people. The media covered the Walgett RSL protest. The central role of the film camera in this campaign demonstrated the growing sophistication of activists who recognized the need to show city dwellers what was happening in country towns. Also captured on tape was the vice-president of the RSL who said he would never allow an Aboriginal to become a member (Curthoys, 2011, 12). Such evidence was beamed into the living rooms of Australians with the evening news and exposed an endemic racism. This film footage shocked city viewers and added to the mounting pressure on the government. The legacy of the Freedom Ride political action was a greater awareness of Aboriginal issues in a rural context. Perkins and his fellow students had successfully stirred up debate and sparked discussion around Australia on the state of Aboriginal affairs. Awakening media interest in Aboriginal affairs was positioned in favor of the Black Australian cause, to the severe embarrassment of many white townspeople in rural New South Wales. In the ensuing public debate, urban public knowledge of racial discrimination grew, someShow MoreRelatedAboriginal Political Movement in Australia2518 Words   |  11 PagesQuestion: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples have since colonization been politically active. Discuss drawing from readings and research about various forms of political engagement. Since the beginning of European colonization in 1788, Aboriginal people have experienced displacement, have been the targets of genocidal policies and practices, and have had families destroyed through the forcible removal of children. Decades of colonial exploitation and a prolonged systematic attempt to destroyRead MoreThe Australian Aboriginal Rights Movement1201 Words   |  5 Pagesto protest for their rights. For example, civil rights movements were essential in supporting the Aboriginal People. The Australian Aboriginal Rights Movement aimed to gain full citizenship for Aboriginal peoples. This effort in Australia was one of the largest civil rights movements in the last one hundred years across the globe. These Australian Aborigines suffered from significant racial oppression and dispossession. The Aboriginal Movement was defined by student protestors such as Charles PerkinsRead More1967 referendum1035 Words   |  5 Pagesfinally addressing discrimination towards the Indigenous people and taking responsibility for Aboriginal affairs. However, some do not have the same representation of the results of the 1967 referendum because of the little improvement it has done for the Indigenous people. People have a negative representation of the 1967 referendum because there is still inequality between Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals. Henry Reynolds argues the significance due to the fact that, â€Å"It was highly significantRead MoreTraditional Aboriginal Art As A Communication Tool Throughout Australian Aboriginal History993 Words   |  4 PagesTraditional Aboriginal Art Art has been used as a communication tool throughout Australian aboriginal history. They were utilized to convey knowledge of ancestral pasts and tapping into the spiritual power of their beliefs. In a traditionally oriented Aboriginal society, art was also very valuable. It was placed under such high regards that producing them are being controlled and access to them are restricted to only people of certain status . The body of the artwork are also predetermined. ThusRead MoreNative Imperialism And Its Implications On Aboriginal Identity895 Words   |  4 Pagesthe first European settlers, Australia was once believed to be a terra nullius, an uninhabited â€Å"nothing land.† The European colonizers of Australia sought to make something of this land they believed they had discovered. Operating under this false notion, colonizers systematically invaded and conquered Australia, imposing their own ways onto the land and its original custodians, the Aboriginal people. The introdu ction of western settlements disrupted much of Aboriginal life. In a publication titledRead MoreThe Core Of Future Actions Toward Social Change1730 Words   |  7 Pagesthe core of future actions toward social change. The best strategies to achieve change are found by looking at key moments of change in the past and using them to guide exploration in a current context. This essay aims to explore movements for growing awareness of Aboriginal history, solidarity and depth of scholarship in the past to then answer the questions of what are the key areas for change today. By taking a critical look at history, I am to discuss the potential for change today, centered aroundRead MoreReligion Belief Systems in Australia Post 19451239 Words   |  5 PagesSystems in Australia post 1945 Question 1: Aboriginal religion is based on land. Land is the heart of Aboriginal Dreaming and provides the assurance needed for the continuation of rituals and ceremonies (king, 2010, p.213). The effect of Dispossession on Aboriginal spiritualities related to the separation from their land was enormous and overwhelmingly detrimental. The impact of British colonisation resulted in Australia being declared terra-nullius land belonging to no-one and Aboriginal peoplesRead MoreHistory Course Outline787 Words   |  4 PagesOutline There are four topics; * Australia in the Vietnam War Era * Changing Rights and Freedoms * People Power and Politics in the Post-war Period * Australia’s Social and Cultural History in the Post-War Period Australia in the Vietnam War Inquiry questions †¢ How did the Australian government respond to the threat of communism after WWII? †¢ Why did Australia become involved in the Vietnam War? †¢ How did various groups respond to AustraliaÂ’s involvement in the Vietnam War? Read MoreSamuel Wagan Watson Night Racing Essay1187 Words   |  5 PagesWatson, a self-identified aboriginal man of German and Irish descent. The narrators of the poems are frequently on or beside the road, and the bitumen itself becomes a metaphor for everything from addiction and memory to the search for love. The poem Night Racing is present in the second half of the anthology, in a section that deals primarily with race and issues surrounding racial tension. The car in which the narrator rides facilitates an attack on the colonisation of Australia by the â€Å"white man† inRead MoreIndigenous And Non Indigenous People1332 Words   |  6 PagesAs I was not born or raised in Australia, I had no idea about Indigenous Australian history before I came across this unit. The only idea I had is that Indigenous Australians receive ‘special treatment’ such as more welfare and ha ndouts from the government. Before I started this unit, I was expecting to learn Indigenous culture and traditions as I have been taught in my diploma unit before. However, in the very first lecture, Corrinne surprised me by being a white Indigenous people and the way she