Importance of the writings of John F Kennedy Essay

Importance of the writings of John F Kennedy - Essay Example This book consists of more than 100 speeches which were made during Kennedy's political life. This book is not the collection of quotations only, but also his public career which is completely portrayed in statements and speeches. The pages of the book are the reminder of John Kennedy as lofty ideal, parochial politician and clever person. It was mentioned that "much of the value in this book lies not in what it tells of Kennedy, but what it tells about the country in which he lived". (Unique Day of Hope 18) So it is necessary to discuss four main speeches made by Kennedy in order to get clear idea about his vision of America. All these statements are given in his book. (Goldzwig 189) The most famous Kennedy's speech was connected with Inaugural Address. This speech provides with several wit lines, the most notable of which are the words: "Ask not what your country can do for you,-ask what you can do for your country".( Unique Day of Hope 18) During reading this speech it became clear that there were no words about social security, poverty, educational problems, health care problems, civil rights and domestic problems which were the central point of all political debates. This speech deals completely with problems and development of foreign policy. (Goldzwig 189) The second speech which is also worthy of paying attention is Kennedy's address to Houston Ministerial Alliance.

The operation of your State Disaster Management System and its new Essay

The operation of your State Disaster Management System and its new state of the art Emergency Operations Center - Essay Example What would we do? Or maybe what could we do? Thus, if in the manner that we cannot prevent things to happen, then what we can do and must to is to be ready and prepare ourselves in any calamity that comes into our way. What matters during these times would be our lives and that we must know how to take care of ourselves up to the point that we can be at ease to our security. One of the most basic yet effective ways would be self-preparedness because even though we are already in the era of advance technologies, we cannot still rely on these most of the time and consider this as our secondary option, so to speak. There are times that the government was delayed in rescues and we cannot deny the fact that there are flaws also in the materials being used. There are also cases regarding these like for example the Dumas, Arkansas Tornado wherein the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) does not supply enough quality trailers needed. One of the most efficient and effective method used that was observed is the people empowerment method educating the citizens to manage themselves in times of calamities and disasters. What we do in here is to give free seminars, actual-case demos, the do’s and don’ts and first aids lectures to ensure maximum security of the citizens. In this way, they are at least competent to manage themselves and that these will help them a lot in times of troubles. People Empowerment Under our law, there two main agencies that are in-charge of management disaster control namely: the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) under the Executive cabinet of Department of Homeland Security (DHS); and the Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (COE) that was established by the US Congress. In line with the DHS, the Citizens Corps (a voluntary organization) seeks to mitigate disaster and prepare the population for emergency response through public education, training, and outreach. What our state do is to give seminars and actual-case demo to at least make our citizen prepare when an unexpected things occurs. We target the youngsters in schools and teach them what they would do in times of calamities. An example would be earthquake drills, first aids and alike. We target class rooms and young people because these are the ones that mostly freak-out when disasters happen. Also, in school or university, we expect a massive population in which students outnumbered the school staff. Thus, they must know what they do to avoid things that could make the situation worst. One thing that we aim is to evade circumstances like stampede during evacuation in times of earthquake. We educate the people to know their responsibility and make them cooperate to make our disaster management system work in its full level. Moreover, we highly recommend the people to update themselves of the weather condition that the state has to prepare the things that they will need if worst cases happen. We do not st op in people empowerment alone, though we consider this as one of our best option in disaster management, still we equip our state with facilities that could easily reach out our people and backed them up to maximize their protection. We used the latest tools and gadgets that are known to be more efficient in recuing other people. The mobile emergency response support that is responsible to provide information regarding

Sports Utility Vehicles Essay Example for Free

Sports Utility Vehicles Essay The paper referred to with this text is the one entitled â€Å"Sports Utility Vehicles: The real cost of power,† and the intention in this document is to endeavor to explain the revision process and what I personally learnt from that process as it applies to this paper. In revising the paper, apart from the obvious spelling, punctuation, grammatical and referencing corrections, I also needed to look at the hypothesis, structure and argument basis. There were two reasons for this. Firstly, revision is necessary to ensure that the research and conclusions reached are in accordance with the main theme of the paper, and that it does not raise additional points, which have been left, unanswered. In the respect of the hypothesis question, upon reviewing my work I found that it was necessary to revise from the original, as this was not concisely presented, nor were the original boundaries of the question defined in a manner that was easy to follow. It therefore needed to be more clearly defined. Similarly, from the structural aspect, there was a need for this to be reorganized. In its initial format, some of the points portrayed in the paper were not organized in a manner that clearly led the reader from one to the next, creating what might have appeared to be a disjointed approach to the subject. Clarity was also one of the reasons for the revision. In parts of the paper, it was found that points were made for which there was no supporting evidence, or the relevance of those points to the hypothesis were not connected properly. During the revision of the work, these points were revisited. In most cases, it was possible to provide further clarification, which addressed the issues. However, it was found in one or two instances that further research was necessary to either support the point raised or re-analyze it. The other aspect of the original paper that did require revision was that of the citations and quotations. In some original cases, these did not provide ease of access for the reader and would have reduced the value of the paper as a credible research document. Some of the references were too vague and in other instances, references and bibliographical connections were missing. I believe that the value that I personally gained from the process of the revision of this paper will benefit future research and other work that I undertake. I learnt the importance of being able review work in an objective manner, questioning the arguments raised in an effort to seek their relevance to the issues being addressed and the hypothesis itself. In addition, I learnt that the style of writing and the structure of the document, in terms of both the sentences and the ordered manner of presenting points raised, make a significant difference to the clarity of the document and impacts upon it knowledge value for the reader or student. As a result, I believe that the revising of the SUV paper will provide me with the ability to produce a better standard of work in the future. It will also enable me to improve my knowledge and development skills. Work Cited Anon (2006). Revising the draft. The Writing Center, University of North Carolina. Retrieved 6 December 2006 from http://www. unc. edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/revision. html

The Concept of Equitable Globalisation

The Concept of Equitable Globalisation Rebecca Knighton Globalisation Debates: The Concept of Equitable Globalisation and the Offshoring of Jobs ‘One of the fundamental questions of todays world is undoubtedly the question of equitable globalisation’, these were the words of Dr Janez DrnovÃ… ¡ek (2004), then President of the Republic of Slovenia, in a speech addressing members of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. In order to realise the importance of that sentence, an understanding must be gained of what is meant by globalisation. A word that Godin (2006) described as a buzzword; globalisation is today used to define, justify and legitimise the interconnectedness of the world. Theodore Levitt and his 1983 article The Globalisation of Markets in the Harvard Business Review are accepted by many commentators as the origin of the mainstream use of the term (Mullen, 2006; Abdelal Tedlow, 2006). Equitable globalisation can be defined as an interconnected world in which progress made is fair and development is impartial. When comparing this ambition to how modern day global relationships operate, it’s clear that globalisation today does not possess these qualities. Joshi (2009) explores globalisation and describes it as the increasing economic interdependence of national economies across the world, attributing this interdependence to a rapid increase in the cross-border movements of ‘goods, service, technology, and capital’, while this idea does not contradict the pursuit for fairness, the real and tangible effects of global interconnectedness do not always embody fairness or impartiality. The debate that will be the focus of this discussion, one that routes from the equality – or lack of equality – within global interconnectedness, is centred on offshoring. Offshoring is the process of moving parts of a business’s operations to a different country – this can be either through subcontracting with a contractual agreement or setting up business further premises in another carrying out tasks there. Mankiw (2004) describes the notion as the latest manifestation of the gains from trade ‘that economists have talked about at least since Adam Smith’, his opinion is that this so-called ‘phenomenon’ (Vedder, Guynes and Reilly 2010) is simply the next step businesses can take to profit in many ways in a progressing business environment. The source of the debate leads on from the aforementioned pursuit of equitable globalisation and the contrasting opinions, and justifications of those opinions, between those who support or dis parage offshoring. The debate itself can be separated between the country a business originates from and its chosen destination of offshoring, arguments from both locations identify reasons either for or against. Throughout the debate, the economic, political, social and cultural elements of this element of globalisation will be examined. The first area of the debate to be examined is the contrasting opinions about offshoring in the country of the business’s origin. For the purpose of this discussion, there will be a focus on the USA. A word that seems synonymous with these contrasting opinions is ‘protectionism’ – Mankiw and Swagel look into the term in their insightful 2006 article and conclude that in different arguments it come with entirely different connotations. Members of the American public are looking for some security and consistency in their job and the services they receive, and the term ‘protect’ is tantamount to this, and something they feel the US Government should prioritise. Brothers Ron and Anil Hira are prominent authors within this globalisation debate, and their book Outsouring America (2005) represents the debate well. Their view is that America policy, representative of MEDC’s around the world, is ‘naà ¯ve’ – stating that †˜the formula of free, deregulated markets and faith in American superiority ignores how the international economy has slowly and gradually shifted in the last few decades ‘. Their point follows on from book’s foreword by Lou Dobbs, in which the accusation is made that globalisation and its consequential offshoring have and continue to lead to economic insecurity which is in direct contradiction of the American Dream. This argument is somewhat fuelled by the media (Mankiw Swagel 2006; Amiti Wei 2005). Within the last decade, political events such as the publishing and the controversy surrounding CEA’s February 2004 Economic Report for the President Report in the run up to the 2004 election which mentioned offshoring have coincided with impartial reports and media attention regarding job losses and economic slowdown. These overlapping events have led to the subject of offshoring becoming thought of as a justification for a faltering labour market. In addition to the argument of a loss of American jobs, an element of this debate is about the quality of exported services. A customer survey by American Banker/Gallup (2004) found that of the two thirds of respondent aware of offshore outsourcing, the vast majority (78%) held an unfavourable opinion. Exemplifying this point is the relocation, and consequential return, of a call centre for the computer technology firm Dell due to customers complaining that upon its move to India, standards dropped and customer service quality was reduced, this was discussed by Taylor and Bain (2004). Although this case is not alone it its controversy, may call centres have remained in India and other popular offshoring locations – part of the Asian information technology enabled services (ITES) industry estimated to be worth US$1.5–1.6 trillion in 2020 (NASSCOM 2009a). To refer back to the aforementioned point of varying connotations of protectionism, the opinions found in academic and particularly economic literate are that the notion carries negative implications. This academic literature forms part of the discourse that offshoring is a positive contribution to a country’s economy. In order to justify the concept of outsourcing, economists look into the theory that defines their subject area – a part of this theory is comparative advantage. This is the ability for one party to produce a good or provide a service at a lower marginal cost to its competitor (Baumol Minder 2009) and can also be applied to whole countries. The comparative advantage that, for example, India can offer US companies for elements of their business that can be outsourced, is the driver of offshoring. One view of this concept is that of Bhagwati (2008), who labelled the phenomenon ‘kaleidoscopic comparative advantage’ is recognition of its complex ity. In direct contradiction to the so-called protectionists’ opinion of a negative effect on the economy, McKinsey Consulting (2003) calculate that overall net US income rises by about 12–14 cents for every dollar of outsourcing; this is due to the increased profits of companies being contributed to tax, being used to develop and grow the business – leading to more US employment, and consumers paying lower prices for products and services that have been made cheaper by offshoring. A further point in the debate that this embodiment of globalisation is good for the economy is that these global economic developments could be liken to a third Industrial Revolution. Blinder (2006) explored this idea – he identified that such vast and unsettling adjustments are not unique today as the same repercussions were felt during both the agricultural and the manufacturing industrial revolutions, but added that both of those economic changes are looked back upon as succ essful and relevant steps forward. The article goes on to address the opinion that jobs are risk of being relocated are those that are typically lower paid; using an example of taxi drivers, aeroplane pilots, janitors and crane operators as ‘safe’ jobs, compared with accountants, computer programmers, radiologists and security guards as jobs that could potentially be outsource. The range of jobs that are or are not at risk do not correspond to traditional distinctions between high-end and low-end work. A further point opposed to the argument against the offshoring of job to America is the contest to opinions that it lead to a reduced quality of customer service. Blinder (2006) comments on the constant improvements in technology and global communication, says that due to this there has been little or no degradation in quality. The education of the employees in foreign companies is discussed by Doyle (2012) – he used the example of the recent vast improvements of English Language education in India and puts forward the point that this in turn eliminates a potential language barrier that may have supposed negative effect on the customer service provided by companies that outsource their call centres to country that don’t have English as a first language. Having explored both view of offshoring in the country of the business’ origin, the nest step to gaining an understanding of this globalisation debate is that of the country hosting these outsource jobs. Similarly to the previous arguments, using a case study will allow a more in depth investigation into the opinions and justifications of this debate. India will be the focus of this debate – chosen due to its popularity amongst business as a destination for offshoring jobs. According to the Tholons 2013 report of the top worldwide outsourcing destinations, six Indian cities are within the ten most favourable, including the 1st and 2nd being Bangalore and Mumbai respectively. The offshoring of jobs to India is regarded as the main vendor of offshored jobs, with some estimates that an additional 400 people are employed a day due to jobs that have been offshored (Bergh et al, 2011). This contribution to the economy is the main positive with this globalisation debate in favour of outsourcing jobs to India; a contribution estimate by Nasscom to be growing 19% per year (Nasscom, 2012). Bergh et al (2011) go on to discuss the impacts of this input into the India economy, such as vast improved have been made to infrastructure that has in turn allowed further expansion and an increased quality of life. A further part of the debate is the social side of this embodiment of globalisation: this impacts of increased employment. Despite criticism, that will be explored further into this discussion, there is evidence within academic literature and other publications that improvement are made to the quality of lives of those employed by companies that have offshored their jobs to India, Ball et al (2005) explore this point, their findings indicate that those employed by subsidiaries of the original company that has outsourced the jobs benefit from working conditions better than if they were employed by companies based in India, as well as a better sense of job security. Another point is the claims that these companies recognise the nature of the work, identifying that by working and travelling home overnight employee would be increasingly vulnerable, and by offering security and transport services care is taken of these employees (Messenger and Ghosheh, 2010). Whilst this argument of the positive effects on the vendors’ economy and the satisfactory to good working conditions provided is legitimised by academic papers on the subject, the opposing opinions come from a strong stand point and are very well justified by both academic research and events in the media. One underlying point of this discourse relates back to the point of equitable globalisation and the impartiality of development – a concept which ties in with the opportunity to develop sustainably. A major criticism of the presence of outsourced jobs and the effects of these in India and other vendor nations is the instability of and speed in which changes are being made. Whilst governments, such as in India, have been recognised as paramount in facilitating an inflow of not only foreign capital but also knowledge and technology. Winters and Yusuf (2007) highlight the pressure felt governments by internationally trading companies to aid their overseas operations – attributing this to the fast growth and lack of forward planning when implementing incentive schemes. This potential instability is worsen by claims that India may be losing its popularity amongst multi-national companies leading to a slowdown in investment (Helyah, 2010; The Economist, 2013). A second element to this discourse is explored by Messenger and Ghosheh (2010), and is based on the deep rooted cultural differences between vendor countries, i.e. India, and the companies’ country of origin. This leads to difficulties in integration and segregation between higher management and workers, which is turn can very negatively affect moral. A further point in the issue of cultural difference, is the westernisation of the nation a company is operating – an example of this is demonstrated in a Post-Colonial perspective investigation into recent changes in Indian culture and an example within the paper, by Ravishenkar et al (2013), is the education system in India that is said to ‘mimick’ Western concepts and ignore local stakeholder. Whilst this change would not be considered a negative by all commentators, it exemplifies a potential loss of national identity which has been explored in the wider sense of globalisation by Featherstone (2005). A final point in the discussion of this debate is the working conditions of people employed in offshored jobs. Ghimire (no date) commentates the topic and highlights the following point as issues within the sector: disturbed social and family life due to overbearing work commitments and a lack of flexibility by employers; detachments from local culture and lifestyle; racist abuse from customers abroad. This list is increased by further contributions from Messenger and Ghosheh (2010) who explain that of their sample over 50% have suffered from work related illnesses and conditions including back and neck pain, sleep problems and headaches; they also reveal that many regulations set out by India’s government are not adhered to or are interpreted in the favour of employees: example are having the breaks required by law being dependant on outputs and call levels (in call centres) or breaks cut short due to overloading workloads and missed, sometime considered unattainable, targets . Due to the nature of companies with insufficient working condition, data is not available across the board due to secrecy and strict employee contracts; information in the media gives an insight into how conditions are worse than this, but cannot be relied on to be true and legitimate sources in an academic discussion. By investigating the debate with what can be identified as four separate discourses, a comprehensive understanding can be gained of the opinions, justifications and evidence of each opposing argument. The exploration of such a topical and global debate bring some difficulties – such as contradicting literature and misinterpretation of statistical evidence. The question of the practice of offshoring is a prominent debate within globalisation; and due to its so called ‘kaleidoscopic’ complexity (Bhagwati, 2008) and multiple standpoints it demonstrates the complexity in the global interconnectedness of today’s world. When returning to the initial concept of equitable globalisation, this debate highlights how the pursuit of that ideal is somewhat unattainable; the impartiality of the concept is impossible to obtain due to the nature of the profit driven forces that dominate the global relations and drive globalisation itself. References Abdelal, R and Tedlow, R S (2003) Theodore Levitt’s ‘The Globalization of Markets’: An Evaluation after Two Decades. Harvard NOM Working Paper No. 03-20; Harvard Business School Working Paper No. 03-082. [Online] Last accessed 04/01/14 at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=383242 American Banker/Gallup (2004), What Americans think about overseas outsourcing? American Banker. 169 (192) 18 Amiti, M and Wei, Shang-Jin (2005) Fear of Service Outsourcing: Is it justified? Economic Policy. 20 (42) 308-347 Anon (2004) Economic Report of the President, 108th Congress, 2nd Session [Online] Last accessed 06/01/14 at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/ERP-2004/pdf/ERP-2004.pdf Anon (2013) India No Longer Automatic Choice for Services and Back Office Work. The Economist. (Special Report). Bain, P and Taylor, P (2004) Call Centre Offshoring to India: The Revenge of History? Labour and Industry: A Journal of the Social and Economic Relations of Work. 14 (3) Baumol, W and Binder, A (2009) Economics: Principles and Policy. Ohio: South Western Cengage Learning Bergh, A, Israels, R, Mehta, S, Sheychenko, A (2011) A decade of offshore outsourcing to India: Define your strategy for the next decade. [Online] Last accessed 07/01/14 at http://www.quintgroup.com/content/library/A_Decade_of_Offshore_Outsourcing.pdf Bhagwati, J (2008) The selfish hegemon must offer a New Deal on trade. [Online] Last accessed 06/01/14 at http://delong.typepad.com/egregious_moderation/2008/08/jagdish-bhagwat.html Blinder, A (2006) Offshoring: The Next Industrial Revolution? Foreign Affairs. 85 (2) 113-128 DrnovÃ… ¡ek, J (2004) Speech by President DrnovÃ… ¡ek at the opening of the meeting of European Liberals in Ljubljana [Online] Last accessed 04/01/14 at http://www2.gov.si/up-rs/2002-2007/jd-ang.nsf/dokumentiweb/A28B9C6C3EC2ABFEC1256F95002CB360?OpenDocument Farrell, D, Baily, M, Agrawal, V, Bansal, V, Beacom, T, Kaka, N, Kejriwal, M, Kumar, A, Palmade, V, Remes, J, Heinz, T (2003) Offshoring: Is it a Win–Win Game? McKinsey Global Institute Featherstone, M (2005) Undoing Culture: Globalisation, Postmodernism and Identity. London: Sage Publications Ghimire, b (no date) Social Impact of Outsourcing. Understanding Outsourcing. Professional Education, Testing and Certification Organization International [Online] Last accessed 07/01/14 at http://www.peoi.org/Courses/Coursesen/outsrc/outsrc6.html Ghosheh, N and Messenger, J (Eds) (2010) Offshoring and Working Conditions in Remote Work Godin, B (2006) The Knowledge-Based Economy: Conceptual Framework or Buzzword. The Journal of Technology Transfer. 31 (1) 17-30 Guynes, C, Reilly, R and Vedder, R (2010) Offshoring Limitations. Review of Business Information Systems. 14 (1) Helyar, J (2012) Outsourcing: A Passage out of India. Bloomberg Business Week Companies and Industry Hira, A and Hira, R (2005) Outsourcing America: What’s behind our national crisis and how we can reclaim American jobs. New York: AMACON Joshi, R M (2009) International Business. New Delhi and New York: Oxford University Press Levitt, T (1983) Globalization of Markets. Harvard Business Review. May/June. 92-102 Mankiw, G and Swagel, P (2006) The Politics and economics of Offshore Outsourcing. Journal of Monetary Economics. 53 (5). Mullen, J (2006) An ‘Original Mind’ of Marketing Dies. Advertising Ages. 77 (8) NASSCOM. (2009) Gender inclusivity in India: Building an empowered organisation. [Online] Last accessed 06/01/14 at: http://www.nasscom.in Tholons (2013) 2013 Top 100 Outsourcing Destinations: Rankings and Report Overview. p2 Winters, A and Yusuf, S (2007) Dancing with Giants: China, India and the Global Economy. Washington: World Bank Publications

Essay --

Makeup Essay 2 The only reason that I missed my lab quiz was because I own a company named Loan Modification Relief Center. What we specialize in is saving clients from loosing their homes to foreclosure, sale dates and help put them in a better situation. On the day of the 2nd lab quiz, I had 3 clients that were about to loose their homes and I don’t pass that job on to anyone else simply because I have that old school mentality that if I don’t do it myself it wont get done right. Since my name is on the line with it being my company I am not willing to tarnish my name so I had to be there to make sure it happen correctly. I’m pleased to say that the time I missed away from school was not wasted on a lazy day or a personal day or just a day off. I was able to postpone the sale dates for all three clients homes. In all honesty I have straight For future reference I assure you that I will not be missing anymore classes, I have done my best to implement an alternative solutions to prevent this situation form occurring again in the future. A’s and I take my schooling very seri...

The New York Crystal Palace Essay -- Architecture History

Missing image The New York Crystal Palace: The End of an Era So bursts a bubble rather noteworthy in the annals of New York. To be accurate, the bubble burst some years ago, and this catastrophe merely annihilates the apparatus that generated it. -George Templeton Strong It is unfortunate that the wonderful lithographs in our collection which depict the burning of the New York Crystal Palace are not in this online exhibition. They include a color lithograph by Currier & Ives which truly captures the excitement and confusion of that fateful night. However, the bird's eye view of the New York Crystal Palace exhibited here does justice to this amazing structure. The lithograph by Frank Leslie shows the extensive use of glass panes for which both the London and New York Crystal Palaces were given their names. It also shows the throngs of people that must have visited the New York Crystal Palace during the Exhibition, even though they were not numerous enough to make the building profitable for investors. The lithograph duplicated on this web site is about 20 x 13 inches. One is able to see the details much more clearly by viewing the original itself. As opposed to those lithographs which showed only a building with no background and no people, this image shows not only the city behind the Palace, but also the city within the Palace. In the background, one can see the various modes of transportation that visitors must have used to get to the Exhibition. The railroad runs across the top of the image, with a train in the upper left. Sailboats and steamboats move along the river, and horse-drawn carriages pull up to the front gates, unloading passengers into the crowd. The buildings behind the Palace fade away, but t... ...nd 2,000 people were in the building, but they were all evacuated in time by a heroic fire department that put saving life ahead of saving merchandise. Having been constructed almost entirely of iron and glass, with only a little wood near its base, and having been called "fireproof" at the time of its construction, the Palace faced the same sort of irony which the "unsinkable" Titanic faced in 1912. The enormous building burnt to the ground in less than half an hour. The building itself, though no longer standing, remains one of America's first and most interesting examples of glass and iron architecture. The exhibits of industrial and artistic objects, whether huge steam-powered machines, intricately decorated home furnishings, or marble statues, attested to the high degree of invention and skill that characterized the artistic expressions of ante-bellum culture.

Parent and Child Relationships Essay

â€Å"I Am Sam† is a powerfully touching film that tells the story of a parent and child’s love for one another. It shows that love is pure, and that no matter how great the mind is, love is even greater. The film’s protagonist is Sam, a mentally-challenged adult with a mental age of 7. Sam has a daughter, Lucy, with a prostitute who left them. Sam works at the local Starbucks to support Lucy, and everything is going along well until Lucy turned 7, because she already surpassed her father’s mental abilities. This creates problems, because early on we see that Lucy is precocious and inquisitive, and she is no longer satisfied with her father’s nonsense answers to her questions. When she starts wanting to read more difficult books than what Sam reads to her, she fakes having difficulty reading so as not to offend her father and make him feel inferior. On Sam’s part, even when he sees that Lucy is already growing up, he tries his best to support her the best way he knows how. Lucy does not see this yet because she is still a child, but she understands that her father is different, but she loves him because he is a very loving father who takes her out to the park and to eat pancakes and generally takes good care of her. Later in the film she is embarrassed when her classmates tease her that her father is a retard that she denies him and tells them that she is adopted. The authorities take her away from Sam, and later on sent to a foster home. When the authorities take Lucy away from him, he does everything he could to get her back. He even gets the fearsome lawyer Rita to help his cause. Rita, a successful and stringent lawyer who values winning more than anything, decides to take Sam’s case just to prove that she is not as selfish as she looks. Through the course of helping Sam, she realizes that Sam is a good father, that Sam’s mental inadequacy has not hampered his ability to love and care for his daughter at all. That in fact, he is a better parent than she is. When at first she sought to win Sam’s case because she did not want to lose, eventually Rita sympathizes with Sam’s cause. Sam visits Lucy regularly, and Lucy realizes that she wants her father back, and that she is going to fight back just to be with him, even if she is smarter than him, even if the world laughs at her for having a retard for a father. At this moment, Lucy has matured, and although she is just 7, she has taken responsibility not only of her own actions, but also decided that she will take care of her father when he could no longer take care of her, that she needs to be smart and capable and strong for the both of them. She saw just how much her father loves her and how he does not give up on her even when she denied him. However, even with Rita’s help, Sam loses the custody battle at court. Sam breaks down as he is convinced that he cannot take care of his own daughter. All this time, he was doing everything he could, enlisting the help of his friends and employers and colleagues to prove that he has what it takes to raise his daughter, but he finally accepts the fact that he is mentally inadequate to give her needs. If he really loves his daughter, he would do what is best for her even if it means letting go of her so that she could be the best that she could be. And Sam does that. He accepts that he cannot take care of Lucy, but even when he concedes, he does not give up on being a father to her. He moves in to an apartment just to be nearer to Lucy, so that even if he cannot raise her at least he could be there for her whenever she needed him, and so that he could watch her grow up. Lucy is hurt that she cannot be with her father, but she takes matters on her own hands, Late at night she sneaks out of her foster home to be with her father. Her foster parents find her out, and she does not deny that she longs to be with her father, even if they think that they can be better parents than him. Eventually, the foster parents let her go back to Sam, for Sam to have custody of her. The film tells us that love is great driving force that cannot be measured by financial success, or by intellectual achievements. Society may look at Sam as a retarded, inadequate man, but he fought for his daughter against all odds, when Lucy’s own mother simply walked out and left them. Lucy was smarter than Sam, but she learned about love from her father because he showered her with it. That is why even when she was presented with a better future with a â€Å"better† set of parents, she still chooses to go back to Sam, because she knows that her father loves her and she loves him. At the end, the film teaches us what a parent can give best to his child, and what a child needs most from a parent – love. And that is something that cannot be bought or substituted with material things, because children will always know if their parents have shown them enough love.