Overview
Every nation maintains relative advantages and disadvantages in terms of development and global trade. This project is designed for you to assess the factors affecting growth and globalization to make a reasoned determination of opportunities and threats facing the country and the businesses that operate within its boundaries.
Note: While the research components in each of the phases are designed to provide a comprehensive analysis of this aspect of this report, selected items may be used to gather information for a specific element.
Table of Contents
Phase 1 – Historical Factors
Describe how the history of the country affects its present and future.
• History matters. To the culture, to governance, to expectations, and to globalization.
• Also consider geography, resource endowments, and factors of production: labor, energy, land, capital, & entrepreneurship.
PHASE 2 – The Macro-Environment (PESTEL)
Analyze the political, governmental, economic, and socio-cultural aspects of the country. Develop a PESTEL analysis.
• Political: collectivist vs. individualist, democratic vs. totalitarian, market vs. command, private vs. state, current conflicts and foreign relations, regulations, etc.
• Economic: GDP, FDI, tariffs and trade barriers, key industries, major exports and imports, exchange rate fluctuations, etc.
• Socio-Cultural: education level, attitude toward foreign goods, major language(s), art and cuisine preferences, etc.
• Technological: transportation, skilled labor, innovation requires market with strong property rights, ENT ecosystem/clusters, etc.
• Environmental: environmental regulations, historical record, key protections, etc.
• Legal: legal systems, contract law, property rights, intellectual property, safety, liability, etc.
PHASE 3 – Culture
Gain cultural intelligence of the country and its people.
• Assess the country’s values, norms, ethics, religious beliefs, etiquette, holidays, work/life balance, language, education level, etc.
• Hofstede Dimensions: Power Distance, Individual vs. Collective, Uncertainty Avoidance, Masculine vs. Feminine, Long-term vs. Short-term, Indulgence vs. Restraint.
PHASE 4 – The Marketplace
Gather market intelligence of the country.
• Assess the country’s consumer demographics, tastes, purchasing power, segmentation, & advertising norms
• Assess the country’s supplier demographics including the distribution system, production capabilities, areas of resource uniqueness, etc.
• Assess the major industries and companies that reside within the country.
PHASE 5 – Assessment
Create your recommendations.
• How can the country overcome its major political challenges?
• How could you improve the country’s economic outlook?
• What are the major barriers to success in the global marketplace that could be reduced?
• What are the country’s major advantages in the global marketplace?
• Would you set up a multi-national company in this country?
• What business/industry would you suggest has the most opportunity in the country?
Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell.
In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.
God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.
Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.
To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.
References
Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.
Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.
Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.
