'Better leadership is too often proposed as a panacea for Essay

'Better leadership is too often proposed as a panacea for organisational problems which have other orgins'. Critically argue for or against this propostion with examples - Essay Example fined as the process by which an individual has influence over others to motivate them in attaining the goals that will help the organisation to move in a right direction. I agree with the notion that better leadership is too often proposed as a panacea of organisational problems which have other origins as people who have good and effective leadership skills can address all problems in a highly efficient manner. In every organisation, there are various problems and all of them can be resolved when their root causes are identified and remedial steps are taken to eradicate the foundation of the issues as it will ensure that organisational productivity is enhanced (Hays, 2008). In my opinion, better leadership is the solution for various organisational issues such as job dissatisfaction as there can be a gap between the job requirements and the jobholder’s personal attributes; with the help of an influencing leader, the jobholder can be motivated to deliver a good performance. However, it can be argued that a person’s job should be redesigned so that he/she is willing to make a productive contribution in the organisation’s required level of performances (Yukle, 2006). According to Bass and Bass (2008) and Howard and Wellins (2008), although leaders can motivate the employees to increase their efforts but if there is a conflict between the job requirements and employee’s skill level then the root cause should be eliminated. Wheelen and Hunger (2005) argue that leadership can temporarily resolve the problem but in the long-term it can hamper the performance of employees which can create ineffectiveness in the organisation. In my opinion, better leadership can definitely influence the employees to enhance their productivity which can improve their contribution level for organisation’s improved performance. It has been rightly stated by Mayo and Nohria (2005) that better leadership will provide more chances for resolving the organisational issues that have

Comparing Business and Econimic Opportunities in India and China Essay Example for Free

Comparing Business and Econimic Opportunities in India and China Essay From my perspective, the main factor contributes to the difference in FDI and economic growth in China and India are institutions. There are two kinds of institutions; one is formal institution, including political system, legal system and economic system, another one is informal institution, which consists of culture, business norms and ethics. As for political system in India, which labeled as sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic. It is similar to America, it has the federal form of government, its central government is patterned after the British parliamentary system, and several Parties are able to take control of the nation, but the main power to control the country is the central government. Compare with Chinese communist totalitarianism, India is more democratic in terms of the political system. In other, words, it is more easier to set up your own business in India and which may absorb more capital thanks to the democratic political system in India. According to the corruption perceptions index 2012, India got the score of 36, and China got the score of 39, the lower score means the country is highly corrupt in the public sector. Therefore, China is more attractive to foreign investors in terms of the corruption level. As for political risk, thanks to corruption and the departure of several key allies for India, the government has been weakened in India, which make India less attractive for foreign investment to compare with China. As for protecting intellectual property right, the provisions of intellectual property right in India is more comprehensive than Chinese, which ensures foreign companies get an easier access to take control of intellectual property in India. According to the data from Global EDGE, Chinese government provides more protections on labors to compare with India. Which is a good sign for encouraging FDI in China. According to Ease of Paying Taxes Index on Global EDGE website, which ranks the country based on their total tax rate as well as measuring the administrative burden of paying taxes. India ranked 152 and China ranked 122; this indicates that compare with doing business in India, foreign companies may not have much pressure of paying tax for the government in China, which is positive sign for foreign companies to expanded to Chinese to get rid of the high tax rate. As for economic system, both of China and India used to be in the  command economy, but they have reformed their economy system to mixed economy in 1978 and 1991 respectively. From my perspective, the early reform of Chinese economy provides a rapid development of the economy in China, which contributes to the higher GDP compare with India now. The economic growth of India is constrained by the inadequate infrastructure, which may creates obstacles for foreign investment. As for cultures, business norm and ethic, India got a huge number of well-educated people skilled in English skill, which is easier for foreign investors to overcome the languages barriers to compare with China. The religion is a factor which foreign investor has to take into account when they want to enter India. Thanks to different religion groups in India, the core value and the norms are widely differ from different religions, which take time to understand those value and norms when doing business among Indians. According to data from The Hofstede Center, China and India almost had the same score in power distance, collectivist culture, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance, but China is more long-term oriented, the investment is tend to be more long-term projects for instance, the real estate. From my perspective, choosing India to invest is a wise decision, the main reason I recommend the India for foreign investment is that companies may not face as much as competition in India compare with China. There are a huge number of multinational firms in China; it is more difficult to be successful due to the fierce competition in China. As for India, where had a more comprehensive legal system, which can reduce the cost of doing business and improve the security of foreign investment. The democratic society may offer more opportunities for foreign investors as well. The India cannot surpass China within a short period of time because of the inadequate infrastructures; the inadequate infrastructures is the key factor which constraints the economic growth in India. It is capital and time-consuming to build infrastructures within a short period of time.

Suicide :: essays research papers fc

I will never forget what happened in my high school merely five months ago. Chuck was 16 years old, a junior in high school, and a star football player. In December of 2002, he began to have many troubles in his life. His girlfriend of about one year broke off their relationship, and declined his invitation to the school’s annual Christmas Ball. In the days leading up to this dance, Chuck had lost his after-school job, and had several conferences with his guidance counselor about his poor academic performance. On top of all of these factors, Chuck went to a car dealership to put a down payment a car he had his heart set on, and discovered it had already been sold. Chuck went to the Christmas Ball alone, following his ex-girlfriend around for the majority of the night. Midway through the evening, one of Chuck’s classmates screamed at him, â€Å"She doesn’t like you, get away from her and get a life!† Chuck spent the rest of the evening sitting alone. He di d not attend any of the after-parties that evening, and the next day, Chuck’s parents discovered his body hanging in their shower. Have you ever felt like just throwing it all away? No matter how pleasant a person’s life is, there are often times where a person feels overpowered by feelings of doubt, despair, and hopelessness. The majorities of people either push these feelings aside or cope with them, and the feelings diminish and disappear. For others, these emotions never seem to fade away; intense negative feelings continually overwhelm their lives and lead them to believe there is no way to escape or cope with the problems at hand. They turn to suicide, seeing death as the only solution to their problems. Suicide is a problem that affects all people, in every age group, from every background, in every social class, and should not be taken lightly. Due to the graveness of the issue and its detrimental effects, all people are socially obligated to help prevent suicide at all costs. Suicide is defined as â€Å"the act or an instance of intentionally killing oneself.† (www.dictionary.com) In the United States alone, an average of 29,350 people commits suicide each year, equaling approximately 80 people a day, one person every 18 minutes. Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the United States. Although the overall rate of suicide has dropped in recent years, teen suicide has increased, becoming the 3rd leading cause of death for individuals between the ages of 15 and 24.

Injustices Exposed in Alan Patons Cry the Beloved Country :: Cry, The Beloved Country Essays

Cry the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton, is the story of the two fictional characters, Stephen Kumalo and James Jarvis, who lose their sons in South Africa in 1948. In his story, Alan Paton used the George Hegel's Dialect of thesis, antithesis, synthesis, in order to expose social injustices in a microcosm of South Africa that correlate to the macrocosm of the issues faced by the entire country and what must be done to fix these injustices. Paton subdivided his story into three books. The first of these books, depicts the Journey of Stephen Kumalo, to try and restore his family, is a cry against injustice. The second book focused mainly on James Jarvis’s plight to understand his deceased son, depicts the yearning for justice. While the final book displays the restoration and repair of the injustices derived from the yearning for justice. The society of the small urban town called Ndotsheni, from which both Stephan and Author come, is based largely on the native African tribal system. This town also suffers from a drought that drives away the young men to work in the mines of Johannesburg. Johannesburg directly contradicts Ndotsheni with no tribal system and the brake down of the moral fibers of its people. Yet in Johannesburg there is also hope for the future and ideas that help lead to the restoration of Ndotsheni. During the time the story is set in Johannesburg the reader is introduced to two exceptionally different characters. The first is John Kumalo, the brother of Stephen Kumalo. He is a corrupt politician with the voice of a â€Å"lion,† but a week hart, who spoke about the injustices of the whites to the blacks and their need to revolt. The other an enlightened priest, Msimangu, who prayed for loving and restoration through coming to amends. Their influences help to shape Kumalo into a new per son. Furthermore, throughout his story Paton stresses the idea of irresponsibility contradicted by individual responsibility. Eventually the idea of unified responsibility is shown to be the only manor by which South Africa can be saved. The partied society in place when Paton wrote Cry the Beloved Country was one of extreme racial inequality and injustice. Paton wrote the first book of his story as a protest to this injustice. This book begins with the description of Ndotsheni and the land that surrounds it.

Unit Outcome

At 3 months babies will start to notice objects around them like mobiles above beds, TV's, lamps tables etc. At months babies will start to explore toys passing them from one hand to the next and exploring it with their mouths too. Babies will start to smile back at smiling faces at around 3 months at around 6 months babies start to show that they are understanding dome of what is being said for instance they may start to lift arms in the air to communicate that they would like to be picked up.Babies at between 3 and 6 months will be settling into a good routine which will have a balance of both inpatient and play time spending lots of time smiling and playing with career 6-12 MONTHS At this stage babies will be becoming mobile, crawling bum shuffling and at closer to 1 2 months maybe cruising using furniture to help stable themselves s they move around on their feet and possibly walking freely. Babies will becoming more independent at trying to feed themselves using fingers and poss ibly with spoons. Babies at this stage will still be exploring objects with hands and mouth exploration may happen for longer periods of times.When children start to reach the 12 months they will start to recognize symbols do routine water running for baths bib at food time etc. At this stage children will start to understand some key words like bottle, dinner. There babbling will become longer and more tuneful they may start to point to object to express to adults that they want it. At this age children start to understand that objects and people do not disappear this means that when main careers disappear they may become upset and cry they may try to stay close to main career they may become anxious if strangers approach then. -2 YEARS By 1 8 month children have found their feet and are moving with speed, they will enjoy playing with ride-on toys using legs to push off. And enjoy playing push/ pull toys pushing cars down ramps etc. At closer to 2 children are likely to start explo re to climbing things such as chairs, tables and the stairs. Children at this age will use children's cutlery (spoon and fork) to try to independently feed themselves although may not always be successfully and may make a mess. Children at this age enjoy repetitive games and posting Or pop up toys.At closer to 2 they may start playing with building block building 1 ,2,3 block tower, and certainly enjoy knocking it down. They may start to do simple puzzles. And even start to play pretend. The language of children at this age will change from babbling to some recognizable words, at the age of around 2 they are likely to have a vocabulary of round 200 words generally Ames of people and objects. They will communicate times of frustration and anger when they cannot achieve what they want or do what they want with tantrums and emotional.They will also communicate happiness with squeals smiles and laughter Children display lots of emotion at this age laughter smiles and squeals for happine ss. Temper, tantrums and emotional outbreaks when they are frustrated and/or angry. They start to notices other children around them although will not pay directly with them but alongside then (parallel play). YEARS Children at this age are exploring climbing to get to things they may want e. G. Boning chair to climb on and get things. They will try to peddle tricycles and use their feet if they find it too difficult.They will become able to walk up stairs using alternate feet. Their cutlery skills will increase and will star to use knife and fork possibly cutting softer foods for themselves. During this period children generally learn to potty train and are usually quite independent by 4 Children at this age enjoy role play and small world toys recreating scenes that they have witnesses and taken part in. They become interested in books and story, messy play and mark making and often by 4 give meanings to hose marks at 4 children will hold their concentration if the activity intere sts them.At children start to join word e. G. â€Å"mummy gone† â€Å"my toy† and at 3/4 generally children's speech is understandable and children are starting to form sentences. Children can communicate feelings and emotions. Children still enjoy adult interaction story cuddles and play. Children develop and interests in their peers and start to play along, side them happily sometimes copying and mimicking some of the things they observe. Cooperative play will start to emerge. Children can express themselves verbally so tantrums start o become less frequent.Children become less apprehensive about main career leaving although still like to be in the company of familiar adults. Children at 2 have no understanding of right and wrong but understand the word NO. As children turn 3 they will start to understand and follow simple rules most of the time. 4-7 YEAR Physical development at this age progresses slower. Children are able to kick, catch and control balls. Children are also mastering their fine motor skills doing threading, cutting starting to write recognizable letters and words and at 5/6 handwriting becomes more legible.Children's concentration is increasing. They are able to count and do simple calculations. Children will start to read and be able to do free writing in sentences. Children enjoy engaging in games which have rules. Children at this age ask lots of questions and enjoy talking they start to enjoy making and hearing jokes. Children will start to decode words. Children play well with their peers in cooperative play although the odd augment will still arise. Friends are important to children at this age and they make preferences with their peers creating ‘best friends'. Unit outcome The purpose and benefits of continuously improving performance are exceed any limitations and achieve personal goals and those set by team Leaders and management. 1. 2 It is good to hear other people's opinion on your work, in order to see you are doing it right and for help. Also, others can make suggestions on different ways to do things so you can try and test and if the suggestions don't work you can always go back to how you use to complete the process. Encouraging feedback also shows illnesses to improve performance. . 3 Learning and development can improve your own work as it brings new skills to light and should give the employee a better understanding of the Job they are doing. Through learning new skills, an employee could realize that they are now able to do a job they previously felt under-qualified for, and also giving you more career options. It could also mean that they could have promotion or salary raise. It can benefit work as well the employee is better qualified a nd should have a better understanding of their Job role. 1.The career development in my current role would to become a Claims Handler and pursue up the levels to Claims Specialist. With the experience from being a claims administrator in Direct Group I will have learnt the basics of the claims process and have an understanding of the company systems. 1. 5 The possible development opportunities that will arise from my current position could be to further my academic knowledge of the Business Administration role by applying to complete Level 3 in Business Administration. Or, to apply for a claims handling role and apply to complete and NV in customer service.

Automobile Essay Example

Automobile Essay Example Automobile Essay Automobile Essay The automobile affected the growth of the American economy more than any other invention in the 1920s because it lead to mass production of goods, started the idea of a travel, and it started the highway. This invention completely changed the way that the economy in America has evolved since the 1920s. Itâ„ ¢s started a whole new way of life from a country that rode around on horses for many years. Economic ideas spread quicker than ever. The automobile helped goods get seen in the whole world and they helped to transport them. When the automobile came out it was the beginning of the economy we see today in America, a capitalist economy. The Assembly Line In 1910 the need for cars was steadily increasing, but the price of an automobile was around $ 4200. (Concept Carz) This made it very hard for the average American to purchase a car for their family. A world renowned invention was soon to be invented. As the need for cars was increasing, manufacturers were taking notice in that, but it was impossible to charge less with the few amounts of cars that they could make in one day. Henry Ford, then a president of a small company, heard much about a new way to produce cars. It became clear that the new technology had to be introduced into his factory immediately to increase profits. From 1913-1914, the first movable assembly line was built in Henry Fordâ„ ¢s factory in Highland Park, Michigan. I believe that this was the first moving line ever installed. The idea came in a general way from the overhead trolley that the Chicago packers use in dressing beef. (Ford Motor Company) Those are the words of Walter Flanders, the man who hel ped design the assembly line for Ford. The assembly was an invention for the people. It produced cars in shortly over an hour from 12 hours before. It allowed Ford to lower prices of cars from around $ 4,000 to about $ 500. The idea of an assembly line migrated quickly to other companies. Soon, many companies were mass producing their goods to the mass market. The assembly line had a huge positive impact on the consumer economy. People were able to afford things they werenâ„ ¢t able to buy before. The assembly line you could say is the reason Americans have things we donâ„ ¢t need. We are able to afford things because theyâ„ ¢re mass produced so the prices can be lowered. The assembly line was probably the biggest factor of improving the economy and it started with the automobile. If it wasnâ„ ¢t for the automobile mass production would cease to exist for probably another 10-20 years. Travel Before the automobile, many Americans had never traveled more than 50 miles from their house. That was about to change. With automobiles being mass produced, more people had them and, people started drift away from their hometowns. People wanted to get away. So they started to travel. With traveling comes the need to stay in places overnight and make attractions that draw crowds from different parts of the country. In 1927 in Minnesota, the government there noticed the new amount of tourists that they attracted due to cars. They decided to make the week of May 1st 10,000 lakes week. The goal was to get ten thousand visitors that week. That summer about 1,800,000 tourists spent over 70 million dollars in Minnesota because they could drive there. Arthur Roberts of the Ten Thousand Lakes Association said, Tourists are good business stimulators. Most of them are good buyers and they have cash (Lorentzen). As you can see just because of the automobile the economy in Minnesota exploded up wards. That was just the beginning of the tourist boom in the country. People started to travel a lot more and hotels and motels started to arise. People were going to the beach; they were doing road trips, and many other things. The automobile also helped spread ideas across the country very quickly. When someone would travel somewhere they would go back home and let their friends and family know and that would then bring more people to that area. That increased the number of sales that area made.

Objectivity of Science

Objectivity of Science Introduction The history of objectivity of science can be traced back to the nineteenth century. The objectivity of science was based on the truth, facts and knowledge. It was practiced by scientific atlas founders so as to articulate the presentations of the meaning of nature.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Objectivity of Science specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The need by scientists to restrain themselves from using their individual bias in the description of nature was the fundamental driving force behind scientific objectivity. The guiding principle in scientific objectivity has always been and will always be ensuring that knowledge is safeguarded from biased individual representation. Science is founded on the objective analysis evaluation and presentation of scientific, empirical data based on the facts observed (Kuhn, 1973, para. 3). Scientific objectivity is the term given to the practice of science through which different facts are investigated and subsequently used to explain different untruths. The elimination of personal biases and emotional commitment are the core of scientific objectivity. Objectivity has been used as a standard of measure in science for quite some time. The objectivity of science is closely associated with the ability to test the facts. For science to be considered to be objective, measurement of facts must be disseminated from one person to another. The test of objectivity encompasses other various tests.Advertising Looking for essay on philosophy? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More It has been observed that the classification of traditional objectivity overlooks numerous elements (Kuhn, 1973, para. 8). Therefore, objectivity of science follows certain values and facts. Scientific objectivity, values, or facts The test of objectivity has various subjective decisions which make the entire measureme nt involve reductionist process. On the other hand, the measurement of these methods will form part of the objective test related to the outcome of the facts. A fundamental element of science, which is emphasized by a lot of scientists, is that, emphasis is placed on the facts but not the values involved. This distinction has been openly revealed since science exists on the objective reality and while values do not. This perception enables scientists to perceive the field of science as a domain of permanent knowledge, which must be identified. The notion of science being free from value has been highly contested by sociologists and scientists. The criticism is based on the methods used to arrive at several scientific conclusions (Restivo, 2011, p. 21). There are various misconceptions whereby the value of free nation is claimed to have been overrated and overstated by scientists. The ideology of relativism between science and objectivity has been held to be misleading. There are tho se scientists who contend that the sciences have values meant to assist in arriving at reliable knowledge free from effects of bias. An element of bias would lead to unreliable knowledge.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Objectivity of Science specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The intersection of knowledge and values has been identified. The intersection of knowledge and values has provided robust facts. The diversity of values promotes accepted principles (Polifroni Welch, 1999, p. 18). It is still contested that the notion of science being pure and not relying on values is highly misleading. It is known that science promotes values such as reliability, accuracy and precision. On the other hand, scientists are said to value novelty and simplicity of concepts. It has widely been argued that the pursuit of science is a value based venture. There is a need to consider science and how it operates in the development of t he material world to acquire and develop knowledge. However, this may be unreasonable not to weigh the stakes involved. Scientific objectivity proves that values are not excluded from the quest for knowledge in science. In its core components, science is not only made up of freedom but also of responsibilities. The fundamental elements, which are noticeable, in scientific objectivity, have a refutable hypothesis. The hypothesis must be backed with relevant evidence. Finally, the results should be presented in a way that they are accessible and can be subjected to empirical testing by all individuals with a vested interest in science (Okasha, 2002, p. 43).Advertising Looking for essay on philosophy? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More It is the underlying core values that limit a scientific research from replicating someone else’s work while expecting different results. The standards placed on research have made it easy to identify whenever certain conditions have been breached. The use of refutable hypothesis brings the scientific objectivity to a point that the knowledge identified is placed in an objective, rigorous test. The strict requirements that the information offered should be tested can be used to promote scientific reputations. Some scientists will gain wide use of reputation due to their knowledge of documentation. The scientific field has automatic activities (Laudan, 1983, p. 16). The objectivity of science is not limitless since it has numerous limiting factors. Objectivity has numerous problems, which are associated, with metaphysics. This has been mainly linked to the objectivity of the mind. The objectivity of the mind exists with several ethics, and a consideration of these ethics is th e account of the objectivity. It follows that objectivity is a method of understanding whereby knowledge and beliefs are placed in a primary sense of understanding. The main truths that can be placed in the above definition qualify to be a formation of conception. The old view, which is to be regarded as subjective, yields an objective conception (Keller, 2009, p. 16). The objectivity test has been said to yield the expected results, which have been described by some scientists as false objectivity. The perception of the larger reality supposes that we are to be considered as being part of the larger reality in the objective standpoint. The implication of the statement above implies that there is a connection between reality and objectivity but the connection could be remarkably small. The question as to whether the mind and self-form part of the objective reality remains unanswered. The objective status in the mind creates a mental status which tends to be general. The objectivity of the mind dictates that there is a significant link between the brain objectivity and the day to day actions in ones life. The physical properties define the scope of the mind objectivity. The definition given to the physical world has been said to emanate from a standpoint of human beings perceptions (Okruhlk, n. d). The very evidence that every scientist begins to work on every day is based on the perceptions of individuals and their rational understanding of different events in the physical sphere. That clearly supports the assertion that objective conception is not without origin, but it has a starting point and reliable features. The properties of the perpetual aspects of objective science are better understood when the beginning is traceable. The mind has the rational consciousness, which gets the information, and basing on this information, a perpetual point of view is taken. As proven conception of objectivity has its own difficulties and limits as it was earlier mentioned . In the same way that the brain has a limit to the affairs going around it, the brain too has notable difficulties when seeking a clear understanding of reality (McMullin, n. d). The objectivity is limited by the fact that the interpretation of different perceptions, which cannot be severed from the occurrences due to the physical interactions. The mention of mental activity in the objectivity of science is to make sure that all perceptions and viewpoints are concurrent with the practice. Reality objectivity leads to conclusions that so perceptions have a dominating role in the physical world. Scientists have at numerous situations considered the objectivity to be a myth which they have continuously sought to affirm or dispute. The mode of arriving at substantial results too has been placed on the basis of the said consideration (Fleming, 2004, p. 17). The scientific objectivity has existed with numerous criticisms from scientists and sociologists. There are scientists who have arg ued that the scientific objectivity among many scientists has occurred in the form of an illusion. The objectivity advocated by scientists has been said to be hard to achieve. The objectivity applicability in the real world is held to be impossible, but such notions have continuously been disputed (Kuhn, 1973, para. 9). Conclusion It is evident that the objectivity of science follows certain values and facts. The scientific objectivity as put across by different scientists has many elements and many scientists have tried to justify the existence of the main features. In some instances, it has been asserted that objectivity does exist without values, but that assertion has been widely disputed. The existence of values such as novelty in the objectivity of science has been a pillar to the contention that there are no values in scientific objectivity. However, there are many problems that scientific objectivity ought to deal with accurately. References McMullin, E. (n. d). Rationality and Paradigm change in science. Retrieved from fitelson.org/290/mcmullin_acfsr.pdf Fleming, B. E. (2004). Science and the self: The scale of knowledge. Dallas [u.a.: Univ. Press of America. Longino, H. (n. d). Values and Objectivity. Retrieved from cumc.columbia.edu/dept/healthandsociety/events/ms/pdf/ps_Longino%20H%20Values%20and%20Objectivity.pdf Okruhlk, K. (n. d). Gender and biological sciences. Retrieved from http://spot.colorado.edu/~cleland/articles/gender_and_biological_sciences.pdf Keller, A. C. (2009). Science in environmental policy: The politics of objective advice. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. Kuhn, T. (1973). Objectivity, Value judgment and Theory choice, Retrieved from http://commonsenseatheism.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Kuhn-Objectivity-Value-Judgment-and-Theory-Choice.pdf Laudan, L. (1983). Dissecting the Holist Picture of Scientific Change. Retrieved from: scribd.com/doc/96495571/Dissecting-the-Holist-Picture-of-Scientific-Change-Laudan Okasha, S. (2002). Philos ophy of science. Oxford [u.a.: Oxford Univ. Press. Polifroni, E.C., Welch, M. (1999). Perspectives on philosophy of science in nursing: An historical and contemporary anthology. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott. Restivo, S. P. (2011). Red, black, and objective: Science, sociology, and anarchism. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate.

Francisco de Orellana, Discoverer of the Amazon River

Francisco de Orellana, Discoverer of the Amazon River Francisco de Orellana (1511–November 1546) was a Spanish conquistador, colonist, and explorer. He joined Gonzalo Pizarros 1541 expedition that set out from Quito headed east, hoping to find the mythical city of El Dorado. Along the way, Orellana and Pizarro were separated. While Pizarro returned to Quito, Orellana and a handful of men continued traveling downriver, eventually discovering the Amazon River and making their way to the Atlantic Ocean. Today, Orellana is best remembered for this journey of exploration. Fast Facts: Francisco de Orellana Known For: Spanish conquistador who discovered the Amazon RiverBorn: 1511 in Trujillo,  Crown of CastileDied: November 1546 in the Delta of the  Amazon River (Today  Par  and  Amap, Brazil)Spouse: Ana de Ayala Early Life Francisco de Orellana was born in Extremadura sometime around 1511. Its reported that he had a close relationship with Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, although the exact relationship is not entirely clear. They were close enough, however, that Orellana could use the connection to his advantage. Joining Pizarro Orellana came to the New World while still a young man and met with Pizarros 1832 expedition to Peru, where he was among the Spaniards who overthrew the mighty Inca Empire. He showed a knack for supporting the winning sides in the Civil Wars among the conquistadors that ripped the region apart in the late 1530s. He lost an eye in the fighting but was richly rewarded with lands in present-day Ecuador. Gonzalo Pizarro’s Expedition Spanish conquistadors had discovered unimaginable wealth in Mexico and Peru and were constantly on the lookout for the next rich native Empire to attack and rob. Gonzalo Pizarro, Franciscos brother, was one man who believed in the legend of El Dorado, a wealthy city governed by a king who painted his body in gold dust. In 1540, Gonzalo began outfitting an expedition that would set out from Quito and head east in the hopes of locating El Dorado or any other rich native civilization. Gonzalo borrowed a princely sum of money to outfit the expedition, which left in February of 1541. Francisco de Orellana joined the expedition and was considered high-ranking among the conquistadors. Pizarro and Orellana Separate The expedition did not find much in the way of gold or silver. Instead, it encountered angry natives, hunger, insects, and flooded rivers. The conquistadors slogged around the dense South American jungle for several months, their condition worsening. In December of 1541, the men were camped out alongside a mighty river, their provisions loaded onto a makeshift raft. Pizarro decided to send Orellana ahead to scout the terrain and find some food. His orders were to return as soon as he could. Orellana set out with about 50 men and departed on December 26. Orellana’s Journey A few days downriver, Orellana and his men found some food at a native village. According to documents that Orellana kept, he wished to return to Pizarro, but his men agreed that returning upriver would be too hard and threatened to mutiny if Orellana made them, preferring instead to continue downriver. Orellana did send three volunteers back to Pizarro to inform him of his actions. They set forth from the confluence of the Coca and Napo Rivers and began their trek. On February 11, 1542, the Napo emptied into a larger River: the Amazon. Their voyage would last until they reached the Spanish-held Island of Cubagua, off the coast of Venezuela, in September. Along the way, they suffered from Indian attacks, hunger, malnutrition, and illnesses. Pizarro would eventually return to Quito, his troop of colonists decimated. The Amazons The Amazons- a fearsome race of warrior women- had been legendary in Europe for centuries. The conquistadors, who had become used to seeing new, marvelous things on a regular basis, often looked for legendary people and places (such as Juan Ponce de Leà ³ns fabled search for the Fountain of Youth). The Orellana expedition convinced itself that it had found the fabled Kingdom of the Amazons. Native sources, highly motivated to tell the Spaniards what they wanted to hear, told of a great, wealthy kingdom ruled by women with vassal states along the river. During one skirmish, the Spanish even saw women fighting: they assumed these were the legendary Amazons who had come to fight alongside their vassals. Friar Gaspar de Carvajal, whose first-hand account of the journey has survived, described them as near-naked white women who fought fiercely. Return to Spain Orellana returned to Spain in May 1543, where he was not surprised to find that an angry Gonzalo Pizarro had denounced him as a traitor. He was able to defend himself against the charges, in part because he had asked the would-be mutineers to sign documents to the effect that they did not allow him to return upstream to aid Pizarro. On February 13, 1544, Orellana was named governor of â€Å"New Andalucia,† which included much of the region he had explored. His charter allowed him to explore the area, conquer any bellicose natives, and establish settlements along the Amazon River. Return to the Amazon Orellana was now an adelantado, sort of a cross between an administrator and a conquistador. With his charter in hand, he went looking for funding but found it difficult to lure investors to his cause. His expedition was a fiasco from the start. More than a year after gaining his charter, Orellana set sail for the Amazon on May 11, 1545. He had four ships carrying hundreds of settlers, but provisions were poor. He stopped in the Canary Islands to refit the ships but wound up staying there for three months as he sorted out various problems. When they finally set sail, rough weather caused one of his ships to be lost. He reached the mouth of the Amazon in December and began his plans for settlement. Death Orellana began exploring the Amazon, looking for a likely place to settle. Meanwhile, hunger, thirst, and native attacks weakened his force constantly. Some of his men even abandoned the enterprise while Orellana was exploring. Sometime in late 1546, Orellana was scouting an area with some of his remaining men when they were attacked by natives. Many of his men were killed: according to Orellana’s widow, he died of illness and grief shortly after that. Legacy Orellana is best remembered today as an explorer, but that was never his goal. He was a conquistador who accidentally became an explorer when he and his men were carried off by the mighty Amazon River. His motives were not very pure, either: he never intended to be a trailblazing explorer. Rather, he was a veteran of the bloody conquest of the Inca Empire whose considerable rewards were not enough for his greedy soul. He wished to find and loot the legendary city of El Dorado in order to become even wealthier. He died still seeking a wealthy kingdom to plunder. Still, there is no doubt that he led the first expedition to travel the Amazon River from its roots in the Andean mountains to its release into the Atlantic Ocean. Along the way, he proved himself as shrewd, tough, and opportunistic, but also cruel and ruthless. For a time, historians deplored his failure to return to Pizarro, but it seems that he had no choice in the matter. Today, Orellana is remembered for his journey of exploration and little else. He is most famous in Ecuador, which is proud of its role in history as the place from which the famed expedition departed. There are streets, schools, and even a province named after him. Sources Ayala Mora, Enrique, ed. Manual de Historia del Ecuador I: Epocas Aborigen y Colonial, Independencia. Quito: Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar, 2008.Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. â€Å"Francisco De Orellana.†Ã‚  Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica, Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica, Inc., 13 Feb. 2014.Silverberg, Robert. The Golde. Dream: Seekers of El Dorado. Athens: the Ohio University Press, 1985.

Gioacchino Rossini Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Gioacchino Rossini - Essay Example In the following year, 1823, he was contracted to write Semiramide, which was a serious opera for La Fenice in Venice, before moving to Paris via London in 1824. In London, he worked as a music director at the Theatre of Italien from 1824 to 1826 (Walton 98-102). However, it was not until the death of Isabella and his marriage to Olympe, when he decided to move with his new bride back to Passy a leafy suburb in Paris where he died. While still of tender age, Rossini was taught and encouraged to do music at home before being enrolled to Liceo Musicale in Bologna by his parents. After his graduation from the school, he began his career at the Venetian Teatro San Moise School to compose a single act comedy called La Cambiale di matrimonio. He owes the success of his career to the efforts and encouragement of his parents who insisted on him to study music. In school, Rossini received training in playing the piano and the cello, taking a few days to learn the latter (Walton 8). His style of writing was on the reflections of the issues that affected people at that particular time. La gazzetta for example, was a piece about how newspapers affected people’s lives, while after his retirement, he composed sacred pieces that he called â€Å"Sins on my Old Age.† Although he mostly wrote his pieces from the head, at times, he composed his sacred pieces and delectable miniatures â€Å"The Sins of my Old Age† using both piano and voice. During his time, Rossini was a good cook and he loved the job a lot. He even invented a meal named after him, the tournedos Rossini. Most of pieces became so popular that to date, they receive audience in theatres when performed, many years after his death. There are some interesting facts about Rossini that are of interest to people studying about his life and his music career. He retired from music a very wealthy

Ethics In The Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ethics In The Media - Essay Example In order to establish this concept of ethics in media, the method of self-regulation is used. Self-regulation in essence, aims to set minimum standards on ethics to guarantee that journalists pertain to rules of conduct while representing information through the media. Ethics become necessary in this regard because any source of media would be regarded as untrustworthy by the people if it presents distorted information. In the current generation the high levels of competition in the media industry could result in severe losses. Many problems could arise due to not respecting the ethics in a particular situation. Ethics ensure a reliance on a culture that understands personal boundaries of people, refrains from lies and deceitful dealings and does not use unfair means to achieve personal gains (Chiyamaka 4). Applying ethics to media would obviously mean by extension that no social, moral or professional harm should be caused to those involved. When these ethics are applied in the form of rules, it would guarantee the general public that their private lives are respected and no personal harm is caused to any of them. The spirit of democracy is hampered if a code of ethics is not followed by the media because no freedom is present since, people are controlled through the watchful eyes of the media lurking to catch up on their every move. Therefore, the judgements should always be rational on the part of media, keeping in mind the fact that there are lives and sensitive matters such as the relationships between different countries involved (Chiyamwaka 3). A prominent book basically covered the idea of social and religious factors when it comes to ethics in the research media. A case was the recent publication of the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish Newspaper, which was an offence intended towards all Muslim readership (Ward & Wasserman 142-143).The whole idea that a religion is being disrespected is horrendous and does not respect any of the rules of et hics. This caused a tremendous outcry in the media and people carried out mass protests against this act because it went out rightly against a particular system of belief. This also occurred upon the planning of the international Burn the Quran Day (Ward & Wasserman 143-145). This was shown on different news channels without having a hint of hatred or realization that this act was wrong. The reason why this might be so popular in the United States is because of the reason that media has been given the same freedom as human beings. This is one of the articles in the constitution, which says: â€Å"Congress shall make no law†¦ abridging the freedom of speech or of the press† (Johnson et al 1). This was passed in 1971 as the 1st Amendment, in the Bill of Rights in the U. S. Constitution. According to this concept, the U. S. claims that every system has a presence of checks and balances. This means that the media will try to establish the fact that internal checks and balanc es will control and mishaps in the media (Johnson et al 4). Ethics are synonymous with fairness, justice, impartiality and their presentation of truth just as it is. These ethics play a significant role in shaping a society, especially for its reformation. The media plays a major role in the lives of people today all

Affective Characteristics Of Gifted Students And Meeting Educational Essay

Affective Characteristics Of Gifted Students And Meeting Educational Needs - Essay Example They learn to read at an early age and learn common basic skills more quickly and in a better way than other children. The intellectual complexity of gifted children in combination with their intensity on the emotional front gives them a different outlook towards the world in qualitative terms. Gifted students have greater potential to attain high achievements which is the outcome of combination of unique and complex deep thinking, and intense as well as rich emotions. They are the people who can be considered people with well above average intelligence. This peculiar characteristic of gifted students has significant impact on their life at social, psychological and emotional level as they are different from their age peers. Due to the affective characteristics of gifted students at social and emotional front, it is required on the part of teachers to treat ‘giftedness’ as normal and ensure the social as well as emotional well being of these students (Robert & Davidson, 2005). It is required that these students should be helped to find real intellectual peers so that they can behave normal without introversion and can express themselves without any fear or doubt in their mind to the world. In order to meet educational needs of these students, teachers should adopt appropriate strategies. Overview of intellectually gifted students Intellectually gifted students behave differently from their age peers in terms of learning patterns, behaviour and characteristics related to creativity. For instance, gifted students usually read quickly and widely, have large vocabularies, intense focus and attention, and have the ability to tackle the tasks and assignments given to them in a goal-oriented manner (Reis & Moon, 2004). In regards to the learning characteristics, intellectually gifted children have keen power of observation. They also take enormous pleasure in getting indulged in intellectual activities and prefer reading books and magazines that are meant for the children who are older than them. In terms of perceiving similarities, anomalies or any kind of differences, they are quick in comparison to their age peers. Considering the creative characteristics, these students are fluent thinkers and are quite able to relate ideas as well as generate possibilities. Elaborate thinking, production of new ideas, willingness to tackle complexity and good guessing power are other creative characteristics of intellectually gifted students (Dixon et al, 2012). Emotional sensitivity and intellectual playfulness set them apart from an average student of their age. They have extreme curiosity about ideas, events, objects and situations. Their intellectual complexity makes these students being out of step of the age and intellectual capability of their age peers and classmates. As analytical thinkers, they excel in critical examination of ideas and things happening in front of them. It is necessary to handle these students carefully so that they can tackle their intellectual complexity in an effective way. Affective characteristics of intellectually gifted students Intellectually gifted students have different characteristics related to cognitive characteristics, affective, physical and societal characteristics. Cognitive characteristics are related to thinking, for instance, retaining large amount of information, high level of verbal ability and development of language, high curiosity and varying interests. Affective characteristics are related to feeling in which there is presence of unusual sensitivity to the feelings of others, a high level of self-awareness, a good sense of

Immigration Outside the Law Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Immigration Outside the Law - Assignment Example This paper tells that while this may be beneficial to the immigrant, it is not always so for every party involved and/or affected directly and indirectly by immigration. Immigration, though good, has to be controlled and managed adequately. The United States is one the world’s largest and wealthiest economy. This status places the United States as the ideal country of residence due to the abundance of opportunities within the market. This led to an influx of immigrants from neighboring countries, especially Mexico. This potential problem was further compounded by the influx of international immigrants from nations within the other continents. It is estimated that 8.7 million immigrants were in the United States as at the end of the 2000 FY. However, as at the end of 2013, there were approximately 11.7 million illegal immigrants in the United States (Chomsky, 2014). This points to an alarming increase in the number of illegal aliens in the country. There has been an increase of 117% in the number of children under the age of 5 between 2013 and 2014 (Motomura, 2014). This is an alarming statistic. The current status and number of illegal immigrants have a considerable strain on the nation’s resources. This is because the country’s national budget is made considering the legal population count. However, the number of illegal immigrants stretch the country’s health sector, while increasing the level of unemployment as these immigrants have little to no education. Furthermore, this increase leads to a decrease in the level of wages as immigrants offer cheap labor.

Nurse-Patient Mandated Ratio Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Nurse-Patient Mandated Ratio - Assignment Example These are the main centers of policymaking and take initiative to educate the public at both state and federal level. Proposed legislation faces more criticism at the committee level, which is why there is need to understand the committee. Since legislators face numerous task as an advocate I can take, advantage of this situation and wield a lot of power by trying to help my own legislator in evaluation of various issues therefore influencing how he will vote on the issue. At the local level, the best strategies to employ would be making my way into the legislative arena and getting to acquaint myself with the committees and staff members of the legislative (Abood, 2007). Still at the local level, I will also try to get to understand how the legislative process works so that I can familiarize myself. Finally still at the local level I will need to identify the key players so that when I move to the state level I know whom to influence (Abood, 2007). At the state level, I will deploy the last two strategies where I get to understand how the committee works by trying to be close or interact with them at some points. Then finally, I create a good rapport with the legislator whom I will try to influence to support the necessary policies and vote for them. There are various sources of power that can increase my influence for votes. Focusing on professionalism, the key sources I get include adding credentials by doing additional courses to elevate my current position. I can also join various professional clubs and organization, which will make me gain a certain state in the society and get to interact with various professionals across the state. I can also network with the current legislator and committee members as their status can influence my popularity and thus increasing my votes. Other professional strategies I can use include participating in activities that I know will reward me

Immigration Outside the Law Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Immigration Outside the Law - Assignment Example This paper tells that while this may be beneficial to the immigrant, it is not always so for every party involved and/or affected directly and indirectly by immigration. Immigration, though good, has to be controlled and managed adequately. The United States is one the world’s largest and wealthiest economy. This status places the United States as the ideal country of residence due to the abundance of opportunities within the market. This led to an influx of immigrants from neighboring countries, especially Mexico. This potential problem was further compounded by the influx of international immigrants from nations within the other continents. It is estimated that 8.7 million immigrants were in the United States as at the end of the 2000 FY. However, as at the end of 2013, there were approximately 11.7 million illegal immigrants in the United States (Chomsky, 2014). This points to an alarming increase in the number of illegal aliens in the country. There has been an increase of 117% in the number of children under the age of 5 between 2013 and 2014 (Motomura, 2014). This is an alarming statistic. The current status and number of illegal immigrants have a considerable strain on the nation’s resources. This is because the country’s national budget is made considering the legal population count. However, the number of illegal immigrants stretch the country’s health sector, while increasing the level of unemployment as these immigrants have little to no education. Furthermore, this increase leads to a decrease in the level of wages as immigrants offer cheap labor.

Book summery Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Book summery - Essay Example The two fell in love and took their honeymoon on bicycles. The chapter punctuated with illustrative accounts depicts the nature with which a romantic relationship can be intertwined to brood a healthy work relationship. It peeks with the two expanding the periodic table by discovering two new elements, radium and polonium, which they recognize to be having radioactive properties. In the second chapter of the book, the duo progress with their work on the discovery of the new elements and embark on rigorous laboratory tests to ascertain the chemical properties and worth of the elements. This chapter is presented in a manner of dialogue between the characters giving the reader the significance of love in their relationship. Marie and Pierre Curie recognizes radioactivity as an atomic property leading to a new way of thinking in the scientific era. This earns the lovers a Nobel Prize. This is the point the newspapers mythologizes the story of Marie and Pierre Curie beginning with â€Å"once upon a time†¦Ã¢â‚¬  as an indicator of the importance of their scientific discovery. In relation to the current significance of the nuclear technology, the discovery can be appreciated and scorned with equal measure as it has helped in the production of clean energy as well as adding threat to the global peace. Chapter two of the book culminates with the tragic death o f Pierre through a freak accident, opening a new phase of struggle in Marie’s life. Following the death of Pierre Curie, the third chapter, Marie is left alone to jungle multiples of roles. She acts as a mother, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist and a professor. Nevertheless, despite the challenges, she persists in her scientific work and wins a second Nobel Prize in 1911. During this period, Marie falls in love again with a married physicist, Paul Langevin. The love to the physicist reenergizes the work of Marie as the author puts it, â€Å"After four years of steady labor †¦ they

Trial By the Mirror Essay Example for Free

Trial By the Mirror Essay â€Å"Underneath the shadows of the other side of time If there is a hell then there must be a behind† -Insane Clown Posse, â€Å"Echo Side†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   She is led into the room by two strong men, plump and middle age. The dark blonde hair quivers as she sobs. Her legs tremble and give way, and her eyes, fallen in deeply an a face that was formerly round, are pleading. She is flopped down onto the chair designated for those condemned to the Highest Measure, and looks at us, holding clenched hands to her mouth.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   We – Nikolas and I – look at her indifferently.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Marjorie Penant. Nickolas states.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   She nods numbly.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"You have killed† He starts repeating her sentence to her. We are required to do it. Psychological torture it may be, but its part of the common procedure now. Something required before we finish our job. It is difficult otherwise, to   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"I have killed no one!† Her voice rings out suddenly, kicking my train of thought off track. Damn condemned!   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Yet this just may have been worth interrupting my musings for a moment. Most condemned lose all sense of will before the Highest Measure. She stands now, shaking not with fear, but with rage. Nikolas nods slightly, his perpetual boredom somewhat alleviated. Interesting – and it would seem its my turn to speak.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Really?† Only one word. I know my voice is darkly musical. This is my gift, my power, so to speak.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The word echoes almost visibly through her body, making her consider and reconsider, invoking into her things that she might not want to remember, as forceful as the call of hunger after many days of starvation. She covers her ears, and stands erect for a couple of seconds, only to fall to the floor with a shriek. â€Å"N-no!!!†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   My lips curl into a smirk. As expected. Ninety-nine percent of humans cant stand my voice sBut whats this?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"I Killed Nobody† She grunts through clenched teeth. â€Å"Ive Killed NOBODY!†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I cast a glance at Nikolas, who calmly continues reading her sentence. â€Å"You have killed three children, by exposing them to Matters of the Soul early.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   She raises a tear-stained face, and her voice is strangely clear, as she pronounces: â€Å"I. Killed. Not. One. Of. Them.† She sits up with obvious difficulty. â€Å"Your system did.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"You went against it. And took them with you.† Nikolas says calmly.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Because its nonsense!† She says sharply.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I raise an eyebrow calmly. Looks like I was mistaken in my first impression. She is not the simpleton she initially looked to be. I had even wondered why she earned her measure. I no longer wonder.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Really?† You are despicable – this is what my voice says this time. You decided their fates, and their deaths are only your fault. You should cry with relief that we are a humane society and merely killed them – not did what we are going to do to you. Be self-contemptuous, be afraid, be dead – my voice commands it all.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Nonsense!† She gasps stubbornly. â€Å"Th The soul Isnt something to be taken away by the likes of you!!†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Pedagogue.† Nikolas says calmly. â€Å"Parts of the soul are shown as a human being gets older. Gradually. It does no harm this way.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"And destroys our humanity!† She says proudly.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   So typical of the old-style humanists. Nikolas looks to me. â€Å"Laas?†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"You destroy it yourself.† I add calmly. â€Å"Was it not you who cried for your life a minute ago?†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"I cried for the lives of my children.† She replies dryly. â€Å"Not for my own. It is in no danger.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"You have been condemned to meeting yourself.† Nikolas finishes the sentence. And then adds; â€Å"You are wrong when you think your life is in no danger. You have been through meeting with parts of your soul.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"And they have taught me much.† She raises her chin proudly.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"The shadows do not teach.† I frown. â€Å"They take away.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   She looks upon me with an expression I have not seen since my initiation. It is pity. â€Å"Then you were unable to cope with their lessons. As the fourth child was unable to cope with mine. And it will kill you. As it killed them.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"And you.† I reply.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"No.† She says simply. â€Å"Go on. I want no other last words.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I and Nikolas silently lead her to the silver arch. She is left under it, as we walk to the sides of it. We press our palms to the sides pf the arch, and darkness begins playing between it, almost touching it. The feeling of stepping through the arch is like skydiving, I know. Without a parachute.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   She throws her hands up. â€Å"Nothing is true! Everything is permitted!† And jumps through the arch. The darkness swallows her, and wavers, as the machine starts working   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Nikolas turns to me. â€Å"I think we will have a new one among us.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I scrutinize the arch. The gate to the Other Side was reserved for those who did not deserve the Death Penalty. Especially those who committed the ultimate crime against humanity – destroyed the integrity of society by teaching younglings about souls before they were fully grown. This was the standard tactic of terrorists these days. Most return from the arch dead, a cruel death. It contains a realm of endless madness, among which, somewhere, is your own self, inflicting the insanity.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I know all about it. After all, I had once stood before the same gate myself.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The darkness wavers once more, as it spits out the woman who was Marjorie. Her eyes are dead now that she knows what she has been teaching her children. Sanity is limitation, after all.   Those who break limitations too early, die to the world. Who survive death, learn to control limits.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Nikolas extends his hand to her. â€Å"Come.† He says soothingly. â€Å"You have much to learn.†

Effect of Microcredit on Household Consumption

Effect of Microcredit on Household Consumption 1. Introduction Despite the multitude of studies on microfinance, there still exits surprisingly little hard data on the effects of microcredit. This analysis focuses on the effect of microcredit specifically on household consumption, and reviews relevant literature which addresses the relation between household consumption and availability of microcredit. Traditionally Microcredit has been studied as a tool of poverty reduction through increase of consumption. A relatively recent shift in thinking has been to consider microcredit as a means to facilitate consumption smoothing and build assets to protect against risks ahead of time and cope with shocks, leading to widespread poverty alleviation but not widespread poverty reduction. The review is divided into three sections based on the approach used to study the effect of microcredit. The first section examines the works of Pitt Khandeker and Morduch which use non-experimental methods to make claims of causal identification. This is followed by a look at random evaluation studies performed and discusses their conclusions. The final section introduces â€Å"Portfolios of the Poor† by Daryl Collins et al (2009), a descriptive study of the financial activities of the poor. 2. Literature Review 2.1 Non-Randomised Approach The studies by Pitt Khandeker and Morduch are all based on the 1991-92 cross-sectional survey of nearly 1800 households in Bangladesh served by microfinance programs of the Grameen Bank, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), and the Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDB). The sample also includes a control group of households in areas not served by any microfinance programs. Pitt and Khandeker (1998 A) apply a quasi-experimental design to this data and use a regression-discontinuity design to estimate the marginal impacts of microcredit while distinguishing borrowing by gender. The study obtains the result that â€Å"annual household consumption expenditure increases 18 taka for every 100 additional taka borrowed by women as compared with 11 taka for men† and hence concludes that microcredit increases household consumption. A key to the identification strategy used in this study is the fact that the factors driving credit choice be exogenous. One of these factors is the eligibility of households for credit (eligible if they own less than 0.5 acre). However this factor as noted by Morduch (1998) suffers from considerable mistargeting: overall 20-30% of borrowers own more than the mandated threshold and are actually ineligible. Consequently a criticism of this paper would be that the lax implementation of program rules undermines the application of the regression-discontinuity design. Morduch (1998) uses simpler estimators as compared to Pitt and Khandeker (1998 A). The study regresses directly on the primary instruments for credit, dummies for credit choice. Morduch measures the average impact of microcredit by first performing simple difference-in-difference estimates and then adding controls. Contrary to Pitt and Khandeker (1998 A), Morduch (1998) finds no significant effect of microcredit on the level of consumption. He however finds evidence that microcredit causes a decrease in the volatility of consumption (coefficient significant at 95% confidence) and also results in a smoothing of household labour supply (coefficient significant at 90% confidence). He asserts that consumption smoothing by households is driven by income smoothing but does not substantiate this with direct evidence. The possibility of seasonal consumption smoothing by landless households (primarily engaged in agriculture) through credit is explored by another study by Pitt and Khandeker (1998 B) and is based on data from the same survey as the two papers discussed above. The premise for this investigation is that, microcredit can help smooth seasonal consumption for credit constrained households by financing a new productive activity whose income flows that do not highly covary seasonally with income from agricultural pursuits. The econometric results generated are consistent with Morduch’s assertion of consumption smoothing through income smoothing. The results strongly suggest that an important motivation for credit program participation is the need to smooth the seasonal pattern of consumption and male labour supply. For male labour supply, as with household consumption, it seems that these group-based credit programs i) have a pattern of seasonal effects that act to smooth flows over the seasons, and ii) have a pattern of self-selection in which those households with the experiencing great than average seasonal variation in flows are most likely to join the programs and borrow. A paper by Morduch and Roodman (2009) revisits the studies by Morduch (1998) and Pitt Khandekar (1998 B). A replication exercise followed by Two-Stage Least-Squares (2SLS) regression is performed for the two, the result of which casts doubt on the positive results of both. In case of the Pitt and Kandeker finding, the replication generates results with opposite sign. However rather than microcredit being harmful, specification test suggests that the instrumentation strategy fails and that omitted variable causation is driving the result. As for Morduch rebuilding the data set revealed errors regarding the labour supply variables of the original set. The changes weaken the result on consumption volatility causing the statistic to no longer be significant. The non-experimental studies discussed above face challenges in establishing causality. A chief problem is that since microfinance clients are self-selected, they are not comparable to non-clients. Also MFIs purposefully choose some villages (non- random program placement) and participants (client selection) and not others. While Difference in Difference estimates can control for fixed differences between clients and non-clients, it is likely that participants in MFIs are on different trajectories even in the absence of Microcredit, invalidating comparisons between clients and non-clients. 2.2 Randomised Evaluation Given the complexity of the identification problem, randomised evaluations are a viable approach to study the effects of microcredit since it ensures that the difference between residents in the control areas vis-a-vis the treatment areas is the greater ease of access to microcredit. Banerjee (2010) conducts randomized evaluation of the impact of introducing microcredit in a new market. Half of 104 slums in Hyderabad, India were randomly selected for opening of an MFI branch while the remainder were not. The outcomes in both sets of areas were compared using intent to treat (ITT) estimates; that is, simple comparisons of averages in treatment and comparison areas, averaged over borrowers and non-borrowers. The results show no impact on average consumption, however the effects observed are heterogeneous and vary between households. Households who have a pre-existing business used microcredit to expand their existing ventures and show a significant increase in durable expenditure in treatment vs control areas. Households without a business but with a high propensity to start a business displayed a significant positive treatment effect on durable spending along with a decrease in non-durable spending. This reduction in nondurables spending could possibly be to facilitate a larger investment than received credit. Finally, household which didn’t have a business and are less likely to start a business showed a significantly large increase in nondurable expenses. These results are echoed in a study by Crepon et al (2011) who conducted a similar evaluation at the extensive margin to check if the effects of the programs but changed the context to a rural setting in Morocco where both credit and business opportunities are thinner in order to check if the effects of the programs would be different. As a possible explanation to no evidence of a positive impact of microcredit on consumption being found, the two studies suggest that, the households which increased durable spending may benefit from increased income and hence increased consumption in the future. In other words, the evaluation period may have been too short to capture the gains from investing in enterprise. Furthermore it would also be pertinent to observe whether households which increase non-durable spending and hence consumption continue to do so, given continued access to credit. 2.3 Financial diaries While looking at the relationship between Microcredit and consumption, a longitudinal survey on how poor households manage money and use financial services would be insightful. The book â€Å"Portfolios of the Poor† by Daryl Collins et al (2009) does this by constructing financial diaries for over 250 households, in Bangladesh, India and South Africa. To create a financial diary, a researcher visits a poor household repeatedly, say, every fortnight for a year, and gathers detailed information on transactions conducted by its members since the last visit. Through the data collection and the associated conversations the researcher has with the household, an intimate portrait of the households financial life is compiled. The book emphasises and shows evidence for the assertion that poor households faced with low and variable income look at all financial services to turn small, frequent pay-ins into occasional, large pay-outs and to smooth the mismatch between fluctuating income and steady outflows. Towards this end, MFIs by providing a reliable source of credit is of great help to the poor. However the canonical form of microcredit bears the disadvantage of being too rigid so as to address all credit needs of the poor (expenditure shocks like unexpected health expenses) and hence the household portfolios feature a diverse range of credit sources both formal and informal. Since they present an intricate picture of the transactions undertaken by the household, financial diaries, and for the purpose of this review the Grameen II financial diaries present a great opportunity to study how microcredit is actually used by the poor. The rest of this section presents a short review presented in the book, in order to give a flavour of the type of inferences which can be drawn from these types of studies. In the following table, 237 loans made by 43 households who were a part of the Grameen II financial diaries are classified into 6 main uses . Taking the first two categories to be productive use of loan, it is observed that roughly half the loans made fell into this category (48% of all loans and 53% of the loan value). This however does not mean that half of the client’s use the credit provided for productive expenses. Of the 43 households in the sample, just 6 were responsible for three quarters of the loan value in the biggest category business and also were recipients of two thirds of the loans issued in this category. These 6 households all have established businesses and borrow to buy stock as often as they are permitted. From this brief and simple look at the financial diaries we observe that, there is a great diversity to the activities the poor use microfinance for, also there is concentration of some uses among distinct types of users. Further, while investment uses account for more than half the value of loans disbursed, it is concentrated among the relatively well placed borrowers. Finally, the claim can presumably be made that the unproductive uses of loans made by the households are being used for consumption smoothing. Conclusion Based on the literature discussed by this review, while the shift to randomised evaluations from non-randomised studies in studying the effect of microcredit is good (considering the relative advantages provided by the former). The effect of microcredit on the consumption levels of households continues to remain ambiguous based on the present academic literature available. Whereas in the case of microcredit inducing consumption smoothing, there simply has not been enough study done exploring this perspective. In order to measure both the effect on both consumption level and consumption smoothing information on money management by poor households is required for many months if not years. The needed time series data can be obtained using the time intensive financial diaries method. Moreover an optimal research portfolio should probably blend the randomised approach with the financial diaries approach. Word Count 1990 References Banerjee, A., E. Duflo, R. Glennerster and C. Kinnan (2010), â€Å"The miracle of microfinance? Evidence from a randomized evaluation.†. MIT working paper. Collins, D., J, Morduch, S. Rutherford and O Ruthven, â€Å"Portfolios of the Poor†, Book Crepon, B., F, Devoto, E Duflo, W Pariente (2011), â€Å"Impact of microcredit in rural areas of Morocco Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation†, MIT Working paper Morduch, J. (1998). .Does Microfinance Really Help the Poor? Evidence from Flagship Pro- grams in Bangladesh, Hoover Institution, Stanford U. working paper. Morduch, J. and Roodman, D. (2009),† The Impact of microcredit on the poor in Bangladesh: Revisiting the evidence, Centre for Global Development Working Paper No. 174. Pitt, Mark and Shahidur Kandker (1998 A), â€Å"The Impact of Group-Based Credit Programs on Poor Households in Bangladesh: Does the Gender of Participants Matter?† Journal of Political Economy, October. Pitt, Mark and Shahidur Kandker (1998b), â€Å"Credit Programs for the Poor and Seasonality in Rural Bangladesh,† Brown University and World Bank, draft, January 9.

Sleep Deprivation Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Sleep deprivation has become a major problem with Americans. Over 100 million Americans today suffer from lack of sleep. This has been an ongoing problem throughout the centuries. People owe their bodies sleep and scientist are calling it a â€Å"Sleep debt†. An average American owes their body at least thirty hours of sleep. This lack of sleep is as hazardous as drunk driving.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One man caught sleep deprivation at it’s best. He pushed himself to the limits as much as possible. One day he went thirty hours without sleep and was on his way to his parents for supper. On his way to his parents house he stopped on some railroad tracks and stared a train in the face until it hit him. He survived the incident with torn cartilage in his rib. It has been said that had he not had been deprived of the sleep his body needed, his reflexes would have told him that the train was going to hit him.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cultural belief leads people into thinking that one can not be successful without sleep. This is the main theory that Doctor William Dement bases his study on. Dr. Dement has done marvelous work on REM sleep, sleep apnea and narcolepsy. He is sure that eating and sleeping are in the same category of importance. Eight hours of sleep a night is the minimum of sleep for one person, any less gives a sleep debt that has to be fulfilled.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  If you are feeling dizzy during the day...

What are the Effects of Texting on Teenagers? Essay -- essays research

Which are the effects of texting on teenagers? Slavery or freedom? We hear a lot these days about texting - the ability to get/send a text message from/to anyone, anywhere, via wireless networks and some kind of portable device, which might be a fancy pager, a digital cellphone or a palmtop computer. The technology is here, though it doesn't work everywhere yet. We could argue about how affordable or reliable texting is, but we can't deny it exists and will probably become more widespread. But is this a good thing? In my opinion, there are certain ways in which texting affects many teenagers. Some teenagers believe that text message communication enables them to express their feelings freely and sincerely to someone. This is why they like to be â€Å"plugged-in† with it all day long. I think that it depends on each person when considering if cellphone messaging is a kind of slavery or freedom because I belief in free will, therefore each of us have the choice of doing it or not. There are times when it's good, to ask for homework, to reach you in an mall, on a bus, at the theatre, or to call your mom so that she can pick you up from someplace. The â€Å"important thing† may be to know when to leave the cellphone or pager at home. Unfortunately, for some people, the fact that these things exist creates the expectation that they'll always use them. People need time away from work, time to be with their families, or with their cats, time to study, or just time to be alone. Many tee...

Marks & Spencer Natural Environment

1.0 Executive SummaryMarketing environment is very important for any given organisation as it relates to the macro environment, the microenvironment as well as the internal environment. The above sub types of environment are very important in the performance of any given organization. Marks and Spencer is affected by the three sub types of environment. The microenvironment at Marks and Spencer involves suppliers, consumers as well as customers, who deal directly with the organisation and impact on the performance of the organisation.The microenvironment will be discussed in length in this report with an aim of demonstrating how the natural environment operates. The macro environment as it relates to Marks and Spencer refers to the factors that influence the company’s performance but are out of control of the company. This touches on the legal aspects such as laws on environmental issues that impact on the operations of Marks and Spencer. Finally, the report incorporates intern al environment issues, which basically involve; men, money, machinery, materials as well as markets. The above are discussed with an aim of demonstrating how they interrelate to cause positive change in Marks and Spencer.2.0 Overview of the natural environment (Marks & Spencer)In a bid to address possible threats and challenges in regard to the natural environment of the organisation, Marks and Spencer has several plans in place as part of its strategic repositioning for future business scenarios. Plan A program at Marks and Spencer constitutes of a five-year, 100-point plan to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing the organisation in relation to the political, economic, social, and technological environment.The plan is designed to facilitate a smooth working relationship between the customers and the suppliers to; combat climate change, through initiation of programs, which embrace safe environmental practices bearing in mind that the company gets its raw materials from the environment and it has a corporate duty and responsibility to conserve the environment. This calls for the company to embrace modern business practices, which are environment friendly such as the use of fuels, which cause little or no pollution to the environment.3) Identify TWO areas of the natural environment likely to impact on Marks and Spencer in the medium termMarks and Spencer has embarked on initiatives to reduce wastage by realigning its production roles with emerging technologies, which ensure that there is little or no wastage of raw materials considering the fact that the rate of harvesting of raw materials from the natural environment is far much higher compared to the rate at which the natural environment is rejuvenating. By embracing wastage control methods such as recycling, Marks and Spencer is promoting a symbiotic relationship between the organisation and the local communities, who are affected by the actions of the company on the environment.The company is commit ted to safeguarding natural resources by putting in place several initiatives such as community-based environmental programs, which are aimed at enlightening the local community on the importance of preserving nature. In addition, the initiatives geared towards safeguarding nature have targeted all stakeholders including the employees because it is viewed that if every stakeholder understands and appreciates the individual role in safeguarding the environment, this would be beneficial not only for the sustainability of the organisation but also for the benefit of all.Trading ethically constitutes an important function in Marks and Spencer. This is important due to the fact that ethical practices are aimed at protecting the given organisation from harming any of its stakeholders. Marks and Spencer has a code of conduct as well as corporate responsibility policies, which guide the organisation in relation to its duties to the stakeholders.Marks and Spencer is committed to building a h ealthier nation by ensuring that it fulfils its social, political, legal, and environmental obligations to its stakeholders. As a retailer, they use a huge range of raw materials to produce our goods. Because of this, it is critical that the organisation manages the use of these materials sensitively and pays proper regard to how they affect natural habitats and bio-diversity.But making a difference here is not as simple as they would like. Change process in an organisation is a demanding and challenging process. It requires new types of standards to be set and adhered to across the world. As some materials – such as cotton and palm oil – are traded globally, the ability to affect change may at times be modest. There is a need for the organisation to work closely with suppliers, government bodies, environmental groups and local communities to promote sustainability.4.1 Description of the marketing strategy the organisation currently employs to accommodate the key featu res of the natural environment.The Marketing strategy would become the parameter for a company to be a successful company.Although environmental issues influence all human activities, few academic disciplines have integrated green issues into their literature. This is especially true of marketing. As society becomes more concerned with the natural environment, businesses have begun to modify their behaviour in an attempt to address society's â€Å"new† concerns. Marks and Spencer have been quick to accept concepts like environmental management systems and waste minimization, and have integrated environmental issues into all organizational activities. Some evidence of this is the development of journals such as â€Å"Business Strategy and the Environment† and â€Å"Greener Management International,† which are specifically designed to disseminate research relating to business' environmental behaviour.Marks and Spencer uses a green marketing strategy for purposes o f promotion of products with environmental characteristics so as to promote environmentally friendly behaviour amongst consumers. For Marks and Spencer the green marketing strategy applies to consumer goods in that the company promotes the concept of eco-tourism.The company has engaged in plans, which has seen product modification geared towards producing more environmentally friendly systems especially in the area of product packaging. Marks and Spencer has invested in production facilities, which significantly reduce wastage as well as preserving energy. In the same manner, the company has adapted ethical advertising policies, which aim at ensuring that every advertisement is considerate of environmental implications in terms of the decisions that consumers make. To this end, the company has participated in several forums and especially those organized by American Marketing Association (AMA) where is has shown support to consumer goods advocating for sustainable environment practi ces.4.2 Explanation as to why the above strategies are likely to be of the greatest future significance to the organisation.Social ResponsibilityHow a company is viewed by the public goes a long way in determining its future performance in relation to consumers. The strategies Marks and Spencer has adopted in a bid to promote natural environment can be seen as efforts geared towards good corporate social responsibility. Many firms are beginning to realize that they are members of the wider community and therefore must behave in an environmentally responsible manner by putting in place corporate social responsibility policies.Hence the reason why Marks and Spencer allocates huge budgets for its natural environment conservation efforts. This results in environmental issues being integrated into the firm's corporate culture. Firms in this situation can take two perspectives; 1) they can use the fact that they are environmentally responsible as a marketing tool; or 2) they can become re sponsible without promoting this fact. For the case of Marks and Spencer, the company has promoted the first perspective of promoting environmentally responsible practices.The strategies the company has adopted in as far as acting responsibly in relation to the environment have taken marketing related dimension. Despite pressure from the government through legislations aimed at protecting the consumers and the society at large, the impact has been felt at Marks and Spencer. Governmental regulations relating to environmental marketing and designed to protect consumers have in one way or the other contributed to Marks and Spencer’s decision to realign its production systems towards achieving less wastage, use of ethical advertisements, as well as engaging in raising the level of awareness on environmental issues is an indication that Marks and Spencer is reposition itself for future implications of government policies on environment.Specifically, Marks and Spencer has adapted t wo concepts of food miles and field to fork in a bid to respond to emerging situations.â€Å"Food miles† is a relatively new idea in the debate about sustainability. Typically it is taken to mean the distance travelled to move food from the place it is produced to the store where it's bought. But increasingly the definition goes wider, to include issues like locality, freshness, use of preservatives, packaging, choice, support for UK farmers and quality. Many environmental groups attach particular importance to food being produced close to where it is sold.Field-to-forkIn 2003, Marks and Spencer launched a new over-arching set of standards to cover the management of the supply chain for fruit, vegetables and salads. These were drawn up after consultation with suppliers, government bodies and other organisations and covers aspects of production from â€Å"field-to-fork†.The company has commissioned independent research to look at similar systems around the world. As a r esult, they believe our Field-to-Fork scheme goes beyond the British and European assurance schemes used by other retailers, being the first to include such a wide range of requirements. Their standards cover traceability, minimising pesticide use, ethical trading, support for non-GM foods and food safety.5.0 Recommendations for changes to the internal operations of the organisation to best meet their potential impact.Although Marks and Spencer has done a recommendable job in terms of promoting the natural environment, there is still room for improvement. The organisation particularly needs to work on its internal environment by; initiating more training programs for its human resources geared towards environment related issues. Secondly, the organisation needs to increase its budget allocated to environment conservation efforts. In addition, the organisation needs to invest in modern production technologies to further reduce wastage.There is also a need for the company to find last ing solutions to the management of materials especially in regard to conservation of its sources of raw materials. Finally, Marks and Spencer must look further from its traditional markets and diversify its brands to cover new markets as a potential source of increasing sales revenues, which will avail more money to be used in promoting the natural environment. The above can only be achieved by the organisation utilizing modern business analytical tools such as SWOT analysis, PEST analysis as well as Michael Porters Fiver Forces analysis so as to arrive at informed decisions, which are also sustainable.Referenceshttp://www.theage.com.au/ Accessed on 20/05/2007.

Age and sex discrimination Essay

The terms ageism and sexism were coined about the same time (1969 and 1970, respectively), but sexism has become more widely used than ageism (Schick, 2006:7). Almost everyone has heard of sexism. Until recently, few people had heard of ageism. Both concepts refer to prejudice or discrimination against a category of people: sexism is usually directed against women, and ageism is usually directed against the aged. However, sometimes sexism is directed against men (by some extreme feminists), and ageism is sometimes directed against younger people (â€Å"positive ageism,† Palmore, 1990: 44). Prejudice is a negative attitude toward a category of people that is inaccurate and resistant to change. Discrimination is an inappropriate treatment of a category of people, usually based on prejudice (Atchley, 2001:17). Sexism and ageism combine in all possible ways: a few areas show neither one, more areas are affected by one but not the other, but most areas are affected by both. There may be some areas with neither ageism nor sexism, although it is hard to think of any area completely free of such prejudice. In some areas there is sexism with little or no ageism. For example, it is generally believed that women of any age should not marry men younger than themselves, but it is all right for men to marry women younger than themselves. This is a main reason why there are over five times as many widows as widowers over 65. On the other hand, in some areas there is ageism but little or no sexism. For example, many people believe that most old people are feeble or senile, regardless of gender. The fact is that the majority of people over 65 are neither feeble nor senile. In most areas both ageism and sexism combine to intensify the problems of older women. For example, women of all ages tend to have lower incomes than men (sexism), but older women also tend to have even lower incomes than younger women (ageism). This situation is often called â€Å"double jeopardy† because of the combined effects (Schick, 2006: 99). Sontag (1972) coined the term â€Å"double standard of aging. † This refers to the combination of sexism and ageism that multiplies the effects of both, more than would be expected on the basis of simply adding the two effects. For example, being physically attractive is more important in most women’s lives than in men’s (sexism); and there is a common belief that older persons are generally not as attractive as young people (ageism). However, women’s grey hair, wrinkles, bulges, and stooped bodies receive harsher judgment than those of men. For many women, aging means a â€Å"humiliating process of gradual sexual disqualification† (Sontag, 1972: 30-35), while many men enjoy more romantic success later in life because they have more status, money, and power than they had earlier. As a result, being a â€Å"spinster† or â€Å"old maid† is considered a pitiful status, while being an older bachelor is not so bad. Notice that there is no male equivalent of â€Å"old maid. † It may be objected that many older women do not mind this â€Å"sexual disqualification† and adjust to it by renouncing all interest in sexual activities or by becoming lesbians. This is true, but beside the point. The point is that sexism combined with ageism tends to enforce this â€Å"sexual disqualification† whether or not the woman likes it (Levin and Levin, 2000:210). There are many sources of ageism: individual, social, and cultural (Palmore, 1990:51). The individual sources include authoritarian personalities, frustration and aggression, selective perception, rationalization, and death anxiety. The social sources include modernization, competition, obsolescence, segregation, and selffulfilling prophecies. The cultural sources include the process of blaming the victim, differing value orientations, language, humor, songs, art, literature, television, and cultural lag. There are probably just as many sources of sexism that have been documented and analyzed elsewhere (Friedan, 1963: 107). The most popular sources of sexism that seem to increase in old age are humor and language. Negative jokes about women of all ages are common. However, jokes about old women seem to be relatively more frequent and more negative than those about younger women (Palmore, 1990:53). As any student of racism or sexism knows, negative humor is one of the most common and effective ways to perpetuate negative stereotypes about a minority group. One reason negative humor about a group is so common and effective is that it is passed off as â€Å"just a joke† or â€Å"harmless humor. † In fact, negative humor is rarely harmless and is especially insidious because its viciousness is masked by its overt â€Å"funniness. † Thus the age-concealment jokes reinforce the stereotype that all older women are ashamed of their age, while older men are not. It may well be that somewhat more old women are ashamed of their age than are old men (because of the â€Å"double standard of aging†), but that is beside the point. Similarly, the status of old maid is generally considered more negative than that of old bachelor, but that too is beside the point. The point is that such negative humor reinforces prejudice against older women. One of the most subtle but pervasive influences of culture on our attitudes is our language: the words we use to identify or describe a person or group; the derivations, definitions, and connotations of the words; their synonyms and antonyms; and the context in which they are used. Our language often supports ageism in all of these ways (Palmore, 1990:57). In addition, two analyses of words for elders have found that many of them also reflect sexism. Covey (1998) found that terms for old women have a much longer history of negative connotations than those for old men, because women not only faced a long history of ageism, but also sexism and religious persecution (as in witch hunts) (Covey, 1998:291). How can this malevolent combination of sexism and ageism be combatted? In general, most of the strategies that have been successful in reducing racism and sexism in general could be used to reduce the combination of sexism and ageism. Individuals can take the following actions to reduce prejudice and discrimination against older women: 1. Inform yourself so you have the facts to combat the misconceptions and stereotypes. 2. Examine your own attitudes and actions and try to eliminate those that reflect sexism and ageism. 3. Inform your relatives, friends, and colleagues about the facts, especially when some prejudice is expressed or implied. 4. Do not tell ageist or sexist jokes and refuse to laugh when you hear one. (Try converting the joke to an age- and sex-neutral joke by not specifying age or sex. ) References Atchley R. 2001. Social forces and aging. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Covey H. 1998. â€Å"Historical terminology used to represent older people†. Gerontologist, 28. Friedan B. 1963. The feminine mystique. New York: Norton. Levin J. , & Levin W. 2000. Ageism: Prejudice and discrimination against the elderly. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Palmore E. 1990. Ageism: Negative and positive. New York: Springer. Schick F. (Ed. ) 2006. Statistical handbook on aging Americans. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press. Sontag S. 1972. â€Å"The double standard of aging†. Saturday Review, 55 (39).