Peace-Building and Community Development in Uganda Essay

Community development is a multi-faceted activity that has different ends. It also has different requirements depending on the needs of people inside the community. Development can be achieved through sustaining small and medium businesses, ensuring education for all, managing inclusion and diversity, keeping peace and order, and creating comprehensive disaster management. Through these, a community like Uganda can be sustainable. In Uganda, the dehumanizing aspects of slavery in the South and racial discrimination in the North are more than just the beatings, but also the parting of children from their mothers, the denial of education, and the sexual abuses of slave masters (Davis, 2004). The civilization that developed in Uganda reflected the variety and contrasts found on the continent. The peoples of Uganda differ greatly in language, customs, and appearance. The geography of this huge continent also shows sharp contrasts. Along the Nile River, which flows from the tropical forests of Central Uganda through the deserts of the north, several early civilizations developed. One of the most influential regions was Sahara. Sahara’s political, economic, and cultural influence had an effect on the history of other kingdoms. Later, empires based on trade grew up in the region of Sahara (Davis, 2004). Patterns of settlement and trade were influenced by the varied climates and natural sources of the Uganda continent. The hottest and wettest regions of the continent are near the equator, in the basin of the Congo River. Heavy rainfall and warm humid air encourage the growth of lush rain forest. Near the edge of the rainforest is the savanna, an open grassland dotted with shrubs and scattered clumps of trees. The savannas provide land for farming and herding. These grasslands are also home of Uganda great herds of wild animals, gazelles, giraffes, wildebeests, zebras, lions, and elephants (Davis, 2004). Racism in Uganda has been associated with reduced spirits, lower efficiency and a greater probability to experience terrible stress and nonappearance in the major activities in a community. People who go through racism speak of having feeling of timidity or letdown and lowered levels of self-esteem. Minorities who sense that their identity and culture are not cherished may also live through lowered levels of self-confidence and self-respect and think that they have are not welcome in a neighborhood or community. This mindset may bring about a feeling of denunciation of their own values, language, and ultimately their culture, and an ensuing loss of individuality (Hooks, 1994). In Uganda, the ways of thinking of people concerning cultural miscellany of their communes differ extensively. Amongst a number of minorities, there is a devotion to a deepened insight into cultural diversity and multiculturalism. Some â€Å"mainstream† people are anxious about variations and sense antipathy towards people of color. If the person of color is suffering discrimination of any sort, he or she may feel forlorn and miserable. He or she may also attempt to evade incidents where racist activities could happen, and pretend to be unwell or be anxious of deserting their homes (Kressel, 2001). In some nations, significant segments of the population reject coexistence with minorities in equal terms. These minorities have faced discrimination in such areas as housing, education, and employment. Although no scientific proof supports racist claims, racism is widespread and has caused major problems throughout the world. Racism is most often used to justify the creation of political or economic systems that encourage or maintain the domination of one racial group over another. Such beliefs were long used to rationalize the enslavement and persecution of people viewed as inferior (Stoessinger, 2002). Throughout history there have been persecutions and atrocities that can be described as cases of genocide. The Russian pogroms (persecutions of the Jews) during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s were an example of genocide. During World War II, the Germans practiced genocide. They killed about six million European Jews. Victims of the Holocaust went through dehumanization simply to make the killing of others psychologically easy for the Nazis. Many victims of the Holocaust suffered from various experiments which eventually led to the death. Some of the experiments were things such as: sun lamp, internal irrigation, hot bath, warming by body heat, hypothermia, among others (Clemens and Purcell, 1999). In recent years a debate has raged over the question of whether opportunities for black economic advancement are more affected by race or class position. Sociologist William Wilson believes that racial discrimination has become less important than social class in influencing the life chances of black Americans (Hinkle, 2004). He says that civil rights legislation and affirmative action programs have substantially lifted the cap historically imposed on black social mobility by segregation, resulting in greater educational, income, and occupational differentiation: Blacks with good educational backgrounds and job skills rapidly moved into the American middle class; blacks with limited educations and job skills became the victims of dehumanization and welfare dependency. Now poor urban blacks find themselves relegated to all-black neighborhoods where they are further dehumanized and socially isolated from mainstream American life (Zanden, 1993). According to Maiese (2003), the United Nations defined peace-building as an interplay of â€Å"capacity building, reconciliation, and societal transformation†. For other organizations, the short-term goals are more evident; peace-building revolves around promoting peace in an immediate situation. The United Nations drew up an international convention in 1948 that made genocide a crime. On Dec. 9, 1948, the United Nations passed the Genocide Convention, which was designed to overcome the claims of Nuremberg defendants that they had violated no law. The convention made genocide a crime. The next day, the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Fifty years later, in 1998, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda became the first international court to pass a guilty verdict for the crime of genocide. The verdict related to crimes committed during the 1994 conflict in Rwanda (Kim, 2004). In 1999, there was already a convention, called the Geneva Spiritual Appeal, which made history in collecting in one venue the Catholics, the Jewish, the Buddhists, the Muslims, the Protestants, and the Orthodox Christians. Then again, there remain Christians, Animists, & Muslims in conflict in Nigeria; Christian-Muslim discord still abounds some parts in Asia as Indonesia and the Philippines; Buddhists and the minority population of the Hindus Tamils are at odds in Sri Lanka; and incredibly, Animists and Witches are cursing each other in Uganda (Reich, 1998). Sometimes, it is appropriate to entitle these conflicts nationalist ones, because they impact on the endeavors to build nation-states, in which the majority gets the state. More like the winning territory takes over or designs the administration. Defining such a nation is typically by linguistic or religious yardsticks. Hence, we have the Ugandans in the continent of Africa singled out as the inferiors by tongue and by faith, and Germans differ from the French by their verbal and non-verbal communication (Carter, Gwendolen, and Herz, 1991). Perhaps there’s a tendency of people growing to be defensive about their identity if they sense that it is under cordon. There is really not a single ultimate peace resolution plan that can referee the unrest. Attempts had been made like the 1999 Convention but the conflict is not exclusively attributable to spiritual diversity alone. It may be distributed among ethnic feuds, religion-based worldviews, economic modifications, and political coalitions, among several others (Carter, Gwendolen, and Herz, 1991). On having the United Nations’ enforcement of globalized paradigms, they would need to try harder. Peculiarities factor in on the extent of their reception. If the country’s fragile, they are more likely to get involved. If the country’s sturdy, they are more likely to lag behind and perform diplomatically around the edges. The key is not to establish globalized benchmarks but to develop local, internal avowals (Stoessinger, 2002). They said there is only one Bible and a million interpretations. But there is a single quotation in it that speaks of harmony: a house divided against itself cannot stand. Proclaiming a house partitioned to be a condominium cannot be expected to work out when many of the occupiers want instead to demolish the edifice entirely and put up their own, unattached houses. Speaking of houses, local religious sects could construct and ring a Peace Bell at the beginning and end of their spiritual observation. Ugandan victims could ask their municipality to formally declare their observance of the day (Kim, 2004). It would also be certainly wise for any intercontinental organizations to use workforce from countries that went through related experiences, rather then using the abstract approach brought by peacekeeping squads from Western nations to intervene in Uganda. One specific strategy possibly is to have this staff encourage the people inviting other faith traditions to join them in a prayer service for peace in Uganda (Carter, Gwendolen, and Herz, 1991). International treaties should make it easier for local organizations to get concerned in the region of Uganda where genocide is concentrated without misplacing valuable time as they wait for the pronouncement of the United Nations Security Council, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, or the Organization of African Unity (Reich, 1998). But it should always be made a point that the auxiliary time is spent on deepening interfaith commitments to dialogue and cooperation for promoting peace. In the 1990s, Jewish groups pressured those who had profited from the Holocaust to compensate Holocaust victims or their descendants. Groups that paid reparations included the German government, certain Swiss banks, and some German companies (Clemens and Purcell, 1999). In the country Uganda, Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager played the hero in the lives of thousands having different cultural backgrounds. In the middle of European colonization in Rwanda, Paul made an uncompromising initiative to communicate with the most relevant redeemers from the camp of Brussels’ headquarters. This way, he succeeded in playing the peacekeeper among the threatened people he hid in their hotel (Carter, Gwendolen, and Herz, 1991). The United Nations also played an indispensable role in Uganda. Led by Col. Oliver, the organization gets to know what is actually happening but not to make contingent actions and resolutions to put a stop to genocidal cases that mete out Rwanda. He stood the middleman between the U. N. superiors and the people under the wings of Paul Rusesabagina (Carter, Gwendolen, and Herz, 1991). However, it was also evident that the situation could have gone smarter if the likes of Paul Rusesabagina and Col. Oliver were given ample attention or at the very least, not ignored. Apart from the United Nations, a multitude of support and private-owned groups advocate against dehumanization and as such, campaign for a zero-dehumanized world and for a healing process to start with (Stoessinger, 2002). For instance, Interact Worldwide is an advocacy-driven virtual institution with the purpose of building support for and implement programmes, which enable marginalized people to fulfill their rights to sexual and reproductive health. Redefining Progress works with a broad array of partners to shift the economy and public policy towards sustainability; that they can measure the real state of a country’s economy, our environment, and social justice with tools like the genuine progress indicator and the ecological footprint; that they design policies to shift behavior in these three domains towards sustainability; and that they promote and create new frameworks to replace the ones that are taking us away from long-term social, economic, and environmental health. Other popular organizations include The Family Alliance to Stop Abuse and Neglect, National Down Syndrome Congress, Resources for Children of Holocaust Survivors, Amnesty International, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, Reebok Human Rights, among many others (Carter, Gwendolen, and Herz, 1991). Prejudice provides for the safe release of hostile and aggressive impulses that are culturally tabooed within other social contexts. By channeling hostilities from within family, occupational, and other crucial settings onto permissible targets, the stability of existing social structures may be promoted. This is the well-known scapegoating mechanism, another common method to dehumanize (Zanden, 1993). In Uganda, scapegoating resulted in the inhuman treatment of Ugandan tribes like Tutsi. Bound by his duty-based ethics, Paul Rusesabagina could be pictured having utter, intrinsic moral commitments to some external source to carry out certain actions, notwithstanding his particular situation and personal goals (Carter, Gwendolen, and Herz, 1991). The ways of thinking of people concerning cultural miscellany of their communes differ extensively be it in Rwanda or in some other place in the world. Amongst a number of minorities, there is a devotion to a deepened insight into cultural diversity and multiculturalism. Some â€Å"mainstream† people are anxious about variations and sense antipathy towards people of color. If the person of color is suffering discrimination of any sort, he or she may feel forlorn and miserable. But with Paul Rusesabagina around, the people kept safe in Uganda were saved not only from the harm of genocide but from the deadly bias posed against them by the larger society that is morally wrecked and uncharitable (Carter, Gwendolen, and Herz, 1991). An inherent debate has raged over the question of whether opportunities for black economic advancement are more affected by race or class position. Some believe that racial discrimination has become less important than social class in influencing the life chances of Ugandans. Civil rights legislation and affirmative action programs have substantially lifted the cap historically imposed on black social mobility by segregation, resulting in greater educational, income, and occupational differentiation: Blacks with good educational backgrounds and job skills rapidly moved into the middle class; blacks with limited educations and job skills became the victims of dehumanization and welfare dependency. Now poor urban blacks find themselves relegated to all-black neighborhoods where they are further dehumanized and socially isolated from mainstream Ugandan life (Hooks, 1994). The risk is that when chauvinistic behaviors and attitudes are allowed to go unimpeded in any environment, a climate cultivates which sees these incidents as natural and so permits racism to become deep-rooted. Whereas not many complaints are collected every year, this should not be compared to a low frequency of racist incidence. Inadequate understanding of legislation, fear or apprehension on the part of victimized minorities to disclose racist activities or disinclination by parents to engage in legal amends are factors that may thwart the conveyance of official complaints. As well, formal treatments for grievances of racism are not constantly suitable, with arbitration usually being considered as a preferable substitute (Kim, 2004). Racism has been a steady problem in Uganda all through time. Other forms of racism are, perhaps, less obvious. The hierarchical structure, academic elitism, and the whole way of life of mainstream society are directly opposed to cultural values and world views. How all this conflict is experienced by people of color can only be explained adequately by the citizens of the society themselves; it will be different depending on their past experience and even non-existent for others, but the suppression of the values and way of life of the mainstream society will adversely affect everyone because racism against these people of color eats at the hearts of the dominating as well as the dominated people (Hinkle, 2004). Peace-building can concentrate on resolving current issues between constituents. It involves moderating by authorities or other members of the community to maintain understanding between parties. On the other hand, it is also creating a society where the constituents are educated and transformed so that they do not only know peace but also lives peace. In these terms, education plays an integral role. This creates a community which is not only dependent on intermediaries but with self-regulation of peace as well. In the end, a community filled with peace-loving citizens is a community where peace has been built (Stoessinger, 2002). Personally, if I were a member of a certain low-income urban neighborhood similar in nature in Uganda, I would offer my full knowledge of the end and the means to achieve it. As part of the will for a â€Å"sense of community,† I will take the initiative to conform to shared leadership or become servant leaders. After all, a leader providing positive reinforcement is a leader creating a positive climate and peace-loving attitude all over a community. So long as there will be provision of opportunities that allow me to exercise responsibility and creativity in our common endeavor, my active participation would include extensive information dissemination, be it online or via available physical infrastructures, and active civic participation.

Home School vs. Public Eduaction Essay

Do home schooled children receive proper education? Will my child learn as much at home as he/she would in a public education system? Can we afford to get nine years into our child’s education to look into other options? Many parents find themselves asking these questions when it comes to the best learning environment for their child. There are several aspects you should consider when choosing between public education and home schooling your child. The three main things to take into consideration are the environment and costs, the academic/curriculum outline, and the social benefactors of each educational program. Public school is offered to all children free of charge, funded by taxation to help ensure that society is educated. Public education takes place in a school house setting. Teachers educate around 25 students per classroom. Parents are responsible for purchasing school supplies and materials such as pencils, paper, folders, crayons, tissue, etc. Public education offers your child free transportation on the school bus, as well as breakfast and lunch provided by the government. Homeschooling was made legal in 1993. Home school is the education of children at home. The â€Å"teachers† are in most cases the child’s parents. Children who home school learn in the comfort of their own home, generally around other siblings who are being home-schooled. In most cases, the home â€Å"classroom† environment has less distractions than public school. Parents are responsible for all educational expenses such as materials, teaching seminars, teacher study/answer guides, meals, e tc. Home-school can get expensive. Darla Jones, a mother who home-schools her children, says â€Å"Our cost for curriculum alone is $1,200.00 per child per year, but of course that is the Abeka DVD program. It is expensive. Then you add in breakfast, lunch, and dinner at home†¦no free or reduced meals.† Academic outline and core curriculum are important when choosing which education program is best for your child. Public school is divided into three levels for success; elementary school, middle school, and high school. Public school involves testing and standards by the government and they base their core curriculum on the standardized tests. The core curriculum for  public school students focus on reading, writing, and mathematics, with elective options such as art, music, etc. â€Å"There are some good and bad to both public education and home school. It all depends on the parents/children. Some children need homeschooling because with the â€Å"No Child Left Behind† act, they may fall through the cracks in the public school system, and whether they learn or not, some will be moved up in grades. Some public schools have so many children that they cannot give enough attention to every student. I don’t believe you learn only about the real world through homeschoolin g. If parents are doing their job and teaching their kids instead of leaving it all up to the teachers, children would be well rounded whether home-schooled or in public school.†, says public preschool teacher, Heather Coffee. The curriculum for home-school is generally designed by the child’s parent, with several subjects to choose from. Home-school mother, Angie Shelton states, â€Å"A parent can be resourceful and creative to keep costs to a minimum, especially if they reuse books from friends or family. There is no help with curriculum from the public school. Home-schoolers are not restricted by what they can or cannot teach, and there is a wide variety of curriculum for home-schoolers to choose from.† Parents can teach the same curriculum subjects as public school, along with an array of subjects like logical reasoning, geography, agriculture, art appreciation, Spanish, consumer math, keyboarding, family sciences, speech, and music appreciation. A concern that many parents share is the social benefactors of both, public and home school. Public school enables your child to learn in a classroom with other children from the neighborhood/city. Your child will gain social skills and communication skills by interacting with teachers and other students. Students who attend public school are offered after school programs like basketball, football, soccer, baseball, and track; and clubs like FFA, FCLA, FCA, FHA, and FBLA. Children are exposed to bullying, assault, theft, and violence when enrolled in public schools. Some argue that children in home-school lack in social skills. However, research shows that being home-schooled do not affect the child’s socialization skills, or lack thereof. Home-schooled children have several activities that they can participate in such as church, youth group, community activities, and any  child who is enrolled in home-school is allowed to play on any athletic sports team in the public schoo l. They also interact with their siblings while at home. All of these activities enable the child to build socialization skills. Other benefits to home-school education is that it gives the family the opportunity to build a strong family bond, there are less safety issues, and your child is not exposed to the influences of their peers, as they are in public school. Home-school graduate, Nick Shelton says, â€Å"I was home-schooled most of my life. I went to public school in the 9th grade and I had to re-learn everything. Even though I passed with A’s and B’s, I feel like public school was a joke. I have as much as or more social skills and life skills of any public school student. Many public school students (not all) my age are so far behind in life skills that they act as if they are still in high school.† In my opinion, there is not a significant difference in the child’s ability to gain social skills and confidence in either learning environment. Based upon the research I have done and the interviews that I have conducted, I believe that both public and home-school are exceptional educational environments for a child. However, I believe home-school benefits your child’s education more than public education. I believe parents should have the right to chose which option is best for their child. There is a lot of controversy on this topic, as everyone has their own opinion and each child has their own educational needs. Before enrolling your child in an educational program, take a moment to examine each programs environment and costs, the academic outline, and how much your child will benefit in each environment.

Why there may be greater potential for FDI activity in China rether Essay

Why there may be greater potential for FDI activity in China rether than India under the present economic climate - Essay Example However, when it comes to economic development both India and China have lot of similarities. These two countries are the most rapidly developing nations in the world at present. It is often said that global wealth is currently shifting from less heavily populated regions to the most heavily populated regions because of the developments in these two countries. India and China have shown the world that how the big curse (Population growth) can be turned to big blessing with the help of suitable economic policies. While most of the other developing nations such as America and European countries are struggling to find enough manpower, India and China have surplus manpower which they are utilizing cleverly for economic development. Even though a developing country may have many other sources of external finance, FDI seems to be the largest among all those sources. According to Malik et al.( 2012), â€Å"FDI is not only considered as a healthy sign for the overall national economy but al so a positive indication for the local industry considering its positive spill over effects† (p.230). FDI is bringing dividends in the progress of India and China in recent times. Majority of the prominent companies have invested heavily in India and China in recent times to capitalise the cheap manpower and other resources. . It should be noted that America and European region are not much promising for the multinational companies at present because of the ongoing recession problems and the ill-health of the economies there. On the other hand, India and China offer fertile soil for such companies and they work on their expansion plans based on the prospects in these two emerging economies. Some people believe that the investment climate in China is better than that in India. On the other hand, many others are of the view that India provides better climate than China for FDI. However, considering the recent performances of India and China in economic development, once can defi nitely say that China has slight edge over India in attracting FDI. This paper analyses why there may be greater potential for FDI activity in China rather than India under the present economic climate. What is FDI? According to Dicken (2007), Direct investment is a kind of investment intended to gain control over the activities of another firm. Moreover, FDI is the investment across nations (p.36). Ietto-Giles (2002) pointed out that â€Å"The flow of FDI and portfolio investments across countries generates a very large amount of investment incomes going in the opposite direction† (p.27). In short, the economic progress of a country in the modern era heavily depends on its ability to attract FDI. It should be noted that foreign direct investment is the investment of foreign capital in domestic goods and services. Since the internal resources of a country are limited, the ability to attract FDI determines which way the country is progressing. Adina (2011) mentioned about the training effect of FDI. In her opinion, FDI may help a country to modernize techniques and technologies, increase production and supply of goods, improve quality and competitiveness, create new jobs and grow the quality of life (p. 148). There is a limit for many countries to invest in infrastructure development projects because of various reasons such as budgetary constraints. FDI helps such countries to develop infrastructure with the help of foreign capital even though foreign companies, which bring capital, may exploit some internal resources. While balancing the profit and loss of FDI, profit will exceed the loss and hence most countries try to attract as much as FDI possible. In fact, competition for attracting FDI is huge among

Report on Burberry's Success- the 4 P's of marketing Essay

Report on Burberry's Success- the 4 P's of marketing - Essay Example It has also been noticed that the products under the Prorsum collection had been widely consumed by the celebrities such as Kate Moss, Stella Tennant and Mario Testino among others. During recent years, the brand has introduced another line of products known as the Burberry Brit. It is worth mentioning that in the year 2009, the Burberry Brit collection had contributed to almost 80% of the total sales of the company. Other than apparels, the brand also offers a wide range of leather goods such as bags and shoes. The brand offerings also include a variety of fashionable accessories such as scarves and travel and laundry bags, sunglasses, and key rings among others. The brand also marks its presence in the children wear segment in the global fashion industry (Nomura Equity Research, 2012; Liberum Capital, 2011). Price The products offered by Burberry are mostly high-end products which are quite expensive and appear under the tag of Burberry Prorsum. However, the products that appear under the tag of Burberry Brit are relatively low-end products in terms of its price range. For instance, similar products under the Prorsum collection may cost quite less than that under the Brit collection (Nomura Equity Research, 2012). Illustratively, the price of Burberry Prorsum trench coats for women ranges from US$ 1500 to US$ 3000. The price of women shirts of Burberry Prorsum ranges from US$ 295 to US$ 1000. ... The price for boy’s coats ranges from US$ 175 to US$ 1300 and that of girl’s coats ranges from US$ 195 to US$ 295 in the children section (Burberry, n.d.). Place Burberry has a worldwide presence and operates in various places all over the globe. Within European region, the brand has been operating in several countries such as Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, Switzerland and Netherlands among others. In America, the brand has been carrying out its business operations in Brazil, Canada and United States among others. Apart from these western markets, the brand has a significant presence within the Asia Pacific and Middle East region as well (Burberry, n.d.). However, in terms of flagship markets, the brand is not quite prominent in the global market. In this respect, the brand can be learnt as opting to start off various flagship stores in the mainland as well as other places. It is worth mentioning that the brand has inaugurat ed almost 26 new stores in the mainland during the years 2010 and 2011. This includes the flagship stores in Beijing as well. Apart from these, the brand also included almost 39 concession stores. In relation with the flagship cluster strategy, the brand can be learnt to commence its new stores, especially in the high profile markets (Scribd Inc, 2012). Promotion During the recent times, Burberry had been widely utilising the digital media for its promotional purpose. This strategy facilitated the brand to have better communication and connectivity with the targeted young group of customers and also to enhance the brand awareness amid the market. The brand also introduced its website known as the Burberry World which assisted the customers to improve their

Conducting training sessions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Conducting training sessions - Essay Example Task D (printing of handout copies), will only commence after training materials (task B) shall have been developed, hence it depends on task B. At the same time, task E (developing PowerPoint slides) also depends on task B, hence, will only commence after task B is completed. However, task D and E are concurrent since they can take place or commence at the same time. After developing PowerPoint slides (task D), one can go ahead to conduct a practice training session (task F). However, task F cannot be carried out before task D, hence task F is dependent on task D. Lastly, to conduct user training sessions (task G), task C (confirming of arrangement of training facility), task D (printing of handout copies) and task F (conducting practice training sessions) must have been completed. It means therefore that, task G is dependent on task C, task D and task F. The critical path therefore is when the project comes from task A to C to G. this is the longest path that the project can take to a successful completion. It will take a total of 15 days for the training session to come from the start all through to completion. However, the project can take other alternative shorter routes like go through rout 1 and 2 above which take 11 days and 13 days

Development of Europe during 1500-1795 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Development of Europe during 1500-1795 - Essay Example This development is the result of many important variables. To start with, Politics during that period matured in this period. Europe has witnessed a shift towards the democracy and the rule of people in the region. However, this was the result of strong scientific and artistic developments that took place in Europe during that era which helped mature the politics of the region. Religion was probably the weakest link in that era which contributed towards the development of Europe during that era as religion was more or less denounced and a new shift towards the religious consciousness took place which mostly rejected the traditional view of the religion within the region as there were strong religious movements from inquisitions to Calvinism, Europe burned under the wrath of religion however, this only fueled the hatred against religious authorities in the region rather than embracing them. However, the biggest contribution to the development of Europe came from its economic development. Industrial revolution in the region changed the way European Society tends to live. Right from changing the way governance were done to the very fabric of life Europe. As discussed above that the trade on the Atlantis taking place provided Europe a great opportunity to flourish and develop. The invention of steam engines provided the quickest mode to transport besides other industrial development increased the production capacities of the major industrial hubs of the region including England, France, Portugal, Spain and The Netherlands. It is because of this reason that it is often argued that the development of Europe is mainly is the development of above mentioned countries. (Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson) All other forces which seems to have contributed to the development of Europe have probably emerged out of the industrial revolution and economic development in the region. The subsequent economic

Case study - Franchising Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

- Franchising - Case Study Example The description will seek to apprehend four business ventures that John indulged in, and how they were substantial in building his career. The discussion will provide the merits and demerits of each particular venture; as well as, providing substantive recommendation that John could have opted at each business venture. Background One: Radiator Repair Based on the information presented in this extract, it is good to acknowledge that the radiator business has significant impact on John life. Firstly, John through the business got accustomed to running a service business. On this account, it is good to understand that the radiator business has significant challenges. The knowledge that the business has multi-customers with diverse needs hardens John, equipping him with the ability to handle different customer needs differently. Again, the knowledge that John conducted a family business has significant impact on how he could handle future business. Primarily, family businesses are challe nged by a plethora of factors, the concept of trust and authenticity often dominates different segments of the business. John was hardened to understand the essentiality having a manly figure in the business. This will later be reflected in his future business indulgence alongside different companies. However, there are categorical limitations of this business venture. Firstly, the consideration that radiator repair is a technical job which in any case have limited compensation is not a great idea for an employee. Again, his step-father never encouraged John to take over the franchise and in this case, John was relegated to the concept of a mere employee. In fact, the decision to leave the franchise is whole bestowed on the knowledge that his salary at the radiator business was not sufficient enough to manage his life. John had a family along the way and the radiator venture was not a substantive investment opportunity. In my opinion, John Leaving the radiator repair business owned by his father was a resounding move since it would enable him to look into a broader concept in learning new challenges of building a business from scratch. Background Two: Automotive paint touch-up A prominent character in John is his will to learn new things and his optimism. The idea to enter the automotive paint touch-up business was a bold step considered between John and Joan. The family reallocation to Colorado to build up the franchise was a realistic concept. According to the extract John and Joan did build the business for several years. The advantages of this business are the reallocation and consequently, building the business from scratch in an area which John and Joan lacked market. This was a logical step since it hardened John business concept making John understand the ideal reality of operating a business in a foreign environment. However, this strategy attracts criticism in some sense. Firstly, the knowledge that John and Joan left a prevailing market, in this cas e, John has start-up customers in the automotive industry is a dominion factor of consideration. John and Joan could have done successfully better if they continued with this alternative in Texas. Again, the consideration that this business was a blue-collar type of technical investment was not advisable venture considering John had deep dreams in

MPH599 - Culminating Project Mod 2 Case Assignment Essay

MPH599 - Culminating Project Mod 2 Case Assignment - Essay Example Theyre also number one on the list for children who have obesity. Risk factors for children to become type II diabetics, include, overweight and obesity, as well as distribution of body fat, high or low birth weight and rapid weight gain in children, physical inactivity and sedentary pastimes, fetal exposure to maternal gestational diabetes, failure to recover from the dynamic metabolic system changes of puberty when overweight or obese, and signs of insulin resistance untreated. Being a member of ethnic populations such as the American black, Mexican American, and Native American increases risk this disease. Essentially every civilized country in the world has had a sudden increase in children who are obese and therefore, children who have type II diabetes. Spain and the UK are second and third in numbers of children who have obesity as well as type II diabetes. Unfortunately type II diabetes in children leads to early hypertension and cardiovascular disease and peripheral vascular disease. The fact that these children are so overweight causes a great deal of difficulty maintaining joints and these children as they hit early adulthood often havening degenerative joint disease. Appropriate screening and follow-up education on such issues as nutrition, number of hours in front of the television set, or number of hours playing video games is important in the school systems today. The average child who develops early-onset diabetes is usually in the age range of 5 to 15.(Healthy people 2020). Type II diabetes in children is one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century. Thereve been more than $2 trillion spent nationally on health care issues related to child type II diabetes. This actually only amounts to 3% of all public health activity. Its already estimated 250,000 more public health workers will be needed by 2020 to handle the number of issues that are growing, with childhood as well as adult diabetes as

Social Media Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Social Media Marketing - Essay Example Considering the wide range of social media sites covered, this marketing design will have a very wide range of audience across the globe. All the socio-economic classes of the human society are reached out to by this advert, providing a strong base of potential buyers (Safko 2013). In addition to the large social media coverage, this advert gives a detailed and all inclusive description of the Tecno smartphones. The description of the features is brought out in a colorful and eye-catching animations accompanied by step by step audio explanations. The audio explanations are of a wide variety of languages; English, French, German, Kiswahili, Arabic and even some local dialects. This gives first-hand information to the audience because one does not need a translation in order to understand the information being conveyed. Translations are sometimes biased since the translator may say what they think is important. As a result a potential buyer may fail to buy the product because what they were looking for in a phone was omitted by the translator. The advert is also accompanied by a step by step tutorial on the use of the smart phone. This is optional and can be viewed by anyone who has never used a smart phone before (Zimmerman 2013). This is an added advantage as compared to the inserts and user manuals that are usually inserted in the smartphone boxes. Some of the user manuals are typed in very tiny fonts making them stannous to read. An audio version would therefore be preferred by some customers. Currently the smartphone market is flooded by very many brands of smartphones. The major smartphones in the market are; Samsung, Apple, Sony, Alcatel, LG, Infinix and many others. All these smartphones ideally have the same features and applications. The hardware and the brand names are the only variables in this industry. The availability of many brands creates a cutthroat competition, with every company trying to have a bigger share of the market. In

Collaborative Strategies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Collaborative Strategies - Essay Example This also makes both the regions to have something to associate each other with, like a company having a head office in another place and operations in another place, makes people of the other country feel about the company more special, and thus it increases market share. It also gives an extra control to an origin or parent company over the collaborated company and its origin, also it plays some role in having better relations between not only two companies but also two countries and thus governments are involved in a positive manner. The collaborative arrangements abroad are to reduce overheads and costs, as initiating the operations on the personal expenses can bring a heavy investment and capital into action, which is also not secured, as no body knows what might be the preferences of the origin where the initiation would take place. The real problem that arises when the collaboration takes places between a local and international arrangement is that at times, the international arrangement becomes more prominent and beneficial where as the local starts suffering as there might be a possibility that due to high cultural values the firm makes fair reputation abroad while having similar or even poorer reputation in the origin, this can really affect the operations and can increase the worries of the decision makers. One of the widely most methods used for collaboration between two different companies or even parties is licensing, which after having more specialized form, known as franchising, however there are few differences between the two but they have more similarities as they both are used as a major form of collaboration. In licensing, the problem that occurs is on the side of the origin company, as if it would issue license to some other party than the party can start providing the service or products under the parent company's name, with having no concerns on following the instructions of parent company, they can also set the entire fixture and related things according to their own will, this can cause the parent company to have a poor image at times if the licenser has not taken any care of the original standards followed by the parent company. In franchising, the problem gets opposite, as now the franchisee has to follow the instructions of the parent company in a strict manner, even t he fixtures and the materials used in the product are same all around the globe in accordance to the parent company's will, in this case the franchisee gets worried as failure to maintain the real standards can lead to the cancellation of the franchise agreement. As long as we talk about business, than it automatically takes us to talk about individual objectives, which lead to problems. There are numerous problems occurring in the collaborative arrangements such as having more concerns on the partnership rather than private operations, controlling problem as both of the parties have merely some control on each others work which can result in change views, also the personal objectives come first which can make both the parties apart and also cultural differences can occur, which are a major issue as there have been various firms

My First Lair Essay Example for Free

My First Lair Essay It was 22nd of December, 2001, my 10th birthday. As usual on every birthday when i was 10, my parents bought for me a super fancy bike. That was the best gift i’d ever had, but i was not suitable to receive it. At that times, a Math competition was held at my high-school, everyone in class had to join this event ,and the reward from my parents is the Martin bike . As a arrogant kid, I was very confident about myself, and I assumed that I’ll win that competition. I didnt prepare any things for that contest . â€Å"Piece of cake† is my moto , i always say that whenever I see a math. Until the contest day I still said â€Å" piece of cake† in the test. Step by step, I finished my work quickly and felt very confident about the test. I remember that day, I call the guy who sat in font of me â€Å"loser† because he finished his paper slower than me,and overshadowed Tu whom was bot student in class . I was such an haughty kid. Then i paid for my arrogantly, i lost in that competition, i didnt see the bonus extra point question, so i skipped that. Finally Vinh- the loser did good all the questions. Standing at the 2nd which mean the Martin was still far far away from me. Being on the top a long time, 2nd is unacceptable for me, and I really wanted the Martin. I’d been thinking about that for few days, then I got a evil idea that my parents was always busy with their business, and they would believe anything from me. I decided blithely sacrifice future security in exchange for immediate gratification. I told them that i won the contest, then got a new bike from them. Extremely super ultra awesome was not enough to describe my feeling in this moment. I’d enjoyed my new stuff til that day. Life is not simple as i think, the contest result was hung . One day my parents came home with a bad mood, they just looked at me in a disappointed way, then ignored me in that day. I could predict that they knew the truth . That was the first time i lied to them, they must be very sad . I really really wanted to talk to them in that day, but i could; shame on me . Next day, i put all my bravely into my word; â€Å"I’m sorry† that all i could say, and they just smiled, and said â€Å" it’s ok, you should be honest next time, don’t exchange our faith with a fancy thing â€Å" . I cried after hear that . Their quote always follows me until now . Thing can buy although it’s very expensive , but faith is invaluable . That was how my first lair work on .

Spectrum Brands Essay Example for Free

Spectrum Brands Essay -Remington leader on shaving and personal care products generates global revenue of US$350 million with 8 sales reps assigned to specific retailers. -United/Nu-Gro leaders in the lawn and garden care with sales US$550 million and insect control products with sales US$150 million, target customers who desire comparable products with lower prices than premium-prices. -Distributors offer same services than an internal sales force could and are responsible for the sales in the diverse geographical locations of pet retailer markets. Weaknesses -Spectrum through Rayovac have been able to secure space shelf space in a small number of retailers while competitors gain market share through greater control over distribution channels, retailers, and prices. -The United/Nu-Gro professional division has its own dedicated sales force that creates a lack and dependency on sales reps expertise. -The lawn and garden care, insect control and pet foods industries Spectrum is in have different seasons that the new sales force must balance. Opportunities -The sales force from competitors offers retail discounts and promotional discounts to retailers, distributors and wholesalers creating a competitive advantage that Spectrum may add as value to its new sales force. -A restructured sales force can focus on the sales growth with greater benefits for the company -Room for greater retail presence by offering product discounts and stealing market share from competition if the sales costs are better managed. Threats -That the new sales force would end up doing significant duplication of efforts if sales reps would call same retailers at the same time. -An ineffective selection process of the new sales force could disrupt the growth momentum of Spectrum’s individual brands and the relationships with retailers, wholesalers and customers. Competitors get the benefit. -The sales in the lawn and garden division may be a risk of having a poor season since sales depend on weather conditions. SWOT analysis In general, the current sales force is not efficient as it needs to be. Although the total sales of all divisions are steady, competitors are gaining shelf space through channels of distribution that Spectrum is not able to reach due to the lack of sales focus by its sales force. Inspite of the market share challenge, Spectrum is in a great position to increase the market share by carefully creating a sales force that would increase its market visibility. Market Analysis Battery Market Consumers rely on convenience and quality when purchasing batteries and tend to gravitate towards the brand names. Spectrum’s competitors are Procter Gamble 40% and Energizer battery brand with 40% of the market share. The alkaline battery is expected to dominate the market in 5 years. In Canada, the alkaline battery market is above CAD $300 million. Rayovac holds 20% of the market. It is a household seasonal product and 70% of the sales primary done during and after Christmas. Mass merchandisers, home garden centers and niche electronic stores are used as retailers generate 60% of sales, while 40% of sales are with wholesalers, distributors, especially in Wal-Mart with 40% of shelf space. Shaving and grooming products market. A combination of electronic grooming products and hair care applications with a growth of 3% and expected to continue. It has a sales cycle as gift giving season, shaving and grooming products are in high demand on Christmas, father’s day and mother’s day. Remington merged with Rayovacin2003; Remington (Now Spectrum) has secured 30% in USA and 21% in UK of the market share with global revenue US$350 million in 2003. The major competitors in the shaving market are Norelco (Philips) with rotary shavers and Braun-Gillette (Now Procter Gamble), while in hair care industry are Conair Corporation and Norelco that competes on quality and price. Sales reps have a direct presence in the success of sales since they manage sales directly with small niche retailers like salons, specialty hair and body care. It generates 35% of total sales. Wal-Mart retail generates 40% of sales as a traditional retail channel. Lawn and Garden Market It is driven by the baby boomers population. In North America more than 80% of household’s participants in garden activities generate a US$4 billion industry in sales and a potential annual growth of between 4% and 5%. The insect control products play an important role in this market. When new diseases appeared like West Nile virus and bone diseases, it increases demand for more insect control product raising the market in about 7% to 8% in sales. Scotts and Johnson Son, Inc are the market leaders with products like Ortho and Roundup. United/Nu-Gro company a Canadian subsidiary of United Industries Corporation in USA, is the number 2 company in lawn and garden products with a 23% market share and US$550 million in sales. The key of its success is in offering brand names such as Vigoro, Shultz, and CIL to targeted consumers  who want products at a low price. In the Insect control market, United/Nu-Gro is number 2 with 24% of market share and US$150 million on sales. Mass merchandisers and garden and home centers are the channels used generating 60% of sales in the consumer division. The professional division has its own sales team specialized in professional products for specific customers like golf courses and pest control operators generating 25% and 15% of sales respectively.

An Analysis Of The Dumbest Generation English Language Essay

An Analysis Of The Dumbest Generation English Language Essay The Dumbest Generation, How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Dont Trust Anyone Under 30) is a critical analysis on the effects of the prolific spread of information and communication technology on the youth of today. In it, Mark Bauerlein argues that while this technology could have been used to increase access to knowledge and therefore improve the minds of children, it has only been used to distract them from useful knowledge and skills which he strongly implies, although rarely explicitly states, only currently come from books and exposure to art. The book at its core is a research paper, using hundreds of facts and an eight page bibliography to support his thesis, and free from having to defend his beliefs on a philosophical level, Bauerlein spends much of his paper explaining his many cited statistics and presenting his conclusion about what would happen if the trend was allowed to continue. Besides the obvious and repeatedly stated concl usion that an unchecked spread of technology would cause a completely ignorant generation, Bauerlein concludes his paper with an explanation of how an informed society is necessary to uphold a democratic government. Hidden more subtly throughout the book is the hidden message that technologys isolation of its users from the outside world and contact with the kinds of people we might not enjoy being around causes the psychological maturing process to slow, rendering a generation raised in the digital era perpetual children. Although his book is intended to be read by a wide range of audiences, Bauerleins target audience is the adults of today, or more specifically, the educators of today. His solution, placed in the final chapter of the book, where he was no doubt aware that only those with a personal stake or a love of knowledge would reach before putting it down, is to encourage children to read and learn for their own edification. He mentions several counter arguments to his, but doesnt refute their logic as much as drown them in empirical data showing that they have little to nothing backing them up. Through this book Mark Bauerlein jumped into a national debate already brought up by another similar book, The Age of American Unreason, by Susan Jacoby. But who is Mark Bauerlein? His most obvious feature is being a professor of English at Emory University, as stated in his web page at Emory Universitys official website and on the cover of his book. Also according to the same sources, he took a break for a couple of years to be a Director of Research and Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts, showing that he does have experience in both gathering and interpreting the data with which he generously fills his book. His own personal website reveals that he is a fairly prolific writer himself, from such topics as racism and literary criticism itself, but for the most part Bauerlein writes about the humanities. While this information would obviously lead to Bauerlein having a personal stake in the state of American literacy, it does not really offer any evidence of bias either way for whether or not there actually is a literacy deficiency. Bauerlein uses his credentials well, relying only on his own credibility to properly evalua te data and to extrapolate the results, allowing the actual risk of misinformation to lie with his sources. For the most part, his information consists of surveys of participation in certain activities and tests of academic skill, primarily the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which is a program run by a subdivision of the U.S. Department of Education (Bauerlein 14-5). Where Bauerlein seems to falter in his credibility is in trying to avoid sounding reactionary or out of touch, discussing the information revolution as a form of Youth Rebellion (Bauerlein 178), making sweeping comments such as Young people have too much choice (Bauerlein 156), and showing disdain for the design of websites conforming to the whims of their readers, whose compositions include large bold headlines intended to grab audiences and putting the broad, useful information first to keep the reader paying attention, while completely ignoring the existence of these tactics in newspapers and within his own book. However, one can understand why the condescension was included. A moderate book doesnt sell, and an English Professor knows this better than anyone. But despite some issues regarding his relationship to the subject, the book does successfully display the flaws of the so called dumbest generation, and it certainly accomplishes its retroactively stated goal, to open up the issue to some sober skepticism, to blunt the techno-zeal spreading through classrooms and libraries (Bauerlein vii), found in the preface of the paperback edition. The purpose of the book is plain, and stated in its title, sub title, and sub-sub title. Bauerlein uses statistics and logic to show that the current generation of children will be incapable adults in order to convince parents and educators to encourage the children to read books, learn history, experience liberal arts. Like any good research paper, Bauerlein begins his exploration of the effects of technology with a moving introduction. In it, he sympathizes with the struggles facing the ambitious youth, who have to tirelessly fight to be the best out of millions just to progress to the next step in their lives. However, near the end he suddenly shifts to his own images about the average American student, which are quite grim. The introductions lack of relevance to the main subject was most likely added to pull in someone who would naturally expected the opposite of what is depicted in the first part of the intro based on the title. Also, by conceding the efforts and hardships of the young academics, he does not alienate them, in a way separating those potential readers from the sweeping accusations made later in the book. The pleasantries aside, Bauerlein dives into the fray with his mountains of data, citing over one hundred statistics in the first chapter. He uses several kinds of statistics; so me to show that children do not pass subject material exams, some to show that a large amount of children do not know a specific fact that one is normally expected to know, and some to show that other factors one might consider for causes of a lower average intelligence such as school time (Bauerlein 30), finance (Bauerlein 31), and leisure time (Bauerlein 32) have only become less restrictive over time. After having thoroughly proven that todays students dont know what they should, he moves on into the next chapter to discuss why this is. Bauerlein simply says that children dont choose to learn enough. His weapon of choice now is the survey of students in which he shows that children do not read literature or participate in the arts. The main survey he brings up is a report from National Endowment for the Arts, Reading at Risk, in which Bauerlein show that the reading of any kind of literature is declining, and especially so in children. However, the survey asked about voluntary reading, not reading required for work or school (Bauerlein 45) and despite assertions that to be considered a reader one merely had to read any work of any quality of any medium-book, newspaper, magazine, blog, Web page, or music CD insert (Bauerlein 47), it is unlikely that most of the people who said that they did not read were aware of or understood this qualification, and in all likelihood disregarded a ny reading they did do as sufficient. Bauerlein goes on to give several examples of the positive effects of a zeal for reading such as Frederick Douglass and Walt Whitman, which serve more to emotionally touch the reader rather than to logically prove his point, as the last section did. Back to the facts, Bauerlein sends out scores of numbers indicating that the youth of today spend a disproportionate amount of time on screen technology. However, instead of merely analyzing the data, he takes the time to bring up counterarguments. He shows how other authors such as Steven Berlin Johnson have explored the special social and thinking patterns that could only occur in a world of instant communication and interactive digital worlds in such books as Everything Bad is Good for You, and doesnt actually protest their reasoning, and even gives us his own visions of an ideal world where the technology created a vibrant massive community seeking knowledge and obtaining true enlightenment. And then Bauerlein caps it off with an answer to the rhetorical question Why, then, should bibliophiles and traditionalists carp so much? with the short maxim, Because that glorious creation of youth intelligence hasnt materialized (Bauerlein 107). He shifts once again to his statistics, now not only showing poor scholastic performance but poor job performance as well, painting a new picture of a generation of perpetual children who know little and know nothing practical. Not only do the digital medias have less complex vocabulary (Bauerlein 128-9), but they foster peer absorption (Bauerlein 133) and poor attention spans (Bauerlein 148). He describes the newest batch of young adults as twixters (Bauerlein 160) who despite financial stability, technology, and readily available education, do not settle down and wander through life fairly aimlessly. The solution, according to Bauerlein, is for the educators of America to rise up and promote reading and arts instead of technology alone, which has been shown to be ineffective by itself to promote learning and knowledge. In the final chapter, Bauerlein compares an ignorant adults that the ignorant children would become to Rip Van Winkle (Bauerlein 204-9), knowing nothing that they need to in a world that suddenly demands their attention and participation, and unaware of how to feel about the issues surrounding them. Bauerlein closes with a conclusion that if uncorrected, the trend of an unintelligent youth would undermine democratic society, and that only by reintegrating tradition into learning could we save society from the sovereignty of youth. (Bauerlein 223) brought about by a freedom from material that challenges what they think. The overall structure of the book is designed for a broad range of readers. An interesting introduction pulls in readers of all sorts, and then a series of facts puts the issue of childhood ignorance freshly onto the minds of concerned adults. Specific proof of his claim trails this to counter those who doubt the validity of his claim, followed by acknowledgement and rebuttal of claims to appease those more enlightened on the subject, and he finishes the book with a powerful, almost alarmist message that exploits the fears of a society of idiots and their patriotism to swing to his side his colleagues, students, and critics. Of course, Bauerlein is certainly not the first to comment on the rising ignorance among todays young adults. Just three months before The Dumbest Generation was published, The Age of American Unreason, a book by Susan Jacoby, hit the shelves with a similar conclusion, that the digital age has caused the current youth to become self absorbed and ignore what goes on around them; Bauerlein mentions it in passing. For long years it has been suspected that digital technology would not improve education. In an essay by Michael Schrage from 1997, aptly named Computers Will Not Transform Education, shows doubt about the young internets ability to revolutionize education, and points out that neither the radio nor the television had a great impact on student performance. This sentiment was also expressed in another essay that year, Computers Cannot Replace Good Teachers, by Clifford Stoll, who makes the calm assertion that most learning isnt fun. Learning takes work. Discipline. Responsibilit y-You have to do your homework. Both of the predictions of a high amount of spending on technology by education and an insignificant change in performance are evident in The Dumbest Generation. However, Bauerleins presentation of poor performance seems to contradict the Flynn effect, the rise of IQ over time, but instead of contesting it, he lets it sit, and in some ways appears to ignore the elephant in the room when discussing the relevancy of new visual learning techniques, relying nearly entirely on test performance. However, not all of the data works in favor of Bauerlein. According to The Nations Report Card, the official web site for the National Assessment of Educational Progress, Mathematics scores for 9- and 13- year-olds are higher than all previous assessment years and that Reading skills at all three ages improve since 2004. Furthermore, according to the charts on the long-term trend section of the web site, average scores overall have increased gradually but constantly since the first test in 1978. So while Bauerlein may be correct that the number of students who pass the test may be decreasing, this is mainly due to the level of competence being raised faster than the children are getting better, a much less frightening scenario. In fact, On both the reading and the math tests, and at all three tested ages (9, 13 and 17), the lowest-ever scores in the history of the NAEP were recorded by children born between 1961 and 1965 (Neil Howe). However, the raw score increase has not gotten any faster in thirty years, the increase is most likely due to increased incomes, higher teacher to student ratios, better health, and many of the other improvements that Bauerlein points out rather than technology, which would have shown higher improvement in recent years, when the information revolution started. Of course, all of this is only relevant if you put your faith into NAEP tests, which according to Jim Hull of The Center for Public Education in The proficiency debate: A guide to NAEP achievement levels, you cant. Hull shows that NAEP standards for proficiency in a subject are higher than nearly all of the state regulated proficiency tests, and the tested material often widely differs from state curriculum. One of Bauerleins main sources is Reading at Risk, a report explaining the results of a 2002 survey of reading habits by the National Endowment for the Arts, which he states indicates decreased reading in all age groups and a large decline in young readers. However, the 2008 results were released in January 2009, as a sort of sequel titled Reading on the Rise, which bared the unexpected news that the percentage of literary readers had actually gone up, and even more astoundingly, Literary reading has increased most rapidly among the youngest adults. This isnt just contradictory to the trend of 1992 to 2002, from which Bauerlein draws proof of a non reading public; it completely turns it upside down. And while the report was published eight months after The Dumbest Generation, the survey itself was taking place as Bauerlein was finishing his book, and that the miraculous return to literature had begun and reading rates were rising as Bauerlein was writing about how the reading rates w ere falling, and he didnt notice the complete reversal happening right under his nose, or chose to ignore it. Most people who picked up The Dumbest Generation were probably expecting a lot of expanded logic and presumptuous reasoning like what makes up the counter arguments to this book such as Everything Bad is Good For You, which do not have much true evidence. I was personally delighted to find that Mark Bauerlein had taken the time to find not just adequate data, but a tremendous amount of information. For the most part, his logic is sound; however, his main struck a bad chord. Because technology has increased while the intellectual performance of the newest generation has gone down, technology must be causing the newest generation to be the dumbest. Post hoc ergo proptor hoc. While he briefly explains why several other possible causes for lower test scores havent happened, he doesnt ever find a factual link between technology and the change in scores other than the times in which both occur. As far as books and technology, print reading would naturally decrease as web usage went up, sim ply due to the limits of time. In fact, Bauerlein doesnt have any proof of high literary reading from before twenty years ago; we are simply expected to believe that those before us spent all of their free time reading. What Bauerlein fails to address is the fact that social networking is not the result of technology on reading, but the effect of technology on actual, face-to-face social interaction. Ill jump to agree with the assertion that a decrease in performance could be based on the ability to choose not to succeed, but it is society, not technology, that facilitated this shift. The children of today arent expected to read literature much, and dont gain anything concrete from it, so most of them dont and I would expect it. Am I supposed to believe that the students of yore read The Divine Comedy for fun? They didnt, and for the most part, people read only what they like to read or what they have to read. And when children dont have to read much, they mostly read whats fun, eac h other, and other frivolities like video games. In The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Dont Trust Anyone Under 30, Mark Bauerlein uses out of context information to convince readers that our advancements have made my generation the dumbest, when really it is simply not expected to do more, and its opinion is valued as important as the instructors. Indeed, with discipline, technology can be and already is used for incredible feats in learning. Without the photocopier, the online databases paid for by my school, and the internet, I would know nothing more on this subject than what is in this book. If more was expected of students, both student knowledge and beneficial use of technology would rise, to the point where English professors like Mark Bauerlein would stop separating published content into the categories of print and web. And quite frankly, Im insulted he used the title The Dumbest Generation when a title more fitting to his thesis would be The Laziest Generation. An alarmist book, The Dumbest Generation was written to sell a malformed idea that an English professor had a lot of published work already invested in, and was written to sell a lot of books. In both of these he succeeded.

Earth Faces a Sixth Mass Extinction Essay -- Exploratory Essays Resear

Earth Faces a Sixth Mass Extinction Scientists in Great Britain have been studying the distribution of birds, butterflies and plants for the past 40 years and the results from these studies suggest that the Earth is heading towards another mass extinction, and this one may have its roots in human activity. Within the four billion years that Earth has been around, it has already experienced five mass extinctions. The most recent, and most well known occurred 65 million years ago and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. While that my have been caused by a meteor colliding with the earth, if scientists are correct, our actions, both past and present, are harming many species of organisms and we may even be causing our own demise. The ongoing studies in Great Britain covered the biodiversity (that is the amount of species of an organism within a given area) and the amount of land the plants, birds, and butterflies each occupied. It covered 1254 species of plants studied from 1954 to 1960 and again from 1987 to 1999, 201 bird species studied between 1968 and 1971 and again from 1988 to 1989, and 58 butterfly species studied between 1970 and 1982 and again between 1995 and 1999 (Thomas et al. 2004). Before this study there was only speculation into the possible population decline of insects. Since they are so abundant it had been hard to get any grasp on their actual number or the effect humans were having on them (Pennisi 2004). Over the time they were studied 3.4% of the species of butterflies went extinct compared to only .4% of the plant species. None of the species of birds that were studied went extinct during the time of the research. The extinctions that occurred were evenly spread throughout Great... ...xtinction just yet, a short period of time from a geological point of view can be hundreds of thousands of years. References Ananthaswamy, Anil. â€Å"Earth faces sixth mass extinction† NewScientist.com News Service. March 18, 2004 http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994797 Pennisi, Elizabeth. 2004 â€Å"Naturalists' Surveys Show That British Butterflies Are Going, Going ...† Science v. 303, p. 1747 Recer, Paul. â€Å"Humans blamed for march toward 6th mass extinction† Star Ledger Online. March 19, 2004 http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-14/1079682723291630.xml Rincon, Paul. â€Å"UK wildlife 'heading into crisis'† BBC News Online. March 18, 2004 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3520372.stm Thomas, J. A. et al., 2004 â€Å"Comparative Losses of British Butterflies, Birds, and Plants and the Global Extinction Crisis† Science v. 303, p. 1879

Workplace Literacy: Its Role in High Performance Organizations :: Workforce Work Jobs Essays

Workplace Literacy: Its Role in High Performance Organizations During the past decade a number of issues have been raised about the goals and purposes of workplace literacy; chief among these has been the debate surrounding the conceptualization of workplace literacy as a functional context program with its focus on analyzing the gaps between a workplace's literacy requirements and the abilities of its work force. Critics have felt that, too often, the job context approach was interpreted too narrowly and failed to involve workers. Frequently, the result was a curriculum designed to "fill in the gaps," usually through a top-down process with decisions made primarily by company management, human resources development specialists, and higher-level educational experts (Pritz and Imel 1993). At the same time, workplace educators were discussing how workplace literacy programs should be created, the concept of high performance organizations was emerging. Conversations began about how workplace literacy could be conceived of as a means of changing not just "the behavior of individual employees but of the larger work organization as well" (Imel and Kerka 1992, p. 4) by reinforcing critical thinking and teamwork required to transform workplaces into high performance, continuous improvement organizations. Sometimes referred to as the "collaborative" approach, the perspective that links workplace literacy to collaborative ways of organizing work-and that broadens the functional context approach-is gaining support (Jurmo 1994b). This ERIC Digestdescribes the relationship between collaborative approaches to workplace literacy and high performance work organizations, reviews some principles underlying the collaborative approach, and presents results of research on literacy development in high performance work organizations. High Performance Work Organizations and the Collaborative Approach In a high performance work organization (HPWO), employee basic skills are just one of many components (Jurmo et al. 1994). HPWOs feature flatter organizational structures, work done by teams of highly skilled workers, and a focus on quality, customer service, and continuous improvement (Kerka 1995). In addition to producing high-quality products and services, an HPWO also "provides a high quality of work life for all employees" (Jurmo et al. 1994, p. 4). HPWOs need workers who can take initiative, identify and solve problems, make decisions, and engage in a wide range of tasks. Traditional basic skills such as reading, writing, math, and communication are important primarily within the context of these higher-level skills (ibid.). Although many organizations have not achieved high performance status, they are moving in that direction and are seeking to develop a work force with a broader range of skills (Kerka 1995).

Essay --

While reading The Best American Comics: 2013 I came across Terry Moore’s written and illustrated â€Å"Rachel Rising† which is an invigorating horror comic excerpt where a beautiful woman named Rachel Beck awakes from a shallow grave crawling her way free, mostly dead with no clue how she ended up there or who strangled her to death. The excerpt is a short representation of the full comic series and a must say this is an exhilarating piece of artwork that leaves you off on a cliff hanger, which had me hungry for more. Similarly to the excerpt, every issue basically ends on a cliff hanger. The story is meant to be long-term, slow-build storytelling, like comic and TV show â€Å"The Walking Dead.† Let me start off by saying there are 3 complete volumes with 6 issues in each of them which include; The Shadow of Death, Fear No Malus, Cemetery Songs and it doesn’t just stop with just those volumes there are more issues still coming out to this day and I thi nk I will continue reading them. With that said, the excerpt from The Best American Comics used a small part from the beginning of issue one where Rachel arises from her shallow 6 inch grave but the excerpt continues from the start of the second issue where she meets her Aunt Johnny to convince that she is in deep trouble and someone tried to kill her. There is so much story packed in these pages of â€Å"Rachel Raising† that the excerpt did the comic series no justice, there were some details left unsaid and somewhat confusing. The structure and nature of the story dictate that you find yourself a bit confused, the fact that you fight through the confusion to savor the answers is what makes the series a success. Especially with the excerpt being so short, there was not enough information ... ...ned gruesomely, she awakes Rachel from her grave, provokes the little kid Zoe to cause death and mayhem in the town of Mason, but Lilith main objective is REVENGE. It seems that all the main characters are women and most of them die and come back from the dead. Little did you know, Rachel was one of the 4 witches from those trials that got the worst of it. Rachel friend Jet died too and came back to life the same way Rachel did. The little girl Zoe is actually holding a demon in her body named Malus the root word which means â€Å"Evil.† Malus promised Lilith to obliterate the town of Mason 300 years ago. They are all connect together and sooner or later in the series their complex history finally catches up with them all. â€Å"Rachel Rising† exhilarating horror-comic series that I will continue to read until the very end, I just can’t wait to get my hands on the next one.

Evaluate the social and economic impacts of the ‘One Child’ Policy in China Essay

Evaluate the social and economic impacts of the ‘One Child’ Policy in China In the year 1979, China was suffering a severe increase in population, and because of this Deng Xiaoping (leader of the communist party of China) introduced China to an anti-natalist policy called the ‘One Child’ policy. An anti-natalist policy aims to decrease the crude birth rate and the total fertility rate in a country in order to slow the population growth . This policy generated many social and economical impacts and in this essay I will talk about the social advantages of the policy, the social disadvantages, the economical advantages and finally the economical disadvantages. Firstly, the ‘One Child’ policy has created social advantages in China, since the population growth rate decreased. Due to the fact that the ‘One Child’ policy restricts women from only having one child in urban areas (there are some exceptions, like twins, lived in a rural area, if your child died then you can have another), this slowed down the crude birth rate and the total fertility rate. If China’s population kept on growing at the same rate like it was before any policies were introduced they would have encountered problems with resources. Resources are limited and China only has a certain amount of land, food, natural resources and water. This policy lowered the pressure on the limited amounts of resources and enabled people to have enough food and water to have a good enough quality of life and not live in fright, that one-day there wont be enough food and water. Furthermore, if a couple follows this policy, they would be offered some incentives. These incentives include that they would have access to health services and the child would have an education . This is a great advantage because the child will have an education and can learn and develop as a person and hopefully have a higher chance of succeeding in life. Also, access to health services is a great benefit because some families wouldn’t be able to afford health services. It will make sure that the family will be healthy and hopefully live longer. Women will receive education about having a child and will receive free contraception. With this, we can say that the ‘One Child’ policy created social advantages to people living in China. Secondly, the ‘One child’ policy also has produced social disadvantages in  China, like a gender imbalance and other social problems. Only having one child in a family can create some social problems with the child. Individuals who grew up, as single children as a result of China’s policy were considerably less trustworthy, more risk-averse, less competitive, more pessimistic, and less conscientious individuals . Their social skills will be poor with other children since they have no siblings at home. The parents usually spoil the child since it’s the only child they have, this is how the name the ‘little emperors’ was created for an only child. Additionally, the male to female ratio has drastically leaded towards the male side. This is because parents prefer to have a boy rather than a girl because when the parents get older, they will have to depend on their son’s wife to take care of them. If they had a girl then they wouldn’t be able to move in with their daughter because the daughter will look after her husbands parents rather than her own parents. This has a created a gender imbalance (for every 6 boys born in China, there are 5 girls) in China and has caused many older men to have no partner due to the simple fact that there aren’t enough women for the amount of men. In addition, there are some cases where unwanted girls are abandoned or aborted even though it is illegal in China. These children will have to be adopted or go to an orphanage. Child trafficking is at a record high in China and for the purpose of exploitation, which is a human right violation. Since there is a fall in the crude birth rate and total fertility rate there is going to be a greater gap between the younger population and the ageing population, which will mean that China could become a ageing population instead of a stable population. As we can see, China’s ‘One Child’ policy has made many negative social impacts in China. Thirdly, economic advantages of the ‘One Child’ policy are seen in China with a clear economic growth in China. It costs quite a lot to raise one child and it’s not easy to raise another child and therefore families will save money by only having one child. It is also believed that the ‘One Child’ policy is benefitting the economic future of China because it aids to improve the living standards and saves a lot more resources as I said before. Furthermore, the policy also reduces unemployment in China because there will be more jobs available to people since there will be a decrease in population. This will allow most people to have a job and earn more money  and therefore their standards of living will be better. The ‘One Child’ policy has had some positive economic impacts on China and the living quality for the Chinese. Fourthly, the ‘One Child’ policy has generated negative economic impacts on China. Older generations are dependent on the younger generations. The one child that is economically active is going to need to take care of his/her parents. However, if the one child is unable to take care because they don’t have a job, his/her parents will then face a very tough end of their life with very few resources. Also if you do have more than one child then you will receive a fine of a certain amount (depends on which province you live in), which can affect the family. The ‘One Child’ policy has so far created these negative economic problems on China. In conclusion, the ‘One Child’ policy has generated positive and negative social and economical impacts. I think that the policy is doing what it should be doing to China’s population, which is lowering it and slowing down the growth rate. China would be close to 2 billion people right now if the policy wasn’t introduced in my opinion, instead of its current population 1.3 billion . Word Count: 1063 Bibliography allgirlsallowed (Director). (2011). Statistics About Gendercide and the One-Child Policy [Motion Picture]. Fozzard, H. (2011, May 18). One Child Policy Incentives: Support for the Family. Retrieved October 1, 2013, from shenzhenparty: www.shenzhenparty.com/abpo-one-child-policy-incentives-support-for-the-family Google. (2012). china’s current population. Retrieved October 1, 2013, from Google: https://www.google.ch/search q=china’s+current+population&rlz=1C5CHFA_enCH545CH546&oq=chinas+current+po&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l5.4406j0&sourceid=chrome&espvd=210&es_sm=91&ie=UTF-8 Guinness, P. (2011). Patterns and Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Monash. (2013, January 11). The effects of China’s One Child Policy on its children. Retrieved October 1, 2013, from monash.edu: http://www.monash.edu.au/news/show/the-effects-of-chinas-one-child-policy-on-its-children Schwarz, T. (2010, October 5). Anti-natalist Policies. Retrieved October 1, 2013, from Geography IBHL: http://zisgeography.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/anti-natalist-policies/

How you Responded to the End of the Story ‘Lord of the Flies’ Essay

I am qualifying to explain how I responded to the preserve of the boloney, sea captain of the move. When Golding wrote, Lord of the go his views on the world were not rattling bang-up. When he came out of the Second terra firma War he said that often of what he saw could not be accounted for except on the basis of master copy ugliness. What he means is the evil that is already within every human being beings.During the ending, Ralph is being pursuited down by Jack and the rest of the savages. In this subprogram you search to be in the promontory of Ralph where you learn and understand what he is spillage through. You can see that Ralph is rushed for clock clock and cannot think because he knows that at any moment on of the hunters could spot him, If notwithstanding unmatched had time to think. You can understand and feel how sc argond Ralph is because all time he hears a peachy he is very anxious and wonders if it is a savage or just a pig or a bird. The movement of the language seems to almost change its yard as you read it. At angiotensin-converting enzyme time everything is slow and still.Then it changes and Ralph is hurry about for a hiding appear so he cannot be seen. For example, he flung himself down by some ferns. other thing that changes is the sound of the forest on the Island. Some times it is sincerely hush up and then everything becomes suddenly loud. For example, curious trickling sounds. the bunce of the forest rose to thunder. earlier the nautical Officer turns up on the beach a lot of the vista is very violent with flames all approximately the fire flapped at his right berm. Then, as soon as Ralph notices him, everything a identical man capture and murders seem so trivial. The Officer thinks that they were just having fun and games. He does not real(a)ise what was going on whilst the boys were stranded on this Island. likewise formerly the Officer arrives the language seems to come from his breaker point of view.At scratch line, when the children arrive on the Island they manage laws and elect a leader. Everyone seems happy and they be all enjoying the environment of being on their own without any adults to tell them what they should be doing. For example, Ralph says in the first chapter No grown-ups, which he thinks is a good thing. As the smart goes on things start to break down. The manage of the conch begins to be ignored acts of destruction are being seen and two sides form. Jacks side whom just want to hunt for snapper and play games we want meat.Then theres Ralphs side that are making shelters and are trying to find a air move out the Island If it rains akin when we dropped in well essential shelters. One of the ways they tried to break down off the Island was by using a fire to create smoke on the top of the mountain. They started it by using porcines render, His specs-use them as burning glasses. Later the Islands conditions deteriorated even more by th e deaths of Simon and then Piggy. At this stage Ralph only has Samneric to turn to. steady they are taken onto the side of the savages, they make us-we couldnt help it. All these things slide by and then they end up hunting Ralph himself, Theyre going to do you.Ralph, at the end of the novel was frightened and mat as though he was a hunted animal. All of the savages thought that he was the soulfulness in the wrong because he did not follow Jack. He was going to be treated like a 17th century criminal in the way they wanted to put his transport on a post like the pigs, Roger sharpened a stick at both ends. Ralph had now lost his leaders to the evil of Jack. Jack was now in charge with his own savage society. Roger round. Chief. Roger was still evil and was like Jacks right-hand man.He was the second most important person in the savage tribe. He was really evil right from the start from when he knocked the small childrens sand castles over. Samneric in this play stand for the r est of the hoi polloi in the world. The way they are slowly persuaded to change sides so that they dont get hurt and dont stick up for what is right they do us. Simon seems to stand for all good. He seems to represent Jesus Christ in this microcosm. The Lord of the Flies represents all evil like Jack and Roger. It is like the Devil. Also the Island that represents the world in the microcosm has two sides. The first is the Lagoon, which is all nice and calm or good, and then the other side of the Island, which is all rough, open sea representing evil.The ending of Lord of the Flies is quite abrupt. At one point Ralph is running in a mad rush. Then he seen the Naval Officer and everything calmed down and didnt seem as bad. The Officer seems to represent sanity and brings the children back to civilisation. After this they were taken off the Island. The Officer said, Well take you off. I think this ending is quite good therefore because it shows that among all of the violence in thi s microcosm, it is just the same in the real world, just on a littler scale. When the Officer rescues them it shows hope for the World.So later on reading the end Lord of the Flies linking it to the atmosphere at the start of the story and how Ralph managed to get out of it. I dumbfound realised that the ending of the novel is good and true to real life. At the time it was written and now.