12 Years A Slave Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

12 Years A Slave - Movie Review Example Ruthless slave masters such as Edwin Epps go as far as reading scriptures to the slaves. He quotes the book of Luke as he warns the disobedient servants â€Å"shall be beaten with many stripes.† Further, as a bad harvest looms, he blames the slaves as he attributes it to an Old Testament plague. With this reason, he sends away the slaves for a season until such a time that his crops will find favour in God’s eyes. In the course of slavery, Northup and fellow slaves console themselves in slavery. In moments of despair and pain, they sing spiritual hymns with profound sense of acceptance and surrender. Essentially, the Christian teachings do not support the ways and modes of slavery. According to Walter (4), it proved to be problematic as he tried to compare influence of religion on the attributes of slavery. His research compared the northern and southern states of antebellum in America.in his book ‘The church and slavery† Albert Barnes claims the general cou rse of the churches has been against slavery and that slave holders were a minority among the Christians. The churches would eventually detach themselves from slavery leading to its abolition. Cruelty in the film is given a grim picture in the event that Northup is made to mete out punishment to Epps’ prized slave girl. He is made to whip Patsey and portrayed as an inverted Christ figure. When confronted on his actions, Epps says there is no sin and justifies that a man can do what he wishes with his slaves.

Convince Catherine Essay Example for Free

Convince Catherine Essay Rodolfo started singing for Catherine, but Eddie intercepted him when he says â€Å"Hey kid – hey, wait a minute –â€Å"showing that he’s surprised and also suggests that Eddie thinks it is not masculine for a guy to be singing. Eddie also says to Marco â€Å"They got guys all over the place, Marco. I mean.† A masculine guy to Eddie is a guy who protects loved ones and a man that works and keeps a family together. This says that Eddie thinks the normal masculine guys in the area will not approve or like the fact that a guy enjoys singing. Catherine also takes pleasure from the singing of Rodolfo which gets Eddie jealous making him increasingly agitated. When Eddie notices the heels that she is wearing he orders her to take them off, because they appear to him as though they would attract other men. She felt embarrassed and anger maybe displaying that she feels embarrassed, because Rodolfo was witness to Eddie’s orders. It also shows the protective and possessive side that Eddie has for Catherine. Jealousy is what makes Eddie so protective over Catherine and he goes to extreme measures whether it means betraying his loved ones to stop the relationship between her and Rodolfo. Firstly Eddie tries to convince Catherine that she should not get too close with Rodolfo. By the stage directions Miller uses we see an evil side to Eddie as his eyes glare at Catherine and he tries to fake a smile. â€Å"Why don’t you talk to him, Eddie? He blesses you, and you don’t talk to him hardly†, Eddies eyes are described as enveloping and replies to Catherine â€Å"I bless you and you don’t talk to me† which shows he is trying to make her feel guilty about her spontaneous interests in Rodolfo. He also tells Catherine that Rodolfo don’t respect her and that he doesn’t bless him, trying to persuade Catherine to stay away from him. When this does not change Catherine’s interests in Rodolfo, Eddie feels like he has been defeated and takes his p roblems to Alfieri. This is where Eddie’s downfall begun. Eddie was losing control of his emotions, making him become crazy. He approached Alfieri to report Rodolfo and stated that he was only after Catherine to get papers. Alfieri described Eddie’s eyes to be like tunnels showing that he was already feeling defeated and described his jealousy as a passion that was controlling his body. â€Å"Eddie, I’m a lawyer. I can only deal in what’s provable. You understand that, don’t you? Can you prove that?† asked by Alfieri. Eddie replied â€Å"I know what’s in his mind, Mr Alfieri!† The italics show desperation as well as the exclamation mark showing that he is gradually losing his temper. Eddie also describes Rodolfo to Alfieri saying that â€Å"you could kiss him he was so sweet.† Eddie had revealed to Alfieri that he thought Rodolfo was homosexual using it as an excuse to convince Alfieri that he wants papers. You are kept reminded by Eddie’s death throughout the play by the use of foreshadowing and help from Alfieri narrating Eddie’s actions and the play. Alfieri said â€Å"I knew where he was heading for, I knew where he was going to end.† This reminds an audience of the opening scene where we knew from the start, Eddie’s ending. Also Alfieri includes a metaphor to warn Eddie of what he will face if his jealous ways get the better of him. â€Å"A river will drown you† spoken by Alfieri indicating that it will become too much for him to handle and he won’t be able to face the consequences he faces of breaking the law. Eddie has an impenetrable wall of denial and during the play if someone tried to shatter it, he would fill with fury. Anger is shown multiple times with the use of punctuation such as exclamation marks. When Alfieri says to him, â€Å"She can’t marry you can she?† Eddie infuriately responds, â€Å"I don’t know what the hell you’re talkin’ about!† Also when Beatrice screams at him, â€Å"You want somethin’ else, Eddie, and you can never have her!† These words got Eddie so angry they could have been the words that lead to his death. This was probably Eddie’s biggest problem. He just couldn’t face the truths that made him lie resulting in his crashing downfall. I think the way Arthur Miller presents the character Eddie Carbone allows the audience to understand the message far easier. Eddie shows what can happen if you allow yourself to be too known. Really there are desires and secrets that are best to be kept to you in order for the protection of others that is. And this is explained in the ending when Alfieri said, â€Å"most of the time we settle for half and I like it better.† This means that you should compromise and allow justice, be fair and don’t be greedy. Also I think that the play teaches you about the psychology of relationships and that you shouldn’t betray your friends which Eddie did and look where he ended up. But there is a side to me that does feel sympathy for Eddie as it can become quite hard to release a daughter figure into the open world, especially when it comes as sudden as it did.

Elizabeth Siddal :: essays research papers fc

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Elizabeth Siddal, Pre-Raphaelite model and wife to Gabriel Rossetti, is the source of intrigue for many Victorian researchers. Her mystery began from her vague background as a milliner’s assistant. From the start, many stories were told of her discovery and yet few stories were told of her past before that point. A frail young woman, she was addicted to narcotics and suffered from a variety of ailments, from the physical to the mental. Her turbulent relationship with Rossetti was plagued with ups and downs, and yet after her death, he mourned her with great sorrow and guilt.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Elizabeth Siddal was a young girl from the working class, who was thrust into the world of the Pre-Raphaelites when discovered as a model in 1849. She was not terribly smart or educated, however, considering her class, she was thought to be as refined and modest as possible. She is generally referred as having been a reserved girl, but she was also explained as being both very beautiful and horribly plain by different sets of people.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is known for a fact that Elizabeth was working as a milliner’s assistant upon her discovery, but there are many stories told about how that discovery was made. Walter Deverell, who was at the Royal Academy with Hunt and Rossetti, was looking for a red-haired girl who could pass as a boy to play a Shakespearian role in a painting. Rossetti explains the story as Walter and his mother stopped by a millinery shop and saw the assistant in a back room. He then asked his mother to request permission to use her in a painting. Other accounts were given of the discovery. William Holman Hunt claimed that Deverell had arrived at the studio proclaiming what he found to Rossetti, who accompanied him to the millinery shop to have a look. Irish poet, William Allingham, took credit for introducing Deverell to Ms. Siddal because during his escapades with working class women, he had spotted the young girl and thought her perfect for the role.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Because modeling paid more than millinery work and perhaps because she preferred it to sewing, Elizabeth ended her assistantship at the shop. This is interesting to note because at the time very few women on the census reported their full time job to be modeling for artists. This is not because there were few models, but very few earned enough money to support themselves legitimately, and few wished to declare their employment given the stigma it represented.

Lady Luck Who :: essays research papers

On Tom Paine's Scar Vegas Mrs. Lady Luck, Who?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Tom Paine’s â€Å"Scar Vegas† takes place in a cheap Las Vegas hotel in the late twentieth century and shows the depressing life of a lonely ex-con. Traveling from Texas to Las Vegas for his sister’s wedding, Johnny Loop emerges as a simple, unlucky, depressed cowboy. Time after time it seems that Loop gets the short end of the stick. His dysfunctional background shapes his attitudes and interactions with others. Ironic, but a depressing ending leaves him helpless, alone, and frustrated. Sadly, it becomes obvious that he is not going to be able to turn his life around. Loop’s relationship with his sister is complex and distant. Their conversations often are awkward and sad: â€Å"’How come you never tell this guy you got a brother?’ â€Å"You was in prison.’ ‘So,’ I says. ‘Lot of people in prison. I’m your only family.’ ‘So she says. The sky is white and sick with heat. ‘Nice dress,’ I says†(128). Avoiding what they are trying to say, they often change the subject. Clearly they regret their weak bond. At the same time their efforts to improve their relationship are feeble. The lack of interest in each other’s lives further alienates Loop: â€Å"‘We’re are going to polish the floor with his face.’ On the seventieth the team goes into a huddle. Lucas and I lean against the wall†(134). Ironically, Loop should be as concerned, if not more, over the â€Å"pervert† flashing his sister. However, he chooses to stay out of it. His lack of action is not necessarily a sign of maturity, but more a lack of caring. The weak relationship along with a number of other factors further isolates Loop. Johnny Loop is a lonely aimless man fresh out of prison. Right from the beginning he is struggling not only with his money, but also his physical condition: â€Å"The Cowboys cracked my ribs but they are taped firm. I am now in Vegas after frying across the Texas panhandle in July top down because the top was broke up good when I was thrown through outside Amarillo my first real stop after Galveston†(123). This murky past conveys his rough background and his inherent unluckiness. By the time Johnny Loop actually gets to his sister’s wedding he has already hit what he thinks is rock bottom. His complex but distant relationship with his sister along with his background leaves him alone and worn down.

Ethical Dilemma Essay

Stepping away from a company that has brought sales up to an increasing 15% will take courage. Will you have the courage to stand for what is right for the current workers working for a company that is working long hours and a few dollars a day or continue doing business that may cause backlash from the media and public? You are responsible for deciding if you will continue to do business with this company by your CEO while also having the name of your company in the local newspaper as doing business with equipment manufacturing company that doesn’t treat their employees with standards and morals. Ethics The company has standards to abide by and to conduct interactions with other companies. â€Å"Ethics is the code of moral principles and values that governs the behaviors of a person or group with respect to what is right or wrong† (Daft 2012, pg. 123). Continuing to do business will have its disadvantages. Many clients that are currently doing business with the company will look at the company’s decision to see if they will continue to do business. Managers are looked upon as role models of the organization and to set the standard ethics of a company (Daft, 2012). Making this decision isn’t just about you as a manager but your decision also stands for the employees of the company, shareholders, stakeholders, and customers (Daft, 2012). Prepare for backlash if you decide to continue to do business with a company that treats their workers like slaves. Every company has a code of ethics to abide by with any given situation and to go against the code which your company stands for will turn many believers in your company away. The company will experience a decrease in profits turning away from the company that has brought the company an increase of 15% of profit and a substantial amount of money. Now with losing 15% of profit, it will affect the money for the company. The company may not be able to employ as many workers as before with the substantial amount decreasing. Investors may look at this decrease as the company not holding its profit and value as it once did. While losing this profit, the company now has to find a way to make up for the loss of the profit. To continue to do business with this company, you have to decide if you would break any laws while continuing to do so. The equipment manufacturing company isn’t the responsibility of your company. The company doesn’t have a code of ethics or moral rights for workers. Is that the responsibility of your company? It’s not the company’s responsibility to handle the ethics for the company but to stand by the codes and morals that their company is based on. Continuing to do business with this company will not be breaking any laws. As a company that stands behind the code of ethics and morals, it would be best to part ways from this company to avoid breaking legal laws and company standards. As a manager, one has to make decisions for a company and will this benefit the company. Walking away from doing business with this company would be best. As a company not only is standing behind the code of ethics and morals of a company, one also has a reputation to maintain. Taking a stand and parting ways will keep a company’s reputation intact. Having been involved with this company, many people are going to look to see what decision a company such as yours would take. Maintaining your reputation within the business community is a must. Parting ways with this contract with the previous company may bring another company to offer a contract at the same price because of the way you handled the outcome of the previous company. To come to my final decision, I would approach it in a nonprogrammed decision and utilitarian approach. â€Å"A nonprogrammed decision is one made in response to a situation that is unique, is poorly defined and largely unstructured, and has important consequences for the organization. Decisions differ according to the amount of certainty, risk, uncertainty, or ambiguity in the situation (Daft, 2012, pg. 36). Making this decision for the company, I have to look at all angles. Will my decision ruin the company or will it enhance the company. This isn’t a decision that can be done overnight. This decision isn’t based on one person but a company. Allowing myself to make the best decision for the greatest outcome for the greatest beneficial for the company. Allowing myself a week to weigh my options and once my decision has been made, present them to the company so they can see why I came to this decision. My decision would be to part ways with this company for the good of my company.

Sample Papers

Sample Papers Sample Papers Sample Papers: Help for Students Are you becoming crazy about those numerous assignment papers that you are constantly provided with during your study? Sometimes it may seem to you that they are aimed at turning your life into the terrible nightmare. Do not know how to escape from all that? Try not to avoid the problem but solve it! This article will help you in that. If you do not know how to write your assignment papers, do not rack your brains make use of the Internet. You may find a lot of different web-sites there that offer students assignment writing services. You may say that it is too expensive to buy every assignment paper. But these sites may be useful for you even if you are going to write your assignment paper by yourself. In what way? Free Sample Papers The answer concerns sample papers that these sites propose you to get free of charge. You may find a lot of different papers: sample term papers, sample research papers, sample essay papers and many others. But in what way can they help you if you are not going to buy assignment papers? Of course, you should not submit one of these sample papers as yours because you may have problems. As these papers are available for you everyone else may get them (even one of your group-mates or your tutor). Any kind of sample papers is a papers research sample. What does it mean? Any of sample papers may give you a hint about in what direction you should make your research of the topic given in order to write a good paper. Moreover, reading of such papers may give you a lot of other interesting ideas concerning preparing and writing. Sample Paper ElementsTopic. Sometimes your tutor may let you choose a topic for your paper by yourself. But if you have no ideas about it, you may search them in sample papers. You may find a topic that you may get interested in and that is the half of the success of your paper. Thesis statement. When reading sample papers you may find out how to formulate a thesis sta tement in order to make it clear and understandable. Structure. You may study the structure of papers of a certain kind: what parts they should include, how you should divide them into paragraphs. That will help you make your paper well-structured. Vocabulary. You may study what special words and phrases are used in the academic writing. The usage of such vocabulary will help you put your thoughts logically and clearly. One should stress that this is one of the main criteria of writing a good assignment paper. Thus, it becomes obvious that sample papers may be very helpful for you even if you are going to write your assignment paper by yourself.

Models of Abnormality Essays

Models of Abnormality Essays Models of Abnormality Essay Models of Abnormality Essay Axia College Material Appendix C Models of Abnormality Psychologists use several different models to explain abnormal behavior. These different models have created shifts in values and beliefs as well as improvements in clinical research. These differences in ideas mean that the different models are sometimes in conflict with one another. People who follow one model often point out where another model fails in its interpretations, investigations, and treatment methods. Read the brief profile of Willard and follow the directions to complete the chart: Willard is an angry man. He often gets his way by bullying and berating others. The following is a list of proposed causes for Willards behavior. Each cause was presented by a psychologist with a different theoretical perspective. Match the psychologist to the cause he or she is likely to present and to the treatment he or she is most likely to recommend. Psychologists: Dr. Smith, Biologist Dr. Mullen, Psychoanalyst Dr. James, Behaviorist Dr. Allen, Cognitivist Dr. Bates, Humanist Dr. Frank, Socioculturist Treatments:Medication Community treatment Client-centered therapy Challenging dysfunctional thoughts Operant conditioning Free association and catharsis |Proposed Cause |Psychologist |Treatment | |Willard has been rewarded for his bullying |Dr. James, Dehaviorist |Operant conditioning | |behavior. | | |Willard is genetically predisposed to |Dr. Smith, Biologist |Medication | |bullying others. | | | |Willards toilet training was harsh. |Dr. Mullen, Psychoanalyst |Free association and catharsis | |Willard is influenced by the commonly held |Dr. Bates, Humanist |Client-centered therapy | |view that men must be aggressive in order | | | |to succeed. | | | |Willard assumes that if he does not assert |Dr. Allen, Cognitivist |Challenging dysfunctional thoughts | |himself first, he will appear to be a | | | |failure to others. | | |Willard has a low sense of self-worth, |Dr. Frank, Socioculturist |Community treatment | |probably stemming from conditional love in | | | |childhood. | | |

Essay of Ages

Essay of Ages Essay of Ages Age of Empires, released on October 26, 1997,[3] was the first game in the series, as well as the first major release from Ensemble Studios.[4] It was one of the first history-based real-time strategy games made,[5] utilizing the Genie game engine. GameSpot described it as a mix of Civilization and Warcraft.[6] The game gives players a choice of 12 civilizations to develop from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. The expansion pack, The Rise of Rome, published by Microsoft on October 31, 1998, introduced new features and four new civilizations, including the Romans. Although the two games had contained many software bugs, patches resolved many of the problems.[7][8] Age of Empires was generally well received, despite some highly negative reviews. GameSpot criticized a confused design, while Computer and Video Games praised the game as strong in single and multiplayer.[9] The Academy of Interactive Arts Sciences named Age of Empires the 1998 "Computer Strategy Game of the Year."[10] For several years, the game remained high on the sales charts, with over three million units sold by 2000.[11] The Rise of Rome was not as popular: it had only sold one million units in 2000,[11] and attained 80% as an aggregate score from Game Rankings.[12] Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, released on September 30, 1999, used the Genie game engine, and had gameplay similar to its predecessor.[13] Age of Kings is set in the Middle Ages, from the Dark Ages to the Imperial Age. It allows players to choose one of 13 civilizations, from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.[14] Microsoft published the expansion, The Conquerors, on August 24, 2000. It added new units and five new civilizations, including two Mesoamerican civilizations; the Maya and the Aztec.[15] The Age of Kings was a bigger critical success than the first two games, with Game Rankings and Metacritic scores of 92%.[16][17] Microsoft shipped out more than two million copies to retailers, and the game received numerous awards and accolades.[18] Critics agreed that The Conquerors expanded well on The Age of Kings, though issues of unbalanced gameplay were raised.[19] The Age of Kings and The Conquerors won the 2000 and 2001 "Computer Strategy Game of the Year" awards from the Academy of Interactive Arts Sciences, respectively.[20][21] Age of Empires III, released on October 18, 2005, was built on an improved version of the Age of Mythology game engine with the most significant changes being the updated graphics engine and the inclusion of the Havok physics middleware engine.[22][23] The game is set in the period between 1421 and 1850, and players can choose one of eight European nations. The game introduced a large number of features, such as home cities. Described by Ensemble Studios as "an important support system to your efforts in the New World," home cities helped provide the player with resources, equipment, troops, and upgrades. They could be used across multiple games, and upgraded after each battle; it was compared to a role-playing game character by Ensemble Studios.[24] The first expansion to Age of Empires III, The WarChiefs, was released October 17, 2006. Most gameplay changes in the expansion pack were small, but it introduced three new civilizations, with a focus on Native Americans.[25] Most notabl e was the introduction of the WarChief unit.[26] The second expansion, The Asian Dynasties, went on sale October 23, 2007. It was a jointly developed

The Recession in the UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Recession in the UK - Essay Example This trend of borrowing also impacted UK banks and financial institutions as well, but the extent was less of course. Once the banks find the lending much lucrative with attractive returns and talks of all round developments, banks start lending to the maximum extent possible, with the notion that 'high risk implies higher returns'. In some case the banks also start lending money to high risk customers as well, in the belief that they'd be able to extract the money in any form from the borrower. This trend gradually spread to sub-prime lending practices. This type of lending is not very common around the world, but in US and UK such lending is preferred by specific categories of population, who are categorised as high credit risk population. But in recent past when sub-prime borrowers started preferring to desert their houses instead of paying back the loans, the banks found themselves under huge debt. This set in motion a chain reaction, resulting in adverse impacts on the stock market, which in turn impacted the confidence of an average investor. The ups and down in equity markets is not a new ph enomenon, but the UK equity markets have not recovered from the shake ups. With threats of failure of many reputed banks, the stock market appeared to be the only option where the investor can look for liquid cash. This started a continuous downtrend in stock markets in US and UK. Having stakes in international markets the Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) in turn started selling their stakes in other markets as well. The trend has been continuing. The net result inter-banking borrowing rates were hiked by banks in order to preserve maximum liquid assets for instilling confidence amongst their customers. Once the bank to bank rates were on the rise, developmental projects started taking a hit, which in turn had an impact on the marketing potential of a whole range of materials including building materials, consumer goods and services etc. With rumours of failing banks, people started taking out their deposits from banks and instead started keeping the money within their custody. This resulted in difficult situation for banks and many banks were on the verge of going bust in UK. Owing to such circumstances, government of Iceland was also forced to intervene. Glitnir bank became the first bank to be nationalised by the Iceland government (Wardell and Satter, 2008). This trend is also quite apparent the world over in many countries including US, Saudi Arabia, China, Japan etc. in order to avoid major breakdowns in the respective economies. Now people are left with less disposable incomes, as some of the investments are stuck up in stock market, some others are gone bust with drowning banks and financial institutions. With companies also resorting to job-cuts, the disposable income levels are further going down with each passing day. People having taken loans from banks and other financial institutions started finding themselves in difficult position to payback those loans. This had a cascading effect on those banks which had earlier resorted to sub-prime lending and unreasonable lending. And banks started feeling the pressure. Northern Rock started sending out SOS signals to the government of UK. Subsequently the government started measures to nationalise the Northern Rock and pump in money

Present and discuss the moral positions of Natural Law and Essay

Present and discuss the moral positions of Natural Law and Existentialism. Next evaluate the theories and discuss any relevant criticisms - Essay Example The same rationale continues that the right action is that which corresponds non-defectively with the good on the one hand. On the other hand, existential ethics places the individual as the primary point of concern and therefore, postulates that personal ethics and morality supersede popular ethics and social morality. The main underpinning of this ideological standpoint is existentialists’ belief in subjectivity of truth. In its bare form, existentialism is a cultural and philosophical movement which asserts that the genesis of philosophical thinking is individual experience and that scientific and moral thinking are insufficient in understanding human experience (Finnis, 32). Natural law has its strength being readily manifest in the complementary relationship between the law and morality. The law and natural law are seen to merge, since like the law, natural law becomes morally binding if it is just, able to be promulgated, directional towards common good, is made by someone holding appropriate authority and is reasonable. For instance, there can be no law that decriminalises any form of stealing or crimes against humanity since acts that bring about these crimes do not meet the qualities of natural law such as being geared towards common good. Secondly, the strength of natural law is seen in the fact that it supersedes the law, generatively. The fact that natural law is naturally knowable by all humans, with the good anteceding the right and comprising people’s natural and common ends makes the legislation against crime possible (Pearce, 1339). At its best, existentialism only fosters tolerance and at its worst, remains ultimately impractical. By saying that individual experience is the starting point in encountering the truth and that scientific and moral thinking are insufficient in understanding human experience, existentialists leave no room for the judgment of another person’s actions. However, existentialist ethics

Andrew Carnegie (U.S. Steel originally Carnegie Steel ) Research Paper

Andrew Carnegie (U.S. Steel originally Carnegie Steel ) - Research Paper Example These innovations allowed him to manufacture steel of better quality at a lower cost as compared to his competitors (Wren, 1998). During this phase the management approach of Carnegie was aggressive and Darwinian, aimed at derailing his competitors in business. To facilitate this innovation, Carnegie struck partnerships with the talented people who understood technology (Wren, 1998). As his operations expanded, Carnegie opted for an integrated approach towards his steel manufacturing operations by investing or taking over companies that supplied the raw materials to the US Steel (Wren, 1998). This management approach allowed Carnegie to profit from each and every step involved in the manufacturing of steel. As his business progressed, Carnegie’s thrust for continual improvement recognized a need for information systems and management styles that allowed him to calculate costs on successive operations associated with steel manufacturing. Hence, he adopted a new system and management approach that allowed him to have a thorough knowledge of the costs, which enabled him to bid successfully while seeking contracts (Wren, 1998). Hence, the acumen of Carnegie’s management approach stood in identifying demand, opting for new technologies that cut the cost of manufacturing and having a thorough insight into the cost of manufacturing

Public Health Policies Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Public Health Policies - Research Paper Example This paper analyzes a major health problem, obesity, and the legal and ethical rationale for proposing three policy alternatives for resolving this chronic health problem. With the continuous challenge of guaranteeing public health it is not surprising that policymakers are looking for alternative policies to mitigate the negative effect of childhood obesity which at present appears to offer no solution. A primary apprehension about childhood obesity is that affected children have a tendency to carry obesity until adulthood, with the enlarged possibility of cardiovascular disease, Type II diabetes, and several other chronic illnesses (Saunders & Harrison, 2007). Hence, it seems legally and ethically justifiable to immediately act in response through collaborative efforts between parents, communities, health practitioners, and policymakers. It is time to recommend alternative policies because these abovementioned individuals and groups have had necessary information and, still, the pr oblem persists to rise. Even though parents are informed of the weight condition of their children, a lot of them are hesitant to publicly acknowledge or categorize their children as overweight or obese. Most parents think of obesity as an aesthetic concern, not a health problem (Strychar, 2004). Hence, building awareness of health threats and encouraging correct response is a sensitive recommendation and alternative policies should move ethically to prevent aggressive discrimination. Attempts to address and mitigate childhood obesity should consider information dissemination, analysis, and intervention. The primary health, economic, social, political, and ethical repercussions of these problems suggest the need for collaborative efforts between private scientific funding organizations and the government (Strychar 2004). Looking into the future, it appears that First World nations cannot allow the continuation of childhood obesity problem, weakening academic achievements, and absenc e of initiative to accept accountability (Thompson, 2004). If a country aims to flourish globally, then it has to institute groundwork of socially competent and bright individuals. Alternative standards of government policies are required. Three Alternative Policies for Childhood Obesity (1) The government should deal with the inadequacy of information by obliging stakeholders to provide it. The Nutritional Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) should be enhanced to promote the competence of food-related companies through mandating comprehensive nutritional information. Nevertheless, it remains uncertain how to make nutrition information understandable for adolescent and children consumers. Additional studies are required on this matter. The ethical concerns addressed by this policy are (a) the conditions of food processing, crop growing, animal rearing, and product marketing; (b) the contribution of the food-related company to the larger society; and (c) the relationship between consum ers, processors, and producers. (2) The government, alongside public schools, should safeguard children from publicity and advertising. The government will be entirely accountable for the advertising sector. Due to insufficient budget allocations, several school districts have entered into an agreement with Channel One, which provides them resources, educational paraphernalia, and televisions in return for permitting Channel One to promote

The effect of the Land Mortgage Loan Policy on the Efficiency of Dissertation

The effect of the Land Mortgage Loan Policy on the Efficiency of Chinese Farmers during 2003-2010 - Dissertation Example Setting up of schools, hospitals, emergency services like fire and other within short interval of places so as to provide the amenities to a larger number of people. One of the basic requirements for beginning mordernisation is industrialization. Industrialization triggers the process of mordernisation. With the setting up of industries for the commercial interests of the company, the factory units and the ancillary units would be constructed. Other important public amenity units like schools, houses, hospitals and shops would be built along with connecting roads and developed transport systems. Such building up of infrastructure fastens up the procedure of mordernisation. With globalisation, spread of the multinational companies all over the world, individuals are moving to different corners of the world for varied purposes like working, studying, treatment, settling down in better places and many more. As a result individuals now are more global citizens with presence in different countries. The People’s Republic of China is one of the most popular and highest ranking nation in the world. With the largest land area cover and a mighty population China has rapidly developed over the years to reach to the peak of success. China has been accommodating the largest population in the world; as a result, there has been a huge demand for the land for making houses. In order to restrict this trend, China has tightened its mortgage rule. 1.2: Research Aim Owing to the immense popularity of China, its phenomenal development and the ever increasing demand of land in China, the primary intent of this particular research paper is to find out the effect of land mortgage loan policy on the efficiency of the Chinese Farmers from 2003 to 2010. 1.3: Research Objectives Taking cue from the primary research aim of this paper, a few research objectives has been formulated. The research objectives are not something very different from the decided aims but instead it complemen ts the research aim. The assumed research objectives of this research paper are: To ascertain the significance of Chinese agriculture in last ten years To ascertain the challenges pertaining to the Chinese agriculture system and impact on farmers To analyse the impact and effect of financial support system on Chinese agriculture To ascertain the financial framework in the context of Chinese agriculture 1.4: Research Questions In order to attain the objectives of this research paper, it would be guided by a few questions which are as follows: What is the significance of Chinese Agriculture from the period 2003-2010? What are the challenges of agriculture in China and did they affect the farmers? What is the current financial support system for Chinese agriculture? What is the change and impact of current financial system on the Chinese agriculture? 1.5: Background of the Research In the recent years, the Chinese government has been adopting a number of policies with the aim of improv ing the rural areas and assisting the growth of the rural areas. The People’s Republic of China has been growing at a tremendous rate with its varied achievements in the different sectors. The entire economy of the People’s Republ

Public Health Policies Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Public Health Policies - Research Paper Example This paper analyzes a major health problem, obesity, and the legal and ethical rationale for proposing three policy alternatives for resolving this chronic health problem. With the continuous challenge of guaranteeing public health it is not surprising that policymakers are looking for alternative policies to mitigate the negative effect of childhood obesity which at present appears to offer no solution. A primary apprehension about childhood obesity is that affected children have a tendency to carry obesity until adulthood, with the enlarged possibility of cardiovascular disease, Type II diabetes, and several other chronic illnesses (Saunders & Harrison, 2007). Hence, it seems legally and ethically justifiable to immediately act in response through collaborative efforts between parents, communities, health practitioners, and policymakers. It is time to recommend alternative policies because these abovementioned individuals and groups have had necessary information and, still, the pr oblem persists to rise. Even though parents are informed of the weight condition of their children, a lot of them are hesitant to publicly acknowledge or categorize their children as overweight or obese. Most parents think of obesity as an aesthetic concern, not a health problem (Strychar, 2004). Hence, building awareness of health threats and encouraging correct response is a sensitive recommendation and alternative policies should move ethically to prevent aggressive discrimination. Attempts to address and mitigate childhood obesity should consider information dissemination, analysis, and intervention. The primary health, economic, social, political, and ethical repercussions of these problems suggest the need for collaborative efforts between private scientific funding organizations and the government (Strychar 2004). Looking into the future, it appears that First World nations cannot allow the continuation of childhood obesity problem, weakening academic achievements, and absenc e of initiative to accept accountability (Thompson, 2004). If a country aims to flourish globally, then it has to institute groundwork of socially competent and bright individuals. Alternative standards of government policies are required. Three Alternative Policies for Childhood Obesity (1) The government should deal with the inadequacy of information by obliging stakeholders to provide it. The Nutritional Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) should be enhanced to promote the competence of food-related companies through mandating comprehensive nutritional information. Nevertheless, it remains uncertain how to make nutrition information understandable for adolescent and children consumers. Additional studies are required on this matter. The ethical concerns addressed by this policy are (a) the conditions of food processing, crop growing, animal rearing, and product marketing; (b) the contribution of the food-related company to the larger society; and (c) the relationship between consum ers, processors, and producers. (2) The government, alongside public schools, should safeguard children from publicity and advertising. The government will be entirely accountable for the advertising sector. Due to insufficient budget allocations, several school districts have entered into an agreement with Channel One, which provides them resources, educational paraphernalia, and televisions in return for permitting Channel One to promote

The Glass Menagerie Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Glass Menagerie - Term Paper Example Tom wants to forsake his duty to his family but he seems to have difficulty in leaving Laura the most. In the play, responsibility becomes a choice between duty to one’s dreams and duty to one’s family, which is juxtaposed with gender and social class issues. The Glass Menagerie depicts that society insists that people forget their duty to their own dreams because they have to follow gender and social class norms and expectations. The concept of responsibility is a product of social conditioning, which is based on gender and social class customs. Society teaches gender norms that define the roles and responsibilities of men and women to each other. In Scene 2, Amanda expresses her disappointment with Laura after learning that the latter has dropped her classes at the business college. Amanda underscores the sacrifices made in sending Laura to school: â€Å"Fifty dollars’ tuition, all of our plans – my hopes and ambitions for you – just gone up the spout, just gone up the spout like that† (Williams ii. 369). During this time, working class women had limited educational and economic opportunities. For Amanda, Laura is throwing away the only opportunity she has to earn money and to help her brother support their family. Tom has the gravest responsibility of all because as a man, he is expected to provide for his mother and sister. Amanda constantly nags Tom of his duties to his family: â€Å"What right have you got to jeopardize your job? Jeopardize the security of us all? How do you think we’d manage if you were –† (Williams iii). Amanda cannot even say the unthinkable. She finds it unthinkable for a man to desert his family because a man’s most important duty is to his family. As a southern belle, she is a traditional woman and her conventions molded her thinking about the duties of men and women. Aside from gender division, society separates people into social classes, where the rich have mor e freedoms than the poor. Tom envies the life of the rich: â€Å"Across the alley from us was the Paradise Dance Hall. You could see [couples] kissing behind ash-pits... This was the compensation for lives that passed like mine, without any change or adventure† (Williams v. 381-82). He hates his life where duty to others is central. The play demonstrates uneven social and gender structures that affect people’s ability to be happy. Society asserts that men have the responsibility to take care of their families’ basic needs and wants. Tom has the duty to raise his family after their father left many years ago. He says: â€Å"House, house! Who pays rent on it, who makes a slave of himself to†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Williams iii. 373). Society thinks it is natural for men to be breadwinners. They are the symbolic beams of the family. Tom thinks differently, however. He wants to follow his duty to himself, but for the longest time, he surrenders to social dictates. Aside fro m Tom, Jim has a duty to improve Laura’s self-confidence because he sees her as a little sister. He senses Laura’s strong insecurity because of her physical illness: â€Å"A little physical defect is what you have. Hardly noticeable even! Magnified thousands of times by imagination! You know what my strong advice to you is? Think of yourself as superior in some way!† (Williams vii. 402). In the article â€Å"Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie,† Ardolino argues that the Rubicam College stands for Julius

Dorothy Parker Essay Example for Free

Dorothy Parker Essay Dorothy Parker was an extraordinary woman. Extraordinary in her writings and extraordinary in what she achieved with her writings. Her books of poems and her short stories were bestsellers and her columns in The New Yorker were extremely popular. She was one of the only women and a central figure of the Algonquin Hotel Round Table, where all the great literary geniuses of her time would eat their lunch. Newspaper columnists qouted her and two Broadway plays were written about her. Briefly,she was one of the most talked about woman of her time. What is striking is that her fame came from her writings. So much fame for a woman’s writings is unusual nowadays but let aside in her time. And besides that she was not a minor writer but her literary output in the end was quite small: two volumes of short stories and three of poetry. The last decade of the nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth was a time of large scale political movements and social changes among women. A new generation of women writers emerged with Dorothy Parker as their most famous one. More oppurtunities for writers existed before the dominance of radio film and television. The newspapers and magazines flourished and only the area of New York City alone published 25 daily newspapers. The â€Å"New Women† as they were labeled were worried with winning women’s rights: the vote, education, economic freedom, acces to a career and a public voice. These women were educated and progressive and wanted a break with the conservative past. Women writers of the era did not see marrying and having children as their ultimate goal in life. They rejected the traditional women’s sphere and claimed a the territory of arts that had been a complete male territory before. Many feared to be thought of as â€Å"women writers†. Dorothy Parker said that her most fervent prayer had been â€Å"Please, God, don’t let me write like a woman†. Parker’s writings on the other hand were for the most part confined to women and to what is important to them. What made Parker so succesfull? What made that era crave her writings? In order to understand Parker’s succes we need to view her works in the context of the time they were written. Dorothy Parker was born in 1893. The most striking evidence of change of the role of women in society at that time was the emergence of the college educated and self supporting new woman. By 1870 there were eleven thousand women students enrolled in higher education (21 procent of all students) and a decade later there were forty thousand women students enrolled in higher education (32 procent of all students). After they graduated they had to choose between a traditional role of domesticity and young marriage or a career of paid work. On August 26, 1920 women officially earn the right to vote by the 19th Amendment. Although women did not become a strong political force right after that the Amendment did increase the power of women to effect change. Another important aspect of the changes in women’s postion in society these years was the first world war. Although the United States participated in the war for a relatively short time and did people not really have a clue about what was going on in Europe the war did change American culture significantly. More than four million American men were were mobilized and sent off to Europe. One of the outcomes of this was that women entered the workforce in increasing numbers. Working not in only jobs that were particulary feminine jobs like nursing but also in offices and factories, in stores and governmental agencies and more. Women found themselves working in previously male-dominated fields and they were earning higher wages than in the past. These changes gave women a new notion of indepedence and self-confidence. In 1920 23.6% of the workforce was female with 8.6 million females, ages 15 and up, working outside the home. In 1920, for the first time in American history more people (54.3 million) live in cities than rural areas (51.4). As people became to move into the cities their lifesty les changed. Cities have more activities like going to the theater and nightclubs. Women in the cities were more likely to work in restaurants or offices and other locations that took them away from home. All these factors together created an environment of freedom that women had never seen in the past. One of the most visble outcomes of this freedom was the emergence of the Flapper girl. The breakdown of the Victorian sexual norms was a gradual process but slowely the American society was ready for newer ideas about sexual norms. The young working class woman had been known for her flamboyant dresses and love of nightlife and dancing. .They were relatively economically autonomous and freed either by work or school from intense familial supervision, and began to find a more individualistic culture for themselves. Women’s appearance changed to a slender and smaller silhouette no longer restricted by petticoats and corsets.When the war began women started to favor more practical, shirtwaist-style dresses. These dresses gave more freedom of movement and a greater exposure of skin. First they inched up to calf length then up to knee length. Flappers didn’t show their feminime curves, cut their hair short and wore dark eyeshadow. As the United States was becoming more and more urban, industrial production increased by 60 percent during this decade while population growth was 15%. Mass production requires mass consumption. Advertising became more important tempting people to purchase the latest fashions and newest cars and spend money on nightclubs and restaurants in the cities. For women this industrial production meant that they were more likey to have vacuum cleaners, washing machines, refrigarators and other household appliances that lightened their household work. This increased their leisure time. Advertisements targeted women in the 1920’s. Women seemed to have more economic power than before and seemed to be in charge of the households money. However these advertisements still reflected traditional thinking of the women’s role in society. These advertisements stressed domesticity and pleasing men over any message of independence. Dorothy Parker was born at the very start of this period of the â€Å"modern woman†. While men and women were now equal under the law, discrimination against women still persisted. Throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s women were still struggling against restrictions. For example, in several states women were denied to serve on juries till 1940. The economic advances for women, too, were minimal. There was still a strong sexual division of labor. Discrimiantion in family responsibilities, education, salaries and promotions remained plentiful. During the depression women lost the gains made in the career world during the 1920s. And a renewed emphasis on the woman at home crushed the recently gained hopes for equality. More and more a stereoype emerged that women during the 1920s were sexually active (the Flapper) but politically apathetic. Parker’s work points a sharp finger at that stereotype and defies is. She keenly points out the ongoing struggles for women to break free. Parker began her professional life in 1915 when she went to work as a caption writer for Vogue at a salary of ten dollar a week. By 1917 she transferred to Vanity Fair and worked for editor Frank Crowninshield until 1920. From 1919 to 1923 Parker wrote poems, sketches, essays and columnd for more than thirty-five different literary journals and magazines. Parker’s first poem â€Å"Any porch† pubished in Vanity Fair in september 1915 presents nine different female voices who discuss various topics as the vote for women, a game of bridge, someones new haircut and the war in France. In 1916 she wrote a series of â€Å"hate songs†, satiric descriptions of husbands and wives, actors and actresses, relatvies and so on. These â€Å"hate songs† made Parker very popular. She soon began to build a reputation as a sophisticated young writer with a witty message. In 1926 her first collection of poems was published. Parker soon played a distinctive voice calling for equality and social independence for women. This distinctive voice calling for equality and social independence for women was not out there in a way the feminist movements of that era were calling for it. This voice was hidden between the lines of her poems and stories. â€Å"The Waltz† was published in The New Yorker in september 1933. The story reflects the thoughts and conversation of a girl who is dancing a waltz with a man who dances very badly. He steps al over her feet and kicks her in the shin every so often. She keeps saying that she’s not tired, that it didn’t hurt when he kicked her and when she gets past all feeling, the orchestra finally comes to a stop. When it does, she tells him that she wishes he’d tell them to play the same thing. She said that she would simply adore to go on waltzing even though she hates it. The two voices in this short story reflect the contrast between a polite public voice and a witty and angry private voice. These two voices reflect a clear statement of the w oman’s outward conformity and inward rebellion. In this way the two voices in â€Å"The Waltz† are metaphoric for the woman’s powerlessness. Right from the start of the story it is clear that the woman does not want to dance with this man. She does not want to dance at all but definitely not with this man. But still she gets up and dances with him. Parker is trying to point out that there is not that many young women out there who say what they think. There is not really an alternative for the woman in this story, how can she be rude? She can’t be rude to a man who asks her to dance. Women after all were supposed to please men. Parker does not judge the woman in this story for not saying what she thinks. She is not trying to bring young women who act like that down. She just simply wrote down how things like this work in a woman’s head and letting the world know that woman do not always smile from the inside when they smile from the outside. In 1929 Parker published another short story with an hidden message about gender roles. In â€Å"Big Blonde† Parker tells the story of a talented woman, Hazel Morse. Men seem to like her and as Parker wrote â€Å"Men liked her, and she took it for granted that the liking of men was a desirable thing†. Hazel Morse wants men to like her and â€Å"she never pondered if she might not be occupied doing something else†. She had been working for a couple years untill she met her husband. They got married and in the beginning everything seems fine. As the story goes on it becomes clear that Hazel Morse’s life revolves around pleasing her husband while she is so bored and unhappy at home. She gets divoced and gets married again a couple times but in the end in all her marriages and in the rest of her life she is never occupied with anything else than a desire for men to like her. One other desire Hazel Morse has is a desire for nice furniture and clothing. With every men that comes in to her life Parker describes wheter he is rich or not and what he buys for Hazel Morse. All this stuff does not make her happy either. At the end of the story Hazal Morse tries to commit suicide. What Parker tried to point out here is that women like Hazal Morse are only occupied by a desire for men to like them. This constant desire in the end makes women unhappy because they do not ask themselves what they want for themselves. She also targeted the new american consuming culture in this story. Parker stated that nice clothes and nice furniture are not going to make women happy in the end. Again, just as in â€Å"The Waltz† Parker does not judge Hazal Morse for her actions. But she does make very clear that the life of women who never ponder if they might be occupied with something else than pleasing men is not going to end well. In her stories on gender relations Parker did not criticize women directly but she does have short stories and poems in where she criticized women directly. In one of her early poems (1916) called â€Å"Women: A Hate song† she writes in the first paragraph of the poem how much she hates domestic women. She thought they were â€Å"the worst†. In her poem she groupes them together, there are no individual housewives they are all just as worse. They claim to all be always happy in Parkers view and all they do is hurry home to provide dinner for her family. The rest of their days are filled with making dresses and trying out recipes. Parker, by saying that she hates â€Å"the domestic ones† the most of all made a clear statement about the traditional role of women in society. She hated it. She hated the idea of women staying at home their whole lifes to take care of their families. Interesting is that she did not only criticize housewives but she also became known fo r her condemnation of the flapper. In her poem, â€Å"The Flapper† written in 1922 she starts her poem of by saying that flappers are innocent. Then she continues to say that flappers are not â€Å"what grandma used to be†. Women wanted to break from the traditions from the generations before them but in the way Parker said it in this poem it is not meant as a compliment. She also says that flappers are â€Å"girlish†. By saying this it becomes clear that Parker did not take them serious. They were not serious and grown up women but they were all young girls. She then continues to say that there is no more harm in them â€Å"than in a submarine†. Which clearly means that Parker thought they were capable of doing damage to the whole society. She also writes that the flapper girl is not â€Å"in control† and that people only focus on their pranks. They are only noticed for their unruly behaviour and not for any good that they do. She ends this poem by saying that the Flapper girls are young and that the life the live is a rough one. This poem makes clear that Parker did not agree with the way the Fl apper girls were trying to break with the past. The way the Flapper girls were trying to challenge the norm was not the best or most productive in Parker’s eyes. â€Å"Men seldom make passes, at girls who wear glasses† is one of Parkers most famous quotes. The quote was not actually written as a quote but as a poem in 1926 under the title â€Å"News Item†. In one line Parker was able to describe that men were usually not charmed by the smart women in society. (Since glasses are associated with intelligence or education). The modern woman had achieved more equality in education but as Parker describes men did not seemed to like these educated women. The major themes in Parkers writings are a lack of communication between women and men, disintegration of relationships, motherhood, women’s emotional dependency upon men, the selfishness of the wealthy and the danger of empitness in women’s lives. Her audience was broad. She managed to write for men and women of different social classes. The purpose of a writer was in Parkers opinion â€Å"to say what he feels and sees†. â€Å"Those who write fantasies† she did not consider artists. This nation of â€Å"to say what he feels and sees† made her stories extremely recognizable. In one of her short stories â€Å"A telephone call† Parker describes a woman waiting for a man to call her. The man had promised to call her at 5 and at 7 he still has not called. Parker described what goes through the woman’s mind. Anyone who has ever waited on a wanted telephone call knows exactely what the woman in the story goes trough because Parker sets out t he woman’s thoughts in so much detail. Her writings are satiric, which makes them fun and easy to read but behind and between the lines there is a clear message. A lot of the times this message were convictions on the existing gender relations in society. From her writings it becomes clear that Parker was a feminist. Later in her life she was quoted saying â€Å"I’m a feminist and God knows I’m loyal to my sex, and you must remember that from my very early days, when this city was scarcely safe from buffaloes, I was in the struggle for equal rights for women.† She did however never join one of the organized feminists movements. The feminist movements of her time convicted the gender relations in a more serious and less humourous way. Her talent to convict these gender relations in a humourous way are undoubtly one of the reasons of her succes. The majority of the people was not interested in reading serious and bitter comments on the gender relations. In her â€Å"New Item† poem she could have said: â€Å"Men are sexist pigs who want to hold women in the kitchen were they belong.† Instead of that she wrote a brilliantly witty poem that everyone knows untill today. Dorothy Parker might have been a feminist secretely fighting for women’s rights, she did not wanted to be associated with any sort of woman. In her short story â€Å"Women: a hate song† she basically stated that she hates every sort of woman. From the housewives to the Flappers. Parker wanted women to take advantage of the rights they had attained and she did not feel like enough women were doing that. What she rejected most of all were the standards for female writing and thinking. One of her biographers Marion Maede wrote that Parker did not presented herself so much â€Å"as a bad girl† but as a â€Å"bad boy, a firecracker who was agressively proud of being tough, quirky, feisty.† Parker’s writings satisfied a craving for comments on this â€Å"modern women† and the new gender relations that were a part of that. Women in American society on the one hand were happy on the one hand with their new achievements of equality between men and women. On the other hand, they were dissapointed in the actual changes. Not only were the achievements in equality by law, in economic advances and education not what they had hoped for, they were also dissapointed in the new image of a stereotype women who was sexually liberated but in every way was the minor in relationships between woman and man. These dissapointments and discriminations of the modern women were not out on the surface. No one would have probably even been able to explain at that time what these dissapointments and discriminations exactly were. Dorothy Parker could see the friction underneath the surface of a sophistication-thirsty, consumer-obsessed American society. In her short stories and her poems she was able to point a sharp finger at all these dissapointments and discriminations. She was able to do that in a humourous satiric way. Not in bold statements, but in a subtile way behind and between the lines of her writings. Her greatest achievement was that her writings were attractive to read for women and men. Popular writing for both sexes would be a great achievement nowadays but even more in that era in which the tensions between gender relations were at its sharpest. All these things combined made Parker succesfull in making her readers observe modern culture in a different way, and they all loved reading it. Bunkers, Suzanne L. Dorothy Parker as Feminist and Social Critic (1987). Evans, Sara M. Born for liberty. A history of women in America (New York 1989). Keats, John. You might as well live. The life and times of Dorothy Parker (New York 1970). Keyser, Catherine. Girls who wear glasses. In A New Literaty History of America edited by Wernes Sollors and Griel Marcus (Harvard 2012). Parker, Dorothy. Complete Poems (1999). Parker, Dorothy. Here Lies. The Collected Stories of Dorothy Parker (New York 1933). Sagert, Kelly Boyer. Flappers: A Guide to an American Subculture (2010). [ 1 ]. John Keats, You might as well live. The life and times of Dorothy Parker (New York 1970) 9. [ 2 ]. Colleen Breese, introduction in Dororthy Parker Complete Poems (1999) xvi. [ 3 ]. Colleen Breese, introduction in Dororthy Parker Complete Poems (1999) xvi. [ 4 ]. Colleen Breese, introduction in Dororthy Parker Complete Poems (1999) xvi. [ 5 ]. Sara M. Evans, Born for liberty. A history of women in America (New York 1989) 147. [ 6 ]. Sagert, Kelly Boyer Flappers xiv. [ 7 ]. Sagert, Kelly Boyer Flappers xiv. [ 8 ]. Evans, Sara M Born for liberty 161. [ 9 ]. Evans, Sara M Born for liberty 161. [ 10 ]. Sagert, Kelly Boyer Flappers 15. [ 11 ]. Sagert, Kelly Boyer Flappers 20. [ 12 ]. Colleen Breese, introduction in Dororthy Parker Complete Poems (1999) xxv. [ 13 ]. Colleen Breese, introduction in Dororthy Parker Complete Poems (1999) xxvi. [ 14 ]. Colleen Breese, introduction in Dororthy Parker Complete Poems (1999) xxvi. [ 15 ]. Colleen Breese, introduction in Dororthy Parker Complete Poems (1999) xix. [ 16 ]. Colleen Breese, introduction in Dororthy Parker Complete Poems (1999) xix. [ 17 ]. Colleen Breese, introduction in Dororthy Parker Complete Poems (1999) xxvi. [ 18 ]. Catherine Keyser, Girls who wear glasses, in A New Literary History of America, edited by Werner Sollors and Griel Marcus (Harvard 2012).

Child Friendly Schools In Kenya Education Essay

Child Friendly Schools In Kenya Education Essay The purpose of this essay is to explore the contribution of Comparative and International Research in the successful implementation of Child Friendly Schools (CFSs) in Kenya. Emphasis will be placed on the background of CFSs, current practices and emerging critics, success stories, problems and pitfalls and what CIR can do to subjugate some of these challenges. I will start by examining the rationale for exploring CFSs, based on literature and my professional experience. Following this background will be literature surrounding the concepts of CIR and CFS in relation to global agendas, exploring how CFS came into existence and the driving forces behind it. I then go on to focus on a case study of CFS in Kenya, discussing the role of CIR in the Kenyas CFS, arguing that CIR is used as a political tool in creating educational policy, rather than a research method or an intellectual inquiry. I will further critically analyze challenges facing CFS and how knowledge on CIR can contribute mo re effectively to successful implementation of CFS. A conclusion based on the literature and authors experience will then be drawn. Throughout the essay, I build a case in favour of CIR arguing that CIR stimulates critical reflections about our educational systems by investigating commonalities and differences across national borders. Background and Rationale Perhaps, one of the growing fields in education in the modern age is comparative and international education, judged by the volume of studies reported in the literature. Central to this is that many countries around the world have formulated some of their educational policies based on scholarship in CIR. With the current wave of globalization, researchers and experts, especially in the field of education, are always trying to find ways of streamlining their educational policies with the global trends. According to Giddens (1990:64), globalization is the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distance localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa. Global forces therefore have an impact on shaping local practices at grass root levels. In order to do this tactically and critically, comparative and internal research remains cutting edge in informing people about the realities, the challenges and the possible effects of uncritical transfer of ideas. Interestingly, global agendas in matters related to education are prioritized towards basic education as opposed to adult education or higher education. In Africa, this would be probably because, as Oketch (2004) points out, basic education yields higher rates of returns compared to higher education. This has subsequently caused government and non-governmental organizations to focus more on improving the quality of basic education. Child-friendly schools (CFSs) in Kenya is an example of a initiative sponsored by UNICEF with the aim of not just providing children right to education but the right to the right education. In other words, CFSs are more concerned with the quality of basic education in addition to its access. The emergence of CFSs in Kenya was catapulted by the forces of agendas 1 and 2 of Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) which emphasizes on the provision of basic education. The World Education Forum (2000) agreed on six Education For All (EFA) goals. The sixth goal conce rned Education quality, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognised and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills. The term quality in education is dynamic because of the social, political and economic context at which it is used. Because of differences in contexts, it is imperative that knowledge of comparative and international research be used in designing policies and pedagogy in CFS that fit that particular context. Furthermore, with the fear that some countries may lag behind as others move forward, sub-Sahara countries are now engaging in various practices in order to achieve this goal, a race against the 2015 set deadline for attainment of EFA goals. As the clock ticks towards the year 2015, priority goals in education may change for post-2015 and the worry is further elevated. One of the efforts the government of Kenya is doing to improve the quality of education is by integrating CFS model into the basic education system. Two major questions arise here: First, how is CFS realistic considering myriad challenges facing the FPE policy in Kenya? Secondly, if CFS model is the best practice to go by, what is the role of CIR in successful implementation of the CFSs? It is against this background that the purpose of the essay hinges. Literature Review In this section, I will look at the concepts of Comparative and International Research (CIR) and Child Friendly School (CFS) based on the literature and merge them with the global forces that catapulted the emergence of CFS with an attempt to unveil the voices behind the introduction of CFS in Kenya. In addition, I will use an example of PRISM experience in Kenya to reinforce the understanding as to the role of international bodies in promoting quality through well strategized and executed projects, arguing that lessons from PRISM experience can be used as insights to successful implantation of CFSs. Concepts of Comparative and International Research (CIR) and Child Friendly School (CFS) CIR is a fusion of two broad areas of research: Comparative Research and International Research. To understand its full meaning, it is important we define the two areas of research separately. In his definition of comparative research, Mills et al (year) argue that: Comparative research is a broad term that includes both quantitative and qualitative comparison of social entities. Social entities may be based on many lines, such as geographical or political ones in the form of cross-national or regional comparisons. (p. 621) A similar perception was echoed by Noah and Eckstein (1969: 127), who described comparative education as an intersection of the social sciences, education and cross-national study [which] attempts to use cross-national data to test propositions about the relationship between education and society and between teaching practices and learning outcomes. In light of this definition, comparative research in the context of education can be defined as a study of two or more entities or events (Crossley Watson 2003) with the underlying goal of searching for similarity and variance. Cross-national or regional comparisons may include comparing educational policies, pedagogy, educational leadership and so on. According to Mills et al (2006: 621), the search for variance places more emphasis on context and difference in order to understand specificities. International education, on the other hand, can be defined as the application of descriptions, analyses and insights learned in one or more nations to the problems of developing educational systems and institutions in other countries (Wilson 2000a: 116). Thus, international research is concerned with research carried out across two or more countries, often with the purpose of comparing responses between them. This might be done in order to devise strategies that work well across both or all these cultures or to suggest local adjustments to a global strategy There is a close relationship between comparative and international education. Epstein (1994: 918) points out, that international educators use findings derived from comparative education to understand better the processes they examine, and thus, to enhance their ability to make policy. We can therefore draw from the above two definitions that CIR in education as a method of comparing both qualitative and quantitative entities in education across different countries, societies or cultures with the aim of identifying similarities and differences. It is however important to note that not all international research is comparative, and not all comparative research is international or cross-national. According to UNICEF, a child-friendly school is both a child seeking school and a child-centred school: It is child seeking because it actively identifying excluded children to get them enrolled in school. It is a child-centred school because it acts in the best interests of the child leading to the realization of the childs full potential, is concerned about the whole child: her health, nutritional status, and well-being and concerned about what happens to children before they enter school and after they leave school. A CFS system recognizes and respects childrens right and responsibilities; it provides the enabling environment to realize childrens right not only in schools, but also in childrens home and their communities. These include children from conflict zones, street children and children with disabilities. The Child-Friendly Schools model (see fig 1) is based on simple, rights-based concepts that would have all schools be: Rights Based School: CFS proactively seeks out-of-school children and encourages them to enrol, irrespective of gender, race, ability, social status, etc. Gender Sensitive School: CFS promotes equality and equity in enrolment and achievement among girls and boys. Safe and Protective School: CFS ensures that all children can learn in a safe and inclusive environment. Community Engaged School: CFS encourages partnership among schools, communities, parents and children in all aspects of the education process. Academically Effective School: CFS provides children with relevant knowledge and skills for surviving and thriving in life. Health Promoting School: CFS promotes the physical and emotional health of children by meeting key nutritional and health care needs within schools. (UNICEF, 2007) Fig 1: Model of the Child-Friendly School Source: UNICEF( 2007. The CFS model provides a framework for planning (and monitoring the effectiveness of) strategies for increasing access to quality basic education with the specific focus on the development of strategies to include those children hitherto excluded from education (UNICEF, Global Education Strategy, 2007). It is important to note that there is no one-way to make a school child-friendly. The model may differ from country to country depending on the context. International and Local Pressures and their influences to formation of CFS in Kenya Education in sub-Sahara Africa, and indeed in Kenya, is crafted from both influences by global trends in education and the legacies of colonialism. Chisholm and Leyenderker (2008) observe that: Since 1990, the goals and purpose of education in sub-Sahara Africa has been reshaped by four interconnected developments: globalisation, the changed focus of international aid agencies towards development assistance, the adaptation of sub-Sahara African countries to the new world order with its new political emphases, and the spilling over of new pedagogical ideas from the USA and Europe into sub-Sahara Africa. (p 198) Kenya is a signatory to a number of conventions in education, including the Convention to the Rights of the Child (1989), the World Declaration on Education for All (Jomtien, 1990), the Dakar accord and the Millenium Development Goals (2000). In achievement of education development goals, Kenya is bound to, among other things, quality education by MDGs. The Jomtien call for access for access, equity, quality and democracy in education appeared to promise both social and economic development (Chisholm and Leyenderker, 2008). Social and economic development, and continues to be believed, requires educational change and educational change is necessary for social and economic development (ibid:). Educational change, in turn, is perceived to depend on, amongst other things, the input from relevant development assistance projects. These projects, in the arena of education, are typically formulated with reference to internationally negotiated development agendas (like the MDGs) and priority (Crossley Watson, 2003). An example of these projects in Kenya is CFSs which are supported by United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF). The Education Section of UNICEFs Programme Division introduced the Child Friendly Schools (CFS) framework for schools that serve the whole child in 1999 (Chabbott, 2004). Rationale for introducing CFS framework in Kenya The increased reliance of foreign aid to support education reform in Kenya has been accompanied by a transition, from understanding education as a human right and the general good to viewing it primarily in terms of its contribution to national growth and well-being through the development of the knowledge and skills societies are deemed to need. (Arnove Torres 2007:359). Occasional voices continue insisting that education is liberating, that learning is inherently developmental (ibid: 359). With the global concern that Sub-sahara Africa countries may not achieve Universal Primary Education (UPE) by 2015 unless the progress is accelerated (Carceles et al., 2001; Bennel, 2002), Kenya responded by introducing Free Primary Education (FPE) policy in 2003 with both local and global pressure. The rationale behind introducing FPE was (apart from the pressure from global and international agendas) to alleviate poverty attributed to lack of literacy skills. The success story behind implementation of FPE policy is the increased enrolment at primary schools by nearly 50%, from 5.9 million in 2003 to 9.38 million pupils according to the Kenya Economic Survey 2011. However, there are myriad challenges facing the implantation of FPE policy: there are not enough textbooks, classrooms are overcrowded and the infrastructure in many schools is inadequate for the numbers of pupils attending. Many of the schools do not have sanitation facilities. The teacher-pupil ratio is quite high: accor ding to UNESCO there are more than 40 pupils per teacher, on average. All of these factors militate against the provision of quality teaching. There is no magic wand for fixing this problem of quality in education. In response to this CFS were introduced in Kenya by UNICEF. According to UNICEF (2006:1): The challenge in education is not simply to get children into school, but also to improve the overall quality of schooling and address threats to participation. If both quality and access are tackled, children who are enrolled in primary school are likely to continue, complete the full cycle, and achieve expected learning outcomes and successfully transition to secondary school. The CFS framework (see appendix 3) aims at promoting child-seeking, child-centred, gender-sensitive, inclusive, community-involved, protective and healthy approaches to schooling and out-of-school education with a general goal of improving the quality of learning. Since CFSs are concerned with the quality of learning, it is important we look at the meaning of quality. The national examinations to obtain the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) at the end of primary cycle and the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) at the end of secondary cycle are designed to evaluate the extent to which the primary and secondary graduates master the curriculum content. In other words, the national test scores are used as the indicators of quality. The limitation of this indicator is that it does not take into account the context at which learning takes place i.e. the learning environment, learners unique characteristics etc. There are many definitions of quality but one of the descriptions of quality which emphasizes on the context was by Tikly (2011:10) who argued that: A good quality education is one that enables all learners to realise the capabilities they require to become economically productive, develop sustainable livelihoods, contribute to peaceful and democratic societies and enhance wellbeing. The learning outcomes that are required vary according to context but at the end of the basic education cycle must include threshold levels of literacy and numeracy and life skills including awareness and prevention of disease. In his description, Tikly believes that a good quality education arises from interactions between three overlapping environments, namely the policy, the school and the home/community environments. In his perception of quality education, Tikly puts context into consideration i.e. needs of the learner, cultural and political contexts. In addition, he emphasizes on the relevance of what is taught and learned and how it fits the nature of particular learners in question. This encourages policy makers to take cognisance of changing national development needs, the kinds of schools that different learners attend and the forms of educational disadvantage faced by different groups of learners when considering policy options'(ibid:11). The fact that CFS emphasizes on learner-centered pedagogy and puts the child at the centre or focal point in the learning process raises the idea of what is regarded as valuable knowledge and how this knowledge is acquired in this particular context. This leads us to the inquiry on the school of thought or paradigm behind introducing a contextualized CFS framework. CFS as an approach to education is premised on constructivism, a theory of knowledge arguing that humans generate knowledge and meaning from interaction between ideas and real experiences. According to constructivists, the notions of reality and truth are socially constructed and in different context with the understanding that knowledge is subjective and embedded in multiple realities. Thus, quality of learning should be viewed in the context in which it is occurs. Towards Quality Basic Education In Kenya: Developing Research Capacity and Evaluation Before we acknowledge the contribution of CFS in providing quality education to the children at Primary school level, it will be prudent to review some of other contributions that has been made by international organizations in collaborations with the local governmet in promoting quality of education at grassroot levels by building research capacity. Kenya has had a history of benefiting from international assistance in its education sector. One of the programmes is the Primary Schools Management (PRISM), an initiative of DfID through the Ministry of Education, which places a lot of emphasis on participatory approaches and emphasis on mobilising community support, resource management and utilisation, supporting learning of pupils and developing action plans. It targeted teacher training and management and the impact of this is overall effectiveness of an education system which has a direct bearing on quality of education. According to Otieno Colclough (2009:26), PRISM is regarded as one of donor-funded programmes which had most positive impact on quality of basic education and CFS can learn from it. As Crossley et al notes, the main objective of PRISM was to improve the quality of primary education through the training and support of head teachers in practical management skills. Borrowing from the PRISM experience it is worthy l earning that well planned and organized CFSs projects involving community participation at grass root level could help tap local voices and lead to successful implementation of educational policies not only in Kenya but also other parts of African contexts. Challenges in implementing CFS in Kenya In this section I will explore common challenges associated with the CFSs concept with an aim of illuminating and critiquing the gap between policy and practice in CFSs. Access and Quality Dilemma: Which one should be first priority? As I mentioned earlier, one of the role of CFS in Kenya is to improve the quality of learning. But the access to education is still a challenge in Kenya and there is fear that Kenya will not have achieved EFA goals 1 and 2 by the year 2015. As we near the 2015 set deadline for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, at a time when hopes should be high, universal access to primary education in Kenya seems to be slipping away. Many comparative researchers argue that different countries have different educational problems and it is the countrys obligation to identify what should be the priority and why. Aksoy (2008: 218) observes that: While developed countries are mainly engaged in activities to increase the quality of education, or they practice and seek new techniques and methods of learning and teaching, developing countries struggle to provide equal opportunities for education, trying to increase the rate of participation of all citizens in basic education, which is actually compulsory. To deal with its educational problems, each country works out countrywide or local solutions, depending on the nature of the problem. The tone of such statement is more closely allied to the question of priority. Priority in one country may not be a priority in another. In Kenya, the major problem basic education is facing is of access while higher education is facing the problem of quality. CFS focus more on quality, but in the Kenyan context, access to education is still a problem in basic education even after the introduction of FPE. The CFS concept of quality can however suit very well in small state commonwealth countries which have almost universal access to basic education. It has been noted that small sates have now shifted education priorities towards focus in school effectiveness, quality and inclusion (Crossley Watson 2003) and CFS in Kenya should learn from small states that the priority should now be on access to basic education before shifting to quality. Atomizing the child: is child-centred the solution to quality CFS? A key feature of a right-based, CFS system is that it is linked tightly to the child-centred learning process. CFS advocates for child-centred learning where a child is treated as a single entity or an atom in learning processes. The idea of atomizing a child has its drawbacks derived from child-centred learning. First, there is an oversight on early year development behaviour of the child. Psychologists believe children undergo various levels of development and their learning behaviours are different at each level. For instant, Vygotskys (1978) concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) implies that a child cannot ordinary create ZPD by himself; he needs the more expert individual to bridge the gap between his current development level and his proximal level of development. Secondly, a child-friendly, democratic learning environment may not work successful in overcrowded classrooms and school with limited resources like it is the case in Kenya. Thirdly, child-centred learning weakens the role of the teacher. The idea that a child must be active in construction of knowledge is often understood to imply a diminishing role for the teacher in learning process who now becomes a coach or a facilitator. A call for paradigm renovation, from an exclusively child-centred learning to a combination of both child-centred learning and teacher-centred learning approach is important so that the weakness of one method is complemented by the other method. What Lessons can Kenya learn from other Countries in Implementing CFS? A Review on the Contribution of Comparative Research Kings (2007) emphasizes the need to explore the tension between the national and the international policy agendas in Kenya in order to make informed decisions when crafting educational policies. Clearly, this is a view that underscores the contribution of CIR researchers in bridging theories, policies and practices with both local and global minds (Crossley, 2000) in trying to identify betters grounds to critically reflect and determine appropriate course of action. Apparently, the term that is commonly used in Kenya and indeed many Africa countries in the initial processes of designing an educational policy is benchmarking. Essentially, this is usually a comparative study which is carried out either locally and/or internationally in trying to compare different models of policy framework with the aim of critical adaption or adoption. Lessons are well learnt when a comparisons are made, and this underscores the strength and significance of comparative research. Moreover, since problems transcend national borders, it is prudent to seek possible solutions from a similar experience in another country, and this explains why international research is important. Kenya can learn from other countries that are either progressing or failing to implement CFS because lessons can either identify opportunities or gaps, based on comparative analysis. In these respect therefore, I have identified two key elements of CIR which could help implementation of CFS. The first element is on identification of the gap between policy and practice. Documenting the emerging good practices and lessons learned within the regions is useful in informing evidence based programming and advocacy to enable us to achieve better results. For example, a Global Evaluation Report published by UNICEF in 2009 on comparative studies of how to six countries (Guyana, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand) with different experiences implementing CFS, demonstrated the following: CFSs in varying contexts successfully apply the three key principles of CFS models-inclusiveness, child-centredness and democratic participation. Schools operating in very different national contexts, with different levels of resources and serving populations with different needs have succeeded in being child-centred, promoting democratic participation, and being inclusive. Schools that had high levels of family and community participation and use of child-centred pedagogical approaches had stronger conditions for learning, that is, students felt safer, supported and engaged, and believed that the adults in the school supported the inclusion and success of each student. (UNESCO, 2009) Kenya can use this success report to assist in providing a broader perspective on the ways in which CFSs can contribute to quality in the countrys unique context. The caution should however be that any steps taken should have hindsight of the current context in the country to avoid uncritical transfer of practice which may end up opening a Pandoras box. Secondly, through CIR, studies of educational systems that share similar problems can provide information for learning possible consequences. A recent comparative evaluation research conducted by UNESCO in Nigeria, Gunaya, Thailand and the Philippines on CFS pedagogy gave different findings. While teachers in Nigeria and Guyana mainly focused on meeting basic instructional material needs (textbooks, paper), many teachers in Thailand and the Philippines focused on having greater access to information and communication technology (UNESCO 2009). Kenya experiences the same challenge as Nigeria and Gunaya, and data from these countries can be used to learn how they coping with inadequate basic instructional material. The caution here should be, that common problems may prevail in different countries, but common model cannot be applied because each country has different culture/context (Crossley Watson, 2003:39). This provides invaluable information of what to adopt, modify or avoid. Conclusion It is worthy reiterating Crossley'(2003) emphasis that context matters and different countries have different needs and priorities even if they are faced with the same challenges. The value of CIR is studying foreign systems of education in order to become better fitted to study and understand our own (Sadler 1900, reprinted 1964:310) and CIR can be used as a lense to focus on adaptable or adoptable practices. UNICEF repeatedly emphasises that CFS is a pathway to educational quality rather than a blueprint and that it is counterproductive to regard the CFS model as rigid, with a present number of defining characteristics or key components (2009c, Ch. 1, p. 9). Thus, the essay sought to present an overview in favour of the contribution of CIR in improving successful implementation of CFSs in the Kenyan context. As such, the essay acknowledges the role of CIR in stimulating critical thinking and reflections about CFSs system by evaluating its success and failures, strengths and weaknes ses. This critical reflection facilitates self evaluation in our own context and the basis for determining appropriate courses of action. The article also hints that CIR helps us understand global agendas and how they shape educational development projects from organizations and development agencies.

Pearl Harbor not a surprise Essay -- essays research papers

Introduction – Pearl Harbor was vulnerable to attack because of the obstruction of defense and warning. I. Signs of Japan’s intent to attack II. Politics involvement A. War support B. Eight-step plan III. Neglected warning signs near Pearl Harbor soon before the attack A. Midget subs B. Radar detecting The attack on Pearl Harbor has been known to be a complete surprise. Whenever one thinks about it, they consider that it was. They may think that it was a total surprise except for a few small warning signs that our government seems to have ignored. Children are taught that Pearl Harbor is the "Surprise Attack on Pearl Harbor" in school. It has gone into history as this. Even the president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, said in a speech soon after the attacks it was, but he was lying. Franklin D. Roosevelt, in fact, and a few select top armed forces advisors working closely with him are directly responsible for the â€Å"surprise† of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Many opportunities to prevent and defend the attacks upon Pearl Harbor were never taken. The United States government knew well of Japan’s intent to attack Pearl Harbor well before the occurred. The attack may have been a surprise to Pearl Harbor, but it sure wasn’t to Franklin D. Roosevelt and few select top armed forces advisors of his. An investigation after the attack revealed that the intercepting station received at least forty-three different decoded messages that had clues to the attack. The president had at least four intelligence officers under direct orders from Roosevelt. They had decoded the Japanese code and had been monitoring their communications before the attack. They knew all about news of the planned attack. In 48 hours before the attack, LTC Clifford M. Andrew, was told to burn forty file cabinets of top secret information on Pearl Harbor so no investigation could seek out the truth which was labeled top secret and destroyed. Why did Franklin D. Roosevelt hinder any warnings to go though to Pearl Harbor? He knew that most of American society before the Pearl Harbor bombing believed in the idea of isolationism. The only wa... ...he attack started, many soldiers thought it was a drill and nobody took action right away. There may have been a positive side to the attack. Overall, Roosevelt did many things considered wrong and abusive to his right of presidency. However, had he not, the United States may never have entered the war. And certainly we would not have been as united in our stand against evil, for the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor made Americans sympathetic for our striped men and women, causing more help from the mass majority of Americans, eventually leading to victory in World War II. Had Nazi Germany won, no one knows the extent of evil that would have been caused. Even though Franklin Delano Roosevelt did many wrong things, his reasoning was good, and we were victorious. Yes, in its self, December 7th 1941 was known mostly to be a day that will â€Å"live in infamy,† for the destruction of part of America’s military power, many lives lost, and the start of the war for the U.S. To sum this report up, December 7, 1941 should be better known for the day that will â€Å"live in infamy† because of the obstruction of warning or basic defense that would have certainly saved many lives and military property.