Immigration Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Immigration - Research Paper Example It is used to describe certain phenomena that are a common place in the societies. It has been described as ‘the expression of individual social life and thought through language’ (Mangaraj, para.1). Literature then becomes an important tool through which critics in a society can express their criticism on a given social issue. This field of art is important because it touches the lives of individuals, speaks to the individuals, and has universal applications (Lombardi, para.4). Whether one uses poems, drama, narrative tales, and many other genres of literature, the artist always reflects on some life story that has occurred or is likely to be witnessed. Literature and Immigration Immigration refers to the migration of individuals into a given country to be come residents of the country. Several reasons can make individuals to leave their native country to travel to foreign countries. Political upheavals, poor social set-ups, and unfavorable economic conditions are among the major factors that can force an individual out of his native country into a foreign country. This movement of individuals into another country also has challenges for the immigrants. The individuals are forced to adopt the culture of the natives of this destination country. Moreover, the immigrants are often likely to be subject of prejudice and may not enjoy all the fundamental human rights while in the foreign state. Literature has been used to tell of the ugly scenarios that immigrants encounter while in the foreign countries. While they flee their native countries to seek better life (socially, politically, or economically), the immigrants often get other barriers to their anticipated fruitful life. They suffer the consequences of the nearly cut link with their family members back at home. Besides, to minimize the level of prejudice on their children, the immigrants assimilate the children into the foreign culture. One of the literary works that express the challenges of im migration is â€Å"Under the Same Moon,† a movie by Kate Del Castillo. This gives insight into the problems encountered by young children left behind by their parents who have migrated into the US to look for jobs to support their families. Another literary work is a poem â€Å"Immigrants† by Pat Mora. In the poem, Mora describes how the immigrants are obliged to have their children grow completely in the foreign culture so that they can be accepted in the society. Under the Same Moon Under the same Moon is a Mexican-American movie that features a nine-year old Mexican moppet who has been separated from his mother since he was five. In order to provide a better life for her son, the mother, Rosario, migrated illegally to the United States from Mexico. Looking for employment is one of the many reasons that see several immigrants into the United States. Rosario gets a job as a domestic worker in Los Angeles while the nine-year old Carlitos stays with his ageing and ailin g grandmother who eventually passes away (The Internet Movie Database, para.1). Even though they are separated, the mother and son have tried to keep in touch. Rosario and Carlitos have been communicating through phone, his mother using the same pay phone every week (Catsoulis, para.2). This would later enable the boy to locate his mother in Los Angeles. After the death of his grandmother,

Web 2. 0 application namely YouTube Essay Example for Free

Web 2. 0 application namely YouTube Essay The second group had expressed interest in other social networking tools aside from facebook and myspace. The other respondents, particularly the Chinese people indicated that they are not familiar with facebook and myspace and only very people have heard about facebook and myspace. Very few if not all had used facebook and myspace. On the other hand, they had indicated that they used Xinlang blog and MSN Space. MSN Spaces is a social networking tool developed by Windows (O’Reilly, 2005). In addition to this, they utilize MSN messenger as the main tool for sending and receiving messages from their classmates or friends. They had indicated that they used Xinlang blog and MSN messengers as a tool for chatting online and having online group meetings. In addition to this, the good thing about using MSN Space is that they are able to stay in touch with friends and get in touch with new news. In addition to this, they are able to acquire the latest photos of interesting events very much the same as what the first group had encountered. In summary, both groups generally have the same uses for social networking tools but utilize very different social networking tools. Going into another part of the discussion, the study focused on flickr – another Web 2. 0 application being used by the group. In general, Flickr is a Web 2. 0 application that can provide a venue for photo sharing and is also a web services suite and is also a social networking community medium. In addition to this, Flickr has been known as a photo repository (Anderson, 2007). Students that would want to share academic related pictures opt to utilize flickr as a means of uploading pictures and sharing them to their classmates, at the same time classmates and other peers can comment on it. The popularity of flickr has been furthered because of the innovations posed by online community tools that allow photos to be tagged and be searched by â€Å"folksonomic† means. According to recent studies, flickr is quickly approaching almost one billion images. According to the first group, all members of the group weren’t really utilizing flickr as a means of sharing photos to and fro each other. With this, they could not provide any substantial comments particular to flickr. Some of the group shares their photos in facebook since it would be easier only to maintain a single account instead of having to maintain so many accounts. Students indicated that their current needs only require them to share a certain amount of pictures thus there is no need for a photo repository account as facebook and other social networking tasks responds to the task adequately. Group 2 had the same response as that of the first group when asked about photo sharing repositories such as flickr. They mainly utilize their social networking tools as a means of sharing information to and fro their partners as a means of being able to upload their photos, whether academic or non-academic related. One thing that was noted by the moderator is the sentiment of many of those use their social networking sites in sharing tools is the capacity of the site to upload and download pictures. Other than that, they indicated no intention of utilizing flickr in the near future, unless there may be academic related tasks that would create for the utilization of such a photo sharing repository in order to achieve the academic goals set. The next part of the focus group discussion focused on another Web 2. 0 application namely YouTube (Anderson, 2007). According to the discussion, most of participates in Group 1 are quite fond about this service, and they think that the benefit of Youtube is the venue it provides for people to share videos to a very diverse audience. Video learning such as the one in open universities can be thought of sharing this same kind of concept. A person in the group pointed out that the good thing about Youtube is that they contain a variety of videos that are categorized in genres and topics which can help while the user is searching for his/her desired video. On one note, it can be approximated as facebook as people can make an online video diary so that people can view what a person wants to be viewed and essentially it is quicker and is more interactive as videos can cover a considerable number of human senses. Similarly, educators can utilize this to present learnings that are otherwise very difficult to be explained by using only words and pictures. One person from the group prefers to get educational videos and documentaries from the network, instead of having to buy them. In focusing on the supposed future of Youtube as seen by the eyes of the respondents, she believes that the video sharing network would remain a very popular cultural tool in the future, especially if the internet connection becomes ever so faster and more efficient in order to upload, download and view videos (Anderson, 2007).

Ethical Dilemmas Facing Social Workers Social Work Essay

Ethical Dilemmas Facing Social Workers Social Work Essay Social workers face ethical dilemmas on a daily basis, Banks illustrates this in her quotation ethical dilemmas occur when the social worker sees herself as facing a choice between two equally unwelcoming alternatives, which may involve a conflict of moral values, and it is not clear which choice will be the right one (Banks 2006:13). Banks implies that social workers are often involved in personal and even painful issues and ethical judgements in social work that are about human welfare (Banks 2006:155). This poses many challenges as decisions made are likely to be life changing for service users. It is therefore important for a social worker to be able to justify action (or inaction) accordingly. The facts of a case alone cannot determine what action must be taken, it would be impossible to make choices without values (Beckett and Maynard 2005:7). It is essential for a social worker to have a strong value base from which they work. In some instances problems may arise as social wor kers come into the profession with their own set of personal values and these may conflict with their professional values. Hence what Banks refers to as conflict of moral values (Banks 2006:13). Personal values cannot simply be eradicated because they conflict with professional values, but we must keep our values and assumptions under review, and be open to other arguments and other ideas (Beckett and Maynard 2005:17). In the case scenario of the Bertrams the alternatives are unwelcoming and in order to navigate the value maze in social work (Wilson, Ruch, Lymbery and Cooper 2008:92) social workers use various theories to inform practice. Kantism also referred to as deontology was derived from the ideas of philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). Kant believed people should be treated as an end and not a means to an end. By this Kant meant people should be valued and respected as an individual and not used for the benefit of others. Hence, Kant believed that everyone should be treated equally. Kants ideology was to set aside peoples view of religion and spiritual beliefs and move to the idea of being rational. Rationality enables people to understand what their duties are and how their duties enlighten what they do in the world (Parrott 2010: 500). Kant also believed that by using reason this would develop a consistent moral system. In the case of the Bertrams if the social worker were to use the deontological perspective to guide her decision-making it would be important to value Mrs Bertram as a person because the core of this perspective is respect for persons (Beckett Maynard 2005:35). This goes hand in hand with t he British Association of Social Workers (BASW) Code of Ethics key principles: Respect for human dignity; Value for every human being, their beliefs, goals, preferences and needs; and Respect for human rights and self determination (BASW 2010). Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) developed the philosophical theory of Utilitarianism. Utilitarianism looks at the consequences of actions balancing the relative advantages and disadvantages of a particular course of action, (Parrott 2010: 54) Therefore one persons suffering is acceptable as the greatest number of people is happy. There are two principles of utilitarianism, the principles of justice and utility. The principle of justice is about being equal and fair as the value of everyones happiness should be the same. The principle of utility signifies the greatest good for everyone. In many cases these two principles clash as the minority of people are unhappy. In the case scenario of the Bertrams her happiness should be valued and it would be important to consider the repercussions of going against her wishes if it were considered in her best interests. A social worker would be expected to balance Mrs Bertrams right to self-determination, her safety and the concerns of her family for her welfare as it is often the social workers job to assess the whole situation and work for a solution in the best interests of all concerned (Banks 2006:167). Virtue ethics is a theory that looks into an individuals character. Ones virtue ethics are developed by their personal belief system and this determines their character. Virtue ethics is an approach according to which the basic judgments in ethics are judgments about character (Statman, 1997:7). Ethical issues are embedded in relationships and responsibilities. An individual may lie to be seen as virtuous because they want to be seen as an honest person.   Ã‚   Radical social work is seen as belonging to an area of social work which can also be known as critical or activist social work. The radical position takes a transformational view of social work, and as such is concerned with transforming society to benefit the most oppressed rather than focusing on the individual (Hill, 2010). Payne (1997) suggests some typical views are that; problems are defined as social and structural rather than individual. McIntyre (1982) cited in Payne (1997) summarises the radical approaches criticisms of traditional social work as; traditional social work reduces complex social problems into individual psychological ones, it cuts service users off from others who may share the same problem and it reinforces the capitalist social order that is oppressive. The radical position sees the professionalisation of social work as alienating workers from service users. Praxis is the process of thinking and acting. It is like a spiral of thought and action, or a praxis spiral. Praxis is integral to social work practice and comes in the form of reflection. In social work theory, praxis is the reflexive relationship between theories and action. It describes a cyclical process of social work interactions developing new theories and refining old ones. In order to work anti-oppressively social workers need to reflect on factors that influence their practice; they then need to incorporate the results of this reflection into their practice (Lee, 2001). Downie and Telfer (1969, 1980) state that respect can be regarded as an active sympathy towards another human being (Banks S, 2006: 29). Darwell (1995) outlines two types of respect, recognition respect and appraisal respect. Recognition respect is in essence when a human being is worthy of respect whether it is for something they have communicated verbally or through their actions. Appraisal respect is acknowledging ones qualities. The level of respect would reflect on the qualities shown. Kantism has had an influence on the moral principle of respect in a relationship between a social worker and the service user. (Banks S, 2006: 31) In order for a social worker to show full respect there are four key elements that have to be met, these are, acknowledgement, preservation, non-destruction and engagement (Banks and Gallagher, 2009). Relativism suggests that all points of view are equally valid and the individual determines what is true and relative for individuals. Relativism theorises that truth is different for different people, not simply that different people believe different things to be true. Subjective relativism allows us to be rulers of our own principles and how we chose to live our lives. Cultural relativism is the view that moral beliefs and practises vary with and depend on the human needs and social conditions of particular cultures so that no moral belief can be universally true. (A E Holmes 1984). is this a direct quote? Descriptive Ethical relativism believes that different cultures have different moral values and normative ethical relativism suggests that each culture is right unto itself. The Collins English Dictionary (2009) defines values as the moral principles and beliefs of a person or group and ethics as a social, religious or civil code of behaviour considered correct, especially that of a particular group, profession, or individual. Therefore values can be seen as the fundamental beliefs that an individual or group holds to be true and ethics the more formalised rules or guidelines of an organization or society. Banks (2010) states that values are regarded as particular types of belief that people hold about what is regarded as worthy or valuable. (direct quote ?need pg number) Although values are personal to us as individuals, they may also be shared by the society or culture in which we live. Our values are formed through personal development and socialisation and will be influenced by both past and present experiences. (Parrott, 2010) Dubois and Miley (1996) state ethics are concerned with what people consider right while values are concerned with what peop le consider good. Most moral philosophers would define ethics as a singular term, which is used to describe a branch of philosophy concerned with the study of Morality, moral problems and moral judgements (Frankena, 1963 cited in Banks, 2006: page number). According to Parrott (2010), ethics can be seen to guide an action and are there to inform and influence any judgements made according to the professional value base of social work. Reamer (2006) provides an insight into the historical origins of values and ethics in social care and states that they have been at the foundation of social cares mission since its inception. He suggests that social work values and ethics come from four distinct stages: the morality period; the values period; the ethical theory and decision-making period and the ethical standards and risk management period (Reamer, 2006). These have culminated in the General Social Care Councils (GSCC) code of conduct that is in place today (Barnard, 2008). Social workers are duty bound to adhere to the GSCC codes of practice which acts as an ethical framework. A written code of ethics enables social workers to judge their practice against an ethical standard and enables service users to understand what conduct they should expect from their social worker. If social workers are considered to be in breach of the GSCC codes they can be removed from the social care register and no longer practice. Professional social workers must take responsibility for their actions as they hold a position of trust and power that is legitimised by the state making ethics an important factor in accountability. The impact of all practice on service users can be said to be powerful and therefore the ethics and value base emphasises the importance that the moral standing of service users is equal to that of the professional (Hugman, 2008). The National Occupation Standards (NOS) for Social Workers state clearly that values and ethics are central to being a competent practitioner. Parrott (2010) suggests that values are important to social work as they provide a common set of principles, which social workers can use and develop as a means of working in an ethical way with service users.(direct quote ? pg number) He goes on to say that they guide professional behaviour, help maintain a professional identity and protect service users from malpractice. It is important to clarify ones personal values in order to increase ones awareness of the potential conflicts and the impact these may have on ethical decision making. A persons cultural experiences and background will affect the decisions they make and may bias their behaviour. Social workers must first clarify their own value stance in relation to value-laden issues they meet in practice situations if they want to be true to themselves and to their profession (Dolgoff, 2009:54). When linking moral philosophy and ethical dilemmas to social work practice it is important to acknowledge that no one theory provides an answer. Traditionally social work has taken the Kantian approach and focused on the social worker / service user relationship. The need for social work to challenge inequality and oppression on an individual and structural level means radical social work is also still relevant. An overall Kantian Utilitarian Radical approach may be better. (Banks, 2006) The right of a service user to self determination may conflict with a social workers statutory duty if they are potentially endangering their own life or that of others (Clifford and Burke, 2009). Neil Thompson (2006, p40) defines oppression as inhuman or degrading treatment of individuals or groups; hardship or injustice brought about by the dominance of one group over another; the negative and demeaning use of power. It often involves disregarding the rights of an individual or group and is thus a denial of citizenship. Service users will predominately come from oppressed and marginalised groups and it is crucial that social workers acknowledge institutional discrimination and avoid inadvertently stereotyping service users, compounding existing oppressions. (Thompson, 2008) Social workers need to be aware of the unequal distribution of power within organisations and decide how best to advocate and negotiate within these organisations for the best interest of the service user, even if it involves challenging the structure and values of an organisation from within (Dominelli, 2002). Paternalism focuses on the right for social workers with knowledge, authority, and skills to go into the lives of those who need their help, either by self referral or referrals from other professions. Mrs Bertram has been referred by another professional because of her Alzheimers. Ethical awareness is an important part of social work as it gives the social worker the ability and commitment to work alongside other professionals and service users. The Utilitarian view is consequential with the results given as much consideration as possible. Therefore when thinking about practice this approach would say to think of the persons outcome (future) when dealing with the present situation. This would mean weighing the good with the bad. The radical approach would empower the service user into change enabling them to overcome problems and equip them with techniques to deal with these independently in the future. Social workers should involve the service user in the decision making process, working in partnership and keeping them fully informed about their case. The starting point of dealing with this case would be an assessment of the Bertrams situation. The assessment task when undertaken in a professional and informed manner is rewarding and sets the foundation for further interventions (Wilson, Ruch, Lymbery and Cooper 2008:269). The Bertrams financial situation is unclear as it appears that Mr Bertram doesnt have much inheritance money left which has led to rent arrears. This situation would need to be resolved soon as their landlord is threatening to evict them for rent arrears and the state of the flat, which could render them both homeless. Mrs Bertrams insight appears to be severely impaired by her end stage Alzheimers and an assessment of the health risks may require securing detailed information from the GP about Mrs Bertrams Alzheimers and other health issues, and the likely prognosis. Mr Bertram is believed to be an alcoholic and this could have implications for his health. The likelihood of a positive outcome would perhaps be i ncreased if Mr Bertram could be offered help for alcoholism as well as a carers assessment to ascertain what his needs are. He spends considerable time at his club, leaving his wife alone in the house vulnerable and at risk. Mrs Bertrams daughters distrust Mr Bertram and believe its in her best interest to be moved into residential care. Before her illness advanced Mrs Bertram stated she wanted to stay with her husband. Possible options to consider after the assessment would be providing support for Mr and Mrs Bertram at home, moving them into sheltered accommodation together or moving Mrs Bertram into residential care. All these alternatives may be unwelcoming to the Bertrams therefore in order to bring about any change it would be important to first build a relationship with both Mr Bertram and Mrs Bertram and her daughters applying the Kantist view that the truth is told. This could mean trying to communicate with Mrs Bertram at select times when she is more lucid and can partici pate as much as possible. It is important to develop/construct a shared understanding of the problem(s) being faced (Wilson, Ruch, Lymbery and Cooper, 2008:282). Judgements should be informed directly by what Mr and Mrs Bertram say about their circumstances. Mr and Mrs Bertram must have a key part in the assessment of their situation, and any issues should be shared allowing them to continue to have as much choice as possible. The strengths of this plan are that Mr and Mrs Bertram will be involved in the care plan and will be able to express their views, as well as Mrs Bertrams daughters being able to contribute towards the care plan. This may build a strong relationship with the family and build on trust so they do co- operate and consider all the options as they will understand that the strategy would be for the health and well being of both Mr and Mrs Bertram. As social workers we need to have a basic understanding of what the Bertrams values are as it would be difficult to empathise and get the necessary understanding of their wishes if we do not. As social workers we could then possibly struggle to make progress when trying to help the Bertrams. This professional development is important as we will use this type of growth everyday in the workplace. In this case the main value/wish seems to be that the Bertrams stayed together in their home. A social workers personal values may inform their understanding of practice. However, a social worker needs to follow the broader framework provided by anti-oppressive social work ethics. The framework provided allows a place for personal values but challenges social workers to place them within the wider framework where they are accountable to others and they must desist from imposing their values and in fact question them. (Clifford and Burke, 2009) Different contributions are made by various ethical perspectives in any given situation and these must be considered. Ethical perspectives must be considered in light of an anti-oppressive approach to practice and in relation to each other as there are occasions when the different perspectives conflict. Social workers have an obligation to work in a way that demonstrates not only knowledge of relevant ethical concepts and local laws but also a broader awareness of how ethical values are related to social inequalities and diversities (Cl ifford and Burke, 2009:203) Word Count: 2993 (including author details in brackets)

Essay --

â€Å"I was crying and all, I don’t know why, but I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome† (53), Holden says. As humans, we have a hard time belonging in society. This is the same case for Holden Caulfield, the main character from the Catcher in the Rye. The Catcher in the rye, a novel by J.D Salinger, is about Holden, a lost boy in desperate need of help. Throughout the novel, Holden seems to be excluded by the world around him. He continually attempts to try and belong in a world in which he is isolating from. In this novel, Salinger uses symbols such as the red hunting hat, the ducks and Allie’s glove to support the theme, belonging and isolation. In the beginning of the novel, Holden says to Mr. Spencer he feels trapped on the â€Å"other side of life.† This clearly demonstrates how Holden doesn’t feel that he belongs in the world he lives in. Holden has his hunting hat as a source of protection. Holden buys a red hunting hat in New York for a dollar. The hat has a very long peak, and Holden wears it backwards with the peak aiming behind him. â€Å"†¦I swung the old peak way around to the back-very corny, I’ll admit, but I liked it that way† (17), Holden explains. Holden puts his hat on when he’s under a lot of stress. The hunting hat not only symbolizes protection, but it also symbolizes Holden’s uniqueness and individuality. Holden doesn’t wear his hat because it’s fashionable, but only to keep his individuality and to feel safe. In the cab Holden put his hat on and says, â€Å"I’d put my red hunting hat when I was in the cab, just for the hell of it, but I took it off before I checked in† (61). This quote illustrates how Holden thinks it’s necessary to wear the hat in order to feel safe. But at the same time, Holde... ...ing stays frozen and everyone belongs in society. Therefore, during the winter time, the ducks are isolated as once, but they still belong together. Holden is isolated from the people around him and he is more protected within himself. Holden doesn’t know how he is going to make it through his own winter, just like he doesn’t where the ducks will end up during winter. Throughout the end of the novel, Holden isn’t lost anymore. His younger sister, Phoebe helps pick himself right up from isolating. The red hunting helps Holden from isolating. Allies mitt helps Holden bring back all the old memories of his younger brother, Allie. Holden compares himself to the ducks because he feels like he will isolate away from society just like the ducks do during the winter time. Thus, the ducks, Allie’s mitt and the red hunting hat relates to the theme, belonging and isolation.

Early Cold War Essay

The term Cold War was first introduced by Bernard Baruch, an American businessman and political adviser to every President from Woodrow Wilson to John F. Kennedy (â€Å"Bernard Baruch†). It was a time of mutual distrust between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies which begun after World War II. From Democracy in America’s author, Alexis de Tocqueville, â€Å"There are now two great nations in the world, which starting from different points, seem to be advancing toward the same goal: the Russians and the Anglo-Americans. . . . Each seems called by some secret design of Providence one day to hold in its hands the destinies of half the world† (Kreis, â€Å"The Origins of the Cold War†). The primary concern of the United States during the early years of the Cold War was the political threat of the spread of Communist ideology from the Soviet Union (Zinn, 1980). Further back in its history, Russia exhibited radical tendencies by overthrowing Tsar Nicholas, followed by the Bolshevik Revolution, the unification under Lenin where Communism’s seed began to sprout and continued by Stalin (Kreis, â€Å"The Origins of the Cold War†). A history of military intervention in Eastern Europe climaxing in 1948 in the overthrow of the democratic government in Czechoslovakia by a communist coup were thrown as examples of Soviet expansionism. This reminded the American public of the atrocities of Hitler (Zinn, 1980). And with him in mind the United States and its western European allies began to see Stalin as a threat (Kreis, â€Å"The Origins of the Cold War†). The more fearful concern was the Soviet Union’s revitalizing industry after badly scathed by the aftermath of World War II and its increasing military strength (Zinn, 1980). The United States slowly exercised its economic might by refusing to aid any post-war reconstruction in Russia as approved by the U. S. Congress in 1945, a major about face in policy under the Lend-Lease Act of 1941 wherein the U. S. shipped huge amounts of war equipments to Russia (Kreis, â€Å"The Origins of the Cold War†). Coming from the huge gains of World War II, the United States was also wary of regimes opposed to its capitalist structure. That fear was best exhibited by the emergence of Soviet Union as a global power with an ideology opposed to democratic and industrial capitalist principles of the United States (Kreis, â€Å"The Origins of the Cold War†). Americans generally fear revolution. They fear â€Å"change — real, fundamental social, economic and political change† (Kreis, â€Å"The Origins of the Cold War†). Fro all its democratic talk, America has a history of suppressing true liberalism and radicalism. The Soviets also had their share of fears in the early years of the Cold War. After World War II, Stalin feared that democratic principles would be forced upon the Communist tenets of the Soviet Union. He believed the two principles cannot co-exist. As he warned in his speech, capitalism and imperialism made future wars inevitable (â€Å"Episode 2: Iron Curtain 1945-1947†). Stalin also was aware of the United States expanding influence all over the world. He was wary of this move and pressured Turkey, a country located strategically on the southern borders of Soviet Union, for a Soviet military presence in the Darnanelles and the Bosporus. Turkey was then influenced by Great Britain and eventually aided by the United States. The atomic bomb that was dropped in Japan started the concept of the nuclear arms race which the Soviet Union was interested to join. But Stalin received intelligence reports that the Americans â€Å"would not share atomic secrets with the Soviet Union† (Zubok, â€Å"Cold War Chat†). The mutual distrust and fears of both the United States and the Soviet Union resulted in actions that further shaped the history of the Cold War. The United States’s fear of the possible spread of Soviet Communist ideology led to their policy of containment. What is now known as the Truman Doctrine paved the way to the formal declaration of cold war against the Soviet Union. This was the famous speech of President Truman to the U. S. Congress asking for $400 million to aid Greece and Turkey’s fight against communism (Kreis, â€Å"The Origins of the Cold War†). The containment policy of the United States involves military interventions to countries where Communism was viewed to thrive. The most famous display of the containment policy was the Vietnam War which started in 1950 under President Truman’s administration. Armed with the U. S. Congress resolution named Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, President Johnson further escalated the war by bombing North Vietnam and continuing to send as many as 540,000 troops by the end of 1968. As more Americans left and died in Vietnam, the anti-war sentiments back home put pressure on the government. The Nixon years saw the continuance of the Vietnam War with the expansion of hostilities in Laos and Cambodia. Nixon’s Vietnamization policy of providing military aid but not troops proved to be a temporary success. A 1972 preliminary peace draft in Paris was initially rejected. By 1973, Nixon convinced Hanoi and Saigon’s President Nguyen van Thieu to sign the Paris Peace Agreement which ended the hostilities between the United States and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The containment policy also played a role in the creation on April 4, 1949 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), currently an alliance of 26 countries from North America and Europe. This was the outcome of Europe’s fears of another Soviet aggression in the guise of Stalin when they were just about to rebuild after Hitler’s dictatorship. Western Europe also needed the assurance of the United States’s protection while they started to rebuild from the ruins of World War II. NATO members’ common grounds are said to include the same democratic ideology and capitalist structure of economy (Kreis, â€Å"The Origins of the Cold War†). In the late 1940s to 1950s both the United States and Soviet Union sought to build their military arsenal. For the United States, this gave way to military integration, the passing by Congress of the National Security Act in 1947 which created the Department of Defence, the National Security Council, and the Central Intelligence Agency (Kreis, â€Å"The Origins of the Cold War†). On the Soviet side, they detonated an atomic bomb of their own in 1949. The first H-bomb was also detonated by the United States in 1952. Not to be outdone, the Soviets detonated a fusion bomb in 1953 (Kreis, â€Å"The Origins of the Cold War†). NSC-68, a policy the United States adopted in 1950 raised defense spending to staggering amounts, up to $60 billion dollars, â€Å"a symbol of America’s determination to win the cold war regardless of cost (Kreis, â€Å"The Origins of the Cold War†). Although the Cold War has now officially ended, the United States, the only legitimate superpower left, continues to establish a world order that caters to its capitalist structure. Military interventions have been part of its policy if it serves U. S. interests. During the Cold War, the goal was the containment of Communism. At the present, terrorism is the new battle cry. It is said the United States owns a very large percentage of the world’s wealth while it tries to suppress those who oppose to its capitalistic tenets. Currently, we are seeing the emergence of a possible superpower like China. It has been known as the sleeping giant and could be a contender to displace the United States from its current status. Whether there will be another Cold War by any other name, only time will tell. References Bernard Baruch. Answers. com. Retrieved 10 December 2006 from the Web: http://www. answers. com/topic/bernard-baruch Cold War (1998). CNN. com. Retrieved December 10, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://www. cnn. com/SPECIALS/cold. war/episodes/02/ The Origins of the Cold War (2006). TheHistory Guide Website. Retrieved December 10, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://www. historyguide. org/europe/lecture14. html Zinn, Howard. (1980). A People’s History of the United States. Retrieved December 10, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://www. writing. upenn. edu/~afilreis/50s/zinn-chap16. html Zubok, Vladislav Dr. (1998, October 4). [COLD WAR chat moderated by COLD WAR reporter Bruce Kennedy for CNN’s COLD WAR series]. COLD War Chat: Dr. Vladislav Zubok, Historian. Retrieved December 10, 2006 from the Web: http://www. cnn. com/SPECIALS/cold. war/guides/debate/chats/zubok/

Free Essays on Pop Culture

The Cold War and American Pop-Culture The influence of the Cold War on American popular culture in the 1950s is very clear. â€Å"As true today, popular culture in the 1950s meant primarily movies, television programs, and recorded music as well as fiction, drama, and even fashion and comics.† The Cold War is the name given to the tensions and arms race that occurred between the United States and the Soviet Union in the years following the Second World War. Anti-Communism, and the â€Å"red scare† dominated American popular culture, with everyone trying to prove that they were against Communism. The influence that the Cold War had on American popular culture is evident through the popular novels at the time, which usually contained violence towards Communists and portrayed Americans as tough and righteous. Secondly, the Cold War had drastic affects Hollywood largely due to the fact that no other city has such a large influence on all of America. Many people were blacklisted, due to unfounded speculations t hat they might be in some way associated with the Communist Party. Lastly, the influence that the Cold War had on American popular culture is evident through analysis of the popular music of the 1950s. As a result of the Cold War, American popular culture was largely dominated by anti-communist ideals and subsequently caused mass paranoia throughout the United States The influence that the cold war was having on America is prevalent through analysis of the literature that was popular throughout the 1950s. Mickey Spillane’s books dominated the fictional bestsellers list of the 1950s, with six of them making the top ten. Historian Stephen Whitfield claims that it was â€Å"the detective’s hairy-chested heroics would have made such novels enormously popular even if they had been devoid of any explicit politics, but the overt anti-communism of Spillane’s fiction engraved it with the signature of the period.† Overall it is evident t... Free Essays on Pop Culture Free Essays on Pop Culture The Cold War and American Pop-Culture The influence of the Cold War on American popular culture in the 1950s is very clear. â€Å"As true today, popular culture in the 1950s meant primarily movies, television programs, and recorded music as well as fiction, drama, and even fashion and comics.† The Cold War is the name given to the tensions and arms race that occurred between the United States and the Soviet Union in the years following the Second World War. Anti-Communism, and the â€Å"red scare† dominated American popular culture, with everyone trying to prove that they were against Communism. The influence that the Cold War had on American popular culture is evident through the popular novels at the time, which usually contained violence towards Communists and portrayed Americans as tough and righteous. Secondly, the Cold War had drastic affects Hollywood largely due to the fact that no other city has such a large influence on all of America. Many people were blacklisted, due to unfounded speculations t hat they might be in some way associated with the Communist Party. Lastly, the influence that the Cold War had on American popular culture is evident through analysis of the popular music of the 1950s. As a result of the Cold War, American popular culture was largely dominated by anti-communist ideals and subsequently caused mass paranoia throughout the United States The influence that the cold war was having on America is prevalent through analysis of the literature that was popular throughout the 1950s. Mickey Spillane’s books dominated the fictional bestsellers list of the 1950s, with six of them making the top ten. Historian Stephen Whitfield claims that it was â€Å"the detective’s hairy-chested heroics would have made such novels enormously popular even if they had been devoid of any explicit politics, but the overt anti-communism of Spillane’s fiction engraved it with the signature of the period.† Overall it is evident t...

be all you can be essays

be all you can be essays Be all that you can be in the Army. Earn up to $40,000 for college, get valuable training, and have your health at risk for the rest of your life, and dont forget the 30 days paid vacation. I know you all have heard that slogan before, or maybe you should have. That is what the Army should tell you on all of those commercials since they made it mandatory for every soldier to be vaccinated against the deadly illness, anthrax. But, if you refuse the vaccination then you are out of not only a job but also you could serve jail time. Soldiers should not be put in a position where they have to choose between risking their health or losing their job. There are many problems with the vaccine itself. The vaccine has never undergone long term test, so even the Department of Defense has no idea what this could possibly do to soldiers down the road of life. That right there tells you that the Generals in the Pentagon dont care about your life at all. I wonder if our friends, the leaders of our armed forces were also forced to take this vaccine. When the vaccine first became mandatory for all personnel, I was stationed in Korea. Due to the fact that we were overseas, we had the opportunity to be the first troops to receive it. I however was exempt from taking the vaccine because I was leaving the country in the next two months and time wouldnt allow me to receive the shots in proper order. What I witnessed my colleagues go through was enough for me to swear never to except the shots. I saw a large group of people break out in hives and actually had the opportunity to watch one soldier have a seizure. Now, the Army wont say whether or not the seizure had anything to do with the shots but I was fairly certain. The Anthrax vaccine was administered during the Gulf War to soldiers that went over to the Middle East to fight. Now there is an undiagnosed disease called the Gulf War disea ...

Controversey in Iraq essays

Controversey in Iraq essays The Presidential election of this year was a very important one. This was mainly due to the conflicting feelings of Americans regarding the war in Iraq. The polls leading up to the election showed a divided nation, half for Bush, and half for Kerry. Since the election has now come and gone, it seems as though the majority of our country is for the war and how President Bush is handling it. I must admit, I am not part of the majority when it comes to this issue. I voted for Senator Kerry, and I am opposed to the situation in Iraq. What it comes down to is that our President is telling our country that we are fighting the war on terror, but the fact is we are not fighting in the right place. Iraq is not the key to stopping the terror. Yes, taking over Iraq may have deterred a few of the terrorists, but many other countries are still a much larger threat. For instance, before the September 11 attacks, the United States estimated that North Korea possibly had possession of one weapon of mass destruction, since we have invaded Iraq, North Korea definitely has at least five weapons of mass destruction that we know about. While the US has been preoccupied with the mess in Iraq, the countries that really do pose a threat, pose an even bigger threat today. As I stated earlier, the majority of our country is for this war. This war is being done to spread democracy and stop a tyrannical ruler that is harming his people. These pro-war people argue that by attacking Iraq we would find the link to Al Queda we were fighting for. This is not true. The CIA gave the President faulty intelligence. There is and never has been a link between the two. The President explained to our country eighteen months ago that we were going to Iraq for several reasons. They were: Iraq contained weapons of mass destruction, this was a link to stop Al Queda, and this was a last resort to stop terror. So far, a year and a half later of being at war...

Health and Safety Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Health and Safety - Essay Example The manager is now faced with a tough problem and that is to find means to save the image of the product and the company. This will cause a disruption in the manager’s planned routine and he will try to curtail losses as much as possible. Furthermore, the manager will try to gain back the confidence people has in his brand and his company and will therefore invest his time, energy and resources to retain the company’s market share. Hence, it is evident that safety plays a vital role in a manager’s job. Safety ensures the well being of a business in all aspects. Be it the manufacturing process, work place environment, food and beverages, occupational hazards or the environment in which business takes place. Safety is important for the efficient running of these processes and for the welfare of the people involved in these processes. For a business to prosper all business functions should work together and perform efficiently. Therefore, safety issues need to be considered right across the organizational domain starting from production and going up to shipment and delivery. For this reason most companies have developed standards for safety in their work domain and ensure that safety standards are always met. According to the WHO, food and waterborne diseases are the leading causes of illness and death in less developed countries, killing approximately  2.2 million people annually, an estimated 1.8 million of whom are children Therefore, the recent trends in global food production, processing, distribution and preparation are creating an increasing demand for food safety to ensure a safer global food supply (WHO). Even in the developed countries food safety has become a major concern. Food safety needs to be ensured in restaurants as well as homes to prevent people from catching food borne diseases. The WHO has identified five ways to ensure

Education and social class Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Education and social class - Essay Example Therefore, the people from the upper social class have a higher probability of securing high-paying job opportunities than their low-class counterparts. People from the high social class have the means to attend prestigious schools (Archer, Hutchings and Ross, 2003). People from the low-class cannot attend these elite schools because they charge a fortune.   For instance, an average college may charge US $25,000 per academic year while a prestigious college, such as Dartmouth College or Yale University, may charge nearly four times the amount. Given that the average American earns US $ 40,000 it becomes hard for most of the people to afford it (Fields and Morgan-Klein, 2013). High social class people also have the privilege of knowing where opportunities exist (Joyner, 2012). They have the relevant information to take advantage of the opportunities. For instance, high-class people may understand the procedure of applying for the prestigious schools which students from the low-class may not. As a result, they have a higher chance of being accepted in these prestigious schools and receive high quality education.According to Joyner (2012), education has always been perceived as the stepping stone towards crossing the social class boundaries. Most of the governments in the world have put systems in place and complementing policies to see to it that all the people, regardless of their social class, attain at least the basic education. The presumption is that education is the agent of change that enables the bridging of the gap.

Information technology project management Assignment

Information technology project management - Assignment Example iew, variance analysis, Schedule compression, Resource leveling   Decomposition shall help the Project activities timed better, expert judgment will be required to budget time for various activities, dependency determination shall help sequence activities such that project delays can be minimized or mitigated, floats shall be determined to ascertain the flexibility in the project to makeup for any unwanted delays, Three point estimation shall help in arriving at more realistic estimates of project activity duration Project Cost Management    Expert judgment, Cost of quality, Three point estimates, Variance analysis Expert judgment shall be required to determine the activity and project costs and make cost budget, Cost of quality must be determined to make cost benefit decisions when faced with conflicting cost heads, Three point estimates shall give better estimates of costs, Variance analysis will help in keeping the project costs on track Project Quality Management   Cost ben efit analysis, Quality Audits, Control Charts   A cost benefit analysis will help balance activity cost with activity quality and will help us choose between two activities and their extent and scope, Quality audits will keep the quality levels for the activities on track, Control charts shall give an overview of the project quality performance and help keep a check on the same Project Human Resource Management   Organizational charts, Virtual teams, Training, Team building activities, Recognition and awards, Project performance appraisal, Conflict management   Organizational charts will be required to have a clarity as to the project roles and responsibilities, Virtual teams need to be created since the project covers more than one distant geographic company locations, Team building activities will be required to keep the project team bond better and develop work based understanding to help prevent any confusions and bottlenecks owing to the same, Project performance appraisa l shall serve as a tool to encourage good performance and will be crucial in control project progress, Conflict management might be required in order to keep any interpersonal problems from threatening the project performance Project Communications Management   Expert judgment, Communications requirement analysis, Stakeholder feedbacks, Face to Face meetings, Performance reports   Expert judgment will be required to make the formal as well informal communication effective, communications structure shall be determined through a requirement analysis, stakeholder feedbacks shall be sought to help improve their knowledge about project progress and find a realistic thrust of their

Religion; Islam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Religion; Islam - Essay Example The above paragraph may show a perspective that the Sufi would not agree to. Because, if the Sufi spiritual quest has to be considered rightful it should have been given in the Quran and/or the sunnah of Prophet Mohammad. Andrew Rippin, in his work Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices, states that To defend Sufism several Muslims say that it was only a respond to the increasing materialism in the Islamic world. However, this argument does not answer the question. In fact it evades it. As even in early Islamic times and under the Prophet Mohammad’s leadership there was materialism and people enjoyed it. The legal nature of the Islamic system has never addressed the issue of materialism and so it was called insufficient by the people who became Sufis during their search for spirituality. This, Islam was called a religion of unspiritual nature. â€Å"considerable ink has been spent by modern scholarship on the ‘origins’ of Sufism in Islam, as to how far it is ‘genuinely’ Islamic and how far a product, in the face of Islam, of outside influences, particularly Christian and Gnostic.†2 Seyyed Hossein Nasr is a Muslim scholar, who in his work Sufi Essays, has shown his contempt of Islamic scholars of the West who are following the older system of detailing Sufism as some type of strange effect within Islam, and celebrates with the reality that â€Å"many are now willing to accept the Islamic origin of Sufism and the unbreakable link connecting Sufism to Islam.†3 While these are responses to the questions originally posed, they appear to be more worried with the preservation of the external manifestation of Islamic unity, than with significant academic research and assessment. Plenty of traditions about the life of Prophet Mohammad that the Sufis relate are not to be seen in the major hadith collections (Bukhari, Muslim, Kulayni, Ibn Babuya), and thus they are rejected. Nevertheless, within Sufi spheres the customs are preserved - and considered by

Creatine Loading Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Creatine Loading - Essay Example This part of the essay will be discussed under the following heads: 1. Introduction 2. Evidence based practice: concept and definition 3. EBP in sports & exercise context a. Swimming b. Cycling 4. Conclusion 1.1 Introduction 1.1 The concept Evidence-based practice (EBP) is refers to the â€Å"review and use of scientific research to determine the most effective outcome. The scientific evidence plays a central role, although clinical judgement and the athlete’s personal preferences and values must also be considered† (Dunford & Doyle, 2008, p.17). EBP is also refers to as the preferential use of mental and behavioural health interventions for which systematic empirical research has provided evidence of statistically significant effectiveness as treatments for specific problems. The University of Minnesota Libraries, which maintains a website on EBP states that â€Å"EBP is a thoughtful integration of the best available evidence, coupled with clinical expertise and enabl es health practitioners of all varieties to address healthcare questions with an evaluative and qualitative approach. EBP allows the practitioner to assess current and part research, clinical guidelines, and other information resources, clinical guidelines, and other information resources in order to identify relevant literature while differentiating between high-quality and low-quality findings† (University of Minnesota; Libraries , 2010). 1.1.1 Significance EBP is highly desirable to research as it leads to rigorous and systematic study of research questions, the answers to which are based on scientific evidence (Nelson, 2010). Gray & Gray (2002) explain that â€Å"because research findings are fundamental in forming recommendations, the quality of the research is very important in EBP (Dunford & Doyle, 2008, p.17). This in turn becomes fundamental to the development of the best practices in a variety of professions (Nelson, 2010). In recent years, professional organisation s such as American Psychological Association, the American Occupational Therapy Association, the American Nurses Association, and the American Physical Therapy Association have been urging their members to carryout research in support or against specific interventions. Canadian equivalent of these organisations also stress on EBP. Other agencies such as the insurance providers have been known to deny insurance coverage to certain interventions due to lack of systematic evidences. 1.1.2 Applicability and areas of research The medical profession, in which treatments prescribed by doctors are based on the best evidence available so that the treatment is effective for the condition at hand, are not the only one to benefit from EBM. Other areas include psychology, psychiatry, rehabilitation, sports and physical activity research to mention a few. Many of these areas where lose bodies of knowledge were prevailing for generations without any empirical evidence are also now exploring applic ation of EBM. Nevertheless, sports and exercise scientists perhaps are the most immediate beneficiary of EBM, next only to the medical profession. The succeeding sections of this part discuss how sport & exercise scientis

Report on Religious Field Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 3

Report on Religious Field Research - Essay Example Om Peace, Peace, Peace†. (Om asato†¦) Prayer over, the Preacher lost no time in beginning the day’s lecture: â€Å"The Perfect Masters of all religions mention about the same transcendental truth. What they wish to explain is beyond the realm and boundaries of words, thoughts, feelings and the capacity of body-mind-intellect. My submission is also an outline, and not the reality of spirituality. That has to be practically experienced by you. There is much more in this cosmos than what the senses can detect or the mind can comprehend. The totality can be comprehended with the help of the â€Å"Third Eye†, which Lord Jesus proclaims, â€Å"When thine Eye be Single†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"The problems arise when the Transcendental Reality is explained by the mind-level philosophers, intellectuals, preachers, mullahs and pundits. Arguments and counter-arguments follow. Misunderstandings generate and conflicts arise. This is the genesis of religious conflicts. If t he founders of all the religions are to sit together and engage in a discussion, actually there would be no discussion as there would be no differences of opinions amongst them. Though they use different languages and tender different examples, they are speaking about the same truth, the Ultimate Reality! For example, the source of energy for all the electrical appliances is electricity†. â€Å"The followers of different religions must stop quarrelling and grasp the underlying essence of the revelations by their Masters. World Peace becomes an attainable reality if they follow the revelations of the Masters in true letter and spirit. What difference does it make if you call electricity by some other name, it is the same entity and its power remains the same? Similarly hail the Consciousness that governs cosmos, the All-pervading Reality by any name, Jesus, Allah, Rama, Krishna, God or whatever you like. That Power is the same†. â€Å"God, who exists even before the cre ation and from whom the entire universe originates and gets manifested, in whom the entire universe exists and in whom the entire universe will be withdrawn, eventually; and that Light of your Consciousness, which is the Illuminator, the Witness, the Self within, which is aware of the presence or absence of thoughts in the mind, is one and the same! That Thou Art! You are not the body-mind-equipment, which you have assumed yourself to be, till now. Know the technique to stabilize your mind, transcend it and you will know that you and God are the same entity! The eternal search ends and no further running around are needed. All ambiguity stands vanished†. â€Å"The mind is an instrument in the hands of the Self just as the body is an instrument controlled by the mind. Matter is motion outside, the mind is motion inside. Theoretical arguments only lead to arguments and counter-arguments. It is impossible to realize the Truth through arguments. This is the reason that the name o f God, which out to bring peace and happiness to humankind, has been the cause of bloodshed in the world. The pages of human history are daubed in bloodshed due to bitter quarrels in the name of religion and race. Reach out for the direct

Religion; Islam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Religion; Islam - Essay Example The above paragraph may show a perspective that the Sufi would not agree to. Because, if the Sufi spiritual quest has to be considered rightful it should have been given in the Quran and/or the sunnah of Prophet Mohammad. Andrew Rippin, in his work Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices, states that To defend Sufism several Muslims say that it was only a respond to the increasing materialism in the Islamic world. However, this argument does not answer the question. In fact it evades it. As even in early Islamic times and under the Prophet Mohammad’s leadership there was materialism and people enjoyed it. The legal nature of the Islamic system has never addressed the issue of materialism and so it was called insufficient by the people who became Sufis during their search for spirituality. This, Islam was called a religion of unspiritual nature. â€Å"considerable ink has been spent by modern scholarship on the ‘origins’ of Sufism in Islam, as to how far it is ‘genuinely’ Islamic and how far a product, in the face of Islam, of outside influences, particularly Christian and Gnostic.†2 Seyyed Hossein Nasr is a Muslim scholar, who in his work Sufi Essays, has shown his contempt of Islamic scholars of the West who are following the older system of detailing Sufism as some type of strange effect within Islam, and celebrates with the reality that â€Å"many are now willing to accept the Islamic origin of Sufism and the unbreakable link connecting Sufism to Islam.†3 While these are responses to the questions originally posed, they appear to be more worried with the preservation of the external manifestation of Islamic unity, than with significant academic research and assessment. Plenty of traditions about the life of Prophet Mohammad that the Sufis relate are not to be seen in the major hadith collections (Bukhari, Muslim, Kulayni, Ibn Babuya), and thus they are rejected. Nevertheless, within Sufi spheres the customs are preserved - and considered by

Report on Religious Field Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 3

Report on Religious Field Research - Essay Example Om Peace, Peace, Peace†. (Om asato†¦) Prayer over, the Preacher lost no time in beginning the day’s lecture: â€Å"The Perfect Masters of all religions mention about the same transcendental truth. What they wish to explain is beyond the realm and boundaries of words, thoughts, feelings and the capacity of body-mind-intellect. My submission is also an outline, and not the reality of spirituality. That has to be practically experienced by you. There is much more in this cosmos than what the senses can detect or the mind can comprehend. The totality can be comprehended with the help of the â€Å"Third Eye†, which Lord Jesus proclaims, â€Å"When thine Eye be Single†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"The problems arise when the Transcendental Reality is explained by the mind-level philosophers, intellectuals, preachers, mullahs and pundits. Arguments and counter-arguments follow. Misunderstandings generate and conflicts arise. This is the genesis of religious conflicts. If t he founders of all the religions are to sit together and engage in a discussion, actually there would be no discussion as there would be no differences of opinions amongst them. Though they use different languages and tender different examples, they are speaking about the same truth, the Ultimate Reality! For example, the source of energy for all the electrical appliances is electricity†. â€Å"The followers of different religions must stop quarrelling and grasp the underlying essence of the revelations by their Masters. World Peace becomes an attainable reality if they follow the revelations of the Masters in true letter and spirit. What difference does it make if you call electricity by some other name, it is the same entity and its power remains the same? Similarly hail the Consciousness that governs cosmos, the All-pervading Reality by any name, Jesus, Allah, Rama, Krishna, God or whatever you like. That Power is the same†. â€Å"God, who exists even before the cre ation and from whom the entire universe originates and gets manifested, in whom the entire universe exists and in whom the entire universe will be withdrawn, eventually; and that Light of your Consciousness, which is the Illuminator, the Witness, the Self within, which is aware of the presence or absence of thoughts in the mind, is one and the same! That Thou Art! You are not the body-mind-equipment, which you have assumed yourself to be, till now. Know the technique to stabilize your mind, transcend it and you will know that you and God are the same entity! The eternal search ends and no further running around are needed. All ambiguity stands vanished†. â€Å"The mind is an instrument in the hands of the Self just as the body is an instrument controlled by the mind. Matter is motion outside, the mind is motion inside. Theoretical arguments only lead to arguments and counter-arguments. It is impossible to realize the Truth through arguments. This is the reason that the name o f God, which out to bring peace and happiness to humankind, has been the cause of bloodshed in the world. The pages of human history are daubed in bloodshed due to bitter quarrels in the name of religion and race. Reach out for the direct

Inventory management Essay Example for Free

Inventory management Essay Part One: Inventory Management and its role within the Supply Chain Inventory management is a method through, which a business handles tangible resources and materials to ensure availability of resources for use. It is a collection of interdisciplinary processes including a full circle from the demand forecasting, supply chain management, inventory control and reverse logistics. Inventory management is the optimization of inventories of manufactured goods, work in progress, raw materials, and other features of companies in order to reduce storage costs while providing a high level of service and smooth operations. Inventory management in logistics is the optimization of operations directly related to the processing and registration of goods, and to the coordination with the procurement and sales service, it is the calculation of the optimal number of stores and their locations. Effective inventory management allows an organization to meet or exceed customers expectations. Several technical applications of inventory management models are incorporated by the inventory management so as to achieve efficiency. Critical role of the inventory management is therefore played by the concepts such as safety stock, cost of goods, economic ordering quantity, customer managed inventory, a vendor managed inventory, and the inventory turnover. The key principles of inventory management remain the same across all the industries; however, some critical areas of emphasizing these principles may vary from one sector of business to another. Inventory management in the supply chain is a complex of supply chain optimization techniques. This is a key element in the supply chain management. Experts emphasize companies’ attention on what constantly improving efficiency in the supply chain has become a market requirement and prerequisite for competitiveness. Global trends for the largest industrial and commercial companies integration lead to the formation of the global system with integrated supply chain, procurement, etc. That is why inventory management in the supply chain cannot be separated from the overall system, a single ‘logistics organism of the company. Information technology can help to integrate the management of inventory in the supply chain. The purpose of the usage of information technology to manage inventory in the supply chain is to increase the efficiency of all processes. (Supply chain management  consulting 2002) The important aspect of the inventory management lies on the correct application of the right inventory management tools. Understanding of all the details of inventory management leads to the effective control of inventory. When lean practices are applied to all aspects of the inventory management cycle, this means that business can effectively reduce the investment in shipping costs, plant rentals, reverse logistics, and standing inventory while improving or maintaining customer service levels in its overall performance. (Purchasing and Procurement Center, 2012). Therefore, inventory management is important and need to be effected at all levels of business operations to keep the inventory levels stable and to avoid costly errors and inconveniences (Winsner, 2011). Part Two: 1. It is often difficult to find reliable costs of stock. With shortages this seems almost impossible. Discuss how we can find cost of loss of good well or reduced future sales, and to what extent we can have reliable estimates for such costs. Often, it is difficult to find reliable cost of stock because market factors such as shortages come into place. The most important element, which must come into place pertaining to this situation, is intelligence pricing. Intelligent pricing is an element, which will ensure a successful business venture, and without this business will not find reliable costs of stock. Before launching a new business, it is always important for entrepreneurs to have adequate knowledge about the various pricing strategies and components available. Market place factors ought to be weighted by the business owners before prices of goods and services are set. Therefore, factors such as the market, competition and the distribution costs need to be put in place so as to arrive at reliable cost of stock. In any analysis of the inventory management system several factors should be considered: the demand forecast and delivery time, as well as the costs associated with the system operation. The cost parameters must be considered as well. Firstly, the costs of holding reserves, which include the cost of dead capital in stocks,  keeping costs and other costs associated with physical presence of goods in a warehouse. Secondly, order and reorder costs which includes the cost of placing an order, the cost of record-keeping, as well as the cost of set-closing operation if the output is considered in batches. Another important indicator are the costs due to lack of or inability to meet demand(shortage costs), the costs due to changing nature of the products, production costs , as well as losses due to obsolescence or damage. Lets consider shortage costs in details. These are the costs associated with the occurrence of shortage and can show up in those cases when the product is required, but cannot be supplied because it is out of stock. The impact of shortage is wider than lost profit, as it involves the loss of image, goodwill and potential losses from the reduction in the number of sales in the future. These costs may also include such payments for actions ,aimed at reducing the deficit, as freight forwarding, sending a rush order, payment for special types of products, the usage of more expensive suppliers. Most companies believe that shortage is always expensive, so they try avoid it. In other words, they are willing to pay relatively low costs for stock keeping in order to avoid relatively high costs associated with shortage. These costs represent a penalty to be paid by the owner of an enterprise in case when the demand exceeds the supply. It is very difficult to ensure that demand will always be satisfied and, in addition, it is likely for a firm that such guarantees can be joint with extremely high costs. The shortage can be offset by emergency delivery, in this case, penalty is the difference between ordinary value of product and the cost of emergency delivery. Sometimes shortage is offset by back-ordering, i.e. goods are delivered to the customer as soon as they come in stock. In this case, penalty is the loss of goodwill, this can affect customer’s behavior in the future. In extreme case this shortage can lead to the loss of customer, then the penalty will include not only lost sales cost, but also losses of many customers in the future. Identifying shortage costs is exceptionally difficult task, and it does not arise barely because the administration of an enterprise is not interested in reduction of these costs. Direct shortage cost figures were obtained only in a few cases, and only with limited accuracy. One of the most important  elements of the intangible assets of the company is its goodwill. At the same time it cannot be said that the formation of goodwill and maintaining it at a high level is something new and unique for today’s businesses. Goodwill represents the kind of good name of a company and is accounted in its intangible assets, along with copyrights, know-how and trademarks. Goodwill may be either positive or negative. The positive goodwill of a company may help: To add psychological value for products and services; To attract new customers in case they have a choice between functionally similar products or services; to bring a company more qualified employees and increase job satisfaction of an existing staff; To increase the effectiveness of advertising and sales, to support distributors, advertising agencies, suppliers and business partners; To raise funds on the stock market and survive in the event of a crisis. Any competitive producer knows that in order to gain the consumer recognition and profit, it is needed to invest primarily in itself. After all, a good name works better than any advertising. It is impossible to generate a goodwill from scratch. The company should enjoy really significant achievements and benefits which lay the foundation for goodwill. The process of generating a goodwill takes a long time and considerable amount of money. This is a long-run, very complicated process that cannot be insured against dangers, losses and risks. (Lean manufacturing and and operations management, 2012) One of the most important trends in recent years has been towards e-commerce. How does this affect inventory management? Electronic Commerce is a type of trading, which applies the use of modern technologies such as mobile commerce, supply chain management, electronic funds transfer, internet marketing, electronic data interchange, online transaction processing, and inventory management systems among others. (Practical Ecommerce, 2010). Through the application of computerized technology in inventory management, business organizations are able to have a complete inventory description in real-time basis. Investing in e-commerce technology allows business owners to have a strong inventory management backed, which includes bar codes that allow streamlining of the inventory processes. A streamlined process leads to accurate planning due to improved forecasting, product turnover leading  to increased profits and better customer services. E- Commerce inventory management system also means that the business owner can easily integrate with customers through various technologies such the internet and the smart phones. Through this, customers are able to access the available products and their prices and business owners will be able to place their products in the market with ease. Measuring of the inventory turns is also achieved by e-commerce with the use of the appropriate software and proper techniques. Therefore, more frequent inventory turns are achievable, and this boosts the profits. E-commerce is also applied in managing vendors, and maintaining good ties with vendors enables business owners to negotiate favorable terms and conditions for business. Elimination of obsolete inventory in a timely manner is achieved through e-commerce as the seller can easily identify such inventory through real-time observation of the market changes. Inventory items are also reduced through e-commerce since business owners are able to keep just enough items because they know their market capabilities in real-time without false anticipation. Therefore, the overall impact of e-commerce in inventory management is that accurate information is attainable and efficient, and effective operations can be achieved by business owners because the amount of warehousing space required is reduced and constructively used with minimal wastage associated with unpredictable approximations and anticipations (Coyle et al, 2008). Now it is quite obvious that the Internet is changing the image of the world economy. The Internet has the greatest impact on e-commerce between businesses (B2B). Companies form strategic alliances and build relationships with suppliers. The rate of development and growth of e-commerce, as well as promising prospects for increased supply chain efficiencies all these facts have a significant impact on the companies’ activities engaged in B2B commerce. Such businesses are forced to reduce operating and handling costs and at the same time to accelerate the supply chain activity. Those B2B companies that do business effectively have achieved a leading market positions in their industries. The supplying funds savings can be directed at the enhancement of IT infrastructure operations, and ultimately at the improvement of customer service B2B. The differences between e-commerce B2B and B2C are more significant than between the retail and wholesale trade. From a business perspective, this means savings within the organization, a willingness to enter into profitable alliances with suppliers, a reduction of operative costs in the delivery of goods and services, the precise regulation of the complex coordination within the union in respect of procurement, timely delivery and electronic payments. (Network solutions, 2012). Conclusion A company may command a hefty price on its product or service, but it is amazing how such companies may sometimes observe to be making minimal profit, making no profit or even running at a loss. This means that the cost of the product is different. Perhaps, to arrive at a reliable cost of stock means that business owners need to develop appropriate pricing strategy and to implement it so as it will result in generation of profits. Inventory management is a method through, which a business handles tangible resources and materials to ensure availability of resources for use. Efficient technology such as the application of e-commerce leads to effective inventory management. This is likely to lead to cost efficiency and effectiveness and therefore generate profitability. Main advantages of e-commerce for companies are: global scale, reduction of inventoty costs, supply chain development, fast time-to-market etc. For customers they are: large product variety, personalization, low prices, etc. The high emphasis should be placed on costs parameters when analyzing inventory management. The impact of shortage cost is wider than the lost profit, as it involves the loss of image, goodwill and potential losses from the reduction in the number of sales in the future. Identifying shortage costs is exceptionally difficult task, and it does not arise barely because the management of an enterprise is not interested in lowering these costs. Sometimes the shortage is offset by back-ordering. Shortage costs may lead to the loss of goodwill, this can affect the customer’s behavior in the future. Under present-day conditions, goodwill may change in the shortest possible time. A number of different factors can contribute to this, and therefore the organizations security policy should include measures to manage reputational risk. Is is evident that the goodwill in the current market environment is the most important competitive advantage for any company.

Educational attainment vary with childrens social class

Educational attainment vary with childrens social class   Increased diversity in our educational institutions as a result of modern globalisation has led to many different racial and linguistic backgrounds integrating together in schools. The impact on the British education system has thus seen a rise in the influx of children from different ethnic backgrounds. Despite the implementation of various policies to ensure that every child, regardless of ethnicity, social class and gender, has the access to the best education, the debate around inequality in education has still focused on the evidence of the underachievement of particular racial groups in our education system. The debate is a very complex one, and it requires looking at how each three variables interlink, since any one alone cannot account for the variation. This paper will attempt to discuss them, whilst critically analysing why and how they play such a critical role on an individual childs educational attainment, and whether or not it should concern us as practitioners.   The underperformance of certain ethnic minority children, in particular black African-Caribbean pupils, is well documented in the Swann Report (1985), which highlighted how this group of children perform consistently worse compared to their counterparts. The report also recognised that teacher racism, low expectations and stereotyping contribute to poorer performance. Indeed, pupils themselves in the report cited that there tended to be an emphasis on physical ability rather than academic, and thus felt stereotyped that they were only any good for their sports abilities. Institutional racism can play a vital role in the breakdown of rapport between teacher and pupil, which would almost certainly affect their educational attainment. Wright (1992) found in his observational research that children of African-Caribbean heritage saw their typical schooling experience as one of high teacher expectation for poor behaviour, high incidences of teacher disproval, criticism and control. Sim ilarly, Gillborn (1990) supports these findings, by highlighting how children in his study felt they were singled out for criticism, even though several pupils of different ethnic origins were engaged in the same behaviour. White students at the school confirmed these observations on unfair and frequent criticism. Thus, discrimination may influence how a child is treated within the educational institution and therefore may impede their learning opportunities within the classroom. Indeed, Sewell (1997) sought to focus on the interactions between teachers and African-Caribbean pupils with particular regard to the constructs of black masculinity and the tensions around their heritage. He found that the teachers in the survey displayed more control and criticism of these compared to other ethnic groups. Moreover, general staff views were negative. There was a high teacher expectation for challenges to teacher authority and inappropriate behaviour. Sewell (1997) concluded that there was a failure to deliver an inclusive curriculum, and to tackle institutional racism. This evidence clearly shows how a childs ethnic background can contribute to a negative learning environment which can affect their chances of performing well at school. Furthermore, Rutter et al (1999) extends this view by arguing that the notion of resistance is responsible for their underachievement; he argues that since the education system is dominated by white, middle-class male teachers, some black boys resist their efforts, and do not want to be taught by them, this negative perception creates the divide between the teacher and the pupil. Equally, as the report stated, some institutional racism on behalf of the teacher may also occur that can limit the crucial teacher-pupil rapport being built and consequent opportunities for learning. Additionally Moore et al (2001) continues to discuss how African-Caribbean males respond with aggression, and reject the education system primarily due to the do mination of white pupils. This adverse view, results in children trying to make an attempt to gain status and recognition through other means, for example through anti-social behaviour. Similar to the African-Caribbean males, those of Indian origin also revert to exhibit their anger, however rather than rejecting the educational system they use it to its advantage and proceed on to succeed. (Moore et al 2001).   Franklin (1998) argues that some institutional factors cause attainment to vary by ethnicity. He argues how school assessments are based on culturally biased tests, which are written primarily in English, leading to poor results and unsuitable intervention and overrepresentation in special educational needs. Although the Framework for the Identification and Assessment of Special Educational Needs in England and Wales (DfEE, 1994) warns against blurring special needs with special educational needs, and the need for assessment tools to be culturally neutral for a range of ethnic groups, Franklin argues that it is bland and general and not in enough detail. Moreover, Franklin and Franklin (1998) argue that the IQ definition is biased against bilingual children. In their study they found that bilingual children scored lower standardised reading scores on prose tests as opposed to single writing. They concluded that these children were less able to take advantage of the context in the prose test than the predominantly monolingual group on whom it had been standardized. It instead focused on higher order processing skills for example comprehension rather than spelling which is not confounded by higher order processing skills. Indeed, this would affect the educational attainment chances of some of the ethnic minority children such as Bangladeshi. Indeed, children with Bangladeshi origin are the worst performing group of children across all four Key Stages. Strand (2008) highlights how these children tend to fall behind at Key Stage 2 assessments, and then continue to fall behind as the children enter Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4. It is interesting to note that even when accounting for other socio-economic factors, for example the free schools meals proxy for disadvantage that these children still tend to perform worse. Moreover, Strand (2008) also highlights how by the end of Key Stage 4, Chinese and Indian children actually overtake middle-class White children in the attainment league tables. It is therefore clear that there are other factors influencing why these children perform at a disadvantage to their peers, not ethnicity alone. Family factors such as family ethics may attempt to shed light on the reasons why some children are more involved at school than others. For example, the level of parental engagement with the school certainly varies between ethnic and social class group. Crozier (1996) conducted a case study of the experiences of a group of black parents in relation to their childrens schools. Although he found that many had educational knowledge and awareness of the school system, there remained a dissonance between these parents and the school. Indeed, parents are the first educators, and the most effective way of communicating with them as practitioners is to initiate a firm base of trust and openness, especially true for children with English as an additional language, since much more information is required from their pare nts in order to create fluidity across both the school and home settings. However, since Bangladeshi families face additional barriers presented to their community, since they are not as long established and therefore less fluent, this has a great influence on their childrens education. Furthermore, data from the National Child Development Study (Sacker et al 2002) highlighted how if the social class is high, then educational attainment tends to be high, however the strongest factor was parental engagement. Given that some parents are harder to reach than others; for reasons other than simply language barriers, may attempt to explain why their input into their childrens education is limited. Indeed, Harris and Chrispeels (2006) argue that certain ethnic and social groups are less likely to engage in their childs education and the school in which they attend.   The Berkow Report (2008) highlighted that children from a low socioeconomic background will have difficulties at school. Given the reality that the UKs minority ethnic groups as a whole are more likely to be in poverty than the population at large (Craig, 2002); coupled with the fact that they tend to get placed in housing in low socio-economic areas, provides a prediction towards their educational achievement. The impact of attending a disadvantaged school contributes to it also, due to uneven funding and allocation of resources. The Excellence in Cities scheme has helped to reduce low achievement through focusing on poor schools in areas of serious disadvantage. Moreover, the Narrowing the Gap (NFER, 2008) focuses on improving the home learning environment, which is essential for improving   childrens behaviour, wellbeing and later educational achievement (Sylva et al, 2004). Although the difference within social class has been a dominant feature in education, the government has tried to narrow the gap by introducing a number of initiatives from an early age, such as The Every Child Matters (2003) agenda, Sure Start schemes, and The Early Years Foundation Stage. Yet, the gap remains. Moore et al (2001) indicates that high performance in educational attainment is inclined by ones social status in society. He states that those with a lower social status are materially deprived, with less money to use, therefore are unable to use education to their full advantage. Moreover, the fact that black children attend lower quality schools on average is identified by Fryer and Levitt (2004). They argue that higher levels of free school meals, litter and gang culture makes for a more disadvantaged learning environment, as opposed to middle-class predominantly white schools. They also argue that these children lose ground to white children over the summer period as a c onsequence of a worse neighbourhood environment. Furthermore Douglas (1971) indicates that the most important factor in a child excelling through education is the parental interest given in a childs daily life at school. However, ethnicity has strong associations with the incidence of social class and poverty through different household structure, and child-rearing practices. For example, birth rates for Bangladeshi and Pakistani families are higher than the UK white population; therefore larger families need more money. Moreover, there is less individual attention on the child in these families. Barn (2006) explored the views and experiences of parents in key areas for example family support and education. The findings showed that minority ethnic family life is complex. Most parents wished to be involved in their childrens education, regardless of ethnic background and social class. Black and Asian parents in particular placed an enormous importance on the value of education which was less prominent among white. This places a tension on the reality of the educational achievements of such minority groups.   The reasons for this are complex. Strand (2008) focuses on socio economic classification on linguistic attainment to try and account for the gap. Through analysing data from the Youth Cohort Longitudinal Study, he highlights how children from high classified groups have a vocabulary 50% more than working class children, and 100% more of those on welfare. Since 50% of all African Caribbean births are to single women (Somerville, 2000) they are more susceptible to material deprivation, thus fewer learning opportunities. Indeed, a high quality home learning environment is essential for raising attainment highlighted through the EPPE project (Sylva, 2004). Clearly, any attempt to understand ethnic differences in the involvement/achievement link must first take into account the influence of socio-economic status. Ethnicity alone does not account. Ross and Ryan (1990) have documented that children can pick up and absorb racist values from early as three years old. They argue that positive self esteem is directly related to attainment, so it is vital that we are concerned as practitioners to raise their self esteem from an early age and promote inclusion of all racial backgrounds, regardless of their social class and gender. If a child feels they are worthless their self esteem decreased which affects their academic attainment (Purkey, 1970). It is clear to see that the Government recognises the disadvantages of children from particular ethnic backgrounds, through looking at the specific projects launched to help certain ethnic minority children, for example the Excellence in Cities scheme, and the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant (EMAG). Moreover, the launch of the Aiming High: DfES National pilot project to Raise Levels of Attainment for African-Caribbean pupils was launched in 2003 with the aim of maximising levels of achievement. Such focus leads one to respond that indeed, educational attainment is affected by ethnicity, and therefore, as discussed, social class. The issue of gender also throws a complex light onto academic performance. On the whole, females tend to perform better than males academically, yet for Black African-Caribbeans, both male and female fall behind, compared to any other ethnic group (Strand, 2008).This therefore, seems to suggest that this particular ethnic group is underperforming for another reason, such as the reasons given above. The issues surrounding gender performance and achievement are complex, affecting different sub-groups of boys and girls in different ways, often reflecting the influence of class and ethnicity. The traditional criterion for monitoring the school system has been the proportion of students securing five or more A* to C grades in public examinations at 16-plus. Since the late 1980s this figure has been rising steadily, however the gap in the performance of boys and girls appears to have been widening parallel to this. The National Pupil Database (2002) highlighted how girls performed better a cross all groups, however there are many complex reasons as to why this is. Firstly, there are scientific explanations for example whilst children are young, numerous changes take place, each child begins to develop   physically, emotionally, socially and intellectually at their own pace, they begin to acquire   the understanding of the environments they are exposed to whilst their ability to communicate   with their peers strengthens. Scientific evidence states the physical structure of the brain may be the reason as to why both sexes have a variance in attainment. The development of language within boys comes at a slower pace than that of girls, as girls acquire language rapidly, and at an earlier stage. Girls also focus for lengthier periods of time when in conversation and are able to concentrate more in the classroom. Therefore the structure of the brain shows advantage to the girls (Watkins, 1991). Furthermore, Haralambos et al 1997 states that research over the past 30 years shows a consistency of trends whereby girls at the age of 16 left school after acquiring better grades than boys. Government s tatistics indicate that the variance in attainment achievement between boys and girls start from an early age. Data from the 2007 examinations in England, from Key Stage One and Key Stage Three examinations show that girls achieved higher marks then boys. However in the mathematics papers taken at key stage 2, showed that boys outperformed girls by 2%.In comparison to the papers taken by Key Stage 3 the differences amongst the sexes was higher. It has also been argued that the curriculum has become feminised whereby it works in favour to the females, whilst disadvantaging the boys (Mac and Ghaill, 1994). They argue that there has been a crisis of masculinity, because of the decline in traditional manual jobs. This has led, to an identity crisis, and made it easier for some males to question the need for qualifications when the jobs they would have traditionally gone into no longer exist. Unmistakably the issue around boys underachieving within education in comparison to girls is a major cause for concern. Perhaps the specific focus on some of the ethnic minority groups have shifted the concern away from the white population, with the result being that white working-class boys are now underperforming consistently through the education system. The statistics presented are undeniable, particularly whilst it is becoming an increasing trend for boys to take the opportunity of turning away from formal education at a young age. Thus being the reason why parents and practitioners need to be able to recognise the changes in a child from earlier on so that there is support available for the child to be able to make the right decisions. The variance amongst children can be immense, as mentioned above; each child is individual and develops at their own pace. Although these differences can be vast, it is up to teaching professionals and parents to be aware of this and to be able to recognise it, particularly when each child approaches the learning process in different ways. In conclusion, it is clear to see that not any one variable of social class, ethnicity and gender stand alone as a cause behind a childs educational attainment; rather they interlink in quite a complex way. It should concern us, since we, the practitioners who are helping to shape their futures, need to understand that all three interlink to produce each unique child, which is at the very heart of the Every Child Matters agenda.

Free YGB Essay: Genre and Plot of Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown :: Young Goodman Brown YGB

Young Goodman Brown:Â   Genre and Plot Young Goodman Brown is a short story; that is, it is a relatively brief narrative of prose fiction (ranging in length from 500 to 20,000 words) characterized by considerably more unity and compression in all its partstheme, plot, structure, character, setting, moodthan the novel. In the story we are considering, the situation is this: One evening near sunset sometime in the late seventeenth century, Goodman Brown, a young man who has been married only three months, prepares to leave his home in Salem, Massachusetts, and his pretty young bride, Faith, to go into the forest and spend the night on some mission that he will not disclose other than to say that it must be performed between sunset and sunrise. Although Faith has strong forebodings about his journey and pleads with him to postpone it, Brown is adamant and sets off. His business is evil by his own admission; he does not state what it is specifically, but it becomes apparent to the reader that it involves attending a witches' Sabbath in the forest, a remarkable action in view of the picture of Brown, drawn early in the story, as a professing Christian who admonishes his wife to pray and who intends to lead an exemplary life after this one night. The rising action begins when Brown, having left the village, enters the dark, gloomy, and probably haunted forest. He has not gone far before he meets the Devil in the form of a middle-aged, respectable-looking man whom Brown has made a bargain to meet and accompany on his journey. Perhaps the full realization of who his companion is and what the night may hold in store for him now dawns on Brown, for he makes an effort to return to Salem. It is at best a feeble attempt, however, for, though the Devil does not try to detain him, Brown continues walking with him deeper into the forest. As they go, the Devil shocks Goodman Brown by telling him that his [Brown's) ancestors were religious bigots, cruel exploiters, and practitioners of the black art --- in short, fullfledged servants of the Devil. Further, the young man is told that the very pillars of New England society, church, and state are witches (creatures actually in league with the Devil), lechers, blasphemers, and collaborators with the Devil. Indeed, he sees his childhood Sunday School teacher, now a witch, and overhears the voices of his minister and a deacon of his church as they ride past conversing about the diabolical communion service to which both they and he are going.