Prevention of High School Dropout Essay

Having critically analyzed the consequence of high school dropout in the recent time and future implication to the United States, it is important for me at this juncture to forward this practicable way forward to the Office of Mr. President, United State of America for suggested actions and policy implementation in order to curb the trend. Every lost student from the school into the world of illiteracy is a threat to our future economy and the intellectual human fertility. Firstly, the understanding of the reasons of what seems to have precipitated dropout is critical to the solution drives. Since struggling poor students account for the highest statistic among the dropout students, aid at getting these people for necessary assistance need to be facilitated through the informed teachers who are most close to them. The involvement of State administrative officers is equally important for information relay. There is a need to bring available resource centre to the target school. Aid officers need to work in partnership with school officers in charge, the community leaders and youth friendly organizations within and outside the school premises for more productive concerted effort. Secondly, establishment of network of model program between school counseling unit and Government or non-governmental organizations on youth mentoring will assist in the prevention of high school dropout. The counseling unit needs to be well supported in every high school. A mere companion with students can save a future of misfortune. Through interactions of students with the counselor, the school will recognize the prevailing need of a potential dropout student and initiate a networking scheme to appropriate quarters for rescue. Some may have psychological or psychosocial re-orientation need about the importance of staying in school as against whatever reason for intending dropout. Easy accessibility and companion gesture must be advocate through student survey after visit. Through efficient and friendly students/counselor interaction, the school management and the State can come up with a biannual statistics on findings. These findings are then used as the basis for teaching and curricula drawn-up. Personal problems are best treated privately; hence, counselor needs to respect individuals’ privacy irrespective of the age to avoid discouraging attendants. Through this plan, causes of dropouts such fear of violence in school, family poor financial status, consequence of parental divorce, unfriendly teacher-student relationship, teachers’ poor knowledge of student learning technique, and self-emotional issues will not cause dropout. Thirdly, enforcement of curriculum to help students discover the relationship between what is learnt at school in connection with the real world is vital to sustain student mood to always desire for more in school and never get bore to have thought of dropping out. Through the State education policy, one would suggest the creation of an intermediary arm that organizes programs and trainings for school teachers. It is likely for teachers to lose touch with the reality of the industrial world, this Intermediary program will keep reminding the instructors and teachers of the expected values in the labor force or entrepreneurship (Raby 1990). In summary, the suggested aforementioned ways of preventing dropout in the United States point at real-time educational policy reform in line with latest findings. Reforms need to be dynamic with the modernizing world. A check at policy performance is as important as the policy itself, therefore, concerted effort must be instituted to avert wasting of effort in policy formulation. Our educational system will soon be wiped out of dropout cases if these measures are harnessed together. Long Live the America! Work Cited Raby, M. (1990). â€Å"The California Partnership Academies. † Redwood City, CA: Sequoia Union High School District. Robledo, M. R. , & Rivera, C. (1990). â€Å"Partners for Valued Youth: Dropout prevention strategies for at-risk language minority students. † San Antonio, TX: Intercultural Development Research Association. Jay Smink, (2009). 15 Effective Strategies for Dropout Prevention. National Dropout Prevention Center at Clemson University. Online article. Site Available at: http://www. schargel. com/index. php? s=prevention+of+dropout. Retrieved on 04-15-2009. http://www. americaspromise. org/APAPage. aspx? id=10158

Diversity Interview Assignment Essay

Abstract The people in the world that we live in are extremely diverse, in terms of the nationalities, religions, gender classifications and physical abilities. Social workers must have a clear understanding of the consequences of diversity and difference and the mechanisms of oppression and discrimination as they relate to human development. The range of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds that social workers will practice in is huge. Because of this, social workers must have an understanding of the values and attitudes of a multitude of different cultures as well as an understanding of their own attitudes and values towards diversity. This assignment will explore the ethnic diversity of two individual students of Madonna University. Mr. Eric Munn, a student of Korean decent and Ms. Qi Mao, a student of Chinese decent. I. General Description of the Interview and Setting (Mr. Eric Mun) The interview with Mr. Eric Mun took place on Wednesday February 13 at the international student help desk on the first floor of the main hallway at Madonna University at approximately 2:30 pm. Mr. Mun was extremely busy, as are all Madonna students, writing papers and answering questions for the other international students. I asked if it would be possible to have the interview in a setting where we could better hear each other but with his schedule and mines, that was not possible. The interview went forward with me standing at the desk and with Mr. Mun answering questions in-between helping the other students. II. Information obtained. Mr. Eric Mun describes himself ethnically as Asian because both of his parents are Asian and the cultural physical traits such as skin color, hair color and cultural behaviors have all been passed down to him. When asked what ethnic group that Eric identifies with, he replied that he identifies himself as Korean. Mr. Mun grew up in Seoul, South Korea and is 23 years old. He is a sophomore at Madonna with a G.P.A. of 3.80, currently majoring in business administration. Eric grew up in Korea and came to the United States when he was 15 years old and has been in the United States for 6 years. He states that he graduated from a prep school in Atlanta G.A and attended Michigan State University in 2008. After a semester at M.S.U. Eric says that he joined the Korean Marine Corps and served for two years as an artillery gunner, but was honorably discharged as a sergeant. When asked what he recalled when he first recognized his ethnicity, he replied that his parents had been working for the U .S. Army for over 30 years in the Department of Criminal Intelligence. This is when he began to realize who he was. Eric says that he had several opportunities to meet with U. S. soldiers and their children and that he noticed the differences then. I asked Eric what he considered to be the positive and negative aspects of being Korean. Eric replied that he believes that Asian people are the best academically and are good at working with numbers and studying. In contrast, he believes that this makes up for a lack of physical athletic abilities. I asked Eric what he believes are some of the special characteristics of being Korean. Eric replied that the most special characteristic of being Korean is the emphasis on respect of elders. He states that he has seen a lack of respect for elders in most Western cultures that would never be tolerated in Korea. Eric stated that he has not experienced racism since he has been in the United States; however he believes that there is a bias against people of Asian descent in the business world. III. General Description of the Interview and Setting ( Ms. Qi Mao) The next interview took place on February 19 and was with Ms. Qi Mao. Ms. Mao is a 31 year old student and describes herself as a member of China’s Han nationality, which is the largest nationality of the population of China. The interview took place in the lobby of the Madonna English Service Language Department at approximately 12:00 pm. English Service Language Director Ms. Hadeel Betti helped in selecting a candidate for the interview. I was shocked at her age of 31 years by her tiny frame as she approached for the interview. She was very pleasant, very polite and eager to smile at every appropriate moment. IV. Information Obtained Ms. Mao describes herself as Chinese of the Han nationality. The Han nationality dominates the ethnicity of the population of China. According to everyculture.com,† China is the most populous nation on earth; in 2000, the estimated population was 1,261,832,482 (over one-fifth of the world’s population). Of these people, 92 percent are Han Chinese; the remaining 8 percent are people of Zhuang, Uyhgur, Hui, Yi, Tibetan, Miao, Manchu, Mongol, Buyi and Korean† (everyculture.com, 2013). According to Ms. Mao, Chinese people who live in the far south of China belong to what she describes as the South Asia race. Ms. Mao earned a degree in journalism in China and has worked as a journalist there for some time. She stated that she wanted to expand her knowledge and learn new things. Her major at Madonna University is business. She has no brothers or sisters and states that this is the result of China’s one child law. According to the Journal of Politics and law, â€Å"The Birth Control Law of PRC restricts married, urban couples to having only one child, and rural couples to having 2 children if the first is female, while ethnic minorities are not restricted† (Chen, B., 2012). She currently lives with a host family and enjoys playing with the family’s children. She also states that the only family that she has in the U. S. are her uncle a few cousins that currently attend Madonna University. Ms. Mao states that most of East Asia populations are Mongolian, whom her people traditionally refer to as the yellow race. Later she says that she has been in the U. S. for 5 months. When asked what she recalled when she first recognized her ethnicity, she replied that most Chinese children know who and what they are at a very young age. She tells me that she learned English at 3 years old and that this is when her teachers and parents introduced her to the Han nationality. Ms. Mao states that many people describe members of the Han nationality as having thin black hair, black eyes and yellow skin. She stated that Chinese people usually do not discuss cultural issues because unless you travel to the out most reaches of the country, there is only one culture, the Han. The most negative aspect of being Chinese for Ms. Mao is the difficulty in getting a passport for travel to the U. S. She believes that this is because of two reasons first a bias against the people of China, secondly the Chinese government’s strict policy to know absolutely everything you do and everywhere you go at all times. One of the most positive aspects of being Chinese according to Ms. Mao is the closeness of the families. She states that the relationships of Chinese people are closer and deeper than of any other culture. She believes that this is a major strength of the Chinese culture and that it separates it from most. However, she also believes that sometimes these relationships can become smothering, because someone in the family or someone who knows the family is usually to be found in every aspect of Chinese life. Research has shown that the, â€Å"business world of the Asian American is strongly linked to family. The Asian family run business is a constant in many communities† (asianamericanalliance.com, 2013). From school life to social life she says that the Chinese relationships are extremely tight. She tells me that she has not experienced direct racism and has been treated well by most that she has encountered since being in the U.S. Ms. Mao tells me that the Chinese do not have what westerners call religion because the majority feels as if they do not need it. According to her, most of her population would be classified as Buddhists but they would never refer to it as a religion. She says that generally, her people do not openly discuss their worship practices and that the society is far too conservative that. V. New Learning’s Regarding Strengths/Limitations. One of the similarities in the strengths of both individuals is the strong bond with family and the respect that they have for their elders. The opinions of both individuals vary in terms of how they view western family relationships. Ms. Mao believes that some women in western cultures are not as attentive to family needs. Mr. Munn believes that there is a lack of respect for family elders. New learnings regarding the strengths of their family relationships include the complex and intense bond between extended family members. Apparently in both Korean and Chinese cultures, children are introduced to the importance of close family relationships at an early age. Research has shown that the children of the Korean culture are exposed to family values and traditions when very young. A web article entitled everyculture.com states, â€Å"Obedience, cooperation, respect for the elders, and filial piety are the major values inculcated in a child’s early years, most children receive t raditional gender role socialization from early childhood† (www.everyculture.com, 2013). According to Ms. Mao, the family structure of the Chinese people is a strength as well as a weakness in terms of having personal space. New learning’s regarding this fact includes an appreciation of the Chinese family unit and the fact that the traditional relationships in the Chinese nuclear family unit extend far beyond the home. Research has shown that, â€Å"It is common for several generations to live together under one roof. After marriage, a woman traditionally leaves her parents’ home and becomes part of her husband’s family (www.everyculture.com, 2013). Although Ms. Mao never hinted that this was her particular plan to start a family, she did imply that she greatly respected Chinese family tradition. VI. New Learning’s Regarding the Effects of Racism & Gender inequality. I found it very interesting that neither of the interviewees had experienced direct or extreme racism while in the United States. This is partially because of a generally expected bias against Asians by Americans and partially due to some of my own experiences with racism as an African American man. This prompted research into the history of racism against Asian Americans and revealed the tragic story of Former Metro Detroit resident Vincent Chin. According to asian-nation.org, in 1989 Vincent was beaten to death by two White men (Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz) who called him a â€Å"jap† (even though he was Chinese American) and blamed him and Japanese automakers for the current recession and the fact that they were about to lose their jobs. The judge in the case sentenced each man to 2 years’ probation and a $ 3700.00 fine. From the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which declared that an entire ethnic group would be singled out and forbidden to step foot on American soil, to the extreme difficulties expressed by Ms. Mao in acquiring a passport for travel to the United States, discrimination and racism has affected members of the Asian community. The teachings and philosophies of Confucius have a profound effect on the relative status of Chinese men and women. What we westerners would refer to as ‘gender issues’, the Chinese refer to as simply a way of life. A study has shown that, â€Å"Confucian values place women as strictly subordinate to men, and this was reflected in traditional society. Women had no rights and were treated as possessions, first of their father’s and later of their husbands† (everyculture.com). I must admit to wondering on several occasions why it was that the Asian women that I have seen walking with their spouses in public seemed so docile and subservient. Research of the importance of tradition and adherence to strict family order has given me a basic understanding of the Asian family structure. VII. Implications for Practice. A social worker entering into practice without the skills which would prepare him for working with ethnically diverse clients limits the range of assistance that he can provide. The implications of social work practice increase with such culturally diverse populations as Asian Americans. An effective social worker will have the knowledge of the different cultures, norms and values of the target populations that he will mostly like come into contact with. Based on the conceptual definition of eclectic which is, â€Å"one who uses a method or approach that is composed of elements drawn from various sources† (merriam-webster.com, 2013), research has shown that an effective social worker should incorporate different methods to meet the various needs of Asian American families. Understanding the communication patterns of Asian families and how they differ from those of western cultures can help bridge the gaps of difficulties in individual and group function. Kam-fong (1994) wrote the following: Psychodynamic, existential-humanistic, and cognitive-behavioral approaches are analyzed in terms of their appropriateness for social work with Asian Americans. It is concluded that various theoretical approaches may be needed to match the ever-changing needs of these culturally diverse populations. (p. 186) VII. Personal Reflection. I have seen media portrayal of Asian Americans and all of the stereotypes that go along with them. In my lifetime I have heard everything from all Asians eat rice to all Asians know karate, kung Fu and can’t drive well. These are all just stereotypes and have absolutely no merit at all. However it has been somewhat difficult for me as a student and researcher until now to disprove these myths personally. Limited interactions with members of the Asian community due to a lack of opportunistic access have made in-depth research into behavioral patterns extremely difficult if not completely impossible. This assignment has allowed me to step into a world that has helped me to distinguish between two fascinatingly different cultures from my own. I look forward to working with members of the Chinese and Korean communities in the future as clients and professionals alike. References J Rank. (2012). Countries and their culture. Retrieved from http://www.everyculture.com/Bo-Co/China.html Le, C. N. (2011, November 25). Asian-nation. Retrieved from http://www.asian-nation.org/racism.shtml Asian American Alliance. (07 J). Retrieved from http://www.asianamericanalliance.com/index.html Chen, B. (2012). China’s dilemma in human rights: Through the perspective of critiques abroad and china’s response. Journal of Politics and Law, 5(3), 25-32. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1038159875?accountid=27927 Kam-Fong, M. (1994). Book reviews — social work practice with Asian Americans edited by Sharlene Maeda Furuto, Renuka Biswas, Douglas K. Chung, Kenji Murase and Fariyal Ross-Sheriff. Families in Society, 75(3), 186-186. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/230155950?accountid=27927

Discuss Nick Hornby s presentation of Marcus in chapters 1-10 of ‘About a Boy’ Essay

Nick Hornby’s novel, ‘About a boy’ is a story about two boys. A 12 year old, named Marcus, who has a suicidal mother. And a 36 year old child-like-man called Will Freeman. Will, has never worked in his life, he was been living of the royalties of a song that his father had wrote for Christmas, over 70 years ago. Marcus is very much a ‘mummy’s boy.’ He is so close to his mother that his taste in music and clothes are identical. When he starts his new school, he realises that he is an easy target for bullies as his hair is cut ‘dodgy’ by his mum and he has a tendency to sing aloud in class†¦. When we see Marcus in chapter one, we see a naive teenager. On the very first page of the book, Marcus’ mum Fiona suffers from a break up. â€Å"Have you spilt up now?† This very quote shows the naivete of Marcus. This childish questions, suggest that Marcus has not developed any level of maturity and has no means of comforting his mother. However, with this in mind, Marcus has a very logical way of thinking, and there are there are two valid reasons for this bold statement. When we do see the break up incident, Marcus realises that when people begin to do things together (almost like a family) they should gel and stay together. â€Å"He’d once shared a toilet with Roger, when they were both busting for a pee after a car journey. You’d think that if you’d peed with someone you ought to keep in touch with them somehow.† This logical thinking by Marcus suggest that he had thought about future with his mum and Roger, and that Roger would stay because of the family relationship that they all shared. The second reason why I believe he has a logical process is the pizza incident happens. When the break up argument began, they had just orders three pizzas. As we know Marcus and Fiona are ‘vegetarians’, but Roger wasn’t, so one of the pizza contained peperoni. â€Å"We’ll throw it away then?† Fiona suggests, but Marcus being Marcus, he promotes that they should â€Å"Pick the peperoni off.† This suggests that instead of throwing away a perfectly good pizza, Marcus thinks that they can still eat the pizza without the peperoni topping. Although Marcus is still very naive, we see a very different side of Marcus on the very past page of chapter 1. He is very protective of his mum. When they have fished eating and arguing, Marcus finds the TV remote and â€Å"Zapped through the channels. He didn’t want to watch any of the soaps, because soaps were full of trouble, and he was worried that the trouble in the soaps would remind his mum of the trouble she had in her own life.† This quote suggests that because of his mother’s break up’s and troubles, he did not want the TV reminding her of anything, which really shows how protective he is over his mother. Marcus has just moved house, which unfortunately means he starts a new school. In the first few chapters, we see life for Marcus in school, and it wasn’t going to be easy. He is different from his peers. There times in the book, which really shows how apart he is from everyone. Firstly, he arrives for school. EARLY. Not a typical act from a teenager. â€Å"He got to school early, went to the form room, sat down at his desk.† This is one of vey first examples, of why he is very different. Not many teenagers would willingly want to come to school early. The way he dresses, and the way he looks is another issue. â€Å"He was usually wearing the wrong shoes or the wrong trousers, and his haircut was wrong all the time.† This would mean that he would be an easy target for bullies. However, worst is still to come. â€Å"A song had slipped out yesterday during English.† When he had an English lesson, Marcus unexpectedly sang a song whilst the teacher was reading. As a kid, this really ‘sealed the deal’ for Marcus. Luckily, Marcus had found a few friends who were also outsiders like him. They were Nicky and Mark. Marcus meet them by an after school computer club. However, their relationship with each other was very timid. â€Å"He was being left out deliberately† Marcus was waiting his turn on the Gameboy, at this point in the book. Although he hasn’t done anything wrong, he was still singled out. Suddenly, things to a turn for the worse for their relationship. At lunchtime, a few bullies, who had been tormenting Marcus before, came up to Marcus and his friends, and began insulting them. When they had gone, Mark spoke out and said. â€Å"Marcus, we don’t want you hanging around with us anymore.† This shocked Marcus. He knew that if they were to hang out with him, they would all get bullied. These so called ‘friends’ that Marcus had, had been unsupportive and nothing like Marcus. This shows how different Marcus really is; he cannot fit in with people who are so similar to him. As have mentioned before, Marcus is overprotective over his mum, because of their closeness and the strong relationship they have. In the fifth chapter, we see Marcus worrying about his mother. This is caused by the constant crying habit his mom has developed. This had frightened him. â€Å"One Monday morning his mother started crying before breakfast, and it frightened him.† In this scenario in the book, Marcus understands that his mum is going through a tough time but he does not know what to say or do. â€Å"He didn’t know what to say.† So instead, when we went for his weekly shop, he stuck to the ‘economy sized packets of cereal, because he knew that is he had brought banded name, then his mum would be angry. This again shows how protective he is over his mum. With this in mind, he had realised that there was â€Å"an advantage of her terrible depression.† Without her knowing he bought the branded ‘Coco-Pops.† This shows that he was still taking advantage out of his mother’s sadness. In the final few page of chapter 7 we see an intense moment between Marcus and Fiona. Marcus finally confronts Fiona about her constant depression and the fact the she hasn’t been looking after him. â€Å"All you do is make my meals and I could do that. The rest of the time you just cry. That’s†¦ that’s no good. That’s no good to me.† This shows that Fiona does not know how to look after a child. However, Marcus does not help or resolve the matter; instead he heads off to his room. â€Å"He went upstairs to his room and played NBA Basketball with the earphones on.† This shows a level of immaturity and a certain lack of social skill. Fiona claims that â€Å"we’re not doing each other any good† to Marcus. This again is more evidence to prove that Fiona simply cannot look after Marcus. When we see Will in chapter eight, he describes Marcus as being â€Å"the weird kid.† Will thinks this about Marcus because of the way he acts. For example, when they were at the back of a car together, Marcus began ‘humming tunelessly’. This would not be a normal act performed by a teenager, and this led Will into believing he is strange. There is more evidence for Will to believe Marcus is weird. â€Å"‘You know Michael Jackson, right? He makes a million pounds a minute,’ said the weird kid.† When Marcus said this, Will thought he was making things up, which again led Will to believing he is weird. At the park, Marcus accidently killed a duck in the lake. In this part of the book, Marcus changes his mind about Will in a matter of minutes, from despising him, and then realising that he was one his side. â€Å"Who did this Will think he was?† Will was trying to be sarcastic about the matter, but Marcus, did not find it funny. Then, all of a sudden â€Å"Marcus looked up at him; maybe he didn’t hate him after all.† Will then made the incident look like it had affected them in front of the park-keeper. Marcus had changed his view about him, in a flash, without him doing anything. All of this suggests that Marcus has mixed opinions on will, on moment he is the hero, and the next he is just a stranger, In chapter nine, we sadly see a suicide attempt from Fiona. The events leading up to this moment, is very intense. On the day of the suicide attempt, Marcus is at Regent Park for a picnic with Suzie and Will. Whilst Will and Suzie were talking, Marcus was feeding the ducks, with loaf hard bread that Fiona had made, he had then accidently thrown the whole loaf in to the lake and a killed a duck. Hence the ‘Dead duck day.’ All of a sudden Marcus could see Fiona across the lake waving and smiling at him, he turned around to tell Suzie but when he looked back she was gone. â€Å"It was then that Marcus saw-or thought he saw-his mum. She was standing in front of them, blocking the path, and she was smiling. He waved and turned around to tell Suzie that she’d turned up, but when he looked back his mum wasn’t there.† This part of the book is based on symbolism. I think it represents symbolism because there is a link between what happened with the Dead duck and the fact that she was there, meant that it was a way of saying bye to Marcus. It was almost like a premonition for Marcus, that something was about to happen. â€Å"A new part of his life began, bang, without any warning at all.† When I saw this part in the book, it really surprised me. I wasn’t aware of how Fiona was so depressed, that caused her to a terrible act like this. As a reader, I would say that Fiona’s depressions was only recognised as just her crying most the time, I was not sure she would have gone to that greater length, and commit suicide. It is obvious that Marcus was hit hard by the fact that his mother had committed suicide. At the end of chapter nine, it reads â€Å"he knew the moment he walked in that it was something he’d have to think about forever.† At this point in the book, we see Marcus’ character really open out. This continues as we read on. When they reach the hospital, Marcus is in the waiting room, reflecting on other people troubles and compares this to his mum. â€Å"My mum’s not like these people. Supposing they think she is, though?† he believes that the hospital might treat her as being just a normal druggy.

Where the experience of male and female slaves similar or different in Essay

Where the experience of male and female slaves similar or different in the nineteenth-century, South - Essay Example were engaged both in urban areas and in the plantations especially in the South which was an agrarian economy and lived and worked under poor conditions. They were also harshly treated by their masters and women subjected to sexual exploitation. However, the experiences of slaves depended on the region, their masters and overseers. In this essay, I will argue that male and female slaves had different experiences in the nineteenth century, south although some aspects were similar depending on the size of the plantation. The antebellum south was a slave society as it had a high population of slaves and depended on them economically, socially and politically and also allowed masters extensive power over slaves unchecked by law.2 In small plantations, men and women performed similar tasks in the fields but in large plantations, men did different work from women. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass gives an account of the experiences men went through in large plantations having been born into slavery by a colored women and a white father. According to Douglass, women were not given tasks outside the plantation hence these were performed by men and included such tasks as: manning vessels; gardening; driving carriages comprising of horses and coaches; carpentry; chopping wood and using field hand oxen to carry the load home; ploughing and wheat fanning among other field duties.3 Men were also used to transport crops and supplies and also hired out as artisans and craftsmen. Women on the other hand, did household chores such as cooking and caring after the master’s white children. They also did laundry, sewing, milking, and spinning, knitting, and working in rice, tobacco and cotton fields. The role of women was clearly highlighted by Deborah Gray White in her book Ar’n’t I a Woman? She argues that women had a very distinct role from that of men in that they bore children.4 These children whether from a white man (mulatto) or black man

Lance Armstrong Talks about Philosophy of Life Essay

Lance Armstrong Talks about Philosophy of Life - Essay Example My fellow world citizens, I am Lance Armstrong, the famous cyclist. The recent headlines do not allow me to claim the fame. But, I think I have all the right to introduce myself as a famous cyclist whether I have my titles or not. Even my negative publicity is linked to cycling without which I am nothing. I am not here to claim I am innocent or confess. I just want to share a few of my realizations with you. I had great plans after retirement. I wanted to do so many things after I survived cancer, after I retired after I was free from my busy schedules. But, the after came so suddenly and unexpectedly, stripping me of all my dignity. I have all the time in the world now to do whatever I want and what I do with all of it - I ride my cycle. I started to ride my cycle when I was two and continue it till now. I started to ride professionally at the age of 13. I was a swimmer before that. I got fascinated by the bike when I was 12. At that time my mother used to say "if you’re going to get anywhere, you’re going to have to do it yourself because no one is going to do it for you". I had no idea where I should go but believed winning was the only thing necessary in life. I became a bully. I started to dope. My life was driven by an unquenchable thirst to win, to win like nobody else. I do not know who put that idea into me, my coach, my victories, my fans or my family. I saw everybody around me running for something elusive. I was happy when I won. But was I satisfied? No. I was ready to do anything to establish what others cannot.

Art Tatum Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Art Tatum - Essay Example In spite of his blindness, though, Art Tatum grew to become one of the great jazz musicians of his time. Tatum’s musical ability manifested itself at an early age. By the age of three, he was replicating music he had heard on the radio on the piano. His parents encouraged him in his music and eventually sent him off at the age of 16 to attend the Columbus School for the Blind. While learning how to read Braille, Tatum also studied music, both at his school and later with Overton G. Rainey, a classic pianist, at the Toledo School of Music. Tatum’s jazz talent was thus primarily self-taught but was good enough to get him his own show on the local radio station by the time he was 18. One year later and Tatum was working at Ohio’s Waiters’ and Bellmans’ Club, playing piano with singer Jon Hendricks. News of the young player began to spread and famous jazz greats such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Joe Turner and Fletcher Henderson began dropping in as they passed through town to hear him play. It wasn’t until 1932 when Tatum was 22 that singer Adelaide Hall decided to bring him to New York as her accompanist and his music began to be recorded. The earliest known recording is a 1932 test pressing of ‘Tiger Rag’, which was professionally recorded the following year. The song provides an excellent example of Tatum’s abilities as it features crashing bass notes, flowing cascades on both the left and right hands and a brutally fast tempo that showed off Tatum’s amazing dexterity. Tatum also participated in so-called ‘cutting contests’ while he was in New York, competing against other pianists such as Fats Weller and James P. Johnson for bragging rights that he never lost. Between 1933 and 1938, Tatum traveled around playing his piano visiting many of the large cities with big jazz followings including Cleveland, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and several locations in England,

It is personality profile about Jack Dorsey -my tittle is Square Research Paper

It is personality profile about Jack Dorsey -my tittle is Square changes the business world - Research Paper Example Jack Dorsey has a net worth of $2.1 Billion (Forbes, 2014), is one of the most influential people in the world, and was one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35. He won the Innovator of the Year Award in 2012 and joined the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2013 (Forbes, 2014). While only 15 years old, Jack Dorsey wrote dispatch software for taxicab companies that coordinates taxi drivers and enhances effective communication in the taxi industry (Bio, 2014). Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Jack Dorsey is a catholic who studied at Missouri University of Science and Technology before transferring to New York University where he initiated an idea that transformed to the famous Twitter concept (Bio, 2014). He dropped out of New York University (Forbes, 2014) and moved to California in 2000 where he started providing his dispatch software through the internet (Bio, 2014). From the dispatch taxicab software, Jack Dorsey invented the Twitter concept that changed communication around the world. Jack Dorsey developed the idea of a Web-based instant messaging communication service in 2000. He approached Odeo Company to advance the idea of an instant messaging communication service (Bio, 2014). With Biz Stone and Noah Glass, Jack Dorsey founded and became the CEO of Twitter in 2006 (Bio, 2014). Jack Dorsey made a turning point in a global communication by Twitter. Indeed, Jack Dorsey surprised many with his twitter success. In November 2013, he launched Twitters initial public offering that made him a billionaire from his 23.4 million shares whose share price rose from $26 per share to $45 per share during the first day of trading (Bio, 2014). Initially, the company experienced frequent service outages (Bio, 2014). However, celebrities and CEOs begun using twitter thus promoting its importance. Soon, twitter revolutionized communication across the globe by becoming the dominant â€Å"micro blogging" movement

WorkBrain Corp- A case in exit stratgy Research Paper

WorkBrain Corp- A case in exit stratgy - Research Paper Example The company is doing fairly well being a private entity. The company has cash in abundance, over $10 million and can easily operate within its realm. Moreover the current investors of the company are happy with the position of the firm in the market and are willing to even invest more if need arises. No investor of the company has expressed any desire to withdraw its investment. These are positive signs for the company and if it wishes to expand then the best alternate is to use cash from current investors who trusted in the vision of the company before it came into existence. Going public may mean new investors with a different vision that might not be in compliance with the current investors. Saying all this now is the perfect time to go public. Going public would mean more customers for the company. At the moment WorkBrain has to convince its clients that it is financially solvent and in a good position to provide services to them. As the customers cannot see the financial positio n of a private company they hesitate to get the work done from them. If WorkBrain goes public then all the financial details will be present for the customers to see and approach the company for their services. The company will benefit tremendously as it would be able to make clients and customers in much larger numbers. Keeping in mind how solvent the company is, it is the best time for WorkBrain to go public and make more customers (Bilimoria, 2007). The best option for the company would be to go with TSX listing. The reason for this is that TSX in future would be more viable. Compared to NASDAQ, TSX has a small-cap market with more some to medium term service providers and financial institutions. WorkBrain perfectly fits in their category. NASDAQ is more prestigious and has a larger clientele in terms of revenues. It would be fair to say that if WorkBrain needs to go with NASDAQ it would have to come up with a revenue margin of around $75 million. The reason for the company to go public is that it makes it financial statement visible in the market so that potential customers would know how solvent the company is. Going public gives them a chance to come out in the open and make more customers. Acquisition is a completely different proposition. It deals with selling a part of the company or rather a share of profit with someone who is ready in buying a part of business. Normally the rate at which an acquirer buys part of the business is a much bigger rate because of the goodwill attached with the firm. As WorkBrain has done tremendously well showing consistent profit since it emergence, the takeover would have to pay a lot of money for the acquisition. But there is no need of selling part or whole of the business when the firm is making sufficient profits and it is predicted that the company will only look to grow more in the coming years (Arnold, 2008). There might be other alternates that the company might look at. Bank loan is one of them but it comes wit h a cost. A high interest rate has to be paid whenever a company takes a loan from the bank. The biggest advantage of a loan is that the current owners will get to keep the possession of the firm without selling any part of the business to an investor or by going public in the stock exchange. The current owners will get to make the decisions just the way they now do as they will have the control of the firm. Lack of ability to pay in time may get the business into trouble and if

Kitchenware Products Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Kitchenware Products - Essay Example The study results shows that the new product has great chances of recording high sells and profits within the target market. Nevertheless, this success is possible only if the company considers what is needed most by the customers. It was found that most customers would be looking at the overall superiority of the new product. Leo Wahl established the Kitchenware Products Company in the year 1919. Since inception, the company has been a leader in the production of quality kitchen utensils mainly from stainless steel. In addition, the company has been a major producer of simple electrical appliances for kitchen use. Currently, the Kitchenware Products Company operates within an organizational tradition of superior customer service, innovation, and superior quality. Wahl keeps on changing to a new and a better ways of effectively meeting the needs of their customers. With such efforts and frequent changes, the company ensured that products are continuously developed to meet the needs of the current modern households as it is required in product development processes (Bhote, 1996). Wahl is a brand with a global presence and trust. This brand is based on the company’s founder, Leo Wahl. As at now, the company operates in an estimated 165 countries throughout the world. The company is currently consider ing the manufacturing and marketing of a new product; a new type of curving knife. The company has done a general approximation, and the results indicate that 40,000 units of the new product will be sold during the first year. This sales quantity is projected to increase by an average of 10% in the preceding years. The variable costs for every production unit have been approximated in three ways. The variable cost of; a raw material per unit is 3.00, packaging is 0.90 per unit, distribution is 1.00 per unit, and direct labor is 2.00 per unit. The value of currency is in pounds. The company has

Literary Analysis of Bartleby the Scrivener Essay Example for Free

Literary Analysis of Bartleby the Scrivener Essay Bartleby the Scrivener could be described as a story about getting rid of its title character, about the narrators attempt to get rid of Bartleby, and Bartlebys tenacious capacity to be always there. It is the story of an unnamed lawyer and his employee, Bartleby, a copyist of law documents. Confronted not only with Bartlebys refusal to do work (first to read copies against the original, then to copy altogether), but also with the contagious nature of the particular words of his refusal (Bartlebys peculiar I would prefer not to), the narrator concludes that, before Bartleby turns the tongues any further of those with whom he comes into contact, he must get rid of Bartleby. At the same time Bartleby feels mobbed in his privacy (27) when the other office workers crowd him behind his screen, they in turn are invaded by his idiosyncrasy his private idiom prefer. Bartlebys presence breaks down the clear distinctions between public and private, professional and domestic, between privacy and the mob. By pinpointing Bartleby as the cause of infectious language (language turned bad), the narrator wants to stop the course of a process (the turning of tongues) already in progress. But getting rid of Bartleby is as tricky as getting rid of a chronic condition; the narrator emphasizes a phrase which appears textually in italics: he was always there (20). Bartleby is, as the narrator calls him, a nuisance (40), an intolerable incubus. As a character in the story with a body, he moves very little, but the few words he speaks break out at unexpected moments in the office. Every attempt the narrator makes to control the passive Bartleby and his infectious language fails hilariously (Schehr 97). The narrator experiences a curious tension between the impossible imperative (on the level of the story) to get rid of the subject, and the impossibility (on the level of the narration) to write his complete biography (Bartlebys history). Thus, Bartleby is also a fable about writing history or biography. In attempting to write what he thinks of as Bartlebys biography, the narrator merely misnames his writing project, or he emphasizes it from the wrong point of view. In search of Bartlebys origins, the narrator does not simply narrate (as he thinks) the history of Bartleby the Scrivener; he relates rather the story of his own anxiety vis-a-vis Bartleby. In particular, he relates his anxiety over the scriveners silence and modes of breaking that silence; for we could say that, rather than speaking very little or in particular ways, Bartleby has particular ways of occasionally breaking silence. It is this violence in speech, this unexpected eruption, which the narrator fears. The narrator, whose acquaintances describe him as an eminently safe man, who likes nothing better than the cool tranquility of a snug retreat (4), is thrown decidedly off kilter when faced with what he terms Bartlebys passive resistance (17). Bartlebys weapon is his total indifference to truth, whereas the narrator seeks a second opinion on truth from the other office mates. Bartleby could be seen as the one solid block around which the narrator writes his own story about truth rather than the truth about the Bartleby story. Bartlebys passive resistance actually generates the story confronted with it, the narrator creates theories (his doctrine of assumptions, for instance), carries on debates with himself, and seeks the counsel of others all with the opaque Bartleby as the core. In reconstructing Bartlebys story, the narrator follows an implicit logic which he never directly states. It is the logic of cause and effect. (He is not deliberately hiding this logic, but because he takes its validity for granted, he never comments on it critically. ) Believing in the possibility of finding a specific, locatable, and nameable cause to Bartlebys condition (as he is able to do with the other office workers, Nippers and Turkey, whose moods vary according to their diets and the time of day), the narrator thinks that by eradicating the cause of the problem, he can alter the effects, the effects of Bartlebys speaking condition in the office space. McCall follows the same logic as the narrator in seeking causes of Bartlebys behavior. He mentions remark that when the narrator asks Bartleby to run an errand for him at the post office, that is probably the last place, if the rumor is correct, that Bartleby would ever want to go. (McCall 129). The narrator never considers that his line of reasoning might be faulty — that Bartlebys condition may not be linked to a specific, locatable, nameable cause. We as readers may be placed in the same position as the narrator in that we never know either the origin of Bartlebys condition; we witness primarily its effects, or symptoms, in the story. These symptoms reside not only in Bartleby as individual character, but in the very way the narrator tells the story about that character. Rather than speaking about the cause of Bartlebys condition, one could more aptly speak about the ways in which its effects are spread to other characters within the text. When the narrator impatiently summons Bartleby to join and help the others in the scenario of group reading, Bartleby responds, I would prefer not to (14). Hearing this response the narrator turns into a pillar of salt (14). (Faced with Bartlebys responses and sheer presence, the narrator oftentimes evokes images of his losing, then waking to, consciousness. ) When he recovers his senses, he tries to reason with Bartleby, who in the meantime has retreated behind his screen. The narrator says: These are your own copies we are about to examine. It is labor saving to you, because one examination will answer for your four papers. It is common usage. Every copyist is bound to help examine his copy. Is it not so? Will you not speak? Answer! (15) The narrator is exasperated when Bartleby does not respond immediately to the logic behind his work ethic. These are your own copies we are about to examine. It is labor saving to you. Examining or reading copy is a money saving activity, from which every member of the office profits (four documents for the price of one reading! ). Every copyist is bound to help examine his copy. To the contract the lawyer emphatically demands from his employee, a bond based on an exchange of reading, Bartleby replies three times, gently, in a flutelike tone, I (would) prefer not to (15). By refusing to read copy, Bartleby refuses to consent to the economy of the office. It is perhaps only to another type of reading, one not based on a system of exchange and profit, which Bartleby consents. Although the narrator says he has never seen Bartleby reading — not even a newspaper (24) — he does often notice him staring outside the window of the office onto a brick wall. Staring at the dead brick wall (in what the narrator calls Bartlebys dead-wall reveries) may be Bartlebys only form of reading, taking the place of the economy-based reading demanded of him in the process of verifying copies. About halfway through the story, the lawyer/narrator visits his office on a Sunday morning and, discovering a blanket, soap and towel, a few crumbs of ginger nuts and a morsel of cheese, deduces that the scrivener never leaves the office. Realizing the full impact of Bartlebys condition, he states, What I saw that morning persuaded me that the scrivener was the victim of innate and incurable disorder. (25) The narrator clearly locates the disorder in Bartleby. Seeing himself in the role of diagnostician and healer, he himself is faced with the hopelessness of remedying excessive and organic ill (24). The narrators concern about an individual medical cure should more aptly be a concern about an obsessively private rhetorical debate or a dangerously idiomatic group contagion (Perry 409). Despite his assumption that Bartleby is incurable, or perhaps precisely because he can effect no cure, the narrator beleaguers himself throughout the story with questions or commands to do something about Bartleby (McCall 9). If the private mans disorder can be passed on to another (one) person, what happens when the condition is let loose out of close quarantine into the public space of the office? Bartleby walks a precarious tightrope between comedy and tragedy (Inge 25). The tragic dimension often resides in the narrators turning inward on himself (a sort of tragic compression), then putting himself on trial, an interior moment of accusation which eventually results in the collapse of the narrative in a single sigh or exclamation (Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity! 46). The comic effects are often related to the authoritarian attempt (and failure) to contain the spread of idiom as contagion (Perry 412). If Bartleby has been a figure for tragedy in the lone meditation of the narrator, he becomes a figure for comedy in his contact with his office mates Nippers and Turkey. The more the narrator tries to regulate the contact between the three, the more hilarious — and significantly out of control — is Bartlebys influence. The effort to contain or control tends actually to promote the epidemic proportions of the narrative. It is the narrator himself who uses a vocabulary of contagion in relation to Bartleby. He says he has had more than ordinary contact (3) with other scriveners he has known. Bartleby exceeds this already extraordinary contact he has been touched by handling dead letters (Schehr 99). Some critics reproduce the narrators language of contagion in talking about Bartleby. McCall, in his study on The Silence of Bartleby, describes our response, the collective readers response, to reading the tale: As we go through the story, we watch with a certain delight how Bartleby is catching. We root for the spread of the bug. (145) In a somewhat less delighted vein, Borges says, Bartlebys frank nihilism contaminates his companions and even the stolid man who tells Bartlebys story. (Borges 8) In the office scenes where the employees and boss come inevitably together, the bug word is Bartlebys prefer. Nippers uses it mockingly against the narrator as a transitive action verb when he overhears Bartlebys words of refusal to the narrators plea to be a little reasonable. Bartleby echoes, At present I would prefer not to be a little reasonable (26). If Nippers is suffering from his own peculiar and chronic condition of indigestion, he takes on the symptoms of Bartlebys condition when he exclaims to the narrator, Prefer not, eh? – Id prefer him, if I were you sir, Id prefer him; Id give him preferences, the stubborn mule! What is it, sir, pray, that he prefers not to do now? (26) Whereas later in the story the narrator totally loses his critical skill to catch himself in his speech, in this exchange he is still able to articulate the effect Bartlebys word is having on him. He notes anxiously, Somehow, of late, I had got into the way of involuntarily using the word prefer upon all sorts of not exactly suitable occasions. (27) It is this qualifier not exactly which is of particular interest. Bartlebys use of words is not exactly wrong. Prefer is so insidious because it is only slightly askew, dislocated, idiosyncratic. As McCall accurately notes about the power of Bartlebys I prefer not to, one must hear, in the little silence that follows it, how the line delivers two contradictory meanings, obstinacy and politeness. (152) The line calls just enough attention to itself so as to attract others to its profoundly mixed message (its perfect yes and no) in an imitative way (McCall 152). Prefer is as inobtrusive, as contagious, and as revolutionary as a sneeze. The narrator lets it out of his mouth involuntarily. When Turkey enters the scene and uses the bug word without realizing it (without Nippers italicized parody or the narrators critical comments), the narrator says to him, in a slightly excited tone, So you have got the word, too (27). In this pivotal sentence, the verb get implies to receive (as in to receive a word or message), but more strikingly for our discussion here, it implies the verb to catch one catches the word as one would catch a cold. The narrator attempts to monitor the contagion by naming the bug and pointing it out to the others. But the word mocks everyones will to control it prefer pops up six times in the next half a page — four times unconsciously in the speech of one of the employees, and twice consciously (modified by word) in the narration of the lawyer. Bartleby could be described as a story of the intimacy or anxiety a lawyer feels for the law-copyist he employs. The narrator arranges a screen in the corner of his office behind which Bartleby may work. Pleased with the arrangement of placing Bartleby behind the screen in near proximity to his own desk, the narrator states, Thus, in a manner, privacy and society were conjoined (12). The narrator idealizes the possibility of a perfect harmony between privacy and community in the work environment, but it is precisely the conflict between these two spatial conditions which generates the story, defining not only Bartlebys idiocy, but the narrators as well. The narrator most characteristically encounters Bartleby emerging from his retreat (13) or retiring into his hermitage (26). The screen isolates Bartleby from the view of the narrator, but not from his voice. Works Cited Borges, Jorge Luis. Prologue to Herman Melvilles Bartleby in Herman Melvilles Billy Budd, Benito Cereno, Bartleby the Scrivener, and Other Tales, ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987 Inge, Thomas M. , ed. Bartleby the Inscrutable. Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1979. McCall, Dan. The Silence of Bartleby. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989. Melville, Herman. Billy Budd and Other Stories. New York: Penguin Books, 1986. Perry, Dennis R. Ah, Humanity: Compulsion Neuroses in Melvilles Bartleby. Studies in Short Fiction 23. 4 (fall 1987): 407-415. Schehr, Lawrence R. Dead Letters: Theories of Writing in Bartleby the Scrivener Enclitic vii. l (spring 1983): 96-103.

Community Participation In Disaster Management

Community Participation In Disaster Management Though we have argued that community participation in the context of disaster management is imperative, there are still several debates under the context of participatory development that could somehow influence its successful implementation, hence, should be taken into account especially during the planning phase of the CBDRM. First, the complexity of individual motivations. It is difficult to move a community towards a certain direction, particularly if the members have different interests and motivations. As noted earlier, community is a complex social structure comprised of different perspectives, opinions and motivations. Conversely, motivation and willingness to participate is dictated by individual thinking and determined by own underlying interests. Their experiences on disasters could influence their behavior; however for community members who have not experienced extreme natural disaster, raising their interest in prevention and capacity building becomes more difficult as it seems abstract for them, unlike physical or structural measures that are visible and tangible such as installing early warning devices, etc. Similarly, exposure to external aids could influence communitys interest to participate; this is in particular to urban areas, who have become accustomed to receiving external assistance thus their reluctance to undertake risk management on their own (Solo, n.d.). Another area under this is the personal-driven motivations with vested interests that could influence, hamper or even deviate the result of the participatory development process. And politicians or soon to be politicians find this kind of activity personally beneficial for them by earning popularity. Second, participation requires effort and time. The CBDRM implementation is comprised of various activities, such as planning and capacity buildings, that require active and continuous participation from various stakeholders. While these activities involved a considerable time and effort, some community members perceive these series of participation as waste of time and/or economically unproductive activity, thus opt to focus more on their work and earn money, instead. While for the part of the organizer, participatory process such as public consultation is also time consuming. Organizing requires proper and detailed planning for scheduling of activities, identifying stakeholders, sending out invitation and confirming attendance. The quality and productivity of the activity is affected by the possible low turn-out of attendance among target participants. Third, restricted women participation and cultural boundaries. The CBDRM puts emphasis on the different risks and vulnerabilities faced by members of the communities, such that, male perceived risks differently as compared to female, and similar with adult to children. However, some culture restricts participation and voluntarism; concrete example is on women participation. There are some cultures that confine womens role within the boundaries of domestic activities. Despite the current effort to gender mainstream disaster reduction, with the consequent enormous household tasks directly or indirectly imposed to them, these offer women less time to interact in social activities and participate in community development actions. Fourth, local power relation within the community. The dynamics that exists within the community is clearly manifested on the relationship between the rich and poor, elite and commoners, and literate and illiterate. These relationships bring us to the questions on who can really participate, who can talk and verbalize their opinions during public consultations or workshops. Often times, those who are well-informed and have time to participate dominate the discussion, while leaving behind the poor and the illiterate who has the greater degree of vulnerability. To put stress further, the UNDP asserts that the communities who are most vulnerable to natural events are frequently those who have a disproportionately high number of illiterate members (Solo, n.d.). Fifth, local knowledge influenced by local power relations. CBDRM builds on the existing local knowledge to assess community risks, and serve as basis in developing plans. However, local knowledge can be influenced by local power relations, authority and gender (Mosse, 2002). Other personalities or stakeholders may impute their own interests to or influence the local knowledge which may not necessarily resolve the issues of disaster risks or lead to greater and common interests of all of improving community resiliency. And Fifth, creating development fatigue among stakeholders. Since participatory development is among the most popular approaches in development, many development initiatives have embraced and integrated it within their programs and projects. Consultations and/or collaboration among stakeholders has been repeatedly being undertaken along different stages of one or more different programs and projects, this repeated process could eventually create fatigue among stakeholders, especially when despite of continuing consultations no advancement or progress is achieved. These are some of the limitations and challenges that may be faced by project implementers of CBDRM within the scope of participatory development. These limitations only follows that bringing real community participation to risk management is a difficult task which all actors should understand or at least recognize (Solo, n.d.:26). And to understand more what CBDRM is as applied to real world, the next part gives us practical examples illustrating how effective implementation of CBDRM could potentially improve community resiliency. CBDRM Good Practices Globally, CBDRM has been promoted as an approach to improve community resiliency. International development organizations and non-government organizations strongly lobby CBDRM for policy adoption and mainstreaming in the disaster management framework of national and local governments. Currently, most CBDRM projects are led by local and international NGOs, either in partnership with other civil society organizations, NGOs, international development organizations or local government. The UN ISDR compiled good practices in CBDRM that illustrates how communities have worked together towards a common goal and benefitted from their undertaking. Directly lifted from the UN ISDR study, entitled Building Disaster Resilient Communities: Good Practices and Lessons Learned (2007), below are some of the examples of CBDRM practices that link with climate change adaptation and implemented in different countries considered highly vulnerable. Involving community members in increasing public awareness and capacity building through creating information campaigns to enhance the safety of the population at risk is cited as good practice. The project is an information campaign which stimulates creativeness and innovativeness from the local actors and similarly optimizes local talents, knowledge, and local resources in a way easily comprehensible to the local community members. This is a project implemented in Haiti in 22 settlements in coordination with their Local Civil Protection Committees (LCPCs) through the assistance from Oxfam GB. Natural hazards such as earthquakes have been continuously affecting the country of Haiti, while its urban areas are characterized with its dense urban population and dense built areas this make the country more vulnerable (UN-ISDR, 2007). Another good practice is on creating access among low income groups to disaster micro-insurance scheme. Taking into account that risk transfer supports sustainable economic recovery, micro-insurance could serve as a cushion to lessen impact of disaster, particularly among the poor victims whom majority have limited or no access to risk transfer schemes. The micro-insurance represents an innovative approach to help the victims; wherein risk is transferred from the individual level to the community or inter-community levels. With the implementation of micro-insurance, this elicit positive feedbacks from the communities claiming that insurance in times of crisis is essential, the affordability of the scheme makes it accessible for the poor households, and which consequently result to reduced dependence from outside relief. This is the approach of the Afat Vimo scheme, a project implemented in India after a major earthquake exposed the community members to disaster-induced financial loss es. The project is said to be part of the Regional Risk Transfer Initiative, an action learning project of the Gujaratbased All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (UN-ISDR, 2007). With the long drought being experienced, crop failures and the consequent food shortage, this has led a community in Indonesia to identify a mechanism to prevent food shortage. The community established a monitoring system for food security and livelihood and community early warning system largely based from their indigenous knowledge in combination with modern science, which the UN ISDR (2007) considered a good practice. The project has three components: community awareness and indicator development to monitor food security and livelihood; community early warning system; and advocacy on appropriate agricultural system such as promotion of crops suitable for drought-prone land. The project is in partnership with local NGO aiming to increase community resilience from drought in Southeastern Indonesia. The region is characterized by experiencing a three-month rainy season and a nine-month drought season. Problems on food shortage is said to be brought by lack of climate-related knowled ge and information that results to crop failure (UN-ISDR, 2007). Another good practice project where it illustrates that local context of communities can be a dynamic force in reducing risks, is on creating flood and typhoon-resilient homes through employing a cost-effective retrofitting. The project was initiated to put emphasis on the capacity of families and local communities in playing a key role in Vietnams disaster risk reduction strategy and in reducing their vulnerabilities, which during the project implementation, community-based disaster risk reduction, is still not integrated. The process involves community consultation and preventive action planning. The project is Development Workshop France (DWF), a program initiated in Vietnam through Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and European Commission Humanitarian aid Office (ECHO). The severe typhoons and floods affecting the country have resulted to damage and loss of housing in the affected communities (UN-ISDR, 2007). In order to understand current local environmental situation, develop awareness and capacity to deal with, and to contribute to relevant policy formulation, one of the communities in Namibia established an inter-community platform and local-level monitoring as support for local decision making. The plat-form serves as medium for community organization and communication. Moreover, the approach strengthens capacity among the community to coordinate their own activities and preparing their development plans. The local-level monitoring, on the other hand, is used to support information exchange and decision making. The monitoring scheme, where community members themselves have identified the relevant indicators, serves as a tool for identification of environmental changes that may affect their livelihoods; furthermore, the results are used as basis for decisions on management actions, climate variability, policy changes, etc. Overall, the community benefits from the project by improving their capacities and promoting institutional development which consequently lead to enhanced resource management and livelihoods and increased capacity to manage and reduce risks related to drought and desertification and other potential disasters. This project in Namibia has influenced several government policy instruments with on-going derivative projects. Namibia is experiencing drought and desertification which impacts the livelihoods of people living in drylands. Poverty, increasing population, urbanization, naturally variable climate, climate change, lack of community organizations, political issues and other pressures further compound the problem (UN-ISDR, 2007). The convergence of a community-level approach and city governments participation strengthens sustainability and ownership; this is the underlying assumption in one of the CBDRM projects in the Philippines. Wherein, it mainstream community-based mitigation in the city governance through partnering with the local government in the implementation of the project. The project has five (5) components, these are: (i) CBDRM participatory risk assessment training of trainers (ToT) for the city officials, who in turn provide training to communities; reactivation of the City Disaster Coordinating Council and Community Disaster Coordinating Council; institutionalization of a school Disaster Safety Day; celebration of the Disaster Safety Day in all schools; developing and implementing a City Disaster Risk Reduction Plan. This is a CBDRM project implemented in the Philippines through Asian Disaster Preparedness Center and in partnership with the city local government. The country is among countrie s with highest exposure to natural hazards, a climate hotspot and belongs to the most natural disaster prone countries (UN-ISDR, 2007). These are some of the CBDRM examples which, as we noted and apparent feature in these cases, are highly participatory in nature, engaging various stakeholders in different phases of project management as resource base, while trying to address vulnerabilities and recognizing impacts of natural hazards with the goal of strengthening community resiliency. However linking to the shortcomings of participatory development, these initiatives have, likewise, recognized challenges in the implementation of the project from the perspective of the project team, community level, and in partnering with the local government. For the part of the project organizer, it is on the project activities being time consuming which requires them to maintain efforts and demonstrate firmness, in terms of supervision and support, to ensure good quality output. For community level, it is on convincing communities on the process of participatory development and reassuring that social systems and cultures would be respected; motivating community members and elaborating the benefits they can derive from the project; maintaining community consensus and achieving behavioral change; ensuring and keeping up community participation throughout the project period through motivation; and enhancing or broadening community members local knowledge to enable a more participa tory assessment. Moreover, the political and administrative culture such as top-down approach and government-led planning affecting project implementation; while support both from the local government and the community for long-term sustainability (UN-ISDR, 2007). The last part allows us to step back from the purpose of this study, summarizing the arguments and concluding whether CBDRM is an effective approach to climate change adaptation. Likewise, it will give us some ideas where the study can have wider implications for possible future focus of research.

Three Levels of Management

Three Levels of Management Introduction Information system means by which people and organizations utilize technologies, collect, store use and distribute information. Good information system is used to provide important information for decision making. The information technology may be used for the processing, storing or distribution of data. These technologies collectively include information technology and data. It is an organized combination of people, hardware, software, communications networks, and data resources that stores and retrieves, transform and disseminate information in an organization. Very main functions of information systems issystems analysis and design, that is to say, analyzing a customers business condition (or trouble), with deference towards information processing, and designing and implementing an suitableà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ generally computerizedà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ solution to the difficulty. Information systems professionals who focus in this part are known assystems analysts. The procedure begins with a complete determination of the clients information needs and business processes. The result normally involves various programming, in addition to the use of a suitable application software package(s), for example a database management system (DBMS) used for designing and implementing a database for the customer. It may also involve a number of networking considerations, depending on the users needs and goals. Levels of management The term level of management refers to a line of demarcation between various managerial positions. The number of levels of management depends upon the size, technology, degree, of diversity and nature of product. There are mainly three levels of management in most of the organization. There are Top level management Middle level management Lower level management Top level management Top level consists of the board of directors, general manager and other senior executives. They fix the objectives of the organization. They fix the objectives of the organization. They prepare policies and takes important decisions to accomplish the objectives of the organization. They issue instruction and orders to lower level management. Every organization runs by the managers in that organization, who are taking opinion in the all step of organizational activities. In a big organization the computer department responsible for giving information or data also called management information department. In an organizational information system is used to communicate and analyze the in every levels of the organization. In this level decides on the board objectives of an organization. Enterprise resource planning Enterprise resource planning is a method to add the information and processes of an organization into one single system. Generally Enterprise resource planning systems will have a lot of works including hardware and software, in order to attain integration, most ERP systems use a joined database to store data for different functions establish all over the organization. The word ERP firstly referred to how a big organization planned to use organizational wide resources. In the past,ERP systemswere used in better more industrial types of companies. However, the use of ERP has changed and is really complete, nowadays the word can refer to every kind of company, no matter what industry it falls in. Actually ERP systems are used in approximately every type of organization large or small. In order for asoftwaresystem to be considered ERP, it must provide an organization with functionality for two or more systems. While some ERP packages exist that only cover two functions for an organization (QuickBooks: Payroll Accounting), most ERP systems cover several functions. Executive Information Systems (EIS) An Executive Information System (EIS) is a type of management information system planned to assist and support the information and decision making needs of senior executives by given that simple access to both internal and external information related to meeting the strategic goals of the organization. The importance of executive information system is on graphical displays and easy to use user interfaces. EIS are enterprise large decision support system that helps top level executives study, evaluate and emphasize trends in important variables so that they can check performance and identify opportunities and troubles. Middle level management Middle level consists of head of financial departments. They are responsible to top management. They are concerned with organization and direction function of management. Interpretation of the programs and policies communicate by the top level management, organizing and manning their departments as per the main plan, plan the departmental operations, guide direct and motivate their workers to attain the objective, co-operate and co-ordinate with other departments, evaluate the performance of his subordinates, collect reports and statics from the lower and send in to top level management. These are the functions of middle level management. Acquire and arrange the resources to meet the goals of an organization. In this level define the detailed tasks to be carried out at the operational level. Management information and reporting systems (MIS):- These systems present mid-level and senior managers through periodic, often summarized, information that help them determine performance (e.g., an exacting regions sales performance in a particular time period) and create right decision based on that information. Provide middle level management with reports that summarize and categorise information derived from company database. Decision support systems (DSS): These systems are considered to assist mid-level and higher-level managers create those complicated decisions about which not all related restriction is known. There are decision support systems that help out groups to create consensus-based decisions; this is well-known as group decision support systems. A type of decision support system that is geared mainly toward high-level higher managers is theexecutive information system(EIS) orexecutive support system(ESS). As this has the ability to do extremely detail analyses, just like a regular DSS, it is designed mainly to help executives continue track of a little particular items that are critical to their day-to-day high-level decisions. Expert systems: An expert system is built with form keen on the computer the thinking processes and decision-making heuristics of a conventional specialist in an exacting field. As a result, this kind of information system istheoreticallyable of making decisions for a customer, based on input received from the customer Lower level management Lower level management is also known as supervisory management. This level includes supervisors, foremen, gang boss, accounts officer, sales officer etc. They are more concerned with direction and control function of management. Their functions are:- plan for a day or weak, organize the activities of his group, allot work to the workers under him, issue instructions at the site, motivate the employees, arrange materials, machines, tools etc. for workers, give guidance and supervise the employees, to maintain discipline and good relations with the groups. Most decisions at in this level require easily defined information that relates to the current status and activities within the basic business functions. Information is gained from detained report which contains information about routine activities. Detailed tasks defined by middle management are carried out by people at operational level. Transaction processing systems (TPS):- These documentation and way of an organizations transactions, for example sales transactions or stock items, from the instant everybody is first created until it leaves the system. This help out the managers at the daily effective level keep track of daily transactions in addition to create decisions on when to put orders, create consignment, and almost immediately. These systems capture and process about business transactions. Sometimes its called as data processing systems. It is mostly used at operational level. Usually creates detailed reports of daily transactions or future transactions. Reports generated are useful only to lower level managers of the organisation. Toyota Enterprises Information Systems Toyota Motor Corporation Australia (TMCA) is the second largest vehicle manufacturer in Australia. Toyota Australia has exported over 60000 cars to over 20 different commercial locations worldwide in 2003.Toyota Industries is developing and manufacturing information systems, such as the Warehouse Management System (WMS), and the stocking management system for automatic warehouses. When combined with the logistics equipment of TOYOTA Material Handling Company, we are able to provide our customers with optimized logistics solutions at their worksite. Business-to-consumer (B2C):- The main aspects of business -to-consumer this is the most common form in ecommerce. The business is selling its items to an individual. The supplier is the business owner and the purchaser is the individual consumer. In selling items through the website, business owners usually creates catalogs and online shopping carts for the consumers to choose from and for the business owners to accept online payments. Business-to-business (B2B):-The buyers and the sellers are both business owners. This is the type in which selling is among the companies. Mainly products that are sold by businesses are not manufactured by their own company. They immediately purchased those products throughout wholesalers or from the product manufacturer itself. For example, Toyota Motors does plenty of B2B dealings like purchasing the tires, glasses, rubber hoses and other parts of Toyota vehicles from another manufacturer. Consumer-to-consumer (C2C):- Consumer-to-consumer allows process of products between two individuals. This style does not require a middleman. Also the perfect example of this type is eBay in which it allows individuals to sell and purchase their products directly. Conclusion Information technology is very important in business organization. Information technology is used in every levels of the organization. Companies cannot exist without the use of information technology. The basic concept of information systems has been introduced. Hence, a general idea about the importance of information systems should be achieved. It is very clear that information system is very much important for the successful growth and development of the organization. Bibliography John.G.Burch Gary Grudnitski, Information System: Theory Practice. Graham Curtis David Cobham, Business Information Systems: analysis, design practice Robert.D.Galliers, Dorothy.E.Leinder, Strategic Information Management 4thEdition. George Reynolds, Ethics in Information Technology (2003). http://blog.philwebservices.com/different-types-of-ecommerce http://www.turningcourse.com/ukais/isdefn.pdf http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/I/Information_Systems.html http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=enlr=id=7_-67SshOy8Coi=fndpg=PR9dq=information+systems+IN+TOYOTAots=YlWst9DhG2sig=cB9XURgqsBVDVdf80LLTvELxAQk#v=onepageq=information%20systems%20IN%20TOYOTAf=false

The Concept Of Power In Politics Essay examples -- essays research pap

The Meaning of Power   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The instrumental character of power is that of a â€Å"means to an end.† It includes the tools, resources, and abilities used to pursue goals. The meaning of power and its role in politics is understood first with a background of its dual nature. De jure refers to the theory of power. The concept of â€Å"absolute power,† considers tangible factors. When comparing nations’ power, money and gross national product are units of measure; the United States is more powerful than Mexico. Army size and strength are also measurable. World powers, such as the U.S., Britain, and Japan, defeat countries with smaller, weaker armies. From an objective standpoint, tangible assets make a country a world power. But world powers and their leaders also possess intangible qualities. De facto is the subjective aspect of power that is immeasurable. Charisma, such as that of Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King, could not be described, but made them successful leaders. The â€Å"will to win† or morale of people, especially athletes, is power. De facto power is continually changing because of the relative character of power, to time, situation, and contending parties. When power is applied in interaction with contending parties, the situational factors of power and politics come into play. Power is initially proven in a political situation through credibility. The opposing party’s belief that you have power and will use it makes them take you seriously. I...

Chinese-Middle East foreign policy :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Karl Schroeder   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Policy Update:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  China-Persian Gulf   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  China’s biggest issue in the Middle East is securing the oil and gas that they will need with their continued economic growth. China has attempted to cultivate domestic oil production, but their demand for oil has continued to increase exponentially and it is clear that China will continue to need more and more Middle Eastern oil. China has made a number of big moves to help secure oil in the future. In September of 2004 China signed an agreement with Kazakhstan to establish an oil pipeline worth 3.5 billion dollars. Then in November of 2004 China signed a mega-gas deal with Iran that is worth 100 billion dollars, which could increase by up to another 100 billion. This deal entails the annual export of 10 million tons of Iranian liquefied natural gas for a 25 year period. The deal also gives China’s state oil company participation in projects such as exploration, drilling and pipeline services. The export of liquefied natural gas requires special car go ships and Iran is currently adding to its small fleet with continued expansion in the future. Many thought that China’s pipeline deal with Kazakhstan would user in a new era of Chinese foreign policy and help give China a big economic push, it is clear that this agreement was only the beginning for China’s economic expansion in the world. It is difficult to comprehend or predict the economic, political and strategic importance of this deal. It is clear that this deal was a major blow to Bush’s economic sanctions on Iran. China’s cooperation with Iran has extended to political issues as well. After the natural gas deal China said that they would be unwilling to refer the issue of Iran’s nuclear program to the Security Council. This cooperation has been beneficial for both states, China was able to secure oil and gas for the future, Iran gets political support of a major power. China also began cooperating with Saudi Arabia in the 1990s; in 1999 t hey signed a strategic oil cooperation agreement opening both states to future economic cooperation.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Oil is China’s greatest interest in the Middle East, the Middle East benefits from economically by providing China with oil, but many of the Middle Eastern states also want to purchase arms from China. China has moved more and more into arms sales as they have attempted to modernize their military and utilize their military build up.

Review of The Odyssey by Homer

Throughout history, women have been expected to behave a certain way in order to uphold some kind of ideal image. The woman is expected to be a virtuous and upright person, forever loyal and subservient to her husband. However while history adheres to this common image of the woman, a very different mold is shaped for the man. This establishes a double standard between the two genders. The dictionary defines the term ‘double standard' as a â€Å"system, code, or criterion applied unequally; specifically a code of behavior that is stricter for women than for men, especially in matters of sex† (Agnes et al. 29). This phrase defines women's history, as women are constantly viewed under different guidelines and principles than their male counterparts. Written by Homer, the epic poem entitled The Odyssey epitomizes the idea of the double standard in Ancient Greek society. It revolves around the subject of promiscuous behavior in the sexual sense, as males engaged in the behavior while females were expected to abstain from it. The idea of sexual promiscuity in The Odyssey creates an unfair double standard between its male and female characters. The difference of accepted sexual behavior between gods and goddesses is exemplified in an angry speech given to the gods by the goddess Calypso. When Hermes informs her that the prisoner Odysseus must return home, Calypso becomes frustrated. Oh you vile gods, in jealousy supernal! You hate it when we choose to lie with men – immortal flesh by some dear mortal side†¦ Then Demeter of the tasseled tresses yielded to Iasion, mingling and making love in a furrow three times plowed; but Zeus found out and killed him with a white-hot thunderbolt (Homer 5. 24). In this passage, Calypso points out the fact that the male gods can engage in promiscuous behavior. However when the goddesses try to involve themselves in the same activities, they face persecution by their counterparts. The gods disapprove so much that they resort to murder as a type of negative reinforcement, discouraging the goddesses from such sexual acts. Calypso's ability to refer to specific past instances of this behavior proves that the tendency to place women under different guidelines than men exists. The fact that Calypso could cite more than one occurrence of the double standard shows that the goddesses were not allowed to engage in such activity, and that this was at the fault of their male counterparts, who were allowed to participate in such sexual looseness. In this speech she outwardly scrutinizes the norms of society, deeming them as hypocritical. This difference in standard concerning sexual promiscuity is present in the highest class of Greek culture, the gods, which is proof enough of its prevalence. The Odyssey highlights this idea further by projecting the ideas onto not just immortal beings, but mortal beings as well. Odysseus is a prime example. Although he claims loyalty to his wife Penelope, Odysseus does not hesitate to submit to the Greek goddess' desire for him. Calypso did nothing to conceal her longing for Odysseus when she held him captive on her island. Stranded, Odysseus spent many years with the Greek goddess and â€Å"he lay with her each night, for she compelled him† (Homer 5. 163). Despite the fact that Calypso required him to sleep with her on a regular basis, nothing in the text indicates that Odysseus literally did just that. An analysis of the circumstances surrounding this situation suggests otherwise. Calypso, a forever young and beautiful goddess, wants to have sexual relations with Odysseus. Although he is a married man, he is still a man by nature. No one can deny the universal fact that men have an inherent need for sex. The text remains ambiguous towards the situation, which in itself alludes to the notion that he did indeed have intercourse with Calypso, despite the fact that Penelope awaited his return. On the other hand, nothing in the text indicated that Penelope was at all sexually promiscuous during the time apart from her husband, suggesting that she remained faithful. Another example of sexually promiscuous behavior can be found in Book Ten, when Odysseus and his crew happen upon the island of the goddess Circe, who turns the crew into pigs. She and Odysseus reach a compromise in which he consented â€Å"[to enter] Circe's flawless bed of love† (Homer 10. 390). The pact seems almost trivial to Odysseus, since the text inputs nothing to indicate any feelings of guilt over betraying Penelope, who back in Ithaca remained faithful to him by continually snubbing her suitors. This situation shows the different expectations of men and women regarding their sexual behavior. In both incidences, Odysseus seems hypocritical due to the fact that his actions do not coincide with his claim to remain loyal to his wife. Through him, The Odyssey projects the idea of promiscuity as an acceptable act for only the male characters of the epic tale. In The Odyssey, women were discouraged by society to become sexual promiscuous while men were allowed to indulge their sexual impulses. Homer's projection of this theme to both immortal and mortal beings makes it apparent that it was a societal norm. As with many aspects of Greek culture, this too has also been adapted into modern day society. President Bill Clinton did not receive nearly as much criticism for his affair with Monica Lewinsky as Britney Spears did for her activities following her breakup with Justin Timberlake. Disapproval fell upon Spears despite the fact that there was no substantial proof of sexual promiscuity on her part, and while Clinton's was quite apparent, he did not receive the same amount of backlash. The double standard regarding sexual promiscuity is a subject that has lasted from Ancient Greece, documented in The Odyssey, up until the present date, documented in today's popular culture.

Relationships In Different Cultures Essay

Every culture has their own definition of family relationships. Most family  relationships stem from the concept of marriage. Different types of marriages are  accepted all around the world. Some marriages are based on civil aspects, others are  based solely on religious aspects, and most are based on both. There are two main  types of marriages throughout the world which are monogamy and polygamy. Each type  of marriage has been around for thousands of years and both the past and present  show that there are both advantages and disadvantages of each marital practice.   The most widespread form of marriage with the longest history is Monogamy.  Monogamy is the form of marriage where one man marries one woman. Ancient  Greeks, Ancient Romans, Jews, Christians, Indians, and tribes such as the Hopi and  Iroquois have regarded monogamy as the most ideal form of marriage. There are quite  a few advantages in monogamous marriages. There is typically better understandin   gand communication between the man and wife, more focus on the children leading to a  more stable family most of the time and it is better economically suited for most people.  Since there are only two spouses, monogamy has been shown to offer the highest form  of love and affection and sex relations are more regulated. Disadvantages of  monogamy aren’t often mentioned since its practiced by the majority of people in the  world but things can get complicated between the two spouses if abuse or adultery gets  involved. Even so, both the woman and man can divorce freely if they wish. The form of polygamy is the second prominent concept practiced throughout the world. Polygamy is when both the man and woman have freedom to have additional  mates. The historical Montagnais Tribe believed in pure polygamy. Before the French  took them over and converted them to European beliefs, both woman and men were  allowed to have multiple partners. They were a very mature culture where jealousy did  not exist and instead, they channeled their energy into loving every single person within the tribe and each child was considered everyones’. Woman were actually seen as  above the men in a number of ways. Leacock describes how the woman create a very  complimentary relationship between spouses: The Montagnais woman is far from being a drudge. Instead she is a respected member of the tribe whose worth is well appreciated and whose advice and counsel is listened to and, more often than not, accepted and acted upon by her husband. (39) Leacock then goes on to explain how each gender has â€Å"special labors† that allow them  to create equilibrium within their culture and relationships.   Polygamy does have two forms as well. There is polygyny which is when one  husband has several wives and polyandry where one wife has several husbands. In   each situation, the single gender individual is seen as the superior one and the multi  plespouses are below them. Although not everyone believes in polygamous practices,  Joseph mentions many advantages and disadvantages that come along with sharing  her husband with 8 other woman. She states, † It enables woman, who live in a society  full of obstacles, to fully meet their career, mothering and marriage obligations; it  provides a whole solution.† On the other side she says, â€Å"there is a longing of intimacy  and comfort that only he can provide† (A31). This proves that in any practice of  polygamy there are advantages as in having more freedom, but sometimes all of the  emotional, mental, sensual, etc. needs may not be met. My ideal relationship is probably very similar to other girls of my age. All I’ve ever  wanted is one faithful monogamous relationship in my lifetime. Everyone has a soul  mate and hopefully one day I will find mine and we can develop not only a relationship,  but also a friendship built on true love, trust and honesty. From that, we can raise  children in a loving, supportive, and healthy although somewhat discipline environment  while loving my spouse unconditionally and getting the same in return. An equalitarian  relationship would be ideal where both my husband and I pursue careers and have  equal say on housework and finances. Relationships have truly evolved over time. Christian beliefs have always  suppressed woman through marriage. We are shying away from ideas such as, â€Å"woman  should learn in quietness and full submission. [God] does not permit a woman to teach  or to have authority over a man; she must be silent† (Timothy 2.11). Thankfully now in  modern times, woman now have much more of a say in marriage and our society is  slowly accepting equalitarian type marriages. Monogamy and polygamy both offer  strengths and weaknesses within ones lifestyle, but one thing is for sure; no relationship is ever perfect.