Comparision of Charecters in the Poisonwood Bible and the Mosquito Coast

Comparison of characters from ‘The Poisonwood Bible' and ‘The Mosquito Coast ‘The Mosquito Coast', directed by Peter Weir, is a movie quite similar in many aspects to the book ‘The Poisonwood Bible', written by Barbara Kingsolver, one of those aspects being the similarities between the setting and the characters. In both books, the figure-head of the family, Allie Fox (in ‘The Mosquito Coast') and Nathan Price (from ‘The Poisonwood Bible') both have similar characteristics, however, different approaches to their ideas. For example, Nathan believes in forcing on his views and ways onto the Congolese people, however, Allie believes in cooperation with them to succeed in his goals. Both also seem incredibly lifelike as they seem like determined men who are willing to get to their goals at the beginning, however, they seem somewhat more lifelike when they loose something that is close, and become obsessed with their goals, forgetting the welfare of their own families. Both stories are about two families who leave America, their home country, to go to a foreign land. The two ‘heads', however, leave for very different reasons, but they do somewhat leave their families with no choice but to go with them. In ‘The Mosquito Coast', Allie takes his family to the Central American rain forests as a means to ‘escape' America and it's fate with the Atomic Bombs. Allie also believes that his scientific research is not of any value in America, and believes that his inventions would be more valued if they where taken into areas that have barely been touched by civilization. Nathan, however, leaves his family with no choice when he says that they are moving to the Congo as part of his missionary work. He was actually offered this job, and took it in good stride, believing that he should take his message to places which are less civilized. Nathan Price is a Baptist Minister who lives his life by the Bible. He believes that he is a coward for having escaped the fate of being killed in the Battaan Death March, where his whole team died, but he survive due to prior injuries. After that incident, Nathan became quite obsessed with the idea of God hating him for his cowardice. He vowed never to be a coward again and devoted his life to saving as many souls as he could. Nathan becomes so obsessed with his work that he believed that every obstacle in his way was a ‘test by God' to see his resilience. Allie, on the other hand, is an inventor, so claimed by his son, Charlie. He seems to be obsessed, yet thinks quite morally. Allie believes that America is dying, so he decides to leave as he thinks it is too ‘painful' for him to watch something he loves die. He gave the example of his mother, who was in hospital when she said ‘†Why don't you just give me rat poison? ‘†, whereupon Allie said that he left, as he could not bear watch loosing someone close. Both Nathan and Allie share the same obsession of getting to their goals. So much so, in fact, that they forget about their families welfare and safety almost completely. Even when There is a sudden turn of events, they seem undeterred by what they call their ‘destiny'. Nathan was unmoved by the death of Ruth-May as he sees the rain as an opportunity to baptize the locals, instead of mourn for his daughters loss. Nathan blames the fact that Ruth-May was not actually baptized, hence making her death somewhat ‘acceptable' to him. Allie believes the destruction of his machine was somewhat supported by Reverend Spellgood. Allie seems to be a very non-religious person, however, he does know the quotes of the Bible. This shows that Allie explores a few possibilities, yet he only decides to expand on those that he likes. In that manner, Nathan is somewhat unwise in his approach to helping the people. He decides, as soon as he arrives at his house in Kilanga, to set up an ‘American Garden', whereby he will make food for his family as well as show the the people of Kilanga his prosperity just because he does not worship false idols. Nathan attempts to almost force his ways and ideas onto the Congolese people. He seems unbent on his determination to show no cowardice, yet he does not seem willing to accept other ideas. At a point, he does see that Mama Tataba's technique to plant his beans seem to be more appropriate, and does actually implant those ideas. As time passes by, and he sees not much crowd in the Church, he slightly looses his mind and then decides that all his obstacles where placed by God to deter him and to test him. This is very contrary to what Allie does at the beginning of the movie. Although he may have moved from the USA and dragged his family along, he decides to take a different approach into making his way into the locals hearts. Where Nathan attempted to force his ways onto the locals and believed that he was superior, Allie decided to work with them. He said before the project began ‘†If I don't work hard enough, you tell me. I am not your boss, I am your friend, and I want to work for you†¦ ‘†. He may have planned out the project, but he certainly did work as though he were under instructions to do what he was told. He seemed very cooperative, and whenever Mother Fox got any materials to share, she enhanced her husbands popularity by sharing those goods, for example the cloth she was given by the missionaries. She made clothes for her daughters and noticed that Mr. Haddy, a local, was eying the cloth, she decided to make one for him. In the next scene, it shows that everyone on that small island was wearing the same yellow piece of cloth in some shape of form. Had Nathan been in this situation, he would probably have told his wife of for giving away their resources to the ‘unsaved' souls, yet he might also see it as a tactical move to make them go to Church. Allie took this in stride and made the most out of the people's gratitude towards their family by still making them work hard. Nathan and Allie both seem very lifelike characters in their own environments and also in the real world, they could be anywhere amongst us. Their obsessive and arrogant attitudes can be seen in quite a few people who seem quite determined to get what they want. Nathan seems very lifelike and rationale at the beginning, where the image of a determined Baptist Minister is portrayed. As the story progresses, that image becomes a haze and a more arrogant and devoted trait comes to light, towards the end, he seems possessed by his work, whereupon he forgets the welfare of his own family, remaining undeterred by the death of one of his own children. This, towards the end, seems slightly unrealistic and immoral. However, the presence of this possibility is definitely strong. Allie seems like a genuinely outgoing and friendly person at the beginning, and this is completely believable. Many people use the same cover of saying that they are all equal in order to get work done. His depression also seems very lifelike as he seems to be completely shattered when he sees his beloved Ice Machine blow up. Yet, towards the end, he does seem also obsessed with the idea of exploring new possibilities. He does go paranoid, thinking that his family is against him, so he forces them to sit on their home-turned-boat and decides to go upriver. When the rotor breaks away from the main engine, Allie goes underwater to get it. Due to his extended period underwater, his family worries and Charlie gets the idea of heading back downriver to get help from Mr. Haddy, and quite possibly also return to America. As soon as this idea is shared, Allie comes up and realizes that his own kids are conspiring against him, and punishes them for it. This seems extreme, yet absolutely possible for a man who seems to be addicted to his goal. Not only do Nathan and Allie share similarities, but also their wives. Both Orleanna and Mother always seem to be following their husbands orders, yet at a point, they both realize that what they are doing is wrong. Towards the beginning, both wives are happy to see their husbands working outside, Nathan in the garden and Allie in the jungle clearing space for his house. Orleanna seems to realize quicker on in the story that Nathan could potentially get them hurt, and decides to speak up. This, comparing to Mother's timing, seemed quite early. This could very likely due to the fact that Nathan seems uninterested in his family and Allie cares a lot about them. Mother only decides to go against Allie when they reach the Ocean and the whole family is rejoicing with the thoughts of returning to America, when Allie destroys their enthusiasm by saying that America isn't there and that they weren't going back. This made Mother question Nathans morality, whereupon the lack of enthusiasm spreads across the whole family. Allie goes from being a friend to a leader almost spontaneously. Orleanna starts to make plans of escape immediately after she gets better from hearing the news of the Congo going into an election period and that her family was staying through it, due to her husbands arrogance. She does eventually leave him, however, Nathan changes slightly in a way one may perceive apologetic. Allie, after burning Reverend Spellgood's church bell, goes back to see his family leaving him, and says that they couldn't live without them. When he gets shot, their family escapes with his injured body on the boat. All the characters in both the book and the movie seem incredibly lifelike as the stereotypical family is put into extreme conditions. This causes the stereotypical families, which generally include of the male being the leader f the house, the bread earner, and the females being the followers, commanding her children to follow her father and herself. This changes very quickly when the two families go through some trouble in their respective environments, causing the males to get angrier and the females to look out for the welfare of her children more than anything. Both men forget about the opinion of their families (Nathan, ofcourse, not caring about their opinion any ways), and seem set on doing everything possible, except return to the life of luxury.

Atlantic Aquaculture

Atlantic Aquaculture, Inc. Capital Budgeting with Staged Entry Question 1 A – Even though Atlantic Aquaculture already bought the land needed for 300,000 USD, its value today is 900,000 USD. We can therefore conclude the 900,000 USD is an opportunity cost as the land can be sold at this value. B – In this case it is best for the company to use the option to the land acquisition. By calculating the NPV the option is worth $-852,093. 66. Buying the land without the option would bring the company back to $-900,000. 00. We used a discount rate of 6%, as this is linked with the appreciation of the land annually.The calculation of the NPV can be found in Appendix A. Question 2 A – The R&D cash flows are $48,000 annually for the years 1998, 1999 and 2000. In 1996 we are able to shield taxes with the appreciation. At a tax rate of 40% this result in a tax shield worth $144,000. B – From the case is known that the salvage value will only be taxed when the buildings are actually sold, as long as the asset’s value is half of the book value the sale will go through with. Take note that a 40% tax rate is used to calculate the tax shield. C – The cash flows are shown in the Appendix B.Question 3 As can be seen in the Appendix C the large project, while taking into account a rwacc of 9% and the expectation that there will be high demand and high growth opportunities for the firm’s products; the Net Present Value of the firm will be $17,140,000. 00. An Internal Rate of Return will be realized of 25. 83%. Furthermore the MIRR is calculated as 21. 54% and the payback period of the project is 7. 05 years. Taking all other factors the same, when the firm is building a small facility, the NPV would be $11,723,000. 00, the IRR 23. 39%, the MIRR 18. 5% and the period in which the costs will be paid back 7. 18 years. Question 4 A – In the Appendix the decision trees are shown and the following elements deserve attention. The node s start with having high/low demand being 10,000 or 5,000 respectively. There is a 75% chance demand will be high, while 25% probability that demand will be low. The following pair of nodes, given differing probabilities (as can be seen in the Appendix) leads to the yearly cash flows. In de first years it is obvious that the cash flows are negative as the start-up investments have some weight on the cash flows.From 1998 onwards, as sales start to increase and costs decrease the flows of cash are positive. In row three and four the cash flows, given a low demand of 5,000 units sold with their corresponding probabilities. It is clear that the costs definitely outweigh the revenues for the first few years, more than in the ‘best-case’ term in rows one and two. Interesting to see that in the final row, there is only a positive cash flow recorded in the final year of the project. In this case we can explain the NPV values of all probabilities very straightforward.With the gi ven information the cash flows will be negative in case the demand will be low. However we need to make a remark on this simplification of the results. By calculating the expected NPV (which is the sum of the probabilities of each high/low demand occurring times their corresponding NPVs). This gives in the end a positive NPV so investors can assume this project will be successful. B – The abandonment lines basically represent a situation in which the project is stopped for continuation. What is interesting to notice is that the NPV of the project that continued are lower than the projects where the project was dismantled.Note too that this only applies to the situation in where a low demand is expected. The NPV in those cases when the projects are abandoned is equal to the salvage value of the equipment and buildings. C – As the flexibility of the project gets smaller, the NPV will get smaller and due to higher volatility the standard deviation will increase. Question 5 A – Due to the fact that there is an extra decision node the tree looks bigger. This extra decision is namely the decision to expand the plant or leave it in its current state. B – As this is not possible to trace back from the information we can retrieve from the case.As the decision to expand or not to expand lies at the responsibility of the managers at the firm, probabilities are not able to be calculated here. However, the manager will always choose the option with the higher NPV. Question 6 As can be seen from the given data, in terms of expected Net Present Values, the large plant seems to have a big advantage over the smaller project with NPVs of $9,028,000 and $8,062,000 respectively. On the risk side however the standard deviation of the small project is almost half of the large project. It is important to mention at this point that building a new plant appears riskier.In accordance to that one should use a risk adjustment incorporated in the cost of capita l which should be higher that the discount rate of the small project. Question 7 As the risk coefficient of the large project is 1. 15 and it is known that most projects of Atlantic lie between 0. 5 and 0. 7 the large project is considered to be a lot more risky compared to the small project which has a risk coefficient of just 0. 65. Question 8 The reassessment of possibilities has the consequence that standard deviation, covariance and NPV change as well.Lrge Plant| D=60% G=50%| D=75% G= 80%| D=90% G=90%| Small Plant| D=60% G= 50%| D=75% G=80%| D=90% G=90%| E(NPV)| 3327,95| 9028,20| 13459,36| E(NPV)| 6314,35| 8008,17| 10049,99| Std. Dev| 9827,17| 10341,43| 7869,12| Std. Dev| 4871,06| 5375,57| 4017,85| Coeff. Of Var. | 2,95| 1,15| 0,58| Coeff. Of Var. | 0,77| 0,67| 0,40| The results show that an increase in demand and growth probabilities for both of the plants (small and large) results in a higher expected NPV, lower standard deviation and lower correlation, leading to a higher ri sk- return payoff.Decreasing initial demand to 60% and high growth possibilities to 50% simultaneously, leads to a decrease in expected NPV, while increasing standard deviation and the covariance leading to a lower risk- return payoff. Furthermore, one can observe that in absolute and in relative terms, the impact on the small plant of increasing/decreasing initial demand and growth opportunities does not have as a great influence as on the large plant. Question 9 A sensitivity analysis can help to underline the most important factors affecting the success of a firm or a project.In this case we have articulated success in terms of NPV and have used input factors such as variable costs, units sold, sales price and WACC). With respect to the two different plants one can observe that NPV is relatively more sensitive to the mentioned factors in the case of the small plant. Furthermore, regarding the line of sales prices one can see that this is by far the line with the highest positive slope (coefficient), while fixed costs has the shallowest slope. The interpretation therefore is that sales prices have the biggest impact on expected NPV.Furthermore it is worth mentioning that the slope (and the impact) of WACC is quite high (negative) for the large plant. Since the variable costs for the large plant are lower at a rate of 60% compared to 65% of the small plant, one can observe that the sensitivity of the small plant’s NPV is also relatively high. Question 10 In the Case of scenario analysis it is important to mention that in contrast to the analysis mentioned above, probabilities are appointed to each of the different scenarios. Atlantic Aquaculture Inc. uses best and worst case scenarios (high initial demand/ low initial demand).In addition to that, a scenario analysis appoints a base case as well. This should be done utilizing a probability of 50% for the base scenario and probabilities for the best and worst should lie at 25% respectively. Independent f actors should again be inputs such as variable costs, units sold, sales price and the weighted average of the cost of capital. These inputs should be appointed to a realistic assessment of range they could approach to. The dependent variable logically should be the net present values of the different scenarios.In terms of the ranges of independent variables it should be noted, that these could be obtained by examining historical data of the company in addition to an examination and assessment of company and market environment. Question 11 A Monte Carlo simulation typically provides one with an overwhelmingly high amount of simulations, whereas a change of all the variables occurs on a random basis. However, only the average of these is of importance. The input incorporates the correlations of all the variables included. The output is then expressed in the form of samples of NPVs.It is perceived as a more sophisticated way of conducting a scenario analysis. However, it is also percei ved as very delicate in terms of the conduction itself. Question 12 Indeed the abandonment opportunity represents a real put option. This is due to the fact that the company can abandon the project and receive a terminal value. However, this is only reasonable if Atlantic Aquaculture Inc. sells the plant when the salvage value is higher than the value of the discounted future cash flows otherwise received from the project. In this case the real put option would be in the money and vice versa.Regarding the decision tree, with respect to the low demand and low growth opportunity for plan L one can see that the decision of abandonment or not changes the NPV of the project from $-9. 316. 000 to $-6. 711. 000. Regarding the scenario of low initial demand and high growth opportunities the choice to abandon changes the NPV from $-6. 940. 000 to $-6. 439. 000. In both cases it appears to be feasible to abandon the project, thus the value of the put option is positive. Plan S on the other si de represents a call option since one can decide to buy the facilities or not.Furthermore, the put option for the large plant can be calculated as follows: This leads us to a value of $546. 050, which indeed is positive. Question 13 In general, it can be said that both plans have a positive expected NPV overall. However, the smaller plant is the favorable option, since it provides Atlantic Aquaculture with the best risk- return payoff.. Furthermore, if opting for the large plant it is important to mention that the value of the put- option is positive, so in the worst case Atlantic Aquaculture should opt out when facing low initial demand and either low or high growth potential.However, it is also worth mentioning that a risk adjusted cost of capital should be incorporated when calculating for the NPV. Appendices Appendix A Appendix B Cash flows large firm| | | | | | | | | Year| 1996| 1997| 1998| 1999| 2000| 2001| 2002| 2003| 2004| Net income| 0| 0| 436| 438| 1122| 1806| 2521| 3202| 3990| Depreciation| 0| 0| 954| 1566| 1146| 846| 630| 630| 630| Op cash flow| 0| 0| 1390| 2004| 2268| 2652| 3151| 3832| 4620| Cap cash flow| -1044| -12300| -427| -496| -574| -711| -814| -931| 7397| Net cash flow| -1044| -12300| 962| 1509| 1694| 1940| 2337| 2900| 43940| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Cash flows small firm| | | | | | | | | Year| 1996| 1997| 1998| 1999| 2000| 2001| 2002| 2003| 2004| Net income| 0| 0| 1083| 919| 1129| 1298| 1440| 1506| 1575| Depreciation| 0| 0| 553| 920| 668| 488| 359| 359| 359| Op cash flow| 0| 0| 1636| 1840| 1798| 1787| 1799| 1865| 1934| Cap cash flow| -1044| -8364| -95| -100| -106| -160| -167| -173| 4510| Net cash flow| -1044| -8364| 1542| 1739| 1691| 1626| 1632| 1691| 19042| Appendix C | LARGE FIRM| SMALL FIRM| WACC| 9. 00%| 9. 00%| NPV| $17. 140| $7. 633| IRR| 25. 83%| 22. 78%| MIRR| 21. 54%| 17. 92%| PAYBACK | 7. 05 years| 6. 97 years|

Canute the Great

What role did religion play in Canute’s leadership? 5 What were Canute’s strengths and weaknesses? 6 Conclusion8 References9 Canute the Great Introduction Canute was a Viking king. He was son of Sweyn Forkbeard, the king of Denmark. Canute ascended the Danish throne upon the death of his father in 1018. But in 1016, as the prince of Denmark Canute successfully conquered England. Thus by the time Canute became the king of Denmark he was the king of a vast empire that included England, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, parts of Sweden and Germany from 1018 to 1035. He came into power during a time of turmoil but Canute established an era of peace and prosperity to a once divided kingdom. His rule was known as a peaceful and orderly time throughout his entire kingdom. By the time of his death in 1035, Canute was not only known as a successful king but also a monarch and religious figure. This report will discuss the achievements of Canute, his strengths and weaknesses and how religion played a role in victorious leadership. What achievements did Canute the Great make? One of Canute’s greatest achievements was he was successfully able to use his skill as a leader and military commander and become the ruler of an empire that included England, Denmark, Norway, western Sweden, and northern Germany. Although Canute was a Dane ruling English land one of his other great achievements was bringing peace and prosperity to England. Over the twenty years of his reign Canute ensured that the ties of England and Denmark were strong and good. Canute also developed and maintained a strong legal and fiscal system to ensure his empire was orderly and calm. Even though Canute was a Viking and during the early part of his reign he was very ruthless, and his actions were barbaric he became a wise ruler who made many great decisions that benefited his empire. For example, he secured recognition from three Scottish kings after 1027. He also made English trade more profitable by controlling the Baltic trade root. In addition, Canute was able to obtain a reduction in tolls and charges for people wanting to travel to Rome for pilgrimage. This highlights Canute’s achievements in foreign affairs. Canute was also known as a religious king and he his achievements in promoting Christianity was seen for example when he encouraged the church to undertake missionary work in Scandinavia. Canute also ensured that those who were not Christians we not punished and was able to work with them for the benefit of his country. For example, he led an army that was largely mostly pagans and thus created a rule that was peaceful and orderly. Canute made many great achievements but perhaps one Canute’s greatest achievements was winning the English crown. England was a land in ruin in 1013 and only a strong and powerful king could unite this divided nation. The people of England recognised that only Canute had the will and power to unite their land and in 1016 Canute was declared king of England in Lincolnshire. What role did religion play in Canute’s leadership? Canute was an extremely religious king who was known for his close relationship with the church. He associated himself with key religious figures such as Wulfstan, the Archbishop of York. He was also known for his generosity toward the church, giving impressive gifts and relics to the English Church. One of the highlights of Canute’s leadership and association to the church was his pilgrimage to Rome to visit Pope John XIX, in 1026. During Canute’s reign, the Church was an extremely powerful and influential organisation. Canute recognised that he needed to ally himself with the Church, not only be accepted by the people as their Christian King but also to ensure that he was able to retain his power as a ruler. He knew that in order to avoid a conflict with the church and its followers he had be a friend of this very powerful religious organisation. Canute was a clever and effective ruler and led many successful military campaigns. Although Canute was a religious King, he did not punish those who were not of the Christian faith. For example, Canute’s army were mostly pagans and yet Canute was an effective military leader and was accepted by his men as a Christian monarch. This shows how clever Canute was in using religion to guide his leadership. Many however questioned Caute’s motives on showing himself to be a devoted Christian and a close friend of the Church. They thought that Canute allied himself with the church in order to be able to consolidate and retain the power he held as the ruler of his vast Empire. Despite controversy over Canute’s reasons for being Christian, history books say his treatment of the church was very sincere. For example, Canute repaired churches and monasteries that had been looted by his army and also built new ones. Although it is hard to know whether Canute was sincerely religious or he used the Church to his own benefit, what is clear is that Canute used religion and the power of the church to consolidate his leadership. What were Canute’s strengths and weaknesses? Canute was a ruler who showed both strengths and weaknesses. His weaknesses lead him to commit acts that tarnished his character as a great king. His strengths as a ruler allowed him to rule his empire, which included England, Denmark, Norway, and parts of Sweden, effectively and history has recorded him as one of the greatest kings. One of Canute’s main strengths was his strong management skill. For example, history books all recognize Canute’s ability to skilfully manage the wealth and resources of his empire very cleverly. He also managed his finances very well. For example, the coinage system was carefully controlled by his administration. In addition, Canute although a Danish ruler, understood the English political system very well. This was one of his greatest strengths as it helped him to keep control of his large diverse empire that included not only England, Norway, and Denmark but also parts of Sweden. Canute was also recognized as a strong military leader. Although he had very little knowledge of how to lead, control, and guide an army. In addition, unlike many other young kings, Canute had no second in command that could advice and support him. Despite this, Canute was very skilful at managing men and was able to lead a successful army. Canute was also seen as an opportunist, who took every chance he could get to accumulate power and expand his empire. He always took advantage of political and military opportunities. He was cunning and accumulated power strategically. For example, he married his daughter to the Roman Emperor. This action shows that Canute was also a very clever politician and diplomat. Canute’s greatest weakness was his ruthless character; he didn’t stop at anything. For example, at the very beginning of his rule over England, he gave estates belonging to English nobles’ to reward his Danish followers. This made the English unhappy. He also engineered the death of Edmunds brother Eadwig and had some prominent Englishmen killed and outlawed. Although Canute’s ruthlessness may be seen as a bad character trait it was important to have a leader that has that much drive in order to have a secure empire. Some people viewed Canute as a very short-sighted leader. For example, when he gave three of his earls; Godwin, Leofric, and Siward high power in order to gain their favour and support. This caused a lot of internal fighting between the three families and threatened to weaken Canute’s control of his Empire. In spite of these weaknesses Canute was a great leader who established and maintained prosperity and peace in his kingdom. Conclusion In conclusion, although Canute could have been remembered as a ruthless Viking Danish king who ruled by brutal force, he is remembered instead as a Great King because of the peace and prosperity he brought to his people. Through his many strengths Canute united a divided England and ruled over an Empire that included the people of Denmark, Norway parts of Sweden, Germany and England successfully. This required a ruler that was strong and powerful and wise and Canute was all of these. Canute’s diplomatic skills and military talent allowed him to be one of the greatest kings of his times. He is remembered as a Great ruler who brought peace and prosperity to his people.

Personal and Professional Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Personal and Professional Development - Essay Example According to Attwood, â€Å"The personal development plan generally involves the answering of a few questions or rather self examination by reevaluating to know where the person is at the moment, what their goals are, and the method that they are going to use to reach where they intend† (Attwood, 2006, 137). The report is bound to reveal how my personal development goals have been natured, the actions I have taken and their outcomes. There were a number of problems that I faced in the development of the plan. One of them was in the application of effective creative thinking for apposite solutions. So that my self assessment could have been best, I decided to use the people closest to me for their opinion. I did this by offering questionnaires to my family and acquaintances. This diagnostic method is the one that made me reach the conclusion that I have a difficulty in applying creative thinking in my endeavors and the manner of reaching appropriate solutions. With lack of the diagnostic method, I could not have recognized this hidden problem. This scrutiny of my strengths and weaknesses was very effectiveness in that it was effective in that it helped me understand myself further. After completing the questionnaire part, I moved on to complete the Johari Window. The Johari Window as explained by West is a â€Å"method that was used and is still used by scientists to help human beings understand their capabilities better and recognize their mental conditions by acknowledging different areas of the mind†.(West, 2010, 43). The results of this technique matched those of the questionnaires to a great margin as it recognized my weakness in the application of creative thinking and the solution of my problems. The last step that I took was the completion of a Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threat analysis (SWOT). â€Å"This SWOT analysis is very effective in establishing the development plan to an optimum manner† (Furnham, 2010, 183). The S WOT analysis just like the other two techniques that I had put into use revealed that I was weak when it comes to my creative. I was found to poorly relate with people when asked questions that required me to think to a larger extent. My strong point was noted to be the point where I have the general thinking ability. â€Å"This is relative as many human beings tend to bear greater general thinking ability than creative ability† (Sandler, 2009, 67). My Opportunities are well defined in that I can improve in my creative thinking category by paying more attention. My threat on the other hand is if my general thinking capacity exceeds my creative thinking one. My action plan for this problem involves the sieving of outside ideas. According to Attwood, â€Å"sieving of outside ideas is important to assist in the attainment of concentration which is the clear pathway to creative thinking† (Attwood, 2006, 167). Another common problem that I faced was the analysis ability of reports. The upside of this is that it was a problem that I had identified earlier in life and hence I was in the process of resolving it. I face the problem of explaining situations or rather any other matter that I intend to in another language. The action plan in this case involves the consistent study of a language to assist achieve offer a fluent language for effective communication. In the analysis of reports, the way to go bout this is to spend more time in the reading of journals and the analysis of

Economics and Business of the Asia Pacific Region Essay

Economics and Business of the Asia Pacific Region - Essay Example The country focused on enhancing its economic situation by introducing positive alterations in its income, output along with employment. The reform also aimed at altering the economic structure of China fostering foreign trade to a large extent from. It can be stated that the post-Mao reforms in China were more focused on the reorganizing the economic structure which tends to restrict sustainable development. Thus, the purposes and objectives relevant to the restructuring can be observed as strongly associated with the economic expansion and progress during the late 1970s (Liou, 1998). On the other hand, the strategy of open door was intended to lure the foreign investors, highly developed technology along with management expertise to the cities of China as well as the coastal regions. This restructuring policy implemented in the post-Mao reform had a significant influence and contribution towards the overall economic growth of China, its economic composition and the distribution of the economic actions in the national stage as well as in the local stage. It is worth mentioning that the contribution of this policy was more apparent in a few specific local regions that that in the overall national environment (Weng, 1998). These development policies contributed greatly towards the enhancement of the macroeconomic functions and the living standards of the residents in China. For instance during 1978 to 1995, the Chinese economy was observed to attain rapid growth which was recorded in majority of the facets of the different economic indicators such as, gross national product by 9.8 percent, boost in per capita GNP by 8.3 percent, boost in the total production value in terms of agriculture by 6.6 percent and boost in the industries total production value by 15.0 percent. This entailed an annual boost of the overall economic performance and thus played a key role in enhancing the living standards as well as macroeconomic functions within the country (Mauri, 2008; L iou, 2000). In addition, the post-Mao economic restructures not only had a positive effect on the Chinese economy but also had a direct as well as an indirect consequence on the other facets that formed the part of the Chinese society including the state-society relations.  

Sociological Concepts on War in the Middle East Essay

Sociological Concepts on War in the Middle East - Essay Example Wars can be considered as a serious social problem as it has been responsible for many sociological issues. The wars that have been fought result in degeneration and loss of life and property. During war people become disheartened and they resort to all kinds of violations to correct the authorities in power. People become the preys of exploitation and anarchy in times of war. The social challenges that the wars raise are matchless with out any remedies. People are grabbed by the aftermath of the war by becoming widows, orphans etc. The social threat that the war raises is dissatisfaction and degeneration of the society and people. The status of people gets degenerated and they have to suffer a lot to get out of the social evil of wars. Due to the anarchy during the times of the war people get addicted to alcohol and many other drugs. The wars that are fought in the Middle East had great lessons to teach the modern world. But people are indifferent to the adverse impacts of war. They behave as if they are ignorant of the aftermaths of the war. The loss of life and property due to never ending war is quite beyond the imagination of human beings. The paper is dedicated to the analysis of global images of sociological concepts on war in the Middle East. Apart from war there are a number of other social problems that the word faces today. All these social problems are social issues that every country suffers in the present day. Though there are a number of corrective measures adopted by the authorities they are not adequate to meet the essential requirements. Any country that suffers from any of these social problems can not be considered secure as it lags much behind social progress that of the expected rate. These social problems stand as a hindrance to the growth and development of the country. If a nation wants to attain fast development in every field it should be free from all these negative factors. The social problems are actually the negative factors that pull the countries backward from development. The major social problems that many nations suffer are poverty, unemployment and under employment, beggary, prostitution, war etc. . (Jamail). The image shows how adversely common people are affected by the social problem war. They are a few social problems that deserve mention. There are a number of other social problems to be mentioned. But comparatively they are less severe than those mentioned above. Poverty is a social evil that grabs the society in the modern world. It is a global issue to be taken care of and to be removed. Whole world is now under the clutches of poverty. The rate at which poverty grows is highly alarming and authorities try to find remedy for the social evil of poverty. But no remedial measure is sufficient and foolproof as it lacks popular support. Unemployment and underemployment are other two social evils which put much burden on people. When people have no jobs they would resort to meanest things to find a living. It affects the status of the country and its people. Begging is another social issue that almost all the developing countries face. Poverty and unemployment are the two reasons responsible for begging. The authorities can reduce the number of people who have resorted to begging by providing more and more job opportunities. The main reason behind the global social problem of prostitution is the lack of employment and less salary of the employed persons. People who resort to

Proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Proposal - Essay Example ed to this are an increase in competition marketing cheaper imported goods; competitors using modern, and therefore more catchy business practices; and improved systems and methods to help to decrease their costs and the constantly changing demands of modern consumers, as well as a major depletion of customer awareness. The difficulties currently hampering QLG is that if they do not take immediate action, they will only be faced with more decreases in market share and profitability. We must also be prepared for continual losses of important and highly skilled staff members, as well as deterioration in the overall business performance and profitability. Our proposal outlines a progressive five stage process to address the objectives as identified by Queensland Leisure Group executives during the consultation process. These five stages will create positive change in a number of key areas: Business model change: QLG needs a flatter, more functional business structure which will reduce labour costs and increase flexibility to help them respond more quickly to the rapidly changing external environment, Following the analysis that we, NAHN Consulting, have completed, we have prepared this proposal for you which we believe will provide you with the guidance, tools and support that will greatly improve your current performance. We have forecast an improvement of 5% increase in your Net Profit in 2011 followed by a further 10% in 2012 based on the implementation of our proposed changes. It is also our firm belief that with these improvements you will increase your ability to attract and retain key talented staff members which will reduce costs associated with recruitment and training of new staff. The value to your organisation in meeting these objectives includes improving the overall productivity level and decreasing the costs of manual labour. In addition, the enthusiasm of human capital will be greatly increased, and employees will be more pleased, which will lead

An Exploration of Protestant Conservatism in South Korea Essay

An Exploration of Protestant Conservatism in South Korea - Essay Example The second article is â€Å"Sibling Rivalry in Twentieth Century Korea: Comparative Growth Rates of Catholics and Protestants† written by Donald Baker. The first article examines the growth of North Korean protestant church in South Korea with emphasis on Presbyterian denomination. In the article, the author Kang In- Cheol (157-190) accessed the influence of the protestant denomination and people that immigrated into South Korean republic on the prominent social political conservatism culture that has consistently defined the country from 1950s to date. South Korea has undergone profound political and social changes from 1950 that played a critical part in determining the role of the protestant church in the country. According to Kang In- Cheol (159), the major historical period that defined the protestant church influence on the country’s social political landscape was eight-year duration between liberation and the conclusion of the Korean War. During this period, Sout h Korea recorded unprecedented immigrants from the North Korea. These immigrants constituted the largest proportion of the extreme conservatives that continues to define the country’s social political climate for the last six decades. The Wolnam Protestants was the other most influential conservative group in South Korea (Kang In- Cheol, 163). According to Kang In- Cheol (167), wolnam group originated from the northwest region of Korean peninsula. The group is the most politically conservative inside the protestant church in South Korea. From the first article, it apparent that the protestant groups from North Korea have had a major influence in social political environment of south Korea since 1950s. Several factors contributed to the immense influence and control of the protestant groups from North Korea on South Korean church. According to Kang In- Cheol (185), the large sizes of the immigrant groups and their capacity to reorganize and integrate successfully within the So uth Korean society played a critical role in solidifying their conservative power in the adopted country. The immigrant protestant groups from North Korea capitalized on the growing internal conflict within the South Korean protestant churches to enhance their authority within the country’s religious structure. The ability to network and reconnect with foreign religious missionaries in South Korea enhanced the influence of incoming Protestant denominations in the country remarkably. The networking provided the Protestant Church with necessary funds for expansion and other logistical support that enhanced their appeal and influence in the South Korean society. Moreover, the â€Å"non-regional presbytery† system granted the incoming protestant churches from North Korea and other Wolnam Protestant group significant powers that enabled them solidify their influence in South Korea (Kang In- Cheol 174). Furthermore, non-regional presbytery system enhanced solidarity of the p rotestant churches within and across different protestant denominations. The above-mentioned factors promoted the social and political conservativism associated with the protestant denominations and enhanced their capacity to overcome difficult times that the church underwent when it split into different factions especially in the 1970s. The significant growth of protestant denominations in South Korea demonstrates the tremendous influence that foreign churches possess in the spread of a particular religion. Although political and social environment of the

Answer Case Study Question Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Answer Case Study Question - Assignment Example It would also be appropriate for the firm to reserve enough funds for speculative purposes so as to grab any investment opportunities that may come up the countries where they start up their new branches. Funds to cover any calamities that may arise are also vital for the firm. The company should put into consideration the cost of labour in the countries where they plan to start branches. There are countries where the trade unions and government policies place very high minimum wages for labourers making the cost of labour high. There are also countries where the governments provide some amount of money for the unemployed. In such countries, people tend to only accept jobs that pay beyond certain amounts. These issues make cost of labour relatively high and the company should not invest in such countries. Availability of raw materials required by the firm for its production process is also an important factor. In countries where the raw materials are readily available, production will be much cheaper compared to countries where the raw materials have to be outsourced from elsewhere. In outsourcing raw materials, transportation costs and custom duty are incurred thereby increasing the cost of production. Where the resources are relatively scarce, the forces of demand and supply tend to raise their prices increasing the cost of production. The firm should also consider the economic status of the countries where they plan to start new branches. Countries facing recessions have low per capita income translating to lower purchasing power of its citizens. This may bring about low demand for goods and services leading to the company making losses due to poor sales of its products. In counties with stable economies, the chances of making profits are much higher hence more attractive for firms planning to go global. The company should also consider the level of technology in the various countries.

Hockey Sport Essay Example for Free

Hockey Sport Essay Hockey is a fast, exciting sport played by two teams on a sheet of ice called a rink. Each team has six players on the ice, one goalie, two defensemen, two wingers, and one center man. The players skate up and down the ice shooting or passing a hard rubber disk called a puck with sticks. They score points by hitting the puck into the net. Hockey is much faster and swifter than any other sport. As the players streak across the ice, their powerful shots and passes can send the puck faster than 100 miles [160 kilometers] per hour. A goalkeeper on each team defends his net from the puck going in. They must often make quick slides across the on their skates, stomachs, knees or backs to stop the puck from going into the net. A puck that crosses the goal line is a called a goal and scores a point for the other team. The side that scores the most goals wins the game. To keep the action fast, hockey has an unusual rule. It is the only major sport that allows players to change or substitute during play. The game is rough and includes lots of hitting and some fights, although fighting is against the rules. The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Romans, and Arabs, perhaps among the earliest of stick-and-ball games, played forms of hockey. A sport similar to hockey, called Hurling, is known to have been played during the 1st millennium in Ireland, and other Europeans in the Middle Ages adopted similar sports. The historians don’t know for certain where the name Hockey came from. But most of them thought the name hockey have been adapted by the English from the French word hoquet (shepherds crook). How ever was the name first given to the sport in the 18th century, but was not in common usage until the 19th century. Hockey then started in Canada in the mid-1800s. By the 1900s it had become Canadas national sport. Since then, hockey has become popular in many other countries including Russia, Sweden and the United States. Hockey is grouped in many different divisions including minor hockey, which is grouped into age categories, SJHL, WHL, OHL and IHL, which involve the smaller cities in province or state, and NHL, which involve the bigger, better known cities in Canada and the United States. Each period begins with a face-off at the center face-off spot. A face-off also starts play again after it has been stopped for any reason. During play, the puck must normally be kept moving. If it is hit over the boards, held by the goalie, out of the referees sight, frozen between opposing players, or is otherwise temporarily out of play, an official blows a whistle for a face-off. A player may move the puck along the ice, pass it to a teammate, or shoot it at the goal, but rules limit these plays in certain ways. One extremely important rule states that no player of the attacking team may be in the attacking zone ahead of the puck. One player must carry or shoot the puck across the attacking blue line before any other player on the team crosses the blue line. For violations of this rule, an official signals the offending team offside and conducts a face-off in the neutral zone. A player may pass to a teammate anywhere in the same zone. The player may also pass from the defending zone to a teammate in their teams half of the neutral zone. If the pass is received past the centerline an official signals the pass offside and conducts a face-off where the play began. Hockey requires a variety of skills. They include checking, skating, passing, stick handling and shooting. Checking is the way a player takes the puck away from the opponent. There are two main types of checks: stick checks and body checks. For a stick check the player uses his stick to hook or poke the puck away from the opponent. In a body check the player bumps against the opponent with a hip or a shoulder to try any block the opponents progress or throw the opponent off balance. Both stick checking and body checking are allowed only against a player in control of the puck or the last player to control it. Skating is the most important hockey skill. Players must be able to turn sharply, skate backwards and perform many other maneuvers while skating at top speed. They must be able to do this with their head up and while stick handling the puck. Passing occurs when a player who has the puck passes it to another player. In most cases the players use their sticks to propel the puck toward the receiver. These passes are either flat passes or flip passes. To make a flat pass the player sends the puck traveling along the surface of the ice. To make a flip pass the player causes it to rise off the ice to avoid interception by an opponent. Sometimes the passer simply leaves the puck behind, so that a teammate can get it, this is called a drop pass. Stick handling is the use of the stick to control the puck. The player first moves the puck with one side of the blade and then with the other side while skating. The player makes some sweeps of the stick some wide and some narrow. In this way the player keeps the opponent guessing as to the next move and also makes it difficult to steal the puck. Shooting is the skill needed to drive the puck into the net and score goals. Most shots are either wrist shots or slap shots. In a wrist shot the blade does not leave the ice. The player uses strong wrist action to propel the puck. For a slap shot the player raises the stick for a back swing and brings it down against the puck with great force. Slap shots are more powerful but less accurate than wrist shots. Offside plays and icing account for most violations of the rules. For these violations, the offending team risks losing control of the puck in the resulting face-off. For more serious violations, players receive penalties ranging from two minutes in the penalty box to removal from the game, but each team must always have at least four players on the ice. If a third player is penalized while two teammates are in the penalty box, a substitute may replace the player on the ice. A teammate may serve the goaltenders penalty. Hockey has five main kinds of penalties: minor penalties, major penalties, misconduct penalties, match penalties and penalty shots. Minor penalties are given for violations like holding, tripping or hooking resulting in two minutes in the penalty box. The team must play short-handed until the time is up or the other team scores. But if the same minor penalty is awarded against players on both teams they sit for the full to minutes and two different players may replace them on the ice. Major penalties are given mainly for fighting or cutting or drawing blood with a stick, they result in five minutes in the penalty box. The penalized team must play short-handed for the full five minutes, but if a player on each team receives a major penalty at the same time, substitutes may replace both players on the ice. Misconduct penalties are given mainly toward the improper treatment towards an official, which results in ten minutes in the penalty box, but a substitute may replace the penalized player. A game misconduct penalty is given mainly for more serious offences against officials. Match penalties are given for deliberately injuring or attempting to injure an opponent. The offending player is removed for the rest of the game and usually given extra penalty minutes depending on the severity of the incident, which a player on that team has to serve. Penalty shots are free shots at the opposing goal defended by only the goalie. They are awarded against the defending team when an attacking player throws his stick or is pulled down from behind and is so prevented from taking the shot. Those are the rules and regulations of the fun and exciting game of hockey.

Soil stabilization with lime in road construction

Soil stabilization with lime in road construction Soil Stabilization with lime Lime is another fundamental soil material that has been widely used as soil stabilizer for road pavement construction. Limestone is a soil material that discovered from sedimentary rock combining of high levels of calcium and magnesium carbonate composition as other small amounts of minerals. This is the extraction of underground mines and quarries all around the world. Therefore, the lime can be very cheap, it can be found everywhere in many countries. There is no transportation between long distances and it normally used to create a capping layer of road pavement from appropriate in- situ soils. In some road pavements, lime is considered to be a subbase layers that appeared the first part of a two part construction process using ordinary Portland cement and ground blast furnace cement. In general, the plasticity of soil material can be decreased by treating the performance of fine-grained soils. Once, the characteristic or physical property been changed, an improvement of workability needs to be made and also the volume of the material needs to be reduced. in addition, the strength of lime is basically depended on many elements such as curing time, curing temperature, water content and percentage of lime content. Types of lime. There are many types of lime have been introduced as soil stabilizer for road pavement. However, several types of lime have been commonly used there are dolomitic lime, calcitic quicklime, dolomitic quicklime and hydrated high-calcium lime respectively. The high calcium hydrated lime is used more often, this is because the hydrated lime is much less caustic than quicklime, the high calcium hydrated lime is a dry powder that made by a chemical reaction of quicklime with water to ensure natural affinity of the quicklime for moisture content. Easy to form the hydrated lime that is suspended or mud, often the process of pumping a variety of positions within the industrial plant. The alkaline as a result, having a pH of 12.4. Most hydrated limes have a combination of 75 percent cao and 25 percent H2O.Hydrated lime is used in a variety of industrial applications including water treatment, as an anti-stripping agent in asphalt, and in soil stabilization. Some hydrated limes are sold into the food grade market as well. Advantage The advantage of using lime as a soil stabilizer is basically concerned with many reasons such as reduced construction or operational cost during process of the project especically, reduce water use energy consumption and a reduction of Co2 emissions as well as saving time of operational processes. Stabilization with Lime-Fly Ash (LF) and Lime-Cement-Fly Ash (LCF). There is little for coarse-grained soils in soil stabilisation that can be achieved by the use of a combinations of LF or LCF. Lime -Fly Ash is also known as Coal ash which is a part of mineral residual from the burning of crushed coal. It is a combination of aluminum and silicon compounds. Once mixed with water anf lime, the mixture of soil can be created a strengthened cementitious mass accomplished of containing high compressive strengths. A combination of lime and fly-ash can also be used comomly as a soil stabiliser for stabilizering grainy materials when the lime can react with the fly-ash produced a agent. The combination of LF or LCF as a soil stabilisation is suitable for road base and sub-base materials. In gerneal,the appearance of Lime-Fly Ash or Lime-Cement-Fly Ash both them looks almost the same to the appearance of cement. When Fly Ash appear as circular particles that looks like a ball bearing while cement appears angular that looks like a crushed rock more. In addtion, Fly Ash contains strengthened cementitious quality so it can be used to replace the cement in a cement mix. Fly Ash can easily replace the cement in the concrete mixes that is good for saving costs during a soil stailisation process. There is another problem that needs to be considered once Fly-Ash as a soil stabiliser. The compressive strength of concrete mix with Fly-ash is approximately the same to the compressive strength of concrete without Fly-ash. There may be a slight decrease in compressive strength in the first, and then there is a slight increase after the first two weeks. Types of fly ash There are two different types of Fly-ash have been introducted to soil stabilisation or construction industry, type C and type F respectively. Type C Fly-ash is come from the combustion of lignite or subbituminous coal and the type C Fly-ash is also called as â€Å"high lime ash†this is because a high percentage of lime is contained in type C Fly-ash. The type C Fly-ash is a pozzolanic substance, when it is self-reactive with water . Type F Fly-Ash is produced from the combustion of anthracite or bituminous coal and sometimes it is known as â€Å"low lime† ash.It is required the addition of lime to make a reaction to produce a pozzolanic substance. TYPE F Provide sulfate resistance of cement equal to or better than Type V cement. Effectively controls heat gain during concrete curing. TYPE C When type C fly-Ash adds into the concrete mixes, it will contains a early strengths this is becuuse it contains its own amount of lime. Under this circumstance, it requires pozzolanic reaction to be started reacting eailer. Advantage; There are many advantages of using Fly-ash that concerned with the manufacturing of concrete pipe which contains a greater density of the concrete.the peremebility of a construction project can be improved by using a more dense concrete mix and reduce the probability of infiltration. Finaly, the workability of the project can also be improved by using Fly-ash material. A fly ash concrete mix will generally gain strength more slowly at early ages. After about seven days, the rate of strength gain of fly ash concrete exceeds that of conventional concrete, enabling equivalent strength at 28 days. This higher rate of strength gain continues over time enabling fly ash concrete to produce higher ultimate strength than can be achieved with conventional concrete. Stabilization with Bitumen Soil Stabilization with Bitumen which is an aggregate contains bitumen. It has a big difference in appearance when it compared to cement and lime soil stabilisation. The mechanism of bitumen is basically concerned with fine-grained soil that is a sealing or waterproofing phenomenon. The bitumen is coated by soil particles that can reduce the strengths of Soil by slowing down the penetration of water. In some construction project, the bitumen for soil stabilisation is widely used for bitumen bound pavement that is normally less than any other purpose of using. Normally, the bitumen for soil stabilisation will contain approximately about 4-8% of the soil without any water content. TYPES OF BITUMEN. Sand bitumen: a mixture of sand and asphalt, of which the sand particles cemented together, provide a more stable material. Bitumen with aggregate: asphalt mixture gradation and a good gravel or artificial aggregates, after compaction, provides a highly stable sub-base or water quality based on the quality of course. Bitumen with lime: a mixture of lime, soil and bitumen after a soil compaction, the compacted soil mixture may has characteristics of the bitumen treated materials that will contains a high PI value. In general, there are several types of bitumen used for soil stabilization. The type of bitumen which is to be used that based or depended on the different type of soil need to be used as a stabilizer, the processing for a road pavement construction and operational or weather conditions. Frost areas, tar as a binder, should be kept away because of its high temperature sensitivity. The asphalts substance can be slightly influenced by a change in temperature. According to a specific soil experiment, a good result can be perfectly achieved by the soil mixed quickly with liquid asphalt which is the stickiest one. One of the higher qualities for soil mixture that used for a central plant, the sticky grade asphalt cement should be used. There are many soil bituminous stabilization needs to be operated in a place where the bitumen material can be used directly for the soil and soil compaction can also easily be done during construction process. Emulsion is highly recommended to use in a soil stabilization construction, because of energy limitation and reduction of pollution control efforts. For a road pavement project, the engineer needs to decide what kind of the type of bitumen would be used that is based on operational or weather conditions and the cost of the project as well as the different types of equipment in the construction. There are several types of bitumen are introduced as below that would be used for the soil gradation indicated: Open-graded aggregate Rapid- and medium-curing liquid asphalts RC-250, RC-800, and MC-3000. Medium-setting asphalt emulsion MS-2 and CMS-2. Well-graded aggregate with little or no material passing the No. 200 sieve Rapid and medium-curing liquid asphalts RC-250, RC-800, MC-250, and MC-800. Slow-curing liquid asphalts SC-250 and SC-800. Medium-setting and slow-setting asphalt emulsions MS-2, CMS-2, SS-1, and CSS-1. Aggregate with a considerable percentage of fine aggregate and material passing the No. 200 sieve Medium-curing liquid asphalt MC-250 and MC-800. Slow-curing liquid asphalts SC-250 and SC-800. Slow-setting asphalt emulsions SS-1, SS-01h, CSS-1, and CSS-lh. For many road pavement design, the engineer use the bituminous stabilization which is the application of liquid to construct surface of an unbound aggregate road. There are SC-70, SC-250, MC-70, and MC-250 are respectively applied to the slow and medium curing liquid bitumen. Gradations for soil stabilization There are several soil gradations which is highly recommended to used for sub-grade base or sub-basematerial as show below in two tables Recommended gradations for bituminous stabilized sub-grade materials Recommended gradations for bituminous-stabilized base and sub-base materials MIX DESIGN In many soil stabilizations with a sub-grade material, there is one equation that needs to be applied for identifying the groundwork quantity of falloff asphalt. The equation as shown below: p = ((0.02(a) + 0.07(b) + 0.15(c) + 0.20(d))/(100 S)) X 100 Where, p = percent cutback asphalt by weight of dry aggregate a = percent of mineral aggregate retained on No. 50 sieve b = percent of mineral aggregate passing No. 50 sieve and retained on No. 100 sieve c = percent of mineral aggregate passing No. 100 and retained on No. 200 sieve d = percent of mineral aggregate passing No. 200 S = percent solvent The initial number of emulsified asphalt Once soil stabilization with sub-grade materials need to be involved in a road construction. The initial quantity of emulsified asphalt also needs to use for the sub-grade materials that can be determined by a table as shown below: Emulsified asphalt requirements For the final design stage the content of emulsified asphalt that need to be chosen based on the experimental results of the Marshal Stability testing. The test is used to determine the Marshall stability of bituminous mixture. There is a minimum requirement of Marshall Stability which required for sub-grade is 500 pounds. Once, the recommended quantities of bituminous materials need be added, if appearance of increased Marshall Stability is not shown for the soil particles, the soil gradation would be identified with more details or another type of bituminous materials need to be applied as a soil stabilizer. STABILIZATION WITH LIME-CEMENT AND LIME-BITUMEN In a road pavement construction project, the advantage of using combination stabilizers is that one of the stabilizers does not perform its effectiveness properly, the other one is able to compensate when treating a specified characteristics of a given soil. For example, lime has been used frequently with stabilizers such as asphalt or Portland cement in order to provide base courses for clay areas. Since plastic clays is not totally compatible with asphalt or Portland cement and the lime cannot corporate into the soil to make it friable, therefore, asphalt and the cement can be effectively mixed. Stabilization practice might be more expensive than conventional single stabilizer methods, but it could be still reasonably priced at places where base aggregate costs are high. There are many different types of cement as a soil stabilizer. But in this case study, two combinations of cement particle are concerned with lime-cement and lime-asphalt respectively. LIME-CEMENT Lime can be used as an initial additive with Portland cement or the primary stabilizer. The main effects lime gives is to reduce the plasticity of the soil. The main approach is to add enough lime I order to reduce the plasticity index to satisfactory levels. LIME-ASPHALT Lime can be used as an initial additive with asphalt or the primary stabilizer. The main effects lime gives is to act as an anti- stripping agent. In the layer capacity, the lime acts to neutralize acidic chemicals in the soil or aggregate which tends to interfere with bonding of the asphalt. 1-2 percent lime is basically needed for this objective. LIME TREATMENT OF EXPANSIVE SOILS. In a road pavement, the surface of an expansive soil is defined as those exceeding three percent expansion in the exhibition. The expansion of soils is concerned with a road pavement construction, when water is influenced in clay minerals. The plasticity characteristics of a soil particle can be used as an indicant for the swell potential of a soil which is shown as below: Swell potential of soils A treatment with lime would be introduced to determine the well potential of a soil. The lime can be used to reduce swell. For an expansive soil, A more or less degree of expansive soil may be present activities of the clay minerals. Once, the lime needs to be added that requires a minimum amount of the lime, it can reduce swell to acceptable limits. There is an experimental process for conducing swell test which can be found in ASTM D 1883. The depth of lime should be incorporated into the soil, in general, the equipment used by the construction of a limited. In general, A maximum required depth need to be calculated with 2 to 3 feet that can be treated directly without removal of the soil.

Does Life Have a Meaning? Essays -- Philosophy Philosophical Essays

Does Life Have a Meaning? Life, it might be argued, is the distinguishing feature of all organisms and may most usefully be thought of as involving various kinds of complex systems of organization providing individual organisms with the ability to make use of those energy sources available to them for both self maintenance and reproduction. Underlying this deceptively persuasive definition, however, lie those persistent traditional problems inherent in the search for an essential, distinctive substance characteristic of all forms of life. Additionally, as evolution theory makes clear, there is the problem of borderline instances, organisms of which it is not easy to say whether or not they may be defined as being alive. One such case is that of the virus. Viruses are the smallest, simplest living things, smaller than bacteria, and the cause of some of the deadliest diseases known to humanity. They are composed chiefly of nucleic acid wrapped in a coat of protein and are able to multiply only from within living cells. As with all other organisms, the virus depends for its ability to obtain energy and carry out the other processes necessary to sustain life, upon its stock of DNA, the hereditary material that makes up the genes, the "instructions" that determine the traits of every living organism. What is interesting about viruses, however, is that their genetic stock is very meagre indeed, so much so that reliance upon it alone cannot enable them to survive. Nonetheless, viruses do persist from one generation to the next, as if they were alive. How this is managed, as it clearly is in both plants, animals and human beings, bears importantly upon the ways in which "life", at least in the case of viruses, may legitimately b... ... our ability not only to understand our human limitations, but also to appreciate their unimportance in our situation: "If sub specie aeternitatis there is no reason to believe that anything matters, then that doesn't matter either, and we can approach our absurd lives with irony instead of heroism or despair." Bibliography: Brian, Denis Einstein: A Life John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1996 Hanfling, Oswald (ed.) Life and Meaning: A Reader Blackwell F, Open University, 1987 Mill, John Stuart Utilitarianism Dent Dutton (Everyman), 1962 Plato Gorgias trans. Hamilton, W., Penguin, 1960 Russell, Bertrand History of Western Philosophy Allen and Unwin, 1962 Works consulted following initial assessment of essay: Murdoch, Iris The Sovereignty of Good Routledge, 1991 Nagel, Thomas The Possibility of Altruism Princeton Paperback, 1978 Does Life Have a Meaning? Essays -- Philosophy Philosophical Essays Does Life Have a Meaning? Life, it might be argued, is the distinguishing feature of all organisms and may most usefully be thought of as involving various kinds of complex systems of organization providing individual organisms with the ability to make use of those energy sources available to them for both self maintenance and reproduction. Underlying this deceptively persuasive definition, however, lie those persistent traditional problems inherent in the search for an essential, distinctive substance characteristic of all forms of life. Additionally, as evolution theory makes clear, there is the problem of borderline instances, organisms of which it is not easy to say whether or not they may be defined as being alive. One such case is that of the virus. Viruses are the smallest, simplest living things, smaller than bacteria, and the cause of some of the deadliest diseases known to humanity. They are composed chiefly of nucleic acid wrapped in a coat of protein and are able to multiply only from within living cells. As with all other organisms, the virus depends for its ability to obtain energy and carry out the other processes necessary to sustain life, upon its stock of DNA, the hereditary material that makes up the genes, the "instructions" that determine the traits of every living organism. What is interesting about viruses, however, is that their genetic stock is very meagre indeed, so much so that reliance upon it alone cannot enable them to survive. Nonetheless, viruses do persist from one generation to the next, as if they were alive. How this is managed, as it clearly is in both plants, animals and human beings, bears importantly upon the ways in which "life", at least in the case of viruses, may legitimately b... ... our ability not only to understand our human limitations, but also to appreciate their unimportance in our situation: "If sub specie aeternitatis there is no reason to believe that anything matters, then that doesn't matter either, and we can approach our absurd lives with irony instead of heroism or despair." Bibliography: Brian, Denis Einstein: A Life John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1996 Hanfling, Oswald (ed.) Life and Meaning: A Reader Blackwell F, Open University, 1987 Mill, John Stuart Utilitarianism Dent Dutton (Everyman), 1962 Plato Gorgias trans. Hamilton, W., Penguin, 1960 Russell, Bertrand History of Western Philosophy Allen and Unwin, 1962 Works consulted following initial assessment of essay: Murdoch, Iris The Sovereignty of Good Routledge, 1991 Nagel, Thomas The Possibility of Altruism Princeton Paperback, 1978

AIDS :: Free AIDS Essays

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Nearly 90 percent of Russia’s HIV infections occur among addicts sharing dirty needles† (Klesius, p.35). This percentage from a National Geographic magazine would differ heavily from that of the United States. The Henry J Kaiser Family Foundation reported that through the year 2002 in the state of Colorado that only 9% of aids cases in the state were due to injection drug use and 25% on the national level. (Kaiser Family Foundation) In the United States, Men who have sex with men would more closely share Russia’s dirty needle problem for being the number 1 cause for AIDS transmission with 46% in the U.S. and 69% in the state of Colorado. These figures here in the states prove to coincide with the majority of Americans view on who they think is the stereotypical person infected with AIDS, gay males.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I took the liberty of asking random Americans who they thought was stereotypical person in America infected with AIDS. The results didn’t vary from my understanding of previous viewpoints. 18 out of 20 of these random Americans told me that they considered the stereotypical infected person with AIDS would be a gay male. I then asked them if this changed their viewpoints on the AIDS epidemic and its seriousness. 8 out the 20 told me that they didn’t worry about it because they believed it to only be a problem for gays here in America and those who live in Africa, not themselves. Now, I have to say that this is a pretty close minded view shared by a large number of Americans, if this percentage of my poll were to represent the whole United States. I do note that Gay males have the highest percentage of those who have the disease here in America, but should that be a reason for not caring about this epidemic?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Yet AIDS is still a serious problem because of the high fatality rates, the costs of treating the disease, and the difficulty of eliminating such HIV/AIDS risk factors as unprotected sex and injecting drug use†(132). This statement wouldn’t be so bad if it were describing a virus with only a small population. Unfortunately this statement is describing one with a large population. The Centers for Disease Control (C.D.C.) and the White House have statistics of the AIDS epidemic here in the states and the rest of the world. None of which are miniscule by any means.

Jim Crow Laws in the United States Essay -- essays research papers

Imagine living in a world where you are harassed because of your skin color. Imagine knowing that is all you can look forward to. That is all your children and grandchildren can look forward to. Discrimination has been around for a long time, even before prehistory. Someone always thinks that they are better than others because of their skin color, sex, race, etc. Social classes and slavery are just two examples of discrimination. Even though our Constitution is based on freedom, our own Constitution allowed for discrimination of African Americans for around 100 years. It allowed White people to harass Black people. If we base our country on giving freedom to everybody, shouldn?t it include everyone? Discrimination against Blacks was called Jim Crow laws. The laws made sure Blacks and Whites had limited contact, and different lifestyles. They made sure Blacks stayed in different section of trains, restrooms, restaurants, buses, and much more. Jim Crow laws said that everything had t o be ?Separate but equal?. However, most places weren?t equal for blacks. Take a look into the past, and learn when the Jim Crow laws started, its life, and how it was challenged by courageous people. Jim Crow Laws started in the South after the civil war. The laws started around 1865. The term Jim Crow came to be because of a famous minstrel show in 1828 written by Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice about a Black farmer named Jim Crow, ?Klarman 5?. Jim Crow Laws are often confused with Black Codes. Jim Crow laws are different from Black Codes because the Black Codes started before Jim Crow Laws, and ended during the civil war. The Jim Crow Laws became extremely popular in the South and in the West, however, the North wasn?t that big into the Jim Crow Laws... ...y, this law only affected schools ?Brown versus Board of Education 1&2?. Jim Crows laws had a major impact on United States history. The Jim Crow Laws were preceded by the Black Codes. Because of the Jim Crow laws, Blacks were taught that they were inferior to Whites, and it was accepted fact that they were inferior. There were many cases to trying to stop the Jim Crow laws, and some of them were successful. Sadly, there were many cases in which the right thing weren?t done. However, during the 1960?s the Civil Rights movement came around, and a new wave of change was in the air. With John F. Kennedy as president, Martin Luther King Jr. as a prominent Civil Right Leader, a new chapter began in American history. The segregation was over, at least in the eyes of the law. Sadly, it took some more time for segregation to be really over in the heart and mind of people.

A Little Help on Twelfth Night Essay

The following information is based upon my taped lecture on this play. Although this text version is not the same as the taped lecture, it does contain the same information. All references are based on the Signet paperback edition which you should consult in conjunction with this lecture. Twelfth Night was probably written in 1601 and first performed in January of 1602. We know this because the play is mentioned that year in the diary of a young man training to become a lawyer at the Inns of Court in London. We can also tell the approximate date of the play from the references to contemporary events and publications, things like books or new maps. To place the publication in Shakespeare’s career, it comes about six years after Roemo & Juliet. Shakespeare’s treatment of love and romance and his use of dramatic devices are even more sophisticated than they were in his famous tragedy. Twelfth Night is the fourth in a series of romantic comedies which all have very bright heroines who end up teaching valuable lessons to the men who will become their husbands. Three of these four plays — The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It and Twelfth Night — feature heroines who disguise themselves as men and deal with their male-dominated societies from this secret vantage point. They all have very sophisticated attitudes toward love and reveal human folly caused by the excess of some particular quality. It’s interesting to note that Twelfth Night was written right after Shakespeare had written Hamlet, which is a very different kind of play, but it does give you some idea of the range of his creative talents. The title of the play is unusual. It refers to the twelve days of Christmas, which you may recall from the old song, â€Å"On the Twelfth Day of Christmas.† In earlier days the celebration and exchange of gifts which we associate with the 25th of December were actually conducted during the 12 days which followed that date, culminating with what is called Epiphany. For some reason this twelfth day was associated, and continues to be, with comic misrule, upset and especially confusion over gender. In this country many people observe a seasonal tradition by taking their family to see â€Å"The Nutcracker† ballet or The Christmas Carol, Dickens’ story turned into a stage play. More recent cultural expressions may be the film How the Grinch Stole Christmas or television’s A Charlie Brown Christmas. Well, in the United Kingdom the cultural equivalent is going to the pantomime or panto. Families will go to the local theater is see a series of comic skits which feature famous actors and actresses performing in drag. So you might see Benny Hill or John Cleese playing the parts of women and some shapely starlet dressed in tight pants playing the part of the hero. Shakespeare’s play recalls this very old tradition by being a play with similar gender confusion at its core. It is entirely possible that Shakespeare was commissioned to write the play for a group of law students to perform at their Twelfth Night celebration, later followed by performances at his public theater, The Globe. As such, the original audience consisted of young sophisticated gentlemen who would have been knowledgeable about the London theater scene: there are a number of references in the play to works by Shakespeare’s contemporaries. Many of the jokes in the play are lost on us in the 21st Century because they refer to things which were very much in the public mind in 1601. So when Feste, the jester, says at one point he could have used the word â€Å"element,† but he chose not to because the word is overused, it goes right over our heads. However, it was a howl in Shakespeare’s time because there was a big flap over Ben Jonson’s use of the word. Twelfth Night is one of the few plays Shakespeare wrote which has a secondary or sub-title: â€Å"What You Will.† Even here Shakespeare is having a little fun. At one level this title is just a throw-away line, much like the titles of Much Ado About Nothing or As You Like It, the Elizabethan equivalent of â€Å"Whatever† or â€Å"No big deal!† However, in his plays and poems Shakespeare often used the word â€Å"will† to refer to sexual desire. So the title â€Å"What You Will† also means â€Å"Whatever sexual desire you choose to pursue.† Throughout the play there are at least three places where characters consciously give themselves permission to chase some inappropriate sexual fantasy which will end up making them appear foolish. I’ll point these out as we go through the play. The source of Twelfth Night has been pretty well identified. The immediate source is a book by a man named Barnaby Ridge titled Ridge: His Farewell to the Military Profession written about 20 years earlier. Ridge wrote a collection of stories he had picked up from many sources and to which he added his own inventions. One of Ridge’s stories is about a young woman who disguises herself as a young man and goes to work for a handsome young lord with whom she promptly falls in love. The young lord orders his new employee to go off and win the love of a beautiful woman that he desires. The heroine in disguise tries her best, but the beautiful woman falls in love with her disguise. Comic confusion results. Ridge had stolen this story line from an Italian play written earlier, but in reality the ideas here go back to the ancient Greeks and Romans who often wrote about girls who used disguise to get around the restrictions of their own societies. The ancients also had lots of fun with characters who looked alike; identical twins were special favorites. One of the Roman playwrights that Shakespeare had read in school, Plautus, had written a famous comedy about a set of twins; Shakespeare had used it as the basis for his first comedy, Comedy of Errors. So this sophisticated comedy of Twelfth Night is actually based on very old ideas. There are four major themes which are explored in this play. All the themes have to do with love. In fact no other play by Shakespeare shows so many different kinds of love or reactions to love. The first theme is everybody who loves faces obstacles to overcome in order to achieve their heart’s desire. Falling love in a Shakespearean comedy is never easy. You really have to work hard to win. The second theme is that love takes many forms, and these coexist uneasily. There is self-love, misguided love, love which was gender inappropriate, or what in politically correct terms we would say was â€Å"deemed inappropriate by a dominant, sexually repressive society.† That just means that in this play women fall in love with women and men with men without ever having a chance for that love to be requited or returned. The third theme is that love makes the unworthy appear foolish while correcting the worthy who are simply misguided. Love is the mechanism by which we are shown people acting ridiculously. Those who deserve our scorn appear as fools; those who have something going for them are shown the errors of their ways through love and finally earn our respect as wise. The fourth and final theme is that love is an infection we willingly seek — in the words of one of the characters in this play, a form of â€Å"divine madness.† Despite the possibility of appearing foolish we give ourselves permission to experience it — the same idea I was getting at in my earlier discussion of the sub-title of the play, â€Å"What You Will.† The plot of the play combines three different story lines. There is the love triangle of the noble characters: Viola, a clever young woman who is forced to disguise herself as a young man; Orsino, the duke who employs Viola in disguise and with whom she falls in love; Olivia, the beautiful countess Orsino desires and who in turn falls in love with Viola. The second story deals with the low-life characters and their rough humor: Sir Toby Belch, whose name tells you everything you need to know about his character; Belch’s favorite pigeon, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, from whom he steals and with whom he carries out an elaborate practical joke on Malvolio, the business manager of Olivia’s estate. Malvolio is a character with special political significance for Shakespeare’s audience. The third story line is not as prominent as the other two but is absolutely essential for the resolution of the play. It involves Sebastian, Viola’s twin brother whom she believes has been drowned, and Antonio, a ship captain who rescues him, falls in love with him and pursues him, even at peril of his own life. These story lines intersect at different times and in different ways with different kinds of comic effects — from the slap stick to the romantic. Social distinctions are the basis for much of the humor of the play. I’ve made the point that gender disguise is what distinguishes this play from some of the other comedies and that the idea goes back to the ancient Greeks and Romans. This device is found in Shakespeare’s comedies of Two Gentlemen of Verona, Merchant of Venice and As You Like It. The device allows a heroine to exercise greater freedom of action. Young gentlewomen were under great social constraint. They were not allowed to go in public without an escort. They were forbidden to interact with men without a chaperone present. They were not supposed to be involved in choosing their own mates. Once they put on pants their opportunities expanded and the dramatic possibilities increased in the play. In Merchant of Venice a young woman dons the disguise and becomes a judge in a capital case. In Two Gentlemen of Verona a young woman plays a man and watches as her boyfriend tries to betray her with another woman. In As You Like It a bright girl fools even the man who is in love with her and trains him in how she wants him to behave toward her when they are reunited as man and woman. In Twelfth Night we see how a young woman, who is on her own, uses disguise to protect herself in a hostile world. The device of gender camouflage also provides a double vision. As women these pretenders see the world in terms of the traditional conflict between the sexes; as men they are able to inject a subversive note into the smug male world view. In this play, for example Viola is able to educate the man she loves as to the depth of passion and nobility of love women can experience for men, something he never suspected before. Finally Shakespeare could use disguise as a way of introducing comic effects and exposing male hypocrisy to his largely male audience. Women attended the plays, but most of the audience appears to have been men. Nevertheless, no one comes away from a Shakespearean comedy feeling that men are naturally superior to women. If anything Shakespeare’s comic heroines seem to be the intellectual superiors of the men they eventually marry, as if they had taken pity on some poor fool they had just tricked. The reputation of this play has always been very high. It is one of Shakespeare’s most beloved works, and many people consider it the best of all the comedies. The humor is sharp, the satire still biting and many of the jokes just as funny as they were 400 years ago. As we go through the play scene by scene I’ll point out some of the remarkable achievements Shakespeare realizes in this timeless comedy. Let’s look at the play itself now.

Reform Attempts of Farmers and Workers

Life in the late nineteenth and in the early twentieth century in the United States was rough for the average person because of the poor conditions and inability to get ahead of debts and poverty. Two major groups that suffered the most were labor workers and farmers. For the workers in factories, the industrial expansion of the nation brought many changes to the workplace. These changes made life as a labor worker more dangerous and less profitable. Farmers also faced many problems such as high railroad rates and high loan interest rates. Both groups searched for ways to band together with people in similar situations to help resolve some of the problems. After many failing attempts, a movement called Progressivism caused many changes and greatly improved life for farmers, labor workers, and many other groups of the early 20th century. In the late nineteenth century, people flooded to cities to fill the positions of factory workers. Some of the people were farmers who had grown tired of constant debt and looked to the city for economic gain. Others were immigrants from other countries who left their homeland behind to find a better life. Many of these people had nowhere to go, so they followed their first instinct and moved to the cities to find work. This flood of people caused a huge surplus of labor workers, thus resulting in unsafe work conditions and low wages for those with jobs. The dawn of the factory reduced the need for skilled workers, making the tasks easy enough for a small child to perform. With this idea, factory owners hired women and children to operate their machines and paid them even less then the underpaid men. Obviously these people could not live like this, so they began to form unions in an attempt to fix some of the problems in the work place. The first major attempt at a large union to crack down on some of the problems which faced workers was The Knights of Labor. Membership was open to a very wide range including almost all workers and women. Their leaders fought for a shorter workday and removal of children from the workplace. A second attempt called the American Federation of Labor restricted membership to skilled workers. Their goals were to improve wages, numbers of hours in a workday, and working conditions. One of the most famous strikes was the Pullman Strike which involved the American Railway Union and Pullman Company workers. It was sparked by a twenty-five percent wage cut to employees. This strike consisting of a few thousand workers caused a halt in trains from Chicago to the west coast. These responses to the problems of the workplace not only expressed their discontent, but also forced their employers into changes in administration. A second group that had large problems in the early 20th century were farm owners. One major problem was the rates charged by the railroad to farmers. Since farmers depended so greatly on the railroad, railroads companies could charge almost whatever they wanted. The result was widespread debt and poverty for farmers. Other uncontrollable factors such as bad weather and overproduction hurt farming as well. The first major attempt to organize to urge changes in the nation was called the Nation Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry. This organization attempted to teach smaller farmers techniques to make their fields more productive. After farm prices plummeted as result of a depression, the organization began to work politically to help control farm prices. As result many states placed strict restrictions on railroads to regulate rates and operations. The courts put a stop to the legislation and sent the railroad prices back up. The second attempt was the farmers alliance which setup stores and other facilities for their fellow farming members to use. This partially removed the ‘middleman' from stealing a portion of the profits. Although this was more widespread than the Grange, the system was too strong to allow these alliance groups. A movement known as Populism, which urged changes to aid farmers, formed. Many of the views of the populist movement were adopted by the more popular and successful reform movement known as Progressivism. In the early years of the 20th century, a powerful reform movement called Progressivism swept the country. Its leaders were college professors, ministers, journalists, physicians and social workers. Their goal was to improve conditions for all Americans. They wanted to make the political system more egalitarian. They also wanted to make the nation's economic system more democratic. They felt that the people who owned the nations resources, should share some of their wealth with the less fortunate. The movement appealed to farmers, small businessmen, women and laborers. They were alarmed by the growing use of court rulings to halt strikes. In 1890, for example, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act. Its purpose was to punish big business corporations that combined to prevent competition. Yet more and more it was being used as a weapon against unions. The Progressives were unhappy about the use of federal troops and state militia against strikers. They were outraged by inhuman conditions in factories and mines. The Progressives and the AFL pressured state governments for laws to protect wage earners. Almost all states passed laws forbidding the employment of children under 14 years old. Many states also set a lower maximum work week for their employees. One program designed to help farmers and labor workers was the ICC or Interstate Commerce Commission, which struck down on railroad companies and their unfair practices. This greatly helped farmers earn the proper wages for their crops. Today, despite the decline in members, organized labor in the United States remains strong and conditions of America's labor force have steadily improved. The length of the work day has been shortened. Many agreements between employers and wage earners now call for less than 40 hours of work a week. Most agreements have generous â€Å"fringe† benefits. These include insurance, pensions and health care plans. As the number of union members has decreased as a percentage of the total work force, unions have responded by broadening their organizing efforts to include employees of federal, state and local governments as well as other professionals. Organizers have also waged long campaigns to unionize and win better conditions for such diverse groups as public school teachers and seasonal farm workers. As the work force has changed, so have some of the labor-management issues. Unions now want laws to strengthen their right to strike by prohibiting companies from hiring permanent replacements for striking workers. Employers want the right to test workers for drug use. Many workers are fighting for the right to take unpaid leave when they have babies or when a family member is ill and needs extensive care. And, as the unemployment rate has climbed there is growing belief that the government should help create jobs through public works programs, job training programs and tax credits for employers in areas of high unemployment.

Policy and Performance of Indian Education Essay

In terms of demographic profile, India remains one of the youngest nations in the world with 38.2% of its population in the 0-5 year age bracket. This translates into the Indian Education system being one of the largest educational systems globally with a network of more than 1.2 mn schools and around 31,000 Higher education institutes. Education, being one of the important determinants of human welfare of any nation, the GoI has accorded priority for the promotion of education especially primary & secondary education in India. Correspondingly, the government’s spend on education as a percentage of GDP stood at 3% while accounting for 11.3% as a proportion of all public expenditure. However, the GoI is faced with several hurdles in terms of penetration across all education segments viz: Pre- school, K-12, Higher education etc as well as reaching out to the students in tier-III cities and rural areas. The GoI has therefore emphasised on Public Private Partnership (PPP) in education so as to augment the literacy rate from 74% as per the Census 2011. The educational segments i.e. Pre-school, K-12, Information & Technology (ICT) in schools and Higher education form the important constituents of the Indian education. Of the same, the Pre- school market in India still remains largely unorganised and under-penetrated. However, the ease of setting-up of pre-schools as well as the growing acceptability of pre-school concept in India augurs well for the industry. The K-12 institutes in India largely remain governed by the GoI accounting for 80.2% of the total 13.5 lakh schools in India. Of late, with greater interest evinced by the private corporates/ trusts / educational societies etc, the share of private institutions in the K-12 space has grown from 18.9% in FY07 to 19.8% during FY11. The scope of ICT in schools has also gained prominence in recent times through GoI’s programmes such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), ICT @ Schools etc. The penetration of ICT in schools however remains low especially owing to the slower pace of such roll-outs in the government owned or aided K-12 schools. In case of Higher education institutes, the ‘not-for-profit’ mandate coupled with the requirement of  affiliation from multiple regulatory bodies such as UGC, AICTE etc proves to be a roadblock for the entry of private institutes. However, in view of the rising enrolments in higher education coupled with the growing variety of educational streams, the private sector participation is expected to grow to catch in the growing penetration levels. CARE Research expects the size of the Indian Education System at US$ 102.1 bn with CAGR of 11.2% during FY11-15. Apart from the growth of educational segments as mentioned above, CARE Research expects the other trends such as GoI’s orientation towards PPP, entry of corporates and foreign educational institutions (especially in K-12 & Higher education), growing focus on the Distance education mode of learning and growing acceptability of the vocational courses to remain the key drivers to the growth of education in India. Introductory: Beginning with a brief statement on the educational situation on the eve of independence, In spite of all that had been achieved under the British Rule, we began our Freedom on a fairly low level of attainment in education in almost all respects. We then had 17 universities and 636 colleges (With a total enrolment of 238,000 students), 5,297 secondary schools with 870,000 students, implying that not even one youth in every twenty in the age-group 14-17 was in school, 12,843 middle schools with two million pupils and 1,72,661 primary schools with fourteen million students (which implied that only one child out of every three in the age-group 6-11 was in school). Vocational and technical education was but poorly developed, both at the school and university stages, and the supply of high level trained scientific man-power was very limited. Educational inequalities were very large, especially between one region and another, between urban and rural areas, between men and women, and between the advanced and intermediate castes on the one hand and the scheduled castes and tribes on the other. The standards of education were generally unsatisfactory, especially at the school stage, with too much of emphasis on English and too little stress on mathematics, science or the Indian languages. The percentage of literacy was only about fourteen and the total educational expenditure was just about Rs. 570 million or less than half a per cent of the national income. It was this challenging situation which the nation was called upon to reform whenit kept  its first tryst with destiny in 1947. The modern school system was brought to India, including the English language, originally by Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay in the 1830s. The curriculum was confined to â€Å"modern† subjects such as science and mathematics, and subjects like metaphysics and philosophy were considered unnecessary. Teaching was confined to classrooms and the link with nature was broken, as also the close relationship between the teacher and the student. POLICY The Uttar Pradesh (a state in India) Board of High School and Intermediate Education was the first Board set up in India in the year 1921 with jurisdiction over Rajputana, Central India and Gwalior. In 1929, the Board of High School and Intermediate Education, Rajputana, was established. Later, boards were established in some of the states. But eventually, in 1952, the constitution of the board was amended and it was renamed Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). All schools in Delhi and some other regions came under the Board. It was the function of the Board to decide on things like curriculum, textbooks and examination system for all schools affiliated to it. Today there are thousands of schools affiliated to the Board, both within India and in many other countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Universal and compulsory education for all children in the age group of 6-14 was a cherished dream of the new government of the Republic of India. This is evident from the fact that i t is incorporated as a directive policy in article 45 of the constitution. But this objective remains far away even more than half a century later. However, in the recent past, the government appears to have taken a serious note of this lapse and has made primary education a Fundamental Right of every Indian citizen. The pressures of economic growth and the acute scarcity of skilled and trained manpower must certainly have played a role to make the government take such a step. The expenditure by the Government of India on school education in recent years comes to around 3% of the GDP, which is recognized to be very low. â€Å"In recent times, several major announcements were made for developing the poor state of affairs in education sector in India, the most notable ones being  the National Common Minimum Program (NCMP) of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. The announcements are; (a) To progressively increase expenditure on education to around 6 percent of GDP. (b) To support this increase in expenditure on education, and to increase the quality of education, there would be an imposition of an education cess over all central government taxes. (c) To ensure that no one is denied of education due to economic backwardness and poverty. (d) To make right to education a fundamental right for all children in the age group 6–14 years. (e) To universalize education through its flagship program such as Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and Mid Day Market Overview India has the world’s largest population in the age bracket 5 to 24 years of about 450 million. It also has around 500 million in the 25 to 59 age bracket which constitutes the working population and is expected to continuously increase even as the world’s working population ages and diminishes. This phenomenon will make India a supplier of workforce to the entire world. In the wake of this reality, the Indian education system should therefore be able to produce a workforce which is globally competitive and thus reap its demographic dividend. Literacy in India is one of the key deterrents to socioeconomic progress of the country. The Indian literacy rate currently stands at 74% compared to 12% at the end of British rule in 1947. Although there has been a six fold growth, the level is well below the world average literacy rate of 84%, and India currently has the largest illiterate population compared to any other nation in the world. A quick look at Exhibit 1 below provides an insight into the current literacy levels of Indians. Therefore, as India moves ahead on the path of globalization, it needs to overhaul its education system to meet the future demands. Enrolment Levels Despite having the largest Kindergarten to Grade 12 (K- 12) population globally, India has a low enrolment rate in schools, especially at the senior secondary level. The enrolment percentage has fallen from 113% at  primary to 81% at middle school and then to 31% at secondary & higher secondary levels. Low enrolment and high drop-out rates are caused by low availability of schools in rural areas, low awareness, and prevalence of child labour amongst lower income strata. The enrolment percentage is calculated as the ratio of total numbers of students enrolled in specified grades to total number of children in that age group. At the primary level this is upwards of 100%, as even children greater than 11 years of age are enrolled in Grades 1-5. This is largely a rural phenomenon prevalent in Govt. schools across the country. Key Segments The Indian Education sector can be segmented under four broad heads, namely, Schooling, Higher Education, Vocational Education & Skill Development and Ancillary. The Exhibit 3 below provides an overview of the various education segments and their respective subsegments. Schooling Segment The schooling segment covers the largest population of our society as compared to any other form of education. The segment is also the largest education segment valued at USD 44 billion in 2011 and is expected to reach USD 144 bn by the year 2020. The market size of its various sub-segments with growth rates and projections for the year 2020 is mentioned in Exhibit 4. Out-of-School Children: The number of out-of-school children has declined from 25 million in 2003 to 8.1 million in mid–2009. The most significant improvements have been in Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur and Chhattisgarh. The percentage of out-of-school children in highly populated states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa and Bihar remains a cause of concern. Social Inclusion: Although there have been significant improvements in the proportion of children from socially disadvantaged groups in school, persistence gaps remain. Girls are still less likely to enroll in school than boys; in 2005, for upper primary school (Grades 6-8) girls’ enrolment was still 8.8 points lower than boys, for Scheduled Tribes (ST) the gender gap was 12.6 points and 16 points for Scheduled Castes (SC). In addition, ST and SC children are less likely to access their right to 8 years of schooling; the drop-out rate for ST children being 62.9% and 55.2% for SC children compared to a national average of 48.8% leaving school before completing Grade 8.