Gender stereotypes are still pervasive in our culture Essay

TOPIC AND RATIONALE Gender stereotyping is a topic we find all around us and without exception in early years settings. There is a set of notions about how girls/women and boys/men are expected to behave in society, therefore is very difficult not to transmit those ideas in Early Education. Often we find children which already have implemented a gender role and behave based on our assigned sex. I have chosen this subject because I am aware, as I have to deal with that every single day, of how gender stereotype affects people. I believe the best way to fight this issue is through education and promoting gender equality in early childhood settings. At my placement I have already seen several situations where girls dress in pink as they consider is their favorite color, draw and wish to be princesses and would like to be ballerinas when they grow up. Boys spend all the playground time playing football or using their imaginary gangs, dressing in dark colors or not allowing girls playing in the building construction area claiming that is not a game for them. Being personally affected and observing this conduct in young children at the childhood practice setting and in the nursery where I work, was my motivation to write about this interesting topic, which in some situations touch children subtlety, and in others can trigger a negative impact affecting in many ways their being. AIM AND OBJECTIVES My target is to find out if gender equality is promoted in early years settings. RELEVANT THEORIES AND APPROACHES to children’s learning and development and links with knowledge acquired through the HNC HOW TOPIC LINKS TO CHILDREN’S INDIVIDUAL NEEDS, RIGHTS, AND INTERESTS Gender Equality is at the core of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) which outlines in a few articles the relevance of the equality rights for all children independently of their gender. The Article 2 is directly related to the topic chosen and promotes non-discrimination. The Article 12 and 13 determinates the respect for the views of the child and their freedom of expression. Both of them encourage children to express their thoughts and feelings freely. Those right are important in the subject because their voices can be taken seriously if they feel affected by gender discrimination. The Articles 28 and 29 talk about rights and goals of education. Those articles promote education with the respect of the human rights including themselves, addressing gender discrimination and supporting equality among girls and boys. Finally, we have to have into consideration Article 4 which states that governments have to create systems and laws to promote and protect children rights, enabling all the above rights possible. Here a summary of the articles mentioned are shown: †¢ Article 2 – â€Å"The Convention applies to every child without discrimination, whatever their ethnicity, gender, religion, language, abilities or any other status, whatever they think or say, whatever their family background.† †¢ Article 12 – â€Å"Every child has the right to express their views, feelings, and wishes in all matters affecting them, and to have their views considered and taken seriously. This right applies at all times, for example during immigration proceedings, housing decisions or the child’s day-to-day home life.† †¢ Article 13 – â€Å"Every child must be free to express their thoughts and opinions and to access all kinds of information, as long as it is within the law.† †¢ Article 28 –â€Å"Every child has the right to an education. Primary education must be free and different forms of secondary education must be available to every child. Discipline in schools must respect children’s dignity and their rights. Richer countries must help poorer countries achieve this.† †¢ Article 29 – â€Å"Education must develop every child’s personality, talents, and abilities to the full. It must encourage the child’s respect for human rights, as well as respect for their parents, their own and other cultures, and the environment.† †¢ Article 4 – â€Å"Governments must do all they can to make sure every child can enjoy their rights by creating systems and passing laws that promote and protect children’s rights.†

KFC in India Essay

1. Since its entry into India in 1995,KFC has been facing protests by cultural and economic activists and farmers. What are the reasons for these protests and do you think these reasons are justified? Exaplain. During the early 1990s, KFC set up their business at India and they were faced all kind of protests by cultural, economic activists and farmers (The Ecologist, 1995). On the year of 1995, KFC open the first outlet at Bangalore and KFC was among the first fast-food multinational to enter India. One of the case which KFC involved is the municipal food inspectors found that KFC’s â€Å"hot&spicy† seasoning contained nearly three times more mono sodium glutamate (MSG, popularly known as ajinomoto, a flavor enhancing ingredient) than allowed by the Indian Prevention of Food Adulteration Act,1954 (IPFAA) (Ray, Ashis, 1995). According to the IPFAA , fast food restaurants can only contain maximum 1 percent of MSG as a seasoning of the food. Therefore, the KFC’s chicken being sent for food inspectors’ examination, followed by laboratory tests and analysis. But after all the procedure, they found that KFC’s chicken had exceed the legal MSG limits which is con tained 2.8 percent of MSG. Due to this issue, KFC being charged  because of â€Å"adulterated, misbranded, and unfit for human consumption. (Ray, Ashis, 1995) After the protests faced at Bangalore, Pepsi Co opened a second KFC outlet in Delhi, the national capital, in October 1995 (Delhi’s Fried Chicken Blues,1995). Within couple of weeks of launch, KFC in Delhi had to stop its business as health officials canceled its license on November 1995 due to coating mix imported from United States contained sodium aluminium phosphate(SAP), which was hazardous to human health. Meanwhile, KFC was able to proved that SAP was used in small quantities in the baking powder and was not harmful. And the KFC had won the case and resumed back its business.(Delhi’s Fried Chicken Blues,1995) After all the protests had been settle down, the activist from Delhi against taking up another issues about the hygiene conditions of the restaurant. Due to an inspection by food inspectors found flies buzzing around the kitchen and garbage cans just outside the restaurant premises. Because of the issue, the Delhi KFC outlet was closed within 23 days of reop ening. From the cultural and economic activists and farmers perspective, KFC will also bring numerous disadvantage towards them if KFC start up their business at India. Nationalists also feared a culture invasion; environmentalists and farmers felt grain consumption by cattle for meat production would be detrimental; and nutritionists highlighted the consumption of fast food will increase the rate of obesity, hypertension ,heart disease , and cancer. Therefore, they were protest the entry of KFC into their country and they also carry â€Å"boycott KFC† signs while protest. KFC had experience different kind of issue raised up by the cultural and economic activists and farmers, there are some cases where the KFC should research about India culture before they enter. Most of the protests cases was because of the healthy issues brings to the people after consume the KFC’s chicken (Protest against KFC,2004) Sometimes, many businesses too focus on profit making and did not concern on the consumer’s healthy. Therefore, KFC have to follow the legal requirement of the food in order to sustain their business in India. On the others hand, most of the farmers  protest is because they feared that the fast-food chain will affect its local agricultural environment (Narasimhan, Shakuntala,1996). All this is about ethical of business, KFC should not serve a food which is contained unhealthy ingredient and they must also concern more on the economy growth at India. 2. PETA has been protesting against KFC in India since the last 1990s. What are the reasons for PETA’s protests against KFC and how did KFC’s management react to them? Do you agree with PETA that KFC has been cruel toward the birds and hence it should leave India? Based on this case study, we found out that KFC in India faced severe protests by People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), an animal rights protection organization. The reason for PETA’s protest against KFC was primarily due to the inhumane treatment the chickens faced on KFC farms and released a video tape showing the ill-treatment of birds in KFC’s poultry farms. Pilgrim’s Pride (PP) is one of KFC’s award-winning supply operations and the second largest processor of chickens in the United States. PETA’s investigations in Pilgrim’s Pride poultry farm brought to light the inappropriate practices that prevailed in KFC’s supplier operations, Yamini Aparna K . Vivek Gupta (2004). In other word PETA found a video exposing KFC supplier abuse chickens by cruel trick and this immediately aroused public attention. In the 4 minute video released by PETA in regards to these allegations, viewers witnessed birds living in overcrowded, crammed warehouses with barely any space to move, vast amounts of chicken carcasses that had died from disease, dirty, injured chickens and the cruel actions towards the animals by the hands of the staff. Besides that, the staff do anything to abuse the chicken, they often cut off their wings, slamming them to the wall, punched them as sandbags, kicked them as football. At slaughter, the chicken’ throats are slit and dropped into tanks of scalding-hot water while they are still conscious.(refer to reference 11) They abuse the chickens alive to death and then gave to outlet frying as delicious fried chicken serve all around the world. Though other fast food organizations such as McDonald’s and Burger King had already ‘upped’ their standards regarding the treatment of animals, KFC had yet to do so. In these factories and poultry farms, birds were kept in very unhygienic conditions and treated cruelly. However, undeterred by  the protests by PETA and other animal rights organizations, KFC planned a massive expansion program in India,Margaret Scheikowski (2009). According to ‘PETA’s Fact Sheet of KFC’s Cruelty’, there were six main points of suffering the chickens faced, Dan Mathews, PETA (July 12, 2011). These included; i. Having less than a normal sized piece of paper to live in -This is where the chickens are stuffed by tens of thousands into overcrowded sheds where they hardly find space to move freely. To save space and avoid chicken hurting each other, the sensitive chicken beaks are cut off with hot blade without giving any pain killers. Overcrowding and poor litter quality in the farms also caused painful ammonia burns on the chickens. The injured chickens received no treatment and had to bear the pain throughout their life. ii. Suffering from crippled and deformed legs since birth and dying early from heart attacks as a result of poor breeding methods – Birds are fed genetically modified feed in order to accelerate their growth rate. As a result they suffer from ailments such as extreme obesity and fatty livers and kidneys, heart attacks and other problems. iii. Being killed before reaching six weeks of age -This is where the chickens are slaughtered before they are 6 weeks old. At the slaughter house, chickens are hung upside down and transferred through conveyor belts to the killing room fully conscious. iv. Frustrated Workers – Due to poor wages and working conditions, employees used the chickens as a means to vent frustrations and alleviate boredom. They twisted the bird’s heads off, spat tobacco into their eyes and mouths, spray-painted their faces, used them as footballs and squeezed their bodies so hard that the birds expelled feces. v. Mistreatment by callous staff and; vi. Receiving little to no veterinary care KFC’s management in response to PETA’s protest was adding more outlets and  the announcement of major developments to the program. They also planned to open more stores in prime locations such as shopping malls in cosmopolitan areas. Vegetarian dishes were also implemented into the menu to cater and attract the mass vegetarian population. However, PETA India wrote a letter to the Managing Director of Tricon Restaurant International, the parent company of KFC, asking them to close their sole KFC outlet in India. But their responses are got no reply. So that, PETA activists decided to protest against KFC by carrying crippled chicken, which represented the birds suffering in the KFC’s farms. PETA claimed that after two years of intensive campaigning to increase animal welfare standards in poultry farms. After analyzing the case study and PETA’s fact sheet, it is clear that KFC are cruel towards their birds and hence should leave India. Moreover, as KFC is s uch a powerful multinational company and with support from the director of marketing of Yum! Restaurants International who assured KFC followed the welfare guidelines and valued Indian law, this outcome was highly unlikely. 3. What is the importance of ethics in doing business? Do you think in the face of fierce competition, business organizations are justified not to support ethical values at the cost of making profits? Why or why not? Justify your answer giving examples. There is no doubt that business ethics plays a more and more important role in modern economy. Ethics can be associated with being fair, honest, and moral and being ‘the right thing to do’. There are many essential benefits to those businesses known for good ethical values (Steven Symes, July 2014). One of the responsibilities of an organization is to make sure that all their actions to the ethical standards provided by the law, the KFC need to follow the rule and regulation at the country. Other than strategy for marketing and management, businesses have considered other elements that play significant roles towards success. One of these important elements is ethics. These organizations tend to be those that attain higher quality staff, staff turnover is low, better image, attract and maintain new and existing consumers and have a greater competitive advantage. Though many businesses try and aim to be both ethical and successful, countless believe it to get in the way of making a profit (VoiceLee1 , October 2013). Depending on which country and state you are in can determine the amount of trouble a company may face with their unethical  behavior. In extreme cases this may lead to the law being involved which principally takes profits away from businesses and to operate in certain markets, Consumer international (2008). Based on the case study of KFC in India, being a large international company immediately draws attention. Even though domestic businesses in India may not follow the ‘right’ ethical procedures, KFC is automatically under the spotlight as locals expect them to follow international standards. In the face of fierce competition, business organizations should have support ethical values whether they believe it will affect their profits or not. For any organization, ‘the customer is always right’ and are one of the most important factor in keeping the business alive as this is where profits are made. As customers have ethics, if they are not happy, no profits. Laura Costa, Ph.D. (December, 2012) It is highly essential for business organizations to understand the importance of ethics in today’s world. In order to achieve this, large international companies such as KFC who are expanding their businesses in less develop countries such as India, need to gain understanding of the country culture, regulatory and ecological issues. So that, KFC should work together and partner up with local farmers as well as with their consumers to ensure them they have quality products. Another strategy may also be to implement a farm level guideline and analysis reports for their stakeholders regarding poultry care and handling. Ronald D Francis&Mukti Mishra(2014),pg 56-60. 4. CONCLUSION Finally, we can understand from the case that every business organization should understand the importance of ethics by understanding the culture, regulatory and ecological issues in different countries. KFC should implement a farm level guideline & audit program – a program which is industry leading in the areas of poultry care and handling, mainly for their supplier in the broiler industry. Therefore the company need some common principles to guide the behaviors. It is much easier for a company with good moral conducts to build its reputation and win respect from all aspects of a society. KFC has been already gained the reputation of a fast food that continuously provides greasy unhealthy food, so it needs to do something about and shift its positive image back. Reference 1. Yamini Aparna K. Vivek Gupta(2004) KFC in India: Ethical Issues [Online] Available from: http://www.asiacase.com/ecatalog/NO_FILTERS/page-CROSSMGT-649128.html[Accessed :17th July 2014] 2. Margaret Scheikowski (2009) Family sues KFC over â€Å"food Poisoning†. [Online] Available from: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/845258/kfc-sued-over-salmonella-poisoning[Accessed :17th July 2014] 3. Dan Mathews ,PETA(July 12, 2011). KFC in India Available from: http://www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com/index.asp[Accessed :18th July 2014] 4. Schreiner, Bruce (23 July 2005). â€Å"KFC still guards Colonel’s secret†. Associated Press. Retrieved 19 September 2013. Available from: http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/072305/bus_19314459.shtml[Accessed :19th July 2014] 5. VoiceLee1 , October 2013’KFC in India Case Study Assignment (Ethical Issue) Available :19th July 2014] 6. Consumer international (2008) WCRD 2008 [Online] Available from: http: //www.consumersinternatio nal.org/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID= 97050 &int1stParentNodeID=89647&int2ndParentNodeID=95043[Accessed :19th July 2014] 7. Laura Costa, Ph.D. (December,2012) Protect You from Harmful Chemicals in Cosmetics and Household Products. [Online] Available from: http://loveyourbody.nowfoundation.org/harmful_chemicals.html[Accessed :20th July 2014] 8. KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN (KFC) IN INDIA(No date) [Online] Available fromhttp://www.freeessays123.com/essay21631/kentuckyfriedchickenkfcinindia.html[Accessed :20th July 2014] 9. Ronald D Francis&Mukti Mishra(2014),pg 56-60† Business Ethical† Available from: http://books.google.com.my/books?id=xV8l8EUCOjQC&pg=PA176&lpg=PA176&dq=www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/†¦/business%2520ethics/BECG044.+HTML&source=bl&ots=wKboQnsm4A&sig=4Cd0mvIFlBRz-LMhNMOzZVsx1L8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=jO7LU8z7HIq9ugTB0ILACw&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=www.icmrindia.org%2Fcasestudies%2F†¦%2Fbusiness%2520ethics%2FBECG044.%20HTML&f=false[Accessed :20th July 2014] 10. Steven Symes (July 2014), ‘Importance of Ethical Conduct in a Business. Available from: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-ethical-conduct-business-25163.html[Accessed :20th July 2014] 11. video released by PETA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXKExmm_Mk0 or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zLZrAQ8JIM or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5eMQ-3Drmw 12. Ray, Ashis. † KFC Takes On India over MSG,† www.cnn.com, September 21, 1995 13. â€Å"Delhi’s Fried Chicken Blues,† www.theasiaweek.com, November 24, 1995 14. â€Å"Kentucky Fried Chicken Protest in India.† The Ecologist, November/ December 1995 15. Narasimhan, Shakuntala. â€Å"Tandoori vs Kentucky Fried.† Multinational Monitor, January/ February 1996 16. â€Å"Protest against KFC,† www.hindu.com, February 18, 2004

Madeleine Leininger's Transcultural Nursing Theory Research Paper

Madeleine Leininger's Transcultural Nursing Theory - Research Paper Example During her early nursing career, Leininger identified the need and importance of â€Å"caring† concept in nursing. She got her motivation from frequent appreciative statements from her patients. This acted as a leeway to her focus on ‘care’ as being an important or central nursing component. She experienced what she termed as a cultural shock during the 1950s while working as a child guide in children’s home. She realized that certain children behavioral patterns appeared to have cultural basis. She also recognized and realized that the missing link to nursing’s comprehension of the several variations necessary in patient care improve and support healing, compliance, as well as, wellness. The insights acted as the beginnings of a phenomenon and construct related to nursing care known as transcultural nursing. Leininger is the founder of the popular transcultural nursing movement in education practice and research. She defined transcultural nursing as a â€Å"substantive area of study and practice focused on comparative cultural care values, and practices of individuals or groups of similar or different cultures with the goal of providing culture-specific and universal nursing care practices in promoting health or well-being or to help people face unfavorable human conditions, illness, or death in culturally meaningful ways† (Leininger, 1989). ... It emphasizes on the universality and diversity with an aim of providing culturally related and wholistic care (Leininger & McFarland, 2006). The theory is, however, not a grand one since it has certain dimensions to assess for a given picture. It is a comprehensive and wholistic approach, which has given a leeway to a broader and wider nursing than expected with a reductionist and middle-range approach. The theory has a role of providing the required care measures while taking into consideration an individual or patient’s cultural beliefs, values and practices. Leininger came up with and coined the fundamental goal or aim of transcultural practice in nursing. She referred to it as culturally congruent care. It is only possible on the occurrence of the following within the client-nurse relationship: the nurse, together with the client, defines creatively a different or new lifestyle for the well-being or health of the client. This requires the use and application of both profe ssional and generic knowledge and ways in order to fit these diverse and new ideas into nursing practice and goals. Another important and unavoidable aspect of this theory is that knowledge and skills are normally re-patterned for the client’s best interest. This implies that all care modalities and means need co-participation of the client and the nurse. The two have to perform identification, planning, implementation, and evaluation of each mode of caring for culturally congruent or related nursing care. The modes normally stimulate nurses to come up with and design appropriate nursing decisions and actions with the use of the acquired new knowledge, as well as, the culturally based ways to give satisfying and meaningful wholistic care to various

Drama Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Drama - Essay Example Henceforth, the attitude created by the actor in the stage is critical because that attitude determines the environment and the thought the audience will have towards the script. Learning the tactics of acting in a theatre is very important. The actor must familiarize with the character and afterwards learn the details of the subject, which will enable the actor to assume the character and blend with other characters in the vicinity. Before an actor presents the character to the society, the actor must subject the character to the society viewpoint. Brecht and Mueller argue that Stanislavski method of physical action as advantageous in modern acting (160). Brecht and Mueller explain â€Å"first rehearsals the actor show the plot, the event, the business, convinced that feeling and mood will eventually take care of themselves† (160). Therefore, Stanislavski method of physical action gives time to an actor to transform to the character and as the rehearsal proceeds, empathy and mood eventually develop. Brecht and Mueller states that, â€Å"Stanislavski speaks of rhythms which sweep across scene† (160). Sometimes, the rhythm may be insignificant in a scene because of the manner in which an actor expresses the words. In addition, I also agree that the use of images during acting bring forth a better understanding to the audience. Although, Stanislavski system may be challenging to some actors, the system has incredible method of harmonizing several weakness during acting. The system also provides a platform for learning to new and weak actors. Moreover, the system can measure the actor’s talent through the actor’s ability to manage incomplete

Should firms price discriminate, why or why not Essay

Should firms price discriminate, why or why not - Essay Example Such concerns will be depicted in this paper and each will be discussed in detail. Price Discrimination Evolution is not only associated to management practices of business organisations, but also to what these organisations are operating for--those are stakeholders. Consumers, being a predominant external customer of companies, have also evolved in terms of their preferences. They collate different prices of similar products offered in different market environments and decide whether or not to buy such a good or service (Turow, 2005, p.125). For instance, consumers can now demand certain attributes of products that these companies produce resulting the market to become dynamic and diversified (Poynor Lamberton & Diehl, 2013, p.394). With such a smart choice, companies also conduct an investigation on their target market and decide whether such a segment is or not a profitable market (Turow, 2005, p.125). ... From this point, companies can charge a maximum price to the market segment with a more price inelastic demand and a minimum price for the market segment with a more elastic demand. With this kind of technique, companies can achieve a higher level of producer surplus from the increase in their total revenue and profits. To increase the profit, the company should exert effort to balance marginal revenue and marginal cost in each group of market (Stigler, 1987, cited in Elegido, 2011, p.635). Barriers to Prevent Consumers Switching. Consumer switching is significant in the theory of consumer preferences wherein the combined effect of their budget constraint and choices can affect the entire decision making process of customers, leading them to switch from one supplier to another (Elegido, 2011, p.637). For price discrimination to work, companies must prevent consumer switching--a method in which lower-priced products that are sold to customers can be resold by the latter to those custo mers who are willing to pay for its premium price. It must be noted that companies must not use price discrimination if they cannot eliminate the threat of consumer switching as they cannot compete for both types of consumers: â€Å"high and low willingness to pay† (Corrocher & Zirulia, 2010, p.150). Paradigms of Price Discrimination First-Degree or Perfect. First-degree or perfect price discrimination is a pricing tactic whereby companies charge each customer a different price for similar products purchased with no cost relation. Three results are prevalent when it comes to using this tactic: an increase of profits, a decrease in the level of consumer surplus, and an increase in the level of producer surplus (Mankiw, 2012, p.316).

International Education Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

International Education - Personal Statement Example As an educator, I would like to be a part of this movement of educational globalization and I am banking on the Institute of Education to significantly assist me through enlightenment and empowerment so that I may be able to take on the challenges of international education. Through the Educational Doctoral program at the Institute of Education, I hope to achieve professional development in three areas: First, with the Institute's strength in academic discipline and through the guidance of my mentors, I will be able to sharpen my professional ability for critical analysis, broaden my knowledge on educational theories in the fast changing international education arena, hone my academic leadership skills and build effective strategies to respond to challenges, issues and concerns of institutes, educators, students, and their families. Second, with research support from the Institute of Education, I would like to create a cooperative educational model that synergistically supports educational institutes and international students with specific application on the Elpis Project. I have witnessed tremendous growth in the international educational market especially, in the numbers of students joining exchange student programs.

Essay quiz Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Quiz - Essay Example In broadest possible terms, metaphysics traditionally tries to answer a couple of basic questions: What is out there in the realms of the unknown? What is the nature of that unknown or how does it look like? A philosopher generally tries to answer these questions for general people and broaden their view about the world; for example, possibilities, cause and effect, time and space, object and their properties, and also existence. Ontology is the central branch of metaphysics that investigates the basic categories of being and their relations. Cosmetology is the other branch of metaphysics that studies the origin, nature, dynamics and fundamental structure of the universe (Capaldi, 1997). Sometimes epistemology is also considered as a central branch of metaphysics. However, it is not confirmed. As far as the â€Å"Sceptical Doubts† is concerned, there are two thinking styles or types of knowledge. Those are matters of fact and the relations of ideas. Hume believed human knowledge is either necessary or contingent. Secondly, it is an ultimate truth that there should be relations between ideas. Thirdly, matters of fact are considered as contingent truth. The inherent logical contingency does not allow inductive predictions and statements of matters of fact to amount to knowledge (Capaldi, 1997). To prove this point, Hume states that the sun will surely rise tomorrow like it does every day, and it would be absurd to think that sun will not rise the next day. With this alternative concept, metaphysics can serve as a foundation for the nature of reality but not as such for reality directly. Metaphysics offers most basic accounts that are related to the nature of things like what they are and not of things like how they are. As a step to answer the first question – we need to first differentiate between the two ways in which a statement

Planning for Long Term Wealth Creation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Planning for Long Term Wealth Creation - Essay Example Before borrowing to invest in the stock market, Albert and Nancy should first build an investment plan that clearly documents their retirement goals of savings and income. After identifying the level of income and savings that they require for their retirement goals, the couple can then develop several investment strategies that are potentially adequate in achieving these goals over time, using the principles of risk management to differentiate the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy. In summary, the couple should schedule meetings with a number of financial professionals and discuss the investment options available for achieving their retirement goals to compare advice and strategies in different stocks, bonds, and commodity investments. Once this information has been gathered, they should study each recommendation given by the financial advisors and make a final decision on an investment plan they are comfortable with dedicating their income to over the next 20 years. One serious concern that the couple must consider when contemplating taking a home equity loan for investment in a retirement fund is the rate of interest that they will pay on the initial sum and how that rate compares to expected stock market returns. For example, HSBC and UBank are both offering home equity loans at a 6.79% interest rate in Australia currently. (InfoChoice, 2011) The consumer inflation rate has average between 3.33% and 3.6% in Australia in 2011. (RateInflation, 2011) Therefore, Albert and Nancy would have to average over 10% returns in the stock market every year just to cover the costs of the loan repayment plus inflation. While $125,000 is a strong deposit into an initial self-managed superfund account, the couple will need to understand that upon investment in a single company or diversified portfolio of stock holdings, there is no guarantee that future returns will match or exceed the rate of interest plus inflation. Nevertheless, the home equity investment can be seen as beneficial for the couple if they can easily afford the home payment over time without significant stress in the household budget. Since the couple is paying a higher rate of interest on the car, personal loan, and credit cards than on the home equity loan, at a comparison of 15.5% to 17% vs. 6.79%, the best initial use of the home equity loan would be to clear the personal debt. Then, the income that was previously being dedicated to loan and credit card payments can be set aside for investment each month in equities, bonds, and precious metals. Thus, the couple would do best by first retiring the personal debt at a sum of $32,000, and then keeping the credit card purchases at a minimal level. In this manner, the couple should be able to free up $900 to $1000 each month to invest into their self-managed super-annuity fund. In dedicating $32,000 of the $125,000 home equity loan to clearing the personal debt, the couple established a means to dedicate an extra $900 to $10 00 every month to their retirement fund. However, when compared to their retirement goals of achieving self-sufficient income in old age, even an initial investment of $93,000 in the self-managed super-annuity fund plus the monthly contributions at the rate of $900 to $1000 per month would not be sufficient to meet their goals. Part of the reason for this is inflation, which operates in the manner of compounded interest. Considering the couple has a $100,000

The effectiveness of the poem Essay Example for Free

The effectiveness of the poem Essay In this essay I will try to explain how John Keats writes the ode To Autumn. This means I will analyse the poem, and to the extent of my knowledge pick out the poetic techniques Keats uses. These will include, personification, the use of imagery, diction, rhythm, appeals to senses, similes, metaphors etc. To begin with he personifies the whole poem as if he where talking to the actually inanimate Autumn. Through the whole poem it is as if he was talking to Autumn, or maybe even Autumn is being meant as Mother Nature. An example of this is line 2, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun. This I believe means that Autumn is in cooperation with the life giving sun to ripen the crops. Also he compares Autumn and Spring through personification by saying, Where are the songs of Spring, and, thou hast thy music too. Both these seasons have been personified which shows that maybe Autumn is not Mother Nature, but that each season is a different person with a different personality. As an example this could mean that Summer may be uncomfortable climatically, whereas Autumn may have a great climate. The impression that Keats gives to me of Autumn is that he, she or it is careless and lazy, on a half-reapd furrow sound asleep, intoxicated, Drowsd with the fume of poppies, and finally, tranquil: Steady thy laden head across a brook; Or by a cider-press, with patient look, Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours Next I will explain how Keats uses diction in the poem. Keats has decided to use iambic pentameter, but at the same time use trochee or inverted iambs such as in line 1 when he writes, Seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness, stressing the Sea when the pattern would usually have the stress after the non stress, and then repeat the pattern. Also he sometimes uses enjambment in the poem to speed up the pace that the reader reads it at. An example of this is, To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, The enjambment is actually just one of the ways in which he makes the poem read in a specific way. He also changes words to make it sound different, he may use an accent over some of the vowels to make the word pronounced with 2 syllables such as, barri d, and, twini d. He may also use an apostrophe to fill the place of vowels to slim down the amount of syllables such as, oerbrimmd. He might even use a dash in between words such as, bosom-friend, to speed up the pace of the rhythm as all these techniques try to do. He also uses alliteration such as, winnowing wind, which ;ets the poem flow much better and a fixed rhyme scheme of A,B,C,D,E,D,C,C,E. All these techniques, as well as most of them speeding up the pace of the rhythm or trying to make the lines fit the iambic pentameter, make the rhythm read more flowingly and softly which is very important in an ode to create a more effective poem for the reader. The poem has also got many places where the senses of sight, smell, sound, taste and touch are used. Keats uses, mellow fruitfulness, fill all fruit with ripeness to the core, and, plump the hazel shells, for taste. He uses, clammy cells, and, touch the stubble-plains, for touch. Sight is used a lot in the poem but some of them are, seen thee amid thy store, and, full-grown lambs. Smell isnt really used much apart from in line 17, fume of poppies. Now finally, most of the 3rd stanza is sound as Keats has used, songs of Spring, lambs bleat, Hedge-crickets sing, redbreast whistles, and, swallows twitter. All of these senses help you picture the poem as a 3D image in your mind. The favourite of mine being, Drowsd with the fume of poppies, as it uses powerful words like, Drowsd, and, fume, with poppies which I know the distinct smell of, so I can picture myself lying in a pile of poppies, being intoxicated by them whilst smelling the fresh air and looking at the ripe fruits, vast fields and colourful trees.

Religion Essays Predestination

Religion Essays Predestination Predestination The arguments and the conflicts between the freedom of will and predestination have been with us for a great part of the monotheistic history. The three great monotheistic religions all talk about it in their respective scriptures. The arguments have crept into the theological and philosophical debates as well. They have been the cause of break away sect in religions as well as atrocities in the name of this argument as we will see later. It is unquestionable, that the argument of free will against Gods command over everything and his right to predetermination has lead to problems in the lives of people who practice this religion. We will discuss the briefly the origin of Islam the factors that led to it becoming involved in this debate. We will also discuss how history argued over this concept. The Islamic teachings were started by Mohammed who was born in 570 AD in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It faced severe resistance during the initial phase. When Mohammed proposed his teachings of One God to the Arabs of Mecca, they rejected them and tried to assassinate him. By his 6th decade of life Islam has spread almost throughout the Arab peninsula. He did not leave any instructions as to who was to follow him and become the next proponent of the religion. This laid the ground work for future conflicts. Abu Bakr who was a close friend of Mohammed became the first Caliph by way of vote. Some people believed Ali, who was Mohammed’s cousin to be the rightful caliph. Before his death, Abu Bakr appointed Umer to become the third Caliph. Umer after his tenure, nominated 6 people as potential caliphs, 2 major players were Usman (a wealthy man) and Ali. Usman won the title of caliph and governed the empire. This gave created huge resentment amongst the supporters of Ali. Ali became the 4t h and the last caliph but was assassinated later in life. His rule was riddled with disturbances. After his death, even though his grandsons, Hassan and Hussein were expected to take over the caliph, they did not, and Mu’awiya declared himself Caliph and started the Umayyad dynasty. Since the start, the followers of Ali (the Shiites) resented the fact that Abu Bakr was chosen instead of Ali. By Umayyad dynasty they had organized themselves as a schismatic group. The Umayyad dynasty the theology of the Shiite’s and Sunni’s drifted apart. The Umayyad period gave rise to thinkers with different points of view concerning Islamic theology. After the Umayyad dynasty the Mu’tazilah school of thought arose and debated issues related to theology including Free will and predetermination. There were two groups of Muslim thinkers of the Umayyad period. Al-qadnriyyah believed in the idea of free will or qadar and the Al-jabriyyah believed in the doctorine of predeterm ination. The debate about the theological validity of free will is very important. To say that man kind possesses no free will is to say that he cannot be liable for his actions as he is doing whatever has been determined for him by God. Hence it is Pre-determined. The confusion became about because the Quran contains verses in support of free will as well as predetermination. Therefore one source of the argument came from the dual traditions of the Quran itself. Another source of the argument is the political scenario of the time of the Umayyad dynasty. During their rule, these debates lead to the formation of two major sects, Qadariyyah and the Jabriyyah (Taib, MIM, 2000). The people following the Qadariyyah teachings believed in the free will aspect of the argument and the Jabriyyah people believed that God had determined their fate and nothing could be done to alter that fate. Umayyad dynasty supported and gave preference to predetermination side of the argument, which in affect absolved mankind of any wrongdoing as he had no control over his actions. They killed people who were their political rivals or held the beliefs other than their own. They even justified their actions by saying that God had determined these actions beforehand and nothing could be said and done to avert them (Taib, MIM, 2000). The predestination supporters draw no difference between God’s determinations of the physical events of the universe and within this world against the actions take mankind undertakes with his own choice. These theologists state everything is determined. A mans actions have been determined by God and not matter what he does, he cannot change the outcome. An evil man is so because God made him to be one. They symbiosis of the belief in God being the controller of al things in this world and this universe with the notion of predetermination is not a difficult feat. Both ideas reinforce each other. The Quran makes a lot of references in support of this theory and the scholars of the Umayyad dynasty used this to their benefit. The debate of free will and predestination also has its roots in the Christian beliefs as well. Saint Augustine is said to have pondered over the same debate. The same cannot be said when theologists try to emerge the idea of free will with the notion that God is the knower of all things an controller of all actions. Scholars advocated and notion of free will before the formal rise Mu’tazilah school of thought. These scholars and their followers propose that the mere notion that God destines some people to heaven and others to hell is injustice and since God cannot be unjust, the notion of predestination is false. God in not imperfect and this implies imperfection. Scholars from the Mu’tazilah school of thought view mankind, as holders of free will. According to them, all of man’s actions are self determined and unlike animals and plants, they have control over their actions. They are independent of their instincts and have control of their actions. Therefore, on the basis of their actions in this world, be them good or bad, they will be judged in the hereafter. Quran also has a role to play in the origination of argument between supporters of free will and those of pre determination. Taib, MIM, (2000) quoted the Quran as saying â€Å"In Surah al Hud, 11:34, Prophet Noah addressed his rejecters as such: â€Å"My counsel will not benefit you, much as I desire to give you good counsel, if Allah has willed to leave you in misguidance.† â€Å"In Surah al Taw bah, 9:51 we are told: â€Å"Say nothing will happen to us except what God has decreed for us. He is our protector and in God the believers hold their trust.† (Taib, MIM, 2000) These verses Quran the Quran as quoted by Taib illustrate how Quran instructs the believers into believing that the God has predetermined everything and that free will plays no role. The destination to hell or heaven has already been predestined. On the other hand the Quran in other chapters or Surah, talks about the free will of the humans which God has bestowed upon them so that their actions will be the sole decider whether they are destined for heaven or hell. These statements are a contrast to the ones stated above. For example: â€Å"Say, that truth has come from your Lord, let him who will, believe, and let him who will reject.† In another instance Taib (2000) quotes the Quran in saying: â€Å"We have shown man the path (to truth and deliverance; whether he be grateful or un grateful (rests on his will).† (Taib, MIM, 2000) Currently the scholars from the Sunni sect of the Islam notably the Ashar’ri and the Maturidi have tried to resolve this issue in taking a central theme. To conclude we can state that most of the understanding of freewill and predestination comes from the Islamic history. The initiation of the debate began from the Christian orthodox times but was highlighted in the periods of the last caliphs and afterwards due to the political situations of those times. The scholars since then have tried to resolve the issue by giving support to the scholars who support free will and making people responsible for their actions and rejecting the nothing that mankind has no control and authority over his actions and that he is not responsible for his actions. The debate as it currently stands is no where near comprehensive. Continued evidence in support of both arguments needs to be laid by both sides to an amalgam solution. Bibliography Frederick MD. An introduction to Islam (2nd edition). Prentice Hall, 1993. Rippen A. Textual sources for the study of Islam. University of Chicago press, 1990. Taib MIM, 2000. The problem with predetermination and its impact on Muslim thought. The Fount Journal: the past in our future: Challenges facing Muslims in the 21st century.

Examining Media Discourse And The Amounts Of Crime Criminology Essay

Examining Media Discourse And The Amounts Of Crime Criminology Essay Media discourse is sutured with crime. Crime consumes an enormous amount of media space as both entertainment and news. Much of our information about the nature and extend of crime comes to us via the secondary source of media. We should expect then, that as distributors of social knowledge, they play a significant role in our perception and understanding of the boundaries between order and disorder. (Surette, 1998: 11) Because of the importance of media in everyday life, the study of crime and the media becomes a vital concern of sociology and media studies. Since media has the ability to interpret and give meaning to events through dramatization, this places it at the pinnacle of all social institutions in its ability to shape perception and reactions of its readership. It has been criticized over years by enormous sociologist that media is responsible for fomenting moral sensibilities and anxieties about crime and disorder. (Cohen, 1963; Young, 1971; Hall, 1978; Reiner, 1997; Munice:2001) The media manufactured of news (Cohen and Young, 1973/1981), created moral panics (Cohen, 1973) and fear of crime (Gerbner et al: 1980; Carlson: 1985) about folk devils, stigmatized outsiders, and amplified their deviance (Young, 1971) thus legitimating the drift to a law and order society (Hall et al, 1978) and a more authoritarian style of policing the crisis. (ibid.) In this assignment, I will discuss how and why these consequences of representation of crime are develop, and how they will affect the society. Fear of crime: In recent years policy debates have focused increasingly on fear of crime as an issue as serious s crime itself. As Home Office working party noted that fear of crime as an issue of social concern; it has to be taken as seriously as crime prevention and reduction. (Home Office, 1989: ii) When the media representation of crime is compared to real world crime as measured by official crime statistics, it appears that the media images exaggerate the probability of danger. This is said to cultivate a misleading view of the world based on unnecessary anxiety about levels of risk form violent crime. According to the BCS 1983, people are concerned most about those crimes which they are least likely to experience. (Hough and Mayhew 1983:23) The BCS data show a discrepancy between peoples fear of being a victim and their chances of being that victim. (Reiner 1997: 210; Munice, 2001: 59; Hewitt, 1995: 19) This has engendered a debate about why there should be such a disparity between the perception of risk and the actual risk. Most commonly, the media are accused of exaggerating the risk of crime, representing an image of the world which is scary and mean, (Carlson 1985) (Sparks 1992: Chapter 1) which lead to publics fear of crime in an unreasonable fashion. (Reiner 1997: 199) Most analyses of newspaper crime reporting have been concerned with the potentially distorted impression is created by the high proportion of reports of violent crimes. Ditton and Duffy (1983) analyzed the crime content of three Scottish newspapers concludes that the proportion of violent and sexual crimes are far more than those reported in the official statistics. (Ditton and Duffy, 1983) Many British studies also showed the same pattern of over representation of violent and interpersonal crimes. The risks of crime as portrayed by the media are both quantitatively and qualitatively more serious than the official statistically recorded picture.  [1]   Although media representation of crime is biased and they present crime in an exaggerated way, we cannot simply conclude that fear of crime is associated with media presentation of crime. The reason why people can be easily influenced by media is because they are lack of knowledge about crime. It is rare for people to experience or witness crime. Therefore, they need to rely on media as source of information to understand crime and use it as a guideline in assessing probability of being a victim. Furthermore, people are tended to use a simplistic way and the most available information to make assessment without reviewing other alternative source before they make judgment, this can lead to people use newspaper and television as source of information to understand crime and construct perceptions of crime. (Williams and Dickinson, 1993: 36) Base on these assumptions, it is sensible to say that medias representation of crime do have influence peoples perception about crime. The media biases associated with public misperceptions argument is confirmed by the study of relationship between newspaper crime reporting and fear of crime by Williams and Dickinson and 1996 BCS. According to Williams and Dickinson, there was a significant relationship between reading newspapers with more emphasis on violence crime and measure of fearfulness expressed in a survey. This association survived control by a number of demographical variables. (William and Dickinson, 1993) Thus, the research concludes that readers of those newspapers that report crime in the most dramatic and salient fashion have the highest levels of fear of crime. (William and Dickinson, 1993) Moreover, in the 1996 British Crime Survey, Hough and Roberts also concluded that there are some strong associations have been found between media biases representation and public misperceptions. (Hough and Roberts, 1996) These study both evident the media have direct influence on constructing fear of crime. The news media may constitute biased perception of crime, however, some scholars have a controversial view on the association between media representations and its effects. Increasingly, it is acknowledged that media representations are unlikely to be received passively, but rather interpreted by an active audiences but as one element in their lived experience. (Ericson, 1991; Livingstone, 1996, Reiner, 1997) Many studies show that the media is not the crucial agent in accounting for fear of crime, increasingly, it is more widely accepted that demographic factors such as age, sex, class, background, level of education, area of residence are significant determinants of anxiety about crime and violence. (Gunter, 1987; Sparks, 1992; Ericson, 1991: 287; Schlesinger and Tumber, 1994: 188) Crawford and his fellows (1990) also support such argument that fear does indeed accord to peoples real life circumstances. It may be generated by any number of personal, cultural or environmental factor s. Box et al also concur with Crawfords opinion, he further suggested that fear of crime depends on an interactive complex of vulnerability, environmental conditions, personal knowledge of crime, confidence (or lack of ) confidence in the police. (Munice, 2001: 59) Since there are many factors can affect the perception of crime, we should bear in mind that fear of crime is extraneous, generated by social and personal factors other than risk of crime per se. Moreover, we should remain alive to ability of the public to differentiate and interpret the information they receive. Though there is evidence concerning media partiality and distortion, it cannot by any mean be assumed that media representation are always received uncritically. (Munice, 2001: 62) The issue of media effect on perceptions of crime remains controversial. It is because of the difficulties in rigorously establishing straightforward casual relationships between images and effects. (Reiner, 1997: 191) Since the association between tow factors are remain unknown, it is plausible to conclude that media may have influence on perception of crime. What is more important about the issue of fear of crime is not whether it has any rational basis or it is solely cultivated by media, but rather how far its emotiveness as a topic can be used for ulterior and political motives. (Munice, 2001: 62) Moral Panic: During the 60s to 70s, the British public was riveted by magnified coverage of highly unusual crime stories of violence crime committed by youth that turned into what some news outlets described as an all too familiar story. Rather than providing context, the medias labeling of these youth violence as symptom of social decline has tended to exacerbate peoples moral sensibilities about youth violence. The result is that misdirected public policy is being generated to increase social control, even though the real threat is minimal. Study of Mod and Rockers by Cohen: The first systematic empirical study of a moral panic in the UK was Stanley Cohens research on the social reaction to the Mod and Rockers disturbance of 1964. (Cohen 1973b) (Munice, 2001: 50) A group of youths broke out sabotage in the seaside resort of Clacton over the Easter bank holiday in 1964. The events were to receive front page outrage in the national press. The media spoke out of a day of terror of youngsters who beat up entire town. Youth were described as organized gangs who deliberately caused trouble by acting aggressively towards local residents and destroyed a great deal of public property. In Cohens research, however, found no evidence of any structured gangs within that area, thus, the total amount of serious violence and vandalism was not as great as media described. (Cohen, 1973) According to the Cohens analyses, it is obvious that media have exaggerated the seriousness of the Clacton event, in terms of criteria such as the number taking part, the number involved in violence and the amount and effects of any damage or violence. Such distortion took place primarily in terms of the mode and style of presentation characteristics of most crime reporting: the sensational headlines, the melodramatic vocabulary and the deliberate heightening of those elements in the story considered as news. (Cohen, 1973) The frequent use of misleading headlines and vocabulary like riot, beat up the town, attack, screaming mob which were discrepant with the actual story and left an image of a besieged town from which innocent holidaymakers were fleeing to escape a marauding mob. Medias distorted reporting not only exaggerated the seriousness of the initial events in 1964 but also amplified the youth deviance. The incessant news coverage of Mod and Rockers initiated a wider public concern, youth are labeled as a symptom of social decline. They are portrayed as being outside the central core values of our consensual society and as posing a particular threat to society. (Cohen, 1981: 273) Once youths have been identified with negative labeling, they will believe themselves to be more deviant and segregating out from the community, which will create a greater risk of long term social disorder. Thus, overreaction of the police and general public will contribute to further polarization between youth and the society. As a result, more crime would be committed by stigmatize group and lead to less tolerance of deviants by conforming groups.(McRobbie and Thornton,1995: 561) (Munice, 2001: 52) As Cohen shows in Mod and Rocker study, The continuing disturbance attracted more news coverage would increase police activity and further public concern. Media exaggerate the problem can give rise to local events seem ones of pressing national concern, and an index of decline of morality standards, which obliged the police to step up their surveillance. Consequently, the stepping up of controls lead to further marginalization and stigmatization of deviants which, in turn, lead to more calls for police action and into a deviancy amplification spiral. (McLaughlin, 2001: 176) Study of Mugging by Hall et al Hall et al (1978) reused the concept the moral panic in identifying a series of major social problems to do with permissiveness, vandals, student radicals and so on, culminating with the moral panic of mugging. Hall and others revealed that the media make use of moral panics to both define and distort social problems was fleshed out into a general critique of the medias construction of social reality. (Munice, 2001: 52) In Halls study of mugging in Policing the crisis, the media regarded mugging not as a particular type of robbery but rather a general social crisis and rising crime. (Hall et al., 1978: 66) The media presented mugging as a new and rapidly growing phenomenon. In fact, the crime was not new, only the label was, and official statistics did not support the view that it was growing rapidly, however, with a name for the crime now in existence old offenses were categorized as such, creating the impression of growth. The medias generated new category of crime created the impression of a crime wave, it further whipped up a moral panic around the issue which served to legitimate an increase in punitive measures; they conclude that the media played a key role in developing and maintaining the pressure for law and order measures-for example, police mugging squads and heavy sentences. (Munice, 2001:52-53) (Hewitt, 1995: 17) In this regard, moral panic can strengthen the powers of state control an d enabling law and order to be promoted without cognizance of the social divisions and conflicts which produce deviance and political dissent. (Munice, 2001: 55) It is not just a new category of crime has been defined by media, the media misrepresentation of crime also stigmatize the black youth as the cause of mugging without further explaining the structural reason of the crime, like poverty, social deprivation and class and racial inequality. (Munice, 2001:53) This ready application of stereotypes in mugging crime reporting portray crime in a way to be depicted in terms of a basic confrontation between the symbolic forces of good and evil. The process of deprivation and modes of social organization are rarely provided. (Chibnall, 1977: 79) As Hall concluded, crime reports tend to undo the complexities of crime by constructing a number of easy categories into which each type of crime can be placed. (Hall et al, 1978:13-15) (Munice, 2001: 47) After the analyses of issue of moral panic or fear of crime, there is one common element between two consequences of media representation of crime-both are generated by the media biased representation of crime. In order to investigate cases of apparent moral panic and fear of crime, it is necessary to understand how news is developed and the structural relationship between media and source of crime stories. The element of newsworthiness: The media appear to be involve in a continual search for the new unusual and dramatic. This is what makes the news. Under the market model (Cohen and Young, 1981), because of the business concern, news content needs to be generated and filtered primarily through reporter sense of newsworthiness to produce what makes a good story that their audience wants to know about in order to engage audiences and increase readership. The core elements of these are immediacy, dramatization, personalization, titillation and novertly. (Chibnall, 1977:22-45; Hall et al., 1978; Ericson et al., 1991) Thus, there are five sets of informal rules  [2]  of relevancy which govern the professional imperatives of popular journalism: these are visible and spectacular acts, sexual or political connotations, graphic presentation, individual pathology and deterrence and repression. (Chibnall, 1977: 77-79) These rules help us to understand how news values are structured and explain why there is a predominant e mphasis on violent offences. Organizational pressures: Besides the element of newsworthiness, there are a variety of concrete organizational pressures, for example, the periodicity, or timing, of the events and how they match the scheduling needs of the agency, cost effectiveness and efficiency, all these factors not only determine what is reported, they also lead to an unintended consequences- that is bolstering the law and order. (Reiner, 1997: 142) For example, numerous police personnel are available and willing to provide comments about an incident, which resulting in frequent citation of police sources in all types of crime stories. (Chermak, 1995: 38) Thus, court cases are frequently used by media, because lots of newsworthy cases are expected to recur regularly, therefore, court cases are an economic use of reporting resources. (Reiner, 1997: 221) Because police and courts resources are easily accessible and constantly available, media become more habitually rely on them as the main source of news information, and over time, the s tructural dependence of media on between criminal justice bureaucracies will be established, which permits the institutional definers to establish the primary interpretation of the topic in question. (Hall et al, 1978: 58; Chibnall 1977: chaps. 3, 6; Schlesinger and Tumber 1993) The notion of impartiality and the use of accredited source: The notion of impartiality and the news source used by journalists are the crucial reason to explain media biased representation of crime and the tendency towards institutional definers ideology. (Hall, 1981: 341-343) The media reporting is underwritten by the notions of impartiality, balance and objectivity. (Hall et al., 1981: 341) The practical pressures of constantly working against the clock and the professional demands of impartiality and credibility resulted in constant use of accredited representative of major criminal justice institutions- the police, the courts and the Home Office as the main source of news. These institutional representative agents are accredited because they are in a position to provide initial definitions or primary interpretation of crime and locate them within the context of a continuing crime problem. Because they control over material and mental resources, which news media have little direct access to, and their domination of the major institutions o f society, this classs definitions of the social world provide the basic rationale for those institutions which protect and reproduce their way of life. This control of mental resources ensures that theirs are the most powerful and universal of the available definitions of the social world. (Hall, 1981: 343) As a result, these rules which are originally aim to preserve the impartiality of media turn media as an apparatus to reproduce the definitions and ideology of primary definers. The study of Crimewatch UK-case illustration of relationship between Media and source of crime news The study of Crimewatch UK by Schlesinger and Tumber (1993) is a modern example to illustrate the above argument. The production team of Crimewatch UK has heavily used the information provided by the criminal justice institutions as the main source of crime stories. It is partly because of the notion of cost effectiveness, more importantly, it is because they want to make the program as documentary reconstruction rather than merely a crime drama without a realistic and documentary basis. (Schlesinger and Tumber, 1993: 24) However, the police as the source of crime stories broadly define the terms of reference within which Crimewatch UK may operate. It can be shown by the two basic ground rules of productions requested by the police in exchange for information: first, anything filmed would be embargoed and could not be used again unless the force involved gave its permission, and second, the police must reveal all the known facts and their suspicions to the Crimewatch team. (Schlesing er and Tumber, 1993: 23) Although the production team exercise editorial judgment over how the cases that they reconstruct are to be presented in television terms in order to maintain their impartiality, it is inevitable that their decisions are still within the criminal justice bureaucracies defined framework. (Schlesinger and Tumber, 1993: 30) From the above analyses, we can see how the notion of impartiality lead to the use of accredited source, and how the source provider- the criminal justice institutions turn a documentary program into the polices public relations program to reproduce the definitions of primary definers. Furthermore, this study also demonstrated the asymmetrical relationship between the news and source of information. Journalists are always in an inferior negotiating position in the negotiation process regarding to the definition and presentation of crime. News media are constrained to sacrifice their relationship with the police personnel because they fear losing information access. Reporters rarely challenge the police perspective because of the information police can provide. As what Chibnall described, The reporter who cannot get information is out of a job, whereas the policeman who retains it is not. (Chibnall, 1977: 155) This asymmetrical relationship between media and the source is evidently demonstrated in the case of Crimewatch study. Since the production team is heavily dependent upon the police to provide information of crime cases, they realize that if the police do not provide such information, the program can never be successfully produced. Therefore, editorial judgmen t is limited and the presentation of crime stories are constrained within the polices basic grounded rules and their defined framework. Representation of crime and definition of criminal justice bureaucracies Most commonly, the media are accused of exaggerating the risk of crime, representing an image of the world which is scary and mean, creating crime waves in order to cultivate moral sensibilities and fear among the society. However, such argument ignores the significant influence of the source of crime and overestimates the representation power of the media. It is important to understand that the power to construct social reality rests not merely with media, but also with those who can control the medias raw materials for news-the criminal justice institutions. (Fishman, 1981: 136) Crime news is mutually determined by journalists, whose image of crime is shaped by police concerns and by police, whose concerns with crime are influenced by media practices. However, if criminal justice bureaucracies are not cooperative in providing relevant information as requested by media, media would not have sufficient resource to form crime waves and representation of crime will be changed. In this regard, criminal justice institutions are the crucial determinant to define what is produced and presented. Journalists convey an image of crime wholly accord with the police departments notion of serious crime and social order as orchestrating with criminal justice institutions. Therefore, as long as the routine source for crime news is criminal justice institutions, the presses are inevitable to reinforce the crime definition from criminal justice institutions. Representation of crime and social control According to hegemony theorists, media are regarded as a secondary definer to orchestrate with dominants consent by actively intervening in the space of public opinion and social consciousness through the use of highly emotive and rhetorical language. This exaggerated way of presentation has a effect of requiring that something has to be done about it. Thus, the impartiality notions of media can be served to objectify a public issue. That is, the publicizing of an issue in the media can serve as an independent opinion to a real issue of public concern rather than merely official information or a direct projection of the governments ideology. In this regard, media can be leveraged as a public agenda setting function to translate primary definers definition of crime into a public issue. (Hall et al., 1981: 346) Once the prolonged public agenda concern in particular crime is formed, moral sensibilities and anxiety are cultivated among society, the press can help to legitimate and reinfo rce the actions of the primary definer by bringing their own independent arguments to bear on the public in support of the actions proposed; or it can bring pressure to bear on the primary definers by summoning up public opinion in support of its own views that stronger measures are needed. (Hall et al., 1981: 348) In late 1976, a great deal of publicity and anxiety was generated over an apparent crime wave against the elderly in New York, which led to the setup of a police sponsored community deference program. However, the official statistics did not support the view that violent crime against elderly was rapidly growing at the same time as the media were reporting a crime surge. The US sociologist Mark Fishman used this example to demonstrate the above argument. According to Fishman, the police do play a crucial role in reinforcing journalistically to produce concern about crime waves by selecting further incidents for reporters based on what has been covered before. Furthermore, the police are in a position to intimate perceptions of a crime wave themselves by the way in which they select crime incidents for their press release. (Fishman, 1981) In this regard, media play an orchestrating role to present what is defined by the police in order to create crime wave, the widespread of news cove rage cultivated anxiety among society, as a result, like what we have concluded above, media in respond to public opinion to pressure the police in order to increase social control by forming the deference program. In this case, the initiation of social control can be legitimated as the reaction of the criminal justice institutions to the public opinion Newspaper reports are disproportionately concentrated on violent crimes, even it seems they are not deliberately focus on this particular category of crime due to medias organizational pressures and code of practice, however, as what I have discussed above, without the source of news provided by criminal justice institutions, crime stories can never be formed. Therefore, the criminal justice institutions are also responsible to affect the media representation of crime by manipulating the source of information. Criminal justice institutions and media can generate fear by providing same kind of crimes persistently in epidemic proportions. For instance, media will suddenly focus on crimes that they had previously ignored and report them to the public. (E.g. mugging and violent crimes against elderly) (Fishman, 1976). In this regard, criminal justice institutions and media are both responsible for exaggerating the magnitude of the problem to sustain public attention for prolonged periods , as a result, fear and moral sensibilities can be instilled. What is important to recognition that moral panic and fear of crime are the first link in a spiral of events leading to the maintenance of law in society by legitimize rule through coercion and the general exercise of authority. The sudden defining and focusing of the historically recurring event of street crime have created the impression of a crime wave, this provides government with the justification to introduce repressive legislation in order to increase its control among the society. (Munice, 2001: 53) Since fearful people are more dependent, more easily manipulated and controlled, more susceptible to deceptively simple, strong, tough measures and hard line postures. They may accept and even welcome repression if it promises to relieve their insecurities and other anxieties. (Signorielli 1990:102) (Reiner, 1997: 217) Consequently, the report of crime waves will produce public pressure to call for tough authoritative institutional control, public support can be mustered to institute formal sanctions. The study of Mod and Rocker by Stanley Cohen and the study of muggers by Stuart Hall and his fellows both demonstrate medias exaggeration of crime risks is claimed to increase political support for authoritarian solutions to a crisis of law and order which is largely the creation of media misrepresentation of crime. Media act in a role to stigmatize young Afro-Caribbean as folk devils and generate moral panic in order to created social conditions of consent for the construction of a society more focused towards law and order. The government uncontrollable and structural causes of social unrest can be overlooked, when the public gaze is fixed by stigmatizing young Afro-Caribbean as visual symbols of what was wrong in society, with the increase of social control measures initiated by the government. As a result, the threats of society seems to be eliminated by social and legislative action; the tough punitive measures can be legitimized to control the unstable social environment, the l egitimacy of the government can be reassured by providing public a image of strong government and strong leadership. (Cohen, 1973; Munice, 2001: 52; McRobbie and Thornton, 1995: 562, Hewitt, 1995: 12-16) The media not only exaggerate crimes, on the other hand, they portray the criminal justice bureaucracies, especially the police in a positive light. Routine news reporting about police and crime has a public relations function for police, promoting organizational and occupational ideologies. (Ericson, 1991: 224) The news media dramatize the polices routine works and give the police a ceremonial force. This has promotional value for the police, because it often shows them to be quite effective in fighting crime. (Marsh 1988) (Ericson, 1991:224) Several researchers have examined the relationship between news and police personnel (Chibnall, 1977; Ericson, Baranek and Chan, 1989; Fishman, 1980; Hall et al., 1978) . Most ethnographic research concludes that the police determine what is presented in the news, and describe news media as conduits for police ideology (Chibnall, 1977; Fishman, 1980; Hall et al., 1978) Police frame crime stories in a self promoting way to exaggerate their effectiveness by compiling statistics on performance measures such as the number of offences as well as arrest data. Furthermore, the police can decide when story information should be released, limiting access to reports and diverting attentions from specific events, in order to manipulate medias representation of crime and criminal justice. The US sociologist Chermaks media contend analysis study (Chermak, 1995) and Roshiers study in the UK  [3]  both evident that (Schlesinger and Tumber, reading list: 186) criminal justice bureaucracies, espe cially the police can manipulate the medias representation of crime and criminal justice system by manipulating information in order to provide a favorable image of police and strengthen the states legitimacy. Furthermore, it has been also suggested by Carlson (1985) that such biased representation of criminal justice bureaucracies can lead to support of more social control. He claims to show that heavier television viewers are comparatively ill-informed about legal process; they have a propensity to believe that the police are effective in combating crime and support. As a result, heavy viewers are tended to support more social control. (Sparks 1992, , Ericson, 1991: 283) Criticism of hegemony and Halls theory: The theory of hegemony has been criticized by many scholars that it has paid inadequate attention to the communication process. They argued that the hegemony theory supporters have been characterized by a tendency to treat media as homogeneous, this largely ignores the distinctiveness of particular media and the ways in which such media are internally differentiated. (Schlesinger et al., 1990: 96-97; Ericson et al, 1991) It has been suggested by Ericson et al that there are systematic variations between the presentations of crime in different media and markets.(Ericson et al, 1991) This is partly because of they have different variants to political and professional journalistic ideology according to patterns of ownership and perceived audience. There are interconnected with differences in technological resources, budge

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Paper has a long history, beginning with the ancient Egyptians and continuing to the present day. For thousands of years, hand-made methods dominated and then, during the 19th century, paper production became industrialised. Originally intended purely for writing and printing purposes, a wide variety of paper grades and uses are now available to the consumer Of all the writing and drawing materials that people have employed down the ages, paper is the most widely used around the world. Its name derives from papyrus the material used by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. Papyrus, however, is only one of the predecessors of paper that together are known by the generic term ‘tapa’ and are mostly made from the inner bark of paper mulberry, fig and daphne. Tapa has been found extensively in nearly all cultures along the Equatorial belt and is made by what is possibly the oldest papermaking technique – one still practised in some parts of the Himalayas and South East Asia. Indeed, recent archaeological excavations in China have revealed some of the oldest ‘tapa’ paper ever found which shows that paper was being produced in China before western records began. The tapa technique involves cooked bast, which is flattened with a wooden hammer to form a thin, fibrous layer and then dissolved in a vat with water to make a pulp. A screen consisting of a wooden frame with a fabric base is then laid in a puddle or big basin and floats with the fabric just under the surface of the water. The papermaker then pours the quantity of pulp needed to make one sheet into this ‘floating mould’ and spreads it evenly, by hand, across the surface. The screen is then carefully lifted out of the water, allowed to drain off and a sheet of paper forms on the wire. Once the water has dripped off, the screen is placed in the sun or near a fire to dry. When dry, the sheet easily peels off and, apart from possible smoothing, requires no further treatment. This technique has two basic drawbacks. Firstly, a separate screen is needed for each new sheet, and is only available for use again after the last sheet has dried. And secondly, an increase in productio n can soon lead to a shortage of raw material, since fresh bast is not always available everywhere in the required quantity. The fibres normally used for textiles, like flax and hemp, also served as substitutes for bast.

Essay --

Not Everyone Can Climb a Tree Many people have gone through our education system believing they are stupid when in fact the schools have failed to teach and assess them in the manner they are best suited to. How we learn and how we are assessed in retaining lessons is key to a productive and inclusive society. In the past, rote learning was the primary method of teaching and assessments were based on how much knowledge the student could recite. Currently, other methods are additionally employed to improve creativity and connection to information and retention is measured by benchmarks and expected developmental stages. However, with weaknesses attributed to both methods, a more inclusive method that incorporates positive aspects of all types of learning and teaches in the way that works best for each individual would be preferable. A blended learning method would be the best because it combines the acquisition of knowledge from rote learning with the creative problem solving connections from prior knowledge learned in creative play and adds critical thinking skills or the ability to assess the value of information. Assessments would be based on the kind of learner each person is and how the students master concepts and essential skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, and decision-making. This kind of learning would focus on understanding how individuals learn best and then using that type of learning as the primary tool for teaching that individual. In this way, students who excel in artistic endeavors would not have their intelligence assessed by how well they determine the biochemical structure of the latest new polycarbonate molecule and no one would go through life thinking they are stupid. Historically ... ...ing, which I think is the cost of the development of this learning style and the assessment. The cost would be a big factor in the decision to go ahead with this kind of learning in the classroom or not. In the past, learning was limited to rote memorization and recitation, which resulted in a noticeable segment being bored or turned off by academics, believing they were not smart enough to learn anything. More recently new learning methods have been employed that incorporate play into learning and is more student directed rather than teacher directed. While this method employs additional learning skills it still lacks a critical thinking component. Blended learning employs the best of rote and creative learning while adding the ability to assess the value of information as well. Learning is based on methods that are best suited for each individual student.