Saturday, August 31, 2019

The Disadvantages of Technology in Education

Technology can be rightly said to have impacted every occupation. Technology application and the changes it brings are in fact intended and necessitated, as it is a part of the larger development of the society. Technology has been introduced in all fields and occupations, either directly or indirectly, and its benefits are evident in terms of time, quality, process etc. As technology has been broadly introduced in all walks of life, no occupation can claim to be independent of either direct or indirect use of technology, since it is integrated to the society.It is therefore obvious that the fields of education and learning have also incorporated technology, resulting in unprecedented possibilities and results. The advantages of technology cannot be disputed, particularly given the recent trends in e-learning, however despite this; its disadvantages shouldn’t be ignored. The need and maintenance of the associated infrastructure for technology introduction may itself look chall enging for many. New technologies may require special wiring and any breakdowns would be disruptive and need repair by experts.Also when high costs on software, hardware and connection costs are borne, the equipment might soon be outdated (NCRTEC, 2005). The teacher has now become more of a learning facilitator rather than an instructor or information provider. The teacher’s methodology has changed from traditional, teacher-centered teaching to learner-centered, interactive teaching. The teacher has moved away from being a fact teller and an expert to being a collaborator and occasionally an expert, with learning emphasis being on relationships and inquiry rather than facts and reproduction.Students are moving away from passive learning, given the lesser lecturing; towards cooperative learning. Focusing more on information literacy, the teacher helps in guiding students to identify and access required information. With students being capable of resourcing all relevant informa tion, the teacher now needs to help them to analyze, evaluate and judge the suitability of the information; they have required. With the involvement of technology, the traditional skills and exercises of students are being increasingly abandoned.The use of calculator by students avoids them the benefits of manual calculations. Manual calculations involve deeper analysis of the problems which develop brain activity and mental capability. Introduction of technologies, while helping students, are in fact doing away with the crucial mental exercises and reasoning efforts of the students, depriving them of the associated valuable benefits. With most schools accepting electronic submission of answers or essays, students no longer need to be concerned of spelling and grammar usage.These are automatically highlighted or corrected, saving them the effort to do it by themselves. In the long run, they do not develop the skills necessary for identifying and correcting these. The use of internet in education not only exposes students to wrong or misleading information, but also to engage in plagiarism. Assignments and tests are quickly completed by reproducing available information rather than producing it by themselves. The use of technology in education is definitely doing away with the skill sets that have been acquired by individuals with much effort and pain, traditionally.Music education is also an area where technological changes have done away with traditional requirements. Today, the sounds of drum, piano or other instruments can be electronically created without learning the fundamentals of that instrument. Thus experts only need to manipulate these sounds effectively, which would otherwise have required the performance of so many musicians. Although there are several advantages of a computer, the use of computers in language learning has its own restrictions. One of its main disadvantages is that it would lead to an increase in education costs (Gips, DiMattia & Gips).Low budget schools and poor students would not be able to buy a computer, when computer become a basic necessity for students. This would cause unjust conditions on the part of poor schools and students, with regard to education. Even when computers are bought, the need for expensive software or hardware would again be another financial strain on the part of the schools and students. For computer assisted second language learning, it becomes necessary that both the teacher and student be proficient in the basics of computer use.Students cannot use computers in language learning when they lack training in computer technology. Most teachers unfortunately do not have the technological training to guide their students through computer assisted language learning programs (Lai & Kritsonis). Another problem with regard to computers in language learning is that the software for language learning if far from perfect. Many language learning programs are recent and its functions are high ly limited. The computers need to be capable of not just evaluating the correctness of a spoken word, but also the appropriateness of the said word.It should also be capable of evaluating student’s response with respect to pronunciation, syntax and context of usage. Second language learners face several situations in the course of their language learning and computers cannot handle such unexpected situations. As the artificial intelligence of the computers is limited, it cannot handle unexpected learning problems and queries of learners’. It should be noted that there is a fundamental difference in the way humans and computers analyze information. Computers with such a level of intelligence cannot be expected for at least quite sometime (Blin, 1994).With the emergence of newer technologies, the fact that it is indeed beneficial cannot be disputed. However, these new technologies are doing away with the requirement for development of personal skill sets that have been t raditionally followed. Our education is moving away from a totally technology independent field to highly technology dependent. Education is our basics to understanding of the world, survival and success tactics. With much of this education being technology backed, we step into the harsh world, largely backed with technology use. The change here is irreversible like that in other technology aided fields.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Redemption in the Kite Runner Essay

Throughout â€Å"The Kite Runner† Amir is portrayed as a boy who is always trying to make up or redeem himself for the mistakes he couldn’t control, or made. By Amir winning the tournament he tries to redeem himself since he believes he caused his mother’s death, but by redeeming himself for that he witnessed the mistake for not standing up for Hassan. After winning the tournament with the help of Hassan he redeems himself for his father. Amir is weak in Baba’s eyes, and thinks everything his son does is incorrect. Amir wants to be Baba’s favourite and for Baba to give him all of his attention, due to their expectations in one another. Baba is redeemed to his son after he wins and beats the record in the kite tournament. Amir risked his life by going back to Afghanistan. After leaving Afghanistan at the age of eighteen. Escaping inside the tank of a gas trunk, after the attack of Russians on Afghanistan. Amir had no reason to go back, until one day when Rahim Khan tells him about Hassan’s death. However the most shocking part of the letter concerns Hassan’s real father, which is Baba. Amir stands up for Sohrab by fighting Assef for him. When Amir returns to Afghanistan to find Sohrab proves to be the solution to his quilt towards Hassan, it also is the source of the redemption he so desperately wants to seek. He chose to find Sohrab and tries his hardest to give him a better life even if that does mean sacrificing his own safety. Therefor throughout â€Å"The Kite Runner† Amir is portrayed as a boy who is always trying to make up or redeem himself for the mistakes he made, but does redeem himself towards his father, Sohrab and especially Hassan. As Hassan’s and Amir’s father would say â€Å"a boy who can’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything† but Amir indicates he can stand up for himself.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

BLR Savings Project P

Data Code of Conduct We, in our dealings, are self-regulated by a Code of Conduct as enshrined In the Data Code of Conduct. We request your support In helping us adhere to the Code In letter and split. We request that any violation or potential violation of the Code by any person be promptly brought to the notice of the Local Ethics Counselor or the Principal Ethics Counselor or the CEO of TTS. All communication received in this regard will be treated and kept as confidential. 2 Table of Content 4 2. Project 3. Scope of 4. Suggested Solution by TTS 6 5. Technology and Tools ? 7 6.Facts and 9 7. Highlights . 8. Benefits to the Customer ? 3 The customer is one of the leading financial services companies in the United Kingdom (I-J). They have over 7. 5 million people investing in various life assurance, pension, investment and general insurance plans. This is one of Auk's top 50 companies in the Financial Times and Stock Exchange (FETES) Index and its operations are spread across the wo rld, mainly in the United States (US), France, Netherlands, Germany and I-J. This leading financial services company makes financial security easier to achieve for millions of people.Through the range of general insurance and protection products that the company offers, it helps protect lives, health, homes and belongings of millions of people. 2. Project Background The customer, based in the I-J, has entrusted Data Consultancy Services (TTS) with the task of managing the today-day IT operations of various business units. This engagement aims to deliver administration services of high quality to the customer's Wealth Business Unit at reduced costs, increased efficiency and reduced time to deliver projects. The following systems form a part of the Wealth Delivery Unit: Future ProductFramework The Future Product Framework (OFF) system plays a central role in the customer's Pension and Investment business and in the customer's strategic Pensions and Bonds administration system. OFF was implemented in 1999. It was designed to provide flexibility in products to meet customer requirements. OFF is a rules and derivative system and has the capability to launch products to the market quickly. UNIt Linked PENsion UNIt Linked PENsion (UNEVEN) is the customer's legacy system that was developed in- house and was originally implemented in 1980.Since 2001, many of its functions eve been replicated within the newer OFF system, and as a consequence almost all new pension contracts are set up on OFF rather than on UNEVEN. Some parts of UNEVEN have been replaced by separate applications such as Individual Pension Claims (PC) and Pensions Increments (PINCH). PC The PC is an online system that enables the creation, maintenance, and printing of Personal and Corporate pension quotations based on the customer pension plans. This system handles retirement, death and transfer out. It is predominately an online system. Quotation documents are composed using SF. PC was implemented in 199 2.PINCH The PINCH system was built to replace the existing UNEVEN renewal routines and to provide dados Benefit Statements and online illustrations. It is primarily used to produce Benefits Statements and Incremental Illustrations for Individual and Occupational Pensions. It was implemented in 1994. Group Pensions The Group Pensions system handles the administration of the following pension products: POP, POP and the Group Pension schemes with respect to maintaining member records and renewal processing. It also administers the settlement of claims for deaths and retirements, including producing claim quotations. ValuationsThe Valuations system performs the valuation of policies across various applications within this account to finally arrive at a valuation of customer's business. Agency, Customer, Finance and Healthcare These systems coordinate with the business to align with the business with respect to Agency and customer details. 5 3. Scope of Work The scope of this engagement is to provide application development and maintenance services across both the legacy and strategic systems of the customer's Wealth Business Unit. TTS provides the following services to the Wealth Business Unit: Management of all the phases of the project lifestyle

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Discussion 1 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Discussion 1 - Assignment Example Personally, I find it amusing how people then had to use art as a way of communication, while not everybody has the talent of drawing. Some people cannot even draw a tree leave alone a smiling face. Although the discovery of art must have made life easy and simpler, the fact that most of the people could not take part in the emotional communication, as they did not have the skills to draw and express themselves just like their counterparts. Culture, as I would define it in relation to the world cultures cyber journeys is the differences in the way of people’s lives, and their believes on the various things that they practice in their daily lives. Through the daily practices and people’s interactions, a group of people unknowingly expresses their cultural practices. Thus, the normal things people either express subconsciously or consciously in writing or in other ways such as define the culture of that particular group. Cultures can either differ or compare with one another. Despite people having different cultural background, they exhibit some of similarities in their cultural practices. The differences and similarities of the western and eastern culture revel this. Both the western and the eastern people share in a number of ways. Their religious beliefs, share a common direction. Both the western and the eastern people believe in a supernatural figure. The two cultures believe in the existence of some form of power beyond their ability. However, the dwelling places of their supernatural powers differ. On the other hand, they believe in leaders, chosen among them. The main difference however is that while in the west the leader has an equal status with the people, in east, the leader is supreme and has overwhelming power. Culture regards the west as more advanced than the east. Especially in the manner through which

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 40

Leadership - Essay Example Concern for the people in an organisation entails making sure that the employees have the best working conditions and a given a fair remuneration. Creating favourable conditions in the work place for the employees makes them feel appreciated and increases their loyalty to the organisation, which then translates to them working with a lot of dedication hence more improved performance in the organisation (Kuballa, 2007). Concern for productivity within an organisation entails increase the output levels in the organization. A firm that aims at increasing productivity is mainly concerned with improving efficiency of the production process; however, this may be at the expense of the satisfaction of the employees (Lohrasbi, 2006). Productivity in an organisation cannot be achieved unless the employees are willing to improve the performance; poor treatment of the employees leads to low productivity even when an organisation has put in place measures to improve productivity, this is because those measures that have been put in place require human labour in order for them to work (Sharma & Gupta,

Case study II Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Case study II - Assignment Example One of the legal issues they should consider is the business structure. Currently, the business operates as a partnership. This means they should be able to decide the structure that will best suit their expanded business. A decision on this is reached after considering liability issues associated with each business structure; limited partnership or Limited Liability Company. They should also ensure that they get a new license or permit authorizing the operation of the new type of business. This is important because different types of business become operational under different types of licenses1. Contractual relationship is another legal issue to be considered. Hansel and Gretel and their contactors should read through any agreements they make for the new business before acting on them. Since the business operates with contractors, they should also consider disclosure and non-disclosure issues. This means contractors should sign an agreement to protect any confidential information of the business. One of the regulatory issues to be considered before modifying the business is cost. They should be able to meet the financial requirements for the new type of business. Hansel and Gretel should consider how the stability and continuity of the business will be affected by the changes in the business, especially due to structural changes. Control of decisions is another regulatory issue. They should consider to what extend they want to have control over the decisions to be made regarding the business. Hansel and Gretel have to consider financial laws relating to the new type of business for example tax laws and other financial regulations. This includes how the government will tax the new type of business. Various professional advisors give specialized advice regarding business issues. Professional business advisers are selected based on the most critical area that one needs to understand regarding the type of business they want to start.

Monday, August 26, 2019

Analyzing the Yield Curve Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Analyzing the Yield Curve - Essay Example The figure below shows the yield curve of US Treasury of 11th February 2011. The key point here is that only bonds with different maturities of US Treasury have been selected since they are default free and do not have credit risk associated with them. Despite the fact that these bonds are risk free than why the yield curve is positive sloping that is its yield is increasing with an increase in maturities. Figure 1: US Treasury bond yields as of Feb 11, 2011 (Source: www.bondsonline.com) Table 1: Yield on US Treasury bonds with different maturities The reason why it’s upward sloping is because the curve shows the expectations of the investors about future interest rates. The investors require a higher rate of return as a compensation for lending their money for a longer period of time. In addition to that, the figure also reveals that as the Fed rate is currently on a very lower side therefore the market believes that in the future the returns will adjust due to inflation and other macroeconomic factors. This is more related with the expectations theory of the investors. The yield curve shifts over the period of time that is interest rate of different maturities increase or decrease on similar risk bonds. This is for a number of reasons that causes shifts in yield curves. Firstly, the economic scenario in a country determines how the yield curve should behave.

Sunday, August 25, 2019

''Have courage to use your own reason''-that is th motto of Essay

''Have courage to use your own reason''-that is th motto of enlightenment. What according to Kant is the the task for mankind in - Essay Example Kant argued that enlightenment in a man pertains to a state when the latter has overcome or emerged above his immature self whereby it is claimed that beyond man’s immaturity, there exists sufficient capacity to understand in the absence of external guiding principle. In this proposition, the immaturity of an individual is considered to be imposed upon oneself and an immature person ought to be relieved of anxiety in seeking the ability to discern. On this ground, humans are summoned to initiate with a certain level of responsibility by acknowledging the significance of courage in order to be willing to acquire pertinent means to understand. Otherwise, Kant further stressed that, people who think themselves capable find it rather of an advantage to their ends to obtain guardianship for those who become weakened either by cowardice or indolence. This, if well-managed apart from any trace of corruption or bribery, can serve to put the immature ones on a learning situation where they can start to gain insights which would in turn drive them to exertion. Guardianship or assuming a role with a sense of significant accountability for a portion of incapable multitude occurs to be a serious deed of necessary guidance toward enlightenment, at least the initial step in launching a mature realization. On exercising such potentials, obstacles and frustration are inevitable but a guardian must not cease from anticipating good and poor results alike since the majority of common public who are slaves to idleness have, by frequency of being, been accustomed to remain as they are. Bringing them to the level of maturity entails breaking away from a lifelong habit, hence, enlightenment would be gradual in teaching and learning process that extends to the willful duty to look after the manner by which a thinking is reformed from inaction to the stage filled with sensibility and dynamic rationalization. Enlightenment comes with the wisdom to ascertain which set of reasons is mature enough to be helped at improving one’s well-being upon which the government can act by exposing a dumb nation to several areas of knowledge and non-academic programs that naturally foster a mentally stimulating atmosphere. Once the unknowing citizens begin to recognize both their worth and unique abilities along the way, this marks the first stage of enlightenment that, little by little, proceeds in yielding the desired maturity to deal satisfactorily with personal growth and development. Considering the basic principle behind the motto of enlightenment, in taking courage to avail of one's unique rationalization, a will to freedom breaks off the leash of underdevelopment that makes man complacent with ordinary living without seeing the essence of risks to meet ends that are far more rewarding and sensible in human existence. Where one acknowledges this step as a way to be emancipated out of the old self accompanied with foolish habits, there comes the necessary initia tive or assertion followed by a transforming act to acquire a firm stand over matters. Having courage to use one's own reason gradually progresses in abolishing slavery to the contentment of avoiding fear toward responsibility for one's unique position because then the person sees possibilities of

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Recycled toothbrushes make sense Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Recycled toothbrushes make sense - Assignment Example Therefore, it simplifies its logistics and supply chain management and makes it low-cost. Hudson could send motivators to schools and colleges, to build awareness amongst the young people regarding the advantages of using recycled plastic products. These personnel should make concerted effort to project the usage of recycled plastic products as the hallmarks of an alternate lifestyle, which is not only eco-friendly, but also modern and trendy. As Hudson has access to desirable raw material for free, he can set the price of its products competitively lower than the comparable regular products (Zimring 45). Availability of low-cost, eco-friendly products will certainly add to his customer base. Hudson should make it a point to educate the prospective customers that the raw material for his products comes from the packaging of branded food stuff, and is hygienic and safe. This will dilute the lack of acceptance that some customers may feel about products like recycled toothbrushes. Answer: It is vital for Recycline to understand that selling recycled products is not merely about products, but offering an alternate life style. This eco-friendly life style is not only increasing in popularity, but its followers have strong emotional and ethical attachments associated with it. So, at present Recycline is basically a small contributor to this new but fast spreading way of life. As the company grows larger and as it gets access to desirable capital, and customer base, it could exploit its brand appeal to enter into industries that project eco-friendliness and sustainability. Such industries could be like organic food, recycled paper, herbal medicines, etc. The primary objective of the company should be to use its growth and brand equity to carve out a larger share from the market for eco-friendly products and

Friday, August 23, 2019

Art project 11 Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Art project 11 - Term Paper Example Dreams consisted of a large segment of his life, because he would take siestas, or midday rests, in which he encounters more and more dreams. He considered the siesta as a state that is achieved at the moment that one forgets about one’s body or in psychoanalysis the state of the unconscious. Yet, his dreamlike style, combined with a variety of works with different themes dramatically changed the way the world viewed art. Salvador Dali, is one of the unconventional world renowned painters I truly admire. Dali’s artistic genius always has a shock factor when looking at his paintings. His paintings would easily capture not only your attention but also of your cognitive and aesthetic senses stimulating them to explore, rationalize and associate meanings to their symbolic details. Dali easily catches his viewers’ attention with the combination of light colors and the odd images in his paintings appearing seemingly to have no correlation at all. Dali’s The Persistence of Memory, a painting that earned him the hallmark of fame, is just an

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Person Centred Therapy Evaluation Essay Example for Free

Person Centred Therapy Evaluation Essay In order to evaluate the claim that Person-Centred Therapy offers the therapist all that he/she will need to treat clients, one must look at the theoretical concepts of person-centred therapy (PCT) and its underlying philosophical influences. The PCT approach was developed during the 1940’s and 1950’s by an American psychologist Carl Rogers, now known as Rogerian counselling; he proposed new humanistic ideas for counselling which moved away from the doctor/patient relationship. PCT emphasises person to person relationship between the therapist and client and focuses on the client’s point of view; through active listening the therapist tries to understand the client’s presenting issue and emotions. In PCT the client determines the direction, course, speed and length of the treatment and the therapist helps increase the client’s insight and self understanding. Rogers and Abraham Maslow, another psychologist, were the founders of the humanistic approach to psychology. â€Å"Humanistic theories of personality maintain that humans are motivated by the uniquely human need to expand their frontiers and to realise as much of their potential as possible† (Sanders 2002 p22). A humanistic approach is based on all human beings having an inbuilt ability to grow and achieve their full potential known as â€Å"actualisation†. If this quality can be harnessed then human beings can resolve their own issues naturally, given the right conditions. Rogers and Maslow believed in a person’s potential to reach self actualisation. Maslow however referred to the ‘psychology of being’ and that self actualisation was an end in itself at the top of the hierarchy of needs whereas Rogers considered the ‘psychology of becoming’- the process of being able to take charge of your life and become the person you want to be a c ontinuous process. Maslow felt that human beings are always striving for self improvement which goes beyond that of the basic needs for survival. He believed that a person’s behaviour stems from the way in which people strive to meet different needs. From 1943 to 1954 he developed the 5-level Hierarchy of Needs: * The first, lowest level, concerns a person’s physiological  needs: survival, food, water and shelter. * The second addresses safety: protection from danger and need for security, order and predictability. * The third covers love social behaviour: for love, friendship and acceptance by peers. * The fourth addresses self respect and esteem: the need for status, independence, recognition, self confidence and respect from others. * The fifth and highest level concerns self-actualisation: the need to fulfil one’s personal potential. His theory states that each need must be met in turn starting with the lowest concerning the need for survival and only when the lower needs are met is a person able to move on to the higher needs. However if something should happen and any lower needs are no longer satisfied then a person will concentrate on regaining them before attaining the higher ones. The lower four levels are known as ‘deficiency’ needs which a person will strive to fulfil thereby satisfying the deficiency. However behaviour relating to self actualisation is known as a ‘growth’ need, governed by the person’s inborn need to grow and realise his full potential. Maslow felt most people only ever achieved the first four needs, and he wanted to help clients to obtain ‘Self-Actualisation’ in order to really become themselves. â€Å"The higher up the hierarchy we go, the more the need becomes linked to life experience and the less ‘biological’ it becomes.† (Gross 1996 p.97) It is a fact that people achieve self actualisation in many different ways, related to experience in later life rather than biology. If a person has a deficiency in one of the lower levels of needs then self- actualisation cannot be achieved, resulting in anger, frustration, unhappiness and depression. Rogers trusted in people and viewed them in a positive and optimistic way, believing all human beings naturally strove to achieve their potential; mental health issues arose when barriers to personal growth were present. Accordingly a person’s behaviour is down to self perception or interpretation of a situation and as no one else could know how something was perceived, the perceiver would be the best person to help themselves. PCT looks at how the client is currently interpreting and perceiving their  situation, the moment to moment experience and what is being thought and felt. Rogers viewed psychological development as the process of a person following the path of actualisation and so becoming oneself. A fully functioning person was someone on his way to self actualisation and he identified certain qualities that enabled that person to realise his potential. A person needs to have:- Openness to experience: he can accurately perceive his own feelings and experiences in the world; Existential living: he lives in the present rather than the past; Organismic trusting: know what is good for one and trust thoughts and feelings as accurate, doing what comes naturally; Experiential freedom: the feeling of freedom when making choices and taking responsibility for personal actions; Creativity: a person will naturally socialise and participate in society through work, social relationships or through the arts or sciences. A principal element of Rogers’ theory is the concept of self, described as being a set of self perceptions and beliefs, including self awareness or image, self esteem and worth, and Ideal self. Human behaviour is driven by people attempting to maintain consistency between their self image and esteem; sometimes this consistency is not achieved and a person’s self image may differ from their actual behaviour and how it is perceived by others. A highly successful and respected person, may see themself as a complete failure: as their actual experience is not consistent with their ideal self, an incongruent condition. People experiencing incongruent feelings, because of conflict with their self image, feel threatened and may block or deny these feelings. It is these defence mechanisms which prevent the self from growing and changing; widening the gap between reality and the self-image until the latter becomes more unrealistic when the â€Å"incongruent person† will start to feel vulnerable, confused and suffer psychological disturbances. A congruent person’s self image is flexible and changes with new experiences, the self image matches the thoughts and actions allowing for the opportunity to self-actualise. A person’s self concept develops through childhood. Rogers believed that  humans developed conditions of worth: the conditions where positive regard would be given. In order to maintain this conditional positive regard a person will suppress or deny actions and feelings which are unacceptable to people who are important, instead of using those thoughts, feelings and perceptions as a guide to behaviour. It is this denial that causes the difference between the organism and the self, the organism being everything a person does, feels and thinks, and the self being the part that is accepted liked and respected by others positive regard. As people have an inherent need to be loved and accepted and therefore a need for positive self regard, they behave and act in ways that meet approval so in turn think of themselves as good, lovable and worthy. In order to experience positive self regard a person’s behaviour and condition of worth must match; sometimes conditions can force one to behave and act in ways that prevent self actualisation, thus living life by someone else’s standards. This can cause conflict between experience and self concept, leading to the development of psychological disorders. Congruence and self actualisation can only be reached if a person is functioning as a whole organism so conditions of worth need to be substituted with organismic values. Rogers maintains that the human organism has an underlying â€Å"actualising tendency† which drives a person to develop and become independent. When a person is acting under conditional positive regard which prevents realisation of full potential, these conditions need to be removed. The difference between the self and organism then becomes minimal and the person more closely aligned with his natural values: more relaxed and happy with life. PCT aims to provide the right environment to enable the client to grow and develop, and work through any problems by utilising the ability for personal growth. Rogers believed that the therapy should take place in a supportive environment created by a close personal relationship between the client and the therapist. It allows insight into the client’s feelings and behaviour whilst the therapist’s function is to offer warmth and empathy, congruence and unconditional positive regard toward the client, accepting what is said in a non judgmental way. Rogers felt that the most important factor in  successful therapy was the therapist’s attitude. A key element of the PCT is to reflect the client’s feelings without judgement and by doing this the client will relax and express inner feelings. It also lets the client know that the therapist is listening, trying to understand, as well as clarifying what the client is communicating. Clarification arises when the therapist picks out the key points, uses the clients own words to develop an atmosphere of trust, enabling rapport to develop leading the client to feel able to appreciate current feelings and past experiences. Rogers believed that in order to create this environment for growth and change three core conditions need to be provided for a therapeutic relationship to be formed. Empathy. The therapist must try to enter the client’s inner world and understand how the client is feeling through sensitively listening and reflecting back what the client is saying. â€Å"Carl Rogers described empathy as the ability to sense the client’s world as if it were your own without losing the â€Å"as if† quality† (Sanders 2002 p68). Congruence. This involves the therapist being â€Å"real† open to the expressed feelings and being genuine with the client. There should be no air of authority, enabling the client to feel the therapist is being honest and responding as a real person not analysing what is being said and trying to fit it to a therapeutic model. Unconditional positive regard (UPR). The therapist must provide non judgmental warmth and acceptance of the client, regardless of past behaviour, as a worthwhile person free to explore and discuss all thoughts, feelings and behaviour positive and negative without fear of rejection or judgement. The client must not feel the need to earn positive regard; many people seek help because of disturbances caused by unreasonable harsh judgements. It is very important to ensure that experience is not repeated during therapy. If the client feels an evaluation is being undertaken, a false front may be put up or the therapy stopped altogether. It is these three core conditions that form the foundation of the therapeutic relationship. However, Rogers also believed that fundamental to providing the right conditions for change the helper must make psychological contact with the client. â€Å"Client and therapist need to be simultaneously aware of  each other before anything therapeutic can happen† (Sanders, Franklin Wilkins 2009 p 39.) Psychological contact, the relationship between therapist and client; the client is vulnerable or anxious; and receives empathy, UPR and congruence. All of these conditions are necessary and the core conditions must be used sufficiently for helpful change. These core conditions are believed to enable to the client to grow and develop in his own way to become the desired person. PCT focuses on the client’s own thoughts and feelings, not those of the therapist and provides an environment where the client can explore personal experiences to strengthen self structure which in turn helps to reach actualisation. The two primary goals of PCT are to increase a client’s self esteem and openness to experience. The therapy also helps to bring the clients self image and ideal self closer together and allows the client to have a better self understanding. The client’s levels of defensiveness, guilt and insecurity are lowered resulting in more positive and comfortable relationships with others and an improving ability to experience feelings and emotions when they occur. The results of studies carried out using this approach show that clients maintain stable changes over long periods of time, and that the changes are comparable with changes achieved using other types of therapy. It is a very effective way to treat people suffering from depression or relationship issues but PCT does appear to be less effective than other humanistic therapies where the therapist offers more advice. Rogers originally developed his PCT in a children’s clinic as ‘play therapy’ and his theory has been used to help people suffering from depression, anxiety, alcohol disorders, cognitive dysfunction and personality disorders and has been proved successful when used on an individual basis as well as in group and family therapy. In the later part of his career he worked with people suffering from schizophrenia. Although PCT is popular and does achieve a level of success, a key criticism in this approach is that the core conditions should always be provided by a good therapist before moving onto different theories and strategies to help make the client better. This criticism shows there is a degree of misunderstanding of the real problems of constantly providing UPR, empathy and congruence in the therapeutic setting, as these can clash and cause  conflict. Purely being able to maintain these core conditions requires much work on the part of the therapist, given that everyone has values and beliefs which are hard to suppress and ignore, so it may be more real for the therapist to own their own values and beliefs whilst not judging others. PCT does not require the counsellor to undergo any specific training or self development in any particular way through personal experience, other than to provide the core conditions. Rogers believed it is the relationship between the therapist and the client that brings about the therapeutic change. Further criticism, of therapists demonstrating the core conditions, is that it can lead the client to believe that the therapist is supportive of the situation and viewpoint to such an extent that the client no longer feels the need to change. This is due to the therapist offering no alternatives as there is no position of authority in the PCT to guide the client to make constructive changes. PCT has also been criticised for its lack of structure and insufficient direction to help people in real crisis. Some therapists would argue that this type of approach is not suitable or effective for clients who are inarticulate or poorly educated, whereas other feel that this approach can be applied to anyone. Although this approach is positive is it enough to solely create a good relationship between client and therapist and provide the clients with a safe space to feel valued and supported in order for change to take place? If a client is experiencing real difficulty and is unable to see a way forward and has lost all hope then it is important for the help to come from the therapist. Clients who have experienced this type of therapy often feel that is does not provide the desired solutions they are looking for and have become bored, frustrated and annoyed with the Rogerian style. In summary, although the person-centred approach is clearly a highly effective method of helping and is widely accepted and used by clinical psychologists today, I do not feel that it offers the therapist all that he/she needs to treat clients. I believe that no one therapy can claim an absolute success rate in treating clients, as human beings are inherently different due to differing cultural backgrounds and life experience and  hence each therapist and client relationship will be unique, producing differing results. I feel that one theory that suits everyone is not the approach a good therapist should adopt. Some people may find it easy to talk about their feelings and be able to help themselves in a PCT environment whereas to another this type of approach would be completely bewildering and unproductive. I believe PCT is an effective therapy for treating self esteem and relationship issues however it does not go nearly far enough to help those with deep rooted psychological disorders. A client in crisis may not have the ability to self-help and the nondirective approach can be unhelpful and ineffective when a client is seeking clear guidance from a counsellor. Therefore I believe it is the job of the therapist to determine which theory would help the client best to resolve their issues and be prepared to be flexible in approach. The skill set of a good therapist would have a variety of different strategies and therapeutic approaches to offer the client and although a person-centred approach is a good place to start, the therapist should be prepared to progress to more structured approaches as appropriate.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Linking and Illegal Trespassing Essay Example for Free

Linking and Illegal Trespassing Essay Bidder’s Edge was different than EBay normal customers for a few reasons. Bidder’s Edge searched for bids on EBay to compare with bids from other bidding sites to find the best bids for customers. Bidders Edge could have potentially slowed the access to EBay’s actual customers on EBay’s site directly (The Recorder, 2000). I feel EBay gained concern because this process could have lost them potential or current customers. For example, if EBay was being compared to other bidding websites with low bids, then it would be obvious that EBay would not be chosen by bidders. Bidders Edge for me seems a lot like Amazon. Amazon compares several stores prices to find their customers the lowest price. The difference with Amazon is that they only search stores that have granted them the permission to do so. Also unlike a bidding website, all prices are as is. Traditional trespass to personal property is entering a premise without permission, misusing or damaging the owner’s property and also preventing the owner of said property from using the property as the owner intended (Bick, 2000). The difference between traditional trespassing and to personal property differs from the California definition of trespassing to computer services is vastly. Where with the traditional trespass to personal property is easy to prove, the California definition of trespassing to computer services is not. California definition of trespassing to computer services states that the owner of web site has to prove that the use by trespasser has caused injury to web site or owner. Being that a majority of the internet is public access, it can be hard to not allow access to certain individuals and companies while considering themselves a public website. Also an internet site is much easier to access than a physical property and harder to prove.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Racial Stereotypes in Disney Films

Racial Stereotypes in Disney Films Henry Giroux, in his essay Animating Youth: The Disnification Of Childrens Culture, refers to Disney films as one of the primary institutions constructing childhood culture in the United States. But by the nineties, even the urban Indian child had access to the aura of innocence and wholesome adventure that Disney animated features supposedly exhibited. Fairytale adaptations such as Sleeping Beauty and Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs(1937), became immensely popular and as the 22 Billion Dollar Disney enterprise furthered its ventures, Disney films became synonymous with well loved Childrens movies, both abroad and at home. The objective of Disney films was to transport its viewers to a magical realm of enchantment and endless possibility. Disney offered a supposed alternate paradigm in which there was the promise of a Happily Ever After. It aimed at appealing to audiences young and old and hoped to find a universal market. Walt Disney once stated that Of all of our inventions for mass communication, pictures still speak the most universally understood language. And although it did reach audiences far and wide, for a young Indian girl watching The 1937 Disney adaptation of Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, it gave her very little to identify with or relate to. Snow White, the first on-screen Disney Princess was rendered With lips as red as rubies and skin as fair as snow. Blatantly epitomising Western ideas of femininity and beauty, films like Snow White alienated the Non-western viewer. It was a fantasy that was centred on fixed archetypes of beauty and desirability which catered to the white, western population and had no room for anybody else. Eventually, the industry was criticised for its focus on a singular ethos and racial presentation. Thus, the last decade of the 20th century saw Walt Disney Pictures release films that were now aimed at broadening its cultural spectrum. Alladin, debuted as Disneys first attempt to explore a different cultural terrain. Released in 1992, it was later followed by other culture specific films like Mulan and Pocahontas which opened in cinemas in 1998 and 1995 respectively. Although this new brand of films hoped to establish a sense of cultural inclusivity by venturing beyond the Western World, what became clearly evident in the process, was a heavy dependence on Despite an apparent interest in spreading the knowledge of distant cultures, these films drew excessively on racial stereotypes and produced a largely distorted idea of the cultures they depicted. Elena Di Giovanni, in her essay Disney Films: Reflections of the Other and the Self, notes that Disneys selection of certain cultures which it chose to portray, was not a choice that was arbitrary and unplanned. According to Di Giovanni, the reasons for selecting these cultures can be ascribed to precise cultural and ideological strategies. The cultures depicted in these films are either conventionally considered to be somehow inferior if juxtaposed with modern Western Civilisations and to the narrating American culture in particular, as suggested by the Saudi Arabian-born scholar Ziauddin Sardar. Otherwise,they refer to prior stages of social and cultural development in comparison to the contemporary American standards. These films rely almost exclusively on conventional cultural metonymies to build the representations of the Other. In historical terms, the tradition of representing otherness through a filtered Gaze finds its roots in Western colonialism. With consolidated efforts made by the colonizers to impose their own cultural, linguistic parameters on the subjugated populations of the so-called East, moulding the image of the Other according to their own needs was a means to reinforce their own identity and supremacy. The dissemination of biased representations of non-Western cultures flourished even beyond the decades of colonial expansion, manifesting itself in various different forms, ranging from pop culture to international relations. One of the first scholars to give a sharp account of these biased cultural encounters was Edward Said in Orientalisrn(1978). Even though primarily concerned with tracing the history of the Orientalist attitude by the West in literature, Said does not fail to consider the importance of new technologies and the media in the proliferation of this unjust tradition: One aspect of the electronic, post-modern world is that there has been a reinforcement of the stereotypes by which the Orient is viewed. Television, films, and all the medias resources have forced information into more and more standardized moulds. More recently, Ziauddin Sardar has echoed similar ideas in his 1999 publication of Orientalism, a book he writes, as assort of tribute to Saids work, therefore titling it the same. The main interest of Sardars book, whose approach is even harsher than Saids, lies in his detailed reflections upon the new, modern ways by which the Orientalist attitude manifests itself and is still spreading nowadays. By way of introduction to his work, Sardar declares that even though the project of Orientalism has way passed its sell by date, it is colonizing new territories, such new territories being related to the new geographies which are shaped and controlled by contemporary means of mass cornmunication like the cinema. A whole chapter of Sardars work is devoted to Orientalism in films, where the author sets out to explore the treatment and manipulation of other cultures within the discourse of cinema, across different genres, including cartoons, and where he makes ample reference to the Americ an hegemonic control of the cinematic medium. Sardar states that otherness is generally treated as a pattern book from which strands can be taken to draw up cultural representations which serve the purpose of entertaining audiences while reinforcing, by contrast, the superiority of the narrating culture. Thus, the the commodification of culture takes place whereby visual and verbal elements belonging to a distant world are taken and made suitable for smooth reception within more powerful socio-cultural settings. Aladdin, which was based on the Arab  folktale  of  Aladdin and the magic lamp  from One Thousand and One Nights, became the most successful film of 1992, grossing over $502 million worldwide. However, almost instantly, it was met with criticism from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. The movie quite literally translated into an Orientalist fantasy. With glaringly derogatory depictions of Arab culture, and a few pointedly offensive remarks, the movie has gone down in history as one of the most controversial films. The film portrays all Arab men as street thugs, pickpockets, emasculated palace guards, beggars, sultans, or sorcerers. A male character early in the film even declares to his master upon stealing a jewel, I had to slit a few throats, but I got it. The men are short and stocky with thick lips, missing teeth, heavy, menacing brows, and hooked noses, while the hero Aladdin and heroine Jasmine look like suburban, white, U.S. teenagers.  Jasmine, though sporting dark flowing hair and with darker skin than her counterpart princesses in earlier films, still retains blue eyes. Though Jasmine must represent the Arabian heritage, the films producers seem to find it necessary to leave at least a vestige of tangibility that Western audiences can relate to. In the same vein, the character of Alladin, seems to disinherit his Arabian roots, as hes cleverly christened Al, and exhibits distinctly American mannerisms throughout the film. What one is left to ponder is whether these characters would have appealed to western audiences, had they not been endowed with these traits? And if so, why? Arabs are shown as gratuitously cruel, with characters making several references to beheading. One Arab merchant even tries to cut off Jasmines hand when she doesnt have money to pay for an apple she gave to a hungry boy.   Most noteworthy, however is the opening sequence of the film, which was later revised due to harsh criticism and protests. Aladdin  opens with the expository song Arabian Nights which includes the lyrics PEDDLER: Oh I come from a land From a faraway place Where the caravan camels roam Where they cut off your ear If they dont like your face Its barbaric, but hey, its home The blatantly offensive final line had to be eliminated from the home video version of the film as a consequence of the numerous protests the Disney Company received after international release. However, all the other subtle and indirect hints at the American cultures position of supremacy over the narrated Other, which is deliberately kept ambiguous and undefined in historical-geographical terms, remain untouched, and continue to carefully shape the viewers perception. One of these subtle instances in the movie can be seen in the same opening sequence. The first words which are uttered by the peddler contain an unmistakable, conventional reference to the culture portrayed: PEDDLER: Ah, Salaam and good evening to you worthy friends. The worldwide-known Arabic greeting is, however, immediately followed by good evening, as if to compensate even for the faintest sense of estrangement the viewer might feel upon hearing salaam. Orientalist preconceptions find their way into the Disney adaptation of the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan. Walt Disney Pictures released Mulan in June, 1998 and it was the thirty sixth animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics. Mulan, which was once again infused with orientalist imagining of culture, uses a host of long-established, worldwide-known stereotypes on the visual as well as verbal levels. As Elina Di Giovanni points out, cultural metonymies are very often related to specific domains such as food, which provides universally identifiable socio-cultural references and ensures easy, if strongly stereotyped identification of different nations and peoples. In the case of verbal stereotypes, references to other cultures clichà ©d words and expressions tend to draw from common categories such as greetings, exclamations and titles. Greetings and exclamations, though not necessarily connected to the stereotyping of cultures, can nonetheless be frequently used to support cultural representations as they ensure simple and immediate identification. In the opening sequence of Mulan, the 1998 film which portrays the Chinese culture at the time of the invasions by the Huns, the visual and verbal cultural stereotypes employed do not contain any derogatory reference, but they are equally highly conventional. An instance of this can be seen in the portrayal and dialogue of the emperor of China who, incidentally, is always shown with the image of a golden dragon at his back to address his army generals in a situation of emergency. He is shown to exhibit a typical trait which is often associated with the Chinese culture, using words of wisdom to describe the fate of his country: EMPEROR: single grain of rice can tip the scale Moreover, one can note that the reference to the most popular element of the Chinese culinary tradition does not appear by coincidence in the emperors line. The shot which immediately follows features a large bowl of rice in the foreground with a pair of chopsticks lazily picking at the rice. This image is used in the film to introduce the protagonist herself, who will be very slowly revealed to the audience starting from her hand holding the chopsticks. But even more noteworthy, is that fact that the bowl of rice which alluded to in the beginning by the Emperor, and used in the introducing of the protagonist, Mulan is then later appropriated to serve American cultural interests by replacing the contents of the bowl(rice), with porridge and rashers of bacon and fried eggs, which make up Mulans breakfast. The bowl which contained rice in the opening scene has been deprived of its typical, if also highly conventional, Chinese content to be replaced by what looks more familiar to the American viewers, although totally remote from the eating habits of Chinese soldiers. Moving from visual to verbal examples, the use of language is an obvious vehicle for further consolidating the presence of American culture. It is worth pointing out that all the main characters in the films, although belonging to distant and exotic worlds, speak with perfect American accents. Moreover, they are very often characterized by the use of non-standard, colloquial or regional varieties of American English. This is the case of the dragon Mushu in Mulan, whose dialogue is generously punctuated with contemporary, informal American expressions. Similarly, in Aladdin, the most striking, informal and modem use of Ameriean English is to be found in the lines uttered by the genie of the lamp, appearing in different guises and often mimicking famous American personalities. His lines are filled with colloquial expressions as well as references to the contemporary American world. Pocahontas, which opened in cinemas in the year 1995, presented a thoroughly revised picture of a historical figure, appropriated suitably to appeal to western audiences. Modelled on the historical Native American figure ,Matoaka, who is more popularly known by the nickname Pocahontas, the film revamps and restructures the story of Pocahontas and showcases it as a tale where a culture under siege by British Colonialism, ends up being rescued by the White Messiah. The film clearly distorts historical facts and produces a tale that is made palatable to western audiences, with the White Settler rescuing the native tribe from a terrible fate, which, interestingly enough, would have been executed by his fellow men. The movie Pocahontas deviates from the true historical story in many ways. The most significant deviation is Pocahontas age and the nature of her relationship with John Smith. In the movie, Pocahontas is portrayed as a twenty year old woman who falls in love with John Smith, and he with her. From what we know of the historical record, she [Pocahontas] was a child when they met, probably between 12 and 14, and Smith was about 27, states Thomasina Jordan, the head of the Virginia Council on Indians, and herself a Wampanoag Native-American. However, it is not just her age that has been altered in the film version. Even her physical appearance is rendered far from factual. The on-screen Pocahontas is designed to be a tall, attractive figure, with dark, flowing hair and sharp features. This depiction in the film has been clearly designed to cater to the male fantasy of the young, exotic woman. Moulded from the Orientalist perspective, she is seen as the enigmatic princess, who captivates the young John Smith with her gentle spirit and exotic beauty. Moreover, the relationship between John Smith and Pocahontas, was that of a young girl and an older man. The relationship that the two share in the movie is entirely fictitious and completely inaccurate. Another deviation is John Smiths attitude towards the Native Americans. In the movie, Smith defends the Native-Americans, and dons the mantle of the White Messiah. Abandoning his fellow men, Smith advocates the legitimate right of the natives to possess their own land. He states that the British are the intruders and have no authority to colonise and usurp the land of the natives. This heroism, is however absent in factual accounts of the story. In reality, Smith believed that the English had a right to the land and he was not an advocate for the Native-Americans. Disney also distorts the facts about Governor James Ratcliffe. In the movie they portray him as a villainous character. At the end of the movie he tries to shoot Chief Powatan, but shoots John Smith instead. After he does this, his own men make him a prisoner and send him back to England. However, this is not confirmed in the historical account. Thus, it is evident, that even through Disneys attempt to create a more panoramic view of Society and the world, by retelling tales rooted in different socio-cultutal contexts, it is unable to rid itself of omniscient Western ideals which dictate the ways in which Non-western cultures are received. The non-western cultures can only be understood when either juxtaposed with western traditions or appropriated to appeal to a western audience. The appeal of a non-white prince must be countered with distinctly Americanised mannerisms. Tales from the East seem only to be tangible if they propagate long standing stereotypes and reinforce Orientalist preconceptions. While Disney paints portraits of cultural landscapes and attempts to traverse into the world of The Other, the question remains as to whether it is possible for the West to tell tales of a Non-White civilisation, without all the trappings of stereotypes and exoticism. Can a Media Giant like Disney truly showcase different cultures, without insinuating Western Supremacy over them all? Can they truly paint with all the colours of The Wind? Zoya Parvin Roll No. 19 III A

The Existential Theme of London’s To Build A Fire Essay -- Build Fire

The Existential Theme of London’s â€Å"To Build A Fire"  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚   Jack London’s short story, â€Å"To Build a Fire,† is the tragic tale of a man who decides to travel alone through the hostile environment of the Yukon in sub-freeing temperatures and falls victim to the unrelenting and unforgiving power of nature. During his journey, the man gets his feet wet as he falls through the ice into the water of a hot spring (London 122). Because of the severity of the cold, some â€Å"one hundred and seven degrees below [the] freezing point,† the man’s life depends upon his ability to promptly light a fire to keep his feet from freezing (122-23). After one, half-successful fire-starting endeavor, and several other pitiful attempts, the hopelessness of the man’s lone struggle against the hostile environment of the Yukon begins to become apparent. After a lengthy episode of panic in which the man tries desperately to return the feeling to his extremities by â€Å"running around like a chicken with its head cut off† (128), the man at last â€Å"grows calm and decides to meet death with dignity . . .† (Labor 66). The story’s central theme is one portrayed by many existentialist writers—that man lives a solitary existence which is subject to the relentless, unforgiving forces of nature; an ever so subtle part of this theme is that it is man’s goal to find meaning in his existence. The word existentialist, as well as the subject of existentialism itself, evades definition. Davis McElroy points out this problem by comparing the act of defining existentialism to the act of trying â€Å"to explain human existence in a single sentence . . .† (xi). For the sake of brevity, perhaps a short, simple definition would be best; according to the American Heritage Dictionar... ...s artful placement of irony within the story. Works Cited â€Å"Existentialism.† The American Heritage Dictionary. 3rd ed. New York: Dell, 1994. Hendricks, King. Jack London: Master Craftsman of the Short Story. Logan: Utah State U P,   Ã‚  Ã‚   1966. Rpt. In Jack London: Essays in Criticism. Ed. Ray Wilson Ownbey. Santa Barbara:   Ã‚  Ã‚   Peregrine, 1978. 13-30. Labor, Earle. Jack London. New York: Twayne, 1974. London, Jack. â€Å"To Build a Fire.† Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama.   Ã‚  Ã‚   6th ed. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New York: Harper Collins, 1995. 118-29. McElroy, Davis Dunbar. Existentialism and Modern Literature. Westport: Greenwood, 1968. Perry, John. Jack London: An American Myth. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1981. Walcutt, Charles Child. Jack London. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1966.         

Monday, August 19, 2019

Andrew Jacksons Unruly Rise to the Presidency Essay -- Papers

Andrew Jackson's Unruly Rise to the Presidency In what many have called the dirtiest presidential election ever, Andrew Jackson reigned supreme over John Quincy Adams in the election of 1828. For the first time in a political campaign, the main focus was to slander the reputation of the opponent. Issues seemed to be disregarded in favor of personal attacks upon the individual. The days of standing for office and remaining silent towards the American public before elections took place were over. The election of 1828 focused on insults, name calling, and heckling between the candidates and their parties. The War of 1812 threatened to destroy the young nation's pride. Washington had been burned to the ground, the Hartford Convention was in session, and rumors of a British armada had east coast cities beginning to panic. Into this atmosphere of gloom and doubt burst the news of Andrew Jackson's crushing victory over the British in New Orleans. "The brilliant and unparalleled victory at New Orleans, has closed the war in a blaze of Glory and the nation agreed with him that Jackson's victory placed America on the very pinnacle of fame." Jackson had lifted the pride and the spirit of nationalism in previously frustrated Americans, and thus, became a national hero. Jackson's military triumphs led to suggestions by friends that he become candidate for president, but he disavowed any interest, and political leaders in Washington assumed that the flurry of support for him would prove temporary. The campaign to make him president, however, was kept alive by his continued popularity and was carefully nurtured by a small group of his friends in Nashville, who combined devotion to the general with a high degree of political ... ...ress) Rosebloom, Eugene. A History of Presidential Elections, 1970. Remini, Robert, American Presidential Elections: Election of 1828 (Packet from class.) Remini, Robert, The Election of Andrew Jackson (J.B. Lippincott Co. 1963) Troy, Gil, See How They Ran: The Changing Role of the Presidential Candidate (Harvard University Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts) Ward, John, Andrew Jackson - Symbol for an Age (New York Oxford University Press, 1962) Satz, Ronald. American Indian Policy in the Jacksonian Era (Lincoln, 1975) Argus of Western America. Frankfurt, Kentucky, Wednesday, May 16, 1827. Argus of Western America. Frankfurt, Kentucky, Wednesday, June 6, 1827. Argus of Western America. Frankfurt, Kentucky, Wednesday, October 29, 1828. www.ask.com www.altavista.com www.searchopolis.com Notes From Class Andrew Jackson's Unruly Rise to the Presidency Essay -- Papers Andrew Jackson's Unruly Rise to the Presidency In what many have called the dirtiest presidential election ever, Andrew Jackson reigned supreme over John Quincy Adams in the election of 1828. For the first time in a political campaign, the main focus was to slander the reputation of the opponent. Issues seemed to be disregarded in favor of personal attacks upon the individual. The days of standing for office and remaining silent towards the American public before elections took place were over. The election of 1828 focused on insults, name calling, and heckling between the candidates and their parties. The War of 1812 threatened to destroy the young nation's pride. Washington had been burned to the ground, the Hartford Convention was in session, and rumors of a British armada had east coast cities beginning to panic. Into this atmosphere of gloom and doubt burst the news of Andrew Jackson's crushing victory over the British in New Orleans. "The brilliant and unparalleled victory at New Orleans, has closed the war in a blaze of Glory and the nation agreed with him that Jackson's victory placed America on the very pinnacle of fame." Jackson had lifted the pride and the spirit of nationalism in previously frustrated Americans, and thus, became a national hero. Jackson's military triumphs led to suggestions by friends that he become candidate for president, but he disavowed any interest, and political leaders in Washington assumed that the flurry of support for him would prove temporary. The campaign to make him president, however, was kept alive by his continued popularity and was carefully nurtured by a small group of his friends in Nashville, who combined devotion to the general with a high degree of political ... ...ress) Rosebloom, Eugene. A History of Presidential Elections, 1970. Remini, Robert, American Presidential Elections: Election of 1828 (Packet from class.) Remini, Robert, The Election of Andrew Jackson (J.B. Lippincott Co. 1963) Troy, Gil, See How They Ran: The Changing Role of the Presidential Candidate (Harvard University Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts) Ward, John, Andrew Jackson - Symbol for an Age (New York Oxford University Press, 1962) Satz, Ronald. American Indian Policy in the Jacksonian Era (Lincoln, 1975) Argus of Western America. Frankfurt, Kentucky, Wednesday, May 16, 1827. Argus of Western America. Frankfurt, Kentucky, Wednesday, June 6, 1827. Argus of Western America. Frankfurt, Kentucky, Wednesday, October 29, 1828. www.ask.com www.altavista.com www.searchopolis.com Notes From Class

Sunday, August 18, 2019

Basketball In Colleges Essay -- essays research papers

U.S. school and college basketball (Summary of the Jackie Miranda Article) Basketball at the school and college level developed from a structured, rigid game in the early days to one that is often fast-paced and high-scoring. Individual skills improved markedly, and although basketball continued to be regarded as the ultimate team game, individualistic, one-on-one performers came to be not only accepted but used as an effective means of winning games. In the early years games were frequently won with point totals of less than 30, and the game, from the spectator's viewpoint, was slow. Once a team acquired a modest lead the popular tactic was to stall the game by passing the ball without trying to score, in an attempt to run out the clock. The NBC, seeing the need to discourage such slow-down tactics, instituted a number of rule changes. In 1932-33 a line was drawn at mid-court and the offensive team was required to advance the ball past it within 10 seconds or lose possession. Five years later, in 1937-38, the centre jump following each field goal or free throw was eliminated. Instead, the defending team was permitted to inbound the ball from the out-of-bounds line underneath the basket. Nearly four decades passed before an alteration of like magnitude was made in the college game. After experimentation the NCAA Rules Committee installed a 45-second shot clock in 1985, restricting the time a team could control the ball before shoo ting, and one year later implemented a three-point shot rule for baskets made beyond a distance of 19 feet nine inches. More noticeable alteration in the game came both at the playing and coaching levels. Stanford University's Hank Luisetti was the first to use and popularize the one-hand shot in the late 1930s. Until then the only outside attempts were two-handed push shots. In the 1950s and 1960s a shooting style evolved from Luisetti's push-off one hander to a jump shot, which is released at the top of the jump. West Virginia University guard Jerry West and Purdue University's Rick Mount were two players who demonstrated the devastating effectiveness of this shot. Coaching strategy changed appreciably over the years. Frank W. Keaney, coach at Rhode Island University from 1921 to 1948, is credited with introducing the concept of "fast breaking" basketball, in which the offensive team rushes the ball up... ... telecast nationwide by cable networks, generating both revenue and tremendous exposure. In the evolution of college basketball the darkest hours have been related to gambling scandals, the most serious of which arose in 1951. But in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s the game was again touched by the problem. Also, as the game began to draw more attention and generate more income, the pressure to win intensified, resulting in an outbreak of incidents of rule violations, especially with regard to recruitment of star players. New York City basketball writers organized the first National Invitation Tournament (NIT) in 1938, but a year later the New York City colleges took control of the event. Until the early 1950s, the NIT was considered the most prestigious U.S. tournament, but with the growth of the college-run NCAA championship, the NIT became a consolation event for teams that failed to make the NCAA selections. Originally all teams in the NIT were invited to New York City and the games were played in Madison Square Garden. From the early 1980s, however, the first three rounds were played at regional or campus sites before the final four teams were brought to New York City.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Of Water and the Spirit by Malidoma Patrice Somé Essay

With Of Water and Spirit Malidoma Patrice Some has written a very interesting, engaging autobiography in which he details his life as a man living between two different lifestyles: the traditional life of his people, the Dagara, who live in rural Burkina Faso, the former French Colony known as the Upper Volta, and the life of a highly educated African man with two PhDs who travels throughout the western nations writing, lecturing, and teaching about his people and their relationship between the normal world and the spirit world. According to Some his first name â€Å"Malidoma† means â€Å"be friends with the stranger/enemy. † The Dagara believe a person’s name has an affect on the his life so they name their children something that will always remind them of their mission in life. Some, then, is â€Å"here in the West to tell the world about my people any way I can, and to take back to my people the knowledge I gain about this world† (Some 1994, 1). Some was named Patrice when he was baptized by Jesuit priests at the insistence of his father who had converted to Catholicism. The attitude of Some and the Dagara people is very interesting. Instead of feeling hatred against the white men who had colonized the country and basically enslaved the people while stealing their land and resources, the Dagara are concerned about all people, including the white people and are â€Å"convinced that the West is as endangered as the indigenous cultures it has decimated in the name of colonialism† (Some 1994, 1). They believe that western cultures abandonment of â€Å"functional spiritual values† has made the West sick with a â€Å"sickness of the soul† (Some 1994, 1). Some was basically kidnapped from his tribe at the age of four when he was taken away to study at the Jesuit school. At the time the Jesuits were trying create a â€Å"native missionary force† to help in converting the people of Upper Volta. Prior to being kidnapped Some had spent much of his childhood with his grandfather, a great leader of the Dagara. His grandfather taught him many of the stories of the Dagara people, their spiritual beliefs, and their history. Some’s grandfather emphasized the close spiritual relationship of the Dagara with the world, the land, and the spirits of their deceased ancestors. The Dagara believe there is an important connection between an individual, his people, his land, and his god. Some’s grandfather could not understand the Catholic Church’s attempts at missionary work throughout the world, â€Å". . . let me tell you that a God who would send his people away from their land must be drinking a very strong wine all the time† (Some 1994, 29). At the time of his death, Some’s grandfather told Some that the ancestors had designated Some to â€Å"follow the white man so that you may serve as the eye of the compound, the ear of your many brothers, and the mouth of your tribe† (Some 1994, 40). Some’s grandfather also told him that he came back to the tribe he would appear strange to the Dagara, he would only be part Dagara and would have to undergo the month long initiation in the wilderness to become a member of the tribe. Some’s time at the Jesuit school was unpleasant. The priests often beat him while they were teaching him as if the beatings would reinforce the lessons and make him confirm to the Jesuit teachings. When he graduated to the seminary school at Nansi he had similar experiences and often found that he lived outside of himself. He would make his â€Å"thoughts go away from my body so that when the first blow fell, I [he] was not even aware of it† (Some 1994, 114). Some resented the way he was treated and found himself rebelling against the method of instruction. This rebellion reached its climax when Some was twenty and became involved in a physical altercation with one of the priests. During the struggle the priest fell through the window and landed in the dirt outside. Consequently, Some ran away from the school to return to his home. His journey home took him eleven days since he was forced to walk the entire way. Ironically, on his journey, Some learned that the country had gained its independence from France in 1960 and such forced schooling had come to an end. Since Some was about four-years-old both when independence occurred and when he was taken away from his people to attend school, he could have returned to his people long before (Some 1994, 153; 99-156). By the time he returned to his village, the Jesuit missionary priests on the hill were gone, although a day school still existed. Once Some was in his home compound, he found he no longer fit it with his people. He had forgotten how to speak the language; the village had changed with independence. His people were not comfortable with him there, nor was he comfortable with them. Consequently the elders decided he should undergo the Baor, the month long initiation, â€Å"to quiet the white man in your soul . . . so that his â€Å"soul [would] come back home and . . . stop being a stranger to yourself and to us† (Some 1994, 178). Some describes his spiritual initiation in detail and tells how he was able to return to the Dagara. Once he had returned fully to the Dagara, Some found that he was again not comfortable living with his people because he had not yet completed his mission that his grandfather had told him about and that his ancestors had assigned him. Once again it became necessary to leave his people so the he might â€Å"be friends with the stranger/enemy. † This is what Some continues to do today through his writings and lecturing. However, he is careful to return to his home every year to make certain he reconnects with his home and people. Bibliography Some, Malidoma Patrice. Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic, and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, A Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam Book, 1994.

Friday, August 16, 2019

Nuclear Family: Pros and Cons Essay

This is known as a family which contains two parents and one child the nuclear family creates a stable environment so children raised in this family with the same parents during their growing years have a higher likelihood of having stability in their relationship and emotional bonding. Also this family provides a sense of consistency because when children grow up in a nuclear family, they get a sense consistency, especially when it also includes closeness with other members of the family such as grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins. It also provides them with learning skills as children usually get far more extensive training in life skills living in a nuclear family. For instance, mothers usually teach their children relationship skills, like emotional response skills and how to have smooth relations with others, while fathers, in general, teach their children handiwork skills and sports skills, like fixing things around the house or hitting a baseball, as well as how to deal with the world outside. Lastly this sort of family upbringing allows physical and emotional support. The Nuclear family usually have more physical and emotional resources with which they can reinforce the whole. Through observing their parents and by following the examples set by them, children learn how to help in the building of the family. uclear family is a term used to define a family group consisting of a pair of adults and their children. This is in contrast to the smaller single-parent family, and to the larger extended family. Nuclear families typically center on a married couple, but not always;[1] the nuclear family may have any number of children. There are differences in definition among observers; some definitions allow only biological children that are full-blood siblings,[2] while others allow for a stepparent and any mix of dependent children including stepchildren and adopted children. [3][4] Families structures of a single married couple and their children were present in Western Europe and New England in the 17th century, influeced by church and theocratic governments. [5] With the emergence of proto-industrialization and early capitalism, the nuclear family became a financially viable social unit. The term nuclear family appeared in the early twentieth century, with the term nuclear itself appearing in the 1840s. [citation needed] Alternative definitions have evolved to include family units headed by same-sex parents,[1] and perhaps additional adult relatives who take on a cohabiting parental role. [7] The concept that a narrowly defined nuclear family is central to stability in modern society has been promoted by modern social conservatives in the United States, and has been challenged as historically and sociologically inadequate to describe the complexity of actual family relations.

Thursday, August 15, 2019

Communication Styles Worksheet Essay

You spent the past few days exploring the resources available to students at University of Phoenix, and you want to share what you learned with a friend who is interested in enrolling. Write a 150- to 200-word e-mail to your friend summarizing the resources available to students. Hi,  I would like to continue with our conversation from earlier today on your interests in attending the â€Å"University of Phoenix†. This university has many resources to lend you a hand in reaching your goals. The Center for Writing Excellence has an abundance of information and guides to help you with your punctuations and grammar in your writing. There is also the program Riverpoint Writer. This program is designed to take your information and properly format your document. It will even assist with quotes and references and cite them correctly for you. The University also has the plagiarism checker. The checker will analyze your papers and tell you what your percentage of plagiarism you may have in your paper which allows you to go back and fix your mistakes to avoid plagiarism. The final program I want to introduce to you is WritePoint. Before you submit your papers, you can send your papers to WritePoint and they will proofread and check your papers for you at any time. Giving ideas or suggestions and making changes to improve your paper are some out of many skills that this program has to offer. Once you enroll into the â€Å"University of Phoenix† you have complete access to all of these magnificently helpful programs. I am anxious to hear your thoughts and maybe even your decision on becoming a Phoenix yourself! You asked your facilitator to review your e-mail draft. She liked what you wrote and asked you to write a summary to post in the class forum for the other students to read. Write a 150- to 200-word summary for your class of the resources available to students. Remember to write using an academic tone. The â€Å"University of Phoenix† has numerous resources accessible to students attending and furthering their education. For example, in the University’s online library you can find the Center for Writing Excellence or CWE. For those who want to improve their writing or become better writers then this is the tool for you. The Plagarisism Checker is another program that evaluates your paper to make sure you have not plagiarized and ensures that you turn in a clean and unique paper of your own. WritePoint and RiverPoint are two different types of programs so be sure not to get mixed up. WritePoint is used to assess your paper and gives you ideas, suggestions, or comments to aid in improving your paper. Riverpoint writer, on the other hand, properly formats your papers in the APA format which is the style used at this University. For those who have trouble in the math area, the Center for Mathematics Excellence is your destination. This program is also found in the University’s online library. It has helpful tutorials, step-by-step problems that you can use for practice and videos when you need them. Starting your first math class after months or even years without going through it can be quite scary but luckily for you, this university has a program to help you. The building mathematics confidence is an amazing program that helps you get over that first initial scare of getting back into your mathematics class.

China Bank Internationalisation Project Essay

This approach to a project is very similar to what happens regularly in the financial services industry. A project has to be completed, a team is set up (usually with individuals of different skills with different backgrounds and from different countries) who then have to work together to complete the task. Managers then evaluate each team member in such a process on the basis of the quality of the final joint work produced. Background China’s banks are trying to internationalise and your task is to help advise a Chinese bank on how to do this. Bank of China, for example, has on its website its ‘Strategic Goal† and other banks have similar goals: Strategic Goal Aiming at excellence, sustaining growth and building a first-class international bank. Strategic Positioning A large transnational banking group focusing on commercial banking business and providing diversified services integrated both at home and abroad. Commercial banking focused diversification With commercial banking business as the core and foundation of the group’s development, Bank of China will keep improving its brand popularity and core competitiveness by expanding business network and customer base and nhancing product innovation. By taking advantage of the comparative competitiveness of diversified services for unified customers via unified channels under unified strategy and brand, it will strive to develop various business lines such as investment banking, fund, insurance, investment and leasing so as to create a synergistic effect on the diversified platform in the interest of comprehensive and excellent financial services for customers. To provide a structure to this advice, you are required to write answers to each of the five topics below (though you need not follow exactly the items in each). Each of the five sections should be not more than 500 words i. e. 2,500 words maximum for the whole project. This will also make it much easier to present each project in class i. e. to read out the paper in class. Also, it will help you understand the need to be concise. Most business papers have an ‘Executive Summary’ at the front of a paper and in the case of this project, the ‘executive summary’ is the actual paper. You will, of course, be likely to write more on your section in the first instance but you will then have to reduce it in size to make this summary the correct length. Although you may choose to allocate one section to each person in the group, it is VITAL that the quality of English (grammar, spelling), is high throughout. Thus one person who is good at English should check through the whole paper. Also, each section should use the same font and typesize. You should also ensure that each of you understands each of the 5 topics and is able to speak in class about any of them. I may choose any one of you to present and to explain your proposals. Project China’s banks are trying to internationalise. You have been employed as consultants to a well-known large Chinese bank. They have asked you to write a report for them as below: â€Å"Until now, we have been principally a domestic financial institution operating in mainland China. We expect that the profitability of our existing domestic business may decline and that our balance sheet size will not increase as fast as before. We are therefore considering trying to internationalise. We need to learn from Western experience of internationalisation and try to apply that experience (though modified for specific Chinese characteristics) to our own internationalisation project. Please prepare a report that will help us achieve our objectives. † Having chosen your bank (one of the big four) set out a strategy that it might follow. You should start by looking at the bank’s latest annual report and accounts and any press references to internationalization of Chinese banks. Some topics that you might cover are suggested below but the actual topics that you think are relevant may be wider than this. You should also look at the experience of Western banks which have tried to become full-service i. e. international financial supermarkets. I. Examine balance sheet strength, current and future expected loan losses on existing domestic loans, current and future required Basel ratios and current price to book ratios of the bank or banks you have chosen and any other relevant information. You have to provide a summary of your chosen bank’s financial strengths and weakness relative to competitors. Consider any competitive advantages that Chinese banks might have in trying to internationalise in relation to any weaknesses of European or US banks at the present time in terms of funding availability, currency related issues, term of loans, regulatory ratios, ownership structure etc. II. Consider reasons why Chinese domestic banking is likely to be less profitable from 2012 onwards compared with previous years (consider interest margins and loan write-offs and any other factors). Consider in which countries a bank might best open overseas operations, what commercial banking products and services might be offered and why. Consider products and services to be offered to Chinese companies doing business abroad and also local companies in the foreign market which may or may not do business with China. Give reasons why you think a Chinese bank could gain competitive advantage in these markets with the different types of customer they might attract. Also consider where you might put the international head office of such a bank and whether the senior management in a country should be natives of that country or expatriate managers from China. III. Chinese banks are currently principally commercial banks involved in lending, trade financing, foreign exchange services and leasing. Consider the other types of products and services, in particular investment banking and asset management services, that they might want to offer outside China and the advantages and possible drawbacks of trying to compete with US investment banks in such products. Finish with a recommendation on the scope of products the bank should offer. IV. If you recommend that your bank should go ahead with an internationalisation programme, advise it on the relative merits of a new start-up bank versus a policy of acquisition of local banks in the chosen markets. You might, for example, suggest that the bank acquire RBS from the UK government. V. Japanese commercial and investment banks have not been very successful in their internationalising efforts (see Chapter 27 of your textbook). Consider the economic, cultural and foreign branch/ subsidiary management, employee and governance (and any other) issues that might have hindered their development. Consider how a Chinese banks may, or may not, be able to overcome these same difficulties. Citigroup has also proven not to be very successful. You should examine what its strategy was and why it collapsed (rescued by the US government) and why it is now downsizing and simplifying. RBS has also cut back its investment banking activities dramatically. You should consider why it has done this. Some articles from the FT that might be useful in this endeavour are included on Blackboard under â€Å"Course Documents†. However, it is important that you access other sources of information which may include private information that you have access to. You should give references where appropriate. Brian Scott-Quinn ——————————————– [ 1 ]. Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Affirmative Action Curbed in California

Affirmative Action Curbed in California Essay By William ClaiborneWashington Post Staff WriterFriday, June 2, 1995; Page A01LOS ANGELES, JUNE 1 California Gov. Pete Wilson (R), vowing to lead a growing conservative movement to end three decades of racial and gender preferences as an antidote to discrimination, today signed an executive order abolishing a wide range of affirmative action programs affecting hiring and contracting in state agencies. Wilson, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, eliminated or sharply cut back scores of affirmative action policies or programs that are not mandated by state or federal laws or that exceed those laws. He also abolished 118 boards and commissions created to advise state agencies on ethnic and gender diversity issues. Although he has no direct authority to order policy changes for public schools, colleges and universities, Wilson told his appointees on state educational governing boards that he wants them to dismantle race and gender preference programs that are not required by law. As mayor of San Diego in the 1970s, Wilson championed affirmative action, adopting a plan to increase the hiring of minority workers and requiring major city contractors to adopt similar programs. But opposition to affirmative action has become a common theme of the Republican presidential candidates and many Republicans in Congress. Flanked today by a group of Forestry Department firefighters from various minorities, who the governors aides said symbolize Californians who resent a public perception that they were hired on the basis of preferential treatment, Wilson said affirmative action is not only unfair, it stigmatizes the achievements of those it was intended to help. His order repeals affirmative action orders signed by three previous governors, including Republicans Ronald Reagan and George Deukmejian. In a statement released earlier, Wilson said great societal guilt had stimulated the creation of affirmative action programs in the 1960s and would undermine the very foundation of the American dream if hiring and contract programs based on race and gender preference were not rolled back. Wilson blamed the misfired good intentions of leaders dating back to John F. Kennedy for programs he said unfairly discriminated against certain ethnic groups to compensate others for past injustices. The Republican governor said he would aggressively pursue further cutbacks in preferential treatment for minorities and women in order to assure a new era of meritocracy. This executive order is an historic step forward. By itself, it doesnt complete the change we must make. Special preferences remain embedded in state and federal law. I vow to fight for changes in those laws, Wilson said. Sean Walsh, the governors press secretary, said Wilson is the first governor to roll back affirmative action programs. He said the order would affect all of the states approximately 150,000 full-time job positions. According to the California State Employees Association, about 60 percent of the state government work force is white, 16 percent Hispanic, 12 percent black, 6 percent are Asian and the remaining 6 percent from other groups. Wilsons action appeared designed to capitalize on public dissatisfaction with minority preference programs and on a backlash against what is characterized as reverse discrimination, while at the same time setting him apart from the eight other contenders for the GOP presidential nomination, none of whom are sitting governors. It comes a day after senior White House officials said President Clinton is still weeks or even months away from completing a review he has ordered of federal affirmative action programs. Wilson already had announced his support of a proposed 1996 state ballot initiative that would go further than todays order by abolishing affirmative action in all state hiring, contracting and university admissions practices. At least six other states Washington, Florida, Illinois, Oregon, Colorado and Nevada have similar ballot initiative campaigns in the works. Critics accused Wilson of flip-flopping on the issue in hopes of helping a presidential campaign that has been hampered by his slow recovery from his throat operation his remarks today were read out by a member of his cabinet and a sluggish fund-raising effort. He wants to be the voice of the angry white males, said Ramona Ripston, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. READ: Sweatshop Labor: Wearing Thin Essay She noted that Wilsons come-from-behind reelection last year was boosted by his vociferous support for Proposition 187, the ballot initiative aimed at cutting off social services for illegal immigrants, another popular backlash measure. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, in a statement, called Wilsons order a desperate effort to recover his bid for the presidency by further polarizing Californians. MALDEF said Wilsons action was as noble as previous governors attempts to keep African Americans out of public schools in the South. Affirmative action orders signed by three previous governors Deukmejian, Edmund G. Jerry Brown Jr. (D) and Reagan were repealed by Wilson, who said they had encouraged the gradual development of racial and gender-based preferences and set asides. Among the agencies affected by Wilsons order is the state transportation department, Caltrans, which is required by agreement with the federal government to allocate 20 percent of its contracting funds to minority-owned firms. Wilson ordered Caltrans to negotiate a new agreement lowering that goal to 10 percent. He also ordered Caltrans to abolish an informal policy of awarding small purchase contracts of $500 or less to women or minority-owned firms and to make such decisions based on non-preferential competitive pricing. The governor ordered the Department of Forestry, which has a 50 percent goal for the hiring of women and minorities as seasonal firefighters, to eliminate that program and hire on the basis of merit. He eliminated a requirement that the racial and gender ratio on job interview panels for civil service and career executive positions mirror that of the population as a whole, and directed the Department of Water Resources to end its practice of setting aside two-thirds of all student intern openings for minority candidates. Words/ Pages : 980 / 24