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Saturday, August 31, 2019

A case study

Dementia according to Stephen Tilley is a â€Å"progressive global impairment of cognitive function.† It means that dementia is a disorder in the mental domain and dementing illness has to do with abnormalities of ones behavior which manifested by an act of madness, craziness, or derangement.But dementia according to Mary Kaplan does not only refer to one particular disease alone. It includes variety of disorders â€Å"that can be triggered by several un related situations.† (p5) Kaplan noted that some of this â€Å"disorder maybe reversible if diagnosed early and treated.† (p5) Thus management and treatment of person suffering from dementing illness is very important for the patient’s possibility of recovery.Brian Draper clarified that the term dementia is a term â€Å"used medically to describe a syndrome that is caused by many different diseases.† (p1) It means that dementia has many other type including Alzheimer’s disease and other types of the disease though by definition the term was commonly identified as decline in memory and thinking due to brain disease.Kaplan noted that recent public and professional awareness that â€Å"dementia is the result of a disease and not a normal part of aging has led to an increase in research in to the causes of dementing illnesses, as well as development of specific diagnostic criteria and tests.† (p6)Dementia patients figured out by Nawab Qizilbash as commonly less educated adult. She says â€Å"dementia patients maybe older, less educated, and have more co- morbid medical condition and take more concomitant medication than the typical patient evaluated in clinical trial for dementia.† (p365)Qizilbash cited some studies indicating that most of the patients suffering dementia illness were in their seventies, eighties and nineties but did not give clear idea whether the disease is age related. Here is Qizilbash statement regarding these studies:â€Å"One is the cas e of the very elderly who will increasingly represent a larger portion of those with dementia, and for whom we really don’t know if there are important age related-differences in either the biology of their dementias or their response to therapies.Although those who are older than eighty years represent at least half of those with dementias in most population, the averaged patient in clinical dementia trials is in their seventies with few nonagenarians exposed to treatment.†(p366)

Taxation of Ill Gotten Gains in South Africa

It has recently been reported in the press that SARS has lodged a claim for R183 million in income tax against the estate of the slain mining magnate, Brett Kebble in respect of the R2 billion allegedly stolen by him from the mining companies of which he was a director. It is further reported that the Master of the High Court has rejected the claim on the grounds that the amounts on which SARS sought to levy tax constituted money stolen by Kebble, and that stolen money is not subject to income tax. It has been reported that SARS is to take the Master?s decision in this regard on review. Why the issue is being contested on the basis of review, as distinct from the ordinary process of assessment followed by objection and appeal, is not clear. A review is concerned only with the regularity of the process by which a decision was reached, not with the correctness of the decision itself. A moot point of tax law The Kebble case raises an interesting and unresolved tax issue and, in view of the large sum at stake, it may be a case that will go all the way to the Supreme Court of Appeal and bring long-overdue certainty to the law. The Income Tax Act No. 58 of 1962 (the Act) is of no assistance in determining the issue. Section 23(o) states that payments that are illegal in terms of Chapter 2 of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act No. 12 of 2004 or that constitute a fine or penalty for any unlawful activity carried out in the Republic (or in any other country if that activity would be unlawful if carried out in the Republic) are not deductible for income tax purposes. There is, however, nothing in the Act to say that the recipient of corrupt or illegal payments is (or is not) subject to income tax on such amounts, and this issue must, therefore, be resolved by the application of common law, that is to say, in terms of principles laid down by the courts. In COT v G [1981] (43 SATC 159) the Appellate Division of Zimbabwe held that a person who steals money does not â€Å"receive† it in the sense contemplated in the definition of â€Å"gross income† in the Act, because he does not acquire the money â€Å"on his own behalf and for his own benefit†. If this is correct, then the question of whether or not such an amount â€Å"is income† does not arise, since it is only once an amount has been received or accrued that the issue arises as to whether it is income or capital. However, the correctness of this decision is suspect. Certainly, from the thief?s perspective, the reason why he stole the money was precisely to acquire it â€Å"for his own benefit† and the interpretation that the judge accorded this phrase is, with respect, legalistic, artificial and unsupported by authority. In ITC 1789 (67 SATC 205), where the taxpayer in question had solicited millions of rand from a multitude of investors in a fraudulent and unlawful scheme, the court held that those moneys had been â€Å"received† as contemplated in the definition of ?gross income?. If both of these decisions are good law, it would mean that (as was held in ITC 1789) a person who systematically cheats others out of money is subject to income tax on his booty, but that (as was held in G v COT) a person who actually steals money in a systematic way is not taxable. This, it is submitted, is a preposterous and untenable distinction. The true issue was whether the amounts were â€Å"income† It is submitted that both these cases ought to have been decided on the basis of whether, in the particular circumstances, the amounts in question had the character of â€Å"income† in the hands of the felon, rather than on the issue of whether or not the moneys had been â€Å"received† by him. Beneficial receipt was surely self-evident in both cases. It can hardly be seriously contended that a thief or confidence trickster does not intend to acquire the victim?s money for his own benefit, and treat it as his own. The issue of whether money that has been stolen or is otherwise tainted with illegality is â€Å"income† in the hands of the recipient and is therefore subject to income tax, raises many thorny issues, never to date fully addressed let alone resolved by our courts. Some of the aspects of the issue as to whether illegal receipts are taxable as income are ? †¢Illegal receipts range from those that are tainted with a mere technical illegality, such as those derived from trading without a licence, to morally reprehensible receipts such as the proceeds of drug-dealing or a fee paid to a hit-man for carrying out an assassination. In the tax context, do the same principles apply to every kind of illegal receipt? †¢If SARS were to take a slice of an illegal receipt, would this not make the State complicit in the illegality? If income tax were to be imposed on the recipient of stolen money, this would reduce the funds available to repay the rightful owner. It needs to be remembered that, in law, ownership of the money has passed to the thief, and all that the owner has is a claim in personam against the thief for repayment. If the thief has spent the money and is unable to repay it, the victim is merely a concurrent creditor in the thief?s ins olvent estate. SARS, by contrast, has a preferential claim, in terms of the Insolvency Act, for any taxes due. If income tax were payable on the stolen money, it is thus conceivable that SARS would recover all or some of the tax, but that the victim would not get his money back. This, it is submitted, is an unpalatable result. Should SARS get involved at all? There is a strong argument that, where illegal payments are concerned ? certainly in regard to stolen money ? it would be preferable for tax law to stand aloof, attach no tax consequences to the receipt of the money, and let the whole matter be decided in terms of criminal law. However, in view of the uncertainty in the law on this point, SARS can hardly be faulted for asserting a claim.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Don Quixote Essay

Sue Kim 29 October 2012 Honors Literature Don Quixote Essay â€Å"With these word and phrases the poor gentleman lost his mind,† (Cervantes 20). In the beginning of Don Quixote, the reader is introduced to a man engulfed in chivalric books, who soon loses his mind in the stories of knighthood. Don Quixote is labeled as an insane man by the narrator who soon proves this statement through Don Quixote’s delusions and eccentric behaviors. As the narrator describes the delusions, the narrator’s tone is overly mocking towards Don Quixote’s delusional acts.However, ignoring the narrator’s mocking tone, Don Quixote’s foolish acts can be judged reasonable by comparing Don Quixote’s delusions to the actual situation. In Cervantes’ Don Quixote, Don Quixote is portrayed as a delusional person with a tendency of expressing eccentric behaviors; however, Don Quixote’s delusions can be judged reasonable if the audience looks at the acts of Don Quixote as a childish and immature approach to regarding things in life.There are three types of delusions and eccentric behaviors shown by Don Quixote that can be seen as reasonable: delusions and eccentric behaviors connected with concrete objects, coincidental situations, and in situations where Don Quixote admits his madness and tries to explain his own supposed madness. The most commonly mentioned scene of Don Quixote is when Don Quixote has delusions about windmills being giants. Delusions and eccentric behaviors connected with concrete objects happen as Don Quixote sees some concrete objects as slightly different objects.This pattern is seen when Don Quixote interprets windmills as giants. â€Å"thirty or forty of the windmills [†¦] thirty or more enormous giants† (Cervantes 58). The audience may perceive Don Quixote as insane because he confuses two similar objects. The massive windmills’ blades are similar to the massive giants’ arms and the trunk of the windmill is similar to a giants’ body. Don Quixote’s childish actions are analogous to those of a child identifying a beautiful woman in an elegant dress as a princess.An image of a giant is conjured when thinking of a windmill because they are so similar in appearance; therefore, an image of a princess can be conjured when seeing a beautiful woman and dress. Don Quixote also perceives a barber’s basin to be a helmet. â€Å"Do you know what I imagine Sancho? This famous piece of the enchanted helmet [†¦] resembles a barber’s basin as you say,† (Cervantes 155). To turn a basin upside down creates an object similar to a helmet. The reader can compare Don Quixote’s ridiculous actions to the behavior of children as they have swordfights with sticks.Don Quixote, seemingly childish and naive, can nonetheless be judged reasonable because in both the windmill scene and the basin scene, the two objects being compared had similar qu alities and were seen from a childish perspective. Don Quixote also had delusions on fortuitous situations. Don Quixote’s delusional behaviors on coincidental situations can be judged reasonable because they are spontaneous. The delusions of Don Quixote are similar to the delusions that â€Å"normal† people would have. Well, [the cloud of dust] conceals a vast army, composed of innumerable and diverse peoples, which is marching toward us,† (Cervantes 126). A cloud of dust could hide anything from a small pin to a immense army. Therefore, it is reasonable for Don Quixote to believe a vast army is hidden inside the cloud of dust and rampage into the cloud of dust. Don Quixote’s belief on the cloud of dust can be related to the actions of a child as he or she imagines there is a monster underneath their bed. In both situations, Don Quixote and the child are afraid of the unknown hidden from their view.A comparable situation happens as Don Quixote faces with t wo friars and a carriage on one path and has the delusion that the friars are kidnapping a princess in the carriage. â€Å"You wicked and monstrous creatures, instantly unhand the noble princesses you hold captive in that carriage, or else prepare to receive a swift death as just punishment for your evil deeds† (Cervantes 62). Don Quixote can be judged reasonable because his immature, quick assumptions correspond with those of a child as he or she immediately assumes a punishment when their full name is called.A normal adult may not have attacked the friars, but a man with a childish mind would have shown eccentric behavior like Don Quixote. All of these delusions are acceptable if they are pursued to imitate one’s role model. Madness can be conceived if a person’s role model is also considered insane. Don Quixote explains about his insanity as, â€Å"In the same manner, Amadis was the polestar the morning star, [†¦] the one who should be imitated by all o f us who serve under the banner of love and chivalry. This being true, [†¦] that the knight errant who most closely imitates Amadis will be closest to attaining chivalric perfection† (Cervantes 193).Don Quixote realizes that people call him insane; thereupon, he explains that he is merely following in the footsteps of his role model, Amadis. Don Quixote’s guilelessness relates to those of a child as he or she looks up to his or her role model as the child grows up. A related situation happens in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. â€Å"Said Gawain to the king, ‘If you would, noble lord, Bid me rise from my seat and stand at your side, [†¦] And I have asked you for it first, it should fall to me† (Pearl Poet 246).Gawain is upraising his uncle, King Arthur. Gawain’s honor for King Arthur allows him to imitate King Arthur by asking for the task of beheading the Green Knight. All of Don Quixote’s actions can be assimilated as childish. If Don Quixote’s actions were perceived plainly as childish and immature thought process, the readers can acquire a different definition of chivalry and knighthood from Don Quixote. Chivalry and knighthood is known to be for those that are loyal and brave.However, if Don Quixote’s chivalric, but ridiculous actions were plainly childish actions, chivalry becomes the dream of young children. Chivalry becomes an immature game played by children. Knights would not be the symbol of courage, but the symbol of playfulness and being silly. With Don Quixote’s childish perception towards chivalry and knighthood, the readers can acquire a new sense of what loyalty and courage are. Citations * Cervantes, Miguel De. Don Quixote. New York City: HarperCollins Publishers Inc. , 2005. Print. * Pearl Poet, . Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Print.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Economic data analysis using software STATA Essay

Economic data analysis using software STATA - Essay Example variables; GDP, the rate of inflation, the rate of un-employment, long term interest rate, short term interest rate, the CPI-consumer price index an, the money supply (M) and regression analysis done using STATA. When investing, you are most likely to hear the terms inflation, unemployment, Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) about every day (Barnes, R 2007). Investors are often made to feel that these terms should be looked deeply as a surgeon would study a patients chart prior to operating (Barnes, R 2007). Countries really need to find a level of understanding which can assists them in decision making without engaging piles of data to solve the problem. Inflation in the increase in the  money supply. It can also mean an increase in price levels for different commodities. Generally, inflation is about a prices increase as compared to some set levels (Richmond, H 2006). According to Gay, A (2006), if the money supply goes up, this is usually manifested in higher price levels for commodities, however, he continues to state that, this manifestation takes only a short while and that, it is simply a matter of time. According to Dawson, G. et al. (2006), Gross Domestic Product in a country represents the total aggregate output of its economy. Further to him, the GDP figures which are reported to investors and those that want to invest are already adjusted for inflation. For example, if the gross GDP is calculated to be 6% above than the preceding year and inflation calculated at 2% over the same period, then the GDP growth would be reported as 4% (6%-2). The relationship between inflation and GDP is like a delicate dance where any can break affecting the masses (Dobson, S & Palfreman, S 1999). The annual GDP growth is vital for each and every country in that, if the overall economic output declines or holds steadily, then many organizations will not be in a position to increase profits which is the sole driver of stock performance in all of

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Quality Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Quality Management - Essay Example But it so happens that sometimes what the staff's thinks as quality care does not always agree the patient's satisfaction. PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Act) cycle is also known as PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) cycle, which also called the Deeming wheel, or cycle. The Deeming wheel is used by organizations that are continuously engaged in continuous improvement to train their employees or staff in problem solving matters. Continuous improvement is a process that seeks ways to improve the operations of an organization. When implementing a continuous improvement concept in a hospital or a health care centre the management of that institution must follow some procedures. 1) Train the staff of the hospital or health care centre in the methods of improving quality and their performance when dealing with patients. 2) The staff should make statistical process control method a daily part of their operations and tasks. 3) The management should make work teams and involve the staff. And introduce problem solving in the work teams. Plan is the first step in the Deeming Wheel. Plan basically means that to make a strategy or plan ahead before a change and to predict the result and then analyze it. Therefore when planning the team basically selects a process for example an activity like when an emergency is bought in the ER the nurse monitors and checks the vital signs of the patient and prepares the patient for treatment. Therefore the improvement to take place the management has to make sure the nurses in the ER are trained for the any kind of emergencies and the ER is fully equipped and the staff is on alert because the patients need to be treated quickly ad efficiently. Do Do is the second step in the Deeming Wheel. Do basically mean that the team implements the plan and then it monitors the process. For example q patient is brought in the ER with a heart attack problem. The patient will receive immediately oxygen and will have an ECG as soon as possible. Therefore with the right kind of equipment and the staff well trained only then the patient's life will be saved. Check Check is the third step in the Deeming Wheel. Check basically means that the staff or the team basically analyses the data that was collected during the Do step to basically find out that the results match to the predicted result in the plan step. It the staff of the ER is well trained and the ER is fully equipped and when the patient does arrive with a problem and is quickly dealt with the right kind of treatment and it the result of this outcome matches with the prediction then the institution is right on track with the continuous improvement process. Act Act is the fourth step in Deeming Wheel. Act basically means if the results are successful then this process becomes a standard procedure in the Emergency Room to train the staff how to deal with the patients and to have the ER fully equipped with the right kind of machines and instruments. References 1) Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle. Accessed from www.asq.org on June 5, 2008 2) Krajewski, Lee J., & Ritzman, Larry P. (2002). Operations Management: Strategy & Analysis. 6th Edition. Prentice Hall.

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Entrepreneurship course work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5500 words

Entrepreneurship course work - Essay Example This is one of the most foundational benefits of offering organic food and skin care products to consumers: there is a pre-existing set of attitudes and beliefs that they are less harmful than non-organic products in many different consumer markets. Leonard (2011) illustrates that the organic cosmetic industry has moved from being a niche product line and is now available in more traditional channels such a major department stores and even hypermarkets. This has been a product of years of marketing distribution improvements and brand promotions. With more and more consumers linking quality with organic personal care products and more convenience by being available in multiple channels, companies now witness opportunities for higher profitability. The responsiveness of many companies offering organic products illustrate that the long-term opportunities for capturing broad target segments are significant. Worldwide, the organic skin care market was worth $7.6 billion USD in 2012 (Patterson 2015). The entire industry is expected to achieve a growth rate of 9.6 percent by the year 2018 (Pitman 2013). The UK, though a smaller market than Asia, ranks as the eighth largest market for organic cosmetics and personal care products. Falk and Benson (2008) asserts that the UK government has been instrumental in helping many consumer markets to understand the differences between chemical-based and organic-based personal care products which is creating higher levels of demand (and increased perceptions of value) for these products. Therefore, all indications is that the organic skin care and personal care product industry in the UK is favourable for achieving growth and profitability where there is measurable demand and beliefs about the quality of these products. Europe, as a whole, represents that second largest market in the world for organic skin care products. The organic skin care industry is moving toward double-digit growth as the

Monday, August 26, 2019

Parties and Democracy in the Eastern European Countries Essay

Parties and Democracy in the Eastern European Countries - Essay Example Parties help fix the newly established democratic governments in a broader community and influence their stability among the numerous processes of quick social and industrial change. Valuable constitutions and the various processes implicated in the rule of law are reinforced by the possibilities parties put forward for the progress of a more active citizenry and the appearance of a strong democratic political way of life. "There are also strong reasons to believe such conditions are conducive to stable processes of economic development and the formation of effective market economies" (ibid, p.2). The concentration on electoral activity and the methods parties use to reach administration office are particularly important. To the extent of post-communist eastern Europe, it can be stated that involvement in competitive elections is a foremost attribute of party identity development and the advancement of such organizations. Party competition is an important characteristic of the contemporary governments that differentiates them from the single party totalitarianism of the communist era and offers at the present moment a real focus of attention. The single-party government that existed within the Soviet dictatorship, and afterwards reached other parts of Europe and the world, had nothing in common with the experience of the democratic competitive party regime. Modern Eastern Europe contains most of the post-communist countries and the main part of former the Soviet Union. Lewis gives the following classification of eastern European countries: "east-central Europe: Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic; the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; the Balkans: Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and the most of the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia) former Soviet republics: Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine" (ibid, p.5). 1989 was an important year both for the states of eastern Europe and the growth of a democratic Europe in general. Its most outstanding image can be seen in opening wide of the strongly protected gates set in the Berlin Wall and the enthusiasm with which the inhabitants of Berlin set about its destruction, but consequently it was a process of creation that would do most to resolve how long and in which form this recently received liberty would exist. This probably influenced Velvet revolution in the Baltic states with final fall of the Soviet empire. The main part of the process was the construction of new political organizations and the establishment of a variety of parties competent in expressing the viewpoints and objectives of contemporary population. On the other hand, there was a serious problem faced by the number of post-communist countries - the lack of experience of liberal democracy and the comparative limitation of party development after the countries had gained independ ence. The building of civil society as the main focus of political interest has succeeded during the recent years, since general civil liberties, gained by people, have influenced their outlook and political viewpoints. This is the main characteristic of 'subunits, capable of opposing and countervailing the state' (Gellner, 1991, p.500).  

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Compare and contrast an RFP with an RFQ. Briefly discuss under what Essay

Compare and contrast an RFP with an RFQ. Briefly discuss under what circumstances would you use each in an IT project - Essay Example A request for quotation is suitable for obtaining or sourcing supplies that are standardized as well as produced in a repetitive quality and quantities. It is used when the buyer has a list of pre-determined suppliers who have the technical specifications and commercial requirements for a product or service (Kappauf, Lauterbach & Koch, 2011). A request for proposal (RFP) is also a procurement document that a purchasing organization uses when it has a procurement problem, but it does not know how it wants to solve the problem. It is the most formal of a request in a procurement process and has strict rules for timeline, content, and vendor responses. Request for proposal focuses on more than just the cost or pricing of the project or supplies. The purchasing organization tends to seek more information about the manner in which the supplier or contractor will perform the contract. Apart from the cost of the project, the procurement department also seeks more concepts such as the ability of the supplier to meet the required quality as well as the technology a supplier uses. The buyer appraises a supplier or contractor’s ability and capability to perform the project on the basis of quality, financial capacity, technology level, and competence. The procurement department uses all these factors to select the best suppli er or contractor for the contract. A request for proposal tends to notify suppliers of the buyer’s intention to purchase certain goods or services. The buyer gets a formal submission from the selected suppliers to facilitate comparison of the proposals. A request for proposal tends to show that a buyer has a formal as well as a fair procurement process without favoring a certain preferred supplier (Stewart & Stewart,

Saturday, August 24, 2019

MANAGEMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

MANAGEMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES - Essay Example Expatriation of employees is very expensive due to higher salary requirements and added cost for air-fares, accommodation, allowances, and school fees. However, it is more costly if an expatriation project failed to meet the organizational goal. Since it is very costly on the part of the mother company to financially support the transfer of employees to a foreign country, a lot of HR managers are continuously searching for new ways on how they can cut down the high cost of expatriation by reducing the risk of expatriation failure. Q.2 Which three module topics do you intend to address within your answer to Assignment 2, and why have you chosen these? NB AT LEAST ONE TOPIC MUST BE FROM WEEK 6 OR LATER IN THE SCHEDULE. Aiming to determine how to lower down the cost of expatriation, topics that will be covered for assignment two includes: (1) selection considerations (i.e. financial costs, psychological costs, and ex-pat community); (2) importance of cross-cultural awareness; and (3) im portance of intercultural communication. Examining the list of selection considerations is one way to lower down the initial cost of expatriates. By learning more about the family background, educational attainment, and employee’s acceptance of work flexibility, HR management could narrow down the chances of expatriation failure. Cross-cultural awareness and the ability of expats to communicate with foreigners contribute to the success of expatriation. Therefore, these issues need to be explored in order to increase the chances of a successful expatriation. Q.3 Which academic journal articles will you examine, and why have you chosen these? To address the proposed research topic, journals that discuss the cost of expatriation including the importance of cross-cultural awareness and communication in foreign countries will be examined. Journals Reason for Journal Selection Anderson (2001) This article discussed the importance of the ability of the expatriates to adjust to the l ife and culture of a foreign country in order to increase the success rate of expatriate assignments. It also examined the difference between sending out male and female employees for expatriation assignments. Caligiuri (2000) To increase the success rate of expatriation selection process, the author examined the impact of employee’s personality on cross-cultural adjustment. Kraimer, Wayne and Jaworski (2001) Tackled the importance of top management support in increasing the success rate of expatriation projects. Toh and Denisi (2005) Identified factors that will increase expatriation’s success rate. Grainger and Nankervis (2001) Discussed new HR approaches for expatriation (i.e. flexible payments based on employees’ skills and competencies; recruitment and selection process; etc.) Harvey (1996) Talked about expatriation dilemma related to the implicit costs when an expat manager returns to domestic market, direct cost of training, relocation, and other compensa tion. It also discussed the importance of training, effective selection criteria and compensation programs, and the significance of employees’ spouses and children to the success rate of expatriation projects. Linehan and Walsh (2000) Discussed the importance of a sound family relationship with the work performance of employees. Sinangil and Ones (2003) Discussed the

Friday, August 23, 2019

Literature review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 2

Literature review - Essay Example The initiative of UNICEF is to increase the availability of ORS to everyone around the world in a way people would purchase household materials from any other shop like Coca Cola, soap, razor blades or the like. Oral Rehydration Therapy was found at the outset of millions of deaths due to dehydration caused by Diarrhoea. Children are more vulnerable to die from this disease than adults because they get dehydrated fast. Malnutrition among children is the major cause of Diarrhoea. In developing nations around 2.2 million people (mostly children) lose their lives due to inadequate safe drinking water, poor sanitation and hygiene and overcrowding in their locale. Ninety percent of these children are under the age of five. Oral Rehydration Therapy is a dream solution to avert these millions of death through awareness, prevention, treatment and intervention strategies. The application of ORT gained momentum from the medical point of view when it was discovered that when sodium transport and glucose transport is combined in the small intestine, glucose hastens the absorption of solute and water content into the body potentially. This has been referred as one of the significant advancement of medical science in the treatment of diarrhoeal dehydration in this century.(Anon, Rehydration Project). Until the use of ORT was found the only way to treat diarrhoea was to assist IVT (intravenous therapy) by qualified medical staff in a medical clinic or hospital. Dehydration can now be brought under control with a simple solution of sugar, salt and water that can be administered through mouth by the parents in a child’s home. Oral Rehydration salt solution is used for children and adults with diarrhea if preliminary consumption of normal fluids does not stop dehydration. The ingredients of ORS in grams per litre are Sodium Chloride (2.6 gm/l), Anhydrous Glucose (13.5 gm/l),

American History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

American History - Essay Example Uncle Tom was subservient, docile and strongly Christian. He accepted his fate as well as his position as an inferior according to the Bible. Next, we have to understand the political reason behind the decision to abolish slavery in America as a whole. Abraham Lincoln's policy on slavery was simple, it was an economic decision. Slavery was costly and the Southern states of America did not achieve the urbanisation and industrialisation that was apparent on the North. It was reasoned that because of slavery and its costs of maintenance, rapid industrialisation will have difficulty to penetrate the South. For example, the labour of a free African American was cheaper than the cost of maintaining a slave who's health, food, living and treatment must be accounted for. The other reason for the North's decision to stifle slavery in the South was so that they could obtain money from import tariffs. By stifling the cotton industry of the South and allowing cheaper imported cotton the Northern government could profit better. But in addition, it was also seen from the North that there was contempt of the Southern life and its standards. Robert E. Lee once wrote that the Africans who were displaced were better off here than they were in Africa and the pity was to the Southern whites. But he also believed that their slavery was a 'necessary' evil that would educate the Africans Americans even if it was by the hand of the 'plebeian' South. 2. If nothing else, slavery set the South apart, made it unique. How did the institution of slavery operate, and what was its effect on the slave Analyze the organization of the plantation system and the white racial attitudes that underpinned and justified slavery. How did these beliefs bind together planters and non-slaveholders After considering the institution from the slaveholder's point of view, consider how slaves responded to slavery. What effect did it have on their psyche, families, culture, and the like Relevant Material: lecture notes, American History, Chapter 11; Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin The institution of slavery was divided into two, the domestic sphere and the agricultural sphere. The slaves of the domestic sphere's work were concerned with only the family's wellbeing and needs and worked as butlers, servants, cooks, helps and even wet-nurses to the white families' children. The agricultural sphere was concerned with the planting, harvesting, etc. work. Nearing the civil war most of the slaves were already 2nd and 3rd generation African Americans and have been since birth embedded with the slave psyche. They developed an attitude of ignorance and avoidance of the white man. Their life was bleak and hopeless and yet they maintained faith in Christianity as a means of their own salvation. In actuality, their attitude was similar to the peasant and working classes of Europe, accepting the oppression within their lives. As I have said, characters that were represented in

Thursday, August 22, 2019

The media in Pakistan Essay Example for Free

The media in Pakistan Essay From their independence, Pakistani people fed a surfeit of Islamic and state ideology, (anti India) via (restricted and tightly controlled) newspapers, radio and later state owned and ran TV, Pakistan Television (PTV) one and only channel broadcasting multi nature of TV content for 8 hours in a day, since its commencement. In the beginning of new millennium, General Pervez Musharraf’s government facilitated the national and international private TV channels through cable TV networks. Cable TV networks spread all over the country in a flash from big cities to smaller towns and remote villages because of cheap monthly charges and zero installation expense, The private TV media revolution was welcomed by ordinary people and this phenomena is now integral part of their life and culture, In every home, shop, or at Tea stall there is cable TV network connection as in Kellner’s words We are immersed from cradle to grave in a media and consumer society, Many of the private channels are owned by newspaper companies and business corporations. So they were/are truly commercial entity and therefore can always be expected to cater, first and foremost, to its profit-making needs. According to Kellner, Media culture is industrial culture, organized on the model of mass production and is produced for a mass audience according to types (genres), following conventional formulas, codes, and rules. It is thus a form of commercial culture and its products are commodities that attempt to attract private profit produced by giant corporations interested in the accumulation of capital. Most of the Pakistani private channels started as News channels (Breaking News craze) but later they established other channels along with news channels, broadcasting Current affairs, Music, Entertainment, Sports, Children programming, and Religious (own and overseas) contents 24 hour in a day with hundreds of advertisements (main resource to generate revenue). Above short introduction is about my essay which I am drawing on the basis of Douglas Kellner’s media spectacle theory (global culture is actually Media culture) Kellner wrote this book in American perspective but I will try to analyze and explain the Pakistani Media (TV, Film and advertisements) in the decade of 1980s and later. In the history of Pakistani media, significant events were/are connected with political situation in country. Four time army takeover of government, Military rulers took thirty years of the nation since 1947, ruling the country and media as well by mean of strong reflection of their policies at paper, speaker and screens. In 1977, The third and most prevailing military ruler, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, coup the democratic government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, first Prime Minister of Pakistan after fall of East Pakistan (Bangladesh). PTV became propaganda machine for Zia ul Haq, his policies and personality dominated the whole era of TV in Pakistan, the footage of General Zia, saluting, reviewing parades, meeting foreign dignitaries, shaking hands with wounded soldiers. His disabled daughter, dressed in a military uniform of her own, never far from his side on stage, saluting her father like any good soldier. He filled the screen, he filled the country. He was larger than life, a figure somewhere halfway between president of Pakistan and a religious icon. Throughout 1980s he implemented the so called Islam, Islamic laws (Pakistani Paper and electronic media worked as his mouth piece) and for his long survival and to oppose Russian communism (not the Chinese) in the region with the help of Ronald Regan (1981 – 1989) as this decade was the end of cold war and beginning of the proxy war between US and formerly Russian federation in Afghanistan fought by (Mujahidin) Soldiers of God (stated by former US deputy defense chief Zbigniew Brzezinski ), the supportive role Zia played for the anti-Soviet mujahidin in Afghanistan continuous and free supply of Arms and ammunition to Mujahidin and to war lords, lose control over north-western boarders had been rewarded as free availability of Narcotics and weapons in Pakistani society. The martial law of Zia-ul-Haq and the culture of Kalashnikov, heroin and violent religiosity struck a crushing blow to the film industry and then films multiplied this phenomena’s and gradually the culture changed completely and a new genre of cinema grew where glamorization of violence and brutality in extracting vengeance were common subjects of film making. Wahshee Gujjar, Maula Jat and Jat da kharaak are some of the films from that period which effectively captured the subject. Film â€Å"Maula Jutt† is symbolic representation of Hero in Pakistani films. Maula Jatt is arguably the most iconic, not to mention violent, character in Pakistani cinema. While the character of Maula Jatt appeared in three cult films—Washi Jatt, Maula Jatt and Maula Jatt in London—in which he killed his opponents with impunity, his blood drenched exploits inspired a highly lucrative genre of films centered upon bloody rivalries between Jatts (biggest population of Punjab) in a seemingly lawless Punjab (most populated province of Pakistan). Films from that era were based on representation of Islam, identities (caste, religious, and national), especially under the Zia ul Haq regime, to regulate or ‘Islamize’ the film industry. Islamic Ordinances, sharia laws and punishment system especially Hudod ordinance (limit, or restriction) is the word often used in Islamic social and legal literature for the bounds of acceptable behavior) were introduced, implemented and practiced by newly made Sharia courts. The Hudod ordinance has/had strong influence on Pakistani society and contents of all media outlets. Film censor board was already working in the country but after General Zia ul Haq TV censorship had been implemented, Female News casters, drama actresses, and even girls like 12 year old on TV put the Hijab to cover the head, their dressing code was changed, drama writing style, stories and subjects are confined in the container of General Zia’s policy. Stories from Islamic history were dramatized and many of the Silver screen films made on ideology of Islam and anti-India. The term (Afghani and Kashmiri mujahidin) caught on and eventually entered the mainstream media. Zia ul Haq’s name and his policies will be remember by succeeding generations, he completely changed the Pakistan, Muslim culture in sub-continent and its social fabric, stated by famous TV actress of that time Mehtaab Akbar Rashidi, she shared her experiences during Zia’s era and how she was barred from hosting two shows ‘Farozan’ and ‘Apni Baat’ (talk shows on social issues) just because she refused to cover her head. â€Å"Through the media, Zia wanted to portray his personally idealized image of Pakistani women and how they should look,† she said. She did not appear on TV for the next eight years of Zia’s rule. Male artists were newer allowed to touch female actresses, dialogues, and impressions were be in kind of limits which approved by the censor board or committees, almost all leading Pakistani TV actors had ‘beards: â€Å"Talat Hussain, Rahat Kazmi, Shafi Muhammad, all had beards. â€Å"It was a fashion of that time expressing creativity and manhood† First time in the history of Pakistani TV, images and videos ofwomen and men punished durray or korray for breaking of hudod the people broadcasted nation wide in news Islamic religious scholars were often seen in TV talk shows and in solo shows describing religion, religious issues discussing moral values of Muslims. Islamic scholars like Moulana Asrar ahmed, Tahir ul Qadri, kausar Niazi.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Project Management and Life Cycle

Project Management and Life Cycle Introduction: Project: Project is a thing usually with very specific objectives. It is temporary, means it starts and end and it is some way unique, Roland and Bee (1998). Project Initiation: Project Life Cycle: Project life cycle consist of four steps Concept or Idea, Planning, Execution and Termination, Field and Keller (2007). Concept: In concept stage firstly we have to develop project agreement, analyze the requirements of the project and build up beginning project scope report, Burke (2003). Planning: Planning stage consist of developing project management plan, plan and define scope than creating Work Break Down structure, which means to distribute the work according to schedule to different workers. Further sequence activities, activity resources, activity duration, cost, plan cost budget are estimated. Planning for quality assurance, communications, risk management, purchases and acquisitions is done. Moreover human resource planning is done to complete the planning stage, Burke (2003). Execution: Project execution is managed in execution with performing the quality assurance, developing the project team and distributing the information. Further project work is controlled and managed, scope, schedule, cost, quality, risk is verified and control. Contracts and project team are managed, Burke (2003). Termination: Project is closed and it contracts are closed as well, Burke (2003). Project Manager: Project Manager is the person who is appointed to manage as specific project and it is expected from him to achieve the goal keeping in mind the project scope, schedule and budget, Richman (2002). Role and Responsibilities: Project Managers responsibilities include estimating and planning the project including the collection of data, keeping in mind that what is to be done exactly and how to organize it properly within schedule and budget, Field and Keller (2007). Assembling a team is also a role of project manager. The success or the failure of the project totally depends on the project team. A project manager should motivate his team, manage any problems between the team members and ensure good communication between them, Field and Keller (2007). Project Manager is responsible for the whole project so he is the spokesperson of the project and its his job to answer his heads, the clients and every other person who is having part in this project, Field and Keller (2007). This is project managers responsibility to make sure that all the equipments and tools are there which will be needed for the project completion. Project manager after start of the project manages all the work done, coordinating with th e team members and other staff, Field and Keller (2007). The changes due to any problem in the project are the role of project manager keeping in mind the budget and the schedule, Field and Keller (2007). Skills: There are some skills that a project manager should have like people skill. A project manager should have to skill to deal with people, how to handle them, how to motivate the employees and how to convince other people to make the project successful, Richman (2002). A project manager should be able to estimate the cost and able to make the budget plan. He should be able to perform audit reports, analyze progress information and able to plan and perform a project, Richman (2002). Project manager should have to knowledge of the organization which will help him to take decisions and achieve its task on time and within cost. He should also have technical and integration skills so that he can be able to understand anything provided by the civil engineer or other employee relating the project, Richman (2002). A project manager should be responsible, and he should have skills of accountability and authority, Richman (2002). Planning: Planning is a very important step of a project because the process of planning firstly establishes what have to be done and also helps in making it happen by smoothing the way, Burke (2003). Planning is everything about looking forward in time, Burke (2003). Work Breakdown Structure: It can be defined as a product oriented duty chain of command of all to be done to achieve the project objectives. The product can be anything documents, tests, reports or other, Rook (1991). In Work breakdown structure the work of the project is divided and further sub divided for management and control purpose, Turner (1993). Risk Management: For a project to be successfully completed management of risk is very necessary, because of this a manger gets a clear idea about the risks a project might face in the future, Field and Keller (2007). Risk management is the active process of identifying, assessing and responding to the project risk, to ensure that the company meets its objectives and the project is successful, Field and Keller (2007). Identify risk means to find out what type of risk a company might face during the project. Assessing involves the evaluation and estimation of levels of risks. Responding means to make precautions how to overcome these risks, Field and Keller (2007). Scheduling: Scheduling is one of the many important stages for a project manager. To ensure that the project finishes on time it is important to make a detailed schedule for every activity in the project and keep an eye on the process against this schedule, Field and Keller (2007). Gant Charts: Bar charts showing a schedule of activities are usually called Gant charts. Gant chart is very simple and effective and because of this it is an attractive way of conveying information about the timetable to the people concerned with the project, Field and Keller (2007). Network Diagram: Network Diagram is a visual illustration of the schedule of a project. It is useful in project management for tracking and planning the project from the start till the end. Critical path as well as the total float of the project is also presented in network diagram, Field and Keller (2007). Float is the extra time existing for an activity in addition to the duration estimated. A critical path is said to be a path with smallest amount of float, Field and Keller (2007). Managing Stakeholders: Stakeholders can be an individual or a group who have an interest in the project, they are affected by it and can influence its result, Field and Keller (2007). It is a part of project management to identify stakeholders, assess their interest in the project and with this information, try and mange relationships with such groups, Field and Keller (2007). Building Team and Assigning Tasks: People are the main source of any project. Success is achieved through people who work as a team, Field and Keller (2007). Project management is about working with people. Objectives, schedules, machines, plans are important but it is people who get things done, Field and Keller (2007). A manager should build a skilled team and assign them their tasks and make sure they get the point and than keep an eye on the teams progress, Field and Keller (2007). The work breakdown structure should be the basic framework for assigning responsibilities, Field and Keller (2007). Team Motivation: Team motivation is a very important task to be performed by the project manager. A motivated team performs its responsibilities more efficiently and within given time, Field and Keller (2007). A team can be motivated through many ways, some are under: Encourage and support. Give rewards, awards and bonuses. Promotional opportunities. Give responsibilities. Have a democratic system. Staff training, X-Factor Recreational opportunities. Maslows hierarchy of needs. Lead by example. Field and Keller (2007). Controlling: Project scope is defined, plan has been produced, the association has been set up, the assets have been allocated and the project has been approved. Now the project manager during the execution of the project has to keep in mind that the project is going according to the plan, the team is working as directed and the project is under estimated cost and time, Field and Keller (2007). Managing Initial Stages: The most important actions in start that a project manager should take are: Identify training needs and arrange workshops Arrange startup meetings with stakeholders. Get contract for work assurance from project staff. Setup the control change procedure. Agree to a timetable for monitoring and control reports and meetings. Field and Keller (2007). Monitoring and Controlling Cost: Project costs are usually measured through accounting systems in any business but projects managers usually setup their own system for monitoring and controlling achievements and project costs, Field and Keller (2007). The system is known as earned value system. It tells the manager the cost of work performed so far and in addition it also tells the value earned by the work, Field and Keller (2007). The earned value of the task completed on a project is the amount that was estimated and attached to that work when the project budget was described, Field and Keller (2007). Controlling cost is more difficult than monitoring the cost. It is very difficult to recommend how it should be done, Field and Keller (2007). Cost controlling is only about controlling future cost, its not about expenses done it the past. But it is helpful for a manager because he can decide through the future to control the price and try and keep it within the allowed budget. Maintaining the Schedule: Maintaining schedule includes updating the network of the project, tracking of milestone and usage of earned value curves, Field and Keller (2007). As the monitoring and controlling of cost is necessary in the same way maintaining the project schedule is also necessary to see that whether the tasks are completed late, on time or early, Field and Keller (2007). If the project is on or before time than no schedule changes are required but if the project is behind its schedule than the project manager needs to make some changes in the schedule to make sure that the project finishes on time, Field and Keller (2007). Maintaining Quality: Product quality is a powerful tool. Quality is to assure the client that the product will be every time produced to the required condition, Burke (1992). If the quality is not up to the mark than its a mangers job to make sure that the product meet its quality and control the quality. Its managers job to do the inspection of the products and take any needed steps to make sure that the quality of the product is up to the mark, Burke (1992). Termination of the Project: Project manager right from the beginning had in mind the target of successfully closing the project, Field and Keller (2007). The project manager tries his best to finish the project in good quality, within budget and schedule, Field and Keller (2007). There are many problems that might rise in the closure or termination of the project defined by Spirer (1983) as: Staff might have the fear of no future work which might lose interest in remaining task. It might also lose motivation of the staff in project delivering, team identity might be lost and this might cause diversion of effort, Spirer (1983). There is a possibility that clients may change their attitude, they might lose interest in the project and may change their personnel dealing with the project, Spirer (1983). There might be some internal and external problems that might be faced at the closure of the project like control of changes to project, closure of work orders and work packages, obtaining needed certifications and many more, Spirer (1983). Conclusion: As a project manager of this huge project I have presented in this report the steps needed to successfully complete this project on time, within budget and with quality standards. This project is a dream come true for me and following the steps provided above I will easily achieve my objectives and the project will be successful.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Resolving Conflicts And Possible Outcomes

Resolving Conflicts And Possible Outcomes There are many ways through which people can resolve conflicts between warring factions. These warring factions can be as few as two individuals, or they might be large people groups like countries. However, the ways of resolving conflicts do not all work in any one given situation? A person or groups of people ought to decide upon which the best way of resolving a given conflict is. A model of dual concern might be assumed where an individual tries to strike a balance between the concern he has for other people and the concern he has for himself. On the one hand he may choose to be assertive and have things done his way. On the other hand, he may choose to be empathetic, and do things according to the way the other person feels things ought to be done. When engaged in a conflicting situation, some people might decide to resolve the conflict by staying aloof of the problem (Bayazit Mannix., 2003). To these people staying aloof is the best way of letting things get resolved. They prefer no active participation in seeing to it that the situation is resolved. They do not care much about what other people feel in the circumstances. They do not think much about their personal feelings either. High conflict situations are not best resolved with this kind of approach, however, because things can easily run out of control. An example of such a situation is when a group of employees go on strike and the management sits back to see what might happen, without taking any active role in what is going on. The strike might escalate into such bad situations as burning of company assets by the disgruntled employees or even roughing up of the employers. A bad situation grows worse in that case, because the employees feel that the aloofness of the management does not address their concerns. The management, however, feels that the assertiveness of the employees ought to have been toned down. If consensus could be reached between the two parties it would be at the point where the management has taken an active role in addressing the employees grievances. The employees, on the other hand, ought not to be greatly aggrieved, seeing that at least their cries are being heard by a management that cares for them. It is rather unfortunate that a number of people who fall into this trap are the so called faithful. They let things be, and say to themselves and to others that things shall be sorted out by divine intervention (Van de Vliert Euwema, 1994). However, things ought to be done differently, because not everyone has the same beliefs or religious leanings. Many people sere different deities and some believe in a deity that asks them to help themselves before deity comes to their aid. Therefore, instead of their faith being a source of respite, it fuels the flames of conflict for some people. Another way of resolving conflict is by adorning a compromising attitude (Goldfien Robbennolt, 2007). Such an attitude says to oneself and to others that it is good to be fair to both sides of the conflict. Such people are ready to listen to the arguments on both sides and to yield a bit to the demands of the other side. They also expect the other side of the conflict to yield to some of their demands, hence being fair. In the case study above, for example, the employees would be expected to yield to some of the demands of management while the management also gives in to some of the demands of its employees. Ideally, not all demands from each side shall be met, but a balance can be struck wherein some of the wants from each side shall be addressed (Kolb Williams, 2010). Like in the previous case, the more assertive of the two groups will be expected to yield a bit, by being conciliatory. This will be expected of the employees who hold the management in ransom by their actions. Bein g fair would not see the employees flare up into a fracas situation of burning and looting. Being fair would also see the management taking an active role in the resolution of the conflict rather than sitting back and watching as situation change from bad to worse. Conflict does not have to be a bad thing or a nasty experience. Where there are two or more people interacting with different interests at heart, disagreements are inevitable. However, such disagreements might be a source for better understanding of each other and even greater cohesion. In the workplace scenario above, conflict might have arisen out of one employees obsession with letting the management know about everything that goes on while they are not being watched. The conflict of interests comes in with the other employees being opposed to close supervision. It is further aggravated by the fact that one of their peers would like to make a good name for oneself by making the rest of them look bad in the presence of their superiors. Solving such a conflict might require one to have high levels of assertiveness as well as empathy. With these traits he can easily cooperate with his contenders to reach an amicable solution to their conflict. Such an individual is not only interested in his own welfare but has a heightened interest in the welfare of the people he contends with, as well (Sternberg Dobson, 1987). He shall cooperate with the other people to find a solution with which they shall all be agreeable. His cooperation might tend to favor the side of the fellow employees, or it might be in favor of the management. However, what would a person caught in the middle of such a conflict do? Through discussion with both parties, people get to be aware of the points of views that their contenders have. In effect, they do not undermine the goals of each other. There are three possible outcomes to any conflict resolution endeavor. Each of these outcomes depends on how the conflict resolution exercise is carried out. In the first place, a conflict resolution exercise might work in favor of both sides concerned. Since both parties win in the end, this is called a win-win situation (Covey, 2004). The first type of conflict resolution that was mentioned in this dialogue would never amount to a win-win situation. Not both parties win in the end. This is because one of the parties stays aloof from the goings on of the resolution process. Since its stand is neither here nor there, it becomes rather difficult to tell whether things are going the way they should for this group of people. Whether they win or lose is not the issue for this group, but rather, they only want tranquility in the end. They want peace but they are not ready to work or to fight for it. Maybe, therefore, one might be right in assuming that when peace prevails in the end, then that is a win situation for the people who do not want to stand up for what they believe in. It may be rightly opined that these people are cowards who do not have enough spine with which to face up to other people, even though they might be transgressed against. A win-win result of conflict resolution is the best result that one can achieve. It results in greater cohesion among group members than before the conflict caused a rift between them. They also get to learn more about each others way of thinking and what things can cause them to be drawn apart. In future, they will not fear conflicting situations, but they would rather strive to keep away from those things that divide them. They will strive for those things that cause them to be drawn closer together as a single unit. The other result of a conflict resolution is where one side wins and the other loses. In such a case, no workable consensus has been reached. One side of the conflict is way too aggressive while the other is too empathetic. The aggressive side is bound to have its way over the empathetic side. Thus, the aggressive side wins while the empathetic side loses. This example of a scenario is called a win-lose (Covey, 2004) situation because one side wins while the other side loses. It would be likened to an employer-employee conflict situation in which the employee has a field day over the employer, with all the employees demands being met. The employers demands, on the other hand are not heeded to. Otherwise, the employer might be too high handed towards the employee. Following such a situation, the employer ends up sacking the employee for reasons such as insubordination. In the latter case, where neither the employer nor the employee wins in the argument between them, it is called a lose-lose situation (Covey, 2004). Neither the demands from the employer to be respected for the role he plays in the life of the employee, nor the demands of the employee are met in the end. Both the employer and the employee are losers in the conflict with which they were involved. In conclusion, this paper has addressed two types of conflict resolution and three possible outcomes of the same. To recap it all, first, there is conflict resolution wherein one side stands aloof from the proceedings while hoping that things will just work themselves out in the end. Secondly, there is the active participation on the one side of the conflict where one takes a very empathetic stand. The said person also does not forget his own needs in the process. Depending on how assertive or how empathetic a certain side of the conflict might be, there can be up to three possible outcomes to the effort of conflict resolution. A conflict can be solved very amicably, resulting in a win-win situation. It might be solved by one side stepping down from its demands, thereby being a win-lose situation. Otherwise, both sides of the conflict end up losing in the confusion.

Monday, August 19, 2019

Lord Of The Flies: Defects Of Society Due To Nature Of Individuals :: essays research papers

Lord of THe Flies: Defects of Society Due to Nature of Individuals The venturesome novel, Lord of the Flies, is an enchanting, audacious account that depicts the defects of society as the incorrigible nature of individuals when they are immature and without an overlooking authority. The author of the novel, William Golding, was born in Britain, which accounts for the English, cultured characters in the novel. After studying science at Oxford University for two years, he changed his emphasis as a major to English literature. When World War II broke out in 1939, Golding served in the Royal Navy for five years. The atrocities he witnessed changed his view about mankind's essential nature. He came to believe that there was a very dark and evil side to man, which accounts for the savage nature of the children in the novel. He said, "The war was unlike any other fought in Europe. It taught us not fighting, politics, or the follies of nationalism, but about the given nature of man." After the war he returned to teaching and wrote his first novel, Lord of the Flies, which was finally accepted for publication in 1954. In 1983, the novel received the Noble Prize and the statement, "[His] books are very entertaining and exciting. . . . They have aroused an unusually great interest in professional literary critics (who find) deep strata of ambiguity and complication in Golding's work. . . ." (Noble Prize committee) Some conceived the novel as bombastic and didactic. Kenneth Rexroth stated in the Atlantic, "Golding's novels are rigged.. . . The boys never come alive as real boys. . . . " Other critics see him as the greatest English writer of our time. In the Critical Quarterly in 1960, C.B. Cox deemed Lord of the Flies as "probably the most important novel to be published. . . in the 1950's." The setting of the novel takes place on an island in the Pacific Ocean. The author never actually locates the island in the real world or states the exact time period. The author does state that the plane carrying the children had been shot down in a nuclear war, so the time period must be after the making and the use of nuclear weapons. Even though the location of the island is not definite, the author vividly describes the setting. Golding tells us that the island is tropical and shaped like a boat. At the low end are the jungle and the orchards, which rise up to the treeless and rocky mountain ridge. The beach,

Sunday, August 18, 2019

Patricia MacLachlans Sarah, Plain and Tall :: Patricia MacLachlan Sarah Plain and Tall

Patricia MacLachlan's Sarah, Plain and Tall By telling you the story, Sarah, Plain and Tall, Patricia MacLachlan portrays the importance of family and allows you to see that by through a little bit of hope and wishing your happiness can be fulfilled. She shows you how personal sacrifices occur when forming a successful family. Overall, this book provides insight on how powerful and meaningful family life can be. In Sarah, Plain and Tall the concept of family is the base on which the book is written. The meaning of the word "family" becomes the center of the Witting's world. You learn at the beginning of the story that Anna and Caleb's mother had died after giving birth to Caleb. So when they both learned that Papa placed an advertisement in the newspaper for a wife and received a response they were very excited. "No one spoke when Papa finished the letter. He kept looking at it in his hands, reading it over to himself. Finally, I turned my head a bit to sneak a look at Caleb. He was smiling. I smiled, too" (10). Anna and Caleb had no reservations about meeting this lady they only knew by the name of Sarah. They both yearned to have a mother back in their life again. After Sarah arrives, Anna is very apprehensive that Sarah will not like being in this new place. "I shook my head, turning the white stone over and over in my hand. I wished everything was as perfect as the stone. I wished that Papa and Caleb and I were perfect for Sarah" (21). The Wittings soon try to make their home Sarah's home as well. "I slept, dreaming a perfect dream. The fields had turned to a sea that gleamed like the sun on glass. And Sarah was happy" (37). They soon start to question Sarah's happiness. Sarah often talks about how she longs for the sea, her brother, and her three old aunts. Sarah speaks to Maggie (who had also responded to a newspaper ad) and tells her about her sorrows. Maggie says, "There are always things to miss. No matter where you are" (40). Maggie then shows Sarah how she can relate to her new life by growing her own garden and gaining her independence back by learning to drive the wagon. After learning how to drive the wagon, Sarah decides to take a trip by herself.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Citizen Journalism vs. Mainstream Media

Citizen journalism is news that comes from the larger public and not well- known and legitimate news agencies like, The Washington Post or The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Citizen journalism can be most recognized in the form of blogs or wiki sites. 15211 is a citizen journalism site that is based in Mt. Washington which is a small part of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The title of the blog relates to the blog because it is the zip code for Mount Washington residents.The blog discusses current events that are going on in the Mount Washington area only; the site masters are completely open to criticism and understand that not everyone agrees or likes what is being discussed. A mainstream media outlet close to Mount Washington is the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. This newspaper discusses everything from sports to local news to country wide and international affairs. Although there is an opinion section in the paper, it is not all opinion based like a blog.Also, newspapers provide other things than just news whether it is informative or opinionated; it also provides coupons for state wide stores and allows their audience to connect to other websites such as job search sites. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette provides a wide range of informative topics to appeal to a wide range of publics. Since newspapers are losing their appeal to the newer generations they must start finding new ways to attract people to read and subscribe to their publication.Although many publics in today’s society prefer mainstream media to citizen journalism, there are many pros to blogs and wiki sites. For instance the blog, 15211 is targeted to a specific public (audience) which are the people of Mount Washington, a small part of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as it says in the about us section. Having a target audience allows for more freedom to write about anything related to that topic and not receiving many contradictory statements or backlash opinions.Although most blogs have a targeted audience, backl ash comes with the territory and one of the things that 15211 says is, â€Å"Sometimes you’ll like what you read, other times you won’t. That is the point of a blog and we intend to keep true to the medium. We know that our opinions may not be yours and vice versa, but we respect the fact that you’re here†¦. † This allows more people to openly express their opinion and respond to the opinion of the creator without feeling judged.Another upside to citizen journalism is that it is very easy to share and connect with the site and the other followers. On the 15211 home page they have a tiny box in the middle of the page that allows you to share or bookmark the site to 11 different social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google Bookmarks. On the site, the blog creators also allow people to view a live Twitter comment feed on the website so that they don’t have to have Twitter to view the comments people are making about the blog post s.Citizen Journalism good at sharing information and allowing others to participate in the discussion, but being completely opinionated and specific on one topic is not always a good thing. On negative thing about citizen journalism is that they mostly only apply to specific publics/audiences and although the internet has many different blogs and wiki sites that attract all people, it still doesn’t cover everyone, especially older generations who are against the change in the way that we view and access our information.Being able to expand to just more than one specific public might help increase the recognition just like mainstream media is. Another down side to citizen journalism is that it is all opinionated and although people like the freedom of expressing their opinion, people like facts and information that they can definitely rely on to right. After researching the 15211 site, citizen journalism seems to be on the rise and more accessible than ever with social network ing and bookmarking sites.All in all it seems as though it is becoming new way for people to express themselves without having to reveal too much about themselves like on Facebook. It also allows internet surfers to read only what they want and what they connect and agree to the most. Citizen journalism is becoming very popular and with the way technology is growing and expanding it only seems like this form of journalism will become even larger among the future generations.

China’s Environmental Issues Essay

China has many environmental issues, severely affecting its biophysical environment as well as human health. Rapid industrialization as well as lax environmental oversight have contributed to the problems. The Chinese government has acknowledged the problems and made various responses, resulting in some improvements, but the responses have been criticized as inadequate. As of 2012 there is increased citizen activism regarding government decisions which are perceived as being environmentally damaging. (Wikipedia) As China’s economic growth continues to blossom in 2007, with the countries GDP hitting 11.4%, alongside China gets hit by an environmental crisis. Sixteen of the world’s twenty most polluted cities are in China. Experts say the Chinese government has made serious efforts to clean up and achieved many of the bid commitments. Beijing’s pledge to host a â€Å"Green Olympics† in the summer of 2008 signaled the country’s willingness to address its environmental problems for example. However, an environmentally sustainable growth rate remains a serious challenge for the country. (http://www.cfr.org/china/chinas-environmental-crisis/p12608) China’s major environmental issues: * Water- China suffers from water shortage and water pollution. About one-third of China’s population lacks access to clean drinking water. s part of its effort to harness the nation’s water supply, China has a large dam-building program with over twenty-five thousand dams nationwide–more than any other nation. The dam projects are not only a high cost in terms of money, but also in farmland loss, ecological damage, and forced migration of millions of people, says the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Jennifer L. Turner, director of its China Environment Forum, in a report for the Jamestown Foundation. * Land- Desertification in China leads to the loss of about 5,800 square miles of grasslands every year, an area roughly the size of Connecticut. The Worldwatch Institute, an environmental watchdog and research organization, reports that excessive farm cultivation, particularly overgrazing, is one of the leading causes of desertification. As the deforestation grows, so do the number of sandstorms; a hundred were expected between 2000 and 2009. Desertification also contributes to China’s air pollution problems, with increasing dust causing a third of China’s air pollution. * Greenhouse gases- In 2008, China surpassed the United States as the largest global emitter of greenhouse gases by volume. (Not per capita however) The increase in China’s emissions is primarily due to the country’s reliance on coal, which accounts for over two-thirds of its energy consumption, contributing to sulfur dioxide emissions causing acid rain.

Friday, August 16, 2019

Evaluation of Issues Project

When I first received the Issues Introduction Coursework element, I had no clue about which topic I wanted to cover. There is such a variety of Issues in our world ranging from political problems to crucial environmental issues. I decided I would mind map all of my ideas out (anything to do with issues) and I evaluated my choices. I wanted to create a piece on a topic, which is relevant now and has a very strong history – an issue that needs tackling now. I decided I would go down the root of abuse (social issue), which is a very vague topic. It includes sub-topics of physical abuse, discrimination, child abuse and many more. Abuse is a topic, which has affected the British and nearly every single person on this planet: on an international scale we have child labour to electric chairs. This needs to stop now: this may be the root cause of anger, of hatred, of breakdowns in relationships. Abuse is a topic, which has also affected me in some ways during my life, and I thought it was time to put some of my own background into my piece of work; this is a skill, which many directors use in their films. Eg. Steven Spielberg is Jewish, and his film ‘Schindler's List' has its point of view to sympathise with the Jews because of the cruelty to them from the Nazis. I was influenced by this director to be very subjective about a topic I am very serious about. I integrated my two art forms through a film. This is using ‘moving images' and ‘drama. ‘ It is a simple idea but the procedure and the work takes a long time to create. I decided I would use film to show my intended audience (young children, aged 10-12) what the effects of bullying and abuse can cause. A film can use spontaneous language, and I kept the scenes short so they were memorable: this is the purpose of a film. First of all, from my original mind map I began to think of topics, which could be incorporated into my project from abuse. I decided I would go down the root of school bullying, a typical situation which takes place, but it has hybrid topics. It covers discrimination, domestic abuse, physical abuse, verbal abuse and the mentality of bullies. This is because abuse does not come in one form – abuse is caused by something, which enrages people. Through my research I found that through psychology, abuse is caused by a mental issue, which enrages people, which causes a physical outcome (usually negative). There then, is a solution how to calm down, how apologise and stay calm. But when somebody gets bored they begin to aggravate somebody, which can bring on this anger again. It is a â€Å"vicious cycle. † This is exactly what my piece intends to do. It shows that ‘bullying never ends' and ‘bullying never stops' and that whenever there is a peak of happiness it eventually falls back down and everybody has to start rebuilding their lives again. This is a scene in my piece at the end of the film. Another theme is that ‘abuse creates more abuse. Her mother has domestically abused Zoi and therefore it's â€Å"mother-like-daughter†: Zoi begins to bully people too! I created scenes, which would evoke the audience about scenes of abuse, and bullying and I wrote them with more dialogue to create a stream of consciousness (just like Zephaniah's Neighbours) and this would engage my audience. I researched how girls were mean to each other (using Mean Girls) and I used some of these girls' characteristics in my own piece. I lastly created a storyboard with quick images and shots on how the audience was going to see this film. I drafted the scenes and the storyboard so I could see what improvements could be made to make my intended audience to make them even more shocked! I used a style model to show how to write and how to present a film script. I took the layout and the font type of this piece to make my own script look professional. I also incorporated some of my critical analysis pieces' work like having many twists in the films. The Guardian Advert ends with a twist using different shots; I decided I would use my own twist. These are that Zoi is getting domestically abused, and Stacey kills off Anna at the end. It is a very depressing ending, which is what I want my audience to feel left with. I want them to connect, to empathise with Zoi and Anna and show that dreadful things can affect our lives. I want to show my audience that bullies are, and will always be, hated. When also creating my advert poster, I looked at some posters showing abuse and took ideas from here. Like the silhouettes; the purpose of using a silhouette is so the audience can try and convey their own idea to what the character really looks like rather than just filling it black. I also put on some media to give it a modern touch (eg. ewspaper and magazine cuttings for the title) and I also edited the â€Å"girl's† body to look devilish. A first judgement would make you think that this girl is evil, which is an idea taken from my analysis pieces. Actually, the devil girl becomes a nice, well-mannered pleasant character! My strengths in creating this piece were being able to create a strong film with a message; my scenes were very strong in the way they were acted and the range of shots I used emphasised the raw emotion I wanted to convey to my audience. I used different types of literacy techniques and dramatic techniques too. Eg. In the soliloquy of Anna (a dramatic monologue), I wanted my audience to feel sympathetic to her. My weakness was time keeping. I had a plan, and I tried to stick to it. It took too long filming and editing though. That was the longest part of the project – but in the end I completed my project with success. If I were going to do this project again I would keep time-management at the top of my list because everything else (portfolio etc. ) fell behind. I think that writing my scenes were also strong using a pragmatic lexical choice to involve the audience's own colloquial language incorporated into my film piece. This would engage the audience because it would feel very comfortable, informal and sort of â€Å"eavesdropping. † Examples of this are â€Å"mates. † I experimented with swearing, which is very bad for a young demographic to hear, but in the end, children will end up hearing this language once they get older anyways. In my opinion, I think that my final piece is very successful in putting its point across to my demographic (young children). If my audience were watching this then they would feel shocked at the end and all the way through, which is its intended primary purpose, with the second being to entertain. This film is full of a hybrid of issues and plot twisting. It conveys symbols of trust and loyalty (hugs and holding hands) as well as scenes, which can shatter trust (i. e. letter in the locker). My piece not only conveys the theme of abuse through a modern media type (film), but it is very personal to those who are murdered, or commit suicide, being school students, being different today! I honestly think I have done a great job in presenting my issues to influence young children to NOT get involved in bullying or abuse!

Thursday, August 15, 2019

Mark Twain, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay

In the novel by Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the two main characters, Huck and Jim, are strongly linked. Their relation is portrayed by various sides, some of them good and some others bad. But the essential interest of that relation is the way that uses the author to describe it. Even if he had often been misunderstood, Twain always implied a message behind the themes developed around Huck and Jim. The first encounter between Huck Finn and Jim is at the beginning of the book, when Huck’s friend, Tom Sawyer, tries to fool Jim, Miss Watson’s slave. Huck and Jim still don’t know each other, but Huck isn’t biased against the old slave. It’s an important point because, as racism was a widely held mentality in the South, we can learn that that young boy was more open-minded than most people there. Later, they find themselves in the same situation. As they were escaping from the civilized world, they take refuge in the Jackson’s Island, on the Mississippi river. Huck is running away from a bad father and Jim has leaved Miss Watson because he didn’t want to be sold to New Orleans. Look more:  huck finn chapter 20 essay Soon after joining Jim on the island, Huck begins to realize that Jim has more talents and intelligence than Huck has been aware of. Jim knows â€Å"all kinds of signs† about the future, people’s personalities, and weather forecasting. Huck finds this kind of information necessary as he and Jim drift down the Mississippi on a raft. As important, Huck feels a comfort with Jim that he has not felt with the other major characters in the novel. With Jim, Huck can enjoy the best aspects of his earlier influences. Jim’s meaning to Huck changes as they proceed through their adventure. He starts out as an extra person just to take on the journey, but they transform into a friend. â€Å"It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger. â€Å"(chap. XV) Huck tries to squeal on Jim but can’t because he remembers that Jim called him â€Å"de bes’ fren’ I ever had;†¦ de on’y white genlman dat ever kep’ his promise to ole Jim. â€Å"(chap. XVI) Huck realizes that he can not turn Jim in since they both act as runaway outcasts on the river. The support they have for each other sprouts friendship. As does the Widow, Jim allows Huck security, but Jim is not as confining as is the Widow. Like Tom Sawyer, Jim is intelligent but his intelligence is not as intimidating or as imaginary as is Tom’s. As does Pap, Jim allows Huck freedom, but he does it in a loving, rather than an uncaring, fashion. Thus, early, in their relationship on Jackson’s Island, Huck says to Jim, â€Å"This is nice. I wouldn’t want to be nowhere else but here. † This feeling is in marked contrast with Huck’s feelings concerning other people in the early part of the novel where he always is uncomfortable and wishes to leave them. The lack of comfort is also shared by Jim. As a slave, he truly feels like an outcast. Considering the context of the United States at that period, during the slavery conflict, we easily understand the situation of Jim. And one of the main ideas of this Mark Twain’s masterpiece deals with a multiracial couple’s story. The relationship between black and white was hardly accepted in the 1830’s. Such an adventure, two male characters, with opposite colour of skin, striking up a friendship, was considered as a provocation by the society. The author knows that very well and will try, through his two heroes, to denounce the drifting of the Nation. Irony is his main weapon against that obscurantism. He uses it as often as possible. For instance, on chapter XIV, Huck tries to explain to Jim why a Frenchman is a man, even if he speaks differently. The ironical feature comes from the fact that this black slave doesn’t understand the equality of all people, whereas himself isn’t considered equal by the white. Besides, another ironical aspect is that we think first, in that chapter, that the white boy will civilize the black man whereas we’ll discover further that it is the contrary. First person brings the reader a more innocent side of the story, so the reader feels more compassion for the small boy. The symbolic image falls into play between Huck and Jim, â€Å"†¦ en trash is what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren’s en makes ’em ashamed†¦ â€Å"(chap. XV), this made Huck open his eyes for the first time in his life. Jim for the first time shows feelings for Huck and lets him know you don’t treat people who care for you like â€Å"trash†. This makes Huck aware that Jim means more to him than just someone’s slave, he now considers him a true friend. Next, Huck finally sees Jim’s loyalty toward him, â€Å"†¦ so Jim he said he would stand the first half of it for me†¦ â€Å"(chap. XX), keeping a special watch not waking him on his turn, â€Å"†¦ I went to sleep, and Jim didn’t call me when it was my turn†¦ â€Å"(chap. XXIII). Even the little things like not waking Huck, show more than just an undying friendship. The symbolism of a grown man and a child had more effect instead of having two grown men, because a child needs a father figure. Jim fit the description and perfectly provided that for him. The mutual affection between Huck and Jim will even lead them to sorts of sacrifices. When Huck discovers that Jim has been captured, Huck must decide whether to turn in Jim and tell Miss Watson, or accept going to hell. He finally chooses â€Å"hell† when he says, â€Å"I took it [letter to Miss Watson] up, and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling, because I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute†¦ and then says to myself: ‘All right, then, I’ll go to hell,’ and tore it up. â€Å"(chap. XXXI) Huck’s sacrifice for his friend Jim, a man he has come to view as a father, forces Huck to accept a life of everlasting pain and anguish. In reality, Huck’s sacrifice is a noble and uncharacteristic achievement, allowing Huck to unknowingly be bound for heaven. Jim’s sacrifice, although small in his own mind, is in fact one of the bravest sacrifices made throughout this book. For example, after Tom gets shot in the leg, Jim displays his concern for Tom as he says, â€Å"No, sah-I doan’ budge a step out’n dis place ‘dout a doctor; not if it’s forty year! † Despite all of the racist and harsh tricks Tom has played on Jim, Jim risks his life to save his â€Å"friend. † Rather than abandon Tom, Jim is willing to risk his freedom to save Tom’s life. Moreover, as Jim makes this brave sacrifice, Huck thinks to himself, â€Å"I knowed he was white inside. â€Å"(chap. XL) Through Jim’s sacrifice for Tom, Huck discovers that all men, including blacks, are in fact equal. Huck no longer looks down upon Jim as a â€Å"nigger,† but rather as an equal human being. Lastly, the doctor describes Jim’s heroic sacrifice to the Phelps and tells them that, â€Å"He ain’t a bad nigger†¦ and I never see a nigger that was a better nuss or faithfuler, and yet he was risking his freedom to do it [save Tom]. â€Å"(chap.XLII) Jim risked his freedom to save an insolent, racist white boy who had treated him, not as an equal, but as an inferior, unequal nigger. Jim’s sacrifice is clearly an act of bravery far more heroic than the sacrifice Huck made earlier in the novel. Huck and Jim’s sacrifices for each other, however different, also present many similarities. For example, Huck and Jim both think they are sacrificing themselves for a friend. Huck sacrifices himself for a black friend he has come to love as an equal. Similarly, Jim sacrifices himself for a friend, when in reality, he is risking his freedom to save the life of a racial bigot, Tom. In addition, both sacrifices have as a consequence a life of everlasting hell. When Huck sacrifices himself for Jim, he accepts a literal hell (that is truly the path to heaven). Jim, on the other hand, accepts a life of figurative hell in slavery, when he is in fact free all along. Finally, each sacrifice shares irony, in that they were both based on unknown pieces of unknown, but significannot pieces of information. Huck is unaware that his decision of accepting â€Å"hell† will actually lead to his salvation and ironically decides on doing what the thinks is â€Å"wrong. â€Å"Likewise, Jim is unaware that he is free, and is not risking his freedom in saving Tom. In making these two brave sacrifices, Huck and Jim achieve a higher character than if they had chosen easier paths. Huck’s willingness to face hell to protect Jim and Jim’s willingness to face capture and slavery to save Tom, both contribute to the overall theme of racial equality/inequality present throughout the book. Huck and Jim’s journey down the Mississippi River has led them to look past colour boundaries, and discover that â€Å"all me are created equal. â€Å"

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Discuss Merle Hodge’S Crick Crack Monkey As a Novel Essay

Merle Hodge born in 1944, in Trinidad is the daughter of an immigration officer. After studying at the Bishop Anstey’s high school of Trinidad, she obtained the Trinidad and Tobago Girls Island Scholarship in 1962 which led her to the university college of London. She obtained a degree in French and later in 1967 a Master Philosophy degree. Merle Hodge traveled a lot in Eastern and Western Europe and when she returned to Trinidad she started teaching French in junior schools. Later she obtained a post of lecturer at the University of the West Indies. In 1979, she started to work for the bishop regime and she was appointed director of the development of curriculum. In 1983, she left Grenada because the bishop was assassinated and she is now working for the Women and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad. She wrote the novel Crick Crack Monkey in 1970 where she deals with the theme of childhood in the West Indies. The main protagonist called Tee lives with Tantie who is a working class woman. She later goes to live with her aunt Beatrice and she faces a new and different world from that of her Caribbean world: â€Å"Hodge’s story is presented through the eyes of a black, lower class girl of Trinidad in the 1950s.† The whole story is one presented from one point of view: Tee’s. She is left alone by her father who goes abroad after the death of her mother and she has to live with her lower class Tantie where she learns about being independent. Later in the story her aunt Beatrice takes her and she then has to adapt herself to the ‘white’ world. She faces a lot of cultural and identity conflict as she does not really know where she belongs or what culture is wrong or right. â€Å"However, looking at the story of â€Å"crick crack monkey† through the eyes of a young white girl, rather than a young black girl, the reader might see the injustice and the ethnic discrimination that a black person must endure. She would not be accustomed to being called a â€Å"little black nincompoop† (Hodge 457), and she would most likely not have to suffer a physical beating with a ruler (Hodge 456)† Tee becomes the narrator and Hodge guides the reader through an â€Å"intensely personal study of the effects of the colonial imposition of various social and cultural values on the Trinidadian female.† Tee narrates the diverse problems in her life in such a way that it is often complicated to split up â€Å"the voice of the child, experiencing, from the voice of the woman, reminiscing; in this manner, Hodge broadens the scope of the text considerably.† It has often been seen that the British have used various techniques to influence the viewpoints of the Caribbean people. â€Å"The people’s self awareness, religion, language, and culture has coped with the influx of British ideals and in coping, the people have changed to appease the islands’ highly influential British population.† Crick Crack Monkey is made to be a novel dealing with the conflict of cultures that Tee has to accept. We first meet Tee when her mother dies and she is portrayed as being surrounded by people. She experiences ‘crowd-scenes’ where she has all her family and friends around her to give her support. At Tantie’s house, she had Tantie’s loud presence and when she was absent she had the presence of other children. This in a way is made to reflect the Caribbean culture where every one is warm and caring and where the people like to stay together and entertain social relationships: â€Å"As Yakini Kemp notes, â€Å"she [Tee] is moving progressively toward the development of a positive self-image while she resides with Tantie† (24). Tee is made to be independent and having a voice for herself in the Trinidadian society. She has a confident personality which has been molded by the culture in which she was living. These episodes where Tee is made to be surrounded by the people of Trinidad are made to contrast with the isolation and the loneliness which Tee is made to feel at her Aunt Beatrice’s place: â€Å"these scenes set up a contrast to the loneliness the narrator-protagonists will experience once removed from their original environment and placed into a Western or Western-aspiring one. What Marjorie Thorpe has said about Crick Crack Monkey thus can also be said for Bedford’s novel: â€Å"Throughout the novel Hodge contrasts the warmth and congeniality of Tantie’s household with the loneliness and isolation which Tee experiences at Aunt Beatrice’s† (36) In Crick Crack Monkey Hodge makes the isolation felt by Tee become associated with cultural alienation. She had always been said to belong to an extended family culture where she feels part of the family but the western culture makes her feel out of place and she thus feels alienated from both cultures at a certain point. This alienation process is depicted through the fact that Tee has to move from an Antillean culture to a supposedly European culture: â€Å"In this novel Merle Hodge presents the process of alienation by depicting Tee’s transition from a typical Antillean tradition to that of a pseudo-European culture.† Tee is made to balance herself between the culture of Tantie who gives her â€Å"the promise of staying on with the original culture of the Caribbean islands† and between Aunt Beatrice who gives her a prospect of another culture: â€Å"Aunt Beatrice offers the lure of abroad – a culture that Tee slowly becomes familiar with but does not b elong to.† It is seen that, while Tantie and Aunt Beatrice represent different perceptions of cultures which were present in the island, Ma, Tee’s Grandma, represents another culture. She is the one who tells the children â€Å"‘nancy† stories and she is near to the Tee’s African roots. Tee visiting her grandmother makes her realize that: â€Å"Ma’s sayings often began on a note of familiarity only to rise into an impressive incomprehensibility, or vice versa, as in ‘Them that walketh in the paths of corruption will live to ketch dey arse†. The three women in Tee’s life makes her realize that each one belongs to a class and a culture which is seemingly different from each other and Tee is unable to even understand the culture of her Grandmother so she becomes alienated from the African culture in a way. She is left with Tantee’s culture and with Aunt Beatrice’s culture where both culture makes her in a way lose her own identity . In Merle Hodge’s Crick Crack Monkey, Tee’s education is responsible for her internalization of the European or the western culture. It is found in the novel that even before Tee is made to go and live with her Anglicized Aunt Beatrice she has to learn about their culture where things which she has learned in her Caribbean culture does not exist â€Å"Books transported you always into the familiar solidity of chimneys and apple trees, the enviable normality of real Girls and Boys who went a-sleighing and built snowmen, ate potatoes, not rice, went about in socks and shoes from morning until night and called things by their proper names, never saying â€Å"washicong† for plimsoll or â€Å"crapaud† when they meant a frog. Books transported you always into reality and Rightness, which were to be found Abroad. (61)† It has often been seen that the colonial education was part of massive artillery to colonize the mind of the people and that this helped to consolidate the colonialists power and culture. It is said that the ‘whole educational apparatus was geared towards cultural domination by consent’ and that in a way it completely destroyed the culture and the cultural education of the colonized people. They were in fact alienated from their own culture through the colonized education and they were made to create an environment where they would desire the Eurocentric culture. This is in a way what happens to Tee who is made to feel alienated from her own culture by the colonial education she is given. Tee’s education thus in a sense puts her in an unbearable state: â€Å"since her own world does not have the same cultural referents as the one she is taught to regard as â€Å"correct,† she is forever trying to â€Å"catch up,† always seeing herself in terms of a world which can never be her own because it is always elsewhere.† She is always lacking in her acceptance of this culture: â€Å"her whole socialization process comes to affirm that however many of the cultural standards prescribed by the educational system, her teachers, or Aunt Beatrice she adopts, she always falls short — and so do her teachers and Aunt Beatrice, who are similarly caught in a cycle of self-denial and self-hatred.† Tantie representing the Caribbean culture warns Tee not to get carried by the colonialist instructions and this warning comes in time when Hodge introduces the teacher, Mr. Hinds who â€Å"is bent on living an English reality in the face of the facts of the Caribbean because he holds Englishness as the highest value in his life, and so it is not surprising that â€Å"[e]everyone knew that Mr. Hinds had been up to England† because he is eager to let everyone know about it. His devotion to the metropolis assumes a worshipful attitude illustrated by his â€Å"daily endeavor to bring the boys to a state of reverence† towards a â€Å"large framed portrait of Churchill† (24).† He makes the colonial education, the center of his teachings and what he teaches the students does not even include the Caribbean reality that the children are living. He tries to instill the English culture in the students: â€Å"from apples to Christmas to snow and the haystacks the children learn about in their school primers — who do not have any lived knowledge of England, thus attempting to erase Caribbeanness in them as it has been erased in him.† There is one passage which addresses the issue of language, identity and of culture. Mr. Hinds being irritated with his students says, â€Å"‘Here I stand, trying to teach you to read and write the English language, trying to teach confounded piccaninnies to read and write. . . . I who have marched to glory side by side with His Majesty’s bravest men — I don’t have to stand here and busy myself with . . . little black nincompoops† (29). This in a way reflects the culture which is often adopted by the western world where people think that the way you speak is a representation of yourself proposed by Ashcroft. The students are made to reject their local language to adopt the language of the colonizer and the†use of the language highlights cultural specificity† when the vernacular language is inserted in the novel. The very rendering of the vernacular in written English gives it equal status to â€Å"mainstream† English and linguistically symbolizes an act of resistance and a cultural alternative – Creole culture — that, in the plot of the novel, is marked by a relative wholeness when juxtaposed to Mr. Hinds’ and Aunt Beatrice’s self-alienation, which is expressed in the above passage through Mr. Hinds’ concern with having his students learn â€Å"proper† English. According to Frantz Fanon: â€Å"Every colonized people — in other words, every people in whose soul an inferiority complex has been created by the death and burial of its local cultural originality — finds itself face to face with the language of the civilizing nation; that is, with the culture of the mother country. The colonized is elevated above his jungle status in proportion to his adoption of the mother country’s cultural standards. He becomes whiter as he renounces his blackness, his jungle. (18)† Mr. Hinds is the representation of the colonized man who tries to act white. He creates walls between himself and the children where he is in a way rejecting his own blackness and is trying to make them accept the culture of the colonized through language: â€Å"attempting to make them like himself, with language as a primary standard of culture, he also tries to prove his own cultural â€Å"redeemability,† the possibility of becoming English.† Tantie represents the Caribbean culture and thus she tries to preserve it in Tee. It seems that the culture in which Tee is living is mixed with the European culture and there are many agents of ‘westernization’ which are present in the society. Mr. Hinds seems only to be a puppet who has been employed to prepare Tee for her awaiting life at the household of Aunt Beatrice: â€Å"it is for good reason that Tantie warns Tee of such indoctrination in the vernacular, since the vernacular is the only cultural basis for Tantie (and potentially for Tee) from which to launch a defense.† The novel shows that the children have to go to Aunt Beatrice’s place in order to obtain the proper education and Tantie has to let the children live with Aunt Beatrice. In a way she knows that the colonial education and system is all that matters to succeed in the world. It seems that Aunt Beatrice’s westernized house is the only ‘proper’ place for the children to stay because it contains all the cultural values of the Europeans. At her arrival there it is immediately shown how the world of aunt Beatrice is different when Tee’s and Todan are made fun of because of their clothes and color: â€Å"Not only color and features are under scrutiny concerning their similarities and dissimilarities to European beauty standards, but so are clothes, as Tee finds out when her cousins inspect her wardrobe soon after her (second) arrival: â€Å". . . We are shown how with the phenomenon of â€Å"double consciousness,† Du Bois’ term: â€Å"While Du Bois speaks of African Americans looking at themselves through the eyes of racist whites, Tee looks at herself through the eyes of her cousins, who have so thoroughly imbibed a British colonialist world view that nothing appears to exist resembling even remnants of a Caribbean identity.† makes Tee feel aware of her color and of her clothes as compared to her colonized cousins. When Tee had gone to Aunt Beatrice’s place the first time, she used to beat up her cousins and later on when she goes there again she is in a way crippled by her education and through her indoctrination of the standards of the European culture. The first time she had Tantie’s culture fully present in her, she had all her Caribbeaness in her and had not been made aware that she has to judge herself by the standards of others and that the European culture was the scale along which she should judge herself and her achievements: â€Å"Tee has already been indoctrinated into standards of â€Å"Reality and Rightness† and she recognizes her cousins as being closer to the Anglophile standards instilled in her, quelling the resistance against their denigration that was still available to her when she drew her world view and strength from Tantie’s cultural orb.† In this new world which is different from the world of Tantie, all that represents the African culture is denigrated and shown to be insignificant. Aunt Beatrice in every way makes Tee feels that the white world and culture is supreme and the clothes she had brought is seen as ‘niggery’ and everything connected with Europeans is adorned and there is the example of the photograph of the ‘white ancestress: â€Å"Such veneration of â€Å"white blood† illustrates that Aunt Beatrice does not merely admire and strive to emulate English culture, but that her Anglophilia is ultimately rooted in racist and Darwinist beliefs in the superiority of bloodlines and â€Å"races.† Thus, in her eyes, African ancestry in and of itself is a liability, not merely African culturally acquired styles and behaviors. This explains her manic attempt to erase everything in herself, in her daughters, and in Tee, reminiscent of such ancestry†. She is in a way trying to ali enate the Caribbean culture in Tee just as Mr. Hinds had tried to do. Tee is made to feel alienated from the world she used to know. In this new world she is made to feel powerless and she feels that she cannot cope when she has to speak or when she dresses as she cannot and is not fully accepted in this Europeanized world of her cousins: â€Å"As Ketu Katrak has said, â€Å"Beatrice cultivates bourgeois values that despise blackness in every form — skin color, speech patterns, food† (66), and this is a legacy from which Tee cannot escape†. She does not belong to the culture of Tantie anymore and nor does she belong to the culture of the Aunt Beatrice ad she only feels torn between the two. This is shown when she cannot accept the food brought to her by Tantie and: â€Å"The final scene demonstrates that Tee now lives between the worlds, not belonging to either. Unable ever to be accepted fully into Aunt Beatrice’s household and Englishness, she is also alien to Tantie’s world.† Ketu Katrak says that â€Å"Colonized people’s mental colonization through English language education, British values, and culture result in states of exclusion and alienation. Such alienations are experienced in conditions of mental exile within one’s own culture to which, given one’s education, one un-belongs.† (62) Tee has received an education and a western culture which is very much unlike the culture of Tantie and which in a way makes her feel the dullness of her Caribbean culture and of Tantie’s world. Tee feels alienated and marginalized since the time she has started to learn the European culture and she did not feel this before in Tantie’s household. Tee’s alienation leads her to hopelessness and feelings that she is unworthy of living: â€Å"(Thorpe 37): â€Å"I wanted to shrink, to disappear. . . . I felt that the very sight of me was an affront to common decency. I wished that my body could shrivel up and fall away, that I could step out new and acceptable† (97). Though she does not actually contemplate killing herself, her self-hatred and eagerness to assimilate are the cultural equivalent of suicide.† Tee is found without a culture and ‘Aunt Beatrice’s self-negating and self-hating cultural influence’ on her seems to destroy her identity. Tee is unable to live in both culture and the novel: â€Å"thus ends on an ironic note: to save Tee, who is unable to return to the Caribbeanness she has known in Tantie’s household through having become socialized in the worship of Englishness, Tantie sends her to the ultimate source of this cultural negation: to the metropolis, to England† â€Å"Hodge goes to great pains to portray the cultural bankruptcy of playing monkey to the Great White Ancestor. In this important respect, the narrative, which in the fiction a mature Tee relates, places considerable vaule on the vulnerable African oral culture that so easily succumbs to the power of the written†. Crick Crack Monkey ending gives us a hope for Tee who goes to London and â€Å"The goal of the novel, it seems, is not to idealize a lost African past but to reveal the cultural sovereignty of Trinidad.† BIBLIOGRAPHY: Web sites: * BILL CLEMENTE: The A, B, C’s of Alienation and Re-Integration : Merle Hodge’S Crick Crack Monkey * httpClemente.htm * httpcrick crack monkey study guide.htm * The Two Worlds of the Child: A study of the novels of three West Indian writers; Jamaica Kincaid, Merle Hodge, and George Lamming * httpJamaica Kincaid, Merle Hodge, George Lamming.htm * Two Postcolonial Childhoods:Merle Hodge’s Crick Crack, Monkey and Simi Bedford’s Yoruba Girl Dan * http Jouvert 6_1 – 2 Martin Japtok, Two Postcolonial Childhoods Merle Hodge’s Crick Crack, Monkey and Simi Bedford’s Yoruba Girl Dancing.htm * http merle.htm books: * HODGE ,MERLE. Crick Crack, Monkey. Andre Deutsch, 1970; London: Heinemann, 1981; Paris: Karthala, 1982 (trans. Alice Asselos-Cherdieu). Lectures: * Lectures by Mrs. MAHADAWO on Island Literatures.