Competency Goals Statement Ii

Competency Goals Statement II Goal: To advance physical and intellectual competence. It is essential to the growth and development of every child to advance their physical and intellectual needs. There are numerous ways to encourage this type of development. I offer a variety of activities that promote the advancement of the physical and intellectual competence of the children in my care. Children are encouraged to participate in daily large motor activities to enhance physical development. I do this by being very enthusiastic and even joining in with the children at play.Outside we play tag, ball, hopscotch, and other made up games. Inside we play parachute, and beanbag toss. I also communicate with the children and their parents about the importance of being physically active. In class we have discussions, and I send newsletters home to parents with ideas for activities. Children in my classroom get plenty of time for large motor activities and know why they are important to their health. I help children develop cognitive skills by encouraging them to try things out. For example, when it snowed this winter the children placed snowballs in the freezer and discovered that they froze into solid ice.They thought that the snow would stay the same rather than freeze, and were surprised that the snow froze. We discussed what happened and why it may have happened. Cognitive skills are used daily in our classroom and the children have fun developing them. Creativity is in the materials and interest areas throughout our classroom. Children have access to art supplies to create their own artwork. Paints, markers, pencils, crayons, and paper are available for children all the time. Many types of music are sung and played during the day.Children can use instruments and scarves to move with the music. Many different kinds of clothing can be found in the dramatic play area. In my classroom I help children learn, understand, and use words to communicate. This is done by enco uraging conversations throughout the classroom. I ask children about what they are during all the time. I also reminded them to use their words to express themselves when they are having a hard time communicating. Items are labeled around the room so that they can connect the words with the objects.I have a word wall in the writing center that contains new vocabulary every two weeks so that children are exposed to new words. The children in my classroom always have opportunities to develop their communication skills. In conclusion, it is essential to the growth and development of every child to advance their physical and intellectual needs. I do so many things in my daily schedule that promote Physical, Cognitive, Communication and Creativity. By the time my children in my classroom are ready to move up to the next room I am very confident that they are ready. Word Count: 466

Duties of a Citizen

Recently you wonaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t be seeing an American citizen care much about anything other than them selves. Their main priority is to ensure the perfection of their own lives. That is not being a good citizen though. Making sure your needs are met before you look up and see what you can help with is corrupt and selfish. We need to care more about how we can help our country and what we need to do to be a good citizen. Having clear goals, consistent ideals, and unity is what makes a country powerful; so when any of these components are lacking, a country and its citizens will weaken, which is happening in America. Being a citizen of America has become virtually insignificant to our people, and is now crippling us. These three components depend upon one another to ensure the strength of a country. We must value all these elements to check our loyalty for our countries endeavors. Specifically the ideals should be based on the standards your country wants, since it is the structure to your countryaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s government. But ideals consist of what you and your country should value in your beliefs, ethics, and principals so the people can jointly support their country. Our ideals (especially American) have been accepted by each subsequent generation until recently. Unity is a common understanding and belief within a group of people; it is joining together for an ultimate cause. Goals are the start of our countries ambition to aim for our desired result and produce the product of our efforts. The ideals however establish a consensus on what we value or believe in as a country, it creates boundaries on our moral standard. We have to stay true to our constitution and the morals that were founded with it. To stray off and feel superior to your own ideals is no exception. That is what breaks the core and ruins our countries long lasting policies. Being a country of the people, for everything from the military to the government to the public should be equally united in the same goals. The government however is the power that should listen then voice the verdict of our decisions. They should act upon the publicaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s best interests, and not single out any party or group whose stance on a matter should be determined as any less significant. If a decision is detrimental to anyoneaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s life in the general public, then it is likely there will be more than one person affected by the same things. The government should act upon their doings with precision and a conscious understanding of their impact on everyone. Dependant on the necessity of their actions an act should not be passed if it is going to exclude even a minority in the populations opinions. With this we can determine clear goal sets and be unified. When going through with anything you should always check your tracks to see if you stomped on any bugs. Through out the Vietnam War these ingredients were missing for the American position. It doesnaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t matter if the opponent is right or wrong, but if you are following these tactics, you will be successful. Ho Chi Minh and his communist following was ensuing power through authority and fear. Due to the fear he was possessing in many of the Vietnamese civilians, he was able to create unity for the goal sets he was trying to reach. His methods consisted of using fear over his people to squeeze out the product he desired. Once the people saw the product he achieved by communist ideals, Minh created a massive following of communist believers to ensure the continuation of reaching their goals and his regime. He established groups such as the NLF to spread his ideals and expand his following, but also to support all sections of his military. They believed that aâ‚ ¬? as long as they did not lose, they won. aâ‚ ¬? Americans on the other hand should have seen their defeat coming. Constantly reflecting on the Korean War as aâ‚ ¬? learning our lesson,aâ‚ ¬? we should have taken the French defeat in Dien Bien Phu as a warning. Americans entered the war, head first with no structure of unity, goal sets, or ideals. Events such as the Tet Offensive had not only initiated a new phase of the war but also showed us that our unity was weak. The US, if unified would have been smarter to not abandon all their cities and create opportunity for the NLF and Vietcong to strike. We would have communicated and sorted our priorities to know our goals before separating into remote areas. Other battles like Ia Drang showed the issues with unity and goals that have become noticed because of the failure to succeed in communication during them. The Pentagon Papers along with some accumulating underground news articles revealed much of what went wrong to the public in 1971. When the Americans had already initiated Vietnamization it was to late to change our strategy for the war effort. The papers caused discourse within our own country and distrust of our government. They were one of the large breaking points to all the built up distress over the war. In the papers we lied about the Gulf of Tokin aâ‚ ¬? attackaâ‚ ¬? and covered up our faults to our own people. Events such as My Lai concerning Lieutenant William Calley posed even more issues on the moral justification we had in Vietnam, for such things as our aâ‚ ¬? Free Fire Policyaâ‚ ¬? or aâ‚ ¬? Search and Destroy Campaign. aâ‚ ¬? It showed that Americans went against their own ideals when in Vietnam by not treating the Vietnamese with equal liberties, as we would give ourselves. It seemed as though we held a higher standing for ourselves when in Vietnam so we did not follow our own belief of treating all humans as equals. Killing innocent civilians without trial, not accepting the cultural difference of nations, using the threat of arms as a bribe to follow our beliefs, treating foreigners with out equality, ect. It was all that went wrong in our approach to try and gain the Vietnamese trust. When we went over to Vietnam we showed, a third world country in despair, a country that does not constitute itself by the ideals we arrived there with. In fact we did the exact things we were fighting against and did what we originally founded ourselves to not become, in Vietnam. It was a hypocritical scenario where we couldnaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t learn from our mistakes until we were gone and had already lost. In present day Afghan/ Iraq with many of those mistakes from Vietnam still hanging over our heads, we are now pushing to fix. Since Vietnam we have initiated the Special Operations Unit, and founded many other sections of the Military to ensure we donaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t make those same mistakes. Although many things are still missing from our strategy, such as going against our ideals again in the case of Abu Ghraib, we have come a long way. A friend of mine, Richard Bennett, currently serving in the US Special Opps. Group, and waiting to be deported to Afghan/ Iraq is anxious to utilize his training. His job will be to train civilians on how to protect and sustain their own government, so they can stand on their own. He has gone through rigorous training to ensure his capability in every situation but as his mother said to me in her interview, aâ‚ ¬? Richie is anxious to be deported and utilize his trainingaâ‚ ¬Ã‚ ¦ but he has expressed his frustrations with the politics concerning the waraâ‚ ¬Ã‚ ¦ like I said, it is the Age of Information, so you can see multiple sides to every story now. aâ‚ ¬? Essentially her point was to express that even if there is corruption in Afghan/ Iraq there is practically nothing the public cant obtain information on. The publicaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s judgment on the issues should be heard and taken into consideration by the government to change what they feel is not right based on our ideals. Finally, when analyzing the trends and mistakes we made in Vietnam there is significant improvement of our structure in Afghanistan/ Iraq now. Even though we still have our defects as citizens, we should always remember the three components to being successful as a country and as a citizen of that country. The unity, goals, and ideals of a country found their infrastructure. So to be a good citizen you have to work to maintain that, for your country, and for the future of your country.

Food Is More Than What We Eat Essay

The food we consume everyday has more to it than a source of fuel and part of our human essentials. Though we may not realise, food plays a part of many people’s culture, religion and even employment, where food plays a significant role in their everyday lives. Today, food serves a fairly major role in our society. Due to globalisation and other global factors, there has now been a mix and harmonious diversity in cultures around the world and food is one of the main evidence of that. This can just be seen by walking to your local stores where there are at least two or more food stores/ restaurants from different cultures. This is particularly evident in Australia, as immigrants from across the globe bring with them to Australia their cultures, beliefs and lifestyles to their new homes- with food being one of them. Many of these different cultures are now welcomed, accepted and shared, which provides employment for many people. This is not only evident in the Western continents, but many other Asian countries, where you would see many restaurants, snacks stores and street stores. Food is also used to distinguish the ‘classes of certain groups and/or areas. For example, in the city where there are more higher classed people, majority of the restaurants and cuisines tend to be a lot more expensive than those in the outer suburban areas. The functions of food in cultures vary between cultures, but majority of the time plays a significant role. There are different beliefs and morals, religious and food rules/ etiquettes that are associated with food of different cultures. An example of a food belief/moral would be in China noodles represent longevity, therefore it should not to be broken off or bitten off but put all into your mouth to chew to swallow. Food has not only been applied in beliefs and morals, but also religion. This can be seen in the Buddhism, where vegetarian dietary is preferred for serious believers. Sometimes food etiquette is incorporated into the religious side of food. For example in China it is considered extremely rude and impolite to stick your chopsticks upright in your rice as it is how it appears in funerals and is disrespectful to the elderly. The use of food in traditions and celebrations is another way to show how food has a deeper meaning that being sustenance. Traditions vary between cultures, but even families and individuals. Everyone has their own ‘style’ that they live with and pass on to their family who if they decide to continue the tradition passes on to future generations. Some of these traditions in terms of culture can be having rice has your main staple for most Asian cultures, while in Australia they have many different staples ranging from bread to grain foods. Food is also a big role player in celebrations. Many cultures have special foods that are only eaten or mostly eaten on certain days or events. For example in China on Chinese New Year, moon cakes are eaten, while in Australia, citizens have BBQs on Australia Day and eat ANZAC biscuits on ANZAC day. Food has also been a reason for unity of people. People like to eat whether it is at home or in restaurants in groups, where they not only enjoy the food together but can also start up conversations. For some families during dinner time may be the only time where they sit together and talk about their day. On a larger scale, food and global factors has allowed people of different backgrounds and cultures to accept and understand each other’s cultures. As previously mentioned, where we can now have food that are not from your culture. Because of food being eaten by many cultures, there are modifications to some foods so that more people can eat them. For example, there are now many vegetarian foods such as vegetarian pies and noodles for people with vegetarian diets.

How Puerto Ricans Migrated New York Research Paper

How Puerto Ricans Migrated New York - Research Paper Example For this particular paper, I will be concentrating on the history of one of the largest immigrant cultures ever to come aboard the American shores. This paper will shed light upon how the Puerto Ricans migrated to New York City. The paper itself will divide the migration history of Puerto Ricans into the United States into 2 parts. The first part will cover the 20th century migration era and the latter part, the 21st century migration experience of Puerto Ricans to New York. However, in order to understand the reasons for the migration, we must first understand how Puerto Rico happened to become a part of unofficial U.S. territory in the first place. The relationship of the United States and Puerto Rico is one that is hard to define, little understood, and even more little known than to a select circle of historians who have documented the strange, symbiotic relationship of America and Puerto Rico. Though not listed as a part of the American territories, Puerto Rico still enjoys a sp ecial type of status privilege with America. As a protectorate state, the Puerto Ricans are neither truly Americans nor truly Puerto Rican. Rather, the people of Puerto Rico are known as â€Å"non citizen nationals†. Enjoying a unique kind of migrant status in the country in the process. Before the Spanish-American war came to an end, Puerto Rico was a part of Spanish occupied territory. One year before the war officially came to an end, Spain thought it in the best interest of Puerto Rico to grant it independence. However, before the finalities to independence could be applied, Spain had lost the war and in the process of surrender, had given Puerto Rico to the United States as part of an armistice between Spain and the United States. Puerto Rico officially became part of the United States roster of countries under its protectorate on October 18, 18981 Having enjoyed a protectorate relationship with the United States for more than a century, Puerto Ricans are technically â⠂¬Å"American citizens† with an independently functioning homeland ever since 1917. Falling under such a description, Puerto Rican nationals who go to the United States automatically carry United States citizenship the minute they step onto the U.S. mainland. As such, Puerto Ricans are not technically perceived to be immigrants to the United States but rather a migrant population 2 Due to the occupation of Spain and eventual turn over to the United States, Puerto Rico was never able to create a stable economy for itself. The country was mired in a high rate of poverty and economic depression. Puerto Ricans who understood the technicalities of their country's relationship with the United States chose to migrate rather than face the continuous hardships that beset their country. This time of migration came to be known as the Great Migration from Puerto Rico and resulted in a great number of Puerto Ricans entering the United States through Ellis Island in New York. Throughout time , there would be a steady influx of migrants from Puerto Rico into the United States using New York as their port of entry. The existence of good work opportunities in New York at the time of their arrival signaled that these migrants would be calling New York City their home for the time being. 3 The passing of the Johnson Act in 1921 was meant to help ease the burden of lack of job opportunities for Puerto Ricans in the United States due to competition from European immigrants. The passage of the act ensured a stream of available jobs for Puerto Ricans

Unemployment Rates in California Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Unemployment Rates in California - Term Paper Example Looking into the different aspects of this and understanding how it is affecting the economy can then provide different relationships to changing the available opportunities that are within the region. California is an important region to analyze in terms of unemployment rates because of the comparisons of those who don’t have jobs to the rest of the countries. California has the fourth largest amount of unemployment in the nation, with an average of 11.4% of the population not having a steady job. This has increased dramatically from the year 2005, with the average at 4% and now jumping to almost 12%, as seen in the graph below. The highest in the nation is at 13.6% and the lowest unemployment rate carries 4.3%. For California, this shows that dramatic measures need to be taken to change the amount of unemployment in the state. Even though California is ranked at one of the highest percentages from 2009, they have also had one of the largest decreases in unemployment rates with 33,600 individuals who were able to find work within the region. However, it was also noted that the changes in unemployment decreases of 12.4% were specifically related to seasonal adjustments that occur each year. Not only was the increase considered above average, but the unemployment rates in general for California were at a lower average than last year. In August of 2009, there were 13,900,700 individuals in California that were unemployment. In 2010, the rate was 13,827,900, with a difference of 112,800 people that were employed in 2010 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010). The unemployment that is occurring in California is dependent on different industries and the changes that are occurring within the economy. The unemployment and percentage increase by industry is as follows: The industry is one of the factors that are seen with the amount of unemployment that has taken place in California. There are

Manhattan Project Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Manhattan Project - Research Paper Example The success of this project advanced both scientific concepts but changed the potential nature of warfare for the rest of time. Still, today, the threat of such bombs, along with any other Weapons of Mass Destruction, remains a terrifying apocalyptic fear shared by people all over the world. In order to understand how we moved into the â€Å"Atomic Age† it is best to discuss how it all began; the answer might be surprising to some people. It all began with a letter to President Roosevelt from Albert Einstein in August of 1939. He, along with other European scientists, feared that Nazi Germany was exploring atomic technology; in fact, they were already working to purify uranium-235. This is one of the potential radioactive components necessary to create an atomic weapon (Bellis 1-2). Einstein and the other scientists were opposed to Nazi Fascism and were afraid of Nazi Germany developing this technology, primarily because they believed a tyrant like Hitler would not hesitate to use it. At first, Roosevelt’s reaction was not one of great concern and he worried about expending resources and finding the budget necessary might be an issue. However, after some deliberation he wrote back to Einstein. He explained that they could not risk Nazi forces gaining such a dangerous advantage and that America would be exploring atomic technology. The endeavor to accomplish this in totality makes up the Manhattan Project (Gosling 1-120). Unlike previous top secret military or government projects that used covert and misleading code-names like â€Å"Magic,† which was the covert information gained concerning Japanese ciphers and â€Å"Overlord,† which was the secret intentions of the Allied forces to invade Europe; the Manhattan project was much more literal (Broad ). It earned its name because of much of the earliest experimentation and planning began in 1941-1942 in New York at, at least, 10 different locations within the city. Robert Oppenheimer ove rsaw and participated in the project from its beginnings to its completion. Together, along with the research of some of the greatest scientific minds in history, like Einstein, Walter Bothe, Neils Bohr, and Marie Curie, they worked quickly to accomplish the completion of a functioning atomic bomb (Bellis 1-2). An atomic bomb ultimately derives its power from the release of nuclear energy at high speeds. Through the process of fission of the heavier atomic nuclei, the damage it causes results from, not only, the heat of the blast, but, also, from the radioactive elements of its design. In December of 1942 laboratory scientists were finally able to produce the controlled nuclear chain reaction. With this success, the research and the funding began to move rather quickly from there. ( Independence Hall Association in Philadelphia). Nuclear facilities were constructed in Hanford, Washington and Oak Ridge, Tennessee, while the main plant, dedicated to assembly was constructed in Los Ala mos, New Mexico (Gao 9-11). By the summer of 1945 Oppenheimer was prepared to test the first atomic bomb detonation; the hard work of, more than 100,000 people and at the cost of, more than 2 billion dollars of government supports brought them to this day ( Independence Hall Association in Philadelphia).On July 16, just before dawn, at the Trinity site, not

Chinese popular culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Chinese popular culture - Essay Example To be more specific, this paper will also drill into the deep contrast between college graduates and peasant laborers in terms of the issue. The roles of crime and corruption and social stability and mobility will also be discussed to understand the spread of the issue in China fully. Unemployment and Population The current population of The People’s Republic of China has climbed to 0.01% since last year’s update. To date, the country’s population is approximately 1.354 billion, which is 363.3 people per square mile, basing on its total land area—still the largest in the world (World Population Statistics n.p.). The huge population of China is said to be one of the primary reasons why the problem with unemployment still continues. There are so many advancements in China like the establishment of the world’s largest building called the New Century Global Center, which has an area of 1.7 million square meters alone could provide more job opportunities for fresh graduates and other job seekers (Beam n.p.). However, because of their population density, it is still very difficult to accommodate all of those who are jobless. Aside from large buildings for businesses, there are also amusement and entertainment parks that aid in the country’s tourism industry. ... It is twice as difficult for the peasant laborers coming from poor families in rural areas with less or no education at all because they are most likely discriminated or abused at work compared to educated Chinese (Ren 105). In addition, because of the increase in population, landing a job will even be harder for both the white collared and the peasants in the neoliberal globalization era of PRC. Increase in population will also mean increase in social issues because it will be difficult for the government to balance everything by tending to the issues one by one. Problems in housing, education, and social services are also rooted from overpopulation in China. These problems remain unsolved, and they badly need to be paid attention to by the government. Housing, Education, and Social Services The problem of providing houses to so many people also springs from overpopulation. It will be stressful to provide land areas for families to build houses on that is why most of the families li ve in apartments or other high rise buildings in order to save space. However, not all can afford this type of housing. They may be a really rich country, but there is still poverty in some areas there. In terms of education, many are able to go to school, but there are also unlucky ones who do not have the chance. Thus, the competition becomes biased to those who are more educated when it comes to choosing the people for a job position. In the socialist China, they developed a household registration system that has also a connection with education and benefits. This has created a great divide between the rural and urban China creating different levels of social classes.

Proposed amendment to county comprehensive plans Assignment

Proposed amendment to county comprehensive plans - Assignment Example (Puget Sound Regional Council, 2008, 59) The counties of both Pierce and Snohomish will have the opportunity to vote on the Vision 2040 document, and amongst its terms are the preceding. The following discussion paper will outline the policy and its various facets. It will also introduce some of the broadest national, indeed international, implications of the policy as well as the local issues of direct and immediate importance. This document will provide Pierce and Snohomish councilors with all the information necessary to make a considered and enlightened decision regarding Vision 2040, in the context of Multicounty Planning Policy DP-47. Vision 2040 and the Goals of Pierce and Snohomish Counties Vision 2040 is 'The Growth Management, Environmental, Economic, and Transportation Strategy for the Central Puget Sound Region' and was adopted by the PSRC General Assembly on April 24, 2008 and amended by the PSCR Executive Board on May 28, 2009. Consequently, it's jurisdiction covers Pie rce and Snohomish Counties. ... (Puget Sound Regional Council, 2008, v) As such in its general principles it corresponds precisely with the goals of the Pierce County Code Title 19A – Comprehensive Plan, 2010. This document commences with the identification of thirteen goals. One of these is (E.) 'Economic Development', and another is (J.) â€Å"Protect the environment and enhance the state's high quality of life, including air and water quality, and the availability of water.† A range of the other objectives relate to social goals and quality of life issues. Clearly, therefore, the Vision 2040 document is congruent with Pierce County's broadest policy thrusts. Such is also the case with Snohomish County. The future of Snohomish County is outlined in the Snohomish County Department of Planning and Development Services, General Policy Plan, 2011 identifies a series of themes and policy objectives that are also consonant with Vision 2040: Encouragement of development and/or redevelopment in urban areas with existing or planned public facilities and services. Reduction of urban sprawl. Adequate provision of efficient multi-modal transportation systems. Availability of affordable housing for citizens of all income levels. Promotion of economic opportunity. Respect for private property rights. Predictability and timeliness of permit review processes. Conservation of natural resources. Retention of open space and provision of recreational opportunities. Protection and enhancement of the environment. Citizen participation in the planning process. Adequate provision of necessary public facilities and services. Preservation of historic and archaeological resources. Utilization, protection, restoration and preservation of shorelines of statewide significance. (Snohomish

George Patton's perception by German public Research Paper

George Patton's perception by German public - Research Paper Example The Second World War was the highest point of his military culmination in his life. He did not fight due to any principle nor did he fight because he wanted freedom, he simply fought because he loved to fight. During his early life, he had fear of flunking out of the West Point due to terrified prospect since he was sure that he could not make anything better than being a general. Thesis General Patton was the most outstanding, the most daring, original, and honest allied general in the history. General Patton had an account of superb fiery in integrity, intelligence, was exceptionally brave and feared no authority (Patton 254). He realized great successes, which ultimately made him a legend of his time. For his demise, General Patton was murdered by what translated to be commercial assassinators from the office of the Strategic Services. Germans perception towards George Patton General George S. Patton, the commander of America’s third army, became the military governor of th e greater portion of Germany occupied by Americans. He had qualification to become the field commander and suited for higher command in the strategic planning (Patton 287). These were the assumptions of Germans but Patton corrected them as he emerged as a superior leader of the European theater during the Second World War (Rice 184). ... Patton, according to Germans, gave his understanding and apprehensions for the future of the nation to his acquaintances and government officials (Brown 346). He bitterly disagreed with the fearful danger posed by the Soviet Union several months before the end of the Second World War. He supported the idea of having his army held back to wait for the Red Army to occupy the vast stretches of Germany. According to Germans, George Patton was a colorful military leader in the 20th century and is the most much-written-about American general. He was the most outstanding, original and the most honest allied general of the Second World War. He has credit of an account of being fiery of integrity, brilliant and exceptionally brave (Hirshon 97). Patton realized a lot of success during his regime, which made him a legend of his lifetime. The true person of General Patton Characteristics of Patton depicted him as a contradictory man. He had a unique brand of leadership, a role he cultivated and fully exercised. Patton managed to get a supreme effort from the fellow military men. As a leader, Patton was exceptional. His character explains his treatment for men. He was always considerate to those who were wounded during a battle but he was merciless to those who could not stand the horrible strains of the war imposed upon them. Patton did not comprehend that other people did not like his passion for violence. This character of violence was very evident in the life of Patton. Patton had immense talents and natural ability; hence, he could antagonize everybody within his reach. He also had a lovable characteristic of turning on his subordinates once they surpassed him in their careers. Patton demonstrated fear and respect for the higher compliment. Despite his

Orange plc Financial Statement Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Orange plc Financial Statement - Coursework Example The company’s return on equity ratio was 25% in 2014 and 8.74% in 2015. The return on equity ratio measures the company’s performance in earning return to its shareholders. Despite the company having a low ratio in 2015, it had significant high performance in 2014 by having a fair return to its shareholders. The return on assets was 3.21% in 2015 and 10.48% in 2014. The return on assets ratio measures the company’s performance in generating sufficient profits from its total assets. The company had a low ratio in 2015 desspite the high ratio it had in 2014. This showed a tremendous decline in the company’s performance. The maintenance of a 100% mark up between the two years was a desirable aspect of the company performance. There was a decline in the return on capital employed between the two years using the the two different methods of computing. This trend is undesirable and should be changed since it shows a decline in the company’s performance. The company’s current ratio was 2.05 in both 2014 and 2015. This ratio measures the company’s liquidity by determining the extent in which the company’s current assets can offset its current liabilities. The company maintains a current ratio that is above in both the two financial years implying that the company’s liquidity position is at a fair place since it can easily offset its current obligations with its current assets. The maintenance of this ratio is thus a positive indicator of the company’s liquidity position. The company’s quick ratio was 1.27% in 2014 and 1.31% in 2015. The quick ratio measures the company’s liquidity in a similar way like how the current ratio does but it does excludes the inventory from the current assets. There is exclusion of inventory from the current assets since it is not easily converted into cash like the other current assets. This means basing the company’s liquidity on inventory is

The Blood Brothers Essay Example for Free

The Blood Brothers Essay Willy Russell writes entertaining drama about believable characters and champions the cause of the socially disadvantaged. With reference to the historical and social context of Blood Brothers, analyse the accuracy of this statement. Blood Brothers is a musical play written in the 1980s during a recession in a United Kingdom. Written by Willy Russell, the play revolves around the subject of social class, which is definitely a constant theme throughout the play. Set in Liverpool, the story centres on a set of twins that are separated at birth with both mothers desperately trying to keep them apart in vain. In this essay I will analyse the accuracy of the statement above and relate to it throughout this essay. Russell uses a variety of techniques to make Blood Brothers an entertaining piece of drama. One way he portrays the story in an effective way to engage the audience, is by using dramatic tension. Dramatic tension is used when Mrs Lyons blackmails Mrs Johnstone to not tell anyone that the two boys are brothers, by using her fear of superstition. They say they say that if either twin learns that he was once a pair, they shall both immediately die. You wont tell anyone about this Mrs Johnstone; because of you do you will kill them. This section of the play is an excellent example of dramatic tension as it creates suspense and makes the audience sympathise with Mrs Johnstone. Dramatic irony is also another technique Russell uses to entertain the audience. The section of the play where Mickey and Edward meet as young children is great example if this. Ey, we were born on the same day that means we can be blood brothers. Do you want to be my blood brother, Eddie? The audience (and the narrators) know the full story, and know that Mickey and Eddie dont need to be blood brothers because they are already real brothers, and share the same blood. This frees up the audience to observe the implications of the characters actions and having an advantage over the story, by knowing the full plot. Blood Brothers is a musical play, and the songs involved, play an important role throughout. As well as keeping the audience entertained the songs gives us character insight, provides extra information, and carries along the storyline. The songs emphasise and highlight key moments during the play, and make the audience aware of their importance. Techniques such as foreshadowing are made clearer, and the music portrays certain moods making characters emotions and thoughts clearer. An interesting technique Russell has used at the beginning of the play is by using a prologue. This is a very effective way to engage the audience, by giving the audience an insight into the plot for example of one womb born on the self same day, how one was kept and one given away It brings forth questions in the audiences mind and the answers are revealed as the story unfolds. It frees up the audience to speculate the storyline and how the ending came to be. This intricate plot structure shows how the characters actions have severe consequences throughout the story An did you never hear how the Jonstones died, never knowing that they shared one name Foreshadowing is fantastic technique that Russell uses successfully in the prologue and throughout the play. Foreshadowing is when events that happening later on in the play are foretold or hinted by earlier events. The prologue makes foreshadowing possible because the end is revealed to the audience and makes them look for possible omens of this during the story. There are many great examples of this throughout the play, especially in the beginning when the children are playing with toy guns. But you know that if you cross your fingers, and if you count from one to ten, you can get up off the ground again, it doesnt matter the whole things just a game. The reference to guns and its just a game is repeated throughout the play, and relates to the twins death at the end as both of them are shot. At the end of the play its not just a childish game, and the reality becomes too difficult for the characters to deal with. The quotation implies a long for childish innocence from all the characters, and a cry for help from the tragic ending. Although the outcome of the Blood Brothers storyline is tragic, Russell adds comedy and humour throughout. When the boys first meet, an example of Russells humour occurs; So they took him to the hospital an put a plate in his head A plate? A dinner plate? Russell lightens the mood by injecting humour into a scene full of tension and irony. The comedy in the play makes Blood Brothers a more enjoyable and entertaining piece of drama for the audience to watch. By adding this childlike humour into the play, it shows that Russell can invent realistic and believable characters which make the audience more likely to sympathise with the characters. As well as having a great understanding of young children, Russell also has an understanding of adolescents as well. Linda, I wanna kiss y an kiss y but I dont know how to tell y because Ive got pimples an me feet are too big an me bum sticks out

Training Programs for an Age and Culturally Diverse Workforce Essay Example for Free

Training Programs for an Age and Culturally Diverse Workforce Essay The launch of the Age Discrimination Act in October 2006 signifies that every institution will have to do something for it to keep abreast by producing age-inclusive working practices. Reality tells us that the workforce is shifting. At one pole people are living longer at the same time that the other end of the continuum diminishing birthrates are making a diminishing source of younger workforce. When merged with the legislation intended to embark upon ageism, this indicates that employers cope with key challenges necessitating a deep cultural change. All areas of personnel practice including recruitment, motivation, performance management, succession and retirement will have to be reviewed. The changing workforce Most of the anticipated increase in the US labor force between 2000 and 2050 will be made up of workers aged 55 and over. Employees aged 55 and over will comprise a larger share of the US labor force (12. 9% in 2000; 18. 8% in 2050) (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey). A lot of employers recognize that excellent employee training is vital for an organizations success. A broad ranging assortment of training platforms and vehicles are used by employers. Training themes may comprise extensive proficiency such as literacy, technological skills, direction about the organization, and curriculums intended to avoid legal concerns, such as sexual harassment education and ethics preparation. These training programs moreover must not show prejudice, and time used up in training may be compensable. Federal law necessitates training in numerous health and safety allied matters. Workers training used to be thought of as a non-compulsory aid, an extra that only the most advanced employers offered to the most gifted employees. Even now, as the market rotates downward, worker training is frequently the first to go, considered not as an investment but as expenditure to be disposed of in hard times. But these days employers increasingly recognize and appreciate that, far from being an add-on, high-quality employee training is essential to an organization’s success and that a smart, excellent workforce is fundamental to worker output and welfare. In actual fact, more than 70 percent of employers make available some sort of job training for their employees, based on a Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey. The survey also found that employers with high employee turnover train less and spend less on training than other businesses. While it is unclear which comes first, the probable inference is that training is linked to long-term employment and is an important factor in successful performance, productivity, and morale. However, in the training industry, it is pertinent that specific needs are addressed. This paper attempts to show in what ways training programs meet a cultural and generational workforce. Facts and Figures Several of the labor force we have today are aging and culturally mixed. Point No. 1. The Age of Workforce Matters In this dog-eat-dog world, any industry will deny the fact that to them, age across the broad spectrum representing national employment matters. It matters because today, many of these employees do not even think of retiring if they are past the retirement age (Andrews, 1998). Any institution will then take into consideration who and what age does the company’s workforce composed of?

Ethics and Corporate Responsibility: Accounting Fraud

Ethics and Corporate Responsibility: Accounting Fraud The key issued described in the suit against Xerox Corporation is that Xerox had overstated its revenues during the past four years by almost $2 billion. The fraudulent scheme had misled investors about Xeroxs earnings to polish its reputation on Wall Street and to boost the companys stock price. These accounting fraud cases show us that ethics is a real issue, a very current issue and it is one that needs to be addressed. Unethical behaviour is common and reasons exist for such behaviour. Recent accounting scandals involving high-profile companies such as Xerox Corp have called into question accounting practices and undermined public confidence in the profession. These ethical scandals in the real world suggested a market economy being out of control and raised demands for more stringent and effective government regulation. Such deception by management hampers the ability of the users of financial statements from gaining accurate business information for decision-making and leaves their interests unprotected. 2.CASE DISCUSSION a)What are the ethical issues confronted in these cases? The term ethics refer to a system or code of conduct based on moral duties and obligation that indicate how we should behave; it deals with the ability to distinguish right from wrong and the commitment to do what is right. Unethical behaviour in the corporate world is political and business scandals, which arise with the disclosure of misdeeds by trusted executives of large public corporations. Such misdeeds typically involve complex methods for misusing or misdirecting funds, overstating revenues, understating expenses, overstating the value of corporate assets or underreporting the existence of liabilities, sometimes with the cooperation of officials in other corporations or affiliates. For Xerox Corp. it has been defrauding investors since 1997 till 2000. In a scheme directed and approved by its senior management, Xerox falsely portrayed itself as a business meeting its competitive challenges and increasing its earnings every quarter. Xerox knowingly or recklessly increased revenues and earnings by accelerating the recognition of revenues through mostly non-GAAP accounting actions, overstated its earnings by using so called cookie jar reserves and interest income from tax refunds, disguised loans as asset sales and manipulated its accounting in violation of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). All of them should have been disclosed to investors in a timely manner because, singly and collectively, they constituted a significant departure from Xeroxs past accounting practices and misled investors about the quality of the earnings being reported. Besides that, senior Xerox management reaped over $5 billion in performance-based compensation and over $30 million in profits from the sale of stock. The practices summarized above constitute an unlawful scheme by Xerox to defraud investors through undisclosed accounting practices and other material transactions, some of which the company knew or should have known violated GAAP. Xerox failed to tell investors that these actions were the reason Xerox met or exceeded consensus earnings estimates quarter after quarter. b) The possible reasons or factors that may cause the unethical actions in the cases. The ethical issues faced by Xerox corp can be explained from a personal, organizational and systematic level and it possible reasons why they commit unethical actions. Personal Level Possible reasons: Individual moral failures and greed Personal level calls for the character evaluation of the main individuals that participated in the various fraud as for Xerox Corp Former Chairman and CEO, Paul Allaire, Former Chief Financial Officer, Barry Romeril and KPMG partner, Michael Conway, in a statement reported that they are the main person whom in charged by the SEC way back years of 1999. The values and ethical behaviours of these individuals have continuously been called into question. Many of the charges directed towards these individuals are a clear indication of acquiring personal interest. It is not that the senior executives did not receive any ethics training earlier on but it is their own individual moral failures and greed that led to the distortion of financial statements. They did not consider the social implications of their unscrupulous decision on their company and also all parties with interests in the company. What concern these executives are their own individualized interests especially in wealth maximization. Organizational Level Possible reasons: The need to follow orders from bosses and pressure from top management on their accountants to make the numbers add up. An unethical practices by the Top management to ensure that the accountant of the Corporation to make up the financial statement reporting to reflect the corporation financial position was on a good position no matter what it cost as long as they can manipulate the treatment of accounting practices. This might be the reasons for the accountant in that organizational tied up( unable to perform as an independent parties) with the mislead accounting practices in order to follow the command of the superior management. As in Nicor Energys overstated unbilled revenue by approximately $4.5 million for 2001 was a collusion between Johnson (senior-most financial officer) and Stoffer (NEs President CEO) in inflating the unbilled revenue number. Stoffer also directed a reversal of a portion of the incurred expense of 2001 into 2002 to meet year-end earnings targets. Besides that, Johnson who was responsible for setting the level of the bad debt reserve was under pressured by Stoffer to purposely understate the bad debts reserve. Systematic Level Possible Reasons: Cosy relationship the firms have with their corporate clients and Enormous pressure from Wall Street investors to keep up short term earnings. As been spell out, many external factors have contributed to the confront of this unethical issues. Such possible factors from the external forces are Corporations often hire accountants and other personnel from their auditor and accountants and much of the pressure brought to bear on accountants; stems from the cosy relationships the firms have with corporate clients. As for Xeroxs auditors, KPMG kept silent when it found out about the accounting discrepancies in Xerox so that they can maintain their relationship and businesses with Xerox. There was no watchdog ( legal and structure) at Xerox. KPMGs bark sounded no warning to investors; its bite was toothless. Beside the possible causes that might led them to commit in these unethical actions possibly might be due to the investment climate of 1990s added insults to injuries. Cited back, year of 1990s, Companies that failed to meet Wall Streets earnings estimates by even a penny often were punished by significant declines in stock price. In addition, compensation of Xerox senior management team depended significantly on their ability to meet increasing revenue and earning target. c).Who were the stakeholders (individual or groups) that are affected by the unethical actions? How are they affected by the fraud or unethical actions? Stakeholders are those groups who can affect or [are] affected by the achievement of the firms objectives. Stakeholders in a company may include shareholders, directors, management, suppliers, government, employees and also the community. The unethical actions in Xerox Corp have affected the stakeholders in a way or so. Shareholders Shareholders are invariably the first victims of top management fraud. When news of fraud by a firm becomes public knowledge, it immediately reduces the stock market value of the companies involved. Bondholders and other creditors of the firm can also end up bearing the negative effects of management fraud. After news of the financial fraud at Xerox Corp. is released, Xeroxs stock has been declining sharply and is now trading at about $7. Shareholders can no longer assume that management is acting within the law or with their best interests in mind. Shareholders now require greater openness on the part of their senior managers. Society Fraud also depresses the overall moral climate in a society. It can lead to a general lack of faith in the integrity of senior managers, erosion in the confidence in the free market system, including its political institutions, processes, and leaders, and a general growth of cynicism in a society. The failure of accounting firms to detect managerial fraud has also led to less faith in audited financial statements. Worse still, many believe that the accounting firms have compromised their own integrity because of the lure of lucrative consulting contracts from firms they were auditing. In Xeroxs case, their auditor, KPMG complied with management at Xerox to allow the accounting irregularities to continue. Employees Employees of companies whose top managers engage in fraud often are hit the hardest, even when they are unaware of their executives illegal activities. Fraud can cause employees to lose their jobs, their retirement savings (which often are tied up in company stock) and their reputations. Frequently, the very fact that employees have worked for a fraudulent company taints their resumes to the point that some find it difficult to find jobs elsewhere. The negative impact of Xeroxs fraud was that Xerox has laid off thousand of workers in the past two years and may make further retrenchments in the future. d) Discussion on the governance and control issues arising from the companies experienced. The highly visible accounting scandal in Xerox Corp showed us one significant matter; the corporate governance and internal controls is failed in the corporations. The worst incidences of fraud are usually committed by insiders, among whom those executives figure prominently who are assigned to manage and control their organizations. Corporations are now looking at how they can make their respective boards of directors more effective. Xerox Corp, has made a good progress on corporate governance and control issues arising from the companys experience. They have adopted strict new guidelines on what constitutes director independence. Applying this definition, 75% of their directors are independent. Proactively integrated Sarbanes-Oxley Act and proposed NYSE rules into their governance processes. Revised and strengthened the charters for their Board of Directors committees. Hold regular executive sessions of outside directors without Xerox management present. Launched a massive effort to strengthen internal controls, train their people and promulgate a clear and strong Code of Conduct. Established an Ethics Help line for their employees and have taken other measures all aimed at making Xerox a role model in ethical behaviour. Bear in mind that, no laws or policies will ever be sufficient to end all corporate misbehaviour. We are confident, however, that truly independent and inquisitive boards of directors will provide the best safeguard against corporate wrongdoings. such Audit Committees must be autonomous and vigorous, Financial Information is inherently judgmental ,give Sarbanes-Oxley a chance to work, excessive executive compensation can be tamed by the Compensation Committee and directors must be selected and appraised by Independent Nominating Committee. 3.Conclusion Fraud had damages the reputations of the individuals and firms involved. Revelations of top management fraud have caused the public to question the ability of boards of directors to monitor senior executives and protect shareholders wealth. As for Xerox Corp, in order too minimize the harm caused by the unethical actions by the executives, firstly Law and regulations are, and will remain, the most influential external drivers of corporate ethics, but legislation is no substitute for the presence of leaders who support and model ethical behaviour. The single most important ethical leadership behaviour is keeping promise, followed by encouraging open communication, keeping employees informed and supporting employees who uphold ethical standards. Corporate leaders need to communicate ethical values throughout the organization, but they must do more than talk the talk in order to establish and sustain an ethical culture. As for specific programs and practices, a corporate code of conduct is viewed as being most important to prevent or minimize accounting frauds. Such a code must reflect and reinforce the values and principles of an organization. Besides that, ethics training for all members of the organization, corporate social responsibility programs, ombudsman services and help lines can be done to combat unethical behaviour. In summary, employees need to have a code to set the ethics foundation, training to help people truly understand it, and programs that permit them to inquire about and report ethical violations. A comprehensive Whistleblowers Act to provide wide-ranging protection for whistleblowers in all sectors too can help encourage whistle blowing. Study Of Knowledge | Empiricists Vs Rationalists Study Of Knowledge | Empiricists Vs Rationalists The dispute between empiricism and rationalism begins within epistemology, the study of knowledge. Epistemology attempts to answer the questions: what is knowledge?, what can we know?, and what is the difference between opinion an knowledge? The study of knowledge began in Greece with the Pre-Socratic thinkers, as far back as the sixth and fifth centuries B.C.E. Zeno, a Pre-Socratic, is the first thinker to bring about the two schools of philosophy, rationalism and empiricism, which would grow to become a popular focus among other philosophers. Rationalism is defined as the epistemological view that true knowledge is derived from reason and from within the mind. This school of thought is based off of the a priori: truths that can be known independently of observations, and innate ideas: ideas believed to be present from birth. Empiricism, on the other hand, is the view that true knowledge is derived from sense experience. Empiricists believed that a priori and innate ideas were none existent, and rather all significant knowledge came from the a posteriori, the belief that truth is established only through observation. Zeno chose to focus on information derived from mathematics or rationalism, because he believed this information to be certain. He thought that information derived from the senses, or empiricism, could be deceiving. From there, the way by which we obtain knowledge continued to be argued over. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, philosophers began to take sides as to what they believed was the source of knowledge. They formed two groups: the Continental rationalists and the British empiricists. In the Continental rationalist group were philosophers Rene Descartes and Baruch Spinoza. The philosophies of Descartes and Spinoza are similar because they are systematic, logical, and rational. Both Descartes and Spinoza sought a system of thought that possessed the certainty of mathematics and was free of Scholastic tradition, because they believed scholasticism could not be trusted. They thought that judgments must be made from a mathematical basis and believed in a mechanistic worldview, the real world is not the world as known by the senses but rather by mathematical physics. They were also both pantheists, which meant that they equated God with nature. Spinoza worked off of Descartes ideas from his Cartesian Method, that nothing is true unless it is clear and distinct. This idea of only believing what is certain was an idea brought up years ago by the Pre-Socratic thinker, Zeno and developed further by the Continental rationalists. The biggest difference, however in Spinozas p hilosophy was his opinion on substances. Descartes defined substance as that which can exist by itself, without the aid of any other substance. He divided the world into two kinds of substances, thinking substance (the mind) and extended substance (the body). He then divided thinking substance into the infinite thinking substance (God) and finite thinking substances. Although Descartes believed that there was only one infinite substance (God), he believed that there were many finite thinking substances, so he was a pluralist. Spinoza rejected Descartess divisions of substances and his plurality of finite substances. He did not agree with Descartess division of infinite and finite thinking substance. For Spinoza, there was only infinite substance, and no thinking substance and extended substance. Spinoza claimed that there was only one substance, infinite substance, which he equated with God. Spinoza also argued that the definition of substance makes it impossible for the mind and th e body to be distinct substances. He said that mind and body are modes of that single substance. So, Spinoza took Descartes idea of substances and built upon it, but Spinoza was a monist rather than a dualist like Descartes. The other major philosophical group during the seventeenth and eighteenth century was the classical British empiricists. The empiricists believed that all knowledge is derived from observation. Hume and other British empiricists rejected the intuition/deduction thesis and the idea of innate knowledge proposed by Descartes. Hume believed that true knowledge came from a posteriori, sense experience, rather than from a priori. A major difference between Hume and Descartes is their take on the issue of Gods existence. When the two applied their very different theories to the topic of Gods existence, they arrived at different conclusions. In Descartes efforts to doubt everything, he realized that only one thing was certain, I think, therefore I exist. Descartes concluded that God exists when he realized that if he himself is subject to doubt, he is imperfect, and cannot be the cause of his existence. Because he had an idea of perfectness, this idea must come from a perfect being, or God. However, Hume was not able to prove Gods existence. Hume built upon Leibnizs analytic synthetic distinction in creating his Humean Method. He separated ideas into three categories: analytic propositions, synthetic propositions, and nonsense. He created a set of questions that one could ask to come to the conclusion as to what category an idea fell under. In contrast to Descartes conclusions about Gods existence, the Humean method suggests that God should be placed under the nonsense category because it is not possible to trace God back to sense data. Descartes, the rationalist and Hume, the empiricist had differing opinions. However, the two philosophers are similar because they both raise very skeptical issues. Descartes idea of the possibility of an evil demon putting thoughts in our heads and Humes conclusion that the idea of God is nonsense caused people to begin questioning traditional teachings and what they had always thought to be true. New ideas like the ones presented by D escartes and Hume later caused problems because as people became more aware of these ideas, more rebellion from authority and religion began to occur. Part Two: Immanuel Kant In the Preface to the second edition of the Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant compares his philosophy to the Copernican Revolution. It is said that as Copernicus believed that all heavenly bodies moved round the sun, Kant believed he was the center, and that everything moved around his philosophy. The philosophy of Immanuel Kant was so revolutionary because he brought together rationalism and empiricism. Because of Kant, the debate between rationalists and empiricists ended, and epistemology could move forward. Kant was inspired to build his philosophy after he encountered a copy of Humes Inquiry. He realized that he disagreed with many of the issues Hume brought up, and decided to refute them. In his book, The Critique of Pure Reason, he combined the ideas of Hume and the ideas of rationalists. Kant agreed with the empiricist claim that sense experience is the source of all beliefs, but disagreed with the conclusion that those beliefs may not necessarily be true. He also disagreed with the rationalist idea that truths about what does or does not exist could be decided through reason alone. He eliminated the debate by claiming that thinking and experiencing cannot let us know how things really are. Instead, Kant asked if it was possible that we have metaphysical knowledge. He claimed that the mind analyzes the data it perceives in terms of space and time. So, space and time are not features of external reality, as the empiricists and rationalists before him believed. Kant said that in order for human beings to interpret the world the human mind imposed certain structures on the incoming sense data. Kant defined these structures in terms of twelve categories: substance, cause/effect, reciprocity, necessity, possibility, existence, totality, unity, plurality, limitation, reality and negation. These categories were characteristics of the appearance of any object in general. However, these categories are related only to human language. When making a statement about an object, that person is making a judgment. A general object, that is, every object, has attributes that are contained in Kants list of Categories. In a judgment, or verbal statement, the Categories are the predicates that can be asserted of every object and all objects.

Hamlets Hesitation as his Tragic Flaw in Hamlet by Shakespeare Essay

Hamlet's Hesitation as his Tragic Flaw in Hamlet by Shakespeare In the play Hamlet, Hamlet is described as daring, brave, loyal, and intelligent. However, he is always consumed by his own thoughts, this being his tragic flaw. There are numerous times Hamlet does not act when he should, like his inability to act on his father's murder, his mother's marriage, and his uncle's assuming of the throne. 'Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder,' says the ghost of Hamlet. The fact that his own uncle could kill his father leaves Hamlet dumbfounded and confused. Although Hamlet knows something is wrong in Denmark, he begins to question everything that the ghost has told him. When something is needed to be done, Hamlet is to busy thinking about his problems. An example of this is when Hamlet has his knife over the head of Claudius, and is prepared to murder him. He talks himself out of it. Instead, Hamlet writes a play in which the actors play out the same story that the ghost told Hamlet. This is when his tragic flaw, his hesitance to act, actually comes into play. His plan is to study Claudius's reaction to the play to determine his guilt. However, after Hamlet decides his uncle is guilty, he still does nothing. This would have been a great time to confront Claudius, but Hamlet seems more interested in taking credit for what he did instead of seeking revenge. By putting o n that play Hamlet has plenty enough evidence to show Claudius was guilty, therefore he should have carried out his revenge as soon as possible, but again, his thoughts take over. This should have been the final piece of action for Hamlet to avenge his father?s death. Hamlet should have then stabbed Claudius the moment he knew he was guilty. This would... .... Away" and Hamlet was sure of his uncle?s guilt. This was the perfect time for Hamlet to face Claudius. The king was in a difficult state and could have been easily dethroned. Unfortunately, Hamlet decides to speak to his mother instead, thus putting Hamlet in an emotional state of mind and giving Claudius time to re-think his options. Hamlet should have never allowed this for Claudius. He could have stopped all of the pain he caused himself if he would have just acted out his revenge as soon as he could. Although Hamlet seemed to be superior in all other characteristics, his one flaw cost him his life. Without doubt, it cost the lives of many others as well. If Hamlet could have taken immediate action, many deaths could have been avoided. Although Hamlet succeeds in his revenge, his procrastination proves to be his flaw in every event that took place.

Animal Farm Relating To Russia :: Animal Farm Essays

Greed for Power, and Cruelty: Making Followers In Animal Farm, George Orwell demonstrates the danger of unquestioning acceptance of ideas and actions that are “supposed to represent'; a better way of life. Throughout the book there are many examples of hatred and evil undermining what sounds like a great utopia when introduced, but not when they are lived. The ideas are very familiar because they are based on those that drove the Russian Revolution, and what went wrong with it. The difference between a nice Utopian idea and what goes wrong in real life has to do with human nature. Greed is real, in that it drives people to do things. There is greed for power, greed for food, and greed for whatever a greedy person might want. While not everyone is greedy, some people are very much so. The very greedy people make life difficult for the rest of us. This is not such a big problem in democracies, which are constructed to balance any action with the ideas of many groups and rights. In a dictatorship, like the Soviet Union, a person like Stalin can determine every key aspect of most individuals’ lives. The more violent a Stalin is, the more power a Stalin has; and the farther from Utopia are the lives of the common people. Napoleon’s ideas and actions in Animal Farm were similar to those first of Lenin and later of Stalin during the development of the Soviet Union, which resulted in the deaths and terror that deeply affected the lives of tens of millions of Soviet citizens. For example, Napoleon had made other high-status animals confess to things they had never committed. When the eggs of the three hens were crushed really by Napoleon’s dog, they were forced to confess, “…Snowball had appeared to them in a dream and incited them to disobey Napoleon’s orders'; (93). The dogs were then murdered, making Napoleon the only ruler. Even though Napoleon clearly killed the hens’ eggs, they still confessed to something that was untrue, which made Napoleon’s “appearance'; better to those who had no direct knowledge of the incident. Joseph Stalin had appointed government officials, controlling their income, what they said, and of ten their death. Soon he made them confess to things that were untrue, such as being spies. Government officials were exiled, thrown in jail, or killed. Soon Stalin was the one, true ruler of

Analysis of Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth Essay -- Tintern Abbey

Analysis of Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth William Wordsworth existed in a time when society and its functions were beginning to rapidly pick up. The poem that he 'Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye', gave him a chance to reflect upon his quick paced life by taking a moment to slow down and absorb the beauty of nature that allows one to 'see into the life of things'; (line 49). Wordsworth's 'Tintern Abbey'; takes you on a series of emotional states by trying to sway 'readers and himself, that the loss of innocence and intensity over time is compensated by an accumulation of knowledge and insight.'; Wordsworth accomplishes to prove that although time was lost along with his innocence, he in turn was able to gain an appreciation for the aesthetics that consoled him by incorporating all together, the wonders of nature, his past experiences, and his present mature perception of life. Wordsworth begins his poem by describing the landscape of the abbey as unchanged during the past five years. He emphasizes the lapse of time by stating, ' again I hear';, 'again do I behold';, and 'again I see';. He seemed to be overwhelmed with emotions that he, though up on a very far away cliff, was certain that a hermit was in his cave sitting by the fire alone. Wordsworth wanted so much to remember the place that he was allowing his perception of the past take over his present reality. More importantly he says, 'I again repose here?'; to express that the scene gives him a sense of reconciliation. He further illustrates the isolation, peacefulness, and greenness of the abbey to tap into his vague memories of past encounters. Although there had been a 'long absence'; from the abbey, the memories of his hurried time in the Wye had consoled him ' 'mid the din of towns and cities'; (lines 26-27). 'With tranquil restoration'; Wordsworth has changed from the state of observing to the state of recalling his 'unremembered pleasures[s]'; (31). He had many times returned in spirit to the Wye, to escape the 'fever of the world'; (53). These memories have produced emotions beyond his understanding; enlightening him and relieving his frustrations. It is the abbey, 'in which the heavy and the weary weight of all this unintelligible world, is lightened'; and makes him become a 'living soul';. (40-49) Wordsworth was claiming th... ...e it was 'full of blessings'; (134). And if she ever happened to be alone, scared, in pain or in grief, Wordsworth wanted her to look upon these 'healing thoughts'; (144) and think of him. Wordsworth's 'Tintern Abbey'; is the poetry of consciousness and becoming aware of this state, and the understanding of where one fits into the scheme of everything within the world. Wordsworth looked into life as an active participant ready to grasp all knowledge and understanding that was available to him. So although he missed the abbey and lost some of his youth, he had gained ten-fold by being able to interpret his feelings through his own perception and knowledge. He had found a way to console himself, he had found a basis for hope in 'Tintern Abbey';. Wordsworth had become more thoughtful and saw the abbey in a different way than in his youth. He had learned how to appreciate things and wanted to instill those values in his sister/';Dear Friend';. Wordsworth had found the true comfort in nature and had incorporated that respect for nature in his life. Works Cited: Wordsworth, William. "Tintern Abbey." Romanticism: An Anthology. Ed. Duncan Wu. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998. 265-269.

Crucible Projects Essay

Select one of the following to complete independently or with a partner: People Magazine’s Love Triangle of  the Year Produce a magazine article in which you try to piece together the story of this love triangle from the various characters’ points of view. Your article should include comments by John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, and Abigail Williams. The main goal here is to understand the effect their actions had on each of the others. Be sure to bring out the major events of the story in some way. Your finished product should look like a magazine article and include various pictures or whatever your creative minds can come up with! Look at some People Magazine articles for ideas. The Crucible: An Alphabet Book For your final project, you will create an alphabet book using one letter of the alphabet per page. It may be rhyming or nonrhyming. Give your book a cover and illustrate it. As this will be your final grade, I am particularly interested in seeing that you have an understanding of the major events and themes of the novel as well as relationships between the characters. (EXAMPLE: A is for adultery. M is for McCarthyism.) The Crucible Greeting Cards Design five greeting cards that you think John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend Parris, and Abigail Williams would have sent to each other for a holiday. You choose the holiday/occasion and design the five cards, one from each of these characters. Include a picture and a quote or poem that they would have written in each card. They can be funny or serious. Be creative and make the cards look nice! I am particularly interested in seeing that you have an understanding of the major ideas and the relationships between the characters. Include an explanation with each card. The Crucible Soundtrack Create a soundtrack for the novel, choosing or composing five songs (ONE can be an instrumental). The songs must represent the main themes, moods, relationships, or events in the story in some way. Create a CD insert with appropriate artwork, artist information, dedications, and a booklet that includes lyrics and a paragraph for each song explaining how and why each relates to the book. You may burn the songs onto a CD if you’d like, but it is not required. The Crucible Diary Create a journal/diary for one of the three main characters. In that character’s voice (first person),you will create at least 10 one page, typed and dated entries based on what’s happening at the time. This will allow you to comment on the major events of the plot. You MUST comment on the following: The first appearance of the character in the story Any meeting that your character has with another of the characters Any important event that occurs in the story Any physical/psychological changes in the character Where the character leaves the story The story covers years in the character’s life so you will observe changes in the character’s acceptance in the community, the physical and/or mental condition of your character, and his/her relationship with the other characters. The main characters who will appear in your journal will be John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, Abigail Williams, Reverend Hale, and/or Reverend Parris. You may choose any of these as your â€Å"journal writer†, but all of them will appear in your journal. The Crucible Times Develop a front page from a Salem newspaper during the time/setting of this story. Your front page will be full of the story of Abigail and Company, the scandal, and/or the aftermath. The goal is to show me that you have an understanding of the plot and characters in the play. Your front page should include several of the following: 1. A banner headline 2. At least one picture with a caption 3. The lead story (at least 300 words) 4. Related side bar stories 5. Horoscope 6. Title of newspaper 7. At least one advertisement that is play related 8. Advice column 9. Gossip column 10. Classifieds

End of Poverty Guide Essay

Sachs throws out the normal ways of thinking about the causes of poverty in countries, for instance that people are lazy or stupid, or the countries are not democratic, and that corruption is wide-spread. Fifty percent of the world’s population exists on less than one dollar per day. He believes that much of the problem is structural, which can only be dealt with through the help of the rich countries. Sachs believes, first of all, that all current debt owed by the poor countries should be cancelled. Secondly, if the rich countries would increase their development aid from .2% to .7% there would be enough money available to increase the economic growth so that all countries would no longer be extremely poor. If MAI is to become known as an agency which teaches a new way of dealing with poverty, then we need to become aware of this book and Sachs understanding and approach to poverty. Chapter Twelve really speaks to CHE. I have tried to review what has appeared to me to be the most salient points, chapter by chapter. All chapters are not treated equally. I primarily do this exercise for myself to help me understand the key points from the book. If they are of any help to others, then that is a plus. I have gone into more detail in the other synopsis I have done because of the possible guidance this book can give us for a new paradigm for dealing with poverty individually, locally, nationally and globally (which in reality we are already on the road in doing). Some things are both structural and governmental issues and I am not suggesting that we get involved in these, but change must begin at the village level and then we can scale up our strengths from there. Chapter One–A Global Family Portrait Sachs sets the stage for his thesis and book using examples of Malawi, Bangladesh, India, and China to show different levels of poverty. He talks abut the ascending ladder of economic development for countries. †¢ Lowest are those who are too ill, hungry, or destitute to get even a foot on the bottom rung of the development ladder. They make up the bottom 1/6 of the world’s population, or one billion people. They are the poorest of the poor and live on less than $1 a day. †¢ A few rungs up the ladder at the upper end of the low-income countries are another 1.5 billion people. They live just above the subsistence level. These two groups make up 40% of the world’s population. CHE targets both of these groups, and especially with the first group. †¢ Another 2.5 billion include the IT workers of India. Most of them live in the cities and are moderately poor. †¢ One billion or one-sixth of the world come from the rich developed countries. Sachs says the greatest tragedy of our time is that one-sixth of the world’s population is not even on the first rung of the ladder. A large number of the extremely poor in level one are caught in the poverty trap and cannot escape it. They are trapped by disease, physical isolation, climate stress, environmental degradation, and extreme poverty itself. He breaks poverty into three levels: †¢ Extreme poverty means households cannot meet basic needs for survival. This only occurs in developing countries. World Bank says their income is less than $1 a day. †¢ Moderate poverty is where needs are generally just barely met. World Bank says this represents countries where their income falls between $1 and $2 per day. †¢ Relative poverty generally describes household income level at being below a given percentage of the average national income. You find this in developed countries. He then presents the Challenge of our Generation which includes: †¢ Helping the poorest of the poor escape the misery of extreme poverty and help them begin their climb up the ladder of economic development. †¢ Ensuring all who are the world’s poor, including moderately poor, have a chance to climb higher in economic development. He believes that the following can be done: †¢ Meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. †¢ End extreme poverty by 2025. †¢ To ensure well before 2025, that all of the world’s poor countries can make reliable progress up the ladder of economic development. †¢ To accomplish this with modest financial help from the riches countries, which will be more than is now provided per capita. Chapter Two–The Spread of Economic Prosperity Sachs uses several graphs in this chapter. I will not go into detail on these, but I will point out some salient points: †¢ All regions of the world were poor in 1820. †¢ All regions experienced economic progress, though some much more than others. †¢ Today’s richest regions experienced by far the greatest economic progress. As an example, Africa has only grown at .7% a year while the USA at 1.7%. This may not seem much, but when compounded year-by-year, it results in the great differences between the two. †¢ The key fact today is not the transfer of income from one region to another, but rather that the overall increase in the world’s income is happening at different rates in different regions. Until the 1700’s, the world was remarkably poor by today’s standards. A major change was the industrial revolution coming to certain regions and not to others. The steam engine was a decisive turning point because it mobilized the vast store of primary energy which unlocked the mass production of goods and services. Modern energy fueled every aspect of the economic takeoff. As coal fueled industry, industry fueled political power. Britain’s industrial breakthrough created a huge military and financial advantage. But Britain also had existing individual initiative and social mobility than most other countries of the world. They also had a strengthening of institution and liberty. Britain also had a major geographical advantage–one of isolation and protection of the sea, in addition to access to the oceans for worldwide transportation for their goods and importation of other countries’ goods. Sachs then goes on to outline what has fostered major economic growth: †¢ Modern economic growth is accompanied by people moving to the cities, or urbanization. This means fewer and fewer people produce the food that is required for the country. Hopefully, food price per farmer decreases as larger plots are farmed more productively. This also means sparsely populated land makes good sense when many farms are needed to grow the crops, but sparse land makes little sense when more and more people are engaged in manufacturing in the cities. †¢ Modern economic growth fostered a revolution in social mobility which affected social ranking of people. A fixed social order depends on status quo and agrarian population. †¢ There is a change in gender roles with economic development. This affects living conditions as well as family structure. The desired number of children decreases. †¢ The division of labor increases. By specializing in one activity instead of many, producti vity increases. The diffusion of economic growth occurred in three main forms: †¢ From Britain to its colonies in North America, Australia and New Zealand. (It was therefore relatively straight-forth to transfer British technologies, food crops and even legal institutions.) †¢ A second diffusion took place within Europe that ran from Western Europe to Eastern Europe, and from Northern Europe to Southern Europe. †¢ The third wave of diffusion was from Europe to Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Sachs believes that the single most important reason for prosperity spread is the transmission of technology and the ideas underlying it. The technological advances came at different times. †¢ The first wave revolved around the invention of the steam engine which led to factory-producing goods. †¢ The second wave in the 19th century was led by the introduction of the rail and telegraph. It also included the introduction of steam ships instead of sailing ones, and the construction of the Suez Canal. †¢ The third wave was initiated by electrification of industry and urban society. Along with this came the development of the internal combustion engine. †¢ The fourth wave came in the 20th century with the globalization of the world due to new methods of communication starting in Europe. †¢ There came a time of a great rupture which took place with the start of World War I, and sidetracked economic development for awhile. This led to the Great Depression which led to World War II. †¢ A fifth wave took place right after World War II, and in 1991. It began with the massive efforts of reconstruction of Europe and Japan right after World War II. Trade barriers began to come down. There were three worlds: the first was the developed West, the second was comprised of Socialist countries, and the third was made up of undeveloped countries (which were made up of the old colony countries). The world therefore progressed on three tracks. The problem was that the second and third worlds did not share in economic growth and actually went backward. By closing their economies, they closed themselves off from economic development. So what did this mean to the poorest of the poor countries? †¢ They did not begin their economic growth until decades later. †¢ They faced geographical barriers of being land-locked †¢ They faced the brutal exploitation of the colonial powers. †¢ They made disastrously bad choices in their national policies. Chapter Three–Why Some Countries Fail In this chapter, Sachs looks at the cause of poverty and possible solutions. He first deals with, how a family’s per-capita income might increase: †¢ The first way is through savings– either in cash or similar assets like animals, etc. †¢ The second way is shifting to crops that bring a higher yield per hectare, and then adding value to the crop (which is what we teach in our PAD training). †¢ The third way is adopting new technology, which improves their productivity. †¢ The fourth way is resource boom, which means to move to a much larger and more fertile farm. The flip side of increasing their economic growth is by decreasing their per capita income which is more than just the opposite of the above factors: †¢ Lack of savings is of course one way to reduce per capita income. †¢ Lack of trade, meaning that a household hears of the new crop but cannot take advantage of it and stays with what they have. †¢ Technological reversal is when something like HIV hits an area and children lose their parents etc. †¢ Natural resource decline is where the land becomes less and less fertile producing less and less crops. †¢ Adverse Productivity Shock is where a natural disaster hits like a drought, tsunami, earthquake, typhoon, etc. †¢ Population growth lessens per capita income where the father has two hectares of land and it is divided among his five sons at his death. Now Sachs begins to get into the true heart of poverty on a country level: †¢ The poverty trap itself is where poverty is so extreme that the poor do not have the ability by themselves to get out of the mess. †¢ Physical geography plays a major role where countries are land-locked with poor or no roads, a lack of navigable rivers, or situated in mountain ranges or deserts with an extremely high transportation cost. The low productivity of the land is another factor in the geography. †¢ The fiscal trap is where the government lacks the resources to pay for the necessary infrastructure on which economic growth depends. †¢ Government failure happens when the government is not concentrating on high priority infrastructure and social service projects. †¢ Cultural or religious barriers especially as it relates to gender inequality play a significant role in dampening economic growth. †¢ Geopolitics such as trade barriers can impede economic growth. †¢ Lac k of innovation and technology plays a role if people cannot try new things because they cannot risk failure, or because they do not have funds to do so. Sachs believes that over the span of two centuries, the lack of using new technology is why the richest and poorest countries have diverged. †¢ He shows a scatter-gram graph showing there is a demographic trap as well. The higher the fertility rate, the lower rate of economic growth there is in a country. When they have too many children, they cannot invest in education, nutrition, or health, except maybe for the oldest male. One of the best ways to lower the number of children per family is through the education of the girls. Sachs then goes into detail in putting countries into different classes. He points out that none of the rich countries in North American, Western Europe or East Asia have failed to grow economically. All the problems lie in the developing world where 45 of these countries had a fall in GDP. Not all of these countries are in sub-Saharan Africa. He also points out that the oil-exporting and ex-Soviet countries, all high income countries, did not increase their economic growth evenly, primarily because of their authoritarian political structure. He also points out that the most important factor is agriculture. Those countries that used high yield cereals per hectare and that used high levels of fertilizers are the poor countries that tended to experience economic growth. In Africa, the land is much less densely populated but they use neither high yield cereals nor fertilizers and they had falling food production per capita. But they also have far less roads for transporting extra crops to markets and they depend on rainfall which is generally more erratic than high-producing agricultural countries. He also goes on to point out the following: †¢ Economic growth is rarely uniformly distributed across a country. †¢ Governments also fail in their role in allowing growth that might enrich the rich households, while the poorest living in the same area seldom seem to benefit. †¢ Another detriment to growth can be culture especially as it relates to women inequality. Chapter Four–Clinical Economics (CE) Sachs compares clinical economics to clinical medicine. He lays out five parameters for Clinical Economics: †¢ CE is made up of complex systems. The failure in one system can lead to cascades of failures in other parts of the economy. You therefore need to deal with very broad and multiple issues. †¢ CE practitioners need to learn the art of clinical diagnosis. The CE practitioner must hone-in on the key underlying causes of economic distress and prescribe appropriate remedies that are tailor-made to each country’s condition. †¢ Treatment needs to be viewed in family terms, not individual terms. The entire world is part of each country’s family. If countries work together they can have far more impact than working in isolation. †¢ Good CE practice requires monitoring and evaluation. More than just asking if the goals are being achieved, but also asking â€Å"why?† and â€Å"why not?† †¢ The development community lacks the requisite ethical and professional standards. Economic development does not take its work with the sense of responsibility that the task requires. It demands that honest advice be given. He points out where economic development practice has gone wrong: †¢ The rich countries say, â€Å"Poverty is your own fault. Be like us, have a free market, be entrepreneurial, fiscally responsible and your problems will be gone†. †¢ The IMF period of structural adjustment which supposedly dealt with the four maladies of poor governance, excessive government intervention in the markets, excessive government spending, and too much state ownership were not solved by the IMF prescription of belt tightening, privatization, liberalization, and good governance. †¢ The responsibility for poverty reduction was assumed to lie entirely with poor countries themselves. He then lays out his differential diagnosis for poverty reduction. He believes the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) goes a long way in reducing poverty. Once the diagnosis is completed, a proper treatment regime must be carried out. In doing differential diagnosis, questions must be asked in each one of the following areas: †¢ Identify and map the extent of extreme poverty– from the household level all the way up through the community to the country to the state– in all areas of life. †¢ The second set of questions deals with the economic policy framework. †¢ The third set deals with the fiscal framework. †¢ Fourth deals with physical geography and human ecology. †¢ Fifth, the questions deal with the patterns of governance. History has shown that democracy is not a prerequisite for economic development. †¢ Sixth are questions which deal with cultural barriers that hinder economic development. †¢ The last are questions that are related to geopolitics which involves a country’s security and relationship with the rest of the world. The next six chapters, five through ten, deal with specific countries that have gone through this process, and their results. His results are quite impressive. I will not deal much with each country, but an individual chapter might be of interest to the RC involved if he is interested in such things. Chapter Five–Bolivia’s High Rate of Inflation Problem: A hyperinflation rate of 3000% (30 times) between July 1984 and July 1985 with a longer term hyperinflation rate of 24,000%. Lessons Learned: †¢ Stabilization is a complex process. Ending a large budget deficit may be the first step but controlling the underlying forces that cause the budget deficit is much more complex. †¢ Macroeconomics tools are limited in their power. †¢ Successful change requires a combination of technocratic knowledge, bold political leadership, and broad social participation. †¢ Success requires not only bold reforms at home, but also financial help from abroad. †¢ Poor countries must demand their due. Chapter Six–Poland’s Return to Europe Problem: By the end of 1989, Poland had partially suspended its international debt payments. The economy was suffering from high rate of rising inflation and there was a deepening political crisis. Sachs’ approach in Poland, as in other countries, was built on five pillars: †¢ Stabilization–ending the high rate of inflation, establishing stability and convertible currency. †¢ Liberalization–allowing markets to function by legalizing private economic activity (ending price controls and establishing necessary laws). †¢ Privatization– identifying private owners for assets currently held by the state. †¢ Social net–pensions and other benefits for the elderly and poor were established. †¢ Institutional Harmonization–adopting, step-by-step, the economic laws, procedures, and institutions. Lessons Learned: †¢ He learned how a country’s fate is crucially determined by its specific linkages to the rest of the world. †¢ Again the importance of the basic guidance concept for broad-based economic transformation, not to stand alone with separate solutions. †¢ Saw again the practical possibilities of large-scale thinking †¢ He learned not to take â€Å"no† for an answer, press on with your guidance. †¢ By the time a country has fallen into deep crisis, it requires some external help to get back on track. †¢ This help may be in the form of getting the basics right which includes debt cancellation and help to bolster confidence in the reforms. Chapter Seven–Russia’s Struggle for Normalcy Problem: The Soviet Union relied almost entirely on its oil and gas exports to earn foreign exchange, and on its use of oil and gas to run its industrial economy. In the mid- 1980’s, the price of oil and gas plummeted and the Soviet Union’s oil production began to fall. Sachs suggested three actions of the West (but generally they were ignored by the West): †¢ A stabilization fund for the ruble. †¢ Immediate suspension of debt repayment followed by cancellation of their debts. †¢ A new aid program for transformation focusing on the most vulnerable sectors of the Russian economy. Lesson Learned: †¢ Despite much turmoil and rejection much went right so that eventually Russia became a lopsided market economy, still focused on oil and gas. †¢ Russia has a gigantic land mass which causes it to have few linkages with other nations of the world. †¢ Their population densities are low and agrarian and food production per hectare remains low. Over history, 90% of the population has been rural, with cities few and far between. This hinders economic growth. †¢ Without adequate aid, the political consensus around the reforms was deeply undermined, thereby compromising the reform process. Chapter Eight–China Catching Up after a Half Millennium Being Isolated Problem: China lost its economic and cultural lead that it had in its early history. Sachs points out five dates which caused this: †¢ 1434 China had been the technological superpower. This year Emperor Ming closed China to the rest of the world and stopped their advanced ship fleets from going out to the world. †¢ 1839 China finally ended its economic isolation. †¢ 1898 Several young reformers tried to gain power and were stopped. †¢ 1911 Ching Dynasty collapsed and by 1916 China was falling into civil unrest. Their military took control of the empire. †¢ 1949 the rise of the Maoist Movement. He then compares China to Russia: †¢ The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe had massive foreign debt while China did not. †¢ China has a large coastline that supported its export growth, while Russia and Eastern Europe do not. †¢ China had the benefit of large off-shore Chinese business communities which acted as foreign investors, while Russia and Eastern Europe did not. †¢ The Soviet was experiencing a drastic decline on their main export product, oil and gas. †¢ The Soviet Union had gone further down the industrialization road than China. Chapter Nine–India Market Reform Which Was the Triumph of Hope Over Fear Problem: India was controlled by a business, British East India Company, which was driven by greed, and it did everything to maximize profit for the company at the expense of the country. Though India’s population throughout history has been Hindu, vast numbers of Muslims and Christians lived in and sometimes dominated the land. India had poor political and social structures because the land was broken into many small kingdoms governed by many different leaders. In addition, India has the caste-system of stratification of peoples. With independence from the British in 1947, Nehru looked for a path to self- sufficiency and democratic socialism. The Green Revolution had a major impact on the country as high yield crops were introduced. By 1994, India now faced four major challenges: †¢ Reforms needed to be extended especially in liberalization and the development of new and better systems. †¢ India needed to invest heavily in infrastructure †¢ India needed to invest more in health and education of its people, especially the lower castes. †¢ India needed to figure out how to pay for the needed infrastructure. Lessons Learned: †¢ The 21st century is likely to be the era when this poor country’s economic development is substantially reversed. †¢ The country has announced electricity for all as well as essential health services and drinking water for everyone. These are achievable goals and the basis for much-needed investment. †¢ The Hindus did not stifle growth. The Green Revolution and then market reforms overrode the rigidness of the caste-system and the slow growth of the 1950’s and 1960’s. †¢ India has become increasingly urbanized, thereby further weakening the caste-system. †¢ Democracy is wearing away age-old social hierarchies. †¢ India has grabbed the potential of the internet and IT and is leading the way for developing nations in this regard. †¢ India’s varied geography and its miles and miles of shoreline fosters its market position for the manufacture of products. Chapter Ten–Africa and the Dying Problem: Three centuries of slave trade were followed by a century of colonial rule which left Africa bereft of educated citizens and leaders, basic infrastructure, and public health facilities. The borders followed arbitrary lines, not historic tribal lines which now divided former empires, ethnic groups, ecosystems, watersheds, and resource deposits. The West was not willing to invest in African economic development. Corruption was not the central cause for their economic failure as he showed. In the 1980’s, HIV became the worse killer of mankind. In 2001, life expectancy stood at 47 years, while East Asia stood at 69 years, and developed countries at 78 years. Sachs spends time looking at the major diseases of malaria, TB, diarrhea, and HIV. He says poverty causes disease and disease causes poverty. Lessons Learned: †¢ Good governance and market reform alone are not sufficient to generate growth if a country is in a poverty trap. †¢ Geography has conspired with economics to give Africa a particularly weak hand. Africa lacks navigable rivers with access to the ocean for easy transport and trade. †¢ Africa lacks irrigation and depends on rainfall for their crops. †¢ Farmers lack access roads, markets, and fertilizers, while soils have been long depleted of their nutrients. Chapter Eleven–The Millennium, 9/11, and the United Nations. The beginning part of this chapter deals with the Millennium Development Goals. Sachs says that the goals and commitment to reach them by 2015 convey the hope that extreme poverty, disease, and environmental degradation could be alleviated with the wealth, the new technologies, and global awareness with which we entered the 21st century. He says the first seven goals call for sharp cuts in poverty, disease, and environmental degradation, while the eighth goal is essentially a commitment to global partnership. Because you have all seen them, I am not including them here. Regarding 9/11, he says we need to keep it in perspective. On 9/11, 3000 people died for once and for all, but 10,000 people die each day from diseases that are preventable. He believes we need to address the deeper roots of terrorism of which extreme poverty is an important element. The rich world needs to turn its efforts to a much greater extent from military strategies to economic development. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke of freedoms we were fighting for in WWII and for which we still should be attempting to accomplish: †¢ Freedom of speech and expression everywhere in the world. †¢ Freedom for every person to worship God in his own way everywhere in the world. †¢ Freedom from want which translates into economic development. †¢ Freedom from fear which translates into a worldwide reduction in armament, a reduction to such a point that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor. One major thing he is suggesting is that the rich countries elevate their giving to .7% of their GNP from the average of .2% it is today. The rest of the chapter is about President Bush and the USA policies and actions. Chapter Twelve–On-The-Ground Solutions for Ending Poverty This chapter is really talking about CHE, but Sachs does not realize it. He says that the world’s challenge is not to overcome laziness and corruption but rather to take on geographic isolation, disease, vulnerability to climate shocks, etc. with new systems of political responsibility that can get the job done. He talks about a village of less than 1,000 in western Kenya, in a Sauri sub-location (in Siaya district in Nyanza province) that he visited, which opened his eyes. He found what we find place after place– that they are impoverished, but they are capable and resourceful. Though struggling to survive, presently they are not dispirited but determined to improve their situation. He then goes on to describe the needs of a rural African community, the same type of community that we deal with every day, as shown in the abundance of applications we receive for CHE. A major problem, he feels, is that the farmers do not have the money to buy fertilizer that would impact their crop productivity drastically. Also they have no school or clinic. He then begins to calculate what it would cost per person to bring a school and teachers, simple clinic and staff, medicines, agriculture inputs such as seed and fertilizer, safe drinking water and simple sanitation, and power transport and communication services. The total cost for Sauri is about $350,000 a year, which converts to $70 a person per year, which could revolutionize the community. If he did CHE, the total cost and per person cost would be greatly reduced. He then goes ahead and extrapolates this up for the country of Kenya to $1.5 billion. At the same time he points out that Kenya’s debt service is $600 million a year and that it needs to be cancelled. But one problem that donors talk about is corruption needing to be eliminated. If countries do not eliminate corruption, they would not be eligible for relief. Also, a budget and management system need to be designed that will reach the villages and be monitorable, governable, and scalable–a set of interventions to ensure good governance on such a historic project. The key to this is to empower village-based community organizations to oversee village services. Most of what he says in this chapter sounds like CHE to me, but we can do it at even a lower cost and we have the experience to implement it. That is why I said earlier that we need to talk to Sachs about CHE. He then goes on with this theme but changes the venue from rural to urban in Mumbai, India in a slum community built smack up against the railroad tracks, one-house deep. He points out the outstanding needs are not latrines, running water, nor safety from trains, but empowerment so they can negotiate with the government. He then mentions that several groups have been found and empowered to do this in this community. Again sounds like CHE for urban poor. Sachs says what this community needs is investments in the individual and basic infra-structure that can empower people to be healthier, better educated, and more productive in the work force. CHE deals with the individual side of the equation. He ends this chapter by discussing the problem of scale. He says everything must start with the basic village. The key is connecting these basic units together into a global network that reaches from impoverished communities to the very centers of power and back again. This, too, is what we are talking about when we describe scaling-up and creating a movement and then forming it into councils and collaborative groups. He believes the rich world would readily provide the missing finances but they will wonder how to ensure that the money made available would really reach the poor and that there would be results. He says we need a strategy for scaling up the investments that will end poverty, including governance that empowers the poor while holding them accountable. I believe CHE fits his prescription. Chapter Thirteen–Making the Investments Needed to End Poverty Sachs says the extreme poor lack six kinds of capital: †¢ Human Capital: health, nutrition, and skills needed for each person to be productive. †¢ Business Capital: the machinery, facilities, and motorized transport used in agriculture, industry and services. †¢ Infrastructure Capital: water and sanitation, airports and sea ports, and telecommunications systems that are critical inputs for business productivity. †¢ Natural Capital: arable land, healthy soils, biodiversity, and well- functioning ecosystems that provide the environmental services need by human society. †¢ Public Institutional Capital: commercial law, judicial systems, government services, and policing, that underpin the peaceful and prosperous division of labor. †¢ Knowledge Capital: the scientific and technological know-how that raises productivity in business output and the promotion of physical and natural capital. He spends several pages on charts showing income flow. He also uses the example of child survival and how it applies to the six kinds of capital. He makes the point that even in the poorest societies, primary education alone is no longer sufficient. He says all youth should have a minimum of 9 years of education. He says technical capacity must be in the whole of society from the bottom up. He talks about trained community health workers and the role they can play. Villages around the world should be helped in adult education involving life and death issues such as HIV. The main challenges now is NOT to show what works in small villages or districts but rather to scale up what works to encompass a whole country, even the world. Again sounds like CHE and where we are going. He goes through several examples where major diseases are being dealt with such as malaria, river blindness, and polio, as well as spread of family planning. He also briefly talks about the cell phone revolution by the poor in Bangladesh and how East Asia has established Export Processing Zones, all of which are improving the life of the poorest of poor nations. Chapter Fourteen–A Global Compact to End Poverty He says the poorest countries themselves must take seriously the problem of ending poverty and need to devote a greater share of their national resources to accomplish this. Many poor countries pretend to reform while rich countries pretend to help them. The chronic lack of donor financing robs the poor countries of their poverty-fighting zeal. We are stuck in a show play that is not real. There are two sides in a compact. In this compact, there should be the commitment in the rich countries to help all poor countries where the collective will to be responsible partners in the endeavor is present. For the other poor countries where authoritarian or corrupt regimes hold sway, the consequences for the population are likely to be tragic but the rich countries have their limits also. He spends time looking at several countries that have Poverty Reduction Strategies where some are working and some not. Ghana is a star in his book. He says a true MDG-based poverty reduction strategy would have five parts: †¢ A Differential Diagnosis which includes identifying policies and investments that the country needs to achieve the MDGs. †¢ An Investment Plan which shows the size, timing and costs of the required investments. †¢ A Financial Plan to fund the Investment Plan, including the calculation of the MDG financing gap, the portion of the financial needs that donors will have to fill. †¢ A Donor Plan which gives multi-year commitments from donors for meeting the MDGs. †¢ A Public Management Plan that outlines the mechanisms of governance and public administration that will help implement the expanded public investment plan. During the 1980’s and 1990’s, the IMF forced Structural Readjustment on the poor countries which did not work. The poor were asked to pay all the expenses for new services. They then moved to a compromise called Social Marketing where the poor were asked to pay a portion of the expense. But neither plan worked because the poor did not have enough even to eat, much less pay for electricity. He says a sound management plan should include the following: †¢ Decentralize. Investments are needed in all the villages and the details for what is needed needs to be established at the village level through local committees, not the national capitol or Washington DC. †¢ Training. The public sector lacks the talent to oversee the scaling up process. Training programs for capacity building should be part of the strategy. †¢ Information Technology. The use of information technology–computers, e-mail and mobile phones– needs to increase drastically because of the dramatic increase of knowledge that needs to be transmitted. †¢ Measurable Benchmarks. Every MDG based poverty reduction strategy should be supported by quantitative benchmarks tailored to national conditions, needs, and data availability. †¢ Audits. No country should receive greater funding unless the money can be audited. †¢ Monitoring and Evaluation. Each country must prepare to have investments monitored and evaluated. He then goes through the following Global Policies for Poverty Reduction: †¢ The Debt Crisis. The poorest countries are unable to repay their debt, let alone carry the interest. Therefore, for each country that agrees to the guidelines noted previously, their debt must be cancelled if there is to be true poverty reduction. †¢ Global trade Policy. Poor countries need to increase their exports to the rich countries and thereby earn foreign exchange in order to import capital goods from the rich countries. Yet trade is not enough. The policy must include both aid and trade. The end of agriculture subsidies is not enough for this to happen. †¢ Science for Development. The poor are likely to be ignored by the international scientific community unless special effort is made to include things that help the poor. It is more critical to identify the priority needs for scientific research in relation to the poor than to mobilize the donor community to spur that research forward. That would include research in tropical agriculture, energy systems, climate forecasting, water management, and sustainable management of ecosystems. †¢ Environmental stewardship. The poorest of poor nations are generally innocent victims of major long-term ecosystem degradation. The rich countries must live up to the ecology agreements they have signed. The rich countries will have to give added financial assistance to the poor countries to enable them to deal with the ecosystem problems. The rich countries will have to invest more in climate research. Chapter Fifteen–Can The Rich Afford to Help the Poor? He asks the question â€Å"Can the rich countries help the poor?†, and his answer is â€Å"Can they afford not to do so?† He gives five reasons that show that the current effort is so modest. †¢ The numbers of extremely poor have declined close to 50% two generations ago to 33% a generation ago to 20% today. †¢ The goal is to end extreme poverty, not all poverty, and to close the gap between the rich and the poor. †¢ Success in ending the poverty trap will be much easier than it appears. Too little has been done to identify specific, proven, low-cost interventions that can make a difference in living standards and economic growth (CHE does this). †¢ The rich world is vastly rich. What seemed out of reach a generation or two ago is now such a small fraction of the vastly expanded income of the rich world. †¢ Our tools are more powerful than ever, including computers, internet, mobile phones, etc. He then spends time in doing calculations to show how this can be accomplished. First he starts with the World Bank. They estimate that meeting basic needs requires $1.08 per person per day. Currently, the average income of the extremely poor is 77 cents per day, creating a shortfall of 31 cents per day or $113 per person per year. He then shows that this represents only .6% of a nation’s GNP. The MDG target which many countries have agreed to is .7% of their GNP. Later on, he shows that the USA is only spending .15% for aid to the world. Sachs then spends time on a six-step process to do a needs assessment to come up with the real number needed: †¢ Identify the package of basic needs. †¢ Identify for each country the current unmet needs of the population. †¢ Calculate the costs of meeting the unmet needs through investments, taking into account future population growth. †¢ Calculate the part of the investments that can’t be financed by the country itself. †¢ Calculate the MDG financing gap that must be covered by donors. †¢ Assess the size of the donor contribution relative to donor income. He proposes that interventions are required to meet the following basic needs: †¢ Primary education for all children with a designated target ratio of pupils to teachers. †¢ Nutrition program for all vulnerable populations. †¢ Universal access to anti-malarial bed nets for all households in regions of malaria transmission. †¢ Access to safe drinking water and sanitation. †¢ One-half kilometer of paved roads for every thousand population. †¢ Access to modern cooking fuels and improved cooking stoves to decrease indoor air pollution. He states extreme poverty (a lack of access to basic needs) is very different from relative poverty (occupying a place at the bottom of the ladder of income distribution) within rich countries, and goes through a more detailed approach of implementing the six steps. He points out that not all donor assistance is for development. Much is used for emergency relief, care for resettlement of refugees, geopolitical support of particular governments, and help for middle-income countries that have largely ended extreme poverty in their country. Also, only a small portion of development aid actually helps to finance the intervention package. Much of it goes for technical assistance which is not part of the MDG numbers. He spends time on the question, â€Å"Can the USA afford the .7% of their GNP?† He responds with a deafening â€Å"Yes!† He does this in multiple ways, one of which is to show that the increase is only .55%, which would be hardly noticed in the US’s average 1.9% increase year-by-year of its GNP. Chapter Sixteen–Myths and Magic Bullets This is an interesting chapter because Sachs shoots down commonly held beliefs concerning the causes and solutions for poverty. He uses Africa as his case to do so:. †¢ Contrary to popular conception, Africa has not received great amounts of aid. They receive $30 per person per year but only $12 of that actually went to be used in development in Africa. $5 went to consultants of donor countries, $3 went to food and emergency relief, $4 for servicing Africa’s debt and $5 for debt relief. In reality, in 2002, only six cents per person went to development. †¢ Corruption is the problem which leads to poor governance. By any standard of measure Africa’s governance is low, but not due to corruption. African countries’ governance is no different than other poor countries in the rest of the world. Governance improves as the people become more literate and more affluent. Secondly, a more affluent country can afford to invest more in governance. †¢ There is a democracy deficit. This is also not true. In 2003, 11 countries in Africa were considered free, with 20 more partially free, and 16 not free. This is the same as is found in other regions of the world. Democracy does not translate into faster economic growth. †¢ Lack of modern values. Again, this is also false. Virtually every society that was once poor has been castigated for being unworthy until its citizens became rich and then their new wealth was explained by their industriousness. He traces this trend in multiple countries. One major factor that does cause change is the change in women’s position in society as their economic situation improves, which accelerates the growth. †¢ The need for economic freedom is not fully true. Generally market societies out perform centrally planned economies. This leads to the thought that all is needed is that the people must have the will to liberalize and privatize which is too simplistic. He shows that there is no correlation between the Economic Freedom Index and annual growth rate of GDP. †¢ The single idea of Mystery of Capital put forth by Hernando de Soto which relates to the security of private property including the ability to borrow against it is also incorrect. Most poor hold their assets such as housing and land. †¢ There is a shortfall of morals which is thought to be the main cause of HIV in Africa. A study shows that Africa men are no different in the average number of sexual partners they have than any other part of the world. †¢ Saving children only to become hungry adults leads to population explosion. Actually it has been shown that the best way to reduce the fertility rate is to increase the economic status. In all parts of the world (except the Middle East) where the fertility rate is over 5 children, those countries are the poorest ones. As children survive, the parents feel less of a need to have more children which is a result of improved economic conditions. †¢ A rising tide lifts all boats. This means extreme poverty will take care of itself because economic development will pull all countries along to improvement. A rising improvement does not reach the hinder lands or mountain tops. †¢ Nature red in tooth and claw means that economic improvement is based on survival of the fittest and those who cannot compete fall behind. This is a Darwin thought which seems to still prevail throughout the world. Competition and struggle are but one side o f the coin which has the other side of trust, cooperation, and collective action. He rejects the doomsayers who saying that ending poverty is impossible. He believes he has identified specific interventions that are needed as well as found ways to plan and implement them at an affordable rate. Chapter Seventeen–Why We Should Do It There are several fallacies which affect the USA’s giving: †¢ The American public greatly overestimates the amount of federal funds spent on foreign aid. The US public believes that the government is providing massive amounts of aid. A 2001 survey by the University of Maryland showed that people felt that US aid accounted for 20% of the federal budget versus the actual of .15%. That is 24 times smaller than the actual figure. †¢ The American public believes that the US military can achieve security for Americans in the absence of a stable world. This has been proven untrue especially with 9/11. †¢ There is a fallacy in belief that there is a war of cultures. For many, this relates to Biblical prophesy of Armageddon and end times. The problem in the US is not opposition to increased foreign aid but a lack of political leadership to inform the public how little the US does supply, and then asking the US public to supply more. Hard evidence has established a strong linkage between extreme poverty abroad and threats to national security. As a general proposition, economic failure (an economy stuck in a poverty trap, banking crisis, debt default or hyper-inflation) often leads to a state failure. A CIA Task force looked at state failures between 1954 and 1994 and found that the following three factors were most significant in state failure: †¢ Very high infant mortality rate suggested that overall low levels of material well-being are a significant factor in state failure. †¢ Openness of the economy showed the more economic linkages a country had with the rest of the world, the lower chance of state failure. †¢ Democratic countries showed fewer propensities to state failure than authoritarian regimes. He then reviews what the US government has committed to since 9/11: †¢ Provide resources to aid countries that have met national reform. †¢ Improve effectiveness of the World Bank and other development banks in raising living standards. †¢ Insist on measurable results to ensure that development assistance is actually making a difference in the lives of the world’s poor. †¢ Increase the amount of development assistance that is provided in the form of grants, not loans. †¢ Since trade and investment are the real engines of economic growth, open societies to commerce and investment. †¢ Secure public health. †¢ Emphasize education. †¢ Continue to aid agricultural development. In reality, little progress has been done by the US to the accomplishment of these goals. But he does spend time discussing where plans were established and that funds were flowing where massive amounts of aid were provided by the USA: †¢ End of World War II with the Marshall Plan which revitalized Europe and Japan. †¢ Jubilee 2000 Drop the Debt Campaign started slow but ended up with large amount of national debt being cancelled in the poorest of countries. †¢ The Emergency Plan for HIV is providing $15 billion to fight this pandemic. The bottom line of this chapter is, â€Å"OK, USA and other rich countries, you are saying good things, now step-up to the plate and do what you have agreed to do.† Chapter Eighteen–Our Generation’s Challenge Our generation is heir to two and a half centuries of economic progress. We can realistically envision a world without extreme poverty by the year 2025 because of technological progress which enables us to meet basic needs on a global scale. We can also achieve a margin above basic needs unprecedented in history. Until the Industrial Revolution, humanity had known only unending struggles against famine, pandemic disease, and extreme poverty–all compounded by cycles of war, and political despotism. At the same time, Enlightenment thinkers began to envision the possibility of sustained social progress in which science and technology could be harnessed to achieve sustained improvements in the organization of social, political, and economic life. He proposes four thinkers which led this movement: †¢ Thomas Jefferson and other founders of the American Republic led the thought that political institutions could be fashioned consciously to meet the needs of society through a human-made political system. †¢ Adam Smith believed that the economic system could similarly be shaped to meet human need and his economic design runs parallel to Jefferson’s political designs. †¢ Immanuel Kant called for an appropriate global system of governance to end the age-old scourge of war. †¢ Science and technology, fueled by human reason can be a sustained force for social improvement and human betterment led by Francis Bacon and Marie-Jean-Antoine Condorcet. Condorcet put much emphasis on public education to accomplish the goals. One of the most abiding commitments of the Enlightenment was the idea that social progress should be universal and not restricted to a corner of Western Europe. He said now it is our generation’s turn to help foster the following: †¢ Political systems that promote human well-being †¢ Economic systems that spread the benefits of science, technology, and division of labor to all parts of the world. †¢ International cooperation in order to secure a perpetual peace. †¢ Science and technology, grounded in human rationality, to fuel the continued prospects for improving the human condition. He then spends three or four pages discussing the good and bad points of the Anti-globalization Movement which is taking place. He also spends time discussing three movements which made these kind of changes in the world in their time: †¢ The end of Slavery †¢ The end of Colonization †¢ The Civil Rights and Anti-Apartheid Movement He closes with discussing the next steps which are: †¢ Commit to ending poverty †¢ Adopt a plan of action built around the Millennium Development Goals †¢ Raise the voice of the poor †¢ Redeem the role of the United States in the world †¢ Rescue the IMF and World Bank †¢ Strengthen the United Nations †¢ Harness global science †¢ Promote sustainable development †¢ Make a personal commitment to become involved Summary This is an interesting book with new perspectives for me, and which is beginning to be taken seriously by the world. I believe, as stated earlier, that MAI’s role is on-the-ground solutions for ending poverty through CHE which is spelled out in Chapter 12. But, as also noted, we can do it at a far lower cost than he estimates because of our commitment to empowering people to do things on their own and primarily with their own funds.