Summary Ben Carson Story

According to the movie, Ben Carson grew up from the poor family with his mother is non-education. She is only a maid in the rich man's house. One day during cleaning his house, Ben's mother learned that reading a book is better than spending the time in front of television. She suddenly got back home to force her children to spend their time in the library every day. They also have to summarize what they got from the books. This is the beginning of pulling Ben's intelligence out.Another one day in is science class, the teacher asked his student about how to find the solution of the Log. There is no one can get the right answer, but Ben who know how to get the result of Log. He surprised everyone with realizing he is not a stupid boy. In the university life he got a scholarship from Yale University. He became very the youngest neurosurgeon doctor. After his first successful surgeon by separating conjoined twins joined at the head he is very popular in the medias. Reflection – ( A few lessons I learnt and how I can apply them to my degree at UNC)There is no final destination for studying In our life. It Is our choice to study In anytime and anywhere from the books. The more we read the more we get knowledge from the world. Books can open your mind and pull out your Intelligence and ability. From now on, I think the best way to Improve my own life Is reading more than yesterday. During my master's life In UNC, I will spend my time In the library more than another place. Keep going and keep reading might make my life here easier.

Fast food and homemade food Essay

Homemade food is better than fast food because it’s healthy, cheaper, and you control what’s in your food. Food is the most important thing that keeps us alive so we have to choose wisely on what we eat. But some people choose to eat meals that are giving to you in less than five minutes than a meal that takes thirty or more minutes. Fast food and homemade food also have their similarities because you could choose what you want to eat and when you want it. Fast food attracts people because its ready to go anytime of the day and many people don’t have that time to actually make a meal. Many people rely on fast food because it’s convenient to them and you could find a fast food place at almost any corner in a town. Everyone is busy you’re a college student, you work a lot, or your kids are keeping you busy so you are always in a rush so you don’t have the time to make a actual meal but that doesn’t mean your eating habits have to be a rush. When you’re making food at home you have control of the ingredients going in and what’s not going in. When eating fast food you don’t know if its health because you don’t know what is being put in the food you’re eating. For example, you could go to McDonalds and get a hamburger from the dollar menu or make your own at home, they both look the same and are probably going to be the same size but the differences between them are the calories in the hamburger and the tastes. By making your own you know what kind of percent of fat is in the meat. Almost all fast food restaurants look for deals so they would buy meat that has more percent of fat because it’s cheaper than meat that has less percent of fat. People keep feeding their kids fast food but what they don’t think about is it could lead their children to obesity in the future. By feeding them home made food you will have more control of their weight and they will have more energy throughout the day. Cooking at home dose take time out of your day but you also save much more  money than eating out because when you cook at home you could cook one meal and that meal could last you all day or you could save the food for the next day. For example you could buy a five pound bag of chicken breast and use it for different types of meals for the week. Also, cooking at home could bring you family together and make the preparation go by faster. Both fast food and homemade food have differences and similarities. Fast food is more convenient and takes less time were as homemade food is healthier and saves you money.

Case on Air Deccan

Case Study Strategic management Evaluation II AIR DECCAN: REVOLUTIONISING THE INDIAN SKIES Air Travel in India For decades, air travel in India was meant for the most elite and powerful in society. An overwhelming majority of travellers who could not afford the prohibitive air travel fares, preferred to journey on trains and buses. The revolutionizing effects of liberalization swept India with dynamic changes in the aviation sector. From being a service that few could afford, the sector has now graduated to being a fiercely competitive industry with the presence of a number of private and public airlines and several consumer-oriented offerings. In ten years of competition in the aviation sector, private airlines have changed the rules of the game, and they now account for more than 60 % of the domestic aviation market. More and more middle class families in India now prefer air travel to the more traditional travel by train. In 2003, 10 million Indians travelled by air domestically. In 2004, 25 million took to the skies within India and 6 million Indians travelled abroad. The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation estimates that the domestic Indian market will add 5 million passengers every year for the next five years, growing to 45 million passengers by 2010. Today, the relationship of domestic to international travel stands at 40:60 whereas in 1994 it stood at only 25:75. But taking into account a growing middle class with increased and increasing purchasing power, there are 200-210 million potential spenders. The Indian population grows at a rate of 8% per year. Around 100 million travellers every day on state-owned Indian Railways, If air travel bites into even a small percentage of this huge pie, that’s still clearly a tremendous growth opportunity. The entry of budget airlines like Air Deccan, the introduction of cheap airfares by other domestic carriers, combined with rising incomes and consumption of the middle class as also their growing aspirations, have created this new paradigm: Air travel is no longer for the elite. Air Travel Market The new entrants have caused a shift in the market share for the old hands. The three legacy airlines, Jet Airways, state-owned Indian and Air Sahara, saw their market share slipping in first quarter of this year. Jet Airways, still the leader, found its share of market volumes slipping with 34. 9%. Indian at 23. 9% and Air Deccan at 10% followed suit. Low-cost airlines are certainly giving a tough time to full service carriers whose market share has dipped, as has their revenue. Fares have been slashed drastically and both Jet Airways and Indian are wooing the consumers with special schemes and promotions. Several new entrants such as Air Deccan, SpiceJet, GoAir, Kingfisher and Paramount have begun to dot Indian airspace, garnering a market share of more than 31% in the first quarter of 2006. The leader among this brat-pack is clearly Air Deccan – the airline has doubled its market share to 15. 2 per cent. Kingfisher and SpiceJet have captured a market share of 8. 3 per cent and 6 per cent respectively. Coimbatore-based Paramount Airways has publicly confirmed garnering 0. 3% of the market. Jeh Wadia’s GoAir is also going great guns by cornering 1. 6% of the air traffic in a short time span. These airlines took to the skies after the first quarter of last year. All the airlines have seen an increase in the number of passengers carried in the first quarter. With all the start-ups planning significant increases in capacity this year — Kingfisher (fleet may go up to 20 planes), Deccan (38 planes), SpiceJet (12/14 planes), Go (7/9 planes) and Paramount (10 planes) — the market is set to sizzle. The market is gearing up for an adventurous ride of price wars as six more low-budget airlines waiting in the wings – Jagson Airlines, King Air, Mega Airways, Indus Air and Megapode Airline. IndiGo has made its entry as well, with ambitious plans to induct 100 aircraft into its fleet. According to analysts, airfares will continue to nosedive, as nearly 200 new aircraft will be added to the existing 250 aircraft in the country. All this translates to further downward revision of fares and packaged offers for passengers. Lessons The case is replete with illustrations of how Captain Gopinath crafted the company from scratch. He went on a ‘boot strapping' mode, which is the hallmark of a successful entrepreneur. The constancy of purpose, focus and humility are evident. His ability to sense opportunities from chance encounters (such as a visit to the USA or the Southeast Asian countries) are out of the ordinary experience. These and many other qualities are a ‘must have' list of qualities of a successful entrepreneur. Anyone aspiring to succeed in an entrepreneurial venture will do well to emulate these qualities, among others. Rise of Air Deccan â€Å"It hit me like a ton of bricks. This country has a population of a billion, but only 15 million air passengers. May be the time is right. If one billion people can fly, and we get a miniscule percent of the market, imagine how big that will be? It's not an impossible dream. † – Captain Gopinath, in The Hindu, Sunday, August 15, 2004 Air Deccan, India's first Low-cost Airline (LCA), started off with more of a whimper than a bang in September 2003 with an aborted maiden flight from Hyderabad that didn't quite make it off the ground when a fire broke out in one of its engines. Adding to the embarrassment was the presence of the then Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Pratap Singh Rudy and other senior Indian politicians on the flight. The press had a field day criticizing the ‘maestro behind the mayhem ‘Captain Gopinath, the Managing Director of Air Deccan. There were many prophesies of doom by competing airlines and industry analysts who were convinced that the bad publicity with which the airline took off would drive away customers. Captain Gopinath, however, remained unfazed and calmly went about doing what he did best succeeding at the task that he had set out to do. Making a shaky start with just two ATR turbo-prop aircraft in September 2003, Air Deccan now operates 75 flights a day to around 32 destinations in India and has increased its fleet to three Airbus 320's and seven ATR 42's. This flock of aircraft is constantly growing. As of March 2004, Air Deccan has recorded annual revenues of $120 mn (Rs. 5520 mn) with a passenger load as high as 83% across sectors and some routes like Bangalore-Hyderabad and Bangalore-Goa, recording 100% loads (Exhibit 1 and 2). In December 2004 Captain Gopinath cut a deal with Airbus, the world's largest manufacturer of civil aircraft, for the purchase of 30 A320 aircraft valued at over $1. 4 bn. The delivery of these new aircraft will commence in 2007. While the airbus will operate on trunk routes, the smaller airports will be connected with ATR's. The company has signed a deal with ATR for supply of 30 aircraft over the next few years, of which half will be on lease and the rest will be purchased. A distinctive strength of Air Deccan vis-a-vis any of the big three airlines in the country (Indian Airlines, Jet Airways and Sahara) is its ability to penetrate into the small towns of India. This provides the company almost an exclusive access , to 75% of the population of the country that lives in small towns and rural areas. Air Deccan has been instrumental in getting the Government to open up many of these small town airports, some of which had fallen into disuse over the years. In contrast to the swanky airports of the big cities Such as Mumbai and Chennai, these more modest cousins need very little investment on the part of the government to recommission them and the ‘airport terminal’ is often no more than a tin shed or a thatched hut. But according to Captain Gopinath, ‘What the hell, they serve their purpose’. This obsessive focus o costs and functionality is perhaps what best epitomizes the philosophy of the main behind Air Deccan. The Low Cost Business Model: A popular mantra Air Deccan triggered the race to the bottom in the low cost sector. Their model forced the industry to move from having simple economy, business and first class fares, to multiple slab tariffs such as apex fares, internet auctions, special discounts, bulk purchases and last day fares. Some of the tariffs offered are so low that they have brought airline fares neck-to-neck with upper class railway fares. This low cost model is two-fold: offering connectivity between smaller cities and major metros and making air travel a feasible option to a new class of passengers. The features and benefits of the model are listed in the table below: Features| Benefits| Ticketless travel & Online ticket sales| Reduction of huge costs of printing| No international offices| and processing tickets. | Use of secondary city airports| Lower landing and parking costs in| No frequent flyer points| secondary city airports| No free food & beverages/in-flight magazines| High seat capacity due to nil storage of food| No club lounges| Minimal training (of pilots) and| Same aircraft types | maintenance (of spares for different types of aircrafts) costs. | Separate ticket for each sector/flight|   | No premium class|   | Short haul flights| Quicker turnaround and higher aircraft utilization | Challenges and constraints still persist: * India is a very cost conscious society, hence market is very sensitive to air fares * Internet based solutions limited-Bandwidth restrictions and low internet penetration * Changing needs of the business traveller puts more pressure on the travel agents to offer wide variety * Travel agents still the first choice for air bookings * While aviation is centrally managed, the regional structure of India’s government and regulations, combined with the often regional management of airline companies, has created a fragmented market for corporate travel. STRATEGY The challenges that the company has to face are now only beginning. In the initial stages of the company, many of the established players (Indian Airlines, Jet Airways and Sahara) would have trivialized the company and not expected it to reach the level it has reached now . Suddenly, the company has appeared as a big dot on the radar screen of  these well-established players. The existing paradigm is that running an airline requires large funding, something that Captain Gopinath lacked. Hence, the existing players would have concluded that this venture was bound to fail. However, there was a lot of  entrepreneurial creativity manifested by Captain Gopi that helped him make his dream a reality, and today Air Deccan is a force to reckon with. Besides, many other ‘me too' low cost airlines are already on the anvil. The Government and the realities are also things to reckon with. Participant teams may identify other challenges as well. How Captain Gopi and his team will deal with all these identified challenges will make observation interesting. Strategy as per the porter’s force model: Kingfisher Red Oct. 17–MUMBAI, India — Kingfisher airlines has signed up with Air-Deccan to buy out the Bangalore-based low-cost airline's extra ASKMs (available seat kilometres) on category 2, 2A and 3 routes. The Vijay Mallya promoted airline will buy about 800,000 ASKMs for the months of October and November, which will enable it to continue its expansion on the metro routes. The DGCA guidelines require airlines flying on the primary routes to fly a certain percentage of their total flights on other, less popular routes. Growth: Indian Travel is on a roll†¦here’s why In India, travel and tourism activity is expected to grow by 8. 0% per annum in real terms between 2007 and 2016. As per World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), India will emerge as the second-fastest growing tourism economy globally between 2005 and 2014, second only to by China. Successful promotions such as the Tourism Ministry's hit â€Å"Incredible India† multimedia campaign and the budget air travel boom are reckoned to have contributed to the tourism gold rush. Summary: Indian Skies are experiencing a new dawn: * Rising income and consumer confidence in key markets-personal travel demand on an increase * Travel liberalization gathering pace * Leisure travel increasingly more affordable * Low Cost Carriers are reshaping air travel, leading to regional liberalization * Branded hotels with air routes have discovered India in exotic places like Goa and the North East * Airport privatisation of Mumbai and Delhi progress and confidence develops in creating tourism infrastructure

Agile Software Development Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Agile Software Development - Research Paper Example Agile accelerates the development process while maintaining the flexibility of adjusting to changing requirements through iterative development (Dingsoyr et al., 2010, p. 33). This report gives an overview of agile method of software development. It presents a brief technical comparison with the traditional, non-iterative waterfall model, the intent and guiding principles for agile methods, the people involved its advantages and disadvantages, two common agile methodologies and lastly the future of agile. 2. Agile vs. Waterfall In contrast to the traditional non-incremental models such as waterfall, agile does not have distinct phases of capturing requirements, forming architecture and design, development, testing and incorporating feedback as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1 Waterfall Model In agile all these phases are meshed up as can be seen in Figure 2. The intent is to develop a feature set in a way the customer wants. A release of the system is built on the initial requirements wit h respect to the features set provided by the customer, the miniature system is then tested by the customer, requirements are revised and readjusted into the release and then the new system release based on some other remaining features is built. Hence, there is only one similarity present between the traditional non-iterative waterfall model and agile model which is with regards to the testing phase. Agile model has a distinct testing phase as well which is a common process in all of the iterations. Generally, the testing phase comprises of two categories of testing; unit testing done from developer’s perspective and acceptance testing carried out from customer’s perspective. ... The difference lies in the fact that in agile, the developers and the customers are in close communication with each other while in waterfall, the case is different. In waterfall, the testing is done as per the set of requirements and design details initially put together in form of documents in the initial phases of the software cycle. Customer involvement is limited to merely the requirements capturing phase. Any change of requirements on part of customer is not guaranteed to be incorporated in the system. Therefore, agile provides a worthwhile alternative to the heavy-weight document-driven software development methodologies such as waterfall. 3. Agile vs. Rapid Application Development Agile is an incremental model similar to Rapid application development (RAD) model (Linger & Fisher, 2004, p. 180). Figure 3 shows the RAD process. In RAD, initial set of requirements are used to design a prototype for customers to test. The prototype helps customers in realizing the system requirem ents as mostly the customers are unaware of what they want. Figure 3 Rapid Application Development In agile, the underlying model is the same as RAD except that the delivery is made in form of releases that contain a subset of features. Unlike prototypes in RAD, these releases are supposed to be complete miniature software fulfilling a portion of the feature set. The customer defines a set of features and provides a brief detail of how the system must offer these features. A release based on a subset of the features is built within a specified interval and is tested for acceptance by the customer. Any changes requested are adjusted through constant cooperation with the

Paris Adult Theatre v. Slaton Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Paris Adult Theatre v. Slaton - Assignment Example To prove the seriousness of the matter, the complainant claimed that the films were contrary to section 26-2101 of the Georgia code, since their main themes were extremely immoral, and had negative impacts on the society and too openly addressed matters of sex (Cornell University Law School). The language of 26-2101 considered intentional distribution of obscene materials as a crime, and therefore provided criminal penalties to anyone found doing the same. However, these proceedings did not, in any way, base its arguments on that precedence. The state used a non-statutory civil proceeding to prove the materials as obscene and thereafter disapprove of their presentation to the public. The parties agreed that they would accept the court’s ruling, on the obscenity, as penultimate. However, the state did not say whether it would place a criminal action against the defendant if the obscenity of the films would be proven (Cornell University Law School). The hearing was set for January 13, 1971 by the trial court after receiving the complaints. As a result, the court ordered the defendants not to interfere with the films or even remove them from the jurisdiction. They were, however, not ordered to stop showing the films to the public. During the proceedings, the trial court watched the films and heard the testimonies from various witnesses. In addition, the court accepted photographs with outside look of the theatre. The witnesses confirmed that the theatre had the signs â€Å"Adults Only,† â€Å"You Must Be 21 and Able to Prove It,† and â€Å"If the Nude Body Offends You, Do Not Enter,† written on its exterior. The designs did not provide any further information on the contents of these films, and there were no pictures to entice the public to the films. No witness claimed to have seen any minor in the premise, even though there was no evidence that the

Curriculum review circle Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Curriculum review circle - Research Paper Example The reviews may think they have all the time and end up taking a lot of time in the review process. Another major problem that is still notable with the LaCrescent-Hokah School District Curriculum Improvement Plan is the fact that the various stages at some point seem to overlap one another. The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (1999) explained on the need to be able to distinguish the various stages in the review process. However for LaCrescent-Hokah School District, stages five and six seems to be similar. Almost same activities are carried out with the only distinction being the two parts. This makes it not so easy to distinguish which stage the review has reached. This may become difficult to determine the progress of the review. A look at the three programs however shows that there is some similarity in the way they are structured. The initial stages involve the determination of what is there at present. This is the data collection. The information obtained is then analyzed and reviewed to determine what needs to be added onto the curriculum. It’s tested for what is working and what is not with proper revision made on them. Then the proposals are implemented as planned. While this is taking place, issues that may arise are dealt with. What does not work is avoided while any revision necessary are made. Then full implementation is ensured. For the success of any change to be implemented in any organization or sector proper involvement of the stakeholders is absolutely import. The same case applies to the implementation of the Curriculum Review Cycle. The various stakeholders as identified by Office for standards in education (OFSTED), (1995) must all be brought on board the development and implementation process. The teachers whole are the leading implementers in the review process must be all provide with the knowledge,

Echo Planar Imaging, or EPI, Fast Imaging Techniques (MRI) Essay - 1

Echo Planar Imaging, or EPI, Fast Imaging Techniques (MRI) - Essay Example Different results have been found from different body areas which have varying magnetic field strengths thus such body areas end up having varying processional water frequencies. Blood has been observed to have the highest susceptibility as it has iron contents as one of its components. Compositions based on water also have high susceptibility in comparison with air (McRobbie 2007) (a) List the parameters that could be changed to optimize the EPI image in this case, plus how you would change the parameter (i.e. increase or decrease). (2 marks) Slew rate and the receiver bandwidth Each of the listed parameters has a different way of changing it. For example, the case of slew rate increment, an overall reduction in echo spacing as well as reduction in geometric distortion is required for it to be altered. For receiver bandwidth to be increased, an overall reduction in echo spacing, signal to noise ratio and geometric distortion need to be lowered (Van Der Zwaag, at el. 2012, p. 129) In a normal scenario, MR equipments take their time until the trapezoid gradient gets to the flat top. When this time comes, the data points will then be sampled by the MR equipments in the direction of the frequency. This implies that no data acquisition takes place during the rise time. The rise time refers to the time when the gradient is not yet at its minimum or maximum amplitude. However, by employing ramp sampling method, the data points witnessed during the readout gradient switching can be acquired during the rise time. a) Two different features can be used while employing ramp sampling, and they include; 1. Having the geometric distortion minimized; ramp sampling can be used to reduce the flat top while at the same time keeping the Nx constant. This implies that the echo spacing can be decreased consequently minimizing geometric distortion. 2. Increasing resolution; by keeping the flat top at the same level, more Nx data points can be fitted during readout and thus increasin g the overall resolution. b). Using Conjugate Synthesis; Conjugate synthesis is a symmetry property which means that only half of the raw data spaces in the whole MR can be acquired to come up with a Mr image that is complete. The most desirable means to achieving high resolution during a single shot EPI experiments is through having the readout duration on the ky to be as long as possible so as to have only the negative and positive kx values. c). Slew rate enhancement d). Echo train length reduction e) Making use of shimming to minimize distortion d). Employing parallel imaging to minimize echo spacing f) . Making use of Multi shot EPI so as to ensure that there are no cases of phase errors building up. g). Through increasing the TE which will in turn increase the transverse magnetization hence larger T2* and T2 (b) Discuss the chain of consequences if you optimize the image by increasing the receiver bandwidth. (4 marks) Receiver bandwidth generally describes how fast an MR signa l can be digitized. In cases where the receiver bandwidth is generally higher, there is a corresponding faster digitization of the produced image. This is because the aspect of receiver bandwidth is inversely proportional to the time taken during the imaging process. The receiver bandwi

Integrated Seminar in Hospitality and Tourism Management Case Study

Integrated Seminar in Hospitality and Tourism Management - Case Study Example Riley (2012) states that the economic balance between exports and imports has been achieved gradually in the year 2000 due to increase in exports to the U.S.A, Europe, Africa and Asia. India’s contribution to world exports has risen from 0.6% in 1993 to 1.5% in 2010, symbolising 150% increase. In addition, India has balanced its trading in Asia, especially China. India’s major advantage is notably its large population and demographics. According to IMF population statistics, the number of working citizens from the age of 15-64 years has been increasing over the years due to rapid population increase. However, the fertility rate has decreased; therefore, leading to the workforce, increasing as the amount of dependants increase. If the low fertility rates persist, India will face an increased ageing population and the dependency ratio will rise. However, the demographic advantages will increase and continue until 2050 (Riley, 2012). The Indian government will continue to be cooperative to foreign investors since they are the main contributing factors for the economy. The government’s policies have created a business environment attractive to foreign investors. The government has taken initiatives in sectors such as telecom, securities exchange, defence, and oil refineries in a bid to encourage foreign investments. 2) Do the deeper pockets (cash and other resources) of international hotel chains give them a competitive advantage over domestic chains? If the advantage exists, is the advantage of deep pockets a sustainable advantage? Starwood Hotel and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. has an added advantage over the local chains due to its capital and infrastructure. Over the years, the distress in India’s hospitality industry has crippled local hotel chains with debts. As a result, Starwood capitalised on this to save on costs by simply branding already existing hotel properties throughout the

Donald Judd Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Donald Judd - Research Paper Example remember Judd for his contribution to a form of art known as Minimalist art, architecture, his influence in modern sculpture, and many other artistic forms. Below, we explore the various forms of art that made Judd popular and have his name to be top on the list of the most influential artists. Artists and people remember Judd for using a collection of three forms: boxes, stacks, and progression that he applied throughout the thirty years of his career in art. When he began his work and practice in art, in the 1940s, his sculptural objects predominantly took the arrangement of shallow reliefs. The same concepts became evident in his work, as the artist employed commercial fabricators to get the shapes that he desired. Commercial fabricators assisted him in maintaining the simple forms of boxes and stacks, which he would often set according to sequential or repeated progressions. Judd’s idea of boxes, stacks, and progression differed and still varies from most of the art that we have in the world today. Donald Judd named his three dimensional art specific. While other forms of art were general, his was specific (Wintle 388). The various shows and artworks presented by Judd all through the years in which he practiced art exhibit how he used the same forms and pieces i n specific ways. His application of specific objects in his form of art led to his involvement and promotion of the minimalist art. Judd was a distinguished figure, who stood at the forefront of Minimalism – a word that he detested, during the 1960s and part of the 1970s. Minimal art refers to a school of sculpture and abstract painting where the artist keeps any form of expression to the bare minimal to give a total literal presence. Some regard minimalist art as extremely simple and deliberate lack of content to express. Although many forms of art fall into the description of minimal art, the name referred to artwork that sprung during the 1960s. During that time, some critics of art preferred

Reflection and analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Reflection and analysis - Essay Example The research adopted the sources because they explained about a method of control for those who are already addicts. For example the adoption of the â€Å"Placebo control method† which was a trial that was tried out to help control a condition that results from cannabis use called spasticity. (Jodey Corey-Bloom,2012) One of the sources of this research was about cannabis. The author was Jodey Corey-Bloom and the title is ‘Smoked cannabis for spasticity in multiple sclerosis; a randomized placebo-controlled trial’ The research focused on marijuana as one of the hard drugs that are commonly abused by academic people and so it would give a clear picture of what these drugs cause to academic people leading to academic downfalls. The objective of this literature review was to find out the short term effects of smoked cannabis on spasticity and it helped me identify the placebo-controlled method of identifying symptoms of cannabis suffering victim. A placebo controlled trial was passed to adults suffering from the symptom of spasticity. It was found out that smoked cannabis had much worse symptoms and pain reduction to those patients who had treatment resistant spasticity. Spasticity is described as one of the symptoms of sclerosis. This helps the reader to know one of the side effects of cannabis. (Jodey Corey-Bloom, 2012) The other source I adopted was Lower Cannabis use guidelines for Canada; A narrative review of evidence and recommendations. The author was Benedict Fisher. The objective of the paper was to develop Lower Risk Cannabis Use Guidelines based on researched evidence on adverse effects of cannabis. The literature review helped me to come up with recommendations by constituting viable tools for reducing the risk of cannabis use on an individual and on a population based on certain factors such as frequency of the drug use. Therefore, I was able to come up with a recommendation that the only way to avoid health effects is to abstain from use of

Is a Shared Services Model of Human Resources an Effective Way to Essay

Is a Shared Services Model of Human Resources an Effective Way to Deliver HR Services - Essay Example For many organizations, it takes much time and efforts to overcome resistance to change and than, start to implement "a shared services model". Another "con" of the approach is that some organizations do not need centralization of their activities. Very often employees are neglected during the development of "a shared services model", so they feel lack of motivation and lack of training which resulted in failure. "A shared services model" is not only a cost reduction method, but a new system of administration. In changing economic environment, "a shared services model" becomes one of the most widely spread business strategies. The main problem faced by the companies today is that, in some cases, implementation of '"a shared services model" fails. And instead of benefits and cost saving companies have to make additional spending to restore their strong position. The concept of shared services is not new. It was introduced by Ulrich in 1995, but recent years, this concept becomes "a buzz word" (Shared Services, 2005). The main mistake made by some companies is that "a shared services model" is treated as universal "panacea" for managing people and organisations as it is intimately involved with the environment in general. The issue of a "shared services model" is controversial, because it is impossible to develop a single problem solving approach for all types of organisations and management styles. In some cases, "a shared services model" shows a great potential for organisations to save costs and implement quality services. Unfortunately, there are many organisations unable to implement changes connected with and caused by a "shared services model" as well as unable to foresee limitations of this model for their performance. The preliminary research finds out that "a shared services model" has disadvantages and a negative impact on the successful implementation of quality services as organizational structure is often neglected in the operational change. So, the aim of the paper is to examine and analyze disadvantages of "a shared services model" and to determine the main factors of poor implementation of "a shared services model" which caused it to fail. It is important to note that this is not a completely new concept, because it embodies the principles of commercial partnerships. "Organizations in other industry sectors have been using shared service centers for a decade or more to achieve economies of scale and drive greater process consistency, especially in geographically or organizationally dispersed business units" (Harris, 2004). Literature Review In 1995, David Ulrich in his article "Shared services: from vogue to value" (published in Human Resource Planning) described the concept of a "shared services model". Nevertheless, a slogan "the user is the chooser" created by David Ulrich became the core of this model. In 1997, David Ulrich published a book "Human Resource Champion" giving theoretical background of the concept and practical advice for those who want to implement a "shared service model". The limitation of his study is that he does not pay much attention to possible limitations of this model. Another guru of "a shared service model", P. Reilly (2000), gives detailed overview of the concept in his work "HR shared services and the realignment of HR".

Interracial Marriage Essay Example for Free

Interracial Marriage Essay Interracial marriage is used to describe marriages that take place between people who are from different linguistic, religious, or nations or ethnic groups. There are substantial increases in the number of individuals engaging in interracial. Relationships between people from different ethnic and cultural groups are becoming increasingly common because of globalization and improvement of technology. Internet technology has brought together the world in that people can enter into a relationship with anyone from any countries. In some countries, it is against the law to marry someone of a different race. These countries include Germany during the Nazi period, South Africa under apartheid, and some states in the United States before a 1969 ruling. In some Arab countries, it is forbidden for an Arab to marry outside their race because of the law and traditional customs. If an Arab person marries someone out of their race, their civil rights are taken away from them. In 2008, Pakistani senators allowed women to be buried alive if they married someone outside their race. People Most Attracted to Intercultural Relationships/ Marriages To begin the series on intercultural marriage, beginning with a discussion about who exactly tends to be most attracted to intercultural relationships/marriages in the first place seems like a good place to start. It’s certainly not for everyone, as mixed marriages are full of unique challenges that married people from the same culture may never face. In Romano’s book â€Å"Intercultural Marriage,† she lists 5 common types of people who tend to be involved in intercultural relationships. The first type is the Romantic type: those who see people from other cultures as exotic, fascinating, and thrilling. These people may find people from their own culture boring and predictable, and thrive in the mystique of people from far away and foreign lands. The second type is the Compensator. These people often feel like something is missing from their lives and believe they have found it in another person or culture, as they believe elements from that person/culture fulfills what is missing from their own. Romano notes that this type is found even in couples who marry from their own cultures, who are simply looking for someone to fulfill what they lacked growing up. Rebels are slightly different from the compensators in that they dislike much about their own culture and are intent on finding someone from somewhere else. Sometimes they have a specific target culture in mind; other times they simply take whatever fate brings them. Internationals, the next type of people drawn to intercultural marriage, are those who lived outside their native countries for most of their lives, and are typically children of missionaries, diplomats, military personnel, and so on. These people often do not feel as though they completely belong to one particular culture, as they tend to have been influenced by several cultures and therefore have a wide appreciation and love for differences. The final category is comprised of others. These people may not fit into their society and often are ostracized from it. Finding love in a different culture is a way to find a place to fit in and be accepted. Some of them are not considered to be attractive in their native culture, and have better luck in another culture. Others are part of a minority and find acceptance in another culture. Still others live in poverty and marry as a way to improve their quality of life. Barriers Oftentimes, couples in intercultural marriages face barriers that most married couples of the same culture are not exposed to. Intercultural marriages are often influenced by external factors that can create dissonance and disagreement in relationships. Different cultures endure vastly diverse moral, ethical and value foundations that influence their perceptions of individual, family and societal lifestyle. When these foundations are operating alongside the foundation of different cultural roots, as in intercultural marriages, problems and disagreement oftentimes occur. 1. Family and Society The most common external factors influencing intercultural relationships and marriages are the acceptance of the family and the society in which the couple lives. Sometimes, the families of the partners display rejection, resistance, hostility and lack of acceptance for their kin’s partner. Specific issues regarding the family; including generational gaps in ideology, and how the wedding will be held; which ties into how tradition will or will not be practiced. Many intercultural couples report conflict arising over issues of how to carry out child raising and religious worship as well. 2. Language In a mixed marriage where the partners do not share the same mother tongue, the language in which they decide to communicate at home can be symbolic of the extent to which each partner is prepared to forego his or her cultural background and incorporate new elements. There may also be elements of control and dependence in the choice of language when one partner refuses to learn the other’s language. There is a case-study of a so-called bought bride from Asia. The German husband had no knowledge of her language, while she could speak some English, but no German. Communication in such a relationship proved to be extremely difficult, and all decisions and dealings with the outside world where necessarily undertaken by the German husband. The wife could not find any but the most menial jobs where the necessity of understanding was limited, which further increased her economic dependence on him. 3. Communication Style Intercultural couples may possess differing communication styles. Individuals from a high context culture are not verbally explicit in their communication behaviors. These cultures typically consist of eastern world countries where collectivism and relational harmony underlie communication behavior. By contrast, individuals from a low context culture use direct and obvious communication styles to convey information. In situations where marriage occurs between two people from differing communication contextual backgrounds, conflict may arise from relational challenges posed by the underlying assumptions of high/low context cultures. Challenges posed by differing communication styles are common among intercultural marriage couples. The longer the two individuals have existed in the current culture the less likely this is to pose an issue. If one or more partners within the marriage is relatively new to the dominant culture, the likelihood for conflict to unfold o n these bases increases. Solution/ Suggestions 1. Learn How to Appreciate One of the ways to deal with interracial dating issues is acceptance of partner the way he or she is. Most issues arise when one or both partners want to have their way in everything that they do. It is therefore important to ensure that they appreciate their wife or husband with all his or her cultural practices. Since they come different regions, differences in the way of life are bound to happen. They must desist from criticizing each other based on cultural grounds or race. As a matter of fact they must never stereotype or generalize happenings as this can be the cause of interracial conflicts. If they are willing to love, understand and respect each other’s differences, you’re on the right track. 2. Learn More about the Culture Another thing they need to do in order to solve issues with interracial relationships is to study each other well before engaging. Discuss the symbolism or significance of each other’s important cultural traditions. Understanding the significance of these traditions will help to understand them. This will help them to have a more natural, familiar feeling toward the others traditions, accept and embrace the culture of the other. After some time, they will even feel the desire to incorporate culture into their own family traditions. Besides, they need to know what values their partner stands for and to establish whether they can accommodate them. When they understand their partner in advance, it becomes easier for them to solve any interracial dating concerns. One advantage of being married to someone from another country is to get travel from time to time. When they can travel, make sure to visit the spouses family and learn about their culture firsthand. Furthermore this prepares them for the future thus allowing them to solve situations better. 3. Maintain Contact with Family It is essential that foreign spouse keeps in contact with his or her family, especially as they are probably a long way from each other. With time, he or she will feel of longing for their family, homesickness, and even possible loneliness and depression. It is necessary that he or she can keep contact to his or her family. Today, the Internet and sites like Facebook and Twitter make this type of contact much easier, and your spouse happier. Help your spouse to develop friendships with people from his or her country or families that speak their language somehow so that they will know more people and may feel at home

Is Democracy Compatible with Liberal Markets?

Is Democracy Compatible with Liberal Markets? â€Å"Is democracy compatible with liberal markets?† Part I: Introduction: This paper seeks to explore if there is a possibility of coexistence between democracy and liberal markets. This paper argues that these two are compatible; the pillar on which this argument is built is that the two concepts are inseparable because they share the common heritage of being able to flourish under conditions of freedom.[1] Because of this, it becomes impossible for any other form of government to fit so neatly with liberal markets as democracy. The methodologies adapted, the problems encountered in the process, the arguments this thesis question addresses, and the case study proffered to support this thesis question are spelt out in the forthcoming sections. Part II: Summary: The fall of communism in the early 1990’s brought about an economic and political order that replaced the bipolar system. The extent and power of this change has been too dramatic to be described in simple words; the engine that has propelled this change has been democracy, capitalism and with it, liberal markets. While these may not have been the sole factors for the collapse of communism, the world order that came about following this event has certainly been driven wholly by these factors. Despite various arguments against the virtues of capitalism and market-driven economies, it is an ineluctable fact that this is a system that has come to stay. The bedrock on which liberal markets are built is democracy. This is because of the simple fact that communism as well as authoritarianism and liberal markets are as greatly antithetical to each other as is democracy to state-controlled economies. Hence, it follows that if there is an element of compatibility between the p resent political and economic systems, it has to be between democracy and liberal markets. This is not to suggest that each is an easy, automatic and inevitable part of the other; this position encounters enormous stumbling blocks, as listed in Part III of this paper. This leaves the paper its chief difficulty, that of the quandary over which position to assume, in light of equally strident, contradictory viewpoints about the compatibility of the two. One of the ways by which this paper seeks to extricate itself from the task of examining such broad and seamless concepts is in adapting Giovanni Sartori’s method in his book, The Theory of Democracy Revisited (1987), in which one of the ways by which one can arrive at a definition of democracy is in understanding it for what it is not, as much as for what it is. (Sartori, 1987, pp. 183, 184) To simplify this further, one of the approaches to the thesis question has been that of elimination; what this means is that in seeking to arrive at the essence of the thesis, this paper rules out the compatibility of liberal markets with other forms of governance. To demonstrate this, this paper takes up the case of Argentina’s economic crisis as a case study. In this discussion, this case’s detailed history is not made; rather, the important aspects of political profligacy that led to this crisis is illustrated, to show that long periods of political misrule characterised by an absence of democracy, and not liberal markets in themselves, was the cause of the crisis. It also shows up the example, on the contrary, of India, to show how liberal markets can succeed when introduced into a democratic polity. India, too, undertook several structural reforms of its economy under the IMF, but did not go the Argentine way, mainly because the political system was different. Part III: Limitations of this study: The core predicament of this paper concerns an investigation into the possibility of union between two ideas whose ages are incomparable –the concept, however amorphous, of democracy is as old as the hills,[2] while that of free markets, free trade and liberal markets are only decades old. In the attempted marriage of the two concepts, there is a very great possibility, perhaps even a near certainty, that there are sharply divided opinions. Secondly, as is well-known, there is no fixed, single definition of a democracy. This makes any treatment of this debate highly fluid and volatile. Another factor is that the focus of this paper is on liberal markets. This adds another problematic dimension to this paper, since the debate on the compatibility or lack of it, between liberal, free markets and democracy is charged with a feverish emotiveness and lack of dispassionate reasoning as by the core difference between communism and democracy, a dir ect hangover of the situation that prevailed during the height of the Cold War. Accentuating this debate was, as logically pointed out by Giovanni Sartori in his book, The Theory of Democracy Revisited (1987) the fact that while communism could be defined by clearly demarcated terms and meanings set out by its prophet, Karl Marx, no such fixed boundaries could be assigned to democracy. In such a scenario, as the author suggests, there is a tendency for what may be called â€Å"confused democracy†, while none of these applies to communism. (Sartori, 1987, pp. 3-6) This makes this system’s compatibility, or otherwise, with a sharply and narrowly described term even more difficult to explain. In view of this, it is to be conceded that all understanding and judgment of this paper’s position is highly subjective. Yet, since a position has to be taken, this paper proceeds in the full acceptance of the fact that an equally opposite viewpoint can be conceded. [3] Part IV: Discussion: The most important factor that facilitates the harmonious relationship between democracy and liberal market is that both are founded on the same edifice: of their common linkage with freedom. The rapid economic changes taking place in the world today are almost entirely market-driven. Following the death of the Soviet Union, this has been brought to bear even more heavily on the world. During the years following this event of critical importance to the world, there has been an unprecedented growth in the liberal markets of the world. A key point that perhaps best illustrates this dramatic transformation is the migration has been taking place from rural and semi-rural communities to urban centres all over the world, but principally in Third World countries, driven entirely by liberal markets. De Soto (2000) considers this nothing short of a modern industrial revolution, whose scale is quite unmatched, before which the original revolution pales in comparison. Consider the f act that the earlier industrial revolution in England had to support a migration of something like a mere eight million people in the two and a half centuries it took to transit from agriculture to the New Economy. In contrast, today, the world is witness to urbanisation caused by the influx of several million people, out of which some 200 million migrated to liberal market-driven urban centres in Indonesia alone. To accommodate changes of this magnitude, the only viable system of governance is democracy. Western economies were able to cope up with earth-shaking changes only because they had the democratic, legal institutions to absorb these changes; the Third World would today turn chaotic if the same conditions of democracy do not exist to accommodate the marginalised sections. (Soto, 2000, pp. 70-72) Another example, at the micro level, but of nearly equal gravity, of how democracy and liberal markets not only coexist but also promote each other is that of the sweeping changes taking place in the Indian economy. The deeply entrenched caste-ridden Indian mindset could not change its basic fabric in centuries; yet, less than just two decades of market-driven economic changes[4] showed the promise of instilling change at an unimagined speed. For instance, access to computers, a direct result of liberal markets-oriented economic reforms, has brought in democracy at the rural level at hitherto unimaginable speed. Farmers are now able to sell their produce to the user directly, bypassing the centuries-old feudal system by which they had to necessarily sell through the middle man, who used to be from the upper castes. This has been a direct result of the mating of liberal markets with democracy. This phenomenon is not restricted to India; as quoted by the political scientist, Sheri Berm an, shifts to democracy by most of Latin America in the 1980’s were closely related to a corresponding shift to free-market economy. (Bhagwati, 2004, pp. 93-95) Case study: This next section strengthens the thesis topic further by demonstrating that liberal markets have been a great failure when they have been introduced into non-democratic economies. The case study this paper takes up to vindicate this stand is the Argentine economic crisis of the late 1990’s. This paper takes up this case mainly because contrary to popular belief, the Argentine economic crisis was not the result of IMF-prescribed market economy measures; rather, they were the product of decades of economic mishandling characterised by wrong prioritisation, by a succession of dictators, (Peralta-Ramos, 1992, pp. 35-38) which the IMF intervention failed to correct. (Frenkel, 2002) The position this paper takes is that this correction could not come about because the system’s rot had been too deep-rooted, not on account of liberal market-oriented economic policy per se, but because of systematic squandering by the military in the decades following the end of Per onist populism, by which the economy was reduced to bare bones over time. In this transition, the beneficiaries of public spending shifted gradually but firmly from the middle class to the ruling class. (Little, 1975, p. 163) These economic misdemeanours were concomitant with political notoriety spread over the decades during the reign of and following the overthrow of the populist, Juan Peron, that came to be called by the collective epithet, ‘Dirty Wars’. Started initially in the name of fighting Leftist guerrillas, (Marchak Marchak, 1999, p. null27) this phase soon degenerated into state terrorism, marked by innumerable political kidnaps, extortion and disappearances, of people who dared to raise their voices against the military regimes. (Taylor, 1997, p. 258) In line with this, and more importantly, the governments, to support these activities, had built up a highly porous banking system which could easily be exploited by the ruling class with little accountability. The entire economy was built on debts, of which three-fourths was in the public sector, which the dictatorial ruling class could use for its benefit by draining the nation at will. In only 10 years between the mid-1970â€⠄¢s and the mid-1980’s, the interest payments the governments collected had fallen from 17 percent to a puny one percent of the consolidated public sector expenditure. (Ferrer, 1985, p. 6) This is just one example of the ruin the military brought upon the economy. Thus, the basis of the Argentine economic crisis was economic mishandling by the ruling class, and not so much the policies of the IMF, which came into the picture much later, when the economy had crossed the Rubicon. It is fashionable to put most of the blame for Argentina’s economic crisis of the late 1990’s, which snowballed into a full-blown economic catastrophe, on the IMF and its prescriptions for a free market economy. (Frenkel, 2002) While this may be true to some extent, it has to be borne in mind that this was only a last ditch effort to resuscitate the economy, whose causes for decline dated to several decades, as is seen here. In contrast, India, with its deeply ensconced democratic system, could absorb the momentous changes wrought into its economy with relative ease, breaking free from the shackles that had bound the economy in the earlier decades under restrictive policies. It is now admitted that India’s economic recovery from the deep crisis it was in, was the result as much of liberal market reforms as due to the inherent strength of its political system. (Drà ¨ze Sen, 1995, p. 179) Far from going the Argentine way, India is now an economy that is firmly an d surely on the road to liberalisation, from which there seems no looking back.[5] In a matter of just one generation, it is one of the fastest growing economies of the world today. (Cetron Davies, 2006) Part V: Conclusion: The congruence between democracy and liberal markets is indubitable; while admitting that there are several areas that need rectifying, and that this is not the most viable of all possibilities, it has to be admitted that there exist no better alternatives. While it is conceded that this system is far from perfect, the fact is that no system is; had the socialist system been perfect, then all the economic upheavals the world has been going through should have been averted. In this scenario, it makes little sense to argue about the disharmony of the market economy with democracy. If anything, what needs to be put into place is a supporting set of laws and regulation that tempers down some of the inequalities of the system. (Wolf, 2003) Historical experience shows that liberal markets have always flourished in the industrialised nations, which have been democratic, prime examples of which are the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. (Dryzek, 1996, p. 68) However, a ne w dimension has been added to this notion, with India showing that the engine for this growth is not so much a belonging to the group of industrialised nations[6], but the existence of democratic systems as its bulwark. This, rather than liberal markets in isolation, is the prerequisite for achieving economic growth. In the light of these findings, it is meaningless to argue that democracy and liberal markets are incompatible; on the contrary, they are almost inextricably bound to each other and are inseparable, fuelling each other’s development. References Bhagwati, J., (2004), In Defense of Globalization, Oxford University Press, New York. Cetron, M. J., Davies, O., 2006, July/August, â€Å"The Dragon vs. the Tiger: China and India Reshape the Global Economy; India and China Will Vie for Economic and Political Dominance on the World Stage. Heres an Assessment of the Two Nations Short-Term and Long-Term Prospects†, The Futurist, Vol. 40, No. 38+. Retrieved April 16, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM. Dryzek, J. S., (1996), Democracy in Capitalist Times: Ideals, Limits, and Struggles, Oxford University Press, New York. Drà ¨ze, J., Sen, A., (1995), India, Economic Development and Social Opportunity, Oxford University Press, Delhi. Ferrer, A., (1985), Living within Our Means: An Examination of the Argentine Economic Crisis (Alvarez, M. Caistor, N., Trans.), Westview Press, London. Frenkel, R., (2002), â€Å"Argentina: A Decade of the Convertibility Regime†, Challenge, Vol. 45, No. 4, p. 41+. Retrieved April 16, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM. Little, W., (1975), 7 â€Å"The Popular Origins of Peronism†, in Argentina in the Twentieth Century, Rock, D., (Ed.) (pp. 162-178), Gerald Duckworth, London. Marchak, P., Marchak, W., (1999), Gods Assassins: State Terrorism in Argentina in the 1970s, McGill-Queens University Press, Montreal. Peralta-Ramos, M., (1992), The Political Economy of Argentina: Power and Class since 1930, Westview Press, Boulder, CO. Sartori, G., (1987), The Theory of Democracy Revisited, Chatham House Publishers, Chatham NJ. Soto, H. D., (2000), The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else, Basic Books, New York. Taylor, D., (1997), Disappearing Acts: Spectacles of Gender and Nationalism in Argentinas Dirty War, Duke University Press, Durham, NC. Wolf, M., 2003, September/October, â€Å"The Morality of the Market†, Foreign Policy, 46+. Retrieved April 16, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/ 1 Footnotes [1] An excellent source for an analytical study between democracy and capitalism, or liberal markets, is the book, We the Nation, The Lost Decades, by one of India’s pre-eminent jurists, the late Nani Palkhivala. The book’s paperback edition has been a bestseller, having seen almost two dozen reprints in about two decades. In particular, his eulogy of the free market enterprise and its suitability to the democratic setup as practiced in India is sharp, and is in evidence in several chapters. [2] Here, the reference is to some forms of governance in the ancient world that can be described as being non-despotic. For instance, one of the core ideas on which one of ancient India’s most famous mythological texts, the Ramayana, is built is good governance, in which the king is fair, just and non-arbitrary. The protagonist, Lord Ram, is seen as the exemplar of a perfect democrat and upholder of virtue, who goes to the extent of banishing his wife to the forests to honour a lowly washerman, an example of how the ruler was expected to uphold the wishes of the ruled. Even if one were to dismiss this example as mere mythology, the fact that there is reference to what may be called the forerunner to present democracy in such an ancient text suggests that democracy existed in some or another conceptual form in the ancient world. If one were to entirely omit mythology and take historically recorded facts as the benchmark, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that republican democracy existed in India far before the western concept of Athenian democracy. For more details on the recorded instances of democracy in ancient India, this link may be a good source of understanding: http://www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/h_es/h_es_muhlb_democra_frameset.htm. And this is by no means a declaration that India’s was the only case of such a system of governance; there may have existed several others in other civilisations of this period. [3] To get a rough idea about how this subject can be interpreted in virtually any manner, this article, posted on the following blogs, in which the idea of compatibility of the two is denounced in the strongest possible terms, may serve as a pointer: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.viewfriendID=12432772blogID=140524780MyToken=5144b54f-2d93-4349-9274-e6526a5a57d6, http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.viewfriendID=12432772blogID=140524780MyToken=cb1631f6-cb16-4a39-85c6-a9b05c6cc9d9 and http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAllfriendID=12432772MyToken=5d4d6701-da69-40c8-adc9-3fb794f3fedbML This is given as a reference here mainly because this is not to be considered a work of erudition, and is just an illustration of the point sought to be made here. [4] India started the process of economic liberalisation under the P. V.Narasimha Rao government in 1991. At that time, it was considered a step over which the government had little alternative, given the nearly moribund state in which the economy was. However, in the period since then, it cannot be disputed that despite its problems, liberalisation has brought about changes of a magnitude India had not seen earlier under the socialist dispensation of the Nehru-Gandhi rule. [5] So entrenched has the programme of liberalisation become that it is now an a priori, with both the Right wing BJP that was voted out of power in 2004, and more surprisingly, a coalition partner in the present UPA government, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M), too, embarking on a programme of massive market-oriented reforms of the economy. [6] It is easy to see how all the G8 members are democratic; the former Soviet Union had been kept out of this grouping till the end of the Cold War.

The Reasons for Rapid Population Growth in Nineteenth Century Britain

The Reasons for Rapid Population Growth in Nineteenth Century Britain The Reasons for Rapid Population Growth in Nineteenth Century Britain Number of people walking the face of earth has always been at constant change and the growth in population has always been a great issue of concern and attention by governments and leaders throughout time, especially if occurred in a short period of time. Reasons for rapid expansion in population can be accredited to several factors such as fertility, mortality, migration, and marriage. This natural cause sometimes beneficial and sometimes disastrous depending on the conditions and locations, could be controlled in very difficult ways. In the 19th century Britain, the rapid growth in population was one of great economic, social, political, and environmental changes that laid the basis of the society, as we know it today. Of these changes none has proved to be more significant than that of the redistribution and restructuring of Britains population. Furthermore an interpretation of the causes of demographic change in that critical period following the demise of the old pre-industrial population regime which led to the modern twentieth-century pattern in which both fertility and mortality are particularly low. After a period of unusual stagnation from 1700 to 1740, the population resumed its normal upward trend and afterwards between 1740 and 1780, the growth rate averaged 4 percent to 7 percent per decade, then accelerated to over 10 per cent per decade until 1911. The years between 1811 and 1821 had the most rapid population growth where it reached 17 per cent per decade. The second greatest growth was the decade 1871-1881, where it reached 14 per cent. However the greatest increase which was over 4 million, did not occur till 1901-1911. Subsequently the rate of increase declined dramatically and the population, having doubled between 1780 and 1840, and doubled again at the end of century, rose by only about 50 per cent in the next sixty years to come. The distribution and composition of the British population in the nineteenth century was radically altered due to increased population emigration, especially the migration to more urban areas in search of a better life. There was also a ma jor shift in paradigm in regards to social attitudes, particularly during the latter half of Queen Victorias rule over Britain. As a result, during this time a shift towards small family size or family limitation occurred because changes in prospects of marriage were becoming a noticeable trend. Also substantial advancement in healthcare helped to improve the quality of a healthier life for the people of Britain, drastically changing the chances of one living or dying prematurely. Not only did the population changed in composition, but also in distribution. Great Britains population in 1801 was an estimated eleven million, and in 1901 that number rapidly grew to 37 million, with Londons population share increasing from 9 per cent to 12 per cent. By 1901, Londons population was more than twice that of Wales and slightly more than of Scotland. Among the many epithets applied to the nineteenth century, the age of statistics would seem one of the most appropriate. The first British population census was conducted in 1801 and was subsequently repeated every ten years. While civil registration did not replace the recording of ecclesiastical events, particularly baptism and burials, it did mean that parish registers lost their position as the principal source for demographic enquiry. At mid century, agriculture was in steep relative decline, representing about 20 per cent of those employed. Manufacturing was holding steady at about 33 percent, domestic service contri buted 14 to 15 percent and the remaining 32 percent was made up from professions such as: mining, transport, building, dealing and public service. Moreover. By the end of nineteenth century, agricultures contribution to employment was no more than 10 per cent. Unlike the increase in fertility in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the experience of the late Victorian period was dominated by the secular decline of marital fertility and perhaps a movement towards nuptiality was started. (Woods, 1987; Wilson and Woods, 1992). Furthermore, we may now assume in a way it was not open to contemporaries that marital fertility was reduced as the direct consequence of changed behaviour rather than some general decline in fecundity. Patterns of thought and action were changing rather than physiology (Teitelbaum, 1984). Likewise, it is unlikely that the phenomenon was merely a result of the invention, marketing, adoption, and effective use of new methods of birth control. The rubber condom, Dutch cap, and douche all became available during the last decades of the nineteenth century. They were however rather too expensive for the general use until the 1920s and 1930s when the results of retrospective surveys reveal a far more widespread a doption (Peel, 1963). Since it was known that marital fertility was significantly reduced, it must be assumed that some combination of sexual abstinence, coitus interruptus, accurate us of the safe period and induced abortion were the most likely means by which family limitation was brought about. None of these methods was new to Victorians, however the desire and confidence to use them were innovatory (shorter, 1973; McLaren, 1978; Sauer, 1978; Soloway, 1982). Economists have provided one of the most important theoretical contributions to the study of fertility, their focus has tended towards the costs and returns of having children, the costs and availability of contraceptive methods, inter-generational wealth flow, and the conflict between investing in children or consumer durables. Children, especially in traditional peasant societies, represent a source of labour, income and security for their parents. But in the nineteenth century Britain, the economic value of children to their parents was far less obvious and presumably far less likely to enter any accounting framework for reproductive planning. In general if parents were not attempting to maximize their fertility in order to reap financial gains for the family wage economy, they were also not attempting, until after the 1870s, to restrict their fertility in order to avoid the liability of childrearing (Haines, 1979; Crafts, 1984a, 1984b). In addition, it was also unusual at this ti me for married women to be employed outside of the home, for reasons of tradition and lack of opportunity thus childbearing and rearing did not represent an alternative to wage earning as they do today. There is a persistent line of argument in demographic theory which holds that high levels of fertility are necessary to match high levels of mortality, and therefore that when infant or childhood mortality begin to decline, marital fertility will also be reduced without adversely affecting the effective level of fertility. That is, the supply of new adults capable of reproducing (Brass and Kabir, 1980; Teitelbaum, 1984; Woods, 1987). Therefore, mortality decline not only facilitates the reduction of fertility, it also acts as a strong inducement. Setting aside for the time being any consideration of what causes mortality patterns to vary, it is still obvious that for this particular demographic mechanism to work there must be a distinct time lag between the decline of mortality and f ertility during which average family size will increase. Married couples would be impelled to limit their fertility thereby avoiding accompanying financial burdens which the survival of larger numbers of children would bring. This interpretation assumes that there is a distinct chronology to demographic change that a sophisticated adjustment mechanism is created requiring considerable foresight on the part of married couple and a degree of reproductive planning. In Britain, childhood mortality certainly did not decline at the same time as marital fertility, but infant mortality did not begin its secular decline until 1899-1900 (Woods, Watterson and Woodward, 1988). It seems likely that the reduction of infant and childhood mortality did eventually help to sustain marital fertility decline, but that mortality decline was not an initiating factor (Reves, 1985; Coale and Watkins, 1986, 201-33). The origins of the decline of marital fertility in Britain, as in much of Western Europe wit h the exception of France, are to be found particularly in last quarter of the nineteenth century. This much at least is clear from available statistics, but there are many aspects of this fundamental change in demographic structure that remains obscure. We know that until the 1870s British marital fertility was consistent with natural fertility, that was largely biologically determined with little sign of parity-specific control. Generally speaking, the births were neither deliberately spaced nor were there attempts to prevent conception or live birth once a particular number of children had already been born. A womens fertility was influenced by her physiological ability to conceive, her proneness to spontaneous abortion, and the frequency of coitus. The first mentioned declined with age, the second increase, while the last mentioned declined with the duration of marriage (Bongaarts and Potter, 1983; Wilson, 1984, 1986). During the nineteenth century, life expectation at birth in Britain improved from the mid-thirties to the upper forties and the low fifties by 1911. Of the change, most occurred in the latter part of the nineteenth century and was particularly obvious among those aged from 5 to 25. There was little or no decline either in national infant mortality levels or in mortality rates for those aged 35 plus before 1900 (Woods and Woodward, 1984, 39). However, there were important local and social variations in mortality. The local differences were closely tied to environmental conditions, but especially urban/rural differences. The lowest levels of life expectation were invariably in urban places, and especially in what would now be called the inner cities inhabited by the poorest families in the worst housing with the most inadequate sanitation. Even in 1841 when life expectation at birth was 26 in Liverpool and 37 in London, it was 45 in Surrey and probably 50 years in the most salubrious rural areas (Woods and Hinde, 1987). By 1911 the national average had increased and the urban-rural differential had narrowed substantially. Moreover, it remains a matter of speculation whether the wealthy urban middle classes or the poor agricultural labourers experienced the lower level of mortality. Mortality rate began its secular decline, as well as a rapid decline of infant mortality towards the turn of the century. General fertility rates were in decline throughout the century, but from the 1870s marital fe rtility also began its secular decline. Fertility and mortality rate have declined since the late eighteenth century but the time paths for the three countries traces vary, quite markedly. In France, fertility and mortality declined together from an early date and natural growth remained at a low level throughout the nineteenth century. In Sweden, Mortality declined before fertility in a way that has come to be regarded as normal and coincidental with the predictions of the classic demographic transition model. On the other hand, in England, the modern rise of population was initiated by the increase of fertility in the late eighteenth century and was only supported by the secular decline of mortality. These differences of form, pattern and the timing of change suggest the diversity of demographic structures in Europe in the nineteenth century, but they also illustrate aspects of a broader picture of conformity. In any consideration of the nineteenth century population history pride of place should go to mobility and migration, both internal and international. Not only did Britains population experience radical redistribution, but the age, sex, and skill selective nature of migration also changed society, economy, and environment in several very important respects. Over 90 per cent of the late nineteenth century mortality decline in England and Wales was due to conditions attributable to micro organisms, with 33 percent associated with respirator tuberculosis; 17 per cent with typhoid and typhus; 12 per cent from cholera, diarrhoea, and dysentery; 5 per cent from smallpox and 4 per cent from non-respiratory tuberculosis. It is believed, and as McKeown argued that the specific changes introduced by the sanitary reformers were responsible for about a quarter of the total decline of mortality in the second half of the nineteenth century. The remainder of the improvement, mainly associated with tuberculosis, must be attributed to the rise of living standards brought about by the industrial revolution, that is, perhaps half of the total reduction of mortality (McKeown and Record, 1962, 129). This last quarter could be attributed to changes in the character of diseases especially scarlet fever (Eyler, 1987). The argument for the attribution of the f irst quarter is relatively easy to follow, how else could the water borne diseases have declined but what of tuberculosis? The direct effects of specific therapeutic measure can be ruled out conditions of exposure to the diseases, diet, physical, and mental stresses remain. McKeown excluded the last mentioned and claimed that exposure via crowding at home and at work were not reduced before 1900. Therefore, diet remained the most likely influenced on the downward trend of tuberculosis mortality. There are four major aspects of migration and emigration that are of particular significance. First, the outer rural periphery- especially the west of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands- experienced massive emigration which caused general depopulation (Flinn, 1977; Anderson and Morse, 1990; Withers and Watson 1991). Although the Irish case is often linked to famine migration in the 1840s, the history of Irish emigration to North American and Great Britain is very complex which famine probably only exacerbated. Secondly, the countryside in general suffered net loss to the towns (Saville, 1957; Lawton, 1967). From Cornwall to Norfolk, Dorset to Anglesey and Aberdeen agricultural labourers, servants, and small tenants left and were not replaced, except by machines. In a few rural counties, such as Kent, this did not lead to absolute population decline because natural growth exceeded net out migration. Thirdly, the great industrial and commercial centres of central Scotland, the English North and Midlands, and South Wales, not only increased their citizenry but also expanded physically until they coalesced into the amorphous conurbations so well known in the twentieth century. These Victorian cities grew particularly rapidly both by net migration and natural growth, despite high mortality. Intra-urban migration also fuelled suburban expansion which eventually affected whole cities, primarily through the depopulation of their inner areas. In the cases of certain Scottish and Northern industrial towns this process was obvious even in the late nineteenth century (Lawton, 1983; Morris, 1990). Lastly, London should probably be treated as a special case since it not only maintained its British primacy but also its share of the total population. The new problems associated with managing and servicing such a massive concentration of people (nearly five million by 1901) imposed many strains, not least in terms of transport, social inequalities, which were made more obvious by their juxtaposition, and sanitation. The broad picture of European migration shows that from 1821 to 1915, 44 million people left, of which Great Britain accounted for 10 million and Ireland for 6 million. More detailed estimates suggest that between 1853 and 1900, 4,675,100 people left England and Wales for a non- European destination and 896,000 left Scotland. In both cases more than half went to the United States with a further firth to Australia (Carrier and Jeffrey, 1953; Easterlin, 1961; Baines, 1985). There is little reason to doubt that economic pressures, whether relative or absolute, played an important part in influencing the decision of many couples to limit their fertility in the late nineteenth century, but what still remains in doubt is why that pressure only took tangible effect in the last quarter of the century and why the secular decline of marital fertility occurred so rapidly that different occupations, status groups and social classes all appeared to be reducing their family sizes. All of about the same rate and time, but from rather different levels (Stevenson, 1920l Innes, 1938; Woods, 1987; Haines, 1989). Of those occupational groups that are relatively easy to identify, coalminers provide interesting illustrations of the difficulties encountered in developing purely economic explanations of fertility decline (Friedlander, 1973; Haines, 1979). Coalmining districts and families are known to have had higher fertility longer and have been among the last areas and social groups to attempt family limitation. A commonly held account argues that the income curve for coalminer peaked in the early to mid-twenties. There were few employment opportunities for women in such areas constrained a surplus of men and marriage for women was early and general. The demand for male labour was usually abundant, but the work was dangerous, accidents and injuries were common and often fatal. Therefore there was little economic incentive, as there was in the lower middle classes, to restrict fertility. But it is also likely that these rather closely knit communities perpetuated an ethos which was strongly ori ented towards mens values and womens obligations and therefore less compatible with that degree of foresight and co-operation between the sexes. Something that was necessary for successful family limitation before the development of effective intra-uterine devices and oral contraceptive. It should be stressed that the British experience of the secular decline of marital fertility was merely part of a Europe-wide movement in which Britain was later than most of France, but in step with much of Germany and Italy (Coale and Watkins, 1986; Watkins, 1991). The most important structural barriers to change appear to have been the major linguistic and cultural divisions, as well as the strength of pro-natalist religious feeling. Just as in Britain, it is not possible to say in detail how or why family limitation became a common practice, but the most plausible interpretations also stress the importance of changes in attitude and the removal of constraints on behaviour emphasised in the soci ological approach rather than the after effects of industrialization and urbanization or the prior decline of infant and child mortality. The electoral swing was Europe wide, relatively rapid, and has not been reversed. Farrs work on the demographic statistics of England and Wales have made it possible to describe in some detail the pattern of mortality variation in the nineteenth century, but we are still far from providing a full explanation of the origins of the decline of mortality during the nineteenth century. We know that medical science have had only a minor influence on the decline of mortality before the 1930s and that the cleansing of great cities was a special problem in a country like Great Britain which had a particularly high level of urbanization, but once the sanitation and public health problem had been solved then the positive effects would have been immediate and lasting. We also know that poverty brings poor diet and thus low nutritional status, and inadequate housing persisted and were then, as now, closely related to variations in mortality rates. The significance of and reasons for the decline of mortality from tuberculosis continues to be an area for enquiry, but few now fol low McKeowns lead and argue from mortality via tuberculosis to improved living standards, especially diet. Many would now regard the nineteenth century as a period on which the foundations of modern medical science were laid (Pickstone, 1985). The rapid growth which began around 1740 was sustained in the nineteenth century. Death rates, which had fallen in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, stabilised at around 22 per 1,000 between 1820 and 1870, a development chiefly attributable to the appalling living conditions in industrial towns at the time. By the 1870s the public health campaign, which had been initiated in the 1840s to provide towns with drainage and pure water supplies, began to pay off and the general death rate fell from 22.3 per thousand in 1871 to 13.8 per thousand in 1911, which is a drop of about 40 per cent. Other contributory factors were the rising living standards (more food and clean clothes) and improved urban environment (better housing, public baths, and wash houses). On the other hand, the birth rate that had remained fairly high throughout the century began to decline during the 1880s. There were several main causes that lead to this decline. Children were becoming an economic bur den rather than an asset, as the Factory Acts limited employment opportunities and the Elementary Education Act (1870) required their attendance at school. Real incomes were rising and, for the first time, people were faced with the possibility of sustained improvement in their life. Increasingly they saw a clear choice between more children and a better life, and tended to favour the latter. Also large numbers of young men were emigrating and this lowered the marriage rate in many places. Resulting a decrease in family size, from 5 to 6 children in the 1860s to 2 to 3 in the 1920s. This tendency started among the middle classes and permeated slowly downwards through the social pyramid. One important statistic changed scarcely at all, the infant mortality rate. Though fluctuating year by year from 100 to180 per thousand, it averaged about 135 per thousand in the 1890s as it had in the worst decade, the 1840s. The explanation lies in the vulnerability of infants to infectious disease s in towns. Between 1901 and 1921 the rate fell dramatically by about 50 percent. The expansion of population and the progress of industrialisation were inextricably intertwined: 1. A rising labour force was provided to facilitate the introduction of intensive agriculture, as well as to mine coal and work in factories. Infant industries were able to draw on young, mobile labour with no vested interest in obsolete skills and without having to offer high wages to lute it from other employments. 2. A growing market for the necessities of life (food, clothes, shelter, and household goods) was provided, encouraging entrepreneurs to experiment with new techniques to enable them to produce more, faster, and cheaper. This steadily expanding domestic market exerted a valuable cushioning effect whenever volatile export markets underwent a temporary recession. It must be emphasised that population growth did not, of itself, lead to industrial progress. It had this effect because it took place in the context of an economy that was already dynamic with abundant resources, a new technology of steam-power and machinery and a vigorous class of businessmen to exploit them. In Ireland this foundation was lacking, and therefore population growth simply led to mass poverty on an unprecedented scale. In conclusion, the rapid population growth in Britain in the nineteenth century was caused by several different reasons such as: fertility rate, mortality rate, healthcare, emigration, migration, occupation, and other economical aspects. Furthermore, a number of informed observers believe that this fate would overwhelm England in the nineteenth century. The most influential of these was the Reverend T.R. Malthus, whose Essay on the Principle of Population as it Affects the Future Improvement of Society was published in1798. He argued that population always tended to increase in geometrical progression whereas food supply only increased in an arithmetical progression. The former would, therefore, tend always to outrun the latter, producing wide-spread misery and eventually mass famines. Malthus did not foresee the amazing rise in the productivity of British agriculture during the nineteenth century, nor the ability of the country to import food from the virgin soils of the new World, but his gloomy predictions carried great weight with his contemporaries, and he must take a great share of the responsibility for the harshness of Victorian attitudes towards the poor. Since any easing of their condition would have encourage them to breed and multiply both the course of their poverty and the numbers who must endure, it was necessary to control them harshly for their own, and also societys benefit. Bibliography 1. Szreter, Simon. Fertility, Class, and gender in Britain, 1860-1940. Cambrdige University Press. 1996. 2. Brown, Richard. Society and Modern Britain 1700-1850. Routledge. 1991. 3. Mingay, G.E. The Transformation of Britain 1830-1939. Routhledge Kegan Paul. 1986. 4. OBrien, K. Patrick; Quinault, Roland. The Industrial Revolution and British Society. Cambridge Press. 1993. 5. Floud, Roderick; McCloskey, Donald. The Economics History of Britain since 1700. University of Cambridge. 1994. 6. Flinn, M.W. British Population Growth 1700-1850. London. 1970. 7. Flinn M.W. Scottish Population History: From the Seventeenth Century to the 1930s. Cambridge. 1977. 8. Malthus, T.R. An Essay on the Principle of Population. Cambridge. 1989. 9. Farr, W. Vital Statistics. London. 1885. 10. Anderson, M; Morse, D. People and Society in Scotland Volume II, 1830-1914. Edinburgh. 1990. 11. Bongaarts, J.; Potter, R.J. Fertility, Biology and Behaviour: An Analysis of the Proximate Determinants. New York. 1983. 12. Brass, W.; Kabir, M. Regional Demographic Development. London. 1980. 13. Innes, J.W. Class Fertility Trends in England and Wales, 1876- 1934. Princeton. 1938. 14. McLaren, A. Birth Control in Nineteenth-Century England. London. 1978. 15. Peel, J. The Manufacture and Retailing of Contraceptive in England. Cambridge. 1963 16. Soloway, R.A. Birth Control and the Population Question in England, 1877-1930. Chapter Hill. 1982. 17. Teitelbaum, M.S. The British Fertility Decline: Demographic Transition in the Crucible of the Industrial Revolution. Princeton. 1984. 18. Woods, R.I. Approach to the Fertility Transition in Victorian England. 1987. 19. McKeown, T. Reasons for Decline in Mortality in England and Wales During the Nineteenth Century. 1962. 20. Pickstone, J.V. Medicine and Industrial Society: a History of Development in Manchester and its Region, 1752-1946. Manchester. 1985. 21. Reves, R. Declining Fertility in England and Wales as a Major Cause of the Twentieth Century Decline in Mortality: The Role of Changing Family Size and Age Structure in Infectious disease Mortality Infancy. American Journal of Epidemiology. 1985. 22. Woods, R.I.; Woodward, J.H. Urban Disease and Mortality in Nineteenth Century England. London. 1984. 23. Woods, R.I.; Hinde, P.R.A. Mortality in Victorian England: Models and Pattern`s. Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 1987. 24. Coale, A.J.; Watkins, S.C. The Decline of Fertility in Europe. Princeton. 1986. 25. Woods, R.I.; Watterson, P.A.; Woodward, J.H. The Causes of Rapid Infant Mortality Decline in England and Wales. 1989. 26. Easterlin, R.A. Influences on European Overseas Emigration Before World War I. 1961 27. Lawton, R. Rural Depopulation in Nineteenth Century England. London. 1967. 28. Baines, D. Migration in a Mature Economy: Emigration and Internal Migration in England and Wales, 1861-1900. Cambridge. 1985. 29. Farr, W. English Life Tables. Tables of Lifetimes, Annuities, and Premiums. London. 1864. 30. Saville, J. Rural Depopulation in England and Wales, 1851-1951. London. 1957. 31. Withers, C.W.J.; Watson, A.J. Stepwise Migration and Highland Migration to Glasgow. Journal of Historical Geography. 1991. 32. Wilson, C. Natural Fertility in Pre-industrial England. 1984 33. Wilson, C. The Proximate Determinants of Marital Fertility in England, 1600-1899. Oxford. 1986. 34. Crafts, N.F.R. A Time Series Study of Fertility in En gland and Wales, 1877-1938. European Journal of Economic History. 1984a. 35. Crafts, N.F.R. A Cross-sectional Study of Legitimate Fertility in England and Wales, 1911. Research in Economic History. 1984b. 36. Wilson, C.; Woods, R.I. Fertility in England: a Long Term Perspective. 1992. 37. Haines, M.R. Fertility and Occupation: Population Patterns in Industrialization. New York. 1979. 38. Lawton, R. Urbanization and Population Change in Nineteenth Century England. London. 1983. 39. Watkins, S.C. From Provinces to Nations: Demographic Integration in Western Europe, 1870- 1960. Princeton. 1991. 40. Shorter, E. Female Emancipation, Birth Control and Fertility in European History. American Historical Review. 1973. 41. Sauer, R. Infanticide and Abortion in Nineteenth Century Britain. 1978. 42. Stevenson, T.H.C. The Fertility of Various Social Classes in England and Wales from the Middle of the Nineteenth Century to 1911. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. 1920. 43. Carrier, N.H.; Jeffrey, J.R. External Migration: A Study of Available Statistics, 1815-1950. London. 1953. 44. Morris, R.J. Urbanization in Scotland. Edinburgh. 1990. 45. Friedlander, D. Demographic Patterns and Socioeconomic Characteristics of the Coal-mining Population in England and Wales in the Nineteenth Century. 1973. 46. Haines, M.R. Social Class Differentials During Ferti

Textile Industry Trends in the Global Economy Essay -- Economics Techn

Textile Industry Trends in the Global Economy I. Executive Summary The objective of this paper is to examine how the development of a textile industry contributes to economic growth in the global economy. Because textile manufacturing is a labor-intensive industry, developing countries are able to utilize their labor surplus to enter the market and begin the process of building an industrial economy. Emerging economies then look outward to develop an export strategy based on their comparative advantage in labor costs. Textile production and consumption is an increasingly global affair as production continues to shift to developing countries. Developing countries have seen an explosion in the growth of their textile exports, and for many countries textiles are a significant portion of their total exports. In response to increasing competition from low-value imports from developing countries, industry leaders in developed countries have made significant capital investments in order to increase productivity and move into advanced market sectors. There are several trade agreements in place that impact world textile trade. The African Growth and Opportunities Act, Andean Trade Preference Act, and Trade Promotion Act are each designed to liberalize textile trade and provide equal market access to both developing and developed countries. Despite the potential economic and social benefits, the effectiveness of these trade policies is limited by special interest politics in the developed world. The presence of a political economy in developed countries can affect both the formation of and the adherence to international trade agreements; industry leaders can still appeal to the World Trade Organization or their Trade... ... as Kenya Plans More EPZs.† East African 22 April 2002. 10 October 2002 Tomkin, Robert. Trade Promotion Authority: CQ House Action Report. July 26, 2002. â€Å"Trade with Sub-Saharan Africa† Export America. December 2001. U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, The U.S. Textile and Apparel Industry: A Revolution in Progress–Special Report, OTA-TET-332 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, April 1987). Yang, Yongzheng. â€Å"China’s Textile and Clothing Exports: Changing International Comparative Advantage and its Policy Implications.† Asia Pacific Press, 1999. http://ncdsnet.anu.edu.au/ [link no longer working]

To What Extent Does Mildred Taylor Portray T.J. as a Victim of the Times? :: English Literature

To What Extent Does Mildred Taylor Portray T.J. as a Victim of the Times? The novel 'Roll of Thunder' is based around racism and discrimination, during the 1930's. Mildred Taylor has chosen to set her novel in a time where black people were discriminated against. The context in which the story is set is a conscious choice of the writer to emphasise the extent of racism. T.J. is used by Mildred Taylor to represent the injustices the Black community were subjected to in these times. Although T.J. is not portrayed as a victim throughout the novel, he is certainly seen as a victim during the concluding chapters of the book. The narrative is by a young girl of ten years, Cassie. Cassie is a very opinionated, strong willed character who tends to judge people at face value, without taking other factors into consideration. This could be seen as a hindrance in such a novel, a novel that is being used to exploit racism and could benefit from a more open-viewed narrator. In this book however, the character is purposefully made to be single-minded by Mildred Taylor because it encourages the reader to think in more depth about the story. The author uses this narrow perspective of T.J. to encourage the reader to realise that he is a victim of the times. This realisation is encouraged not through Cassie's opinion but because she cannot see this fact until nearing the end of the story. Cassie's view of T.J. is blunt, 'I didn't like T.J. very much,' and during the beginning of the book the reader is persuaded that T.J. is not a nice person as there is no evidence otherwise. As the book proceeds however, the reader can show more insight into details that Cassie overlooks. This is as the writer intends, it helps to include the reader more in the book and is a similar idea to dramatic irony used on the stage. Mildred Taylor has used Cassie's simplistic views of T.J. to persuade the reader to think more deeply. She has used this simple point of view to show that the effect of racism is not always obvious and as the reader comes to realise that T.J. is a victim, Taylor's central theme is portrayed. To help the reader understand that T.J. is a victim of the times, Mildred Taylor uses other characters to show a more balanced opinion of him. Stacey is often used in this way; he is one of the few characters that show sympathy towards T.J. Stacey demonstrates a certain level of understanding about T.J.'s position and why he is how he is.