Jim Goodnight Essay

Goodnight is driven by creating a culture that is full of employee engagement and motivation. On the SAS website, Jim Goodnight is quoted as saying, â€Å"Treat employees like they make a difference and they will†. In a publication from Harvard Business Review that Goodnight co-wrote with author Richard Florida he states, â€Å"companies prosper when they harness the creative capital of their employees, as those are the individuals that are creative thinkers and generate valuable products and services. † Mr. Goodnight understands that his product is a â€Å"product of the mind,† and therefore recognizes that maintaining an environment that retains employees and keeps them engaged is a requirement to be successfully. Jim Goodnight has entrenched motivator factors into his business, while minimizing and eliminating hygiene factors for his employees. SAS uses a vertical loading management style that allows employees to be more engaged and empowered in their work. Employees draw responsibility and challenge from this management platform. SAS employees are often only two or three levels down from the CEO, Jim Goodnight, and work alongside their management writing code and setting deadlines. These factors motivate employees and displays to them that managers can be technical in nature and work alongside them â€Å"in the trenches. † Also, SAS has a strong focus on employee satisfaction and uses all possible means to minimize and eliminate hygiene factors that could cause dissatisfaction. Mr. Goodnight pays his employees a competitive salary, however, he shows his commitment through other means such as; benefits, company programs, and employee facilities. SAS understands that work life balance is a conflict that most professionals have to deal with and overcome. SAS maintains flexibility by offering services that ease this burden such as; lunch programs, unlimited sick leave, and in house childcare. The fact that SAS has never had a layoff speaks volumes to its employees about the dedication that leadership has to its employees on job security and proper staffing levels. These factors have far reaching effects on employees and families, as they recognize and appreciate these benefits. My current employer offers a package similar to the one SAS provides its employees, and I experience similar results. For example, teams are more motivated and engaged in their work with minimal turnover and low dissatisfaction with their jobs, and teams are more likely to accept additional assignments with minimal pushback. Jim Goodnight is clearly motivated by offering his employees the highest quality of work life balance possible. He believes the culture is based on â€Å"trust between our employees and the company.

Barriers To Parental Involvement

Significance of Parental Involvement to Student Achievement Education is one of the basic rights of a person and improving the state of education has become the priority for almost all nations. Innovations in teaching lessons such as the use of computers and multimedia became an established way in achieving quality education. However, improving the state of education does not solely rely on new technologies and better books or other utilities.Research done by the United States Department of Education in 1994 showed that parental involvement in a child’s learning can have greatly decrease drop-out rates in schools and have positive effects on a child’s achievement (Educational Resources Information Center, 1998, p. 1). Involvement of parents can be defined as the inclusion of dyadic relationships between the child, parent, teacher or the child’s legal guardian (Edgrowth, http://www. edgrowth. com/p2. html).Parental involvement that can enforce positive effects on a student’s performance can also be classified into different types. The three broad types that are often used to categorize parental involvement are â€Å"at home† or â€Å"at school†. At home parental involvement means that the activities the parent’s take part in are limited to school works that are brought home such as home works or school projects. The second type of parental involvement is at school which basically means that the parents are involved in school activities (Patrikaku, 2005, 8).Another type of parental involvement is through advocacy activities such as being a member of PTA/PTO organizations and other organizations which greatly boost the representation of parents and students in the school and community (Chavkin, 1993, p. 191). Since the early 1980s, the United States has stressed the importance of parental involvement in children’s development. In order to stress out the importance of this involvement, many states in America e nacted legislations that will increase the involvement of parents in school programs.Some of these legislations are in Connecticut, Michigan, Ohio and South Carolina. These states require the student’s parent or guardian to be actively involved in school activities. They also require the parents or guardians to record and report the activities they do with their child (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2006, p. 152). The greatest gains that can be made when parents are involved in their children’s learning can be achieved when the parent’s are not only mere supporters but also if they are greatly involved in the activities.Deep involvement means that the parent’s not only supervise the children but also act as tutors when the children are at home. (Hornby, 2000, p. 3). Therefore the establishment of extensive parental involvement is a very important element in maintaining and securing the effectiveness of quality education. Numerous b enefits of involving parents in a student’s learning justify why this kind of involvement is important. Research done in the United States show that when parents play a role in their child’s education, the students do not only benefit academically but also socially.The research also showed that family income and social status are not accurate indicators of whether a student will succeed. (Franklin, et. al. , 2006, p. 630). The environment that a family creates when they are involved in a student’s learning makes a student want to achieve more. Also, when they support and express high expectations from their children’s education, the children tend to achieve more. Additionally, children learn the value of their achievements no matter how big or small it is therefore encouraging them to be proud of who they are.Other researchers were able to deduce that parental involvement is directly related to student achievement. The students who had their parents invol ved in their education were observed to have better performance in school. The students had better attendance and decreased drop-out rates. The attitudes and behaviors of the students were also improved. School bullying was not observed from the students who are effectively guided by their parents (Hawes, et. al. , 2001, p. 742). When a parent guides their child in school through positive involvement, the child also learns how to be responsible and have good leadership skills.Studies show that the ability to make wise decisions start from decisions that are made within the family. Therefore if a child is taught wisely, the child will be able to make sound decisions when he is at school and especially when he grows up (Michigan Department of Education, 2010l). From the very early stages of studying, parental participation deeply enhances the academic achievement as well as a child’s adjustment in school. It also allows students to have better opportunities to cultivate scholas tic and social skills.These skills if developed well will be helpful in later school success and long-term cognitive benefits (Wong, K. , et. al. , 2002, p. 184). Importance of parental involvement is also highlighted because students whose parents are involved in school have good discipline at school and have better communications with their teachers. Unlike other students who disobey their teachers and do not behave well in class, these students do not get detentions often. They also respect their teachers like how they respect their parents (Va Educational Research Service (Arlington), 1997, p. 7).School administrators also refrain from unsatisfactory work when it comes to monitoring children. Indeed parental involvement is very significant in a student’s development and their achievement. Its importance is proven by numerous studies done not only in the United States but also in other countries. Its significance encourages more schools to pursue their students’ par ents to become more actively involved in school activities. It also makes communication between school and the parents better. Children are undoubtedly stimulated to achieve more and do well in school. Socio-Economic BarriersMaking majority of parents involved in the children’s education is not an easy task for educators. There are many impediments in parental involvement that school administrators face. Though there are legislations made for this, barriers such as socio-economic factors are not easily eradicated. Socio-economic status or SES can be defined as an individual or family’s social and economic position that is basically based on the family income and occupation, parental education level, and social status in the community (North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, http://www.ncrel. org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/earlycld/ea7lk5. htm). Students who belong in lower socio-economic class or the working class have lesser parental involvement than those who belong in the upper socio-economic class. This is partly because the parents of the latter spend more time with their children than those from the lower social class. Parents who are not very affluent spend majority of their time at work therefore reducing the time that is supposed to be spent guiding their children (King. W. , 1999, p. 64).Working class parents also refrain from developing communication relationships with their child’s teachers thus resulting in lack of information when it comes to school activities and happenings inside the classroom (Galen, J. , et. al. , 2007, p. 169). Another barrier in parental involvement that is related to the socio-economic status of a parent is when school administrators favor students whose parents are more supportive of school policies. These parents give more to school projects in terms of monetary donations therefore making them more actively participate in school.Also, there are cases where in students from disadvantaged famili es experience double jeopardy in school. The â€Å"double jeopardy† happens when students who have low socio-economic status live in disadvantaged communities and are also doubly inclined to attend disadvantaged schools. Though they can choose to attend better schools, they are sometimes segregated by these advantaged schools therefore discouraging them from doing better in class. Segregation happens when the said schools choose the most able youth in school activities thus neglecting other students (Richardson, S. , et. al. , 2005, p.213). Another study showed that parents who live in communities with poor socio-economic status are not very easy to reach in terms of communication (Van Wyk, et. al. , 2008, p. 17). They either settle in different places in a short-span of time partly because they do not have sufficient financial resources. Some are difficult to reach because they deem parental involvement in school as a waste of time and that they should be earning money for t heir family than attending school functions. Lack of access to financial resources is seen to be a growing problem in schools today (Thomas, L. , et. al., 2007, p. 68). Cost of education is slowly increasing and some parents choose to have their children out of school in order to meet the demands of their basic needs. When this happens, the number of out-of-school children increases. Thus, the needed opinion from parents to make the quality of education better is not given. When a certain family belongs in a community from a low socio-economic status, they tend to feel isolated because of poverty and unemployment. This social isolation will have a negative impact on the parents’ and children’s socialization skills especially to the school (Lyman, R., et. al. , 1989, p. 211). Some parents express fear about communicating with teachers because they are afraid that they will be treated fairly by teachers. Discrimination or unfair treatment due to their class is also feare d by parents from low socio-economic background. Additionally, depending on the socio-economic background of the parent, they may adapt well to the advocacies done by the school and the activities performed by schools (Porter, L. , 2008, p. 35). They can either choose to easily accept these school policies or not and this will greatly affect the success of parental involvement.Language Barriers The use of languages sets humans apart from other living organisms. It is a vital tool that is utilized to communicate with others and understand each other. However, because of the many different spoken languages, people from different nationalities find it difficult to reach each other. In case of parental involvement, language is also another barrier in achieving the benefits of parental involvement. School activities such as Parent-Teacher Association meetings are deemed important in involving parents in the child’s school.It is one way to let the parents know of the problems of th e school and the students and how they can help the school solve these issues (Struck, D. , 1995, p. 17). However, when meetings are held in a school that caters to widely diverse nationalities, language is a problem. Not everybody speaks and comprehends one language, therefore making understanding difficult. Parents who belong to the minority or other nationality for example Asians feel that it may be disrespectful if they will talk to teachers and not be able to fully understand what the teacher is saying (Diane Publishing, 1998, p. 21).Minority parents also feel awkward when approaching teachers and other staff from their children’s school because they feel that they will not be able to understand each other. There are also instances where in because of the language barrier, parents from the minority are no longer invited to attend school activities because instead of making understandings, more arguments are made (Rockwell, R. , et. al. , 2009, p. 95). Though there are tr anslations services offered by some schools that advocate parental involvement school, difference in language is not that easily overcome by some school administrators (Funkhouser, J., 1997, p. xlv). This is because translators are unable to translate all languages that may be used by parents. Additionally, not all parents, especially from the minority are not that welcome to the idea that someone is translating for them. School Receptivity The school’s receptivity also plays as a factor in the success of parental involvement. If the school welcomes the parents well and if they are open to the opinions of the parents, hindrances to parental involvement will be avoided. School receptivity is, based on researches found to be a great predictor of how willing school’s are (Robinson, E., 2007, p. 11). However, not all schools are very receptive to parents at school. Research showed that there were teachers who did not communicate well with parents thus resulting to too many miscommunications (Nelson, G. , 2005, p. 253). Projects that were started both by the school and the parents in order to guide students failed. Because of this, some schools refrain from involving parents too much in school activities and other advocacies. Family members and school personnel are the people responsible for a child’s education.Aside from this, these people also contribute to the betterment of the educational process (Hiatt-Michael, D. , 2010, p. 4). Their receptivity towards each other is fundamental to the construction of a child’s knowledge. The greater the receptivity, the better the relationship between the parents and the school is and better decisions will be made for the benefit of the students. As mentioned before, there are parents who are afraid of talking with teachers because of socio economic and language barriers. The same goes with school administrators and other school personnel.Some of them do not accept much of the parent’s invo lvement in teaching students for this may cause confusion in the part of the students. Indeed, school receptivity is a major factor in the implementation of parental involvement in a child’s study. Even if there are numerous laws or regulations that encourage parents to be involved in schools, if the school itself is not receptive to these policies, the parents’ effort to support their children’s education will all prove to be futile. Parent Aspirations As parents, it is only natural for them to aspire for something good for the future of their children.In order to prepare them for it, they send them to the best schools, give them the best resources that they can afford and guide them very well on what decisions should be made. Their involvement in the children’s school is also another method of preparing their children that better future. Through proper academic encouragement, parents can greatly help their children achieve in school (Valencia, R. R. , 2 002, p. 125). However in cases of disadvantaged families, their aspirations for their children might lack and result to the student’s poor performance in school.Because of their status they tend to be more negative that parents who are affluent or parents who are not that disadvantaged. Parents from disadvantaged families are by research more pessimistic than those who are not disadvantaged (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2010, p. 179). Parents who are from poor families also have the tendency to settle for less than ambition for something great. When they let their children attend school, they do not pursue a college degree because they think that graduating from secondary school is enough to get a decent job (Combat Poverty Agency, 1999, p.10). When these parents do not have high aspirations for themselves or their children, they also refrain from being involved in school activities. They think that it is just a waste of time and that it will not be necessary in finding decent jobs in the future. They also do not want to be involved in their children’s school because they might have experienced something negative which led to their low aspirations in life. On the other hand, if the parents, even if they belong in a disadvantaged family, have high aspirations for their children, then their involvement in the school will be high.This will lead to their children’s high achievements and to do well in school. Additional Barriers Aside from the barriers to parental involvement mentioned above, there are still more problems that serves as hindrances to parental involvement for disadvantaged families. These barriers are the reasons why parental involvement is not that effective in some schools. If not dealt with properly, both y the school and the parents, the construction of education of the student will be gravely affected. The structure of the family can be considered as another barrier in parental involvement especial ly for disadvantaged families.For an instance, if the family belongs to the single-parent structure, then it will be difficult for the parent to be involved in school activities. It will also be hard for her to teach the children after school because the said parent will be performing the roles of two parents at a single time (Callison, W. , 2004, p. 2). The working schedule of the parent is also another barrier in parental involvement. If the parent is working full time, then it will be difficult for them to be involved in school activities which aim to give their children better education.Meetings such as PTA meetings will clash with their work scheduled and they will have to sacrifice one or the other based on their time schedule. If they belong to a lower socio-economic class or from a disadvantaged family then they will surely choose their work because making money for their family will be their utmost priority. Other children in the family can also be another barrier in parent al involvement. There are cases where in the disadvantaged family has too many children. Because of this, they cannot focus on the welfare of one child alone.They sometimes neglect or sacrifice the education of their other children to give way to their younger children. They cannot support the school’s advocacies because they have other things to do for their other children (Openshaw, L. , 2007, p. 60). For disadvantaged families who came from other countries or are immigrants, cultural differences may be a barrier for them. What they are used to do in their home country may vary on the place they currently reside in. Miscommunications will be the result of cultural differences between the parent and the teachers.What the teacher will say might mean entirely different to the parent based on the culture he grew up in. Elderly parents or guardians can be another barrier in parental involvement especially for disadvantaged families. Elderly people are sometimes too conservatives when it comes to changes in policies or how things are ruled. When the school wants a new regulation that will be for the welfare of the students, there is a chance that they might resist this change. Instead of helping the school to provide better services, their being conservative will only hinder the positive changes enforced.Transportation can also be considered as another barrier in parental involvement. For disadvantaged families especially, spending money on transportation to go to their child’s school can be called luxury. They might be unable to afford transportation so they will just skip the meetings or other advocacies implemented by the school. Negative or other traumatic experiences that a parent had when they were at school can be another barrier for parental involvement. Due to the negative experiences they had when they were students, they might shun connection with schools when they grow up.More often than not, parents send their children to schools they we nt to when they were younger. Though the staff that administers the school may be different during their children’s time, the trauma brought about by their negative experiences may result in their refusal to be involved in the school again. Indeed there are more barriers to parental involvement especially for disadvantaged families that are being discovered by studies done by experts. Unless they are dealt with properly, implementation of parental involvement in schools will not be successful. References Callison, W. (2004). Raising test scores using parent involvement.New York: Rowman & Littlefield. Chavkin, N. (1993). Families and schools in a pluralistic society. New York: SUNY Press. Combat Poverty Agency. (1999). Poverty Today. New York: Combat Poverty Agency. Diane Publishing. (1998). What's Noteworthy on Learners, Learning & Schooling. Kansas: DIANE Publishing. Edgrowth. Effects of Parental Involvement and Divorce on Student Achievement. Retrieved August 22, 2010, from http://www. edgrowth. com/p2. html. Educational Resources Information Center (1998). Parent involvement in children's education: efforts by public elementary schools. New Jersey: DIANE Publishing.Franklin, C. , Harris, M. , et. al. (2006). The school services sourcebook: a guide for school- based professionals. New York: Oxford University Press. Funkhouser, J. (1997). Family Involvement in Children’s Education. Washington D. C: DIANE Publishing. Galen, J. , et. al. (2007). Late to class: social class and schooling in the new economy. New York: SUNY Press. Hawes, J. , Shores, E. (2001). The family in America: an encyclopedia, Volume 1. California: ABC-CLIO. Hiatt-Michael, D. (2010). Promising Practices to Support Family Involvement in Schools (PB). New York: Information Age Publishing. Hornby, G. (2000).Improving Parental Involvement. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. King, W. (1999). Looking into the lives of children: a worldwide view. Australia: James Nic holas Publishers. Lyman, R. D. , (1989). Residential and inpatient treatment of children and adolescents. New York: Springer. Michigan Department of Education. Parent Involvement = Student Achievement. Retrieved August 22, 2010, from http://www. michigan. gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-5233-23090–,00. html Nelson, G. (2005). Partnerships for prevention: the story of the Highfield Community Enrichment Project. Canada: University of Toronto Press.

Assessing The Corporate Structure Within Lvmh Business Essay

Assessing The Corporate Structure Within Lvmh Business Essay LVMH Moà «t Hennessy Louis Vuitton S.A. (Euronext: MC), usually shortened to LVMH, is a French holding company and the worlds largest luxury goods conglomerate. It is the parent of around 60 sub-companies that each manage a small number of prestigious brands These daughter companies are, to a large extent, run autonomously. The group was formed after mergers brought together champagne producer Moà «t et Chandon and Hennessy, a leading manufacturer of cognac. In 1987, they merged with fashion house Louis Vuitton to form the current group The group is controlled by the Christian Dior group, which owns 42.4% of shares and has over 58% of voting rights. Bernard Arnault, majority shareholder of Dior, is Chairman of both companies and CEO of LVMH. His successful integration of various famous aspiration brands into the group has inspired other luxury companies into doing the same. Thus Gucci (now part of the French conglomerate PPR) and Richemont have also created extended portfolios of luxury brands. The oldest of the LVMH brands is wine producer Chà ¢tea d’Yquem, which dates its origins back to 1593 Corporate structure LVMH is based in Paris, France. The company is listed on the Euronext Paris exchange and isa constituent of the CAC 40 index. As of 2008, the group revenues of à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬17.2 billion with a net income of à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬2.318 billion. The group currently employs 77,000 people. 30% of LVMH’s staff work in France. LVMH operates over 2,300 stores worldwide. Its current business plan aims to tightly control the brands it manages in order to maintain and heighten the perception of luxury relating to their products. For example, Louis Vuitton products are sold only through Louis Vuitton boutiques found in upmarket locations in wealthy cities or in concessions in other luxury goods shops (such as Harrods in London). This practice contrasts greatly with less exclusive brands which can be bought in shopping malls around the world (http:// en.wikipedia.org) Shareholders At the end of 2008, the only declared major shareholder in LVMH was Groupe Arnault, the family holding company of BernardArnault. The group’s control amounted to 47.42% of LVMH’s stock (with 42.42% held through Christian Dior S.A. and 5.00% held directly) and 63.40% of its voting rights (58.02% by Dior and 5.38% directly). A further 3.4% of shares were declared as treasury stock, with the remainder being free float .(http://en.wikipedia.org) DEPARTMENTS OF LVMH Wines & Spirits Fashion & Leather Goods Perfumes & Cosmetics Watches & Jewelry Selective retailing (Annual report LVMH-2008) MISION AND VALUES OF LVMH Be creative and innovate Aim for product excellence Bolster  the  image  of  our  brands  with  passionate  determination Act as entrepreneurs Strive to be the best in all we do (Annual Report LVMH-2008) Definitions of Human Resource Management Human recourse management is a strategic and coherent approach to the mana gement of organization’s most valued assets: the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of its objectives. (Michael Armstrong, a Hand book of Human Resource Management 2003) The HRM models are The Matching model of HRM Harvard model of HRM Best practice model The contingency model

Privatizing Social Security is the best way to deal with the Social Essay

Privatizing Social Security is the best way to deal with the Social Security crisis - Essay Example During his initial campaign for the presidency and into his first term in office, President Bush outlined and championed a method that could save this ailing, enormously costly and inefficient socialist conceived dinosaur by introducing a streamlined plan that would privatize social security. This discussion briefly explains how Social Security is collected and distributed, how it affects different segments of society and why the fund is shrinking. It then examines the Bush administration’s proposed solution to the problem and appraises the merits of the plan to privatize Social Security. The Social Security system operates by collecting taxpayer money and redistributing it to selected persons in need. Employees pay about six percent of their salary into Social Security and their employer contributes a matching amount. The fund earns interest by investing in U.S. Treasury bonds then pays retirees who have paid into the fund as employees. It also pays to the spouses of deceased retirees and to disabled persons of working age. Half of the nation’s elderly would live below the poverty line if not for the benefits paid by Social Security as opposed to the ten percent presently in poverty. Today, nearly 60 percent of retirees acquire more than half of their income from Social Security. For a third of recipients, benefits account for 90 percent of their total income (Epstein, 2006 p. 12-15) Today, Social Security is taking in slightly more money than it is paying out. According to government estimates, the reverse will be true â€Å"within the next fifteen to twenty years† (Johnson, 2006) but will still be capable of paying full benefits until about 2042. The Social Security Administration estimates that the funding balance will tip by 2028 and steadily decline until the fund is exhausted in 2042 at which time it will retain the interest paid from the Treasury bonds and when that is depleted these bonds are sold back to the

Corporate governance for westpac Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

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

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The globalization essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

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Data design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Data design - Essay Example sequences that are to be integrated into the system should be turned into separate sequences in order to ease the procedure of processing information (Terry Halpin, Tony Morgan, Morgan Kaufmann Information Modeling and Relational Databases, Second Edition, March 2008. page 134). c. Feedback: The system should have the capability to provide feedback which is articulate, informative and semantically correct. This will ensure that the information displayed on the user and the client side is reliable and correctly understood (Terry Halpin, Tony Morgan, Morgan Kaufmann Information Modeling and Relational Databases, Second Edition, March 2008 page. 136). d. System messages: The system should be able to provide user centered messages like error messages. (Terry Halpin, Tony Morgan, Morgan Kaufmann Information Modeling and Relational Databases, Second Edition, March 2008 page 139). The system should also avoid using threatening messages or alarming messages. e. Display: The display between screens should be consistent and must show some degree of inertia. Unnecessary information should be avoided since they will be of no use and the interface should use easily recognizable icons. (Ramez Elmasri, Shamkant Navathe, Addison-Wesley Fundamentals of Database Systems (6th Edition), April 2010. Page

Health Care Delivery and Insurance System Essay

Health Care Delivery and Insurance System - Essay Example This paper analyses the health care delivery system as to whether it is broken or not Even though there are more than 40 million Americans who are not insured but still a major part of the gross national product of the nation is spent on health care (Iglehart, 1999). If the present problem has to be solved then it is essential that some changes take place in a lot of health financing systems (New York Academy of Sciences, 2000, pp. 1-14). The system should be best in all ways which means that the use of medical dollars should be made in an efficient way with provisions for improved medical care ostentation and promoting innovation. The new system should also incorporate quality with efficiency in prices of health care along with productive competition. The present system of health care which is driven by market and the existent governmental semi-National Health Insurance (NHI) Medicare and other Medicaid programs do not meet the requisites of best health care provisions (Brodenheimer, 1999; Riley, 2001; Pear, 2002; Krugan, 2002). Many countries are in problems due to a single payer for the nationalized health care and regular deficiency of patient selection (Krauz, 2002). 8. Areas which require attention The following areas put forward by different authors require immediate attention by the Congress government: 1. The people belonging to uninsured groups and those who are underinsured should be given immediate attention. 2. Politically and combative prescribed welfares (Jensen and Morrisy, 1999; Perez, 2002). 3. Imbalanced tax handling for health funding should not be the criteria. 4. Insured do not have any alternative to plans and providers. 5. Wayward financial bonuses for the insurance industry(Austin, 1984; Kuttner, 1999; Newhouse et.all, 1981 and Krauz, 2002) 6. Low financed and mystified Medicaid plans (Pear, 2002). 7. Inadequate national clinical tests and deficiency in limitation of preventable mismanagement suits (Institute of Medicine, 2001). 8. Unreasonable rivalry by hospitals burdening their own patients with varied amounts for indistinguishable services should not be the objective. Also the discrepancy in the amounts charged by pharmaceutical companies to individuals and small organizations should be done away with (Institute of Medicine, 2001). Apart from those mentioned above there are many areas in the health industry which require immediate attention of the creators. The Congress should create tax incentives which are individual in nature with permitted universal disastrous coverage so that the above mentioned discrepancies are removed. Discussion With reference to the number of individuals who are not insured, it only means the American medical system is a complete failure. Actually whatever be the kind of Medicaid it must have a provision for unforeseen

First year students’ challenges Essay Example for Free

First year students’ challenges Essay Entering a collage is like entering to a new different culture for high school student. Students are not just entering a school, but they are entering an academic environment. Many challenges will be ahead for them since it is the first year of transition. Some students might need one or two semesters to adopt the new environment. The most common challenges that students will face are not only the academic challenge, but also time management and responsibility challenges. Academic challenge is the first difficulty for the freshman students. The academic workload is a lot more that they can think of. Indeed, they are required to read and research more for their homework, assignments, or research papers. For example, students are required to finish one book in one or two week in order to do their do assignment, while other classes also have much homework. Students cannot complain that they have much other homework to do, but they need to finish it one time, instead. Be able to do so, students will need to face another challenge that is time management. Time management will be the second challenge for the first year student as well. As I mentioned above, there are many workload that students need to finish, so student need to have time management. In fact, they need to plan what to do, how much time they need to spend for each of their homework, or they will not be able to finish it one time. For instance, they need to classify their work from urgent and important to important but not urgent. Form my own experience, I managed my work by considering which homework is more urgent then I did it first, and less urgent, I did it later. In addition, students will face the challenge of responsibility. After entering the college, the students will need to be on their owns. They need to have responsible for every activity they do, and every decision they make. They cannot put blame on somebody or something else. To instructor or other people, they are the mature now. If they are wake up late for school, for example, it is their fault, they cannot say because of this or because of that. In conclusion, the first year of transition can be one of the most challenges that they will have in their lives. They need to be more mature, and deal with the challenges they face by themselves.

Womens Democracatisation and Democracy in India

Womens Democracatisation and Democracy in India Problematising Democracatisation and Democracy in India Visions of political development demands/desires democracy and participation as innate to its discourse. Development in this sense thus needs democratic decisions making, informed and active civil society and inclusive political structure to reach its goal. In the Indian context the process of democratization with inclusive participation is desired through the 73rd- 74th amendment Act of Indian constitution, 1992. The Act fosters the strengthening of local government by creating opportunities for inclusive participation. It provides rights to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and women, the most marginalised in the hierarchical Indian society to participate in local government. Aiming to redress the gender and caste inequities the Act provides 33% reservation to the aforementioned categories to participate in local bodies. Post implementation of the Act that has now passed sixteen years, womens participation has been remarkably visible. This has recently resulted in Union cabinet approving a proposal of a constitutional amendment bill for increasing quota (50%) for women in Panchayats at all tiers (DNA 29th August, 2009). Media reports estimate more than 1.4 million women to occupy 2,52,000 Panchayat seats in future. It also states, at present out of the total elected representatives of panchayat numbering around 2.8 million, 36.87% are women. The Panchayat raj ministry report indicates a significant role played by reservation in bringing women into mainstream (ibid). According to this report, about four-fifth of all women representatives in panchayat elections got elected from reserved seats and about 83% of them entered politics through quota. Positive impact of entering politics and working as a panchayat raj functionary is visible as 79% of women representatives reported better self-esteem, 81% rep orted confidence building and 74% stated increase of decision-making abilities (ibid). Such a positive report gives a picture of better and inclusive governance that India is moving towards by applying gender and development approach. This step foresees increased active-participation of women in public sphere and their empowerment. However, we need to look critically at the political participation that is envisioned and the actual implementation. Would political participation also facilitate womens participation at decision-making? What would participation entail especially for Dalit women in terms of the dire consequences of their earnest assertion to realize their rights? What is the role that the 73rd Amendment Act envisages for Scheduled Caste and what is the role they end up playing? At the backdrop of increased efforts from the state for inclusive governance these are the lines of enquiry I intend to draw upon.   Dr. Ambedkar in the constituent Assembly, 1948 expressed his views on Indian villages What is a village but a sink of localism, a den of ignorance, narrow mindedness and communalism? (Mathew,G. Nayak,R.1996: 1). He questioned the why should the village become the locus of the political structure?(Palanithurai 2003: 27) Villages ruled by its dominant elites and upper caste have been very conservative and are based on traditional caste structure. Local self government thus would reinforce the villages as unites of elite captures exploiting the downtrodden at grassroots. Problem Statement/Justification/Purpose of research: Sixteen years of the passing of the 73rd constitutional amendment Act has brought about a remarkable change in local governance. The formal participation and involvement of Dalit and women has increased in local politics. At this juncture there is a need to undertake a reality check. Does formal participation means actual representation of Dalit women? Is the process of political participation inclusive and empowering? Does assertion of Dalit women leads to violence against them as they are not meant to participate actively? The paper looks at Dalit womens experiences of political participation in panchayat raj and its impact on their empowerment. My interest in the issue of Dalit women comes from a number of different sources. First, from a personal experience as inter alia a Dalit woman. I, see several facets to the Dalit womens experiences having been brought up with this identity and being from the same background. Secondly, experience of working with civil society organisations on Gender Justice and rights of Dalit women during the graduation as a part of field work, internship with CHR and volunteering in Dalit movement in India drew my attention to Dalit womens issues more prominently. During the process I met Dalit women activists from rural Maharashtra working at grass-roots and saw the constant problems they faced for they challenged the systemic oppression. The intersectionality of caste and gendered hierarchy that gets intensified as Dalit women enter the public sphere came forward as a new learning. The socio-cultural positioning and significantly the caste-class-gender interplay make Dalit womens experiences specific. I therefore wanted to document the experiences of Dalit women who enter the public sphere for the first time through formal mean such as political participation. Finally and most importantly my focus on Dalit womens political participation in Panchayat is because at policy level although the introduction of reservation to marginalised groups (Women, SCs, STs) at local body envisions inclusive democracy and better governance, in practice the local level politics is a crudest unit of oppression. Thus the need to study Dalit womens experiences of political participation arose from my own understanding and experience of the issue as well as Specificity of Being Dalit Women: Intersectionality Dalit women in India today number 80.517 million or approximately 48% of the total Dalit population, 16% of the total female population and 8% of the total Indian Population (Irudayam et al., 2006:1). Dalit women face discrimination on a daily basis, as a Dalit, as women and as a poor they are in extremely vulnerable position (National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights 2006:1). Dalit women make majority of unorganised labourer in urban settings and landless labourers in rural. Systemic violence against Dalit women can be seen as a mechanism to keep Dalit in a subordinated position. It is built in to the structure of the dominant society, which does not acknowledge the basic human rights of Dalit in general and Dalit women in particular. There is a clash between the expected role of Dalit women and the role they achieve because of the differential ways in which they negotiate their social status and gender norms. The new public role that the 1992 Act assigns them generates a clash betwee n traditional norms and the achieved political rights of Dalit women. Dalit women who have the ambition to occupy a political position frequently encounter resistance from the society. General discouragement becomes violence as soon as they show too much initiative, speak up and gain support from the larger community. Political participation for Dalit women is seen as a threat by the dominant caste groups. Dalit womens entry in politics is perceived as them securing entitlement to public resources. Strong Casteist and patriarchal biases against Dalit result in violent attacks, restraining Dalit women from exercising their rights through various mechanisms. There fore at academic level, I believe there is an urgent need to study the experiences of Dalit women participating in politics. It is at the village level that caste and gendered hierarchy plays out in crudest forms) With this premise I form objectives of my study the broad objective being: Study the experiences of Dalit womens right to political participation in rural Panchayat Raj system. I have following specific objective for the study: Explore the factors that restrain or facilitate participation of Dalit women in rural Panchayat Raj. Examine the impact of political participation on Dalit women in Panchayat Raj. Study the empowerment process of Dalit women through the political participation in Panchayat Raj. To suggest recommendations for effective participation of Dalit women in Panchayat Raj Research Question: Based on the objectives of study I formulated my research question for the enquiry What are the experiences of Dalit women participating in panchayat raj? Has the political participation impacted Dalit womens empowerment? What have been the attributing/restraining factors for the empowerment of Dalit women? What are the achievements of their political participation for themselves and for the Dalit community they represent and for the society in general? Feminist approach: Within feminist social science research, qualitative data, in particular in-depth interviews have  ´held a prominent place in the history of feminist inquiry ´ (Rabinowitz and Martin, 2001:44 in Kitzenger2003:126). Focus groups methods are also employed along with such talk about experiences. These are self-report methods. My choice of topic and feminist orientation required to utilize this method. This goes back to second wave of feminism (1970s) that emphasized the reclaiming and validation of womens experiences through listening womens voices (Kitzenger, 2003:125, Kirsch, 1999:4). The personal experiences of women have also been recognized in political context since then. Further Feminist social science researcher made it general to base their studies on womens voices and experiences. In fact feminist researches aimed at listening to womens different voices ´ (Gilligan, 1982 in Kitzenger, 2003:126) and  ´to address womens lives and experiences in their own terms, to create theory grounded in the actual experiences and language of women (DuBois, 1983: 108 in Kitzenger, 2003:126). With this historical reference I decided to apply feminist approach a most suitable analytic framework in my study of Dalit women sharing their experiences of Political participation. Methodology: This section methodology brings out the processes through which data is collected, collated, analyzed and interpreted. This is aimed at increasing the reliability of the study for the further validation as research is performed in order to be used. The study primarily adopts a qualitative approach as it helps to understand the subject of study through the experiences of the Dalit women. The paper focuses on the political participation and its impact on Dalit women.   It attempts to look critically at political participation of Dalit women and the trends of political participation at local level since the 73rd amendment Act, 1992. It does it so by documenting experiences of Dalit women and analyzing the complexities involved due to caste-class-gender interplay in the political participation process of Dalit women. These questions will only be answered by talking to Dalit women who have participated in the political processes. A systematic and comprehensive documentation of Dalit womens experiences at local governance is thus needed. For this purpose I decided to conduct a focused study based on qualitative primary data collected through field work. Methodology is one of the important sections of my research paper as the process of qualitative enquiry through field work has taught me more about my research topic along with the literature. After a considerable thinking process I decided that the method should be suitable to the research questions that I intend to address. As the research focuses on Dalit womens experiences the best method was to record their experiences through in-depth interviews. I intentionally kept the interviews unstructured as its being qualitative in nature, provides greater breadth. In-depth unstructured interviews allow researcher to explore a theme without being restricted to a series of questions. I being from a Dalit community and having worked on the Dalit womens issues came to my advantages as the discussions with Dalit women were focused at the same time gave scope to them to talk out their experiences without any hindrances. The rapport building and trust was achieved very easily. I lived in the f ield place with respondents and in special cases (there are three main cases) I stayed with the respondents for more than two days in order to understand and document the various dimensions involved in political participation of Dalit women. I used a question guideline that was formulated through the discussion with the expert in the field of research methodology and local governance[1] Sampling: The purposive (non-probability) sampling was utilized based on focus of my study to document and assess the experiences of Dalit womens political participation in local politics. Intentional and directed selection of Dalit women at grassroots politics was employed.   CHR, SPMM activists helped me identify data. Only one woman declined to give interview. The reason she declined itself interprets the problem faced by Dalit woman, I was informed by the activists that she Eighteen Dalit women in total were identified from three blocks of Beed district out of ten blocks and one block of Latur district. I selected ten out of eighteen Dalit women on the basis of sampling objectivity and representation of differences within Dalit women. Also, their diverse experiences of political participation were considered.   The sample was based on following interconnecting criteria. Panchayats at village level (Gram-Panchayats) newly elected Scheduled caste women President at village level SC women who had been Ex-Presidents Dalit women serving more than one tenure Dalit woman who tried but not succeeded in accessing panchayat post Cases where no-confidence motion was exercised on the Dalit women presidents Cases where abuse, beating up and atrocity inflicted Success-stories of active participation Finally 9 Dalit women from Beed District and one from Latur district of Marathwada region were selected. Three cases emerged as a main focus during my field work due to the special experiences of respondents. Though the sample was purposive I balanced sub-castes within scheduled castes by having respondents from Mahar and Mang (major scheduled castes of Maharashtra). Efforts were taken to include respondents with wide range of age in this study. Data collection: In the month of July, 2009 I visited the identified field place, Beed District, Marathwada region, Maharashtra. I already had established contacts with a human rights organization Campaign for Human Rights in Beed and its sister organization, Savitribai Phule Mahila Mandal (SPMM) which works on the issue of gender justice and womens empowerment through self help group.   With the consultation of Manisha Tokle (The founding secretary of SPMM) and Ashok Tangade (National secretary of CHR) I identified potential respondents from the selected blocks of Beed Distict. They also put me in contact with the field workers of CHR who handled these blocks. Manisha, Ashok and field workers gave me enriched information based on their field work experiences. Being well-versed with the area made them experts in the psycho-social behavior of people and the cultural challenges. Their guidance and discussions after interviews has been very important as something new would always emerge out of these d iscussions which I might not had thought during the interview. Their interpretations of the cases gave me crystallized views.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   CHR field activists from respective blocks accompanied me for every interview. They worked as informants. Their good rapports with the respondents, understanding of the region and the cultural meanings made my task easier. My own background being a Dalit woman was helpful in getting support from the respondents, establishing rapport and gaining their trust. In-depth unstructured interviews were recorded on the digital voice recorder. I maintained notes during and after every interview which helped me over come the problems in data analysis. The documentation of experiences of women was backed by my notes and suggestions from the field workers who discussed their interpretations after every interview. Informed consent: Before using the recorder I fully informed the respondents about the purpose of my study and the necessity to use the recorder Pictures of the respondents and the evidentiary documents wherever needed were taken for documentation. Interviews with expertise/ Key-Informants: I also consulted my ideas and paper with expertise as well as I interviewed key informants to gather their experiences in the field, on the issue FGD Area of study: The area of study was identified based on the characteristics of the region. The Marathwada region of the Maharashtra state was selected for the very peculiar reasons. First, Marathwada region being one of the most backward, feudal and atrocity prone regions of the Maharashtra state, second, a very special history of Dalit movement and violence against Dalits in the region and very importantly the right based work of Human rights organisations such as CHR, SPMM for the Dalit and womens upliftment. According to the first hand investigation and identification of cases I selected the following Blocks in Beed District and I took one exceptional case from Latur district that comes in Marathwada region itself.   1.1 Introduction The paper looks at how Dalit women, compared to women in general, are a different entity when they participate in Indias local self-governing institutions, known as Panchayat Raj Institutions. The 73rd Amendment of the Constitutional Act 1992, came into force in April 1993, providing an opportunity for Dalits and women – the most marginalised in the hierarchical Indian society – to participate in local-body elections at the village level. The Act, seeking to redress gender and caste inequities in rural India, provides 33% reservation to women, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes in local bodies. Within this 33%, Dalit women are provided reserved seats on a rotating basis (meaning, every five or ten years the constituencies reserved for dalits and women are changed). After more than 15 years of the Act, Dalit and Dalit womens participation has been remarkably visible. However, we need to look critically at the term participation and what it entails—especially i n terms of the consequences dalit women face when they earnestly assert their rights. What is the role that the 73rd Amendment Act envisages for women and what is the real role they end up playing? There is a clash between the expected role of women and Dalit women because of the differential ways in which they negotiate their social status and gender norms. The new public role that the 1992 Act assigns them generates a clash between traditional norms and the achieved political rights of Dalit women. Violence exercised against women, and specifically against Dalit women, when they participate in political work, in indicative of the stratifications that obtain in the Indian social order. Vulnerably positioned at the bottom of Indias caste, class and gender hierarchies, Dalit women experience endemic gender and caste discrimination and violence as the outcome of severely imbalanced social, economic and political power equations (Irudayam et al 2006, pp.3). Within the oppressive social structure Dalit women become victim of violence if they transgress their rights and try to challenge their lower status. As gender violence, like any violence there are contexts, in relation to violence against Dalit women, the nature and dynamics of these contexts, relating to power and force, make them vulnerable and functions as a constrain to their agency and voice. This structural violence is an outcome of gender based inequalities perpetuated by patriarchal power relation also shaped, compounded and intensified by caste discrimination. Violence acts as a crucial social mechanism to maintain Dalit womens caste-gender subordination to men and that of the dominant caste men thereby subjugating both Dalit women and through them their community. Violence against women is gender-based and gender biased (Irudayam et al., 2006: 17) in the sense it the devaluates womens status in social order perpetuated by patriarchy and justified on the basis of perceived differences between male and female sexuality. In Indian context the caste ladder descending from purity to pollution, purest Caste men being on the top of the ladder whereas the polluted caste placed on the lower rung women are pushed even further down to the lowest rung. It works against their integrity as an individual; this is a violation of womens rights, such as their identity as a woman and dignity as an individual. Therefore violence in this sense means denial of rights as an individual and hindering womans development at various levels of integrity, as an Individual, as a woman in a family, a woman belonging to certain community and culture. Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung defines Violence as avoidable insult to basic human needs; he identifies the basic human ne eds as survival, well-being, identity, and freedom (Galtung 1990 pp 292). 1.2 Being a Dalit and a Woman:   Caste-Gender Nexus Dalit women face collective and public threat or act of violence which discourage them from demanding their rights, it is effects of structures on individual agency that results in the gap between potential and actual fulfilment of rights. Retaliatory violence is exercised in response to dalit womens assertions for their rights by defying caste, untouchability norms or asserting their rights to cultural, economic and political resources. Dominant caste women tend to be subjected to violence more within the family due to strict control over their sexuality and freedom of movement again due to the caste factors, in order to preserve the purity and status of their caste. There have been movements through out the country making Dalits aware of their rights and also there have been feminist movements in India which took up issues of women subordination however looking at Dalit women as an imagined category (Rao, 2003: 1) and analysing the premises which prevent them from exercising their agency is yet the area of exploration. Imagining Dalit women as a different category as Bhagvat mentions is needed, because these feminist movements and Dalit movements lack a critical dimension from Dalit womans standpoint. Guru emphasises on this Point while he talks about politics of difference to bring out the specificity of Dalit womens subjugation. This subjugation is characterised by their experience of two distinct patriarchal structures a Brahmanical form of patriarchy that deeply stigmatizes Dalit women because of their caste status, as well as the control by Dalit men over the sexual and economic labour of their women (Guru in Rao 2003: 1). Political Participation for women means securing their entitlement to public resources, the economic resources they will avail as a result of participation for them and their community, the social and political benefits such as Development of the Dalit community in village, implementation of government schemes for Dalit more democratically due their representation.   With the strong patriarchal biases against women and marginalised Dalit, the dominant caste male members would not want these sections to equally enjoy the resources over which they had monopoly since long. There has a lot been written and debated around political participation of women and Dalits, conclusions are made that there has been fairly good representation in terms of number but the mere participation doesnt help these sections to exercise their rights. Nature of participation and effectiveness of the act has been assessed too, although with limited vision of looking only at the quantitative aspect of political participation. Very little has been studied on the gender-Caste nexus which denies the right of economic, political, social liberties to Dalit community as a whole and Dalit women within it. Political participation through Panchayat Raj Institution has given space for women to come out and talk about their grievances. The reservation has limited itself to space creation even though it implied the empowerment of women and there by making them equal partners in enjoyment of political, social, economical resource. It is seen that the oppressive social structures have reaffirmed their superiority by attacking women through new ways of oppression such as criminalisation of politics, starting right from the election process to making women mere proxies of their male counterparts. Violence in the process of Political participation to ensure womens non- participate and exercise their agency is a crucial aspect to study and to enhance policies which will cut across the structural inequalities of caste-class-gender and give dalit women an equal status. I want to study Violence experienced by women at different levels of participation and look at the specificity of violence experienced by Dalit women being trice oppressed due to their marginalised status as a Dalit, as a woman and as a lower class. Doing so my focus is at specificities of violence, Violence faced by women in general which is within their families and is built around the family prestige, there by controlling womens sexuality for the purity of their lineage and superior status. whereas dalit women not only face violence from their own family and community also from the dominant caste forces who ensure their superiority and control over resources by keeping the Lowest strata at its place who according to them are worth no social, economical and political rights. 1.3 Problem Statement According to the 2001 census there are 167 million Dalits (referred to the census as scheduled castes) in India, who remain vulnerable to discrimination, exploitation, and violence because of their socially marginal position assigned by Hindu social order. Indias hidden apartheid relegates Dalits to a life time of segregation and abuse. Caste-based divisions continue to dominate in housing, marriage, employment, and general social interaction—divisions that are reinforced through economic boycotts and physical violence (Hidden Apartheid 2007). The dalit woman faces Caste, Class and Gender discrimination because she is an untouchable, of a poor class and is a woman.   (National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights 2006) Dalit women in India today number 80.517 million or approximately 48% of the total Dalit population, 16% of the total female population and 8% of the total Indian Population (Irudayam et al., 2006). They make majority of unorganised labourer in urban settings and landless labourers in rural. They face discrimination on a daily basis, as a Dalit, as women and as a poor they are in extremely vulnerable position. Systemic violence against Dalit women can be seen as a mechanism to keep Dalit in a subordinated position. It is built in to the total structure of the dominant society, which does not acknowledge the basic human rights of Dalit in general and Dalit women in particular. The 73rd -74th Amendments, former being for rural local bodies and later for urban local councils brought about radical changes in womens representation in local bodies. The method of co-option where women are elected for the reserved seats on the consensus of the members of local panchayat body or nomination, Balwant Rai Mehta committee report proposed two women representatives each from Scheduled caste and scheduled tribe to be co-opted, these two procedures through which womens representation was ensured hitherto in the local bodies, has changed. Under the previous system, womens representation in local bodies was low and most women nominated to these bodies could hardly perform any functions. All the states except for Bihar (Santha, 1999) had conducted the elections to the local bodies in accordance with the 73rd-74th Amendments act, 1992 and almost one million women have been elected to the Panchayat Raj institutions and urban local bodies (I am focusing only at 73rd constitutio nal amendment act 1992 and PRIs and not on urban councils covered by the 74th Amendment, where he dynamics are different). This brought about a social change in terms of the traditional role of women; which used to be to take care of house hold chores and raise children and be inside the four walls all her life. Womens political empowerment finally seemed to be receiving some attention from both government and non-government organisations. Serious efforts are being made towards documenting womens political participation although it is limited to the Local self government. Questions of feasibility remain unanswered such as womens active participation, hidden domination (gender blindness) for instance in the budgeting process but also even in considering women as political entities, many treated women elected through reservation as a temporary members in Local body. The consequences of assertion resulting in discouragement, fragmentation and discrimination inflicting violence are yet to explore. Violence against Dalit women is utilised to deny them opportunities, choices and freedoms at multiple levels, undermining not only dalit womens dignity and self respect, but also their right to develop. An intersectional caste violence and atrocities against Dalit women occur at two levels: as an inherent part of the caste system whereby violence is utilised to reinforce caste norms and Dalit women are seen as legitimate target for all forms of violence, especially sexual violence, and when they transgress caste norms, such as caste endogamy or untouchability norms, or assert their rights over resources, public spaces or cultural spaces. In other words, the process of Dalit womens empowerment itself is perceived as a challenge to caste and patriarchal structures, and provides fertile ground for punitive violence committed by dominant castes. (Irudayam et al., 2006) Factors such as socio-cultural notion of womens role act as impediments in effective political participation hindering political empowerment of Women; When it comes to Dalit women these factors play much intense role and are specific for Dalit women due to their social status, denial and even no recognition to Dalit womens political rights result into violence. Cases such as denial from villagers for flag hoisting by Dalit women councillors on Independence Day, not being allowed to sit on the chair along with other members let alone talking in the meeting, Ignoring while they talk, use of abusing and discriminatory language, and humiliation on daily basis are experienced by most of the Dalit women who participate as elected members in local political arena. After encountering this reality one would question that would the thousands years old socially, culturally, economically and most importantly politically entrenched patriarchal caste system ensured the representation of disadvantaged groups in politics?   1.4 Rationale: Being a Dalit and a Woman My interest in the issue of Dalit Women comes from several different sources; first and foremost me being a Dalit woman. Being brought up with this identity and background, I got exposure to the problem faced by elders of the family and community. I feel my study would contribute in critically assess structural inequality causing Dalit suppression and specifically of the Dalit women in local politics. In the name of social discipline, social balance and to maintain this social balance, Dalits in general and Dalit wom

The Effects of Television Violence on America Essay -- essays research

America has the highest crime rate in the world. Along with that crime rate is also the very high violence rate. Why is violence becoming and everyday event in our society? When you flip on the television and tune into the news, the highlight of every show is somehow directly related or connected to violence. We see it every evening and perhaps say "Oh my gosh" and then forget all about it two minutes later. Or perhaps we don't even make any comments at all, just a simple grunt or â€Å"Oh, how terrible†. This numbness to violence is very scary and real. It makes you blind to the fact, that America has the most crime and violence. Why not Switzerland or Australia? Are we not as civilized and advanced as they are? I believe it is this numbness to violence that has made America such a violent place. When I think back to my childhood and remember television I remember watching such programs as "Sesame Street", "Mr.Rogers", and "Scooby - Doo". I have nothing but pleasant memories filled with happiness, peace, understanding, and learning. When you watch children's programs today you see senseless violence often as the first means of solving a problem. The classic view of "good" versus "evil" is the basis of many of these shows, with violence as the answer. When children watch these programs they often imiatate the actions and "morals" of these characters. Children do not know what "good" or "evil" really is, how can they? This world is not broken into "good" and "evil". "Evil" to children is what opposes them, what does not agree with them, or any other person or thing that poses a possible difficulty. Children must be taught that there are differences in this world. This world is filled with many people ho... ...tion to this problem is censorship. Censorship not at the governmental level, nor at the state level, nor at the cable company level, rather at the level of the parents. They and they alone are the ones who need to decide what is best for their children. When I was a child my mother was always there to tell me what I could and could not watch. Of course when I was smaller I hated it, but now that I am older and a mother myself, I am so grateful and thankful that my mother censored what was fed into my brain. As parents I believe that we are solely responsible for what show we allow to be seen in our households. We have to take the responsibility of censoring what is fed into the minds of our children. And if montoring doesn’t resolve the issue of what is seen by our children we can always do what Peter Goddard said â€Å"You can turn the damn thing off, you know.†

American History :: essays research papers

United States (History), story of how the republic developed from colonial beginnings in the 16th century, when the first European explorers arrived, until modern times. As the nation developed, it expanded westward from small settlements along the Atlantic Coast, eventually including all the territory between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans across the middle of the North American continent, as well as two noncontiguous states and a number of territories. At the same time, the population and the economy of the United States grew and changed dramatically. The population diversified as immigrants arrived from all countries of the world. From its beginnings as a remote English colony, the United States has developed the largest economy in the world. Throughout its history, the United States has faced struggles, both within the country—between various ethnic, religious, political, and economic groups—and with other nations. The efforts to deal with and resolve these strugg les have shaped the United States of America into the 21st century. This is one of seven major articles that together provide a comprehensive discussion of the United States of America. For more information on the United States, please see the other six major articles: United States (Overview), United States (Geography), United States (People), United States (Culture), United States (Economy), and United States (Government). II Early Cultural Interaction Print Preview of Section Early American history began in the collision of European, West African, and Native American peoples in North America. Europeans â€Å"discovered† America by accident, then created empires out of the conquest of indigenous peoples and the enslavement of Africans. Yet conquest and enslavement were accompanied by centuries of cultural interaction—interaction that spelled disaster for Africans and Native Americans and triumph for Europeans, to be sure, but interaction that transformed all three peoples in the process. A Native America in 1580 The lands and human societies that European explorers called a New World were in fact very old. During the Ice Ages much of the world’s water was bound up in glaciers. Sea level dropped by hundreds of feet, creating a land bridge between Alaska and Siberia. Asians walked across to become the first human inhabitants of the Americas.

The Fundementals of Baseball Essay -- Hitting, Fielding, Throwing, Bas

  Ã‚  Ã‚   A man once stated, "You can have all the physical ability in the world, but you still have to know the fundamentals" (â€Å"Fundamentals Quotes†). The greatest and most talented players' in the world still have to learn and know the fundamentals to play the game. Fundamentals are the simple basics of the sport and explain how to play the game. The important fundamentals of baseball include hitting, fielding, throwing, and also base running.     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Many people believe that hitting is where to begin, according to an old coach, "The main part of baseball that brings people in to the game is hitting. Some have seen professionals do it on TV and others have seen it in person. But as for hitting, it is the major part of baseball for many players" ("Basic"). Another coach agrees going as far as saying, "A successful player must be able to hit the ball" ("Basic"). Hitting is not just a part of the game; hitting is the game. Hitting is the main and most important part of the game of baseball. During the sport of baseball, hitting is what determines who will win the game and who will lose. A great hitting team can have off days. In baseball everyone has good and bad days. As far as hitting, it is what determines the end results.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Hitting the baseball is the time for the batter to shine, time to stand out, and the time when everyone's eyes are on the batter. It is his time to do what he has been working for his whole life. A coach agrees with hitting being the main part of the game saying, "The main part of baseball that brings people into the game is hitting. Some have seen professionals do it on TV and others have seen it in person. But as for hitting, it is the major part of baseball for many players" ("Basic"). It is ti... ...strong.com/article/272178- basic- fundamentals-of-baseball/>. "Fielding Position." Infield Fundamentals Baseball Drills. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2014. "Fundamentals of Fielding a Ground Ball." Human-kinetics. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. . "Fundamentals Quotes." BrainyQuote. Xplore, Web. 26 Mar. 2014. . "How to Increase Pitching Velocity." How to Increase Pitching Velocity. Web. 04 Apr. 2014. . "Linear and Rotational Hitting  « Baseball Drills from the Ground Up." Baseball Drills from the Ground Up Linear and Rotational Hitting Comments. Web. 04 Apr. 2014. hitting/hitting/>.

Sonnys Blues

tells of seeing his brother play piano in a jazz club, and of sending up to his brother a drink—a mixture of Scotch whiskey and milk. As the story closes this unusual mixture sets atop Sonny’s piano â€Å"like the very cup of trembling. † Discuss how this drink serves as a symbolic conclusion to Baldwin’s story. How does it symbolize for the reader the resolution, or synthesis, of various tensions in the story? Indeed what are the main lines of tension, opposition, and division in â€Å"Sonny’s Blues†? At the end of the story, the narrator describes a glass sitting over Sonny’s piano as shaking â€Å"like the very cup of trembling† to highlight what a difficult and complicated position Sonny is in. This image is borrowed from the Bible, where the cup of trembling is used as a symbol to describe the suffering and fear that have plagued the people. The biblical passage promises a relief from that suffering, but Baldwin’s us e of the cup of trembling as a symbol is less overt. * Sonny’s drinking from the cup of trembling serves as a reminder of all the suffering he has endured, while also offering the chance for redemption and peace.As a musician, Sonny takes all his suffering and that of those around him and transforms it into something beautiful. * Like the figures from the Bible, Sonny is moving toward salvation, but his fate remains uncertain. Perhaps he will continue to suffer, suffering being the cost he has to pay for being a musician. There is something Christ like about Sonny’s pain, and suffering for Sonny is at once inevitable and redemptive * At the end of the story, it remains unclear whether he will continue to suffer in order to play his music or whether a greater peace and redemption awaits everyone involved.The fact that the glass is filled with scotch and milk only further highlights the tension and duality Sonny faces. SUFFERING QUOTE A great block of ice got settled in my belly and kept melting there slowly all day long, while I taught my classes algebra. It was a special kind of ice. . . . Sometimes it hardened and seemed to expand until I felt my guts were going to come spilling out or that I was going to choke or scream. (12)| People don't always outwardly express their anguish. The narrator's suffering is immense (it threatens to overpower him here), but he can't just fall apart.Perhaps his suffering is made even greater because this great, big block of ice just stays where it is. He can't get it out of his system. SUFFERING QUOTE â€Å"Tell me,† I said at last, â€Å"why does he want to die? He must want to die, he's killing himself, why does he want to die? † (38)| The narrator is making a desperate plea with this unanswerable question. He can't imagine anyone doing what Sonny has done to himself unless he no longer has the will to live. He just wants to know â€Å"why? †Ã‚   His suffering is as great as Sonny's here. SU FFERING QUOTEYou don't know how much I needed to hear from you. I wanted to write you many a time but I dug how much I must have hurt you and so I didn't write. But now I feel like a man who's been trying to climb out of some deep, real deep and funky hole and just saw the sun up there, outside. I got to get outside. (127)| Sonny suffers on multiple levels. He suffers from his drug addiction and from being stuck in jail. But he also suffers from the knowledge that he's hurt his family and that, because of this, he didn't dare reach out to them even when he needed to the most. Sonnys Blues tells of seeing his brother play piano in a jazz club, and of sending up to his brother a drink—a mixture of Scotch whiskey and milk. As the story closes this unusual mixture sets atop Sonny’s piano â€Å"like the very cup of trembling. † Discuss how this drink serves as a symbolic conclusion to Baldwin’s story. How does it symbolize for the reader the resolution, or synthesis, of various tensions in the story? Indeed what are the main lines of tension, opposition, and division in â€Å"Sonny’s Blues†? At the end of the story, the narrator describes a glass sitting over Sonny’s piano as shaking â€Å"like the very cup of trembling† to highlight what a difficult and complicated position Sonny is in. This image is borrowed from the Bible, where the cup of trembling is used as a symbol to describe the suffering and fear that have plagued the people. The biblical passage promises a relief from that suffering, but Baldwin’s us e of the cup of trembling as a symbol is less overt. * Sonny’s drinking from the cup of trembling serves as a reminder of all the suffering he has endured, while also offering the chance for redemption and peace.As a musician, Sonny takes all his suffering and that of those around him and transforms it into something beautiful. * Like the figures from the Bible, Sonny is moving toward salvation, but his fate remains uncertain. Perhaps he will continue to suffer, suffering being the cost he has to pay for being a musician. There is something Christ like about Sonny’s pain, and suffering for Sonny is at once inevitable and redemptive * At the end of the story, it remains unclear whether he will continue to suffer in order to play his music or whether a greater peace and redemption awaits everyone involved.The fact that the glass is filled with scotch and milk only further highlights the tension and duality Sonny faces. SUFFERING QUOTE A great block of ice got settled in my belly and kept melting there slowly all day long, while I taught my classes algebra. It was a special kind of ice. . . . Sometimes it hardened and seemed to expand until I felt my guts were going to come spilling out or that I was going to choke or scream. (12)| People don't always outwardly express their anguish. The narrator's suffering is immense (it threatens to overpower him here), but he can't just fall apart.Perhaps his suffering is made even greater because this great, big block of ice just stays where it is. He can't get it out of his system. SUFFERING QUOTE â€Å"Tell me,† I said at last, â€Å"why does he want to die? He must want to die, he's killing himself, why does he want to die? † (38)| The narrator is making a desperate plea with this unanswerable question. He can't imagine anyone doing what Sonny has done to himself unless he no longer has the will to live. He just wants to know â€Å"why? †Ã‚   His suffering is as great as Sonny's here. SU FFERING QUOTEYou don't know how much I needed to hear from you. I wanted to write you many a time but I dug how much I must have hurt you and so I didn't write. But now I feel like a man who's been trying to climb out of some deep, real deep and funky hole and just saw the sun up there, outside. I got to get outside. (127)| Sonny suffers on multiple levels. He suffers from his drug addiction and from being stuck in jail. But he also suffers from the knowledge that he's hurt his family and that, because of this, he didn't dare reach out to them even when he needed to the most.

An Individual Detailed Analysis on the Style, Editing Techniques Mise-En-Scene and Cinematography in the Film “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”

An individual detailed analysis on the style, editing techniques Mise-en-scene and cinematography in the film â€Å"Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind†. Michael Gondry’s Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind (2004) is not your typical Hollywood rom-com. Its cinematic style is very original and by far out of the ordinary for its genre. The use of techniques and the way the film is produced is the reason why it is so memorable. The non-linear narrative is based around a middle-aged guy who falls in love with a woman, who, after a while into their relationship decides to erase every single memory and feeling towards him.The story is told in flashbacks that slowly reveal the time and space the couple spent together and all the events that made up their relationship. Silvey states that â€Å"The innovative use of narrative, mise en scene, cinematography, editing and the soundtrack in the film all serve to convey the tenderness, confusion, miscommunication, pain and hope that accompany romantic endeavours. † [SILVEY 2009: 139]. I will be discussing and critically analyzing the exact same concepts as above in my argument and how they contribute to such a stylistic storyline. I will also be comparing techniques used in this film to such ones in other films.Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind is a mind-blowing story about a man called Joel Barish who finds himself in a life-changing situation when he accidentally discovers that his long-term girlfriend, Clementine Kruczynski has undergone a brain procedure which erases someone from the mind, in this case clementine erases Joel from her memory, leaving her with no memories what so ever of him. He decides the best way to cure his broken heart is to undergo the same process and erase Clementine for good. But as his memory loss commences he finds himself trapped in his own memories, watching them as they disappear.Half way through he realizes he no longer wants to erase Clementine and tries his ver y best to keep hold of his living memories. The style of editing in Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind is undoubtedly the most recognizable aspect that separates this film from a ‘normal' love story. It has the typical love narrative moments but the way it is pieced together with its innovative narrative style is what puts it at a whole new level of originality. The film begins just like any other straightforward storyline would, but as the film continues it becomes clear to the audience that it is a non-linear narrative.For the first couple of scenes the film doesn't give away any signs that it is beginning with the end of the film as their are no use of flashbacks or unusual techniques involved, but when Joel goes to sleep you realize that he is watching himself in his own dream, like he is having a flashback of himself talking to his neighbour about valentines day just hours after he had gone to sleep. He seems anxious and uncomfortable with the topic of conversation, es pecially when his neighbour mentions Clementine’s name.This is the point where you start to realize that the film is possibly in a non-linear narrative as his neighbour mentioned Clementine being Joel's girlfriend but the audience have only seen the couple together as friends and at the start of their friendship. From then on the film is told in flashbacks from the memory of Joel Barish' mind as he makes the decision to have the same procedure as Clementine did. As he watches his memories of Clementine fade away he realizes he is still in love with her and no longer wants to erase her so he tries everything he can to stop the procedure and keep the memories alive.The story of Joel and Clementine is then told through Joel’s memory erasing but it feels as if the story is being told backwards as each memory fades away. Objects, locations and people just disappear in front of Joel’s and the audience’s eyes. The editing in the film makes the storyline more com plex then it actually is. As Silvey writes â€Å"It plays a crucial part in the construction of the circular narrative† [SILVEY 2009: 1]. The misleading techniques used when Joel’s memories start to disappear give the audience an understanding of the confusion and frustration that Joel is going through.There are plenty of examples of continuity editing in Eternal sunshine, both temporal and spatial are used. Discontinuity is used throughout the memory erasing scenes with the deliberate use of ellipsis as Joel relives his memories in flashbacks. Some of the shots from Joel’s memories are put together in a montage edit; this is another example of discontinuity editing. There are multiple uses of crosscutting in the film, which is when there are a series of shots that keep cutting back and forth from one shot to another shot, this occurs in a lot of the flashback scenes.Also there are several jump cuts, which brakes the †continuity edit† as in order to achieve a smooth and non-noticeable cut from one shot to another the camera must move 30 degrees or more to attain the continuity in the movement of shots. But a jump cut is deliberately shot without using the 30-degree rule. Therefore when you put the shots together they make a â€Å"jump† affect and it brakes up the continuity of the edit. In this case, Gondry intentionally directed the crosscutting and jump cuts in order to express Joel’s reactions to the procedure.At the beginning of the film the editing picks up a rhythm and runs smoothly, giving a perfect example of continuity editing, but as the film goes on it begins to switch between continuity and discontinuity as the edit balances out the changes between reality and the distorted memories. There are a variety of editing techniques that are used in the film, the use of Jump cuts, fast paced scenes and the different varieties of camera angels give a real sense of Joel’s life. The purpose of the variatio n and different techniques is to deliver the feelings of emotion, confusing, frustration and regret that Joel is experiencing in his memory loss.The memory erasing begins with Joel’s most recent memory spent with Clementine; it then works its way backwards ending with his memory of when he very first met Clementine. There are slight uses of special effects in each memory loss scene as everything in the memory disappears. Joel is watching all the objects and people around him dissolve in front of his eyes. Some scenes are sped up in the edit and some are slowed down and certain shots are reversed. The use of light and sound are two main sources that build up the scenes to make them look as if Joel is experiencing something out of the ordinary.When a memory of him and Clementine begins to be erased, it gets darker and there are spotlights that focus on Joel and Clementine. The sound is very disturbing and almost irritating but this is done on purpose to describe how frustrating the process is for the characters and how uncomfortable the experience is for Joel, just like it is for the audience to hear the sound and watch the fast cut scenes. The eye-line match technique is frequently used when Joel moves from one memory to another, as he is constantly moving from different events he has to re-focus and this is when the eye-line technique is used.The scene where Joel is chasing after Clementine in his car after they have an argument was a big give away to the non-linear structure as at the beginning of the film you see Joel approach his car in the morning where he notices the damage in which he then leaves a â€Å"thank you! † note on his neighbour’s car to suggest that his neighbour did it, but in actual fact it was Clementine who created the damage but due to his memory erasing he cant remember as this scene is actually the morning after his procedure. The structure of the edit in the car scene isn’t very straightforward and discontin uous, which may confuse viewers slightly.You see Joel climb into his car and reverse away from the bollard that Clementine parked up against, chasing after her in the car as she walks along the street alone. He then stops and follows after Clementine on foot but as he runs after her the tracking shot of him is slowed down and then confusingly he is no longer running towards her and ends up in front of his smashed car at the other end of the street that he parked it at. He stops in confusion and turns around to see Clementine walking the opposite direction, so he beings to follow her again.The cinematography in this scene is very realistic, it is hand held which would have been carried out with a stead-cam, Director of photography Ellen Kuras mentions in â€Å"forget me not† by John Pavlus what Gondry wanted â€Å"In one of the scenes, he wanted me to shake the camera so we could see it was a handheld effect in camera, as opposed to a locked-off superimposition effect or doub le exposure. † [PAVLUS 2004: 1] The movement of shots makes the scene more realistic rather then having static shots. The purpose of this is to make the audience feel they are involved in the scene rather then just sat there watching it.The style of cinematography in the film is very similar to the techniques that would be employed to produce a documentary. There is a lot of hand held camera work involved and the camera angles and shots have the documentary feel to them. The changes in focus are noticeable and in this case intentional as Gondry directs this style of camera work to give it that documentary feel. Use of pull-focus from one character to another is often seen in this film, for example Clementine is stood in the foreground and Joel is stood in the background as the camera pull-focuses from Clementine onto Joel.Particular shots are out of focus such as objects and people in front of Joel, the reason for this is to show the distortion and deterioration of Joelâ€℠¢s memory. Crane shots are used in the scene where Joel is left alone on the iced over lake, he is looking up at the sky whilst pleading for the procedure to end. This high long shot signifies how little Joel is compared to everything around him, and how impossible it is for him to call the procedure off by simply shouting into the sky. It also signifies how alone he feels, being left behind when everything around him is dying.As Corrigan says â€Å"In any film, from the most realistic to the most theatrical, there are specific properties of the mise-en-scene at which to direct your attention. † [CORRIGAN 2010: 54]. This quote from the book ‘A short guide to writing about film’ gives a precise example of the way the mise-en-scene contributes to this film. The mise-en-scene plays a big significance to the story and characters in eternal sunshine; the effort and thought put into the sets is so complex. The film relies on the imaginative use of mise-en-scene to unfo ld the story bit by bit.The thought behind this is to the balance between the real world of reality and the dream world. Although Joel is experiencing real life memories, he is also asleep, therefore all the random scenes which don’t completely make sense is the â€Å"dream world† balancing out with reality because in your dreams you experience real life situations but often with the occasional random events which lead to a completely different subject and it throws you off track. And that is exactly what Joel is experiencing whilst re-living his memories.The most memorable scenes and uses of mise-en-scene were the snowy beach scene where Joel and Clementine end up in their double bed together. This scene is so dream like with it being on a beach in the middle of winter, with snow covering every inch of the shore and just them two led there in their double bed in the middle of this isolated location is definitely something you wouldn’t come across on a normal da y, therefore it is another dream like situation and a very significant scene. The scene where Joel and Clementine rush into Dr. Howard Mierzwaik’s office is extremely surreal. It’s the type of thing that would pop up in a dream. The scene is dark and the only light is a shinning bright spotlight on positioned on each character. The camera is eye-lined positioned in front of Joel and Clementine following them into Dr. Mierzwaik’s office. This is an example of the use of an eye-match edit, when Joel reaches the office he looks at something off screen, then the shot changes to what he is looking at which is Dr. Mierzwaik sat at his desk.As Joel begins to discuss that he no longer wants the procedure to continue to Dr. Mierzwaik colleagues at the surgery appear and their facial features are non-existent. All you see is a plain face with nothing on it. Joel begins to freak out and you can understand the terror he is feeling. The darkness of the scene and the small co nfined room that it is set in provides the viewers with a sense of how Joel is feeling, a definite atmosphere of being trapped and the thought of knowing that there is no escaping the process.Every scene in this film is so detailed, built to its individuality and pieced together with such original editing techniques, which is why each scene is gratifying to watch because the amount of creativity that Gondry has put into it all. This film is very unpredictable; it goes from one scene to a completely different scene when you least expect it. As you sit and watch this movie you feel so engaged with the story and the characters and personally The reason behind this is all down to its style and filmic techniques.This quote by Timothy Corrigan illustrates this: â€Å"In a movie, it is the camera that eventually films a mise-en-scene: when you watch a movie, you see not only the settings, actors, lighting but all these elements as they are recorded and then projected. † [CORRIGAN 20 10: 61] what Corrigan is saying is that cinematic practices make the most integral contributions to the construction of a film and Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind serves as an exceptional example of this.BibliographyCORRIGAN, Timothy. 2010. A short guide to writing about film. Seventh Edition. New York. PAVLUS, John. 2004. â€Å"Forget me not†. American Cinematographer. [online] Available at: http://www. theasc. com/magazine/april04/cover/index. html [accessed 2010] SILVEY, Vivien. 2008. ‘Not your average love story: film techniques in Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind'. Screen education. [online] Available at: http://gateway. proquest. com/openurl? url_ver=Z39. 88-2004;res_dat=xri:iipa:;rft_dat=xri:iipa:article:fulltext:iipa00527918 [accessed 2010].