Influences: Celebrities Essay

The environment of a child molds them into the person they will become as an adult. The biggest influences in children lives are parents and celebrities. There are positive and negative influences these two both set as role models. When a child sees behavior of their parents affects their mental and social development as they grow. It seems today that children are trying to act older than they really are. Pressure from parents and celebrities could be responsible for this behavior and change in identity. The way children are influenced by our parents is entirely different by how they are influenced by celebrities. There are children who may make a bad decision about sex, drugs, money, or just maybe in life. As a child grows the images they see stays with them as the turn into teenagers. Then they think it is okay because the person they look up to besides a parent have demonstrated or talked about it. Parents can also influence bad decisions as well. Celebrities may play a great role in influencing a teenager’s preferences and perception towards. It is important for celebrities to keep up a good image. The influence of celebrities can range from one’s personal appearance to how a person interacts with the community. Celebrities have influenced people to wear similar clothes, to have the same hairstyle, or to use the same brand of cosmetics and other personal effects. Teenagers look up to celebrities for every minor update from the fashion world in the lust to look good and current. Girls are pressured to be skinnier and prettier, because that is what they see women look like in magazines and television. Sex sells and the media know that. It is also dangerous for children and teens to become obsessed with celebrities and everything their lives entail. The infatuation teenagers have over celebrities and their lifestyles can take over their own lives. Parents being the first influence in a kid’s life can affect them in the best possible manner by helping them to develop good personalities full of quality ethical and moral values. Family is the primary institution in the lives of individuals, with mother being the first teacher. Parents influence the life of an individual in multiple ways. The kid looks at the lifestyle of his parents and tries to adapt with them, therefore following everything that he looks at. Parents are the initial influence in their children’s lives. If parents have good morals and confidence so will their children. But if children see their parents displaying negative behaviors such as smoking, or abusing drugs and alcohol, or even possessing low self-esteem, the children will believe it is acceptable and are more likely to do so. Although celebrities influence lives in a big way, parents have a greater influence. Quality time spent with family could balance their self-images and lessen the need closely watch what celebrities are doing and the entertainment shows are created to cause hype directed towards famous people. No matter how much a person is influenced by celebrities, it can be limited when parents come into the picture. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a positive influence coming from celebrities, but when a person starts to show negative behavior because of this influence, parents and family will have to step in to change a person’s perspective. Throughout our lives, we are influenced by a lot of people. During the early year, family and parents play an important role in influencing and developing our own set of attitude and behavior. Our personal relationship with our parents would determine how we respond to or how we are influenced by other people. As we grow up, we become exposed to famous people, more often celebrities, who can then influence the way we look, the way we dress, and the way we interact with other people in the community. The way we are influenced by our parents is entirely different by how we are influenced by celebrities.

Indo Anglian Literature

Indo Anglian Literature Indo Anglian Literature refers to the body of work by writers in India who write in the English language and whose native or co-native language could be one of the numerous languages of India. It is also associated with the works of members of the Indian diaspora, such as V. S. Naipaul, Kiran Desai, Jhumpa Lahiri who are of Indian descent. It is frequently referred to as Indo-Anglian literature. (Indo-Anglian is a specific term in the sole context of writing that should not be confused with the term Anglo-Indian).As a category, this production comes under the broader realm of postcolonial literature- the production from previously colonised countries such as India. History IEL has a relatively recent history, it is only one and a half centuries old. The first book written by an Indian in English was by Sake Dean Mahomet, titled Travels of Dean Mahomet; Mahomet's travel narrative was published in 1793 in England. In its early stages it was influenced by the Wes tern art form of the novel. Early Indian writers used English unadulterated by Indian words to convey an experience which was essentially Indian.Raja Rao's Kanthapura is Indian in terms of its storytelling qualities. Rabindranath Tagore wrote in Bengali and English and was responsible for the translations of his own work into English. Dhan Gopal Mukerji was the first Indian author to win a literary award in the United States. Nirad C. Chaudhuri, a writer of non-fiction, is best known for his The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian where he relates his life experiences and influences. P. Lal, a poet, translator, publisher and essayist, founded a press in the 1950s for Indian English writing, Writers Workshop.R. K. Narayan is a writer who contributed over many decades and who continued to write till his death recently. He was discovered by Graham Greene in the sense that the latter helped him find a publisher in England. Graham Greene and Narayan remained close friends till the end. Si milar to Thomas Hardy's Wessex, Narayan created the fictitious town of Malgudi where he set his novels. Some criticise Narayan for the parochial, detached and closed world that he created in the face of the changing conditions in India at the times in which the stories are set.Others, such as Graham Greene, however, feel that through Malgudi they could vividly understand the Indian experience. Narayan's evocation of small town life and its experiences through the eyes of the endearing child protagonist Swaminathan in Swami and Friends is a good sample of his writing style. Simultaneous with Narayan's pastoral idylls, a very different writer, Mulk Raj Anand, was similarly gaining recognition for his writing set in rural India; but his stories were harsher, and engaged, sometimes brutally, with divisions of caste, class and religion. Later historyAmong the later writers,Vikram Seth, author of A Suitable Boy (1994) is a writer who uses a purer English and more realistic themes. Being a self-confessed fan of Jane Austen, his attention is on the story, its details and its twists and turns. Vikram Seth is notable both as an accomplished novelist and poet. Vikram Seth's outstanding achievement as a versatile and prolific poet remains largely and unfairly neglected. Shashi Tharoor, in his The Great Indian Novel (1989), follows a story-telling (though in a satirical) mode as in the Mahabharata drawing his ideas by going back and forth in time.His work as UN official living outside India has given him a vantage point that helps construct an objective Indianness. As for the history of the gradual development of Indian drama in English, one may consult Pinaki Roy's essay â€Å"Dramatic Chronicle: A Very Brief Review of the Growth of Indian English Plays†, included in Indian Drama in English: Some Perspectives (ISBN 978-81-269-1772-3) (pp. 272-87), edited by Abha Shukla Kaushik, and published by the New Delhi-based Atlantic Publishers and Distributors Pvt. Ltd. in 2 013. Sarojini Naidu and her art of poetry; Such a gem of a work by the author, Dr.Deobrata Prasad . he has carefully assimilated all the aspects and life span of Sarojini Naidu before divulging anything. such a systematic work is rare to single out in today's era. Dr. Prasad has really taken care of every minute details prior to bringing forth such a marvel in the field of Indian English literature. This has been acclaimed as rare literary work in the literary fraternity in switzerland. Dr. prasad was even nominated as literary man of the year several times. The Guide The Guide is a 1958 novel written in English by the Indian author R. K. Narayan.Like most of his works the novel is based in Malgudi, the fictional town in South India. The novel describes the transformation of the protagonist, Raju, from a tour guide to a spiritual guide and then one of the greatest holy men of India. The novel brought its author the 1960 Sahitya Akademi Award for English, by the Sahitya Akademi, Indi a's National Academy of Letters. Railway Raju (nicknamed) is a disarmingly corrupt guide who falls in love with a beautiful dancer, Rosie, the neglected wife of archaeologist Marco . Marco doesn't approve of Rosie's passion for dancing.Rosie, encouraged by Raju, decides to follow her dreams and start a dancing career. They start living together and Raju's mother, as she does not approve of their relationship, leaves them. Raju becomes Rosie's stage manager and soon with the help of Raju's marketing tactics, Rosie becomes a successful dancer. Raju, however, develops an inflated sense of self-importance and tries to control her. Raju gets involved in a case of forgery and gets a two-year sentence. After completing the sentence, Raju passes through a village where he is mistaken for a sadhu (a spiritual guide).Reluctantly, as he does not want to return in disgrace to Malgudi, he stays in an abandoned temple. There is a famine in the village and Raju is expected to keep a fast in order to make it rain. With media publicizing his fast, a huge crowd gathers (much to Raju's resentment) to watch him fast. After fasting for several days, he goes to the riverside one morning as part of his daily ritual, where his legs sag down as he feels that the rain is falling in the hills. The ending of the novel leaves unanswered the question of whether he did, or whether the drought has really ended.The last line of the novel is ‘Raju said â€Å"Velan, its raining up the hills, I can feel it under my feet. † And with this he saged down'. The last line implies that by now Raju after undergoing so many ups and downs in his life has become a sage and as the drought ends Raju's life also ends. Narayan has beautifully written the last line which means Raju did not die but saged down, meaning Raju within himself had become a sage. The Shadow Lines The Shadow Lines (1988) is a Sahitya Akademi Award-winning novel[1] by Indian-Bengali writer Amitav Ghosh.It is a book that capt ures perspective of time and events, of lines that bring people together and hold them apart, lines that are clearly visible from one perspective and nonexistent from another. Lines that exist in the memory of one, and therefore in another's imagination. A narrative built out of an intricate, constantly crisscrossing web of memories of many people, it never pretends to tell a story. Rather it invites the reader to invent one, out of the memories of those involved, memories that hold mirrors of differing shades to the same experience.The novel is set against the backdrop of historical events like Swadeshi movement, Second World War, Partition of India and Communal riots of 1963-64 in Dhaka and Calcutta. The novel brought its author the 1989 Sahitya Akademi Award for English, by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters. [2] Plot summary The novel follows the life of a young boy growing up in Calcutta and later on in Delhi and London. His family – the Datta Chaud haris – and the Prices in London are linked by the friendship between their respective patriarchs – Justice Dattachaudhari and Lionel Tresawsen.The narrator adores Tridib because of his tremendous knowledge and his perspective of the incidents and places. Tha'mma thinks that Tridib is type of person who seems ‘determined to waste his life in idle self-indulgence', one who refuses to use his family connections to establish a career. Unlike his grandmother, the narrator loves listening to Tridib. For the narrator, Tridib's lore is very different from the collection of facts and figures. The narrator is sexually attracted to Ila but his feelings are passive. He never expresses his feelings to her afraid to lose the relationship that exists between them.However one day he involuntarily shows his feelings when she was changing clothes in front of him being unaware of his feelings. She feels sorry for him. Tha'mma does not like Ila. ‘Why do you always speak for t hat whore' – She doesn't like her grandson to support her. Tha'mma has a dreadful past and wants to reunite her family and goes to Dhaka to bring back her uncle. Tridib is in love with May and sacrificed his life to rescue her from mobs in the communal riots of 1963-64 in Dhaka. Clear Light of Day Clear Light of Day is a novel published in 1980 by Indian novelist and three time Booker Prize finalist, Anita Desai.Set in Old Delhi, this book describes the tensions in a post-partition Indian family during and after childhood, starting with the characters as adults and moving back into their lives through the course of the book. While the primary theme is the importance of family, other predominant themes include the importance of forgiveness, the power of childhood, and forgiving those you are close to. Plot summary The book is split into four sections covering the Das family from the children’s perspective in this order: adulthood, adolescence, childhood, and the time pe rspective returns to adulthood.The book centers on the Das family, who have grown apart with adulthood. It starts with Tara, the wife of Bakul, India’s ambassador to America, greeting her sister Bimla (Bim), who is a history teacher living in Old Delhi as well as their autistic brother Baba's caretaker. Their conversation eventually comes to Raja, their brother who lives in Hyderabad. Bim doesn’t want to go to the wedding of Raja’s daughter, showing Tara an old letter from when Raja became her landlord, unintentionally insulting her after the death of his father in law.In part two the setting switches to partition era India, when the characters are adolescents in what is now Bim’s house. Raja is severely ill with tuberculosis and is left to Bim’s ministrations. Aunt Mira (Mira masi), their supposed caretaker after the death of the children’s often absent parents, becomes alcoholic and dies of alcoholism. Earlier Raja's fascination with Urdu attracts the attention of the family's Muslim landlord, Hyder Ali, whom Raja Idolizes. When he heals, Raja follows Hyder Ali to Hyderabad. Tara escapes from the situation through marriage to Bakul.Bim is then left to provide for Baba alone, in the midst of the partition and the death of Gandhi. In part three Bim, Raja and Tara are depicted in pre-partition India awaiting the birth of their brother Baba. Aunt Mira, widowed by her husband and mistreated by her in-laws, is brought in to help with Baba, who is autistic, and to raise the children. Raja is fascinated with poetry. He shares a close bond with Bim, the head girl at school, although they often exclude Tara. Tara wants to be a mother although this fact brings ridicule from Raja and Bim, who want to be a hero and a heroine, respectively.The final section returns to modern India and showcases Tara confronting Bim over the Raja's daughter's wedding and Bim's broken relationship with Raja. This climaxes when Bim explodes at Baba. After her anger fades she comes to the conclusion that the love of family is irreplaceable and can cover all wrongs. After Tara leaves she decides to go to her neighbors the Misras for a concert and she then decides that she will go to the wedding. The God of Small Things The God of Small Things (1997) is the debut novel of Indian writer Arundhati Roy.It is a story about the childhood experiences of fraternal twins whose lives are destroyed by the â€Å"Love Laws† that lay down â€Å"who should be loved, and how. And how much. † The book is a description of how the small things in life affect people's behaviour and their lives. The book won the Booker Prize in 1997. The God of Small Things is Roy's first book and, as of 2013, is her only novel. Completed in 1996, the book took four years to write. The potential of the story was first recognized by Pankaj Mishra, an editor with HarperCollins, who sent it to three British publishers.Roy received half-a-million pounds in advances, and rights to the book were sold in 21 countries. While generally praised, the book did receive some criticism for its verbosity and controversial subject matter. [1] The story, told here in chronological order, although the novel shifts around in time, primarily takes place in a town named Ayemenem or Aymanam now part of Kottayam in Kerala state of India. The temporal setting shifts back and forth from 1969, when fraternal twins Rahel and Estha are seven years old, to 1993, when the twins are reunited at age 31.Much of the story is written in a viewpoint relevant to the seven-year-old children. Malayalam words are liberally used in conjunction with English. Some facets of Kerala life which the novel captures are communism, the caste system, and the Keralite Syrian Christian way of life. Without sufficient dowry for a marriage proposal, Ammu Ipe becomes desperate to escape her ill-tempered father, Pappachi, and her bitter, long-suffering mother, Mammachi. She finally convi nces her parents to let her spend a summer with a distant aunt in Calcutta.To avoid returning to Ayemenem, she marries a man who assists managing a tea estate whom she later discovers to be a heavy alcoholic who physically abuses her and attempts to prostitute her to his boss so that he can keep his job. She gives birth to two children, fraternal twins, Estha and Rahel, yet ultimately leaves her husband and returns to live with her mother and brother, Chacko, in Ayemenem. Also living at their home in Ayemenem is Pappachi's sister, Baby Kochamma, whose actual name is Navomi Ipe, but is called Baby due to her young age at becoming a grand-aunt, and Kochamma being an honorific title for females.As a young girl, Baby Kochamma had fallen in love with Father Mulligan, a young Irish priest who had come to Ayemenem to study Hindu scriptures. In order to get closer to him, Baby Kochamma had become a Roman Catholic and joined a convent, against her father's wishes. After a few lonely months i n the convent, Baby Kochamma had realized that her vows brought her no closer to the man she loved, with her father eventually rescuing her from the convent, sending her to America for an education, where she obtained a diploma in ornamental gardening.Due to her unrequited love with Father Mulligan, Baby Kochamma remained unmarried for the rest of her life, gradually becoming more and more bitter over the years. Throughout the book, Baby Kochamma delights in the misfortune of others and manipulates events to bring down calamity upon Ammu and the twins. While studying at Oxford, Chacko fell in love and married an English woman named Margaret, Shortly after the birth of their daughter Sophie, Margaret reveals that she had been having an affair with another man, Joe. They divorce and Chacko, unable to find a job, returns to India.After the death of Pappachi, Chacko returns to Ayemenem and takes over his mother's business, called Paradise Pickles and Preserves. When Margaret's second hu sband is killed in a car accident, Chacko invites her and Sophie to spend Christmas in Ayemenem. The day before Margarget and Sophie arrive, the family visits a theater to see The Sound of Music, where Estha is molested by the â€Å"Orangedrink Lemondrink Man†, a vendor working the snack counter of the theater. His fear stemming from this encounter factors into the circumstances that lead to the tragic events at the heart of the narrative.On the way to the airport to pick them up, the family (Chacko, Ammu, Estha, Rahel, and Baby Kochamma) encounters a group of communist protesters. The protesters surround the car and force Baby Kochamma to wave a red flag and chant a communist slogan, humiliating her. Rahel thinks she sees Velutha, an untouchable servant that works in the pickle factory, in the crowd. Velutha's alleged presence with the communist mob makes Baby Kochamma associate him with her humiliation at their hands, and she begins to harbor a deep hatred towards him.Velut ha is an untouchable (the lowest caste in India), a dalit, and his family has served the Ipes for generations. Velutha is an extremely gifted carpenter and mechanic. His skills with repairing the machinery make him indispensable at the pickle factory, but result in resentment and hostility from the other, touchable factory workers. Rahel and Estha form an unlikely bond with Velutha and come to love him, despite his untouchable status. It is her children's love for Velutha that causes Ammu to realize her attraction to him and eventually, she comes to â€Å"love by night the man her children love by day†.They begin a short-lived affair that culminates in tragedy for the family. When her relationship with Velutha is discovered, Ammu is locked in her room and Velutha is banished. In her rage, Ammu blames the twins for her misfortune and calls them the â€Å"millstones around her neck†. Distraught, Rahel and Estha decide to run away. Their cousin Sophie Mol convinces them t o take her with them. During the night, while trying to reach the abandoned house across the river, their boat capsizes and Sophie drowns.Once Margaret Kochamma and Chacko return from Cochin, where they have been picking up airline tickets, Margaret sees Sophie's body lay out on the sofa. She vomits and hysterically berates the twins as they had survived, and hits Estha. Baby Kochamma goes to the police and accuses Velutha of being responsible for Sophie's death. She claims that Velutha attempted to rape Ammu, threatened the family, and kidnapped the children. A group of policemen hunt Velutha down and savagely beat him for crossing caste lines, the twins witnessing the horrific scene and are deeply disturbed.When the twins reveal the truth of Sophie's death to the Chief of Police, he is alarmed. He knows that Velutha is a communist, and is afraid that the wrongful arrest and beating of Velutha will cause unrest amongst the local communists. He threatens to hold Baby Kochamma respon sible for falsely accusing Velutha. To save herself, Baby Kochamma tricks Rahel and Estha into accusing Velutha of Sophie's death. Velutha dies of his injuries. Hearing of his arrest, Ammu goes to the police to tell the truth about their relationship. The police threaten her to make her leave the matter alone.Afraid of being exposed, Baby Kochamma convinces Chacko that Ammu and the twins are responsible for his daughter's death. Chacko kicks Ammu out of the house. Unable to find a job, Ammu is forced to send Estha to live with his father. Estha never sees Ammu again, and she dies alone and impoverished a few years later at the age of thirty-one. After a turbulent childhood and adolescence in India, Rahel goes to America to study. While there, she gets married, divorced and finally returns to Ayemenem after several years of working dead-end jobs.Rahel and Estha, both 31-years-old, are reunited for the first time since they were children. In the intervening years, Estha and Rahel have been haunted by their guilt and grief-ridden pasts. Estha is perpetually silent and Rahel has a haunted look in her eyes. It becomes apparent that neither twin ever found another person who understood them in the way they understand each other. The twins' renewed intimacy ultimately culminates in them sleeping together. In the last chapter of the book, ‘The Cost of Living', the narrative is once again set in the 1969 time frame and describes Ammu and Velutha's first sexual encounter.It describes that â€Å"Instinctively they stuck to the Small Things. The Big Things ever lurked inside. They knew there was nowhere for them to go. They had no future. So they stuck to the Small Things†. After each encounter, Ammu and Velutha make one promise to one another: â€Å"Tomorrow? Tomorrow. † The novel ends on the optimistic note, â€Å"She kissed his closed eyes and stood up. Velutha with his back against the mangosteen tree watched her walk away. She had a dry rose in h er hair. She turned to say it once again: ‘Naaley. ‘ Tomorrow. † References †¢ Haq, Kaiser (ed. ). Contemporary Indian Poetry.Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1990. †¢ Haq, Rubana (ed. ). The Golden Treasury of Writers Workshop Poetry. Kolkata: Writers Workshop, 2008. †¢ Hoskote, Ranjit (ed. ). Reasons for Belonging: Fourteen Contemporary Indian Poets. Viking/Penguin Books India, New Delhi, 2002. †¢ King, Bruce Alvin. Modern Indian Poetry in English: Revised Edition. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1987, rev. 2001. (â€Å"the standard work on the subject and unlikely to be surpassed† — Mehrotra, 2003). †¢ Desai, Anita. Clear Light of Day. 1st Mariner books ed ed. New York: Mariner Books, 2000. Print.

Eighteenth Century Slavery Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Eighteenth Century Slavery - Essay Example Slavery was focused in dynamic crop growing on Long Island and in most part of the Northern colonies. The majority slaves were occupied in farming and stock otherwise as household servants for the metropolitan influential. An immense invasion of Africans in the middle of the eighteenth century in Africa and motivated the formation of numerous African churches and compassionate towns and cities. Northern slaves cultivated an energetic African-American ethnicity. These slaves uphold a several fashionable celebrations like Election Day, during which roles between whites and blacks were temporarily reversed. The New England Slave Trade (Northern Colonies) was considered a success for it paved the way for the establishment of New England's economic structure. The wealthy class rose into power due to the profit gained from trading slaves. The monetary gains acquired through slave-trading were used for further enhancement of culture and expansion of philanthropic works. (Greene, 1942) New England proved to be the leading slave merchant in comparison to American colonies. As trade and manufacturing became the most important activities in the northern section, they developed the end of sale of cheap lands in the West to workers needed for northern industry. The prevention of widespread slavery and the slave-based economic system to new western territories where it would compete with wage-labor and provide less of a market also occurred in the Northern colonies. "Slaveholding reflected social as well as economic standing, for in colonial times servants and retainers were visible symbols of rank and distinction. The leading families of Massachusetts and Connecticut used slaves as domestic servants, and in Rhode Island, no prominent household was complete without a large staff of black retainers. New York's rural gentry regarded the possession of black coachmen and footmen as an unmistakable sign of social standing. In Boston, Philadelphia, and New York the mercantile elite kept retinues of household slaves. Their example was followed by tradesmen and small retailers until most houses of substance had at least one or two domestics." (McManus, 1973) Slavery in the southern colonies (South Carolina and Georgia) also flourished similar to slave-trading in the middle. While this system ensured the growth of the free black population, it also contributed to the need for laborers. The initial slaves were from Europe however they were replaced by the African slaves were more economical so most people preferred to have the African slaves instead of the Indians. Indentured servitude can also be considered as one of the factors why there was a lack of manpower. (Evans, 1965) The agriculture of the Southern colonies was not gaining any profit for it was smarter to purchase crops from New World. Aside from this, there was an increasing demand for additional workforce and that encouraged them to purchase slaves which were supplied by the Western and Central parts of Africa. The primary reason that attributed to the lack of workforce was the increased availability of lands that were cheap and this resulted to the increase of people owning lands. Since there were large numbers of landowners, they wanted to have their lands profitable to at least return their investment. Thus, these landowners

BUS503 - Org. Change and Transformation Mod 4 Case Assignment Essay

BUS503 - Org. Change and Transformation Mod 4 Case Assignment - Essay Example partments after finishing their investigation, some of which were very similar to those made by the Rogers commission after the Challenger accident and investigation. CAIB concluded that the causes of the first shuttle accident were the same as the causes of the second accident (Vaughan, 2006). Their policy recommendations really fell into three areas which targeted organizational system failure. They felt the following needed to be addressed: isolate early warning signs and assure that everyone is aware of them, empower engineers to speak and be heard, and alter the present hierarchical and bureaucratic proceduralism that is embedded in the cultural patterns of the organization. They also felt that at the organizational level, they needed to deal with the broken safety culture by completely revamping it. They included in their recommendations: creating a an independent safety unit to provide safety oversight and giving decision power to over technical issues to the technical division instead of the Program Management (Vaughan, 2006). Further they felt that at the institutional level there was a need for the White House and Congress to be accountable for their role in causing these accidents and also be accountable for assuring that the future of the program is safe. They felt that the whole of the accidents were initially set in motion by the schedule constraints and the pushing for high risk technology coming from the White House and Congress. This created an atmosphere of safety second. In looking closely at these recommendations, it is recognized that there may be several classes of approach to change that is needed. This includes the Human processual approach. In this approach, it is recognized that small scale incremental changes over time lead to a major re-configuration of an organization (Banker & Alban, 1997). This may include the handling of data, team building, survey feedback and other issues. This would include the training that needs to be done

European Human Rights Protection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

European Human Rights Protection - Essay Example The security of the European Union member country may be justified to restrict individual human rights at time even derogating from some of them. This may take effects under the following circumstances. (Boyles, 2005) European Union member nations can apply derogations in the abolishing of a peaceful licensed demonstration if they feel that the demonstration is going to be a menace to the well being of the society or the nation at large. European Member countries have power to deport a person (foreigner) on the ground that their presence in Europe is a threat to the national security. But the law provides that the individual can be deported after a certain time. European member countries can ignore the issue of time and deport that person immediately if they feel the person (foreigners) is a threat to their country. In cases of terrorism act like in the case of September 11th 2001 terrorism attack European member countries can employ their military machinery to help them in wiping out the terrorist. European member countries can also detain people who are being suspected to be terrorist while interrogating them without taking into account the number of days stipulated in the law that a suspect is supposed to take before being taken into a court for prosecution. (Mokhtar, 2004) Guarantee of some fair tr... (Mokhtar, 2004) . Guarantee of some fair trails, as long as it is not conflicting with other human treaties. However only situation should be the only driving factor that should determine weather a person will be granted a fair trail or weather he won't. Proportionality principle calls for a reasonably light abolition of obligations that is to emergency situation in a country. A suspect can be denied is right to access his lawyer or family during detention. The right of liberty is amongst those which are usually ignored during emergency In order to respond to a crisis or a threat to the citizens, member countries may 'shy away' from the rights of the individual, that are recognized by the law. For example when an individual has committed an act of terrorism, the Government may hold him for a long time as long as they want before bringing to the court. (Boyles, 2005) European member states may derogate when facing situations which poses a danger that put the life of the country in danger. Putting life of the nation in danger implies that: the situation is affecting the entire population or a very large part of the country which cannot be neglected, the situation poses a serious threat to the integrity of the citizens of the members of the European countries, the independence (political) of the member country or interfere with the functioning of public utilities or institutions. Before applying Derogation, the member country has to access the situation on the ground. The situation should meet the standards set down by the European Union like being a threat to the member countries citizen before declaring Derogation state. The declaration has

Power Transitions - A Peaceful Power Transition for China Research Proposal - 1

Power Transitions - A Peaceful Power Transition for China - Research Proposal Example A gradual progression as was America’s at the end of the 19th century (Zakaria, 1998:5) increases the likelihood of a peaceful transition whereas an expansionist rise as was Russia’s at the turn of the last century is perceived as threatening. The image is how China portrays itself to the outside world, whether its words and deeds are seen as inviting conflict or allaying fears and giving reassurances. Another important factor concerns how well China fits in (or not) with the existing international order. The greater it works within the existing structures and rules and in a legitimate manner, at least for now before it attempts to reshape those structures and rules, the more it will be relating to other nations and be accepted. It is being aloof and closed, as is the case with North Korea today that raises suspicions even if it has peaceful intentions. Moreover, working within the existing order upholds the status quo and keeps the present superpower content, at least openly. The military strengths of China impinge upon its ability to ‘force’ a peaceful transition by diminishing the capabilities of rivals to engage in conflict. The power and size of the army creates a barrier to any attempts to weaken the country. On the other hand, many countries around the world, which are at the receiving end of aggression such as Iraq and Afghanistan, become targets for exploitation by stronger powers because they do not have armies powerful enough to be deterrence. The biggest deterrence in this age is the possession of nuclear weapons. India and Pakistan for example have rivalries and potential for conflict as in the past but they are deterred because both now possess nuclear weapons. The country also needs to have strong economic and social structures that reinforce its position, and an intelligentsia that is supportive of its aspirations. In fact, the rise and

Elijah Muhammad Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Elijah Muhammad - Research Paper Example This research is going to evaluate Elijah Muhammad’s achievements in his life. The research paper also examines Muhammad’s life history and his relationship with other African-American muslim leaders like Wallace Fard Muhammad. According to Ogbar & Jeffrey (79), Elijah Muhammad was born in 1897 and at that time had a different name; Elijah Poole. According to different authors, Muhammad led African-American Muslims for 40 years. Life was not easy for Muhammad at his young age since he came from a family of 13 children. Living conditions at the time were unbearable; he had to undergo the normal routine of helping the family raise the money for basic needs. This forced him to drop out of school early between the fourth and eighth grade of elementary school. The authors explain that most of the Southerners in Georgia had to drop out of school at a young age to take up responsibilities of assisting their parents in small jobs to raise money to help their families. The livin g conditions of African-American Southerners in Georgia at the time of Muhammad’s young age were harsh. White individuals were promoting the anti-black slogan where African-Americans people were treated badly and beaten to death. Muhammad saw the white population’s brutality and decided to leave for Detroit. Two African-American people were lynched to death, which this was the turning point for Muhammad after which he decided to leave the place (Ogbar & Jeffrey 79). Muhammad moved to Detroit where he met one of the founders of the African-American Muslims fellowship, Wallace Fard Muhammad. He then changed his name from his original name, Elijah Poole, and was also taught about Islam by Wallace. According to Muhammad (1), Elijah Muhammad’s teachings by the founder of the African-American Muslims made him expand the fellowship to other places within the United States. The encounter with the African-American Muslim’s founder and the time the teachings took p lace between them is estimated to be three and half years. From that point, Elijah Muhammad took over the leadership of the African-American Muslims, which is seen to have been promoted by the disappearance of Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1934. The relationship between the two leaders of African-American Muslims, Wallace and Elijah Muhammad, started because of the suffering the African-American were experiencing from white people. According to Muhammad (1), Wallace Fard Muhammad started the movement and recruited a large number of African-Americans among them Elijah Muhammad. The teachings of Wallace are seen to have brought the African-Americans together into the formation of the African-American Muslim group. Most of the African-American were living in harsh conditions under the expense of the white people. Wallace taught African-Americans that Christianity promoted by the whites had made them suffer and to be enslaved by the whites. Ogbar & Jeffrey (79) point out that Wallace talked to the African-American people saying that white people were not original, that they were genetically modified evils and there was a need to separate African-American individuals from the white evils. After the disappearance of Wallace, Elijah Muhammad took over, taught the African-Americans and made changes, mostly economic, which would help them move away from the suffering of the white peop

Health Care Marketing Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Health Care Marketing - Research Paper Example The researcher states that the idea to provide healthcare insurance was prudent, which was sponsored by employers. The insurance scheme became unaffordable for the elderly who did not have a source of income, the scheme left millions of Americans uncovered. The government has stepped in the healthcare industry and provides medical coverage for all Americans. Recently President Obama signed into law the healthcare bill famously known as Obamacare. The bill revised the way physicians were to be paid. As stated in the law doctors will be paid based on the quality of service offered to the patients rather than the number of times the patient was checked by the doctor. The idea to offer medical cover is indisputable a brilliant one and credit has to be given to those who initiated it. Medical industry cannot operate alone it has to depend on other factors that will enhance its service level. Technology has been integrated with the medical field and hospitals need to be abreast with the de velopment in the technological field. The use of bio-medical equipment such as X-ray machine, CT scan et cetera is common in hospitals. Engineers are busy in workshops trying to come up with devices that are better than those being used. Due to change in lifestyle Americans, massage equipment is  being designed to meet the growing demand for the service. Hospitals have installed this equipment to help their patients in the recovery process. There are mobile applications that help patients track their health status. These apps can perform several functions such as detecting blood pressure. Research on medicines is a continuous process in the medical field; the main objective is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the present drugs. Patients need their information to be secret (privacy), which is their right.

Tutoring Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Tutoring - Assignment Example This means that the impact that education has on any one particular individual is so crucial in one’s life. I have been through this education system and therefore am talking from a background of vast experience. It is for this reason I want to teach people in a high-need school that they can achieve a lot despite them being from less fortunate financial backgrounds. I want them to learn to appreciate themselves and not look down on themselves due to their financial circumstances. Having being born and bred within this geographical locality, I believe I understand the educational needs of people from Chicago and therefore I feel that am ready to take up the challenge that there may be. I know that it may be an uphill task delivering as –per the expectations because I know that different students may have different education needs and that I may be required to apply different approaches with different students, but am all prepared for this. My previous job experience as a tutor at the America Reads as a reading and mathematics tutor accorded me enviable expertise in helping learners understand and complete their homework. In addition, my work experience at the Student Opportunities for After-School Resources places me at a better position for the task ahead.

The problems, failures, and disadvantages of computer technology Essay Example for Free

The problems, failures, and disadvantages of computer technology Essay 1. The Internet is a Playing Field for Piracy and Privacy Violations 2. Green Dam Curtails Freedom of Expression 3. Computer Technology Tramples on the Freedom of People in Iran 4. Censor: Regulating the Digital Environment is Difficult and Challenging 5. A Failure: The Vulnerability of Computer Technology to Hacking 6. Computer Technology Fails to Secure Cyberspace from Breaches 7. Officially Permitted Hacking: Ethical or Not? 8. Twitter Personal Accounts, Breached 9. Computer Technology gives Large Enterprises Power over Consumers 10. What makes Smoking and Computers Similar? They’re Dangerous to Your Health The Internet is a Playing Field for Piracy and Privacy Violations During the previous month, there have been legal conflicts and arguments in France about the approval and endorsement of an Internet law proposed by the nation’s ruler, Nicolas Sarkozy. President Sarkozy has proposed a law in April that was intended to fight piracy in the country. The law included a proposition of developing an agency that would handle anti-piracy operations, which would be called HADOPI. If approved, the agency would be responsible for tracking down the people who are downloading copyrighted content from the Internet without the permission or approval of the proprietors. However, the efforts of President Sarkozy were scrapped since it was denied by the French courts. In addition, the proposed law has earned many protesters who saw it as a violation to human rights and a biased move to protect large companies that operate through recording, music and movie production, and so on. The situation relates to two opposing issues – Privacy and Intellectual Property. Although the approval of the law may be used to deal with piracy, which is a known crime, its implementation is also a crime in itself because it violates human rights. This is because the law would authorize HADOPI to track down the accounts and activity of online users, which is a clear violation of the people’s right to privacy. The issue appeals to society because it will question what the law and other similar laws truly protect: the interest of the people or large enterprises. This urges society to become involved with policy development and implementation and for law-making bodies or legislators to observe fairness, rationality, and ethics in drafting and endorsing laws. The important thing to remember is to let large enterprises and online users compromise in order to protect the interest and meet the demands of both parties similarly. Bremner, C. (2009). Top French Court Rips Heart Out of Sarkozy Internet Law. Retrieved 18 Jul 2009, from Times Online. Website: http://technology. timesonline. co. uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article6478542. ece Green Dam Curtails Freedom of Expression The Republic of China is being criticized for its effort in demanding the installation of the Green Dam Youth Escort software in all computers effective this month. The Green Dam is a computer program that has filtering capabilities. Its installation in computers allows the blocking or filtering of various websites in the World Wide Web such as pornographic sites, violent sites, and so on. However, the organization Human Rights Watch has protested against the Chinese government’s schemes because the Green Dam defies the universal right to freedom of expression. The criticisms arose when the Human Rights Watch found out that the Green Dam was also capable of filtering information in the World Wide Web that discusses politics and presses out the accounts and statements of homosexuals in China. Computer users with Green Dam softwares shall not be able to choose which sites they want to filter out. Perceptibly, the issue presented above relates to the topic of freedom of expression. The Chinese government’s efforts to lobby for the installation of the Green Dam software is a clear violation of the freedom of expression because the software was programmed to be predisposed in choosing which sites people might be able to access. It may be a political scheme for the government to control the kind of information being sent out to the public in order to prevent the disclosure of appalling repositions by the government, but it is definitely discriminatory towards gays, lesbians, bisexuals, etc. Controlling access to the World Wide Web affects society such that the liberty of the people to express themselves and to access any kind of information they want through the Internet is being curtailed by a computer software. This is a sign for the technology industry and the people to come together and support ethics and human rights. Human Rights Watch. (2009). China: Filtering Software Challenges Computer Industry. Retrieved 17 Jul 2009, from Human Rights Watch. Website: http://www. hrw.org/en/news/2009/06/19/china-filtering-software-challenges-computer-industry Computer Technology Tramples on the Freedom of People in Iran With the support of human rights interest groups such as Amnesty International, Freedom House and other representatives of foundations and institutes that advocate for the implementation and observance of policies on human rights, the plight of the people in Iranian has been revealed publicly. Apparently, the Iranian government is implementing strict measures in order to inhibit online freedom in the country. This move was politically motivated, such that the government in Iran is trying to limit the amount of information being publicized through the Internet, specifically on facts about the elections and causes of demonstrations from the masses. The Iranian population has been outraged by the extreme online restrictions the government has implemented. Even social networking sites that were meant to be private online sites or spaces for people have been filtered through sophisticated computer applications in order to prevent the people in Iran from posting their personal thoughts and opinions. The situation in Iran does not only relate to the issue of freedom of speech or expression, but also the right of the people to adequate and unbiased information. The violations of the Iranian government stretch out to graver circumstances since it has resorted to physical violence towards online writers or journalists who post local information for the world to see. The resolution of such situations also relates to the observance and assertion of professional ethics and responsibility; that is, the moral sense to end the Iranian government’s oppression of the masses. This is just an example that conveys the two sides of computer technology. It may be used to benefit man, but at the same time, people may use it to trample on freedom and human rights. It serves as a reminder for people to always be vigilant and stand their ground against tyranny and. Robinson, D. (2009). Human Rights Groups, Media Organizations Call for Internet Freedom in Iran. Retrieved 18 Jul 2009, from Voice of America. Website: http://www. voanews. com/english/2009-06-18-voa67. cfm.

Meritocracy in UK Education: Bernstein and Bourdieu

Meritocracy in UK Education: Bernstein and Bourdieu ‘Education policy in the UK now contributes to a more meritocratic society. Discuss the various explanations that sociologists have offered for differences in educational outcomes Introduction Many policy developments regarding education have had as their express aim the need to make the education system fairer (including the 1870 and 1944 Education Acts and the 1988 Education Reform Act, which introduced the National Curriculm): that is, to achieve a position in which educational achievement reflects children’s innate ability.[1] However, despite these manifest aims the basic pattern of educational achievement remains stratified along lines of class, race and gender: in general, children from middle and upper class families (as defined by the occupational grouping of the father) tend to achieve both a longer and more qualified education (see Douglas, 1964 or Halsey et al, 1980). Similarly, race differentials of attainment are also evident (see Orr, 2003). Finally, educational outcomes, despite successive attempts to overcome them, remain gendered: girls tend to be concentrated within the ‘feminine’ subjects such as English, whilst boys tend to do bette r in mathematics and the sciences (see Thomas, 1990). However, the largest factor affecting educational outcomes in the UK remains class: this is not to say that all working class children fail educationally; however, there remains a strong correlation between social class and achievement levels. Thus, despite a widespread belief in the meritocratic nature of modern western society this belief may in fact be little more than a legitimating ideology: it is therefore the unequal educational outcomes of children with similar ‘natural’ abilities that social theorists have sought to explain. However, as many theoretical approaches have been utilised in this attempt as the number of theorists so involved: theorists with liberal, conservative, feminist and socialist leanings may further show actor-centred, structuralist or functionalist tendencies to their explanatory schemas. In this essay I have decided to concentrate on the work of two theorists, Pierre Bourdieu and Basil Bernstein, my reasoning is threefold: firstly, space limitations negate the feasibility of a broader survey; next, though Bernstein was previously influential within educational theory, it is the work of Bourdieu that now appears ascendant and to have wider applicability; finally, whilst both Pierre Bourdieu and Basil Bernstein have been associated with class-based analysis, it is that of Bourdieu that has subsequently been more widely adopted, therefore they provide neatly contrasting explanations of educational differentials. In the next section I outline the educational theory of Basil Bernstein; in the following that of Pierre Bourdieu. In the conclusion, I critically asses both approaches, arguing that, whilst at first glance they appear similar in that they both aim to account predominantly for the class-based dimension to educational differentials, in fact it is the more subtle and nuanced theory of Bourdieu that is better able to account for educational differentials of a wider type: those based on gender, race, and class. Basil Bernstein: The Elaborated and Restricted Codes Basil Bernstein (1925-2000) initially developed his account of the elaborated and restricted codes during his time teaching young men motorcycle repair in the 1960s. It was then that he noticed the different ways in which language was used by the tutors and pupils, leading him to conclude that it was in fact two different forms of language that were being used: the restricted and elaborated codes. He defined the ‘restricted’ code as being inherently context bound, emotion based and reliant on condensed symbols: ‘restricted codes are more tied to a local structure and have a reduced potential for change’ (Bernstein, 1972: 164). In contrast, the ‘elaborated’ codes ‘orient their users towards universalistic meanings’ (Ibid.) and are defined by Bernstein as utilising rationality and logic; ‘elaborated’ codes are thus described by Bernstein as being context-free; it is the elaborated code that Bernstein takes to be dominant within education. Bernstein believed that the elaborated language code is the norm for the middle classes, whilst the restricted code is usually used both within working-class and middle-class families, with differences the result of the ‘cultural transmission’, via socialisation, that turns the biological infant into a cultural being (Bernstein, 1972: 162). He argued that the process of socialisation naturalises the social order and occurs via social institutions such as the family and school. He identified two family types: the ‘positional’ and the ‘person-centred’, and these are likely to utilise specific modes of interaction (Bernstein, 1972: 170). Arguing that all children have access to the restricted code, Bernstein believed that it is only those from the person-centred family type (the middle-class families) who are likely to have had regular contact with the imaginative and interpersonal language of the elaborated code outside of formal education, giving them an advantage within education: Historically and now, only a tiny percentage of the population has been socialised into knowledge at the level of meta-languages of control and innovation, whereas the mass of the population has been socialised into knowledge at the level of context-tied operations (Bernstein, 1972: 163). In short, the language used within the home gives middle class children an advantage at school; they ‘speak the same language’ as the teachers. Bernstein does not argue that either mode is better than the other, his aims to be a descriptive, rather than a prescriptive, account; instead he argues that it is the educational system itself that favours one code above the other and thus privileges the children of one group, middle-class children. Pierre Bourdieu: Cultural Capital Similar to Bernstein, Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) developed his theory of cultural capital as part of an attempt to explain the class-based educational differentials between children with similar natural abilities. Two concepts are central to this schema: those of cultural capital and cultural reproduction. In the first, culture is viewed as similar to power (Bourdieu, 1986: 243) because, like money, one is able to inherit it and it can be translated into other social resources, including wealth and status (Bourdieu, 1986: 244-5). It is this transferability of cultural capital that leads to the second key concept, that of cultural reproduction: for in this schema the class that dominates economically is also able to dominate culturally and ideologically; thus, similarly to Bernstein, schools play a key role in socio-cultural reproduction by valuing middle-class culture more highly than that of the working-classes. Bourdieu isolates three distinct types of cultural capital, embodied, objectified and institutionalised: the first describes the way that cultural capital becomes incorporated into the very body of the individual (Bourdieu, 1986: 244-5); the second refers to artefacts which may be inherited (Bourdieu, 1986: 246); whilst the third refers to those academic qualifications which allow an individual access to economic capital via the job market (Bourdieu, 1986: 247). In this way schools, along with other institutions, help to both naturalise and perpetuate inequality. Like economic capital for Karl Marx, for Bourdieu cultural capital has the capacity to reproduce itself ‘in identical or expanded form’ (Bourdieu, 1986: 241). In short, for Bourdieu education plays a key role in legitimising and naturalising social inequality; for if all children are believed to have equal opportunities to succeed according to their ability then any failure must be a result of differences in their level of ability: it must be their own fault rather than the fault of the system as a whole. Bourdieu posits the educational shortcomings of the working classes on their situational constraints in two ways; firstly, the objective class position of the children’s family is used to provide the basis for assumptions regarding the kind of cultural resources they therefore hold; secondly, their social position limits the amount and type of capital an individual is likely to accrue and pass on to their children. Within Bourdieu’s theory, each economic class is thus assumed to have developed a ‘class culture’, or way of both acting in and perceiving the social world, and in this way social inequality is intern alised or embodied as it is also naturalised. Analysis and Conclusion The two approaches appear similar at first glance; both concentrate on the class-based aspects of educational inequality, and, as such, both are open to the criticism that they fail to account for other educational differences, such as those resulting from race or gender (McCall, 1992: 851). Further, both approaches are liable to be criticised for their economic determinism: John Frow has argued that with Bourdieu’s approach the cultural resources of an individual are merely assumed from their class position (Frow, 1995: 63) and this criticism might equally be applied to Bernstein. Finally, both approaches entail the idea that differential educational achievement is best explained with references to ‘barriers’ to achievement: both posit the way that society is organised, the education system in particular, as itself limiting the ability of some children to succeed. However, Bernstein’s theory has been criticised empirically, theoretically and ideologically; first, little empirical is cited to support his hypothesis and he conducted no participation observation of either middle or working class family homes (Rosen, 1974: 10). Theoretically, Bernstein utilises a crude conception of class analysis which ignores the ruling class entirely whilst also concentrating solely on the unskilled section of the working class (Rosen, 1974: 6). He fails to address the relations between the two classes (Ibid.), further, by concentrating on the role of the family his theory fails to acknowledge other institutions or the role of peer groups or the media (Rosen, 1974: 7). Finally, he fails to acknowledge the effect that the attitude of the teacher toward their students may have on their education. Whilst there is a ‘grain of truth’ to his argument, in that there are differences in the language use of the various social classes, by attributing t he failure of working class children solely to their language-use Bernstein misses the point: it is not the language that inherently contains power, but rather it is the broader education system that, by imposing middle-class culture via pedagogic authority, limits the ability of working class children to succeed. Although he aims to only describe the differences between the two language types, Bernstein himself falls into the ethno-linguistic trap of believing his own language use to be the superior form (Rosen, 1974: 6). Finally, as Deborah Cameron states: ‘the theory of codes could be boiled down to a political truism, those who do not speak the language of the dominant elite find it difficult to get on’ (Cameron, 1985: 159-160). Bourdieu’s approach is more subtle; although he agues, similarly to Bernstein, that language plays a key role in the under achievement of the working classes, Bourdieu’s explanation involves many other factors, including the development of a specific habitus, or set of predispositions, and the social, cultural and economic capitals. Thus Bourdieu does not point to language as the sole cause of working-class children’s educational failure, but instead describes a complex process that not only attempts to account for this failure but also its internalisation. Indeed, Bourdieu’s theory is supported by in-depth participation-observation, rather than the assumption and anecdote of Bernstein, reflecting his recognition of the complexity of the causes of unequal educational achievement. In recent years Bernstein’s theory, though once influential, has fallen out of favour within educational sociology, as a quick survey of recent articles reveals, whilst the theory of cultural capital has become increasingly influential (Burkett, 2001). Whilst at first glance the theories appear similar, in fact it is the theory of Bourdieu that is better able to account for educational differentials of a wider type: those based on gender, race, and class and many theorists have sought to thus extend the theory to account for these wider differentials (see, for example, McNay, 1999; Reay, 2004). Indeed, Ben Fine has argued that academia has been gripped by a kind of ‘capital’ mania (in Burkett, 2004: 234), in part, at least, attesting to the strength of the explanatory schema. Bibliography Bernstein, Basil (1972) ‘Social Class, Language and Socialisation’, Language and Social Context: Selected Readings, Giglioli, Pier Paolo (Ed.), London: Penguin Education, pp. 157-178. Bourdieu, Pierre (1986) ‘The forms of Capital’ in Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, Richardson, J (Ed.), London: Greenwood Press, pp. 241-258. Burkett, Paul (2001) ‘Book Review: Social Capital versus Social Theory: Political Economy and Social Science at the Turn of the Millennium’ by Ben Fine, London: Routledge, Historical Materialism, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 233-246. Cameron, Deborah (1985) ‘Beyond Alienation: An Integrational Approach to Women and Language’, Feminism and Linguistic Theory, London: MacMillan, pp 134 – 161. Douglas, J.W.B (1964) The Home and the School: A Study of Ability and Attainment in the Primary School, London: MacGibbon. Frow, John (1995) ‘Accounting for Tastes: Some Problems in Bourdieu’s Sociology of Culture’, Cultural Studies, Vol. 1(No. 1), pp. 59-73. Halsey, A.H; Heath, A Ridge, J.M (1980) Origins and Destinations: Family Class and Education in Modern Britain, Oxford: Clarendon Press. McNay, Lois (1999) ‘Gender, Habitus and the Field: Pierre Bourdieu and the Limits of Reflexivity’, Theory, Culture and Society, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 95-117. Orr, Amy (2003) ‘Black-White Differences in Achievement: The Importance of Wealth’, Sociology of Education, Vol. 76, pp. 281-304. Piper, David Warren (1984) ‘The Question of Fairness’, Is Higher Education Fair to Women?, Acker, Sandra and Piper, David Warren (Eds.), Guilford: SRHE and NFER-NELSON, pp. 3-24. Reay, Diane (2004) ‘It’s all Becoming a Habitus’: Beyond the Habitual use of Habitus in Educational Research’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, Vol. 25, No. 4, pp. 431-444. Rosen, Harold (1974 [1972]) Language and Class: A Critical Look at the Theories of Basil Bernstein (3rd Ed.), Bristol: Falling Wall Press. Thomas, Kim (1990) ‘The Question of Gender’ and ‘Feminism and Education’ in Gender and Subject in Higher Education, Buckingham: SRHE Open University Press, pp. 1 – 23. 1 Footnotes [1] See David Warren Piper (1984) for a discussion regarding the feasibility of attaining true ‘fairness’ in education.

japanese occupation :: essays research papers

The American occupation of Japan   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fifty years after the end of the second World War, it is easy to look back on the American occupation of Japan and see it as a mild nudge to the left rather than a new beginning for the country. We still see an emperor, even if only as a symbol. Industry, when it was rebuilt, was under much of the same leadership as before the war. Many elements of the traditional lifestyle remained–with less government support and in competition with new variants. The Japanese people remained connected to a culture which was half western and half Japanese. Nevertheless, it is irrefutable that the surrender in 1945 had a major impact on the lives of the Japanese. Political parties, elected by the populous, became a great deal more influential in the government. This changed the dynamics of Japanese industry, even if the zaibatsu were sill the foundation of the economy. Financial success took on a new character; the production of high tech goods for sale to the world’ s most developed countries was now a better source of income. The affluence of the upper class was more evenly distributed. On a broader scale, for the first time, America had more influence than European powers. The prevention of the formation of a military put the focus of the government on trade, the United Nations, and the cold war rather than an empire in Asia. Simultaneously, social attitudes and lifestyle were more independent of the government and consumer led.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The American military occupation of Japan was the driving reason for all of the changes in postwar Japan. Its first task, determined even before the surrender was to disarm Japan and to remove the wartime leaders from their influential government positions. This was part of America’s plan to demilitarize and democratize. The goal was to purge the government, media, and education system of war criminals. Once this was accomplished, the American focus shifted to reform. The American plan for reform was based on the idea that Japanese aggression had developed because of fundamental faults in the government, (not, as the Japanese said, from a temporary deviation from the course set during the Meiji period) and that these faults had to be corrected before Japan could ever become a respected member of the developed world. Democratization was what America wanted.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first steps in the reforming process were obstructive to America’s goal of democracy.

Easing Our Childrens Fears :: essays research papers

Easing Our Children’s Fears   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Children today are faced with a more hostile world than the one in which their parents grew up. Because of this, today’s children are also experiencing greater fears and worries. The fears of abuse, violence, drugs, AIDS, and divorce are problems most adults didn’t even consider while growing, yet they are commonplace among kids today. Of those fears, the fear of AIDS is one of the few which can be reduced by efforts of parents and teachers. The most effective way to reduce the anxieties children may experience regarding AIDS is through education. The basis of most fears for children, is that of the unknown. It is the responsibility of parents and teachers alike to teach the facts about this terrible disease to our children, and through this, allay the fears our children may have regarding AIDS. By educating our children about the basics of this disease, how it is transmitted, and how to prevent exposure, we can clarify myths and facts, and send our children into the world with knowledge, and some control over their fears.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Teaching our children about the basics of the disease can help to reduce their fears. AIDS, or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, is the final stage of a disease which causes an abnormal reduction in the body’s natural ability to fight disease and infection. Because of this, most people who contract AIDS will eventually die due to “AIDS related causes.'; This can occur in a period anywhere from 5-15 years after exposure to HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), the cause of AIDS. So far, no “cure'; for AIDS has been found, but current treatments have been found to postpone the onset of AIDS, and prolong life. With medication and some precautions, many patients lead normal lives for years after the discovery of HIV infection.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The education about the transmission of HIV will also help to reduce fears. Many myths abound about how HIV can be contracted, and this uncertainty of fact vs. fiction is a source of fear for many children. HIV is a blood-borne disease. This means that it can only be transmitted by exposure to blood of an infected person, or by several body fluids that contain blood products, such as semen, vaginal secretions, or breast milk. The virus must also have a way into the recipient, such as through a break in the skin, or through mucous membranes. Simply skin to skin contact with an infected person is not enough to cause an exposure, unless there is: a) a body fluid

Educational Philosophy Statement Essay -- Education Teaching Progressi

Educational Philosophy There have been many philosophies passed down through the years by many great educators. Views and opinions that have varied from individual to individual. Some ideas were widely accepted and others were not. I feel that it is important for every educator to obtain their own individual educational philosophy. An individual philosophy is good way to help an educator become grounded in what they believe and strive to make that philosophy happen in the classroom. It is a belief that should be strongly believed in and in the end have an impact on the people it is aimed for, which is the students. Over the last few years, I have developed a philosophy that I strongly believe in, because it has proven itself to me, and I want to prove it to others. The philosophy I have developed is that education is the key that opens the doors of opportunity and every student needs to understand the opportunities that await them with an education no matter who they may be. First, who are the students? The students are a group of individuals who lack knowledge and understanding in particular areas. They are the teacher’s main focus. In my particular area of concentration, I will be dealing with younger children who, because of their lack of knowledge and understanding, have a certain nature. According to Rousseau, children have the tendency to be selfish and self-centered. As a teacher, you must first change this selfish nature by educating the student about the concept of sharing and giving to others, and then motivate the student to desire to follow the idea. The nature of students generally is at first to be self oriented, and this attitude can affect the learning process. This attitude of being self-centered can affect ... ...en this causes the child to get frustrated and lose interest in an education. Also, in the elementary classroom there are areas that are of particular importance. These areas would include math, english, spelling and reading. I feel these areas should get the most concentration. These areas provide critical learning that students will use for the rest of their lives. I feel the areas that I have touched in this paper along with my personal philosophy statement, reflect my views and opinions as a future educator. I have spoke about areas that are of importance to me, and ideas that I feel will make a difference in someone’s life. As a teacher, I truly want to make a difference and teach students the importance of an education, and the opportunities that are available to them. Education can take people places and I feel more people need to come to this realization.

Organizational Theories Response Essay

The different levels of law enforcement agencies all revolve around theories. The theories that are associated with law enforcement are the Organizational Theory, Management Theory. Within the Organizational Theory the departments are out to achieve specific goals. For example an organizational theory of a police department could be to ensure that the juvenile crime rate within specific areas are under control. To ensure that the juvenile crime rates are under control a specific police organization within a community could be tasked with monitoring juvenile crime and activities within the community in effort to bring the crimes committed by juvenile delinquents down to a minimum. The management theory within law enforcement revolves around ensuring that all of the police officers within a police department and the community are being properly managed. This would include managing all of the police officers within a police department to ensure that you have the right officers in the right areas for the right jobs. The management theory will also help to combat crime because a police commissioner would be able to manage the police officers under his or her charge to ensure that the right amount of officer are in the right places at the right time. The organizational theory breaks down how our law enforcement agencies are run. Within the different law enforcement agencies every agency is broken down and organized. This gives a structure a chain of command to follow and breaks down the responsibilities within a specific law enforcement agency. Refrences: Police Management: Police Management. (2002). Retrieved from http://roxbury.net/images/pdfs/pm3ch1.pdf Organizational Theory: Foundations of Organizational Theory . (2010). Retrieved from http://www.drtomoconnor.com/4000/4000lect01.htm

The Theme of Leadership in the ‘Lord of the Flies’

Throughout the novel, ‘Lord of the Flies’, William Golding is able to link the many aspects of our own world through the various characters he creates. One of these aspects is leadership, which plays a vital role in the novel’s microcosmic society, as it does in our own society. Golding uses leadership to convey his ideologies about human nature. Golding believes that all humans are fundamentally flawed, that all humans are evil and are capable of inflicting evil upon others. Only the law and order of our society hold back the flaws that all humans inherently possess.Golding uses the mixed feelings that he has about leadership to reveal his philosophy about human nature and other flawed aspects of our society. The Second World War, which Golding was a part of, brought about his pessimism of human nature. He was horrified at what himself and others did during the war. He gradually learned to see all human nature as savage and unforgiving, the darkness of mans heart ; it is in all of us. The qualities of a good leader are universally accepted. The leader has to have control over his followers. He has to demand respect.The leader also has to be able to persuade his followers to follow him without taking away from his beliefs and views. A good leader also has to be able to be strong, mentally more than physically. He needs to be able to stand his ground and strongly believe in what he feels is right. A good leader also has to believe in himself. If a leader does not believe in himself, then who will? A leader has to be assertive and does not need to back down from anything. The two main characters in this novel express some of these characteristics, one character more than the other.There are always people, when in a group, who show and possess superior leadership attributes than others. The strongest, mentally and physically, tend to have the greatest influence over others. Sometimes the strongest person is not necessarily the best choice. Autho rs, including Golding, often show how humans select the strongest person, to give us an understanding of the influence people can possess over others. Golding has two stand out characters in the beginning of the novel who each show their own, but very different leadership skills.However Golding believes that there is no such thing as a perfect leader, and that every type of leadership is flawed in some way. Golding intends to use these two characters to highlight the two types of leadership that he tries to present in the novel. The first character introduced to us is Ralph, who in my opinion is presented as the better leader. His capacity for leadership is evident from the beginning, â€Å"Shut up,† said Ralph absently. He lifted the conch. â€Å"Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things. He then proceeds to be voted as the group leader, over Jack, mainly due to the fact that he was the one that initially blew the conch, â€Å"They obeyed the summons of the con ch, partly because Ralph blew it, and he was big enough to be a link with the adult world of authority†¦. †It is obvious from the offset that Golding has made Ralph the symbol of democracy in the novel. Golding shows his feeling about democracy as describing democratic voting as a ‘toy’. The other little’uns follow Ralph as he is the only link they have left to the civilised world.At the beginning and throughout the novel, Ralph is the primary representative of order, society and leadership among the group. Ralph starts off well at attempting to make a new society; he firmly believes that the most important thing in this situation is being rescued. He creates a fire beacon, for cooking, heat and rescue. The signal fire can be viewed as a sign of hope – the hope the boys have to return to society. When the flames dance brightly, it shows the enthusiasm they hold for the idea of being rescued. However, as the fire grows dim, it reflects the attitu de of the boys and their loss of morale.The signal fire can also be viewed as the boys' link to the civilized world. As long as the fire continues burning, it suggests not only that the boys want to return to society, but also that they are still using their common sense. He understands the essentials that a society must have to keep afloat and he knows what must be done in order for the survival of the boys. He works vigilantly to keep the group's focus on the hope of rescue. It is at the second assembly that we see Ralph firmly asserting his authority, â€Å"except by me†. It is also the first time that Jack struggles with Ralph’s authority.As the tension between Ralph and Jack continues to increases, we see more obvious signs of a potential struggle for power. Although Jack has been deeply envious of Ralph’s power from the moment Ralph was elected, the two do not come into open conflict until the fourth chapter, when Jack’s irresponsibility leads to th e failure of the signal fire. When the fire—a symbol of the boys’ connection to civilization—goes out, the boys’ first chance of being rescued is thwarted. Ralph flies into a rage, indicating that he is still governed by desire to achieve the good of the whole group.But Jack, having just killed a pig, is too excited by his success to care very much about the missed chance to escape the island. Indeed, Jack’s bloodlust and thirst for power have overwhelmed his interest in civilization. Whereas he previously justified his commitment to hunting by claiming that it was for the good of the group, now he no longer feels the need to justify his behaviour at all. Instead, he indicates his new orientation toward savagery by painting his face like a barbarian, leading wild chants among the hunters, and apologizing for his failure to maintain the signal fire only when Ralph seems ready to fight him over it.However, Ralph still has his shortcomings as a leader and isn’t always perfect as Golding is trying to show. One of his first mistakes was giving more control to Jack by making him leader of his hunters. This allows Jack and the choir boys to make their own rules and encourage the choir boys to stray away from Ralph’s lead. When the beast is first introduced, Ralph doesn’t do a very good job of convincing the younger boys that there isn’t a beast on the island. He just say’s â€Å"but there isn’t a beast. † Whereas Jack assures the younger boys that if there is a beast, he’d find it and kill it.The weight of leadership becomes oppressive for Ralph as the story continues; he is dutiful and dedicated, but his attempts to instil order and calm among the boys are decreasingly successful. Golding develops Ralph's particular concerns and insecurities. By showing him worrying over his perceived failures, Golding highlights Ralph’s responsible, adult nature. Ralph's concern about his appearance, and particularly his grown-out hair, indicate his natural inclination toward the normality of civilization.Although Ralph demonstrates a more than sufficient intelligence, he also worries that he lacks Piggy's genius, â€Å"if only I could step inside that fat head of his†. Ralph eventually understands the importance of thought and how it can help him as a leader, â€Å"thought was a valuable thing, that got results†¦ †. The second type of leadership that Golding conveys through a character is the Dictator, Jack. Ralph treats all the boys with dignity and tries to work with them for the betterment of the society. On the opposite side of the scale, Jack does not treat any of the boys with the dignity that Ralph does.In chapter three Golding writes, in comparing Jack’s and Ralph, â€Å"They walked along, two continents of experience and feeling, unable to communicate. † This shows how Golding is trying to tell us how Ralph and Jack†™s motives are completely different; one is focused on hunting and the other on the society. Jack immediately shows qualities of a good leader, but are different qualities than Ralph shows. Jack has a very commanding presence from the beginning; he arrives on the island having some success in exerting control over others by dominating the choir with his militaristic attitude.At the first assembly he believes that he should be chief, â€Å"I ought to be chief†, but is humiliated when he loses the vote to Ralph. Jack is chauvinistic, stating that, â€Å"I agree with Ralph. We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything. So we've got to do the right things. † Golding believes that Nationalism and chauvinism are the causes of wars on our society and is putting this across in the microcosm. This is a hint that there would be eventually conflict on the island.Golding also uses the theory of Darwini sm to relate to Jack, as Jack puts down the weaker in society, Piggy and Simon, like most dictators do. Jack represents evil and violence, the dark side of human nature. He is the character that regresses the most throughout the novel. It starts with him hunting in the Jungle, when Golding uses animal imagery to show his regression, ‘ape-like’ and ‘half naked†¦walking on all fours’. Jack attempts to dominate the group, rather than working with Ralph to benefit it.The conch does not mean anything to Jack, for him, the conch represents the rules and boundaries that have kept him from dominating others. Their entire lives in the other world, the boys had been moderated by rules set by society. The dictator in Jack becomes dominant in his personality during the panic over the beast sighting on the mountain. In trying to put Ralph down, he uses his rhetorical skills to twist Ralph's words. In defence, he offers to the group an excuse that â€Å"He'd never have got us meat,† asserting that hunting skills make for an effective leader.Jack assigns a high value only to those who he finds useful or agreeable to his views and looks to silence those who do not please him. Denouncing the rules of order, Jack declares, â€Å"We don't need the conch any more. We know who ought to say things. † As Jack strives to establish his leadership, he takes on the title of â€Å"chief† and reinforces the illusion of station and power by using the other boys ceremoniously as standard bearers who raise their spears together and announce â€Å"The Chief has spoken. Jack works closely with Roger, as Ralph does with Piggy and Simon, to help him form his new dictatorship at Castle Rock. Though Roger does not possess any sort of leadership skills, he does have a forced authority over others. This role is no game for him, though; by the night of Simon's death, Jack has clearly gone power-mad, sitting at the pig roast on a large log â€Å"pa inted and garlanded . . . like an idol† while â€Å"power . . . chattered in his ear like an ape. † His tribe addresses him as â€Å"Chief,† indicating a form of more primitive tribal leadership.Jack’s leadership in the macrocosm would not work, it would just lead to war. Whereas on the island Jack promises food and fun, so everybody follows him. Jack’s savage, primitive society murders the two outcasts, Piggy and Simon. The next on their list is Ralph, who is finding himself running away from a line of Jack’s group across the island. In the midst of the chaos, the forest is set on fire. As Ralph is running away, he unselfishly thinks, ‘The fools! The fire must be almost at the fruit trees- what would they eat tomorrow.Even though Jack’s tribe is hunting him down, all he cares about are the others. At the end of the novel, a naval officer comes onto the island. When he asks who is in charge, Jack steps forward and then steps back . He finally realizes that what he was doing was wrong and cowers away from the naval officer, thinking that Ralph would take all of the blame. Ralph loudly proclaims the he is the leader. They had all finally come to realize what they had done. They soon discovered that if they had followed Ralph, none of this would have happened. hen the naval officer appears on the island, all the boys who were moments ago behaving savagely, come to a halt and suddenly return to their senses. This suggests that the appearance of the naval officer symbolizes the return of both adult supervision and civilization. Ralph was the best leader in the novel, he puts the society over himself at all times. Jack has the better leadership skills, but chooses to use them for the wrong reasons. The fact that he came to be the leader was because of humanity's sinful tendency towards savagery.

Bill Gates Leadership Quality Essay

Gates and his two sisters had a comfortable upbringing, with Gates being able to attend the exclusive secondary â€Å"Lakeside School†. Bill Gates started studying at Harvard University in 1973 where he spent time with Paul Allen. Gates and Allen worked on a version of the programming language BASIC, that was the basis for the MITS Altair (the first microcomputer available). He did not go on to graduate from Harvard University as he left in his junior year to start what was to become the largest computer software company in the world; Microsoft Corporation. Bill Gates married Melinda French Gates in 1994 and has three children, Jennifer, Rory and Phoebe. Both Bill and Melinda are keen Philanthropist’s starting the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which has committed more than $3. 2 billion to global health, $2 billion to improve learning opportunities to low income families, $477 million to community projects and more than $488 million to special projects and annual giving campaigns. Bill Gates retired as Microsoft CEO in 2008. Bill Gates- An Entrepreneur, Manager and Leader: †¢ Focus: Bill Gates has demonstrated over nearly thirty years the importance of clarity of thought and execution. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he did not move away from the domain he understood better than anything else – software. He has pursued the objective of dominance in software in general and operating systems in particular that has few parallels. Venturing into unfamiliar territory may be fashionable but carries a high degree of risk. If ever a need arises for an absolute example for what Peters and Waterman called â€Å"Stick to the Knitting† and Hamel and Prahalad termed core competence, one needs to look no further than Bill Gates and Microsoft. Focus also means the ability to pursue one’s goals whatever the obstacles may be. Such a degree of perseverance is hard to come by. †¢ Thinking big: Along with focus, the ability to dream big and pursue that with single-minded determination sets Gates apart from other entrepreneurs. This is particularly true of entrepreneurs from emerging economies like India where an ultra-conservative attitude has stifled growth. Entrepreneurs need to develop confidence in themselves and their team that they can take on the world and come out winners. †¢ Passion: Simply put, if anything is worth doing, it is worth doing well. From a simple thank you note to a complex proposal, it is critical to place the stamp of excellence on whatever one undertakes. Equally important is the need to constantly innovate. Change is the only constant and the more agile and adaptive we are to change, the more successful we can be. †¢ Learning as a life-long process: Though dropping out of college to his dreams, Bill Gates has probably read and written more than most of us ever will. In the process, he has shown the limits of formal education. Important as formal education is, perhaps it is more important to realize that learning is a life-long process. Knowledge is infinite. Even if we keep assimilating it without a break throughout a lifetime, we would not have scratched the surface. Knowledge should lead to humility and wisdom – not arrogance and one-upmanship. Gates as philanthropist: Aside from being the most famous businessman of the late 1990s, Gates also has distinguished himself as a philanthropist (someone working for charity). He and wife Melinda established the Bill ; Melinda Gates Foundation, which focuses on helping to improve health care and education for children around the world. The foundation has donated $4 billion since its start in 1996. Recent pledges include $1 billion over twenty years to fund college scholarships for about one thousand minority students; $750 million over five years to help launch the Global Fund for Children’s Vaccines; $50 million to help the World Health Organization’s efforts to eradicate polio, a crippling disease that usually attacks children; and $3 million to help prevent the spread of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS; an incurable disease that destroys the body’s immune system) among young people in South Africa. In November 1998 Gates and his wife also gave the largest single gift to a U. S. public library, when they donated $20 million to the Seattle Public Library. Another of Gates’s charitable donations was $20 million given to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to build a new home for its Laboratory for Computer Science. In July 2000 the foundation gave John Hopkins University a five-year, $20 million grant to study whether or not inexpensive vitamin and mineral pills can help save lives in poor countries. On November 13, 2000, Harvard University’s School of Public Health announced it had received $25 million from the foundation to study AIDS prevention in Nigeria. The grant was the largest single private grant in the school’s history. It was announced on February 1, 2001, that the foundation would donate $20 million to speed up the global eradication (to completely erase) of the disease commonly known as elephantiasis, a disease that causes disfigurement. In 2002 Gates, along with rock singer Bono, announced plans for DATA Agenda, a $24 billion fund (partially supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) that seeks to improve health care in Africa. Although many describe Gates as cold and distant, his friends find him friendlier since his marriage and since the birth of his daughter, Jennifer, in April 1996. Further, he recognizes his overall contribution to both the world of technology and his efforts in philanthropy. In Forbes magazine’s 2002 list of the two hundred richest people in the world, Gates was number one for the eighth straight year, coming in with a net worth of $52. 8 billion. Bill Gates Criticism: With his great success in the computer software industry also came many criticisms. With his ambitious and aggressive business philosophy, Gates or his Microsoft lawyers have been in and out of courtrooms fighting legal battles almost since Microsoft began. The Microsoft monopoly sets about completely dominating every market it enters through either acquisition, aggressive business tactics or a combination of them. Many of the largest technology companies have fought legally against the actions of Microsoft, including Apple Computer, Netscape, Opera, WordPerfect, and sun Microsystems. Why do I like Bill Gates: I think Bill Gates represents the best of us. – its not just what he’s doing but how he thinks about what he’s doing. He’s a curious geek. He wants to find interesting problems to solve. He believes that smart, self-motivated people working together can make a difference. Bill Gates reflects the best qualities of a generation that has grown up finding the innovative ways to apply science and technology to impact our everyday life in mostly positive ways. Gates made an important and potentially difficult transition at age 52, leaving Microsoft as CEO and devoting more of his time and energy to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It’s a shift in focus, moving from defining strategy for Microsoft to a broader strategy for improving the lives of the world’s poor. He is a self-made American who has matured into a role model and leader. He is thoughtful and tactful where a younger version would have been brash and impetuous. Like Windows, improvement for Gates has required multiple iterations but the insistence on getting it right won out eventually. The newest release of Bill Gates is the best yet. He’s not just analytical when he talks about improving education. He appears to be moved while describing his interaction with highly motivated teachers who see their profession â€Å"as a higher calling. † He highly recommends â€Å"Big History† a series of lectures by David Christian, available through â€Å"The Teaching Company. † It`s really very depressing when we learn that how American executives have brought ruin to American business and our economy. They aren’t leaders worth following. Gates is different. He deserves genuine admiration, in my view. He’s more than a technologist. He’s both a realist and an optimist. He’s become a world leader worth listening to.

Democracy Remixed

If we take a look at American History, we see that many African Americans before us accomplished many things, in various disciplines, such as become the surgeon general of the United States, Win an Olympic Gold medal, Become a President of an Ivy League University, become CEO of a Fortune 500 company or even become President of the United States. These and the others on the extensive list of African American Firsts did not come easy or were given. In the words of Cohen, â€Å"They had to work hard, be respectful, and always have your superior humanity on display for whites to observe. With more and more 1st being accomplished, it has become more possible for many African Americans to reach hose same positions or go further. Today, in the year 2014, we also have new problems to face in terms of this new technology. Black twitter, for example, is an unofficial title for a community on twitter that has a huge impact online and in the media. Whether there is a primetimes television show or some breaking news story, Black twitter has you covered. Seemingly as a voice for all black Americans, this is heavily skewed by its demographic.Consisting of mainly young adults, this community becomes very negative and often creates moral panic and suppresses ACH other in the black community. The post-racial thesis suggests that in the post- civil rights era, material conditions have improved for Black Americans, but the conditions Black Americans face today are markedly better than the conditions that earlier generations had faced. As one example of many pressures black youth are facing, this shows that material conditions may have increased but the pressures are still prevalent In Democracy Remixed: Black Youth and the future of American Politics, a book by Cathy J.Cohen, discusses about the political life of young black people, not emitted to their relationship with the state and or government but between their peers, other members of the black community and the larger soci ety. In relation to the post-racial thesis, this book contains arguments that serve as a counter to the post-racial thesis by discussing many issues that young black people face. In chapter 2, she introduces the phenomenon called moral panics and how they affect the black community, especially black youth.In chapter 5, she discusses forms of alienation that black youth face and how they engage in the public sphere, attempting to voice heir own public agenda. In chapter 6, she engages the ideas that young black people develop in light of the election of the country 1st black president and what this means to them. Chapter 2, â€Å"Gangs Rap Made Me do it†, talks about moral panics and how Bill Cowboys and Don Emus are examples of creating such things. Earlier on in the chapter, they discuses some statistics developed by The Black Youth Project.These statistics showed results from surveys filled out by African Americans ages 30 and above and group based on levels of income The t opics of the survey included Rap Music's perceived Influence on Black Youth, The behavior of too many young black Americans threatens to progress of respectable black people who are trying to do the right things, and reasons young black Americans find it hard to get ahead. These topics were surprisingly posed to non-youth about three topics that involve black youth in America.Many of these adults had an opinion on all of these questions, because of moral panics. Cohen states that moral panic is a concept typically used by scholars to explain irrational and inflated reactions to lesser events that have been exaggerated by the media. Through the media, the crisis itself is shrouded by the massive uproar generated by the public. Bill Cowboys, known for his comedic background, spoke at Constitution Hall in Washington, D. C. Where they were commemoration the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education.The topics that he received fire from were the ones directed to poor black people a nd the black youth. From Cowboys perspective he is trying to let it be know that everything black people do, is a representation of all black Americans. His comments toward poor members in the black community included â€Å"These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids, $500 sneakers for what? And wont spend $200 dollars for ‘Hooked on Phonics. ‘ † Here we have an older African American who is removed a generation from those parents he are addressing.This alone shows that there is a problem with the consecutive generation. This also highlights that the generation of parents who are buying the kids expensive sneakers are more worried about looks that education. We can infer that the kids wanted the expensive sneakers because of social pressures to be wealth. Also, His comments on Black Youth culture is that the out of today are uneducated when it comes to knowing about their African American and their African culture.He makes remarks about how bla ck males are putting on clothes backwards and sagging of pants, and women wearing short skirts and piercing. This is another example of pressure that the youth are facing because Bill Cowboys is probably not the only person making these remarks. The pressures of previous generations in its self are making it hard for the young black American to live. She introduces the 21st century, the average youth has a lot of things to deal with. Bullying, growing up, peer pressure, family, school