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Key Content Or Arguments Presented - 787 Words

Key content or arguments presented: This article by Nick Atkin begins by illustrating the ‘rush’ that many reporters experienced as soon as the knowledge of Ben Johnson’s doping scandal was relayed to them. The franticness and rapid haste to compose and publish the first article on the matter just represents how influential and distinguished Ben Johnson was as an athlete. Despite the fact that drug taking is not ethical, nor admirable, a reporter by the name of Lawton recalls, â€Å"The race was stupendous, arguably the most riveting thing I’ve seen†. This suggests that although there are so many risks, dangers and negative impacts of drug use, there is a positive viewpoint on the issue that it does make watching sport more interesting and†¦show more content†¦Before 1988, there had not really been a huge incident involving drugs in sport, and it didn’t seem as much of a problem, however Ben Johnson brought attention to it as such. The way doping has been viewed from that point onwards has dramatically changed since. Mr. Lawton states that, â€Å"Doping must have become a lot more sophisticated†, as Hubbard observes that, â€Å"The chemists are always one step ahead, working on measures to mask tests.† The issue of doping and performance-enhancing drugs in sport cannot be contained or abolished, because scientists and specialists are producing new drugs and ways of hiding them faster than they are being discovered and detected by WADA and other organisations. Harp believes that the elimination of drugs in sport is â€Å"†¦impossible, there’s as much chance as stamping out prostitution†. There will always be an athlete with an unfair advantage, and athletes would rather go against their own moral conscience than risk their livelihood in admitting to using drugs to enhance their performance. Finally, Ben Johnson’s doping history has meant that viewers of future athletic achievements have become sceptical and unable to trust that an athlete has attained such a feat on only biological and natural ability. Of course, this scandal is not the only reason that audiences have reservations about the legitimacy of their

Cultural Models and Cultural Dimensions Free Essays

string(186) " are in some cases crucial differences between European countries like Italy and Germany, Spain and Sweden, this average score allows comparing the cultures of Europe, India and Brazil\." Cultural Models and Cultural Dimensions (Hofstede) Cultural studies are not a unified theory but a diverse field of study encompassing many different approaches, methods and academic perspectives. As in any academic discipline, cultural studies academics frequently debate among themselves. Cross-cultural communication, as in many scholarly fields, is a combination of many other fields. We will write a custom essay sample on Cultural Models and Cultural Dimensions or any similar topic only for you Order Now These fields include anthropology, cultural studies, psychology and communication. There exists no uniform evaluation system or model of cultural aspects to date. However, the variety of the available models much more illustrates how multifaceted the approach can be. Nevertheless, there are some common dimensions for the most cultural models such as concept of time and space, equal (or non-equal) rights of men and women and position of the individual in the society. The most popular cultural models come primarily from the English-speaking researches: Hall (1989), Hofstede (1991), Oksaar (1988). Wierzbicka is famous for her work in semantics, pragmatics, and cross-cultural linguistics and has established the idea of so called Universal Human Concepts and their realisation in the language (Wierzbicka, 1992). Looking for an appropriate basis cultural model for this research a short comparison of the most known models needs to be done. The differences begin at the definition of culture or even at avoiding any definition, at the objectiveness level (e. g. amount and homogeneity of the interviewed persons) as well as at use of different cultural dimensions. Table 6 contains a comparison between three most popular cultural models of Hofstede, Hall and Gesteland though the latter should be concerned more as a collection of a life experience in how to behave in business with success worldwide. Table 6: Comparison of Cultural Models (Astapenko, 2008: 92) This comparison demonstrates the lack of homogeneity of the research basis. While the amount of the interviews done by Hall is relatively high, he surveys only three countries. Gesteland on his hand does his research without any statistics using his own experience. Comparing to this the cultural model of Hofstede is more representative and homogeneous. He worked on interviews of IBM-employees in over 50 countries who therefore work in the same sector in comparable positions and have a similar social status. It is obviously that every cultural model has to be approached with great caution and an uncritical reading of cultural dimensions can lead to false conclusions. But even if Hofstede’s conceptualization of culture has attracted some criticism he is though one of the most renowned and most cited experts. The continuity of his researches can be observed over decades and the approach of his scientific school is still being applied and improved. Moreover, his research approach establishes a connection to the active prevention measures mentioned in Chapter 2. As his classification system will be used to make a comparison of the involved regions later in this chapter, it adds to the consistency of this report to explain his definition. Hofstede defines culture as â€Å"the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from others† (Hofstede et al. , 2010: 6). Investigating culture is an attempt to catch general trends among a large group of people on a very general level. Therefore, the findings in this report should not be applied on an individual level, as this may lead to miscommunication or even stigmatisation. There are different levels of culture (national, regional, ethnic, religious, gender, social class or even organisational level) but regarding Transferability of Road Safety measures the national level was suggested to be the subject for further research. Strictly speaking, the concept of a common culture applies to societies, not to nations. Based on elaborate research from 1967 to 1973, Hofstede developed a model that tries to capture †culture† through scores on four values, so-called cultural dimensions (given below). Later researches added further dimensions which cannot be fully evaluated here due to other focuses in this project. The complete description of the cultural dimensions can be found on the website (Hofstede, 2011). The four main dimensions according to Hofstede are: †¢ Power Distance Index (PDI): the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. Individualism (IDV): the degree to which individuals are integrated into groups. †¢ †¢ Masculinity (MAS): refers to the distribution of roles and values between the genders. The women in feminine countries have the same modest, caring values as the men; in the masculine countries they are somewhat assertive and competitive, but not as much as the men, so that these countries show a gap between men’s values and women’s values. Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI): a society’s tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity. Based on the values for these dimensions of the 19 European countries for which cultural dimension scores are available, an average European score was calculated. After a comparison between Europe, India and Brazil based on the official study data from Hofstede the research for metropolitan areas of Sao Paulo and Delhi which was done for this particular project by the local partners using the questionnaire of Hofstede is being presented. On the basis of its results the project partners awareness of the cultural differences and similarities between Brazil, India and Europe should be sharpened in order to consider them during the transfer of European Safety measures to Emerging Economies. This allows to avoid misunderstandings and to exclude from the beginning those measures which cannot be transferred due to cultural reasons. 1. 1. 1. Comparison of Cultural Dimensions of Europe, Brazil and India A first issue that arises when comparing the regions that are cooperating in SaferBraIn is the difference in analysis levels: how should one compare the cultures of two countries (India and Brazil) with the culture of a continent (Europe)? Having some insight in the European states cultures, it is safe to say that significant differences can be noted between the European member states. Therefore an average European score was calculated based on a mathematical analysis of Hofstede’s cultural dimension scores. Even if there are in some cases crucial differences between European countries like Italy and Germany, Spain and Sweden, this average score allows comparing the cultures of Europe, India and Brazil. You read "Cultural Models and Cultural Dimensions" in category "Papers" The next figure presents the scores on the four dimensions for these three regions. It must be stressed at this stage that it is not the authors’ intention to make hard statements about cultures. As was indicated before, Hofstede’s research can only be used to describe general trends in the average culture of a country. This should under no circumstances be translated to an individual level. Figure 20: Comparison of Europe-India-Brazil on Hofstede’s 4 cultural dimensions Figure 20 indicates that the power distance is relatively large in India and Brazil, compared to Europe. This could mean that individuals in these two countries operate in a more hierarchical system. Following Hofstede’s definition, hierarchy in India and Brazil is not only accepted, it is also expected. It may be interesting to keep this in mind when analyzing the corresponding traffic systems and when designing pilots to be implemented in these two countries. Especially concerning the enforcement of safety measures, the strong power orientation influences its exercising. It is known that Brazil and India already have many road facilities and road safety measures but they are not proper used by population. Due to that stronger enforcement measures are needed to improve the acceptance of new technologies and facilities. One can also notice that Europe appears to have a more individualist culture than India and Brazil. This tendency toward individualism can be found in several Western countries. The United States of America for example, have a score of 91 on Hofstede’s scale. Individualist cultures rely more on media and less on their social networks. Different surveys demonstrate that in an individualist culture employees are expected to act at their own responsibility and organise their work gathering their own interests with those of their employers. In a collectivist culture an employee is a part of a group and has to act according to its interest. This should be considered cooperating in pilot projects for SaferBraIn. Moreover, collectivist cultures tend to have higher power distance that individualist ones. So a strong hierarchy and acceptance of higher positioned partners can be presupposed working with India and Brazil. Considering vulnerable road users a health-care survey mentioned by Hofstede showed that individualist and collectivist cultures differently deal with disability. A special part of the survey was dedicated to disabled children. â€Å"In the individualist communities [†¦], people with disabilities tended to remain cheerful and optimistic, to resent dependency and being helped, and to plan for a future life as normal as possible. In the collectivist communities [†¦], there would be more expression of grief, shame, and pessimism; family members would be asked for advice and assistance, and they would make the main decisions about the person’s future† (Hofstede, 2010: 116). Translating this finding to the SaferBraIn project, it can be supposed that collectivist cultures like India and Brazil would not have sophisticated facilities for disabled VRU’s and these persons would not be well integrated in the society. This could be therefore a useful part of the safety measures? ransfer though the awareness of local partners cannot be assumed. The scores on the masculinity dimension show the smallest differences between the investigated regions. The scores are about 50-60 which can be interpreted as a quite balanced value between masculinity and femininity in the compared countries. However, one can notice that Europe has the highest score. A thorough look at Hofstede’s full definition for this dimension could interpret it as follows: Europe has a more assertive culture overall than India and Brazil, while India and Brazil have a slightly more modest culture. In relation to this report, it may be important to safeguard these cultures’ higher need for modesty. Even if the masculinity dimensions scores are very different within Europe, the average score demonstrates the predominant masculine character. In masculine societies there is a feeling that conflicts should be resolved by a â€Å"good fight†, where challenge, earnings, recognition, and advancement are important, whereas in feminine cultures there is a preference for resolving conflicts by compromise and negotiation focused on relationships. Since the score’s difference for surveyed countries are minimal, this dimension cannot evoke critical misunderstandings within SaferBraIn project. Finally, the level of Uncertainty Avoidance (UA) shows strong differences between the three regions. Though, UA is not the same as risk avoidance and these two concepts should not be mixed. Risk is focused on something specific and refers on a known and expected event. Avoiding risk we prevent something what we can foresee and not what is completely unpredictable. Hence, it would be incorrect to conclude that showing a relatively low level of UA, a potentially higher sense for risk taking can be assumed for India. Cultures with high Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) like Brazil or to a lesser extent Europe shun ambiguous situations and try to prevent them with more laws, rules, and regulations. Brazil has more law schools than all countries in the world together. There are 1,240 higher education courses for the training of lawyers in the country while the rest of the planet comes to about 1,100 universities (CNJ, 2010). Cultures with low UAI like India believe that many problems can be solved without formal rules and that the latter should be established only in case of absolute necessity. Paradoxically in countries with weak UA where rules are less scared they are often better followed. Translating these findings to the needs of SaferBraIn even when European experts can expect hindered possibilities for Road Safety measures enforcement due to low legacy level in India they can presuppose their better acceptance. On the contrary in Brazil it is assumed that every measure would first need a legal regulation. However, in countries with strong UA laws can fulfil a need for security even when they are not followed. Another finding done by Hofstede that is relevant for SaferBraIn shows an interesting correlation between the strength of UA and the maximum speeds allowed in the country. â€Å"The relationship is positive: stronger uncertainty avoidance means faster driving. Faster driving, other things being equal, means more fatal accidents, thus more risk. However, this is a familiar risk, which uncertainty-avoiding cultures do not mind running. Their emotionality provides them with a sense of stress, of urgency, which in turn leads to wanting to drive faster. The higher speed limits in stronger uncertainty-avoidance countries show, in fact, a priority of saving time over saving lives† (Hofstede, 2010: 198). 1. 1. 2. Cultural Research for metropolitan areas in Brazil and India Brazil and India are countries of contrasts concerning climate, geography, income distribution, and educational level of its people. Because of the diversity we cannot consider that knowing the country’s culture we also know cultural dimensions of its metropolitan areas. For this reason the Hofstede? s theory of Cultural Dimensions using the interviews based on his questionnaire was applied in Sao Paulo city and Delhi – the big metropolises which can be compared in their extension and live rhythm and in which the use of western experience can be assumed. Local partners (IMR for Brazil and A+S for India) have initiated interviews of about 200 people each in Sao Paulo and Delhi to have representative scores for these metropolitan areas. Of course, analogue researches can be done for every region or city where the transfer of safety measures is planned. The detailed information to the results of these researches can be found in Annexes 6 and 7. Though, the difficulties with the questionnaire are worth to be shortly mentioned at this point. Although questionnaires in local languages (Portuguese and Hindi) were used, the interviewees in India could not always interpret question unambiguously. It was established especially dealing with lower and lower middle class that a certain level of education is affordable for the answers. Many easy understandable issues from the European point of view needed to be explained. In contrary, the upper-class representatives preferred to use the English version of the questionnaire. The main outcomes of the research are the differences between Individualism (IDV) and Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) scores. For Brazil also the Masculinity (MAS) score features diverse scores. Power Distance Index (PDI) remains very similar in Brazil and India for both country average and metropolitan area (Figure 21). Figure 21: Comparison PDI incl. Sao Paulo and Delhi As mentioned before countries with high PDI tend to have well-built hierarchical relations within the society and need strong enforcement. Concerning wearing of helmets to protect two-wheelers, Error! Reference source not found. should be studied. Following the law, the motorcycle driver is wearing a helmet. At the same time more vulnerable passengers (two children and the lady) are not protected. Hence, only the stronger member of the family, having more power, is protected. Figure 22: Using helmet on motorcycle in India IDV (Figure 23) shows very high divergence between the country average and metropolitan area in both Brazil and India. Though, the development goes in both countries in opposite directions. While the inhabitants of Sao Paulo turn out to be extremely individualistic the population in Delhi tends to more collectivism. Figure 23: Comparison IDV incl. Sao Paulo and Delhi With reference to the assumption in Chapter 4. 3. 2 according the interrelation between the individualism score and the treating of disabled following examples can be used due to motivate this assumption. Delhi roads are equipped with convenient, wide footpaths. Though, the level of most kerbs on Delhi roads is inconveniently high (Figure 24). This prompts pedestrians to walk along the roadside especially when they have physical problems in climbing high steps. Figure 24: High kerbs in India However, in modern projects like the Rapid Bus Corridor (RBC) in Delhi a segregated and safe corridor for pedestrians and non-motorized transport is provided. Also for the VRU with disabilities special facilities like dropped kerbs, low floor buses or platform-bus adjustment are provided. In the City of Sao Paulo, where the individuality score is very high, dropped kerbs and tactile pavements are applied on most major junctions in the consolidated part of the road system (Figure 25). Figure 25: Tactile pavements in Sao Paulo Another example for extremely low IDV in Delhi is the unspoken rule to never cross the street alone. They always wait to gather a group of some persons and cross the street in a crowd feeling safer as a part of a group and providing counterweight to motorised traffic (Figure 26). Figure 26: Crossing the street in Delhi Traffic rules require motorists to stop once a pedestrian steps on the zebra crossing. Practically this rule is not being followed, and crossing busy roads at zebra crossings is as dangerous for pedestrians as elsewhere. Pedestrians cross roads either in larger groups or whenever opportunity occurs. Concerning Masculinity score the research shows that Sao Paulo has a very high MAS (Figure 27), even higher that the European average. Therefore a conclusion can be drawn that the society of Sao Paulo is more oriented on financial recognition, earning and challenges. Possessing a big and expensive car means to be more powerful and respected. For this reason VRU have to subordinate whether crossing the street or waiting for a car blocking the footpath while garage or property. However, when a pedestrian shows his power by stepping to the road and focusing directly and self-confident on the driver he will be accepted and the car will let him cross the street. Figure 27: Comparison MAS incl. Sao Paulo and Delhi In Delhi even having an expensive do not automatically means to be more powerful. These cars can be scratched and damaged the same way as a simple rickshaw. Even animals are seen as the most vulnerable road users and are equal to others. These facts are related to the very low IDV which means that this society is relationship-oriented and tries to solve conflicts by compromise. Similar to IDV the tendency of the score for UAI develops in the opposite direction between the country average and metropolitan area (Figure 28). In Brazil it is drastically decreasing for Sao Paulo, in India it is slightly increasing for Delhi. It can be therefore concluded that in Sao Paulo new safety measures being to a certain degree always ambiguous would be easier accepted. On the contrary, in Delhi more enforcement and education measures would be needed to promote acceptance of new safety measures. Figure 28: Comparison UAI incl. Sao Paulo and Delhi To sum up the research has identified several crucial differences between the countries? scores and the scores for metropolitan areas. It is important to consider it when talking about transferability of road safety measures or working on pilot projects. How to cite Cultural Models and Cultural Dimensions, Papers

INXS Kick free essay sample

If I had to describe INXSs breakthrough album, â€Å"Kick,† in one word, it would be â€Å"funky.† Each song throbs with a dance beat, moving listeners to their feet. â€Å"Kick† propelled Australian band INXS to superstardom back in 1987, winning them acknowledgment and hit singles. And its no wonder – every track is upbeat and danceable, even the weakest. The album opens with â€Å"Guns in the Sky,† in which vocalist Michael Hutchence grunts and groans over a pounding drum track. As soon as the infectious guitar riff hits, its impossible to keep from nodding to the beat. Next is â€Å"New Sensation,† an uplifting track with jangly guitars that was the albums third single. Indeed, â€Å"Kick† seems to thrive on its singles, certainly living up to guitarist/ saxophonist Kirk Pengillys hopes that every song would be perfect for  ­airplay. â€Å"Devil Inside† is undeniably the sexiest song here. â€Å"Mystify† contains an almost folksy piano riff and spot-on guitars, as well as some of the sweetest lyrics for a lover. We will write a custom essay sample on INXS: Kick or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page â€Å"Need You To ­night,† the bands first number-one single in America, is perfect for dirty dancing, with its driving drumbeat and catchy guitar hook. â€Å"I need you tonight, cause Im not sleeping,† Hutchence sings. However, all of these tunes pale in comparison to â€Å"Never Tear Us Apart.† Its string arrangement and convincing lyrics make it one of the best love songs ever. Looking past the singles, â€Å"Kick† doesnt have much else. With the exceptions of â€Å"Guns in the Sky† and â€Å"Tiny Daggers,† every other song is filler and, for the most part, forgettable. This is especially true for â€Å"Calling All Nations,† which contains some cringe-worthy lyrics. Overall, â€Å"Kick† is a solid album, but despite its fame, this is definitely not INXSs best. (That title would arguably go to their 1984 effort, â€Å"The Swing.†) This album is worth buying even if the singles are all you want, but the rest would only be recommended for hardcore ?s fans. Though â€Å"Kick† has not aged too well for teens of today, it remains the perfect party album.

What It Means to Say Phoenix Arizona free essay sample

Although some people may not think too much of things as insignificant as names or symbols, there is always a reason an author puts them in a story. Sherman Alexi’s â€Å"This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix Arizona† is a great example of a story that is full of many different kinds of symbolism, ranging from animals to people, even the story’s title. Understanding of Alexi’s symbols in the story is crucial in understanding the meaning of the story as a whole. A symbol is anything that stands for, or represents, something else. Its place in any story is to add depth, often emphasizing the message or meaning of a story as a whole. The symbolism in â€Å"This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix Arizona† is what adds depth to the characters and events that take place in the story. Without an understanding of these symbols, ones interpretation of the work, or any work, can be incomplete and lacking in substance. We will write a custom essay sample on What It Means to Say Phoenix Arizona or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page However, a rich understanding of symbols can often transcend the literature itself and allow the reader to question his or herself on an intellectual or emotional level, and of course allows a deeper understanding of the text. The main symbol of the story is the mythological bird, the Phoenix. Not only is it’s ideology found several times throughout the story, it’s in the story’s own title. A Phoenix, according to Egyptian mythology is a bird that lives for one thousand years only to be engulfed in flames at the end of it, and is reborn from its own ashes. Perhaps the strongest allusion to the Phoenix is found in Victor’s journey. Throughout the story you can see his transformation. In the beginning of the story you can see that Victor is angry, and is uncaring of his heritage. All he cares about is getting to Phoenix and claiming is father’s ashes. He encounters Thomas Builds-the-fire, who is described as a â€Å"storyteller whom nobody listens to†. Victor says he â€Å"keeps telling the same damn stories†, indicating that he feels the same way about him as everybody else. However, towards the end of their journey he looks at Thomas in a different light. He learns from him and in doing so, learns about himself. His self-rediscovery of his heritage and home is similar to the rebirth of a Phoenix. Another source of strong symbolism in the story is found in the characters names. Victor being the protagonist is the easiest to figure out. Victor’s name is often interpreted as â€Å"Victory† or being victorious. His name is very closely related to his journey, as he struggles to find himself throughout the story but triumphs, emerging victorious at the end. Thomas Builds-the-fire’s name refers to his role as the storyteller in the story, and his character is interpreted as the attachment to the â€Å"old ways† of the Indian tribe. Symbolism in a story is arguably one of the most important things to take into account when trying to understand a story’s message or meaning. Without the knowledge of the significance found in Victor’s character and name, it’s more difficult to understand his contribution to the meaning of Alexi’s story. The Phoenix, being the main symbol of the story is equally as important in the story’s interpretation because if you understand the nature of the Phoenix you can understand the nature of Victor’s journey, which is one of birth and self-discovery. Perhaps the story can inspire us to look into ourselves and allow us to have an experience of rebirthing of our own.

HR responsibilities

HR responsibilities PAGE PAGE 3 Roles and Responsibilities of a Human Resource ManagerRoles and Responsibilities of A Human Resource ManagerWe all know that the most important resources in a business are the employees. That is why managing the human resources, or employees, in an organization is a very significant job and carries with it a lot of responsibilities that include recruiting and interviewing new employees, hiring and firing, training, salaries and benefits, and lastly conflict mediation. To assist with writing this paper, an interview was conducted with Mr. Ahmed Samir, HR Manager of Chili's in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Mr. Samir stated that the main job of an HR manager is to oversee all the aspects of employee development and making sure that the organization is staffed with well-trained and competent workforce. A human resource manager's responsibilities might differ from one day to another, but generally the manager serves as the go-to person when it comes to employees' activities or compla ints.2011 Jeddah floods - 1As mentioned above, one of the responsibilities of an HR manager is to recruit and interview prospective employees. An HR manager works exclusively with higher management to make sure that prospective employees are qualified and positioned in the appropriate division. When a job opens up, an HR manager is responsible for developing a job description and promoting for the new position. They are also responsible for performing background checks and contacting references. Another main task of an HR manager is hiring and firing decisions. If a new worker is hired, a human resource manager is responsible for setting up the required paperwork and contract. Additionally, when an employee is fired, an HR manager is responsible for issuing a final paycheck and other appropriate arrangements. The manager also makes sure to take the employee's access code or keys before the...

Case study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 8

Case study - Essay Example The idea behind this consultant report is to suggest methods wherein the company can be made profitable to meet the challenges posed by the current downturn. The recommendations that we as consultants have given can be divided into the following categories as outlined in the subsequent sections. First, the idea is to structure the company along product lines instead of the current structure where each of the verticals would have a separate department instead of along functional lines. The current division is based on functional lines wherein the sales department is separate and the insurance department is separate. The current structure lends itself to unnecessary redundancy and according to the theory (Miles, 1978); division along product lines is any day better than division along functional lines. If the company adopts this method, the divisions would be along verticals instead of the horizontal division currently in place. This movement towards product lines is appropriate because the people in one product line would be motivated more to perform and function rather than people in different functions working separately. This makes eminent business sense as the people in different departments that are current existing can get together and plan for their sales and marketing strategies as a means of achieving their targets. The appropriate theories of leadership that can be applied here are the Theory X and the Theory Y which state that a leader can apply these two competing visions of leadership to get the work done .(Mullins, 2008) As part of the division of the company along vertical product lines, it is necessary to structure the company in such a way that the board members are also structured along the product line strategy and that they operate within the structures prescribed in this management report. This division of the company along product lines makes for eminent business sense and hence they can work for the betterment of the company. According to

Colonialism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Colonialism - Essay Example A treaty influenced by the Pope in the year 1494 demarcated the world into two sides between Catholic Spain and Portugal. Spain sailed into North and South America in search of precious metals and gave little thought to colonizing the areas they went through. However, when other powerful countries like France began taking an interest in the region did Spain start making permanent settlements in North America (Mignolo and Ennis, 2001). Other evidence of the economic reason for colonization can be seen from the influx of the French and Dutch powers into the colonial race. This started as late as the 16th century when both of the powers came into North America and started setting up colonies. This was done with the express aim of exploiting the resources of the New World to benefit the areas back home. However, religion also played a factor in the setting up of colonies, especially in the case of British controlled North America. First, the Pope in 1494 influenced the drawing up of the treaty that saw the demarcation of the world between Spain and Portugal (Mignolo and Ennis, 2001). One of the main aims of the Catholic Church was to make a lot of converts from the natives in the regions. In the case of the British and the development of different colonies, examples can be cited of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Plymouth Colony in North America was predominantly set up by religious separatists who wanted to be separated from the Church of England. In much the same way, the Massachusetts Bay Colony started commercially but most of its inhabitants became people escaping religious and Crown persecution in England. In this way, the colony nearly became a purely theocratic rule where the church had ultimate authority in all decisions (Mignolo and Ennis, 2001). From an analysis of the two main reasons for the creation of colonies in the Western

ANALYZING 3 STORIES FOR THEIR USE OF IRONY Essay

ANALYZING 3 STORIES FOR THEIR USE OF IRONY - Essay Example al irony here is that a young married couple expected to be in love with each other and aware of each others’ emotional needs, and to all appearances are well-matched, are actually not so, especially from the woman’s point of view. The protagonist Louise Mallard who, according to conventional expectations should be grieving her husband’s reported sudden death, instead rejoices in her freedom, but only when she begins to comprehend the implications after a short spell of crying and ostensible sorrow. The situation is reversed when her husband Brently Mallard walks in as if nothing had happened. He had not even heard of the railroad disaster in which he was assumed to have been killed. Since the story opens with a statement that ‘Mrs Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble’ it is logically acceptable that she dies in the end of ‘heart disease’ on seeing her husband’s unexpected return. However, the dramatic irony is when the doctors conclude that she died of joy at seeing her husband, when the reader knows that it is more likely to be the opposite. She is denied the freedom she enjoyed momentarily, when she believed that she was to be free of her domestic duties and responsibilities to a husband who expected her subservience implicitly. The story also has instances of verbal irony. Even the very first sentence partly quoted in the above paragraph contains the indefinite article ‘a’ before heart trouble. It is a vague, unexplained form of heart ‘disease’ (the word disease is only used at the end of the story) which could be an emotional, or psychosomatic reaction to Mrs Millard’s day to day life ‘under the thumb’ of her husband. One must remember the story was written in the 19th century, well before the feminist movement and a substantial degree of equality achieved over the subsequent years by women. Another instance of verbal irony is when she ‘breathed a quick prayer that life might be long’. She repeats ‘with a shudder

Poverty And Environmental Degradation In Ghana Environmental Sciences Essay

Poverty And Environmental Degradation In Ghana Environmental Sciences Essay The relation between poverty levels and environmental degradation has been widely debated inside academic circles. The theoretical linkage between poverty and environmental degradation has for some time been shroud in ambiguity. Environment degradation and poverty are closely interrelated and inseparable, particularly in developing countries. Awareness and concern about environmental degradation have grown around the world over the last few decades; these concerns are shared by people of different nations, cultures, religions and social classes. In recent years economic researchers have become increasingly aware of the important implications that the state of the environment has for the success of development effort. .(Michael P Todaro, Stephen C Smith, Economic Development) it has been asserted that the interaction between poverty and environmental degradation can lead to a self perpetuating process in which ,as a result of ignorance or economic necessity, communities may in advertently destroy or exhaust the resources on which they depend for survival.(Michael P Todaro, Stephen C Smith, Economic Development) According to Michael P Todaro and Stephen C Smith, environmental degradation can have severe consequences on the poor in developing countries. They further conclude that since the solution to environmental problems involve enhancing the productivity of resources and improving living conditions among the poor, achieving environmentally sustainable growth is synonymous with achieving economic growth. Poverty is considered a great influence on environmental degradation. In many regions of the developing countries, regional overgrazing has resulted in destruction of grazing lands, forest and soil. In addition air and water have been degraded . It has been hypothesized that as people become poorer, they destroy the resources faster . By so doing tend to overuse the natural resources because they dont have any means of survival except through the natural resources. They therefore tend to depend more on natural resources. An increase in poverty gives rise to an equal increase in environmental degradation thereby necessitating the need to improve the quality of living. Ghana is located on the west coast of Africa bordering the Gulf of Guinea with a 539-kilometer stretch of coastline. The capital, Accra, is situated along the coast. The country shares borders with Togo to the east, Cote dIvoire on the west and Burkina Faso to the north. Ghana covers a total area of 238,537 square km (92,100 square miles). Ghana is well endowed with natural resources gold, timber, and cocoa the major sources of foreign exchange, and recently discovered oil in commercial quantities. The domestic economy continues to revolve around subsistence agriculture, which accounts for 34.7 percent of GDP and employs 56 percent of the work force, mainly smallholders. The country has a total of 170 metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies within its ten administrative regions and has approximately 22 million people. Most of the population is concentrated in the southern part of the country, with highest densities occurring in urban and cocoa-producing areas.(USAID) . Ghana is rapidly urbanizing. Despite this, most of Ghanas poor live in rural areas without basic services such as health care and clean water. Small-scale farmers, who are affected most by rural poverty in Ghana, depend on outdated farming tools and lack access to improved seeds and fertilizers to increase crop yields. Since independence Ghana has had a long fight with poverty. There have been six development plans implemented in Ghana since 1951. They have all generally sought to improve upon the growth of GDP and ensuring an acceptable level of social and political life for the country. The most recent and significant have been the Vision 2020 and The Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy.( Eugene Eluerkeh,2004) Environmental degradation is difficult to define. In simple terms environmental degradation can be said to be the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil, the destruction of the ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife. Poverty is the state of having inadequate access to ones survival needs and basic social amenities which include food, clothing, shelter, education, good health, employment, transport, communication and other basic social services. Poverty breeds frustration, depression, helplessness, carelessness, insecurity, indiscipline, crime and struggle to meet immediate survival needs at the expense of long-term environmental benefits. This struggle for survival has been the major linkage of the poor to environmental degradation such as deforestation, land degradation of coastal habitats and poor urban sanitation that keep perpetual poverty. Poverty can be assessed at the individual, household, community, district, regional and national levels in which case a nations capability to provide the social needs of its people is used as a measure of its poverty status. One out of five people on earth still live with $1 a day, and many coordinated effort and commitment have been targeted to reduce the number of poor people including the socalled Millennium Development Goals: halving extreme poverty by the year 2015 (World Bank, DFID, EC, UNDP, 2002). As part of the conditions to be met for the realization of (HIPC) relief package, Ghana, like its counterpart countries, was to develop a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) to indicate how monies accrued from joining (HIPC) would be used to alleviate poverty among Ghanaians. The broad strategies outlined in the document included good governance, macro-economic stability, production, employment, vulnerability and exclusion, and human resource development. Unfortunately, however, the environment, which is the primary ingredient for survival, growth and development was not streamlined in the document. Environmental degradation is a result of the dynamic inter play of socio-economic, institutional and technological activities. Environmental changes may be driven by many factors including economic growth, population growth, urbanization, intensification of agriculture, rising energy use and transportation. Poverty still remains a problem at the root of several environmental problems. Poverty is said to be both cause and effect of environmental degradation. The circular link between poverty and environment is an extremely complex phenomenon. Inequality may foster unsustainability because the poor, who rely on natural resources more than the rich, deplete natural resources faster as they have no real prospects of gaining access to other types of resources. Moreover, degraded environment can accelerate the process of impoverishment, again because the poor depend directly on natural assets Environmental sustainability should thus, be a key priority area in our strategic plans towards poverty alleviation. Within this context therefore, the right linkage between the various specific environmental degradation and poverty must be well established to the appreciation of all stakeholders. In search of an explanation of the poverty- environmental degradation linkage, many studies have been done in this regard. In terms of urban poverty, it is suggested that there is little evidence of it being a significant contributor to environmental degradation but strong evidence that urban environ-mental hazards are major contributors to urban poverty (David Satterthwaite). Most of the studies on the poverty-environment linkage have used panel data studies and hence have not been country specific. This study thus aims to explore in detail the poverty-environment linkage with specific reference to the Ghanaian situation. It will thus review the existing literature on the poverty-environment linkage, provide an overview of the poverty and environment profile in Ghana and attempt to provide policy recommendations suitable for the Ghanaian situation. Statement of Problem Poverty in Ghana has for a long been considered an economic problem. Hence economic policies that have been developed haved not considered the environment. It is however useful to consider the interplay between the environment and poverty in formulating policies designed to alleviate poverty. Various studies have established that there exists some kind of dynamic interplay between the state of the environment and poverty levels. Hence it is useful to consider the impact of the various economic policies designed to reduce poverty on the environment. Significance of the study The study will be of immense significance to the economy of Ghana. It will attempt to explain the poverty-environment linkage in Ghana. The study will review the literature on the poverty and environmental profile of Ghana. It will then explore the impact that policy reforms that have been designed to alleviate poverty have had on the environment. Objectives of the study The main objective of the study will be to: explore the poverty-environmental degradation linkage in Ghana. Explore the determinants of environmental degradation im Ghana. Elaborate on steps taken to reduce environmental degradation in Ghana Evaluate the existing economic policies designed to reduce poverty Data and Methodology The study will use macro data on poverty levels and measures on environmental degradation. To achieve the above objectives the study will adopt and modify the model used by Shaista Alam in the study Globalization, Poverty and Environmental Degradation: Sustainable Development in Pakistan . The model is given as: lnEGt= ÃŽÂ ²0+ÃŽÂ ²1lnPVRTt+ÃŽÂ ²2lnFRTt+ÃŽÂ ²3lnURBNt+ÃŽÂ ²4lnPOPt+ÃŽÂ ²5lnEDUt+ÃŽÂ µ where the variables are defined as follows: EG is environmental degradation,FRT is fertilizer consumption (in metric tons), URBN is the rate of urbanization, POP is the population growth, PVRT represents poverty, EDU is the education.

Japanese New Year Essay -- Japan History Holidays Essays

Japanese New Year Introduction: In Japan one of the most celebrated festivals is New Years. The Japanese New Year, or Oshogatsu (‚ ¨Ã‚ ³Ã…’Å ½), is given more preparation than any other festival. There are many traditions and activities that happen at this time. Oshogatsu is a time to visit temples, forget the troubles of the past year, and wish for good fortune in the new. Many festivals around this time also reflect the values and ideals of New Years. History: During the time of the Empress Suiko (593-628), Japan was influenced greatly by the religion and beliefs of China. In A.D. 604 Japan officially adopted the Chinese calendar. gThe new calendar was a lunar- solar one that has its months based on the lunar cycle. Casal writes gThe month begins when the sun enters the sign of the Fishes: the first day of the year, therefore falls on a day between January 20th and February 19th, and this is much nearer to spring (2). This system was in effect until the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1872. This is important because the seasons fall in line better with the lunar calendar than the modern one. In rural areas, many farmers still apply the Chinese calendar to their trade. Japanese people believed that the New Year started when the plants began to sprout life again, a new beginning. This happens throughout most of Japan in mid Jan. in line with the lunar calendar. In todayfs society Oshogatsu always falls on the same day (Jan. 1st), there are other festivals, which fall into the lunar calendar that have the same values of purification and new beginnings. Another influence from China at this time was Buddhism, which had been praised by Prince Shotoku Taishi, and became the official religion in 621.... ...nt from, and happier than, we do on ordinary days.h(Casal 1) Bibliography Festivals.com. 28 Nov. 2003 Seattle, Washington, http://www.festivals.com/search/display_event.aspx?eid=mYJmQbyD5jQ%3d&srid=3&page=1&bycountry=1&RID=jp&PROV= http://www.festivals.com/search/display_event.aspx?eid=lvluK1qWwM8%3d&srid=7&page=1&bycountry=1&RID=jp&PROV= (7) Japan Cultural Network Homepage. 28 Nov. 2003 http://www.hevanet.com/miyumi/december.htm http://www.hevanet.com/miyumi/january.htm http://www.hevanet.com/miyumi/february.htm Japan-Guide.com 2 Dec. 2003 Casal, U. A. The Five Sacred Festivals of Ancient Japan. Ruttland, Vermont &Tokyo Japan: Charles E. Tuttle Company Inc. 1967 Bauer, Helen & Carlquist, Sherwin. Japanese Festivals Doubleday & Company Inc. Garden City, New York, 1965 gHadaka Mairih Akita sakigake (Newspaper) 20 Jan. 2003 (1, 26)

English Language and Composition

AP ® English Language and Composition 2011 Free-Response Questions About the College Board The College Board is a mission-driven not-for-profit organization that connects students to college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, the College Board was created to expand access to higher education. Today, the membership association is made up of more than 5,900 of the world’s leading educational institutions and is dedicated to promoting excellence and equity in education.Each year, the College Board helps more than seven million students prepare for a successful transition to college through programs and services in college readiness and college success — including the SAT ® and the Advanced Placement Program ®. The organization also serves the education community through research and advocacy on behalf of students, educators and schools.  © 2011 The College Board. College Board, Advanced Placement Program, AP, AP Central, SAT and the acorn logo are registered trademarks of the College Board.Admitted Class Evaluation Service and inspiring minds are trademarks owned by the College Board. All other products and services may be trademarks of their respective owners. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. Permission to use copyrighted College Board materials may be requested online at: www. collegeboard. org/inquiry/cbpermit. html. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. AP Central is the official online home for the AP Program: apcentral. collegeboard. om. 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION SECTION II Total time—2 hours Question 1 (Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts for one-third of the total essay section score. ) Locavores are people who have decided to eat locally grown or produced products as much as possible. With an eye to nutrition as well as sustainability (resource use that preserves the environment ), the locavore movement has become widespread over the past decade.Imagine that a community is considering organizing a locavore movement. Carefully read the following seven sources, including the introductory information for each source. Then synthesize information from at least three of the sources and incorporate it into a coherent, well-developed essay that identifies the key issues associated with the locavore movement and examines their implications for the community. Make sure that your argument is central; use the sources to illustrate and support your reasoning. Avoid merely summarizing the sources.Indicate clearly which sources you are drawing from, whether through direct quotation, paraphrase, or summary. You may cite the sources as Source A, Source B, etc. , or by using the descriptions in parentheses. Source A Source B Source C Source D Source E Source F Source G (Maiser) (Smith and MacKinnon) (McWilliams) (chart) (Gogoi) (Roberts) (cartoon)  © 2011 The College Board . Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -2- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Source A Maiser, Jennifer. 10 Reasons to Eat Local Food. † Eat Local Challenge. Eat Local Challenge, 8 Apr. 2006. Web. 16 Dec. 2009. The following is an article from a group Weblog written by individuals who are interested in the benefits of eating food grown and produced locally. Eating local means more for the local economy. According to a study by the New Economics Foundation in London, a dollar spent locally generates twice as much income for the local economy. When businesses are not owned locally, money leaves the community at every transaction. Locally grown produce is fresher.While produce that is purchased in the supermarket or a big-box store has been in transit or cold-stored for days or weeks, produce that you purchase at your local farmer’s market has often been picked within 24 hours of your purchase . This freshness not only affects the taste of your food, but the nutritional value which declines with time. Local food just plain tastes better. Ever tried a tomato that was picked within 24 hours? ’Nuff said. Locally grown fruits and vegetables have longer to ripen. Because the produce will be handled less, locally grown fruit does not have to be rugged† or to stand up to the rigors of shipping. This means that you are going to be getting peaches so ripe that they fall apart as you eat them, figs that would have been smashed to bits if they were sold using traditional methods, and melons that were allowed to ripen until the last possible minute on the vine. Eating local is better for air quality and pollution than eating organic. In a March 2005 study by the journal Food Policy, it was found that the miles that organic food often travels to our plate creates environmental damage that outweighs the benefit of buying organic.Buying local food keeps us in touch with the seasons. By eating with the seasons, we are eating foods when they are at their peak taste, are the most abundant, and the least expensive. Buying locally grown food is fodder for a wonderful story. Whether it’s the farmer who brings local apples to market or the baker who makes local bread, knowing part of the story about your food is such a powerful part of enjoying a meal. Eating local protects us from bio-terrorism. Food with less distance to travel from farm to plate has less susceptibility to harmful contamination.Local food translates to more variety. When a farmer is producing food that will not travel a long distance, will have a shorter shelf life, and does not have a high-yield demand, the farmer is free to try small crops of various fruits and vegetables that would probably never make it to a large supermarket. Supermarkets are interested in selling â€Å"Name brand† fruit: Romaine Lettuce, Red Delicious Apples, Russet Potatoes. Local producers often play with their crops from year to year, trying out Little Gem Lettuce, Senshu Apples, and Chieftain Potatoes.Supporting local providers supports responsible land development. When you buy local, you give those with local open space—farms and pastures—an economic reason to stay open and undeveloped. Jennifer Maiser, www. eatlocalchallenge. com  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -3- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Source B Smith, Alisa, and J. B. MacKinnon. Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally.New York: Harmony, 2007. Print. The following passage is excerpted from a book written by the creators of the 100-Mile Diet, an experiment in eating only foods grown and produced within a 100-mile radius. Food begins to lose nutrition as soon as it is harvested. Fruit and vegetables that travel shorter distances are therefore likely to be closer to a maximum of nutrition. â€Å"Nowadays, we know a lot more about the naturally occurring substances in produce,† said [Cynthia] Sass. It’s not just vitamins and minerals, but all these phytochemicals and really powerful disease-fighting substances, and we do know that when a food never really reaches its peak ripeness, the levels of these substances never get as high. † . . . Yet when I called to confirm these facts with Marion Nestle, a professor and former chair of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, she waved away the nutrition issue as a red herring. Yes, she said, our 100-mile diet—even in winter—was almost certainly more nutritious than what the average American was eating.That doesn’t mean it is necessary to eat locally in order to be healthy. In fact, a person making smart choices from the global megamart can easily meet all the body’s needs. â€Å"There will be nutritional differences, but t hey’ll be marginal,† said Nestle. â€Å"I mean, that’s not really the issue. It feels like it’s the issue— obviously fresher foods that are grown on better soils are going to have more nutrients. But people are not nutrient-deprived. We’re just not nutrient-deprived. † So would Marion Nestle, as a dietician, as one of America’s most important critics of dietary policy, advocate for local eating? Absolutely. † Why? Because she loves the taste of fresh food, she said. She loves the mystery of years when the late corn is just utterly, incredibly good, and no one can say why: it just is. She likes having farmers around, and farms, and farmland.  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -4- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Source C McWilliams, James E. â€Å"On My Mind: The Locavore Myth. † Forbes. com. Forbes, 15 J ul. 2009. Web. 16 Dec. 2009.The following is excerpted from an online opinion article in a business magazine. Buy local, shrink the distance food travels, save the planet. The locavore movement has captured a lot of fans. To their credit, they are highlighting the problems with industrialized food. But a lot of them are making a big mistake. By focusing on transportation, they overlook other energy-hogging factors in food production. Take lamb. A 2006 academic study (funded by the New Zealand government) discovered that it made more environmental sense for a Londoner to buy lamb shipped from New Zealand than to buy lamb raised in the U.K. This finding is counterintuitive—if you’re only counting food miles. But New Zealand lamb is raised on pastures with a small carbon footprint, whereas most English lamb is produced under intensive factory-like conditions with a big carbon footprint. This disparity overwhelms domestic lamb’s advantage in transportation energy. N ew Zealand lamb is not exceptional. Take a close look at water usage, fertilizer types, processing methods and packaging techniques and you discover that factors other than shipping far outweigh the energy it takes to transport food.One analysis, by Rich Pirog of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, showed that transportation accounts for only 11% of food’s carbon footprint. A fourth of the energy required to produce food is expended in the consumer’s kitchen. Still more energy is consumed per meal in a restaurant, since restaurants throw away most of their leftovers. Locavores argue that buying local food supports an area’s farmers and, in turn, strengthens the community. Fair enough. Left unacknowledged, however, is the fact that it also hurts farmers in other parts of the world.The U. K. buys most of its green beans from Kenya. While it’s true that the beans almost always arrive in airplanes— the form of transportation that consumes t he most energy—it’s also true that a campaign to shame English consumers with small airplane stickers affixed to flown-in produce threatens the livelihood of 1. 5 million sub-Saharan farmers. Another chink in the locavores’ armor involves the way food miles are calculated. To choose a locally grown apple over an apple trucked in from across the country might seem easy. But this decision ignores economies of scale.To take an extreme example, a shipper sending a truck with 2,000 apples over 2,000 miles would consume the same amount of fuel per apple as a local farmer who takes a pickup 50 miles to sell 50 apples at his stall at the green market. The critical measure here is not food miles but apples per gallon. The one big problem with thinking beyond food miles is that it’s hard to get the information you need. Ethically concerned consumers know very little about processing practices, water availability, packaging waste and fertilizer application.This is a n opportunity for watchdog groups. They should make life-cycle carbon counts available to shoppers. Reprinted by Permission of Forbes Media LLC  © 2010  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -5- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Source D Loder, Natasha, Elizabeth Finkel, Craig Meisner, and Pamela Ronald. â€Å"The Problem of What to Eat. † Conservation Magazine. The Society for Conservation Biology, July-Sept. 2008. Web. 16 Dec. 2009.The following chart is excerpted from an online article in an environmental magazine.  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -6- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Source E Gogoi, Pallavi. â€Å"The Rise of the ‘Locavore’: How the Strengthening Local Food Movement in Towns Across the U. S. Is Reshaping Farms and Food Retailing. † Bloomberg Businessweek. Bloomberg, 20 May 2008. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. The following is excerpted from an online article in a business magazine.The rise of farmers’ markets— in city centers, college towns, and rural squares—is testament to a dramatic shift in American tastes. Consumers increasingly are seeking out the flavors of fresh, vine-ripened foods grown on local farms rather than those trucked to supermarkets from faraway lands. â€Å"This is not a fringe foodie culture,† says [Anthony] Flaccavento. â€Å"These are ordinary, middle-income folks who have become really engaged in food and really care about where their food comes from. † It’s a movement that is gradually reshaping the business of growing and supplying food to Americans.The local food movement has already accomplished something that almost no one would have thought possible a few years back: a revival of small farms. After declining for more than a century, the number of small farms has increased 20% in the past six years, to 1. 2 million, according to the Agriculture Dept. . . . The impact of â€Å"locavores† (as local-food proponents are known) even shows up in that Washington salute every five years to factory farming, the Farm Bill. The latest version passed both houses in Congress in early May and was sent on May 20 to President George W.Bush’s desk for signing. Bush has threatened to veto the bill, but it passed with enough votes to sustain an override. Predictably, the overwhelming bulk of its $290 billion would still go to powerful agribusiness interests in the form of subsidies for growing corn, soybeans, and cotton. But $2. 3 billion was set aside this year for specialty crops, such as the eggplants, strawberries, or salad greens that are grown by exactly these small, mostly organic farmers. That’s a big bump-up from the $100 million that was earmarked for such things in the previous legislation.Small fa rmers will be able to get up to 75% of their organic certification costs reimbursed, and some of them can obtain crop insurance. There’s money for research into organic foods, and to promote farmers’ markets. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said the bill â€Å"invests in the health and nutrition of American children . . . by expanding their access to farmer’s markets and organic produce. † Reprinted from the May 20, 2008 issue of Bloomberg BusinessWeek by special permission, copyright  © 2008 by Bloomberg L. P.  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. ollegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -7- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Source F Roberts, Paul. The End of Food. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008. Print. The following is excerpted from a book about the food industry. [T]he move toward local food, for all its trendiness (the more adamant adherents, known as â€Å"localvores,† strive to buy products that have traveled the least â€Å"food miles†), highlights one of the problematic pieces of the modern food economy: the increasing reliance on foods shipped halfway round the world.Because long-distance food shipments promote profligate fuel use and the exploitation of cheap labor (which compensates for the profligate fuel use), shifting back to a more locally sourced food economy is often touted as a fairly straightforward way to cut externalities, restore some measure of equity between producers and consumers, and put the food economy on a more sustainable footing. Such a shift would bring back diversity to land that has been all but destroyed by chemical-intensive mono-cropping, provide much-needed jobs at a local level, and help to rebuild community,† argues the UK-based International Society for Ecology and Culture, one of the leading lights in the localvore movement. â€Å"Moreover, it would allow farmers to make a decent living while giving consumers access to healthy, fresh food at affordable prices. † While localvorism sounds superb in theory, it is proving quite difficult in practice.To begin with, there are dozens of different definitions as to what local is, with some advocates arguing for political boundaries (as in Texas-grown, for example), others using quasi-geographic terms like food sheds, and still others laying out somewhat arbitrarily drawn food circles with radii of 100 or 150 or 500 miles. Further, whereas some areas might find it fairly easy to eat locally (in Washington State, for example, I’m less than fifty miles from industrial quantities of fresh produce, corn, wheat, beef, and milk), people in other parts of the country and the world would have to look farther afield.And what counts as local? Does food need to be purchased directly from the producer? Does it still count when it’s distributed through a mass marketer, as with Wal-Mart’s Salute to America’s F armer program, which is now periodically showcasing local growers? The larger problem is that although decentralized food systems function well in decentralized societies—like the United States was a century ago, or like many developing nations still are—they’re a poor fit in modern urbanized societies.The same economic forces that helped food production become centralized and regionalized did the same thing to our population: in the United States, 80 percent of us live in large, densely populated urban areas, usually on the coast, and typically hundreds of miles, often thousands of miles, from the major centers of food production.  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -8- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONSSource G Hallatt, Alex. â€Å"Arctic Circle. † Comic strip. King Features Syndicate, Inc. 1 Sept. 2008. Web. 12 July 2009. The following is a ca rtoon from an environmentally themed comic strip. ARCTIC CIRCLE  © 2008 MACNELLY. DISTRIBUTED BY KING FEATURES SYNDICATE  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -9- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Question 2 (Suggested time—40 minutes.This question counts for one-third of the total essay section score. ) Florence Kelley (1859-1932) was a United States social worker and reformer who fought successfully for child labor laws and improved conditions for working women. She delivered the following speech before the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia on July 22, 1905. Read the speech carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze the rhetorical strategies Kelley uses to convey her message about child labor to her audience.Support your analysis with specific references to the text. We have, in this country, two million childr en under the age of sixteen years who are earning their bread. They vary in age from six and seven years (in the cotton mills of Georgia) and eight, nine and ten years (in the coal-breakers of Pennsylvania), to fourteen, fifteen and sixteen years in more enlightened states. No other portion of the wage earning class increased so rapidly from decade to decade as the young girls from fourteen to twenty years.Men increase, women increase, youth increase, boys increase in the ranks of the breadwinners; but no contingent so doubles from census period to census period (both by percent and by count of heads), as does the contingent of girls between twelve and twenty years of age. They are in commerce, in offices, in manufacturing. Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy.In Alabama the law provides t hat a child under sixteen years of age shall not work in a cotton mill at night longer than eight hours, and Alabama does better in this respect than any other southern state. North and South Carolina and Georgia place no restriction upon the work of children at night; and while we sleep little white girls will be working tonight in the mills in those states, working eleven hours at night. In Georgia there is no restriction whatever! A girl of six or seven years, just tall enough to reach the bobbins, may work eleven hours by day or by night.And they will do so tonight, while we sleep. Nor is it only in the South that these things occur. Alabama does better than New Jersey. For Alabama limits the children’s work at night to eight hours, while New Jersey permits it all night long. Last year New Jersey took a long backward step. A good law was repealed which had required women and [children] to stop work at six in the evening and at noon on Friday. Now, therefore, in New Jersey , boys and girls, after their 14th birthday, enjoy the pitiful privilege of working all night long.In Pennsylvania, until last May it was lawful for children, 13 years of age, to work twelve hours at night. A little girl, on her thirteenth birthday, could start away from her home at half past five in the afternoon, carrying her pail of midnight luncheon as happier people carry their midday luncheon, and could work in the mill from six at night until six in the morning, without violating any law of the Commonwealth. If the mothers and the teachers in Georgia could vote, would the Georgia Legislature have refused at every session for the last three years to stop the work in the mills of children under twelve years of age?Would the New Jersey Legislature have passed that shameful repeal bill enabling girls of fourteen years to work all night, if the mothers in New Jersey were enfranchised? Until the mothers in the great industrial states are enfranchised, we shall none of us be able to free our consciences from participation in this great evil. No one in this room tonight can feel free from such participation. The children make our shoes in the shoe factories; they knit our stockings, our knitted underwear in the knitting factories.They spin and weave our cotton underwear in the cotton mills. Children braid straw for our hats, they spin and weave the silk and velvet wherewith we trim our hats. They stamp buckles and metal ornaments of all kinds, as well as pins and hat-pins. Under the sweating system, tiny children make artificial flowers and neckwear for us to buy. They carry bundles of garments from the factories to the tenements, little beasts of burden, robbed of school life that they may work for us. We do not wish this. We prefer to have our work done by men and women.But we are almost powerless. Not wholly powerless, however, are citizens who enjoy the right of petition. For myself, I Line 5 45 50 10 55 15 60 20 65 25 70 30 75 35 80 40  © 2011 The Colleg e Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -10- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS shall use this power in every possible way until the right to the ballot is granted, and then I shall continue to use both. What can we do to free our consciences? There is one line of action by which we can do much.We can enlist the workingmen on behalf of our enfranchisement just in proportion as we strive with them to free the children. No labor organization in this country ever fails to respond to an appeal for help in the freeing of the children. For the sake of the children, for the Republic in which these children will vote after we are dead, and for the sake of our cause, we should enlist the workingmen voters, with us, in this task of freeing the children from toil! 85 90 95  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org.GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -11- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Question 3 (Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts for one-third of the total essay section score. ) The following passage is from Rights of Man, a book written by the pamphleteer Thomas Paine in 1791. Born in England, Paine was an intellectual, a revolutionary, and a supporter of American independence from England. Read the passage carefully. Then write an essay that examines the extent to which Paine’s characterization of America holds true today.Use appropriate evidence to support your argument. If there is a country in the world, where concord, according to common calculation, would be least expected, it is America. Made up, as it is, of people from different nations, accustomed to different forms and habits of government, speaking different languages, and more different in their modes of worship, it would appear that the union of such a people was impracticable; but by the simple operation of constructing g overnment on the principles of society and the rights of man, every difficulty retires, and all the parts are brought into ordial unison. There, the poor are not oppressed, the rich are not privileged. . . . Their taxes are few, because their government is just; and as there is nothing to render them wretched, there is nothing to engender riots and tumults. STOP END OF EXAM  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. -12-

What HeLa Cells Are and Why They Are Important

What HeLa Cells Are and Why They Are Important HeLa cells are the first immortal human cell line. The cell line grew from a sample of cervical cancer cells taken from an African-American woman named Henrietta Lacks on February 8, 1951. The lab assistant responsible for the samples named cultures based on the first two letters of a patients first and last name, thus the culture was dubbed HeLa. In 1953, Theodore Puck and Philip Marcus cloned HeLa (the first human cells to be cloned) and freely donated samples to other researchers. The cell lines initial use was in cancer research, but  HeLa cells have led to numerous medical breakthroughs and nearly 11,000 patents. Key Takeaways: HeLa Cells HeLa cells are the first immortal human cell line.The cells came from a cervical cancer sample obtained from Henrietta Lack in 1951, without her knowledge or permission.HeLa cells have led to many important scientific discoveries, yet there are disadvantages to working with them.HeLa cells have led to the examination of the ethical considerations of working with human cells. What It Means to Be Immortal Normally, human cell cultures die within a few days after a set number of cell divisions via a process called senescence. This presents a problem for researchers because experiments using normal cells cannot be repeated on identical cells (clones), nor can the same cells be used for extended study. Cell biologist George Otto Gey took one cell from Henrietta Lacks sample, allowed that cell to divide, and found the culture survived indefinitely if given nutrients and a suitable environment. The original cells continued to mutate. Now, there are many strains of HeLa, all derived from the same single cell. Researchers believe the reason HeLa cells dont suffer programmed death is because they maintain a version of the enzyme telomerase that prevents gradual shortening of the telomeres of chromosomes. Telomere shortening is implicated in aging and death. Notable Achievements Using HeLa Cells HeLa cells have been used to test the effects of radiation, cosmetics, toxins, and other chemicals on human cells. They have been instrumental in gene mapping and studying human diseases, especially cancer. However, the most significant application of HeLa cells may have been in the development of the first polio vaccine. HeLa cells were used to maintain a culture of polio virus in human cells. In 1952, Jonas Salk tested his polio vaccine on these cells and used them to mass-produce it. Disadvantages of Using HeLa Cells While the HeLa cell line has led to amazing scientific breakthroughs, the cells can also cause problems. The most significant issue with HeLa cells is how aggressively they can contaminate other cell cultures in a laboratory. Scientists dont routinely test the purity of their cell lines, so HeLa had contaminated many in vitro lines (estimated 10 to 20 percent) before the problem was identified. Much of the research conducted on contaminated cell lines had to be thrown out. Some scientists refuse to allow HeLa in their labs in order to control the risk. Another problem with HeLa is that it doesnt have a normal human karyotype (the number and appearance of chromosomes in a cell). Henrietta Lacks (and other humans) have 46 chromosomes (diploid or a set of 23 pairs), while the HeLa genome consists of 76 to 80 chromosome (hypertriploid, including 22 to 25 abnormal chromosomes). The extra chromosomes came from the infection by human papilloma virus that led to cancer. While HeLa cells resemble normal human cells in many ways, they are neither normal nor entirely human. Thus, there are limitations to their use. Issues of Consent and Privacy The birth of the new field of biotechnology introduced ethical considerations. Some modern laws and policies arose from ongoing  issues surrounding HeLa cells. As was the norm at the time, Henrietta Lacks was not informed her cancer cells were going to be used for research. Years after the HeLa line had become popular, scientists took samples from other members of the Lacks family, but they did not explain the reason for the tests. In the 1970s, the Lacks family was contacted as scientists sought to understand the reason for the aggressive nature of the cells. They finally knew about HeLa. Yet, in 2013, German scientists mapped the entire HeLa genome and made it public, without consulting the Lacks family. Informing a patient or relatives about the use of samples obtained via medical procedures was not required in 1951, nor is it required today. The 1990 Supreme Court of California case of Moore v. Regents of the University of California ruled a persons cells are not his or her property and may be commercialized. Yet, the Lacks family did reach an agreement with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) regarding access to the HeLa genome. Researchers receiving funds from the NIH must apply for access to the data. Other researchers are not restricted, so data about the Lacks genetic code is not completely private. While human tissue samples continue to be stored, specimens are now identified by an anonymous code. Scientists and legislators continue to wrangle with questions of security and privacy, as genetic markers may lead to clues about an involuntary donors identity. References and Suggested Reading Capes-Davis A, Theodosopoulos G, Atkin I, Drexler HG, Kohara A, MacLeod RA, Masters JR, Nakamura Y, Reid YA, Reddel RR, Freshney RI (2010). Check your cultures! A list of cross-contaminated or misidentified cell lines.  Int. J. Cancer.  127  (1): 1–8.Masters, John R. (2002). HeLa cells 50  years on: The good, the bad and the ugly.  Nature Reviews Cancer.  2  (4): 315–319.Scherer, William F.; Syverton, Jerome T.; Gey, George O. (1953). Studies on the Propagation in Vitro of Poliomyelitis Viruses. J Exp Med (published May 1, 1953). 97 (5): 695–710.Skloot, Rebecca (2010). The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Crown/Random House.Turner, Timothy (2012). Development of the Polio Vaccine: A Historical Perspective of Tuskegee Universitys Role in Mass Production and Distribution of HeLa Cells.  Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.  23  (4a): 5–10.

J.E.B Vs Alabama essays

J.E.B Vs Alabama essays The U.S. Supreme Court made a wise decision in J.E.B V. Alabama. I agree with the ruling of the supreme court because jurors shouldn't be discriminated against by their race let alone their gender. In J.E.B v. Alabama this man clearly didn't get a far trial due to the attorneys use of peremptory challenges. If the highest court of the land had a 6-3 vote showing this jury didn't serve justice then obviously peremptory challenges don't benefit neither the plaintiff or defendant. The petitioner argued that is fourteenth amendment's equal protection clause had been violated because he didn't ave a fair jury. The attorneys used peremptory challenges to exclude all male jurors so obviously the petitioner's jury was a it bias due to the fact most females aren't sympathetic to men who don't pay child's support. I'm quite glad ,honestly, that the supreme court realized that attorneys used their peremptory challenges to discriminate against genders. Some attorneys fail to realize that It is not at all okay to remove jurors based on gender so they can ha ve an advantage in the trial. If its not acceptable to remove jurors to have an all same race jury, why do they feel its its admissible to remove people to have a same gender jury? It stated that out of a pool of thirty-three potential jurors, ten males were excused because of peremptory challenges. An all female jury was th result of some attorneys attempt to get their client an edge over the defendant. I believe their was a direct correlation between the verdict and the all female jury. I find it hard to believe that this attorney used his peremptory challenges not looking for an advantage in the trial. Thats exactly it, the attorneys use their challenges to discriminate against gender in hope of a trial and verdict in their favor. J.E.B felt his jury exclusion of males was a direct violation of the fourteenth amendment because he didn't get a fair jury that represented his ...

Statement of Research Gaps Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Statement of Research Gaps - Essay Example Researchers sought to advise legislators but other scholars argued that the effort to redirect the leaders were futile as legislators ignored results that they attained. Researchers have conducted more over the years to determine its successes, if any and its failures. Some have even gone further to give possible recommendations for making the Act better so that it can avail students with adequate education for which it was to avail in the first place. However, further research is needed in some specific areas as some of the issues do not have enough insight whereas others leave readers with unanswered questions. NCLB does not support public schools only. The statute also supports independent charter schools in their growth through funding some children programs in privately owned schools as well as protecting home schooling parents. However, no studies analyze the effects of the Act on the performance of children in privately owned schools or the home schooled children. This is one gap in the studies conducted on the No Child Left Behind Act. All the researchers have for sometime have sought answers regarding how the Act can be improved or restructured. However, no researcher has conducted a study to find the cause of the problems at the ground. This is because researches so far conducted for sometime not contend the curriculum has dwindled to the extent of cheating turning to be extremely extensive besides help granted to schools being minimal. Simply restructuring the Act cannot solve all this, which is another gap characterizing NCLB. Most studies proved NCLB renders some beneficial elements for improving its worthiness in terms of learning in schools. A notable benefit embrace both teachers as well as administrators can adequately appraise critical gaps in performance amid groups of students. However, it was evident that researchers have conducted studies on children from different economic backgrounds and

Engineering Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Engineering Ethics - Essay Example An engineer’s job is rather complex as they have to not only learn about the technicalities of their subject but also be aware of the ethical issues that are inextricably intertwined with what they produce. The issue is not that straightforward as it may seem. Let us consider a hypothetical scenario where the manufacturer of a refrigerator discovers that if the humidity of the room where the refrigerator is kept exceeds a certain level, owing to faulty insulation, anybody touching the machine might experience electric shock that would, though not be fatal but surely would generate a stinging sensation that would last for at least ten minutes. It must also be mentioned that under normal conditions humidity would hardly ever reach levels that might be dangerous. Now what would the manufacturer do? Would they recall all those refrigerators that they feel might be faulty or would they simply keep quiet as humidity would hardly ever reach such dangerous levels? This is a question of engineering ethics and it acquires a special dimension as any decision to keep silent might harm customers while there will be considerable economic loss if all faulty units are recalled. Engineering ethics like ethics in general has intimate connection with the ethos and culture of the country to which the manufacturer belongs. A recent case in point is the recall of 6, 46,000 City and Fit/Jazz cars by Honda Motor Company for replacement of faulty window switches that might overheat when exposed to liquid resulting in a fire.

Theories of Bad Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Theories of Bad Leadership - Essay Example And (5) Are good and bad leadership qualitatively different phenomena? Kellerman’s views from her discourse entitled â€Å"Costs and Benefits: Why We Need to Study Bad Leadership† proffered pertinent issue relative to incompetent leaders based on two claims: (1) placing bad leadership on two axes: unethical and ineffective; and (2) stipulating seven types of bad leadership, to wit: incompetent, rigid, intemperate, callous, corrupt, insular, and evil (Kellerman, 2004, pp. 3-4). By eventually expounding on the costs of bad leadership, as well as finding justifications for any perceived benefits and confirming in the end that â€Å"without followers nothing happens, including bad leadership† (Kellerman, 2004, p. 8). One therefore shares the same contention as the evidence Kellerman presented to prove from the cited actual examples that it actually takes two to tango. From the point of view of Kellerman, leaders can fail given the opportune situation and with the assistance, negligence, blind obedience, conformity, or even ignorance of the followers. Aside from exhibiting any or a combination of the seven types of bad leadership enumerated above, leaders apparently fail with the assistance of the followers. Kellerman cited followers who were deemed enablers, blind supporters, covering for the leaders’ mistakes, compliant and ignorant stakeholders who enable leaders to operate without the benefit of checks and balances, and allowing assuming an avoiding stance. Lipman-Blumen’s view, on the other hand, used six psychological factors that explain why people apparently allow, choose, and support the existence of bad leaders. These factors include the needs for reassuring figures, security and certainty, feel special or chosen, and being part of a community; as well as fears for being ostracized and being powerless (Lipman-Bluman, 2006, p. 29). These psychological factors that could be traced since developmental stages form the basis for selecting leaders

Critical Essay by Juda Smith Essay Example for Free

Critical Essay by Juda Smith Essay I think the nether grave is the best story, because it’s very relatable. Majority of kids get bullied and or go through a bad time at least once in their life, so they either find ways to escape it or lie to people about how â€Å"good† their life is so nobody knows how bad it actually it. People connect more with things they can relate too. Fact. But, ‘†A Sound of Thunder† is a better story that can be classified as science fiction because it has something to do with time travel, dinosaurs, and history. â€Å"A Sound of Thunder† fits into the science fiction category because it’s based on time travel, dinosaurs ruling the Earth, and staying on the correct path so he doesn’t â€Å"change the course of history†. Those are all science related things so that’s the science part. It’s fiction because its fact but science related. No one can go back in time or change the course of history that’s where the fiction comes into play. In the story â€Å"nether grave† it’s harder to classify it as science fiction, because it’s not like it has something to do with time travel or dinosaurs, but it does have to do with gaming and leaving behind his own life to be a jaguar in a video game life. It does have to with people and how their life effects their life decisions which is science. It’s fiction because people can’t trade in their bad life to be in a video game. In the story â€Å"A Sound of Thunder† he uses sensory imagery, which uses very descriptive words to evoke images of sight, sounds, feelings, touch, and smells. In the first line, the protagonist swallows and they tell us about the â€Å"muscles around his mouth† and he waves his hand, while in the background there comes a â€Å"sound like a gigantic bonfire.† In the story the nethergrave it was hard to tell you were in another world because of the lack of detail. They didn’t give you a time period too, so there isn’t really to relate to besides the fact that it’s about a boy who uses his computer to hide and lie about his life. The theme in the story â€Å"A sound of thunder† you have to stay on the correct path in life or it will go all wrong. The plans you thought you had will change and everything will be challenging and hard. In the stor y the â€Å"Nether grave†, the theme of the story I believe it is when you feel like your life is bad, don’t go on trying to hide what’s going on. I think the first story has the best theme â€Å"A sound of thunder† because it is true. If you don’t stay on the correct paths of life and associate yourself with good people, your life and plans  can all change. You can’t have the both of best worlds.

Why is not ASEAN regionalism as successful as the EU

Why is not ASEAN regionalism as successful as the EU   Since the end of WWII, integration and regionalism has been the main focus for the study of international relations.   Peace was the main reason for creating a regional body, but since the fall of communism in the Soviet Union, the main focus on regionalism was on the economic.   The success of the integration in Europe had given the foundations of most of the earlier studies, which they tend to take Europe as a blueprint for the success in regionalism. Many third world regional bodies such as the ASEAN also look at Europe seriously because of its success.   By taking a comparative look at both organizations by their reasons to create a supranational body, the structures of both organizations; and evaluate them in terms of their successes, we can better understand both organizations. The integration process of Southeast Asia is very different from that of the EU in many ways that it creates the sense of uniqueness apart from the other regionalism around the world. Although it hopes to enjoy the same success as in Europe, there are many arguments whether it can achieve as much as Europe, such as in its past, the authoritarian style of governments, its economy structure, and its inability to solve disputes. The questions here lay in the future of ASEAN on which way is it going to go, and what it has to do to engulf successes of Europe. Right now regionalism that is undergoing in Southeast Asia is in a changing direction, economic success is seen as the main goal. The adaptation towards the European model acts as the guideline for the transformations. Nevertheless the need to understand the comparative work is very important towards future transformation in order to function as effectively as the EU model and to maintain the uniqueness of the ASIAN integration. The reasons behind ASEAN’s failure are the lack of institutions to enforce the structural co-operations from the members.   Part of understanding the background of both regions, looking i nto the history of the identity processing is necessary. There are debates about integration concerning the communal identities and the ideological structure that supports this. The comparative question over the identities of both organizations is why is it that the forming of the identity of Europe was more successful than the Southeast Asian region. What is the arguments concerning the identities of both organizations. With the EU, the question is based upon what are the factors that made up the European identity, and what determines what European is and what is not. Since there are many debates concerning that many of the benefits that helped built up the identity of Europe came from Asia, such as its polity, and its religion. The question concerning the ASEAN identity is whether there is a Southeast Asian identity in the first place and is the way things are set today, the proper way that things should be functioning? The fact that integration is a science that makes use of the pre-existing relationships between states members, an analysis of these prior relationships that build up both identities is critical in understanding the effectiveness of both organizations Research Questions Why is not ASEAN regionalism as successful as the EU? What are the main different characteristics of both organizations? What are the main similar characteristics of both organizations? Research Methodologies This study is a comparative analysis that focuses on secondary sources in order to obtain information pertaining the background, reasons, structures, and values of the EU and ASEAN. Hypotheses ASEAN regionalism is considered as a failure when compare to the EU in the degree of their reasons of their establishment, the differences in their values and structures. Reasons The European Union Security is the main concern for the EU since its beginning.   The threats form security exist both externally and internally.   The key actors here for the external security reasons were the Soviet Union, and the US, the threats of the Soviet Union for Europe was so great that America had to step in to help Europe in its rebuilding process in order to prevent Communist influences while keeping capitalism alive.   This involves pouring massive amount of money into reviving West Germany to an economically giant of Europe.   The formation of the EU was also received full support from the US, because of the integration process will benefit America by creating a bigger market for it to invest in, and a bigger trade bloc to trade to.   The forming of the EU will also allows the US to establish military bases in strategic locations in order to exercise its military power against Soviet threats. The building of the EU will also relieve the US from some of its responsibilities in t he world stage, creating a middle actor in the balancing of power from the US and the USSR.   Therefore the US support was very essential for the building of EU.   Internally, Europe at the time a war weary continent was going through a massive challenge in building itself.   Europe had gone through series of devastating wars; the most demolishing one of all was WWII.   After the end of the Second World War, most of Europes infrastructures were left destroyed from the strategic bombing from both the Allies, and the Nazi.   Europe was left to the state of rebuilding its infrastructure as same as its economy.   Most importantly it cannot afford another devastated war, the backdrop of this was the signing of the Coal and Steel Treaties, which was the major signing that will lead to the period of peace and security.   The Coal and Steel Treaties takes a look at the cause of European warfare in terms of the resources needed to build a war industry.   The main industry was steel and coal was needed to process it into weapons.   The idea was if Europe could break down the two industries, which were the resources that could lead to war and control and regulated it by a supranational governing body, then there will be a monitoring on the use of the two resources preventing another arm race from any country.   This is an example of a strong foundation of a strong supranational institution that limits some of the sovereignty that nation states use to have.   As later we will discuss the preambles written in this document in order to determine weather it was successful or not.   Although this treaty was not the foundation document of creating the EU, it was very important in the aspect of internal security and keeping peace and stability in the economy. ASEAN For SEA, security was also the main factor in forming a regional body.   Same as Europe, the Communist threats were the main threats from the external force as well as an internal force, so SEA had got a lot of support from America.   The theory behind this was called the Domino Effect Theory produced by George Kenneth, the secretary of state of the US administration during that time.   SEA was battling another front in the Cold War, and it was a potentially vulnerable front as well.   The fall of Vietnam then Laos then Cambodia gave the Domino effect theory its name, because countries who battle against communism in this region falls one by one similar to the dominoes, and the influence of the communism spread through the neighboring country.   Massive money was injected into the region in order to create strong capitalistic economic structures.   Military Dictatorship was very common in most of the countries, because it processed the strong authoritarian rule needed to counter communism.   External conflict lays solely on the threat from Vietnam, while an internal conflict was on the communist influences domestically that were big threats creating fragmentation in each country.   The evidence was the numbers of communist parties and their violence handling in each countries of SEA. For example, the bloodshed in Indonesia with General Suharto actions against PKI rallies which left many scholar to believe the number of death are between 200,000 to 500,000.    Although during this time, both regions are very similar in the external and internal reasons to strengthen co-operations in creating a secured community from communism, one major difference was that of the non-interference agreement signed by ASEAN members in the Bangkok Declaration, the founding treaties establishing ASEAN.   In Europe, the governments of the members had agreed in giving up limited sovereignty by creating supranational institutions to monitor, and to exercise its power such as the pooling of resources like coal and steel.   While ASEAN nations did not agreed on giving up any sovereignty by signing the non-interference agreement.   This will produce massive effects in the lacking of co-operations and monitoring body in ASEAN.   During this time each countries were focusing on building its own domestic economy by trading outside of their regions such as markets of Japan and the US rather than focusing on the intra trading activities.   Ironically ASEAN co-o perations was nothing more than an agreement not to co operate, focusing on building prosperity separately without intervening on each others affairs.   Until recently that ASEAN sees an essential need to integrate and co-operate regionally in order to prosper economically. Values In this part of the paper, we are looking at the completely different sets of values that will in turn influence the last point of the paper, which is organization structure drastically.   The contrast between two sets of values that lies in the organizations here is clear.   Regionalization of the SEA is very much different than the one of Europe. Because of the Asian way of thinking which tend to be authoritarian, many had argued that, SEA needed to find its own path rather than following Europes model of integration.   Unlike the EU, which had a strong foundation of regional/continental identity, the ASEAN identity had been a recent created identity.   The Southeast Asian people did not come up even with the technology employed to define national boarder lines but it was done from colonialism.   There was no common language like Europe had of Latin that was used to communicate in religion and states affairs.   There was no common religion like Christianity.   There w as no common law and order like Europe had from the Roman Empire or the establishment of democratic values from Greece.   Asian values tend to be authoritarian rather than liberalism in Europe. Authority is the most important thing above everything in Southeast Asia, while individualism and human rights is emphasized in Europe1.   The evidence determining this is in democracy, during the signing of the Treaty of Rome, each leader of the members were democratically elected leaders, while in Southeast Asia, leaders were military juntas and authoritarian ruler.   The reason behind this was the need for the strong ruling against the backdrop of communist threats from Indo China.   The military juntas were Field Marshall Thanom of Thailand, Marcos in the Phillippines, and Surhato in Indonesia, while the authoritarian leaders were Mahadthere in Malaysia, and Lee Guan Yuu of Singapore.   This is the very big difference we can see between the two different styles of polity.   Th is authoritarian value came from the pre-colonial period when the polities of SEA were in forms of Kingdoms and Sultanate states.   Power was circulated within the family like in the form of absolute monarchy.   Territories existed in a form of sphere of influence rather than a clear borderline.   This could explain the struggle of ASEAN nations to adapt to democracy during the post-colonial period.   Although democracy tendencies and structures were introduced and left behind by the colonial countries, the effect of communism just forced democracy backward, because of the need for a strong authoritarian rule to keep out communism This has made it more complicated during the post-Cold War era to switch from a military authoritarian rule to democracy.   This difference can be seen as authoritarianism of ASEAN versus democracy of EU, which contributed to the vast difference in value structures of both organizations.   In effect, the governments of ASEAN tend to focus domes tically in keeping their legitimacy and to remain in power rather than co-operating together.   As a result, this has made any regional interactions and decision-making done at the top level of the society by government leaders rather than benefitting people in all levels of the society.   This has made it acceptable for non- democratic countries like Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos to later join.   With the EU, it is a completely different story, according to the Copenhagen Criteria, the EU does not allows the joining of a non democratic countries, the criteria also includes the respect of human rights in each member countries and the opening up of a free market. Having standards of criteria for acceptance makes cooperation easier for the EU, when compared to the ASEAN where similar common grounds and agreements cannot be found.   Prior to the European colonization, the polities of SEA were in a form of kingdom, which was ruled in the form of monarchies. There were no clear boundaries or drawn territory of these kingdoms. Rather, the influences of these kingdom existed in form of a sphere of influences, which were submitted to China. There were no common languages, religion or shared sense of identity like existed in Europe. Since the beginning, the creation of national identities had been defined and brought on by western civilization during colonialism. The territorial boundaries were purely derived from an imaginary concept by the process of the competition among Western colonizers to gain the economical edge. Therefore, the cooperation that we can see in this period of this region was not between one another, but rather towards external influence. And the conflict between the colonizers had fueled the sentiment towards fragmentation between each nation state. A good example would be the position of Tha iland who sits as a buffer state between the French in Indo-China and the British in Burma and Malaya. The movement that could indicate a certain level of interaction during the colonial period between member countries would be the struggle for independent movement against the colonizers. These interactions however were done in a very small level and tended to be in the underground. Colonization had brought Asia its creation of modern national identities, along with a strong sense of non-interference between states in this region. This is a clear example of how external forces played a significant influence upon the region.   As a result, an external conflict that Southeast Asian found itself upon would lead to an internal conflict in the region that will be potentially threatening during the post-war era. The rivalries between Thailand and Myanmar which had already been going on for the last fifty years along with current issues over the refugee and drug trafficking, the territor ial dispute between Malaysia and Indonesia over Sabah, and the genocidal conflict of Cambodia and Vietnam. These conflicts would prove to be issues that are obstacles for the regional body to climb. Nevertheless, the regional body had to be formed due to a-threatening-growing-Chinese-influences with the enthusiastic support by the U.S. in a plan to combated communism. Although it was form under a security purposes there was little progress towards the economical interactions. This is due to the external trading ties each member countries had already been involved in. Due to the colonial legacy in this region, countries tend to look upon trading partners outside the region. Intra-trading level was very low considering making up only twenty percent of the regional income. Theses different mind sets for both organizations will reflects towards the different organization structures, as we will discuss this on the next chapter of the paper.   We are going to take the different perspective view of the EC on its institutions that aided integration process and the theories behind EU integration.   ASEAN integration structure is not as varies as the EU but it is worth comparing it to the EU anyways. Integration Structures Supranational VS Authoritarianism Integration is a linkage between two or more independent actors to extend or broaden the authority through economic co-operations, losing sovereignty by changing domestic regulation and policy moving to the supranational body. The question here is why do some integration so successful and why do some don’t? The EU is one of the few organizations that had been successful with its integration. A big part of its success comes from its capability to establish institutions and policies that became clearly defined sets of rules. These sets of rules therefore became superior to domestic law of the member states of the Union. This structure that had been created by the European polity has given planting ground for intraregional trade and investment. And it had replaced and brought a war-torn Europe that was known for inner continental warfare and economic differentiations, prosperity and stability. But when comparing the EU’s success to ASEAN, it is too soon to determine if the ASEAN organization is a success or a failure. Although the ASEAN is trying to copy EU success by using and adapting to the methods used in Europe, the two regions are very different in terms of backgrounds creating their identities and the nature to co-operation between each other.    The difference level of success of any regionalism lays on it how much the regional actor can enforce their rules over national domestic law. This brings us to the institutionalization of integration. By joining the organization, state actors are expected to give up its sovereignty to the communal authority. With the case of the EU the institution that monitors the integration process is the European Court of Justice or the ECJ. The ECJ provides the jurisdiction over varies of actions, such as the actions brought to them by member states, or an individual within the community. It established the framework for the constitutionalization of the Treaty by providing links between the Court and sub national actors to their lawyers, and sub national courts. An example for this was the case of Gend and Loos in 1963 when their attempt to import goods did not fall in the legal framework of the Dutch government, but was accepted according to the Treaty of Rome, which was the product of the EU institutionalization. They have brought their case to the ECJ to determine whether they needed to follow the Dutch domestic law or the EU’s. As it turned out the Dutch government lost to the Rome regulations. This had marked the start of the EU as the correct regulation to be applied. It also marked the power of the regional body like the ECJ over the domestic national government such as the Dutch. This is one of many examples of how national government body had given up its power to the supranational authority. Therefore government has to react to the demand for integration. The court plays vital roles in monitoring and enforcing role in integration. The effectiveness of the EU lies on its ability in its enforcing mechanism. The Supremacy doctrines states that the EU has primacy over national legislation, while the Direct Effect doctrine provides the rights for the citizens of the member country the direct access to the EU court without having to go through the national government. Individuals can choose to take direct legal actions against their own government if the government fails to meet up with the rules that were agreed with the EU.   The direct intervention of the third party of a supranational institution such as the ECJ is one of the greatest successes of integration in Europe. There are numbers of different theories supporting the EU integrations in creating the supranational institution; the most common ones that are worth mentioning are theories of Functionalism, Neo-Functionalism, and Intergovernmentalism.   These are the theories circling the study of International relations that most political scientists have agreed upon.   Ã‚     Functionalism is an international relations theory that became widely known from president Woodrow Wilsons fourteen points speech. It expressed strong concern over the role of the State as a form of social organization that was becoming out of date and ineffective. It offers a counter view from that of Realism that view nation states should be driven by their own individual self-interest, functionalists’ focus on common shared interests by states and non-state actors. It view that functionalism is an effect of the process globalization which integration is triggered by the fading of state sovereignty and the advances in knowledge shared by scientists and experts effecting the tradition of policy-making.   Functionalism proposed to build a form of authority based in functions and needs, which linked authority with needs, scientific knowledge, expertise and technology, creating a supranational concept of authority.   The Coal and Steel Treaty is the evidence of the raise of a supranational body that was a product of Functionalism, which gave the body, controls and regulations to all of the coal and steel production of Western Europe.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Neo-functionalists focused their attention in the process of integration among states, i.e. regional integration. Initially, states integrate in limited functional or economic areas.   Thereafter, partially integrated states experience increasing momentum for further rounds of integration in related areas. This invisible hand of integration phenomenon was termed spill-over. by the neo-functionalist school. Although integration can be resisted, it becomes harder to stop integrations reach as it progresses.   There are two kinds of â€Å"spill-over†, which are functional spillovers and political spillovers.   Functional spill over explains the interconnections between various economic sectors and issues areas.   Political spillover explains the setting up of international institutions like the European Union and the United Nations.   Ã‚  Ã‚   Intergovernmentalism is the theory arguing Neo-Functionalism, and rejects it.   According to Standley Hoffman, any increase in power at supranational level, he argues, results from a direct decision by governments. He believed that integration, driven by national governments, was often based on the domestic political and economic issues of the day. The theory rejects the concept of the â€Å"spill-over† effect that neo-functionalism proposes. He also rejects the idea that supranational organizations are on an equal level in their political influence as national governments.   His argument lays on the fact that if Neo-Functionalism is the main theory that drives integration, then how do you explain the period of inertia in regional co-operation when there was a diverge national interests.   And the role of governments is in the unparallel national policies.   Ã‚  Ã‚   Realism is the international study theory that explains the anarchy nature of international affair could be use to conceptualize Southeast Asian states.   McCormicks comparison between Functionalisms to Realism below could be use to characterized EU to ASEAN.   As the ASEAN nations tend to focus on military security in the early stage, the evidence in this is the non-interference agreement that was signed by each member states.   While the Coal and Steel Treaty aims to maintain peace and to promote prosperity from pooling of resources through co-operation between member states.   In turn, EU nations were trying to promote security by collaborating with each other while ASEAN was trying to maintain security through building domestic power by non-interference.   The nations of SEA make their policies with the use of military force and economy, while the EU uses negotiation.   ASEAN is also known for the lack of continuity of policies from the constant shift of control over the authority and power. The EU nations, on the other hand, focus on low politics like economical and social issues.   International organizations has very limited power because the states simply do not listen to them, in the contrary, in Europe the role of government is limiting as the international organization has power to regulates policies which governments has to obey.   These points clearly show the drastic contrast between the two organizations. Comparing Functionalism to Realism John McCormick compares Functionalisms fundamental principles with Realisms thus (comments added to emphasize key distinctions): Realism Functionalism Comments Dominant goals of actors Military security Peace and prosperity security through: Power vs collaboration Instruments of state policy Military force and economic instruments Economic instruments and political acts of will State policy of assertion vs negotiation Forces behind agenda formation Potential shifts in the balance of power and security threats Initial emphasis on low politics, such as economic and social issues Agenda sought: maintenance of position vs reaching consensus Role of international organizations Minor; limited by state power and the importance of military force