Robert Owen essays

Robert Owen essays Robert Owen was the sixth child to his parents and was born in Newtown (Mid Wales) in 1771. As a child he showed exceptional intelligence and was unusually studious for a boy of his age. He was a voracious reader and spent a lot of time reading philosophical texts and biographies of famous men. He joined as an apprentice in a draping company even when he was just 10 years old. This early exposure helped him start his own cotton business and in a few years he became the manager and finally a partner of Chorlton Twist Company', one of the biggest cotton mills in London. Soon his company bought the New Landmark mills' and he became an accomplished businessman. Robert Owen was a great social reformer who spent all his wealth and devoted his entire life towards the betterment of the society. Robert Owen was a philanthropist who was not simply contended with his business interests but also very concerned about improving the living standards of his workers. In spite of the growing discontent of his partners Robert spent considerable amount of money towards building houses for them and improving their living conditions. He was also seriously concerned about improving the moral standards of the employees and implemented a system of supervising their behavior, which bore good results. Robert very much believed that environment and education had a great impact on shaping the character of men and hence showed great interest in providing a healthy ambience for children to grow up. To this effect he spent a lot of money and opened the famous Institute for the Formation of Character", a place of education for the children of the deprived class as well as being a learning center for the elderly workers. He pioneered socialism without being totally averse to capitalism. One ...

The Scarlet Letter Themes and Symbols

The Scarlet Letter Themes and Symbols The Scarlet Letter, Nathanial Hawthorne’s 1850 novel of a 17th century adulterous affair in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, centers on several themes that would have been very meaningful to the highly religious, pre-industrial community in which it is set: the nature of shame and judgment; the differences between our public and private lives; and the conflict between scientific and religious beliefs. Additionally, several important symbols pop up throughout the novel to highlight these themes, including the scarlet letter, the scaffold, and Pearl. Through the use of these themes and symbols, Hawthorne constructs a world of Puritanical guilt and redemption in the earliest days of America’s history. Shame and Judgment The novel’s most central theme is that of shame and judgment- it is the focal point of the story’s first scene, when Hester Prynne is publicly ridiculed on the scaffold in the town square, and it permeates nearly every part of the book from there on. Prynne is forced to wear the eponymous token over her clothes for the rest of her days in the colony, which is itself a judgment she must endure, as well as an ever-present symbol of her shame and lowly position in the community. As such, wherever she goes she is quickly identified as the person who committed adultery, an act for which the townspeople pass judgment on her, causing her, in turn, to feel some degree of shame. This comes to a head when the townspeople try to take Pearl away from Prynne, an act that mostly stems from their misguided assumptions and views of the mother and daughter. Over time, both the town’s estimation of  Prynne and her own feelings of guilt begin to dissipate, but for many years these feelings are quite strong for each party and serve as a central, motivating force within the story. Public vs. Private The flip side of this form of judgment and shame is experienced by Dimmesdale who, though he has committed the same crime as Prynne, deals with this fact very differently. Dimmesdale must keep his guilt to himself, a state of affairs that drives him mad and eventually to death. Dimmesdales position provides an interesting insight into the nature of judgement and shame when felt privately, not publicly. For one thing, he receives no negative judgment from the others in the colony, as they don’t even know of his involvement in the affair, so he only continues to receive their adulation. Additionally, he has no outlet for his shame, as he must keep it hidden, so it eats away at him over the course of several years. This is not to say that this is worse than Prynnes fate, but the differing situation creates an alternative result; whereas Prynne eventually works her way back, somewhat, into the town’s good graces, Dimmesdale must hide his own shame and literally cannot live with it, as he reveals it and then promptly dies. Through the different ways in which these two are made to endure judgment as well as feel shame, Hawthorne presents a compelling look into the nature of human guilt, as both a public and private phenomenon. Scientific vs. Religious Beliefs Through the relationship between Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, Hawthorne explores the differences between scientific and religious modes of thought and understanding. Given that this novel is set in a 17th century Puritan colony, the characters are deeply religious, and have little understanding of scientific processes. Most of their understanding of the world, in fact, comes from a place of religious belief. For example, when Dimmesdale- who, admittedly, is a priest- looks to the night sky, he takes what he sees as a sign from God. Dimmesdale filtering his perceptions through the lens of his profession is largely the point, though, as he and Chillingworth are used to represent these opposing views. Chillingworth is a new addition to the town, and, as he is a physician, represents the encroaching of science into the religious New World colonies. Additionally, he is often described as representing darkness or evil, or just the devil outright, indicating that his mode of thought is at odds with the others’ in the community, as well as antithetical to God’s order. Interestingly, the two men get along at first, but ultimately grow apart when Chillingworth begins to probe Dimmesdale’s psychological state, suggesting that science and religion are incompatible in analyzing one’s mental anguish. One area in which they do align, however, is over Prynne, as each man attempts at one point to win her love. In the end, though, she rejects both of them, showing that an independently minded woman has no need for either. Symbols The Scarlet Letter Given the book’s title, this object is unsurprisingly a very important symbol throughout the story. Even before the main narrative begins, the reader catches a glimpse of the letter, as the anonymous narrator of â€Å"The Custom House† describes it briefly in the book’s opening section. From there, it appears pretty much right away, and comes to be the story’s most prominent symbol. Interestingly, though the letter represents Prynne’s guilt to the other characters in the book, it has a somewhat different meaning to the reader. It symbolizes not just Prynne’s actions, which, of course, it does symbolize, but it also embodies the town’s viewing of her actions as wrong, and as a punishment forced upon her by her community. As such, it says more about the wearer’s environment, than it does about the wearer herself. It shows that this group is willing to make a very public example of people whom it believes to have transgressed. Notably also, Dimmesdale burns a symbol of some sort- which some claim is an â€Å"A†- onto his chest as a sort of atonement for his role in the affair. This highlights the public vs. private theme in the novel, as the two bear the burden of guilt very differently. The Scaffold The scaffold, which appears in the first scene, serves to divide the story into beginning, middle, and end. It first appears in the opening scene, when Prynne is forced to stand on it for several hours and endure harassment from the community. In this moment, it symbolizes a very public form of punishment, and, as this is the beginning of the book, establishes that tone going forward. Later, the scaffold shows up again when Dimmesdale goes out walking one night and ends up there, whereupon he runs into Prynne and Pearl. This is a moment of reflection for Dimmesdale, as he ruminates on his misdeeds, changing the book’s focus from public to private shame. The scaffold’s final appearance comes in the book’s climactic scene, when Dimmesdale reveals his role in the affair, and then promptly dies in Prynne’s arms atop the apparatus. At this moment, Prynne literally embraces Dimmesdale, and the town collectively embraces the two of them, acknowledging the minister’s confession, and forgiving them both of their crimes. The scaffold, therefore, comes to represent atonement and acceptance, completing its journey, much like the characters themselves, from punishment through reflection, and, ultimately, to forgiveness. Pearl Though Pearl is very much a distinct character in her own right, she also acts symbolically as the living embodiment of her parents’ infidelity. As a result, whenever Prynne looks at her, she must confront what she has done, almost more so even than when she looks at the scarlet letter. Importantly, though, she represents not just her parents’ infidelity, but also her mother’s independence. This is epitomized by some of the townspeople trying to take Pearl away from Prynne, which forces the mother to argue before the governor for the right to keep her child. Essentially, she must fight to prove the validity of her desires and affections in the face of this highly rigid and patriarchal society. Pearl, therefore, represents the sinfulness and the gracefulness balanced in tandem inside of her mother- that is, she is wild but still worth loving nonetheless.

Why do people term an illness to be physcial or psychological Is there Essay

Why do people term an illness to be physcial or psychological Is there a relationship between public causal attributions of functional somatic syndromes and h - Essay Example Cognitive structures such as illness schemata helps to organize information from internal sensations (symptoms) and disease-related information gathered from the external environment. Howard Leventhal and his colleagues (Leventhal et al. 1984) have proposed the most relevant model of symptom perception within the tradition of information processing. Their Common Sense Models of Illness approach is rooted in cognitive psychology and builds on the work on cognitive schemata and prototypes. In specific, Leventhal et al. propose that individuals tend to construct their own individual representation of symptoms or illness and that this idiosyncratic representation will, in turn, influence their behavior (e.g., help-seeking, adherence and compliance). In specific, they proposed that illness representations (or schemata) are a function of an individual's semantic knowledge about symptoms and disease and specific contextual factors such as the nature of somatic changes and the situations in which these occur. This semantic knowledge accumulates across the life span and is acquired through the media, through personal experience, and from family and friends who have had experience with the disease. Therefore, the perception of cause can have an effect on the behavior towards an illness, because the cognitive dissemination leads to the semantic knowledge of the disease. Understanding how a person views a disease can impact behavior towards the illness. People's common sense models of illness strongly influence which symptoms a person will search for and will ultimately perceive. Work by Meyer and his colleagues (Meyer et al. 1985) on hypertension illustrates this point. Hypertension disease holds one or a combination of disease models about high blood pressure. As Meyer and his colleagues demonstrated, some patients hold the belief that hypertension is a disease of the heart, others believe that it is an arterial disorder and a third group might associate hypertension with emotional upset. Importantly, the kind of belief patients' hold affects the way they monitor their body: Symptoms that are consistent with their specific illness belief are more likely to get noticed. The relationship between a person's cognitive knowledge of the cause is therefore directly related towards the symptoms and evaluation of 'cures' for the illness. This research study will incorporate that foundation of illness cause perception by quantitatively e xamining the differences between illness cause perception amongst participants. In addition to general concepts of illness, people also hold organized conceptions-termed disease prototypes-for particular diseases (Bishop 1991; Bishop and Converse 1986). Prototypes of specific diseases help people organize and evaluate information about bodily sensations that might otherwise not be interpretable. Thus, a person who holds the belief that he or she is vulnerable to heart disease is more likely to interpret chest pain in accord to his or her prototype of heart disease than a person who does not hold this belief (Bishop and Converse 1986). This latter person might instead regard the chest pain as signaling a gall

The Transportation Sustainability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Transportation Sustainability - Essay Example In Who Killed the Electric Car?, various factors were identified in the collapse of an idea that once seemed to be a step forward in reaching green technology, while in Fuel, there are many contemplations on what possible troubles could appear in the process of embracing renewable fuel sources (mostly biodiesel) and how such obstacles can be overcome by people, particularly those who choose to be advocates for the environment. After watching the films, the issues and conflicts concerned with resolving the issues on sustainable transportation will become apparent to viewers, and it will be up to them on whether or not they will push themselves to understand further the points taken and not mentioned in these films for them to understand the true meanings of the problems that the filmmakers wanted the public to understand, or at least acknowledge the existence of. First is the documentary about the rise and fall of electric cars in the State of California. This film shows how various p layers in the automobile and petroleum industry caused the demise of an idea that might have been a better option to conserve the environment and introduce the idea of renewable energy sources for many consumers. For about two decades there have been major developments in the creation of successful car engines running on electricity, and these cars had lesser emission of noxious gases due to the lack of an internal combustion engine that most gas-powered vehicles normally rely on (â€Å"Who Killed the Electric Car†). Aside from the fact that the State of California has been having health issues due to having the highest smog rates in the whole nation, there had been higher than normal cases of children having respiratory issues that become chronic conditions as they age, and these were tied up to the excessive pollutants in the air. In trying to overcome these, the state government challenged automobile makers to mitigate this problem, and they replied with the creation of va rious electric vehicles for customers. Initially this initiative shows signs of success however the problems with regards to conflicts of interest emerged when a decade after successfully letting electric vehicles run in the roads the state government was sued not just by automobile makers but also by the federal government (â€Å"Who Killed the Electric Car†). A few years after, electric cars were pulled out from the streets and from the customers by the very same companies that initially sold them, causing frustration at the seemingly backward stance of both the state and federal government in the course of finding sustainable and renewable energy resources. The film would later reveal the factors that were causal in letting go of such a promising kind of technology. Apart from the fact that conflict of interests were observed among policy-makers as most of them were connected to or were formerly connected with

Describe Dispositional and Situational Factors in Explaining Behavior Essay Example for Free

Describe Dispositional and Situational Factors in Explaining Behavior Essay Describe the role of situational and dispositional factors in explaining behavior Both situation and dispositional factors play a significant role in people explaining behavior. (in that they guide the judgment on both our actions and people’s actions. ) Attribution theory, known as how people interpret and explain behavior in the social world, is closely related to these two factors. People tend to attribute behavior depending on their roles as actors or observers, known as the actor-observer effect. Milgram’s study (1963) investigated the role of situation and dispositional factors in participants explaining their own behavior. Nine out of twelve participants completed the task under the researcher’s authoritative guidance. The participants considered the task unethical so they attributed their negative behavior to the researcher’s guidance instead of the dispositional factor, such as their personality. When people explain their own behavior, they tend to attribute it to situation factors such as the interference from the authority. Zimbardo et al (1973) conducted an experiment in Stanford’s prison to investigate the role of actor-observer effect. Participants were assigned with either the role of prisoners or the role of guards. In the experiment, both the guards and prisoners were very dedicated into their acting roles. Most of the prisoners obeyed the guards because the guards imposed violent behavior to the prisoners. It is found that the prisoners believed and attributed the guard’s violent behavior to the guard’s dispositional factor. When people observe other’s behavior, they usually attribute it to dispositional factor such as personality. Therefore, with the knowledge of the prison as a simulation, the prisoners still obeyed the guards like they were real guards who always acted violently. People usually attribute their behavior to situational factors when they perform the behavior. Whereas, people attribute others’ behavior to dispositional factor when they are the observers.

Bertrand Russell is one of the greatest masters of English Prose. :: essays research papers

Bertrand Russell is one of the greatest masters of English Prose. Bertrand Russell is one of the greatest masters of English Prose. He revolutionized not only the subject matter but also the mode of expression. He has in him a happy blend of greatest philosopher and a great writer. He was awarded Nobel Prize for literature in 1950. The subject matter of his essays may be very difficult but his manner of expression is so lucid and simple that even a layman can understand him without any special difficulty. It is a rare privilege which only few prose masters enjoy. The precision and clarity which Russell’s prose style possesses are very rare in the bulk of English prose. Russell has justly been regarded as one of the great prose stylists of the 20th century. Although he is not a literary writer yet his work devoted mainly to problems of philosophy, ethics, morality, political, social life and economics, etc. impresses us greatly by its literary qualities. Of course, Russell's style sometimes becomes difficult for the average reader who comes across sentences which he has read for more than once in order to get the meaning. Russell’s style appeals mainly to our intellects and very little to our feelings or emotions. He uses words simply as tools, to convey his meaning plain and effective and not to produce any special effects. It is not a coloured or gorgeous style. Nor is there any passion in it. It is somewhat cold. There are no â€Å"jeweled phrases† in his writings nor sentences over which we would like to linger with the aesthetic pleasure. Russell’s style is intellectually brilliant. He can condense an idea or a thought in a few words if he so desires. Russell is always direct, simple and lucid. He knows that the complexity of expression leads to ambiguity. Nothing can be more lucid than such opening lines: â€Å"Happiness depends partly upon external circumstances and partly upon oneself.† â€Å"Of all the institutions that have come down to us from the past, none is so disorganized and derailed as the family.† Russell’s sentences clearly show Bacon’s terseness. They are replete with so deep thoughts like those of Bacon that we may elaborate them in countless pages. Many sentences are like proverbs, replete with deep meanings like: â€Å"Extreme hopes are born of extreme misery.† â€Å"One of the most powerful sources of false belief is envy.† â€Å"Pride of a race is even more harmful than national pride.

Inventory Systems Essay

To stay competitive in this technically advanced era, every organization needs to impart an apt inventory system to administer the materials traveling inside and outside their log yard. It may also assist an organization to increment the level of profits by periodically tracking the purchase, sale and the products. Let us discuss the case of organization A, a newsprint factory located in India that adopted a perpetual inventory system to track the records and leaped huge profit in the past few years. The company employed computerized inventory software to perform the valuation. Researches conducted on inventory savings through 2003 to 2007 indicated $8100, $8353, $9302 and $9724. This shows a tremendous increase in yearly profit. With a team work, we have compared the two main inventory systems popularly known as perpetual and periodic systems. The two different systems carry basic variation in executing the accounting process with organizational transactions. To build up purchase documentation, a perpetual inventory method deals with the merchandise account whereas the periodic method debits the purchase credit. While dealing with sales recording, a periodic method necessitates an additional entry so as to debit the goods selling cost and to credit the retail inventory. Both the system holds individual advantageous. However, technological level incorporated in an organization is a key factor that determines the idle inventory system. As the organization A holds the capacity to document real time transactions, a perpetual inventory method was the best option. This system helps to record the sales instantly as the account vary perpetually. The periodic method possesses combined sales information till the period winds up and is transferred to the account on a monthly or yearly basis as chosen by the company.

Themes in the Good Earth

In Pearl Bucks novel The Good Earth she gives an inside look at the Chinese culture. In the novel Wang Lung is poor farmer married to O-Lan, a loving wife who takes care of Wang Lung’s father, plus her own children. Three themes that Pearl Buck uses are survival, family structure, and the subjugation of women. One theme used to show Chinese culture is survival. For example, when Wang Lung’s family is struggling to find food, his sons steal meat, and they defend themselves by saying, â€Å"I took it – it is mine, this meat (Buck 112). When it is hard to survive it can make a person do something that they wouldn’t normally do. Survival not only changes a person, but it also changes their outlook on life. While O-Lan was giving birth to another child Wang Lung is thinking, â€Å"Male or female it mattered nothing to him now – there was only another mouth coming which must be fed (Buck 81). † Trying to survive took Wang Lung’s excitement and turned it into worry. Pearl Buck is trying to show that if people are trying to survive that they will do anything possible.Another theme used is family structure. For example, Wang Lung’s father never had to worry about going hungry, â€Å"As for the old man, he fared better than any, for if there was anything to eat he was given it, even though the children were without (Buck 78). † No matter what the circumstances are, the eldest male in the house will always be served first. Even while there was no women around Wang Lung still had to serve his father. Associated essay: Themes Developed in MaruAfter Wang Lung’s mother died he had to be the one to take care of the old man, â€Å"Every morning for these six years the old man had waited for his son to bring in hot water to ease him of his morning coughing (Buck 3). †Even though Wang Lung is a man with no woman around him, he must take care of the oldest in the house. Pearl Buck is trying to show the respect and loyalty that people in China have for family. One last theme used in the novel, is the subjugation of women.For example, when Wang Lung is thinking of selling his daughter O-Lan tells him about her past, â€Å"I was beaten with a leather thong which had been halter for one of the mules, and it hung up on the kitchen wall (Buck 135). † Women were treated as nothing more than an animal. Not only were slaves treated badly but so were the daughters. When Wang Lung is waiting to find out the sex of his baby he reacts badly when he finds that it is a girl,  "Wang Lung stood still. A sense of evil struck him. A girl! (Buck 65). Even though Wang Lung wanted children he is sickened to have a daughter. Pearl Buck is trying to show people just how far that women have come. All in all three themes that Pearl Buck uses are survival, family structure, and the subjugation of women. Some points that Pearl Buck is trying to point out are that survival changes people in drastic ways, family order always comes first, and that women are treated no better than animals. There are many more themes in this novel to show the importance of Chinese culture.

The FAO-organised World Food Conference in 1974 The WritePass Journal

The FAO-organised World Food Conference in 1974 Introduction The FAO-organised World Food Conference in 1974 IntroductionConclusionRelated Introduction The acceptance of the term at the FAO-organised World Food Conference in 1974 has led to a growing literature on the subject, most of which grab ‘food security’ as an unproblematic starting point from which to address the persistence of so-called ‘food insecurity’ (Gilmore Huddleston, 1983; Maxwell, 1990; 1991; Devereux Maxwell, 2001). A common activity followed by academics specialising in food security is to debate the suitable definition of the term; a study undertaken by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) cites over 200 competing definitions (Smith et al., 1992). Simon Maxwell, who has produced work commonly referenced as foundational to food security studies (Shaw, 2005), distinguishes three paradigm shifts in its meaning: ‘from the global/national to the household/individual; from a food first perspective to a livelihood perspective; and from objective indicators to subjective perceptions’ (Maxell, 1996; Devereux Maxwell, 2001). A primary focus on food supplies as the major cause of food insecurity was given credence at the 1974 World Food Conference (McCaston et al., 1998). But the limitations of this supply focus came to light during the food crisis that plagued Africa in the mid-1980’s and the paradigm shifted to explore individual and household food security as opposed to food security from a national perspective (Argeà ±al, no date) and the household food security approach emphasized both availability and stable access to food. Research work carried out in the late 1980s and early 1990s also focused on food and nutritional security (Frankenberger, 1992). It showed that food is only one factor in the malnutrition equation, and that, in addition to dietary intake and diversity, health and disease and maternal and child care are also important determinants (UNICEF, 1990). Thus, the evolution of the concepts and issues related to household food and nutritional security led to the development of the concept of household livelihood security (McCaston et al., 1998). Until the late 1980s, most practitioners and theorists were focusing on a 2,100 calories a day standard, which was assumed to be the amount needed for any individual on a daily basis to avoid hunger.   More recently, the ethical and human rights dimension of food security has come to the fore. In 1996, the formal adoption of a new definition by World Food Summit delegates reinforces the multidimensional nature of food security; it includes food access, availability, food use and stability (FAO, 2006). This has enabled policy responses focused on the promotion and recovery of livelihood options and included the concepts of vulnerability, risk coping and risk management (FAO, 2006). In short, as the link between food security, starvation and crop failure becomes a thing of the past, the study of food insecurity as a social and political construct has emerged (Devereux et al., 2001). The Rome Declaration of 1996, primarily laid the foundations for diverse paths to a common objective of food security at all levels: ‘food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life’. This widely accepted definition points to the following dimensions of food security (FAO, 1996): Food availability: The availability of sufficient quantities of food of appropriate quality, supplied through domestic production or imports (including food aid). Food access: Access by individuals to adequate resources for acquiring appropriate foods for a nutritious diet. Utilization: Utilization of food through adequate diet, clean water, sanitation and health care to reach a state of nutritional well-being where all physiological needs are met. This brings out the importance of non-food inputs in food security. Stability: To be food secure, a population, household or individual must have access to adequate food at all times. The concept of stability can therefore refer to both the availability and access dimensions of food security. Although nutrition scientists distinguish between ‘food security’ (availability of food on the global, national, local and household levels), on the one hand, and ‘nutritional security’ (satisfactory nutritional status of individuals), on the other (Oltersdorf and Weingartner, 1996), economic, social and behavioural scientists tend to consider ‘food security’ as a more comprehensive term that incorporates both concepts. In the above definitional context, the FAO (1996) stated that to achieve food security at national level, all four of its components ‒ availability, accessibility, utilization and stability ‒ must be adequate and that the opposite of food security is regarded as food insecurity. However, national food security depends on the household-level food security as a fundamental unit. Chen and Kates (1994) stated that at a household level, food security tends to be equated with the sufficiency of household entitlements that bundle of food-production resources, income available for food purchases, and gifts or assistance sufficient to meet the aggregate food requirements of all household members. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) concisely defines household food security as â€Å"the capacity of a household to procure a stable and sustain-able basket of adequate food† (IFAD, 1992). Adequacy may be defined in terms of quality and quantity of food, which contribute to a diet that meets the nutritional needs of all household members. Stability refers to the household’s ability to procure food across seasons and transitory shortages. Sustainability is the most complex of the terms, encompassing issues of resource use and management , human dignity, and self-reliance, among others (IFAD, 1992).   Thus, household food security is as integrated system of the four subsystems of production, exchange, delivery and consumption (Cannon, 1991). Theoretically, poverty, household vulnerability, and undernourishment may be distinct conditions. Yet, in practice, these conditions intersect and overlap: poor households are usually most vulnerable to transitory and chronic food insecurity, hence they are often undernourished (Maxwell and Frankenberger, 1992). But the individuals within food-insecure households cannot be assumed to suffer from hunger equally; there are differences in distribution and negotiating abilities of individuals (Argeà ±al, no date). Oshaug (1985) therefore identified three kinds of households: enduring households, which maintain household food security on a continuous basis; resilient households, which suffer shocks but recover quickly; and fragile households, which become increasingly insecure in response to shocks. Similar approaches are found elsewhere (Benson et al., 1986). During the 1990s, authors and practitioners concerned with vulnerability to food security have engaged to define vulnerability and theorize how far people had slid towards a state of food insecurity (Dilley and Boudreau, 2001). The foundation of the concept is closely associated with poverty. But it is not the same as poverty; rather underlying poverty contributes to increased vulnerability (Young et al., 2001). In addition to income, there is a multiplicity of other factors that co-determine whether an individual will go hungry. In 1981, Sen challenged the then widely held conviction that a lack of food availability was the primary explanation for famines; instead, he posited lack of access as the key to understanding who went hungry and why. Because access issues are entrenched in social, political and economic relations, Sen’s work represented a clear shift in emphasis from natural to societal causes of famine (Blaikie et al., 1994). After Sen’s (1981) entitlement ap proach, many authors (Swift, 1989; Borton and Shoham, 1991; Maxwell and Frankenberger, 1992; Ribot, 1995; Middleton and O’Keefe, 1998) sought to operationalize Sen’s ideas by using the word â€Å"vulnerability† to refer to the complex web of socio-economic determinants. In food-related contexts, the question, â€Å"vulnerable to what?† is nearly universally answered by ‘famine’, ‘hunger’ and ‘the undesirable outcomes that vulnerable populations face’ (Dilley and Boudreau, 2001). Therefore, vulnerability denotes a negative condition that limits the abilities of individuals, households, communities and regions to resist certain debilitating processes and improve their well-being (Yaro, 2004). According to Chambers, ‘vulnerability refers to exposure to contingencies and stress, and the difficulty in coping with them. Vulnerability has thus two sides: an external side of risks, shocks, and stress to which an indivi dual or household is subject: and an internal side which is defencelessness, meaning a lack of means to cope without damaging loss’. Chambers’ definition has three basic coordinates (Watts Bohle 1993):   The risk of exposure to crises, stress and shocks;   The risk of inadequate capacities to cope with stress, crises and shocks;   The risk of severe consequences of, and the attendant risks of slow or limited poverty (resiliency) from, crises, risk and shocks. According to this definition, the external shock or stress might be drought, market failure, conflict or forced migration and the internal aspect of vulnerability is to do with people’s capacity to cope with these external shocks (Young et al., 2001). As livelihoods are conjured of a combination of exchange entitlements, a massive change in a particularly important entitlement may be decisive in causing entitlement failures, leading to loss of livelihood and starvation. The impact of the external shock on livelihoods depends on the household’s vulnerability, which is a combination of the intensity of the external shock, and the household’s ability to cope (Young et al., 2001). Patterns of vulnerability have become increasingly dynamic, thereby necessitating a dynamic rather than static approach to vulnerability (Yaro, 2004). From this vantage point, the most vulnerable individuals, groups, classes and regions are those most exposed to perturbations, who possess t he most limited coping capability, who suffer the most from crisis impact and who are endowed with the most circumscribed capacity for recovery (Watts Bohle 1993). Thus, the two dimensions of vulnerability ‒ ‘sensitivity’ (the magnitude of the system’s response to an external event) and its ‘resilience’ (the ease and rapidity of the system’s recovery from stress) ‒ are crucial. The lower the resilience and the higher the sensitivity, the higher the vulnerability and vice versa (Gebrehiwot, 2001). Swift, (1989) and Davies (1996) further pointed out that most food-insecure households are characterized by a very low resilience. However, extending our understanding of the crucial links of entitlements to wider political processes, Watts Bohle (1993) argue that the mutually constituted triad of entitlements, empowerment and political economy configures vulnerability to food security (Yaro, 2004). Vulnerability will therefore be shaped by several forces that affect the three sources of provision of food and well-being of households. Watts Bohle (1993) see vulnerability as being caused by lack of entitlements, powerlessness and exploitative practices and they defined the space of vulnerability through an intersection of three causal powers: command over food (entitlement), state/civil society relations seen in political and institutional terms (enfranchisement/empowerment), and the structural-historical form of class relations within a specific political economy (surplus appropriation/crisis proneness) (Watts Bohle, 1993). In the entitlement lexicon, vulnerability can be defined as the risks associated with the threat of large-scale entitlement deprivation (Sen, 1990). These shifts are frequently posed as a function of market perturbations, with a particular emphasis on rural land, labour and commodity markets (Watts Bohle, 1993). The heart of empowerment approaches to vulnerability is politics and power. Empowerment encapsulates both freedom to make choices by people and acceptance of culpability by governments who are supposed to ensure the workings of the ‘right to food’ (Drà ¨ze et al., 1995) as part of the fundamental rights of the human personality. Vulnerability can be defined, in this view, as a political space and as a lack of rights broadly understood. Property rights ensure access to land and other assets, but political rights are also central to the process by which claims can be made over public resources as a basis for food security, and to maintain and defend entitlements (Watts Bohle, 1993). As a political space, vulnerability is inscribed in three domai ns: the domestic (patriarchal and generational politics), work (production politics) and the public sphere (state politics). Accordingly, vulnerability delimits those groups of society which collectively are denied critical rights within and between these political domains. Mead Cain (1983) identifies two fundamental realms of risk in rural Bangladesh; one is patriarchal, expressed through gender based differences in wage rates and access to and control over resources (within a specific notion of political ecology); the other is rooted in property rights, and specifically the difficulty for the rural peasantry to enforce and defend their property rights against rapacious local landlords and corrupt representatives of the state (Chen, 1991). Powerlessness can, therefore, be approached at a multiplicity of levels in entitlement and food security; intra-household rule-governed inequities over access to resources and property rights, village level stratification and processes of politic al inclusion and exclusion with respect to land or access to local credit, national level power (Harriss, 1989). On the other hand, the strength of a rigorously class-based political economy provides a class map on which historically specific processes of surplus appropriation and accumulation (Patnaik, 1991), and the corresponding configurations of crisis, conflicts and contradictions can be located. In general, these crisis tendencies arise under capitalism as a result of structural contradictions and conflicts between classes, between the relations and forces of production, and between accumulation and production conditions (Harvey 1982; OConnor 1988). Conclusion Vulnerability is here understood not solely in terms of entitlement or empowerment (though both are implicit), but rather as an expression of capacity, specifically class capacity defined by the social relations of production in which individuals and households participate (Watts Bohle, 1993). In the class perspective, famine and hunger are poverty problems but this requires an understanding not simply of assets but of the relations by which surpluses are mobilized and appropriated. Class analyses of hunger and famine are similar, in many respects, to marginalization theories and to political ecology (Blaikie 1985; Blaikie and Brooldield 1987). Vulnerability to food security is thus a structural-historical phenomenon, which is shaped by the effects of commercialization, proletarianization and marginalization (Watts Bohle, 1993). Therefore, dynamic on-going political economic processes of extraction, accumulation, social differentiation, marginalization, and physical processes all a ffect vulnerability (Yaro, 2004).

What Are Extracurricular Activities and Why Do You Need Them

What Are Extracurricular Activities and Why Do You Need Them SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips You may have heard that extracurriculars are an important part of your high school life. You've probably been bombarded with stories about how everyone who is successful in getting into college played a varsity sport and was student body president and built homes for the poor in Costa Rica. But do extracurriculars have to be so overwhelming? What are extracurricular activities, exactly? And just how important are they when it comes time to apply to college? Read on for a better understanding of this important topic. Your high school years are one of the best opportunities you will ever get to explore new activities, try different things, and see what you're passionate about. Inside the classroom and outside of it, you’ll start to get a better idea of who you are and what drives you. It may seem odd that colleges are going to be interested in how you choose to spend your free time. The reality is that, combined with your grades and test scores, extracurricular activities are one of the best ways that colleges will be able to get an idea of who you are. But what are they looking for? And are all activities equal? What Counts as an Extracurricular Activity? First, let’s talk about what an extracurricular activity looks like. The word â€Å"extracurricular† can be broken down into its roots for a literal explanation: â€Å"extra† means â€Å"outside† and â€Å"curricular† refers to all of the work you do in the classroom. So extracurricular activities are just activities that you do outside of class. The Common App says that extracurricular activities â€Å"include arts, athletics, clubs, employment, personal commitments, and other pursuits.† Almost anything that you are actively and productively involved in can be considered an extracurricular activity. We have created a list of around 200 activities that you could report on your application to help get you thinking about what you're interested in trying and what you might already have done. You may be familiar with some of the popular categories of extracurriculars already: Sports, which includes playing on a school sport team, an intramural team, or a club team outside of your school. Community Service, which includes any sort of volunteer work, either in your community, on a national scale, or abroad. Employment, including any jobs or internships. Arts, which includes visual arts, performing arts, comedy, culinary arts – this list is almost endless. Hobbies, such as blogging, a film club, hiking, Rubik’s Cube competitions, Cosplay, and more. Academic activities, such as math or science clubs or competitions, research, or writing. Keep in mind that colleges are really looking to see activitiesthat have somehow developed talents that you will use later in life, developed your leadership skills, allowed you to show involvement with your community, and allowed you to make an impact. Going to the movies every weekend with your friends doesn’t count. But starting a film club at school for fellow film aficionados definitely does count! There’s another important thing to note here. What if you didn’t have time for joining clubs or playing sports because you had to work to help support your family, or you spent your afternoons looking after your younger siblings? Admissions officers also want to hear about these kinds of activities. They understand that not all students have the luxury of pursuing traditional extracurricular activities, and they will think that the way you have spent your time is just as valuable. Try to reflect on what these experiences have taught you that will be valuable for college. For example, you probably have a lot of maturity and a good sense of responsibility for someone your age, and you're good at balancing school work with other commitments. If you’ve taken on a leadership position at work, that’s even better! Now you know what activities look like. But what do colleges think your summer job is really going to tell them about you? Why Colleges Like Students With Extracurricular Activities Colleges love to see that students are active, contributing members of their communities. Even more importantly, they love to see students who are developing their talents and passions. When a student is actively involved in the community and other activities in high school, there is a good chance that they will be doing something similar in college. Universities like to be known as hubs of activity, charity, and culture, and it’s largely the students that make them that way. But does that mean that you need to spend all your time doing something that is obviously impacting your community in a direct way, like volunteer work? Should you do something that doesn’t interest you, just because it will look good on your application? Fortunately, what college admissions officers want to see is very predictable. Want to build the best possible college application? We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League. We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools. Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in. What Are Admissions Officers Looking For? Imagine you're an admissions officer at your university of choice. Every day during admissions season, you’ll go through at least a hundred applications. At the end of the day, you’re down to two applications. You need to recommend one for admission, and reject the other. Both students have high test scores (above 2100 on the SAT) and they each had a GPA of 3.8. On the activities page on the common app, Student A says that he was a member of the art club, and in the description says that the club is for students who are passionate about having a career involving art. He also volunteered once a month, teaching a one-hour art class at his old middle school. Student B is also in the art club at her school. In the description, she tells how she helped grow the club from 4 to 20 members, ran several charity projects through the club that raised over $5,000 for art programs for local youth, and arranged an informational event at a prominent art museum to help raise awareness of the importance of art in people’s lives. Which student do you think is most likely to be admitted? As it turns out, what you do is not nearly as important as why and how you are doing it. Admissions officers agree that when they're evaluating student activities, they care less about what the actual activity is and more about what it says about you. Specifically, they're looking for three things: passion, leadership, and impact. Passion Passion will manifest itself differently for different people, but college admissions officers usually notice it in the amount of time you've dedicated yourself to a certain activity over the years, and in how involved you've been in it. Are you just doing an activity so you have something to write on your college application, or are you doing it because you couldn’t not do it? This is something that matters a lot to college admissions officers who want to know that you're pursuing something because it's a passion. Try to find activities that you really care about, and that you feel makes you a more motivated, better person. Admissions officers like it when students are passionate about a certain activity because it means they are more likely to continue doing it in college, and also because these kinds of activities show who you are at your best. These activities will be the best indicators of how you act when motivated and dedicated to something. Leadership Leadership experience includes any time that you have been responsible for a project or for guiding, motivating, or instructing others. Many schools – especially the most highly selective ones – want to see students who exhibit leadership skills because they are hoping that their students will someday go on to be leaders who make differences on a larger scale in academia, business, or research. Therefore, showing that you have the desire and sense of responsibility that a leader needs can be very attractive to admissions officers. Taking a leadership role in an activity is really going to help you stand out from the crowd. Being the president of a school club will sound better than being a member of the same club. But obviously not all students can be president. So how do you solve this kind of issue? Even in you don’t have an official title, see if it’s possible to be involved as a leader in some way. Talk to the people in charge and see if you can organize an event or lead a fundraiser. Showing you have taken this kind of initiative will look much better than a title with no special activity to back it up. Impact How have you changed the activity that you have been involved in? How has the activity changed you? One of the reasons that passion is so important is because admission officers want to see that you have made a significant investment in an activity over an extended period of time. Though you’ll probably experiment with several different activities when you're younger, once you settle on the ones you're most passionate about, officers are going to be looking for how you've made a difference in the activity and how you've changed because of it. You may have heard that you should prioritizedepth over breadth, and this is why. It’s better to select a couple of activities that you can be deeply involved in than to spread yourself so thin that you can do little more than showing up to meetings. Why does impactmatter? Again, colleges are most interested in students who have the potential to be making positive differences on campus, and later, in the world. This kind of thing doesn’t come easily. It usually only happens when someone shows dedication, follow-through, and initiative. So what kind of person are you? Do you show up and expect someone else to make an activity fun? Or are you going to make sure that you leave your club, team, or research better than it was when you joined it? The Do’s and Don’ts of Extracurriculars: Key Tips Now you know what extracurricular activities are and why they are important, both for your personal development and for your college applications. Here are some tips for how you should approach extracurricular activities in high school. 1: Do try as many activities as possible during your freshman year of high school. Try out between 5 and 10 activities depending on how much room you have in your schedule (remember, never let your academics suffer because of too many activities!). There is a good chance that you will discover something new that you had never thought would interest you. Let this be your year of exploration! 2: Do narrow down your extracurricular list to 3 – 5 activities you care most about during your sophomore year. Remember the three most important things are passion, leadership, and impact. Continue to develop your interest in these activities and see if you can take on leadership roles, even if it’s just on small projects. 3: Do focus more on leadership and impact during your junior and senior years. If you have been a part of a club, how can you change it for the better? Also spend time reflecting on how you've changed over the past years, and how your activities have helped you grow as a person. 4: Do let your activities tell your story. Are you very passionate and talented in one area? Or do you show different skills and aspects of your personality through a variety of different activities? Either one is a story that a college admissions officer will be interested in hearing. Also think about how your activities have shown your growth over the years, from experimenting with an activity, to dedicating yourself to it and developing passion, and finally taking on a leadership position and making an impact. 5: Don’t slack during summers. If you have the luxury of doing activities during your summer vacation instead of working, make the most of that time. Try to think of innovative ways to pursue your passion that you can’t necessarily do when tied down with school work. 6: Don’t let your grades suffer. Though extracurriculars are an important part of a college application, they will almost never cancel out bad grades and test scores. If you find that your grades are suffering, cut back on the time you spend on your activities, and make sure that the time you do invest in your activities is well spent making the most impact in the least amount of time. 7: Don't get burned out. It's a good idea to limit your activities a couple you are most passionate about, and a few others that are fun but not stressful. If you try to do everything, you will inevitably get burned out, which could ruin your grades, social life, and excitement about going to college. What’s Next? Do you need some inspiration? Check out our long list of extracurricular activities to see if there’s anything that interests you. Are you wondering if you should try traditional extracurriculars, or if you would be better off getting a job? Check out the pros and cons. If you have a great list of extracurriculars and are ready to fill out college applications, check out our guide for talking about extracurriculars on the Common App. Want to know what else is important on the college application? Check out our guide to making a well-rounded college application that will get you into as many schools as possible. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Roman and Mongol Conquests Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Roman and Mongol Conquests - Essay Example The leaders crafted policies that ensured continued survival and expansion through ruthless crusades and strategic treaties. It may also have been their dogged determination and ability to rise from the ashes of defeat on to victory as was the case for Rome (Livy, 1905). Monarchies and ruling hierarchies were established along either blood or loyalty lines depending on which strategy served best. At times, it included both cases, for instance, in the case of Genghis Khan. In each case, the subjugation of conquered territories through force, surrender or the brokering of peace treaties fortified the might of the Empire and gave strength and momentum for expansion. During their various conquests and expansion under various rulers, initial wars were fought with neighboring nations or tribes. Campaigns were sent out in all directions to conquer new lands for the Empire. The rise of the Mongol Empire began at a time when the usually dry and cold steppes of Central Asia got their most favorable conditions for over a hundred years. Thus, the rapid growth in numbers of battle horses, other livestock and food supplies (Burgan, 2005). The growth may have enhanced the military ability of the Mongols. The strategic placement of Rome gave it unrivaled dominance of the Mediterranean Sea and allowed it to encompass peripheral lands was its greatest advantage (Livy, 1905). Won wars always led to subjugation of conquered peoples. While Rome imposed measures such as payment of taxes and tributes to Rome, Mongols approached matters from a platform of unification by making conditions more favorable for the People. Genghis Khan united rival tribes by banning fighting among Mongols, successfully ending civil strife. He also forbade trading of women, pilfering of other’s property and desiccation of animal populations during the breeding season. According to Burgan, He shared his bounty among all crusaders and their