The Curious Ncident of the Dog in the Night Time

The Curious incident of the Dog in the Night-time demonstrates how challenging life is, not just for the disabled but for everyone. Discuss, making sure you support your ideas with detailed references to the text. Mark Haddon’s novel The Curious incident of the Dog in the Night-time which is written from the view of a fifteen year old boy Christopher who has Asperger’s syndrome, not only does this book demonstrate how challenging life is for the disabled, but also for everyone.Having the main character Christopher narrate the story gives you the chance to connect with him and also to experience and understand the challenges he faces in his everyday life because of the disability that he has. Christopher is not the only character in the novel to face challenges. His mother Judy and his father Ed both face challenges. For example, bringing up Christopher who has a disability and also maintaining a solid relationship with each other.While the reader is shown how challengin g life can be, the author also leaves the reader with a feeling of hope with what can happen in the future. Because Christopher has Asperger’s syndrome life is very challenging for him in more than one way. It is hard for Christopher because he can’t understand facial expressions, so he doesn’t know if someone is sad, happy or angry which can be hard because he has to try and guess their mood from the tone of voice they are using.Christopher tries to understand facial expressions because he ‘got Siobhan to draw lots of†¦faces and then write down next to them exactly what they meant’. Another way that life is challenging for Christopher is that he can’t deal with lies and does not like them. In some situations Christopher thinks that it is alright for him to tell white lies but others have to tell the full truth all the time. ‘I do not tell lies. Mother used to say that this was because I was a good person. But it's not because I am a good person.It is because I can't tell lies. ’ Christopher says that he can’t tell lies but what he does not realize, is that he is telling white lies which are lies. Christopher thinks that telling the truth is a way of life, not just something people choose because it is the right thing to do. Christopher has had many situations where he has been lied to and has not handled it well. He has been lied too about his mother being dead and also about his father killing Mrs Shears dog Wellington.Christopher does not react to this well, because when he found out he ran away and no longer felt safe around his father. Both Christopher’s parents Judy and Ed Boone find life challenging because they are trying to raise a child with a disability. Christopher’s mother finds life challenging because she has to live her life wondering if her only child is alright because she is sending him letters and she doesn’t know whether he is getting them, she also isnà ¢â‚¬â„¢t getting any replies from Christopher to ensure her that everything is alright.Even though she has been writing letters to him for a while she has not been getting any letters back because Christopher’s father, Ed, has been hiding them from Christopher because he hadn’t told him that his mother was not actually dead. Christopher’s mother never stopped loving him even though he made her life really hard sometimes and she still kept writing to him and never stopped. ‘You haven’t written to me yet, so I know you’re probably still angry with me. I’m sorry Christopher. But I still love you’.Another way life is challenging for Judy is that she finds that her only son gets on better with his father. As a mother this would be very heart breaking. She always found it difficult when she took him to the shops or the mall because he would end up crouched down on the floor with is hands over his ears and he would be in the way of eve ryone. If she tried to move him he would just start screaming. Judy didn’t believe that she had the patience like Ed to look after Christopher and then she was having lots of other problems and that is when she decided to leave.Judy is not the only person who is finding life challenging but Ed, Christopher’s father is also finding life challenging. Life is challenging for Ed because it is hard to raise a child with a disability especially when you are left to look after them all by yourself. Ed and Christopher’s relationship also struggles when Christopher found out that his own father killed the next door neighbour’s dog Wellington. Christopher started not to trust him anymore and did not feel safe in his company and did not want to be left alone with him.Life is challenging for Christopher as his Asperger’s syndrome makes if difficult to communicate and to understand others. Life is not only difficult for Christopher but also for his parents, bec ause coping with a child with a disability is not any easy thing to do, but not only that they have also put a strain on their relationship. Though life is challenging not just for the disabled but for everyone, Mark Haddon demonstrates how facing life’s challenges builds a person’s character and ability to cope. Word Count: 910

Litreature Review on Banking Essay

It was emphasized that the use of computers changes the processing, storage, retrieval and communication of financial information and may affect the accounting and internal control systems employed by a bank. The potential for human errors in the development, maintenance and execution of computer Information Systems may be greater than in manual systems, due to level of details inherent in these activities. Through audit reviews, a thorough look and understanding of IS in bank can be seen. The audit of IS would provide us general understanding of IS in bank, managing authentication of users, access control, data security, data integrity, audit 14 2. Literature Study and Analysis logs, testing, accounting entries, data migration, network and RDBMS security, business continuity and disaster recovery plans, hacking, identification of transaction for substantative checking, use of reports generated by system and documentation. The paper titled â€Å"Application of IT in Banking† by K. S. Rajashekara (2004), talked about impact analysis of IT on banking. The problem of doing proper impact analysis is due to difficulty of measuring output accurately when the quality of service is changing as a result of such factors as convenience, speed, and lower risk. Through IT, banks anticipate reduction in operating costs through such efficiencies as the streamlining back office processing and elimination of error-prone manual input of data. Owing to IT, bank can offer new products and services. Banks are able to develop and implement sophisticated risk, information management system and techniques with more powerful data storage and analysis technologies. IT has positively affected the stakeholders of bank like management, employees, and customers. Vasant Godse (2005) in paper titled â€Å"Technology: An Impact Analysis† talked about role of Information Technology in banking. Banks faced the enormous task of re-orienting their technology infrastructure towards such interactive decision support and information gathering tools, much different from transaction processing and final accounting. The impact of technology could be on relationship with information technology providers, organizational aspects, banker-customer relationship, control and supervisory aspects, new concepts and processes, which help in further gaining competitive advantage. 15 2. Literature Study and Analysis A paper titled â€Å"Information Orientation: People, Technology and the bottom line† by Donald A. Marchand, William J. Kettinger, John D. Rollins (2000), stressed upon the effective usage of information for business performance. It was stressed that IT improved business performance only if combined with competent information management and the right behaviors and values. The research was applied on banks. Banks were evaluated on three broad scales i. e. IT Practices (including IT practices for Operational support, IT for Business-process support, IT for Innovation support, IT for Managerial support); Information Management Practices (Sensing information, Collecting information, Organizing information, Processing information, Maintaining information); Information behaviours and values (Information Integrity, formality, control, sharing, transparency, proactiveness). Companies that incorporated a people-centric, rather than merely techno-centric, view of information use and that are good at all three information capabilities would improve their business performance. A paper titled â€Å"Understanding the impact of IT-based coordination on the performance of Information-intensive firms: A Gestalt approach in Banking Industry† by Yannis A. Pollalis (2003), moved towards the development of such an explanatory and predictive model of IT-based performance by distinguishing coordination) three that types impact of the organizational performance systems of integration (or nformation-intensive organizations: Technological Integration (i. e. the integration of various IT components such as data, applications telecommunications, and systems); Functional integration ( i. e. , the coordination of responsibilities and roles 16 2. Literature Study and Analysis across a firm’s value-chain activities between corporate and IT planning activities); a nd Strategic integration (i. e. effective decision-making at all levels, increased productivity and better return on investment). The organizations with coordinated elements (i. e. strategy, structure, and technology) will be more successful than uncoordinated ones. Banks were chosen as the context for the empirical phase of the study because of their high information intensity and their focus on customer service and cost management. The research indicated the existence of successful and unsuccessful patterns of integration, that is, certain combinations of technological, functional, and strategic integration might lead to better or worse performance. Strategic and Technological integration were found to be most important elements of success, which indicated the importance of consistency between echnological and strategic infrastructure. The paper titled â€Å"Learnings from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Implementation in a Bank† by M. P. Gupta and Sonal Shukla (2004) attempted to highlight the learnings from CRM implementation in the banking sector. CRM systems were particularly relevant to ret ail financial services companies, allowing much of the management of the customer relationship to be automated with the objective of maximizing the profitability of individual customer relationships while minimizing the cost of managing those relationships. The study was supported by a case study of CRM systems in a major Japanese Bank—Bank of Mitsubishi and also a field survey of scenario in Indian banking sector. The various issues examined included organizational information, the CRM strategy, strategic changes resulting from CRM 17 2. Literature Study and Analysis implementation, implementation priorities for the banks and the factors indicating the performance after CRM implementation. The study revealed that CRM was gradually picking up and was definitely considered as a viable proposition by banks in improving services to their customers. One of the major challenges experienced during implementing CRM was resistance to change. To get CRM to work, high commitment was required in those who were implementing it. The paper titled â€Å"Impact of Information Technology on the Indian Banking Sector† by Harmeen K. Soch and H. S. Sandhu (2003) emphasized that impact of IT on banking was so radical that it would be a key determinant of success or failure in the industry, a key determinant of whether banks as a recognizable grouping continue to exist, and a key determinant of the differentiation between competitors in financial services.

A God Divided: Understanding the Differences Between Islam, Christianity and Judaism Essay

Christianity, Islam and Judaism, are the world’s greatest monotheist faiths. These faiths have some similarities and differences. In this paper analysis of what is common amongst Islam, Judaism and Christianity is analyzed at an in-depth level. Islam is the world’s largest religion after Christianity. It is a monotheistic faith that traces its roots in the Middle East. Many of its practices and beliefs are similarity with Christianity and Judaism. Judaism, Islam and Christianity, are referred collectively as â€Å"Abrahamic religion† since their history could be traced to God’s covenant with Abraham in the Hebrews Bible. It is believed that Prophet Muhammad met Christians and Jews in his lifetime and as such Islam has come into contact with similar monotheistic religions throughout its history (Paterson 216). The following paragraphs give the differences and similarities between Islam, Christianity and Judaism. It gives a detailed analysis of statistics, h istory, religious beliefs and origin of the greatest monotheistic faiths. The adherents of Christianity, Judaism and Islam respectively are 2billion Christians, 14 million Jews and over one billion Muslims. Compared to other faiths in the world, Christianity is the largest faith, then Islam and Judaism ranks 12 amongst world faiths. The major concentration of Islam is South East Asia and Middle East. Judaism concentration is in America, Europe and Israel. Christianity has a fast growth in Africa, Europe, North and South America. Islam’s sacred text is the Koran, for the Jews it is the bible and the Christians it is the Jewish bible and the New Testament. Other written authorities by these faiths are: hadith for the Muslims, Midrash, Talmud and Responsa for the Jews. The Christians consider especially the Catholics consider church councils, papal decrees, church fathers as having written authority. The three religions both have religious law (Catherwood 192). For the Christians, it is the Canon law, for Muslim it is the sharia law, for Jews it is the Halakhah. Another similarity amongst the three faiths is the presence of the clergy. For the Muslims the clergy is made up of imams, the Jews have rabbis and the Christian’s clergy comprises of the priests, ministers, bishops and pastors. The three faiths both have a house of worship. The Jews worship at the synagogue, the Muslims at the mosque and Christians at the church, cathedral or chapel. Christianity, Islam and Judaism also have a similarity in the sense that they have a specific day of worship. Christians worship on Sunday, Muslim on Friday and Jews on Saturday. For church and state, Islam the religion is integrated to the state while, for Christianity and Judaism, it is separate. For the origin and history of these faiths, Islam was founded in 622 CE, Christianity in c. 33 CE and the dates for beginning of Judaism are still unknown. Judaism and Christianity were founded in Palestine while Islam was founded in Saudi Arabia. Both faiths had founders. The founder of Christianity is Jesus, for Islam it is Muhammad and for Judaism it is Moses or Abraham. Both faiths have an original language. The original language of Islam was Arabic, for Judaism it was Hebrew and for Christianity, it was Aramaic and Greek. Both faiths had an early expansion plan. For Islam, in 12 years, the entire Arabic Peninsula had Islam and in a century, Islamism stretched throughout the Atlantic to China. Judaism had small expansion that was limited to the Palestine regions only. In 60 years, Christianity had expanded and had churches in cities in Turkey, Rome, Palestine and Greek; by the 4th century their expansion was throughout the entire Roman Empire. Another similarity amongst the three faiths is the major splits aspects. In Islam, the split was in 650 CE amongst the Shia and Sunni. For Judaism, in the 1800s CE the split was amongst the Reform and Orthodox. Amongst the Christians, the splits were two in1054 CE amongst the catholic and orthodox and in1500s CE amongst the catholic and Protestants. Similarity could also be made on the religious beliefs amongst Christians, Islam and Judaism. For Islam and Judaism, they are strictly monotheist while Christians are Trinitarian monotheist (David 37). Another common characteristic in the belief system of the three faiths is the ultimate reality where Christianity, Judaism and Islam have one God. The three faiths have names for God. Muslims refer to Him as Allah which is Arabic for God. Jews refer to Him as Yahweh and Elohim while Christians refer to him as the holy trinity and Yahweh. The three faiths both believe in other spiritual beings like for the Islam, they have demons, angels and jinn. The Jews and Christians have demons and angels. Another common characteristic of the three faiths religious beliefs are the revered humans. The Shia Muslims have prophets and imams while the Jews have prophets. The Christians have saints and church fathers. The religious views of the three faiths on the Jesus Christ’s identity are different and similar in some way. The Muslim believes that He is God’s true prophet whose message has been corrupted. The Jews consider him a false prophet while the Christians believe he is the son of God, the world’s savior and God incarnate. The Christians and Muslims believe the birth of Jesus was a virgin birth while the Jew believes it was just a normal birth. The Christians and Jews believe that Jesus died by crucifixion on the cross while the Muslims believe He did not die but ascended into heaven during crucifixion. On the resurrection of Jesus, the Muslims and Jews denied it while the Christians affirm it. On the second coming of Jesus, the Muslims and Christians affirmed it while the Jews deny it. The three faiths also have a similarity in terms of divine revelation where the Muslims believe it is through Muhammad as written in the Quran. The Jews believe through prophets as written in the bible and the Christians through prophets and Jesus as written in the bible. Another similarity of the three faiths in religious beliefs is their views on the sacred text. The Christians and the Muslims believe that the sacred text is inspired, and it is the literal word of God and some believe inerrant in original languages. For Judaism, the views vary. The three faiths also have a similarity on human nature. The Jews and Muslims believe on the equal ability for humans to do right or evil while the Christians believe on the original sin from Adam on the tendency towards evil. Another outstanding similarity amongst the three faiths is the religious belief on means of salvation. They all believe that means to salvation is the through righteous deeds. However, some Christians believe in sacraments while the Protestants believe the means to salvation is through faith only (David 307). They also have a similarity on God’s role in salvation. The Muslims and Christians believe it is the predestination while the Jews believe it is the divine revelation and forgiveness. The religious belief of Christians and Muslims on the good afterlife is similar as they believe in eternal paradise while the Jews views vary as it is either no afterlife or heaven. On bad afterlife, Christians and Muslim believe in eternal hell. For Catholics, they believe in temporary purgatory. The views of Jews on the bad afterlife vary from, reincarnation, eternal Gehenna or no afterlife. The view of the three faiths on fellow Abrahamic religions is similar and positive. The Muslims bel ieve that Christians and Jews are people of the book and are respected but have partial revelations and wrong beliefs. The Jews believe that Christianity and Islam are false interpretation of Judaism. Christians, on the other hand, believe that Islamism is a false religion and Judaism has false interpretation but is a true religion. Both Christians and Muslims believe in the presence of the clergy. The Muslim clergy is made up of imams while that of Christians comprises of bishops, ministers, priests and pastors. Both religions have a house of worship. Muslims worship at the mosque while Christians worship in a church, chapel or cathedral. Both Muslims and Christians have a specific day set aside for worship (Novak, 2001). Most Christians worship on Sunday or Saturday, while the Islamic day of worship is Friday. The Islamic religion is integrated to the state while that of Christianity is separate. Muhammad is believed to be the founder of the Islamic religion while the founder of Christianity is Jesus. The original language used by Muslims was Arabic and that of Christians was Aramaic and Greek. The two religions concur on the perspective of human nature whereby Muslims believe in the equal ability for humans to do right or evil while the Christians believe on the original sin from Adam on the trend towards evi l. Islam and Christianity have specific religious beliefs that are different. Muslims are strictly monotheist while Christians are Trinitarian monotheist. The two religions have a common feature in the belief system as evidenced by their ultimate reality and worship for one supernatural being-God. The only difference is the name they use for God. The Muslim name for God is Allah which is Arabic for God and that of Christians is the Holy Trinity or Yahweh. Another similarity of the two religions in religious beliefs is their views on the sacred text. The Christians and the Muslims believe that the sacred text is inspired, and it is the truthful word of God and some believe inerrant in original languages Another outstanding similarity amongst the Christians, Muslims and Jews is rituals. All the three faiths conduct rituals to fit in their faiths. In Christianity, amongst the Catholics, there is the sacrament, which includes the Holy Eucharist and Baptism. In Roman Catholicism, other rituals are included like: Confirmation, Penance, Holy Orders, Marriages and Anointment of the sick. Prayer is a part of the faith too. In Islamism, there are five fundamental rituals considered as the pillars of Islam. They include the Shaddah which is the faith profession, salat which is five times daily prayer, zakat which is alms giving, sawm which is fasting in Ramadan and hajj that is the pilgrimage to Mecca. The Jewish rituals include the circumcision of new born males, bar mitzvah that is a ceremony celebrating the adulthood of Jewish boys and shabat which is Sabbath observation. The religious views of the three faiths on the Jesus Christ’s identity are different and similar in some way. The Muslim believes that He is God’s true prophet whose message has been corrupted (Catherwood 192). The Jews consider him a false prophet while the Christians believe he is the son of God, the world’s savior and God incarnate. The Christians and Muslims believe the birth of Jesus was a virgin birth while the Jew believes it was just a normal birth. The Christians and Jews believe that Jesus died by crucifixion on the cross while the Muslims believe He did not die but ascended into heaven during crucifixion. On the resurrection of Jesus, the Muslims and Jews denied it while the Christians affirm it. On the second coming of Jesus, the Muslims and Christians affirmed it while the Jews deny it. The three faiths also have a similarity in terms of divine revelation where the Muslims believe it is through Muhammad as written in the Quran. The Jews believe through prophets as written in the bible and the Christians through prophets and Jesus as written in the bible. In conclusion, most believers in the current world still have no precise basis for their beliefs. It is important for both Muslims and Christians to have sound knowledge and perspectives in their beliefs. This is because there have been many attempts to redefine religion to fit in the current social agendas. References Catherwood, Christopher. A God Divided: Understanding the Differences Between Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Eastbourne: David C Cook, 2007. Liepert, David. Muslim, Christian, and Jew: Finding a Path to Peace Our Faiths Can Share. Nottingham: Faith of Life Publishing, 2010. Paterson, Andrea C. Three Monotheistic Faiths – Judaism, Christianity, Islam: An Analysis and Brief History. New York: AuthorHouse, 2009. Source document

Case Study on Psalm 101 Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Case Study on Psalm 101 - Term Paper Example Historical Analysis Psalm 101 was written â€Å"for the occasion of the enthronement of a Judahite king†3 and the glorification of the Davidic king’s example of virtue and righteousness. In fact, Psalm 101 is known as â€Å"David’s mirror of a monarch†4. It may have actually been written during the time _____________ 1Jerome F. D. Creach, The Destiny of the Righteous in the Psalms (2008): 107. 2James Douglas Grant Dunn, â€Å"God-Talk for a Disillusioned Pilgrim in Psalm 21,† Eerdmas Commentary on the Bible (2003): 413. 3Michael L. Barre, â€Å"The Shifting Forces of Psalm 101,† The Book of Psalms: Composition and Reception, vol. 99 (2005): 206. 4James Luther Mays, â€Å"Psalm 101: The Way of Integrity,† Psalms (1989): 321. when David was sworn in as king over all of Israel, and he wrote this as a pledge of allegiance to God5. This could have then taken place in 1002 BC6. Literacy Background Psalm 101 uses a number of poetic devices in order to convey the message of royal conduct, virtue and integrity. Among these are metonymies like â€Å"my house† in the line â€Å"I will conduct the affairs of my house/ with a blameless heart†7. The word â€Å"house† here does not necessarily mean the house where one lives but rather the whole kingdom that one holds and rules, for it is a king that is assumed to be speaking in Psalm 101. Nevertheless, the use of the word â€Å"house† somehow implies that the king considers his own kingdom as something that is of his immediate responsibility. Another metaphor in Psalm 101 is the line â€Å"I will put to silence†8 as a form of punishment. Putting someone to silence may mean something imposing a punishment on a criminal that will teach him a hard lesion and make him not commit the same wrongdoing ever again. â€Å"Haughty eyes† and â€Å"proud heart†9 are also two other phrases that speak of a person’s character rather meton ymically. Both haughty eyes and a proud heart only mean one thing: pride. This pride is one thing that displeases God, and the fact that this verse on pride _______________ 5Barre, â€Å"The Shifting Focus of Psalm 101, The Book of Psalms: Composition and Reception, volume 99 (2005): 206. 6David M. Carr & Colleen M. Conway, An Introduction to the Bible: Sacred Texts and Imperial Contexts: Composition and Reception (2010): 234. 7Ps. 101:2, New International Version. 8Ps. 101:5, 8. 9Ps. 101:5. on â€Å"slandering [one’s] neighbor in secret†10 implies that those who slander their neighbor are actually proud and haughty people. Nevertheless, the point is clear – haughtiness and pride displeases God. Structural Outline of Psalm 121 The basic structure of Psalm 101 is uneven because there is a problem â€Å"where to mark off its second major division†11. In fact, as discussed by Barre, the second line of verse 2: â€Å"when will you come to me?† does no t seem to be a part of the first or the second stanzas for this particular line is a question of longing while the rest of the first and second stanzas are the king’s promises to God. The first strophe, or verses 1 and 2, is all about the Psalter’s exaltation of the Lord and his desire to live the blameless life. The second strophe, or verses 3 to 5, is all about the description of the negative things that the Psalter or the king himself is supposed to do12. Among the people condemned here are those with faithless (Ps. 101:3), those with â€Å"perverse of heart† (Ps. 101:4), and those who â€Å"slander their neighbor in secret

Military strength in the US Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Military strength in the US - Essay Example This is because of this continued increase in defense expenditure endangers the funding of an adequate level of domestic activity. Origins of the U.S. Military Strength and the Global-Power Image. The U.S. Military is the largest in terms of military personnel. The personnel are drawn from a wide pool of paid volunteers although conscription can be occasionally applied during certain periods of both war and peace. The military strength is enhanced by the government’s generous funding that enables efficient training of manpower and sophisticated intelligence operations. The U.S. military also possesses sophisticated and efficient military equipments alongside widespread and balanced global orientation. This gives the U.S a global power image. Funding Afghanistan and Iraq Wars. According to Belasco (1), the accumulated total funding for Afghanistan and Iraq war as appropriated from 9/11 for the war operations, medical care for the war veterans and diplomatic operations is $1.283 trillion. This includes $806 billion for the Iraq war, $444 billion for the Afghanistan invasion, $27 billion for the tightened security and a total of $6 billion that is still unallocated but waits spending in military related activities. Defense Department Base Budget of 2009-2013. The federal government has budgeted approximately $851 billion for security spending during the fiscal year 2013, compared to $ 523 billion for Medicare and $820 requested for Social security. The security funding includes the overseas contingencies, department of Defense and other internal security departments. The President requested $525.4 billion for the Department of Defense’s Base Budget. According to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, FY 2013 Budget Summary Table S-12 (230), this was $5 billion less than the amount approved in the 2012 fiscal year budget. The defense budget 2009-2013 develops a strategy that offers a smooth transition from

Process Description Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Process Description Assignment - Essay Example Yoghurt is prepared from milk received by the company at the plant from our diverse supply pool form all over the country. Processing is carried out by the company’s specially trained process attendants and technicians. Hygiene and sterility of the plant are a necessity, which compels the company to use exceptionally high standards. Technology and microbiological aspects of the plant are contained in the laboratory manuals, which will be availed at request to any officer. Reception: the road tanker collecting milk from the farms is usually dispatched with a team of mobile lab technicians. Milk is assessed at the collection units for quality, to ensure that no additives have been introduced in to the milk. The collected milk is treated with preservatives of the recommended type and accurate quantity. Storage: at the plant, the milk is deposited into a storage tank with controlled temperature and sterility. Sterility is ensured by killing harmful micro-organisms that tamper with yoghurt quality using antimicrobial (microorganism killer) agents. Secondly, milk is introduced into the pasteurizing vat (chamber using steam and high pressure to cook milk) and fermented after cooling. Fermentation is done by introduction of specific types of yoghurt fermenting bacteria species (Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii) (Tamine, 224). The pasteurized and fermented milk is then introduced into the mixing chamber where standardization processes are carried out to ensure that the desired quality of the milk is achieved. The various types of standardization procedures involved are: Fat content: milk butter content is usually between 3.7 and 4.2 grams in every 100g of milk. This is lowered to yoghurt standards (1.5g/100g for medium fat and 0.5g/100g for low fat yoghurt). This is achieved by Solids-not-fat content in milk are other solids suspended in milk but not fat in nature. 8.2 to 8.6 g/100g is the

Homeless Women in Canada Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Homeless Women in Canada - Essay Example Studies show the demographic statistics of women’s homelessness in Canada has changed a lot. As a result, women’s homelessness has been to attract various social, political and feminist movements’ attention. Indeed about one hundred years after the first â€Å"International Women’s Day†, women’s socio-economic condition in the country has gone down. Whereas ‘safe home’ or shelter is considered as one of the basic needs of human life, women are increasingly being deprived of this right to have a safe home. Indeed, homelessness further causes severe social problems such sex-trafficking, sexual harassment and abuse, violence, unwanted murder, drug trafficking, etc. Homeless women often live in abandoned buildings and places, and often sleep on streets in the urban areas of Canada. But in rural areas, they normally live in slum. Overview of the Problem of Women’s Homelessness When women’s homelessness is mentioned, the traditional picture of a bundled woman sleeping on the city-streets’ sidewalks may come to mind. But the reality about women’s homelessness is very much complex. Various statistics and studies in this field show that approximately â€Å"300,000 people are homeless in Canada.† (YWCA Canada, 2012) In 1980s, about 25-30% of these visibly homeless people, who lived on the sidewalks or in shelters in rural areas are women. But in 1990s, the presence of homeless women seeking for shelter in government and non-government asylums increased at a rate of 78% more than the rate in previous years. This increase in the 1990s was mainly contributed by the children of the homeless women whose only earning sources were begging and prostitution. As a result, the number of homeless young women increased at an alarming rate. But the number of families who owned houses previously also increased during the past decades. â€Å"Families experience homelessness, and single parent fami lies, mostly led by women, make up the majority of homeless families† (YWCA Canada, 2012). Having no shelter, no roof over their heads and no door to lock behind them for safety, these homeless women remain at a high risk of physical, emotional and psychological dangers. Indeed, because of their physical weakness, women are more vulnerable to outdoor dangers than their male counterparts. In a Fact Sheet prepared by the YWCA Canada (2012), it is said: â€Å"Many street-involved women are abuse and trauma survivors struggling with resulting mental health and addiction issues. Yet, there remains a severe shortage of detox beds dedicated to women. Street-focused programs specifically for women are few and far between.† (YWCA Canada, 2012) Causes of Women’s Homelessness in Canada Women are more vulnerable to homelessness than men are. Indeed, women are more vulnerable because of their low income and extended periods of poverty (Townson, 2005). In a study, Monica Towns on (2005) claims that â€Å"women are the poorest people in Canada† (p. 34). In 2003, about 1500000 women were living in severe poverty. This number is about 19% of the total female population in Canada. Obviously, this poverty-stricken population comprises of women of all ages. But it mostly includes adult women and adolescent girls. The average income rate of the women was 62% of men’s annual income (Statistic Canada, 2006). The number of homeless women varies according to race, age, disabilities, and marital status, etc. The rate of homeless women

Just assignment and current event Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Just assignment and current event - Coursework Example The society is aware that sugary, salty, fatty foods in large quantities cause diabetes, obesity and hypertension. Consumers are highly sensitive to taste, color, and packaging of products and this is what attracts them to the products despite their unhealthy nature. Evolving marketing strategies focus on making sales, rather than nutrition and health needs of consumers. It is difficult to address the issue because of the different players, the public health community and industries that manufacture the product. Even so, it is clear that immediate action is necessary to address the issue of unhealthy foods and its relationship to obesity. â€Å"Food Systems and Public Health: Linkages to Achieve Healthier Diets and Healthier Communities† by Mary Story, Michael Hamm & David Wallinga discusses methods Americans can use to promote healthy and sustainable food consumption that are aligned with national nutritional and health precedence. It advices on governance practices and policies that can help create this change. Agricultural, health, and marketing leaders met at the Airlie Conference Center in Warrenton, Virginia to discuss the promotion of sustainable and healthy food production and consumption. The conference produced two broad principles. Firstly, the nation’s food system must align with the physical health and well-being of citizens, agricultural economic and environmental factors, and the need for public policy to support a health-based food system. Secondly, agricultural policies must relate to USDA/DHHS Dietary Guidelines for Americans and other national guidelines for healthy eating and good he alth, and sustain public health goals of averting obesity and chronic ailments. â€Å"Intestinal bacteria can be used to classify effects of different diseases† by the Asociacion RUVID discusses the effects of obesity and other ailments on the composition of gut bacteria. Current scientific advancements allow researchers to measure and categorize the effects

Managament. Social Technology and Why Most Changes Fail Article

Managament. Social Technology and Why Most Changes Fail - Article Example Social media is use of sites such as face book, twitter and you tube to upload videos, photos and documents and then sharing them with the world. It can thus be used by companies to sell their products and services by uploading graphical images of their products or describe a wide range of product that they offer. Using the social media to advertise goods and services is cheap because a company needs to create one website and then post its content in it. It then links this site with the social media sites such as Facebook and twitter (Maidment, 2012). The advertisement appears in the social media and the company is guaranteed that many social media users will view them. In this manner, the company is able to do quick, cheap and wide coverage of marketing its products. The owners of these social media have recently seen the growth in the number of advertisements, for example, in January 2013 the advertisements on You Tube got four billion views per day. This is a kind of business marketing that organisations cannot ignore. This is because they are often not affected by traffic of advertisers and raise the reputation of a company faster. In addition, this kind of marketing has a parameter for measuring performance because the social media platform records the number of people who have viewed that advertisement (Maidment, 2012). Therefore, organisations that do not take advantage of this cheap advertising will be lagging behind in competing for clients. The power of social media marketing lies in being creative in the way the content of the website is designed. Depending on the company, attractive content should be used and that makes users come back to the same site. For example, in case of a financial services company, it can use a PowerPoint that displays step by step financial literacy to young people (Maidment, 2012). CRITIQUE The well-known social sites are Facebook, twitter and YouTube. Face book alone has over four billion users in the world. This social site was designed in such a manner that it can accommodate both social and commercial services (Maidment, 2012). The social services are sharing photos, videos and documents with the people one wishes. These sites also allow users to make online friends with no limitation of the number of friends. This means that one friend connects with another and in so doing; Facebook connects all its users through one platform. The art of marketing depends on making both formal and informal networks through which information about products and services is shared. Informal networks of marketing involve using close relatives to spread the marketing information about a product or service. It is often not very effective because of the few people who are reached. Formal networks of marke ting involves use of exhibitions, corporate marketing and other professional related networks to market a product (Maidment, 2012). The effectiveness of any marketing strategy depends on how it is cheap, accessible, and easy to use or convince customers to buy the product being offered (Maidment, 2012). A marketing strategy is also economical to the company if it can be sustained by the economic resources of that company for a long time and shows signs of giving back good returns. In addition, it has to reach a large number of people and be effective in convincing clients to buy the products or services offered. The strategy should also aim to target the right customers in terms of their needs, age and their economic wellbeing. Social media is an example of a tool that meets the requirements of a cheap, effective, and easily accessible advertising and marketing strategy. This is because of the large and diverse number of users that are currently using the social media. It is

Public Policy Implementation Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Public Policy Implementation Theory - Essay Example Hill and Hupe stated that oftentimes, the informational bases are basically incomplete, and these cannot be totally identified and revealed ex ante. The main sources of this plurality are to be found in the combination of the agents' practices and of the beneficiaries' individual situations which goes against the top-down rules that major institutions strike to impose. In effect, the assessment aspect to be done by local actors cannot be specified prior to the action on the basis of predefined categories. Hence, it is inherently important to take into consideration the black box of implementation, where indigenous informational bases emerge, either as routine actions in order to support the outer informational bases of judgement in justice, or so as to change the sense of action (Hill and Hupe 2002). The studies of policy implementation are done by those who have an interest either in political science, or in public administration and public policy. This assertion stems from the fact that a core understanding of implementation as an inherent portion of the public policy process must gather and connect theories from these fields of knowledge. The Hill and Hupe reference material basically summarizes the implementation research and link it to som... There is an enormous and diverse research literature on public policy implementation research. However, the major problem is the process of extracting knowledge from the available information that is already documented. Given the phenomenal growth in the implementation research literature, the need for knowledge extraction is acute. The procedures and techniques have been developed for the past 25 years. The time to initiate efforts toward synthesizing the policy implementation literature is now.Another area of concern in public policy is the translation of a new policy into local behavior. This is also a major concern for the implementation literature, which tackles change from an administrative perspective. The concept of an implementation deficit implies that the introduction of a new policy also signals the start of a complicated process of effecting genuine change in behaviour (Hargrove, 1985). The key questions posed there are: why is successful implementation difficult to achi eve How are unique changes in behavioural patterns attained after the introduction of a new policyIn related studies, the national government has been seen as the policy formulator and local governments the implementers (Li, 2005). Hence, change failed to take place either because there is a dearth of good ideas from the national government (due to incapable policymakers, evolving power struggles among politicians and party members), or because the ideas are not implemented to the lower levels of the state hierarchy. Policy implementation had failed because local agents pursue their personal goals and self-interests and monitoring from the national leaders had failed. The Hill and Hupe argument

Social Class Warfare Essay Example for Free

Social Class Warfare Essay Since the beginning everything has been a power struggle, the ones who possesses the most resources dominated over those with the lesser amount. In this day and age, money reigns over the social class and those without it are struggling against the government who controls the majority of it all.As stated by Dee Dee Myers in her article, â€Å"What Class Warfare Really Means,† â€Å"the same folks who have seen their incomes and wealth skyrocket in recent decades – would take the biggest hit. † (Myers) With this issue, UTA students are directly affected because the problem of the current financial difficulties is tied to their friends, family, and themselves. The levels of taxes cripples the middle and lower class, keeping them within their social class, and gives them no hope of further succession Here, Myers explains how the higher and lower classes are virtually unaffected, while the working top brackets of the middle class are taxed to no end.Though many say there is not any difference between classes, I believe that the middle class is treated unequally in terms of taxation versus the other class’s because the government’s inability to distribute tax equally amongst the three classes,the boundaries being the gap in income which keep one classing from rising to another, and the nation’s obliviousness in realizing the unevenly distributed money. For several decades the democratic and republican parties have been in debate over tax preference, resulting in this tax warfare. Students at UTA and virtually any other colleges are forcibly introduced into the world of economy as we take are big leap into debt and taxation. As the majority falls into the middle class due to their loans, students are herded into an unfairly taxed bracket that they will possibly spend the rest of their lives in. In Dee Dee Myers’s essay she lays out the facts that states, â€Å"The 400 Americans with the highest adjusted gross income saw their effective tax rates plummet from 30 percent† (Myers) and that, â€Å"the bottom 40 percent of earners would be virtually unaffected.† (Myers) As explained, you can tell she is pointing out how the high and low class receives the tax break while the middle class is left in the ditch with taxes to pay. Students would find this important because they can never be accurate in determining which bracket of the economy they will fall into. â€Å"They expect to have their own shot at getting rich. But increasingly, they are seeing that the game is rigged.† (Myers) I, like countless other students, began to realize this as I journeyed into adulthood and discovered that success into the â€Å"good life† of high income will be limited as long as the government restrains us from growth. In relevance to that statement, a tremendous gap between those of low class incomes and those of the high class is clearly stated, â€Å"the wealthiest percentile has seen its income grow by a robust 17 percent, while the middle class has seen its real income fall.† (Norton) Though in different articles, similar thoughts are shared as they state unbelievably informative facts stating the gap between the rich and poor. Having this large gap between classes, one can only be left with the belief that the lower and middle class have no hope to gain any possibilities of greater success. Though many still believe that if they persevere through college and earn their degree, they will be able to jump into the high class and make hundreds of thousands of dollars, but in reality many will realize the difficulties, â€Å"More Americans than twenty years ago believe it possible to start out poor, work hard, and become rich.† (Scott and Leonhardt) as stated in Scott and Leonhardt’s essay, it seems that they are arguing that the lower and middle class are losing hope in rising to higher classes. With this all said the main issue can be seen as America’s obliviousness over the topic as a whole. A professor from Harvard named Michael Norton discussed in an interview over how Americans has unnoticed or underestimates â€Å"what the actual level of wealth inequality is in the United States right now.† (Norton) In Scott and Leonhardt’s novel, they saw class as, â€Å"seeming more elusive than ever† I would agree only to a certain point b ecause they are unaware of â€Å"the top 20 percent, as I said, have 85 percent of the wealth.† (Norton) Also with the fact that â€Å"the bottom 40 percent of the people in the United States have basically zero wealth,† as stated by Norton. In that statement, it exemplifies how unevenly the money is distributed in the United States. As students of UTA, we remain uninformed or have no desire to learn about the current state of America’s wealth. Also for students whose income is transferred from generation to generation is, â€Å"so money that goes from generation to generation to generation is very flat. So it tends to perpetuate a great deal over time.† In other words, all will be affected. The poor to the rich, in the end, it can only be solved by today’s students or the â€Å"future of America† to be properly be informed in order to solve our financial issues for the better. Though I know people will argue against my opinions, it will not hide the truth and the citizens of America will come to realize it sooner or later. In Scott and Leonhard’s novel, they stated, â€Å"The income of the middle class rose by just 17 percent, to $43,700, and the income of the poorest fifth rose only 9 percent.† (Myers) Which could be consider â€Å"a large increase† that the rich could argue, trying to state the point that the lower classes has gained some income. But in reality, â€Å"the top 20 percent of Americans is that they have 85 percent of the wealth in America.† (Norton) which cannot be overlooked. Those who oppose my idea might also say, â€Å"we worked for all this, why can’t you?† But in the interview with Michael Norton, he states, â€Å"But its much, much rarer than people believe, and especially wealth transmission,† which shows the difficulty imposed among the lower classes, and making them hopeless for any effort in succeeding. Social warfare will seem endless, as it has been here for several centuries. Many come up with an argument to speak their thoughts in unfairness to the irregularly balanced economic levels, in effort to make the public realize these issues. I, myself have argued in an informative point of view to help educate our future of America, the students of UTA, hoping my thoughts will expand from them knowing our variety of wealth levels from rich to poor. Hoping to end the obliviousness of this country, I informed the students, working hard for their future, so that they can at least scratch the surface of this issue as they grow and realize the hardships of inequality that come before them. Works Cited Myers, Dee Dee. What Class Warfare Really Looks like [What Class Warfare Really Looks like]. Politco. POLITICO, 11 July 2011. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. Norton, Michael. Interview by Steve Inskeep.Morning Edition. Natl. Public Radio, 7 Oct. 2010. Web. 11 July 2011. Scott And Leonhardt. â€Å"Class Matters†. New York, NY: Time Novels, 2005.1-26. Print.

Assess the view that ethnic differences Essay Example for Free

Assess the view that ethnic differences Essay ?An Ethnic minority background increases your chances of arrest and conviction, some people argue that police racism in itself results in higher suspicion against black people in general. According to official statistics there are significant ethnic differences in the likelihood of being involved in the criminal justice system. Black and Asians are overrepresented in the system. For example black people make up 2. 8% of the population, but 11% of the prison population. Contrastingly whites are underrepresented. However such statistics do not tell us whether members of one ethnic group are more likely than members of another ethnic group to commit an offence in the first place; they just tell us about involvement in the criminal justice system. For example differences in stop and search or arrest rates may be due to police racism, while differences in rates of imprisonment may be the result of courts handing down harsher sentences on minorities. There are other sources of statistics to reveal link of ethnicity and offending. Victim surveys ask individuals to say what crimes they have been victims of. We can get information on ethnicity and offending from surveys when we ask what ethnicity of the person who committed the crime against them. For example in the case of mugging blacks are overly represented among those indentified by victims as offenders. Victim surveys show much crime is intra-ethnic; it takes place within rather than between ethnic groups. For example the British crime survey (2007) found 90% of where the victim was white; at least one of the offenders was also white. However while victim surveys are useful in identifying ethnic patterns of offending, they have several limitations. They rely on a victim’s memory of events. Ben Bowling and Coretta Phillips (2002) found whites may over identify blacks, saying the offender was black even when not sure. They only cover personal crimes, which make up 20% of all crimes. They exclude under 16s; minority ethnic groups contain a higher proportion of young people. They exclude crimes by big business; thus tell us nothing of ethnicity of white collar criminals. Thus victim surveys only tell us about the ethnicity of a small proportion of offenders, which may not be representative of offenders in general. Self report studies ask individuals to disclose their own dishonest and violent behaviour. Graham and Bowling (1995) found that blacks and whites had similar rates of offending, while Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis had lower rates. Similarly Sharp and Budd (2005) note that the 2003 offending, crime and justice survey of 12,000 people found whites and mixed ethnic origin groups were more likely than blacks and Asians to say they had committed offences. The Home Office have conducted nine self report studies on drugs since the early 1990s, all with similar findings. Sharp and Budd (2005) found 27% of mixed ethnicity individuals said they had used drugs in the last year, compared to 16% of blacks and whites, and 5% of Asians. Use of class a drugs, such as heroin or cocaine was 3 times higher among whites than blacks and Asians. The findings of self report studies challenge stereotypes of blacks more likely than whites to offend, though they support the widely held view Asians are less likely to offend, however self report studies have their limitations in relation to ethnicity and offending. Overall the evidence of ethnicity and offending is inconsistent. For example while official statistics and victim surveys point to the likelihood of higher rates of offending by blacks; this is generally not the results of self report studies. There are ethnic differences at each stage of the criminal justice process. To explain them we need to look at main stages of the process that an individual may go through, possibly culminating in a custodial sentence. Phillips and Bowling (2007) argue since the 70s there have been many allegations of oppressive policing of minorities, including stop and search, deaths in custody, police violence and failure to respond effectively to racist violence. Minorities are more likely to be stopped and searched by police. Statistics show Asians were three times more likely to be searched under this act. Its thus unsurprising minorities are less likely to think police acted politely when stopped, or think they were stopped fairly. Phillips and Bowling (2007) argue these communities feel over policed and over protected and have limited faith in the police. There are three possible reasons for the disproportionate use of stop and search against minorities. Police racism; the Macpherson Report (1999) on the police investigation of the racist murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence concluded there was institutional racism in the Metropolitan police. Other have found deeply ingrained racist attitudes among individual officers. For example Phillips and Bowling point out that many officers hold negative stereotypes about ethnic minorities as criminals, leading to deliberate targeting for stop and search. Such stereotypes are endorsed and upheld by the canteen culture of rank and file officers. Ethnic differences in offending; an alternative explanation is that the disproportionality in stop and searches simply reflects ethnic differences in levels of offending. However it’s useful to distinguish between low discretion and high discretion stops. In low discretion stops police act on relevant information about a specific offence, for example a victim’s description of the offender. In high discretion stops police act without specific intelligence. It is in these stops police can use stereotypes that disproportionality and discrimination are more likely. Demographic factors; ethnic minorities are over represented in the population groups who are most likely to be stopped such as the young, the unemployed, manual workers and urban dwellers. These groups are all more likely to be stopped, regardless of their ethnicity, but they are also groups who have a higher proportion of ethnic minorities in them, so minorities get stopped more. Figures in England and Wales show that in 2006/07, the arrest rates for blacks was 3. 6 times higher than for whites. Contrastingly once arrested blacks and Asians were less likely to receive a police caution. One reason for this may be more likely to deny the offence and likely to exercise their right to legal advice. However not admitting the offence means they cannot be let off with a caution and are more likely to be charged instead. The crown prosecution service is the body responsible for deciding whether a case brought by the police should be prosecuted in court. In doing so CPS must decide whether there is a realistic prospect of conviction and whether the prosecution is in the public’s interest. Studies suggest the CPS is more likely to drop cases against minorities. Bowling and Phillips (2002) argue this may be because the evidence presented to the CPS by the police is often weaker and based on stereotyping of ethnic minorities as criminals. When cases do go ahead minorities are more likely to elect trial before a jury in the Crown Court rather than the magistrates court, perhaps due to mistrust of magistrates impartiality. However crown courts can impose more severe sentences if convicted. Thus is interesting to note minorities are less likely to be found guilty. This suggests discrimination, in that the police and CPS may be bringing weaker or less serious cases against ethnic minorities that are thrown out by the courts. In 2006/7 custodial sentences were given to a greater proportion of black offenders (68%) than white (55%) or Asian offenders (59%), whereas whites and Asians were more likely than blacks to receive community sentences. This may be due to differences in seriousness of the offences or defendants previous convictions. However a study of 5 crown courts by roger Hood (1992) found even when such factors were taken into account, black men were 5% more likely to receive a custodial sentence, and were given sentences of an average of 3 months longer than whites. Another reason for harsher sentences id pre sentence reports (PRs) written by probation officers. A PRs is intended as a risk assessment to assist magistrates in deciding on the appropriate sentence for a given offender. However Hudson and Bramhall (2005) argue that PRs allow for unwitting discrimination. They found reports on Asian offenders were less comprehensive and suggested that they were less remorseful than white offenders. They place this bias in the context of demonising Muslims in the wake of 9/11 attacks. In 2007, one quarter of the male prison population was minorities. Blacks were five times more likely to be in prison than whites. Black and Asians were more likely to be serving longer sentences. Within the total prison population all minorities had a higher than average proportion of prisoners on remand. This is because minorities are less likely to be granted bail whilst awaiting trial. There are similar patterns in other countries, for example in USA two fifths of prison population is black. There was large scale migration from the Caribbean and Indian subcontinent in the 50s, at this time it was agreed minorities had lower crime rates. However by the 70s there was conflict between blacks and the police meaning â€Å"black criminality† became more of a problem. Contrastingly by the 90s Asian crime also became viewed as a problem. Events e. g. 9/11 cemented the idea that Asians were a threat to public order. There are two main explanations for ethnic differences in crime; left realism and neo-Marxism. Left realists Lea and Young (1993) argue ethnic differences in statistics reflect real differences in the levels of offending by different ethnic groups. Left realists see crime the product of relative deprivation, subculture and marginalisation. They argue racism had led to economic exclusion of ethnic minorities who face higher unemployment, poverty and poor housing. At the same time the Medias emphasis on consumerism promotes a sense of relative deprivation by setting materialistic goals that many minorities are unable to reach by legitimate means. One response is formation of delinquent subcultures, especially by young unemployed blacks. It produces higher utilitarian crime to cope with relative deprivation. Furthermore as these groups are marginalised and have no groups to represent their interests their frustration is liable to produce non utilitarian crime such as rioting. Lea and Young acknowledge police often act in racist ways and results in unjustified criminalisation of some members of minorities. However they don’t believe discriminatory policing fully explains the statistics. For example over 90% of crimes known to the police are reported by the public rather than discovered themselves. Under these circumstances even if police act discriminatory it’s unlikely it can account for ethnic differences in statistics. Similarly Lea and Young argue we cannot explain differences in minorities in terms of police racism. For example blacks are more criminalised than Asians. The police would have to be selective in their racism for racism to cause these differences. Lea and Young thus conclude that the statistics represent real differences in levels of offending between ethnic groups and these are caused by real differences in levels of relative deprivation and marginalisation. However Lea and Young can be criticised for their views on the role of police racism. For example arrest rates may be lower for Asians because police stereotype them differently. Stereotypes may have changed since 9/11, explaining rising criminalisation of this group. While left realists see official statistics reflecting real differences in offending between ethnic groups, other sociologists have argued differences in statistics do not reflect reality. These differences are the outcome of a process of social construction that stereotypes ethnic minorities as inherently more criminal than the majority of the population. The work of neo Marxists Paul Gilroy (1982) and Stuart Hall (1979) illustrates this view. Gilroy argues the idea of black criminality is a myth created by racist stereotypes of African Caribbean’s and Asians. In reality these groups are no more criminal than any other. However as a result of the police and criminal justice system acting on these racist stereotypes, ethnic minorities came to be criminalised and thus to appear in greater numbers in official statistics. Gilroy argues ethnic minority crime can be seen as a form of political resistance against a racist society, and this struggle has roots in earlier struggle against British imperialism. Gilroy holds a similar view to that of critical criminology which argues working class crime is a political act against capitalism. Most blacks and Asians in the UK originated from former colonies where their anti imperialist struggles taught them how to resist oppression, for example through riots and demonstrations. When they found themselves facing racism in Britain they adopted the same form of struggles to defend themselves, but their political struggle was criminalised by the British state. However Lea, Young and Gilroy are criticised on several grounds. First generation immigrants were very law abiding, so it’s unlikely they passed their anti colonialist struggle onto their children. Most crime is interethnic, criminals and victims usually have similar ethnic backgrounds, so it can’t be seen as anti colonial struggle against racism. Lea and Young argue Gilroy romanticises street crime as revolutionary. Asian crime rates are similar to or lower than whites. If Gilroy were right then the police are only racist towards black and not Asians, which seems unlikely. Stuart Hall et al adopt a neo Marxist perspective. They argue the 70s saw a moral panic over black muggers that served the interests of capitalism. Hall et all argues the ruling class can normally rule the subordinate classes through consent. However in times of crisis this becomes more difficult. In the early 70s British capitalism faced a crisis. High inflation and rising unemployment provoked widespread industrial unrest and strikes. When opposition to capitalism was growing the ruling class may need to use force to keep control. However the use of force needs to be legitimated or provoke more resistance. The 70s also saw a media driven panic of the growth of mugging. In reality mugging was a new name for street robbery and Hall et al suggest there was no significant increase of this crime at the time. Mugging was soon to be associated by the media, police and politicians with black youth. Hall et al argues that the emergence of the moral panic about mugging as a specifically black crime at the same time as crisis of capitalism was no coincidence; the moral panic and crisis were linked. The myth of the black mugger served as a scapegoat to distract attention from the true cause of problems of unemployment, namely the crisis of capitalism. The black mugger symbolised disintegration of social order. By presenting black youth as a threat to the fabric of society the moral panic served to divide the working class on racial grounds and weaken opposition to capitalism as well as winning popular consent to authoritarian forms of rule to suppress opposition. However Hall et al do not argue that black crime was solely a product of media and police labelling. The crisis of capitalism was increasingly marginalising black youth through unemployment and drove them to a lifestyle of hustling and petty crime to survive. However Hall et al have been criticised on several grounds. Downes and Rock (2003) argue that Hall et al are inconsistent in claiming that black street crime was not rising, but also that it was rising because of unemployment. They do not show how a capitalist crisis led to a moral panic, nor do they provide evidence that the public were in fact panicking or blaming crime on blacks. Left realists argue inner city residents fears about mugging are not panicky but realistic. Until recently the focus of the ethnicity and crime debate was largely about the over representation of blacks in the criminal justice system. However recently sociologists have studied racist victimisation of ethnic minorities. Racist victimisation occurs when an individual is selected as a target because of their race, gender or religion. Racist victimisation is nothing new, but brought into public view with the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993 and the subsequent Macpherson inquiry into the police investigation. Information of victimisation comes from two main sources; the British crime survey and police recorded statistics. These generally cover racist incidents, any incident perceived to be racist by the victim or another person. They also cover racially or religiously aggravated offences where the offender is motivated by hostility towards members of a racial or religious group. The police recorded 60,000 racist incidents in England and Wales in 2006/7, mostly damage to property and verbal harassment. However most incidents go unreported; the British crime survey estimates there were 184,000 racially motivated incidents in 2006/7. The police recorded 42,600 racially or religiously aggravated offences on 06/7, mostly harassment. 10,600 people were prosecuted or cautioned for racially aggravated offences in 2006. The risk of being a victim of any sort of crime varies by ethnic group. The 2006/7 British crime survey shows people of mixed ethnic background had a higher risk of becoming a victim of crime than blacks, Asians or whites. The differences may be partly the result of factors other than ethnicity. For example for violent crime factors such as being young, male and unemployed are strongly linked to victimisation. Ethnic groups with a high proportion of young males are thus likely to have higher rates of victimisation. However some of these factors such as unemployment are themselves partly due to discrimination while the statistics record the instances of victimisation they don’t capture the victim’s experience of it. As Sampson and Phillips (1992) note racist victimisation tends to be over time with repeated minor instances of abuse with periodic physical violence. The resulting long term psychological impact needs to be added to the physical injury and damage to property caused by offenders. Members of minority ethnic communities have often been active in responding to victimisation. Responses range from situational crime prevention measures such as fireproof doors to organised self defence campaigns. Such responses need to be understood in the context of accusations of under protection by the police who often ignore the racist dimension in victimisation and fail to investigate incidents properly. For example the Macpherson enquiry (1999) concluded the police investigation into the death of black teenager Stephen Lawrence was marred by incompetence, institutional racism and failure of leadership by senior officers. Others have found deeply ingrained racist attitudes among individual officers.

Disaster Analysis: Challenger Disaster

Disaster Analysis: Challenger Disaster It was the day in the history of America wherein the people had a great expectation of a mission that would take a civilian for the first time into space. After twenty four successful launches by NASA, the Challenger space shuttle was a test of their experience as an organisation. On January 28th 1986, the shuttle exploded shortly after liftoff, claiming the lives of all crew members onboard .The explosion could not be blamed just because of the technical faults but also raised numerous other issues such as organisational and ethical behaviour. It also questioned the leadership skills exhibited by the teams involved during the operation. This report discusses the organisational factors that contributed to the accident and reflects on the aftermath of the disaster explaining about space missions and the organisations associated with it. It also reflects on the role of management in order to manage a complex engineering operation. NASA OPERATION REASONING ITS FAILURE There were many organizational factors which contributed to the accident. To start with, NASA was always a narcissistic kind of organization, which believed in the number one spot. Since it landed the first man on the moon, prior to Russia, its technological ethos took backseat. It was more of an organization, which concentrated on the public display image rather than the true technology. The U.S. government declared to stop supporting the space shuttle programmes and asked NASA to raise their own funds for any further space programme. Also, for any complex engineering project, to be a success, the feedback and recommendations of the engineers and technical staff is considered, as the most mandatory and important requirement. In Challengers case, it was the most neglected aspect and thus leads to a disaster. There were some strong forces of reason and emotions which influenced the decision to proceed with the launch. The highly visible public display of Americas success as a multicultural society was also one of the reason they included many minorities in the group. NASA just wanted to go ahead with the launch as there was one lady school teacher, Christa McAuliffe in the team, which made this space launch a special centre of attraction for the citizens of the U.S. The US president was due with his assembly speech, which also somewhat forced NASA to go ahead with the launch. There was huge media pressure as the launch had been cancelled several times before. There was also the lack of leadership in the organization as there was really no one with the courage to make the right decisions, as it is one of the foremost requirements of a charismatic leadership. The relationship between Morton Thiokol and NASA is one of the strong reasons for the failure of mission. Both organizations managers were over complacent as they looked for evidence to support mission success rather than evidence indicating possible mission failure. The Thiokol management wanted to make sure it received future contracts from NASA. This is clearly evident from the communication, which took place between the two organisations during the teleconferencing. Basically, both the parties were looking and were guided by their own selfish interests. SHUTTLE DISASTER WHO IS TO BE BLAMED? One single entity cannot be held accountable for the challenger disaster. Responsibility falls on the managers at NASA and Thiokol. These are the people who made the decision to launch challenger and where the ones with the authority and power. They did not listen to or take any real notice of the engineers at Thiokol who are the experts in the area and have the knowledge base regarding the rocket boosters. There was a lack of communication and a sense of desperation from the managers to make sure the shuttle launched as they did not want any further delay. The role that the culture at NASA played in this disaster was very important and indeed can be directly attributed to the disaster. Within NASA there had developed a climate where communication was very closed. The culture did not encourage a free flowing exchange of information between departments and people of different levels; there was a concerted effort to discourage creative thinking. This mind set was also transfeered to Thiokol which had a detrimental effect. The mission was the first of its kind to have a non-astronaut aboard, this was done so that the space program would be more widely acknowledged by the public it would capture peoples imaginations again with the possibility that a regular person could go up into space. Although there was a non-astronaut on board the shuttle and a mix of ethnic backgrounds and genders this can in no way have had any bearing on the disaster as none of these people where responsible for giving the mission the go ahead that was purely down to management and once the shuttle was launched those on board would not have been able to do anything differently. The challenger disaster was certainly avoidable, the warning signs were there but the people in charge did not heed them. The engineers knew there was a problem with the O rings and many attempts were made to communicate this but management did not want to listen to the engineers as it was something they did not want to hear as they clearly put financial gains ahead of the safety of the mission and its crew. NASA also could have stopped the launch but because they had already delayed the launch twice management were under pressure to not delay any further. The pressure to meet its targets led NASA to not follow the set down rules it had in place to stop something like this happening. All the pressures put on both NASA and Thiokol led to them taking risks which did not pay off. If the pressure to launch in conjunction with communication breakdowns had not occurred or had been managed better this disaster would not have happened. FACTORS INFLUENCING DISASTER Communication Communication was considered to be an issue since the engineers were not able to convince the management team at NASA to stop the launch of the space shuttle. It was very evident from the initial time that the management at Marshal Space centre contained already known problems and they were trying to resolve them internally instead of communicating them further. During the initial stages of the challenger project, the management of NASA had come up with certain guidelines and rules called the BURDEN OF PROOF wherein the technical team had to come up with exact proof to explain the consequences if there was a failure from their side. Robert Lund, an engineer and manager who played an important role during the challenger launch explained we had to prove to them that we werent ready, and so we got ourselves into the thought process that we are trying to find some way to prove to them it wouldnt work and we were unable to do that . We couldnt prove absolutely that the motor could not work (US Commission 1986) In any organisation communication decisions should not be set as rules and need to be flexible. Leadership Taking leadership into account, according to Max Webers theory of bureaucracy explained the structure of an organisation. NASAs organisation exhibited a rigid organisational structure wherein all the rules and regulations must be strictly adhered to and everyone should perform the role which they were assigned to. In this rigid type of organisation, the leadership exhibited by the NASA was a narcissistic approach. Narcissistic leadership occurs when leaders actions are principally motivated by their own egomaniacal needs and beliefs, superseding the needs and interests of the constituents and institutions they lead (Seth A.R. Todd L.P., 2006) The leader becomes more concerned with public relations thereby concerning a lot about the organisations image and in the process it forgets about the other issues that were equally strong. Behaviour of people Behaviour of people within both organisations with respect to the risk management was unplanned and NASA management had to make a decision at the last moment even when everyone agreed that a catastrophic possibility existed and it was known that responsibilities of the people were clearly defined. Much of the evidence pertaining to the disaster was dismissed. Behaviour of the entire team could be interpreted as group think. The concept of group think was formulated by Janis, according to his theory; the member of the teams worked as cohesive groups and had utmost confidence in their project. During group think, the decision makers get an illusion that they are invulnerable and it makes people take extraordinary risks at crucial moments. (Janis, 1986) There was an illusion of unanimity among the group members. Regarding the judgement made, the individuals in the Thiokol team remained silent and none of them had openly agreed to the launch. The silence from Thiokol was also worsened since it was a teleconference meeting wherein the body language was not noticed even if they had said no. Hence silence meant an agreement which explains the fact that the team were unable to voice their views. The influence of the media The influence of the media played in major role in decisions that were made by NASA. NASA was under tremendous pressure to achieve flight rates and was so pervasive that it was undoubtedly affecting the attitude towards safety. Scheduling pressures were playing a major role in making NASA biased to launch the shuttle and overseeing the risks which were attached to it, it was mainly due to the medias 24/7 coverage on NASA which was putting them under pressure to launch the shuttle on time because they did not want further negative coverage which could harm their public image. SPACE SHUTTLE AFTERMATH OF THE DISASTER All space exploration has a mission with some specific technical objectives. All missions are time bound, it takes years to plan and implement them. Highly motivated people are needed in the workforce. Astronauts are chosen for the specific missions and are trained for the specialised roles. The Rogers commission provided nine recommendations to NASA after the challenger disaster to improve the safety of its shuttles. NASA not only considered these recommendations but also redesigned their space shuttles with new technical modifications including solid rocket boosters which were the primary cause of the disaster. The role of engineering in complex projects could be analysed by studying the Burns and Stalker theory about mechanistic and organic structures. They studied two different organizations- textile and electronics (Gabriel, 2007). The textile company was having more of a hierarchical structure as discussed by Marx Weber, as they were involved in the routine and bureaucratic tasks whereas the electronic company was more concentrated on the engineering work outs and thus were having more of a horizontal structure which demands more of verbal communications and less paper work. The concentration is more on the Innovation and inter-departmental communications. Above all, the employees have more discretion and liberty to suggest changes and chance to come out with productive innovations (Gabriel, 2007). NASA, being an organization, dealing complex engineering projects, should have provided their engineers with much discretion, rather than applying the unsuitable bureaucratic approach. While handling any complex engineering projects, it is thus advisable, to provide more autonomy of power to its ground level staffs. Power and politics in the organizations could be understood by studying the two well known dysfunctions of bureaucracy and they are as follows- Rigidity- It means that bureaucracy is slow to take advantage of opportunities and avoid threats. They are averse to innovation and experimentation. They generally avoid, which is new. This aspect of bureaucracy is not good for the managers who work in the changing environment. NASAs failure as an organization, by not accepting the new engineering recommendations from its engineers and taking the matter lightly, resulted to the disaster. Departmentalization- As per Webers theory, in bureaucracy, there is a strong hierarchical structure, which gets followed. So, the communication is from top to bottom level and never goes across horizontal level and this leads to setting up of different sub goals by different departments. These sub goals are not in good faith of organization as a whole and also leads to clashes and rivalry among departments. MANAGING COMPLEX OPERATIONS It is always very challenging to manage a complex engineering operation in any organisation. Generally complex organisation creates lot of problem and issues in management, so that management should consider the importance of culture, communication and leadership to manage this type of operation. According to our view following are the factors which should be considered while managing a complex engineering operation. Communication framework: Communication plays another key role in managing complex engineering solutions. A framework called as Leadership communication framework is taken into consideration wherein it starts with core communication skills represented in the centre of framework. It eventually expands itself from managerial communication skills which begin with emotional intelligence and cultural literacy. It finally leads to the concept of corporate communication skills where it becomes more complex and the organisation tends to become responsible to all internal and external stakeholders. The leaders who involve themselves within this type of communication model become the companys face and have numerous responsibilities. Therefore in order to effectively get the advantages of this model an improvement plan has to be initiated with self-assessment of the process. SOURCE: Deborah J Barret, 2006 Culture: Culture forms the function, as the linking mechanism by which network of understanding develops among the employees [Trice, 1988]. Culture works as the software of the mind and use of metaphor in the organisation. As especially strong culture became very useful to manage the project because people in strong culture know which things are right to do. In complex engineering situation feedback is often ambiguous and interpretation is the main key. In any organisation culture play a main role in how ambiguity is discussed and resolved in decision making (schien, 1992). Mainly in complex engineering time becomes a very important decision factor so that highly time urgent culture is very important in organisation. Management should consider the importance of culture in any operation. Leadership styles: Leadership style adopted by the management is very crucial in managing complex engineering operation. As Kurt Lewin suggested, there are three major styles of leaderships Authoritarian or autocratic Participative or democratic Delegative or Free Reign In the case of any complex engineering operations, Participative leadership should be the first choice among the management wherein the leaders include one or more of their employees in the decision making process. By doing so, the leaders eventually gain the respect of their employees thus leading to a mutual benefit among them (Robert N, L Christopher F, A, .2010). Leadership is activity of mobilizing people to understand adaptive challenges which cannot be resolved by expert knowledge and daily management. To motivate the people who are working under you is very important in leadership. Motivation plays vital role to boost the confidence of the employee to do challenging task and also gave energy to perform their task better. As complex problems contain multiple system which includes technical analysis, to handle this type of project requires capacity of individual to skilful intervene in complex system. So that adopting proper Leadership approach is very important in organisation to handle any project. CONCLUSION Hence we conclude that there was strong need for leadership in NASA that would have been capable of organisational change. Its culture has always reflected self interested decisions.   NASA would have to flatten its organisational hierarchy; it should be going for rather than having a bureaucratic organisation. There should be a mechanism in place where engineers should be able to bypass the bureaucracy and hierarchy, especially in the pre launch process. There words and ideas should also be respected and given some credence by the upper management.    NASA would have collaborate rather than contracting , its shuttle development and maintenance programs are outsourced to contractors , but it necessary for NASA to form a production and delivery oriented relationships with their subsystem contractors for a better future  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   . There should be a collaborative model of interaction.    NASA is still suffering from technical incompetences and narcissistic management, it has to make an overhaul change in its organisation for its best interests.   It is essential for NASA to be able to use its resources as efficiently as possible to effectively develop, explore and promote space. References: Gabriel,Y., 2007. Leadership and Organizations. University of London press publication Guthrie,R.,2005.The Columbia Disaster: Culture, Communication and change, Journal of cases on Information technology, [Online], 7(3) Available at http://www.infosci-journals.com [Accessed 20 Jan 2010] Moorhead,G.,1991.Group think Fiascoes Continues: Space Shuttle Challenger,available at http://ils.unc.edu/~bwilder/inls500/challengerarticle.pdf Janis,I.L.,1986.Group think,(2nd edition). Boston: Houghton. Mifflin Publication Seth A.R. Todd L.P.,2006. Narcissistic leadership. The Leadership Quarterly,Volume 17, Issue 6,[Online], Available at http://www.sciencedirect.com [Accessed 18 Jan 2010] Bella, D.A., 1987. Organizational Systems and the Burden of Proof. Thomson Publishing Challenger Disaster A NASA Tragedy.[Online]. available at http://space.about.com/cs/challenger/a/challenger.htm [accessed 23 Jan 2010] Deborah, B.,2006.Leadership Communication. NewYork:Tata Mc Graw Hill Publication Deborah,B.,2006.Strong communication skills a must for todays leaders.[online]Available at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com [accessed 18 jan 2010] Robert.N,L Christopher F.A.,2010.Leadership Theory,Application Skill Development.4th edition. Strategic Leadership and Decision Making.[Online] available at http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/ndu/strat-ldr-dm/pt4ch16.html [accessed 15 jan 2010] William H.S, Moshe F.,2005.Organization at the limit lessons from the Columbia Disaster, Blackwell Publishing Sharon D.P.,2005.Leadership can be taught : a bold approach for a complex world. Harvard business school publishing

A Computerized World :: essays research papers fc

COMPUTERS A Computerized World Computers play an important role in this modern society. All people around the world are forced the â€Å"computer age† nowadays. Since the first computer was made in the late 1950s, which I heard that was came from the Chinese Abacus, the technology has developed extremely. Computers are everywhere and control a great deal of our living environment. More and more areas are being taken over by the computer. Not able to use a computer is a serious handicap with ramifications in all areas of life. Therefore, if people do not know computers or do not know how to use them it means that they are not prepared for the future. They will fall behind our advancing society. Computers have been applied to industry, agriculture, political affairs, economy, military, science and many other fields; it is becoming more and more important. It is reason why I feel; I need to know more about computers such as why computer is useful, history of computer, and Internet. COMPUTERS ARE USEFUL IN OUR LIFE Nowadays, no matter what the professions, a mainstay of the companies prefers to hire employees who basically need to know how to operate computers. â€Å"Knowledge of computers† has become a basic requirement in job descriptions. As computers are capable of handling large amounts of data in a very short time, they are well suited for word processing. For instance, medical officers use computer to record patients’ data for finding them easier and more conveniently. Banks also use computers to store information for consumers to know their account conveniently and orderly, etc. The government agencies are the one who use computers most because they need to record confidential data, for instance, the military, and the U.S Census Bureau, etc. The business also use computer password system in the companies that to avoid other companies’ stealing their business secrets. Therefore, the secret data will not let out to other countries or companies. Since a small diskette can contain much more data than a written page, and it takes less place, I think it will not be too long all the paper-archives are replaced by magnetic tapes and diskettes. It is possible to get the American telephone book on just one diskette. HISTORY OF COMPUTERS   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  About two hundred years before, the word â€Å"computer† started to appear in the dictionary. Some people even did not know what is a computer. However, most of the people today not just knowing what is a computer, but understand how to use a computer.

Foreign Language Essay :: Essays

Antonio Machado es un poeta, que nacià ³ en Sevilla, el 26 de julio de 1875. Fue influido por el moderismo y el simbolismo pero su obra se expresa con lirica de la Generacià ³n del 98. Su ninez la paso en Sevilla y en 1883 se movià ³ con su familia a Madrid. Tenia un hermano que se llamaba Manuel Machado con el que juntos fueron a la Institucià ³n Libre de Enseà ±anza, que era privada y muy liberal. Su actitud humanitaria, liberal, y las actividades que en ella se hacà ­an, como viajes a los pueblos cercanos a Madrid y la Sierra de Guadarrama despertaron en à ©l un amor al campo y a la naturaleza que despuà ©s pudimos ver en sus poemas. En 1889 dejà ³ la institucià ³n para empezar el bachillerato (bachlors degree). El resultado no fue nada bueno aprobà ³ la Geografà ­a, pero lo suspendieron Latà ­n y Castellano y Historia de Espaà ±a. Su padre murio en 1893, y ese mismo aà ±o el publico sus primeros trabajos en La Caricatura, revista que se publicà ³ en Madrid en los aà ±os 1892 y 1893. Probablemente por su necesidad de dinero, Antonio y Manuel se van a Parà ­s. Manuel consigue un puesto de traductor en la Editorial Gamier para los libros en castellano destinados a Hispanoamà ©rica. En marzo de 1899 empieza a trabajar y tres meses despuà ©s Antonio tambien trabaja para el mismo editor. El trabajo que hacen es aburrido, cansado, y mal pagado, pero les consuela el que practican y mejoran sus conocimientos de francà ©s. Ademà ¡s, como les queda tiempo libre, vuelven a escribir versos. Pero pronto siente Antonio la trizteza de Madrid, de sus amigos, de su familia, y en el mes de octubre vuelven. En este segundo viaje a Paris, Antonio, tuvo la oportunidad de encontrarse con Rubà ©n Darà ­. Antonio le dijo sobre los poemas que escribà ­a para su primer libro, â€Å"Soledades†, y esos poemas, tan verdaderos y tristez, impresionaron a Rubà ©n, que los comentaba con su adjetivo favorito, "admirable, admirable!". Desde entonces, mostro siempre Darà ­o admira cià ³n por Antonio Machado, publicamente decia en varias ocasiones. En las à ºltimas semanas de enero de 1903, aparece el primer libro de Antonio, â€Å"Soledades† editado por la revista Ibà ©rica. En estos poemas medita sobre el tiempo pasado, recordando cuando era nino. Tambià ©n habla sobre la muerte, y palabras tan tristez como "hastà ­o", "monotonà ­a", "bostezo", "amargura", "llorar", se repiten mucho. El 27 de enero de 1939 la familia Machado llega a un pequeà ±o pueblo francà ©s, Collioure, y se instala en un hotel.

steve wynn :: essays research papers fc

Steve Wynn’s Nevada   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What better way to set off Nevada’s centennial birthday than with the opening of the world’s most highly anticipated resort. Steve Wynn is set to open the only hotel good enough to put his signature on, Wynn Las Vegas is set to open its doors on April 28th, Elaine Wynn’s birthday. Already fully booked thru July, you will need more than an American Express black card to get a room there before Fall. At a mere $2.6 billion and counting, the classy fifty story bronze beast is home to 2,700 rooms located across from the Fashion Show Mall. Each suite has floor to ceiling windows with views of either the strip, a man made mountain and lake or the championship golf course designed by world renowned Tom Fazio. Among two new exquisite themed theaters, dozens of restaurants, a Maserati and Ferarri dealership, high-end boutiques, a spa and a huge waterfall, it will also feature Steve and Elaine Wynn’s gallery of artwork from their own private coll ection. One of the new showrooms will hopefully be worth its $100 million price tag. It seats 2,000 and is shaped like a globe with water flowing all around the divided sections. Actors will be performing throughout the theatre within forty feet of every seat, which makes for no bad seat in the house.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It’s claim to fame will be what Wynn has been known for in the past, impeccable first class service. Since October of last year close to 110,000 applied on line for a chance to work with such a successful hotelier. So to his advantage he was able to pick and choose only the best, many from his soon to be competitors. Only 9,000 made the final cut. This will be his big comeback since leaving five years ago when he sold the Mirage Resorts to MGM Grand Inc. for $6.4 billion.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Plans for expanding the mega resort that has yet to open are well under way. A proposed $200 million expansion will add eighteen luxury golf villas, extra parking, another theatre and more casino space. Later as many as 1,400 more rooms will be added which is expected to cost another half a billion dollars by the time its done.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As a boy Wynn attended military school and would go on to attend one of the best business schools in the country, Wharton at University of Pennsylvania.

Spread of Buddhism

Keith Secon AP World Spread of Buddhism DBQ Responses to the Spread of Buddhism Following Buddhism’s introduction into China in the first and second centuries, C. E. , the religion was received in different ways, reflecting the progression of China’s history. Chinese scholars, Confucian Government Officials, and Buddhists viewed Buddhism through their unique perspectives, sometimes agreeing and sometimes disagreeing on the role it played in Chinese life. Chinese scholars generally saw Buddhism as a positive influence because it provided hope for an afterlife. Buddhists naturally embraced the rise of Buddhism and saw it as salvation.Confucian government officials were suspicious of Buddhism and saw it as a negative influence that challenged their already proven authority from Confucianism. Ultimately, the groups response to Buddhism differed depending on how tightly centralized the established Confucian dynasty was at the time, and by how much each group’s positio n in society would be benefitted or harmed. Chinese Scholars viewed Buddhism from an intellectual standpoint which lead them to receive it as ultimately positive because they had no special interest, as did the religious or government leaders.As stated by Zhi Dun, â€Å"whosoever in China [†¦] serves the Buddha and correctly observes the commandments [†¦] he will behold the Buddha and be enlightened in his spirit, and then he will enter Nirvana. †(Doc 2) This shows that Zhi Dun supported Buddhism and saw it as a way to achieve the highest state of spiritual being because reaching Nirvana meant that one could escape the terrible cycle of reincarnation. This document is biased due to the fact that where Zhi Dun was living at this time, in Northern China was being invaded by barbaric nomads which led him to need something to believe in and Buddhism filled that void.A document that would have been helpful in reputing Zhi Dun’s statement would have been a diary en try from a scholar in Southern China where there were no foreign invaders and the government was still strong. In The Disposition of Error, an anonymous scholar in 500 ce questioned both Confucianism and Buddhism when he wrote, â€Å"All written works need not necessarily be the words of Confucius [†¦] even if the Buddha isn’t mentioned in them, What occasion is there for suspicion? (Doc 3) This scholar’s statements reflect the political chaos and turmoil of the time as they demonstrate Confucianism and Buddhism are neither good nor bad but they fill a necessary part in people’s lives. The bias in this document stems from his anonymity because it seems as if he is almost too scared too publicly share his ideas and name. In this case a diary entry or public statement from a Daoist would be very helpful to contrast this scholar’s claim. From the point of view of a Daoist the reader would have been better able to understand the writer’s loyaltie s on the statement.Buddhists positively responded to the Spread of Buddhism because they obviously believed in the values of Buddhism and they wanted to share their beliefs with others. Buddha in â€Å"The Four Noble Truths† lays out the basic guidelines to Buddhism and the way for converts to live their lives (Doc 1). Following the noble truths outlined by Siddhartha Gautama will eventually lead to the stopping of sorrow. The bias in the document lays in the fact that it is a sermon which has the sole purpose to try to convert people to the faith being preached.To argue the Buddha’s guidelines of life, the Four Noble Truths, a scientific based study by an Educator or Scholar would be helpful as it could clear up some of the unknowns in the Buddha’s statement. A scientific study would have been helpful due to fact that the Buddha was mainly preaching to the uneducated lower-class. The leading Buddhist scholar, Zong Mi, in his essay â€Å"On the Nature of Manâ⠂¬  wrote, â€Å"Confucius, Laozi, and the Buddha were perfect sages[†¦] all three teachings lead to the creation of an orderly society and for this they must be observed with respect†(Doc 5).This shows that Zong Mi was impartial if not pro-Buddhist because he showed respect for Buddhism, as well as the other philosophies, because he believed they all could provide stability and happiness for the people. This document is biased because the scholar is Buddhist and probably wealthy which led him to promote Buddhism because if more people converted to it, it would have only benefited him more. In this case a diary entry from a Confucian Scholar would be helpful in debasing Buddhism because Confucianism was specifically against Buddhism.Confucian government officials were vehemently opposed to Buddhism because they believed it openly challenged their power and authority. Han Yu, a leading Confucian scholar and official at the Tang imperial, in â€Å"Memorial on Buddhismâ⠂¬  states, â€Å"Buddhism is no more than a cult of the barbarian peoples spread to China†(Doc 4) Han Yu was clearly against Buddhism, thinking that it had a negative effect because the people who worshiped it were barbarians and not like the educated scholars of his social class.Han Yu also opposed Buddhism because he was rooted in his own Confucian beliefs and the power it bestowed upon his government. This document is dripping with bias because a Confucian scholar wrote it during a highly centralized time of political stability. The political stability led to the peasants and the masses not needing a higher belief so they digressed back to the standard Confucian bureaucracy. A diary entry from a Buddhist monk or convert would be helpful as it would defend the ways of Buddhism and living one’s life to the fullest instead of letting the state control you.Emperor Wu, of the Tang Dynasty, in his â€Å"Edict of Buddhism† states, â€Å"now if even one man fails to work the fields, someone must go hungry [†¦] At present there are an inestimable number of monks and nuns in the empire, all of them waiting for the farmers to feed them†(Doc 6). The previous statement shows that Emperor Wu was very opposed to Buddhism because it took away the maximum productivity that his empire was capable of due to the fact the Buddhists lead ascetic lives and depended on others for goods and food.This document is biased because Emperor Wu didn’t have a first hand experience of what the masses had to deal with because he was a wealthy aristocrat and didn’t understand the need for a religion like Buddhism. A recorded conversation between two farmers would be helpful for determining if it puts that much economic stain on the farmers to produce more for others, since more production leads to more wealth.The conflict between Buddhism and Confucianism was due to the changing political state of China throughout it history of dynasties. When a dynasty wasn’t strong or when China was in a period of decentralization, it allowed new philosophies and religions to become prominent but when China was stable and centralized the people regressed to the normalcy of Confucianism. In dark times, when political turmoil flourishes, new religions arise to the forefront of society by offering hope and structure and common values.This is true at many points in history throughout various civilizations, such as during medieval times in Europe, the new religion of Christianity took hold in peasants’ lives during the time of political unsteadiness. As times change, new religions are created and others are pushed to the back burner. People must remember through these changing times not to become too invested in one religion as it will only lead to disappointment, and in some extreme cases, persecution.