Racism Definition Essay

Racism is something something we’ve all witnessed. Many people fail to believe that race isn’t a biological category, but an artificial classification of people with no scientifically variable facts. In other words, the distinction we make between races has nothing to do with genetic characteristics. Race was created socially, primarily by how people perceive ideas and faces we are not quite used to. The definition of race all depends on where and when the word is being used. In U.S. history, the meaning of the label â€Å"white† has changed over time, eventually adding groups like the Italians, Irish and Jews. Other groups, mainly African, Latino, American Indian, Pacific Islander, and Asian descendants, have found the path for worldwide social acceptance much more difficult. The irregular border of ethnicities touch educational and economic opportunity, political representation, as well as income, health and social mobility of people of color. So where did this type of behavior begin? There are many ideas thrown around as to how racism began, though the truth lies in the history of mankind. Before people were able to travel and experience difference groups of people, we predominantly stayed in the same kind of area with the same kind of people. We feared things that were different, and were lacked the power to face those kinds of things. All this changed once we did, in fact, obtain this level of human advancement, but the fear never drifted. The truth is, racism began as soon as people faced those of different races. We’ve always the fear of change, not to mention the unknown. It seems that is racism has been around so long we would have been able to overcome it as our species developed, but contact with those of whom we are afraid of often lead to disputes, which, in time, is what caused racism to transform from people simply disliking each other, to the permanent and indestructible foundation of common racism and prejudice. Contemporary racism is said to have been derived from many places, one of the most common ideas being upbringing. As a child, you are reliant on your parents to help you become who you are. Part of that involves their own, distinct opinions, that of which children don’t have the maturity to form on their own. They need the help of their parents, and this is often where the problem starts. If you were told that all Asians were sneaky or all Whites are evil or all Blacks are criminals, you can bet that you are going to feel this way about them. â€Å"Upbringing is the largest cause of racism†-Anonymous. Even if we allow yourself to get to know some of them, this will always be in the back of your mind. Another suggestion as to how racism makes it’s way into our heads is through the almighty media. As we grow up, media becomes a factor of our lives whether or not we want it to be, and is also a major source of how racism keeps itself active. Since the 70’s the media has been giving us racial labels, one of the largest supplies coming from crime shows like â€Å"Law and Order†, and â€Å"CSI†. When dealing with crime, people of color are reflected in the demarcation of â€Å"them† and â€Å"us†. Whites are often represented as the â€Å"good guy†, or the strong, law obeying citizens. They often target people of color, sometimes without any sort of evidence. Directors and writers use racial stereotypes to make a more complex story with more suspects. In the novel, â€Å"The Power of One,† by Bryce Courtney, a young, white, African boy named Peekay lives in a world where the government, the country, and the world revolves around racism. World War II is coming to an end, and in South Africa, the whites seem to hate the blacks just as much as the blacks hate the whites. Peekay was raised by a compassionate and loving black woman he refers to as â€Å"Nanny†, due to the unsafe conditions at home with his bad, mentally ill mother. He grew up with Nanny and his best friend, who was also black. To Peekay, racism didn’t exist. The author, Bryce Courtney, didn’t intend on writing a book fully based on racism in South Africa. He grasps a trace of apartheid by Peekay’s experiences as a white boy by unhurriedly soaking it into South Africa as a toxin. â€Å"Adapt, blend†¦develop a camouflage.† This thought went through Peekay’s mind once he had been exposed to racism, having been forced to attend a boarding school full of bigger, darker students. In Chapters One and Two, as a mere five-year-old, the bright protagonist Peekay is already addressing the necessity of affecting camouflages in order to survive the system. He is often forced to act differently around people of different skin colors in order to fit in better to prevent himself from getting beaten or teased. Peekay faces his first taste of racism the very first night at the boarding school. One boy, known as â€Å"The Judge†, who was much older, stronger, and darker than Peekay, comes up with the nickname â€Å"PissKop† for Peekay, because of Peekay’s habit to wet the bed that was caused by The Judge’s, along with the help of many other older black students, tendency to beat Peekay and spit in his face. The Judge also convinces Peekay that Hitler is determined to march all Englishmen in South Africa into the ocean, and even forces Peekay to eat human feces. Upbringing is a very strong factor of what influences people to become racist, or to have even slight racial views. In Peekay’s case, he had gone from one extreme to another. At home, Nanny and his best friend were the only people he could call family, besides his mother who spent time at what Peekay called â€Å"The Mental Breakdown Place†. When sent to the boarding school, he wasn’t expecting the black students to dislike him because of his skin color. He saw the black kids as merely bullies, and before they started bullying him hadn’t anticipated them to gang up on him because they were black. This is what caused Peekay’s neutrality with the racist society in which he lived. He gave each person a chance to be a good person, because he had seen the good in different ethnicities to which many people were stubborn to open up their minds. The power of one, or the idea of how one person can make a significant difference, is an important idea in relation to challenge in the novel. Giel Piet, one of Peekay’s boxing coaches who had been sneaking tobacco to all of the prisoners, was forced to eat feces by Sergeant Ballman, a white racist who works at the prison. If Giel Piet had refused to eat the feces, the guards would have found the tobacco, resulting in the prisoners getting beaten along with Giel Piet . As Peekay witnessed this happen to his coach, he thought, â€Å"It made me angry. Angry it was done. Angry I couldn’t do anything to stop it.† But how does racism really affect society? Visibly identifiable members of racial and ethnic oppressed groups continue to struggle for equal access and opportunity, particularly during times of stringent economics. Often, the targeted race has a harder time doing things such as finding a well-paying job or house. While there have been some sizeable gains in the labor force status of racial minorities, significant gaps remains. Racism is rampant in all areas of employment. For many members of exploited racial and ethnic unit, there is always an economic depression. Studies show that people of color are the last hired and the first fired. As a result, budget cuts, downsizing, and privatization may disproportionately hurt people of color. In February 1995 the unemployment rate for African Americans was 10.1 percent as compared to 4.7 percent for white Americans (Berry, 1995). The unemployment rate for adolescents of color is approximately four times that of white adolescents. Whatâ€⠄¢s more, In America, the Majority of unemployed men are black, and compared to other races, Blacks and Latinos on average have disproportionately low income. Other than simply getting a job, getting and keeping a house is often a difficult task for those of color. The job of a landlord is to rent out houses to reliable people or families, though a racist landlord could make it difficult for a family of color to find a home. Widespread housing discrimination against Americans of color in U.S. neighborhoods is sometimes referred to as a â€Å"national† problem, something that must be fixed by new government policies. Housing segregation in the United States developed slowly and deliberately. By law, property owners may not refuse to rent or sell housing, make housing unavailable to, set different conditions or privileges for sale or rental of a property, impose different rates and terms on a loan, refuse to make a mortgage loan, or discriminate in appraising property due to a client’s ethnicity, and because racism cannot be seen, these rules are very vague. Available evidence suggests that blacks and Hispanics face higher reje ction rates and less favorable conditions in securing mortgages than do Whites with similar credit characteristics (Ross & Yinger 1999). It has been reported that blacks pay more than 0.5% higher interest rates on home mortgages than whites do and that this difference persists with income level, date of purchase, and age of buyer. During the Great Depression, people of color had a much harder time getting past the financial hardship because of the racial stereotypes that had before been thrown around. In the book, Whitewash Race: The Myth of a Colorblind Society, Michael K. Brown says â€Å"In the late 1930’s, black unemployment rates were two to four times higher than white unemployment rates.† Few Blacks had any financial savings to caution them from the full affect of the Depression. Blacks that had before has troubles getting a well paying job the faced the same challenge with a much larger margin for failure. Mrs. Roosevelt was particularly fretful about the financial difficulties encountered by racism. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor, is a story about a black family, the Logans, from the south, living frugally in order to preserve and keep their patch of farmland. Because the story takes place during the end of the Great Depression, one of the worst times in history to be a black farmer, money has become very sparse for the family and for the neighborhood. The children of the family, Cassie, Stacey, Christopher-John, and Little Man, live in a world where white kids rule and they know it. White kids had the freedom to do anything they wished to do, from threatening the kids they thought were inferior to hammering kids who socialized with black kids, or even walked with them to school. This was the case for T.J., a friend of the Logan kids who often walked with Cassie and her brothers to school, more often than not with a price. While walking to school on the first day, Cassie and her brothers are cascaded in red dust as a bus full of white kids skids past, though they eventually get their revenge on the kids by sabotaging the bus. This is significant not only because it shows us just how boorish white kids were to black kids, but it also shows that black kids had to walk to school, and to some black kids, according to Cassie, the walk is so long they are forced to drop out of school. Cassie, being in fourth grade, attends a school especially for black kids. On the first day back to school, she and the other students are staggered to realize that that year they would be having books in the class, something that at that time was a luxury for an all-black school. Though once Cassie sees the books, she quickly sees why the books were given to them. The books were old and dirty, and on the inside of the front cover clenching to stay on was the label â€Å"Nigras.† Infuriated, Cassie refuses to take the bo ok, and is ultimately whipped for her quarrel. It isn’t until a black man is killed by a group of white men without consequence that the Logan kids grasp the idea of how dangerous living in a racist, white community could be. Racism becomes the problem revolving around the Logan family. Cassie doesn’t understand why they are treated differently and doesn’t want to back down because of the color of her skin. Stacey, on the other and, agrees to keep a low profile in the white community as to not trigger any alarms that may cause an issue. This novel does a good job of showing how the effects racism on a specific race simply cause racism itself to stay functioning. After all they endure, at the end of the book the Logan family are a healthier family than they were at the start, mainly because of their capability to see through each other’s skin color, something the rest of the town was unable to do. The disruption of the school bus, though it was simply a small revenge, shows how close the kids had become because of everything they had been through because of the white kids. Racism brings races together, making races seem like a tighter bondage, and ultimately making it easier to target races. Racism had existed throughout human history. It is regularly defined as the detestation, or belief that someone is less than human, because of skin color, place of birth, and mores. All of these arguments are based on a false understanding of race; in fact, some contemporary scientists could argue that the classification of races used today is inadequate, and that there are more meticulous and proper ways of categorizing humans. What may seem to be considerable â€Å"racial† differences to some people, such as skin color, hair, and facial shape, are not of much scientific significance. It has been said that there have been greater biological differences between people of the same race than if we were to compare the same trait to a different race. One philosopher writes: â€Å"There are few genetic characteristics to be found in the population of England that are not found in similar proportions in Zaire or in China†¦.those differences that most deeply affect us in our de alings with each other are not to any significant degree biologically determined.† Often what causes people to act racist is the fact that they have learned to conceal fear with racism. Many individuals react with fear towards those who look or appear different than them. Fear is what makes us uncomfortable, making us need to protect ourselves and defend, mostly causing pain and discomfort to the person or object of the fear. Instead of attempting to fix and deal with the differences, the wall between the two maintains; union and agreement are never attained. So how do we put an end to this? The sad fact of the matter is that, during this age, we won’t. People were born differently, and it’s only human to retaliate negatively to things or people we aren’t used to. Scientists believe there is the tendency in all animals to selectively preserve their own kind even at the cost of a different animal type, which is in essence what caused racism, not to mention prejudice in general. As humankind progresses, our way of thinking becomes more complex, as does the world around us. The values we once had aren’t forgotten, but replaced with new values as our old ways hide in the back of our minds. Though they are present and may re-emerge if a change in life conditions calls them up, they are no longer the dominant. This genuinely is the hope for mankind in their fight to end racism. In the future, if we can surmount the silliness of racism to the point where no one senses it, we will be in fine condition. The most effective way to begin this, through the words of Morgan Freeman, is to â€Å"Stop Talking About It.†

What the Bible says and doesn’t say about homosexuality

I waited to enter the debate again until my heart was In the right place and free of anger towards those who disagree with my viewpoint. Now I ask you prayerfully consider these words, not Just rejecting them in favor of your personal prejudices. Search the Scriptures, casting aside all previous viewpoints and open your heart to what the Spirit of God is speaking to you. Many well meaning people build their case against homosexuality almost entirely on the Bible. They, Just as l, value the ancient text, and seek its guidance In their lives. Unfortunately, many of them have never really studied what the Bible does and isn't say about homosexuality. I was unaware until about 2 years ago that a lot of what I'd been taught about the Bible by people who love God and want to teach others the words, was derived from an improper understanding of context, history, and also literalism, which was seen as heresy even going back to Origin and Popularly, early church fathers who were students of A postle John. When I searched further, I came to see the Bible as more.I saw Its many cultures, religions and spiritualistic, but more importantly, I saw people who were trying with their limited understanding of the universe, nature, biology, and overall knowledge, to make sense of a world, and a God, they didn't understand. The Bible has a powerful message for all regardless of gender, sexual orientation, personal philosophy or spiritual practice. But it's a message of love and acceptance, not condemnation and, hate, and fear. Don't take my word for It, though.I ask only that you'd consider what careful research. Prayer, and meditation has taught me about the passages used by some people to condemn God's children simply because of a biological factor like attraction. Premise 1: The rampant epidemic of biblical illiteracy in this country A recent study quoted by DRP. Peter Gomes in The Good Book found that 38 percent of Americans polled were certain the Old Testament was written a f ew years after Jesus' death. Ten percent believed Joan of Arc was Nosh's wife.Many even thought the epistles were the wives of the apostles. A few key points Jesus says nothing about same-sex behavior. The Jewish prophets are silent about homosexuality. Only six or seven of the Bible's one million verses refer to same-sex behavior in any way ? and none of these verses refer to homosexual orientation as It's understood today. Premise 2: Historically, people's misinterpretation of the Bible has left a trail of suffering, bloodshed, and death.Over the centuries, people, well meaning or otherwise, who misunderstood or misinterpreted the Bible have done terrible things. The Bible has been twisted to defend bloody crusades and tragic inquisitions; to support slavery, apartheid, and segregation; to persecute Jews and other non- Christian people of faith; to support Hitter's Third Reich and the Holocaust; to oppose medical science; to condemn Interracial marriage; to execute women as witche s; and Scripture for his purpose. Looking at recent history, within the past 60 years, countless LIGHT people, all of them children of God, were murdered, assaulted, abused, arrested, rejected, ostracizes, fired from Jobs, had their children taken away, and denied basic civil rights because of six or seven verses, most of them taken grossly out of context. Most of the people I know who say â€Å"the Bible condemns homosexuality' would never condone these acts. Most Christians have no idea that the people killing gay and lesbian persons go around quoting those few verses of Scripture as Justification.But it's important to hear these stories, because I'm not writing this little pamphlet as a scholarly exercise. It's a matter of life and death. I'm pleading on the side of love. Premise 3: We must be open to new truth from Scripture God is constantly speaking. What was once adamantly declared as truth in one age is now regarded with ignorance in another. SST. Peter was commanded to kil l and eat animals he once regarded as unclean to show that the old covenant dietary laws had been lifted. SST.Paul, who once killed those who claimed the name of Jesus, in a matter of hours loved the God-Man whom he once despised as a false prophet. Even Jerry Falafel, a bastion of evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity, believed the Bible supported segregation in the church until a black shoeshine man asked him, â€Å"When will someone like me be allowed to become a member of your congregation? † I ask you to look again, with careful prayer, study, and meditation, this issue of sexual orientation. Don't Just accept mindlessly the words of a pastor or priest, but as SST.Paul said in 1st Thessalonians, â€Å"†Test all things and hold fast to that which is good. † We must look at all verses within two frameworks Galatians 5:22-23 â€Å"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, Joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control. There is no law against such things. † Philippians 4:8 â€Å"Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is Just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think upon these things.Even if we believe the Bible is â€Å"infallible† or â€Å"without error,† it's dangerous to think that our understanding of every biblical text is also without error. We are human. We are fallible. And we can misunderstand and misinterpret these ancient words often with devastating results. Premise 4: The Bible is a book about God, not human sexuality The Bible is about God's love for his children and all of his creation. It's a story of God who is healing, renewing, empowering, and loving us, his sons and daughters, so we can follow God's example with others.

Clostridium difficile infection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Clostridium difficile infection - Essay Example difficile infection, 2013). C. difficile bacteria are present in soil, water, air, processed food including meat, animal and human feces. It gets to the body through feces when people don’t wash their hands or touch anything contaminated. Although intestine has millions of helpful bacteria but use of antibiotics actually destroys some of them which subsequently increases the harmful functionality of C. difficile (Diseases and Conditions: C. difficile infection, 2013). Here, patients may lose hydration and need to be hospitalized. The colon tends to become inflamed which subsequently form raw tissue patches. These patches are also subject to bleeding and pus release. Additionally it might have following symptoms: In few circumstances the doctor might examine the interior colon so as to confirm C. difficile infection. Colonoscopy is usually used for this purpose in which a small tube with camera is inserted into the colon to analyze inflamed and affected areas. When C. difficile infection is identified then antibiotics which incited the infection should be stopped immediately. However, this is not possible in every case hence it is most appropriate to use other antibiotics which do not strengthen the activity of bacterium. Moreover, the antidiarrheal medicines should not be used for treating this infection because these can initiate toxic megacolon. If patients are having severe abdominal pain and fever then Vancomycin is best suitable for them (C. difficile Infection, 2012). Antibiotics should be used with extensive care (Stopping C. difficile Infections, 2012). Moreover, physicians should remain careful about the symptoms of C. difficile infection so as to take immediate actions. Community service programs and control recommendations can also help in tackling with the disease and its severe consequences. Adults, patients and medical professionals should be well aware about the disease and its

The role of business ethics in the corporate environment Essay

The role of business ethics in the corporate environment - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that business ethics is a part of the corporate governance practices of a business. Ethics is not just an academic, legal or moral aspect but in the long term scenarios of business management, corporate ethics is aimed to be established as the essential behavioural traits and part of the organisational philosophy of a corporation which would further strengthen the brand equity of the company and also ensure stable and sustainable growth for the company in the future years. Also, with time, considerations are made regarding the individual consciousness about the application of business ethics in their work which would help to establish self-regulation as an integral part of ethics and corporate governance. Despite the corporate entities, academic institutions, researchers, scholars and practitioners all over the world focusing on the aspect of business ethics and highlighting its role in conducting a profitable and sustainable business, the realm of ethical problems continue to persist in the corporate environment and as a result of which a number of unethical activities and incidences in the corporate environment is often identified. As a result of this, questions arise as to how far the ethical aspects of business management are actually been integrated into the individual organisational approaches of corporate functions and the global stakeholder groups remain sceptical about the integration and real-life implementation of business ethics within the overall business domain.

Economic Comparison between Brazil and Argentina (Economic Development Term Paper

Economic Comparison between Brazil and Argentina (Economic Development And Growth) - Term Paper Example Introduction Population and economic size Brazil became independent on September 7, 1822. It covers 8,511,965 sq. km with a population size of 203.4 million1. Its population growth rate is 1.02 percent per annum. Brazil is the leading economic powerhouse and regional leader in South America. It is the eight world largest economy in the world. However, the country is bedeviled by high unequal income distribution and crime. Brazil continues to pursue industrial and agricultural growth and development strategy. The country has a well developed service, manufacturing, agriculture and mining sectors. The Brazilian economy experienced solid economic performance even in the face of global financial crisis. The economy recovered early as compared to other countries. It was during Lula’s reign when the country experienced high economic growth and improved social programs that improved lives of millions of Brazilian citizens. Domestic consumption is the key driver of the country’ s economic growth. However, the country experiences rising unemployment rates. Sound fiscal management, inflation control and floating exchange rate provided strong impetus for Brazilian economy to grow and develop over the years. The currency of Brazil is Brazilian reais. On the other hand, Argentina became independent on July 9, 1816. Its area coverage is 2.8 million sq. km with a population of 41,769, 7262. Its population growth rate is 1.017 percent annually. Argentina’s economy has experienced both good and bad times3. The country has suffered hyperinflation, currency depreciation, domestic debt default worth $85 billion, World Bank’s loan default and frozen banking system among others. This is because of poor governance by government officials. Between 1975 and 1990, Argentina paid interest on foreign debt. Furthermore, during the same period, the country experienced capital flights and tax evasion. In 2002, unemployment was 25 percent. The government also starte d repaying defaulted bonds worth $100 billion in an attempt to end shame from 2003. The Argentina’s economy grew at the rate of 9 percent annually from 2003 to 2007 following expansionary policies adopted by the government. The growth was negatively affected by global credit crunch between 2007 and 2009, which reduced growth rate to 0.8 percent. However, the economy rebounded and 8.5 percent growth in GDP was experienced in 2010. The Argentine currency is Argentina pesos. In fact, Brazilian geographical area, population, and economy is larger than that of Argentina. Argentina’s economy is less stable and volatile as compared to that of Brazil due to many past economic hardships. In 2008-2010 global financial turmoil, Argentina experienced diminished domestic growth as well as reduced domestic and global demand, which caused a mild recession in 2009. In 2008, many more people in Argentina are poorer than those in Brazil. In 2008, the population below poverty line in Bra zil was 26 percent while there are 30 percent in Argentina. Section one outlines each country’s natural resource deposits; section two indicates Gross Domestic Product; section three indicates unemployment rates; section four shows the budget; section five shows the inflation and section six shows foreign direct investment. In addition, section seven indicates international trade; section eight outlines exchange rate regime; section

ICELAND'S FINANCIAL CRISIS Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

ICELAND'S FINANCIAL CRISIS - Case Study Example During this time period, home values began to fall dramatically and sub-prime rates eventually readjusted so that individuals owed up to double their original mortgage value on homes that were no longer even worth their original market value. A vast variety of the sub-prime mortgages offered to individuals who actually did not maintain quality resources to sustain an adjustable home loan interest rate were suddenly forced into foreclosure, which left lending institutions with a significant inventory of now bank-owned homes worth less than their mortgage values at the time of signing. As the housing bubble burst and grew more fiscally unsound, global investors found that the many derivatives (swaps) associated with home mortgages were no longer viable and lucrative opportunities for investment (Simkovic, 2011). Many investors from the European Union and the United States began looking for better investment opportunities, leaving financial institutions offering these derivatives with c onsiderably less quarterly and annual revenues stemming from mortgage-backed swaps and securities. Because mortgage-related derivatives were, for many years, adequate and lucrative profit opportunities for financial institutions, many offering these securities backed by mortgage guarantees had not diversified their revenue-earning capacities. As such, investment trading partners in the United States witnessed capital depletion rapidly where many institutions required significant fiscal bailouts to keep the entity afloat. Further complicating this situation was what is referred to as a bank run, where nearly five billion dollars in investment resources were withdrawn domestically and internationally in a 48 hour period by concerned and speculating investment firms and independent investors (Altman, 2009). Low-valued credit default swaps, a variety of mortgage related derivatives, and banking facility capital depletion soon hit Iceland and many other European countries. Iceland, after banking privatization had been established, was very dependent on making investments in international capital markets (Olsen, 2010). However, this instability and credit downgrading that occurred during the sub-prime crisis in the U.S. had destabilized multiple investment opportunities associated with mortgage-backed securities and derivatives. Thus, a once lucrative revenue source for Icelandic banks and other financial institutions no longer provided adequate capital infusion for the now-private banking facilities in the country. Since there had not been enough portfolio diversification in Iceland to spark domestic investment opportunity to offset dependencies on international investment losses, the exchange rate of the Icelandic currency value was affected and derivatives relationships with foreign banking partners were largely nullified. As the IMF and the U.S. Central Bank began changing monetary policy and increasing regulation to correct the sub-prime crisis, it inflated the U.S. dollar which only served to further weaken the value of the Iceland currency on the international exchange markets. How could the Iceland Crisis have been Avoided? Firstly, Iceland should have recognized that the U.S. would not necessarily have explosive gains on mortgage-related securities and derivatives that would endure indefinitely. The U.S. had a long history of a volatile housing market which should have provided adequate

Early years in the uk context Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Early years in the uk context - Essay Example (Shaw, 2010) The article tries to find the factors which are responsible for these choices and how the choices of working class parents differ from middle class parents. The authors have used interviews as the research methodology in trying to answer this question. The authors believe that the way in which choices are made by the working class and middle class parents make choices further produces inequities. (Carol Vincent, 2010)They also differentiate in the way these choices are made and the factors which are considered before making the choices. In conclusion the authors claim that working class families give importance to the known , familiar and trusted sources for choosing childcare whereas middle class families were more open to childcare centres which may be lesser known to them. The overarching concern for the working class parents is shown as safety for their kids whereas the middle class parents do not care much about the safety -they consider it as a given. Their main fo cus is on the environment the child is provided with and his personal development. The authors also show how economic status of the families makes them perceive and experience the child care markets in a different way. (Carol Vincent, 2010) The very first analysis which comes to the mind of this article is the research methodology which is used. ... This may have left out a large section of the population which may not indulge in such a large amount of research to choose childcare as is shown in the article. (Kumar, 2008) Thus general assumptions about middle class and working class attitudes to childcare cannot be made from such an unrepresentative sample. The second problem is that of false responses. (Kumar, 2008) It is a well known fact that what people actually do differs a lot from what they say in interviews. The results would be much more reliable if interviews were followed by observations of behaviour. The third problem is acknowledged by the authors but they fail to mention how they countered it. This is the problem of interviewer bias. As interview was conducted by white middle class females; the responses of working class mothers could suffer from a bias towards the interviewer. Also the interviewer may have interpreted the response in a way which is completely different from what the working class parents intended to. (Patel, 1964) The authors claim in their article that middle class parents are the more informed consumers in the child care market. They research a large number of options before settling on the childcare. As opposed to this working class parents are shown to be less aware and less informed about the options that they have. However the authors do not stop at telling the behaviour but also try to identify the reason for the behaviour and the reason that they have identified is spot on and absolutely right. The choices in childcare market are available only to those who have money to shell out. (Leach, 2009) .Although the problem of expensive child

Effective Communication Skills in Healthcare Coursework

Effective Communication Skills in Healthcare - Coursework Example Patients often feel frustrated because their doctors do not apply patient-oriented communication skills which result into negative outcomes on the delivery of actual medical advice. Patients also complain of lack of important attributes of their physicians, such as empathy and kindness, which can lead to a communication gap between the two sides of the communication process (Hassali, Shafie, & Khan, 2012). It has been reported that patients’ concern on communication behaviour has positive outcomes in their level of satisfaction, and this kind of patients tend to be more submissive to treatment. On the negative side of it, poor communication skills on the part of the healthcare provider results in unsatisfied patients that reflects in the quality of the treatment and compliance to drug therapy (Lochman, 1983 as cited in Hassali, Shafie, & Khan, 2012). There are also reports that the lack of correct information results into inefficient health care, the inability of doctors and healthcare professionals to provide patients’ needs, and absence of respect and dignity of patients. On the other hand, health professionals also reported lack of skills in having good relationship with patients. According to NÃ ¸rgaard et al. (2012), healthcare providers should have positive relationships with each other, particularly in providing respect and appreciation to their peers so that they can provide respect and positive relationships with patients. There are problems that hamper the ideal patient-physician communication. Sometimes the healthcare providers have a busy schedule and need to treat many patients.

The Dangers and Necessities of Industrial Agriculture Research Paper

The Dangers and Necessities of Industrial Agriculture - Research Paper Example Agriculture had, for thousands of years, been only a subsistence affair: people were only able to produce enough food to feed their own family or clan, with possibly a little extra for very short distance trade (Brothwell 368). Eventually basic agricultural techniques began to evolve and produce more food, leading to slight surpluses, which eventually grew and grew allowing the first civilizations with specialists such as soldiers, kings and bureaucrats to serve them (Diamond 34). Over time agricultural techniques have slowly advanced, leading to world populations that have, more or less, slowly advanced with them, leading to increasing population densities and further increasing food production (Diamond 97). This process all changed drastically with the most important process in human history, the industrial revolution. The introduction of steam engines, trains that could rapidly transport goods over great distances, and the ability to use powered machinery to plant, gather and process agriculture produce meant an explosion of population unlike what had ever been seen previously (Buckley 17). It took all of human history to the year 1800 for world population to reach one billion. It then trebled to three billion by the year 1950, and had doubled again to six billion by 1999, before adding another billion by 2011 (23). Obviously these population increases, a result of industrial agriculture, would have far-reaching effects on all parts of human society. Most of all, however, food production leading to higher populations leads to more intensive food production, in unsustainable cycle that needs to, somehow, be altered. The Problems There are myriad problems caused by industrial agricultural practices and the high populations it help support. The first series has to do with food security. Food security is essentially how secure one’s food source is – how likely it is to be disrupted and how dangerous any disruption would be. The combination of extremely high world population and industrial agriculture weaken food security in several important ways. The first is simply a lack of food stores. For the vast majority of human history agricultural peoples have built up large food stores, sometimes years worth, in order to be able to deal with any disruption of food security (Brothwell 370). This meant that if there were a massive war in which fields were burnt, or a year or two of drought, flooding or other disruptions of food pro duction, a population would have a store to lean on, minimizing if not completely preventing starvation. In this situation, only extremely prolonged conflicts or inclement weather to substantially shake the ability of a people to feed themselves, meaning that food security was relatively high. Now, however, the world has essentially zero food stores from season to season (Baarchers 188). Everything is eaten or consumed in some other way as soon as possibly can be, and there simply is not enough agricultural production to make a food stores big enough to feed the billions of people in the world for a matter of months, much less years. This means that any disruption, such as the widespread droughts that have been hitting the western end of Africa this past two years, leads to immediate starvation and death rather than giving a grace period of several years based on food stores (Lichtfouse 87). Industrial food production, along with the population explosion it has caused, weaken food s ecurity by nearly completely eliminating substantial food reserves of any kind on a world wide scale. The reduction and elimination of world-wide food stores is not the only way that practices of industrial farming have hampered food security. Another major way is food transportation

The report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The report - Essay Example The company has grown extensively over the past few decades and opened thousands of stores across America, China, and other countries across the globe. The retail business in US has undergone rapid transformation since the emergence and growth of Wal-Mart culture. The Wal-Mart business model is being widely adapted and implemented by most competitive agencies owing to its successful operations and increasing revenues. The Wal-Mart has emerged as a popular brand name among the consumers looking for competitive rates and a comfortable shopping experience. The success of the business model adopted by Sam Walton is attributed to a deeper understanding of consumer behaviour and consumer psychology that plays actively while making a purchase decision. â€Å"The secret of successful retailing is to give your customers what they want. And really if you think about it from your point of view as a customer, you want everything: a wide assortment of good quality merchandise; the lowest possible prices; guaranteed satisfaction with what you buy; friendly, knowledgeable service; convenient hours; free parking; a pleasant shopping experience† (Walton, 1992). Wal-Mart procures goods from suppliers at low cost that translates to low pricing offered to the consumers. The incredibly low prices offered by the stores attract increased number of consumers to Wal-Mart and this is a major factor behind the success of Wal-Mart. The customers at Wal-Mart are offered with a wide variety of products at comparatively low rates that accounts for a conve nient shopping experience under a single roof. Technology has equipped the workforce with speed and accuracy that has enhanced overall productivity and efficiency within any organization. Innovation is the key to success in most business enterprises and it is evident in the way Wal-Mart has leveraged the use of innovative technology to gain cost advantage in their retail operations. The use of bar code technology has helped the

Iranian Revolution and Persepolis Booklet Conventions Essay Example for Free

Iranian Revolution and Persepolis Booklet Conventions Essay High and Low cultures are terms given to value the quality of the text. Low culture text is usually the text written for entertainment and pleasure and does not encourage complex reflection and thoughts . Comics are considered as a Low culture and comics and graphic novel are similar to each other but graphic novel are not considered to be Low culture. High culture text is written to encourage complex reflection and thought. High culture are usually full of literary features while low culture has low literary features. Text with high culture also called privileged text and text with low culture is called marginalized . 2- Everyone has his own way of thinking, if three people read a book they will think differently and will have different opinions about it that’s why we respond to the text is shaped by our ideology because everyone understand it from a different perspective. The same thing happens when different people read a graphic novel , they all have different opinions and ideas and they discuss it some people may change their opinions after they heard someone’s else opinion ,that’s how it changes our beliefs, attitudes and values toward literature 3- Symbols in a Graphic novel are easy to understand cause most of the are colours , body language , objects and clothing etc.. .In Persepolis Satrapi has made it different than any other graphic novels , she made no colours only black and white and this is a symbol of something that happened in the past . 4- Satrapi choose to write Persepolis in form of a graphic novel to tell her story ,because she want us to understand what she understands .She is writing her story so she wants us to feel how it feels to grow up during a revolution and a war , and how it feels to move from your country to a different one having a new life she wants us to feel what she felt and she actually succeeded at it Style and Literary Traditions: Persepolis is more bildungsroman than a memoir, because Satrapi didn’t only want to tell the story of her childhood but she wanted to show the way she lived in Iran at the time of the Islamic revolution, also she wanted to show how she grew morally, socially and spiritually making herself an example of how a young girls grew up at this time and bildungsroman is when protagonist must progress from childhood to adulthood, leave home to undergo a journey, and develop a more mature understanding of his or her self. Satrapi also shows how is feels for a young girl to grow up during a Revolution and live in Iran while it was at war with Iraq, those young girls saw communists getting shot and killed by the shah army and hearing stories about political prisoners being tortured during the revolution and saw planes blowing up buildings and other events too. Although it was horrible but Satrapi use a satirical tone sometimes when talking to the revolution guardians Literary Features: Satrapi has been able to manipulate the literary features well though it is a graphic novel which sometimes authors find it hard to use the literary features. Satrapi has used alot of symbols and one of the most important symbol was â€Å" the veil â€Å" which shows the rebellious side of Satrapi and that she was against wearing it but the Islamic government said it is obligatory for women and girls to wear veil. She has also been hyperbole about it Satrapi has used many allusions; most of them are people some are rebellious figures like : Che Guevara, Fidel Castro , they symbolize how a young generation is forced to become revolutionary even though they know little about the turmoil they fight , most of the allusion are about being rebellion and the war. Unlike other writers, Marjane Satrapi has it a little easier because she is able to literally show us what she wants us to see , and the Major thing about persepolis is that it has no colours it’s all black and white to give the story a more ancient feel, she wants us to see that all of this has already occurred. Moreover, the simplicity of her images allows her to demonstrate that this time in her life was not a great one, and that most of it is blurry. Perhaps the lack of color also signifies how somber that time was. Furthermore, she usually draws herself in the background, this shows how inferior she unworthy of being at the same level of men. As she gets older in the novel, she starts to show herself more, it is almost as if she is starting to believe that she is finally getting to the level of men. She begins to talk more to people, and not only speaks her thoughts to herself. Themes: Any young woman growing up is going to face struggles especially during her adolescence. However, to grow up in the midst of the Iranian revolution is undoubtedly a life changing experience. In a society where one certain religion is forced upon you, and where you go, what you wear, who you see, and all that you do is restricted, it is clearly difficult to accept. Especially to a determined and independent young lady such as Marjane Satrapi. In Persepolis one of the most important themes of the novel is government and society and its role in determining the sequence of events that Satrapis life takes on such as in the first chapter veils are forced on the women of Iran. In Persepolis Satrapi has used many themes and as mentioned one of the most important themes is government and society. The Iranian society after the revolution was forced to do what their government tells them like wearing the veil and this is also connected to the theocracy and dictatorship theme that the Islamic government turned into a dictatorship , dictatorship was not only with the government but also in Satrapi’s house she calls her mother a â€Å" the dictator guardian of the revolution of the house The government played a big role in 1980’s Iran by implementing new laws and restricting old freedoms, whoever does obey is either sent to jail and tortured or being executed and a lot of people where being executed for doing things forbidden by Islam ,the government used Islam as a cover to do whatever they want without people questioning them. Even though the Islamic government prevented partying and drinking, people went to illegal parties and drank wine this is considered as an act of rebellion which is also a theme. Rebellion is also a major theme in Persepolis, rebellion is not only against a government it can also be rebellion to what people say. Satrapi uses cigarettes as a symbol of rebellion, she want to show that she can do whatever men can do because at this time in Iran there were feminism. Moreover , Satrapi uses more rebellion figures to support her rebellion theme like Che Guevara, Fidel Castro and Trotsky they are a symbol for freedom Iran was in an outer war with Iraq and internal war against Iranians. Those are the best words that could describe what is happening inside Iran in that time, the army was fight the Iraq’s and was also killing communists and people that have a secular thoughts. Although, the kids of the lower class are sent to war to fight for their country, but before they are sent, they are given this golden key which sybolizes the riches and wealth they will have if they go into war for their country. Not having much, these kids end up joining the army being promised these dreams that never happen. While on the other hand the higher classes are partying and enjoying themselves, not doing anything to protect their country, but only themselves. Isnt that sad. Also in the case of Marjane her maid doesnt sit with her and her parents had a cadillac showing that they were wealthy, but Marjane didn like the idea of that. If you are a powerful person that has a lot of money, or if you were a king, you were part of the high class people. If you are poor or a peasant, you are considered to be in the lower class. What also exists is a middle class who refers to those who can make enough money to dress properly and own certain things that peasants can’t. Being a part of the middle class doesn’t make you a high class person because you don’t have power and don’t have a fortune, but it’s enough for good living Martyrdom was also a major theme in Persepolis since the war started and Satrapi describes it â€Å"To die a martyr is to inject blood into the veins of society.† Marjane reflects that the regime depends on the war to retain its political control of the country. A million people lose their lives in the war. The regime becomes more repressive and seeks to stop â€Å"the enemy within† by arresting and executing those that defy its rule. Heroism is also a theme which is connected to Persepolis where Satrapi symbolizes the political prisoners that were tortured and executed as heroes and when she found out that her uncle Anoosh was tortured too ,she thought of him as a hero At this time in Iran the social classes was also a major theme in the novel mostly all social classes were unequal and this wasnt fair to Marjane at some points. She comes to learn that if you are not in the same social class as someone else, you are not able to marry them. Also, higher social classes were treated better and were paid more attention to, other than the lower class people. There was a specific part of the book where some kids asked Marjane if she had any star wars toys, and she didnt. All little Marjane had were some boring books to offer them. Persepolis is very powerful and informative. It showed the history of Iran’s civil war and revolution and the fall of the Shah. When someone would say the word Iran people would think of oil, criminals, and communist. they never knew that they would be able to relate Iran to family, love, peace, hope, Michael Jackson. It has definitely given a new meaning behind the word Iran. It has also given a new outlook of the people of Iran.

Billy Elliot Film Summary

Billy Elliot Film Summary The background of the film Billy Elliot was set in the context of the 1984 Miners Strike in England, where both Billy s father and older brother were miners participating in the strike. In the history of England, this was an important event for the governing party of England at that time, the Conservative Party led by Margaret Thatcher. The event set a strong political and ideological standing for the United Kingdom (UK) with regards to the ideas accepted by the people today. The 1984 Miners Strike was an intense period for the miners, who made up a significant proportion of the working class in England at that time. The reason behind the strike was the intended shutting down of twenty coal mines by the government, which would in turn result in the massive loss of jobs by as many as twenty thousand people. This led to the uproar by the miners in opposition to such a decision. Billy s family was heavily involved in this strike, with his brother Tony as the union leader. Essentially, this was somewhat a symbolism of a class struggle because such a decision affected mainly the working class only in terms of employment. In the film, Mr. Wilkinson, the husband of Billy s ballet teacher, was a figure representing the upper middle class with a rather cynical attitude towards the lower middle class i.e. the miners as well as the strike. Similarly, at the end of Billy s audition and interview together with Billy s father, the panel of judges, a representation of t he upper class, offered his father a patronizing and perhaps sarcastic, good luck with the strike (Blandford, 2007). Despite all the heavy-hearted circumstances Billy and his family were going through, the beginning of the film, together with the dancing along the way, was a surprisingly light-hearted scene. With upbeat rock music playing, Billy s jumping revealed a certain uncontained and unrestrained soul that seemed free. As the story developed however, the contradiction was the fact that Billy s life, at the age of 11, was hardly so. This somewhat likened to the period after the French Revolution, stepping into the Romantic Ages, where light-hearted, happy and fun ballets, often fairytales, were seen as a form of escapism from the harsh reality of people s lives. In another segment of the film, when Billy s father finds him dancing on Christmas night at the gymnasium with his friend, instead of succumbing to his father s objections, Billy bursts into a powerful segment of dancing, which was strong, uplifted, together with jumps and turns. This was almost like an open confrontation between Billy and his father, except not verbally. That dance segment portrayed a two-sided representation of Billy s emotions, one of frustration, with the circumstances and with not being able to dance fr eely, and at the same time, one that seemed to help him express what he could not through words, his love for dance. This was shown through his movements which were heavier and more grounded than when he was dancing to I love to boogie , his inspiration for the audition piece. Though there were jumps in the sequence, they were executed with a strong intention of frustration and desired release from being bound to his father s expectations of carrying on family traditions as a boxer and objections of being a ballet dancer. The unwillingness of Billy s father also revealed something intriguing about the situation, in relation to the political climate at that time. The governing party of England at that time was the Conservative Party, led by Margaret Thatcher. The ideology that followed with such a leadership was conservatism. Conservatism is a political and social ideology that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions as well as to limit change, or at its best, allow minimal and gradual change in society. This ideology could be seen to have set its roots in the lives of the characters in the film. The strike was an obvious resistance to a significant impending change, the closing down of 20 coal mines and causing the massive loss of jobs. This philosophical idea also had its social impacts on the characters in the story. One of the core reasons for the objection of Billy s father to him dancing was the notion that male dancers were poofs , or simply put, homosexual. Billy s friend Michael w as such a representation, who began showing signs of cross-dressing and homosexuality at a young age. However, the important thing to note was that Michael was not a dancer, placing an immediate call to relook this so-called social phenomenon. This phenomenon, or rather, broad generalization of male dancers, had painted a negative image of males doing this art form and coming back to the ideology of conservatism, Billy s father was simply not ready for a change in mindset about such a phenomenon that had already been etched in his mind. The influence of Fred Astaire was another aspect that had an impact on the choreography of Billy Elliot s dance segments in the film. Rock was the main genre of music popular at that time but Billy Elliot was influenced more by Fred Astaire, who was popular among Billy s mother and grandmother s generation. Fred Astaire was a broadway dancer and choreographer. Though there were no details about how Billy Elliot knew how to tap dance, in many segments where he was dancing, whether out of frustration, happiness or the desire for freedom, his steps incorporated a certain jazzy and broadway style to it. The film, Billy Elliot, was put in the context of many issues that would have surrounded someone who lived in a middle class family, even more so if they were miners and involved the 1984 Miners Strike. The governing party of England at that time played an important role in shaping the mindset of people with the ideology of conservatism, the social and cultural influences revealed its impact on Billy Elliot s dancing as a young boy and ultimately, Billy was motivated by a desire for freedom, breaking away from social norms and standing out as an individual. All of these ideas displayed in Billy s behaviour were formed and passed on from predecessors such as Aristotle, who believed in a society open to ideas and disagreements, as well as John Locke, who was an important figure in the history of freedom. It is through the embodiment of such ideas through the characters in the film, including Billy s father, his brother and even his ballet teacher s family, that gives us a glimpse of th e life and thoughts of those living during the Miners Strike.

Arguments For and Against Minimum Wage in the US

Arguments For and Against Minimum Wage in the US Patrick Tawadros, Corinne Dexter, Mark Hanna, Yuanwen Dong Mediated Speech Outline Minimum Wage I. Introduction In this country, regardless of views and opinions, the controversial topic of minimum wage has resounding effects on workers, businesses, and consumers alike. We will try to parse out the gory details by debating the pros and cons of: increasing the minimum wage. We have done extensive research, as well as worked our fair share of minimum wage jobs giving us the ability to speak confidently on matters related to minimum wage. Its likely most of you have minimum wage jobs giving you something to relate. If you dont work for minimum wage you are probably still a consumer and thus either through wage increases or cost increases the results of this debate will have an impact in your life. There are strong arguments both for and against raising the minimum wage including The potential to improve health, academics, and reduce crime rates. The potential to lead to a spike in unemployment The potential to reduce poverty levels And finally the potential to lower demand How might just a few dollars do all this? Well lets start with the first: health academics and crime. II. Body Pro Argument 1 (PATRICK TAWADROS): Increasing the minimum wage would have positive health effects, improve academics in the overall sense, and reduce crime rates. Increasing minimum wage sustains a healthy population and lowers mortality. In a study done by Rajiv Bhatia, MD, on the California minimum wage, it was found that a higher minimum wage would ultimately allow workers to have enough to eat, be more likely to exercise, and even prevent premature deaths (Bhatia). In another study conducted by Barhii, he concluded that policies that reduce poverty and raise wages of low-income people can be expected to significantly improve overall health and reduce health inequities (Barhii). To add to the added health benefits, increasing minimum wage would increase school attendance, while simultaneously decreasing high school dropout rates. Teens living in poverty are twice as likely to miss 3 or more days of school per month when compared to teens who do not live in poverty (Bhatia). A higher minimum wage would reduce crime. In a study done by the Executive Office of the Presidents Council of Economic Advisors, it was found that by raising minimum wage to $12 by the year 2020 that there would be a three to five percent crime decrease. This is primarily due to the fact that higher wages provide viable and sustainable employment. (Executive Office of the President) In another study conducted at the University of Virginia, it was found that an increase in wages is associated with a reduction in property-related crimes. (Fernandez) Response to pro argument (con) (YUANWEN): At first glance, the increasing of minimum wage would allow people of lower incomes to live a better life. But increasing minimum wages adds many potential threats to the equilibrium of the free market. The net effect of this interference is not necessarily good. To specify, increasing minimum wage will cause higher unemployment rate, and has no significant links to lowering the crimes.. There is few evidence to show that there is a link between the increasing of minimum wages and decreasing of crime rates. According to a study conducted by Boston College in 2013, crime will increase by 1.9 percentage points among 14-30 year-olds as the minimum wage increases.' (Fuller). Due to the higher unemployment rate caused by the increasing of minimum wage, some of the next generation will not be able to afford the education. In 2009, a study by the American Journal of Economics and Sociology discovered that in Maryland, a 25-percent increase in the real minimum wage was associated with a 0.55 percent increase in the dropout rate for Hispanic students. (Crofton, Anderson, and Rawe). Con argument (YUANWEN): On the contrary, increasing the minimum wage would force business to lay off more employees to save budgets and raise the unemployment rates. Sub point 1: Increasing minimum wage will raise the cost of businesses, lower their employment levels, and cause higher unemployment rate. Raising minimum wage will increase the cost of businesses, forcing businesses to lay off more employees. The Congressional Budget Office predicted a $7.25 to $10.10 minimum wage increase could potentially cost 500,000 jobs. (Congressional Budget Office). Increasing minimum wages will lower the willingness of businesses to hire more employers, due to the rise of the cost. There was a survey conducted of 1,213 businesses and human resources professionals and 38% of the employers who payed minimum wage said they would resort to letting go some employees if it was raised to $10.10. Among them 54% said they would decrease hiring levels (Kast). Statistically, comparing to countries that do not have minimum wage policy, countries with minimum wage policy have higher rate of unemployment. In 2014, Steve H. Hanke, Professor of Applied Economics at Johns Hopkins University, conducted a survey of the 21 European Union countries that had a minimum wage and discovered they had an average unemployment rate of about 11.8%, which was a third higher than the 7.9% average in the remaining EU countries with no minimum wage (Hanke). Sub point 2: Increasing minimum wage will put lower-skilled worker at a disadvantage, since the rise of wage exposes those lower-skilled to the same competition with those more skilled. Raising minimum wage will put lower-skilled workers at disadvantages. From an employers point of view, people of lower skills do not justify the rise of minimum wages, but they have no choice but to join the competition with the more skilled, if minimum wages are increased. James Dorn stated that a minimum wage increase by 10% leads to a 1-3% decrease in employment of low-skilled workers in the short term, and to a larger decrease in the long run (Dorn). Increasing minimum wages puts lower-skilled workers at a disadvantages by forcing them to be exposed to the same competition with people who are more skilled. George Reisman stated that if the minimum wage was increased to $10.10, jobs that presently pay $7.25 had to pay $10.10, than workers who previously would not have considered those jobs because of their ability to earn $8, $9, or $10 per hour, will now consider them. The effect is to expose the workers whose skills do not exceed a level corresponding to $7.25 per hour to the competition of better educated, more skilled workers presently able to earn wage rates ranging from just above $7.25 to just below $10.10.' (Reisman). Response to con argument (CORINNE): Despite the claim of a rise in unemployment, studies on past minimum wage hikes have shown little effect on unemployment in both federal mandated and state mandated hikes. Sub point 1: A case study of the fast food industry which compared two states, New Jersey and Pennsylvania after New Jersey increased the minimum wage, and Pennsylvania did not, showed that there is no evidence that the rise in New Jerseys minimum wage reduced employment at fast-food restaurants in the state' (Card, Krueger). The department of labor statistics further contends that in 65 years of federal minimum wage hikes, unemployment rates in the past have generally gone down, or stayed the same after increases in the minimum wage with only one exception in the 70s and that unemployment spike is linked to other causes such as recession and an energy crisis (Real Minimum Wage). History shows that it safe to assume that if anything a higher minimum wage will put more money in peoples pockets to be used for discretionary spending which will stimulate the market or keep it the same, but not increase unemployment. Pro argument (CORINNE): What, hoever, minimum wage increases always do, is reduce poverty and in turn reduce government spending. Sub point 1: Currently, the minimum wage is not enough to live on. The economic policy institute using government sources found that the average cost of living in the U.S., excluding discretionary spending is roughly $50,000 more than what a minimum-wage worker earns (Cooper). As a result many people are either barely making it by, or are below the poverty line entirely and relying on government assistance to do so. In the 2014 Congressional Budget Office report, it showed that increasing the minimum wage to $9 would lift 300,000 people out of poverty, while raising it to $10.10 would bring 900,000 people out of poverty (Congressional Budget Office). Accounting for inflation minimum wage should actually be even higher at $10.52 or more depending on where someone lives implying that poverty rates could shrink even lower with a more aggressive raise (Cooper). Sub point 2: By helping families survive off the the diligent work that they do we are also helping the taxpayer burden. It was reported in 2014 by The Center for American Progress that by raising the minimum wage to $10.10, SNAP spending would decline by $4.6 billion (West, Reich). Likewise The Economic Policy Institute found out that by making the minimum wage to be $10.10, at least 1.7 million Americans would not depend on government assistance programs (Cooper). The wage increase would save $7.6 billion on annual government spending for income-support programs (Cooper). This money could either go back into the pockets of the everyday person or be used for other beneficial programs. Response to pro argument (MARK HANNA): Unfortunately a decrease in government spending for income support programs could lead to unintended negative sideeffects down the road for the poor and unemployed. People who have then been laid off would suffer from reductions in benefits because of congressional budget cuts to programs such as the supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP, formerly called food stamps), temporary assistance for needy families (TANF), the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), child-care subsidies, housing vouchers, and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) due to the benefit rates fading as income rises (Sherk, 2013). Those people still employed would be able to afford more so the need for these programs would diminish and as more people will have to use those defunded programs as unemployment increases, poverty will rise as the budget will not be able to support them (Sherk, 2013). The standard of living will also increase as minimum wage increases. In a study conducted by Purdue Universitys School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, they found that increasing wages to $22 an hour raises consumer prices by 25% (McClure, 2015). Con argument (MARK HANNA): Thus, raising the minimum wage would actually lower demand for market development and products as a result of higher prices, resulting in negative long term outcomes for families and the economy. Studies show that if the minimum wage was to increase from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour, the demand for workers would decrease and many people would get laid off. Meanwhile, those who were not laid off pay 15% more on payroll and income taxes for each additional dollar that is added to the minimum wage (Sherk, 2013). This decrease in demand will have unavoidable negative consequences for unskilled workers and their families in the long run in the form of less opportunity for employment and skill acquisition. Chaplin, Mark, and Andreas (2003) found through a study they conducted that increasing the minimum wage would lower the continuation rate for grades 9-12 in states with dropout ages under 18. Raising the minimum wage will cause demand to fall for what James and Mary Kau (1973) call industrial incentive, which is described as the incentive for industry to progress itself forward. This fall in incentive was documented in a study conducted by Van Sickle (1946), where he found that the south was booming with industrialization for a few decades then plummeted after the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed. The rising costs created by low demand for work would also impede competition, as the cost of production of goods from the south to the north would increase (Kau Kau, 1973). Response to con argument (PATRICK TAWADROS): Long term effects of the minimum wage being increased do not affect educational opportunities for teen workers and do not hurt demand for consumer goods. In an journal article by Warren and Hamrock (2010), they describe how the effects of a minimum wage increase would not impact teen workers who were not already doing poorly academically as others say it may. They claim it would only impact those who would have had a history of failure; who are not engaged in meaningful extracurricular, social or athletic activities in school; and, perhaps most importantly, who are in a position to meaningfully increase their levels of labor market participation (Warren Hamrock, 2010). They continue to state that if the raise would impact a certain educational subset, it would be those students who are competing with adults for jobs and/or who would be dropouts either way (Warren Hamrock, 2010). Minimum wage increases do not impact market development as innovation has always been outrunning minimum wage increases. This is shown in an article published by The Economist (2015), stating that in most developed countries minimum wages rise with income levels, but in America that is not the case, as one would think that in a country with a GDP of $53,000 per person, the minimum wage should be at least $12 an hour, but it is not. Therefore, because it has not kept up with income rises, it cannot be safely said that raising the minimum wage kills innovation. Thus far, what have we learned from our discussion? Lets recap. III. Conclusion: Ultimately, increasing minimum wage could reduce poverty, hence, improving health, academic performance, and decreasing crime rates. However, on the other hand, increasing minimum wage could pressure business to lay off employees and could decrease demand for labor and products. Regardless of perspective, the controversial and divisive topic of minimum wage is a far reaching issue in the United States of America and so it is important to weigh all sides equally to come to a balanced conclusion. Works Cited Patricks Pro Argument Sources Executive Office of the President, Council of Economic Advisors, Economic Perspectives on Incarceration and the Criminal Justice System, whitehouse.gov, Apr. 2016 Fernandez, J., Holman, T., Pepper, J. V. (2014). The Impact of Livingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Wage Ordinances on Urban Crime. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 53(3), 478-500. Rajiv Bhatia, Health Impacts of Raising Californias Minimum Wage, Human Impact Partners website, May 2014 Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative (BARHII) The Minimum Wage and Health: A Bay Area Analysis, barhii.org, Oct. 2014 Warren, J., Hamrock, C. (2010). The Effect of Minimum Wage Rates on High School Completion. Social Forces, 88(3), 1379-1392. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/stable/40645895 The Economist. (2015, May 20). Pay dirt. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/05/minimum-wages Corinnes Pro Sources: Card, D., Krueger, A. B. (2000). Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania: Reply. American Economic Review,90(5), 1397-1420. doi:10.1257/aer.90.5.1397 Cooper, David. Raising the Federal Minimum Wage to $10.10 Would Save Safety Net Programs Billions and Help Ensure Businesses Are Doing Their Fair Share. Issue brief no. 387. New York: Economic Policy Institute, 2014. Print. Real Minimum Wage Rate vs Unemployment Rates January 1950 to January 2013 [Chart]. (2013.). In Bureau of Labor Statistics . Reich, Michael, and Rachel West. The Effects of Minimum Wages on Food Stamp Enrollment and Expenditures. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society 54.4 (2015): 668-94. Web. The Effects of Minimum-Wage Increase on Employment and Family Income. Rep. no. 4856. N.p.: Congressional Budget Office, 2014. Print. Yuanwens Con Sources: Congressional Budget Office, The Effects of Minimum-Wage Increase on Employment and Family Income, cbo.gov, Feb. 2014 Kast, S., New Express Employment Professionals Survey of Employers Shows 38% of Those Who Pay Minimum Wage Will Lay Off Workers If Wage Is Hiked, prweb.com, Mar. 19, 2014 Hanke, S.H., Let the Data Speak: The Truth Behind Minimum Wage Laws, Cato Institute website, Apr. 2014 Dorn, J., The Minimum Wage Delusion, and the Death of Common Sense, Forbes, May 7, 2013 Reisman, G., How Minimum Wage Laws Increase Poverty, Mises Institute website, Apr. 4, 2014 Crofton, S.O., Anderson, W.L., Rawe, E.C., Do Higher Real Minimum Wages Lead to More High School Dropouts? Evidence from Maryland across Races, 1993-2004, American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Apr. 2009 Fuller, D., Multilevel Study Finds No Link Between Minimum Wage and Crime Rates, uc.edu, Nov 18, 2013 Marks Con Sources Sherk, J. (2013, June 25). What is Minimum Wage: Its History and Effects on the Economy. Retrieved from http://www2.heritage.org/research/testimony/2013/06/what-is-minimum-wage-its-history-and-effects-on-the-economy Chaplin, D. D., Turner, M. D., Pape, A. D. (2003). Minimum wages and school enrollment of teenagers: a look at the 1990s. Economics of Education Review, 22(1), 11-21. Van Sickle, John, Geographical Aspects of a Minimum Wage, Harvard Business Review, XXIV (Spring 1946), 288. Kau, J., Mary L. Kau. (1973). Social Policy Implications of the Minimum Wage Law. Policy Sciences, 4(1), 21-27. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/stable/4531512 McClure, G. (2015, July 27). Study: Raising wages to $15 an hour for limited-service restaurant employees would raise prices 4.3 percent. Retrieved from http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2015/Q3/study-raising-wages-to-15-an-hour-for-limited-service-restaurant-employees-would-raise-prices-4.3-percent.html

Plath’s Daddy Essays: Language in Plath’s Daddy :: Plath Daddy Essays

Language in Plath’s Daddy The speaker of "Daddy" might be seen as our collective inner child, the voice of a world that has "fallen a long way." There is an implied gain in the poem -- of catharsis, liberation -- but "Daddy" is fundamentally a poem about loss. The speaker has finally and irrevocably disabused herself of the notion of a "recovered" childhood, the dream of "the waters off beautiful Nauset." There is no going "back, back, back" to some illusory idyllic existence, no way to make whole that "pretty red heart": the first oppressor in this poem is the unrealized past ("You died before I had time--"). The poem exemplifies this in its form, the nursery-rhyme sound, the ooh, ooh, ooh of the end rhymes, so jarring in contrast with its substance, its images of stark brutality. Childhood and innocence are corrupted herein by the inescapable internalization of "wars, wars, wars." Conventional images have undergone a desecration: "Not God but a swastika"; not father but devil; not husband but vampire. Langu age, rather than a means of connection, has become an obstacle, confining the self ("The tongue stuck in my jaw. / It stuck in a barb wire snare. Ich, ich, ich, ich . . . ") Language, as a conveyor of images, is itself the subject of this poem -- the "foot" in line three is as much metrical as it is metaphorical, one could argue. Plath's "Colossus," her apprenticeship in the Western poetic tradition, with this poem is junked in the "freakish Atlantic," just another thrown off oppressor. The language of this world has conveyed the speaker to a place of horrors: "obscene," it is "An engine, an engine / Chuffing me off like a Jew. / A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen." In this sense, Plath's appropriation of Holocaust imagery, much castigated, must be seen as subsequent to that imagery's appropriation of her -- and, by extension, of us all. Plath demonstrates in this poem that the horrors of history are fundamentally personal, that human history is simply personal! history writ large, that the brutalities of the age inform every childhood, that the notion of innocence is a sham, a game of cowboys and Indians, to use a less highly charged analogy, against a backdrop of the Trail of Tears.

Human Influenced Climate Change :: Global Warming Essays

Arguments Against Climate Change These are some of the arguments used to prevent effective action on climate change. Climate change is not occurring This was the original argument used by the carbon industry to discredit climate change and global warming. Today the vast majority of world experts on climatic issues agree that it is changing, and that the evidence is there for everyone to witness. Climate change is good for us A more recent argument used by the carbon industry to confuse the issue of climate change and global warming with the intention of stopping effective action on climate change. Their approach falls into two categories: 1. CO2 fertilisation This concept relates to the fact that CO2 is sometimes a limiting growth factor for plants. The theory goes that with increases in atmospheric CO2 our agriculture will become much more productive. However, the storms, floods, fire and drought that are already playing havoc with agriculture are likely to have a significant negative impact, along with the longer term flooding of coastal areas. 2. Some parts of the world will be better to live in In theory some parts of the world might benefit, from a human point of view, due to global warming. However, at current rates of warming, local ecosystems will collapse and any objective measure of global benefits versus suffering would show much more suffering than benefits gained. Climate change is natural, therefore we should do nothing Climate change is natural and natural climate change is occurring constantly. However, natural climate change has been overtaken by human induced climate change which is causing the majority of climate change we are seeing today. Even if the climate change we are seeing today was totally natural, the disastrous impact is already being felt. It's unclear how much of today's climate change is caused by humans, therefore we don't really know if we should do anything Similar to the above argument and equally nonsensical. We can see and feel the impacts of our changing climate and we should do something about it regardless of the cause. The climate has been much hotter/colder in the past This argument suggests that because the climate has been more extreme in the past we shouldn't worry about it changing. It conveniently ignores the fact that if we reached either past climate extreme, much of our society and ecology would not survive. Climate change has been faster in the past Well it hasn't for the last 800,000 years. Ice core data shows that the fastest rate of CO2 increase over the last 800,000 years was 30 ppm in 1000 years.

Opening up the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Essay -- Enviro

Opening up the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Many preconceived notions exist in the realm of environmental policy. Decisions are constantly made that effect human health or environmental integrity in order to reap great economic benefits for the many. Often these choices compromise the role of human beings as environmental stewards of the planet. It is my attempt in this paper to outline the development of a very controversial part of the proposed comprehensive energy policy: the opening of the Alaskan Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling. I will introduce the case by offering some background of the situation followed by an analysis of pertinent economic, ethical, social, and ecological issues. I will present the actors and their respective positions and investigate how they interacted with the rules, regulations, and laws that govern the policy. I will finally discuss what the potential alternatives are and what lessons are being learned. Background The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge of Northeastern Alaska, which stretches for 20 million acres across a fragile tundra landscape, is home to over 350 (nearly extinct) musk ox and 180 bird species, which migrate from even Argentina or Chile. It is the largest Polar Bear denning area in the United States, offers calving ground for the 129,000-member herd of Porcupine Caribou, and supports among the largest populations of grizzly bears, wolves and moose (Student Pirg’s 2001). It remains one of the most pristine areas on the planet and is especially sensitive to environmental pollution due to the slow growth rate of the ecosystem. The Refuge was first established in 1952 in a joint effort between biologist Lowell Summer and National Park Servi... ...Washington. Murphy, Kim. In Alaska, the Hunt for Oil, Gas only Begins at Wildlife Refuge; Energy: High Prices, Pro-Business Government Fuel the Drive for Drilling Activists are Gearing Up. Los Angeles Times February 6, 2001. Nuclear Energy Institute. URL: http://www.nei.org/ Student PIRG’s. Save America’s Arctic. www.pirg.org/enviro/arctic/index.html Time Magazine. How Much is Under the Tundra? Time Inc. 2/19/2001, Vol. 157 Issue 7. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2001. Potential impacts of proposed oil and gas development on the Arctic Refuge’s coastal plain: Historical overview and issues of concern. Web page of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Fairbanks, Alaska. 17 January 2001. http://arctic.fws.gov/issues1.html Verhovek, Sam Howe. Drill, Say Alaskans, Who Know Their Pockets Are Lined With Oil. New York Times: Anchorage. March 15, 2001.

The Role of a Critical Care Nurse

In the article, Legal Aspects of End of Life Care. author, Nurse Claire M. McGowan, explains that when performing the role of a critical care nurse acting as the advocate for the patient, his/her family, and significant others, it Is essential that the nurse has an understanding of legal implications associated with end of life care. McGowan goes on to provide information on the legal principles involved In end-of-life care, specifically addressing: limitations in treatment, assessing capacity and using surrogate decision makers and medical futility.In order to explain limitations in reatment, McGowan begins by listing what the courts have established as Ilfe sustaining treatments which include: mechanical ventilation, blood transfusions, dialysis, chemotherapy, artificial nutrition, and hydration. Although a competent or incompetent terminally ill patient with advances directives has the right has to refuse these treatments, there are rare cases when the state court may override tha t right: preservation of life, prevention of suicide, protection of third parties such as children, and preserving the Integrity of the medical profession (McGowan, 2011).Next, ccording to McGowan, if a patient is deemed incompetent the patient may be assigned a surrogate to make decisions on their behalf with respect to their advance directives. If a there is no advanced directive or surrogate appointed to the patient then the medical team may determine the plan of care for the patient (McGowan, 2011 Lastly, McGowan addresses medical futility, defined, as such, when treatment is no longer deemed a benefit to the patient. According to McGowan, arriving at this determination and accepting futility Is often stressful, inciting disagreements between the patients/surrogates and medical professionals involved.In order to resolve conflicting Interests, McGowan suggests a variety of methods that can be utilized to improve communication between the two parties including: making attempts to negotiate understanding between parties as to what constitutes futile care before conflict arises, using joint decision making, and using consultants to reach satisfactory resolution of disagreements. If these methods fail to help unite the parties' decision an ethics committee may be utilized to reach a determination, the patient may be transferred to another medical provider within the institution or to another Institution altogether (McGowan, 2011).In my opinion, Nurse McGowan clearly presented how important it is for a critical care nurse to have a working knowledge of the legal aspects of end of life care and how he/she can help to make sure that the patient's rights are respectfully carried out either directly or indirectly during end of life. After reading this article, It was impressed upon me that since the nurse is the main point of contact with the patient, family, and significant others during treatment, It becomes the responsibility of the nurse to help mediate conflict s that may arise during care, in order to protect the patient's best interests.

International studies-global childhood Essay

This article written about the number of children who die on daily basis from various reasons is intended to inform the general globe community of the deaths so that appropriate measures can be taken to counter the trend. Anup points out that this is a global issue as it affects everybody in the world in regard to social, political, economical and environmental aspects. According to me, child mortality or the death of children is a global issue which should be ignored but instead should be given a priority by every authority since it affects virtually everyone either directly or directly (Shah, 2010). Just as Anup states in the Article, the number of children who die on daily basis is a matter of international concern. Anup further outlines the importance of understanding the issue of child mortality. He points out that the child mortality rate is significant in that it is a gauge to assess the general wellbeing of children and specifically the child health. To begin with, Anup mentions that it evaluates the end results of the development process of a country rather than the input. It evaluates concepts like the capital calorie accessible or the ratio of medical personnel to the population which are an essential towards achieving positive child welfare (Shah, 2010). Anup notes that child mortality rate is dependent on a number of factors which include nutritional status and the mothers ‘knowledge on health matters, the degree of immunization and the accessibility of maternal and child health services. Other determinants of child mortality rate are availability of food and clean and safe drinking water. The entire safety of the child’s environment also contributes to child mortality rate (Shah, 2010). Child mortality rate is not affected by mathematical computations like average. GNI per capita for instance will be affected by average because the natural scale places the children wealth people at a 1,000 times chance of surviving as although the human-designed scale which does not place them at equal position in regard to income (Shah, 2010). This information including the figure is accurate and reliable since it has been summarized from UNICEF findings. A do agree with Anup that this is enough justification of the significance of understanding child mortality. This is particularly because UNICEF is very elaborate on child issues and usually provides relevant and accurate information concerning children issues (Shah, 2010). The writer compares the figure of the number of children who die on daily basis with well known world disasters in order to create a clear picture of the issue in question. Anup equates the figure to the number of people who succumbed to the 2010 Haiti earthquake if had to occur every 9-10 days and the 2004 Asian tsunami if it were to occur every ten days (Shah, 2010). The writer has further justified his report by quoting the sources of the data that he used for comparison. The figure of the number of the victims who died from the Haiti earthquake was taken from the reliable BBC reports (BBC, 2010). He converts the figure to various ratios in order to bring out a more concrete outline of the seriousness of the issue. For instance he mentions that the 24,000 children dying every minute is equivalent to a single child dying after every 3. 6 seconds or close to 9 million children dying in each year. According to Anup, 79 million children died between the years 2000 and 2007 (Shah, 2010). He has used various simple graphs to illustrate the trend of child mortality rate. The causes of this large number of deaths are poverty, hunger and certain diseases and illness that that can either be cured or prevented (Shah, 2010). The writer is also surprised at the manner in which this disaster is not in the headlines. He mentions that just as the global community responds to other disasters like the disastrous earthquakes, it should respond similarly to the escalating child mortality rates (Shah, 2010). I support the writer in this aspect because little has been documented on child mortality rates. This has further worsened the problem because many authorities, agencies or organizations that could offer significant help to bring this disaster under control have completely ignored the issue or have not taken it with the seriousness it deserves. This is partly because the issue is not found in the headlines (Shah, 2010). Conclusion I support Anup’s report that the issue of child mortality rate has not been taken with the magnitude that it deserves by the world’s authorities, agencies and any relevant organization. This issue should be regarded as a disaster because the number of children dying every day from the various causes is even larger than that resulting from some of the world’s worst tragedies like the Haiti earthquake (BBC, 2010). The issue is rarely placed in the headlines and thus fails to attract the appropriate attention. Child mortality rate is very important in assessing the general wellbeing of children. Child mortality rate further affects political, social, political and environmental issues in the globe either in a direct or an indirect manner (Global issues, 2010).

“Anak” reaction paper Essay

1. Based on the film Anak, what specific issues do OFW (Overseas Filipino Worker) parents and their children face? Give three concrete examples. a. Unfamiliarity of family members and change in behavior i. In one of the first few scenes of the movie, Josie arrives in the Philippines. A friend and her children greet her but she does not notice her children right away. She gracefully greets her children the moment that she found out that it was infact them already all grown up. Since she was abroad for a very long time, her children didn’t know how to react to her gracefulness and felt a little awkward, especially for Daday, the youngest of her three children, whom she left at a very early age. So there is an unfamiliarity of the face and ofcourse in behavior. Children grow up and eventually get used to not being around their OFW parents so their behavior towards them also change. b. Struggle to reconnect to one another i. It was also evident in the movie that the children were struggling to be open to Josie, most especially Carla. Carla felt like her mother betrayed her by not coming back home and not calling them when she was gone. So she grew up not having a mother who would look out for her and teach her the good values that she needed. Carla ended up being influenced by the wrong people. When her mother finally came home, she felt like her mother was not part of her life anymore and just stopped caring about her. She never told her stories of what happened to her life. Also, Michael had a struggle to tell her that his full scholarship got voided, and Daday had a hard time being comfortable with Josie. All this is due to the experiences of Josie’s children that she missed. She wasn’t able to be there for her children during the times wherein they needed her the most. So the children lost their sense of security and struggled to get it back. c. Living in the Philippines i. As simple as it sounds, I believe that OFWs find it very hard to live in the Philippines again. Just like in the movie, Josie and her friends’ taxi  business was not that successful. It also affects the lifestyle of the children just like how Josie had to pay Michael’s full tuition fee for him to study in school. She used the business’ money to pay for that. Aside from the struggle to reconnect, this is an additional burden for OFWs so sometimes, like in Josie’s case, they go back abroad and just try to get a more decent job from there, and once again, away from the family. 2. How do transnational families (families with OFWs or migrant workers) challenge stereotypes or images of the traditional family? a. I think they just try their best to live a normal life. When it comes to communicating with the OFW parents, they see to it that they make use of any kind of communication like letters, phone calls, and in this current generation, we have video calling. They do this so that they feel like their parents’ are with them and their connection with them won’t be broken. In the movie, it was seen the Josie’s bosses hindered her from talking to her family at home and also from going back home to the Philippines when her husband died. So, the connection between Josie and her children got broken ever since that happened. 3. What other issues confronting the family were present in the film? Justify your answer by giving concrete examples. a. One of the issues in the film is Carla’s involvement with illegal substance and teenage pregnancy. She does this to cope with her tough experiences. She mentioned in the movie that she was like that because she never had a mother to tell her not to do those kinds of stuff. She never had a mother’s security that’s why she felt like she can single-handedly do stuff without the permit of anyone. b. Another issue is the struggle to keep up with local business. This was seen when both of Josie’s friends backed out of the taxi business due to financial problems. This, and family issues, left Josie no choice but to just go back to Hong Kong and work there again. 4. Give two concrete recommendations to solve problems confronting transnational families and/or other family-related problems that were present in the film. a. There should always be communication between the OFW parent and his or her family members. With this, they are updated about each other’s lives and they are connected. Also, the children will still somehow feel the security of the  parents even though they’re not physically with them. b. Try to visit as much as possible. Even though there is communication, seeing a loved one personally is still better. There is more shared experienced when an OFW parent is physically with his or her children and therefore, there is a stronger bond among them.

Arming Teachers Essay

â€Å"The vast majority of teachers want to be armed with textbooks and computers, not guns,† said Kenneth S. Trump, President of National School Safety and Security Services, in response to the national discussion on arming teachers and school staff, and armed volunteers in schools. Trump advises school districts against allowing teachers and school staff to be armed. Trump says that while gun control and gun rights advocates typically seize on school proposals to arm teachers to further political agendas, his opposition to arming teachers and school staff focuses solely on implementation issues, not political statements and beliefs about rights to bear arms. â€Å"School districts considering arming teachers and school staff with guns would take on significant responsibility and potential liabilities that I firmly believe are beyond the expertise, knowledge-base, experience, and professional capabilities of most school boards and administrators,† Trump said. He added that school board members, superintendents, principals, teachers, school safety experts, and public safety officials he has talked with around the nation consistently do not believe that educators and school support staff should be armed. Trump, a 25-year veteran school safety expert who has trained and consulted with school and public safety officials from all 50 states and Canada, noted that school districts setting policy to allow teachers and school staff to be armed with guns would take on an enormous amount of responsibility and potential liability. Trump says allowing teachers and school staff to be armed begs a number of questions: Does the school board have appropriate and adequate policies and procedures governing the carrying and use of firearms by teachers and school staff? What type of â€Å"use of force continuum† has the school district created for staff to use firearms? How does that stand up in comparison to such standards held for police officers and others who are armed and deployed in a public safety capacity? What types of firearms (types of guns, caliber of weapons, etc.) are staff allowed to carry and not allowed to carry? Will staff carry their own personal firearms or school district-issued firearms? If the school allows staff to carry their personal weapons for the purpose of protecting staff and students, what responsibilities do school boards and administrators thereby assume for making sure the firearms carried are functional? Does the school district have regular â€Å"inspections† of staff firearms to make sure they are functional and appropriate to policy, and if so, who on school staff is responsible for that function and what is their level of expertise and training to make such decisions? What type of firearms training does the school district provide on a regular, ongoing basis to those staff it authorizes to be armed with guns? Will the school district build and operate its own firearms range? Who on school staff is qualified to provide such training, operate a firearms range, etc.? Will firearms certification and recertification be added to the school district’s professional development training program each year? What type of weapons retention training has been provided to staff who are armed and what steps have been taken to reduce risks of a teacher or staff member being intentionally disarmed by a student or other person, or for having a firearm dislodged from a staff member’s control when the teacher breaks up a fight in a cafeteria or hallway? How is the district prepared to prevent and manage situations where teachers and/or staff members lose, misplace, or have stolen their firearms while on campus? How will the school district manage an accidental shooting that could occur? What is the impact of this type of board policy and practice on the school district’s insurance and potential legal liability posture? If self-insured, is the district able to handle potential lawsuit judgments against them for cases resulting from this practice? If insured by a private carrier, what is the insurance provider’s position and concerns, or will they even insure the district for such a practice? Most importantly, what other options have we considered as school leaders? For example, if the school district is concerned about first responder response time from the community to the school, has the school district considered employing a school resource officer (SRO) or its own trained, commissioned and certified school police officer who is a school district employee, such as what is allowed in Texas, Florida and other states, and many other considerations. Trump has long supported school districts having school resource officers (SROs) who are city or county law enforcement officers assigned to work in schools. He also supports properly organized and operated school police departments, which are in-house school district police officers that are trained, commissioned, and certified professional peace officers in school districts where state law allows districts to have such departments. Trump says that the arming of teachers and school staff goes is a significantly different issue that goes beyond simply the issue of an individual’s right in a number of states to be licensed to carry a concealed weapon. Unlike an individual being trained and licensed under a state law to carry a firearm for personal protection at their home or on the streets, school districts that permit teachers and school staff to carry firearms on campus are in essence deploying those school employees in a public safety capacity to protect the masses with the expectation and assumption that they can and will provide a firearms-related level of public safety protection services to students and other staff. By tasking those employees with those responsibilities, Trump notes, the school district is also accepting responsibility and potential liability for implementation of such policies. â€Å"There is a huge difference between having trained, certified and commissioned law enforcement officers who are full-time, career public safety professionals that are armed and assigned the duty of protecting students and staff versus having teachers, custodians, cafeteria workers and other non-public safety professionals packing a gun in school with hundreds of children,† said Trump.