Prufrock Answers Essays

Prufrock Answers Essays Prufrock Answers Essay Prufrock Answers Essay † indicating that he is worried that all of life’s mysteries (the fog, murder, creation) will be over once he has made it to his destination. There will be â€Å"time yet for a hundred indecisions† he tells himself, afraid that he is going to lose the luxury of infinite possibility. He knows, though, that time will narrow his possibilities down one by one, systematically making each possibility real or not real: having already seen the eternal Footman, Death, he is familiar that there will not be time for everything. Although Prufrock is not sure that he wants to commit to comfort, a world of â€Å"sunsets and teacups and sprinkled streets,† he knows that the time he has for indecision is not limitless, and he fears that waiting too long will leave him a lonely old man, sitting in the window, smoking. Doubt and Ambiguity Near the end of the poem Prufrock declares, â€Å"I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was I meant to be. † To many, the defining characteristic of Shakespeare’s Hamlet is his inability to conquer or accept his doubts and settle upon one course of action to follow. Having seen Prufrock’s thought process twist throughout stanza after stanza, and having seen him fret over whether the life he is committing to is the one he really wants, or if he has chosen unwisely because of social pressure, or if his body is so worn out that he has no choice left at all, the reader could rightly disagree with him and say â€Å"Yes,† he is too Hamlet. The indecisiveness of Hamlet is clearly there: what he seems to be denying is the â€Å"Prince† part of the identity, as if the title of royalty is too glamorous for a humble fool like himself. Ironically, it is this self-consciousness, this constant reminder that he is a lowly being, that conflicts with his rebellious nature and causes Prufrock the most indecisiveness. Near the middle of the poem his constant questioning of himself takes on a brief pattern: â€Å"how should I presume? † he asks, and after another stanza he asks again, followed at the end of the following stanza with â€Å"should I presume? In this sequence we see that his self-questioning, his long one-man dialogue that is meant to think things through and settle some issues, is actually working backward, taking him further from decision. In this poem the speaker’s doubts do not reach an answer, they just multiply, so when he finally decides to take action it is not with comfort or certainty bu t with regret; he sees his move from contemplation to action as a drowning. Style â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock† begins with an epigraph, a quote that sets the tone for the poem to follow. This epigraph, included in the poem in the original Italian, is from Dante’s Divine Comedy. Its use here emphasizes Eliot’s belief in the instructive function of poetry, as well as his conviction that it was a poet’s responsibility to be aware of and build on the established tradition of poetry. This poem (exclusive of the epigraph) is structured into four sections, with each section separated by an ellipsis, a mark used in conventional punctuation to indicate an omission, but used here to signal either time passing between thoughts relevant to the subject under consideration, or information considered too obvious to be included. Eliot’s belief that â€Å"No verse is free for the serious poet† is apparent in â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. † This poem is written in free verse with varying line lengths, but Eliot employs rhyme as a major structural component in its composition. In fact, in the 131 lines of the main poem structure, only 12 lines are unrhymed. Note the pattern of the rhyme in the first stanza, beginning â€Å"Let us go then, you and I. †: a couplet - an unrhymed line - a series of three couplets - an unrhymed line - a couplet. Such a pattern serves to establish coherence in the stanza, as well as to create a distinctive music. Eliot also found repetition useful to establish rhythms of ideas as well as sound rhythms. Note the repetition of the word â€Å"time† in the two stanzas beginning â€Å"And indeed there will be time. † in the first section. Conventional punctuation and sentence structure are used in this poem, but capital letters at the beginnings of lines stress lineation, thus balancing the importance of the sentence with the importance of the line. While Eliot maintained that poetry should conform to current conversational speech, he emphasized the musical qualities of speech, as well as the imagistic and symbolic possibilities of words, by his use of lineation. The varying line lengths and stanza lengths of this poem are indicative of Eliot’s refusal to impose a form on the thoughts and emotions at the center of the composition. It was not his purpose to discover or create a new form for poetry, but to free the poet from set forms in order to allow each poem to create its own form - in this case a â€Å"love song† which Eliot sings onto the page for the reader. Historical Context In a review of Catholic Anthology 1914-15, edited by the poet Ezra Pound and containing â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,† critic Arthur Waugh noted that if â€Å"the unmetrical, incoherent banalities of these literary ‘Cubists’ were to triumph, the State of Poetry would be threatened with anarchy. † His remarks are clearly intended to frighten lovers of poetry and to dismiss the authors as bungling amateurs. Little could Waugh have guessed that he was identifying the very effects that the poets intended, and that his criticism is only of interest to us today because it signifies that, by the time he was writing, the Modern Age had arrived. Modernism is a blanket term that we use for a great number of artistic and philosophical movements (including Cubism in painting) that were intent on throwing away the old standards and replacing them with work that is closer to the way the people really live and think. This struggle between life and theory has always gone on and continues to this day. In music, for example, rap has been embraced by its listeners as an authentic expression of how people feel, but it is scoffed at by music connoisseurs for its lack of melodic complexity - â€Å"incoherent banalities,† as Waugh would say. After years of being underground and rejected, rap has now reached a level of acceptance that makes it a prime target to be dismantled by the next new upstarts. Similarly, the rise of Modernism was a reaction to Victorianism, which was a reaction to Romanticism, and on throughout history. Since the chain is unbroken, there is no clear place to start tracing Modernism’s roots, but one good place might be in 1798, with the publication of William Wordsworth’s and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads. In response to the formal, strict poetry that had come before him, Wordsworth wrote that poetry should drawn from â€Å"a selection of language really used by man. † Poetry, he felt, was too far out of touch with reality, and he encouraged writers to change the way they thought about their job. Out of this grew the Romantic movement, which included such great early-nineteenth century writers as Keats, Shelley, Byron, Tennyson, Emerson, Melville, Poe, and Dickinson. Romanticism was a spirit of intellectual freedom that affected all areas of society. The individual, especially the artistic individual, was held to be of the highest importance to Romanticism: creativity was worshipped. The last half of the nineteenth century saw the triumph of industry and capitalism, and is considered a less humanistic time. Novels concerned themselves with social structure, and poetry became more formal, more stylized, emphasizing how things were said over what was said. The Industrial Revolution brought trains and eventually automobiles, stepping up the pace of life: reading became less and less relevant, a luxury to be enjoyed by those who were socially comfortable. Throughout the period, though, there were scattered elements that would eventually make it impossible for the forces of social order to hold: Marx and Engels published The Communist Manifesto in 1848; Darwin published Origins of the Species in 1859; Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams came out in 1900. Each of these created a revolution in its own intellectual area and lead to the Modernist suspicion of all previously accepted beliefs. There is no particular philosophy of Modernism, but instead we measure its growth by looking at various revolutionary movements in the arts. In 1909, for instance, the Futurist movement in Italy released its â€Å"Foundation Manifesto of Futurism† (bold artistic movements often announce themselves with manifestoes), praising â€Å"aggressive action, the mutual leap, the punch and slap. † At the same time, Pound fell in with a group of poets in London and discussed principles that eventually became known as Imagism, known for its rejection of poetic conventions. Pound was also instrumental in founding Vorticism, which was based on change and motion and was supposed, Pound said, to â€Å"sweep out the past century as surely as Attila swept across Europe. These three examples of literary movements at the time give us a sense of the new values that came with Modernism: embracing instead of avoiding the industrial world; an emphasis on powerful, not pretty, poetry; a willingness to use any tools and break any rules in order to capture what the world was really like; in general, a devotion to a higher social caus e (think of all of those manifestoes) and an unwillingness to simply create art for its own sake. Criticism Marisa Pagnattaro Marisa Pagnattaro is a freelance writer and is the Book Review Editor and an Editorial Board Member of the Georgia Bar Journal. She is a teaching assistant at the University of Georgia, Athens. In the following essay, Pagnattaro provides a close reading of â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,† emphasizing its comic elements. It is a mistake to approach T. S. Eliot’s â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock† with the same seriousness as for The Waste Land. To enjoy this poem and get the most out of the verse, readers should have a wry sense of humor. Prufrock is an anxiety-filled, insecure, middle-aged bachelor who fears that his expressions of love will be rebuffed. First published in Poetry in 1915, and then collected in Prufrock and Other Observations in 1917, Eliot used the traditional form of the dramatic monologue for the speaker, Prufrock, to express his romantic dilemma. The dramatic monologue is generally associated with nineteenth-century poets such as Robert Browning and Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and is characterized by the voice of a single speaker who reveals something personal to the reader. The memorable title of this poem may have been derived from an advertisement in Eliot’s hometown. In The Invisible Poet: T. S. Eliot, Hugh Kenner revealed that the â€Å"name of Prufrock-Littau, furniture wholesalers, appeared in advertisements in St. Louis, Missouri† at the beginning of this century. Although Eliot claimed that any approbation of the â€Å"now-famous German surname must have been ‘quite unconscious,’† Kenner suggested that this is an early example of the â€Å"rich mischief of Eliot’s mind. By adding â€Å"J. Alfred† to the name, Eliot combines a sense of mysterious dignity to the ridiculousness of â€Å"Prufrock. † Compound this with the title’s claim that the work is a love song, and readers are on their way to appreciate the dry humor underlying this very famous work. The poem opens with an epigram from Dante’s Inferno in which Guido de Montefeltro, who is consumed in flames as punishment for giving false counsel, confesses his shame because he believes that it cannot be reported back on earth. In context, this excerpt is essentially Prufrock’s assurance that he can confide in his reader without fear of shame for what he is about to disclose. And so the poem opens: â€Å"Let us go then, you and I,† which is to say, â€Å"come along and hear my story because I can trust you. The speaker then entreats his reader to join him on an evening stroll, presumably through Boston (where there are â€Å"sawdust restaurants with oyster shells†), but not to ask â€Å"What is it? † just yet. Instead of just laying bare his quandary, the â€Å"overwhelming question,† Prufrock says, â€Å"Let us go and make our visit†; he takes his reader along on a social call to reveal his inadequacies. As the poem progresses, ho wever, it becomes apparent that the â€Å"you-and-I† format begins to collapse and Prufrock is merely talking to himself. Prufrock first travels through the grunge of the city, filled with ellow fog and smoke (not unlike the industrial waste of Eliot’s native St. Louis). Eliot imbues the scene with catlike characteristics, giving the evening a somewhat seductive feline tone: â€Å"The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes†; â€Å"Licked its tongue†; â€Å"Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap† â€Å"Curled once about the house, and fell asleep. † Prufrock next enters into a world of butlers and tea. Here, in an arena of vacuous social chatter, â€Å"the women come and go / talking of Michelangelo. † This is the world of writer Henry James, in which proper etiquette and social grace must prevail. By opening the fourth stanza with â€Å"And indeed there will be time,† Eliot echoes the memorable line â€Å"Had we but world enough and time,† from Andrew Marvell’s seduction poem, â€Å"To His Coy Mistress. † Ironically, Prufrock does not feel compelled to seize the day. There is plenty of time for indecision as Prufrock pictures his mind racing through â€Å"a hundred visions and revisions† in the short span of time between the serving and â€Å"the taking of a toast and tea. † Prufrock repeats his conviction that â€Å"indeed there will be time† to wonder â€Å"‘Do I dare? and ‘Do I dare? † - that is, first, does he dare to make a declaration of love, and, if not, does he then dare to flee down the stairs after he rang the doorbell, knowing that the subject of his affections may spot the â€Å"bald spot in the middle† of his hair. Prufrock makes a desperate attempt to attire himself accordingly and not t o overdo it with his â€Å"necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin. † Yet, in his mind, Prufrock envisions his contemporaries commenting on his deteriorating appearance, imagining the remarks, â€Å"How his hair is growing thin! and â€Å"But how his arms and legs are thin! † Balding and scrawny, the self-deprecating Prufrock again wonders, â€Å"Do I dare / disturb the universe? † In other words, does he dare to shake up the stasis of his social universe by expressing his love? Prufrock falls into a state of melancholy by lamenting that his life may actually be nearly over: â€Å"For I have known them all already, known them all - / Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, / I have measured out my life with coffee spoons. Far from living a life of adventure, Prufrock has played it safe, passing his days sipping coffee. He then attempts to lay himself bare: â€Å"And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin, / When I am pinned and wriggli ng on the wall. † Picturing himself like an insect mounted in an entomologist’s collection, Prufrock wonders where he would begin his story, to tell about â€Å"all the buttends† of his â€Å"days and ways. † After posing the rhetorical question â€Å"And how shall I begin? † Prufrock digresses in the five lines that are bracketed off from the rest of the poem by a series of dots. He reveals his walks in the working-class part of the city, where â€Å"lonely men in shirt-sleeves† are â€Å"leaning out of windows. † Prufrock seems to fear becoming like those forlorn men, isolated from love and left to spend their evenings â€Å"watching the smoke that rises from the pipes. † The dejected Prufrock then declares â€Å"I should have been a pair of ragged claws / Scuttling across the floors of silent seas† as if to say that he would be better off as a carefree crustacean instead of the lovelorn man he has become. When he returns to his monologue, Prufrock flirts with the notion of himself as a heroic character, but dismisses each comparison. First he invokes the image of the prophet John the Baptist who was murdered and his head brought in on a platter to Princess Salome who had requested his death. Prufrock laments that he has seen his â€Å"head grown slightly bald] brought in on a platter,† but acknowledges â€Å"I am no prophet. † He has been slain at the behest of a woman, yet lacks the heroic quality of John the Baptist. In fact, he has seen the â€Å"moment of [his] greatness flicker† when â€Å"the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker†; the hopelessly intimidated Prufrock has been snubbed by arrogant servants at the homes of genteel society where he visits. Next, once again drawing on imagery from Marvell’s poem (â€Å"To have bitten off the matter with a smile, / To have squeezed the universe into a ball†), Prufrock envisions himself as Lazarus, who rose from the dead. He imagines himself returning to the social scene saying, â€Å"‘I am Lazarus, come from the dead, / Come back to tell you all’† (presumably to tell them about his romantic affections for one in particular, perhaps even of a marriage proposal). Instead of being met with great enthusiasm, Prufrock pictures the woman he adores as â€Å"settling a pillow by her head† coolly saying, â€Å"That is not what I meant at all. / That is not it, at all. † In this scenario, she flatly rejects him, suggesting that he has misunderstood her social politeness for romantic interest. Prufrock again repeats her curt and cruel response in the next stanza to further underscore his horror at receiving such a social death sentence that leaves him looking foolish before his acquaintances. Lastly, he acknowledges that he is â€Å"not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be. † Like Hamlet, Prufrock wrestles with a paradigm of indecision (â€Å"To be or not to be. †), but Prufrock lacks the ability to act. â€Å"Deferential, glad to be of use, / Politic, cautious, and meticulous,† Prufrock is much more a Polonious than a Hamlet. Aging and silly, Prufrock is left only able to dream of romance. Several of the most memorable lines in the poem follow this anti-heroic sequence. Prufrock muses: â€Å"I grow old I grow old /I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. / Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? /I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. † With this he creates yet another ridiculous image of himself with his hair slicked to cover his bald spot, trousers cuffed in youthful fashion, considering the act of high daring of eating a peach in easily stained white slacks. The â€Å"Do I dare? of romance is reduced to an act of ingesting a notoriously juicy piece of fruit. Prufrock is defeated in love by his own inaction. As the poem draws to a close, Prufrock admits, â€Å"I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each //I do not think that they will sing to me. † These mythical sea creatures believed to coax sailors out to sea with their seductive songs sing to each other in Prufrock’s world; they will not enc hant him into action. He sees the mermaids at a distance â€Å"riding seaward on the waves / Combing the white hair of the waves blown back. Prufrock will never enter their world or the realm of love and romance in his own world. In the last stanza of the poem, Prufrock lingers on the dream-like periphery of the sea of desire by â€Å"sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown / Till human voices wake us, and we drown. † Even though Prufrock uses the pronoun â€Å"we† - as if he is referring to the reader who apparently accompanied him at the beginning of his narrative - he seems to have slipped into a dream-like state, waiting for the human voices of reality to alert him to the pitiful fact that he will be unable to sustain himself with his dreams. When â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock† was first published, it was met with a wide range of criticism. In a 1916 assessment in Quarterly Review, English critic Arthur Waugh dismissed the poem as mere â€Å"cleverness. † The author of an unsigned article in Literary Review denounced Prufrock as â€Å"neither witty nor amusing† and suggested that â€Å"Mr. Eliot could do finer work on traditional lines. In sharp contrast, American poet Ezra Pound praised Eliot’s work and defended him against his critics’ attacks. Since those initial reviews, Prufrock has baffled many critics who have sought to uncover some deep, dark meaning of â€Å"Prufrock. † Biographer Peter Ackroyd reported that Eliot’s own commentary was essentially limited to his remark, â€Å"I’m afraid that J. Alfred Prufrock didn’t have much of a love life. † This simple explanation should be taken seriously and the poem should be enjoyed.

Geography of the Ganges River

Geography of the Ganges River The Ganges River, also called Ganga, is a river located in northern India that flows toward the border with Bangladesh (map). It is the longest river in India and flows for around 1,569 miles (2,525 km) from the Himalayan Mountains to the Bay of Bengal. The river has the second greatest water discharge in the world, and its basin is the most heavily populated in the world with over 400 million people living in the basin. The Ganges River is extremely important to the people of India as most of the people living on its banks use it for daily needs such as bathing and fishing. It is also significant to Hindus as they consider it their most sacred river. The Course of the Ganges River The headwaters of the Ganges River begin high in the Himalayan Mountains where the Bhagirathi River flows out of the Gangotri Glacier in Indias Uttarakhand state. The glacier sits at an elevation of 12,769 feet (3,892 m). The Ganges River proper begins farther downstream where the Bhagirathi and Alaknanda rivers join. As the Ganges flows out of the Himalayas, it creates a narrow, rugged canyon. The Ganges River emerges from the Himalayas at the town of Rishikesh where it begins to flow onto the Indo-Gangetic Plain. This area, also called the North Indian River Plain, is a very large, relatively flat, fertile plain that makes up most of the northern and eastern parts of India as well as parts of Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh. In addition to entering the Indo-Gangetic Plain in this area, part of the Ganges River is also diverted toward the Ganges Canal for irrigation in the Uttar Pradesh state. As the Ganges River then flows farther downstream, it changes its direction several times and is joined by many other tributary rivers such as the Ramganga, Tamsa, and Gandaki rivers to name a few. There are also several cities and towns that the Ganges River passes through on its way downstream. Some of these include Chunar, Kolkata, Mirzapur, and Varanasi. Many Hindus visit the Ganges River in Varanasi as that city is considered the holiest of cities. As such, the citys culture is also closely tied into the river as it is the most sacred river in Hinduism. Once the Ganges River flows out of India and into Bangladesh, its main branch is known as the Padma River. The Padma River is joined downstream by large rivers like the Jamuna and Meghna rivers. After joining the Meghna, it takes on that name before flowing into the Bay of Bengal. Before entering the Bay of Bengal however, the river creates the worlds largest delta, Ganges Delta. This region is a highly fertile sediment-laden area that covers 23,000 square miles (59,000 sq km). It should be noted that the course of the Ganges River described in the above paragraphs is a general description of the rivers route from its source where the Bhagirathi and Alaknanda rivers join to its outlet at the Bay of Bengal. The Ganges has very complicated hydrology, and there are several different descriptions of its overall length and the size of its drainage basin based on what tributary rivers are included. The most widely accepted length of the Ganges River is 1,569 miles (2,525 km), and its drainage basin is estimated to be about 416,990 square miles (1,080,000 sq km). The Population of the Ganges River The Ganges River basin has been inhabited by humans since ancient times. The first people in the region were of the Harappan civilization. They moved into the Ganges River basin from the Indus River basin around the 2nd millennium B.C.E. Later the Gangetic Plain became the center of the Maurya Empire and then the Mughal Empire. The first European to discuss the Ganges River was Megasthenes in his work Indica. In modern times the Ganges River has become a source of life for the nearly 400 million people living in its basin. They rely on the river for their daily needs such as drinking water supplies and food and for irrigation and manufacturing. Today the Ganges River basin is the most populated river basin in the world. It has a population density of about 1,000 people per square mile (390 per sq km). The Significance of the Ganges River Aside from providing drinking water and irrigating fields, the Ganges River is extremely important to Indias Hindu population for religious reasons as well. The Ganges River is considered their most sacred river, and it is worshiped as the goddess Ganga Ma or Mother Ganges.   According to the Myth of the Ganges, the goddess Ganga descended from heaven to dwell in the waters of the Ganges River to protect, purify and bring to heaven those who touch it. Devout Hindus visit the river daily to offer flowers and food to Ganga. They also drink the water and bathe in the river to cleanse and purify their sins. Also, Hindus believe that upon death the waters of the Ganges River are needed to reach the World of the Ancestors, Pitriloka. As a result, Hindus bring their dead to the river for cremation along its banks and afterward their ashes are spread in the river. In some cases, corpses are also thrown into the river. The city of Varanasi is the holiest of cities along the Ganges River and many Hindus travel there place ashes of their dead in the river. Along with daily baths in the Ganges River and offerings to the goddess Ganga there are large religious festivals that occur in the river throughout the year where millions of people travel to the river to bathe so that they can be purified of their sins. Pollution of the Ganges River Despite the religious significance and daily importance of the Ganges River for the people of India, it is one of the most polluted rivers in the world. Pollution of the Ganges is caused by both human and industrial waste due to Indias rapid growth as well as religious events. India currently has a population of over one billion people, and 400 million of them live in the Ganges River basin. As a result, much of their waste, including raw sewage is dumped into the river. Also, many people bathe and use the river to clean their laundry. Fecal coliform bacteria levels near Varanasi are at least 3,000 times higher than the what is established by the World Health Organization as safe (Hammer, 2007). Industrial practices in India also have little regulation and as the population grows these industries do as well. There are many tanneries, chemical plants, textile mills, distilleries and slaughterhouses along the river and many of them dump their untreated and often toxic waste into the river. The water of the Ganges has been tested to contain high levels of things like chromium sulfate, arsenic, cadmium, mercury and sulfuric acid (Hammer, 2007). In addition to human and industrial waste, some religious activities also increase the pollution of the Ganges. For example, Hindus believe that they must take offerings of food and other items to Ganga and as a result, these items are thrown into the river on a regular basis and more so during religious events. Human remains are also often placed into the river. In the late 1980s Indias prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi began the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) to clean up the Ganges River. The plan shut down many highly polluting industrial plants along the river, and allotted funding for the construction of wastewater treatment facilities but its efforts have fallen short as the plants are not large enough to handle the waste coming from such a large population (Hammer, 2007). Many of the polluting industrial plants are also continuing to dump their hazardous waste into the river. Despite this pollution, however, the Ganges River remains important to the Indian people as well as different species of plants and animals such as the Ganges River dolphin, a very rare species of freshwater dolphin that is native only to that area. To learn more about the Ganges River, read A Prayer for the Ganges from Smithsonian.com.

LEGAL ASPECTS OF HOTEL MANAGEMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

LEGAL ASPECTS OF HOTEL MANAGEMENT - Essay Example Modern players in the hospitality industry need to be aware that administering hotel includes the likelihood for the managers, supervisors and owners to be subject to several legal liabilities when it comes to handling the employees. Hence, the aim of this paper is to offer an open treatise that covers the relationship between the hotels and their employees, and based on common law contracts, tort claims, non-discrimination laws, casualness and antitrust laws. Discussion Most employee-relation laws in the hospitality industry are designed to restrict, control and even prohibit certain actions in which the firms could be willingly or unwillingly be non-complying with labor-related ethical plus social standards (Hayes & Ninemeier, 2009). In particular, the hospitality industry has become highly sensitive to both economic factors and competitive marketplace condition, such that the workplace conditions placed on the industry are significant due to the myriad labor risks and employment-r elated disputes (Barth, 2006). The laws range from recruitment standards, to workplace training requirements, remunerations, to environmental and health concerns. This entails a range of issues such as labor disputes, wage and hour compliance, obligation to immigration laws, labor-force authorization regulations as well as observance of nondiscrimination practices. In addition, there is the requirement for the employee’s welfare to be based on OSHA and environmental laws. Firstly, companies in the hospitality industry are now increasingly being held responsible for their employees out of worksite deeds. In particular, firms are now experiencing liability for accidents or injuries caused by their employees to third parties, with damages comprising loss of property, pain, physical and emotional suffering, legal fees, lost wages and medical expenses.. The hospitality firms are now required by law to avoid any unreasonable acts or roles by their employees that can present possibl e risks to third parties. This became apparent in the case of Faverty vs. McDonald, whereby a hospitality industry employee was involved in a serious road accident that injured another motorist. Hence, the court ruled that McDonald was liable to the damages since it forced the worker to operate so many hours nonstop even as they were aware that the employee drove himself home thus a serious risk not just to himself but also to other people and motorists (Barth, 2006). This case set a precedent for other lawsuits in the industry, and which reveals that hospitality companies are not just required to have reasonable policies regarding their employees working hours and wages, but also have a legal duty to enforce the offsite personnel wellbeing in order not to harm other persons wellbeing. As such, The Fair Credit Reporting Act calls for the management to have well-documented structures in which their employees will use to identify, report, and react to both real and probable hazards (B arth, 2006). They are also required to have handbooks and guidelines on safe practices, processes and controls which are particular to a given hazards, and that such guidelines attains or exceed the requirements stipulated under the Act. Moreover, the hospitality compa

Comparing And Contrasting Wireless Security Essay

Comparing And Contrasting Wireless Security - Essay Example Yet, as recent events have shown, this wall is at best overstated and at worst illusory altogether. Regardless, wireless security is no longer a concern for only the home and business. As wireless access points grow in popularity, there is a growing need to secure networks that are designed to be used by members of the public. As Chenoweth, Minch and Tabor (2010) point out, these networks offer little or no security for the end user, which is a completely different problem, but related in the potential consequences of misuse. Finally, Potter (2006) believes that achieving true security at one of these public networks is impossible and that â€Å"Laptops and PDAs are so vulnerable in wireless hotspots, users would do well to turn them off† (p. 51). The views of wireless security that those authors give are separable into two different sets of categories. First, the authors either give an optimist/descriptive view or a pessimist/normative view of how end users should interact wi th wireless technology given security concerns. Loo (2008) witnessed the breach in internet security at a U.S. credit card processing center (a â€Å"descriptive† view) and wrote about how users can protect themselves. On the other hand, Chenoweth, Minch and Tabor (2010) and Potter (2006) described how there is virtually no security on wireless networks (a â€Å"pessimistic† view) and that users might be better off not using them (â€Å"a normative view†). Second, the authors give either an account of private home or business wireless security or an account of public hotspot wireless security. Once again, while Loo (2008) is writing primarily about private end users operating their own private networks, Chenoweth, Minch and Tabor (2010) and Potter (2006) are discussing networks in the context of public hotspots, as opposed to private channels. Seeing the literature in this way, one might realize that there is a certain consistency at work: from the time between 2006 and 2010, little advancements have been made in improving the wireless security for public networks. Meanwhile, private networks remain potentially unprotected, but that the weakest link in that chain is the end user, not the network itself as seems to be the case with public wireless hotspots. From this perspective, one can begin to put into context the kind of advice or observations that each article makes. Loo (2008) opens his discussion of private network wireless security by overviewing why end users are the weakest components in a computer system’s security. He writes, â€Å"In most systems, the weakest components are the end users, particularly when they are accessing the corporation’s databases with wireless facilities at home† (p. 68). Of course, what he is suggesting here is that corporations must safeguard their information from private individuals because, although those private individuals may think their connection is secure, it may be the eas iest access way that an outsider has to gain access to the sensitive information contained within a corporation’s network. Loo (2008) dispels some of the myths above this private security, including the common belief that home computers are not attractive to hackers. However, this belief is false considering the increasingly digitized way that individuals share knowledge and communicate. Not only

Global Warming Essay Example for Free

Global Warming Essay It’s happening everyday and right now. It is becoming a worldwide problem. This is global warming. Global warming is a serious problem that affects our planet. Is it a natural cause or man-made? It may be natural. Many people point to the melting ice caps as proof that humans are the ones that are causing global warming, but what they may not know is that the polar ice caps on Mars are melting too. Humans may not be the main cause of global warming but they do affect it greatly causing it to accelerate. Global warming was most likely sped up by human causes.  One major human cause is pollution. People are creating more and more of it. One type of pollutant is greenhouse gases. These gases trap solar energy, increasing Earth’s temperature, rather than letting the heat back into space. Another cause is the burning of fossil fuels. Some fossil fuels are oil, gas, and coal. These produce carbon dioxide. We are producing too much of it into our atmosphere too quickly and plants can’t absorb all of that carbon dioxide. We even cause global warming to be sped up by being alive. We exhale carbon dioxide with every breath we take. If we want to reduce global warming, to a state we can deal with and not worry about it, we need to start by reducing all of the pollution we create. Global warming may be a natural cause but â€Å"humans can be a powerful influence on the climate as well. † It increases the evaporation of water into the atmosphere. Since water vapour itself is a greenhouse gas, this causes still more warming. The warming causes more water vapour to be evaporated. The C02 level is expected to rise in future due to ongoing burning of fossil fuels and landuse change. The rate of rise will depend largely on uncertain economic, sociological, technological and natural developments. Other gases such as methane, CFCs, nitrous oxide, tropospheric ozone are also responsible for global warming. Increases in all these gases are due to explosive population growth, increased industrial expansion, technological advancement, deforestation and growing urbanisation, etc. Trees play a significant role in the global carbon cycle. They are the largest land-based mechanism for removing carbon dioxide from the air. Deforestation is checking these positive processes. It is the second principle cause of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Deforestation is responsible for 25 per cent of all carbon emissions entering the atmosphere, by the burning and cutting of 34 million acres of trees each year. Everyday over 5500 acres of rainforest are destroyed. As a consequence of massive loss of forests, global CO, levels rise approximately 0. 4 per cent each year, the levels not experienced on this planet for millions of years. As we know the forests are the great absorbers of CO,,. There is a close relation between global warming and population growth. Today the large population on earth is using the technologies which are destructive for the earth. Approximately, 80 per cent of atmospheric C02 increases are due to man’s use of fossil fuels either in the form of coal, gas or oil. A large portion of carbon emission is attributed to the burning of gasoline in internal-combustion engine of vehicles. Vehicles with poor gas mileage contribute the most to global warming. Besides, the sulphur group gas is the most harmful for this. Its contribution is 30 per cent in global warming. This gas is also emitted from the burning of fossil fuels. Increase in global temperatures will cause rise in sea level. It will lead to melting of glaciers, changes in rainfall patterns, increased intensity and frequency of extreme weather. As per the latest survey report the rate of melting of glaciers has seen sharp increase in recent times. Even those glaciers are affected from global warming which have been considered permanent. The shrinking of glaciers is going to pose a major problem of drinking water. The sea levels as a result of melting of glaciers have risen from 0. 35 mm to 0. 4 mm. Scientists have warned in their reports that most of the glaciers will disappear within a period of 15 to 25 years. It will create problems of drinking water and food grains in most of the North American countries. India is not unaffected from it. The Himalayan glaciers have shrunk about 30 per cent after 1970. The rise in sea levels is a major cause of concern. A large number of cities located in coastal areas will submerge in the sea. Besides, many island countries will ultimately â€Å"lose their existence and will be washed away from the surface of the earth. The damage of rising sea levels is diverse. Buildings and roads close to the water could be flooded and they could suffer damage from hurricanes and tropical storms. Experts believe that global warming could increase the intensity of hurricanes by over 50 per cent. In addition, as the sea rises, beach erosion takes place, particularly on steep banks. Wetlands are lost as the level rises. Rise in atmospheric temperature will lead to the outbreak of air ¬borne and water-borne diseases. It would also contribute to the rise in death caused by heat. The problem of drought would be frequent. Consequently, malnutrition and starvation will pose serious challenge before humanity. Global warming is a great threat to the flora and fauna of the earth. A large number of species of them may become extinct. The expanse of desert would increase. Low rainfall and rising temperature could add to the intensity and frequency of dusty storm. This in turn will immensely affect the quality of agricultural land, ultimately causing adverse effect on agricultural produce. It would have far-reaching socio-economic impact. In Indian context, the impact of global warming is a matter of grave concern. As is well known, India is mainly an agricultural country and agriculture here is gamble of the monsoon, e. . largely depending on rainfall. Though it is to affect the whole country, the worst likely impact would be on central and northern India which is high-yielding parts of the country. These are the regions which produce the largest agricultural yield. The rise in atmospheric temperature and fall in rain would naturally result in decline in crop production. Moreover, it would have great effect on biodiversity as well. The growing concerns over global temperatures have led to the nations, states, corporations and individuals to draw out a plan of action to avert the situation. As a result the world’s primary international agreement on combating global warming was reached in Kyoto in 1997 which came to be known as Kyoto Protocol. However, ten years have passed; the situation does not appear to be very changed. It seems that the member countries are not very serious about its devastating effects. In addition, forestation can be of great help in this regard. Planting more trees and reducing timber cuts worldwide will help restore the imbalance. Secondly, we must follow on environmental policy of ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’, i. e. romoting the reuse of anything. Thirdly, the use of fuel-efficient vehicles should be promoted as these vehicles have lower emissions of harmful gases. Fourthly, every individual should be aware of the importance of the protecting environment. Besides, eco- friendly technologies must be promoted, and must be substituted with the technologies which cause great emission of global warming gases. Public awareness campaign can be of great help in this regard because unless each and every individual is aware only governments’ effect cannot bring desired difference.

America :: essays research papers

America as we know it includes a vast network of representative governments. During the colonial period of early America, Virginia was the first to introduce a representative assembly. This first glimpse of democracy influenced the shape of America today. It eventually caused the colonies to drift away from monarchial England, and to establish a democratic government. Ironically, from this government, slavery and racism sprouted. In an attempt to make Virginia a more pleasant place to live, the governor was instructed to create an assembly with the power to make laws. The assembly included two members from each plantation to serve as burgesses, or representatives. Convening in 1619 it became the first colonial, representative body (p.13). This was a significant step in the formation of America. A group of men representing the residents of a particular land would make laws that were meant for them. This was democracy at its earliest stage in America. Everywhere one goes today in America, there is democracy. Whether a church council, school club or the state general assembly, a representative group is always present. Democracy shapes America. One could view the first democratic group responsible for today's freedom. This was the assembly formed by George Yeardly (p.13). Perhaps, if the Virginia Company had not instructed the governor to establish an assembly, the idea of democracy might not have instilled into the minds of the colonists. Surely, without this first appearance, it is questionable that an idea suppressed for centuries under the English monarchy would surface anywhere else. Moreover, it led the way for other settlements to adopt a similar code. Another way the representative body shaped America was slavery. Most representatives approved slavery and practiced it. The early burgesses of the Virginian assembly received land as their pay wages (p.14). They needed people to work their newly acquired lands. Therefore, indentured servants were common on their plantations. The whole idea of indentured servants and their later inadequacy eventually led to the flood of black slaves to America. Because these representatives owned servants and slaves themselves, slavery was easily passed into law.

Primary Education System in Bangladesh Essay

Introduction : As a newly independent (1971) country Bangladesh is struggling with huge population, low per capita income, mass poverty, unemployment and underemployment, illiteracy, child labor, malnutrition, corruption, and related social problems. The economy of the country is poor and based on the rural agricultural sector, but natural disasters – mainly floods, affects the economy annually which delays economic progress. Rural-urban disparity in terms of per capita income, consumption, education, health facilities, and physical infrastructure is an important developmental issue in Bangladesh. The Government of Bangladesh and a significant number of non-government organizations (NGOs) are working to improve the socioeconomic conditions through a variety of programs. Education is one of the key elements of human asset. It is also one of the principal sources of increased economic growth, development and enhanced welfare of an individual and a household in the process of economic transformation. Increased labour productivity, effective use of land and other physical assets, and improved socio-economic empowerment are three important routes through which education can contribute to economic development. On the other hand, education can also lessen the burden of poverty ? one estimate for Bangladesh reveals that households without any formal education have about six time higher poverty incidence than those who have access to education. Because of all this, educational attainment is considered to be the most important indicator of development. Right to education is a fundamental human right. However, the importance of primary education cannot be overstated because it creates the literacy base of a nation (Rahman et al, 2003). Therefore in most developed countries primary education is considered to be more important than higher education. In all the least developed countries including Bangladesh, it is also considered to be an important element of social progress and economic development. Primary education has been made universal and compulsory, and there is a large-scale national campaign for enrolling all school-aged children at primary educational institutions. THE PRESENT SCENARIO OF THE EDUCATION SYSTEM IN BANGLADESH: GENERAL EDUCATION Formal education in Bangladesh is provided in four stages: pre-primary or early childhood education; primary (grade I-V), secondary education (grade VI –XII of which first three grades are considered junior or lower secondary, grade IX-X as secondary, and grade XI-XII as higher secondary); and tertiary education which includes two-year bachelor’s courses, along with three and four-year bachelor’s honors courses and one-year master’s degree courses. A parallel system of formal religious education exists for Muslim students, and this is known as Madrassa education. For Madrassa education, Ebtedayee, Dakhil, Alim, Fazil and Kamil are the equivalent to primary, secondary, higher secondary, bachelor’s and master’s respectively. PRIMARY EDUCATION After independence, under an Act of the Parliament all primary schools in Bangladesh were nationalized in 1973 with a view to improving quality of education (Jalaluddin and Chowdhury, 1996). In 1990 the Compulsory Primary Education Act was passed. Primary education in Bangladesh is characterized by i) Substantial progress made in increasing enrollment during the 80s and early 90s, ii) Large number of children from very poor backgrounds and from illiterate families who are now attending school, and iii) Diverse types of schools serving children who have diverse needs including working children (The World Bank, 2000). Primary education level is from years 1 to 5,(starting at age 6) and the primary curriculum is competency-based and was developed by the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB). The Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) implements the curriculum and manages the primary education system. There is no nationwide examination at the end of the fifth year. However, government education boards conduct a scholarship examination at the end of year 5. There are 11 types of primary schools: government, non-government registered, non-government unregistered, schools attached to high schools, PTI’s experimental schools, Ebtedayee Madrassas (independent), Ebtedayee attached to high madrassas, kindergarten, satellite schools, community schools, and non-formal schools run by NGOs. Presently about two-thirds of students are enrolled in government schools. Over 65% of primary schools are government schools; the rest being registered non-governmental schools – assisted by the government. There also are some private schools – much fewer, in number – that cater to the social elite. Many secondary schools also have primary school sections. The following TABLE shows the percentage of children attending different types of primary schools in Bangladesh. Percentage of children attending different types of primary schools: |Type of primary school |% of total enrollment | |Government |59-66 | |Registered non-government |18-21 | |Non-registered non-government |2 | |Community schools |very small percentage | |Satellite schools |very small percentage | |Primary attached to high schools |very small percentage | |NGO’s non-formal primary schools |8 | |Ebtedayee madrassas |2 | [Source: Jalaluddin and Chowdhury (1996)] ? Government Primary Education For the formal system, primary education is five years in length, starting at age 6. In government schools, teacher-student ratio varies greatly among schools, with the average of 1:66. In some cases, teachers may have as many as 100 students in a classroom. In government primary schools, the curriculum is based on 53 terminal competencies to be achieved by the end of primary cycle. Five subject areas are covered, i. e. , Bangla, Mathematics, Science and Environment, Social Studies, and English. Statistics show that in 1996 percentage of female teachers in government schools was 28%, which has gradually increased from 20. 6% in 1990. The government has plans to raise the ratio of female teachers in government schools (Chowdhury, 1999). On average, government school teachers have about 12 years of schooling. Training is provided by the government. The government has large training facilities. ? Non-Formal Education Non-formal education is an innovation aimed to reach the poorest children who did not have a chance to attend formal school, and has many characteristics that differ from formal education in order to suit the needs of the rural poor. In Bangladesh, NGOs play an important role in the provision of non-formal education. The largest NGO working in the field of education in Bangladesh is the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC). When BRAC started non-formal primary education in 1985, the main objective was to provide basic education to the children who did not have an opportunity to attend formal schools. BRAC developed a model of primary education programme that has today become highly successful. Out of 1. 4 million children currently receiving non-formal education, 1. 2 million are in BRAC schools. Over 90% of BRAC school teachers are women. BRAC school teachers on average have 10 years of schooling. The teachers are hired on a temporary, part-time basis. As one education specialist at the World Bank Dhaka office comments, â€Å"Teachers in non-formal schools really teach, and children like to go to school because it is fun. † ? Madrassa Education Madrassas are the social sites for the reproduction of Islamic orthodoxy. In most of the madrassas there are no formal admission procedures, and academic schedules are often flexible. This education is divided into five distinct levels—ibtedai (elementary), dakhil (secondary), alim (higher secondary), fazil (B.A. ), and kamil (M. A. ). These madrassas teach all the required modern subjects such as English, Bangla, science, social studies, math, geography, history, etc. These Alia madrassas are registered with, and supervised by, the government-appointed Bangladesh Madrassa Education Board, which also prescribes the curriculum and syllabi and conducts examinations. In recent years Madrassa education has gone through some modernization and to make the system more closely equivalent to the Bangladesh general education system. Nearly 3 million students are currently enrolled in Madrassa education. At any rate, the important thing to note here is: a) the significant contribution of ibtedai madrassas in providing elementary education in areas where no government primary schools are available; and b) that these ibtedai madrassas are now acting as feeder institutions for both the Alia and Quomi madrassas. The social significance of the madrassa education lies not only in the fact that it imparts religious education to a large number of students, but that it also ensures access to employment. It has been observed that while there has been considerable unemployment among the youth educated at secular schools and colleges, the graduates of madrassas have rarely faced such problems and usually find jobs commensurate with their training. ? Community School Community Schools provide effective linkages between the structures of formal and non-formal education and make both mutually reinforcing. While the community schools provide formal education to its students, its physical and human resources, are being utilized with appropriate supplement to provide a range of programmes of non-formal education and training for adult. It also provides job opportunities to secondary school drop-outs and their parents. Community Learning Centre (CLC) is used to create a learning situation for the whole community in which the children are the main beneficiary. The idea is to make parents regard education of their children as a part of total community activity. The most important component of the CLC is to educate the parents various aspects of life and environment including functional literacy and numeracy keeping in view the requirement  of childhood education. STEPS TAKEN: ? Bangladesh has achieved gender equity in primary enrollment. The increase in girls’ enrollment rate in recent years is believed to have been brought about by a number of ‘positive discriminatory’ actions taken by the state and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in favor of girls and poor children in rural areas. ? Following education for all (EFA), the government of Bangladesh made primary education compulsory for all children between the ages of six and 10. This had a major impact on the system, and the gross enrollment rate increased since from 75% to 95% by 1996 (Sedere, 1996). Bangladesh has 18 million children in 62,000 primary schools; one of the largest primary systems in the world. ? The government of Bangladesh distributes free books and education kits to students in all primary schools. ? Government stipend programme ? Non-formal education is targeted for a variety of reasons. The broad objective of non-formal education is to provide basic education – sometimes equivalent to primary education. But depending on age group, gender dimension and a variety of socioeconomic factors, elements like life skill training or functional literacy, awareness building, credit program and so on, are incorporated or emphasized. ? Female stipend programme, where the state provides stipends to girls in secondary school (grades 6 to 10) and does not require them to pay any tuition. () Food for Education programme, where the state provides a food ration to children from rural poorer families for attending school. ? Non-formal primary education provided by NGOs, which aim at the poorest children who do not have an opportunity to attend formal schools. Non-formal schools target girls, who make up about two-thirds of students attending non-formal schools. ACHIEVEMENTS: Bangladesh is the only country in South Asia to have achieved gender equity in primary enrollment. As reported by UNICEF and the World Bank, over the period 1980-1995, net enrollment rate1 at primary level has increased from 62% to 79%, while girls’ enrollment rate in the same period has increased much faster from 47% to 73%. The significant increase in primary enrollment rate of girls in Bangladesh in recent years marked an achievement of the country’s education system. Efforts by the government, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector have all contributed to this achievement. One of the main factors that is believed to have brought about the increase in girls’ primary enrollment rate is the involvement of NGOs’ non-formal schools, which aims to provide basic education to poor children who are non-enrolled or have dropped out of school. The most prominent school characteristic that encourages girls’ enrollment is the percentage of female teachers in non-formal schools. LIMITATIONS TO MEET THE NEEDS OF BANGLADESH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. Although in the recent past Bangladesh has achieved considerable progress in terms of primary education enrolment, further analysis suggests that the education system in Bangladesh fails to meet the needs of the Bangladesh economic development needs in general. Because, the current status of education system of Bangladesh is not well planned. Most Notable Issues: ? A shortage of fund and staffs ? A lack of physical infrastructure and facilities: Inadequate infrastructure and facilities often result in overcrowded classrooms that adversely affect scholastic achievements ? High teacher-students ratios (up to 1:70),? Poor quality teaching: The instructors lack training experience, initiative and motivation to fulfill their responsibilities ? Lack of diversity in training ? Inadequate monitoring and assessment of student learning. ? Political instability, ? Lack of coordination between government and non-government organization. These limitations result in poor performance in terms of improving students’ life situation. Due to the gaps between and within education systems, the current status of education in the country is quantitatively inadequate, and qualitatively incompetent to address the education needs of the nation population. Due to internal inefficiency and lack of responsiveness of the societal requirements, the education system has failed to benefit individuals who need to make a good living and to broaden their personalities with information and essential human qualities. RECOMMENDATIONS: Human resource development through education and training is particularly important for a country like Bangladesh where the natural resource base is very poor, the land-person ratio is extremely adverse, and the population is likely to continue to grow putting pressure on the economy well into the middle of the 21st century. Inadequacy is reflected in availability of facilities and access to these facilities which suggest that rapid and extensive development of education is needed for socioeconomic development, globalization and integration with world market. 1. The vast human population of Bangladesh is the only potential resource, and this needs to be utilized to its full. 2. The rural populations are not idle, nor are they incapable. Light of education should be reached to them to enhance their contribution to the national economy and to increase their livelihood capacity. 3. In addition to the formal education network, the non-formal and informal education networks need expansion to cover the greater rural population, and to educate them for a changed national and international scenario. 4. Supplementary and complementary supporting policies, along with appropriate education policies, also are necessary to ensure proper utilization of human resources. 5. Bangladesh needs to provide service training programs to the teachers at different levels, and for different subjects. 6. To progress well in the face of increasing global competition, it is essential to provide modern up to date technological knowledge to students; 7. It is notable that not all students have the academic ability or interest to gain technological knowledge; they should be involved in vocational education and training. 8. Government should increase their contribution to make proper plans to use the huge population to achieve economic growth. 9. Non-government, private and the educated and established citizens of the country should try to help the government to achieve the goal. LITERATURE REVIEW: Many arguments support policies of investments in schooling, not the least of which is that basic equity demands it. But perhaps the easiest case is made in terms of the simple economic benefits. The greater impacts of investments in female education are: First, such investments lead to increased labor force participation and a subsequent expansion of the economy. Second, a variety of positive health outcomes for women and their families are known to flow from increased education. Third, education generally leads to lower fertility rates. Fourth, as primary caregivers, women have a key role in the intergenerational transmission of knowledge. As powerful as these additional benefits may be, the case for increased investments in girls’ education is nonetheless easy to make on the simple benefits to the economy. The genius of early researchers, led by Jacob Mincer (1970, 1974), was to recognize that different amounts of schooling signified different amounts of human capital and thus could be a clear measure of the abstract idea of human capital. From a research perspective, various census and survey databases routinely provide school attainment information that can be linked to incomes and other individual outcomes. From a policy perspective, school attainment is also a concrete notion—leading virtually all countries of the world to devote attention to rates of school completion and the promotion of access to further schooling. The worldwide quest to improve schooling is highlighted in the developing world by the establishment of the Education for All (EFA) movement (headed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, UNESCO) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of the United Nations. The EFA initiative grew out of the World Summit on Education in 1990 and was given more specificity in the Dakar Summit in 2000. The key elements of the EFA initiative (all to be accomplished by 2015) are †¢ expand early childhood care and education; †¢ provide free and compulsory primary education for all; †¢ promote learning and life skills for young people and adults; †¢ increase adult literacy by 50 percent; †¢ achieve gender parity by 2005 and gender equality by 2015; and †¢ improve the quality of education. The innovative analyses by Mincer (1970, 1974) considered how investing in different amounts of schooling affects individual earnings, and over the last 30 years, literally hundreds of such studies have been conducted around the world. These studies have been reviewed in many interpretative articles, including Psacharopoulos (1994); Psacharopoulos and Patrinos (2004); and Heckman, Lochner, and Todd (2006). By all accounts, the rate of return to additional years of schooling is large. In estimates of Mincer earnings functions for 98 countries, Psacharopoulos and Patrinos (2004) found that average returns for the world are above 17 percent, and they are systematically higher in developing countries (see table 2. 1). 4 These findings have been reinforced in analyses of the relationship between schooling and economic growth. The standard method to estimate the effect of education on economic growth is to estimate crosscountry growth regressions where countries’ average annual growth in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita over several decades is expressed as a function of measures of schooling and a set of other variables deemed to be important for economic growth. Socioeconomic effect of primary education in Bangladesh Primary Education is one of the key elements of human asset. it is one of the principal sources of increased economic growth and enhanced welfare of an individual and a household in the process of economic transformation. Effective uses of land increased labour productivity, physical assets, and improved socio-economic empowerment are the routes through which education can contribute to economic development. Primary education does have a major effect on fertility. The primary education of women stands out as a significant factor in determining fertility. Education as a determinant of fertility: Among the various socioeconomic determinants of fertility, primary education, especially female education has received significant attention from research. Female education and supply of children: Education leads to desire for better qualified children. Level of education of children tends to have a direct relationship with mothers schooling Education affects the supply of children through many overruling variables. These are: Age at Marriage: Women’s education and age at marriage relationship has been found in almost all fertility studies. Cleland and jejeebhoy show that in almost every country in South Asia, women with education get married â€Å"roughly two to five years later than uneducated women† Desired family size: Educated women become less fatalistic regarding their family size. Normally uneducated women believe that fertility will be determined by God. In most research studies have been found that desired family size becomes smaller with the increase in women’s educational level. Son preference: Son preference increases the family size in the long run. Chowdhury finds that in Bangladesh son preference is so strong that even education above primary level cannot stop it. People in Bangladesh as a gender satisfied society want more sons so there is an incentive to increase fertility. They believe children are as providing means support in old age. With increasing levels of education, women tend to rely less on their children for support in old age for economic help. Nonmarket and External Benefits of Education |Benefit type |Findings | |Child education |Parental schooling affects child’s schooling level and | | |achievement. | |Child health |Child’s health is positively related to parental education | |Fertility |Mother’s education is inversely related to daughter’s births. | |Own health |More education increases life expectancy | |Spouse’s health |More schooling improves spouse’s health and lengthens life | | |expectancy | |Job search efficiency |More schooling reduces cost of search, increases mobility | |Desired family size |More schooling improves contraceptive efficiency. | |Technological change |Schooling helps research and development and diffusion. | |Social cohesion |Schooling increases voting and reduces alienation | |Crime |Education reduces criminal activity. | | | | Long run benefits of primary education: One may, however, be interested to know about the statistical features of the primary education budget in the long run. In that case the relationship among primary education budget (PEBUD), education budget (EBUD) total budget (BUD), and GDP becomes PEBUDt = ? 1 + ? 2EBUDt + ? 3BUDt + ? 4GDPt + u; t = 1†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦14 lnPEBUDt = ln? 1 + ?2lnEBUDt + ? 3lnBUDt + ? 4lnGDPt + u; That is, there will be an increasing trend of PEBUD if the absolute amounts of BUD and GDP increase and vise versa since the positive relationship between investment on primary education and poverty reduction is well recognised in Bangladesh for many years. Table I: Regression results |Variable |Coefficient |T-ratio |Variable |Coefficient |T-ratio | | |(Standard error) | | |(Standard error) | | |Constant |474. 1 |0. 66 |lnConstant |0. 906 |0. 17 | | |(713. 9) | | |(5. 32) | | |EBUD |0. 367 |0. 49 |lnEBUD |0. 869 |0. 97 | | |(0. 754) | | |(0. 892) | | |BUD |0. 028 |0. 63 |lnBUD |0. 154* |1. 82 | | |(0. 045) | | |(0.084) | | |GDP |– 0. 004 |– 0. 22 | lnGDP |– 0. 176 |– 0. 173 | | |(0. 019) | | |(1. 01) | | | | | | | | | R2 = 0. 739, Adjusted R2 = 0. 66, F = 9. 43, Durbin-Watson d = 1. 94 R2 = 0. 898, Adjusted R2 = 0. 867, F = 29. 26, Durbin-Watson d = 1. 86 Note: * indicates that the estimated coefficient is significant at 10 per cent level Based on data from 1990/91 to 2003/04 the estimated regression results have been shown in Table I. It reveals the fact that on average Tk one crore increase in education and total budgets on average led to net increase in primary education budget about Tk 37 and 3 lac respectively. On the other hand, as opposite to our expectation, Tk one crore increase in GDP is associated with on average Tk 40 thousand decrease in primary education budget keeping other regressors constant. That is, there is no guarantee that an increase in GDP will result in increased level of expenditure on primary education. Loglinear regression provides almost similar results. However, GDP elasticity of primary education budget is much less than one. Durbin Watson d values indicate the absence of autocorrelation in both the regressions. We can also explain the long run effect using the Solow growth model. Suppose there is only physical capital (K1) present in the economy. We can define the production function as [pic] If we divide the both sides of the production function by L, we will get the output per worker as follows: Now, in the presence of human capital (primary education) we can define the production function as follows: [pic], Where [pic] If we divide the both sides of the production function by L, we will get the output per worker as follows: Now, consider the following graph. It shows that in the presence of only physical capital the economy reaches at a steady state where per capita capital is [pic]and per capita output is[pic]. However, in the presence of human capital (primary education) both the production curve and break even investment curve shifts upwards. As a result, we will get a new stable steady state point where both per capita capital and per capital output will increase to [pic] and[pic]. In other words, we can say in the long run the social welfare of Bangladesh will increase in the presence of compulsory primary education. [pic] Government programmes in primary education: The government of Bangladesh has been regularly implementing a few development projects over the years to â€Å"develop† the state of primary education. The names of the projects have been mentioned in various Annual Development Programme (ADP) documents. For example, some of the important projects (being) implemented during fiscal year 2000/01 to 2004/05 are Food for Education, Sub-stipend for Primary Education, Non formal Education, Primary Education Project, Registered Non-Govt Primary School Development Project, Reconstruction and Development of Govt Primary Schools, Primary Education Development through Intensive District Approach, and Primary Education Development Programme. Many of these programmes are important for improving the state of primary education in Bangladesh, no doubt. But when the quality comes as the most important concern, there must be some thrust programmes for improving quality. The National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction, popularly known as â€Å"Preleminary Draft PRSP† has considered quality as an important ingredient in future government budgetary intervention so as to relate it with greater impact on poverty reduction. Outlined in the Policy Matrix 13, the strategic goals regarding primary education in this document are: a) Introduce a unified and common primary education opportunity for all children. b) Increase access to primary education c) Improve quality of education at primary level d) Ensure equality and equity in education at the primary level e) Improve quality of madrasha education at the primary level However, education is not an opportunity, it is a fundamental right ratified by the Constitution of Bangladesh. Accessibility has two dimensions: physical and economic. In terms of enhancing physical accessibility the current government development programmes have their own merits, but regarding economic accessibility there is only one programme (Sub-stipend for Education) that directly transfers resource to the poor parents to make their children interested to be enrolled and complete Grade V. The earlier version of the programme, Food for Education was pro-poor (Osmani et al, 2003), and the current programme has also been identified as pro-poor (Rahman and Ali, 2003). But the other programmes are mostly related to school infrastructure and construction works. PRSP document forecasted that PEDP-II would improve quality of education for three-quarters of primary school students subject to its ‘effective’ implementation. Nevertheless, PEDE-II is a quite ambitious project, and its effective implementation needs major reform in primary education sub-sector. Absence of regular training of the primary school tutors2 amid their low quality, high pupil-tutor ratio, poor physical facilities, inadequate female tutors, oldfashioned tutors’ training, excessive burden of administrative and other works, low salary package, etc. are the serious problems, which has not been adequately addressed by the contemporary budgets and PRSP. Policy Implications: Primary education is sometimes even more important than higher education in terms of its impact on poverty alleviation. The problems of primary education in Bangladesh are, inter alia, poor educational background of the tutors, inadequacy of female tutors, very high pupil-tutor ratio, poor physical facilities, old-fashioned tutors’ training, excessive burden of administrative and other works, and low salary package. Primary education budget in Bangladesh has been meager over the years with respect to its requirement particularly in improving quality of education. The Annual Development Programmes directed to primary education sub-sector are quite inadequate to bring about desirable social returns. Share of primary education in GDP has also been very low, around one per cent, over the past fifteen years. The South Asian scenario is almost similar compared to Bangladesh. Long-run relationship between GDP and primary education budget is negative for Bangladesh. All these have negative implications to common goal of quality primary education in Bangladesh as well as in South Asia. Despite all these budgetary constraints Bangladesh and other South Asian countries have been doing vary well in terms of attainments in primary education. Given this reality there are some budgetary imperatives in order to achieve desirable social impact of primary education in Bangladesh: †¢ Share of primary education both in budget and GDP needs to be increased consistently. There should be a positive relationship between increase in GDP and primary education budget in the long run. †¢ Primary education revenue budget should be substantially increased in order to attract quality tutors in this profession by handsome salary subvention package. †¢ The primary focus of development budget should be enhancing quality of primary education. Regular and modern training programmes should be designed and implemented in order to bring about motivation and dynamicity among the tutors. †¢ Pupil-tutor ratio should be substantially reduced to at least 20:1; that is, the number of tutors will have to increase three-fold. This will require substantial budgetary intervention. †¢ Adequate administrative personnel should be recruited in the primary schools so that they can extend services in different school related programmes, administrative activities, surveys, immunization programmes and other works. This will help reduce tutors’ burden of other works substantially, and they will be able to concentrate on the classrooms and students. †¢ Primary education sub-sector needs long-term reform programmes in order to reach its standard at a level so that it can effectively create knowledge workers for the twenty-first century. Conclusion: In summary, education is a human right, and such, should receive priority in allocation of natural resources. It is very short-sighted to keep education bound and ‘gagged to the role of manufacturing skilled manpower’ or to judge one’s success by the number of either children or adults who have efficiently undertaken a ‘learning package’ (Hallak, 1990). Education was previously seen as fundamental, not only to economic development, but also to the social or political development.

Policy Topic Search and Selection Essay

Policies are everywhere, and have to be followed by all for success. If they are not followed, consequences can occur, which are mostly negative. Policies are also set to ensure the organization’s rules are being followed. Health policy is a statement of a decision regarding goals in health care, and the plan for achieving these goals. Health policy is also known as a field of study and practice where priorities and values dealing with health resource allocation are determined (â€Å"Health Policy,† 2014). In this paper, Women’s Health Policy in regard to the Affordable Care Act will be discussed. The paper will also provide a quick summary of women’s health and the stakeholders affected. Let us begin with the definition of women’s health. Women’s Health Care Women’s health care is hard to define because it is so complex. Women’s health not only deals with adult women, it also deals with young girls and teenagers. If put into words, women’s health care would be defined as the physical and emotional care a woman needs to ensure she has the best quality of life possible. Women’s health care is a new arena in health care that must be clearly stated in the future to improve the health of a population (South Carolina Department of Health, 2013). This is important because women are the child bearers, and the advancement in women’s health care prevents and reduces the burden of illness or disability that affects women at each stage of life, and ultimately improves women health in the United States across the lifespan. Women’s Health Care with the Affordable Care Act Women’s, who includes young and teenage girls are the stakeholders affected by this policy. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) included several measures that are changing the profile of women’s coverage as the law is implemented. In regards to women, the implementation of the ACA will allow 2. 4 million women be insured. For women, the ACA includes caps on out-of pocket spending for certain low-income individuals and coverage for many preventive services without cost-sharing. There are a lot of improvements to the coverage for women because of the ACA implementation. The biggest improvement is that insurance plans were mandated to cover essential benefits like outpatient and hospitalization care, maternity care, and prescription drugs. Along with the essential benefits, the plans have to cover preventive services and vaccines for women; without any co-payments or other cost sharing. Those services are pap smears, mammograms, bone density tests, and HPV vaccine. As of August 2012, plans also have to cover contraceptives as prescribed by a provider, breastfeeding supplies and supports such as breast pumps, screening for domestic violence, well woman visits, and several counseling and screening services (â€Å"Women’s Health Insurance Coverage,† 2013). Even though the changes because of the ACA are extensive, they are needed to ensure women’s health care is at an optimal level because they are the catalyst by which our next generation is born. If this is done correctly and plans follow, the ACA will shape access to coverage and care for millions of women across the nation for years to come.

International Monetary Fund essays

International Monetary Fund essays The International Monetary Fund is an important function that makes world trade less strenuous. The International Monetary Fund, or IMF as it is called, provides support and supervision to nations in all stages of economic progress. International trade is a key element to enable nations, large and small, to strengthen their economic positions. Larger nations need the international market to export their goods and services, and smaller nations also need this world scale market to import products so they are able to produce more efficiently. In order to achieve these goals, one major component must be in place. The ability to value other nation's currency. Throughout the years, many different ways have been used to do this, mostly ending in failure. There is no perfect way to accurately measure the true value of another country's currency. The International Monetary Fund is an effort to see each country's economic position, offer suggestions, and provide the fundamental economic securi ty that is essential to a thriving world economy. Many of the domestic economic goals are reiterated by the INF on an international level. To understand the current INF we will investigate the events leading up to its existence. Between 1879 and 1934 major nations used a method of international exchange known as the Gold Standard. The Gold Standard was simply a fixed-rate system. The rate was fixed to gold. In order for this system to function properly three things had to happen. First, each nation had to define its currency to gold (this definition then could not change). Second, each nation must than maintain a fixed relationship to its supply of money and its amount of actual gold. Third, the on-hand gold must be allowed to be exchanged freely between any nations throughout the world. With all of those policies successfully in place, the exchange rates of the participating countries would then be fixed to gold, therefore to each other. To successfully ma...

Facts About Canadas Geography, History, and Politics

Facts About Canada's Geography, History, and Politics Canada is the worlds second largest country by area but its population, at slightly less than that of the state of California, is small by comparison. Canadas largest cities are Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, and Calgary. Even with its small population, Canada plays a large role in the worlds economy and is one of the largest trading partners of the United States. Quick Facts About Canada Population: 37.2 million (2018 estimate)Capital: Ottawa, OntarioArea: 3,855,085 square miles (9,984,670 sq km)Bordering Country: The United StatesCoastline: 125,567 miles (202,080 km) History of Canada The first people to live in Canada were the Inuit and First Nation Peoples. The first Europeans to reach the country were likely the Vikings and it is believed that Norse explorer Leif Eriksson led them to the coast of Labrador or Nova Scotia in 1000 CE. European settlement did not begin in Canada until the 1500s. In 1534, French explorer Jacques Cartier discovered the St. Lawrence River while searching for fur and shortly thereafter, he claimed Canada for France. The French began to settle there in 1541 but an official settlement was not established until 1604. That settlement, called Port Royal, was located in what is now Nova Scotia. In addition to the French, the English also began exploring Canada for its fur and fish trade and in 1670 established the Hudsons Bay Company. In 1713, a conflict developed between the English and French and the English won control of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Hudson Bay. The Seven Year’s War, in which England sought to gain more control of the country, then began in 1756. That war ended in 1763 and England was given full control of  Canada with the Treaty of Paris. In the years after the Treaty of Paris, English colonists flocked to Canada from England and the United States. In 1849, Canada was given the right to self-government and the country of Canada was officially established in 1867. It was comprised of Upper Canada (the area that became Ontario), Lower Canada (the area that became Quebec), Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. In 1869, Canada continued to grow when  it bought land from the Hudson’s Bay Company. This land was later divided into different provinces, one of which was Manitoba. It joined  Canada in 1870 followed by British Columbia in 1871 and Prince Edward Island in 1873. The country then grew again in 1901 when Alberta and Saskatchewan joined Canada. It remained this size until 1949 when Newfoundland became the tenth province. Languages in Canada Because of the long history of conflict between the English and French in Canada, a division between the two still exists in the country’s languages today. In Quebec the official language at the provincial level is French and there have been several Francophone initiatives to ensure that the language remains prominent there. In addition, there have been numerous initiatives for secession. The most recent was in 1995 but it failed by a margin of 50.6 to 49.4. There are also some French-speaking communities in other portions of Canada, mostly on the east coast, but the majority of the rest of the country speaks English. At the federal level, however, the country is officially bilingual. Canadas Government Canada is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy and federation. It has three branches of government. The first is the executive, which consists of the head of state, who is represented by a governor general, and the prime minister, who is considered the head of government. The second branch is the legislative, a bicameral parliament consisting of the Senate and House of Commons. The third branch is made up of the Supreme Court. Industry and Land Use in Canada Canada’s industry and land use vary based on region. The eastern portion of the country is the most industrialized but Vancouver, British Columbia, a major seaport, and Calgary, Alberta are some western cities that are highly industrialized as well. Alberta also produces 75 percent of Canada’s oil and is important for coal and natural gas. Canada’s resources include nickel (mainly from Ontario), zinc, potash, uranium, sulfur, asbestos, aluminum, and copper. Hydroelectric power and pulp and paper industries are also important. In addition, agriculture and ranching play a significant role in the Prairie Provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba) and several parts of the rest of the country. Canadas Geography and Climate Much of Canadas topography consists of gently rolling hills with rock outcrops because the Canadian Shield, an ancient region with some of the worlds oldest known rocks, covers almost half of the country. The southern portions of the Shield are covered with boreal forests while the northern parts are tundra because it is too far north for trees. To the west of the Canadian Shield are the central plains, or prairies. The southern plains are mostly grass and the north is forested. This area is also dotted with hundreds of lakes because of depressions in the land caused by the last glaciation. Farther west is the rugged Canadian Cordillera stretching from the Yukon Territory into British Columbia and Alberta. Canadas climate varies with location but the country is classified as being temperate in the south to arctic in the north. Winters, however, are normally long and harsh in most of the country. More Facts About Canada Nearly 90 percent of Canadians live within 99 miles of the U.S. border (because of harsh weather and the expense of building on permafrost  in the north).The Trans-Canada Highway is the longest national highway in the world at 4,725 miles (7,604 km). Which U.S. States Border Canada? The United States is the only country that borders Canada. The majority of Canadas southern border runs straight along the 49th parallel (49 degrees north latitude), while the border along and east of the Great Lakes is jagged. 13 U.S. states share a border with Canada: AlaskaIdahoMaineMichiganMinnesotaMontanaNew HampshireNew YorkNorth DakotaOhioPennsylvaniaVermontWashington Sources The World Factbook: Canada. Central Intelligence Agency. 21 April 2010.â€Å"Canada.†Ã‚  Infoplease.Statistics Canada. â€Å"Canadas Population Estimates, Third Quarter 2018.† 20 Dec. 2018.â€Å"Canada.†Ã‚  U.S. Department of State. Feb. 2010

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