An Exploration of womens role in the construction industry Essay

An Exploration of womens role in the construction industry - Essay Example typically one of the most male dominated areas of the labour market, with women working in the industry making up only 10 percent of the UK construction workforce; in the general population, this workforce amounts to about 45 percent. The importance of the female worker will be noted, as ideas aimed at bringing women into construction work are examined. There is more awareness in the general population that women are an asset to professions such as architecture, and the construction organisation needs to address how to recruit women into the industry, and retain them within the workforce for as long as possible. An examination of how women are recruited and retained throughout the labour market, and comparison with the construction industry, may provide some answers. The construction industry is one of the most important industry sectors in terms of economic growth and employment. This sector is also crucial in producing goods and investment opportunities, with around 58 percent of the EU’s production depending directly or indirectly, upon the construction industry. However, the sector’s performance in the spheres of research and innovation is poor, with less than one percent of its turnover being returned for use in research and development funding. Some research considering the position of women within science and engineering has been done, but very little is known about the role of women within construction research, and the factors which hinder the equal participation of men and women within the industry. There appears to be a lack of awareness, or acknowledgement within the profession of issues that specifically relate to women within the workforce, and towards female architects in particular. Women’s accomplishments in the architectural field are not well-known, and are also not well publicized through university programmes, awards, or other promotional materials and events. Women entering the architectural practice after completing their degree

Criticism on the Novel Essay Example for Free

Criticism on the Novel Essay Nature setting are explicit Page 30: When I was about fifteen years old we had retired to our house near Belrive, when we witnessed a most violent and terrible thunderstorm. It advanced from behind the mountains of Jura, and the thunder burst at once with frightful loudness from various quarters of the heavens. I remained with curiosity and delight. As I stood at the door, on a beautiful oak which stood about twenty yards from our house; and so soon as the dazzling light vanished, the oak had disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump. [] It was not splintered from the shock, but entirely reduced to thin ribbons of wood. Foreshadowing?: power of electricity sparks his attention, if it can destroy something so quickly, why cant it bring dead flesh to life? Scientific descriptions lack important information Page 48: It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs. We see how she was a poet in this quote: she gives more descriptions of the surroundings than the scientific aspect of which many people long for. Obviously shows the lack of knowledge displayed by Mary Shelly. Countries are close together Shows once again how much knowledge Mary Shelly had regarding geography. It sparks attention when she says that it takes longer to go from Geneva to Ingolstadt (a total of 413.6 miles) than it is to go to England. Monster has superhuman abilities yet he is made from human parts Page 70: I thought of pursuing the devil, but it would have been in vain, for another flash discovered him to me hanging among the rocks of the nearly perpendicular ascent of Mont Saleve, a hill that bounds Plainpalais on the south. He soon reached the summit and disappeared. Stereotyping of the Turkish and Irish people If Frankenstein had already created a monster, why did he need help from some other scientists for the creation of another monster? Page 153: I found that I could not compose a female without again devoting several months to profound study and laborious disquisition. I had heard of some discoveries having been made by an English philosopher, he knowledge of which was material to my success [] The Monster tells Frankenstein how hes survived mobs throwing rocks and several other projectiles and such, yet Frankenstein never stops trying to think he can kill the monster. Page 206: [] the monster whom I had created, the miserable demon whom I had sent abroad into the world for my destruction. I was possessed by a maddening rage when I thought of him, and desired and ardently prayed that I might have him within my grasp to wreak a great and signal revenge on his cursed head. All quotes from Mary Shelleys Frankenstein

Attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Africa

Attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Africa The developing economies of Africa must on their part make deliberate and sustained efforts to attract the much needed inflows of foreign investments. To achieve this, the enabling economic, financial and political environment for such inflows must be created. An economy that is exposed to higher levels of political instability, economic uncertainties and financial risk will not be able to gain the confidence of investors. These risk factors if not well mitigated with a great degree of transparency and accountability could serve as barriers to both local and foreign investments. According to Banz and Clough (2002), the major reasons among many others for not investing in developing economies are the lack of transparency and poor governance policies. Therefore, Nigeria and other developing economies of Africa must work towards an environment that has a relatively reasonable economic risk, ensure political stability and demonstrate moderate financial risk to attract foreign capital inf lows especially in the form of equity investment. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) markets to which Nigeria belong have of recent experienced some legal, regulatory and supervisory changes resulting into increased transparency in the operation of their markets. The liquidity of the markets have increased and operations also liberalized to attract more foreign investors. The Nigerian economy is the largest of the 15 member body and has a lot of political and economic influence over the other members. Conscious efforts have been made by the various member countries to partially open up their economies, through systematic privatization programs, overhauling of their legal and financial institutional infrastructures and use of modern trading platforms have resulted in real development of their markets and manage to attract some foreign direct investments (FDI) to them. Nigeria is currently the biggest economy in Africa after the recent rebasement of its GDP, thereby beating South Africa to the second place ((Magnowski, 2014). The petroleum sector accounts for roughly 80% of fiscal revenues and 90% of export earnings (World Fact book).The country is also one of the major exporters of petroleum, and plays a significant role in OPEC (OPEC Annual Statistical Bulletin 2013). To diversify its economy Nigeria is encouraging the growth of their private sector by offering some incentives to private sector equity investors who are willing to invest in the country. The country has an increasing GDP of $422.6bullion, $450.4billion and $502 billion for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 respectively, and diminishing foreign debt stock of $15.73 billion and $13.4 billion for 2012 and 2013 respectively. There is also an increasing Foreign Direct Investment of $7.444 billionand $9.212 billion for 2012 and 2013 respectively (World Fact book: World Bank). The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) is the second largest exchange in Africa; it was established in 1960 to provide listing and trading services among others. Its activities are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the country. The value of publicly traded shares stood at $50.88 billion, $39.27 billion and $56.39 billion for 2011, 2012 and 2013 respectively. Despite all the above mentioned strong economic fundamentals or good indicators, Nigeria has been plagued by several daunting challenges, notable among them are the issues epileptic power supply, inadequate infrastructures, insecurity, endemic corruption, increasing rate of unemployment and its heavy reliance on petroleum products (Global edge, 2014; World fact book). These factors pose some uncertainties about the Nigerian economic and stock market outlook. Nevertheless, the Nigerian economy is still growing. Fortunately, the government is also conscious of some of these teething problems. Programs are initiated to diversify the economy in the areas of agriculture, power, telecommunication, transport and other services. These efforts seem to be yielding the desired results as evidenced in the country’s 6-8% per annum pre-rebasing growth rate. With these measures a seemingly conducive economic environment is created which could be exploited by investors. This therefore, presents reasonable economic risk. There is also institutionalized democracy leading to political stability in its own form in terms of the country’s ability to carry out declared programs. Nigeria is also able to finance its commercial and trade debt obligations and has at no time defaulted in payment of its external financial commitments; thus demonstrating relatively moderate financial risks. These indices send strong signals in terms of information content about Nigeria’s overall economic health to domestic, international investors and rating agencies among others. Therefore, it will be of interest to empirically explore how these factors (economic, financial and political risks) when taken together or separately can affect the country’s stock market performance and vice versa. Country risk ratings assess the probability of a country’s default on its debt from a variety of perspectives: from socio-economic condition to growth in the real gross domestic product (GDP), government stability to corruption, to exchange rate stability among others. The objective of this paper is to empirically investigate the short and long-run relationships between Nigeria’s country risk ratings; political, economic, and financial components and its stock market in order to provide further information for current and potential investors to enable them make better informed investment decisions. In our knowledge this is the first few studies of this nature conducted on an emerging economy like Nigeria. Our main instrument of investigation is the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach formulated by Pesaran and Pesaran (2009) and Pesaran et al. (2001), to empirically investigate the relationships. The ARDL method is adopted because of its econometrics techniques. One important advantage of the ARDL model over other traditional approaches is that it can be used in time-series data irrespective of their order of integration, whether I(0), I(1) and/or fractionally integrated (Pesaran and Pesaran, 2009). The ARDL approach can also test for cointegration by the bounds testing procedure and can estimate the short-run dynamics and long-run relationships. The rest of the paper is organized as follows; section two discusses related literature. Section three explains the methodology adopted in this paper. Section four presents the ARDL procedure and discusses its empirical findings. Conclusion and implications are given in section five. The globalization of trade and financial markets in the past years has created huge investment opportunities and its attendant risks. It has therefore, becomes inevitable to know the credit worthiness of participating players. The motive behind such an assessment of the economic and financial condition and sometimes political stability of a country is to be able to evaluate the country credit risks involved in doing business or investing in such a country. Any event in a country that will affect not only the prospect of profitability but also restrict the movement of capital in the form of profits, dividend etc is worth evaluating. The need for such critical evaluation of credit worthiness of countries has resulted in the establishment of several rating agencies such as Fitch, Moody’s and Standard Poor among many others. These risk ratings are considered as indicative of possible future default. A higher rating is seen as a lower risk of default, while a lower score indicates a higher risk of default. Though the primary significance of ratings is due to their impact on interest rates at which countries source for funds in the international financial markets, studies have also shown its influence on stock market movements. This argument is linked to the influence of country credit risk ratings on the inflows of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), into the host’s economy, especially through equity shares investments. There is no scarcity of research papers on sovereign ratings and their critical roles for encouraging and facilitating investment flows especially in developed economies, but there is paucity of studies conducted on the impact of these ratings on movements of national stock markets, particularly for emerging markets such as Nigeria. Some of the early studies by Erb et al (1995, 1996a, 1996b) show that there is association or relationship between country credit risk (i.e. the risk of a country’s inability to service its external debts) and returns on equity investments. The existence of relationship between country credit ratings and stock market returns was confirmed in the early work of Erb et al. (1996a) using data that cut across boundaries. As a follow up to their earlier work, Erb et al. (1996b) investigated the influence of economic, financial and political risks on expected fixed income returns. They show that there is relation between the country risk measures and world bond market expected returns. For the ICRG economic variable, they find positive and significant signs in unhedged, local, and foreign exchange portfolio returns. They also show that the country risk attributes are significant to the real yields of fixed income securities. Kaminsky and Schmukler (2001) also examine the influence of sovereign ratings and outlook changes on the sensitivity of emerging financial markets. They find that these variables have substantial influence on both bond and stock markets. A domestic downgrade is associated with an average increase change rate of two percentage points in bond yield spreads and a decrease of one percentage point in stock returns. SubaÃ…Å ¸Ãƒâ€žÃ‚ ± (2008) expressed a contrary view, stating that in most cases news of a downgrade is often anticipate earlier before its announcement; therefore the potential negative effect of such information on stocks and exchange rate returns is diluted. The impacts of rating changes on both bond yield and sovereign debt have been tested severally by many authors. Reisen and Maltzan (1999) using the three main rating agencies, find that there is mutual interdependencies among rating changes and changes in bond yield spread. The study by Cantor and Packer (1996) also reported similar findings. Among several authors that have provided valuable insight into the influence of rating changes on sovereign debt and corporate securities are Hand et al. (1992) and Richards and Deddouche (1999). The degrees of sensitivity in all these studies tend to vary probably because of the methods used for the country risk analysis. Hammoudey et al. (2011) using emerging economies; Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (commonly referred to as the BRICS countries) establish various degrees of sensitivities of these countries’ stock markets to their respective country risk ratings. China is most sensitive to all the risk variables, followed by Russia, while all the BRICS countries show moderate economic risk sensitivity. The spillover effect of sovereign debt rating changes on national stock markets and international debts is also confirmed by various authors, among them are Ferreira and Gama 2007; Li et al 2008. This situation is common among countries that share common economic features and unrestricted Evidence of flow of information. Common border also suspected to play a significant role. Regional stock market movements are also influenced by country credit risk rating news. This development is consistent with the study by Christopher et al. (2008), stating that there is a positive relationship between the two factors. While Brooks et al. (2004) in their study, though under a different setting did not find any sensitive association among the two variables. Turkey’s stock market index also seems to have association with its economic, financial and political risk ratings. Using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model, Sari et al. (2013) established a steady long-run relationship among the stock market and some of the risk variables. There are many leading commercial publishers of country and political risk analysis, but data for this study is sourced from the International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) economic, financial and political risk ratings for Nigeria covering the period 2001 to 2013. The ICRG rating system is made up of 22 variables representing three major components of country risk, namely economic, financial and political. These variables essentially represent risk-free measures. There are 5 variables representing each of the economic and financial components of risk, while the political component is based on 12 variables (Hoti, 2003). The specified allowable range for each factor reflects the weight attributed to each factor. A higher score indicates a lower risk and vice versa. The stock market returns variable is obtained by taking the first logarithm difference of the monthly stock of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the period earlier specified.s

post colonial :: essays research papers fc

George, Rosemary Marangoly, and Helen Scott. "An Interview with Tsitsi Dangarembga." Novel (Spring 1993):309-319. [This interview was conducted at the African Writers Festival, Brown Univ., Nov. 1991] Excerpt from Introduction: "Written when the author was twenty-five, Nervous Conditions put Dangarembga at the forefront of the younger generation of African writers producing literature in English today....Nervous Conditions highlights that which is often effaced in postcolonial African literature in English--the representation of young African girls and women as worthy subjects of literature....While the critical reception of this novel has focused mainly on the author's feminist agenda, in [this] interview...Dangarembga stresses that she has moved from a somewhat singular consideration of gender politics to an appreciation of the complexities of the politics of postcolonial subjecthood" (309). Full text also available from EBSCOHost Academic Search Elite, Article No. 9312270407. Veit-Wild, Flora. [Interview with Dangarembga] "Women Write about Things that Move Them." Matatu: Zeitschrift fur afrikanische Kultur und Gesellschaft 3.6(1989): 101-108. Wilkinson, Jane. "Tsitsi Dangarembga." Talking with African Writers: Interviews with African Poets, Playwrights and Novelists. London: James Currey, 1992. 189-198. Tsitsi Dangarembga (b. 1959) was interviewed 4 Sept. 1989 in London by Jane Wilkinson, and I here highlight some points made in that interview. There seem to be many autobiographical parallels between Tsitsi’s and Tambu’s lives, although Tambudzai (supposed to be 13 in 1968 in the novel) would be slightly older than Dangarembga (who was 9 in 1968). Dangarembga says that she wrote of "things I had observed and had had direct experience with," but "larger than any one person’s own tragedies†¦[with] a wider implication and origin and therefore were things that needed to be told" (190). One important theme in Nervous Conditions is that of remembering and forgetting—especially the danger of Tambu’s forgetting who she is, where she came from—as her brother Nhamo did. Dangarembga acknowledges this in the interview (191). "I personally do not have a fund of our cultural tradition or oral history to draw from, but I really did feel that if I am able to put down the little I know then it’s a start" (191). Nyasha, the author says, doesn’t have anything to forget, for she never knew, was never taught her culture and origins—and this forms "some great big gap inside her." "Tambudzai, on the other hand is quite valid in saying that she can’t forget because she has that kind of experience. Nyasha is so worried about forgetting because it’s not there for her to remember.

Team Work Effectiveness

There are many standard to evaluate where a team work effectively. According to Mcshane, Olekalns, Travaglione (2011), a team is effective when it benefits its organization, its member and its own survival. Based on my experience I feel that a team work effectively not only when it finishes its objective on time and accurately, but it also motivates its member in order to survival. Motivation can increase responsibility of members in working. Being responsible in teamwork is very important because teamwork is a group of people who depend on each other to finish objective. As a result, when any members are not responsible for their tasks other people will feel uncomfortable or even angry, which can influence negatively to results. For example, in week 5, our team played role as ML team which had to provide ID and pass of keepandshare website for whole class. Unfortunately, we got trouble when account had not worked. Additionally, this is the first time we work in team; therefore, some problem still happen. To be more specific, sometimes in our team, there are still some arguments contributes to debate and then, members feel uncomfortable and we did the tasks not very well. What is more, an effective team also depends a lot on leadership. Mcshane, Olekalns, Travaglione (2011) claim that an effective leader always want to create good working environment for members and support them willingly instead of put leadership on the position of power. During short-time I led my team, I’ve learned that this point is reality because, for example, sometimes I did not understand feeling of other members in my team so some feel unconfident and results were affected negatively. There are some solutions to make a team more effective. Firstly, an effective team should have clarity of direction. Each team member has to have a specific purpose when working so as to focus on the main jobs. When everyone has a clear goal, the team can work efficiently, so the team effectiveness could be greater. Secondly, it is necessary to create an appropriate structure and strict rules to build an effective team. There are some different people in one team so that there are competing interests and personality clashes in team and that could lead to conflicts between members. Therefore, leader has a very important role in the team. The leader must contribute some rules to clarify for the team what is and is not acceptable behavior. Furthermore, leadership requirement for contributing an effective team is that the team has the appropriate skills to succeed. A common think in constructing teams is that having enough members to work on the objectives will lead to team effectiveness. It is a common mistake because more people does not mean more effective if they are not the suitable people for what is being asked to do. The leader is responsible for making sure that the team has sufficient skills and resources to fulfill its submissions. Finally, one of the most important factors of contributing team effectiveness is the respect. Each team members in one team need to listen many different ideas of other members and respect their ideas. Arguments in the team are good when that lead to an agreement between team members at the end. Each team members should be polite in communication to avoid conflicts which can make the team ineffective.

Moon Phases and Weather essays

Moon Phases and Weather essays From any location on the Earth, the Moon appears to be a circular disk which, at any specific time, is illuminated to some degree by direct sunlight. Like the Earth, the Moon is a sphere which is always half illuminated by the Sun, but as the Moon orbits the Earth we get to see more or less of the illuminated half. During each lunar orbit (a lunar month), we see the Moon's appearance change from not visibly illuminated through partially illuminated to fully illuminated, then back through partially illuminated to not illuminated again. Although this cycle is a continuous process, there are eight distinct, traditionally recognized stages, called phases. The phases designate both the degree to which the Moon is illuminated and the geometric appearance of the illuminated part. The phases of the moon are New Moon, Waxing Crescent, Waxing Moon (1st Quarter), Waxing Gibbous, Full Moon, Waning Gibbous, and Waning Crescent (Last Quarter). These moon phases often affect the weather. During these phases, there are certain weather conditions that are likely to occur. The best chance for a fine day is before any moon phase day, at the New Moon, and a few days before the Full Moon. The chance of rain can be viewed as the relative weather instability. Rain occurs most frequently in the week between the New Moon and 1st Quarter and the week between Full Moon and Last Quarter. This is partly due to the moon phases effects on tides. Although the chance of rain just before the Full Moon is very low, the days could be overcast and cooler. The days before the 1st Quarter and the Last Quarter should be warmer than the days before the New Moon or Full Moon. ...

Health Care Regulations Essays

Health Care Regulations Essays Health Care Regulations Paper Health Care Regulations Paper Changes and reforms in policy affecting health care facilities are well documented by professional and academic publications (Barr, 2002). These changes and reforms, which aim to improve the provision of health care service, are adopted in order to allow health care facilities to better meet the needs of their patients (Barr, 2002). Thus, there are reforms on the aspect of health care pensions, which are adopted to protect consumers in this field where they know very little (Barr, 2002). Recent changes applied in agency regulation and policy in the United States are those implemented by the Better Home Health Care Agency, Inc., which holds office and provides health care services in Nassau, Suffolk, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan and Westchester since 1988 (Barr, 2002). Such recent changes are focused on the provision of more efficient service and the availability of health care professionals, such as a registered nurse, administrator, and medical coordinator, even in the times that the agency is closed, such as on weekends (Barr, 2002). One of the new services provided by the agency is shopping, where the agency charges a minimal fee for assisting their clients in their dietary and shopping needs (Barr, 2002). The client may provide her dietary needs to her caretaker and the goods would be delivered to her. In relation to this, Better Home Health Care Agency, Inc. has a special in-service training, wherein caregivers and health care aids try to meet the nutritional needs of clients while at the same time pleasing their taste buds. This service consists of preparation of specific medically restricted diets, ethnic dishes, and kosher dishes, depending on the needs of the client (Barr, 2002). The changes in policy of the Agency, as manifested by the new services they provide, fall within the category of improvement of quality, which is a main concern of many health care facilities, such as hospitals (Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission, 2004). This thrust is influenced by competitive pressures, which require all participants in the health care industry to improve the quality of services, lower costs, and thereby become a better competitor in the health care industry (Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission, 2004). References Barr, N. (2002). Reforming pensions: Myths, truths, and policy choices. International   Ã‚   Social Security Review 55(2), 3-36. Better Home Health Care Agency, Inc. (2007). Innovative Programs. Retrieved November 17, 2007, from   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://betterhomehealthcare.com/content/innovativeprograms.html Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission. (2004). Improving Health Care:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A Dose of Competition.

Free Essays on Marketing In The Work Place

The American Honda Motor Company was established as a subsidiary by Honda in 1959. During the 1960's the type of motorcycles brought by Americans underwent a major change. Motorcycle registrations increased by over 800,000 in five years from 1960. In the early 60's the major competitors were Haley - Davidson of U.S.A, BSA, Triumph and Norton of the UK and Motto - Guzzi of Italy. Harley-Davidson had the largest market share with sales in 1959 totalling a6.6 million dollars. Many of the motorcycles produced were large and bulky and this led to the image of the motorcycle rider as being one who wore a leather jacket and went out to cause trouble. The Boston Consulting Group ( BCG ) report was initiated by the British government to study the decline in British motorcycle companies around the world, especially in the USA where sales had dropped from 49 0n 1959 to 9 0n 1973. The two key factors the report identified was the market share loss and profitability declines an the scale economy disadvantages in technology, distribution, and manufacturing. The BCG report showed that success of the Japanese manufacturers started with the growth of their own domestic markets. The high production for domestic demand led to Honda experiencing economies of scale as the cost of producing motorbikes declined with the level of output. This provided Honda to achieve a highly competitive cost position which they used to penetrate into the US market. " The basic philosophy of the Japanese manufacture is that high volumes per model provide the potential for high productivity as a result of using capital intensive and highly automated techniques. T heir marketing strategies are therefore directed towards developing these high model volumes, hence the careful attention that we have observed them giving to growth and market share." (BCG p.59 ). The report goes on to show how Honda built up engineering competencies through the innovation of Mr Honda. The compa... Free Essays on Marketing In The Work Place Free Essays on Marketing In The Work Place The American Honda Motor Company was established as a subsidiary by Honda in 1959. During the 1960's the type of motorcycles brought by Americans underwent a major change. Motorcycle registrations increased by over 800,000 in five years from 1960. In the early 60's the major competitors were Haley - Davidson of U.S.A, BSA, Triumph and Norton of the UK and Motto - Guzzi of Italy. Harley-Davidson had the largest market share with sales in 1959 totalling a6.6 million dollars. Many of the motorcycles produced were large and bulky and this led to the image of the motorcycle rider as being one who wore a leather jacket and went out to cause trouble. The Boston Consulting Group ( BCG ) report was initiated by the British government to study the decline in British motorcycle companies around the world, especially in the USA where sales had dropped from 49 0n 1959 to 9 0n 1973. The two key factors the report identified was the market share loss and profitability declines an the scale economy disadvantages in technology, distribution, and manufacturing. The BCG report showed that success of the Japanese manufacturers started with the growth of their own domestic markets. The high production for domestic demand led to Honda experiencing economies of scale as the cost of producing motorbikes declined with the level of output. This provided Honda to achieve a highly competitive cost position which they used to penetrate into the US market. " The basic philosophy of the Japanese manufacture is that high volumes per model provide the potential for high productivity as a result of using capital intensive and highly automated techniques. T heir marketing strategies are therefore directed towards developing these high model volumes, hence the careful attention that we have observed them giving to growth and market share." (BCG p.59 ). The report goes on to show how Honda built up engineering competencies through the innovation of Mr Honda. The compa...

The power of the media to shape our perceptions and understanding of Research Paper

The power of the media to shape our perceptions and understanding of reality on gun control - Research Paper Example It is important to note that in these incidences, the media coverage of the live happenings has always been extensive giving the perpetrator of such violence a lot of fame. Various segments of the society have reacted to such incidences with diverging and converging opinions on what should be the best way forward. While the Obama administration has been on the forefront proposing stringent measures for the purposes of reducing or eliminating repeat occurrence, Republicans have a different view on how to address the whole matter. Religious groups and civil society have not spoken in one voice although one may deduce that everyone desires some changes in regards to how the whole issue should be addressed. Some of the emerging schools of thoughts that have come put have to do with logic behind issuance of guns, the ethical and practical implications of the solutions proposed for adoption as policy. Probably the big challenge is that the incidences that have occurred cannot qualify to be categorized as organized crimes. They are spontaneous reactions from private citizens with unforeseeable emotional and psychological instabilities. This has made generalizations very difficult. It has even begged the question whether first time offenders of gun violence can be treated as criminals or patients unlucky enough to be roaming outside instead of being attended to in mental programs. The media is one of the most powerful tools with regards to the flow of information. Most people have a lot of trust in the media. The view of the media is considered by many to be the right view. For this reason, it is easy to manipulate the public through various media platforms. Over the years, politicians and law makers as well as various governments have used this blind trust that the audiences have to propagate different agendas. This aspect of blind trust has been described by Robertson Davies in the following quote, â€Å"The eyes sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehendâ₠¬ . This quote insinuates that the media has the tendency to change the view of its audience, their attitudes, level of knowledge, and ideal about overall subject. Gun control is one of the most commonly discussed subjects by the media. However, this subject has been discussed in an impartial manner. In other words, the media has not been able to discuss both sides of gun control matter. . This paper shall analyze the effect of media on people’s perception of gun control Background In the American society, gun control issues have now topped the list of communication trends. Incidents such as Virginia Tech University (2007), Tucson Arizona (2011), movie theatre at Aurora Colorado (2012), Newtown Connecticut (2013) etc. have been made the topic of discussion in many media broadcast sessions. Consequently, these media broadcasts have shaped biased perspective regarding gun control Different people have varied views with regard to the gun control debate. Most of these views are directly related to the hype on gun control propagated by the media. After the incident in New Connecticut, the enforcement of the gun control laws took a different turn. The following graph that appeared on edition.cnn.com under the heading How Media Lose Interest in gun control by Danny Hayes indicates the trend of coverage of gun control by different media news channels (Hayes, Why this gun control debate has been different

Evolution of Gender Norms Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Evolution of Gender Norms - Essay Example The first wave of liberation, which has been named feminism led to the allowance of women to vote. The success, however, was not achieved in all the other demands. The start of the industrial revolution led to discrimination based on sex, and despite the role accomplished by the women in the earlier slavery struggles, they were not allowed to assume offices. They were given positions that did not require decision making. The mistreating and discrimination based on sex resulted in the creation of and start of second liberation. The second liberation started in the 1960s addressed issues relating to employment discrimination and other social injustices that were not addressed in the earlier revolution. The urge for second liberation was brought about by the discriminatory laws passed by their male counterpart that barred discrimination in the basis of race originality, religion, color and not sex. This law did not address the feminine problems thereby forcing women to start lobbying, f or recognition and change of laws to cover them against discrimination. The resultant effect of their liberation was the inclusion of sex in the anti-discrimination law. The women's liberation movements were marked by the struggle against certain issues that needed to be addressed. Despite their involvement in the liberation wars and the Second World War, women were not respected in the society leading to the creation of the new approach in the fight for their right. Minority groups worked with them in the process of liberation. Several issues were highlighted as the major reasons for the liberation movement. Among the conspicuous ones are; equity, employment inequalities, freedom of choice and the ability to vote in the elections. The liberation movement witnessed in America was marked with several issues but the main focus of the liberation movement was the protection and development of women rights. The challenge of the liberation was the role of women in the society and the chan ging trends in the development of the various issues including change in marriage. In addition, the involvement of women in the social issues contributed to the increased awareness of the need for freedom (Davis, 1999, p. 135). Several authors have written articles based on personal experience and events that caused or propelled women liberation movement. Several events affected the speed and effectiveness of women liberation movement. These events include the Second World War, the tradition and culture of the different races. The liberation movement and trends The Victorian era was marked with several discrepancies, especially the rights of women. The women of that time were not allowed to own property, sue, and did not have suffrage rights. The Victorian England was distinguished by a strict social hierarchy (Drewnowski & Specter, 2003, p. 14). The explanation of the complicated nature of class social system is depicted by the position of the governesses. Additionally they were ex pected to participate in the labor as paid workforce during the era following the industrial revolution. Beginning after the industrial revolution in 1948, the revolution did face several changes and challenges. Women's liberation started as a result of the discussion in a small friendly meeting, where Elizabeth Stanton wrote the eighteen injustices facing women, resulting in the start of a

What does it mean to be an effective educator for gifted, creative, Annotated Bibliography

What does it mean to be an effective educator for gifted, creative, and talented students - Annotated Bibliography Example It is also important for the evaluation of the effect of programs on individual student. The main reason for applying multiple criteria is to identify more minority and economically disadvantaged students who are over looked when so elements of restrictive criteria for such things like the student’s IQ or achievement scores are used. This under representation problem have for decade’s plagued education. For example, in 1991, the state of Georgia defined the giftedness of a student according to a single score. With the help of Renzulli’s NRC/GT, eight Georgian schools explored the use of multiple criteria to obtain what they termed as a rich profile of students in terms of strength and interest. This criterion was also important in identifying the strength of minority students. Teachers can identify students quickly on the basis of observation and performance information of students from different cultural and economic background. Students who show traits, aptitudes and behaviors associated with giftedness can quickly be identified. Georgia legislatures passed a bill requiring multiple criteria be identified. This was in 1994 when the legislature was well convinced of the fairness of the multiple criteria, and the governor signed it into law. The law stated that the eligibility included meeting criteria in any three of the four areas which are the mental ability, achievement, creativity and motivation. The areas were defined as; intellectual ability above the 96th percentile, standardized achievement test score above the 90th percentile on the total battery n reading or in mathematics, creativity scores above the 90th percentile on the creativity test or creative characteristics rating scale, or superior evaluation of creative product or performance. Moreo ver, motivation as reflected in a GPA above 3.5, a score of above the 90th percentile on a motivational characteristics scale, or a rating above the 90th percentile on a

Richard Wright Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Richard Wright - Essay Example Wright brought into picture the sufferings he himself passed through as a black. In the book, Wright expresses racial prejudice in Jim Crow’s South, how the blacks were affected and how they coped with the racial prejudice. When the Jim Crow era started during the 1880s, the whites who lived in the southern area of the United States did anything it would take to oppose any form of education for the black children. They felt that education would spoil the good field hands. They felt that the education would destroy their labor force for the future and discouraged it at all costs. For the whites education would make blacks too pretentious. By the end of the nineteenth century, two thirds of all black children could not go to school because the whites had restricted them not to attend school. The black children had no teachers and did not have any building that they could use as classes. The whites burned down schools attended by blacks and killed or chased away people who worked as teachers for black children. Despite these discouragements, the blacks did not give up. The black community build and supported their own schools. The local churches were also of help because they provided education via Sabbath schools. Over seventy percent of all black children went to private schools. ... loped by Jim Crow were segregative in nature in the sense that they segregated trains, schools, parks, streetcars, bathrooms, hotels, restaurants, cemeteries and other things. Black people were restricted to seek medical care from many hospitals. In addition to this, the facilities meant for African Americans were inferior in terms of staffing and resources as compared to the facilities build for the whites. In employment, black earned much less compared to whites. In addition, in many instances, the blacks were denied employment. The issues of segregation were so intense to the extent that the blacks even usd a different type of bible when they took oaths in a court of law. Discrimination had become a part of their daily lives. For instance, during the 1890s, there was about 187 lynchings of blacks every year. Out of the 187, 80 percent happened in the southern part. Lynchings were done because the victims were purported to have committed crimes or had violated the station or positi on of a white person. The main purpose that the lynchings served was to show that the whites were in control of the black Americans. Therefore, they ruled with terror and intimidation in order to scare blacks and make them do whatever the whites wanted them to do. The terror and intimidation were meant to contain any rebellious activity that could have been planned by the blacks. Therefore, the black suffered a great deal from the way the whites treated them (Wright, 1937). In the 1920s, the Africans responded to the segregation, mistreatment and intimidation from the whites through a social and Cultural Revolution understood as the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance occurred particularly in New York City. Later this was described as the action of a new generation of black

What does it mean to be an effective educator for gifted, creative, Annotated Bibliography

What does it mean to be an effective educator for gifted, creative, and talented students - Annotated Bibliography Example It is also important for the evaluation of the effect of programs on individual student. The main reason for applying multiple criteria is to identify more minority and economically disadvantaged students who are over looked when so elements of restrictive criteria for such things like the student’s IQ or achievement scores are used. This under representation problem have for decade’s plagued education. For example, in 1991, the state of Georgia defined the giftedness of a student according to a single score. With the help of Renzulli’s NRC/GT, eight Georgian schools explored the use of multiple criteria to obtain what they termed as a rich profile of students in terms of strength and interest. This criterion was also important in identifying the strength of minority students. Teachers can identify students quickly on the basis of observation and performance information of students from different cultural and economic background. Students who show traits, aptitudes and behaviors associated with giftedness can quickly be identified. Georgia legislatures passed a bill requiring multiple criteria be identified. This was in 1994 when the legislature was well convinced of the fairness of the multiple criteria, and the governor signed it into law. The law stated that the eligibility included meeting criteria in any three of the four areas which are the mental ability, achievement, creativity and motivation. The areas were defined as; intellectual ability above the 96th percentile, standardized achievement test score above the 90th percentile on the total battery n reading or in mathematics, creativity scores above the 90th percentile on the creativity test or creative characteristics rating scale, or superior evaluation of creative product or performance. Moreo ver, motivation as reflected in a GPA above 3.5, a score of above the 90th percentile on a motivational characteristics scale, or a rating above the 90th percentile on a

Critical Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Critical Review - Essay Example One of the main arguments of the author is that immigrants are taking jobs away from the British people. The article showed a lot of statistics and numbers to justify the position of the author. Overall the article was well written and it demonstrated a lot of evidence that might suggest that the author’s claim is correct. For instance he stated that since 2004 over 600,000 immigrants have entered the job market and during that time 450,000 young workers became unemployed. He also stated the logical argument that a higher number of people in the country meant that the government had to spend more money on costs of new homes, education, social care, and infrastructure. He also stated another fact that the bigger the population the more congested the city becomes which is an absolute truth. Another interest argument made by the author was that the immigrants are not contributing sufficiently to the overall economy based on how many resources they were depleting. The influx of im migrants is adding 1% to the population, but is only contributing 0.33% to the overall production. Despite the arguments that were made in this article my opinion is that the author did a poor job of proving the correlation between immigration and employment. His argument were biased and to certain extent racist because he made it seem as if the people that were entering the United Kingdom in search for a better life were a type of plague to the society when in reality they are enriching the culture of the country and providing much need labor. These poor immigrants are accepting low paying jobs that the majority of British people are not willing to take. When the author stated that the population growth associated with immigrants was not equal to the production they were creating his statistical approach was flawed because the reason that these workers were not adding more to economic production is because these humans were sacrificing themselves in very low paying jobs. Another ma jor flaw in the article was that the author failed to provide solutions on what the government should do to fix the problem. Since the author thinks that immigration is a problem he should have provided alternative solutions based on empirical data such as proposing that the U.K. imposed an immigration quota to limit the amount of people that can enter the country. This is just a theoretical example of something that could be done. A better way to deal with the problem is by the government of the United Kingdom taking measures to improve the state of the economy to increase the amount of jobs available for British nationals and people immigrating into the U.K. A second way that the government can improve the economy is by forming alliances with the private industry to spur job creation by offering better economic incentives that will attract foreign investors. The article stated that according to the Office of National Statistics Eastern Europeans are willing to do the dirty, diffic ult, and dangerous jobs for lower wages. Since this group of people is willing to sacrifice themselves more than British nationals it is estimated that 95% of males and 80% of female immigrants have been able to find jobs despite the weak economy. It is important to analyze the effect that this labor force has on the corporate world. From an economic and business standpoint corporations and businesses are greatly benefiting from the influx of immigrant workers because these companies are now able to fill vacant job positions they were having

Richard Wright Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Richard Wright - Essay Example Wright brought into picture the sufferings he himself passed through as a black. In the book, Wright expresses racial prejudice in Jim Crow’s South, how the blacks were affected and how they coped with the racial prejudice. When the Jim Crow era started during the 1880s, the whites who lived in the southern area of the United States did anything it would take to oppose any form of education for the black children. They felt that education would spoil the good field hands. They felt that the education would destroy their labor force for the future and discouraged it at all costs. For the whites education would make blacks too pretentious. By the end of the nineteenth century, two thirds of all black children could not go to school because the whites had restricted them not to attend school. The black children had no teachers and did not have any building that they could use as classes. The whites burned down schools attended by blacks and killed or chased away people who worked as teachers for black children. Despite these discouragements, the blacks did not give up. The black community build and supported their own schools. The local churches were also of help because they provided education via Sabbath schools. Over seventy percent of all black children went to private schools. ... loped by Jim Crow were segregative in nature in the sense that they segregated trains, schools, parks, streetcars, bathrooms, hotels, restaurants, cemeteries and other things. Black people were restricted to seek medical care from many hospitals. In addition to this, the facilities meant for African Americans were inferior in terms of staffing and resources as compared to the facilities build for the whites. In employment, black earned much less compared to whites. In addition, in many instances, the blacks were denied employment. The issues of segregation were so intense to the extent that the blacks even usd a different type of bible when they took oaths in a court of law. Discrimination had become a part of their daily lives. For instance, during the 1890s, there was about 187 lynchings of blacks every year. Out of the 187, 80 percent happened in the southern part. Lynchings were done because the victims were purported to have committed crimes or had violated the station or positi on of a white person. The main purpose that the lynchings served was to show that the whites were in control of the black Americans. Therefore, they ruled with terror and intimidation in order to scare blacks and make them do whatever the whites wanted them to do. The terror and intimidation were meant to contain any rebellious activity that could have been planned by the blacks. Therefore, the black suffered a great deal from the way the whites treated them (Wright, 1937). In the 1920s, the Africans responded to the segregation, mistreatment and intimidation from the whites through a social and Cultural Revolution understood as the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance occurred particularly in New York City. Later this was described as the action of a new generation of black

Critical Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Critical Review - Essay Example One of the main arguments of the author is that immigrants are taking jobs away from the British people. The article showed a lot of statistics and numbers to justify the position of the author. Overall the article was well written and it demonstrated a lot of evidence that might suggest that the author’s claim is correct. For instance he stated that since 2004 over 600,000 immigrants have entered the job market and during that time 450,000 young workers became unemployed. He also stated the logical argument that a higher number of people in the country meant that the government had to spend more money on costs of new homes, education, social care, and infrastructure. He also stated another fact that the bigger the population the more congested the city becomes which is an absolute truth. Another interest argument made by the author was that the immigrants are not contributing sufficiently to the overall economy based on how many resources they were depleting. The influx of im migrants is adding 1% to the population, but is only contributing 0.33% to the overall production. Despite the arguments that were made in this article my opinion is that the author did a poor job of proving the correlation between immigration and employment. His argument were biased and to certain extent racist because he made it seem as if the people that were entering the United Kingdom in search for a better life were a type of plague to the society when in reality they are enriching the culture of the country and providing much need labor. These poor immigrants are accepting low paying jobs that the majority of British people are not willing to take. When the author stated that the population growth associated with immigrants was not equal to the production they were creating his statistical approach was flawed because the reason that these workers were not adding more to economic production is because these humans were sacrificing themselves in very low paying jobs. Another ma jor flaw in the article was that the author failed to provide solutions on what the government should do to fix the problem. Since the author thinks that immigration is a problem he should have provided alternative solutions based on empirical data such as proposing that the U.K. imposed an immigration quota to limit the amount of people that can enter the country. This is just a theoretical example of something that could be done. A better way to deal with the problem is by the government of the United Kingdom taking measures to improve the state of the economy to increase the amount of jobs available for British nationals and people immigrating into the U.K. A second way that the government can improve the economy is by forming alliances with the private industry to spur job creation by offering better economic incentives that will attract foreign investors. The article stated that according to the Office of National Statistics Eastern Europeans are willing to do the dirty, diffic ult, and dangerous jobs for lower wages. Since this group of people is willing to sacrifice themselves more than British nationals it is estimated that 95% of males and 80% of female immigrants have been able to find jobs despite the weak economy. It is important to analyze the effect that this labor force has on the corporate world. From an economic and business standpoint corporations and businesses are greatly benefiting from the influx of immigrant workers because these companies are now able to fill vacant job positions they were having

Protein Energy Malnutrition Essay Example for Free

Protein Energy Malnutrition Essay The articles subject concerns the protein deficiency among infants in the Osun state of Nigeria. Nursing frequency and duration experienced a reduction during complementary food were introduced to infants in Osun. Mothers tend to be complacent in feeding their babies with complementary food, which result to the minimized breast-feeding of mothers that hinders the natural nutrition that these infants need.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In a study conducted among Osun infants, they discovered that it was not a advisable for children at this age to be fed by such synthetic food. Consumption of such tends to halt the natural nourishment the babies need from their mothers. As early as two years old, babies were exposed already to complementary food, which is against the requirement of the World Health Organization (Ogunba, 2004). According to WHO, the amount of protein and calories (energy) that were consumed by infants were not above standard levels because these foods contain excess amount of carbohydrates alone (Ogunba, 2004). Obviously, the nutritional requirement of an infant is not met due to the outcome of early supplementation of these synthetic food. Infants natural diet should require constant breast-feeding in which they are enable to consume protein from milk. Unfortunately, this apt nutritional nourishment is ignored by the mothers in Osun (Ogunba, 2004).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In a study conducted among Osun infants, protein energy malnutrition was discovered that it was in constant depletion. The lack of protein among the infants resulted to â€Å"stunting†. Stunting   has a significant presence in the rural areas, which is an indication of chronic under-nutrition in these areas (Ogunba, 2004). It was discovered that stunting was among the culprits of infant growth faltering, as a result from the consumption of complementary food, children from one to six months of age were experiencing a decrease in growth and health progress (Ogunba, 2004). Stunting is the most prevalent of the different manifestations of PEM (33.9 per cent), followed by underweight (21.0 per cent) and wasting (9.2 per cent) (Ogunba, 2004). Children need protein more than adults do because they are constantly growing and developing. The protein requirement of infants is per unit of body weight higher than those of adults. Reference Ogunba,B. (2004). Protein energy malnutrition in complemented breast-fed babies: implications of   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   the timing of complementary feeding. Nutrition Food Science. Retrieved February 10,   Ã‚  Ã‚   2008, from   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://swtuopproxy.museglobal.com/MuseSessionID=af57a678251afeca8c38cca61826cae/   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   MuseHost=www.emeraldinsight.com/MusePath/Insight/ViewContentServlet?  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Filename=Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Articles/0170340504.html

Conflicts In The Nile Basin History Essay

Conflicts In The Nile Basin History Essay The Nile is the longest river in the world, it is 6860 km long, it is supplied by two great river systems, the 1st one is the White Nile (in the Lake Plateau) which is surrounded by Kenya, Uganda, Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, an Burundi; and the other one is the Blue Nile (in Eritrea and the Ethiopian highlands); while in the north there are Egypt and Sudan that receive their water from the previously mentioned sources. The Nile River had a great role in making history on its banks, a lot of civilizations and nations were made on them; The Nile Basin consists of 10 nations which are: Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi with a total population of three hundred millions and it is expected to be doubled in the next twenty five years, the basin itself is 3,000,000 Km square that covers about 10% of the African continent area; There is no doubt that with the increasing of population, the water requirement is also increased in addition to the water that is needed for agriculture and energy production. It is may also be important to know that all the basin nations are really poor maybe the poorest in the world (except for Kenya and Egypt) and that poverty increases rates of disease and starvation. According to the terms of the agreement that was made in 1929 between Britain (the colonial power of Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya, Egypt and Sudan have the absolute right to use 100% of the Niles water, while in 1959 there was another one between Sudan and Egypt. Since 1992 a lot of efforts were exerted to push the basin nations towards development and cooperation, and finally in 1999 there was the establishment of the NBI (Nile Basin Initiative), it was developed by the World Bank, Canadian International Development Agency and the United Nations Development Programme, it was established to decrease the tension between those nations and to help them to develop and gain regional stability by controlling and planning the water resources all together. Any management of any river basin in the world is complex, while the Nile Basin may be considered to be the most complex one because of its history of poverty, sacrifices, wars and insecurity, and on the other hand, the rapid and non-stoppable population growth on its banks that surely increases water and energy requirements, and that is why the NBI must have a great role in managing all those challenges and ensure the cooperation between all the nations. Recently the conflicts became even more aggressive between the Nile basin nations when 4 Nile nations which are Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Uganda have together signed an agreement that allows them to use more amounts of Nile waters in development projects and irrigation, meanwhile Egypt and Sudan didnt agree and they convinced Burundi, Eritrea, Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya of not signing on that agreement. Discussion: The Challenge: The Nile Basin consists of 10 nations which are: Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi with a total population of three hundred millions and it is expected to be doubled in the next twenty five years, the basin itself is 3,000,000 Km square that covers about 10% of the African continent area; There is no doubt that with the increasing of population, the water requirement is also increased in addition to the water that is needed for agriculture and energy production. The River Nile is 6672 km long and it is the second longest river in the whole world, and it is supplied by 2 main sources, the first one comes from Lake Victoria and forms the White Nile that passes through Uganda and ends in Sudan while the second source is in the Ethiopian highlands and forms the Blue Nile that meets the White Nile at Khartoum then it continues northward to pass through Egypt and ends into the Mediterranean Sea. The River Nile for Egypt is everything; People in Egypt has always been connected to the Nile from the day of their birth till the moment of their death; Historically, in the fifth century B.C. Herodotus described Egypt as the gift of the Nile, and after Nasser built the dam at Aswan, the connection was reinforced more and more, Egypt depends mainly on the River Nile as a water supply and with the rapid increase in population, the water demands become more. In 1929 an agreement was held between Britain and Egypt and another one in1959 that was held between Egypt and Sudan, both have given the downstream nations their natural right of the Niles waters, construction of dams was approved and the water was divided as follows: Egypt has forty eight billions cubic meters, Sudan has four billions, and thirty two million will end into the Mediterranean Sea; now that was acceptable then because the rest of the upstream countries were not developed, and their population was relatively low, today those countries need to develop and they need to develop new projects and construct dams and that would be a high threat to the downstream nations as the downstream nations want to renegotiate about the old treaty, on the other hand, Egypt has refused to renegotiate and considers its share of water a natural right and became prepared for any military action as Egypt is known as the most powerful military power in Africa. Egypt receives 97.5% of the Niles water and Sudan receives 77%, however, it is very important to make clear that the water distribution between the Nile Nations is fair because of the following: The 7 upstream nations are located in humid areas they have rainfall average range from 1250 to 1500mm annually, on the other hand it is 500mm in Sudan and Eritrea while it is not more than 15mm in Egypt annually. Egypts climate is hyper arid with high temperature that will cause rapid evaporation and will definitely cause marked losses of water resources in Egypt. The upstream nations receive about 1500 billion cubic meters every year while on the other hand Egypt receives only 85 cubic billion meters every year and that equals 5-7% of the total water resources. The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) In 1999 the Nile Basin Initiative was established and developed by the World Bank, CIDA, and the UNDP, it was established in order to decrease the conflicts and the tensions between the Nile basin nations and help them to cooperate and develop the water resources of the Nile. It was supported by a lot of donors including Denmark, Canada, Germany, Japan, Finland, Italy, Norway, the UK, the Netherlands, the US, Swede, the African Development Bank, GEF, FAO, the World Bank and UNDP. The NBI has stated that they can make successful 100% development that will definitely lead to more food and energy production, development of industry, development of transportation, and other regional activities development. The projects of the NBI include fishing projects, management of water, management of the floods, reduction of the pollution, and finally controlling the waterborne diseases. Management of water resources is considered to be a very complex process in any river basin, and if you realized that the Nile basin has always been characterized by poverty, water scarcity, huge population, and long history of wars and insecurity then you will understand how complex and difficult it can be. NBI knew that cooperative development is the only way for the greatest results and maximum benefits to all of the Niles basin nations, the NBI provides the shared vision and a base for cooperative development, and its primary objectives are: Developing the water resources of the Nile Basin in an equitable way in order to ensure: Security Prosperity Peace Ensure the optimal use of the Nile Basin water resources Ensure joint action and cooperation between all the Nile Basin nations Eliminate poverty and enhance economic renaissance Transforming the plan into action and the dream to a fact Conflict in the Nile Basin In Entebbe, Uganda, 14-2-2010, 4 upriver nations which are Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda have started and signed an agreement that allows them to have more management of the Nile waters to use them in development projects and irrigation. That agreement was made while the negotiations with the downstream nations were standstill; on the other hand the reaction of the downstream nations was not sending any delegations but they have used diplomacy in convincing Burundi, Kenya, Eritrea, and Congo not to sign on that agreement. The 7 upstream nations now consider the old treaties unfair and demand more water to be used for irrigation and development projects. Egypt cleared that cooperation between the Nile Basin nations is the only way to achieve maximum benefits and that the upstream nations can make better use of the water resources they already have (rainfall), however, the upstream nations are threatening that they would sign another agreement that will exclude Sudan and Egypt and distribute the Nile waters in a new way; that agreement is considered to be a death sentence to all the Egyptians, and that was what made Egypt announce that it will take whichever action may be found necessary to secure its share in the River Nile. Another important fact to be mentioned is that Israel is participating in building dams in Uganda on the Nile waters and that increases the worries and the tension of the Egyptians. It is matter of time for Sudan and Egypt to specify their reaction against that new agreement, and they have to make a serious act to protect their rights of the Niles water; every country has to pay everything to protect its national security. Solutions and recommendations: Basin nations are depending on each other, they are all linked to the River Nile, if Nile nations have cooperated and managed Nile waters all together, synergy will be created between them and conflicts between them will be resolved, and regional stability and development will be achieved; That could only happen if all the Nile nations have reached a legal agreement between all of them based on trust, shared interest, and common bond. Collaborative management will help in reaching peace between all the Nile nations, because if we managed to share water, the struggle for life will disappear, and battles between tribes, clans, families, neighbors and nations will also disappear. The Basin Nations must know that natural resources (water) can bring peace and cooperation instead of fighting each other, they can use that water to build new culture and new developments. Another useful solution is to take into consideration the opinions of the public including farmers, women, different organizations, and fishers. Finally there must be management schemes that determine the rightful share of water for each country according to its needs and in order to help all the Nile nations to use the Niles water today and in the future with easy accessibility and based on the shared interests and the broad participation. Conclusion:

Great Gatsby :: essays research papers

One night, Gatsby waylays Nick and nervously asks him if he would like to take a swim in his pool; when Nick demurs, he offers him a trip to Coney Island. Nick, initially baffled by Gatsby's solicitousness, realizes that he is anxiously waiting for Nick to arrange his meeting with Daisy. Nick agrees to do so. Gatsby, almost wild with joy, responds by offering him a job, a "confidential sort of thing," and assures Nick that he will not have to work with Meyer Wolfsheim. Nick is somewhat insulted that Gatsby wishes to reimburse him for his help, and so declines Gatsby's offer. It rains on the day that Gatsby and Daisy are to meet, and Gatsby becomes extremely apprehensive. The meeting takes place at Nick's house and, initially, their conversation is stilted and awkward. They are all inexplicably embarrassed; when Gatsby clumsily knocks over a clock, Nick tells him that he's behaving like a little boy. Nick leaves the couple alone for a few minutes; when he returns, they seem luminously happy, as though they have just concluded an embrace. There are tears of happiness on Daisy's cheeks. They make their way over to Gatsby's mansion, of which Gatsby proceeds to give them a carefully rehearsed tour. Gatsby shows Daisy newspaper clippings detailing his exploits. She is overwhelmed by them, and by the opulence of his possessions; when he shows her his vast collection of imported shirts, she begins to weep tears of joy. Nick wonders whether Gatsby is disappointed with Daisy; it seems that he has made of her a goddess, and  ­ though Daisy herself is alluring  ­ she cannot possibly live up to so grandiose an ideal. Gatsby has Ewing Klipspringer, a mysterious man who seems to live at his mansion, play "Ain't We Got Fun" (a popular song of the time) for himself and Daisy: In the morning, in the evening Ain't we got fun! Got no money, but oh, honey Ain't we got fun! As Klipspringer plays, Gatsby and Daisy draw closer and closer together; Nick, realizing that his presence has become superfluous, quietly leaves. Analysis The exchange between Nick and Gatsby that opens this chapter highlights the uncertainty at the heart of their relationship: is Gatsby's friendship with Nick merely expedient  ­ that is, is he merely using him to draw closer to Daisy  ­ or is he genuinely fond of him? The question cannot be absolutely decided: while it becomes clear that Gatsby has great affection for Nick, it is also true that he uses his money and power as leverage in all of his personal relationships.

Renewable Energy Essay -- Energy, Fossil Fuel, Oil, Natural Gas

The most of global energy production produces from fossil fuel such as coal, oil and natural gas. The vast fossil fuels generate energy which use for many purposes for instant residential, transportation and industrial sectors. While the rate consumption of fossil fuel higher than their formation leads to oil price crisis. Another concern of fossil fuel combustion is the impact on the environment. Global warming is a significant problem which results in increasing concentrations of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. These problems drive researchers and societies to search alternative energy such as switching to renewable energy or carbon-free energy to replace fossil fuels. For example Nakata et al., (2011:465) show ‘low-carbon society’ that is designed to use less fossil fuel. According to Verbruggen et al., (2010:852) define renewable energy ‘is obtained from the continuing or repetitive currents of energy occurring in the natural environment’ such as wind and biomass. Many countries accept carbon-free energy as alternative energy, and are trying to develop and apply new technologies that will enable them to use renewable energy sources in the most efficient way. However switching to carbon-free energy argued that is an unrealistic way. This essay aims to assess the differences in opinion between supports and argues of renewable energy that switching to carbon-free energy is unrealistic. Firstly consider about employing renewable energy. Secondly evaluate the sustainable development of biofuel and wind energies. Finally conclude arguments on potential renewable energy to replace fossil fuels. Owing to the increase in the global population accompanied by an increase in energy demand as a result oil price crisis. Many governments... ...f renewable energy or carbon-free debate and argument. This essay has attempted to evaluate the potential renewable energy both in terms of sustainable development and reducible global warming. Renewable energy such as biofuel and wind energy can be seen as a safe, reliable and cost effective alternative to using fossil fuels for energy security. However the development of green energy has drawbacks so funds for research and develop for chance from lab-scale products into commercial products should be provided and these fuels will become increasingly expensive to use. Clearly more could be done to produce carbon-free energy and more efficient and reduced environmental impacts. Also awareness of the advantages of renewable energy has been steadily growing and it is expected that the share of renewable energy in the total generation capacity will increase in future.

Reading Comprehension Essay

Introduction The main objective of this study is to know the common problems of students in reading comprehension specifically the Grade 7 section A students of San Roque National High School. Reading comprehension is one of the problems faced by learners nowadays. Goodman defined reading as â€Å" a receptive psycholinguistic process wherein the actor uses strategies to create meaning from text† (Goodman, 1998). In a classroom setting, reading is one of the effective ways for learners to catch up with the lesson at ease. But in some cases, students find difficulties in the reading process and cause them to understand a certain text. Anderson and Freebody (1981, 1983) stated that vocabulary knowledge of a certain individual makes an important contribution to reading comprehension. Therefore, this is also the fact that makes the students of San Roque National High School (Grade 7) find difficulties in reading comprehension. Walker (1946) stated that â€Å"reading is an active process in which reader shift between sources of information (what they know and what the text says). The means of interpreting the text and responding to what they have read will be the factior also of the common problems in reading comprehension of San Roque National High School. The coginitive ability in reading comprehension contributes to the factors which may help the students to overcome the problem of reading comprehension of Grade 7 students in San Roque National High School. Statement of the Problem Specifically it sought to find answers to the following questions: 1. What are the difficulties in reading comprehension of Grade 7 section A students of San Roque National High School according to the following factors: a.Gender b. Age c. Family Income 2. What are the causes of reading comprehension difficulties of Grade 7 section A students of San Roque National High School according to the following factors: a. Gender b. Age c. Family Income 3. This study will help the researchers to determine the ways to overcome the ways to ovcrcome the difficulties of reading comprehension of Grade 7 section A students of San Roque National High School according to the following factors: a. Gender b. Age c. Family Income Basic Assumptions 1. This study will help the researchers to determine the difficulties in reading comprehension of Grade 7 section A students of San Roque National High School according to gender, age and family income. 2. This study will help the researchers to determine causes of difficulties in reading comprehension of Grade 7 section Astudents of San Roque National High School according to gender, age and family income. 3. This study will help the researches to determine the ways to overcome the difficulties in reading comprehension of Grade 7 section A students of San Roque National High School according to gender, age and family income. Significance of the Study The writers believe that the result of this study will be of great importance to the persons involved in the field of education such as: The Students. This research will help the students be aware of their problems in reading and find solutions. The Teachers. This research will guide the teachers on how to help their students understand their reading problems and provide them solutions. The Future Researchers. This will serve as a source of information and reference on the related field of their studies. Scope and Delimitation of the Study. This study is concerned on the common problems in reading comprehension of Grade 7 students in San Roque National High School, academic year 2013-2014. Grade 7 section A. Definition of Terms Difficulty. The quality or state of being difficult. Reading Comprehension. Understanding what is being read. Comprehension. The art of understanding. Family Income. The amount of such gain received in a period of time of a family. Economic Status. The condition of the person in relation to consumptions of goods and services. Receptive Psycholinguistic Process. Process wherein the actor uses strategies to create meaning from text. Vocabulary. all the words used by or known to a particular person or group, or contained in a language as a whole. Interpreting. to establish or explain the meaning or significance of something. Responding. to act or do something in reaction to something else. Cognitive ability. relating to the process of acquiring knowledge by the use of reasoning, intuition, or perception. ENDNOTES Chapter 2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES Related Literature Reading comprehension is the capacity to identify and understand meanings communicated by the text. Once an individual understand the different letters that create words, and they can use their knowledge to identify words and then comprehend a message that a compilation of words will make. Walker (1946) explained that reading is an active process in which readers shift between sources of information, elaborate meaning and strategies, and check their interpretation and use of the social context to focus their response. Wardhaugh (1974) seems to agree that reading is an active, productive, and cognitive activity. He also pointed that reading involves an active search for information and interaction with the text. Anderson (1981) and Freebody (1983) said that vocabulary knowledge of a certain individual makes an important contribution to reading comprehension. In connection with the idea of Anderson (1981) and Freebody (1983), Hirsh and Nation (1992) and Laufer (1989) also stated that in order to gather greater vocabulary knowledge, reacting with the use of L2 (second language) should be acquired, Villa (2002) suggested that the student must be provided with basic skills in the use of the language as a tool for learning and for communicative competencies in business, science and technology. Related Studies Reviews of studies in the area of problems in reading comprehension revealed that researchers in this area concentrated on: (a) the â€Å"simple review† of reading, (b) strategy of using standardized test in reading accuracy, (c) causes of poor reading comprehension. Hoover and Gough’s analysis (1990) centered on the â€Å"simple review† of reading. Reading comprehension comprises two sets of skills, those concerned with decoding linguistic comprehension are necessary and neither skill on its own is sufficient if successful reading comprehension is to follow. Nation and Snowling’s study (1998) found that poor comprehenders read nonwords as quickly as control children. This experimental finding is confirmed by observations that poor comprehenders perform at age-appropriate levels on standardized tests of nonword reading accuracy. Nation and colleagues have used the strategy of matching poor comprehenders to control children on nonword reading. Another study conducted by Perfetti (1985) found that poor comprehension is a consequence of inadequate processing, lack of knowledge, or some combination of both processing and knowledge-based weaknesses. Synthesis-of-the-state of the Art The synthesis-of-the-state of the art presents the differences and similarities of the previous and the present studies. The present and previous studies have differences in the area of provlems in reading comprehension that the researchers studied. The study of Perfetti (1985) focused on the causes of poor reading comprehension. The study of Nation and Snowling (1998) focused on poor comprehenders on nonword reading. And Hoover and Gough’s analysis (1990) focused on the reading skills. Almost all studies identified the problems encountered by the respondents, the most prevalent one was the problem in reading comprehension. Walker (1946), Wardhaugh (1974), Anderson (1981), Freebody (1983) and Villa (2002) studies focused more on the contribution of reading comprehension to the individuals. Walker (1946) explained that reading is an active process that was agreed by Wardhaugh (1974) and said that reading is an activity, specifically, productive and cognitive activity and that reading involves an active search for information and interaction with the text. Anderson (1981) and Freebody (1983) focused on the vocabulary knowledge that makes an important contribution to reading comprehension that was seconded by Hirsh and Nation 1992 and Laufer (1989) that in order to gather vocabulary knowledge, the use of L2 as a second language should be required. While Villa (2002) that students must be provided with basic skills in the use of language as a tool for learning and for common competencies in business, science and technology. It may be observed that in the discussion of the studies stated above, in reading comprehension the thinking capabilities of students are a great factor in conducting the study. Theoretical Framework G identifies three main theories of reading comprehension. These theories are: Based on the schema theory, depending on how extensive their â€Å"files† become, their degree of reading comprehension may vary. Schema is the organized knowledge that is already has about people, places, things, and events. Each schema is â€Å"filed† in an individual compartment and stored there. In attempting to comprehend reading materials, students can relate this new information to the existing information they have compartmentalized in their minds, adding it to these â€Å"files† for future use. The mental modes can be thought of as a mind movie created in one’s head, based on the reading context. This model is reconstructed or updated to reflect the new circumstances as the situation changes, but the items important to the main character are kept in the foreground. The proposition theory involves the reader constructing a main idea or macrostructure as they process the text. These main ideas are organized in a hierarchical fashion with the most important things given the highest priority to be memorized. Conceptual Framework The conceptual framework is based on the systems approach, which shows the interplay of the four major elements such as the Input, Output and Feedback. Input is made up of the profile of the 30 students of Grade 7 in San Roque National High School who serve as the respondents of this study in terms of age, genders, family income and the common problems in reading comprehension of the respondents. Process is the distribution and retrieval of survey questionnaire, analysis and interpretation of data. Output is the determining of the problems in reading comprehension of Grade 7 students in San Roque National High School. Feedback is the response and goal of the research which determine the common problems in reading comprehension of Grade 7 students in San Roque National High School. FEEDBACK ENDNOTES Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY Research Design The researchers used the descriptive method in analyzing and revealing the common problems in reading comprehension. The causes of reading comprehension difficulties and the ways to overcome the difficulties in reading comprehension of Grade 7-Ruby student in San Roque National High School S. Y. 2013-2014. The Subject The respondents of this study were the Grade 7-Ruby students of San Roque National High School. The Research Instruments The researchers used a questionnaire to determine and collect accurate information that identify the common problems in reading comprehension of Grade 7-Ruby students of San Roque National High School, and the possible ways to overcome the difficulty. Data Gathering Procedure Survey questionnaire was given twice to the students for the dry run and finalization. The data’s and information from the survey questionnaire will be used in the summary of the study. Statistical Treatment of Data To facilitate the analysis, interpretation and the presentation of data, the appropriate statistical tools were chosen and applied. In this study, frequency, percentage distribution and ranking were used. Below is the formula used in computing the percentage. P(%) = f/n x 100 Wherein: P = unknown f = frequency n = ENDNOTES CHAPTER 4. COMMON PROBLEMS IN READING COMPREHENSION OF GRADE 7 SECTION RUBY STUDENTS IN SAN ROQUE NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL This chapter dealt with the presentation, analysis and interpretation of data gathered through the use of a survey questionnaire. The discussion and analysis of data are focused on the common problems in Reading Comprehension according to Gender, Age and Family income, causes of the problem, the ways to overcome the problems and same with the profile of the respondents. The respondents of this study were the Grade 7 section Ruby students. The coverage of the study was extended to thirty-five respondents. I. Profile of the Respondents This part described the profile of the respondents in terms of Age, Gender and Family Income. Table 1. 1 Age of the Respondents Age Frequency Percentage % Rank 12 17 49 1 13 16 46 2 14 1 2. 5 3 15 0 0 – 16 0 0 – 17 1 2. 5 3 Total 35 100% Table 1. 1 shows the age of the respondents and range from twelve to seventeen years old. It could be noted from the table that 17 out of 35 respondents or 49% belong to the age twelve, ranked first; 16 or 46% belong to age thirteen, ranked second;1 or 5% belong to age fourteen and seventeen, ranked third. It is implied that most of the students belong to the age bracket of 12 years old. Table 1. 2 Gender of the Respondents Gender Frequency Percentage Rank Male 14 40% 2 Female 21 60% 1 Total 35 100% Table 1. 2 shows the gender of the respondents. It could be noted from the table that 40% belong to male respondents and 60% belong to the female. It is implied that most of the students are females. Table 1. 3 Monthly Family Income of the Respondents Monthly Income Frequency Percentage % Rank 500-5000 Php 12 34. 4 % 2 5000-15 000 Php 17 48. 6 % 1 15 000-25 000 Php 4 11. 4 % 3. 25 000-30 000 Php 2 5. 7% 4 Total 35 100 % Table 1. 3 shows the monthly family income of the respondents ranging from the starting amount of 500. 00 Php (Five Hundred Pesos) to 30 000. 00 Php (Thirty Thousand Pesos). It could be noted from the table that 34. 3 % belong to the respondents who’s family’s income ranges from 5000-15 000 Php ranking to the 1st place; 34. 3% belong to the respondents who’s family’s income ranges from 500-5000 Php; ranking the 2nd place, 11. 4 belong to the respondents who’s familys’s income ranges from 15 000-25 000 Php; ranking the 3rd place; and 5. 7 belongs to the respondents family’s income ranges from 25 000-30 000; ranking 4th place. It is implied that majority of the respondents belong to 5000-15 000 Php monthly family income. II. Difficulties in Reading Comprehension a. Age Table 1. 4 Difficulties Most Difficult More Difficult Less Difficult Least Difficult f % f % f % f % Difficulties in understanding 2 5. 71% 16 45. 71% 16 45. 71% 1 2. 9% Difficulties in understanding unfamiliar words 2 5. 71% 19 54. 29% 11 31. 4% 3 8. 6% Difficulties in finding reading materials 2 5. 71% 9 45. 71% 21 60% 3 8. 6% Total 5. 7% 41. 9% 45. 7% 6. 7% Table 1. 4 shows the age of the respondents according to their difficulties in reading comprehension. It could be noted from the table that 5. 7% of the respondents say that understanding sentences is the most difficult; 5. 7 % says that it is more difficult another 45. 71% of the respondents says that it is less difficult and 2. 9% says that it is least difficult. b. Gender Table 1. 5 Difficulties Most Difficult More Difficult Less Difficult Least Difficult f % f % f % f % Difficulties in understanding 7 20% 4 11. 4% 21 60% 3 8. 6% Difficulties in understanding unfamiliar words 2 5. 71% 20 57. 1% 10 28. 6% 3 8. 6% Difficulties in finding reading materials 3 8. 6% 7 20% 18 51. 4% 7 20% Total 11. 4% 29. 5% 46. 7% 12. 4% c. Family Income Table 1. 6 Difficulties Most Difficult More Difficult Less Difficult Least Difficult f % f % f % f % Difficulties in understanding 3 8. 6% 9 25. 7% 19 54. 3% 4 11. 4% Difficulties in understanding unfamiliar words 8 22. 9% 11 31. 4% 13 37. 1% 3 8. 6% Difficulties in finding reading materials 3 8. 6% 12 34. 3% 15 42. 9% 5 14. 3% Total 13. 4% 30. 5% 44. 8% 11. 4% III. Causes of Reading Comprehension Difficulties a. Age Table 1. 7 Causes 12 13 14 15 16 17 f % f % f % f % f % f % a. Lack of reading materials 4 23. 5% 6 37. 5% 1 100% 0 0 0 0 0 11. 4% b. Cannot afford to buy reading materials 9 52. 9% 11 68. 8% 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 8. 6% c. No time for reading 9 52. 9% 3 18. 8% 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0 14. 3% d. no interest in reading 3 17. 6% 3 18. 8% 1 100% 0 0 0 0 0 e. Exposure to computers rather than books 3 17. 6% 4 25% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 f. visual impairment 1 11. 8% 4 25% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 g. spend more time in watching T. V. 14 82. 4% 13 81. 3% 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 25% Total 17 37% 16 39. 3% 1 28. 6 0 0 0 0 Table 1. 7 shows the age bracket of the respondents according to the causes of reading comprehension difficulties. It could be noted from the table that the respondents who are 12 years old says that spending more time in watching television is the number 1 cause of their reading comprehension difficulties with 82. 4 %. For the respondents age 13 with 81. 3% says that spending more time watching television is the number 1 cause of their reading comprehension difficulties. 100% from their age of 17 stated that spending more time in watching television is the cause of their reading comprehension difficulties. None of the respondents are aligned in the age 15-16 years old. b. Gender Table 1. 8 MALE CAUSES f % Rank a. Lack of reading materials 5 35. 7 3rd b. Cannot afford to buy reading materials 7 50 2nd c. No time for reading 5 35. 7 3rd d. no interest in reading 5 35. 7 3rd e. Exposure to computers rather than books 3 21. 4 4th f. visual impairment 0 0 g. spend more time in watching T. V. 11 78. 6 1st Total 36 36. 7 FEMALE CAUSES f % Rank a. Lack of reading materials 6 28. 6 4th b. Cannot afford to buy reading materials 11 52. 4 2nd c. No time for reading 9 42. 9 3rd d. no interest in reading 3 14. 3 6th e. Exposure to computers rather than books 4 19. 0 5th f. visual impairment. 6 28. 6 4th g. spend more time in watching T. V. 17 8. 0 1st Total 21 38. 1 Table 1. 8 shows the gender of the respondents according to the causes of reading comprehension difficulties. It could be noted from the table that 78. 6% of males says that spending more time is watching the females says that spending more time in watching television is the cause of their reading comprehension difficulty. It is implied that females are more close to the addressed on that cause in reading comprehension difficulty which is spending more time in watching television. c. Family Income Table 1. 9.

Organic Food Research Essay

When it comes to the food that you put on the dinner table, it is extremely important to understand how the food is grown and how nutritious it is. Some foods are grown using synthetic fertilizers, while others are grown using natural fertilizers. There are foods that are grown using chemical weed killers, while other foods are grown using crop rotation and mulch to help control weeds. You can buy meat that has been raised with antibiotics, growth hormones, and medications. On the other hand there is meat that has been raised using more humane methods. These animals are fed an organic diet as well as given access to the outdoors and raised in cleaner housing to help reduce disease. Organic foods are healthier because they use fewer preservatives and chemicals; therefore they are extremely important in the growth and development of your family. Every parent wants to put the best food on the table for their family. However, it takes an amazing amount of resources and is costly to our planet. The way that food is farmed has changed more over the past fifty years than it did in the previous ten thousand years (Kenner & Kenner, 2008). The industrialization of our society has forever changed the way farmers grow crops and raise livestock. Farmers are using man-made chemical fertilizers and pesticides to control their crops. While you may think that the beautiful fruits and vegetables in the local supermarket’s produce section are impressive, it might surprise your what you are putting in your body. There are not seasonal fruits and vegetables any more in the supermarket. Tomatoes are picked green from half way around the world and ripened with ethylene gas during shipment (Kenner & Kenner, 2008). It’s astonishing how many chemicals a farmer uses to grow their crop. The average apple has been subjected to twenty-seven chemicals and the average peach has twenty-two chemicals used throughout its growth cycle (Juad & Juad, 2008). What is surprising is that when tested, a conventional piece of fruit or vegetable has positive results for lead and pesticides (Juad & Juad, 2008). When it comes to the livestock that we are consuming, it used to take a farmer nearly three months to raise a chicken. Tyson has perfected this science with the help of growth hormones and antibiotics. They are now are able to raise a chicken that is three times as large in less than half of the time (Kenner & Kenner, 2008). The cattle farmer is now raising their cattle on mainly corn feed and antibiotics (Kenner & Kenner, 2008). According to Kenner & Kenner (2008), farmers now have to use so many antibiotics mainly due to the fact that the livestock is being raised in a manner that was not intended. Cattle are not supposed to eat an all corn diet and chickens are not supposed to be raised in a chicken house without ever seeing daylight until they are on the truck to be processed (Kenner & Kenner, 2008). There are more humane ways of raising livestock and it makes for a much healthier meal at the dinner table. It is simply amazing how far food travels to make it to your local supermarket. On average, food travels over fifteen hundred miles from the time it leaves the farm until it reaches its final destination (Kenner & Kenner, 2008). Another amazing statistic is that the transportation of our nutrition accounts for nearly thirty percent of global warming (Juad & Juad, 2008). This is because there are only a few multi-national organizations that actually control the industrial food chain. It might be surprising to find out that the largest purchaser of ground beef and potatoes in the United States is McDonald’s (Kenner & Kenner, 2008). They are also one of the largest purchasers of pork, chicken, and apples as well (Kenner & Kenner, 2008). The largest producer of chicken in the world is Tyson (Kenner & Kenner, 2008). The side effects of these monopolies is that you, the consumer, get what the few powerhouse food corporations want you to have and you are left with very few choices. All of these amazing changes would not be possible without modern science. One of the biggest players behind the scenes and the supplier of the herbicides and pesticides is an organization by the name of Monsanto. Over the past few decades, Monsanto has had several groundbreaking developments in the area GMO’s or genetically modified organisms (Kenner & Kenner, 2008). Over seventy percent of the items in the local supermarket contain one form of GMO (Kenner & Kenner, 2008). There are several unintended side effects to all of these chemicals being used to grow our food. One is that the soil that farmers are using is literally being killed (Juad & Juad, 2008). The outcome is that the farmers are becoming more and more dependent on the chemicals to produce food (Juad & Juad, 2008). Another environmental issue is that a percentage of this chemical ends up in the water supply and it is simply impossible from preventing this from happening (Juad & Juad, 2008). The amount of chemicals that are finding there way into our food is simply amazing. There are health side effects from all of the growth hormones, chemicals, and genetically modified organisms. Studies show that the current generation is the first in history that is predicted to live a shorter life than their parents (Kenner & Kenner, 2008). Cases of obesity and diabetes have tripled in the past two decades (Juad & Juad, 2008). Type-two diabetes used to be only found in adults in the previous generation and now we are seeing it in our children (Juad & Juad, 2008). In Europe, seventy percent of cancers have been linked to the environment (Juad & Juad, 2008). When that seventy percent is broken down, thirty percent is linked to pollution and forty percent are linked to the food (Juad & Juad, 2008). Also, 100,000 children every year die from diseases caused by the environment (Juad & Juad, 2008). If that is not amazing enough, cancer in males has increased ninety-three percent over the past twenty-five years and their sperm count has decreased fifty percent over the past fifty years (Juad & Juad, 2008). Top that with the fact that cancer in children has increased one percent a year for the past twenty-five years (Juad & Juad, 2008). There are studies that show that fifty percent of all cancers worldwide are linked to the environment and that in certain cancers that ninety percent of the cause is the environment (Juad & Juad, 2008). It does not take a Doctor to figure out that all of these chemicals are making their way into our food and they are extremely bad for us. With all of these overwhelming statistics, there is hope for the food that we are eating. According to Duram (2008), â€Å"Agriculture is a highly effective means of converting solar energy into food and fiber. Given sufficient water, and properly managed, the system can operate provided with nothing more than sunshine. But modern agriculture technology has disrupted this efficient relationship. † Thankfully, there are still farmers out there that believe in the organic way of raising their crops and livestock. â€Å"Products must be at least 95 percent organic to use this term† (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2011). Organic farmers are supplying local restaurants and families through their local farmers market (Siegel & Taylor, 2008). They control weeds and disease within their farm with crop rotation and treat their livestock in a humane manner. According to Danford (2010), â€Å"mainstreaming of eating locally and organically grown fresh food is almost complete. † The demand for organic food is growing at a rate of twenty percent annually and the major food organizations have taken notice (Danford, 2010). â€Å"For the past fifteen years large multinational food corporations have been buying up organic producers of food in an effort to enter the profitable niche market† (Hauter, 2012). The Demand is extremely obvious and that is why major food corporations are jumping on the bandwagon. In summary, there are two ways to put food on the table. A consumer can purchase conventionally grown food or they can purchase locally grown organic food. Organic foods use only natural fertilizers, mulch, and crop rotation while traditional foods use synthetic fertilizers and pesticides to control disease. There have been numerous studies that link multiple health issues to our food and the environment that it is grown in. As a consumer, society has a choice of how to put food on their dinner table and the smart choice is to choose organic. References: Danford, N. (2010). Vegetable vs. Meat, And Everything in Between. Publishers Weekly, 257(9), 19-26. Duram, L. A. (2005). Good Growing: Why Organic Farming Works. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. HAUTER, W. (2012). BIG ORGANIC. Boston Review, 37(6), 5. Juad, J. (Producer) & Juad, J. (Director). (2008) Food Beware [Motion Picture]. France: CTV International Kenner, R. (Producer) & Kenner, R. (Director). (2008). Food Inc. [Motion picture]. United States: Participant Media Mayo Clinic Staff (2011) Organic Foods: Are they Safer? More Nutritious? Retrieved on May 5, 2013 from http://www. mayoclinic. com/health/organic-food/NU00255 Siegel, A. , Taylor, C. (Producers),& Taylor, C. (Director). (2008). Food Fight [Motion picture]. United States: Positively 25th Street.