Monday, September 30, 2019

I Turned over the Question Paper

I turned over the question paper, I flipped through all the pages. I did not know how to answer any of the questions. I racked my brain to recall what I had studied yesterday but I barely could remember anything. I viewed around the class and found all my classmates were poring over and solving the question papers intently. My bosom friend, Serene was sitting beside me at the corner of the class. I doubted I was the only one who was still musing. The exam started at 10 a. m. and now the wall clock above the whiteboard was showing 10. 30 a. m. Time really flew, but I still had not even written a single word on my question paper. I started to have butterflies in my stomach. ‘What can I do now? ’ I kept asking myself. My brilliant yet filthy mind suddenly thought of an idea. I occasionally threw surreptitious glances at Serene. When I noticed Miss Lim was busy marking the exam papers, I rapidly threw a folded memo I had written to Serene: ‘Serene, please pass me your paper for just a couple of minutes. ‘ I could sense that she hesitated for a split second, however, she still handed her question paper to me in a swift manner so that Miss Lim would not have realised what we were actually doing. Serene was like my angel, she had always been part and parcel of my life since we had first met in Form 1. With lightning speed, I copied the answers favourably but apprehensively. My jubilance came to an abrupt end when I heard a discreet cough from behind. It was Miss Lim! She speedily snatched the question papers from me and glanced at me with the eyes of a hawk. It was too late for me to react when Serene beckoned me as I was profoundly concentrating with what I was doing. Then her creepy eyes turned to Serene who was close to tears. Her tears had yet accumulated in her guilty eyes. Miss Lim was too dazed to even talk. I could sense that all eyes were looking at us at that moment. Regaining her composure, she asked all the students to continue with their exam and took us out of the class. Just then, she made a phone call to our well-known discipline teacher, Mr Lambert. Mr Lambert took us to his discipline room together with the question papers in his hand. He scrutinised the question papers attentively. We thought he would have scolded us as loud as thunder until the staffroom located a few miles away could hear us. Surprisingly, he did not. He looked at us with his smiley and warmth face. Tears welled up in our eyes and we tried to hold them back. However, we could not. They started flowing down our cheeks. He waited with the patience of a saint until we had finished and asked us if we wanted to tell him why and how everything had happened. We told him. I confessed that I was the one who insisted Serene to pass me her question paper. He gave us a lecture and warned us not to repeat the same thing in future if not we would be suspended from school. Each of us was given a warning letter and our parents were called to the school. We vowed to Mr Lambert that we would never cheat again during examinations. From that day onwards, we were renowned to be the best cheaters ever.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Wal-Mart Negotiation Analysis

Although it was several years ago now, in 1988 a 24-year old man was injured at his local Wal-Mart store after tripping over several rocking chairs. The man claims that as he turned the corner of an aisle he tripped over three 1. 5 foot-high children’s rocking chairs, which caused several injuries, some of which were lacerated forehead, several strains and sprains, a jaw injury and even blackout spells (Laska, 2000). This example of a negotiation lawsuit would classify as a distributive negotiation because of several different reasons. First, the only item of value being discussed is settlement money, and in order for the negotiation to be considered an integrative negotiation, the opposing parties typically have additional items of value to discuss for trade. Also, there is no personal relationship between the opposing sides of the negotiation, which in this particular case are the Wal-Mart Corporation and the injured man. Finally, a distributive negotiation is considered to be a win-lose scenario and clearly, either the man or the Wal-Mart Corporation would win the negotiation. Originally, the injured man sued the company for $100,033. 57, and although the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled in his favor, the amount was lowered. The jury determined that although his injuries were worth compensation, $73,525. 18 was considered a more appropriate sum. In addition, the plaintiff’s wife was awarded $10,000 for loss of consortium. Even though some people may feel as though an injury due to tripping over a child’s toy is a case that does not hold much water, fortunately for the injured man his case was fairly cut and dry. The store could have prevented the injury if the rocking chairs were properly displayed. Therefore the store was responsible and held liable. This type of negotiation is intended for the benefit of one party and is typically settled out of court because companies try to avoid court appearance when possible. Integrative Article: NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement Although the National Basketball Association will be facing changes to their Collective Bargaining Agreement within the next year, the most recent negotiation, which is held between players and teams, was held in 2005. This negotiation is intended to discuss important terms in the players’ contracts, which include salary amounts, length of contracts, rookie salary terms, and salary caps. On the other end of the negotiation, the teams are interested in discussing factors such as trade rules, the escrow level, and the allowed tax on the teams (Morton, 2010). This article demonstrates an integrative negotiation because it is more of a win-win scenario for the opposing parties, which as previously mentioned, include the players and the teams. Since both parties have much to gain from the agreement, they are willing to put more on the table. Also part of an integrative negotiation, both parties have not only their best interest in mind, but also the interest of the opposing side, primarily because of the relationship established between the two. The players and teams are interested in the well being of each other because both are affected by each other. This demonstrates why distributive negotiations are different from integrative, because there is no relationship between the two parties. Although integrative negotiations are often successful, most negotiations are distributive because most opposing parties are not interested in the other. This type of negotiation technique is intended for a established pair of negotiators. Examples in the Workplace Considering that I work in a childcare center, negotiation strategies are not commonly used. However, a childcare director would have a few different scenarios in which negotiation techniques could be beneficial. Although in society today, distributive negotiations are much more common, integrative negotiations are used more often in childcare, in fact, they are used more often in most workplaces. One example of how integrative negotiations are used is through a request for a pay raise. Just like the article examining the NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement, I have used integrative negotiation techniques in the past when I asked for an hourly pay raise. Instead of demanding a raise, which would be more like a distributive negotiation, I discussed how both the center that I work for and myself would benefit from a raise. I explained what I had to offer the company in exchange for the raise, while the benefit to myself is obviously of monetary value. It is similar to the saying, you will catch more bees with honey than vinegar, I will have more success in getting what I am asking for by being professional and polite than by having high expectations and demanding to get what I ask for. Although both types of negotiation techniques can be successful in the appropriate setting, integrative negotiations are more practical for my line of work.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

A Cheerful Christmas Memory

Recalling this moment, I remember all the soft noise. And together we make screams of colorful clouds of different shades on the children's body and trembling on different flat boxes. In the summer of mid July, the warmth of many letters is comparable to the warmth of the sun. I am very acquainted with these situations. Music is exciting. I think we are a group, but they are very personal. My intense heart knows that this will be another nervous moment again. I love children, but I do not usually feel that it is warm and ambiguous until Christmas, Let's have memories. However, in October every year, mothers support Christmas and are preparing for vacation. I like Christmas bringing out tradition and many love in many ways. When the Christmas tree is near, the world seems not to be such a bad place. Let's decorate your child every year! Then, as they left the house, they had decorations to carry with them. We let the children choose to decorate them rather than to decorate them. In or der to find out when to select, write the year at the bottom. Ideally, I will choose the accessory which is hard to break. Your favorite Christmas memories may be different from us. Everyone may have different Christmas memories. As an example, my wife 's favorite Christmas memories is the first time for us to hang the picture of the youngest child on a tree. My mother-in-law made Christmas decorations with the pictures of our youngest children. When they got big enough to make their own accessories, they started adding their own unique Christmas accessories with their own hands. These are our valuable souvenirs. Over time, these decorations become increasingly special as children grow. Today we have only 1 child left, and she is at home a year and a half before she can attend college.

Friday, September 27, 2019

Evaluation on pulmonary rehab audit Dissertation

Evaluation on pulmonary rehab audit - Dissertation Example This dissertation has endeavoured to prove both the existence of such high standards in the practice of Pulmonary Rehabilitation and the lack of adequate means for LNFH to meet those standards. A random sample of 47 patients revealed insufficient assessments and records of assessments. However, it is very clear from reviews of many doctors who published their findings that PR should improve the quality of life of patients through an improvem...... The present lean Team made up of only two (2) Specialist Nurses and one (1) Specialist Physiologist at LNFH did not have weekly records to control. And the main task was just to encourage patients to exercise at least twice a week. To see improvements, the standard has been to try and be able to prolong those exercises or increase the distance and time for walking as well as to gather positive feedback through the accomplishment of Chronic Respiratory Questionnaires (CRQs). Pulmonary Rehabilitation programs at LNFH consist of physical cardiovascular and strength training, disease education, and nutritional, psychological and behavioural intervention. The benefits should eventually include the improvement in exercise performance, health status, dyspnea, increased quality of life and reduction in use of health services. The Respiratory Assessment Unit of Lymington New Forest Hospital provides a Pulmonary Rehabilitation Service (assessment and management) to the Hampshire PCT (SW) popul ation, following referral from Consultant, GP or Practicing Nurses following national standards. Phase 3 (supervised programme) and Phase 4 (ongoing lifestyle change management programmes) are available on an out patient basis. It delivers pulmonary rehabilitation at two sites, namely, Lymington New Forest Hospital and Hythe Hospital. This is to maximize capacity and offer a geographically more suitable location for patients. The course runs for eight weeks, on a rolling basis to improve compliance, and consists of exercises to improve limb strength and cardiovascular fitness. After a period of recovery and relaxation where refreshment is served and an education session is delivered based on the following core

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Analysis of English Grammar Synthesis Case Study

Analysis of English Grammar Synthesis - Case Study Example Throughout grade school, the concept of proper English is drilled into the heads of every student, but after reading the first chapter of Understanding English Grammar by Marsha Kolln and Robert Funk, the concept now makes sense. Grammar is a fundamental part of the English language, which reaches far beyond placing a comma in its correct place. This essential portion of our language helps in understanding the reasons why sentences are formed in the way that they are. This technical aspect of English helps to create a systematic set of ground rules for each and every student to follow, no matter what region, in order to be successful in the world of formal English. Grammar is taught from early childhood across the nation. However, there are different meanings to this basis of the English language. The first is that everyone has a different set of grammar rules depending on where they come from. The second definition stems from the linguistic science branch which studies the formaliti es associated with grammar. The formalities of sentences, otherwise known as their syntax, are discussed in this meaning. The final definition of grammar refers to the actual usage of the term and what is deemed to be proper and improper grammar. These three definitions help highlight the varieties and difficulties that many have with standard grammar. The format for the presentation of grammar in school dates back to the Middle Ages and the eight parts of Latin speech. Originally, Latin was thought to be the superior language, therefore, when scholars created the rules of English grammar, they based it upon this superior language. John Locke, an English philosopher, stated that it was important â€Å"to teach Men not to speak, but to speak correctly† (Kolln & Funk, 2012, p. 5) and to utilize the grammar rules that had been set forth by prior intellectuals. This view of the language, called prescriptive grammar, is traditionally taught in schools in order to establish knowled ge of the grammar skeleton. In more recent times descriptive grammar has become more popular amongst linguists, which is the acceptance of regionalism as a type of standard in addition to formal written English. With the different definitions come the arguments and differences in what is considered correct grammar or if correct grammar even exists. Regionalisms have become a sort of accepted way of grammar due to the three broad definitions of this language function. Modern linguists discovered that the issue of disregarding descriptive grammar was that entire language could be lost.

The Long Awaited Freedom Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Long Awaited Freedom - Essay Example They should be taught about things that could affect their lives in one way or another, like peer pressure. Specifically, I would like to relate a personal story that shows how strict parenting can give rise to teenagers who want explore and experience things they are not exposed to at the very opportunity they get, sometimes with unspeakable consequences. My parents are very strict, have always been, but this strictness has heightened with governments and security agencies issuing terrorist alerts all over the world. The thought of not having them for a fortnight was more than welcome in my mind, already having well laid plans. I helped them make the necessary preparations and even reminded them things they could forget, just in case the trip was cancelled as a result of missing some important document. The day finally came; I offered to take them to the airport, asking the driver to take an early leave, quite surprising to them, as this was not something I liked to do. What they di d not know was that I was hell bent on making sure they left. The drive to the airport seemed long, perhaps due to the long awaited freedom, only hours away. I watched as their documents were scrutinized, luggage screened and watched again as they boarded the airplane, scheduled for arrival the following morning. Freedom, which was long overdue, had come. The plans in my head overwhelmed me as I called my friends to give them the news. It had been difficult proving to them that I could do what they did on a weekly or daily basis, due to my parents’ strict nature. My parents’ business trip had coincided with the Muscat festival. Things could not get better. This is a 22-day-long festival observed annually between January and early February at various beaches, parks and shopping centers in Oman’s capital city, Muscat (Darke 111). The festival, arranged by the Muscat Municipality, focuses on Omani culture and heritage, and entertainment includes funfairs, fireworks and raffles. Omani culture and crafts are demonstrated and celebrated in traditional villages put up specifically for the festival. There are also camel races, poetry recitals and art exhibitions, as well as Arab singers performing in temporary amphitheatres. The festival begins in the late afternoon, at around 4 pm and goes on until 11 pm. Three of my friends joined me at the Qurum Park, one of the locations where the festival was taking place. The evening was promising. We moved from one stall to another, watching the dancers, took part in the camel race and even had an artist draw our portraits. When the festival closed for the day, we decided to go into town and have more fun. I was not afraid that my parents would call, constantly nagging me to get back home. This was the kind of freedom I had been missing. My friends suggested we have a drive by the beach, with the argument that the Royal Oman Police (ROP) would not be on patrol that night. Their focus was obviously on the Mu scat festival. We had a car borrowed from my friend’s brother who was out of town. This part of the beach was particularly quiet, perfect for our escapades. We decided to race for a distance one by one, each showing his prowess in the process. My friend went first, and he drove in a style I have never seen before. He started normally, but later used a raised hip of sand to tilt the car. He was now driving on two wheels. What? I had to try this, keeping in mind that I was here to prove myself. All except me viewed this as normal; I was astounded. The three of them drove in the same manner. It seemed like they had practiced for quite some time. I had to do it too, lest I be labeled naive. It was finally my turn, my heart raced. I started out like all the others and quickly

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Marginalized people of the Atlantic world Research Paper

Marginalized people of the Atlantic world - Research Paper Example First of all who are these marginalized people? Since, it is implied from its name that marginalized people are those who were living on margins or on edges. Yes, these are those people who are living on the lines of Atlantic coasts. These people adopted piracy as their only source of income due to many reasons such as racism, biasness, unemployment, unstable economic conditions, governmental ambitions, and many more. This paper discusses each of these reasons in fairly manner and in the justifies the role of pirates in an efficient manner. For years, pirates were the major cause of damage to the Atlantic world. Whatever it looks now, it is because pirates have done lots of destruction in that area. Their cruelties and inhuman activities last for almost thirteen years. It was all started in the end of 17th century and in the start of 18th century. Being accurate, it began in 1715 and ended up in 1728. It might not look a huge period to the listeners or readers but it was an era of ca lamities and disasters for all the victims around the Atlantic world. The piracy was so voguish in that epoch that in the history that time is termed as the Golden Age of Piracy. For pirates yes it was a very blissful and harmonious period of time when they achieved almost everything they aimed for. They gathered lots of gold, silver, and other treasures for them. They were very keen and focused towards their goal of being rich as early as possible. Therefore, they have adopted the shortest and illegal way to collect money for them. Now, let us explore what piracy truly is? And what were the major problems in the Atlantic history? In general terms, Piracy is an extremely criminal activity in which pirates plunder ships and communities around a certain area. The piracy executed in the Atlantic region is remembered even today and is considered as the most terrifying act of that eon. In that area, piracy was at its peak because there were lots of opportunities for this kind of inhuman activity. All the trade from the Europe to Africa went through this passage and pirates found it an excellent occasion for themselves. This trade between Europe and Africa has truly flourished piracy in its actual means. The pirates of that area were mostly belonged to Europe i.e. from Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland, and so on. Few of them were from Africa i.e. France, Portugal, Denmark, Belgium, Sweden, and so on. I think that is enough of what piracy is? Now let us bend the discussion of the paper towards the other side of story and that is what made these pirates, actually pirate? And also, why those people preferred piracy as their occupation and rejected all other reputable vocations? Generally, being a common man we just comment on what happened and do not think about why this happened. Whereas there is a valid reason behind everything, that is why whenever we talk about a crime, we should keep in mind that there are few things that should not be overlooked while considerin g anyone a criminal. Firstly, what is the mental condition of the person who has committed the crime? Secondly, what crime has been committed and in what scenarios? And last but not the least, the location where the crime has been committed? Though laws for all sorts of crimes are there and it does not accept these things but as we are human beings, we can think the other way and thus we should keep in mind these things while coming to any decision regarding any person. There were many reasons for which people of the Atlantic world have chosen piracy as their profession instead of doing otherwise. The later part of this

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

The Affordable Care Act Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 20

The Affordable Care Act - Essay Example The Affordable Care Act is beneficial because it has made substantial progress in reducing the number of Americans with no health insurance. Low-income residents have immensely benefited because most of them are now able to access and afford insurance. Those who gained insurance through the law have seen a reduction in disastrously high medical bills that hospitals forced them to pay in previous instances. Whether the Act has made the American population healthier is still uncertain. Similarly, there is no significant decrease in chronic illness patients, neither is there an increase of checkups (Sanger-Katz 1). It was also intriguing to learn that young Americans remain on their parents’ insurance plans until they turn twenty-six years of age. This is a positive step of the act, because traditionally, most citizens between nineteen to thirty years of age do not have insurance. In consequence, this reduced the number of uninsured Americans. Sanger-Katz affirms that most young Americans, especially college graduates, now access customary primary care doctor before the institution of the law, because they do not have to go without medical care because of costs. Even so, there was minimal change in the rest of the population in terms of access to primary care.

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Samsung Electronics Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Samsung Electronics - Case Study Example Buyer power, which is another of porter forces, is also very strong because high competition and knowledge to consumer through advertising enlighten them and they become powerful. Similarly, Supplier power is weak because each of these firms can choose to take electronic supply from many companies serving this industry. Substitute products force is also high because of influx of "made in China" goods in the industry and firms operating in this industry are vulnerable to cheap products from China. Threat of rivalry is very high in this industry, because of various competing brands such as LG, Sony, and Panasonic etc. The driving force in this industry is the lust to get more and more market share. Many firms operating in this industry are trying to achieve this by attracting consumers towards their products through persuasive and informative advertising and reduced prices that they offer to the customers. In the past years, it has been observed that quality and price are the factors t hat play the most important part in the success of firms operating in this industry (Daft, 1997). However, look at the overall condition and recessionary trend in the world economy; it is very hard to predict that the firms operating in this industry will continue to remain profitable. ... The strategy that Samsung is following to remain competitive in the market is continuous research and development. This helps Samsung to develop new products before its competitors and attract new market share. SWOT ANALYSIS: STRENGTHS: Samsung earns the highest revenue in the industry Samsung has a good brand name due to the reliability of its products Good After-Sales Services and Friendly Staff Rigorous training is given to all employees and especially managers WEAKNESSES: Lagging behind other firms in the mobile phone sector Samsung is a very large company, which results in diseconomies of scales and higher prices than its competitors Samsung is experiencing higher cost of production than its competitors OPPORTUNITIES: Industry is growing at the rate 10% Many investors are willing to invest in this industry, and as a result there is good chance for companies like Samsung to Capitalize their reputation THREATS: This industry is highly competitive, so any minor mistake can doom the company's reputation The cost of production is rising due to shortage of Skilled workers and hike in the salaries of workers Samsung prices are very competitive to its competitors apart from one or two of their products. Samsung has always tried to remain competitive in terms of prices and this is a result that it is enjoying the highest market share in the industry. The company is competitively very strong when compared to its rivals. Its focus on "HOT DESIGN, Lower Prices" has yielded good reputation for the company and it has seen sky-rocketing growth both in the revenues and market share. The only strategic problem that the company must address is that they must

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Older Than America Essay Example for Free

Older Than America Essay 1. Film Information: The title of film we watched this week is Older than America. The lead actors and actresses are Adam Beach, Tantoo Cardinal, Bradley Cooper Georgina Lightning, Bradley Cooper, and Tantoo Cardinal. movie was released Oct 12, 2010 by the IFC Films studio. The length of the film is about one hundred minutes. The film genre is trying to expose the history with horror atmosphere. The director of the film is Georgina Lightning . 2. Brief summary: A womans haunting visions reveal a Catholic priests sinister plot to silence Rain’s mother from speaking the truth about the atrocities that took place at her Native American boarding school. The story along with her daughter, Rain haunted by visions that led to her own mothers forced institutionalization. The film mixes the true story of the USs forced boarding of Native American children, subjecting them to a wide variety of abuses. The film is not that easy to follow up because it started with some suspension and wired dreams at the beginning. As the story goes along, more and more clues reveal. It is hard to believe what the boarding school did to Native American kids based on my perception to boarding school. The film has enough twists and turns to keep my attentions while watching it. 3. Identify the main problem(s) or issue(s) addressed in the film: The problem is mainly addressed in boarding school. They remove children from the influence of their families and culture and assimilate them into the dominant Canadian culture. Father Bartoli paralyzed Rain’s mother in order to hide the truth about atrocities in boarding school. The Native American kids were beaten, whipped, raped and killed in the school. Later on, Father Bartoli also tried to convince Auntie Apple to keep Rain in captivity in order to stop memorizing the truth from the past. Rain was somehow rescued from tying up her hands by a spiritual guy who is her classmate in boarding school. She intellectually escaped from the room when the cleaner opened the door. Rain and Jonny decided to discover the truth in the mysterious cellar. After Father Bartoli knew Rain had escaped, he decided to go to cellar to kill her. Finally, Rain collected all the clues and memorized all the things happened in boarding school. Father Batoli was tangled up with all the lost soul who were abused and died under his hands. He got punished. 4. Main characters review: The main characters are Jonny, Rain, Luke, and Father Batoli. Director and co-writer Lightning also plays Rain, the lead role in Older Than America. Rain lives with her police officer boyfriend Johnny (Adam Beach) in snowy, rural Minnesota. Adom Beach plays her boyfriend. Luke (Bradley Cooper) is a government geologist investigating reports of a recent earthquake on his own time; Steve Klamath (Glen Gould) has returned home to run for mayor on an anti-development platform, opposing the incumbent, developer Paul Gunderson (Chris Mulkey). I think the actors are good in these roles especially Johnny because I can feel his love to Rain. They play believable roles, but I was confused about those spiritual figures. They are not quite believable, though. Those children in the board school make me sympathetic. There is no â€Å"Hollywood stereotypes†. 5. Portrayal of authority: Father Bartoli is a typical guy who has authority in religious figures. He is a priest minister who controls all the regulations in boarding school. Auntie Apple (Tantoo Cardinal), who raised Rain, leans heavily upon local Catholic priest Father Bartoli (Steve Yoakum). The two of them shake their heads disapprovingly when Rain and Johnny do not immediately agree to having a Catholic marriage ceremony. The boarding school is a nightmare to Native American children. Priests tried to remove their identity and assimilated them into American culture. I dislike Father Bartoli. He did not only a lot of bad things to the Native American children but also silenced Rain and her mother to erase the past crimes. 6. Discuss the role of gender in the film: The major players are not predominantly of one sex. Johnny has the subordinate role. I think Women and men are not drawn as variations of stereotypes. Rain plays a kindergarten teacher. She is portrayed as a perceptual and strong Native American woman. She cares about her mother very much. The matriarchal female roles are not recognized in the film. Jonny is her husband. He loves Rain very much, too. He cares about everything regarding Rain including family. He behaved anxious and crazy when Rain is disappeared. 7. Discuss the role of class and nation: I did not see any characters do anything for living. Jonny works in police office and Rain works in kindergarten. They seem pretty knowledgeable about their work, and they valued for what they do. There is no very obvious class hierarchy in the film. They are all kind of middle class people in modern society. The film did not spend a lot of attention to portray the poor. 8. Discuss the identity of the Native/tribal/ethnic groups portrayed in the film: I did not really often hear the Native American characters mention something about their identity, but I can feel the sense of strong ethnic tie between real physical characters and those spiritual characters. The souls are the things make this film so special to us. Those souls imply some sort of spiritual culture to Native American. Although they are already died, they still got together and help their companions or ethic group to get through the obstacles. They are likely to be seen in Native Americans’ perspective. The relationship between them is really subtle but meaningful. The live characters try to expose the truth hidden in the boarding school whereas the spiritual characters keep helping them get through the crises. They somehow interact with each other and make the whole story looks reasonable. It is pretty interesting and makes audience want to watch it. The movie really empathizes with the identity issues although the ethnic characters are not actually from the portrayed ethnic group because basically the film tells the repulsive atrocities and assimilation behind the boarding school back 1900s. It wants to remind Native American audiences to recognize the history and do not lose the cultural identity no matter what. 9. How are social and familial relationships portrayed: Throughout the film, Native Americans always have a strong family tie and hold together. In the film, I can feel Rain really loves his mother. She takes care of her a lot even she has got some mental issues. She is also really respecting her mother because she comes to her mother and tells her mother every decision she is going to make. In modern days, she still inherits a lot of traditional Native American woman’s traits. Those spiritual figures also give us a strong background of ethnic sense. They have a connection with Rain to keep reminding her past, and they help her to find the clues of the truth and get her through crisis. Jonny is a good and reliable boyfriend, too. He also really loves Rain. He is sharing of confidences with her and giving care to her when Rain faced up difficulties. I am able to relate to the familial roles and experiences in the film because film makes it really touch my heart. 10. Language: There are few scenes that other language other than English spoken in the film. It is used effectively. The boy spoke Native American language when the teacher forced them to declare to be Americans in the classroom. He did not want to lose his own culture identity. The use of another language bears a lot value to the film. It exposed the atrocities in boarding school. You would be beaten to death even if you say an Indian word. It set off the inhuman behaviors they did to every Native American child in boarding school. It is ironic that person who actually behaves a savage wants to civilize Native Americans, they called â€Å"savage†. 11. Personal likes and dislikes: This movie really is not a view of life in boarding schools, per se. I dont believe it was intended to be. It is a metaphor for the effects still felt today by nearly all Native Americans here in the U. S. The movie is a period place. All of the issues that the story touches base on are those that Natives all over Indian Country are dealing with today. It is not the direct reflection of one single reason why Natives today face the afflictions of poverty, alcoholism, abuse, unemployment, illiteracy, and loss of identity as a culture, but the culmination of many. Forced attendance into an institution specifically designed to strip away everything it means to be Indian just so happens to be the primary area of focus in this film. The sub-plots add depth to the characters as well as much needed comic relief. Even though this film is classified as a drama, it should be shown in every history class across the United States. 12. Research connection: The story of American Indian boarding schools needs to be told. In the past Indian children were taken from their parents, often forcibly, and put into highly- regimented schools designed to eradicate all signs of their savagery. Use of Indian languages in these schools was forbidden and harshly punished. This movie probably should have been a period place showing the experiences of an Indian child thrust into the soul-killing world of the boarding school. Perhaps it was feared this approach would limit the size of the audience. In any case we get a modern-day story, set in northern Minnesota, in which a boarding school is glimpsed only occasionally in brief flashbacks. Surrounding these flashbacks lie a plot cluttered with a bewildering number of elements: the arrogance of the Catholic Church, shock treatments, commercial development of sacred Indian lands, an election for mayor pitting a white man against a red man, gambling casinos, a love story, hallucinations and visions, family secrets leading to tensions.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Benefits of Breastfeeding and Stages of Child Feeding

Benefits of Breastfeeding and Stages of Child Feeding Breastfeeding is the oldest method of feeding a child and has existed since the beginning of time. Most of the mothers received advice on the methods of feeding their infants and it comes from a variety of different sources like relatives or their mothers, health professionals, friends, books, magazines and baby food manufacturers. Similar findings were reported by Worsfold (1996). It is found to confer several advantages to both the breastfed child and his mother. This is in line with the study by Gartner et al. (2005). 98.0% of mothers knew about the importance of breast-feeding. The most prominent benefit identified by 92.6% of mothers were protection of the baby from diseases as stated by Duggan et al. (1990) and Berg et al. (1984). 23.4% who found it to be economical and this matches the study by Duggan et al. (1990) and NRDC (2005). 8.5% of mothers concluded that breastfeeding protects the baby from childhood obesity as suggested by Cook et al. (2003) compared to the study by Clifford (2003) who did not find any association between them. Also, 8.5% of mothers agreed that breastfeeding prevents the mother from gaining weight. This is explained by the fact that during lactation, many calories are spent to produce milk as mentioned by NRDC (2005) and Brudenell et al. (1995). It can be seen that mothers in Mauritius had a good knowledge on the beneficial aspe cts of breastfeeding. Therefore mothers will try their best to breastfeed their child. This will not only provide adequate nutrition to their child but also some beneficial health effects to the breastfeeding mothers. Out of those 98 mothers who said that breastfeeding is important, 90 breastfed their child. However, all those who said that breastfeeding is not important breastfed their child. Those eight mothers who could not breastfeed their baby despite being aware of its benefits reported that they were either drug addicts, HIV positive or their baby was adopted. A study by Ashworth (2005) reported that the HIV virus can be passed from an HIV-infected mother to her baby, known as mother-to-child transmission (MTCT). This study also suggested that one in every 20 babies will become infected if breast-fed for six months while three in every 20 will become infected if breast-feeding continues for two years. Breast milk substitutes and their hazards Breast milk substitutes are alternatives to breast milk. They include powdered or liquid milks or formula, wet-nurses and exclude therapeutic formulas used under medical supervision (USAID, 2006). 82.0% of mothers knew about the hazards associated with breast milk substitutes. 61.0% of mothers reported diarrhea as the utmost hazard which does not tally with the study by Fein § et al. (1997). The second hazard mentioned by 48.8% mothers was severe abdominal pain. 41.5% of mothers stated that vomiting was associated with the use of breast milk substitutes as researched by Dugdale and Eaton-Evans (1987). Allergy and childhood obesity were reported by only 31.7% of 7.3% of mothers respectively. These show that the mothers were very much aware of the hazards associated with breast milk substitutes. Mother would probably try to limit the use of breast milk substitutes as much as possible by taking into account the hazards associated with them. In this way, breastfeeding will be promoted leading to an improved health status of the children of Mauritius. However, for mothers who cannot or choose not to breastfeed for genuine and valid reasons, the use of breast milk substitutes may still be considered as a safe choice. Colostrum Colostrum is the yellowish, sticky breast milk produced at the end of pregnancy (WHO, 2010). 78.0% of mothers knew about colostrum. 72.5% of mothers correctly rightly defined it as the precursor to breast milk while 78.0% 0f mothers correctly described its appearance as a sticky pale yellow liquid. This shows that Mauritian mothers knew that colostrum is the first milk produced just after delivery and was able to describe it properly. 4.2 BREASTFEEDING PRACTICES Initiation of breastfeeding 47.3% of mothers breastfed their child in less than one hour after birth as recommended by the WHO (2010) and USAID (2006) while some breastfed their child after several days. A 22% reduction in neonatal mortality was seen in rural Ghana if breastfeeding is started within the first hour after birth (Edmond et al., 2006). It was also found that early initiation of breastfeeding builds on the babys innate reflexes and babies who start breastfeeding at this time continue to breastfeed exclusively thus adopting optimal feeding. The mothers body produces the hormone while enhancing the flow of milk. The mothers commensal (normal) bacteria start colonizing the babys skin and gut thereby protecting the baby against the harmful bacteria in the environment. During this time, the baby is calmer, is in an alert state with stable breathing and heart rate. Early initiation of breastfeeding has also been shown to help reduce post-partum bleeding, a major cause of maternal mortality in developing c ountries (IBFAN-Asia, 2007). In light of these studies, mothers should be advised and encouraged to breastfeed their baby just after birth or in less than one hour after birth. 66 mothers claimed that breastfeeding must be initiated in less than one hour after birth but unfortunately only 39 of them practised it. The main barriers associated with late initiation of breastfeeding in cesarean section deliveries were the adverse effects of anesthesia on mother-infant pairs, maternal discomfort and delayed onset of lactation as stated by Emel. (2010). Exclusive breastfeeding 36.8% of mothers rightly carried out exclusive breastfeeding for six months. Exclusive breastfeeding was found to contribute to protection against common infections during infancy and to lessen the frequency and severity of infectious episodes while partial breastfeeding did not seem to provide this protective effect and this was confirmed in a research by Galanakis et al. (2010). Unfortunately very few Mauritian mothers did exclusive breastfeeding for six months. This implies that mothers introduced breast milk substitutes like for example infant formula or food items earlier in the babys diet. Stopping breast-feeding before four months and introducing solid foods were associated with overweight and obesity at three years old as reported in a study by Hawkins et al. (2009). Formula-fed babies show quicker growth rates than breast-fed babies and seem to be at a greater risk of obesity as they progress into childhood. This could be explained by arguing that a breast-fed infant has mor e control over the rate of feeding and the timing of the end of feeding while bottle-fed infant might feel pressured to take in more feed due to being led by a parent to finish the bottle as stated by Ebbeling et al. (2002). Among 51 mothers who knew that exclusive breastfeeding must be carried out for six months, only 28 of them did so. The major reason reported by mothers was insufficient milk production which was in line with the study by Petit (2008). A small group of mothers thought that breast milk did not satisfy their baby as it is easily digested as stated by Maeda et al. (2001) and that infant formula would prevent their baby from getting hungry more often. Some mothers stopped breastfeeding before six months due to fatigue, backache, nipples infection, child refuses to suckle or simply due to the easy availability of breast milk substitutes on the market. Others wanted their baby to get used to infant milk so that they can leave their baby with some family members when they had to go out or had to resume work. Complete breastfeeding 22.3% of mothers carried out breastfeeding for up to two years which shows that only a minority of mothers practiced breastfeeding for two years. However, the data showed that 17.0% of mothers carried out breastfeeding for eighteen months, 12.8% for twelve months followed by 11.7% for three months only. This was explained in terms of several reasons like inadequate amount of milk produced and baby was not receiving enough milk. Some mothers stopped breastfeeding as they wanted to get pregnant again and for aesthetic reasons. Those who work reported that they did not get breastfeeding time. Others mentioned that their infants have lost interest in nursing and their husbands had negative opinions on breastfeeding. Among the respondents, few mothers stopped breastfeeding as they had sore nipples. Others were under medication and were advised by doctors to stop breastfeeding. Certain mothers found it difficult to breastfeed their baby when they had to go out and found it more convenient to use infant formula in public places. A study claimed that the leading reason why mothers stopped breastfeeding was insufficient amount of milk produced (Hussain, 2003). Most Mauritian mothers did not breastfeed their child for two years for several reasons and this would probably had adverse health effect on the child with a reduced beneficial effect of breastfeeding to the mother herself. Weaning Weaning is the process of expanding the diet of the infant to include foods and drinks other than mothers or formula milk, to enable them to meet the extra nutritional needs for rapid growth and development (DOH, 1994).The weaning period is a crucial stage in the growth and development of the infant and child. The timing of weaning, the choice of foods, their methods of preparation, and how weanlings are fed, all affect the outcome46.5% of mothers introduced supplemental feed at six months of age. 93.0% of them introduced infant formula while others introduced mostly solid foods. It can also be seen that 29.4% of mothers started weaning before six months compared with 18.1% of mothers who began it after six months. The introduction of solid foods before 3 to 4 months were found to be associated with increased fatness and wheeze later in childhood, with an increased risk of allergy, and with higher rates of coeliac disease and type 1 diabetes in infants while the European Food Safety Authoritys panel on dietetic products, nutrition, and allergies concluded that for infants across the EU, complementary foods may be introduced safely between four to six months, and six months of exclusive breast feeding may not always provide sufficient nutrition for optimal growth and development as shown by Booth et al. (2011). Out of those 58 mothers who knew that supplemental food must be introduced at six months, 42 rightly introduced it in the babys diet at this age. At around 6-9 months changes occur in babies mouths that help them cope with the change from drinking to eating. Babies younger than this may be more at risk of choking on solid foods. For parents, leaving solid foods until around six months means less time spent preparing smooth purà ©es as babies can then cope with finger foods and lumpy foods more quickly and also fewer smelly nappies. Mothers who encourage their babies to help themselves to solid foods (an approach called baby-led weaning), rather than spoon-feeding them, say that this makes introducing solids an easier, more enjoyable and sociable experience. If breastfeeding is being continued to six months or more implies that your baby receives more antibodies and other protective factors. Giving only breast milk also means your baby is less exposed to harmful bacteria. Babies are more likely than adults to develop diarrhea and vomiting from such exposure as they have less acid in their stomachs. Early weaning is not convenient as babies do not actually produce all the enzymes needed to digest food thoroughly until they are about a year old. Under four months, any foods other than milk could put strain on the babys kidneys and the larger molecules in food are more likely to trigger an allergy. Although a baby given solids early may appear fine at the time, there are increased risks of eczema, wheezing and chest infections in childhood as suggested by NCT (2008). Others factors affecting weaning may include young maternal age, low maternal education, low socioeconomic status, absence or short duration of breastfeeding, maternal smoking, and lack of information or advice from health care in compliance with the study by Lakshman et al. (2009). Preparation of babys food at home and Use of ready-made pots 99.0% of mothers were preparing their babys food at home with 53.0% of mothers not using ready-made pots at all. This implied that among the 99.0% of mothers who were preparing their babys food at home, 40.0% of them were using ready-made pots in parallel as mothers found the cost of ready-made pots high. But due to its availability and convenience for babies, mothers tried to buy them for some meals. Therefore mothers would prepare one meal and use pots for others. Moreover, 29.4% mothers were using ready-made pots everyday while 30.4% claimed to use them rarely. The reasons for using ready-made pots rarely were due to their unaffordable price to some parents, unacceptable taste by babies, had to resume work, low freshness and less nutritious compared to ready-made pots. Mothers who prepared their babys food at home were mostly unemployed. Practice of exclusive breastfeeding and weight classification of children and BMI classification of children 35 children were exclusively breastfed for six months. From the findings, it can be seen that most of them (19) had a healthy weight represented by a percentile range which lies between 5th percentiles to less than the 85th percentile as mentioned by the CDC (2011). Also, most children had a weight of more than twice their birth weight at six months. This implied that the childs weight doubled between four to six months which tallied with the study by Mahan and Escott-Stump (2008). This indicted that exclusive breastfeeding for duration of six months did prevent excessive weight gain in children thereby protecting the children against childhood obesity. Practice on complete duration of breastfeeding with BMI classification of children Among the 21 children who were breastfed for two years, most of them had a healthy weight represented by a percentile range which lies between 5th percentiles to less than the 85th percentile. This showed that breastfeeding for two years prevents childhood obesity. However, some of the children were underweight as classified with a percentile range of less than 5th percentile. This could be explained by the fact that mothers wrongly timed the introduction of food in the babys diet or the amount and type of food given to the baby was not correct. Practice on age at which weaning started with BMI classification of children 31 children out of those 46 children who were weaned at six months had a healthy weight classified by a percentile range between 5th percentiles to less than the 85th percentile. This demonstrates that weaning at the right time prevent excessive gain of weight by children thereby preventing them from becoming obese. It was also seen that despite some mothers rightly introduced supplemental food in the babys diet, the baby was overweight as she was not breastfed. 4.3 AGE OF INTRODUCTION OF SPECIFIC FOOD ITEMS The WHO (2011) recommends that infants start receiving complementary foods at 6 months of age in addition to breast milk, initially 2-3 times a day between 6-8 months, increasing to 3-4 times daily between 9-11 months and 12-24 months with additional nutritious snacks offered 1-2 times per day, as desired. The main items that were introduced early were cow milk, mashed fruits, fresh vegetables and mashed vegetables. 61.1% of mothers introduced cows milk before 8 to 9 months as reported by CHW (2008). This was a bad practice as early introduction of cows milk is associated with an increased risk of developing Type-1 diabetes afterwards and a protein in cows milk was responsible in causing an unusual immune response as stated by Goldfarb (2008). Also, early introduction of cows milk and infant formula increases the frequency of atopic dermatitis, cow milk allergy, and wheezing in early childhood which is in line with a study by Burks et al. (2008) and IDACE (2005). Fortunately the majority of mothers (49.0%) rightly introduced infant formula in their babys diet at 6 months. Mothers introduced eggs irrespective of whether it is egg yolk, white egg or whole egg at around 9- 12 months as stated by ADC (2005) to prevent allergies. However, a study by Koplin et al. (2010) showed that introduction of cooked egg at 4-6 months of age does not increase the risk of egg allergy but can rather protect against its development. Bread was introduced earlier than recommended by 37.0% of mothers which is a bad practice. Bread is a starchy food and consists of sugars. Therefore, early introduction bread in a childs diet may lead to unusual weight gain in children. With time, the child may become overweight and obese. Research showed that overweight and obesity in children in most cases turned out to be obese adults which elevates the risk of diseases like heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and breathing problems as stated by AACAP (2010). Meat was introduced early by 40.8% of mothers. Meat is rich in saturated fats which is stored in the childs body. The digestive system of the child is affected and with time, the walls of the arteries may thicken leading to atherosclerosis together with many other chronic diseases. 20.0% of others introduced salty snacks earlier than recommended in their babys diet. Excessive salt consumption leads to storage of water in the body and affects the normal functioning of the digestive system. Afterwards, this person is more likely to suffer from high blood pressure and others health related problems. The main reason claimed by mothers for the introduction of milk and milk products were mainly as a source of calcium for the child. Other reasons include strength of bones and teeth, proper growth and development of the child. Eggs were given to children as a source of vitamin D, protein and to test for allergies. Cereal and cereal products were given as a source of carbohydrate to provide the child with adequate amount of energy to carry out his daily activities and for basal metabolism. Meat and meat products were given mostly as a source of protein and to vary the type of food the child consumes. Sweet and salty biscuits were given to children as snacks usually at tea time with a glass of milk to prevent the child from being over hungry at dinner time thereby preventing overconsumption of nutrients during the meal. The purpose of inserting fruits and vegetables in the diet is to provide the child with all the essential vitamins and to prevent constipation and other health problems related to malnutrition. Ice cream was rarely given as a dessert while custard was given to the child when he could not eat normal meals or during illnesses. With respect to my study, no problem was encountered with children. However, some children may be allergic to eggs, some specific brands of infant formula or fish while some children may suffer from cold while eating ice cream. 4.4 DETERMINATION OF THE ACTUAL BMI OF THE CHILDREN The Body Mass Index (BMI) is a number calculated from a childs weight and height and is used to assess obesity (CDC, 2011). The BMI of the children ranges from 12.82 to 21.33. These values were plugged on the body mass index-for-age percentiles to determine the percentile curve to which the childrens BMI tally with. Using this percentile and the data in Table 2, it can be easily seen whether the child is underweight, has a healthy weight, is overweight or is obese. The majority of children had a healthy weight compared to a small majority of children being underweight, overweight and obese. Therefore, it can be concluded that most Mauritian children had an ideal weight. 4.5 WEIGHT EVOLUTION OF CHILDREN Most children had a weight of more than twice their birth weight at six months and thrice their birth weight at twelve months. This implied that the childs weight doubled between four to six months and tripled at one year which tallied with the study by Mahan and Escott-Stump (2008). This showed that exclusive breastfeeding for six months, introduction of supplemental food at six months with continued breastfeeding till two years enable the proper growth and development of the child by preventing excess weight gain by the baby. In some cases, the childrens weight did not double at six months as they were ill and lost some weight during that period. Some children whose weights were more than thrice their birth weight were not properly breastfed. That is why their weights were higher than thrice their birth weight even though supplemental food was introduced at the right time. 4.6 CONCLUSION Breastfeeding is and will always remain the best way of feeding a child. Children who were exclusively breastfed for 6 months and were given supplemental food at this age with continued breastfeeding till 2 years were found to grow properly with a healthy weight. It was also found that those children who were not breast fed as recommended probably gained more weight despite the fact that supplemental food was introduced at the right time. Therefore, exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months with the right age of introduction of complementary food in the babys diet together with prolonged breastfeeding till 2 years old is essential for the proper growth and development of a child. Mothers should be given knowledge on breastfeeding so that they can practice it in a more effective manner. 4.7 RECOMMENDATIONS Breastfeeding must be initiated within the first hour after birth. Exclusive breastfeeding should be carried out for the first six months with continued breastfeeding for two years or more, together with safe, nutritionally adequate, age appropriate, responsive complementary feeding starting in the sixth month. Mothers should be informed about the advantages of breastfeeding to both their baby and themselves Medical staffs should make mothers aware of the hazards associated with breast milk substitutes and its consequences, which may arise afterwards throughout the babys life. The weight of children must be controlled regularly to ensure that the child is growing properly i.e. to see if his weight doubles at 4-6 months and triple at around 12 months. HIV mothers must not breastfeed their child to prevent the Mother To Child Transmission (MTCT) of the virus. Advice must be given to mothers regarding the preparation of babys food at home and ready-made pots available for babies so that babies can be given more hygienic and nutritious food.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Internal Structure Of The Earth :: essays research papers

What is the evidence for our knowledge of the internal structure of the Earth?As we enter the twenty first century we are beginning to learn more and more about the composition of the Earth. Early predictions have thrown up some rather strange and peculiar thoughts as to what is making up our Earth, but now day ¡Ã‚ ¦s scientists can be confident that the Earth is made up of what they think. As from experiments and other sources of information a picture to what is really down there is becoming much clearer.So how do these scientists know that the Earth ¡Ã‚ ¦s sections are made up of different compositions, and how do we know that the physical state of each layer is what it is?The outmost layer of the Earth is the crust, this is what we stand on and covers the earth entirely. It is made up of many different rocks and minerals, we know that the composition of the Earth ¡Ã‚ ¦s crust is generally the same due to the mines and boreholes that humans have made down into it. Mines that have been dug go down and still bring up valuable minerals that can be found just as close to the Earth ¡Ã‚ ¦s surface. The deepest goes down around 3km into the earth, and the temperature is 70 ¢XC, the only way for miners to work is because of the air conditioning, and still the type of rock looks the same all around. Also boreholes that have been drilled as far as half way into the Earth ¡Ã‚ ¦s crust bring up rocks that look very similar to the ones on the surface. So scientists can safely say that the Earth has a crust which is very similar in composition all the way down until the mantle is reached.When earthquakes happen they produce two types of waves P-waves and S-waves. Primary waves (p-waves) are the fastest waves, they travel away from a seismic event. Primary waves are longitudinal, they can travel through solids, liquids and gases. The secondary waves (s-waves) travel slower than the primary waves, and are traverse waves. This type of wave can only travel through solids. Measuring these waves is called seismology.Scientists have known for a long time that the lava, which comes out from volcanoes when they erupt, was from the mantle. The asthenosphere is the probable source of much basaltic magma, this is because the velocity in S-waves is slowed down and partially absorbed in the asthenosphere.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Mr. Shimerdas Suicide in Willa Cathers My Antonia Essay -- My Antoni

Mr. Shimerda's Suicide in Willa Cather's My Antonia My Antonia, by Willa Cather, is a novel about Jim Burden and his relationship and experiences growing up with Antonia Shimerda in Nebraska. Throughout the book Jim reflects on his memories of Nebraska and the Shimerda family, often times in a sad and depressing tone. One of the main ways Cather is able to provoke these sad emotions within the reader is through the suicide of Antonia’s father, Mr. Shimerda. His death was unexpected by everyone and it is thought that homesickness is what drove him to take his own life. Homesickness was surely felt by Mr. Shimerda, as it was by many, but it was the failure to adequately find a way to provide for his family that sent Mr. Shimerda into a depressing downward spiral that left him no foreseeable alternative but to take his own life. The first descriptions of Mr. Shimerda are that of a successful businessman that had always provided well for his family. I noticed how white and well-shaped his own hands were. They looked calm, somehow, and skilled. His eyes were melancholy, and were set back deep under his brow. His face was ruggedly formed, but it looked like ashes – like something from which all the warmth and light had dried out. Everything about this old man was in keeping with his dignified manner (24) Mr. Shimerda was indeed a prosperous man in Bohemia, but had made his living in the business world, not by running a farm to provide for his family’s needs. His hands show that he rarely performed hard manual labor, but that he did work hard with his hands to weave. His face however shows signs that he was already having doubts about the welfare of his family and their survival. The apparent glow that he must have once had was now replaced by the look of heavy thoughts. This came from the burden of providing for his family by way of very unfamiliar and difficult means. He had already lost a great deal of money in the family’s traveling expenses and overpaid for their property. â€Å"They paid way too much for the land and for the oxen, horses and cookstove† (22). Mr. Shimerda must not have thought that he would have to support his family by means of plowing fields for food and actually building a home from materials gathered from the earth. He was a businessman a nd made a life for his family in Bohemia by working. â€Å"He was a weaver by trade; had been a skil... ...tely the Shimerdas were the only Bohemian family for miles. Something as tragic as his suicide would surely bring at least some compassion from someone in the community towards his family. Mr. Shimerda had run out of options to choose from and decided that he could do nothing more and finally gave up. And of course it was not until his suicide that neighbors, such as the postmaster and the father of the German family, did finally come out of the woodwork, most likely out of shame for not doing anything about a known family in need. â€Å"The news of what had happened over there had somehow got abroad through the snow-blocked country† (88). And that spring, neighbors helped build a new home for the family and helped get the farm working. â€Å"The Shimerdas were in their new log house by then. The neighbors had helped them build it in March† (95). Mr. Shimerda’s suicide ultimately was a determining factor with getting the help he needed for his family’s survival. This could have been something he thought about when he took his own life. Regardless, if it were not for his inability to provide an adequate life for his family in the new country, Mr. Shimerda never would have committed suicide.

Employing Internet and Networking in the 21st Century Classroom Essay

â€Å"The Internet can bring the virtual world into the walls of the classroom, thus exponentially increasing the knowledge base available for practical use in teaching and learning (Kumari, 1998, p. 365). The use of the internet and online collaboration are skills that are important to employment opportunities and for â€Å"quality of life† (McManus, 2000). Regardless of the individual student’s future profession, the 21st century job market requires the ability to apply internet, collaborative, and networking skills. According to Barbara McManus, in her article â€Å"Creative Teaching with Internet Technology†, internet skills are best learned when applied across a varied curriculum, including â€Å"reading, writing, or mathematics† (2000). Teaching Tool The internet can be applied to the curriculum in many ways, including research, publishing, and virtual interactions. Although the internet is not always the most appropriate teaching tool, in many scenarios it can supplement and enhance a standard lesson (Educational Broadcasting Corporation). Research, publishing, and virtual interactions via the internet can provide authentic, real-world learning experiences for learners. Researching essays, papers, and projects via the internet allows students to utilize a plethora of different viewpoints, primary source documents, and â€Å"conduct original research† to apply to a topic (McManus, 2000). According to Dr. Siva Kumari (1998), the internet has quickly changed the way students and teachers interact with texts and research. The Educational Broadcasting Corporation asserts that the Internet allows students and teachers access to resources for research beyond the traditional classroom setting and decreases the amount of time spent doing said researc... ...ithin a collaborative blog teaches students how to work professionally and respectfully in a group environment – an essential employability skill. Using Facebook as a means of networking has become more popular throughout the Middle East as revolutions spring up across the region. The ability to contact those outside of one’s inner circle through social networking is a skill that is not lost on this Facebook generation. â€Å"Internet technology must be thoroughly integrated into the structure of [a] course (content, learning goals, assessment); the best assignments bring the fruits of internet use into the classroom.† (McManus, 2000). It is imperative that 21st century teachers prepare 21st century learners for the 21st century workforce. This means that teachers must utilize all innovation and technological advances available to them, particularly via the internet.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Media Shaping Women Essay

The media has clouded women’s perceptions in their body image by demonstrating the ‘ideal bodies’ on TV and magazines through print and film advertising, increasing the pressure for women and young girls to be ‘thin’, further leading to a more complex issue of Eating Disorders. Women who do not live up to societies expectations, and are suffocated with the phoney concept of the ‘ideal’ are treated with disregard and discrimination. For instance, Adrian Furnham and Nicola Greaves (1994) argue that the core of body image dissatisfaction is a discrepancy between a person’s perceived body and their ideal. They further argue that a failure to match the ‘ideal’ leads to self- criticism, guilt and lowered self worth. This effect is stronger for women than for men due to the cultural pressures on women to conform to an idealised body shape are more powerful and more wide spread than those on men. Psychologists have suggested that the media can affect women’s body esteem by becoming a reference point against which unfavourable body shape comparisons are made (Grogan 1999). These visions are then propagated through popular culture via television reality make over shows of re shaping the body, â€Å" if films of body transformation provide the vision that inspires women to re- make their bodies, the cosmetic and â€Å"aesthetic medicine† industry sell them the equipment† (Fox-Kales, 2011, p. 74. ) Women are objectified by an unrealistic expectation of beauty, put forward by models and actresses who do not reflect the average appearance of women in society. Print advertising, in particular, provides a not only unrealistic, but unhealthy ideal of what it means to be physically attractive. By these false images being presented, the media has created an ideology of attractiveness. Images have powerful effects on their readers, serving to maintain a ‘cult of femininity’ and supplying definitions of what it means to ‘be a woman’. Marjorie Ferguson (1985) investigated women’s magazines from a sociological perspective. She argued that women’s magazines contribute to the wider cultural process, which helps to shape a woman’s view of herself, and societies views of her. The media is littered with mages of females who fulfill these unrealistic standards, making it seem as if it is normal for women to live up to this ideal. Dittmar and Howard (2004) made this statement regarding the prevalence of unrealistic media images: Ultra-thin models are so prominent that exposure to them becomes unavoidable and ‘chronic’, constantly reinforcing a discrepancy for most women and girls between their actual size and the ideal body (p. 478). Research has repeatedly shown that constant exposure to thin models and actresses fosters body image concerns and disordered eating in many females. Eating Disorders are a direct result from the medias influence to look ‘thin’. Eating disorders theorists and feminist scholars have long indicated fashion magazines, movies, television, and advertising for their advocacy of disordered eating (Levine & Smolak, 1998). Media images of women make it difficult for individuals to hold an internalized ideal body that is realistic and attainable. With exposure to repeated images of ultra thin women, an individual’s internalized ideal body often becomes much thinner. This increases the gap between what a person feels their physical appearance is, and what it should be. Researchers have found that women who have an internalized ideal body that closely resembles the socially represented ideal body are at a particularly high risk to develop body image disturbance and disordered eating patterns (Sands & Wardle, 2003). Naomi Wolf argues that our culture disempowers women by holding them prisoner to an unattainable beauty ideal (Wolf, 1990). The epidemic proportions of drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction, and unsafe weight control methods among women have led theorists to posit the existence of mechanisms that are capable of reaching a large number of women (Levine & Smolak, 1998). Today’s expectations reveal that looks matter more than personality and intelligence as seen on various dating shows. It is universally agreed upon that people on these shows usually pick the best looking counterpart out of the group of contestants. Both men and women are concerned with appearance than personality on these types of programs. This phenomenon is transferred into the job market, where people are now more prone to hire the more attractive candidate. Research has found that more attractive workers even receive higher compensation than unattractive counterparts even where they perform the same work and have similar levels of work experience. The media targets young women drilling thinness and having no flaws as the height of being beautiful. Now, with the common use of plastic surgery you can change your overall appearance. Plastic surgery has become a more than 8 billion a year industry† (Hess – Biber, 2005:96). Women feel they need to have the perfect nose, and cheek bones to fit in to the media’s criteria, in order to appear more attractive to the opposite sex. Therefore, it is evident that the media has played a significant role in ‘shaping women’s bodies’ to suit ‘societies expectations’ by showcasing the recurring idea to be ‘thin’. These ideas are brought upon through various television shows and magazines, which further stimulate eating disorders.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Is Democracy good for women? Essay

Democracy without women is no democracy! (Declaration †¦ of Independent Women’s Democratic Initiative 1991:127) Women have tried to change the contours of a male-defined concept of democracy and assert the struggles for democracy which have been present within women’s movements as integral to a democratic body politic. (Rowbotham 1986: 106-107) Democracy is not something which, as a matter of ill-fated fact, has failed to deliver on its promises to women. It exemplifies ideals which guarantee that it will never deliver unless it gets on upon wide critical examination of its own philosophical assumptions. In brief, the charge made against democracy is that, for women, it was never more than an article of faith, and while two hundred years of democratization have failed (and are still failing) to bring equality for women, even faith is giving out. The uncharitable might interpret these remarks as nothing more than proof of feminist paranoia and of women’s general incapability to distinguish when they are well off. It is therefore significant to stress that the charge is not simply that democratic states are, as a matter of fact, ones in which women are deprived (though they are), but rather that democratic theory is, as a matter of principle, devoted to ideals which guarantee that that will remain so. As a faith, democracy was always a false faith, and its prophets (including nearly all the main political philosophers of the past two hundred years) are now exposed as false prophets. These are staid, depressing, and even dangerous charges. The more so if we have no preferred substitute to democracy, and no revised interpretation of its central ideals. The tasks for modern feminism are therefore twofold: first, to justify the claim that traditional democratic theory leads to undemocratic practice; secondly, to recognize the ways in which that theory might be reinterpreted so as to come closer to democratic ideals. The previous is feminism’s critique of the faith; the latter is feminism’s revision of the faith. Feminist theory and practice occupies a revealing position in debates concerning the relationship between social movements and democracy. As both a social movement and an academic body of thinking. It also offers a distinguishing, if marginalized, theoretical contribution. Though feminists are not the only movement contributors to have been both objects of and subjects in academic debates, they are debatably unique in emphasizing issues of democratic barring and inclusion. This emphasis stems from the chronological experience of women’s marginalization in the polity, their subordination within fundamental movements, and the complexities that feminists have faced in their attempt to create an independent, comprehensive movement of women. From these experiences, two discrete trails of analysis have emerged. The first, feminist democratic theory focuses on the integration of women in the polity. The second, emerging from debates concerning feminist organizing, centers on the democratization of relationships within the movement itself. Both are entrenched in a critique of the masculinity limits of liberal, republican, and leftist democratic theory and practices and are entrusting to constructing liberal, inclusive, and participatory alternatives. Since Mary Wollstonecraft, generations of women and some men wove painstaking arguments to demonstrate that excluding women from modern public and political life contradicts the liberal democratic promise of universal emancipation and equality. They identified the liberation of women with expanding civil and political rights to include women on the same terms as men, and with the entrance of women into the public life dominated by men on an equal basis with them. After two centuries of faith that the ideal of equality and fraternity included women have still not brought emancipation for women, contemporary feminists have begun to question the faith itself. (Young 1987: 93) Women’s marginalization within liberal democratic institutions was simply obvious at the end of the nineteenth century and the start of the twentieth. The vote was regularly extended, at least supposedly, to all adult men decades before it was to women. Full female suffrage was not won in Great Britain, for instance, until 1928. In France it was not granted until after the Second World War and in Switzerland not until the seventies. Early feminists felt that the elimination of women from the vote and other rights and privileges liberals accorded to â€Å"mankind† was conflicting and ignorant, a hangover of pre-Enlightenment prejudice and tradition that needed only to be brought to public attention to be remedied. However, it â€Å"turned out to be the merest tip of the iceberg: a daunting hint at deeper structures that stay women politically unequal† (Phillips 1993: 103). This is not to say that women do not use their vote as often or as autonomously as men. This has been the conclusion of some non-feminist studies of female voting behavior, which have argued that women are apolitical and ready to delegate decision making to the male head of family. Consequent feminist studies have concluded that gender disparities in voting behavior are extremely context specific, stratified by social and geographic location, and expected to diminish as women gain access to education and formal employment (Randall 1987: 50-53; Conway et al. 1997: 77-80; Baxter and Lansing 1983: 17-39). though, once we move beyond the vote, the participation of women of all backgrounds in those institutions inner to the functioning of liberal democracies, from parties to lobbying groups, remains considerably less than that of comparable men, though the proportion still varies eventually and space (Randall 1987: 53-58; Conway et al. 1997: 80-128). At the utmost levels of government, the numbers of women shrink radically, with little difference between democratic and non-democratic regimes. A sweeping experiential survey of both reveals: A bleak picture of women’s contribution as national leaders, cabinet ministers, members of national legislatures and sittings in the high civil service. At the end of 1990, only 6 of the 159 countries represented in the United Nations had women as chief executives. In almost 100 countries men held all the senior and deputy ministerial positions in 1987-89. Worldwide, only 10 percent of national lawmaking seats were held by women in 1987. (Chowdhury et al. 1994:15) There are disparities in the degree of women’s participation, even at this level. Most notably, Nordic countries have long outpaced other liberal democracies in the percentage of women in their legislatures as of facilitating welfare reforms, an democratic culture, and the overture of political quotas. For instance, women made up 37. 5 percent of the legislature in Norway in 1994 (Nelson and Chowdhury 1994: 775) and 47. 4 percent of the cabinet in 1991 (Bowker-Sauer 1991: 277). Jane Jaquette has argued that there were obvious increases in indicators of women’s demonstration in many regions during the 1990s. Yet the figures she cites underline the devastating reality of continuing female marginalization: â€Å"In the United States, women now make up 11. 2 per cent of Congress†; more than double the figure of 1987, certainly, but the fact remains that men still constitute 88. 8 percent (1997: 26-27). To take another example, women gained around 20 percent of the seats in the British Parliament in the 1997 elections. This was a vivid rise, but one leaving around 80 percent of representatives male. What is more, these advances remain brittle. In the British case, they were the consequence of the victorious Labour Party having ensured that a percentage of its candidate shortlists were composed of women, a move that consequently was ruled illegal. Finally, any advances have been compensated by the sharp drop in female levels of contribution during the East Central European transitions to liberal democracy. The significant point to recognize is that Nordic uniqueness and recent incremental advances in some countries do not basically alter the stark and relatively static discrepancy between male and female levels of contribution in liberal democratic institutions wide-reaching. Women have also not been incorporated as equals into substitute visions of democracy. The previously Marxist-Leninist regimes in East Central Europe made an overt effort to establish a considerable women’s presence within their policy-making institutions, attaining an average proportion of between 25 and 35 percent. Though, this was again much lower than women’s presence in the general population and it was attainned through quotas. Though they are not essentially undemocratic in themselves, quotas meshed with male-dominated, authoritarian rule to inflict a female presence lacking in legitimacy, autonomy, and real power. Additionally, efforts to democratize relations of production continued circumscribed by the top-down imposition of decisions by the party and by ongoing gender hierarchies within the party, workplace, and home. Women were integrated in large numbers into the workers but in lower paid, lower status work. They remained burdened with domestic responsibilities, and their capability for autonomy at work and in the home was thus not efficiently increased (Jaquette 1997: 27; Janova and Sineau 1992: 119-123). Anti-colonial radical movements that arose elsewhere throughout the twentieth century, from Vietnam to Nicaragua, were apparently more popular-democratic in nature and often succeeded in mobilizing large numbers of women in a wide diversity of roles. Though, they have also shown a propensity to relapse to more traditional divisions of labor on attaining state power, excluding women from positions of authority. The record is not much better for fundamental movements that are not primarily tilting toward gaining state power. The New Left, for instance, mobilized many women and was distinguished by an egalitarian, participatory democratic ethic, but it generated mainly male spokespeople and privileged masculinist modes of behavior. It also failed to challenge the sexual objectification of women and channeled them into community-oriented activism and supportive, administrative tasks (Evans 1979: 108-155, 177-179). Similar stories of women’s subordination and the trivialization of their concerns have emerged from more recent fundamental nonstatist movements’ organizations, from the Israeli peace group â€Å"The 21st Year† (Rapoport and Sasson-Levy 1997: 8) to the ecological activists â€Å"Earth First! † (Sturgeon 1997: 49-57). A major approaching of early second-wave feminist thought was the classification of gender itself as a site and source of hierarchical power, functioning to benefit masculine traits, roles, and values over feminine comparables. This brought with it an prominence on the pervasiveness of power and a focus on its operations at the micro level of daily interactions, or what Nira Yuval-Davis calls â€Å"primary social relations† (1997a: 13). This contrasted with the focus of most modernist approaches on power in â€Å"more distant secondary social relations† (Yuval-Davis 1997a: 13), namely the state and/or economy. Early second-wave feminists explicated the causes and operations of gendered power under the rubric of patriarchy. The factual meaning of patriarchy as rule of the father, â€Å"the principle of the authority of senior males over juniors, male as well as female† (Uberoi 1995: 196), was stretched in very diverse directions. It was conceptualized by â€Å"radical† feminists as the primary and most essential form of power, exercised by all men over all women all through the world and originating in either male biological capacities and psychological disaffection or women’s susceptibility to physical attack and pregnancy. Patriarchy in this sense was understood to be retained through male aggression, the philosophy of heterosexuality, and the institutionalization of both in marriage and the family. on the contrary, feminists working within Marxist and socialist theoretical traditions concerted on the operations of patriarchy in capitalist modernity. Some argued that capitalism was essentially patriarchal, with varying stress given to the gendered division of labor, the reproductive role of women, or the purpose of the household within the economy. Others insisted that patriarchy and capitalism were distinct if inter-related systems of power, though they disagreed on the specific nature of that interrelationship. All established that neither patriarchy nor capitalism must be systematically or politically privileged, both being equally major forms of power. In addition, socialist feminists agreed that patriarchy was a property of structures that located both women and men in patterned roles within society. Most socialist and radical feminists held to the view that it was both potential and essential to abolish patriarchal and capitalist power relations and thus form a power-free world. A third strand in second-wave feminist thinking concerning gender and power drawing a division between power over as authority and control and power to as creative capacity, exercised in involvement with others rather than at their expense. The latter form of power also featured as an significant strand in republican thinking. Feminists have argued that it reflects especially feminine, relational modes of being and acting, of the kind typically exercised in close realms of life and in local communities. Such arguments have usually not been intended as a refusal of theories of patriarchal power over but do adapt them by insisting that women’s experiences are not completely negative and that their capacity for agency must be recognized alongside the constraints imposed upon it. This entails that patriarchal power has not completely prevented women from making an involvement to democracy although it has ensured that their involvement has not been fully valued. Second-wave feminist criticisms of the limited extent of most formulations of democracy focus predominantly on the dissimilarity between public and private life. Many feminists have accepted the force of Marx’s analysis of the liberal divide between public life and the private world of civil society. though, they have added that both liberalism and Marxism, and other approaches to democracy, rely on and reify a diverse public/private peculiarity, that between the domestic realm and the rest of social life (Pateman 1989: 118-140). The gendered nature of the domestic globe was openly recognized and defended in early moderate and republican work, and criticized in some Marxist and anarchist tracts, but it has since been included within the nebulous mass of civil society. Women’s continued involvement with the domestic, and the positioning of the domestic as especially private and outside of the public, has served to accept the relations of inequality between the genders that structure all dominions of life and to ensure that most women remain politically indiscernible. Whereas some second-wave feminists have formed historical and transcultural theories of this trend, others have stressed that it’s precise formulation and the consequences for women have diverse over time and place. Carole Pateman’s significant analysis of the recasting of this relationship in modernity (1989) describes a evolution from a monumental public patriarchal order, in which paternal control of the household was subordinated to a masculine hierarchy descending downwards from God and the King, to a system of private patriarchy whereby male heads of households were reconstituted as free and equal agents in the public globe through the continuation of hierarchical gender relations in the home. This meant that the state and the allegedly private civil sphere were constructed as fraternal associations of especially masculine equals. This argument is resistant by feminist critiques of the masculinist and Eurocentric character of public modes of behavior and language, such as balanced speech and impartial judgment. Feminists have argued that the supremacy of these modes is predicated on the relegation to the private sphere of bodily, affective, and illogical ways of being and those people, including women, who are considered to mark those (Young 1987). Perhaps most feminist investigations of the public/private divide in modernity, mainly those influenced by Marxism, have focused on the gendered division of labor under capitalism: the methodical allocation of accountability for â€Å"public,† paid work to men and â€Å"private,† unpaid labor to women. This is not an argument that women have been completely absent from the public economy. Total imprisonment to the home must be understood as a bourgeois ambition rather than a reality for most women. It was legitimately rejected in apparently socialist regimes and is increasingly being redundant by women of all classes in most locations. Though, women still take on the irresistible responsibility for family and domestic chores and this, joint with associated ideologies of domesticity, romance, and sexuality, channels them into marginalized, subordinated, and frequently sexualized roles in the formal economy. Precisely where the causal means in this process has been situated by feminists has depended on their precise analysis of the way patriarchy works and its relationship with capitalism. There has, conversely, been general agreement on the effects. In the West, women are intense in public welfare provision and service sectors, clerical and non-unionized manufacturing occupations, and part-time and lower paid rungs of the workforce. Women in emergent economies carry out the bulk of textile and electronics production, typically in non-unionized conditions that are often appalling. Those on the fringes of the world economy eke out a living from marginal agriculture, the informal economy, and sexual and domestic work. The dual burden of insecure and low-paid work in the formal economy and domestic chores in the private sphere operates as what feminist political scientists call a â€Å"situational constraint,† restrictive the participation of women, particularly those from certain classes, races, and locations, in public, political activities (Randall 1987: 127-129). All the above arguments focus on the gendered segregations arising from the restraints of politics to the public sphere. Feminist analysis also entails that the gendered hierarchies of the private sphere require to be recognized as political. This was the interpretation behind one of the most renowned second-wave slogans, â€Å"the personal is political. † The slogan insisted that in fact personal issues typically faced by isolated individuals behind closed doors such as whether to have sex, whether to have children, or how to systematize caring roles and responsibilities were analytically shaped by structures and relations of power that disadvantaged women relative to men. These power relations also limited women’s entree to partaking in those areas of life more characteristically understood as political and they requisite collective contestation (Randall 1987: 12-13). Effectively, this necessitated a refusal of restricted notions of politics as a characteristic activity separated out from social life, or as limited to a explicit realm or social struggle. Politics was extended to encompass the maintenance or contestation of coercive power relations wherever they were marked. This is a fundamentally agonistic formulation of politics as essentially confliction. It brought with it a liberal notion of democratic politics as the contestation of coercive power relations, and the disparities and marginalization they produce, in even the most intimate areas of life. It could be argued that this too is an agonistic formulation, one that anticipates the postmodern reconfiguration of democracy as a continuing process of conflict and contestation rather than an attainable end state. However, there is another element to the expansive feminist formulation of democracy, and that is the ambition to construct more cooperative, inclusive, and participatory relationships between individual women and the community. Certainly, second-wave feminists have had greatly different visions of possible â€Å"utopias† to which they desired and they have advocated very diverse routes to get there. Moreover, their arguments have hardly ever been articulated using the language of democracy per se. But the general point remains that much of untimely second-wave feminism sought to ease the self-determination and creative flowering of individual women and the development of more democratic and authentically consensual relationships between women and/or between women and men. This reverberates strongly with revolutionary arguments about democracy. One cause for the second-wave emphasis on participatory modes of democracy was a distress with women’s political agency and its chronological erasure. â€Å"Male stream† approaches to democracy were condemned for universalizing masculinist ideas concerning who can act in democracy and how they do and must act, in ways that function to eliminate women or marginalize their activities. One center of criticism was the liberal notion of the political subject as an asocial individual affianced in the rational pursuit of pregiven ends. Drawing on histories of the social and cultural collision of gender roles, psychoanalytic theories of gender establishment, and the experience of giving birth and living in families, feminists have argued that women hardly ever have the opportunity or the desire to live as entirely separate and discrete persons to the degree presumed by liberal ontology. Men can do so simply if they distance themselves from feminine traits and roles, relying on women to assume the major accountability for domestic labor and emotional interrelationships in the domestic spheres. The more social conceptualization of citizenship put onward by republicans, whereby individual autonomy is achieved through public consideration, has been seen as little better as it shares with liberalism the insistence that all corporal differences and particularist emotional attachments should be transcended in the public sphere. In early liberal and republican formulations, the gendered allegations of this move were made explicit. The bodily disparities of women from men and their involvement with sexuality, childbirth, and childrearing earned them a subsidiary service role in the private (Jones 1990: 790-792). Also, second-wave feminists have noted that the chronological connection between nationality and military service, predominantly evident in republican formulations, has resistant women’s internment to the private by positioning them as vulnerable and in require of protection. The fact that women finally won formal inclusion as citizens (and, somewhat, as soldiers) has not, many feminists have argued, altered the fundamental masculinist model. Women’s participation is probable to remain partial and driven with disagreements. This is supported by the findings of feminist political scientists with consider to the situational constraints faced by women with childcare responsibilities and the socialization of young girls into domestic roles and inert traits, both of which bound women’s capacity to become political actors as conservatively understood (Randall 1987: 123-126). A final area of second-wave feminist criticism has drawn consideration to the limits of strategies for change in â€Å"male stream† democratic frameworks. This is not to contradict that many feminists have established conventional strategies. Reformism has been and remains advocated by those working within laissez-faire and social democratic frameworks, who insist that women have to grab the opportunity to lobby for incremental change by exercising their vote and organizing cooperatively as an interest group to put more direct pressure on states, parties, and legislatures. The state is seen here as an unbiased arbiter of contradictory interests those women have an equal chance to shape to their purposes if they muster collectively. Their capability to do so, welfare liberal and social democratic feminists add, can be eased through economic redistribution. Such an approach has long been condemned by other feminists for its lack of radicalism, its search for compromise, and its emphasis on the activities of comparatively educated and economically privileged women. A conservatively Marxist model of revolutionary change through seizure of the state has often been pursued by more left wing feminists, often from within existing leftist organizations. The argument here is that gendered relations of power will collapse with capitalism and the liberal state, and a state proscribed in the interests of the working classes will facilitate a more substantive democracy for both women and men to expand. This view has been condemned by those who snub to subordinate feminist demands to anti-capitalist struggle. As the experience of so-called socialist states established, such subordination is probable to continue after the revolution. Gendered inequalities, though they may be considerably reconfigured, are unlikely to be determinedly overturned. Reference: †¢ Baxter, Sandra, and Marjorie Lansing. 1983. Women and Politics: The Visible Majority. Rev. ed. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. †¢ Bowker-Sauer. 1991. Who’s Who of Women in World Politics. London: Bowker? Sauer. †¢ Chowdhury, Najma, and Barbara J. Nelson, with Kathryn A. Carver, Nancy J. Johnson, and Paula L. O’Loughlin. 1994. â€Å"Redefining Politics: Patterns of Women’s Political Engagement from a Global Perspective. † In Barbara J. Nelson and Najma Chowdhury, eds. Women and Politics Worldwide. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. †¢ Conway, M. Margaret, Gertrude A Steuernagel, and David W. Ahern. 1997. Women and Political Participation: Cultural Change in the Political Arena. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press. †¢ Declaration from the Founder Members’ Meeting of the Independent Women’s Democratic Initiative. 1991. â€Å"Democracy Without Women Is No Democracy! † Feminist Review 39: 127-132. †¢ Evans, Sara. 1979. Personal Politics: The Roots of Women’s Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left. New York: Vintage Books. †¢ Janova, Mira, and Mariette Sineau. 1992. â€Å"Women’s Participation in Political Power in Europe: An Essay in East-West Comparison. † Women’s Studies International Forum 11/1: 115-128. †¢ Jaquette, Jane S. 1997. â€Å"Women in Power: From Tokenism to Critical Mass. † Foreign Policy 108: 23-37. †¢ Nelson, Barbara J. , and Najma Chowdhury, eds. 1994. Women and Politics Worldwide. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. †¢ Pateman, Carole. 1989. The Disorder of Woman: Democracy, Feminism and Political Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press. †¢ Phillips, Anne. 1993. Democracy and Difference. Cambridge: Polity Press. †¢ Randall, Vicky. 1987. Women and Politics: An International Perspective. 2d ed. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan. †¢ Rapoport, Tamar, and Orna Sasson-Levy. 1997. â€Å"Men’s Knowledge, Women’s Body: A Story of Two Protest Movements. † Paper presented at the First Regional Conference on Social Movements, 8-10 September, Tel Aviv, Israel. †¢ Rowbotham, Sheila. 1986. â€Å"Feminism and Democracy. † In David Held and Christopher Pollit, eds. New Forms of Democracy. London: SAGE in association with the Open University. †¢ Sturgeon, Noel. 1997. Ecofeminist Natures: Race, Gender, Feminist Theory and Political Action. London: Routledge. †¢ Uberoi, Patricia. 1995. â€Å"Problems with Patriarchy: Conceptual Issues in Anthropology and Feminism. † Sociological Bulletin 44/2: 195-221. †¢ Young, 1987. â€Å"Impartiality and the Civic Public: Some Implications of Feminist Critiques of Moral and Political Theory. † In Seyla Benhabib and Drucilla Cornell, eds. Feminism as Critique: Essays on the Politics of Gender in Late-Capitalist Societies. Cambridge: Polity Press. †¢ Yuval-Davis, Nira. 1997a. â€Å"Women, Citizenship and Difference. † Feminist Review 57: 4-27.