How Historical Architecture Elements Have Been Destroyed

How historical architecture elements have been destroyed in the buildings of Lass Vegas Lass Vegas is a city in the state of Nevada and the city is extremely populous and internationally known for the fine dining, gaming and shopping (Stern, Peggy and Alan 13). Lass Vegas proclaims itself as the world's capital of entertainments due to its famous hotels combined with casinos. It may seem like all the great architecture of the world is gathered in one place: there's Venice, Caesar Palace, Luxury, New York and Camelot Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and etc.Directly low the Eiffel Tower, cicadas buzz in branches of the Roman pines that overlook the waters of an Italian lake. Suddenly, the waters burst into song: the voices of Andrea Bacilli and Cline Don rise into the warm night air and spectacular fountains sway in time to the music. Fifteen minutes later, the fountains are dancing to Elvis. ( Hollies, Edward) All these revolution of the themed casino hotel building took place in the sass, when casino owners such as Steve Wynn and Sheldon G Delano realized that Vegas didn't have to be Just about gambling.If they could turn Vegas into a loudly destination in its own right, they figured, then they could attract all sorts of people – folks from Out East, families, and so on, who would never have dreamed have coming before. And if they could attract those regular respectable folks, then they could attract regular money, too. But the architectural design used in the majority of the buildings in Lass Vegas is just a total replication of the ancient architectural design from various part of the world (Stern, Peggy and Alan 13).This meaner that most of its modern architectural design is a complete abstraction of the original design. The Lass Vegas hotels with the ancient architecture theme may have the similar fade of the ancient building but they are essentially still the modernism buildings. The ancient architectural buildings emphasi ze 3 elements like aesthetic, function and structure. All these three elements should marry together. The Lass Vegas buildings are like most of the modernism buildings which emphasize the space.Space is deified in the modernism thus replaced the position of the symbol, bringing the architect to give up the combination of architecture and painting, sculpture, images, and no longer pursuit the symbol. Modernist international style of â€Å"less is more† from Miss van deer Roe as the representative to the simple and rapid industrialization nature adapted to the needs of the times, has swept the world. (Wick) As we all know Lass Vegas is an extremely commercialese city where advertising, signs and construction of the symbol itself is as important as the position, which has also become one of the images of the city of Lass Vegas.Extensive use of neon at night makes the city showing a completely different image. This is a naked commercialism table. Billboards, similar to the tradem ark signs, neon signs, all this kind of exaggeration, mixed nightclub style architecture are not cohesive with the ancient style architecture. The Lass Vegas hotels mimicking the ancient style architecture buildings and at the same time mixed these entire modern commercial decorations extremely destroyed the classical style and the classical atheistic elements of the ancient architecture.In the book LEARNING FROM LASS VEGAS, the author Robert Venture divided the symbolism of the local building into two types: a Decorated Duck, or decorate shed or huts. Long Island duck, Aberdeen (designed like a duck store) is a erect symbol of the space of the building. The Duck is a building that has so reduced itself in importance that it has actually become the sign. According to Venture, most modern architecture are basically UN-admitted Ducks. The real hypocrisy for Venture was that â€Å"†¦ Odder architecture always demonstrated what it was by setting itself against what it wasn't. â₠¬  But a duck is a duck. The overall structure of the way submerged in the shape of an elephant. Decorated huts are ordinary buildings with local giant billboards and markers. He describes functional boring architecture, auteur to the point of being difficult to recall, but carries a surface with applique © ornamental symbols. The billboard is higher than the construction, in addition to the front facade, the back facade of the building seems to be no style.These billboards has become a symbol rich architectural language of the local business, on the other hand the building seems to be reduced only with the symbols of asylum. The buildings in the Lass Vegas with the ancient building look are Just the mixed of these two types. These hotels Just used the ancient building as a symbol of the space of the alluding. In S. Maria del Priority, as Venture, Scott Brown, and Ignore wrote of Lass Vegas, â€Å"architecture is a shelter with symbols on it. † (90) The designs of the anci ent architecture are Just working like a shell or out shape.The essential elements are no longer inside of these buildings. With these ancient architecture shell, the hotels added the giant billboards to the front fade which is a total conflict with the classic style made all the ancient styles buildings more liked the cartoon type of architecture. The classical aesthetics have been destroyed by these cartoon type. In the eighteenth century Europe, however, aesthetics was a discipline in formation. (Irene Small, 18) The classical styles of the ancient architecture here became only a giant decoration of the hotels.The elements of these building no longer emphasis on performance of the structure and function but on symbolic significance and the billboard, markers dominate the space. Luxury Hotel is a very prominent building in Lass Vegas strip due to its sheer size and the architectural construction design. The hotel is named after ancient city in Egypt. It was built with a unique Egy ptian concept. Its structural design is perceived to be a pelvic of the Gaza pyramids in Egypt with huge sphinxes at the front of the building. The interior design of the building is a copy of the Egyptian artifacts, form it golden materials to the sculptures.This is according to the Evolve Simpson who was the main architect of the Luxury building (Stern, Peggy and Alan 14) the building is Just a replica of the ancient pyramid in Egypt because its exterior design is composed of a black glass that encases the metal frame hollow structure. The inside of the building opens up to the largest open hall in the world, it's lavishly decorate with very many productions of the Egyptian painting and artifacts which give the building a sense of ancient times. During the night, very powerful spotlights shoot straight from the building to the air.These spotlights are even visible from space (Vinegar, 28). The Luxury Hotel, which was actually opened in the 1993, had a very magnificent theme of an ancient Egypt, when compared to the original pyramid but the architectural design borrows a lot of the modern technology while still trying to maintain the structural design of the original pyramid. Paris Lass Vegas is another building with a omelet imitation of the original architectural work. The building is located at the strip of the Lass Vegas. Its theme is the city of Paris in France.It's a 541 foot tall replication of the Eiffel tower, in a shape of a Montpellier balloon. It has a two-third size Arc De triumphed, which is a replica of the La Fontanne deer. Surging the architectural planning, the Eiffel scale model was supposed to be built to the full model. That is to the same height like original tower in Paris France. But the airport was to close and tower had to be shrunk. The Eiffel tower of Lass Vegas is in the scale f 1 in comparison to the original tower in Paris France. The Lass Vegas tower has another unique architectural difference from the original tower.The back l eg of the Eiffel tower come down through the ceiling into the casino floor. The Eiffel tower has a very significant structural deviation from the original tower. The tower is only 165 meters with about 5000 tons of welded steel and stands. This is about half the size of the original which is about 320 meters tall. This is a same height as of an 81 – story building. Furthermore, the Eiffel tower of France consists of a structure that made up f puddle iron that weight approximately 7300 tones, while the rest of the structure is made of nonmetallic components, which weights a approximately 10000 tones.This demonstrates the economy of design which is much different with the Eiffel tower of Lass Vegas. Venetian hotel stands at the site where one of the famous old buildings used to stand. The Sand Building was restructured during the time when Lass Vegas was moving onwards in the field of architectural designs. The Sand buildings artistic design was altered and replaced with roman architectural design, which gave the Venetian building carved stone columns in the open lobby. Again these are Just the copy of the fade of the ancient architectural.Caesar Palace Casino in Lass Vegas was constructed in 1965. The hotel was named Caesar Palace because the owner though that the name would evoke the thoughts of the loyalty because of the roman general Julius Caesar. The architectural design of the hotel had a roman architectural touch and a theme, signaling both ancient decadence and sophistication. The roman architecture framed the entrance with spraying fountains and may replicas of detailed roman statues all around the building. The idea of replicating the ancient roman architectural design was to make every guest to the hotel feel like a Caesar.This ancient ideology is also represented by the absence of an apostrophe in the Caesar Palace, which meant that it is a place of many Caesar and not one. The Caesar Palace Just represents a fade of original architectural bu ilding design of the Romans. Lass Vegas has bee accused by critics as being uncultured, heartless metropolis with remarkably little patience with any architecturally outdated building in the city, which include its own historical building sites. Visiting the end of the Fremont Street one experience digress en walking past the hulking shell of Minneapolis. , without being aware of hope the building once represented.However the building has lost its original aesthetic value and visitors have shown little to no interest in the building. The building has been into Fremont square as a part of the revitalization efforts. The ancient beauty and aesthetic value of the building has bee replaced with an animation of the modern architectural design. The building of the Caesar palace mimic all these ancient elements like arch and column mostly in a decoration way. The ancient Rome use Arches which were made of stones or bricks and placed on top of each other in a way that it can form and an arc h and hold weight upon itself.Also in the Rome the arches were used to hold the massive weight of the dome. The arches in Caesar palace's ceiling works mostly Just as the decorating to resemble the ancient Rome building style and offer a glimpse into the ancient Roman buildings almost two thousand years ago. In fact, the hotel mainly used the columns from which originated from the Greek architecture. For the material, the ancient roman mainly used concrete and blocks. But the modern construction materials of the hotel are nothing similar to the brick and concrete walls.The hotel used the modern day technological materials and were built using the state of art architectural technology (Bourns, 1 53) same like the Luxury hotel. The pyramid is used by the totally different material from the original ancient building with the giant glass. The fancy version of the sphinx, totally different scale of the building, all made these Lass Vegas pyramid more like a children's park like buildings while the classical architectural pay attention to building as a whole. The four cascades in addition to the roof should be carved like a sculpture.In Lass Vega's extreme commercial environment, Buildings are made rapid, shallow and vulgar. In order to compete in this marketplace, a casino needs a virtual edge that fulfills the old role of the sign. The buildings are often renovated to get the glossy fades. In 1998, Steve Wynn transformed an image of the Italian Bellagio resort into drizzling fountains and â€Å"historic† two-story building facades, while in 1999, Circus Circus Corporation realized the Mandalay Bays Southeast Asian theme by bringing in 2700 tons of a sand. Buildings in Lass Vegas are in relentless change.The outlooks of the building are mostly concerned in these Vegas buildings but not the structure. The ancient buildings emphasize the structure and that's how they can stand there for over thousands of year. The sturdiness is a very important character of th e ancient buildings while in the Lass Vega's buildings these elements are no longer important. In fact, Vanity and fragility of modern architecture are criticized in Xavier Delver ‘s urban forms urban forms. Lass Vegas is the modern commercial city with visual propaganda in the business repose and business needs.The benefits of social, economic, and visual impact largely affect the form and the shape of the buildings. The vision becomes an important factor of a way to attract eyeballs. Maybe that's why they are mimicking the famous architecture in the world. But the essential elements of the architecture are totally lost in these commercial buildings in which the only logic is for the profit. The purpose of business is to make money; the purpose of commercial buildings is to service to make money. The buildings in Lass Vegas mimicking the famous architecture designs are Just the visual construction of the commercials.

Organisational Theory Essay

â€Å"Power, conflict and resistance key determinants of organisational life. † -Modern, symbolic-interpretive, post-modern and critical theory perspectives have different ways of understanding power, control and resistance in organisations. Choose two of the four theoretical perspectives and discuss how each perspective’s understanding of power, control and resistance in organisations contributes to different ideas about the nature of organisations. Introduction: The purpose of this essay is to analysis the two theoretical perspectives of Modern and Post-modern which have different ways of understanding power, control and resistance in organisations. We shall go through by the philosophical choices of ontology and epistemology, then examine the assumptions underlying of these two perspectives, and to compare from different perspectives and of distinctive contributions to the power, conflict and resistance which are key determinants of organisational life. Ranson et al. (1980), stated that â€Å"Organizational structure†¦ describes both the prescribed frameworks and realized configurations of interaction, and the degrees to which they are mutually constituted and constituting. Modernism: As to Hatch and Cunliffe (2006), Modernist focus on Objectivism which is belief in objective, external reality that independently exist from our knowledge on ontology philosophical saying. Martin Parker (2008) stated that on epistemology way, Modernism elevates the ‘faith in reason to a level at which it becomes equated with progress. † Clegg and Kornberger (2003) explained that Modernism does go through adherence to the canons of positivism – which discovering the Truth by using reliable measurement and valid concepts to examine knowledge against an objective world. Hatch and Cunliffe (2006) that Modernist organisation theorists believe that complete knowledge means understanding how and why organizations function the way they do and how their functioning is influenced by different environmental conditions. Modernist is emphasis on looking for universal laws and methods to solve problems, and by using standardized procedures and routine practices to control the organisation. Hatch and Cunliffe (2006) further elabourated

Mangerial Accounting Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Mangerial Accounting Assignment - Essay Example Amount of any write-down value of inventories that can be recognized as expense for the period A further disclosure of the reversal or write down made to Net Realizable Value. The firm should also disclose the circumstance that led to such reversal Carrying Amount of inventories pledged as security for liabilities Cost of inventories recognized as expenses: This includes operating costs recognized by the nature of cost like raw materials and consumables, labour costs and other operating costs. These operating costs are classified on the basis of nature of the costs and the amount of net change in inventories for the period. (b) Sylvester Sales Limited: Gross Profit under Marginal Costing: Details Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Production Units 240,000 300,000 180,000 Sales Units 200,000 200,000 200,000 Price per Unit 26 26 26 Sales Value 5,200,000 5,200,000 5,200,000 Variable Costs: Direct Material and Labour costs 1,200,000 1,200,000 1,200,000 Variable Overheads 800,000 800,000 800,000 Total Variable Costs 2,000,000 2,000,000 2,000,000 Contribution 3,200,000 3,200,000 3,200,000 Fixed Manufacturing Costs 800,000 800,000 800,000 Gross Profit 2,400,000 2,400,000 2,400,000 Gross Profit under Absorption Costing: Details Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Production Units 240,000 300,000 180,000 Sales Units 200,000 200,000 200,000 Price per Unit 26 26 26 Sales Value 5,200,000 5,200,000 5,200,000 Direct Material and Labr Costs...Inventories include assets representing fixed assets held for sale in the ordinary course of business, assets in the production process for sale in the ordinary course of business representing the work in process and materials and supplies that are consumed in production which covers the raw materials. In the valuation of stock, the standard cost and retail methods can be adopted. The only condition prescribed under the regulation is that the method of measuring the cost should result in approximate actual cost of the inventory measured. For items that are interchangeable the regulations allows the First in First out (FIFO) method or Weighted Average Cost methods. However the regulation discontinued the measurement of inventory under Last in First out (LIFO) method. Cost of inventories recognized as expenses: This includes operating costs recognized by the nature of cost like raw materials and consumables, labour costs and other operating costs. These operating costs are classified on the basis of nature of the costs and the amount of net change in inventories for the period. The year-wise gross profit figures as indicated in the marginal costing system shows identical profits irrespective of the different production levels.

Globalisation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Globalisation - Essay Example At the time, 'USA produced at least half of the world's manufactured goods and held half its reserves' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Woods_sytem ). While the gold standard prevailed, currency exchange rates were more or less fixed, ensuring stability in world trade. Although expounding a liberal free trade and free market philosophy, the USA also is accused of being isolationist. 'America first' is a very powerful slogan. 'The historic insulation of the American economy from the global one stems from the size and physical remoteness of the U.S. market, which relies less on trade than virtually any other in the world. ' even a modest percentage of American GNP constitutes a sizable share of global economic activity. In the early 1950s ' American exports constituted more than a third of industrial exports, yet less than 5 percent of GNP' (http://www.lehigh.edu/'bm05/research/global15.htm ). This kind of hegemony of the US economy began to be eroded in the 1960s and 70s when financial capital in the form of international syndicates of the largest banks of the world undermined the stability of national currencies. There was speculation in currency trading at a time when the currencies of post-war Germany and Japan were becoming stronger vis-a-vis t he American dollar. There was also greater manufacturing successes and enhanced export potential evinced by Japan and the EEC as a trading bloc. Since then trans-national or multinational corporations have also complicated capital and currency movements across the world. A cogent reason for the U.S. planners to advance the concept of a liberal, free market international economic system was that, as the then US Secretary of State Cordell Hull (1933 - 1944) argued the perception that the main cause of two world wars of the 20th century were due to economic protectionism. Nazi Germany's exchange controls in the form of bilateral arrangements and the British Empire's Sterling Area, stood in the way of international free flow of capital and foreign investments. The U.S. indulged in the rhetoric that '' free markets (were associated) with material prosperity, stability, justice, democracy, human rights, international peace and more' (Moon, 1998). However, without government intervention vulnerable groups like unskilled labour find themselves outside the benefits accruing to countries in the wake of such liberalisation (vide The Stolper-Samuelson theory). The 'Heckscher-Ohlin trade theory' also predicts that 'inefficient sectors of the economy will suffer losses. ... As American supremacy ' eroded since the 1970s, greater vulnerabilities have produced dislocations in scattered industries, most prominently in textiles, steel and autos'(op. cit.). As a result of this ''vulnerability to trade competitors and its changing pattern of comparative advantage, American policy has become increasingly narrowly self-interested' (op. cit.). Outsourcing or offshoring are terms used to explain the migration of most of American service and technical jobs

Complex Humanitarian Emergency Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Complex Humanitarian Emergency - Essay Example Distributing food nor relief goods do not abate the hardship of the victims since there are other factors that act as an obstacle in giving humanitarian aid. One of the most pronounced factors would be political forces. When an underdeveloped country is hit by a disaster, the government might not be that organized in addressing the situation. There may be international donors willing to give a vast amount of relief goods but the government is laden with bureaucracy and red tape thereby hindering the equitable distribution of resources. It is also ironic to learn that corruption also happens even during times of crisis. Some officials would use the disaster to pursue their political agenda instead of merely helping victims. Some government officials would even hoard supplies for their local town which just violates the concept of impartiality in the Humanitarian Charter. During the case of typhoon Ondoy in the Philippines, there was a local official who used the pump boat to save his family first before taking care of his constituents. Public service simply went out of the picture. An emergency also becomes complex in poor countries since the victims themselves already belong to the marginalized sector of society. Having no adequate nutrition, they are the first casualties who die of hunger when rescue efforts are delayed. More often than not, young children who are malnourished die quickly in evacuation centers. This is a sad reality considering that the right to adequate food according to humanitarian law includes the availability of food in sufficient quantity and its accessibility (The Sphere Project, 2004). Housing is also a major issue that contributes to the complexity of emergencies. While people may be housed in an evacuation center, they are compressed together like sardines.  

Elements of Literature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Elements of Literature - Essay Example The conflict between rationality and a deliberate slipping into the dream world and the character of Willy who simply refuses to see reality make the story realistic and one with which one identifies. Willy Loman’s character is said to be trapped in adolescence. Though he has reached the ripe age of sixty and is the father of two grown up sons he still idolizes the romantic concept of the rags to riches story. To him his uncle Benjamin represented ideal manhood. He is still mesmerized by the aura of his uncle who used to say on his accumulating huge wealth â€Å"Why, boys, when I was seventeen I walked into the jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out. [...] And by God I was rich" (Miller 48). His obsession with virility and machismo might be understood as his failure to live up to society’s expectation of a successful male. He would boast about his being a successful salesman in his youth and tried to take refuge in an imaginative past. He wanted his sons to be what he could not. Willy wanted his sons to be popular, famous and well-established but failed to incorporate in them the tenacity and diligence required to be an achiever. Like a child Willy would go by apparent and temporary moments of joy and victory but did not have the far-sight to chalk out the right directions for his sons. He lived in an illusion that his sons were the best and the brightest among all the other kids in the vicinity. But when he came to realize the truth it was too late. He has become an old man and both of his sons were men in their thirties and yet not settled with a job and a wife. He was all the more depressed when he found that the others have gone way ahead of him in terms of money, social status and established children with secure future. Charley whom he used to pity is father of a successful and renowned son. Willy’s disillusionment is complete when he understands that he had over estimated

Conflict of Interest Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Conflict of Interest - Essay Example The biasness he will show at that point will give rise to conflicts. Moreover, an example may be, if there is some kind of affection between the boss and the employee and as a result the boss gives advantage to that specific employee. In this process unintentionally or intentionally other employees will suffer and this is what conflict of interests is all about. Now there are actually two types of conflicts; potential conflicts and actual conflicts. The potential conflict occurs when there is a divergence between the personal and professional interests of an individual. The above examples are potential conflict based. The actual conflict depends on the situation not on the actions of the individuals. Nowadays actual conflicts are not as common as potential conflicts are. Potential conflict can be considered as a red flag, which means that the person involved in the conflict must be careful with whatever he is doing before it turns out to transform into an actual conflict. As the pote ntial conflict can take the shape of an actual conflict that is why the officials should remain vigilant and they should keep a keen eye on whatever is happening in the organization (Campbell and Keith, 122-126). Conflict of interest has always been an indicator of moral wrongness. Moral wrongness refers to the act of doing something that is morally wrong. It is prohibited and prevented at all cost but if it happens then the consequences are devastating. There are two reasons on the basis of which conflict of interest are considered as an indicator of moral wrongness; 1. If a person who is involved in the conflict of interest does not know what he is doing, this negligent behavior has an adverse effect on the people he is being biased for and for those whom he is not being bias as well. This is morally wrong because every employee should be treated equally according to his rank and any kind of biasness among the employees will be considered morally wrong. 2. If the people who are su ffering don’t know at the moment that a conflict is taking place and the person who is involved in the conflict also doesn’t reveal this to them, then this whole act will be termed as deception. Deceiving someone is also morally wrong. It not only hurts the person but it also disappoints him. If equal effort is being made then what is the reason of this conflict of interest. Let us take the same example given above. It is related to an organization in which an employer hires his wife for a job. Their personal relation will obviously affect their professional life. The husband will obviously be bias for his wife. He will not consider her as an employee and as a result other employees will suffer. The amount of bonuses and promotions she will get will be much more then the amount given to other employees. Apart from this she will also not be fired for her lousy performance but she will be given many chances to improve herself while other employees will be fired at the in stant no matter how hardworking and efficient they are. This act will sometimes be noticed by the other employees and sometimes they will not be able to note that conflict is taking place. The moment they know that their boss is involved in a conflict they will definitely be disappointed and if in some cases they do not get to know then also the boss will be involved in a case of deception. This act of biasness and deception shows that conflict of interest is always an indicator of

I have dream speech by Martin Luther King Research Paper

I have dream speech by Martin Luther King - Research Paper Example The history of modern America presents Dr. Martin Luther King as heroic leader, and one of the leaders of the Big Six civil right movement governing who were the architects in the organization of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which took place on August 28, 1963 (Vail, 2006). The march made specific demands: an end to racial segregation in public institutions, civil right reforms, including protection of workers from police brutality; self-government for Washington D.C. then rule by congressional committee. This march was the most gathering of protesters in Washington history at the time and still has an enormous amount of political and social influence up to present day. The purpose for my research is to examine the decisions that were made before the march took place in Washington D.C. The â€Å"I have a dream’’ speech has become a replica for many public speakers who seek large audiences to encourage social change by delivering a pretentious speech in large audience settings. King‘s speech electrified the 250,000 people that went to see the speech, which is regarded along many American President public speeches. Furthermore, many metaphorical scholars have recommended the speech as one of the deluxe speeches in the American history . Terminologies from previous class lectures will be discussed from Dr. King â€Å"I Have a Dream† speech. Social aspects including workers’ rights, polices’ viciousness and institutions’ isolation will be analyzed.... King‘s speech electrified the 250,000 people that went to see the speech, which is regarded along many American President public speeches. Furthermore, many metaphorical scholars have recommended the speech as one of the deluxe speeches in the American history (Collins, 1999). Terminologies from previous class lectures will be discussed from Dr. King â€Å"I Have a Dream† speech. Social aspects including workers’ rights, polices’ viciousness and institutions’ isolation will be analyzed. I will be also examining the goal the speech was intended to achieve at the time and how affective or ineffective it was or had since the speech was delivered. The main purpose I chose Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was because I strongly supported his fight to end racism, classism, poverty, police brutality, government corruption, and unequal resources and services distribution. Personally as a black man myself, born in the African continent, I relate enormously with mos t of the issues Dr. Martin Luther King fought and defended. Dr. King’s â€Å"I have a Dream† speech opens door to many controversial issues concerning people of color and others’ minorities were facing at the time and still facing today. Even though, many of these issues have improved over the years, a lot remain to be accomplished, in order to fulfill King Dream. It is imperative to note that, the speech was delivered during a highly tensed time, when Africans and black American were not allowed to express their views. During this time the Negroes were regarded as the second level or class human beings who were attributed to injustices like forced human labor, taxes racial segregation and impartial

Genomics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Genomics - Essay Example Because of the role that genomics has been proven to play in disease, modern nurses commonly are responsible for eliciting at least three generations from patients (Consensus, 2008). Nurses play a critical role in assessment of this information for use in preventative care, prognostics, selection of treatment, and treatment evaluation, necessitating firm understanding of genomic principles. Nurses are an essential educational resource for patients unaware of genomic technologies. Nurses also serve as advocates for clients that may benefit from genomic services and for the rights of those clients to make autonomous, informed genomic and genetic based decisions. As part of the nursing assessment, genomics allows a nurse to establish risk factors based on family history of disease. Perhaps more importantly, however, the nursing assessment should include patient attitude and knowledge of genetic and genomic technologies that may be beneficial. This assessment will also allow other health care professionals to interact more effectively with the patients by understanding their biopsychosocial views and is critical in allowing patients to make informed decisions based on these new technologies.

Employee Reward And Resourcing Module_HRM Essay

Employee Reward And Resourcing Module_HRM - Essay Example There are two fundamental reward strategies; pay-related reward policy for the private sector and fixed pay structure for the public sector. These two forms have been critically evaluated. Employee resourcing measures the recruitment, retention and transfer of employees. Its strategic and operational components are Human Resource Planning, Resourcing Plans, Retention Strategy, Flexibility Strategy and Talent Management Strategy. A relation is found between employee reward and resourcing; the higher the reward, the higher the ease of recruitment, retention and transfer of employees. However, the report by CBI cites pay as one of the least related determinants of resourcing. Instead, it identifies the ability of the management staff and communications pertaining to the value of rewards achieved as the main factors influencing resourcing of human capital. As conclusion, some key recommendations are given that would lead to a more efficient working of the public sector and reduce government deficit. Introduction The world believes in the principle of ‘punishment for failures and rewards for achievements’. With the biggest companies going global, a need has been felt to recruit, retain and transfer human resources of the companies, i.e. employees, to various other sites of business in order to expand the scope of business and achieve the maximum corporate dividends. However, research has found that companies are not able to handle this effectively. As a way out of this problem, companies, now, offer higher monetary rewards to their employees as compensation, benefits, bonuses or incentives. But in order to decide standard policies on granting rewards, reward strategies have to be decided. A detailed description on these lines has been provided in the following paragraphs and this subject has been studied, analyzed and criticized in view of the report â€Å"For What it’s Worth?† composed by the CBI. Understanding Organizational Reward Strategy and its Components Mean ing of Reward Strategy â€Å"Reward Strategy is a declaration of intent which defines what the organization wants to do in the longer term to develop and implement reward policies, practices and processes which will further the achievements of its business goals and meet the needs of its stake-holders† (Armstrong, 2009, p.746). It forms a rough framework for reward policies by setting direction and purposes for them. A reward strategy takes into account the needs of the employees and the organization. It develops the values of an organization and sets the basis on which people are to be valued and thus, rewarded. Components of a Reward Strategy There are various components of Reward Strategy and which are interrelated. The important ones have been stated as follows. Non-Financial Rewards: Rewards are not always monetary. Sometimes, they may satisfy a person’s need for influence and reputation. Non-financial rewards may be in the form of recognition, responsibility, ach ievement or growth. For example, an employee may be receiving promotion or awards for attaining a high standard in his field of work. Job-Evaluation: It is a process which involves the identification of particular jobs and the corresponding employees in those jobs and a standard scheme of evaluation is developed and finally, a pay structure is decided upon. (Armstrong and Baron, 2002, p.30) Base Pay: It is the fixed income of the

Education and Economics Essay Example for Free

Education and Economics Essay I. Introduction: The conventional theory of human capital developed by Becker (1962) and Mincer (1974) views education and training as the major sources of human capital accumulation that, in turn, have direct and positive effect on individuals’ life time earnings. In the Mincerian earning function, the coefficient of school years indicates the returns to education, i. e. , how much addition in earnings takes place with an additional school year. There exists a wide range of literature that estimated the rates of returns to education for different countries [Pascharapoulos (1980; 1985; and 1994); Pascharapoulos and Chu Ng (1992)]1. In Pakistan, most of the nationally representative household surveys do not contain information on variables, such as, completed years of schooling, age starting school, literacy and numeracy skills, quality of schooling, and technical training. Due to the unavailability of completed school years, one can neither compute the potential experience nor observe the effect of an additional year of schooling on individual earnings. Therefore, the available literature in Pakistan is lacking in estimating the returns to education by using the Mincerian earning function2. In recent years, the government of Pakistan has started nation-wide survey, Pakistan Integrated Household Survey (PIHS), to address the imbalances in the social sector. This survey ? The authors are Senior Research Economist and Research Economist at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) Islamabad. 1 Pascharapoulos (1994) provide a comprehensive update of the estimated rates of returns to education at a global scale. He observed high social and private profitability of primary education (18%and 9% respectively) in all regions of world. The private rate of returns at this level were found highest in Asia (39%) as compared to other regions. He also noted a considerable increase in total earnings by an additional year of education in all regions of world; 13% in Sub-Saharan Africa; 10% in Asia; 12% in Europe/Middle East/North Africa; and 12% in Latin America/Caribbean. 2 At national level, only two studies are available in Pakistan that used the Mincerian earning function approach to examine the returns to education [see Shabbir and Khan (1991) and Shabbir (1994)]. However, both these studies are based on twenty years old data set. 2 provides rich information on the above mentioned variables that were missing in the earlier household surveys. This study uses the data of PIHS to examine the returns to education by using Mincerian earning function and thus aims to fill the vacuum that, due to the lack of appropriate data, exists in the literature on returns to education in Pakistan. In this paper we will first estimate the earning function with continuous school years with the assumption of uniform rate of returns for all school years. It is argued that different school years impart different skills therefore we extend our analysis to examine the addition in earning associated with extra years of schooling at different levels of education, i. e. , how much increase in earnings takes place with an extra year of schooling at different levels, such as, primary, middle, matric, intermediate, bachelors and masters. By doing so we overcome the problem that exists in the available literature in Pakistan. To our knowledge no study has yet adopted this method to examine the returns to education in Pakistan3. The impact of technical training and school quality on the earnings of fixed salaried and wage earners will be examined in this study. Based on the available data in Pakistan, most of the studies, for example, Haque (1977), Hamdani (1977), Guisinger et al (1984), Khan and Irfan (1985), Ahmad, et al (1991); and Ashraf and Ashraf (1993a, 1993b, and 1996) estimated the earning functions by defining the dummy variables for different levels of education4. These studies observe low rates of returns at different levels of education as compared to other developing countries. However, a positive association between levels of education and earnings and an inverse relationship between the degree of income inequality and educational attainment has been noted. In order to examine the inter- 3 Most of the studies on returns to education in Pakistan used dummy variables for different levels of education where the rates of returns at different levels of education are computed by the estimated coefficients. 4 In Pakistan, the data on education in most of the nationally representative household surveys have been reported in discrete form that denotes the completion of different levels of education, such as, ‘primary but incomplete middle’, ‘middle and incomplete matric’, and so on. 3 provincial differentials in returns to education, Shabbir and Khan (1991) estimated the Mincerian earning function by using a nationally representative sample, drawn from the of Population, Labour Force and Migration Survey (1979) for the literate wage earners and salaried males. Later Shabbir (1994) estimated the earning function on the extended sample of the same data set. These studies found 7 to 8 percent increase in earnings with an additional year of schooling. Although the results are consistent with those of comparable LDCs but may not reflect the recent developments in Pakistan’s economy as these studies are based on the data set which are 20 years old now. Since 1979, the economy of Pakistan has passed through various changes, especially after the inception of the Structural Adjustment Programme in late 1980s. For example, the literacy rate has increased from 26 percent to 45 percent and enrolment at primary level has increased by 67 percent. Public and household expenditures on education have also increased [Economic Survey (1998-99)]. Moreover, due to the fiscal constraints, the employment opportunities in the public sector have started shrinking and the economy is moving towards more openness with stronger role of private sector in recent years. In this scenario, it becomes imperative to re-test the role of human capital as both private and public sectors are moving towards more efficiency and productivity. This study is important from three standpoints. First, in order to estimate the effect of education on earnings, the most recent and nationally representative household survey data is used which provides detailed information on the variables that were missing in previous surveys. Second, it uses the splines of education in the earning function to examine the additional earnings associated with extra school years at different levels. Third, this study investigates the role of some important factors such as, technical training, school quality, and literacy and numeracy skills on earnings for the first time. 4 The rest of the paper is organised as follows: section 2 presents an overview of the education sector. Section 3 outlines the model for empirical estimation and describes data. Section 4 reports the results. Conclusions and policy Implications are presented in the last Section. II. The Education Sector in Pakistan: An Overview: Education plays an important role in human capital formation. It raises the productivity and efficiency of individuals and thus produces skilled manpower that is capable of leading the economy towards the path of sustainable economic development. Like many other developing countries, the situation of the education sector in Pakistan is not very encouraging. The low enrolment rates at the primary level, wide disparities between regions and gender, lack of trained teachers, deficiency of proper teaching materials and poor physical infrastructure of schools indicate the poor performance of this sector. The overall literacy rate for 1997-98 was estimated at 40 percent; 51 percent for males and 28 percent for females; 60 percent in urban areas and 30 percent in rural areas. These rates are still among the lowest in the world. Due to various measures in recent years, the enrolment rates have increased considerably. However, the high drop-out rate could not be controlled at primary level. Moreover, under-utilisation of the existing educational infrastructure can be seen through low student-institution ratio, (almost 18 students per class per institution) low teacher-institution ratio (2 teachers per institution) and high studentteacher ratio (46 students per teacher). The extremely low levels of public investment are the major cause of the poor performance of Pakistan’s education sector. Public expenditure on education remained less than 2 percent of GNP before 1984-85. In recent years it has increased to 2. 2 percent. In addition, the allocation of government funds is skewed towards higher education so that the benefits of public subsidy on education are largely reaped by the upper income class. Many of the highly educated 5 go abroad either for higher education or in search of better job opportunities. Most of them do not return and cause a large public loss. After mid-1980s, each government announced special programs for the improvement of the education sector. However, due to the political instability, none of these programs could achieve their targets. The Social Action Program was launched in early 1990s to address the imbalances in the social sector. This program aims to enhance education; to improve school environment by providing trained teachers, teaching aids and quality text books; and to reduce gender and regional disparities. The Phase-I of SAP (1993-96) has been completed and Phase-II is in progress. The gains from the Phase-I are still debatable because the rise in enrolment ratio has not been confirmed by the independent sources. Irrespective of this outcome, government has started work on Phase-II of SAP. In this Phase, government is paying special attention to promote technical and vocational education, expanding higher education in public as well as in the private sector, enhancing computer literacy, promoting scientific education, and improving curriculum for schools and teachers training institutions in addition to promoting primary and secondary education. Due to low levels of educational attainment and lack of technical and vocational education, Pakistan’s labour market is dominated by less educated and unskilled manpower. A considerable rise in the number of educational institutions and enrolment after 1980s is not yet reflected in Pakistan’s labour market. This might be due to the fact that most of the bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes emphasise only on academic education without developing specific skills. The sluggish demand for the graduates of these programs in the job markets leads to unemployment among the educated and the job market remains dominated by the less educated. In this scenario, it becomes important to explore the role of education for the economic benefit of individuals. 6 III. Theoretical Model and Estimation Methodology: We start with the human capital model developed by Becker (1964) and Mincer (1974) where natural logarithm of monthly earnings are the linear function of completed school years, experience and its square. In mathematical form the equation can be written as: ln Wi = ? 0 + ? 1 EDU i + ? 2 EXPi + ? 3 ( EXPi ) 2 + Ui (1) where ln Wi stands for natural logarithm of monthly earnings, EDUi represents completed years of schooling, and EXPi is the labor market experience of ith individual. ?1 implies the marginal rate of return to schooling. A positive value of ? 2 and negative value of ? 3 reflects the concavity of the earning function with respect to experience. Ui is the error term, assumed to be normally and identically distributed. It has been argued in the literature that different school years impart different skills and hence affect earnings differently. Therefore, it is misleading to assume a uniform rate of return for all educational levels. Most of the previous studies used dummy variables to capture the effect of different levels of education. In order to examine the effect of school years at different levels of education, van der Gaag and Vijverberg (1989) divided the years of schooling according to the school systems of Cote d’ Ivore. Similarly Khandker (1990) also used years of primary, secondary and post-secondary schooling in wage function for Peru. Both studies found significant differences in returns to education at different levels of education. Following van der Gaag and Vijverberg (1989), we divide the school years into seven categories according to the education system of Pakistan. In Pakistan, the primary education consists of 5 years of schooling; middle requires 3 more years; and by completing 2 more years of schooling after middle, an individual obtains a secondary school certificate i. e. , Matric. After matric , i. e. , 10 years of schooling, students have a choice between technical and formal education. Technical education 7 can be obtained from technical institutions which award diploma after 3 years of education while the certificate of intermediate can be obtained after two years of formal education. After the completion of intermediate certificate, students can enter either in the professional colleges for four years or in non-professional bachelors degree program for two years in a college. Those who choose non-professional degree can pursue their studies in a university for masters for two more years. At this stage the graduates of professional and non-professional colleges complete 16 years of education. They can now proceed to the M. Phil. or Ph. D. degrees. In order to examine the returns to education at different splines of education, we estimate the following extended earning function. ln Wi = ? 0 + ? 1Yrs Pr imi + ? 2 YrsMid i + ? 3YrsMati + ? 4 YrsInteri + ? 5 YrsBAi + (2) ? 6 Yrs Pr of i + ? 7 EXPi + ? 8 ( EXPi ) 2 + Ui where YrsPrim, YrsMid, YrsMat YrsInter YrsBA YrsProf are defined as: YrsPrim = D5EDUi YrsMid = D8EDUi YrsMat = D10EDUi YrsInter = D12EDUi YrsBA = D14EDUi YrsProf = D16EDUi where D5 = 1 if where D8 = 1 if where D10 = 1 if where D12 = 1 if where D14 = 1 if where D16 = 1 if 0 EDU ? 5 5 EDU ? 8 8 EDU ? 10 10 EDU ? 12 12 EDU ? 14 EDU 14 The coefficients associated with YrsPrim, YrsMid, YrsMat YrsInter YrsBA YrsProf in equation 2 imply an increase in income with one year increase in education at respective levels. For example, the returns to five completed years of education at primary level will be 5*? 1. Similarly, the returns to for six, seven and eight of education will be 5*? 1+? 2, 5*? 1+2? 2, and 5*? 1+3? 2 respectively. On the same lines we can compute the returns to education at each level as: 8 Returns to Primary =5*? 1 Returns to Middle =5*? 1+3*? 2 Returns to Matric= 5*? 1+3*? 2+2*? 3 Returns to Intermediate=5*? 1+3*? 2+2*? 3 +2*? 4 Returns to Bachelor’s =5*? 1+3*? 2+2*? 3 +2*? 4 +2*? 5 Returns to MA/Prof=5*? 1+3*? 2+2*? 3 +2*? 4 +2*? 5 +2*? 6 The data are drawn from the nationally representative Pakistan Integrated Household Survey 1995-96. In order to assess the performance of the Social Action Programme (SAP), the government of Pakistan has launched the series of Pakistan Integrated Household Surveys (PIHS), a collaborative nation wide data collection effort undertaken by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS). So far two rounds have been completed. The first round of the PIHS is different from other round on two counts. Firstly, the information on employment and wages is available only in this round. Secondly, only 33 percent of the sample used in the first round is being repeated in the subsequent rounds. This implies that all of these rounds are independent cross-section data sets and can not be properly linked with each other to be used as panel data. Therefore, the appropriate sample can only be drawn from the first round of PIHS. This round was conducted in 1995-96, which covers 12,622 households and more than 84,000 individuals. The 1995-96 PIHS provides a detailed information on completed school years5. In addition, this survey contains information on age started school. This information is particularly important for our study to calculate the potential experience of a worker. The indicator for experience used by Mincer (1974) is a good proxy for U. S. workers as they start school at the uniform age of six years6. However, this assumption does not hold in Pakistan, as in this country there is no uniform age to start school. In urban areas, children as young as three years start going to school whereas in rural 5 This is the only nation-wide data set that provides this particular information. Similarly no other survey contains information on public and private school attendence and year starting school. 6 Mincer defined experience as (Age-education-6). 9 areas the school starting age is higher. 7 This information enables us to construct potential experience as (age-schools years-age starting school). Although experience is still a proxy for actual experience but it is relatively better measure than age and the Mincer type potential experience. In addition to education and experience, various other factors, such as quality of schooling, technical training and quality of schooling have significant impact on earning8. It has been argued that because of the market-oriented approach adopted by the private schools, the graduates of these schools earn more as compared to the graduates of public schools9. According to Sabot (1992), Behrman, Ross, Sabot and Tropp (1994), Alderman, Behrman, Ross and Sabot (1996a), Alderman, Behrman, Ross and Sabot (1996b), and Behrman, Khan, Ross and Sabot (1997), the quality of education has positive, significant and substantial impact on cognitive achievements and hence on post school productivity, measured by earnings. These studies observed higher earnings of the graduates of high quality school than those who attended a low quality school. A recent study by Nasir (1999) found considerably higher earnings for the private school graduates. These schools, however, charge higher fees. â€Å"Estimates of average annual expenditure per pupil in both government and private schools indicates that the total cost of primary level in rural areas is Rs. 437 (Rs 355 for government schools and Rs. 1252 for private schools), compared with Rs. 2038 in urban areas (Rs. 1315 for government and Rs. 3478 for private schools). This means that the cost of primary schooling is almost three times that of public schools in urban 7 The issue of age starting school has been highlighted by Ashraf and Ashraf (1993) and because of the nonavailability of this information, they used age as proxy for experience. 8 See Summers and Wolf (1977); Rizzuto and Wachtel (1980); Behrman and Birdsall (1983); Booissiere, Knight and Sabot (1985); Knight and Sabot (1990);Behrman, Ross, Sabot, and Tropp (1994); Behrman, Khan, Ross and Sabot (1997). 9 Various studies found the effectiveness of private schools to acquire cognitive skills [Colemen, Hoffer and Kilgore (1982); and Jimenez, Lockheed, Luna and Paqueo (1989)]. For Pakistan, Sabot (1992), Behrman, Ross, Sabot and Tropp (1994), Alderman, Behrman, Ross and Sabot (1996a), Alderman, Behrman, Ross and Sabot (1996b), and Behrman, Khan, Ross and Sabot (1997) found a significant variation in the cognitive skills among children with same number of school years. These studies conclude that some of the differences are due to the family characteristics while some are due to the quality of schooling. 10. areas and nearly four times in rural areas. The differences in cost of schooling also reflect the degree of quality differentials in public and private schools, and between urban and rural schools. A relatively better provision of school facilities and quality of education in private schools is causing a continuous rise in school enrolment in urban areas† [Mehmood (1999) page 20]. The PIHS provides information on the type of school attended10. On the basis of this information we can identify workers according to the school they attended and therefore examine the effect of type of school on individual earnings. In order to capture the quality of education an individual received, a dummy variable is included in the model that takes the value ‘1’ if individual is a graduate of private schools and ‘0’ otherwise. The effect of post-school training on earning has been found positive and substantial in many developing countries [see Jimenez and Kugler (1987); van der Gaag and Vijverberg (1989); Khandker (1990); and Nasir (1999)]. The PIHS contains information on years of technical training. This information helps us to examine the effect of technical training received on individual earnings. We use completed years of technical training as independent variable in the earning function. The existence of vast gender gap in human capital accumulation is evidenced by various studies in Pakistan11. The PIHS reports vast gender disparities in literacy and enrolment rates. The literacy rate among females is half than that of males’ literacy rate for whole Pakistan. This difference has increased to three-folds for rural areas. The gender difference is however smaller for the gross enrolment rate at primary level. For the higher levels of education, this difference 10. The coefficient of private school may also capture the effect of socio-economic background of workers. The data, however, does not contain such information, therefore we are unable to separate the effect of parental characteristics from the effect of private schools in worker’s earnings. 11 Sabot (1992); and Alderman, Behrman, Ross and Sabot (1996b); Sawada (1997); Shabbir (1993); and Ashraf and Ashraf (1993a, 1993b, and 1996) 11 shows an increasing trend. Similarly vast gender gap has been observed in returns to education where males earn more than the female workers [Ashraf and Ashraf (1993a, 1993b and 1996) and Nasir (1999)]. In order to capture the effect of gender, a dummy variable is introduced in the model that takes the value ‘1’ for males and ‘0’ otherwise. The regional imbalances in the provision of limited available social services are more pronounced in Pakistan. Rural areas are not only underdeveloped in terms of physical infrastructure but also neglected in gaining basic amenities. Haq (1997) calculated the disaggregated human development index for Pakistan and its provinces. He noted that nearly 56 percent of population is deprived of basic amenities of life in Pakistan; 58 percent in rural areas and 48 percent in urban areas. According to the 1995-96 PIHS, the literacy rate in urban areas is 57 percent and in rural areas it is 31 percent. The gross enrolment rate was noted 92 percent in urban areas and 68 percent in rural areas. Because of these differences low returns to education are observed in rural areas [Shabbir (1993 and 1994) and Nasir (1999)]. To capture the effect of regional differences, a dummy variable is used that takes the value ‘1’ if individual lives in urban areas and zero otherwise. The four provinces of Pakistan exhibit different characteristics in terms of economic as well as social and cultural values. Significant provincial differentials in rates of returns to education have been noted that reflect not only the differences in market opportunities but also indicate uneven expansion of social services across provinces [Khan and Irfan (1985); Shabbir and Khan (1991); Shabbir (1993); Shabbir (1994); and Haq (1997)]. The effects of these differences are captured through the use of dummy variables for each province in the earning function, Sindh being the excluded category. 12 For the purpose of analysis we restrict our sample to wage earners and salaried persons. Our sample contains 4828 individuals. Among them, 4375 are males and 453 are females. Table 1 presents the descriptive statistics of some of the salient features of the important variables. According to the statistics in table 1, average age of the individuals included in the sample is 34 years with 18 years of experience. A typical worker in the sample has completed approximately 10 years of education. A majority is graduated from public schools. Most of the workers live in urban areas. On average an individual earns Rs. 3163 per month. In our sample, there are only 22 percent individuals who received technical training. The average years spent for training are less than one year. A majority of wage earners belong to Punjab, followed by Sindh and Balochistan. Table1 Mean, Standard Deviation and Brief Definitions of Important Variables Variables W Age EDU EXP RWA MALE Urban Private Training Punjab Sindh NWFP Balochistan Mean SD Variables Definitions 3163. 34 3397. 39 Individuals monthly earnings in rupees consist of wages and salaries. 34. 07 12. 36 Age of an individual in years. 9. 53 4. 36 Completed years of schooling. 18. 14 11. 80 Total Years of labour market experience calculated as (age-school years-age starting school). 2. 37 1. 07 Categorical variables, contains 4 categories of literacy and numeracy. 0. 91 0. 29 Dichotomous variable equal to 1 if individual is male. 0. 60 0. 49 Dichotomous variable equal to 1 if individual belongs to urban area 0. 04 0. 19 Dichotomous variable equal to 1 if individual is a graduate of private school 0. 35 0. 87 Completed years of technical training 0. 38 0. 49 Dichotomous variable equal to 1 if individual belongs to Punjab 0. 31 0. 46 Dichotomous variable equal to 1 if individual belongs to Sindh 0. 15 0. 36 Dichotomous variable equal to 1 if individual belongs to NWFP 0. 16 0. 36 Dichotomous variable equal to 1 if individual belongs to Balochistan 13 IV. Empirical Results The estimated results of equation 1 and equation 2 are reported in table 2. The highly significant coefficients of school years and experience indicate the applicability of human capital model for Pakistan. An additional year of schooling raises individual’s monthly income by 7. 3 percent, which is very close to the prior studies. 12 13 The coefficient of experience shows substantial increase in wages with each additional year. The concavity of age-earnings profile is evident from the negative and significant coefficient of experience squared. The results reveal that an individual with five years of experience earns 31 percent higher wages as compared to non-experience worker. The highest level of earnings is achieved with approximately 30 years of experience. These estimates are relatively low compared to prior studies14. The positive and significant coefficients of gender (0. 401) and regional dummies (0. 178) strengthens the a priori expectation that males earn more than females and earnings are higher in urban areas as compared to rural areas. These estimates are consistent with earlier studies [see Arshaf and Ashraf (1993), Khan and Irfan (1985)]. Furthermore, significant inter-provincial differences in individual’s earnings can be observed in the estimated model. Many studies indicate substantial differences in earnings across school levels. For example, van der Gaag and Vijverberg (1989) noted that an increase of one year in elementary, high and university education causes an increase of 12 percent, 20 percent and 22 percent respectively in 12 The estimated coefficients of school years by Shabbir and Khan (1991), Shabbir (1991), Shabbir (1993) and Shabbir (1994) are found to be in the range of 6 percent to 9. 7 percent. 13 The returns to education are calculated by taking the anti-log of 0. 092 (estimated coefficient of completed school years) and subtracting from 1. To convert into percentage, multiply the value by 100. For details, please see Gujrati (1988) page 149. 14 The difference in the returns to experience could be due to the approach adopted by these studies. Most of the studies used age as a proxy for experience [see for example Khan and Irfan (1985); Ashraf and Ashraf (1993); and Nasir (1999)]. Shabbir (1991) used the Mincerian approach to calculate experience. The present study uses actual age of starting school and actual years of education. These information enable us to calculate total years of labor market experience. This approach is also not the perfect alternative for actual experience, as we do not have information about the starting time of the first job. But when compared with other approaches, it is more precise in measuring experience. 14 earnings. In order to examine the returns to education across different school years, we include the information on schooling according to the education system of Pakistan (equation 2). The results reported in column 3 of table 2 show a positive and significant impact of school years at each educational level on earnings. For example, an increase of one year in education at primary level increases the earnings by 3 percent. Similarly, at middle level, one year of schooling brings about an increase of 4 percent in earnings and the total returns to schooling at middle level are 27 percent. Table 2 Earning Function with and without Levels of Education Variables Coefficient s 6. 122 0. 072* 0. 058* -0. 001* 0. 178* 0. 401* 0. 127* -0. 113* -0. 203* 0. 412 t-ratios Coefficient s 6. 380 0. 058* -0. 001* 0. 150* 0. 264* 0. 098* -0. 112* -0. 166* 0. 027** 0. 040* 0. 050* 0. 057* 0. 071* 0. 082* 0. 429 t-ratios Coefficient s 6. 342 0. 058* -0. 001* 0. 152* 0. 262* 0. 096* -0. 108* -0. 164* 0. 052* 0. 007 0. 025* 0. 038* 0. 047* 0. 063* 0. 075* 0. 429 t-ratios Constant EDU EXP EXP2 Urban Male Balochistan NWFP Punjab RWA Yrs-Prim Yrs-Mid Yrs-Mat Yrs-Inter Yrs-BA Yrs-Prof Adj R2 148. 91 46. 71 26. 49 -19. 20 10. 31 13. 98 4. 94 -4. 34 -10. 21 92. 03 23. 85 -16. 84 7. 87 8. 15 3. 40 -4. 06 -7. 75 2. 03 5. 07 8. 69 11. 41 16. 85 21. 98 89. 25 23. 84 -16. 88 7. 98 8. 09 3. 32 -3. 91 -7. 63 2. 41 0. 45 2. 45 5. 02 7. 28 11. 47 15. 57 * significant at 99 percent level. ** significant at 95 percent level. One can note higher returns of additional year of schooling for higher educational levels from this table. For example, the returns to masters and professional education (Yrs-Prof) are more than five- 15 times higher than that of primary school years (Yrs-Prim). The results exhibit a difference of 15 percent between primary graduates and illiterates, the excluded category. This category includes illiterates as well as all those who have not obtained any formal schooling but have literacy and numeracy skills15. To further explore the earning differential between primary school graduates and those who never attended school but have literacy and numeracy skills, we have constructed an index RWA that separates illiterates from those who have literacy and numeracy skills. This index takes the value ‘zero’ if individual does not have any skill; ‘1’ if individual has only one skill; ‘2’ if individual has two skills; and ‘3’ if individual has all three skills. We re-estimated equation 2 with this new variable and the results are reported in column 5 of table 2. According to our expectations, the coefficient of RWA is found not only large (0. 05) in magnitude but also statistically significant at 99 percent level. This indicates that the individuals with all three skills earn 15 percent more than those who have no skill. On the other hand, the coefficient of Yrs-Prim dropped to 0. 007 and became insignificant16. The differential in the earnings of illiterates and those having five years of primary education was 15 percent (0. 03*5=0. 15). This differential however, reduced to approximately 9 percent (0. 007*5+0. 053=8. 8) when we include those who have no formal education but have literacy and numeracy skills. These high returns to cognitive skills indicates the willingness of employer to pay higher wages to the able workers as compared to those who have five or less years of schooling but do not have these skills. Now we examine the effect of technical training and quality of schooling on earnings, first in separate equations and then in a single equation. The impact of technical training on earnings is examined by including years of apprenticeship as continuous variable in our model. The results are reported in column 1 of table 3. The results show a positive and significant impact of technical 15 There are 48 wage earners in our sample who have education less than primary but do not have any of these skill. Whereas we found 76 wage earners who do not have any formal education but have at least one of these skills. 16 This result is consistent with van der Gaag and Vijierberg (1989). 16 Table 3 Earning Functions : Impact of Technical Training and School Quality (Separate Functions) Variables Constant EDU EXP EXP2 Urban Male Balochistan NWFP Punjab Train.

Direct Hydration Reacts Propene And Water Environmental Sciences Essay

Direct Hydration Reacts Propene And Water Environmental Sciences Essay Being a secondary alcohol, isopropyl alcohol can be oxidized to acetone, which is the corresponding ketone. This can be achieved using oxidizing agents such as chromic acid, or by dehydrogenation of isopropyl alcohol over a heated copper catalyst: (CH3)2CHOH ? (CH3)2CO + H2 Isopropyl alcohol is often used as both solvent and hydride source in the Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley reduction and other transfer hydrogenation reactions; it is oxidized to acetone. Isopropyl alcohol may be converted to 2-bromopropane using phosphorus tribromide, or dehydrated to propene by heating with sulfuric acid. Like most alcohols, isopropyl alcohol reacts with active metals such as potassium to form alkoxides which can be called isopropoxides. The reaction with aluminium (initiated by a trace of mercury) is used to prepare the catalyst aluminium isopropoxide.[3] Isopropanol becomes increasingly viscous with decreasing temperature. At temperatures below -70C isopropanol resembles maple syrup in viscosity. [edit]Production In 1994, 1.5 million tonnes of isopropyl alcohol was produced in the United States, Europe, and Japan.[4] This compound is primarily produced by combining water and propene in a hydration reaction. Of minor significance is the hydrogenation of acetone.[4][5] There are two routes for the hydration process: indirect hydration via the sulfuric acid process, and direct hydration. The former process, which can use low-quality propene, predominates in the USA while the latter process, which requires high-purity propene, is more commonly used in Europe. These processes give predominantly isopropyl alcohol rather than 1-propanol because the addition of water or sulfuric acid to propene follows Markovnikovs rule. Indirect hydration The indirect process reacts propene with sulfuric acid to form a mixture of sulfate esters. Subsequent hydrolysis of these esters by steam produces isopropyl alcohol, which is distilled. Diisopropyl ether is a significant by-product of this process; it is recycled back to the process and hydrolyzed to give the desired product.[4] Direct hydration Direct hydration reacts propene and water, either in gas or liquid phases, at high pressures in the presence of solid or supported acidic catalysts. Higher purity propylene (> 90 %) tends to be required for this type of process.[4] Both processes require that the isopropyl alcohol be separated from water and other by-products by distillation. Isopropyl alcohol and water form an azeotrope and simple distillation gives a material which is 87.9% by weight isopropyl alcohol and 12.1% by weight water.[6] Pure (anhydrous) isopropyl alcohol is made by azeotropic distillation of the wet isopropyl alcohol using either diisopropyl ether or cyclohexane as azeotroping agents.[4] Hydrogenation of acetone Crude acetone is hydrogenated in the liquid phase over Raney nickel or a mixture of copper and chromium oxide to give isopropyl alcohol. This process is useful when coupled with excess acetone production, such as the cumene process.[4] [edit]Uses In 1990, 45 thousand tonnes of isopropyl alcohol were used in the United States. The vast majority of isopropyl alcohol was used as a solvent for coatings or for industrial processes. Isopropyl alcohol in particular is popular for pharmaceutical applications,[4] presumably due to the low toxicity of any residues. Some isopropyl alcohol is used as a chemical intermediate. Isopropyl alcohol may be converted to acetone, but the cumene process is more significant. In that year, a significant fraction (5.4 tonnes) was consumed for household use and in personal care products. It is also used as a gasoline additive.[4] [edit]Solvent Isopropyl alcohol dissolves a wide range of non-polar compounds. It also evaporates quickly and is relatively non-toxic, compared to alternative solvents. Thus it is used widely as a solvent and as a cleaning fluid, especially for dissolving oils. Examples of this application include cleaning electronic devices such as contact pins (like those on ROM cartridges), magnetic tape and disk heads (such as those in audio and video tape recorders and floppy disk drives), the lenses of lasers in optical disc drives (e.g. CD, DVD) and removing thermal paste from heatsinks and IC packages (such as CPUs.[7]) Isopropyl alcohol is used in keyboard, LCD and laptop cleaning, is sold commercially as a whiteboard cleaner, and is a strong but safer alternative to common household cleaning products. It is used to clean LCD and glass computer monitor screens (at some risk to the anti-reflection coating on some screens[citation needed]), and used to give second-hand or worn non-vinyl phonograph records newer-looking sheen. Isopropyl alcohol should not be used to clean vinyl records as it may leach plasticizer from the vinyl making it more rigid[citation needed]. It is effective at removing residual glue from some sticky labels although some other adhesives used on tapes and paper labels are resistant to it. It can also be used to remove stains from most fabrics, wood, cotton, etc. In addition it can also be used to clean paintballs or other oil based products so that they may be reused, commonly known as repainting. It is used as a wetting agent in the fountain solution used in lithographic printing, and often used as a solvent for French polishing shellac used in cabinet making. [edit]Intermediate Isopropyl alcohol is esterified to give isopropyl acetate, another solvent. It reacts with carbon disulfide to give sodium isopropylxanthate, a weed killer. Isopropyl alcohol reacts with titanium tetrachloride and aluminium metal to give titanium and aluminium isopropoxides respectively, the former a catalyst, and the latter a chemical reagent.[4] This compound may serve as a chemical reagent in itself, by acting as a dihydrogen donor in transfer hydrogenation. [edit]Medical Disinfecting pads typically contain a 60ÃÆ' ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½70% solution of isopropyl alcohol in water. A 75 % v/v solution in water may be used as a hand sanitizer.[8] Isopropyl alcohol is used as a water-drying aid for the prevention of otitis externa, better known as swimmers ear.[9] [edit]Automotive Isopropyl alcohol is a major ingredient in gas dryer fuel additives. In significant quantities, water is a problem in fuel tanks, as it separates from the gasoline, and can freeze in the supply lines at cold temperatures. It does not remove water from gasoline; rather, the alcohol solubilizes water in gasoline. Once soluble, water does not pose the same risk as insoluble water as it will no longer accumulate in the supply lines and freeze. Isopropyl alcohol is often sold in aerosol cans as a windscreen de-icer. Isopropyl alcohol is also used to remove brake fluid traces from hydraulic braking systems, so that the brake fluid (usually DOT 3, DOT 4 or mineral oil) does not contaminate the brake pads, which would result in poor braking. [edit]Laboratory As a biological specimen preservative, isopropyl alcohol provides a comparatively non-toxic alternative to formaldehyde and other synthetic preservatives. Isopropyl alcohol solutions of 90ÃÆ' ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½99% are used to preserve specimens. Isopropyl alcohol is often used in DNA extraction. It is added to a DNA solution in order to precipitate the DNA into a pellet after centrifuging the DNA. This is possible because DNA is insoluble in isopropyl alcohol. [edit]Safety Isopropyl alcohol vapor is denser than air and is highly flammable with a very wide combustible range. It should be kept away from heat and open flame. When mixed with air or other oxidizers it can explode through deflagration.[10] Isopropyl alcohol has also been reported to form explosive peroxides.[10][11] Like many organic solvents, long term application to the skin can cause defatting.[12] [edit]Toxicology Isopropyl alcohol and its metabolite, acetone, act as central nervous system (CNS) depressants. Symptoms of isopropyl alcohol poisoning include flushing, headache, dizziness, CNS depression, nausea, vomiting, anesthesia, and coma. Poisoning can occur from ingestion, inhalation, or absorption; therefore, well-ventilated areas and protective gloves are recommended. Around 15 g of isopropyl alcohol can have a toxic effect on a 70 kg human if left untreated.[13] However, it is not nearly as toxic as methanol or ethylene glycol. Isopropyl alcohol does not cause an anion gap acidosis (in which as lowered blood serum pH causes depletion of bicarbonate anion) unlike ethanol and methanol. Isopropyl alcohol does however, produce an osmolal gap between the calculated and measured osmolalities of serum, as do the other alcohols. Overdoses may cause a fruity odor on the breath as a result of its metabolism to acetone, which is further metabolized to produce the nutrients acetate and glucose.[14] Isopropyl alcohol is oxidized to form acetone by alcohol dehydrogenase in the liver.

Matigari by Ngũgĩ wa Thiongo | Summary and Analysis

Matigari by NgÃ… ©gÄ © wa Thiongo | Summary and Analysis Matigari is novel written by one of the most famous east African writer NgÃ… ©gÄ © wa Thiongo. The novel Matigari was first written and published in Kikuyu in 1986, which was later translated and published in English in the year 1987. NgÃ… ©gÄ © wa Thiongo, wrote Matigari in Kikuyu so that the messages within the novel can reach the masses of Africa (the poor). According to F.Odun Balogun, Ngugi states that African literature in foreign languages is inaccessible to the vast majority of the African population (Balogun 129). He even renounced his Christian name James and English language and began writing in his native language Kikuyu and Swahili because English to him is a colonial language which undermines the colonized. The novel Matigari takes on the oral form where the narrator can be seen as telling a story to his readers or listeners. For an example the novel starts with a note to readers or listeners Once upon a time, in a country with no name ( Ngugi wa Thiongo ix). However , Matigari oral tradition does not serve, as in the past, but rather is served by the Western novelistic tradition ( Balogun 131). Some of the main issues confronted by Ngugi wa Thiongo in the novel are oppression, colonization, decolonization and neo-colonization. Furthermore it is also about Matigari, the protagonist of the novel in search of truth and justice in his land where the people(masses) are oppressed by their own countrymen who held power( bourgeoisie), a form of neocolonialism. According to Ngugi wa Thiongo, there are only two types of people in the [Kenyan] land-patriots and the oppressors ( Nyame. JR 128). It is clear that this statement is significant because there are patriots and the oppressors in the novel Matigari. Patriots are represented by characters such as Matigari ma Njiruungi, the patriots who survived the bullets( Ngugi wa Thiongo 20), Guthera, Muriuki and Ngaruro wa Kiriro. The patriots love their country and strive for its freedom from the oppressors. They are willing to give up their lives for their beloved land. This is a special announcement. This is a special announcement. The police have shot one of the escaped madmen. He has been identified as Ngaruro wa Kiriro (Ngugi wa Thiongo 135). In the novel Matigari, the patriots firstly fought against the white colonialist (oppressors) who colonized and dominated Africa. The colonizers ill treated the colonized as if they were the other who are looked upon as uncivilized and needed to be con trolled. Much of the narrative of the novel centers on the exploitative relations between the colonizers and the Kenyans, for whom Matigari is a representative( Nyame. JR 129 ).Furthermore these colonizers reaped all the resources of Africa for their own benefits and left the masses to dwell in poverty. For an example, You see I built the house with my own hands. But Settler Williams slept in it and I would sleep outside the veranda. I tended the estates that spread around the house for miles. But it was Settler Williams who took home the harvest.I worked all the machines and in all the industries, but it was settler Williams who would take the profits to the bank and I would end up with the cent that he flung my way I produced everything on the farm with my own labour. But all the gains went to Settler Williams (Ngugi wa Thiongo 21). The protagonist, Matigari ma Njiruungi is a patriot who went to the forest to oppose the colonialists and fight for freedom of his land. He had spend many years in the forests and mountains to hunt down the oppressors so that he could liberate his country and countrymen. Matigaris character represents everyone who toiled under the colonialists and fought in the war of independence (Loflin 90). Armed with his AK47 and other weapons, Matigari spent many years hunting down colonialist Settler Williams and John Boy(Settlers servant). After his victory, he reemerges from the forest to reclaim what was his, especially his house. Matigari felt freedom and liberation was achieved by his country and people from the white settlers. Our main protagonist Matigari even buries his weapons under the mugumo fig tree and girdles himself with a belt of peace believing that full independence was attained from the oppressors. To his utter dismay, though they may have gained independence from the coloni alists, now they are being ruled by African themselves ( bourgeoisie imperialist) who treat their own people badly. Matigari attempts to challenge the new type (neo-colonialism) of oppression peacefully, but failed. He searched for days for truth and justice; but had to succumb to defeat for there is none under the African exploitative regime. For example, He approaches a student, a teacher, and a priest ; all fail abysmally. Their denial of Matigari condemns them as irresolute and complicit with the oppression (Gurnah 171). Finally he resorts to arms and trampled his belt of peace because he realized that justice for the oppressed comes from a sharpened spear (Ngugi wa Thiongo 131). The prototypical revolutionary hero, Matigari, must ultimately abandon his attempts to challenge the current system peacefully(Williams 60). Matigari had to take up arms in order to get back his house again, but now against The Minister of Truth and justice , John Boy JR who are the oppressive elite Af ricans. Guthera and Miuruki are also patriots in the novel Matigari. However they were transitioned from being the oppressed to become patriots with the influence of Matigari ma Njiruungi. Both of them played important roles in helping Matigari to make sure that John Boy JR, will never sleep in my house again (157). Guthera for example, lets go of her eleventh commandment never open my legs for any policemen, these traitors no matter how much they are prepared to pay for the favors( Ngugi wa Thiongo 37) in order to save Matigari from the policemen. This proves that she wants to safe a patriot who is in the path of justice, truth, right and yearns goodness for the country and its people. Furthermore through her narratives we came to know that her father( a Church Elder) was a patriot as well who was arrested and killed for he would not support the oppressors. Guthera was ready to die by going against the traitors and the oppressors with Matigari. She wants to be the vanguard and never wants to get left behind. Guthera states One can die once, and it is better to die in the pursuit of what is right (Ngugi wa Thiongo 139). Thus it is clear in the novel that Guthera too a patriot following the footsteps of Matigari ma Nijuungi. Muriuki is an orphan who lives in the children village(scrapyard) and survived by scavenging rubbish after paying entrance fee. He called an old Mercedes Benz at the scrapyard his house . Muriuki was not the only one,for there were many children parents-less and poor due to the new ruling system after independence which cared less. Muriuki like Guthera joined Matigaris quest in the battle against these oppressing bourgeoisie Africans. It is a world in which the bourgeoisie act criminally within the law (Indangasi 194). Muriuki may have not been under the oppression of the colonizers but he is under the injustices of neocolonialism within Africa. He understands that his land is in absence of justice and Matigari was willing to get it back for them. So Muriuki joins him and becomes a patriot himself. He even called himself and his fellow Children of the village as , Yes. We are the the children of Matigari ma Njiruungi, we are the children of the patriots of the patriots who survived the war (Ngugi wa Thiongo 139). He aided in Matigaris mission by providing him shelter at children village from the policemen and accompanied him alongside with Guthera . At the end of the novel Muriuki was portrayed as picking up Matigaris weapons from the mugumo tree and strapping them to himself . This then establish an understanding that Muriuki will continue Matigaris fight and mission for freedom as a patriot for his beloved country from the heartless oppressors. Hence, even though Matigari and Guthera were never stated as survived or dead in end of the novel,through Muriuki, Matigari ma Njiruungi remains undefeated (Loflin 90). Ngaruro wa Kiriro a factory worker was also classified as a patriot in the novel Matigari. In the first few pages of the novel, we can see that Ngaruro was involved in a strike outside the factory. This is because the workers were not being paid appropriately and were being unjustly treated .Ngaruro, was not afraid to ask for justice. According to the Minister of Truth and Justice, Ngaruro was the first to stood up in public and oppose the presidential decree after the independence. For that he was sent to the mental hospital with Matigari. However before he was taken away, Nagruro shouted bravely ,you may arrest me , but the workers will never stop demanding their rights (Ngugi wa Thiongo 123). Sadly he was killed by the policemen for resisting the power abusing ruling party Kiama Kiria Kirathana(KKK). According to Ngugi wa Thiongo, there are only two types of people in the [Kenyan] land-patriots and the oppressors ( Nyame. JR 128). In the novel Matigari there are two types of oppressors. The first oppressor would be the white colonialist like Settler Williams. The second oppressor in the he novel would be the elite African themselves who misuse power and oppress the poor people. For example, John Boy JR, The Minister for Justice and Truth, His Excellency Ole Excellence and the ruling party KKK who are sell-outs, traitors, parasites, enemies, ogres, and even dogs' (Idangasi 194). The mass of Africa felt that they were out from the frying pan into the fire. Lives and standard of living of the people in the novel after independence did not get better but deteriorated. Children living in old cars, women are prostituting themselves , unjust at working place and corruption within the police enforcements are some of the examples portrayed in the novel. If a person were to question thes e abuses, The Minister for Truth and Justice himself sends the questioner to jail or mental asylum. The establishment of Parratology and newspaper Daily Parratology, were ways to keep the masses under control by the neo-colonial power as well. People who subdue and abide to their unjust laws were called Loyalists (Ngugi wa Thiongo 103). These oppressors having the black skin but white masks behaved like they were the colonialists and ill treated their own people. Sadly after fighting against the colonialists, now Matigari has to continue battling against the neo-colonial power. Having fought against colonial rule, he returns to discover that injustice still exists, albeit in a slightly different form that reflects changed circumstances of neo-colonial society. Settler Williams and his servant John Boy, whom Matigari had fought to death in the forest, have been replaced by their sons, now partners in reaping-what-theydid-not-sow (Gurnah 170). The white colonialist had given a few people(elite) like John By colonial education. Furthermore he was brought up to see his own people through the lenses of the colonialists. Now, this education which instills ideology of the colonizers was given by the oppressors for their own benefits. The elite Africans ,to white colonizers are still collaborating servants , and not much difference from the masses. Through this colonial education, the colonialists retained power over the colonialized land. African leaders is itself a product of a discursive formation and ideological construct specific to the project of mental and psychological colonization of Africans perpetrated by colonialist ideology (Nyame JR 134). Therefore,in the novel Matigari Ngugi states that though liberation was achieved by the Africans from the colonizers , their minds were not decolonized. Ideology of the oppressors still lingers within the leaders and it creates more subordination, poverty, oppression to the Afric an society.According to Ngugi and Maya Jaggi, What is needed is for us in Africa and the Third World to become as conscious of neo-colonial arrangements and their economic, political and cultural implications, and to be horrified by them with the same force, determination and sincerity, as we were vis-al-vis colonialism(Ngugi wa Thiongo and Maya Jaggi 246). For example in the novel, Africans have this strong sense of communal bonds and in the novel Matigari calls almost everyone his child. However, John Boy JR prefers the individual over the term masses because it is primitive. The change of thought within John Boy JR are brought about by colonizers. Our country has remained in the darkness because of the ignorance of our people. They don;t know the importance of the word individual, as opposed to the word masses. White people are advanced because they respect the word and therefore honor the freedom of the individual, which means freedom of everyone to follow his own whims without worrying about others (Ngugi wa Thiongo 48). Thus, the dream of Matigari and others that someday John Boy JR will be the future patriot was dashed. These elite Africans become the neo-colonisers and imperialists , who continue the oppression taught by the settlers. In conclusion, the statement there are only two types of people in the [Kenyan] land-patriots and the oppressors ( Nyame. JR 128) is relevant for the main characters within the novel Matigari are the patriots and the oppressors. However, one must not forget that there are the oppressed Africans depicted in the novel as well represented by the student, teacher and priest who would rather be complacent than fight for truth and justice. They are scared to voice out their opinions for fear of trouble. So they rather ignore and deny Matigari rather than joining him in the battle for freedom and decolonization. Work Cited Indangasi, Henry. Ngugis Ideal Reader and the Postcolonial Reality. The Yearbook of English Studies 27 (1997): 193-200. Web. 3 Mar. 2011. . Loflin, Christine. NgÃ… ©Ã„ ©gÄ © wa Thiongos Visions of Africa. JSTOR 26.4 (1995): 1-19. Web. 3 Mar. 2011. . Ngugi wa Thiongo, . Matigari. Bostwana: Heinemann Kenya Ltd, 1987. N. pag. Print. Ngugi wa, Thiongo, and Maya Jaggi. Matigari as Myth and History: An Interview. Third World Quarterly 11.4 (1989): 241-51. Web. 3 Mar. 2011. . Nyame JR, Kwado Osei. Ngugi wa Thiongos Matigari: and the Politics of Decolonization. A Review of International English Literature 30.3 July (1999): 127-40. Print. Williams, Katherine. Decolonizing the Word: Language, Culture, and Self in the Works of NgÃ… ©Ã„ ©gÄ ©wa Thiongo and Gabriel Okara. Research in African Literatures 22.4 (1991): 53-61. Web. 3 Mar. 2011. .

Segregation and Civil Rights Essay -- Black Civil Rights in America

The definition of the term â€Å"American character†, in general, was in fact plagued during the 1950s. Instead of the believable â€Å"picture perfect† definition that American character was portrayed to be, it was really constructed of major struggles between different races. In particular, the significant struggles between blacks and whites. The 1950s was a crucial decade of change for African Americans. The results of the battle for nine African American children to attend Central High School (Little Rock, Arkansas) in 1957 promoted social advance for the permanent desegregation of public school systems. However, even with this nationally recognized social advance, the concept of â€Å"American character† varied between blacks and whites due to racial and social inequality. Back in 1896, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that racial discrimination was constitutional. This decision gave the states permission to segregate citizens by race and to operate â€Å"separate but equal† facilities all around. Terrence Roberts, in his novel Lessons from Little Rock, shares his first-hand experience of neglect from society. Roberts states, â€Å"As a black person, I had no legal right to assume that I could participate fully in civic, educational, economic, political, or social affairs† (Roberts 19). Whites lived in great satisfactory after this decision. They remained the group with the upmost authority and continued to mistreat blacks at any cost, including denying them the right to an equal quality of education. Their definition of American character, being the wealthiest and the smartest, was still acknowledged as the existence of African Americans became more and more surreal. In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Boa... ... Kirp, David L. Political Science and Politics, Retreat into Legalism: The Little Rock School Desegregation Case in Historic Perspective Vol. 30, No. 3 (Sep., 1997), pp. 443-447 Published by: American Political Science Association. (http://www.jstor.org/stable/420120) Lawson, Steven F. and Payne, Charles. ""Mob Rule Cannot Be Allowed to Override the Decisions of Our Courts": President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1957 Address on Little Rock, Arkansas." History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web. Lanham, Maryland: Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1998. Web. . Reumann, Miriam G. American Sexual Character: Sex, Gender, and National Identity in the Kinsey Reports. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2005. Roberts, Terrence J. Lessons from Little Rock. Little Rock, AR: Butler Center, 2009. Print

Emily Bronte and Wuthering Heights Essay -- Wuthering Heights Essays

Emily Bronte and Wuthering Heights        Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Emily Bronte wrote only one novel in her life. Wuthering Heights written under her pen name, Ellis Bell, was published in 1847. Although, Wuthering Heights is said to be the most imaginative and poetic of all the Bronte's novels, Emily's book was not as popular as her older sister, Charlotte's, new release, Jane Eyre ("Bronte Sisters" 408). In looking at Bronte's writings, the major influences were her family, her isolation growing up, and her school experiences.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and their brother Branwell lived with their father, the Reverend Patrick Bronte, in a parsonage high above the village at Haworth in Yorkshire, England ("Bronte Sisters" 408). The parsonage was amongst the largest houses in Haworth, though in comparison with the homes of clergymen in more affluent areas of Britain, it would have been considered small (www.bronte.org.uk). Patrick Bronte entered the church because it was the one career that offered to lift him out of his poor and Irish background. He was born in a cottage at Emdale, County Down, on the 17th of March in 1777. As a teacher in a boy's school at Glascar, as a tutor in a private family, and as teacher in the parish school at Drumballyroney, he made the grade and got a scholarship to St. John's College, Cambridge, in October 1802 (Scott-Kilvert 105). Years later, with the crisis provoked by the Luddite riots (1811-1812)- in which the role of the clergy in industrial districts became one of an active peacekeeping force- Patrick was among the first, and the few, to carry pistols in defense of his parishioners' property. Over the remaining fifty years of his life, he primed his pistols daily, di... ...ters. 1982 ed. "Bronte." Collier's Encyclopedia. 1996 ed. Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. United States of America; Barnes & Noble Inc., 2009. "The Brontes." http://www.bronte.org.uk/brontes/victorian.asp. 23 Jan 2014. "Bronte Sisters." The New Book of Knowledge. 2012 ed. "An Emily Bronte Chronology." http://lang.nagoy-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/Bronte-Emily-chro.html. 23 Jan 2014. "Emily Bronte." The McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2003 ed. "Emily Jane Bronte." http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/1380/emily.html. 23 Jan 2014. Gà ©rin, Winifred. â€Å"The Brontà «s.† British Writers, Vol. V. Ed. Ian Scott-Kilvert. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1982. Print. "History of Emily's Life." http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/4396/history.html. 23 Jan 2014. "Wuthering Heights." Cyclopedia of Literary Characters. 2008 ed.