Republic of India

India, officially the Republic of India (Bharat Ganrajya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country with over 1. 2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south-west, and the Bay of Bengal on the south-east, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;[d] China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Burma and Bangladesh to the east.In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; in addition, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia. Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history.Four world religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism—originated here, whereas Judaism, Zoroast rianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived in the 1st millennium CE and also helped shape the region's diverse culture. Gradually annexed by and brought under the administration of the British East India Company from the early 18th century and administered directly by the United Kingdom from the mid-19th century, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi.Rabindranath Tagore is Asia's first Nobel laureate and composer of India's national anthem Swami Vivekananda was a key figure in introducing Vedanta and Yoga in Europe and USA, raising interfaith awareness and making Hinduism a world religion. The Indian economy is the world's tenth-largest by nominal GDP and third-largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the fastest-growing major economies; it is considered a newly industrialised country.However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, inadequate public healthcare, and terrorism. A nuclear weapons state and a regional power, it has the third-largest standing army in the world and ranks eighth in military expenditure among nations. India is a federal constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system consisting of 28 states and 7 union territories. India is a pluralistic, multilingual, and a multi-ethnic society. It is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats.

Organisations and Behaviour Essay

The Purpose of management is to set collective goals for the organisation and communicate to members of the organisation. They make sure these goals are met organisational structures and systems are designed to make members ‘pull’ together and so that resources are utilised efficiently and effectively. They also create and sustain a corporate identity and culture; they look after the interests of the organisation’s stakeholders too. Managers need to control what goes on in their department, they also need to make sure that everything is co-ordinated otherwise things wont happen properly and problems will start to occur. They are very commanding in order to get jobs done properly and on time and also to show that they are the ones with the authority, i.e. the one who is in charge, what I say goes. Management are given many different types of authority so that they can then implement what they have to do in their role as a manager. They have power, which is the ability to do something or get others to do it. Their authority gives them the right to do something or get others to do it. Along with these comes responsibility, which is where the liability of a person is called into account for the way authority has been exercised. Finally there are also able to delegate, this means that they give a subordinate authority over a defined area of which is within their own scope of authority, they hand over work to someone else but and not rid of the responsibility and work fully. Read more:  Explain the Nature of Groups and Group Behaviour Within Organisations Managers have a number of roles; they consist of interpersonal, informational and decisional. A man called Henry Mintzberg in 1973 identified these roles. An interpersonal role is one that shows leadership, and consists of figurehead, leader and liaison. The interpersonal role has a very important factor known as ‘coaching’. According to Needham et al (1999 p214) â€Å"Coaching is an ongoing process in which one person works closely with another to develop skills and abilities†. An interpersonal manager would need to be a good coach I order to be effective. They build one-to-one relationships with the people they work with in order to build up loyalty and support and at the same time they unleash their full potential. The informational role is an administrating role and consists of monitoring, disseminator and spokesman. Managers in this role are supposed to be able to process information with confidence. They are also supported by information technology in this role, they need to be able to adapt to the changes that happen to rapidly in this environment. The decisional role is a kind of fixing role and involves entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator and negotiator. The managers in this type of role have to make decisions; this means they need to choose courses of action from a set of different alternatives available. There are two main type of decisions, programmed and non-programmed. Herbert Simon (1957, cited in Needham et al 1999 p214) says that Programmed decisions â€Å"are straight forward, repetitive and routine, so that they can be dealt with by a formal pattern† and that Non-programmed decisions â€Å"are novel, unstructured and consequential. There is no cut-and-dried method for handling situations that have not arisen before†. Over the years the way people thought about management and the way they implemented different strategies has changed vastly. To start with back in the early 1900’s there was a scientific approach to management brought about by a man called F W Taylor. Each work process was to be analysed and then by a scientific method it was possible to find the best way for people to do their task or job. Taylor’s thought was that in the same way that there is one special machine that was best for doing one certain job, there is one specific way by which people should undertake their jobs. They would get what was described as a fair days pay for a fair days pay. If workers were to take up Taylor’s methods of working their wages would increase due to it being a more efficient and productive way of working and thus they would become more motivated. However, when actually implemented there became strong criticisms and reactions to his scientific management methods as workers actually found the work boring and weren’t interested, as it required very little skill from them. The workers saw this as disempowerment of them and didn’t like it. So although this was one of the very first approaches to management Drucker (1976, cited in Management and Organisational Behaviour, 1999 p52) says â€Å"Taylor’s greatest impact may still be ahead †¦. The need to study Taylor anew and apply him may be the greatest in the developed countries† suggesting that we may still need to use this theory in present day organisations. Moving on into the 1920’s brought Webber and Fayol with their classical administration/bureaucracy approach to management. This type of management brought sets of official positions, with rules for experts and rules for officials. It showed clear hierarchical authority structure. Impersonal actions by managers in dealing with clients and other workers were seen in order to get rational judgements and a good performance of duties. There are four main features of the bureaucracy theory, they consist of: 1. Specialisation – of the job, so that should the current jobholder leave the job can still continue to function. 2. Hierarchy of authority – a very clear and sharp distinction is made between the workers and the management. And then within the management there are clear ranks between levels of authority, just like what can be seen in current day armed forces. 3. System of rules – this is where the ‘impersonal’ bit comes in as they were set to provide efficient, impersonal operation. These rules are set to provide a stable environment, even though some of the rules are open to change. 4. Impersonality – The rules set down above in number 3 are used to allocate privileges and exercise authority. The characteristics of impersonality are a feature of bureaucracy. Stewart, R (1986, cited in, cited in Management and Organisational Behaviour, 1999 p55) says â€Å"A bureaucracy should not only be impersonal but be seen to be impersonal.† This impersonal-ness in relationships leads to a lack or responsiveness with some incidents and problems. There was also an over emphasis on the rules and procedures in bureaucracy method. Caulkin (1988, cited in Management and Organisational Behaviour, 1999 p56) criticises this over emphasis by saying â€Å"The overemphasis on process rather than purpose, fragmented responsibilities and hierarchical control means that it’s all too easy for individuals to neglect the larger purposes to which their small effort is being put† People then began to recognise about this impersonal-ness and came upon the fact that the workers needs had to be recognised somewhat. This was known as the human relations approach and brought about by Blake, Mouton and Hertzberg in the 1920-1930s. The human relations theory was a major turning point as it started to take into account the needs, values and relationships of the workers. The workforce became more motivated and satisfied job wise, as the human relations approach recognised the importance of informal organisations. They emphasised the needs of wider social needs of individuals and gave recognition to social organisations. The importance of groups and values was emphasised which influenced their individual behaviour at work. All of this led to continued attention being paid to matters such as job satisfaction, group dynamics, participation, leadership and motivation. However, certain criticisms of the human relations approach were that it was not scientific enough and it ignored the role of the organisation itself in how society operates and so another theory was introduced, called The System’s theory. Katz and Kahn introduced the System’s theory in the 1960’s. The systems approach tries to reconcile the theories of Webber and Fayol with that of Hertzberg. It focuses on the interrelationships of structure and behaviour within the organisation. There are two types of systems, an ‘open’ and a ‘closed’ system. A closed system is one that is shut off from its environment. Whilst an open system is usually business related organisationally and it involves continual interaction with its broader external environment. They take in influences from ‘outside’ as INPUTS and produces/influences the environment using OUTPUTS. Every system can have many sub-systems, some including marketing, sales accounts departments etc. INPUTS PROCESS OUTPUTS Materials, Labour, Machinery, Land. Products, Services, Profit. As we moved on into the 1970’s along came the contingency approach, mainly Burns and Stalker brought this to us. The contingency approach shows the importance of structure as a significant influence on the organisational performance. It is also seen as an extension to the systems theory. There is no on optimum state in this approach. The structure and success of an organisation is dependant on the total picture of internal factors and external environment. This type of approach shows that not one style of organisational structure is suitable for all types of businesses, it all depends on the circumstances and structure at that particular moment in time. This theory suggests that an organisation should not seek just one best type of structure to use but that they should look at the present situation and relevant background factors that influence management decisions. The final and most current management theory came about in the 1980’s. This is known as the chaos theory and was brought to us by Tom Peters. The chaos theory tries to make organisations emphasise on the fact that they need to prepare themselves for turbulence, rather than having a rigid, inflexible structure with fixed conditions. It incorporates the contingency approach as it suggests that you should prepare for the unexpected with contingency plans. You can see that the chaos theory is working in current day situations as shown by Peters. Peters, T.J and Waterman, R.H (1982, cited in Management and Organisational Behaviour, 1999 p58) â€Å"found that excellent American companies achieved quick action just because their organisations were fluid, and had intensive networks of informal and open communications†. Part A – (2) Two organisations that I am going to compare are Irwin Mitchell Solicitors and Signfab. Irwin Mitchell Solicitors is a formal, geographical organisation as it has branches across the UK and is run through a partnership. Whilst Signfab is a small local, informal organisation which is run by a sole trader. There are many different approaches to management that could be taken by an organisation, one would be the Theory X and Theory Y approach brought about by McGregor. The main principle of Theory X is based on direction and control through a centralised system of the organisation and the exercise of authority. Whilst Theory Y bases itself on the integration of individual and organisational goals. These Theories influence a range of managerial behaviours and strategies. Managers of Theory X take an authoritative approach and those of Theory Y use a more democratic one. Signfab seems to take a Theory Y approach to its management. In Theory Y management they would check peoples attitudes and skills rather than their references, they would also have frequent informal contacts with their employees rather than consulting them through trade unions. Also the pay scheme for Theory Y is mainly based on a salary and profit related pay, whilst Theory X uses piece rate pay and a personal performance related pay. If you look at the theories that Fayol and Mintzberg took to management we can compare them to what managers currently take in modern day organisations. In the organisation Signfab I would say that they seem to use Mintzberg’s managerial roles. Mintzberg says that there are 10 different roles of managers. Interpersonal, which consists of a figurehead, leader and liaison. Informational, which consists of monitor, disseminator and a spokesperson. And lastly decisional roles these involve entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator and a negotiator. On an average day Signfab the owner of Signfab would take on almost all of these managerial roles. He would become a figurehead, leader, monitor, spokesperson, disturbance handler, resource allocator and negotiator. He uses all of these roles because he takes on the jobs of selling products to consumers, sorting out the finance for daily, weekly, monthly running of the business, he briefs his employees on new tasks they have to do and daily jobs that need finishing. He also has to ensure the equipment is safe and working properly for them to use, he takes care of the advertising and takes orders for items to be made and places orders for new stock that they need and then he also gets involved in the making of the products himself on a daily basis. There is also the Chaos theory; this is where the organisations need to be able to move with the turbulent world that we live in today. When the unexpected happens they need to have a plan of what to do so that things are not to badly disrupt and their organisation may still function properly. A key concept of the Chaos theory is that tiny small changes in the input of the organisation and environment result in overwhelming differences in the output. According to Needham et al (1999 p201) â€Å"clearly the emphasis for the modern organisation should be on thriving on chaos. This requires forward-thinking and adaptive structures†. In the organisation Irwin Mitchell Solicitors the managers had a more empowering approach to their management. If you take the theories of Henri Fayol you can see that his theories have a more hierarchical structure to management. Managers have 5 main functions in Fayol’s theory; they consist of – planning, co-ordinating, organising, control and command. The planning function means that they had to decide what needs doing and then make a plan of action. The co-ordinating meant that they were harmonising all the activities and effort of the organisation in order to make possible its working and success. The organising meant that they provided material/human resources and building the structure in order to carry out the activities of the organisation. The controlling was checking that everything was occurring in accordance with their plans, instructions and established principles. Finally the commanding meant that they were maintaining the activity among personnel, getting the best return from all employees in the interest of the whole organisation. Irwin Mitchell’s had a very strict set of procedures and plans for what needed to be done in time for the end of the financial year. Their managers were all very co-ordinated in that each department was in some way connected to the one next to it and they quite often had meetings to see how they could get their teams to work more efficiently between them. There was a very big sense of control over the workers in that your manager checked everything you did. The managers were also very commanding as they hardly ever did the work you did they were more into dictating what needed to be done and then expecting it to get done without their assistance. There was a very long chain of command style structure, as you reported to and any problems to your team leader, who then reported it to her/the department manager, who in turn reported it to the site manager who then reported to the directors of the Sheffield branch. The managers had a lot of authority and unity of command in this organisation. Their approach was very structured and hierarchical, in that the higher up the scalar chain you were the more authority, power and command you had. Part B – (1) Organisational culture is known as the way we do things around here. A more detailed version according to Miner (1971, cited in Management and Organisational Behaviour, 1999 p803) would be that organisational culture is â€Å"†¦the collection of traditions, values, policies, beliefs and attitudes that constitute a pervasive context for everything we do and think in an organisation†. Organisations reinforce culture through their rites and rituals, patterns or communication, the expected patterns of behaviour and the informal organisation. Schein (1985, cited in Management and Organisational Behaviour, 1999 p803) suggests â€Å"a view of organisational culture based on distinguishing three levels of culture: artefacts and creations, values and basic assumptions†. Level 1 – The Artefacts: These are the most visible aspects, the physical and social environment. They include things like physical space and layout, management style, technological output, written and spoken language and the behaviour of group members. Level 2 – The Values: These are solutions for how to deal with a new task, issue or problem, which are based on convictions of reality. If the solution works it is often then transformed into beliefs. These values and beliefs then become part of a process whereby group members justify actions and behaviour. Level 3 – The Basic Underlying Assumption: When the solutions to problems mentioned in level 2 work repeatedly it gets taken for granted. These assumptions actually guide behaviour and determine how the group member perceive, think and feel about things. There are four main types of culture, these consist of Power, Role, Task and Person. * Power culture is also sometimes known as club culture. A key feature of this type of culture is centralisation of power. Power culture is often found in small organisations where control lies with one single person or a small group of individuals. The power culture structure can often be seen to be drawn as a spider’s web style diagram. This is because there is a central power source and rays of influence spread out from there. In power culture decisions are made by high-status individuals, rather than a group of people, because of this the decisions can be made extremely quickly. A bad point about power culture is that other workers in the organisation may feel demoted by a lack of challenge and suppressed by those with the power. The web may crack if they support to many activities . a good example of this would have been the Ford Motor Company , up until the early 1980’s its approach to management was functional specialisation, with hierarchy and tight control. * Role Culture, a typical example of a role culture organisation would be a bureaucratic one, where they are divided into layers of offices and officials, with sets of functions that get determined by sets of rules and procedures. Organisations like this operate by using logic and reason. They would also be arranged according to different functions, such as marketing, human relations and finance. In role culture, power is hierarchical and determined by the employees’ position, like in the armed forces with generals, colonels and majors. A job description and set of communication procedures determine the relationship between each role. Position is ‘the’ source of power and the main source of influence are the rules and procedures. There is little scope for individual initiative and recognition making jobholders feel cramped and no room for development, this being a major disadvantage to the role culture organisations. * Task culture is team oriented. Needham et al (1999 p251) describe this type of culture as â€Å"A task culture is job- or project-oriented and emphasis is placed on completing a specific task†. The ‘task’ states the way in which the work is organised as oppose to the individuals or rules like in power and role cultures respectively. Task culture is often illustrated in the form of a net, with some strands being thicker then others and most of the power and influence laying at the interstices of the net. Task cultures are rewarding environments to work in because the employees have a large amount of freedom and flexibility. All this lack of authority can make management and control of this type of culture difficult though. In today’s work force we can increasingly see more and more emphasis placed on team working style cultures. * Person culture is rarely found in a profit-related organisation as they exist only to serve those within their own organisation. You are most likely to see examples of person culture in co-operatives, barristers’ chambers and architects’ partnerships. This is because you usually see a cluster of individuals all operating at the same level in person culture. Hierarchies are not possible in person culture, unless by mutual consent, given a choice though most people would opt for this type of culture. Each organisation will use their own choice of culture , some larger businesses will use a mix of cultures. There are many things that influence the development of corporate culture. Some of these influences are: * History – the age, values of owners and way in which the organisation was originally formed all effect the culture. A merger or reorganisation of management also change the type of culture used. * Primary functions and technology – The businesses’ primary function affects the culture. Primary function of an organisation is the nature of methods of undertaking work, this effects the culture but also the structure too. * Goals and objectives – An organisation will want to be profitable but they will also have to give their objectives and goals attention, the resultant strategies of their objectives will effect and be effected by the change in culture. * Size – Rapid growth or decline in size and the rate or growth and all the results that come from these, like staffing procedures influence the structure and culture. * Location – The geographical and physical characters of an organisation have a major influence on the culture of the organisation. * Management and staffing – Top managers, directors and executives all have a considerable effect on the nature of the corporate culture. * The Environment – An organisation must be responsive to external environmental factors in order to be an effective business. So from all this we can see that the culture of an organisation is an important thing for them to have stated. It helps to account for all sorts of variations among organisations and managers, on a national and international scale. As Oliver, J (1977, cited in Management and Organisational Behaviour, 1999 p807) mentions â€Å"it helps to explain why different groups of people perceive things in their own way and perform things differently from other groups†. Part B – (2) Irwin Mitchell Solicitors Structure: There are four different areas of the UK where this organisation exists. I have focused on the Sheffield one, as that is where I was. However, they all the other sites were run in the same way that the Sheffield branch was. To look at the structure, there was a group of four to six directors for each location. Then there at Sheffield there was two sites each having their own overall/building manager. The building had about 4-5 floors where each floor had about 4 teams of workers, each floor had a supervisor who was in charge of all the departments/teams on that floor and then each department/team had a department/team leader who had typically 8 people in their team. The personnel department was located in one of the Sheffield branches and each location had their own IT technicians. So we can see from the diagram of their structure that they are a geographical organisation operating on a combined line and staff organisation structure. There is a presence of task culture at the bottom where it is in teams and yet power culture at the top where the directors of the company make all the decisions and are seen to be very high-status and powerful. The employees of this organisation are grouped by function, this means that they are divided into sectors according to what they do, for example a sales, an accounts and a quality control department. This is good because specialists are able to work in an area with like-minded people and each part of the organisation is then pursuing their own primary function, making contributions to the overall well being of the organisation. However, it can be bad to organise things like this because it means individuals can not move easily between departments, the organisation gets bigger and the communication channels become distorted between levels of people and also the different departments may pull in opposite directions, causing the company to focus too much on one specific area. They are also grouped by the type of customer in some areas/cases, as they offer a service which is designed differently for depending on the customers circumstances and each different product like accidental injury area, a divorce section are in their own little divisions. This type of grouping shows clearly that each department can concentrate on its own needs, also the customer will fell more inclined to go to your company as you deal with different problems in different areas and more specifically and its easier to check on the performance of their individual product/service. Although having them grouped in this way may mean that each division will compete with each other for the companies resources, this type of structure is costly to set up and more accounting and administrative services are needed. The structure above is a very formal structure; this means that the structure is based on the employees’ official roles. It also has a fairly narrow span of control. A span of control according to Needham et al (1999 p236) is â€Å"The span of control of an individual is the number of people he or she manages of supervises directly†. If an organisation has a narrow span of control this can be good because it enables close supervision and fast communications. However, it also means that the organisation might be too ‘tall’ meaning there is too many levels of management, this usually makes it very costly to run and also means that supervisors get too involved in their subordinates work. A wider span of control would show a much greater amount of trust in the subordinates and also mean having fewer managers; this still allows a hierarchy yet it gives fewer levels. Signfab’s Structure: Signfab is a local sign makers which consists of the owner and two employees, they all partake in the general making of the signs but the owner/manager takes on all the accounts, advertising, purchasing, payroll and general running of the company. From the structure above you can see that this is a much less complicated structure, with a lot fewer employees. There is hardly any span of control as it only consists of the owner and two employees. This is however a good thing because it means they have direct contact and communications with their boss/manager. It is a very flat structure with only two levels. A matrix structure/organisation consists of a combination of functional departments that are specialised and in a permanent location with ones that integrate activities of different functional departments such as a project team, product, programme and system basis. So you can see that the matrix organisation is shown through a grid with a two-way flow of responsibility and authority. Organisations that chose the matrix structure are opting for this because it means that they don’t have to choose one type of grouping over another. I would say that the above structure is a matrix organisation, as it is not grouped in any specific way. There are signs of power culture as all the authority lies with the owner and he makes all the decisions very quickly. So in this structure the owner has a lot of power and authority over his/her employees/subordinates as he/she is the owner and there is no one else higher than him to constrict his reign of power. Whilst in the solicitors structure there is a great deal of restriction in the amount of power they are allowed to have over their subordinates as there is always someone higher up the structure than them that has power over them and what they can and cannot do. The Signfab organisation is centralised as you can see that it is easy to implement policies for the organisation, the organisation on a whole is very co-ordinated, the subordinates are independent but not to a great extent, the decision making is very efficient as there is not compromise of authority when making them and they have a greater use of specialisation in what they do as an organisation. Whilst Irwin Mitchell Solicitors is more decentralised as their administrative services are close to the services they provide so that they can be more effective, opportunities for training in management arise very frequently, the staff are very encouraged by this and therefore morale is very high. Also the decisions can be made closer to the operational level of work. Part B – (3) Irwin Mitchell’s structure and culture are related to the organisations performance as their structure is a very tall structure and this means that they are less customer responsive as the communications between the managers and the employees are more complicated and not as good as they would be in a flatter structure. If their structure were more flat the managers would be nearer to the consumers and be in a better position to see and adapt to what their needs are. This is what Hertzberg suggests in the Human Relations approach. That the employees should not be treated as another part of the machinery their values and relationships should be seen and heard, this improves the morale of the workforce as they are at last being acknowledged. This acknowledgement of the workers and their values brought about an increase in their motivation and so the performance of the organisation would increase too. Irwin Mitchell solicitors take in to account the human relations approach to some extent as the workers values, relationships and suggestions are taken into account. This is seen by the fact that they hold functions at Christmas time for the employees to attend where they are rewarded for their hard work throughout the year. There is also more delegation in a flat structure as there is usually less managers and they would not necessarily be able to carry out all the work that double their amount of managers would have and therefore delegate some of this work to their subordinates, this improves the employees morale and is a good way of motivating them in to working harder so that the businesses performance will also increase. As Irwin Mitchell Solicitors has a tall structure their employees are less motivated and the morale is not always very good within the teams, meaning that the organisations performance is not as good as it could be. They do operate a Kaizen culture though, this is where the employees can suggest things that they think would help or improve the organisation. These are usually small things and are implemented gradually so that the performance of the firm will to improve gradually. This type of culture improves the employees moral, motivation to the company as they are rewarded for the ir efforts/suggestions if they succeed. Bibliography The books I used for reference in this assignment are: Business for Higher Awards 2nd edition by Needham et al published in 1999 by Heinemann. Management and Organisational Behaviour 5th edition by L J Mullins published in 1999 by FT Prentice Hall. HNC HND Business Core Unit: 3 Organisations and Behaviour 1st edition by BPP Publishing in September 2000.

Mental HEALTH Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Mental HEALTH - Essay Example Case Facts Toni is a 22 year old student who completed secondary school successfully and moved to a university in a suburban community. In the final year of the course, Toni began to complain to his course tutor that the course was becoming stressful. Her performance fell and she cut down on the hours she used to spend studying. At home, Toni became more reclusive and she began to miss lectures and spend long hours in isolation. She refused to leave her bedroom and began to express paranoid delusions about things that are non-existent. She began to complain about how terrible life was and began to argue for a life outside the normal. Toni became less concerned about what she ate and she seem to be going through serious anorexia. She took up strange practices and has said she is not interested in living in a modern setting anymore. She has began advocating for strange beliefs and teachings and in one of her conversations with a group of friends she expressed interest in the Afterlife and how she longed to get into that arena. Toni's mother recently saw that she had visited a suicide forum on her computer and she also saw a note which she suspected to be a suicide note. Framework of Treatment â€Å"Mental health is the adjustment of human beings to each other and the world around them with a maximum effectiveness and happiness† (Basavanthappa, 2007). ... There are several policies in the UK that supports mental health and a healthy emotional and mental life for all. The Human Rights Act of the UK which came to force in 1998 provides rights for all people. These rights cover the right to life and the right to important privileges in different elements of social life. Also, the Department of Social Security came up with the Opportunities for All in 1999. This programme guaranteed rights for all members of the society including people with disabilities like mental challenges. It sought to eliminate discrimination and encourage a better life for all these different people in society. According to the New Horizons Strategy of the UK government, the following pointers and indicators mark the wider framework of mental health in the UK and is to be worked at by the year 2020. The first point is to improve the mental health of everyone in Britain. This end is to be attained by eliminating discrimination, promoting early diagnosis and treatmen t as well as the provision of specific treatments for individual cases. The 2020 framework of the UK also focuses on stakeholders and supporting them to attain the best results in mental health. Also, the framework seeks to promote accessibility of mental healthcare (Department of Health, 2009). Although this policy is not in operation, it is being developed and targets are being pursued by the various stakeholders. In most cases, mental health cases are initiated by a third party who notices that the patient has issues (Cohen, 2011). This is because most patients with mental health problems fail to realise the severity of their problems whilst others totally deny it. There is a major debate between cognitive behavioural therapy and how it should be done. This conflict

Controversial Behavioral Management Techniques for ADHD Research Paper

Controversial Behavioral Management Techniques for ADHD - Research Paper Example This essay stresses that there are those who think that it is merely a label that justifies the unruly behavior of students who need more rigorous discipline. Within the educational perspective, teachers keep on looking for correct knowledge about ADHD that will help them create classroom management techniques that are effective for students with this condition. Most of ADHD diagnoses come from teachers’ observations, and several of the symptoms of the condition oblige teachers to give a diagnosis, such as â€Å"the child often fails to give close attention to details or make careless mistakes in schoolwork, work, or other activities†. This paper makes a conclusion that when children with ADHD go to school, they are affected by the teachers’ method or techniques, as well as the school’s viewpoint about behavioral management. It is widely recognized that ADHD seldom arises alone; it is frequently complemented by comorbid disorders, like learning disabilities or oppositional defiant disorder. Sooner or later, this behavior could result in deviant behavioral patterns. In numerous instances, the delinquent behavior is simply bothersome or possibly makes the teacher annoyed. The initial idea could be â€Å"I’ve got to punish this behavior to stop it†. This is where controversial behavioral management techniques for ADHD come in. The first is corporal punishment or physical punishment. This technique does lead to inhibition of a problematic behavior, but it does not eliminate it. ... When children with ADHD go to school, they are affected by the teachers’ method or techniques, as well as the school’s viewpoint about behavioral management. It is widely recognized that ADHD seldom arises alone; it is frequently complemented by comorbid disorders, like learning disabilities or oppositional defiant disorder. Sooner or later, this behavior could result in deviant behavioral patterns (Hornby et al., 2013). In numerous instances, the delinquent behavior is simply bothersome or possibly makes the teacher annoyed. The initial idea could be â€Å"I’ve got to punish this behavior to stop it† (Flick, 2010, 101). This is where controversial behavioral management techniques for ADHD come in. The first is corporal punishment or physical punishment. This technique does lead to inhibition of a problematic behavior, but it does not eliminate it. The student discontinues the behavior but relapses to it eventually. The punishing teacher actually embodies the behavior s/he wants to get rid of. The student gets the message that physical punishment is an effective way of coping with problems such as this (Flick, 2010). It is also necessary to mention that corporal punishment is normally used long after the student shows the problematic behavior. The main point is it is unwise to exercise corporal punishment in school. Simply put, it is completely unsuccessful in managing behavior issues, and it is useless with ADHD. Studies report detrimental consequences of exercising physical punishment (Southall, 2007). A particular type of punishment less harsh than corporal punishment is the verbal scolding. This implies that the student is verbally reprimanded for showing improper

Principles of Management and Elements of Control Assignment - 1

Principles of Management and Elements of Control - Assignment Example The American Red Cross website can be accessed at http://www.redcross.org/. Questions have been raised about how a nonprofit organization can become more popular and effective -than other organizations such as for-profit organizations offering similar services. There are various points that account for its success and these are stipulated in the fundamental principles of Global Red Cross Network (American Red Cross 2013). One of the principles is that of Humanity, which stipulates that the teams would always work to alleviate all forms of human suffering without discriminating any affected person. The principle of humanity eventually fosters friendship, mutual understanding, peace and cohesion amongst the population it serves. The second principle is that of impartiality which prevents the team from engaging in practices that amount to discrimination based on religiosity, political stand, nationality and social and economic class. Rather, all practices should be informed by the individual needs while giving consideration to the most urgent and critical issues. The third principle, which is closely related to the principle of impartiality, is that of neutrality that bars the team from taking sides in the political, social, religious and ideological controversies. The fourth principle is that of independence. This principle guides that the team should work without undue influence from the third parties such as national politics and religiosity. This is aimed at ensuring that the teams maintain their autonomy. The fifth principle is that of Voluntary service, which rules that the team is not supposed to engage in practices that are profit oriented. The sixth principles is that of unity, which emphasizes that members of the teams should work together to realize the set goals while touching every person in  need, regardless of the country’s geographical region. The last principles are that of universality, which acknowledges that every society across the globe has an equal status and have equal responsibilities in improving the life of every person.  

Why I am doing it Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Why I am doing it - Essay Example I have a mission to perform many volunteer jobs as per my ability. Acting as a volunteer to help preserve animals grants me sense of self-satisfaction. Animals, being part of nature, need care. The pleasure I get from offering care to animals initiates personal growth in me. Accepting animals as part of creation and realizing the necessity to ensure their growth is fundamental in enhancing conservation. Nature must operate in equilibrium and animals are part of it. Humans, therefore, must develop new ethics and consider their relationship with animals. Nurturing the culture of sensitivity and awareness towards the conservation of animals has a central contribution in appreciating them, as part of nature. Humans should be responsible and care for domestic and wild animals. This, notably, is a role that everyone in the world should play. The challenge is to ensure that animals exist in harmony with the world population. Conservation of habitats that are home to animals, for instance, is an important strategy that the world population should promote. Every member of the society should take on the challenge to ensure animals get the best care and their habitat conservation measures considered. This requires tolerance, by humans, and acceptance that animals deserve consideration and attention. Attending to animals, wild and domestic, is tantamount to respect for their lives. Humans have a role to ensure animals do not suffer. Animals do not communicate with humans in any way. It is upon humans to assess the condition of animals and realize any form of suffering that they may experience. Animals have an entitlement to rights. Part of the world population that is in disagreement with conservation points at diverse reasons including the lack of animal rights. It is illogical to disagree that animals have rights and such c laims by people opposed to nature conservation

Limist of data indicatiors for pupblic administrators Essay

Limist of data indicatiors for pupblic administrators - Essay Example Transparency International defines corruption as â€Å"the abuse of entrusted power for private gain."1 On the other hand, freedom is defined by Freedom House as "the opportunity to act spontaneously in a variety of fields outside the control of the government and/or other centers of potential domination."2 We need to realize that both corruption and freedom have a common factor – government. According to the assumptions of the media, countries with high levels of corruption, low levels of freedom, and high levels of unemployment, specifically among young men, are the main reasons why some countries face political vulnerability and turmoil. Table 1, located in Appendix I, shows rates of corruption according to CPI investigations and questions, which are based on methodology that measures countries according to two main categories – political rights and civil liberties. Data Perceptions: An interesting line graph forms after studying the data in the Table 1 (located in Appendix I). This line graph shows how close the rates of freedom and unemployment are. More specifically, the graph shows that the country with the highest rate of freedom (least amount of freedom) is Libya (7.0). To compare this with another country, Tunisia has a rate of 6.0.

Language Learning Autobiography Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Language Learning Autobiography - Essay Example On reflection, I realize that my first strategy was to imitate. Although I did not completely understand the teacher’s instructions, I was able to follow by imitating and taking the lead from peers. The English teacher would usually teach a new language point and then start with class choral work before moving on to a small group, pair work and then individual responses. This allowed me the opportunity to imitate the other students and thus not only improve my language knowledge but to improve my pronunciation. My experience, therefore, provides evidence to Skinner, who states that imitation through repetition is important in the early stages of acquiring a first language and learning a second language. I learnt and acquired English not only by study but by social interaction with teachers and peers (both local and ESL students) which necessitated me to pull on or extract the language I already knew and manipulate it for the situation at hand; in other words it provided me the opportunity of having to use English for communicative purposes rather than for classroom intent. Different cultures and curriculum proved difficult for me at first but I was able to catch up with other studies because my ESL teachers and other proficient English speaking peers helped me to adapt to the new curriculum. The school also provided similar conditions for me to work with more proficient peers in the classroom and I know that this interaction helped me in first learning and then acquiring my second language. Vygotsky (1978) (cited in Coelho, 2004) states that when a child is acquiring their first language they learn best by interacting with peers that are at a higher level in language development than themselves they will learn better. He calls this the child’s proximal development zone, which is defined as the level just beyond where the child is at. I now know that a similar process is evident in acquiring a second

A Women Of No Importance Essay Example for Free

A Women Of No Importance Essay Explore the ways Wilde presents late nineteenth century women. What he is saying about the fashionable women of the time, their interests, ideas, attitudes and treatment in A Women f No Importance? A woman of no importance is a play about the upper and middle class. Wilde uses the women to portray is attitudes and views on the society of the nineteenth century. He portrays women in a way women would not have behaved at that time; this gives a comical atmosphere to the audience. In 1893 A women of no importance would have been very entertaining to watch, the audience would have found the play amusing however they would have been laughing at themselves as Wilde wrote the play to criticize the society. The plays first setting is a female home with conversation between women; Wilde may have done this to show the importance of women. Lady Caroline is the first character the audience meet; Wilde may have also done this for a purpose. From the title Lady we know Lady Caroline is a wealthy and high up in the aristocracy in England. She is a typical member of the high society; she has a very dominating overbearing personality and shows pride in her position. The Audience would have immediately recognised this from Lady Carolines conversation with Hester. She speaks down to her American guest, Hester who is travailing alone, you have no country houses, I am told, in America? Another theme that Wilde conveys through women is the theme Hypocrisy and double standards. This is again shown through Lady Caroline and her attitudes towards the puritan Hester. Lady Caroline criticises lady Hunstaton choice of guests But Mrs Allonby is hardly a very suitable person but then praises Lady Hunstaton for inviting her to a pleasant party, Wilde is effectively satirising members of high society. Hester vocalises her opinion that she dislikes Mrs Allonby but Lady Caroline patronises Hester I am not sure, that foreigners like yourself should cultivate like or dislikes. suggesting that Hester is not a valued member of society. Wilde mocks the attitude of the high society through the ignorant women. Lady Caroline is not as knowledgeable as she likes to make out, she continually keeps getting the name of the politician wrong, mistaking him for Me kettle Kevil, my love kevil. The audience would mock Lady Caroline for this foolish mistake she keeps making. Hester Worsleys title is changed as the play progresses. Hester is first referred to as Miss Worsley then she becomes known as the American and finally A puritan. Hester is a contrast to all the other women in A women of no importance and all the women take a dislike to her she told me yesterday, and in quite a loud voice, that she was only eighteen. It was most annoying. She has strong morals, values and opinions which she is not afraid to express I dislike London Dinner Parties. Wilde may have used Hesters character to present his on views on the English aristocratic society. Members of the high society frown upon those who are unmarried I dont think that England should be represented abroad by unmarried man being married is more socially accepted. This gives the audience an impression of how shallow the society was and how status and social position dictate how people lived their lives. Lady Carolines and Sir Johns is very different to a traditional Victorian marriage. Usually the man is the dominant one and women were known as mens property. However Wilde contrasts this view, by Lady Caroline having control over her husband, being the dominant one in the relationship John you should have your muffler. What is the use of my always knitting mufflers for you if you dont wear them? Their relationship is clearly showing a lack of love and affection. Their relationship is more like a child and parent relationship because of the idea of Lady Caroline spoiling Sir John. Wilde is suggesting that they are together out of convenience and presentation. Lady Caroline gives her husband orders in the same way lady Hunstaton orders her servants you had better go and put your overshoes at once. During the Victorian times when A women of no importance was written, women rights were begging to increase. In 1857 the matrimonial causes Act was established, in 1882 married womens property act was confirmed, which gave women more rights and power over themselves, property and their children. These factors contributed to the way Wilde presented certain women especially Lady Caroline and Mrs Allonby. Mrs Allonby is very similar to lord Illingworth they are both described as dandies they use language which is intended to shock the audience. At the end of act one is it clear that Mrs Allonby is flirting with Lord Illingworth What a thoroughly bad man you must be! Wilde creates Mrs Allonby as a character who considers being a person who restricts the morals and norms of the society, in Victorian times there would have been very strict morals and social codes. Women adore failures, they lean on us Mrs Allonby is going against the stereotype, the man having control within Victorian marriages. At the end of Act one Lord Illingworth reads Mrs Arbuthnots letter, he says no one in particular A Woman of no importance, the title of the play, which demonstrates Wildes views on the treatment of women in society. Act 1 ends giving the audience an impression of a self-concerned, hypocritical society. Wilde presents these ideas through the use of comedy which give a strong message to the audience.

Ho Chi Minh City Essay Example for Free

Ho Chi Minh City Essay Trung nguyen is the most famous coffee brand in Vietnam. It was created in 1996 by Mr. D? ng Le Nguyen Vu. During student life in medical school of Tay Nguyen, Mr. D? ng had a question about coffee farmers’ life. Although the price of a cup of coffee wasn’t cheap, but why, farmers were still poor. This question encouraged him to find the answers. He and his company suffered from many accidents, but they kept on trying. Those experiences brought them a good background for opening more shops and expanding their business widely. And in early 2004, they introduced G7 to the customers. This step turned Trung Nguyen history to the new page, they became the biggest and the most famous firm selling high-quality coffee powder. II. Strategy Trung Nguyen first opened their first coffee shop in Ho Chi Minh City in 1998 and received some positive feedbacks. In 2001 they had built over thousands coffee shops all over Vietnam and became top-rated brand in Vietnamese coffee industry. They did Franchising, the step which was different from all other Vietnamese firm, they were the first. After 5 years, Trung Nguyen not only could gain the trust, the belief of Vietnamese customers but also customers in other countries like Singapore, Japan, Cambodia, etc. In 2006, Trung Nguyen invested and built the biggest high-quality G7mart system of stores for selling products. In June 2012, Trung Nguyen created the new strategy. That was creating the string of quick shops, which allows customers to choose some various kinds of coffee beans and the owner of the shop will mix them together for making the customers’ own styles. The evidence for the development of this strategy is the profit which grows 15% per week Trung Nguyen’s customers are not only the elder, the people who understand clearly about coffee but also, they have products for the young, who begin drinking coffee like student, teenager, etc. III. Revenue-Potential Growth. Although the economics go down, Trung Nguyen still makes profit, and improves themselve powerfully. In 2011, their revenue and production improve up to 151%, and the first six months in 2012, they gain up to 178% compared with the same time in 2011. The biggest evolution of Trung Nguyen is their G7 powder became the leader of coffee powder in Vietnam at the rate 37. 8% In the near future, Mr. D? ng plans to join the world stock market and in the next 10 years, he tries to invest more than 800 million USD to build new factories and some additional options.

Power of Images to Influence and Inform

Power of Images to Influence and Inform Images of Perfection in an Imperfect World. Abstract The power of images to influence and inform cannot be underestimated. This is especially true in contemporary society, where we are continually bombarded with images and with the messages implicit in them. The messages they emit are far-reaching, pervasive, and overwhelming in sheer magnitude. Most importantly: they are perfect. Photographs of beauty queens and movie stars the nearly perfect people who are the icons of society are manipulated so that the images are of true perfection. Blemishes dissolve, complexions glow, pounds melt away, and teeth sparkle as technology works its magic. When these images appear in the format of magazines targeted at young people, all of society should be concerned. What messages are informing the thoughts of youth today? How are they reacting? What can we do if we see that damage is being done? This paper will address that question, with a particular emphasis on the print publications aimed at girls and young women, who are statistically more apt to be bombarded with unattainable goals in the form of endless images of perfection. The people apparently in control of these publications particularly editors should have the authority to control that content, to redirect and or redistribute it to present more realistic views to their readers. This is particularly when faced, as they are, with evidence that the messages they are disseminating are harmful to large numbers of young people. In the case of young women who suffer from eating disorders, that evidence is in fact overwhelming. This paper intends to demonstrate the harm that is being done to young people globally, and most especially to young women, and the responsibility of the media to be accountable for content or at the very least, to stop airbrushing all the blemishes and imperfections they may see on original images, and present a more realistic and attainable vision of reality to those who seek it in their pages. Liz Jones When Liz Jones, who was then editor of the women’s magazine Marie Claire, resigned from the magazine, it was not a sudden decision. It was, rather, the culmination of a lifetime of experiences as a female member of society, followed by years working in a business that had a great influence on females in society. Quite simply: she had had enough. She explained publicly the reasons she decided to step down from her position as editor at Marie Claire, and she did so with heartfelt emotion and compelling clarity. First, she described her feelings earlier that year as she sat through another season of high fashion: modeling spectacles in which all eyes are upon myriads of unnaturally thin young women the ‘supermodels’: For those used to the fashion industry there was nothing unusual about the shows at all. But for me it was the end, it was then that I decided to resign as editor of Marie Claire magazine. I had reached the point where I had simply had enough of working in an industry that pretends to support women while it bombards them with impossible images of perfection day after day, undermining their self-confidence, their health and hard-earned cash (Jones, 2001). Jones goes on to explain the sequence of events that, together, resulted in her resignation. One of the most important factors was the considerable effort she had put into a campaign to effect profound change on the media’s approach to and impact on young women. The campaign was met with such vehement hostility that she found it extremely difficult to continue to be involved with this part of the industry. Just one year earlier, she notes, she had optimistic beliefs unrealistic, perhaps about the prospects for change: ‘I believed wholeheartedly that we could stop magazines and advertisers using underweight girls as fashion icons’ she wrote (2001). She had already proscribed articles about diets and weight-loss, which was an action that was far ahead of its time. This was clearly a step in the right direction but she knew that it was not enough. As part of an experiment, she decided to publish the same edition with two covers one of size-six Pamela Anderson, and one with the fleshier size twelve Sophie Dahl. Marie Claire then asked readers to choose ‘between the skinny, cosmetically enhanced â€Å"perfection†, or a more attainable, but still very beautiful curvy woman’ (2001). There was literally no contest; Sophie Dahl clearly won the support of the readers. The reaction that followed the contest was ‘staggering’, Jones noted. A media frenzy ensued; universities wanted to include it in their course curricula; filmmakers made documentaries about it; and, perhaps most tellingly, an unprecedented number of readers reacted and responded with enthusiastic and overwhelming support. However, the one group whose cooperation was most expected and most needed other members of the industry refused to rally. Jones found no support from her colleagues; instead, they reacted with a vehemence and aggression that both stunned and saddened her. ‘The very people from whom I had expected the most support my fellow female editors were unanimous in their disapproval’, Jones wrote. ‘They were my peers, friends, and colleagues I sat next to in the front row of the fashion shows. They were also the most important, influential group of women in the business, the only people who could change the fashion and beauty industry’ (2001). Some labeled her a ‘traitor’; others suggested that she was using this campaign as some sort of clever ploy to boost circulation numbers. She was even accused of discrimination against thin models. Model agencies began to blacklist the magazine. Despite this, Jones redoubled her efforts. She even spoke publicly about her own struggles with eating disorders. From the age of eleven, she admitted, she was plagued with the eating disorder anorexia a disorder that lasted well into her twenties. Because of this, she explained, she was very able to understand how deleterious it was for young women to subsist on ‘a daily diet of unrealistically tiny role models gracing the pages of the magazines’ that they are addicted to, as she was (Jones, 2001). Furthermore, she does not lay blame on the publications exclusively; rather, she points out that they definitely did more harm than good. If they were not the impetus that set off the disorder, the graphics she was so bo mbarded with seemed to encourage it: ‘the images definitely perpetuated the hatred I had for my own body’ (2001). To test her theory, the research team at Marie Claire formed a focus group of young, bright, accomplished women. The women were asked a series of questions about their bodies, after which they were free to peruse a selected group of magazines for approximately an hour. When the hour was up, the same questions were asked this time, the answers were very different. ‘Their self-esteem had plummeted’ Jones writes (2001). As the literature and research to be presented in this paper shows, the results of Ms. Jones informal sociological study was very close to the truth: her instincts were right on the mark. However, in hostile surroundings with little support, she was unable to follow them. It soon became clear that the tide of advertisers was far too strong a force to fight from within the industry, and she reached a point of no return: ‘I refuse to conform with an industry that could, literally, kill’ wrote Jones, a survivor. Chapter I. Background.A. Predecessors and Successors Liz Jones was not the first woman to struggle in the name of editorial change. Along with Jones, there were her American predecessors, Grace Mirabella of Vogue, and Gloria Steinem of Ms. In her autobiography, In and Out of Vogue, Mirabella writes about receiving a virtual threat from her publishers, ordering her not to include any articles that criticised cigarette smoking. She was told there should not be even a hint that there might be medical risks associated with nicotine use despite the fact that evidence had already been made known to the public that such risks existed. The reason for this was advertising, the lifeblood of the magazine. Millions and millions of dollars were poured into magazine advertisements by tobacco giants. This gave tobacco manufacturers a sense of power, a right to have input, or even to dictate, what made up the content of the publications they advertised in. They made it clear that any disparagement of their product however valid would result in thei r immediately pulling their advertisements and discontinuing their sponsorship (Mirabella, 1995). Unable or unwilling to risk this, the publishers of Vogue passed on the restrictions to Mirabella. The fact that the health of female readers who also supported the magazine by purchasing it might have been compromised was virtually a non-issue. Another of Jones’ predecessors was American feminist Gloria Steinem, whose magazine Ms. was groundbreaking in a number of ways, and especially in its handling of advertisements. The editors of Ms. Magazine battled constantly with advertisers who contributed to the magazine’s coffers. Noted writer Marilyn French discusses the battles Ms. had with both Clairol and Revlon, two of its major sponsors. Both cases share similarities with the Vogue situation and are worth mentioning. Both companies withdrew their advertisements and cut off funding, each for different but equally significant reasons. Clairol did this after Ms. ran text that included information about medical studies that suggested the possibility of there being carcinogens in hair-dye products. Clairol, well known for its hair-care products, had regularly placed advertisements in the magazine until a disturbing article appeared alongside them, addressing the possibility of carcinogenic content in hair dyes. The topic had already been made public, and was, in fact, the topic of congressional proceedings at the time. In addition, the possibility of cancer-causing agents was widely reported in newspapers and other publications. Still, Clairol was not pleased to have that information appear in the same publication in which it placed advertisements for that very product. The advertisements were removed. Revlon’s reason for cutting off Ms. was slightly different, and certainly less compelling. Revlon executives were disgruntled with the appearance of a cover photograph which showed faces of women from the Soviet Union it was the cover story, and one which they had initially supported. The subject area was something rarely written about at that time, about a populist movement in Afghanistan, and was considered quite an achievement by many, both from within and outside the industry. However, the women in the photos were not wearing Revlon products they were not wearing makeup at all. The company found this objectionable because if the women were not wearing makeup, the cover story was not selling Revlon products(French, 1992: 171). That was enough for Revlon. The advertisements were removed. Later on came an editor from Australia: Cyndi Tebbel, who headed New Woman Australia in 1996. For a year and a half, Tebbel focused on self-help that could not be equated with self-flagellation: she said â€Å"no† to diets, â€Å"yes† to relationship and career advice. In 1997, near the end of her leadership, she published a groundbreaking issue embracing the concept of and featuring large-size models. Although the original strap was ‘Fat Is Back’, the issue finally ran as ‘The Big Issue’. Sales did not plummet, but neither did they soar. Still ‘The Big Issue’ was perceived as ‘unglamorous’, and did little to win support for Tebbel’s cause. Shortly after its publication, Tebbel resigned. There are more and more editors like this as well as writers, designers, photographers, even fashion models themselves who are ‘coming out’ as true supporters of women ‘as they are’. This is, no doubt, due in good part to the work of those that came before. However, they are still a minority, albeit a strong one. B. Fashion Victims What is it that women want? In her book Fashion Victim, editor and writer Michelle Lee raises a number of valid points as she attempts to answer this question.She speculates on what would happen if mainstream magazines began to feature plus-size, or even slightly plump models on their front covers: ‘Even if magazines showed heavier body types on a regular basis, would consumers really respond positively?’ She answers the question by explaining that in theory, we like the idea of showing realistic portrayals of ‘real’ women but the truth is that we don’t like to see them. ‘We appreciate the idea of magazines that use larger models’ Lee asserts. ‘We’re glad they exist. We like the idea of magazines that show more â€Å"realistic† sizes. The only problem is that we don’t buy them, and then they go out of business’ (Lee, 2003: 144). She follows this statement with statistics to underscore her point. The poin t that truly needs to be addressed here, however, is not the fact that we don’t buy magazines that feature the truest images of our selves: but rather, the reason we don’t we buy them. Why don’t we buy them? What is wrong with these magazines that show us who we really are? Or rather: what is wrong with these images of our less-than-perfect ‘selves’? ‘With all of these studies pointing to the public’s apparent need and desire for more â€Å"realistic† body shapes, it would seem likely that magazine publishers would bow to public pressure’, asserts Lee. Apparently, the magazine publishers are one step ahead. They know that what people say is often very different from the ways in which they act. The proof, for them as well as for Lee, is in the numbers. ‘Magazine publishers know that survey respondents are more virtuous on paper than they are at the newsstand’, notes Lee. ‘Top editors and publishers know that thinner cover girls sell more issues’ (Lee, 2003: 139). The noted researcher Angela McRobbie echoes this, asserting that in Britain, ‘winning the hearts and minds of young women has become a social and political priority. There is now a hegemonic effort extended across the social field to win the consent of young women’ (2001: 201). Catering to the desires of th ese young women, then, means displaying covers that they want to see. The point for them is, after all, to sell and they sell by doing what works. What works is staying in business but to stay in business, magazines rely on their advertisers. Because the advertisers are the ones who foot the bill, they have considerable power when it comes to dictating the content of the articles that appear alongside their ads. As French explains it, ‘makers of products for women require women’s magazines (†¦) to print recipes and articles on beauty and fashion to highlight their ads, and further, to promote a certain kind of beauty, food, and fashion the accoutrements of woman-as-commodity’ (1992: 171). Advertisers are also concerned that when their products appear in women’s magazines, they will decrease in value. The association of the product with women is thought to somehow debase it: ‘Many advertisers avoid women’s magazines entirely, fearing that a product that becomes associated with women will be devalued for men. . . .To be assured of advertising revenue, women’s magazines must be vapid, contentless’ (French, 1992: 172). C. Playing Both Sides In addition, advertisers seem to want it both ways they want to sell products to women, and they want to be perceived as supportive of women. Often, these two desires art at odds with each other. On a superficial level, most magazines do a good job of including titles and headlines that, on a cursory reading, appear to do both at the same time. And, as we have seen, ‘real’ women on the cover don’t sell consistently high numbers of magazines for the major publications. As sophisticated as young women may be today, they are still imprisoned in societal expectations. McRobbie asserts that ‘the now normative irony (as knowingness) which pervades the contemporary popular culture and mass media in which young women find themselves accommodated to as post-feminist high achievers, actively disallows such inclinations’ [to be themselves] (2004: 508–509). She also explains that because of their success, these young women are removed from having to face some of the more unpleasant issues that are faced daily by less fortunate female counterparts. What feels like a luxury to them the avoidance of unpleasant realities actually strips them of power, unbeknownst to them. ‘Daily discouraged from the requirement to think or act with courage (as a privilege of the good fortune of living in the affluent liberal west)’ she writes ‘is of course an effective means of disempowerment’ (2004: 509). ‘The last thing magazines want to do is shoot themselves in the foot by admitting that they play a role in creating negative body image’ notes Lee (2003: 140). In order to be profitable and keep their public persona intact, they work from different angles: ‘they do their best to help women break out of that mind-set. But at the same time, they can’t ignore that readers do want to lose weight (or, as most magazines now call it, â€Å"get fit†), so they’re forced to play both sides’ (Lee, 2003: 140). Hence, a single edition of a magazine or, as the later analysis of Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire will demonstrate, may contain contradictory messages on the cover, in the Table of Contents, in the advertising, and in the articles themselves.   Ã¢â‚¬ËœAll magazines are to some degree controlled by advertisers; even supposedly independent news magazines use â€Å"soft† cover stories to sell ads’, asserts French (1992: 171). Thi s control is unavoidable, since advertising is what funds the publications in the first place. Additionally, notes French, all magazines ‘censor articles that might disturb big advertisers or the government (1992: 171). Private backing is an unrealistic solution to this problem because generally, the backers are men: ‘Women’s magazines generally cannot attract such private backing because few women have money’ (French, 1992: 171). As a result, magazines are heavily pressured to include content that advertisers want. There is little choice in this, because to go against the wishers of those who provide the funds is to risk losing the funds and perhaps losing the magazine as well. McRobbie underscores this point, explaining that media ‘have long been seen to be embedded in the fabric of society’ What is new about this, she asserts, is that the power exerted by the media has become stronger than ever. ‘What may be constitutively new is the degree to which media have become something with which the social is continuously being defined’ (McRobbie, 2000: 193). The situation is exacerbated because fashion media cannot lash out against this. ‘Much of the fashion media’s lack of criticism seems to stem from its financial dependence on the industry it covers’ asserts Lee (2003: 100). She notes that ‘fashion magazines have long been among the targets of eating-disorders studies. And many of the results have been damning’ (Lee, 2003: 139). Few would argue the validity of this notion. In fact, most women and most men as well would not need to see evidence. The idea that media dictate the mindsets of young people is not new. In Reviving Ophelia, Feminist Mary Pipher points out that ‘the omnipresent media consistently portrays desirable women as thin’, while ‘models and beautiful women are portrayed as thinner’ even as real women grow heavier. (1994: 216). ‘Underlying advertisers’ constraints is the fear shared by the male establishment generally, that women with a stronger self-image might no longer be willing to remain a servant class, might even unite against exploitation’ notes French (1992: 172–173). She explains that in order to keep a particular segment of the population subordinate, one must first convince the members of that segment that they deserve to be treated this way, usually because of some flaw or inferiority inherent in the group. ‘A person of an inferior group cannot be the author of her or his own life but must center on the superior group’ (French, 1992: 173). Chapter IIFeminism and the Growth of Women’s MagazinesA. Women: A User’s Guide In her volume Feminism, Femininity, and Popular Culture, British scholar Joann Hollows points out that ‘for feminist critics, girls’ magazines have been seen as significant because of their power to define and shape teenage femininities (2000: 167). She goes notes that the ways in which magazines have shaped girls’ development has shifted over the years; the impact is just as strong if not stronger but the means of wielding that power has been transformed. Until the 1980s and 1990s, girls became ‘hooked’ on the idea of physical seduction. Then the ‘hook’ became another form of seduction what Hollows, McRobbie and others call ‘the seduction of buying’ (Hollows, 2000: 171). Of course, McRobbie’s extensive studies and analyses of girls’ magazines provide a wealth of material on this subject. But both the development of the magazine format and the topic of femininity are inextricably intertwined. Hollows also exp lains that ‘feminisms differed in their form and character in different geographical contexts. However, if we take the cases of the UK and US, we can see some similarities in feminist concerns, despite the crucial differences between the forms of feminism which were created’ (2000: 3). It might be worthwhile, then to look into the history of the magazine itself, and to explore how, though developing in places that were geographically distant from each other, the genre ended up being very similar. American researcher Terry Poulton discusses the early days of women’s magazines as ‘the advent of a means of communication by which women could be taught what was expected of them, beauty-wise’, (1997: 30). It was, in essence, a sort of ‘user’s manual’ for women, teaching them what they wanted (assuming they all wanted the same things), and how to act in socially appropriate ways in order to get these things. There was no choice involved, because expectations at that time were rigidly set. Going against what was socially acceptable simply was not an option, and any leanings in the ‘wrong’ direction would most certainly be met with censure and/or ostracism. What Poulton refers to as an operator’s manual was, of cou rse, the beginning of the woman’s magazine. Of course, women had been learning these lessons for years, but never before from a standardized source that would keep them updated of changes on a timely and regular basis. The introduction of women’s magazines bestowed upon those who produced them incredible amounts of power the power to influence women, and in myriad ways. The ways women thought, the way they acted, and of course the way they looked were largely molded by the words and images that arrived in their monthly ‘users’ guides’. As Poulton puts it, ‘what had been missing for centuries a way to deliver visual images to masses of potential consumers had finally arrived’ (1997: 30). B. From Godey’s Lady’s Book to ‘Scientifically Precise’ Fashion Among the first women’s magazines were the U.S. publications Ladies Magazine in 1828, followed a short time later by Godey’s Lady’s Book, in the same year. According to Poulton, ‘thin was in for the first time’ with the advent of these publications. In fact, they are commonly thought to be at least partly responsible for precipitating a diet craze in the United States the first of many (1997: 29). Poulton explains that a foreshadowing of eating disorders also appeared during this time, when an article that appeared in Godey’s Lady’s Book discussed the tragic story of a woman named Louise. Apparently distraught after being ridiculed for her size, she decided to take action. She embarked on a grueling and unhealthy reducing regimen that consisted of a single glass of vinegar each day. Apparently, it worked on one level: she did reduce her size. However, we may ask, at what price? In a matter of months, according to the story, Louise wa s dead (Poulton, 1997: 29–30). In Great Britain, a comparable publication came along in 1872. Entitled The Ladies: A Journal of the Court, Fashion and Society, this publication presented fashion tips from a ‘scientifically precise’ perspective. Historian Virginia Cope explains that it also had clear political messages, with overt pieces in which the need for more political rights for women were discussed. The publication catered to upper-class London women, but appealed to middle-class women as well. The way the American publications served as ‘operator’s manuals’ for women in the U.S., so too did The Ladies for British society women. In this case, however, the guide was originally targeted at the higher classes; however, it soon became a primer for those middle-class women who wanted to rise socially. Implicit in the articles about housekeeping and fashion were lessons to the under classes in how to behave like their more elite counterparts. The ultimate hope that perhaps they wou ld one day be accepted by them was, of course, implicit, and dangled like a carrot to keep them purchasing the magazine each month. However, it seems that The Ladies wasn’t offering quite enough to ladies of either class: the publication did not last long, crumbling after a mere nine months. Even so, it serves as a reflection of British society at the time, which was becoming one of instability and constant flux. Whereas during the days of Queen Victoria’s reign, women’s place was thought to be at home, this gradually began to change and a type of feminism took root. As Britain became more and more industrialised, roles of men and women shifted. Similar changes took place in the United States. Publications of the time from both sides of the ocean like The Ladies and Godey’s Lady’s Book bear witness to this. The power these early publications held over some women is even more significant when one considers that the artistic renderings included in them the ‘graphics’ were just drawings. Photography would not become a part of the process for many years: the age of photographic reproduction was still far off, so images included in the magazines were sketches of varying quality and proportion; these drawings were highly exaggerated and understood to be idealized and unrealistic. Even so, the women who read these early publications still felt their impact, and the pressure to conform was felt by many. This influence would greatly increase when actual photographs replaced the drawings as part of the deceptively seductive advertising package. C. ‘The Camera Doesn’t Lie’ The inclusion of actual photographs in magazines heralded change a dramatic and significant change. No longer were articles accompanied by fanciful renderings of what women should look like now there were actual, live models against which readers could measure themselves. ‘With the mistaken conviction that cameras cannot lie, it was clear sailing for what came to be called â€Å"the tyranny of fashion†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢, explains Poulton. ‘From now on, women would feel obliged to remodel their body shape in favor of the prevailing silhouette’ (Poulton, 1997: 30). There was a scientific precision that photography offered, and it wielded much more power than the often whimsical and sometimes anatomically impossible renderings of a human hand. Yet photography was merely the precursor to what would come next, as magazines became inextricably bound to the world of marketing: ‘Poised on the threshold was another kind of tyranny that would be inimical to women’ s ability to feel at peace with their bodies: advertising’ (Poulton, 1997: 30). The setup was ingenious: magazines, through both text and photography, would introduce new ideas to women, particularly about ways in which they failed to meet prevailing standards. At the same time perhaps even on the same page would be an advertisement for a product that would help them ‘improve’ what they now knew to be flawed parts of themselves. Cinematic portrayals soon became a part of this complex process. As French points out, ‘the debasement of women in art and advertising is echoed in cinematic images’ (1992: 164). This was true then, and remains true now. Perhaps no one puts this more succinctly than the American feminist Gloria Steinem, founding editor of Ms., who breaks the process into three parts: â€Å"to create a desire for products, instruct in the use of products, and make products a crucial part of gaining social approval’ (Steinem, quoted in Poulton, 1997: 30). D. Twiggy: Thin Becomes ‘In’ Weight-loss issues did not gain true prominence until the years following World War I. At that point, corpulence became another problem that women had to deal with. Women began to get more and more messages that indicated that extra weight was taboo. These messages were often tied in complex ways to issues of ability, intelligence, and even morality For help, Poulton explains, the typical woman would turn to magazines for help: ‘What was a woman to do if she was guilty of the new â€Å"crime† of corpulence? Why, just flip the pages of her favourite magazine until she found an article or an ad promoting the very latest in reducing schemes, potion, gimmicks, gadgets, and gizmos’ (Poulton, 1997: 33). This continual reinforcement of the message that being overweight was unacceptable left a comfortable niche for marketers of weight-reducing schemes to claim. The introduction of Lesley Hornby signified a major change for women on both continents. The British-born Hornby better known as ‘Twiggy’ became an overnight international sensation. She is considered by many to be the ‘world’s first supermodel’. Twiggy’s debut onto the New York scene was another turning point. ‘Within a year after Twiggy’s debut, the editorial and advertising cheering sections at women’s magazines had shifted into high gear and added exercising to their lists of must-do’s’ explains Poulton. Thinness as personified by Twiggy was an absolute must, and this dictum was treated with stringent rigidity. Poulton uses an excerpt from a Mademoiselle article of the period: ‘â€Å"Creampuffs, there’s no escape. Whip yourself into super shape and stay that way†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (1997: 45). The attitudes taken were both imperative and encouraging not to mention confusing and set a tone tha t in coming years would grow much more severe. McRobbie refers to the ‘boyish femininity of the girls’ of this period as ‘best exemplified in the early fashion shots of Twiggy’ (2000: 20). The ‘Twiggy’ standard has not really changed much since storming the scene in the 70s. ‘The standard of beauty crystallized into a single dominant body image mandated by those who, knowingly or unwittingly, were doing the bidding of marketers’ notes Poulton (1997: 54). Styles changed radically hot pants, hip huggers, mini-skirts, maxi-skirts the list is endless. Throughout all this, the paradigm of thinness has remained the standard towards which women should strive. If thin was in, ‘too thin’ was even more acceptable and encouraged: ‘In the magazines and on the fashion runways, the twirling girls grew thinner and younger by the year. . . . Meanwhile, real women were getting plumper with every technological advance that made physical labor obsolete, and with every new fat-laden food that came on the market’ (Poulton, 1997: 59–60). Yet not all women were able to achieve this unrealistic standard, thus beginning a wave

Critical Pedagogy :: Teaching Education Essays

Critical Pedagogy "Education must be understood as producing not only knowledge but also political subjects." This statement by Paulo Freire is very bold, and can be translated in many different ways. First, the word knowledge can be understood in many different ways. By definition, knowledge is defined as: the acquaintance with facts, truths, or principles. This knowledge according to Freire would be entirely based on a receptacle idea of education, and just "filling us up" with facts that our teachers know. In some countries this knowledge would mean only the information that the government or the rulers would like the citizens to know. In this sense, education is used to create subjects that are all exactly the same. It creates subjects that usually would not deviate from the normal pattern, and would definitely not rebel against the system. Knowledge can also be something that each person establishes individually by experience and by learning from teachers who do not teach in the banking method, b ut in a method to help students understand concepts, principles, and ideas. The idea of education creating political subjects is also up for argument. A subject can be defined as: a person who is under the domination of a sovereign or a state. This means someone who is forced to live their life according to a government, and obey certain laws. No one should have to be forced to live and think only in a way that is acceptable to a government or political power. Everyone is an individual, and can ultimately make decisions for him or herself. If one’s way of thought is dominated or ruled by anything or anyone, then the individual is the one who is allowing this to happen to himself. He does not want to be free. He does not want to be an individual. People who wish to be individuals will never allow their thoughts and minds to be dominated by a political power. They may be persecuted for their deviance from the accepted way of life, but they will never allow someone else to rule the way they think. This has been shown through many great historical figures. For example, Mahatma Gandhi was forced to be a political subject under the rule of political leaders, and was persecuted because of his thoughts and actions. Throughout his hardships he persevered, and did not let anyone control his thoughts and his mind.

Structure of NTFS :: essays research papers

Structure of NTFS The NTFS file system is used in all critical Microsoft Windows systems. It is an advanced file system that makes it different from the UNIX file systems that the original TCT was designed for. This document gives a quick overview of NTFS and how it was implemented. The biggest difference is the use of Alternate Data Streams (ADS) when specifying a meta data structure. MFT The Master File Table (MFT) contains entries that describe all system files, user files, and directories. The MFT even contains an entry (#0) that describes the MFT itself, which is how we determine its current size. Other system files in the MFT include the Root Directory (#5), the cluster allocation map, Security Descriptors, and the journal. MFT ENTRIES Each MFT entry is given a number (similar to Inode numbers in UNIX). The user files and directories start at MFT #25. The MFT entry contains a list of attributes. Example attributes include "Standard Information" which stores data such as MAC times, "File Name" which stores the file or directories name(s), $DATA which stores the actual file content, or "Index Alloc" and "Index Root" which contain directory contents stored in a B-Tree. Each type of attribute is given a numerical value and more than one instance of a type can exist for a file. The "id" value for each attribute allows one to specify an instance. A given file can have more than one "$Data" attribute, which is a method that can be used to hide data from an investigator. To get a mapping of attribute type values to name, use the 'fsstat' command. It displays the contents of the $AttrDef system file. Each attribute has a header and a value and an attribute is either resident or non-resident. A resident attribute has both the header and the content value stored in the MFT entry. This only works for attributes with a small value (the file name for example). For larger attributes, the header is stored in the MFT entry and the content value is stored in Clusters in the data area. A Cluster in NTFS is the same as FAT, it is a consecutive group of sectors. If a file has too many different attributes, an "Attribute List" is used that stores the other attribute headers in additional MFT entries. FILES Files in NTFS typically have the following attributes: S.N. Attribute Description 1. $STANDARD_INFORMATION Contains MAC times, security ID, Owners ID, permissions in DOS format, and quota data.

Debate: the Other Side and Morning Respected Judges

Thank You Molly! Good morning respected judges, my fellow contestants and members of the audience. Today we are indeed honoured and privileged to stand before you and speak against the common motion that â€Å"THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER ON THE OTHER SIDE†. Hmmmm†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦not until you see my neighbour’s garden maybe then you will change your mind. First of all, what does the grass is always greener on the other side mean?It means that from your perspective, what other people have is always going to look better than what you have. It’s about being jealous of other people’s things and never being satisfied with who you are and what you have. I think each one of us is guilty of practicing â€Å"The grass is always greener† theory at various times in our lives; be it from moving schools, changing careers to pursuing new relationships. It happens most often when we are unhappy about some portion of our existence.The problem with following this pract ice is that once you arrive on the other side, we often find that it's drought conditions and there's nothing we can do and it’s too late to go back. In fact the statement â€Å"The grass isn’t always greener on the other side† originated from a story of goats that kept trying to reach the other side of a river and when they got there the grass was all dead and since there was nothing else to eat they all starved to death.This story symbolizes that sometimes you should not try to change your situation or location but instead to work with what you have. I really like a quote from the song Million Dollar Man by Cutlass that says â€Å"the grass isn't greener on this lonely side. † Meaning, don’t sacrifice everything and everyone trying to get a better life because you’re just going to be stuck wishing for what you had. Things might look good somewhere else and you want what others have because you think it’s better than what you have ho wever that is not necessarily the case all the time.Relationships are one area I am tempted to begin with since it governs a good proportion of our lives. Let’s say you spent a good part of your live with a man who you adore and love to bits. You share a lot of experiences together only to be dumped for someone who is prettier and allows him to watch football all day on Sunday. It won’t be long before he realises that this person has faults too. She might be cheating on him or cost too much to maintain (High maintenance). . As time goes on he starts to see the 2nd woman’s true colours.She's not as nice and doesn’t treat him as good as you did. The 2nd woman is shallow. The man starts to regret leaving you because his adventures are turning into misery. We can also apply this to the thousands of Africans migrating to the west in search of greener pastures. Most of these migrants are professionals understood to have sacrificed decent and respectable jobs ba ck in their respective countries under the illusion that life was going to be plain sailing overseas.For those that have had to stoop low, one can imagine the psychological effect and damage to one's ego, and the humiliation associated with a lowered social status. Some migrants have been forced into career changes, such as cleaning, security personnel, car park attendance, kitchen assistants, carers just to mention a few. Although some might have realised their dreams but the majority have seen their dreams washed away by the day and unfortunately is even harder to go back with all the expectation back home.Hundreds of them also loose their lives in transit. Is the grass really greener on the other side? Finally, I’m sure we all agree on the fact that you shouldn’t be envious of other people just stick to what you have because it’s probably much much better and you should be grateful and appreciate it as other people would rather be in your position and would d o anything to have your life. I will sign off with few lines from one of my favourite songs â€Å"As long as you love me† Justin Bieber the grass ain't always greener on the other side, It’s green where you water it So I know we got issues baby but I'd rather work on this with you Than to go ahead and start with someone new† meaning even if you have problems in your life it doesn’t mean you should want to have someone else’s life. You can always work on these problems †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. do you agree? Well as a team we sure we all do and that’s the very reason why we are sticking with BS for a long haul as we believe the grass isn’t greener anywhere else. Thank you very much for your kind attention. I rest my case! ———————– debate speech