Joseph Papp(Theatrical Producer) Research Paper

Joseph Papp(Theatrical Producer) - Research Paper Example At the age of twelve years, Papp had already learned a gig as a soprano boy at a Sephardic synagogue in Brooklyn. Since then, he developed an interest in theatre, and to him intolerance was a greater threat than poverty (Horn 21). He was also the pioneer of the New York Shakespeare Festival and the public Theatre and he was the most important person in the American theatre during the second phase of the 20th century. Although he was not so good a student in academic work, Joseph Papp went to the Actors Laboratory Theatre College, which was situated in Hollywood where he studied acting and directing from the year 1946 to 1948. With the help of his teachers, he was able to feel a strong urge for Shakespeare (Horn 23). This made him to get a position as an assistant stage director of the national touring company of an Arthur Millers â€Å"Death of a salesman,† (Ullom, 24) two years after graduating from the Actors Laboratory Theatre. He started the New York Shakespeare Festival a fter working for closely to two years as an assistant director for the CBS in New York City. The New York Festival that he started became so different organization from other theatrical institutions in that it was able to provide free and unrestricted presentations and performances of Shakespeare’s dramas across different places within the New York City, comprising the outdoor production at the Central Park. When the company was given the Delacorte Theatre as their lasting base, JosephPapp worked for a long time with little pay just to make sure that he established the festival by remaining the decision maker of the festival while producing and directing most of the dramas and plays by himself (Epstein 33). Papp later started again the New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theatre, in 1967, whose primary function was to look upon modern and tentative dramas. The majority of its productions in the end travelled to

Mary Kay ash speech outline Essay Example for Free

Mary Kay ash speech outline Essay Faith first family second and career third perseverance and dedication to these principal took Mary Kay Ash to be named the greatest female entrepreneur in American history by Baylor University (Notable biographies) a lady never reveals her age Mary Kay Date of birth unknown Excelled in school Married at 17 had three children son is now owner of the company after her death in 2001 Three things Mary Kay is most known for her generosity her legacy and her drive (Her generosity) (Mary Kay tribute) Mary Kay hoped that anyone who did business with the company would be richer for it, not only financially but also spiritually. She built her business on the golden rule and the go give spirit with honesty and integrity as cornerstones (Mary Kay tribute) (Entrepreneur ) Believing it was important to reward hard workers Mary Kay has given away over 9000 cars to their consultants, from red Grand Ams to pink Cadillacs. Mary Kay also founded the Mary Kay charitable foundation which included programs devoted to the prevention of violence against women. (Notable biographies) She helped raise money for cancer research and in 1993 she was honored with the dedication of the Mary Kay Ash Center for Cancer immunotherapy research at St. Paul medical center in Dallas (Her legacy) (Mary Kay Ash tribute). Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around their neck that says make me feel important, not only will you  succeed in business but also in life (Mary Kay Ash) This attitude That she portrayed made her known world wide Even after her death in 2001 Mary Kay was honored as the greatest female entrepreneur in American history by a panel of Business historians Mary Kays goal for providing women an unlimited opportunity for personal and financial success still drives the company today. (Mary Kay tribute) (Her drive) (Notable biographies). Her drive was her belief Womens abilities And her willingness to provide opportunities for hundreds of thousands of women worldwide (Entrepreneur website) Today there are more than 500,000 sales consultants in 29 countries, generating more than $2 billion a year When asked what her biggest accomplishment was Mary Kay said The legacy of a whole community of children who believe they can do anything in this world because they watched their mama do it

Data Gathering And Dissemination In Wireless

Data Gathering And Dissemination In Wireless A wireless sensor network is special kind of ad hoc networks that consists of a number of low-cost, low-power, and multi-functional wireless sensor nodes, with sensing, wireless communications and computation capabilities [1,2,3]. These sensor nodes communicate over a short range via a wireless medium and collaborate to accomplish a common task, like environmental monitoring, military surveillance, and industrial process control [3]. Wireless sensor networks have open up for new opportunities to observe and interact with the physical environment around us. They enable us now to collect and gather data that was difficult or impossible before [4]. Although Wireless Sensor Networks have given new ways to provide information from variety of applications, irrespective of the nature of physical environment, it is seen as a challenging task to extract data from sensor network. Data dissemination and gathering are two terms used in sensor networks to describe two categories of data handling methods. Data dissemination is a process by which data and queries for data are routed in the sensor networks where as data gathering is to transmit data that has been collected by the sensor nodes to the base stations. Data gathering protocols aim to minimize the energy consumption and delay of data gathering process [5]. Although there are differences between these two but almost all the literature called together as routing protocols. Unlike traditional wireless communications networks such as mobile ad hoc and cellular systems, wireless sensor networks have the following unique characteristics and constraints [3]: high density sensor node deployment, battery or no power sensor nodes, low memory and processor capacity, self-configurable, unreliable sensor nodes, data redundancy, application specific and dynamic topology. Due to above characteristics and constraints of wireless sensor networks, the extraction of data from the network is always a challenge. Therefore, it is importa nt that the design of protocols for data gathering and dissemination takes care about these challenges. The main design challenges of routing protocols for wireless sensor network are: Energy, Processing power and Memory. Some of the design challenges as reflected in [3, 6] are highlighted below: Large number of sensor nodes: Since most of the wireless sensor networks composed of large sensor nodes, it is very difficult to have an addressing scheme like other wireless networks. The traditional IP scheme is not feasible to apply for wireless sensor networks. Moreover, the sensor nodes are deployed at random in hostile environment. Limited energy capacity: The sensor nodes are battery powered, so they have limited energy. This is the main challenges in designing wireless sensor networks. In practice, sensor network deployment makes sense only if they can run unattended for months and years without running short of energy [4]. Flow of Data: Almost all the applications of sensor network require the sensory data from multiple sources to flow towards a single destination node called sink in contrast to the traditional networks. Sensor node locations: Most of the proposed routing protocols assumed that the sensor nodes are equipped with global positioning system (GPS), but in practice it is very difficult to manage the locations of sensor nodes. It has become more challenging as sensor networks topology changes frequently due to node failures, moving from the coverage area. Data redundancy: Data collected by various sensor nodes are typically based on common phenomenon; hence the probability of data redundancy is very high. The routing protocol needs to incorporate data aggregation techniques to decrease the number of transmission. Application Specific: The sensor networks are application specific. The requirement of routing protocol changes as per the specific application. It is very challenging to design routing protocols which can meet the requirements of all applications. Scalability: The size of the network grows, so the routing protocols need to be scalable to support the addition of sensor nodes. All sensors may not necessarily have same capabilities of energy, processing, sensing and communications. These should be taken care while designing the routing protocols. Addition to the above parameters the designing of routing protocols for wireless sensor networks also need to look into following points [6]: Node deployment Related work: Since wireless sensor networks gain its usage in various application areas, there is a growing interest in this field leading towards continual emergence of new architectural techniques. Wireless sensor network is widely considered as one of the most important technologies of the 21st century [8]. In this section we bring out and highlight how our survey differs from the similar surveys done previously in this area. We also highlight the scope and target group who will benefit from our work. In [2], similar survey was carried out on routing protocols for wireless networks. The information in [2] was published some five years back and many new protocols have not covered. In [3], although it has covered almost all the routing protocols for wireless sensor networks but it does not provide insight knowledge about the protocols. The survey is good for readers interested in broad area. The goal of [8] is to give a comprehensive survey on routing techniques focusing on mobility issues in sensor networks and does not cover all the routing protocols in wireless sensor networks. In this survey, we bring out the comparative study among wireless sensor network routing protocols bringing their differences and similarities. We also bring out the advantages and disadvantages of different protocols to use in different applications of wireless sensor networks. This survey would be useful for both introductory readers as well as for aspirant researchers who would like to get the comprehen sive idea about the current-state-of-art regarding the techniques of data gathering and dissemination in wireless sensor networks. However, we follow [3] in classifying the routing protocols into different categories although we put some additional protocols which are not covered by [3]. We also excluded multipath-based protocol category since it falls under data-centric category. Table 1 shows the different categories of wireless sensor network routing protocols inspired by [3]. The representative protocols with (*) marks are our additions. Table 1: Routing Protocols for WSNs Category of Protocols Representative Protocol Location-based Protocols MECN, SMECN,GAF, GEAR, Span, TBF, BVGF, GeRaF Data-centric Protocols SPIN, Directed Diffusion, Rumor Routing, COUGAR, EAD, ACQUIRE, Information-Directed Routing, Gradient-based Routing, Energy-aware routing, Information Directed Routing, Quorum-based Information dissemination, Home Agent-based Information Dissemination, *Flooding, *Gossiping. Hierarchical-based Protocols LEACH, PEGASIS, HEED, TEEN, APTEEN Mobility-based Protocols SEAD, TTDD, Joint mobility and routing, Data MULES, Dynamic Proxy Tree-based Data Dissemination, *MDC Heterogeneity-based Protocols IDSQ,CADR,CHR QoS-based Protocols SAR, SPEED, Energy-Aware Routing. Data-Centric Protocols The protocols are differentiated into two categories called data-centric and address-centric. The address-centric routing protocols find the shortest path between source and the destination with addressing scheme like IP whereas in data-centric routing protocols focus is made to search routes from multiple source nodes to a single destination node. In the sensor networks, data-centric routing is preferred where data consolidation and aggregation is done by the intermediate nodes on the data coming from multiple sources before sending to the sink node. This way, it saves some energy preventing redundant data transmissions. In this section, we highlight some of the samples of data-centric routing protocols proposed for wireless sensor networks. Flooding: Flooding [5] is a data dissemination method where each sensor node that receives a packet broadcasts it to its neighboring nodes assuming that node itself is not the destination of the packet. This process continues until the packet arrives the destination or the maximum hop counts for that packet is reached. Flooding though is a simple and easy to implement, but it has problem like implosion (duplicate message sent to the same node) and overlap (duplicate message receive by the same node) [2]. Figure 1 and 2 reproduced from [2] shows the implosion and overlap problems in flooding. Gossiping: Gossiping [5] is based on flooding, but nodes that receives the packet forwards it only to a single randomly selected neighbor. It avoids implosion problem of flooding and it does not waste as much network resources as flooding. However, gossiping is not a reliable data dissemination method since the neighbor node is selected at random, some nodes may not receive that message at all. Moreover, it introduces a delay in propagation of data through the nodes [2] since all the nodes which forwards or sends data need to select a node. SPIN: Sensor Protocols for Information via Negotiation (SPIN) [9, 10] aims to improve the implosion and overlapping problems of classic flooding protocol. The SPIN protocols are based on two key mechanisms namely negotiation and resource adaptation [3]. It uses three types of messages [5]: ADV, REQ, and DATA. The sensor node which has collected data sends an ADV message using high-level descriptors or meta-data regarding the actual data. The actual data is transmitted only when the REQ message is received from the interested nodes. This negotiation mechanism avoids the overlapping and implosion problems of classic flooding because the REQ message is sent from the interested node only when it does not have that data. Fig. 3, redrawn from [5] shows how these three messages are exchanged and fig. 4 inspired by [9] and reproduced from [11] shows more detail process who SPIN works. There are about four versions of SPIN protocols [6, 9, 10]. They are SPIN-PP, SPIN-BC, SPIN-EC and SPIN-RL. Both SIPN-PP and SPIN-BC works under ideal condition when energy is not constraint and packet are never lost. SPIN-PP tackles the data dissemination problem by using point to point media where as SPIN-BC uses broadcast media. There other two protocols are the modified versions of SPIN-PP and SPIN-BC in order to network which are not ideal. SPIN-EC is actually SPIN-PP with additional energy conservation capability. Under SPIN-EC, the nodes participate in data dissemination only when it computes that it has enough energy. If the node has plentiful energy, it works as same as SPIN-PP with 3-stage handshake. SPIN-RL is a version of SPIN-BC which tries to recover from the losses in the network by selectively retransmitting the messages. In SPIN topological changes are localized as each node needs to have information of their next immediate one-hop neighbor only. But this type of protocol cannot be used in applications where reliability is of greater concern like forest fire and intrusion detection since it does not guarantee the data delivery [2]. If the nodes that are interested in data are located far way and the intermediate nodes are not interested then the ADV message will not received which in turn will not able to get data. Directed Diffusion: Directed Diffusion [12] consists of elements like interests, data, messages, gradients and reinforcements. The main objective of the protocol is to use naming scheme to reduce the energy usage by avoiding unnecessary routing operations. Interest is a query or interrogation on what user wants and it contains descriptions of a sensing task. Data is the collected or processed information of a physical phenomenon which is named using attribute-value pair. Gradient is a link a neighbor from which interest was received, and it is characterized by data rate, duration, and expiration time which has derived from the received interest filed [2]. A node, usually sink will be broadcasting interest to request data by diffusing interest through its neighbors. The interests are periodically refreshed by the sink. When this interest is received by the intermediate nodes, they cache for future use, or do in-network data aggregation or direct interest based on previous cached data. The source node sen ds the data back through the reverse path of the interest. When data is received by the nodes, they try to compare with the interest cache before. The data which matches the interest is drawn and then sent via the same path where the interest has received. Out of several paths between sink and the source, one path is selected by network by reinforcement. Once this path is selected, the sink sends the original interest again with smaller time interval so as to make the source node on the selected path to send data more frequently. Although directed diffusion has advantages that the protocol can in-network data aggregation and caching which saves energy but this protocol cannot not be applicable to all the applications of wireless sensor networks. The protocol can only be applied to such application which is query driven. It is not suitable for the applications such as forest fire detection or intrusion detection. Fig. 4, copied from [12] shows the working of the protocol. Rumor Routing Rumor routing [13] another variation of Directed Diffusion aims to direct the query to the nodes which have observed event rather than flooding the entire network [2]. It is a logical compromise between query flooding and event flooding [3]. This protocol is only useful if the number of queries compared to number of events is between the two interaction points. See fig. 5, redrawn from [13]. Rumor routing algorithms introduces an agent, a long live packet. An agent, which also contains an event table like nodes, travels the network propagating information about local event to the distant nodes. The agent informs the nodes it encounters of any events it has observed on its way and at the same time it will synchronize its event table with the event table of encountered node. An agent will travel the network for certain number of hops and then die. All the nodes including an agent maintains an event table list that has event-distance pairs, as shown in fig. 6, copied from [13]. So when a node generates a query for an event, the nodes that knows the route, can respond to the query by referring its event table [2]. In this way, flooding the whole network is avoided. Directional rumor routing is proposed in [14], which try to improve latency and energy consumption by considering query and event propagation in straight line instead of random walk in normal rumor routing. Cougar Cougar [15, 16] is a database approach for tasking sensor networks through declarative queries. Since in-network computation is much cheaper than transmission and communication between nodes, cougar approach proposes a loosely-coupled distributed architecture to support both aggregation and in-network computation. This helps in reducing energy consumption thereby increasing lifetime. The architecture introduces a query proxy layer in each sensor node which interacts both with network layer and application layers. The gateway node (where query optimizer is located) generates a query processing plan after receiving queries from the sensor nodes. This query plan specifies both data flow between sensor nodes and in-network computation plan at each individual sensor node. The query plan also contains how to select a leader for the query. The query plan can be viewed at non-leader node and at the leader node. Fig. 7 and fig. 8, redrawn from [15], show query plan at non-leader node (source sensor) and leader node respectively. Although, cougar provides solution to interact with the sensor nodes independent from the network layer, but the insertion of proxy layer at each sensor node introduce extra overhead for sensor node in terms of memory and energy consumption [2]. Additional delay may be incurred with the relay trying to wait for the packets from other nodes for aggregation before sending to the leader node. ACQUIRE ACQUIRE [16] is a data-centric routing protocol aiming at large distributed databases. It aims at complex queries which comprise of several sub-queries that are combined by conjunctions or disjunctions in an arbitrary manner. The protocol sends an active query packet into the network. This active query packet is sent by the sink, which takes random path or path predefined or guided. The node which receives this active query packet uses information stored within them to partially resolve the query. If the nodes do not have updated information, they gather the information from their neighboring nodes with the distance of d (look-ahead parameter) hops. When the active query is resolved completely, the response is sent back to the node which has issued the query. Some of the assumptions made in this protocol are [17]: the sensors, with same transmission range are laid out uniformly in a region and they are stationary and do not fail. EAD: Energy-Aware Data-Centric Routing Energy-Aware Data-Centric (EAD) [18] aims to construct a virtual backbone containing all active sensors, which is responsible for in-network data processing and relaying traffic. The radios of other nodes which are not in the virtual backbone are put off to conserve the energy. The sensor network is represented by a broadcast tree rooted at the gateway and spanning all the sensors with large leaf nodes. In order to conserve power, the radios of these leaf nodes are put off while the nodes which are in virtual backbone are active for traffic relaying. The protocol tries to construct broadcast spanning tree network with maximum leaf nodes so that maximum energy can be conserved. The concept of EAD is to include the neighboring broadcast scheduling and the distributed competition among neighbors, based on residual energy [18]. The efficiency of the protocol would be more when the size of the network is small. When the size of the network is large, execution time will be more since the e xecution process propagates from the sink to the whole network. Other protocol like the one proposed by Shah and Rabaey in [19] also aims at increasing network life time. They use network survivability as the main metric and propose to choose one of the multiple paths with a certain probability so that the whole network life time increases. But the protocol assumes that each node is addressable with some addressing schemes. Information-Directed Routing Location-based Protocols Since sensor nodes have limited energy capacity, most of the routing protocols aim to reduce the consumption of energy in routing processes. In most of the protocols location of the sensor nodes are used to find the distance between two communicating pairs in order to find the best possible path with low energy usage. If location of a particular sensor node is known, query can be sent to that particular location only without sending to other regions which will reduce the number of transmission significantly [2]. Location-based protocol makes use of the position information to relay data to the network rather than the whole network. In this section, we describe some of the location-based routing protocols proposed for wireless sensor networks. Minimum Energy Communication Network (MECN): Hierarchical-based Protocols

Xenotransplantation Essay -- Medical Research Transplant Donor Essays

Xenotransplantation Physicians today are faced with a growing list of patients awaiting transplants for organs that have failed, but there are not enough donors to meet these needs. Countries all over the world have a â€Å"human organ shortage† and the waiting lists for organ transplants only seem to grow longer (Melo 427). In the United States 62,000 patients needed a kidney, liver, or pancreatic transplant in the year 2001. Xenotransplantation, which refers to the transplantation of organs, cells, or tissues from animal species into human beings, has been heralded as a promising technology that will help us save more lives and lessen the dire shortage of transplantable organs. Organs from pigs, goats, monkeys, chimpanzees, and baboons have been used in xenotransplant experiments conducted so far. It promises to be a good treatment option for patients with end-stage organ failure (Williams 12). The transplant surgery could be scheduled at the patient’s convenience rather than scheduling an emergency surgery as soon as the human donor is found. Patients would be able to receive transplants when they first need them rather than having to wait until a transplant is the only remaining option that can save their lives. When transplants are conducted earlier, the patient will be stronger and have a better chance of recovering. Xenotransplantation appears to have several advantages as a medical procedure, but like any medical procedure it is not without its risks. Before we embrace xenotransplantation as yet another boon of science, we need to consider the ethical dilemmas surrounding this medical technology. History of Xenotransplantation The concept of using animal organs in human beings is not a new one. On... ... Xenotransplantation.† Bioethics. 2001 Vol 15 Number5/6. Nelson, James Lindemann. â€Å"Transplantation through a Glass Darkly.† Hastings Center Report. Sept-Oct 1992: 6-8. [Online] http://online.sfsu.edu/~rone/GEessays/Transplantation.htm â€Å"The Ethical Implications of Xenotransplantation.† American Medical Association. CEJA Reports 2000-2002. [Online] http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/upload/mm/369/ceja_report_113.pdf Veatch, Robert M. The Basics of Bioethics. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2000. Williams, Rebecca D. â€Å"Organ Transplants from Animals.† FDA Consumer. June 1996, Vol 30 Issue 5. [Online] http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/596_xeno.html Windsor, Roger G. â€Å"Spare Body Parts from Animals.† Spectrum: The Wholistic News Magazine. Mar-Apr 1997. â€Å"Xenotransplantation.† Natural Life. Jan-Feb 2000, Issue 71. [Online] http://www.life.ca/nl/71/xeno.html

Higher Education and Poverty Reduction Among the Youth

HIGHER EDUCATION AND POVERTY REDUCTION AMONG THE YOUTH BY OKUNOLA, PHILIP OLAYIDE (Ph. D), ONYENE. V. E(Ph. D. )([email  protected] com) SUBAR, S. TAYO. ASHIRU, AL-MAHROOF OLASEEWO ([email  protected] ca) PAPER PRESENTED AT THE 8TH REGIONAL CONFERENCE OF HIGHER EDUCATION RESEARCH POLICY NETWORK VENUE: INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR TROPICAL AGRICULTURE (IITA), IBADAN AUGUST, 2008 ABSTRACTEducation in Nigeria and higher education in particular, are fundamental to the construction of a knowledge economy and worthwhile society in any nation hence, from a global perspective, economic, political, technological and social developments are increasingly driven by the advancement and application of knowledge, skills and socialization acquired in the process of this education. This paper presents an empirical study of higher education and poverty reduction among the youth using the University of Lagos, Nigeria. A total of 330 youth population comprised the sample drawn from the eight facultie s on campus.Three hypotheses were formulated and tested using chi-square statistical tool at 0. 05 level of significance. The major findings are that higher education is significant in exposing the youth to talent discovery, physical and intellectual development among the youth and has high potency reduction for poverty reduction among the youth. Introduction The dawn of the 21st century has brought profound and fundamental changes to economics, technology, politics, culture, morals, social values and ethics. Globalization is the driving force in all these changes.While globalization has induced the collapse of time and space, it has also expanded opportunities and challenges for individuals and for nations and has sidelined the weak and unprepared. Anya (2002). The task of the university education will then be to empower the youths to be able to cope with the dynamics of globalization. Consequently the university must have an organic linkage with the industrial and economic environ ment to contribute to economic growth of the nation. Education has for long been recognized and accepted as a panacea for Nigeria’s ills and woes. Particularly so is the case of higher education.Stupendous amount of money and other resources, even though inadequate are expended on the universities annually. Unarguably al stakeholders look up to the universities as the nation’s beacon of hope, light and civilization. For this reason, besides over 50 public universities are springing up all over the nooks and crannies of the country (Ejiogu and Onyene, 2006). Nigeria ‘s philosophy of education is aimed at education that foster the worth and development of the individual, for each individuals sake, and for the general development of the society there is need for empowerment so as to break the chains of poverty for necessary liberation.Are the Nigerian youths hopeful? Do they see the light? Are they civilized? The quest and agitation for the empowerment of the youth and their liberation through higher education is fast becoming almost hysterical given the often reported cases of incessant strike actions by lecturers, lack or inadequate infrastructures in the universities, brain drain, and so on, within the university system. Instance abound when university graduates are not employable in the labour market.The situation becomes worrisome and intriguing with the jet-speed rate of opening up of new universities with its attendant alleged unemployment of â€Å"unqualified† staff, and stragglers from older universities. The Concept of Higher Education and Poverty Higher education means different things to many people, but the purpose is perceived to be the same. It is the type of education that focuses on professionalization, by empowering the partaker of this level of education with skills that are not necessarily the function of formal educational process.This type of skills emanates from students’ interaction with their peers, teach ers and other members of their academic community. Though these experiences that culminate into skills makes students sojourn in their academic environment a complete one, which necessitates the saying â€Å" passing through the school without the school passing through the student† The proponents of this statement are of the opinion that students who passed through the school without the school passing through them have learnt only partially regardless of their grades at the end of their academic pursuit in the university, thereby limiting their opportunities.This is corroborated by Gay 2005, who opined that poverty can only be eliminated if the students to whom implicit promises are being by urging them to attend school actually receive some tangible benefit for their years spent in school. Higher education includes teaching, research and social service activities of universities, and within the realm of teaching, it includes both the undergraduate level (sometimes referred to as tertiary education and the graduate school). Higher education generally involves work towards a degree level or foundation for degree qualification.In most developed countries a high proportion of the population (up to 50%) now enters higher education is therefore every important to national economy, both as a source of trained and educated personnel for the rest of the economy. Schofield, K. 1999. Higher education is based on theoretical expertise. It might be contrasted with higher vocational education, which concentrates on both practice and theory. Deciding to further education and attain a degree tends to improve many aspects of life.People with college degrees tend to earn more money and salary increases over the years are more substantial than for those that do not have a college degree or university degree. Additionally, people that have a college degree are less likely to go through long bouts of unemployment. However attaining certifications and/or degrees related t o your field can yield better jobs and ongoing opportunities (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). University qualifications need to match employers’ and labour market requirements as closely as possible.Mass unemployment of university graduates is the result where university programmes and the labour market are at variance. The issue of relevance, utilitarian criteria based on prospects of income generation at completion of a programme should be uppermost in the programmes provided by universities. The idea of pursuing knowledge for its own sake or of the sake of engaging in a programme of study given a passion for learning in a particular subject area will seem acquaint if it is remembered at all. (Roberts, 1999).Youth (in the developed world): like all identities, is a culturally relative manifestation whose meanings and applications are specific to certain times and manifestation whose meaning and applications are specific to certain times and locales. For those living in p resent-day western cultures, the term youth refers to persons who are no longer children and not yet adults. In a strictly legal sense, the term is typically applied to a person from the time of their early teens until a point between 16 and 21, after which the person is legally an adult. As an adult they are endowed priviledges such as the right to vote and consume alcohol e. c. used colloquially, however, the term generally refers to a broader, more ambiguous field of reference – from physically adolescent to those in their late 20s, the United Nations, for example, defines youth as people between the ages of 15 and 24 years inclusive (United Nations Education and Scientific Children Organisation, 2002b). Poverty refers to a situation and process of serious deprivation or lack of resources and material necessary for living within a minimum standard conducive to human dignity and well being (NEST, 1991). Poverty connotes deprivation of the means of subsistence. The manifesta tion of poverty, i. inadequate distribution of resources, access to basic social services like education and health, food scarcity, low life expectancy, and lack of participation in decision making processes (Braun, 1999, Carrey 1999;World Bank 1999; Web et al 1992;Ravnborg, 1996). For the purpose of this paper poverty is viewed as deprivation of common necessities that determine the quality of life, which include food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, and may also include the deprivation of opportunities to learn, to obtain better employment to escape poverty and/or to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens.This can be measured in terms of absolute or relative poverty. Absolute poverty refers to a set standard which is consistent in over time between countries. An example of an absolute measurement would be the percentage of the population eating less food than is required to sustain the human body, which may lead to extreme poverty. United Nations 2002 report defines extre me poverty as â€Å"poverty that kills†, depriving individuals of the means to stay alive in the face of hunger, disease and environmental hazards.This is further substantiated by Moore (2007) in his report for the World Bank, that extreme poverty implies living on less than 1 dollar per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 a day. The proportion of the developing world’s population living in extreme economic poverty fell from 28 percent in 1990 to 21 percent in 2001. Looking at the period 1981 – 2001, the percentage of the world’s population living on less than $1 per day has halved.Analysis of social aspects of poverty links conditions of scarcity to aspects of the distribution of resources and power in a society and recognizes that poverty may be a function of the diminished â€Å"capability† of people to live the kinds of lives they value. The social aspects of poverty may include lack of access to information, education, health care, or po litical power. Poverty may also be understood as an aspect of unequal social status and inequitable social relationships, experienced as exclusion, dependency, and diminished capacity to participate, or to develop meaningful connections with other people in society.Statement of the Problem The growth and development of this country will to a large extent be determined by quality, in character and in learning, of the products of our universities. UNESCO policy (1997) posited that basic education for all should incorporate: literacy, income generation, health care, child care, family planning, food management, union education, labour laws, civil and voting rights, peace education, environmental management, HIV/AIDS and drug awareness (UNESCO 2002). The questions are what is the hope of Nigerian youth in universities? Do they really discover their potentials having gone through the university?What then can we say are the contributions of Nigeria universities to poverty reduction among the Nigerian youth? It becomes imperative, therefore, to ascertain the potency of Nigerian higher education for poverty reduction among the youth and to proffer measures for enhancement and sustainability of youth empowerment. Methodology The study was carried out using the descriptive survey research design. The youths in University of Lagos constituted the study which comprises 500 respondents. They were diploma and 100-300 level students, from the eight faculties of the University of Lagos, Akoka campus, Lagos, Nigeria.Higher Education Potency for Poverty Reduction Questionnaire (HEPPRQ) designed by the researchers was the data-gathering instrument. It measure sure such poverty reduction potencies as talent discovery, facilitation of mind development in the youth, good leadership skills, enabling intellectual development, development of social ethics through positive interaction, exposure to entrepreneurial activities, provision of mindset for creative ideas, preparation for rend ering payable service (income generation), inculcation of technological ideas for product development, self esteem mong peers, position of youth for global alignment with contemporaries in the western world and realization of the academic inclination (discipline). Colleagues affirmed the face validity and reliability of the instrument The researchers personally distributed the questionnaire to 500 respondents across the 8 faculties on campus on different occasions; some of the respondents returned the questionnaire immediately while others returned theirs the following day. Of the 500 copies of the questionnaire distributed, 330 (66%) usable copies were returned.However, the analysis was done using both descriptive and inferential statistics. To be precise, simple percentage and chi-square statistical tools were used. Findings Total response of the respondents was done by finding the percentages. The analysis is presented in table1. Table 1: Frequency count of responses and percenta ge ratings. |S/N |POTENCY INDICES |ALWAYS |OFTEN |SOMETIMES |NEVER |TOTAL | |1 |University environment and talent |200(60. 60%) |20(6. 06%) |110(33. 3%) | – |330 | | |discovery | | | | | | |2 |Higher education development and e |160(48. 48%) |90(27. 27%) |30(9. 09%) |50(15. 15%) |330 | | |youth’s minds | | | | | | |3 |Higher education and good leadership|190(57. 57%) |50(15. 15%) |50(15. 15%) |40(12. 12%) |330 | |4 |Higher education and intellectual |200(60. 60%) |50(15. 5%) |70(21. 21%) |10(3. 03%) |330 | | |development | | | | | | |5 |Social ethics through the university|170(51. 51%) |70(21. 21%) |80(24. 24%) |10(3. 03%) |330 | |6 |Higher education, parliamentary and |120(36. 36%) |110(33. 33%) |90(27. 27%) |10(3. 03%) |330 | | |governance process | | | | | | |7 |Entrepreneurial activities at school|110 |120(36. 6%) |80(24. 24%) |20(6. 06%) |330 | | | |(33. 33%) | | | | | |8 |University environment and mindset |170 |100(30. 30%) |50(15. 15%) |10(3. 03%) |330 | | |for creative ideas |(51. 51%) | | | | | |9 |Rendering payable service (income | 170 | 80 |40(12. 12%) |40(12. 2%) |330 | | |generation) |(51. 51%) |(24. 24%) | | | | |10 |University education and | 180 | 70 | 70 | 10 |330 | | |technological ideas |(54. 54%) |(21. 21%) |(21. 21%) |(3. 03%) | | |11 |Employment with related industries | 70 | 80 | 150 | 30 |330 | | | |(21. 1%) |(24. 24%) |(45. 45%) |(9. 09%) | | |12 |Sustenance in the face of job |110 | 90 | 110 | 20 |330 | | |scarcity |(33. 33%) |(27. 27%) |(33. 33%) |(6. 06%) | | |13 |Apart from certification, university| 190 | 120 | 20 | – |330 | | |environment and self esteem |(57. 57%) |(36. 36%) |(6. 6%) | | | |14 |Global alignment with my | 190 | 100 | 30 | 10 |330 | | |contemporaries in the western world |(57. 57%) |(30. 30%) |(9. 09%) |(3. 03%) | | |15 |Relevance of their academic | 150 | 120 | 60 | 30 |330 | | |inclination (discipline) outside |(45. 45%) |(36. 36%) |(18. 18%) |(9. 9%) | | | |their myopic perception | | | | | | Hypothesis 1 There will be no significant influence of higher education exposure on youth talent discovery. To test this hypothesis, the chi-square statistical tool was employed and tested at 0. 05 level of significance. The results are presented in table 2 below. Table 2: higher education and talent discovery. |S/N |Items |Always |Often |Sometimes |Never |Total | | |1. 200(60. 60%) |20(6. 06%) |110(33. 33%) |- |330 | | |2. |160(48. 48%) |90(27. 27%) |30(9. 09%) |50(15. 15%) |330 | | |3. |190(57. 57%) |50(15. 15%) |50(15. 15%) |40(12. 12%) |330 | | |4. |200(60. 60%) |50(15. 15%) |70(21. 21%) |10(3. 03%) |330 | | |5. |170(51. 51%) |70(21. 21%) |80(24. 24%) |10(3. 3%) |330 | | |Column Total |920 |280 |140 |110 |1650 | | |Average Total |460(55. 75%) |140(16. 96%) |70(20. 60%) |55(6. 66%) |825 | Chi-square observed value = 52. 63 Degree of freedom = 12 Level of significance = 0. 05 Critical Value = 21. 03 The result revealed that the observed value (52. 63) is greater than the crit ical table value (21. 03) given 12 degree of freedom at 0. 5 level of significance. The result is therefore significant, thus giving a basis for rejection of the null hypothesis. It can then be inferred that higher education has significant influence on the exposure of youth to talent discovery. Hypothesis 2 Higher education will have no significant influence on the physical and intellectual development of the youth. To test this hypothesis, the chi-square statistical tool was employed and tested at 0. 05 level of significance. The results are presented in table 3 below. Table 3: Higher education, Physical and Intellectual Development S/N |Items |Always |Often |Sometimes |Never |Total | | |6 |120(36. 36%) |110(33. 33%) |90(27. 27%) |10(3. 03%) |330 | | |7 |110(33. 33%) |120(36. 36%) |80(24. 24%) |20(6. 06%) |330 | | |8 |170(51. 51%) |100(30. 30%) |50(15. 15%) |10(3. 03%) |330 | | |9 |170(51. 1%) |80(24. 24%) |40(12. 12%) |40(12. 12%) |330 | | |10 |180(54. 54%) |70(21. 21%) |70(21. 2 1%) |10(3. 03%) |330 | | |Column Total |750 |480 |330 |90 |1650 | | |Average Total |375(45. 45%) |240(29. 09%) |165(20%) |45(5. 45%) |825 | From the responses of the participants in the table, it is realized that the observed chi-square (49. 6) is greater than the critical value (21. 03) at 12 degree of freedom and at 0. 05 level of significance. The result is therefore significant, thus higher education will have significant influence on physical and intellectual development of the youth. Hypothesis 3 Higher education will make significant provision of resources and materials for youths’ adequate living. To test this hypothesis, the chi-square statistical tool was employed and tested at 0. 05 level of significance. The results are presented in table 4 below. Table 4: Higher Education and Youth Adequate Living. S/N |Items |Always |Often |Sometimes |Never |Total | | |11 |70(21. 21%) |80(24. 24%) |150(45. 45%) |30(9. 09%) |330 | | |12 |110(33. 33%) |110(33. 33%) |110(33. 33%) | 20(6. 06%) |330 | | |13 |190(57. 57%) |20(6. 06%) |20(6. 06%) |- |330 | | |14 |190(57. 57%) |30(9. 09%) |30(9. 9%) |10(3. 03%) |330 | | |15 |150(45. 45%) |120(36. 36%) |60(18. 18%) |30(9. 09%) |330 | | |Column Total |710 |510 |370 |60 |1650 | | |Average Total |355(43. 03%) |255(30. 90%) |185(22. 42%) |30(3. 63%) |825 | Chi-square observed = 195. 41 Degree of freedom = 12 Significance level = 0. 05 Critical value = 21. 03The table above reflects that the chi-square calculated (195. 41) exceed the critical value (21. 03) at 12 degree of freedom and 0. 05 level of significance. Thus higher education provides resources and materials for youths adequate living. Results and Discussion Analysis revealed that the study population consisted of 330 participants, 210(63. 63%) were males and 120 (36. 365) females whose age ranges from 15 to 30 years. 300(90. 90%) were single and 30 (9. 09%) were married. 40 (12. 12%) were in diploma 1, 10 (3. 03%) in diploma 2, 90 (27. 27%) in 100 level, 40 (12 . 12%) in 200 level and 150 (45. 45%) in 300 level respectively.Table shows the item-by-item analysis of the perception of the youth towards the potency indices of higher education concerning poverty reduction. Majority of the youth (60. 60%) who participated in the study were of the opinion that university environment enables the youth to discover their talents and higher education poses challenges that enables intellectual development in the youth. 57. 57% of the respondents were in tune with the fact that higher education inculcates good leadership skills in the youth, apart from certification, being in the university environment gives them self esteem among their contemporaries in the western world.Also 51. 51% of the respondents who are in the majority opined that they gain social ethics through positive interaction with their peers while in the university. University environment provides the youth with the mindset for creative ideas and talents developed in the university prep are them to render payable service (income generation). 48. 48% of the participants who were in the majority believed that higher education facilitates the development of youths’ mind, 45. 45% were in tune with the fact that higher education make the youth realize the relevance of their academic inclination (discipline) outside their myopic perception.Majority of the respondents (54. 54%) admit that university education inculcates technological ideas that can facilitate product development. However, 45. 45% of the respondents felt that youth only sometimes get employment with industries related to their discipline before graduation, but 21. 21% and 24. 24% of them believe that youth with university experience are always able to sustain themselves in the face of job scarcity, equal percentage the participants contends that it happens only sometimes. The findings in this study showed that: †¢ Higher education is significant in exposing the youth to talent iscovery. †¢ Higher education has significant influence on physical and intellectual development of the youth. †¢ Higher education makes significant provision of resources and materials for youths’ adequate living. The significance of higher education in exposing the youth to talent discovery is corroborated by UNESCO policy 1997, which stipulates that basic education for all should incorporate: literacy, income generation, health care, child care family planning, food management, union education, labour laws, civil and voting rights, peace education, environmental management, HIV/AIDS and drug awareness.Also the finding relating to higher education having significant influence on physical and intellectual development of youth, is justified by Subar and Ashiru 2007, they opined that the students (youth) are the core input into our educational institutions and the quality of the output (students) depends largely on the provision of infrastructures capable of directly or indirectly su pporting, facilitating, influencing and encouraging the development of their potentials.Therefore, the knowledge, skills, competences and attitudes students (youth) acquire for life can make them fit into the cultural, social, economic and political contexts of the society in which they live, and to work and employment.The finding that education makes significant provision of resources and materials for youth’s adequate living, emanates from the fact that youth get employment with industries related to their discipline even before graduation, youths with university experience are mostly able to sustain themselves in the face of job scarcity, apart from certification, being in the university environment gives the youth self esteem among their peers, higher education positions youth for global alignment with their contemporaries in the western world and education makes the youth realize the relevance of the relevance of their academic inclination (discipline) utside their myopi c perception. Conclusion ? From the foregoing, it is permissible to justify the above stated with the statement of the National Association of Colleges and Employers, â€Å"there have been steady increases in college job placement†. This means that not only are college graduates more likely to find good jobs, but they progress after college.Ashiru and Owodiong 2008 declared that the absolute position of the university graduate is declining as more educated workers are displacing less educated workers in the same job, this shows that the Nigerian youth should advance academically, this challenge to the youth is evidenced by the continuous increases in entry point requirement for jobs, for instance a degree certificate is required to teach in a secondary school, while doctoral degree is required to lecture in the university. The dawn of the 21st century has brought profound and fundamental changes to economics, technology, politics, culture, morals, social values and ethics thr ough globalization. This globalization has induced the collapse of time and space; it has also expanded opportunities and challenges for the individual and for the nations and has sidelined the weak and the unprepared. Recommendations Government and university authorities should ensure that university programmes and labour market are not at variance on the issue of relevance, utilitarian criteria based on prospects of income generation should be uppermost in the programmmes provided by the universities. ? Universities must have an organic linkage with the industrial and economic environment to contribute to economic growth. ? Acquisition of higher education should be encouraged among the youth, through scholarship awards for those who lack the resources in continuing heir education. ? Government should encourage enrollment expansion in tertiary institutions, which will avail more people the opportunity to higher education, hence empowerment through skill acquisition and enhanced int ellectuality and human capital development that will necessitate innovative ideas for job creation, employment and economic advancement. ? University authorities should integrate entrepreneurial skills into academic programmes of students for rounded preparation for the world of work. Entrepreneurial Development Programme (EDP) should be provided in all faculties to enable undergraduates develop and market products and services relevant to their areas of study. REFERENCES Anya, A. O. (2002), â€Å"Science, Oil and the Future of Nigeria Economy†, The Guardian (Lagos), Wednesday, March 13, p. 16. Ashiru, A. O. and Owodiong-Idemeko, N. L. (2008). Higher Education and the Millennium Development Goals. Lagos: Unpublished M. Ed. Thesis. Braun, J. V. ,Teklu, T. and Webb P. (1999). Famine in Africa: Causes, Responses, andPreventions. IFPRI Food Policy Statement No. 28: Washington, D. C. Carney, D. (1999) ‘Approaches to Sustainable Livelihoods for the Rural Poor’. ODI Pov erty Briefing, 2, January 1999. London: Overseas Development Institute. Carney, D. (1998) Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: What contributions can we make? Department for International Development, London. David, E. B. , David C. and Kevin C (2006). Higher Education and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. Havard:Havard School of Public Health. David, M. (2007) (ed. ): The World Bank: Development, Poverty, and Hegemony.University of Kwazulu: National Press. Ejiogu, A. and Onyene V. E. (2006). Deepening Corporate Integrity in the University System, Lagos El-Khawas, Elaine. (2001). Today’s universities: responsive, resilient, or rigid? Higher Education Policy, 14, 241-248. Hartnett, Teresa. (2000). Financing trends and expenditure patterns in Nigerian federal universities: an update. Unpublished report. Washington, D. C. : The World Bank. 85 pages. John, Gay. (2005): Higher Education in Europe. Vol. 30, Nos 3-4. Jerry D. S. (March 6, 2005). The End of Poverty Time. Retrieved August 7, 2 007. ww. wikipedia. org. James, A. (2003) (ed. ): Highly Affected Rarely Considered: The International Youth Parliament Commission’s Report on the Impact of Globalization on the Young People: Oxfam Community Abroad. Krebs, W. A. (1994). Australian English Dictionary, Australia: Harper Collins Publishers Moore, K. A. , Jekielek, S. M. , Hair, E. C. & Scarupa, H. J. (2007). Mentoring: A Promising Strategy for Youth Development. Child Trends Research Brief. Retrieved May 4, 2008 from: http://www. childtrends. org/Files//Child_Trends-2002_02_01_RB_Mentoring. df Moore McBride, A. , Benitez, C. , Sherraden, M. (2003a) The forms and nature of civic service: A global assessment, research report. St. Louis: Centre for Social Development, Washington University. Ross, D. and P. Roberts. (1999). Income and Child Well-Being: A New Perspective on the Poverty Debate. Ottawa: Canadian Council on Social Development. Saint, Hartnett, and Strassner (2004). Higher Education in Nigeria: A Status Report, U. S. A. : World Education News and Reviews. Volume 17, Issue 13. Retrieved from htt//:www. wes. rg/Ewnr/04 Sept/feature. htm Subar S. T. and Ashiru A. O. (2007): Technology Education and National Development: The Place of Infrastructure, a Paper Presented at NAEAP International Conference 2007,University of Lagos, Nigeria. UNESCO(1997): 50 Years for Education. France. Paris: UNESCO UNESCO. (2000). World Education Report 2000. Paris: UNESCO. 178 pp. UNESCO. (2002b). Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity. Paris: UNESCO,1,(7-59). World Bank. (1996). Nigeria: Poverty in the midst of plenty. Washington, D. C. The World Bank. World Bank. 1999). World development report: knowledge for development. Washington, D. C. : The World Bank. 251 pages. World Bank. (2002a). World development indicators. Washington, D. C. : The World Bank. 212 pages. World Bank. (2002b). Constructing knowledge societies: new challenges for tertiary education. Washington, D. C. : The World Bank. 164 pag es. Webb, P. , von Braun, J. and Yohannes, Y. 1992. Famine in Ethiopia: Policy Implications of coping failure at national and household levels. International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, D. C.

A Queer Revolution Essays

A Queer Revolution Essays A Queer Revolution Essay A Queer Revolution Essay A Queer Revolution: Reconceptualizing the Debate Over Linguistic Reclamation Robin Brontsema University of Colorado at Boulder The debate over linguistic reclamation, the appropriation of a pejorative epithet by its target(s), is generally conceived of as a simple binary of support and opposition. I offer an alternative conceptualization that shows both the complex contrasts and commonalities within the debate. Specifically, I identify three perspectives: (1) that the term is inseparable from its pejoration and therefore its reclamation is opposed; (2) that it is separable from its pejoration and therefore its reclamation is supported; and (3) that it is inseparable from its pejoration and therefore its reclamation is supported. Additionally, by examining different goals within and across reclamations, I demonstrate the difficulty of assigning a fixed outcome of success or failure. Although the term queer serves as the primary case study, the terms black, nigger, cunt, and dyke supplement and expand the discussion from a specific study of queer to linguistic reclamation in general. 1. Introduction Hate speech intended to disable its target simultaneously enables its very resistance; its injurious power is the same fuel that feeds the fire of its counter-appropriation. Laying claim to the forbidden, the word as weapon is taken up and taken back by those it seeks to shackle- a self-emancipation that defies hegemonic linguistic ownership and the (ab)use of power. Linguistic reclamation, also known as linguistic resignification or reappropriation, refers to the appropriation of a pejorative epithet by its target(s). The linguist Melinda Yuen-Ching Chen offers the following definition: â€Å"The term ‘reclaiming’ refers to an array of theoretical and conventional interpretations of both linguistic and non-linguistic collective acts in which a derogatory sign or signifier is consciously employed by the ‘original’ target of the derogation, often in a positive or oppositional sense† (1998:130). At the heart of linguistic reclamation is the right of self-definition, of forging and naming one’s own existence. Because this self-definition is formed not in one’s own terms but those of another, because it necessarily depends upon the word’s pejoration for its revolutionary resignification, it is never without contestation or controversy. While the controversy over reclamation is generally reduced to a simple binary of support and opposition, I present an alternative conceptualization that accurately represents both the complex contrasts and commonalities within the debate. Additionally, by examining different goals within and across reclamations, I demonstrate the difficulty of assigning a fixed outcome of success or failure. Although queer is the primary case study, the terms black, nigger, cunt, and dyke supplement and expand the discussion from a specific study of queer to linguistic reclamation in general. Colorado Research in Linguistics. June 2004. Volume 17, Issue 1. Boulder: University of Colorado.  © 2004 by Robin Brontsema. 2Colorado Research in Linguistics, Volume 17 (2004) 2. Origins of Queer 2. 1. Non-sexual senses The Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (Simpson and Weiner 1989; henceforth OED) identifies queer’s origin as the Middle High German twer, signifying ‘cross’ or ‘oblique,’ and provides several definitions, including the following1: Adjective: 1a. Strange, odd, peculiar, eccentric, in appearance or character. Also, of questionable character, suspicious, dubious. 1b. Of a person (usually a man): homosexual. Hence, of things: pertaining to homosexuals or homosexuality. United States origin) Noun: A (usually male) homosexual. Also in combinations, as queer-bashing, the attacking of homosexuals; hence queer-basher. (Simpson and Weiner 1989: 1014) Queer’s original significations did not denote non-normative sexualities, but rather a general non-normativity separable from sexuality. Only later in its history would sexuality become the overriding denotation. Queer, then, initially could refer to str ange objects, places, experiences, persons, etc. ithout sexual connotations, as in the following literary examples taken from the OED: 1) â€Å"The emperor is in that quer case, that he is not able to bid battle† (Yonge’s Diary of 1621) 2) â€Å"I have heard of many queer Pranks among my Bedfordshire Neighbours† (Richardon’s Pamela of 1742) 3) â€Å"It was a queer fancy but he was a queer subject altogether† (Dicken’s Barnaby Rudge of 1840) (Simpson and Weiner 1989: 1014) 2. 2. Sexual senses Queer eventually did become associated almost exclusively with non-normative sexuality, an association which has persisted to the present. In contrast to its contemporary usage among queer theorists and self-identified queers (yet similar to its usage in the mass media), by the early 20th century, queer as sexually non-normative was restricted almost exclusively to male homosexual practices, as in the following example from the U. S. Children’s Bureau’s Practical Value of Scientific Study of Juvenile Delinquents of 1922: â€Å"A young man, easily ascertainable to be unusually fine in other characteristics, is probably ‘queer’ in sex tendency† (Simspon and Weiner 1989: 1014). As George Chauncey demonstrates in an examination of terms of self-reference of male homosexuals in New York prior to the Second World War, queer co-existed with fairy in the 1910s and 1920s to refer to â€Å"homosexuals† (1994: 15-16). Far from being synonyms, however, they carried extremely different in-group connotations. Differing from queers in their deviant gender status, fairies referred to effeminate, flamboyant males sexually involved with other men. Queers, in contrast, were more masculine men 1. For greater clarity, I have condensed the definitions and changed the original formatting. A Queer Revolution3 ho were sexually involved with other men and who generally shunned, even detested, the woman-like behavior of fairies. â€Å"The men who identified themselves as part of a distinct category of men primarily on the basis of their homosexual interest rather than their womanlike gender status usually called themselves queer† (Chauncey 1994: 16). Furthermore, the fairy-queer distinction was not based solely on gender, but on class as well: most queers were men from the middle class who potentially risked more in their professional lives were they to display the femininity typical of fairies (Chauncey 1994: 106). Because the effeminate fairies’ gender deviance was highly marked and visible, they served as the stereotypical representation of all homosexual men, although there were probably more masculine homosexuals passing as their heterosexual counterparts. Heterosexuals used queer and fairy interchangeably and without distinction, thereby homogenizing all men who engaged in sexual activity with other men, regardless of their degree of femininity/masculinity or self-identification (Chauncey 1994: 15). Homosexuals’ well-defined system of gender classification and the significant

Comparative Literature essays

Comparative Literature essays Although deference, self-righteousness, rashness, and self-delusion do not help the other characters in Hamlet to understand the truth or survive, Hamlets perpetual reflection prevents him from taking action. Hamlet seems to grasp the failings of the other characters and the inevitability of death, but cannot blindly accept anything to be the basis of truth. He is not sure whether a ghosts word should be the basis of murder: Faced with evidence that his uncle murdered his father, evidence that any other character in a play would believe, Hamlet becomes obsessed with proving his uncles guilt before trying to act, (Phillips). Hamlet even contemplates suicide, but ultimately decides that the terrors of this world are generally willingly preferred to the terrors of a world unknown. Still, his madness spurs him to impulsive action. He kills Polonius without knowing who is behind the tapestry, and he torments Ophelia without any clear intent. This suggests a man who truly believes in nothi ng, not even rational contemplation as a basis for truth. He tries being erratic and impetuous, but this yields no better results than his brooding melancholy. Centrally, he cannot submit himself to any belief that might indicate to him how to act and this is what allows Claudius and Laertes to kill him. The nagging difficulty is that there is very little in a human beings life can be certain; yet, we are still forced to act and make crucial decisions based upon our imperfect knowledge. Hamlet struggles with this problem directly by questioning everything that others may accept on faith or on a whim. This is Hamlets fatal flaw: he is frozen by contemplation. Taken together, every character in Hamlet exhibits a particular fatal flaw; but Hamlet himself seems to stand alone in the midst of the other characters actions. In other words, despite the fact that he takes part in the most significant actions o...

All That Is Solid Melts Into Air

All That Is Solid Melts Into Air The works of Djuna Barnes and Joseph Conrad will be discussed in this essay, with regard to "All that is Solid Melts into Air", which is one of the numerous descriptions of modernism. This statement can be interpreted in a number of ways, and one of the most obvious interpretations appears to be that everything around us is constantly evolving with time. Here, I shall attempt to show that Barnes' novel, Nightwood, as well as Conrad's short story, The End of the Tether, are good illustrations of this statement, as I am of the opinion that they both touch on various issues that were once taken for granted and were hardly ever challenged.The two writers have, in their own ways, managed to manipulate these issues in such a way that readers, on a small scale, and society on a larger one, are now being forced out of their original comfort zones, and made to question and re-evaluate their lives in which no one has ever dared or cared enough to defy convention.Illustration from The Book of R epulsive WomenTradition has become a thing of the past, and it is perhaps the ultimate aim of these writers, through their writings, to bring people to the simple, yet often overlooked realization that nothing can, nor should, be assumed to be real and constant.Both of the texts that I have chosen, deal with the assumption that relationships, of any sort, are generally "solid", or rather, are dependable and would not fail those who are involved in these relationships. The characters appear to have a certain naivety about them, as they seem to believe that just as long as some form of effort is put into the maintenance of their relationships with others, there is no reason for these relationships to disintegrate into nothing. It is as though...

Annotated Bibliography Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Annotated Bibliography - Essay Example Here comes annotated bibliography, which enables you to refer to the key ideas of the author. Therefore, to give a proper consideration to a given article or book and evaluate its contents is one of the first and foremost ways to grasp the main ideas of the author and use them effectively. Sources about annotated bibliography, their importance and the way of a right compilation are key factors determining further research. Annotated Bibliography Introduction It is always hard to read through a book or an article from the journal and grasp the main ideas of it at once. It is even more challenging task to use those ideas appropriately and implement the main ideas of the required sources in a relevant manner. Thus, annotated bibliography is a perfect means to facilitate a process of writing. A spirit of academy is sustained by relevant usage of the most important publications. Consequently, it is possible to claim that academicians put all their efforts to compile effective annotated bi bliographies and summarize the main points of the publications. In order to summarize the main ideas of the author it is very important to understand the essence of a given article or book. Therefore, the author’s style, reliability of the source and its contents are of high importance for the effective annotated bibliography.

Business Law - Questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Business Law - Questions - Assignment Example When an offer is made to the offeree, he can either accept or put down the offer made to him, if he accepts the offer, this means that the second element of the contract recognized as acceptance have been completed. If a contract has to be recognized as valid, it should contain the third element recognized as consideration. Consideration is the term assigned to a promise or a factor on which bargaining takes place, consideration is offered by the offerror and whether to accept the consideration or reject it or bargain on it is entirely in the hands of the offeree. Another important element of a contract is intention; the people involved in creation of a legal contract should have the intention of creating a legal contract and not just an agreement that has not been legally created. The last element of a contract is the certainty of the contract, this means that the contract should be concise and clear in nature so it can be enforced. Increase in the use of internet to conduct transac tion between the sellers and the buyers gave way for the creation of a distance contract. A distance contract is referred to a contract in which the buyer and the seller or the parties involved in the contract have never physically been in each other’s presence since the start of the contract till the end of the contract. For examples: a distance contract is created when parties are involved in selling and purchasing of goods and services over the internet through different means such as email, telephone calls and faxes. In this kind of contract, the seller or merchandiser is required to provide any information to the purchaser that might influence his purchasing decision, once the to be purchaser has accepted the information, the seller is required to provide the same details in written form, the merchandise has to be delivered to the purchaser within thirty days and if the purchaser wants he can cancel the contract with seven days of the date of delivery. For example, in Th ornton v. Shoe Parking case, the customer experienced injury in the parking area because of negligence caused by the defendant, the customer received the ticket of car parking after he had installed his money in the ticket machine, the terms and conditions that applied to the car parking area were stated on the ticket and the customer was not informed about the terms before he purchased the ticket, thus, the term of no exclusion of liability in case of personal injuries caused due to negligence was rejected as according to the distance contract, all information is to be provided before the purchase decision is made (Beale, 1990, p.337). Expressed terms refer to those stipulations and circumstances that are mentioned in the contact at the most specific level and are accepted by the parties involved in the creation of that particular contract, these terms can be in verbal, as well as written, form. For example, in the case of Bannerman V White, the purchaser had entered a contract wit h the seller on the terms that the hops he was purchasing were to be used to prepare beer and should not be treated with sulphur, the seller had assured him that they were not treated with sulphur, but they were actually treated with sulphur when the purchaser received them, thus, the seller was in breach of contract as the contract clearly stated that hops

Disagree with China will Become a Democracy within 10-15 Years Speech or Presentation

Disagree with China will Become a Democracy within 10-15 Years - Speech or Presentation Example To have a literal meaning of the phenomenon, we might say that the word democracy entails two connotations. Firstly, it means implementation of a political idea that the government should be by the people and for the people (Mosley, pp.5, 2003). Second definition is rather difficult to implement. It means that despite all the distinctive ideas and interest of the subjects, implementation of things contends all kinds of ‘people’. In reality, this is undoubtedly not possible (Mosley, pp.5-6, 2003) Giving a thorough analysis to the phenomenon of democracy and the theories of democratization, we come to realize that democracy is something when the individual comes to realize his basic rights to think and feel free to express the same (Zhao, pp.9, 1998). Precisely, it means to have an opinion without any form of influence and suppression. Moreover, in a broader perspective, it means to follow an election procedure though which a consensus is created upon the election of a par ticular leader. However, in an otherwise case, the people with feudal mindsets have a selection process and the position and title are shared and passed on to the same family members. Following are some of the major points endorsing the fact that China cannot achieve democracy in the next ten years or so: As it is, democracy starts with speaking about the truth publicly and having your voice heard by others. This job is foremost performed the media practitioners or journalists who act as a watchdog to expose the injustice or wrongdoings of the state and the lawmakers. However, seeing China’s situation we can evidently make a thorough analysis of the fact that Chinese journalism never received freedom to any extent. In the mid-1980s, for the first time Chinese journalists thought to register their collective voice to the government to give them rights to speak the truth so that the countrywide corruption that has taken an official form could be suppressed (Zhao, pp.1-2, 1998). On the contrary, not only was their movement not heard but also they faced violent circumstances and torture and the streets of Beijing that turned into bloodshed in 1989 is a clear-cut example of this. Speaking about the same restrictions over press, it is notable to mention that when America’s Newsweek magazine used to come to China, articles and stories that reported China’s internal situation, either political or social, were torn out so that none of the citizen could have access to what is going on within the bureaucracy (Zhao, pp.2-4, 1998). The major hold of the Communist Party over China, nevertheless, keeps on boosting about their governance and wants to endorse that media is working as their mouthpiece while secretly suppressing them. In short, Chinese media willingly or unwillingly works to cater to the increasing demands of its authoritarian rulers to propagate their ideas and instill the doctrines that they want their subjects to follow. Secondly, the cen tralization of power in China is the result of once decentralized China a few decades ago, that becomes one more reason for the country not able to make itself democratic in the next few years. In 1978, China’s economic reforms began to take place that started from the rural areas and expanded to urban areas. It all started with private trading of farming and agricultural products in the countryside and then taking alongside the urban businesses with more production with the help

A controversy in propaganda Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

A controversy in propaganda - Essay Example This is in addition to distributing such information to concerned citizens via their right to receive such ‘accurate’ news. Indeed as one of America’s founding fathers would portend – an informed society is essential for democracy to thrive (ODonnell and Garth 57). In order for information to have both value and meaning, it ought to be not only objective, but also reasonably complete and accurate. Hence, the ideal that both the objectivity and freedom of the press are a cornerstone of democracy. To be noted is that with freedom, as enshrined in democracies, comes both challenges and responsibilities (Chomsky and Edward 41). This necessitates correspondence that is both objective and balanced, despite prevailing personal perspectives; often in the most horrible of human conditions. In addition, when faced with the various tragedies of human misunderstandings and conflicts, it is difficult for one to remain as a detached observer. The media industry, under continuous pressure to deliver captivating and compelling news, often finds it difficult to successfully resist various temptations to sensationalize information presented (Chomsky and Edward 44). Historically, a majority of attempts made in measuring the effects of propaganda involved highly artificial techniques. However, these have not really captured the effects of propaganda because of the sleeper effect; that is, delayed reactions until the propaganda has penetrated resistance from the intended audience. Historically, the media has been on the forefront in propagating propaganda through conveyance of messages, ideals and perspectives. This has been the case from the early times newspapers, leaflets and catalogues, to the present-day society, where social media amongst other forms of electronic media, have and continue influencing society. This has been through different avenues of ‘loading’ information output in such manner, as to serve as an avenue

Principles of Detail Design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Principles of Detail Design - Essay Example Clements et al differentiate architectural design from detailed design in a uniquely interesting way. He alluded that architecture could be defined as a form of design yet the reverse was not possible. The interpretation is that design is not within the realms of architecture since the end of any masterpiece can be manipulative. There is a close relation between detailed design, architecture and construction. From this, designers aiming for success in detailed design are obligated to have or obtain full understanding of the requirements and architecture of the system. Proficiency in particular design strategies such as object-oriented, programming languages, and methods and processes for software quality control becomes a requirement. Detailed design acts as a bridge between design and code in the same way that architecture provides a link between requirements and design. When it comes to implementation, it can be debated that most problem solving activities occur in the detailed des ign phase. This can be demonstrated in the case where a formal process is followed, and the requirements are met by the detailed design and architecture. In numerous real-world applications, intricate problem solving is deferred by the architectural design activity to the detailed design, predominantly through abstraction. In some instances, specifying requirements is also submitted to detailed design. In view of these reasons, detailed design has to assume the role of gatekeeper to ensure that the specification and design of the system are sufficiently completed even before construction begins. This can be particularly hard for large-scale systems built from scratch devoid of experience with the development of systems that are alike. Tasks such as understanding the requirements and architecture, documenting software design, evaluating detailed designs, monitoring and controlling implementation, and creating detailed designs, become major factors in implementing detailed design acti vity. In contrast to software architecture, where the comprehensive set of conditions are assessed and well understood, detailed design activity calls for designers to focus on the requirements assigned to their explicit components. After understanding the architecture and requirements for allocated components, is when the detailed design of software modules can begin. The components of detailed design include both behavioral and structural designs. This is demonstrated by the focus on interface design (which includes internal interface design and external interface design), graphical user interface design-which could be an extension of the designs started during architecture, and internal component design (both structural and behavioral), and data design. The Open-Closed principle (OCP) is a crucial principle for creating recyclable and adjustable systems that advance gracefully with time. The key idea behind the OCP is that working code should remain untouched and any new addition s should come as extensions of the original work. This does not mean that designs modification cannot occur; it means they should be done by incorporating new code

Health Economics Comparison Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Health Economics Comparison Paper - Essay Example British health care is categorized into four sections that is: the Central Government, the National Health Service (NHS), Local Government and finally, Independent sector (Baggott, 1994). The chain of command flows from the Central Government through the Health Department to the NHS authorities. This flow continues down to the Local Government level where the Department of Health is seen to play a highly active role in the workings of the local authorities in terms of health matters, which includes provision of resources to the local authorities. The system is different In the U.S. Here, the system is more liberal, and the government’s role is more supervisory. WWII had deprived the country of funds thus a system that encouraged private companies to play the major role in this industry was evolved (Niles, 2010). There were, however some attempts made to protect the welfare of the vulnerable members of the society such as the elderly as well as orphans through the passing of the Social Security Act of 1935 as well as the formation of Medicaid and Medicare in 1965. Further improvements include the Children’s Health Insurance Program of 1997 which was further improved in 2010. On March 23, 2010, Obama signed the law of the Patient Protection an Affordable Care Act which was aimed at providing healthcare coverage to all Americans. However, the law received a lot of opposition from different quarters especially the opposing Republican Party, as shown in the current campaigns where his challenger Mitt Romney is against it. The Obama camp has gotten a further boost when the country’s Supreme Court upheld this policy whose opponents termed as too expensive for the country to maintain. This has meant that for now all Americans are covered though this may change should the Republicans come into power. Though this has not yet started being felt all over the country, it means that even minorities are going

A controversy in propaganda Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

A controversy in propaganda - Essay Example This is in addition to distributing such information to concerned citizens via their right to receive such ‘accurate’ news. Indeed as one of America’s founding fathers would portend – an informed society is essential for democracy to thrive (ODonnell and Garth 57). In order for information to have both value and meaning, it ought to be not only objective, but also reasonably complete and accurate. Hence, the ideal that both the objectivity and freedom of the press are a cornerstone of democracy. To be noted is that with freedom, as enshrined in democracies, comes both challenges and responsibilities (Chomsky and Edward 41). This necessitates correspondence that is both objective and balanced, despite prevailing personal perspectives; often in the most horrible of human conditions. In addition, when faced with the various tragedies of human misunderstandings and conflicts, it is difficult for one to remain as a detached observer. The media industry, under continuous pressure to deliver captivating and compelling news, often finds it difficult to successfully resist various temptations to sensationalize information presented (Chomsky and Edward 44). Historically, a majority of attempts made in measuring the effects of propaganda involved highly artificial techniques. However, these have not really captured the effects of propaganda because of the sleeper effect; that is, delayed reactions until the propaganda has penetrated resistance from the intended audience. Historically, the media has been on the forefront in propagating propaganda through conveyance of messages, ideals and perspectives. This has been the case from the early times newspapers, leaflets and catalogues, to the present-day society, where social media amongst other forms of electronic media, have and continue influencing society. This has been through different avenues of ‘loading’ information output in such manner, as to serve as an avenue

Health Economics Comparison Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Health Economics Comparison Paper - Essay Example British health care is categorized into four sections that is: the Central Government, the National Health Service (NHS), Local Government and finally, Independent sector (Baggott, 1994). The chain of command flows from the Central Government through the Health Department to the NHS authorities. This flow continues down to the Local Government level where the Department of Health is seen to play a highly active role in the workings of the local authorities in terms of health matters, which includes provision of resources to the local authorities. The system is different In the U.S. Here, the system is more liberal, and the government’s role is more supervisory. WWII had deprived the country of funds thus a system that encouraged private companies to play the major role in this industry was evolved (Niles, 2010). There were, however some attempts made to protect the welfare of the vulnerable members of the society such as the elderly as well as orphans through the passing of the Social Security Act of 1935 as well as the formation of Medicaid and Medicare in 1965. Further improvements include the Children’s Health Insurance Program of 1997 which was further improved in 2010. On March 23, 2010, Obama signed the law of the Patient Protection an Affordable Care Act which was aimed at providing healthcare coverage to all Americans. However, the law received a lot of opposition from different quarters especially the opposing Republican Party, as shown in the current campaigns where his challenger Mitt Romney is against it. The Obama camp has gotten a further boost when the country’s Supreme Court upheld this policy whose opponents termed as too expensive for the country to maintain. This has meant that for now all Americans are covered though this may change should the Republicans come into power. Though this has not yet started being felt all over the country, it means that even minorities are going

Determinism and Free

Determinism and Free Will Essay ?What are the implications of determinism for our understanding of free will? Argue your position. There are several implications of determinism that illustrate our understanding of free will. It is a general understanding that we as humans should be free to make our own choices our lives; yet we also understand that events, including human behaviour, may have a prior cause, perhaps due to natural or some other circumstance. This paper aims to identify and present these implications of determinism on free will. Naturally, we are raised in a society where ‘agency’ or the ability to act freely is a given birth right (in most countries anyway), subsequently followed by the self being regulated over time to develop socially acceptable and rational conduct, through autonomy. Already we are able to identify how determinism holds an impact on one’s free will. How can we have true ‘freedom’ and free will to behave as we wish, when it is already determined that the society will live in will regulate our ability to make choices and decisions in life? A fear of determinism on free will is that, if it is true, humans are no longer accountable for the consequences of their actions through their freedom. Hence to say that human reasoning has no influence on the final outcome. This raises further topics to discuss, to investigate what free will/freedom actually is, and whether it truly exists if the decision is pre-determined. The perception of free will is open to interpretation by many philosophers and ordinary people. For the purposes of this discussion, we will maintain that free will is a human’s capacity to make a decision freely and openly for themselves. We must then take in to account the concept of psychological determinism; taking in to account all the elements, which have formed one’s character such as their genetics, childhood, relationships, workplace and social autonomy. When this is in question, it is plausible to say the person may actually not be making a decision from free will, as they are constrained by their biological and social construct in the process. This form of determinism elucidates how one’s understanding of ‘free will’ can be created within the mind (Skinner, 1948) as they would make a choice in a psychological context that they are comfortable with i. e. ‘the right decision’ for them- but that does not necessarily mean that the choice is made freely. What if however, whether or not we are able to choose freely, that certain events are inevitable in our fate as humans, and there may be no alternative outcome? Fatalism is the term is what underpins this concept. The concepts of fatalist approaches such as theological and logical determinism are to be explored further within this paper in relation to their implications to free will. Both concepts however hold a common ground however, where outcomes are not generated from pre-determined events, but emphasise that the outcome will take place regardless of the prior events and therefore, regardless of what choice the human makes. Many theological determinist approaches involve an element of divine knowledge or omnipotence. Most commonly the example of God or a supreme being is used, to uphold that he who is believed to be the creator of all, knows all things timely, as to what will happen as per our fate. This inflicts the understanding of free will, as the individual is left to ponder as to whether they actually have a power to control the resulting outcome from a choice that they make. Boethius (524) referred to this in The Consolation of Philosophy where he outlines the natural trait of humans to be able to act on their will with reasoning, which is independent of chance or any scheduled fate. His idea was that any sort of divine pre-emptive knowledge could co-exist with free will, and does not necessarily have to imply a sense of a determined future. Referring to the above-mentioned concept of logical determinism, we may now factor out any element of religious or omnipotent basis. Logical determinism is important to consider for our understanding of free will, as it sets a true/false premise to an outcome occurring (Taylor, 1963). For example, X will happen tomorrow or not, but if Y happens, the premise is still fulfilled by X not occurring. (Aristotle, 350). Arguably, this can restrict free will. When the outcome is fixed and may occur on probability, free will cannot permit us to change this. Although what is true, will always be true and remain true in the principle of this form of determinism, regardless of whether we know the outcome, can exist a freedom of choice, which potentially leads to the final outcome. It has been enveloped before, if there were some sort of intellect that could calculate everything about the world and the beings in it or ‘condense into a single formula’, we subsequently may be able to predict the future (Laplace, 1814). Yet considering the possibility that an external or unaccountable factor (free will) enters the equation in a sense of randomness (Bohm, 1951), this ‘intellect’ would not be able to be entirely deterministic. Throughout this paper, there has been a focus on the ‘chain’ or sequence of events prior to an event occurring. If these prior actions could be examined and explained, there may be a reason for a certain event to occur. This is referred to as causal determinism, which has emphasis on events or the acts of ‘free will’ prior to an outcome occurring. This further implies that causal determinism, like other forms of determinism can co-exist with freedom, where we are free to make our choices, sometimes knowing or not knowing what the outcome will be. The fact alone that the choice is present, definitively shows that free will is present. One who is a ‘hard determinist’ will refuse the possibility that free will may exist or be logically compatible with determinism. Some of the examples discussed can be considered as hard determinist approaches if we rule out this possibility. More importantly though, we should look at the position of a ‘soft determinist’, where free will can exist in a determinist environment, but where the concept of ‘free will’ is not what we think it may be. We as humans have individual experiences for each and every thing in our lives, including knowing the feeling of how to evaluate, deliberate, and make a decision. We are able to feel that this is our own choice, regardless of what context our personal character or ‘self’ we have constructed since birth, where we also have the ability to change our mind about our decisions. These are fundamental feelings possessed by all human beings regarding their own free will. What potentially causes a division is the different methods in which people portray this, for example- free will is incompatible with determinism, humans have free will; determinism is false (Libertarianism). Or perhaps a dualist approach where whatever in the human mind is exercising free will, may or may not change the course of the future. Furthermore, compatiblism (soft determinism) seems to provide the most realistic approach. This is on the premise where free will is not incompatible with determinism, therefore determinism is true, so is free will. This argument is on the grounds that the term ‘free will’ is coined in an ambiguous and poor manner. An example would be to consider an online game of ‘Connect 4’ with one human player and against a computer’s artificial intelligence (AI). When you make a move, you generally feel that you were able to freely choose that despite perhaps several other moves you may have made, but chose the one as the best clear move for strategic purposes. We now consider the AI, which has been programmed with algorithm to be deterministic and produce certain outcomes. Asides from the human turning the computer off or removing it’s RAM, the AI is in the same condition as the human, with the ability to make several strategic moves to it’s desire. Therefore, the AI is displaying human-like behaviour by displaying an act of free will even though it is a machine; somewhat like how humans over time have been educated and developed to make decisions. Notably, the possibility still exists for the human to strategically and freely choose their desired moves in order to win the game, despite the fact that the AI was programmed with knowledge to also deterministically win the game. As to whether a machine can actually behave like a human is a potentially debatable essay in its own, but the principle shows us that free will does co-exist with determinism, and that deterministic behaviour can alternate ‘free will’ and vice versa. Ultimately, when you make a choice, you bring your character, judgement, past experiences, memories, morals and desires, and can justify that it was a choice made from free will. This is also the essence of determinism, where an event has occurred from antecedent factors. Provided that this understanding is present, there is no real implication on ‘free will’ from determinism, asides from the views that take measures beyond accepting the existence of freedom. References Aristotle. , Ackrill, J. L. Aristotle. (1963). Categories, and De interpretatione. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Boethius. (524). The consolation of philosophy. Bohm, D. (1951). Quantum theory. New York: Prentice-Hall. Laplace, P. S. (1814). Essai philosophique sur les probabilites. Paris: Courcier. Skinner, B. F. (1948). Walden Two. New York: Macmillan. Taylor, R. (1963). Metaphysics. Englewood Cliffs, N. J. : Prentice-Hall.

Importance of Supportive Communication

Importance of Supportive Communication EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Communication is an everyday activity. There is nothing that can be done without communication. However this essential of life can be very damaging if not use it properly or accurately. It is every body’s wish that all people behave, act, think, response, move, learn and communicate just as he/she was made off. As a result of inequalities and imperfection of human nature, all of us cannot act the same. It is often and always easier to communicate good news and happy moments to our love ones, work mates, school mates, family members etc. however the moment of truth is when to communicates the opposite to those that are close to us, colleagues, family members etc. and when not handled properly can ruin a hard fought relationships cultivated over the year. This is because we are inclined by nature to receive good news than the bad news though it might be the fact. Therefore cultivating the skills of supporting communication an inevitable tool for every person irrespective of the level of responsibility one finds itself. Supportive communication seeks to preserve or enhance a positive relationship between you and another person while still addressing a problem, giving negative feedback, or tackling a difficult issue with such person. There are numerous benefits associated with companies which ideologies the concept of supporting communication that companies who does not as carried by various surveys. In such context one can be an asset to a group, work environment, family when he/she is able to communicate supportively to the up build of the group, work and family and in this direction I chose to work on my supporting communication skills. Before I read and participated in the classroom on this skill, my skill assessment score was below the mean quartile in comparing with 5000 students who undertook the same assessment. My score after reading and class participating almost threepuled above even above the highest quartile. This does not mean that I can skillfully applied supportive communication. Practical steps have been put in place to apply this knowledge into full use. These steps includes; by asking two same case study group to assess my reaction when giving counsel on performance of a group member, a planned friendship with those who their attitudes and behaviors I disguise so much and finally being asking my children to note down whenever I get angry in the process of giving the feedback. INTRODUCTION Communication is an everyday activity. And is the ordinary interaction that occurs between coworkers, friends, acquaintances, or intimates on daily bases. Communication comes in different forms. Verbal communication which includes sounds, words, language and speaking whiles non-verbal communication involves physical ways of communication like, tone of voice, touch, smell and body language. The quality of communication and how communications are evolves and is maintained are the basis of whether a relationship amongst individuals are stable, become more intimate when appropriate and if additional information is shared between individual reflecting trust between the both parties in every facet of human life. Ineffective communication may lead individual to dislike each other, be offended by each other, lose confidence, refuse to listen and disagree to each other as well as causing a host of other interpersonal problem. (Whatten Camaron, 2011) Normally positive interpersonal relationships results when always things are going on well and people do what they are expected and suppose of them. However, when communicating to an individual who has a negative attitude, such as a personality conflict with coworker or hasn’t perform up to expectation, the risk of putting the employee on the defensive is very high. Individual often react defensively if they feel they are being punished or threatened by communicating, and thus they devote attention to identify counter arguments rather than listening. Thus communication is more productive when it is done constructively or done supportively. SUPPORTIVE COMMUNICATION Supportive communication is interpersonal communications that help individuals to communicate accurately, especially in difficult situations and times. Supportive communication seeks to preserve or enhance a positive relationship between you and another person while still addressing a problem, giving negative feedback, or tackling a difficult issue. It allows you to communicate information to others that is not complimentary, or to resolve an uncomfortable issue with another person but, in the process, strengthen your relationship. Supportive communication builds and strengthened relationships when delivering negative feedback or when you have to point out few shortcoming of another person. It thus seek to preserve or enhance a positive relationship between two people whiles still addressing issue. It allows communicating information to others that is not complementary but rather that strengthen the relationship. Companies fostering supportive communication enjoy higher productivity, faster problem solving, higher quality outputs, and fewer conflicts and subversive activities than groups or organizations where relationships are less. (Robbins Coulter, 2007) it goes on to present a survey conducted with conclusion, that companies with presence of good supportive communication between managers and subordinate were three times more powerful in predicting profitability in major cooperation’s over a five year period than the most powerful variables – market size, firm size and saves growth rate-combined. There are arguably eight attributes of supportive communication of which all other research shared the same thought as far the scope of this research is concern. This indicates that to communicate supportively one must adhere to these characteristics when communicating. ATTRIBUTES OF SUPPORTIVE COMMUNICATION Problem oriented, not person oriented. Problem-oriented communication focuses on a problem that can be solved rather than the person who is responsible for the problem. Person-oriented communication puts the listener on the defensive and focuses the attention on blame rather than on avoiding or solving future problems Congruent, not incongruent. Congruent communication conveys what the speaker is thinking and feeling. There are definitely situations where discretion is a more appropriate choice than full disclosure of what we think and feel. However, in most communication situations, we communicate more effectively when were candid. If we arent honest, listeners wont trust what we say. Descriptive, not evaluative. Evaluative communication expresses judgment of the listener, or his or her actions. To be an effective constructive communicator, we should objectively describe problems rather than speak in an evaluative manner. Evaluative communication puts the listener on the defensive. Validating, not invalidating. Validating communication helps people feel understood, valued, and accepted. In contrast, invalidating communication treats people as if they are ignored, worthless, or alienated. Invalidating communication is superiority-oriented, rigid, impervious and/or indifferent and its avoid treating the listener like a lesser person. Specific, not global. There are two key drawbacks to global statements of problems; theyre often too large to be resolved and they tend to oversimplify and misrepresent problems. Conjunctive, not disjunctive. Disjunctive communication takes at least three forms; not letting the other party speak, long pauses, and switching topics. Disjunctive communication can result in the other party thinking that their input is not being considered. Owned, not disowned. When we own our communication, we take responsibility for our statements and acknowledge that we are the source of the ideas conveyed and not someone else. We disown communication when we search for third parties to attribute our comments to. Listening, not one-way message delivery. Explains, effective listening is actively absorbing the information given to you by a speaker, showing that you are listening and interested, and providing feedback to the speaker so that he or she knows the message was received. Effective listening is often taken for granted, but its a valuable managerial tool. PERSONAL ASSESSMENT SUPPORTIVE COMMUNICATION In order to be sincere and able to know my managerial shortcoming in this skill area, I assessed myself based on the following questionnaires before and after reading and participating during lectures. The evaluation of these questionnaires is as a result of weakness observed when learning this skills and much effort is needed to overcome these shortcomings as comparing myself to 5000 students who also took the same assessment. Rating Scale 1. Strongly disagree 2. Disagree 3. Slightly disagree 4. Slightly agree 5. Agree 6. Strongly agree Assessment Pre Post Questionnaires 3 6 When I give feedback to others, I avoid referring to personal characteristics and focus on problems or solutions instead 2 6 I always link negative feedback to a standard or expectation that has been violated 2 5 When I try to correct someone’s behavior, our relationship is almost always strengthened. 1 6 I am descriptive in giving negative feedback to others. That is, I objectively describe events, their consequences, and my feelings about them 3 6 I always suggest specific alternatives to individuals whose behavior I’m trying to correct 3 6 I reinforce other people’s sense of self-worth and self-esteem in my communication with them. 2 5 When asking questions of others in order to understand their viewpoints better, I generally ask â€Å"what† questions instead of â€Å"why† questions 2 6 I don’t dominate conversations with others. 1 6 I hold regular, private meetings with people with whom I work and with whom I live. 2 5 I strive to identify some area of agreement in a discussion with someone who has a different point of view Table # 1: supporting communication questionnaires and responses. SKILLS ASSESSMENT INTERPRETATION The first five questionnaires are in respect of how I can effectively communicate negative feedback, the higher the scores the better for one to communicate effectively negative feedback than the lower scoring. Whereas the last five questionnaires are also in respect of how I can be effective in communicating supportively, and again the higher the scoring the better than the lower scoring. The total scoring before the reading and class participating as shown above was 21 scores as compares to an average 5000 student mean quartile scores of 45 out of possible 60 scores and my score after was 57 out of possible 60 scores. This indicates better understanding and knowledge on how I can effectively communicates negative feedback to someone in a supportive manner. PRACTICAL APPLICATION – SUPPORTIVE COMMUNICATION The above after reading and acquiring the knowledge does not make me a better person to be effective in supporting communication, is just acknowledgement of how critical supporting communication is in every facet in one’s life. It takes several practices and on the field application of this knowledge that one become effective communicating supportively. However since practice make man perfect; the following are planned practical steps activities to help me to communicate supportively. First in the MBA program, working in groups are integral part of the program, hence supporting commununication is very important at all level of group activities. That is from group formation, sharing of responsibilities, embarking on assigned group assignment and holding rehearsal presentations within the group. To put supportive communication into practice, I have asked two group members to assess me whenever is my turn to communicate feedback to a group member who has presented during group rehearsals on his/her weakness as well as whenever is my turn to be counseled after my presentation. Two different will let me know objectively about the assessment. I will also purchase a voice recorder so that I can listen to it after group discussion. Secondary I have planned to be friend with those who generally I don’t associate better due to their character traits, race, culture and religion. Trying to form friendship with such people will always help me to improve on my supporting communication skills. The reason being that since I have a perceived mind already regarding them, accepting them as friends will be a real challenge, however that will also help me improve on not always dominating but also welcoming others viewpoint in discussions which is one of the eight attributes of good supporting communication. Finally in the house since children are active when ever decisions goes their way, I will ask each of them to count the number of times I get angry and why when am having discussions with them or in dealing with each individuals in the house. This will help me to work on my anger level since it will be difficult for someone with high level of anger to be supportive in communication especially when communicating negative feedback. REFERENCES Whetten, D., Cameron, S. (2011). Developing Management Skills (8th. ed.). Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall. Vucaj, I. (2013). Managing human resources. Blog at wordPress.com. Robbins, S P., Coulter, M. (2012). Management (11th. ed.). Pearson education. Schmidt, J., Uecker, D. (2007). Increasing understanding of routine/everyday  interaction in relationships. Communication Teacher, 21, 111-116.