Saturday, August 31, 2019
Memories of childhood in “Looking For Dad†Essay
Memories from our childhoods are often remembered for the rest of our lives. They can range from small things like playing in the park or a birthday party to important milestones such as a first kiss or the first day of school. Now matter how small or insignificant these events seemed at the time, they will be treasured for ever and looked back on as some of the best times of your life. The memories are normally reminders of good times and the joys of childhood. But for some people, their childhoods are looked back on in sadness and remorse. In the poems â€Å"Looking For Dad†, â€Å"My Grandmother†and â€Å"The Sick Equation†, the narrators explore the darker sides of childhood. Each poem tells a different story, but are all about tragic memories from shattered childhoods that will scar forever. â€Å"Looking For Dad†is about a boy who’s father leaves home. I think the author chose the title because not only does it explain the main theme of the poem, but the phrase â€Å"looking for†maybe refers to the soul searching the boy has to do while â€Å"looking for†what is missing in his life. When reading the poem, you notice that it is written in quite an upbeat tone even though it is obviously a sad poem. I think the narrator has done this because the poem is from a child’s perspective. The main themes of this poem are dis-functionality and grief. Lines such as â€Å"I had not tidied up my room, because I was too full of gloom†and â€Å"hope he will come back soon†clearly show the despair that is put across by the narrator. Another theme of the poem is self-denial. The narrator doesn’t want to face up to the fact that his dad has gone. â€Å"Dad was hidden beneath the things I’d been given†and â€Å"flying about my underwear but could not find him anywhere†are two quotes that show that the character still believes his dad is still apart of his life even thought it is obvious he is not. The fact that he dreamt about his dad not being with him anymore shows that sub-consciously he knows his dad has gone forever and isn’t going to return. The character believes that his dad â€Å"simply vanished†because he didn’t tidy his room. At the end of the poem it says â€Å"hope he will come back soon and admire my very tidy room†. This shows the self-blame the character has put upon his conscience and how he now regrets taking his father for granted. The structure of the poem is strange. It has a nursery rhyme feel to it and this feel good rhythm doesn’t really fit in with the other wise sombre mood of the poem. This could however represent the fact that the poem is seen through a child’s eyes and he maybe does not fully understand what is going on around him. The quick feel to the poem is mainly down to the fact that it has a loose rhyming scheme and short lines. â€Å"The Sick Equation†is also written by Brian Patten. It is about a â€Å"broken home†and tells us how the narrator has been scarred for life due to his home situation. The title of the poem can be looked at in many different ways. I feel the author chose this title because people often think an â€Å"equation†will be confusing and complex. This is exactly what the narrator’s life is like. He may also have chosen to use the word â€Å"equation†because it can represent that when all these different factors are added together there can only be one outcome. Unlike â€Å"Looking For Dad†, the rhythm of this poem is slow and the lines are a lot longer with no real flow. One of the themes represented in this poem is isolation. With his parents fighting all the time, the narrator was convinced that it is better to â€Å"stay one†. The narrator decided to grow up alone and if anyone tried to get close to him he would make sure they quic kly disappeared. The phrase â€Å"I came to believe how it was best, that one remained one†not only backs up my point, but also shows that he is maybe scared of love. Another theme which is shows quite a lot in this poem is regret. As the poem goes along, you can slowly notice how the narrator changes his attitude towards love. In the first paragraph, lines such as â€Å"For by becoming two, one at least would suffer so†shows that he is strongly against being loved or loving anyone at all. In the final stanza the line â€Å"I am better off for knowing now, that given love, by taking love all can in time refute†proves that the narrator’s mood towards love has changed dramatically as he has now learnt that not all love is painful. The second stanza really shows regret and anger. â€Å"Believing this I threw away so many gifts- I never let love stay long enough to take roots but by thinking myself of too little worth, I crushed all its messengers†. It shows that the narrator feels he has missed out on so much and is angry that he didn’t learn his lesson sooner. â€Å"I was wrong of course, just as those who br ought me up were wrong†is another quote that shows anger and resentment towards his childhood, in particularly the way his parents brought him up. â€Å"I grew – or did not grow†is a phrase that shows that the narrator feels that while he was un-loved, he could not grow as a person. It could also mean he thinks he has missed out on his childhood and started off with the harsh feelings only and adult could understand and no child should have to feel. And as you cannot grow past being an adult, in that sense he has not grown. The narrator also tells of how even a new couple cannot possibly, in his mind, escape the â€Å"shadow of divorce†. When conveying this view, he makes reference to an albatross. This could also have different meanings. The most obvious meaning that springs to mind is because the albatross has the biggest wing span, it would create a huge shadow over any marriage. But a more in depth analysis could link the albatross back to the poem â€Å"Rhyme of the ancient mariner†. The tone of the poem is a lot more depressing than the first poem. The structure is also cleverly devised by the author. The first stanza has a disorganised and erratic rhyme scheme which represents the confusion and disorder in the narrator’s life. But as the poem progresses, a more organised rhyme pattern starts to appear and the emergence of rhyming couplets maybe shows the narrators life is calming down and becoming more organised. The narrator also uses irony when he says â€Å"home, sweet home†. The final poem I studied was â€Å"My Grandmother†. This poem is about the narrator’s grandmother. The title was chosen mainly because it explains what the poem is about. The word â€Å"my†may seem small and unimportant, but when people are proud of something they often emphasise and make it known they are linked with the person or object by using this technique. For example, when people use the phrase â€Å"That’s my boy†it is a way of saying, he’s with me and I want everyone to know. The title could therefore mean the narrator is proud of his Grandmother and wants everyone to know this. Once again the main theme of this poem is regret. â€Å"I remember how I once refused, to go out with her, since I was afraid†and â€Å"Though she never said, that she was hurt, I could still feel the guilt†are phrases that back up this point. Another theme of the poem is isolation and loneliness. â€Å"She kept an antique shop – or it kept her†and â€Å"She watched her own reflection is the brass†are quotes that show the Grandmother was lonely and obviously didn’t have any close friends or family. I think the use of an â€Å"antique shop†is meant to represent old age. When reading the poem, you notice it is quite fast and up beat. This is because of the rhyme scheme – A, B, A, B, C, C, which is used in each stanza. The poem also uses iambic pentameter. This gives it a quick tempo and makes it free flowing. The speed of the poem is again in contrast with the themes of the poem. This is maybe due to the fact that the narrator admits â€Å"when she died, I felt no grief at all†. This means that the narrator has nothing to be sad about and therefore keeps the poem quite up beat. Each stanza tells a different part of the story and the first and third stanzas are explaining events, where as the second and fourth and primarily about the feelings of the narrator. Each of these poems outlines different experiences of childhood. â€Å"Looking For Dad†talks about divorce and separation, â€Å"The Sick Equation†discusses the affects of domestic arguments and â€Å"My Grandmother†is about the death of a loved one. But the themes that are constantly mentioned in all the poems are regret and isolation. This shows that maybe bad memories are more memorable than the good ones and the scars left by these experiences will always remain fresh in the minds of the characters
Friday, August 30, 2019
Pierre Bourdieu and Social Construction of Reality Essay
Introduction            Berger and Luckmann in their book, Social Construction of Reality did not only seriously dealt with several sociological themes, they also attempted to found a new idea of the ‘sociology of knowledge’. They provided an introduction to Schutz and social phenomenology and established a theoretical background for later works, especially in the fields of sociology of religion and industrialization. However, the most daring presentation of the authors in this book was the consolidation of the two major theoretical postures in the study of the man and his society: objectivism and subjectivism to arrive at a new sociology of knowledge.            The social construction of reality entails the first major effort at detailing the interrelation and dynamic relationship between man and his society, a field hitherto polarized by the antithetical stances of the objectivist and subjectivist schools of thought. While on the one hand, objectivism holds that individual’s perception of reality is defined by the forces of the society imposed upon the individual, notwithstanding his consciousness or will, in this respect, social facts are seen as things that determine the conduct and representations of individuals; in contrast, subjectivism, in line with Max Weber reasoning, holds that â€Å"the object of cognition is the subjective meaning complex of action†(quoted in Berger & Luckmann, 1966). Berger and Luckmann posited that both stances should not be seen as contradictory or mutually exclusive. They explain that both understandings come into play in the construction of social reality. Their position is aptly conveyed in the statement ‘Society is a human product. Society is an objective reality. Man is a social product.’            Although, Berger and Luckmann are renowned for their work in this field, Pierre Bourdieu can be regarded as the most prolific author on the subject of social reality. His work on the understanding of social reality is wide, diverse and at the same time convergent. The purpose of this paper is to examine Berger and Luckmann’s ‘social construction of reality’ from a Bourdieu perspective, to determine if Bourdieu strengthens and expands Berger and Luckmann’s theory of social reality or addresses the topic from a different theoretical position.            Berger and Luckmann on Social Construction of Reality            For Berger and Luckmann, albeit man and his society both take the position of product and producer interchangeably, the relationship between the two is not causal, mechanistic or unidirectional, it is, according to them, dialectic. Dialectic, in the sense that social reality is defined by the unending relationship between man and his society. In explanating this theory, the author took recourse to the conceptual arsenals of habitualisation, Externalisation, typification, Objectivation, institutionalisation, and legitimation. These concepts effectively describe how society, which was the product of man, became the producer of man. The basic understanding that runs through these concepts is that the society is the product or ongoing product of man, however, through internalisation of the norms of the produced society, as it is passed from one generation to the other, actions and perceptions of reality become limited and restrained by these societal norms, until they become established as facts that defines realities. The next question that will seek our attention is how does man produces the society and in turn, man becomes the product of the society.            From Berger and Luckmann viewpoint, habitualisation is the first step in the creation of the society. They assert that actions frequently repeated become cast into a pattern. That is, as individuals act, they organise perceptions and actions into a coherent pattern that can be reproduced with minimal efforts, thus such pattern of actions have been habitualised. Albeit, habitualised actions still retain their individual meanings and character, they are lost over time, as the meanings become embedded in the individual’s general stock of knowledge and thus taken for granted in present and future projects. The authors suggest that habitualisation holds positive advantages for an individual. For one, it frees the individual from the burden of choice, for while there might be a hundred ways of carrying out a project, habitualisation narrows these down to one and thus providing a background in which human activities may be carried out with minimal decision making. Furthermore, the meanings embedded meanings of habitualised activities makes it unnecessary for every situation to be defined individually, since complex and diverse situations can be subsumed under habitualised predefinitions, such that activities can be anticipated and alternatives assigned standard weights.            Habitualisation precedes and gives birth to institutionalisation. According to Berger and Luckmann, â€Å"Institutionalisation occurs whenever there is a reciprocal typification of habitualised actions by types of actors†, though what should be stressed is the â€Å"reciprocity of institutional typifications and the typicality of not only the actions but also the actors in institutions.†Furthering this argument, they suggest that typification of habitualised actions that build up institutions are always shared habitualisations that are available to the members of a particular social group, though not only individual actions, but also the actors are typified in such institutions.            However, institunalisation is effected through history. The authors contend that the reciprocal typification actions that constitute institutions are built up in the course of a shared history. They stress that â€Å"They cannot be created instantaneously. Institutions always have a history, of which they are the products. It is impossible to understand an institution adequately without an understanding of the historical process in which it was produced†(Berger and Luckmann, 1966 p.54). Moreover, it was emphasised that institutions generally manifest in collectivities with considerable number of people and by their very existence, control and define human conducts by setting up predefined patterns of conducts, which channels individual actions in a particular direction, as against the numerous directions that is possible theoretically. To adequately conceptualise how society is created through habitualisation and institunalisation and how these come to define human actions and perceptions, the authors created an imaginary situation of a society created by the interaction between two individuals A and B thus: â€Å"[If] A and B alone are responsible for having constructed this world. A and B remain capable of changing or abolishing it. What is more, since they themselves have shaped this world in the course of a shared biography which they can remember, the world thus shaped appears fully transparent to them. They understand the world that they themselves have made. All this changes in the process of transmission to the new generation. The objectivity of the institutional world â€Å"thickens†and â€Å"hardens,†not only for the children, but (by a mirror effect) for the parents as well. The â€Å"There we go again†now becomes â€Å"This is how these things are done.†A world so regarded attains a firmness in consciousness; it becomes real in an ever more massive way and it can no longer be changed so readily. For the children, especially in the early phase of their socialization into it, it becomes the world. For the parents, it loses its playful quality and becomes â€Å"serious.†For the children, the parentally transmitted world is not fully transparent. Since they had no part in shaping it, it confronts them as a given reality that, like nature, is opaque in places at least†(Berger and Luckmann, 1966 p.59)            In the example above, the child becomes incapable of distinguishing between the objectivity of the natural world and the objectivity of ‘social formations’. Using the language as an example, a thing is what it is called; the child is incapable of comprehension beyond this level. It is argued that it is only at this stage that we can now speak of a social world, in a complete sense. This is the period when individuals now come to see societal realities like the facts of the natural world, and it is in this manner that social formations transmitted from one generation to the other.            Pierre Bourdieu on Social Reality            Bourdieu, undeniably offered a more extensive treatise on social knowledge and social realities, however, the underlying ideology that unifies the work of Berger and Luckmann, and Bourdieu is that bought works seek to reconcile the differences and so doing merge the subjective and objective conceptions in sociology. Both works suggest that the differences and antimony between the â€Å"structuralist†view of the society that seeks out â€Å"invisible relational patterns operating†behind the control of individuals and the â€Å"constructivist†viewpoint â€Å"that probes the commonsense perceptions and actions of the individual†(Wacquant, 2006 p.6) are artificial and unnecessary, and thus sought to reconcile both approaches to studying the society.            In line with Berger and Luckmann contention, Bourdieu too believes that the society is the product of man’s habituated actions and that the externalisations of these habituations reinforce the objectivity of societal realities. However, Bourdieu deploys more extensive conceptual models to explain his contention, thus, he did not only strengthened Berger and Luckmann’s understandings of social knowledge, he further expands the reach of their theory. The conceptual arsenals deployed by Bourdieu in explaining social knowledge and social reality include the notions of habitus, capital, field, and doxa. These are intertwined and interrelated in a dynamic fashion, so that each fully explains social knowledge only in relation with the others. Thus a brief examination of these concepts is pertinent in highlighting Bourdieu stance on social knowledge.            Habitus, though considered an old philosophical notion originating in the thoughts of Aristotle, was retrieved, expanded and popularised by Bourdieu in the 1960s. The term is used to describe the externalisation of internality and the internalisation of externality i.e. it is a system of durable and transposable ‘dispositions’ through which an individual judges, perceives and acts in the social world (Wacquant, 2006, 2002). The author contends that These unconscious schemata are acquired through lasting exposure to particular social conditions and conditionings, via the internalization of external constraints and possibilities. This means that they are shared by people subjected to similar experiences even as each person has a unique individual variant of the common matrix (this is why individuals of like nationality, class, gender, etc., spontaneously feel â€Å"at home†with one another). It implies also that these systems of dispositions are malleable, since they inscribe into the body the evolving influence of the social milieu, but within the limits set by primary (or earlier) experiences, since it is habitus itself which at every moment filters such influence (Wacquant, 2006 p.7)            From the above, it is evident that while societal realities defines the actions and perceptions of individuals, this occurs within the cognitive realm of the individual, to some extent, as the habitus tend to act as a mediator between past experiences and present situations, a reason why Bourdieu refers to it as structured, by the patterned social forces that produced it in the first place, and structuring, since it defines and gives coherence to an individual’s activities across the different segments of living (Bourdieu, 1977). This fact was adequately illustrated in the study of the peasant and his body, a study Bourdieu carried out in his childhood village of Bà ©arn (Bourdieu, 2004).            Since this system of disposition acquired by individual over time and space influences perception, judgement and action, it also infers that the system of disposition acquired by an individual will depend on his position in the society. Bourdieu called this ‘capital’. He differentiated between economic capital subsuming material and financial assets; cultural capital comprising scarce symbolic goods, skills and titles; and social capital consisting of resources accrued by an individual by virtue of membership of a group. The fourth branch of capital not commonly mentioned is the symbolic capital, which is slightly different from the three mentioned above. Symbolic capital is taken to represent capital that is available to an individual on basis on honor, prestige and recognition. It is basically derived from culturally classificatory modes, a war hero, for instance, is highly regarded. However, while the other three species of capital mentioned earlier do have symbolic values, symbolic capital cannot be converted to other forms of capital. For Bourdieu, the position of any individual or institution and the disposition gathered is defined by the overall volume of capital and the composition of the capital possessed.            While habitus and capital determines individual’s social knowledge, Bourdieu extends this concept further with the notion of fields. This is based on the contention that the â€Å"various spheres of life, art, science, religion, the economy, the law, politics, etc., tend to form distinct microcosms endowed with their own rules, regularities, and forms of authority†(Wacquant, 2006 p.8) making up the various ‘fields’. Field is described as ‘a structured space of positions that imposes its specific determinations upon all those who enter it’. It infers, therefore, that a field structures action and perception within from without, just as habitus defines practice from within. The field channels and directs individual actions by providing an array of options and alternatives with the associated costs and benefits, but the individual still acts within the scope of his habitus. Thus, â€Å"It takes the meeting of disposition and position, the correspondence (or disjuncture) between mental structures and social structures, to generate practice†(Bourdieu, 1989, quoted in Wacquant, 2006 p.8).            It is thus clear that both Burger and Luckman, and Bourdieu adequately stressed the fact that social reality is neither the sole product of structural dictates of the society nor that of intentional pursuit of goals as canvassed in objectivism and subjectivism, but the product of the dialectical relationship of both. Again, although the work of Bourdieu extends this argument further, as can be seen in his work on class, tastes and classification (Bourdieu,1984), the whole argument still boils down to the fact that the interrelationship of structures and cognition influence man’s social knowledge, perception of objective reality and practice. Both arguments can be seen to reason along the same line, with that of Bourdieu strengthening and expanding the reach of that of Burger and Luckman.            This similarity between these two approaches to social knowledge is explicitly presented in habitualization of Burger and Luckman and habitus of Bourdieu. In the former, the authors contend that as humans act, their actions and perceptions are organized into coherent patterns. For Burger and Luckman, it is through this habitualization that individuals construct social meanings, over time. Similar meanings can be deduced from Bourdieu’s habitus, which also contend that by exposure to certain societal conditions and conditioning, individuals begin to create an internal inventory of meanings that later serve as the basis of practice. Such similarities can also be extended to include Bourdieu’s concept of ‘field’ which can be likened to ‘institutions’ conceived by Burger and Luckman. Both concepts could easily be converged to mean that, while human practice is influenced internally by organized patterns of actions or perceptions, this influence is moulded by the factors prevalent in the immediate society of the individual.            Unfortunately, similarities between both authors cannot be extended further. Burger and Luckman’s idea tend to infer that structures and actions influence action in sequence that is, individual actions are institunalized, producing the society, and henceforth, the societal structure totally influences practice. In contrast, Bourdieu deploys an arsenal of conceptual tools in explaining the relationship between structure and action. He uses capital to indicate how the social position of individual influences practice, he also extends the concept of habitus (action) and field (structure) further than the shallow meanings ascribed to these by Burger and Luckman. Unlike the later, Bourdieu could be said to effectively bridge the divide between subjectivism and objectivism, when he indicated that neither habitus nor field is capable of unilaterally determining social action, at any particular time. He argued that it takes the meeting of habitus and capital (social position), and the correspondence (or disjuncture) between mental structures and social structures to generate social action. What this means is that to explain any social event or pattern, one must inseparably dissect both the social constitution of the individual and the makeup of the particular social structure within which he operates as well as the particular conditions under which they come to encounter and impinge upon each other (Bourdieu 1989).            One can also find another evidence of Bourdieu going deeper and diverse than Burger and Luckman, in his ‘An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology’ (1992) where Bourdieu insisted that sociologist must at all times be present to the effects that their own internalized structures and meanings can have on their studies. He argued that this could distort or prejudice their objectivity (Bourdieu, 1992). Here again, it becomes apparent that Bourdieu delves deeper and provides a better understanding of social knowledge than did Burger and Luckman, although this does not take away from the fact that both authors seek to achieve the same thing: the bridging of the antimony between the subjective and objective views, with the primary differences lying in the depth and substance of each authors’ views. References Bourdieu, Pierre (2004). The Peasant and His Body. Ethnography, 5(4): 579–599. â€â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€. (1990). Language and Symbolic Power. Edited and with an introduction by John         Thompson. â€â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€. (1989). Social Space and Symbolic Power. Sociological Theory 7-1 (June): 18- 26 â€â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€. (1984). Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge,   MA: Harvard University Press. â€â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€. (1977). Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University     Press. Bourdieu, Pierre and Loic Wacquant (1992). An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology.        Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Berger, L. Peter and Thomas Luckmann (1966) The Social Construction of Reality: A  Treatise its the Sociology of Knowledge. Garden City, New York: Anchor Books,          pp. 51-55, 59-61. Wacquant, Loà ¯c (2006).Pierre Bourdieu. In Rob Stones (ed.). Key Contemporary           Thinkers. London and New York: Macmillan. â€â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€. (2002). The Sociological Life of Pierre Bourdieu. International Sociology, 17(4):         549–556.
Thursday, August 29, 2019
Different Religion Beliefs Acceptance Essay
The definition of religion is not easy to find. There are many interpretations of religion meaning but no one can be said the most accurate. According to Paden (2008), Religion is a sacred engagement with that which is believed to be a spiritual reality. Religion is a worldwide phenomenon that has played a part in all human culture. Another, from most contemporary scholars, defines religion by identifying a set of widely but no universally shared characteristics. These characteristics can include a collection of beliefs about what is ultimately important and real, a community of believer’s images of a fulfilled human life a set of rituals and practices. (Dickens, 2007) Religion is very important for people who believe to deity. First, unites those with similar goals and beliefs and requires them to behave in a way that benefits others, or at least those who share the same beliefs. These behaviors have traditionally helped people form communities, raise familiar and live togeth er more harmoniously.There are several ways to classify religions. Once way is to group them according to their beliefs about God for Instance, followers of a religion can believe in one god (monotheism) or more than one God (polytheism). Belief is acceptance by the mind that something is true or real, often underpinned by an emotional or spiritual sense of certainty. For many people, religion involves worship of one Supreme Being or deity. Other people worship of many god. Still others have a more general belief in a higher power or universal life force. Beliefs are generally includes a moral code governing thoughts and actions. Almost always, this includes what many call the Golden Rule: Treat others as you would like to be treated. Acceptance is fundamental to the core dogma of most Abrahamic religions, the word â€Å"Islam†can be translated as â€Å"acceptance†, â€Å"surrender†or â€Å"voluntary submission†and Christianity is based upon the â€Å"acceptance†of Jesus of Nazareth as the â€Å"Christ†and could be compared to some Eastern religious concepts such as Buddhist mindfulness. Religions and psychological treatments often suggest the path of acceptance when a situation is both disliked and unchangeable, or when change may be possible only at great cost or risk. Acceptance may imply only a lack of outward, behavioral attempts at possible change, but the word is also used more specifically for a felt or hypothesized cognitive or emotional state. (Wikipedia.com) The First religion in the Philippines before the Spanish colonization is Animism; many Filipinos praise the â€Å"Anito†and â€Å"Diwatas†as their gods. Muslim religion brought by the Arabic traders and missionaries in the middle of 14th century. In 1521, the Spaniard came to the Philippines ledby Ferdinand Magellan and introduced the Catholicism to Malays and it was the beginning of religion in the Philippines. Today, Philippines is the only nation in Southeast Asia with a Christian majority population (Islam and Buddhism are the dominant religion) and many other religions are rise here. (Britannica Encyclopedia) The researcher choose this study for other researcher as they reference for their study that related to religion and to assists those who have difficulty to choose the religion Association.
The Operating Budget for the City of Cincinnati Ohio Research Paper
The Operating Budget for the City of Cincinnati Ohio - Research Paper Example Possessing the knowledge of budget is a pre requirement to have an impact on the city government. The local self government of the Cincinnati city is biennial. It can be seen that municipalities in Cincinnati have the power of the local self government to enforce sanitary regulations as well as other such regulations, which would not be in conflict with the general laws. Many of the important decisions regarding various operations in the city are done when creating the budget. The biennial has various responsibilities such as supplying clean and pure water to the public. In the city, various efforts were taken by the government to reduce violence through more stringent implementation of criminal justice system aided by law enforcement as well as other community organizations. 1. Budget Overview: 1. Financial Summary, including Revenue and Expenditures In the City of Cincinnati, Ohio, the biennial local governments utilize funds to maintain different types of revenue and expenditure a ccounts, keeping them separated from each other depending upon the goal of the fund. The budget of the city of Cincinnati is arranged on the basis of cash with the exemption of accrued employee benefit costs and personnel services. In the basis of cash accounting, revenue is identified when it is received and a cost is identified when it is paid. The city reports various governmental funds including General Fund, Capital Projects Fund, Debt Service Fund and other such important proprietary funds include Water Works Enterprise Fund. The city assembles, sells and purifies water to facilitate businesses and most importantly the residents of Cincinnati. Revenue consists mainly of user costs. 2. Department Budgets: The department budget of the city of Cincinnati permits to evaluate the costs and expenses connected to a particular section and whether the profits are adequate to convene these expenses or not. Furthermore, it allows the management to determine its financial performance. Fol lowing are the Department Budgets summary of the City of Cincinnati Ohio in Biennial. (financial plan) 2011 2012 2013 changes to 2013 Budget to 2012 Operating budget 28,120,790 29,221,010 28196430 (10245808) Other expenses 25,425,370 27,413,020 30,121,550 (2708530) Equipment 668,150 1,080,000 801,050 (278950) Operating total 54214310 57714030 59119030 (13233288) Employee Benefits 8, 5641,320 10,437,820 10,112,460 (325360) General Fund Overhead 1,403,550 1,421,590 2,424,890 1003300 Debt Service 2,403,550 2,421,490 2,324,790 (96700) Total 89448420 14280900 14862140 581240 3. Funding: Funding refers to the commercial action of providing capital and funds both in terms of fixed capital as well as working capital. The Cincinnati section of Community Development makes possible the process of funding as well as provides other resources that help in neighborhood revitalization, quality housing and human facilities. General Fund is the accounting unit in which every governmental activity is accounted for. Its incomes comprise intergovernmental shared revenues, taxes, investment income and charges for services. â€Å"General Fund expenditures represent costs of general government, economic development, public safety, public services, public health, parks and recreation, and other services†(City of Cincinnati, 2008, p.27). Capital Projects: Capital Projects are
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Business management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 6
Business management - Essay Example Each source of finance must function within the need of an organisation in order for it to be remarkably useful. Any business cannot just simply function without cash. That is why it is important to understand the current state of liquidity of a certain company. There is a need to understand the level of its cash flow. Understanding this will pave way to the basic knowledge on how much money needs to be considered prior to taking into account the assurance that business will continue to function and grow. In this paper, the proponent considers to critically assess some common sources of finance employed within different organisations and critically consider the sources of finance of Vodafone. Thus, prior to understanding the sources of finance of Vodafone, it is important to take a look at some sources of finance commonly used in most organisations. To continue business operation, capital is indeed needed. In the case of Vodafone, capital and fixed assets are not the same since the nature of its business is much more in the offering of services. This is eventually far from categorising the capital which is also known as fixed assets if used in production (Brigham, 1992). Vodafone certainly remains focus on the essential aspects in business. After all, it is clear that a business should operate with substantial amount of cash in which it shall be invested in land, facilities, personnel, equipment and other materials for the continuation of work and investment associated with businesses and subsidiaries. Vodafone clearly operates business through borrowing and equity which are parts of the three ways in which cash can be acquired. Mostly, firm’s reserves, disposal of assets or by borrowing are essential sources of funds. In the case of Vodafone, greater weights are clearly given to equity and borrowing. And in order to make them profitable there is a need to increase on revenue (Fess and Warren,
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Article review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 6
Article review - Essay Example Her publication in the peer reviewed journal affirms her position as an authority on her subject and her position as a faculty member only adds to the value of her words on women’s history. The article reads more like a lesson for women who are socially better off helping women who are not their social equals. The women who supported and ran the birth control clinic are certainly well educated, well read and well traveled while the women who come for support and assistance in birth control to the clinic seem to be very troubled in social and economic terms. The need for birth control in these cases is not only for health reasons; it is also because the women feel that their family would be unable to support another child. Reflecting the times, the idea of birth control is shown to be connected to the concept of eugenics and it is noted that the field of eugenics and controlled breeding was a common phenomenon at the time. However, the lack of eugenics and the general disagreement on ethical terms with the concept of genetics in today’s world seem to be based more on the link which eugenics has with Nazi Germany than anything else. The writer notes that the women who worked at the clinic realized that the problem of runaway population could be very severe in both social and economic terms for the globe than just the location they were working in. The author certainly provides evidence which supports the information given in the article. There are helpful footnotes which clarify what the author was getting at and declare the sources of information. Additionally, the author provides information from both the workers at the clinic and the individuals who were seeking help from the clinic to give a rather well rounded picture of how the birth control clinic was actually functioning. Of course the writer bemoans the fact that despite the enlightened views taken by these women
Monday, August 26, 2019
From Francovich to Brasserie du Pecheur Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words
From Francovich to Brasserie du Pecheur - Essay Example Francovich5 is a landmark case because it established the fact that European Community law confers certain rights on individuals and if there is an infringement of these rights by a Member State, then the State will be legally and financially liable and will have to make reparation to the individuals concerned for the losses and damages sustained by them due the Member State’s breach of Community law. Application of national law where individual rights may be violated, will be limited by the obligation of the Member States to implement the EU Directives. Francovich, Bonfaci and others filed the suit against Italy for failure to implement the provisions of a European Directive that was not directly effective in Italy and required payment of unpaid wages to individuals in the event of the insolvency of their employer. Italy was held liable for damages to be paid to the Plaintiffs. In specific reference to the damages sustained by individuals and the obligation of the Member Stat e to assume liability, the Court relied upon Article 5 of the EEC Treaty in establishing that such a principle was inherent in the Treaty. State liability had earlier been established in other cases, where the supremacy of individual rights had been established to the extent of requiring states to be liable if those rights were infringed.
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Aramex Product Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Aramex Product Strategy - Essay Example For a very long time, the company had focused its attention on the areas of international and domestic express, freight forwarding, and logistics. But due to the need to retain its stage on the product lifecycle as a maturing company, there has been the introduction of the shopping and shipping system as a new product development to match up the new class. With this new dimension, the company is able to deal with a larger population size without thinking of proximity as a limitation2. This is said against the backdrop that the company is fired up now to use the power of technology not only to make customers visit their shops to buy products, but to shop online and have their products shipped to them. As far as the new paradigm is concerned, it can be said that the major core physical service offered by Aramex is electronic commerce, which is commonly called e-commerce. This is actually imbedded in the shop and ship system of business whereby customers are enabled to make purchases online via the use of the internet. Judging from the modern business trend, there is no way that Aramex could exempt itself from this new dimension and expect to see any forms of phenomenal growth3. This is because the birth of modern technology is making all stakeholders begin to look for the easiest ways out to achieve the same kind of results that they attained in the past years. There is no denying the fact that the use of electronic system of commerce reduces the staff-customer personal and face-to-face interaction4. This notwithstanding, Aramex has not been enticed to forget about the importance of customer service and the need to ensuring customer satisfaction. The company actually guarantees customer service and customer satisfaction through a 24 hour customer support unit where all complaints and questions of customers are addressed on an instantaneous and live basis. These customers also have a feedback system
Saturday, August 24, 2019
Project 3 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words
Project 3 - Research Paper Example Millions of people around the world are currently building online communities through social networks to communicate their shared activities and interests as well as disseminate information. Access to information and privacy is one of the most serious ethical issues that have raised concerns about the characteristics of new media. Incidents of misconduct though breach of privacy and access of private information has been widely reported in recent times, particularly on internet and social networking sites. The issue of ethics and privacy also affects journalism as the growth of new media has ensured that journalism is undergoing a difficult transition from traditional, professional ethics to mixed media ethics with little or no control. This research project investigates privacy as an ethical issue in the digital media. The paper starts by highlighting the research principals, methods and procedures that were applied in collecting the information and reaching the findings on the topic. The paper then presents the findings about privacy as a media ethics concern in the digital media before exploring the context in which the media operates and why security issues remain a concern. Finally, the paper presents a conclusion to the research by summarizing findings and giving brief recommendation. This study utilized qualitative research because of its suitability to generate the information sought in the study. This study was about providing answers and explanations to a social issue, the issue of privacy in relation to ethics in digital media. According to Cresswell (2003), qualitative research emphasizes the process of discovering the way in which social meaning is constructed. Qualitative research is all about meanings, definitions, concepts, characteristics and descriptions of things. This research was all about finding
Friday, August 23, 2019
Benefits and limitation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1
Benefits and limitation - Essay Example It is worth to note that health information system adoption constitutes benefits and limitations towards planning and implementation of hand hygiene compliance re-education program (Peter, 2010). Some of the benefits include health information system’s ability to enables access to comprehensive, legible, and organized patient data and reference literature at the point of healthcare service. This boosts compliance of the nurse as far as hand cleaning compliance is concerned. Health information system constitutes networked computers that are located in each exam room and physician’s office; a provider can also access data over the Internet which is effective in promoting re-education program. The main limitation concerns set-up and training. The time to set up and learn to use a system is often a challenge. However, users share common lists, data entry templates and text macros to decrease start-up time for users. This means that much time should be allocated at the beginning of the re-education program so that the nurses can master how to use the health information system. The planning must also constitute extensive outlay of the training shifts and adjustable time frame that allow for smooth transition from the paper charts to health information system (Carroll, 2009). The overall goal of adopting health information system is to improve on the compliance on hand hygiene which is the main cause of hospital acquired infections. Time is the central resource that will be taken into consideration when implementing the adoption of health information system (Peter, 2010). In the acute setting, the patient requires immediate attention and this puts significant pressure on the nurse. In this regard, it is appropriate to allocate much time in training the healthcare providers on how to apply health information system in hand hygiene compliance so that once they assigned a patient in ambulatory condition, it would be easy to work. Availability of
Thursday, August 22, 2019
Inspector Goole Essay Example for Free
Inspector Goole Essay I believe such cliff-hangers put the characters in a defensive and confused mood and they left wanting to know what is to happen next. Who thought the inspector knew a lot therefore they have to co-operate by telling the truth and this makes the jig-saw puzzle of the mysteries easily soluble. That is the scenes with each Act are easily identifiable as the initial atmosphere is established, as the focus moves from one character to the next and as the family seeks to explain the evenings events. At the end of the play, the audience are shocked and surprised that inspector Goole, who has acted professionally, so it seems, has turned out to be a fraud and a fake. Afterwards, the audience, I presume, becomes more confused and bewildered. The plan was a type of whos done it (by Agatha Christie) which progressively builds up and heightens the supernatural nature of the mystery surrounding the inspector. However, the inspector has successfully made Sheila and Eric confessed their guilt and irresponsible behaviour towards Eva Smith yet the inspector leaves the audience guessing who actually is responsible for the death of Eva Smith, and the audience having learnt that the inspector is a fake, makes them more surprised at his professional manner and style of his interrogation and enquiries. Initially, the role of the fake Inspector Goole, who visits the Birling family residence and to interrogate them about the supposed suicidal death of Eva Smith, tries to make the characters aware of the broader view of responsibility because before the entry of Inspector Goole in Act one, Mr Birling tells the two young lads Gerald and Eric that, A man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own After the inspector has given his speech of Love, the three; Mr and Mrs Birling and Gerald are adamant and refuse to accept any responsibility on their part, which contributed to the death of Eva Smith. Before the end of the play, Gerald Croft rings the infirmary to confirm the death of Eva Smith and the falsehood of his cocked up story of the death of a young woman now on a slab at the infirmary. Mr and Mrs Birling and Gerald are in jubilant and triumphant mood that they have been vindicated that no girl has died and the infirmary hasnt had a suicide for months. Just then, the phone rings. This time, it is a real inspector who confirms that indeed a young girl has died drinking disinfectant and is on the way to the infirmary. Then inspector wishes to visit the Birlings (second time round) for a fresh investigation. I therefore believe that this is proof of Priestleys use of time as element of his play. Now the audience are left in no doubt that the events of the play are going to start all over again because according to theory of nature of time, the cycle of identical lives will be repeated if people involved change nothing of significance. J.B Priestley wants to convey a moral and social message that we all should think, feel and act like responsible people in the community helping one another. I believe that the sort of audience who went to the theatre in 1945 were, naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve and ignorant but rich and powerful. Despite the ignorance of the audience, they were wealthy and powerful people of the society at that time after the Second World War. Therefore, they could easily identify with the Birlings. These people are selfish, uncompromising and thought of themselves and their families and disregarded the plight of the poor and disadvantaged members of society. This is vividly in Mr Birlings advice to Eric and Gerald; but I care. I was almost certain for a knighthood in the next Honours List- Having identified themselves with the Birlings, I feel that the audience will feel guilty for being irresponsible and selfish towards the poor and disadvantaged in the society. Therefore I believe if injustice and inequality are allowed to flourish in the society, mistakes of the old generation will repeat itself in generations to come. The play encourages the audience to learn from the mistakes of the past and to recognize that selfish pursuit of riches and power can be destructive. J.B Priestley encourages his modern audience to see that capitalism has many victims. He also makes them aware that our lives are linked and that our behaviour affects one another to see the need to create a better society. Nevertheless, the modern society reacts to the characters in the same way in the sense that the rich are becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer, due to the selfishness and inward looking of the wealthy and powerful over the less advantaged members of society. I feel Priestleys use of surprise interrogations and inquiries do not work in modern times. This is because before an inspector of the police visits a residence to interrogate, he first makes himself known by producing his identity card. I believe the end is a surprise because after inspector Gooles speech, the real inspector of the police rings announcing the death of a girl who has drank a strong disinfectant and that the police inspector is on his way to ask questions. Despite the present of socio-political conditions, I believe Priestleys moral and social message is still relevant. For instance, inequality and class systems are prevalent in modern societies. For example, the labour party which is socialist inclined seems to stress the idea of interdependent community but fail to practice what they preach. The original audience are different from the present day audience, whereas the audience in 1945 were aristocrats, wealthy and powerful, the present audience have different social status therefore I think one should expect diverse reactions. Thus, the play does not affect them in the same way. However, I feel that the play is still worth performing because modern audience are still committing the old mistakes that the original audience committed. Morden society is still irresponsible and class system is also operative. Again the elite and affluent exercise power over the less advantaged and the poor, and they are business conscious more than being charitable. In this play, Priestley writes about social message, love and responsibility. Socially, the writer makes me feel and accept that people share a common humanity and that we are all interdependent. Again Priestleys writing about love through charity which is faked by Mrs Birling encourages me as an audience to express true love. I believe this play has encouraged me to look back to the mistake of our fore-fathers in all circumstances and live as a member of a community contributing and helping to build a society devoid of wickedness, irresponsibility and selfishness. In conclusion, I must admit I have been overwhelmed by Priestleys use of time as an element of his plays ( The dessert Highway-1944 and The Linder Tree-1945), to demonstrate how in general; the behaviour of each member of a community can affect others.
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Theoretical Positions of Freud, Adler, Jung, and James Essay Example for Free
Theoretical Positions of Freud, Adler, Jung, and James Essay Introduction Historically, some of the greatest insights of psychological analysis stemmed from the minds of ordinary men and women. In many respects, most psychodynamic theories come from psychoanalysis studies that have been conducted over the generations. Science has worked meticulously to establish quality and validation to structuralist perspectives; however it was functionalism movement that were more qualitative in nature. Although not directly associated with the movement, psychologists such as Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, and William James made is possible to explain the purpose of the human consciousness. They all wanted to discover a way to improve the quality of the lives of individuals rather than focus on laboratory research; a more direct approach to mapping the mind. Their variations in theory were designed to focus on the foundation of human behaviors and the best way to provide accurate analysis and treatment to those behavior motivators. Sigmund Freud: Perspectives and Major Disagreements Conscious and Unconscious: Freud’s Theories – Disagreement In regards to Freudian psychology, Vaughan wrote, â€Å"the imposing, assertive methods of the arrangement†¦made ideal the rise of forceful obstruction in its train (1927). James and Freud have the most significant differences in perspectives. James felt introspection and self-reflection is the way to understanding life within the mental states (Goodwin, 2008). However, Freud believes that behavior is regulated by the unconscious mind. This was made understandable through free association and dreams. Ultimately, Freud thought professionals could figure out the state and individual based the state on the analysis of his or her dreams (Freud, 1911). But, self-reflection was what James believed (Hart, 2008). Freud’s Sexual Motivations – Disagreement Adler and Jung, who formerly related with Freud, found disagreements with Freud’s theory of sexual motivations and psychosexual developments (Vaughan, 1927). These men argued that placing extreme prominence on the motivation through sex would reduce individual behaviors to only one motivation that is fundamental (Vaughan, 1927). Adler wanted the theory he created to become the main stimulus and foundation through his psychological theories replacing Freud’s emphasis on sexual motivation. He would replace this with self-reflection (Vaughan, 1927). Freud would focus on forces held internally to include; sexual motivation, biological dispositions, and conflicts. Adler’s theories concentrated on social factors (Goodwin, 2008). The most similar views out of the four men where Jung and Freud (Goodwin, 2008). Again Freud would be questioned by Jung and his thoughts within sexual motivations, concluding the theories of analytical psychology (Goodwin, 2008). Although Jung ’s views can be comparable to Freud’s, Jung would extend the theory to embrace a perspective that was more advanced (Goodwin, 2008). Alfred Adler and the Individual Psychology Alfred Adler was an Austrian doctor, psychotherapist, and the main founder of the school of individual psychology. He strongly believed in the importance of the feeling of inferiority or the inferiority complex. The inferiority complex is well known as a major key of developing personalities. An inferiority complex is a lack of self-worth, doubting oneself, uncertain of ability, or feeling as if you are not up to standards. He believed this occurred in the subconscious and caused people to overcompensate. This resulted in people either doing exceeding well, or failing miserably resulting in behavior considered abnormal by society. He believed that people were whole individuals, and from that came his â€Å"Individual Psychology†. Freud disbelieved Adlers ideas and believed they were too contrary so he had all members of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society expel Adler. Despite the fact Freud believed Adler to be incorrect, he still took his ideas seriously and called them,  "honorable errors†. Carl Jung Than we had Carl Jung who was an analytical psychiatrist who is considered as the prototype of the dissident through the impact of his scission and the movement that he created when he became analytical. He was the son of a swiss reverend of a community, he went to school and studied the medical field but he specialized in psychiatry he also worked for a renowed psychiatric hospital in Zurich. Carl Jung had a strong personality and was also thought of as quite facinating he was introduced to Freud in 1907. They hit it off and he would soon be facinated by the prestige and personality that Carl Jung had he soon seen in him the son that could keep the survival of psychoanalysis. He really believed in hm and was so into his personality that it didn’t even face him that Jung was not a jewish like he was. Soon after Jung was traveling to the US and became the first president of the â€Å"International Association of Psychoanalysis†. He traveled the world for a while and did several analysis throughout the US he also became more and more away from his studies as he was aging. But he still got to accomplish a lot and also got to fund his own schools which really attracted a lot of people he was a master in what he did and really got to accomplish a lot in the field of Psychology. Compare and Contrasts As you can see all of the psychologists mentioned above had the same goal: explain the purpose of the human consciousness. Freud as the first to develop the basis of all psychodynamic theories: psychoanalysis. Understanding certain behaviors requires insight into the emotional responses that motivate specific reactions; sexual development was paramount to human behavior. He believed that the human psyche consisted of three parts: the Ego, Super-Ego, and the Id; all parts of the sexual developmental process. On the other hand, Adler’s theory was more straight-forward: he believed that these three parts operated as a single unit; the central theme of functionalism. Alder was the first to establish the idea that an individual’s personality was a direct reflection of their conscious. The psychologist that met these two in the middle was Carl Jung. Like Freud, Jung believed all behaviors were triggered by motivators, only he thought that the motivator was based on an inferio rity complex; and like Adler, he believed that the human psyche acted as a single unit. Jung was most significant for his use of word association to understand unconscious responses to external stimuli. His efforts proved that the unconscious mind is able to provided responses independent from the conscious mind. And finally, James William emphasized the notion of a â€Å"stream of consciousness†â€â€an active agent of mental action that is constantly changing (Goodwin, 2008). Although each psychologist had a unique perspective of how the human psyche operated, they made it possible to explain the consciousness. Conclusion Some of the greatest insights into psychological analysis included Freud’s psychoanalysis; Adler’s individualism; Jung’s analytical perspective, and James’s â€Å"stream of thought†analogies. Because of their extensive efforts to explore the human consciousness, they are often referred to as the â€Å"founding fathers of modern psychology. Together they validated the significance of functionalism over structuralism; the truth lies in the purpose not the design. Each psychologist provided a unique approach to establish what the purpose of the consciousness; the basis of all human behavior. Variations in their theories provided many different approaches to target those behavior motivators. These great psychologist collectively improved the quality of life for many individuals over the generations. References: 1. Freud, S. (1911) Interpretation of Dreams (3rd edition) Retrieved May 12, 2014 from EbscoHost 2. Goodwin, C. J. (2008). A History of Modern Psychology (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 3. Vaughan, W. (1927). The psychology of Alfred Adler. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 21(4), 358-371 EbsocHost 4. Durbin, P. (2004). Alfred Adler. Retrieved May 19, 2014, from http://www.alfredadler.org/alfred-adler 5. Fisher, M. (2010, May). Psychology History. Retrieved May 19, 2014, from http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/adler.htm 6. Kowalski, R., Westen, D. (2005). Psychology (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 7. Jung, Carl. The Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology. Ed. Bonnie Strickland. 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale, 2001. 347-348. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 19 May 2014
Impact of Urbanization on Crime Rates
Impact of Urbanization on Crime Rates RISING CRIME RATE AS CONSEQUENCE OF URBAN AREA ABSTRACT Modem cities present a meeting point of people from different walks of life having no affinity with one another. Like other problems, the problem of crimes increases with the increase in urbanization. In fact the increasing trend in urban crimes tends to disturb peace and tranquility of the cities and make them unsafe to live in particularly for the women. In recent decades, crime levels have given increasing cause for alarm, bringing material and immaterial consequences that have still to be properly understood. Anti-crime strategies urgently need to be implemented in order to promote safe communities and contribute to their sustainable development. Crime needs to be taken into account during the planning process, as valuable components can be provided that can offer effective approaches to crime prevention and the improvement of community safety. These almost inevitably require long-term, strategic and multi-disciplinary interventions for urban and suburban areas. Crime, and especially the fear of crime, affects the mental and physical wellbeing of victims, causing behavioral alterations, with serious consequences for the whole community. It is also the main contributor to the decline of quality of life in urban areas in Portugal. This paper assesses: the relationship between crimes in an urban area. INTRODUCTION Growing materialism, consumerism, and competition in everyday life, selfishness, lavishness, appalling socio-economic disparities and rising unemployment and feeling of loneliness in the crowd are some of the primary causes responsible for alarming trends in urban crime. Not only the poor, deprived and slum dwellers take to crime; youngsters from well-to-do families also resort to crime in order to make fast buck and for meeting requirements of a lavish life. Occasional failures in life also drag youngsters to crime. The problem of urban crime is becoming more complicated in the present day world because criminals often get protection from politicians, bureaucrats and elite class of the urban society. Some of the criminals reach high political positions by using their money and muscle power. According to study made by Dutt and Venugopal (1983), violent urban crimes like rape, murder, kidnapping, dacoity, robbery, etc. are more pronounced in the northern-central parts of the country. Even the economic crimes (like theft, cheating, breach of trust, etc.) are concentrated in the north- central region. Poverty related crimes are widespread with main concentration in the cities of Patna, Darbhanga, Gaya and Munger. This may be due to widespread poverty prevailing in this region. However, the latest surveys show thatMumbai and Delhi figure in 35 cities that have high crime rate. As much as 31.8 per cent of citizens in Mumbai and 30.5 per cent in Delhi have been victims of crime. Sexual assault was higher in Mumbai (3.5 per cent) as compared to Delhi (1.7 per cent). Both cities score poorly in corruption, with 22.9% in Mumbai being exposed to bribery as compared to 21% in Delhi. Recognition of the environments contribution to quality of life and health has meant that place is now considered an important factor in explaining health and quality of life. These results highlight the need to reassess specific elements of urban Design and their relationship with crime levels, particularly as regards citizens’ fear of crime and its consequences on health. We aim to answer two questions: 1. Can urban planning help reduce urban crime and violence? 2. How can planners create safe and healthy places? Causes of Crimes Associated with Urbanity The phenomenon of urban crimes could be attributed to a host of factors that are economic, social, political and even moral or spiritual in nature. Among these are: 1. Poverty Many authorities in the field of criminal justice say that poverty is a major cause of crime. This is not of course to say that it follows that a person who wallows in wealth cannot be a criminal. Many crimes are committed even by the rich. Furthermore, many people mired in poverty, have remained respectable and exemplary citizens. It is evident that poverty Per Se is not the only reason or cause but it is a major predis positive factor. Nonetheless, the problem of massive poverty is the primary breeding ground or root cause of crime in countries similarly situated as the Philippines. Its concomitant deprivations and hardships are unemployment, underemployment, low income and productivity, malnutrition, big families, rapid population growth rates, and low standard of living. Crime rate appears to be notably higher in poorer neighbor hoods and in areas with high population density, deteriorated living conditions and unemployment problems. People resort to crimes on the street to alleviate or escape from their miseries and frustrations or to answer a need. Illustrative examples are parents who sell their children to paedophiles or a father who resorts to robbery just so he could buy medicine for his sick son. The urban poor are also plagued by among others, the high cost of living, financial difficulties, unstable jobs, lack of capital, limited educational opportunities, inadequate health and sanitation, and inadequate housing. National and local government planners and implementers therefore face increasing demands for urban services like public transportation, garbage collection, piped water, electricity, schools, health and transportation. A deterioration of living conditions in urban areas has produced its share of crime, juvenile delinquency, drug addiction, prostitution, mental illness, physical disability, suicides, family and personal disorganization, environmental degradation, pollution, garbage and sewerage disposals, and traffic jams and congestion. 2. Lost Family Values Today as the country becomes more and more industrialized, there is an evident loosening of family ties -the family gets together less and less as a group, with all members present, except during special events. Each member of the family has his own schedule of activities, his own interests, his own friends. All these factors prevent family members from having opportunities for cooperative activity, preventing the development of strong personal relationships. Several family values that promote and nurture solidarity and love within the family, such as respect for and obedience to parents, have been eroded and polluted by modernization. The Western culture is making widespread and deep-seated inroads into Philippine society through modern communications and the mass media. These lost family values result in many broken homes or families. As children are separated from their parents or reared by single parents, they go wayward and become misguided. Many become addicted to prohibited drugs, unwed and/or separated parents and eventually become criminals or victims of crime. 3. Working Mothers The employment and exodus of women from the home where mothers like me have to be employed, some out of necessity others to augment the family income, have somehow contributed directly or indirectly to the commission of crimes. At times, the frequent absence of the mother weakens the fundamental relationship with children resulting sometimes in feelings of insecurity and rejection that lead to maladjustments. 4. Ignorance The majority of our population do not know many of our laws and the repercussions they face once they commit violations thereof. They do not know many of their rights, the due process of law and many other related matters. In fact, many of our hapless folks do not know what democracy is all about and how they can make it work. This results in a â€Å"crisis†of citizenship characterized by widespread apathy, indifference, â€Å"spoon-feeding†syndrome, or lack of discipline and self-restraint. This affects both the criminals and victims alike in many ways. Because of their scanty legal knowledge and lack of awareness of its repercussions, many criminals, especially first offenders, readily perpetrate crimes based on a mistaken notion and false belief. Many become victims of crime because they are not aware of the modus operandi of crime syndicates and are not crime prevention-conscious. Often times, instances of miscarriage of justice on the part of either the offender or the victim, could be blamed on their ignorance. 5. Injustices/Abuses These constitute the powerful motives for most of the crime against persons perpetrated either by the victims or their loved ones as cases of revenge or vendetta. Worse yet, these could serve also as the reason for the same criminals to yet perform some more crime as a way of pre-empting a vendetta or silencing the victims and/or their witnesses. The high propensity to avenge injustices/abuses among Filipinos makes this factor abet crime in a very potent and violent manner. 6. Soft State Non-enforcement of several laws and ordinances, massive graft and corruption, absenteeism on the part of government officials or lack of basic services give rise to the lack of discipline and low regard for the laws by the citizenry, which spawn lawlessness and crime. For monetary considerations or plain laziness, traffic laws and ordinances are not enforced by traffic policemen or aides. Consequently, drivers, passengers and pedestrians alike violate traffic rules and regulations left and right. From minor violations, gradually these offenders commit more and more serious infractions of the laws, thereby abetting crime. 7. Fear This problem is so pervasive that it affects practically the entire society. Whether rich or poor. People are afraid, not only while they are on the streets; but also right inside their homes. Kidnapping for ransom, bank robberies/hold ups, murders, homicides, crime against chastity and other heinous crimes instil so much fear among the citizenry Fear is an unseen force that breeds crime in many ways. Victims of kidnap for ransom are easily paralyzed into inaction by the kidnappers; such that they will give in to the demands of kidnappers, including that of not reporting the incident to the police. Victims of crime and their witnesses are easily threatened to keep silent and not to file charges and testify in court. Even when not actually threatened, many victims and witnesses refuse to cooperate with the police in solving and prosecuting crimes. As a result, many criminals go scot-free and are emboldened to perpetrate more crimes. As aptly stated by Edmund Burke, â€Å"For evil to triumph, it needs only good men to do nothing†; like victims and witnesses keeping quiet about crime. 8. Others There are many other breeding grounds of crime. (i) Movies that glorify criminals and show a lot of violence and tabloids that depict lewd scenes contribute to the rise in crime; (ii) Modern technology that tends to increase the capabilities of crime syndicates to perpetrate more crimes that are becoming more difficult to bust and/or solve; and (iii) Lack of sound crime prevention planning and the apathy of the community towards involvement in anti-crime campaigns. Rational of the study Urbanization is a newly invented matter. But crime isn`t5.but there ar4e huge number of relation between crime and urbanization. IN urban area is full of facility which facility are responsible to occur crime in urban area. Relationship between crime and urbanization may be uncertain. Mash and Masih state â€Å"At low levels of the urbanization, crime may be high because of sparsely urbanization may lead to decrease in crime because of closer proximity of and finally, with even urbanization, crime may rise because individuals may not identify whether they are engaged in a legal or illegal activity†(1093). Indeed, Gaviria and Pages, (2002:193) found positive relationship between city size and. Thus, we can say that urbanization may have both negative and positive effects on crime in different urban setting. It needs an empirical investigation to see which effect outweighs. Urbanization has also brought new challenges in terms of conflict, violence and urban governance – and citizen security in particular. The World Bank’s landmark 2011World Development Reporthighlighted the significance of violence as a development problem. Its work noted how violence is changing, becoming less structured around notions of civil war and conflict, and more focused around criminal violence, terrorism and civil unrest. Urban crime concept has developed from the nature of crime. If we notice the nature of crime so it will be clear to us the consequences of crime. Many of the population suffer from urban crime. Specially young people Who involved in this crime. Conceptual framework Are many cause of urban crime. Especially when a men being psychologically handicapped then he can commit crime .different situation are mainly responsible for this problem. Young people take drug, and then their mental situation become abnormal. Sometime many facility are responsible for becoming g frustrated to younger. So it’s clear to us that psychological cause is the basic cause of urban crime. Criminologists believe that certain predispositions of an individual and his personality traits have a predominant role when it comes to his criminal behavior. These predispositions and personality traits rise from the occurrences in the surroundings, and the person’s tendency to relate to these occurrences the two factors which comes into play are genetics and neurological development of the individual. Economic factor mainly responsible to occur crime in urban area. Some of the people when fac economic crisis then he commits crime in urban are. Especially when we talk about the economic factors which make a person resort to violence or crime, the first thing that is likely to come to your mind is poverty, and this is true to a great extent. The desperation that comes with poverty eventually gives rise to anger, and this anger makes the person take some drastic measures, thus making him get involved in crime acted by urbanization. Which matter is so destructive for urban people. CONCLUSION Crime is a social disease. It destroys our social life and our basic production. Urbanization has created much scope in this factor. From old time to today’s modern societies, crime has always been a hot subject and kept its place in every day’s agenda. In particular, as and development of countries increase, in general, from to another, it is expected that crime rate should decline over time. However, it does not decline, and it has become more important in the second half of this century. As Becker pointed out years ago that â€Å"Crime has probably become more important during the last forty years†. Every society has its own values system. Crime is defined by mainly this values system. For one reason or the other, there has been crime in every society throughout history though the rate, type, cause, and effect on each society might be highly different. While 35 percent of world population was living in urban areas in 1980, it was about 53 percent in 2005, and estimated to reach 75 percent in 2030.1 Therefore, it is crucial to understand the relationship between crime and urban areas. RECOMMENDATION There are many problem in urban area .Crime is the major problem in urbanization. Every citizen should concern about this problem. Bangladesh is a developing country, and it’s an over populated country. Many population involved in different types of crime. Some recommendation are noted here- Urban citizen should concern about urban crime. Government should take different preventive stapes. Crime related journal should broadcast in media. Daily newspapers should publish pure and truthful news. Police has to play an important role to recover crime from urban area. Judicial system will run without political handicapped. REFERENCE Akkas, Ali, Sarkar†Law of Criminal Procedure.†Adler, Freda â€Å"Distinguished professor of Criminal Justice School of Criminal Justice, RutgersUniversity. Mueller o.w, Gerhard â€Å"Distinguished Professor of Criminal Justice Rutgers’s university. Paranjape.V.N†Criminology and Phonology 14thedition,Central law publication,107,DarbhangaCastle,Allahbad. islam,aminul†Research Methodology†Chawdhury,Dr,Haider, Criminology. (CIA world Fact book) (Hider 2006): Journal. Mashi and Mashi ,criminal justice. Gumus findings 2004, Journal. Becker view on crime in urbanization (1968-172), Journal. Ijere, N. J. (1994) â€Å"Gender and Rural-Urban Migration in the Ecuadorian sierra†Columbia University Press, Columbia. Jack Harvey, (2000) â€Å"Urban Land Economics†Palgrave Macmillan, Fifth Edition pp 256-257. Jelili, M.O (2012) â€Å"Urbanization and Future of Cities in Africa: The Emerging Facts and Challenges to Planners†Global Journal of Human Social Science, Volume 12 Issue 7.
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Canadas Institutional Landscape And The Governments Ignorance Of Far :: essays research papers fc
Canada's Institutional Landscape and The Government's Ignorance of Farmer's Needs Saskatchewan farmers have been continually ignored in Canada's institutional landscape. Never has the situation been more evident as it is with the possibility of Quebec separation. The Canadian governments ignorance of farmers' needs has caused a cynical view of the political process in the eyes of farmers. One of the major sources of the cynicism is that Canadian federal institutions are developed so that most political of the clout is developed from the east. The eastern domination of the House of Commons, and indirectly the Senate, means that Saskatchewan wheat farmers do not have a strong voice in Canadian political decisions. But what does the Saskatchewan lack of representation in Canada's political institutions in Ottawa mean? What can Saskatchewan wheat farmers do to rectify the situation? And, following a Quebec separation what can wheat farmers do to uphold their livelihood? The intent of this report is to focus on the actions Saskatchewan wheat farmers can take to ensure their success in the future. A focus on the recent political policy decisions by the federal government, the need for intrastate institutional reform, and effects of a possible Quebec separation will all be analyzed. The current institutional landscape of Canada has not acted favorably for Saskatchewan wheat farmers. The development of the institutions, ie. the House of Commons and the Senate, and the policies that have developed from these institutions have continually ignored the needs of prairie farmers, emphasizing the cynicism Saskatchewan wheat farmers have towards the political process. The antipathy towards the political institutions has developed because of recent cost-cutting initiatives and deregulatory procedures by the government and by mis-representation of farmers' needs in government today. The failure of Saskatchewan wheat farmers to express their needs in the Canadian political arena successfully, when compared to other constituencies, is based on the fact that Saskatchewan's representation in Canada's political institutions is weak. The result is the development of policies contrary to what would be accepted by farmers. Saskatchewan wheat farmers, in accordance with most constituencies in the west, have desired a institutional change to the Upper House in Canada. In 1867, when the institutions were developed, the goal was to develop two different political "bodies". One, the House of Commons, would represent the Canadian people by means of elected representatives in a representation by population scenario. The second, the Senate, would be a source of "sober second thought." In its creation the senate was intended to protect the ideals of individual regions. However, to the chagrin of Saskatchewan wheat farmers, the intended regional focus of the senate never developed and, hence, the senate has
Monday, August 19, 2019
Prefrontal Cortex :: Neurology Brain Medical Essays
Prefrontal Cortex The prefrontal cortex is the most anterior portion of the frontal lobe. It responds mostly to stimuli signaling the need for movement, however it is also responsible for many other specialized functions. It receives information from all sensory systems and can integrate a large amount of information (Kalat 2004). Studies have shown that the prefrontal cortex is responsible for working memory. Working memory is defined as "the information that is currently available in memory for working on a problem" (Anderson 2005). The prefrontal cortex (PFC) also controls behaviors that depend on context (Kalat 2004). For example, if my cell phone rings when I am at the mall or grocery store I would answer it. If it rings while I am at the movies or in class I wouldn't answer it. People with frontal lobe damage often exhibit inappropriate behaviors due to the inability to recognize context. Other studies indicate that the PFC is also responsible for regulating emotions and decision-making. A study was conducted in which participants were presented with three dilemmas. One dilemma was called the Trolley Dilemma: a trolley is headed toward five people standing on the track. You can switch the trolley to another track killing only one person instead of five. Subjects were asked to decide between right and wrong. Brain scans of the participants show that contemplating the dilemmas activates the prefrontal cortex and other areas that respond to emotion (Kalat 2004). Sustaining a lesion to the prefrontal cortex produces a wide variety of side effects. The effects range from minor to severe. You can get a lesion by head trauma or stroke (CJ Long 2005). Possible deficits associated with minor lesions of the prefrontal cortex: - Inability to respond quickly to verbal instructions - Speech dysfluency - Disturbances in understanding complex pictures or words - Difficulties with problem-solving - Deficits in complex tasks requiring inhibition of habitual behavior patterns With more extensive lesions the person experiences greater behavior deficits. These deficits include: perseveration, which is the inability to make behavioral shifts in attention, movement and attitude, decreased creativity, poor recall of verbal and nonverbal material, difficulty writing, and deficits in comprehension of logical-grammatical constructions (CJ Long 2005). Other effects of extensive lesions: - easily distracted - disturbances in memory - defects in time sense - decreased anxiety - less critical of oneself - difficulty with unfamiliar analogies - impulsivity
Sunday, August 18, 2019
Education Philosophy Statement Essay -- Educating School Essays
Education Philosophy Statement Every person has his or her idea of what education should be. One wants to be educated or go to universities so he or she could have a higher degree. Some other person wants to get education just to fulfill one's self. Many people get college education thinking that they can make more money. Education is not about money; it is a lifetime process that enables one to satisfy one's inner self. It makes a person feel good for who they are inside. Jon Spayde's article "Learning in the Key of Life" made me think about the different aspects of education, such as college education or street education. Which one is a more necessity for survival in today's world. The question that arises in my mind is does education help us during everyday life. Maybe education does not provide the necessity tools to survive in the real world. We are not wasting our time in the institutions; however, the real world is a bigger school than any other schools that we attend. Unfortunately, 21st century's definition of school is technology for example computers, just like Jon Spayde states, "For our policy heads, education equals something called training for competitiveness, which often boils down to the mantra of "more computers, more computers." (60) Education is not based on technology and computers that our society is after today. Computers do not make a person happy or fulfill one's life. Canadian historian and critic John Ralston Saul claims, "Technical training is training in what is sure to be obsolete soon anyway; it's self-defeating, and it won't get you through the next 60 years of your life." (61) Education is a lifetime process, and one that will never complete in the sixteen years of normal schooling. .. ... daily than any other subject. There is nothing more truly than John Spayde's words that state "The whole world's a classroom." It is true that in today's society we do need computers, however, they are not the main ingredient to survive in real life. There are many people who are very well educated, but can not interact socially. There are many other ways to become educated besides in the classrooms. The school does not prepare us for the real world. Learning does take place around the span of a lifetime. I believe humanity courses will enlighten one's ability to understand what a true happiness really mean and make one's life better. Happiness should not be about unnecessary pleasure. Work Cited Spayde Jon. "Learning in the Key of LIfe." The Presence of Others. Ed. Andrea A. Lunsford, John J. Ruszkiewicz. New York: Bedford, / st. Martin's, 2000. 58-64.
Saturday, August 17, 2019
Arabizi Effects on the Arabic language Essay
I. Introduction: Whenever you walk at the campus of the American University of Sharjah, you will definitely find the young Arab girls wear trendy Western dresses as well as the Arab boys wear stylish Western clothes. And even students with more conservative dresses seem more Western than Eastern. No matter how young Arab people wear or look like nowadays, they even tend to be different in the language they use in typing and communicating. There is a widespread linguistic phenomenon that tremendously encroaches their lives and ultimately leads them to write in an unusual language. This language is well-known nowadays among Arabs especially the youth as â€Å"Arabizi†. Arabizi, a slang term derived from the words arabi or Arabic and englizi or English, is used to describe the melding between Arabic and English (Yaghan, 2008). It is a common contemporary trend for typing that has largely spread among young Arabs who use Arabic numerals and Latin characters to communicate, i.e. â€Å"5alas†. Given the linguistic, cultural and social significance that Arabizi has in contemporary society, indeed it is extremely interesting and also important to deeply investigate this phenomenon in order to determine its dimensions, causes and possible consequences. Questions, controversies and concerns have been heavily raised over this issue. Questions like â€Å"Why do young people use Arabizi?†, â€Å"To what extent will it affect our language which is a critical component of our Arabic identity?†and so on have been asked by many specialists and scholars and even ordinary people. Some users may think it is helpful and easy to communicate, but also others are concerned about how Arabizi can dramatically affect our Arabic language. Linguistic scholars specifically are concerned about the severe results of the continuous use of Arabizi in our daily activities that may lead at the end to the extinction of our language. Therefore, this paper will investigate the effects of Arabizi on the Arabic language as a major component of identity focusing on students from the American University of Sharjah. II. Literature Review: Technology and Language Arabizi may be considered as a new phenomenon in contemporary society; however, its origin goes back to the mid-1990s with the introduction of technology (Warschauer, 2002). Technology that was supposed to convert the world into a global village removing all borders among people, in reality worked reversely in categorizing people as well as countries into haves and have nots (Warschauer, 2002). That is if a product is made in the United Kingdom or the United States, it is up to the consumer whether to adapt to English or decide not to use the product at all. Dr. David Wilmsen, a professor of Arabic at the American University of Beirut that has written comprehensively on linguistics, considers cell phone as the critical Western product that created Arabizi in the Arab world (Salhani, 2013). According to Dr. Wilmsen, when mobile phones were firstly introduced to the Arab world, they were very expensive and keyboards came with Latin characters. Elites who could afford it, communicated t hrough messages easily in English. However due to the increasing demand, mobile phones became inexpensive and owned by almost everyone. Those people might not know English but they wanted to use the simplicity of the English keyboard on their mobile phones and the result was Arabizi (Salhani, 2013). Although cell phones and other technological means are provided nowadays with Arabic keyboards, Arabs still do not use it and prefer to write in Latin characters. Bruna Kesserwani, the Middle East Regional Director of the World Youth Alliance, on a personal side finds it easier to write in Arabizi in spite of using both Arabic and English in workplace and daily life. However, Kesserwani strongly believes that Arabizi might have severe cultural and linguistic consequences (Salhani, 2013). Education System and Language The impact of Arab’s over-reliance on English-based technology has affected many other critical aspects of Arab society. As Warschauer explained throughout his book, university-level courses that are taught in English are expanding nowadays to further include other linguistic courses such as Arabic. Consequently, parents are forced to register their children in English-based schools so they can afford a good job in the future and maintain a high status in society (2002). However, this desire for upward social mobility has led to â€Å"cultural-linguistic dualism†(Findlow, 2006). Therefore, Arab youth can speak, interact and even live with a linguistic mixture of Arabic and English. However, this phenomenon can lead us to recognize these dramatic concepts â€Å"language death†, â€Å"language loss†, â€Å"language decay†and even â€Å"linguistic genocide†, which convey the increasing concerns about the future of the Arabic language (Findlow, 2006). Education has a critical role to play in the discourse of how the Arabic language is rapidly disappearing from new generations’ lives and heavily displaced by English. Schools nowadays in the Middle East adopt English as the major language of teaching and as a consequence they are teaching Arabic to Arab students as a foreign language: usually one hour a day (Dhabi, 2004). According to Dr. Saiyad Ahmad, assistant professor of Eastern Studies at the American University of Sharjah, â€Å"most Arab youth don’t know their language†. He highlighted the critical responsibility of the education system in maintaining the Arabic culture and heritage. According to him, â€Å"nowadays, if someone doesn’t know English, they’re seen as uneducated †¦ people have forgotten other ways and means of thinking†. â€Å"We have effectively lost our authenticity †¦ our ideas are not our own, but are imported like other products,†he added (El Darawy, 2005). Personal Justifications for Using Arabizi To assess the role of Arabizi in contemporary society, there is an inherent need to deeply answer the question â€Å"why young people nowadays use Arabizi?†In a study conducted by Dr. Mohammad Yaghan, a group of high school students were asked about their reasons and justifications for using Arabizi in their daily lives. One of the reasons was that teenagers nowadays find Arabizi a trend in which they would like to belong to and by that way they will blend easily with similar group members. Other students believed that classical Arabic letters should be used for educational purposes but not for slang. Also, students explained how Arabizi is useful in expressing issues that cannot be expressed otherwise in classical Arabic letters. Economics is another major reason of using Arabizi, since the number of characters allowed in a message written in English is much larger than that in Arabic. Last but not least, participants expressed their preference of Arabizi over pure Arabic or English as it is a flexible system, not taught and free of errors (Yaghan, 2008). In addition, many Arabs feel that Arabic is very complicated and therefore they wanted to combine their mother tongue with English to create Arabizi which is somehow easier in communication (Salhani, 2013). In an interview conducted with college students at the American University in Cairo asking about their logic for using Arabizi as a means of communication with their friends, students emphasized two main points. Firstly, they explained how Arabic restricts them from discussing everyday topics and on the other hand how melding Arabic and English allow them to talk freely about their daily issues. Secondly, they illustrated how comfortable they feel when they use Arabizi to talk about taboos and other issues that cannot be expressed in Arabic such as sex (Yaghan, 2008). Not only young Arab people have justifications and causes for using Arabizi, but also elder people do have their own defense for using it. Those young people who use Arabizi will soon graduate and get jobs, but they will also transfer with them their own way of typing and communicating. Ali Nasser, a 24 year old employee, sees no problems in using Arabizi. He considers Arabizi as a valid means of communication in emailing other co-workers and communicating inside the organization. Furthermore, he believes that Arabic is difficult for typing and expressing the self and other everyday topics. Personally, he does not see any indication that Arabizi weakens his Arabic, but rather people are over romanticized about this matter (Ghanem, 2011). The Internet and Arabizi The internet and online usage of language reveal how complicated the issue is. A study on young internet users in Egypt was done by Mark Warschauer, a professor at the University of California, Ph.D. in Education program and founding director of UCI’s Digital Learning Lab, to determine which language they use on the internet. The study found that Arabic was rarely used on the internet, but rather a mixture of Arabic and English was commonly used by the participants. This â€Å"Romanized Arabic†as Warschauer called it, was heavily used in informal emails and online chatting. According to Warschauer, this phenomenon gave its users a new universe in which they can freely discuss different religious and political topics, due to the absence of an explicit authoritarian censorship in a context where informality was the basis (Attwa, 2012). In another study conducted in Egypt, Singapore and Hawai’i, online language use was analyzed to examine webs of interrelationships. The study concluded that in a world where English is the dominant language, there is a major contradiction between global networks and local identities (Warschauer, 2002). This major online presence in young Arab people’s lives can have major consequences on their belief system and language which is a critical component of their identity. A study on technology and youth at the University of Melbourne showed that communication technologies strongly empower young people to create and maintain a sense of identity, power and unity (Carroll, Howard, Vetere, Peck & Murphy, 2001). Since this created identity is the outcome of complex electronic interactions, then the required language for communication is what forms the user’s identity (Markham, 2008). Therefore, when Arab youth choose to construct their Arabic language with Latin letters, they create their own linguistic identity in the way they want to represent themselves to the entire world (Markham, 2008). In a study intended to investigate the impact of the internet in the Arab world, Arabs’ perceptions and opinions about the influence of the internet on their belief system, language and identity were deeply investigated. It showed that the majority of well-educated Arabs are concerned that their inherited social norms are harmed by the internet and other new technologies. They also indicated their annoyance about Arabizi as a threat to their language as well as their identity (Loch, Straub, & Kamel, 2003). However, all individuals as well as countries kowtow to modern technology in all its forms which shapes their beliefs, behaviors and actions (Brette, 2003). Not only technology users have opinions and thoughts about this matter, but also people who are in position to affect how the Arabic language can be used on the internet have their own points of view. According to Fayeq Oweis, manager of the Arabic localisation team at Google, â€Å"Arabic is a thriving language and can be adapted to modern technology†(Al Tamimi, 2012, para.1). Oweis believes that there are basically three dangers that threaten the Arabic language in the Arab world. The first is using foreign terminologies in spite of the existence of Arabic synonyms. The second is writing Arabic but using foreign characters, which is heavily and commonly used on the internet. The third is including different dialects in the sentence. In Oweis’s opinion, the best way to avoid these three threats is to use correct and proper Arabic not only in everyday use or formal communication, but also in the technology field (Al Tamimi, 2012). In order to put this solution into practice, Google has introduced â€Å"Google Ta3reeb†in 2009 (Al Tamimi, 2012). This program came out due to the increasing use of Arabizi on the internet, so it automatically translates Arabizi into classical Arabic. Therefore, Google is seriously contributing to the survival of the Arabic language by preserving its existence on the internet. Arabizi and Identity An extremely significant question imposes itself on the scene, whether Arabizi negatively affects our language and identity or it simply finds a common ground to unite Arabs everywhere. According to a study conducted in order to investigate what Arabs think about the effect of Arabizi on their Arab identity, users affirmed that Arabizi does not negatively affect their identity as Arabs, but rather it helps them finding a common ground in which they can easily belong to (Abdel-Ghaffar, N., et al, 2011). However, Abdel-Ghaffar found that Arabizi does not facilitate the communication process among Arabs but rather it makes it vaguer, inconsistent and misunderstood in many cases (Abdel-Ghaffar, N., et al, 2011).This is because Arabizi users use Arabic numerals mixed with the closest English counterpart to express what they want to communicate. For example, the Ø · can be represented with â€Å"6†or â€Å"t†, which creates inconsistency in communication (Attwa, 2012). T herefore, Abdel-Ghaffar suggested that using Arabic letters is the most effective, consistent and overall the clearest means for communication in Arabic (Abdel-Ghaffar, N., et al, 2011). Many Arabs consider Arabizi as a major threat or even a war against the Arabic language and they are concerned that it will further weaken the language or even replace it in the near future. Some Arabs even believe that if young Arab people continued to use Arabizi transferring it to the next generations, the Arab world can be imagined without Arabic language in few decades. According to Miral Dibawy, a university graduate and addicted user of Arabizi, Arabizi has weakened her Arabic language and she even needs to write firstly in Arabizi and then translate it whether in Arabic or English (Ghanem, 2011). On the other hand, Dina Jamal, a university student, does not use Arabizi although all friends do because she strongly considers it as a major threat to the Arabic language (Ghanem, 2011). Also, Taiba Al-Amoudi, an Arabic teacher, argued that Arabizi was severely affecting her students’ linguistic abilities (Ghanem, 2011). In order to determine the extent to which Arabizi can really affect our language and identity, we should definitely consider Edward Said case which is to some extent similar to what the Arab youth experiences nowadays. Said represented the issue of having unsettled identity since he was raised in a bicultural family, uncertain about which language or which identity he should more belong to (Said, 1999). This description of Said’s conflicting childhood in reality reflects today’s young Arab people, since they are enrolled in English-based schools but they communicate at home mostly in Arabic. Thus, they want to combine these two different languages together to represent themselves in a way that satisfies their needs (Kramsch, 2000). III. Research Question: Based on secondary data and another primary research, survey, the focus of this paper is to deeply investigate the consequences of using Arabizi on the Arabic language. The primary research was conducted at the American university of Sharjah, in order to reveal and determine the dimensions of this matter. Thus, the following research questions needed to be investigated: RQ1: What are the students’ motives to use Arabizi? RQ2: How do students perceive Arabizi and its effects on the Arabic language? RQ3: How does students’ proficiency in Arabic relate to the use of Arabizi? RQ4: How does students’ high school system relate to the use of Arabizi? Therefore, the independent variables are high school background, proficiency in Arabic, age, gender and nationality. And the dependent variable is the use of Arabizi. IV. Methodology: 1. Participants This study was limited to investigate participants from different ages, genders, colleges and nationalities at the American University of Sharjah. The sampling technique that was used to select participants in this research project was a simple random sample. The number of participants was 150 AUS students (N= 150). The ages of participants in this study range from 17 to 26 years old and the average ranged from 20-22 years (Appendix 1). The gender ratio is 1:1, so 75 males and 75 females participated in this study. Participants were chosen from the following available colleges at the American University of Sharjah: College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), College of Architecture, Arts and Design (CAAD), College of Engineering (CEN) and SBM (School of Business and Management). The final psychographic quality that was studied in this project is nationality. Nationalities were divided into the following four categories: 1) GCC Countries, 2) Al Sham Countries, 3) North Africa and 4) Other. Th e purpose of this categorization is to achieve simplicity. Participants from Al Sham countries made up 50% of the participants (Appendix 2). 2. Procedure: This primary research project was conducted through distributing printed surveys among AUS students during one week (from June 30th to July 7th 2013). Our main objective for this project was to randomly collect unbiased, rational and representative data. The data was collected from the Chemistry Building, Nab, Library, Student Center, Guys’ dorms and women’s dorms. It took around 10 minutes for participants to complete the survey. After the data was collected, we used the recommended ‘IBM SSPS Statistics Software’ to analyze the collected data. This software was very useful for the analytical and the reporting process that is basically due to the multiple integrated modules that we could easily use to get precise and exact reports. We were able to get accurate representation as well as attain reliable outcomes for our survey findings. In addition, due to the variety of the provided options in this software, we were able to get a full representative image of the results through descriptive statistics and many other statistical representations. 3. Measure: For the measurement process, we used the Likert scale as an effective, representative and accurate method. This scale provides respondents with the following five degrees of agreement: Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree and Strongly Disagree. It quantifies the responses and allows for mathematical analysis. Also, it allows participants to respond with a flexible degree of agreement instead of forcing them to take a determined position. The collected data from this scale was easily and accurately used to create charts that represent how opinions are distributed across the population. Moreover, it allows for comparisons between and among the founded results. The Likert scale was used with the following questions: â€Å"Do you feel that Arabizi helps you express yourself more clearly?†, â€Å"In my interactions with others, I often do you mix English and Arabic?†, â€Å"Some people think that communicating in Arabizi, makes its users seem smarter?†and â€Å" I believe the use of Arabizi will negatively affect my proficiency in Arabic?†. V. Results: Descriptive Statistics N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation HighSchool of participant 150 1.00 2.00 1.2267 .42008 Arabic proficiency of participant 150 1.00 5.00 2.5467 1.10876 Arabizi makes participant smarter 150 1.00 5.00 3.4133 1.08180 Arabizi negatively affects Arabic 150 1.00 5.00 2.5200 1.12160 Age of participant 150 1.00 4.00 1.6800 .66877 Paticipants College Year 150 1.00 4.00 2.6400 1.07616 Participants uses Arabizi with people who don’t speak English or Arabic 150 1.00 4.00 1.6733 .58501 Collage of participant 150 1.00 4.00 2.6200 1.00782 Gender of participants 150 1.00 2.00 1.5000 .50168 Participant mixes English and Arabic 150 1.00 5.00 2.5333 1.04699 Use of Arabizi makes clearer 150 1.00 5.00 2.4400 1.05855 Participants use Arabizi 150 1.00 4.00 2.2933 1.09634 MotherTongue of participant 150 1.00 4.00 1.4200 .97808 Nationality of participant 150 1.00 4.00 2.1600 .95594 Valid N (listwise) 150 Figure 1.1: Descriptive Statistics of 150 surveys Figure 1.2: Participants feel Arabizi express them clearer Figure 1.3: Participants Mix of English and Arabic Figure 1.4: Arabic proficiency of participants Figure 1.5: Relation between High school and use of Arabizi of participants Figure 1.6: Arabizi negatively affects Arabic VI. Discussion: The outcomes of the survey of 150 participants were not unexpected as they relate to the discoveries of past researches and findings referred in the literature review. To begin with, the table above contains the descriptive statistics of the 150 participants (Figure 1.1). For instance, the mean respond regarding the question of â€Å"Does Arabizi makes you feel smarter?, is 3.4133. Since the variable 3 is neutral and 4 is disagree, then the greater part was sort of inside that run. The same procedure is valid to each question. Regarding the research question expressed in part III, the question states; â€Å"Do you feel Arabizi helps you express yourself more clearly?†is replied through the pie outline in Figure 1.2. More than 36.7% of the members demonstrated that they use Arabizi in their daily communication since it helps in communicating their statements. The minimum picked reply, which just included 4.7% of the participants, was on the grounds that the individual they ar e conversing with can’t comprehend Basic English. This percentage indicates that teenagers and youth are adapting more to the use of Arabizi in their daily interactions more than ever before. The discoveries of this pie graph are parallel to what Ghanem (2011) discovered in her interviews with college scholars. Indeed, Bruna Kesserwani said the same thing (Salhani, 2013). Figure 1.3 and figure 1.5 illustrates the participant’s response to mixing English and Arabic in their daily interactions according to their education. The outcomes that are delineated in the figure indicated that the majority of participants come from English-based educational system. Then again, to evade misconceptions, the degree of every high school foundation was figured. For the individuals who went to an Arabic-based high school, the proportion of participants finding Arabizi express their ideas more clearly it is below 20% which approximately (=0.15). For the individuals who went to an English-based high school the degree is above 80% which (=0.85). The dispersion of both degrees is exceptionally far from each other with nearly 0.7 contrasts, which is high. The third question, â€Å"How do participants characterize their proficiency in Arabic?†is diagramed in Figure 1.4. It indicates that the capability of a participant in Arabic dialect is identify with the practice of using Arabizi. The individuals who appraised themselves as phenomenal in Arabic had the most astounding degree of individuals who likewise said that they don’t use Arabizi; so they manage every dialect as its own particular. Moreover, participates who evaluated themselves with Average or above average in the language proficiency had an extremely thin rate of individuals who don’t use Arabizi; the larger part whose Arabic proficiency is below average uses it. This comes to accept that one’s capability in Arabic does influence his/her use of Arabizi. This comes as an inseparable unit with data addressed in figure in 1.5 with respect to the high school educational system of participants. One may go to an English-based high school, however be extremely exceptional at Arabic from his/her friends or any outside elements, which makes him/her barely Arabizi and consider it as a lifestyle habit. The fourth question addressed in figure 1.6 whether participants believed Arabizi will negatively affect their proficiency in Arabic. It showed that 50 participants and above are neutral about it, they don’t believe that the usage of Arabizi will negatively affect their proficiency level of the Arabic language. In contrast, 35 participants believe that Arabizi can form a threat to the Arabic language usage among youth and teenagers. Furthermore, around 9 participants do not believe that Arabizi is causing any threat to the language. These findings are constant with the Warschauer’s thoughts, as he believes that this phenomenon will lead to the death and loss of the Arabic language. The ultimate two questions were addressed when participants were asked about their opinions â€Å"If Arabizi threatens the existence of Arabic language?†. Therefore, most of the participant’s responses were balanced between supporting the statement and rejecting the statement. For instance a female participant clarifies her opinion saying, â€Å"No, it doesn’t because Arabic still exists as a spoken language, it’s just the form that is changing†. Another Female contradicts with that opinion saying, â€Å"I strongly disagree, because it’s a common language among all Arabs†. Females’ responses differed from males’ ones, for instance; a male participant who wrote unordinary response â€Å" no, it will help us learn new words from both languages†while other male expressed a suggestion â€Å" simply, enrich and enlarge the areas of Arabic language usage, also encourage people to use it†. The differentiations of male and female opinions ranged between 17 to 22 years demonstrates to what extreme the language is important to the participant and to what extent it relates to his/her identity as an Arab. On the contrary, the survey shows large enough rations of unexpected responses that reflect the awareness of participants to the existence of Arabic language. The second question was â€Å"why do you use Arabizi?†Generally, most respondents said that they use it because it is trendy and much easier to use. A male participant said â€Å"it helps me use both the expressions from Arabic and English to express myself more vividly†another male explains why he uses Arabizi saying â€Å"due to the lack of practice of using Arabic letters†. On the other hand, females had other reasons why they use Arabizi â€Å"it makes texting faster, certain regional accents cannot be typed in formal Arabic language†. Our interpretation of Arabic language from the analysis of these two questions revealed the opinions of participants including males and females and where they see the Arabic language position in their lives. The responses of respondents and our interpretation ma tches Dr. Mohammad Yaghan group study when he asked students about their reasons of using Arabizi. One of the reasons that teenagers use it is that they find it a trend to which they would like to belong. VII. Conclusion: This research has multiple useful and worthy implications. It added to the reasons of using Arabizi. Also, it revealed participants’ own beliefs and thoughts about the consequences of using this way of typing. Furthermore, it showed the correlation between the school system and the use of Arabizi. This research project was carefully done to attain its goals. However, there were some inevitable shortcomings and limitations. One of these limitations was the time. Since we had limited time during the short summer course, we conducted our primary research throughout only two weeks. If we had more time, we could ask and survey more number of participants to enhance the generalizability of the results. Secondly, the designed survey for this project was somehow long which led some participants to skip or ignore open questions. Thirdly, that data we entered in IBM SPSS Statistics Software were done manually. Thus, it is subject to human error. Another limitation is the place. We distributed surveys to only AUS students, so the answers cannot be generalized to any other places. The recommended future research of this project is to deeply investigate the influence of parents or the old generation on the use of Arabizi by the youth. Recently, this topic is one of the top controversial issues that need to be seriously investigated to determine its dimensions. VIII. References: Abdel-Ghaffar, N., et al. (2011), Arabizi or romanization: the dilemma of writing Arabic texts. Jil Jadid Conference. University of Texas, Austen. Attwa, M. (2012). Arabizi: A writing variety worth learning? An exploratory study of the views of foreign learners of Arabic on Arabizi. American University in Cairo. Arabic Language Institute 11. Retrived from http://dar.aucegypt.edu/handle/10526/3167 Al Tamimi, J. (2012, March 7) An Arabic speaker with a deep passion for his mother tongue, Gulf News. Retrieved from http://gulfnews.com/business/features/an-arabic-speaker-with-a-deep-passion-for-his-mother-tongue-1.990966 Brette, O. (2003). Thorstein Veblen’s theory of institutional change: Beyond technological determinism. European Journal History of Economic Thought, 10(3), 455-477. Carroll, J., Howard, S., Vetere, F., Peck, J., & Murphy, J. (2001). Identity, power and fragmentation in cyberspace: Technology appropriation by young people. Interaction Design Group, Department of Information Systems, The University of Melbourne, 1-10. Dahbi, M. (2004). English and Arabic after 9/11. The Modern Language Journal, 88(4), 628- 631. El Darawy, N. (2005, July 16) Death of a language, Gulf News. Retrieved from http://gulfnews.com/about-gulf-news/al-nisr-portfolio/notes/articles/death-of-a-language-1.294152 Findlow, S. (2006). Higher education and linguistic dualism in the Arab Gulf. British Journal of Sociology of Education 27(1), 19-36. Ghanem, R. (2011), Arabizi is destroying the Arabic language, Arab News. Retreievd from http://www.arabnews.com/node/374897 Kramsch, C. (2000). Language and culture (2nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. (pp.8-14). Loch, K, Straub, D. & Kamel, S. (2003). Diffusing the Internet in the Arab world: The role of social norms and technological culturaltion. IEEE Transactions on Engineering 5(1), 45-63. Markham, A. N. (2008). The methods, politics, and ethics of representation in online ethnography. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Collecting and interpreting qualitative materials (3rd ed., pp. 247-283). Said, E. (1999). Out of place: A memoir. New York, NY: Knopf. (Ch. 1) Warschauer, M. (2002). Languages.com: The Internet and linguistic pluralism. In I. Snyder (Ed.), Silicon literacies: Communication, innovation and education in the electronic age London: Routledge. (pp. 62-74). Yaghan, A. M. (2008). â€Å"Arabizi†: A contemporary style of Arabic slang. Design Issues 24(2), 39-52. Retrieved from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/loi/desi. IX. Appendix: YOUR ID_______________ Your Name ( optional) ________________ â€Å"Arabizi†is a slang term (slang: vernacular, popular informal speech) describing a system of writing Arabic using English characters. (Example: ya3ni) 1. What kind of high school did you go to? Private School Public School 2. What is your mother tongue? Arabic English French Other 3. Do you use Arabizi dialy ? Always Most of the times Sometimes Rarely 4. Do you feel that Arabizi helps you express yourself more clearly? Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree 5. How do you characterize your proficiency in Arabic?: Excellent Above Average Average Below Average Poor 6. In my interactions with others, I often do you mix English and Arabic? Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree 7. Are you used to Arabizi to an extent that you use it even with people who do not necessarily speak Arabic or English? O Yes O No 8. Some people think that communicating in Arabizi, makes its users seem smarter? Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree 9.I believe the use of Arabizi will negatively affect my proficiency in Arabic? Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree 10. Some people think that Arabizi threatens the existence of the Arabic language, what’s your opinion? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 11. Can you tell why do you use Arabizi? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 12. Gender: Male Female 13. Age: 17-19 20-22 23-25 26+ 14. College: CAS CAAD
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