Answer the question Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 27

Answer the question - Essay Example This can be achieved through integrating technology with other courses in the curriculum or enabling them to apply technological concepts in their day to day living. When we refer to reforms in the curriculum, this should be one of the most important which is necessitated by the changing trends and innovation. The use of modern technology in education is a motivating factor to the students because they can relate to their daily usage of such applications and also promotes performance, efficiency and accuracy in learning. As a result of these reforms there is excellence movements and academic performance of student in school such as increase in number of teachers graduating, establishing minimal competency standards for both teachers and students and trying teacher accountability to standardize test scores. In my opinion, this was a very creative way of engaging the students to use applications in their assignment. This was a great way for a teacher to incorporate technology into the classroom. Not only did they assimilate technology into the assignments, but they also used technology that students are familiar with and enjoy using. I think incor porating technology and other things students use in the modern society will help them feel more involved and engaged in life and motivate them to do

Ethnic Literature Essay Example for Free

Ethnic Literature Essay The term â€Å"ethnic† when in conjunction with the word â€Å"literature† in the academic discourse community of students, often brings out mixed feelings of excitement and dread. On the one hand, students understand that they will be getting away from the canonical American literature – which can equal boring in their eyes; on the other hand, students interpret the term â€Å"ethnic literature† to mean distinctive – which can equal confusing or ambiguous – and perhaps at times not relatable because it is outside their scope of experiences. Perhaps before jumping into why it matters, the term â€Å"ethnic literature† should be defined first and because I am still learning how to interpret this term myself, I searched for a suitable one I could agree with. I found one in an article entitled â€Å"Assessing Teachers’ Knowledge of Multi-Ethnic Literature†, and the article actually used another source themselves to come up with a workable, layman’s definition. Ethnic literature as defined by D. E. Norton (as the article’s source) is, â€Å"Literature about racial or ethnic minority groups that are culturally and socially different from the white Anglo-Saxon majority in the United States, whose largely middle-class values and customs are most represented in American literature† (qtd. in Hager Thompson 22). I think this definition works well to define what ethnic literature is on a surface level, but the more I dig in, I feel that this idea goes much deeper. I asked myself, who can write about ethnic literature? Can anyone just pick up a pen so to speak and tell a story about a young Japanese boy, or a Hispanic family? Can an African-American writer write about Hispanic or Chinese people and claim it is ethnic literature? And the answer to myself is no. Why? Because unless that African-American has been submersed in the Hispanic or Japanese culture from the time of childhood, how are they going to capture the very essence of being, thinking, and living day-to-day in that culture? And even if that African-American had, they would still most likely have a different perspective from the average Hispanic or Chinese person because of being different themselves (i. e black) and perhaps are treated different by the community at large which corrupts the â€Å"normal† cultural thinking. At this deeper level I am trying to get at, I find John M. Reilly’s article â€Å"Criticism of Ethnic Literature: Seeing the Whole Story† helpful in acquiring this. He states that, â€Å"the assertion of ethnicity in literature can be made only through a procedure by which the writer resolves formal problems what moves from recognition of identity to creation of a strategy for handling reality still is not literature until the individual author sustains her or his ethnic identity through a sequence of formal choices† (4). I am interpreting this to mean that as a reader of this literature, I should see and feel throughout the story (perhaps subtlety) that in some way, the characters mindset (and perhaps actions) in the story differ from my own specifically because of the culture they have grown up in in, which has shaped that character’s thinking. There are thoughts and feelings – ideas, I don’t understand without further explanation from the author, which is sometimes provided, and sometimes not. An example of this is in Brando Skyhorse’s novel The Madonnas of Echo Park, I find myself wondering what the significance of the jacaranda trees mentioned in different parts of the book. Looking up what they are, it becomes apparent to me as jacaranda trees are native to Central America – roots back to their homeland. The blossoms from the trees fall and are scattered everywhere. Felicia in chapter 2 states that â€Å"there’s no way getting away from them† (25). Basically meaning, you cannot escape who you are and where you come from. I would not have understood this had I not explored the history of that tree to uncover the significance in the book. Another example is in Seventeen Syllables in the story â€Å"Seventeen Syllables†. The story about a Japanese family is easy to read, but is hard to connect with as I don’t share the same philosophies about a woman’s place in the Japanese culture. A specific instance in the story was when Mrs. Hayashi, Rosie’s mother received her the first place prize for her stellar Haiku. When the man from the newspaper presented her with a package, Mrs. Hayashi, stating she knew it was unorthodox, asked if she might open it because she was very curious. (Yamamoto 17). At this point, I am thinking to myself, â€Å"I don’t get it – why wouldn’t she open it? † but upon reflection, I considered the patriarchal society that is dominant in this culture, and perhaps it is the wife’s obligation to consult or have the husband open the gift, even if it is not specifically for him. Yet another example is in Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. To come specifically to the point, I do not understand this idea of why it is understood that Dominican men are supposed to be these â€Å"manly men† that women flock to and fall on their knees for. That the sexual appetite along with innate sense of charisma from Dominican men is expected, and when it’s lacking, it doesn’t go unnoticed. â€Å"Anywhere else his triple-zero batting average with the ladies might have passed without comment, but this is a Dominican kid we’re talking about, in a Dominican family: dude was supposed to have Atomic Level G, was supposed to be pulling in the bitches with both hands† (24). Why is this idea so indoctrinated in this culture according to the book? This is perhaps something I will never understand, except that it is a part of their culture. All of these examples are all good and well, but the important question is why is ethnic literature important? What can be gained from reading it? From a most basic viewpoint, it is a highly effective vehicle for helping people understand themselves and the world around them. Thompson and Hager in their article state that, â€Å"multi-ethnic literature mirrors and validates the experiences for minority groups and juxtaposes the familiar with the less familiar for mainstream children† (22). In other words, through reading ethnic literature, readers can find ways to connect with others around them that are different. The article also states that when readers are exposed to divergent thoughts, language patterns, value systems, and different ways of living, that it can open up awareness about others and create compassion and understanding towards them that might not have happened without the literary exposure (23). To sum it all up, I will never argue against the instruction of ethnic literature in the school setting. In fact, I think teaching it should begin right from the beginning in kindergarten, and perhaps one day we won’t need the designated term â€Å"ethnic literature† – perhaps one day it can just be â€Å"American Literature† and part of the regular American canon of literature. Works Cited Diaz, Junot. The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. New York: Penguin, 2007. Print. Reilly, John. M. â€Å"Criticism of Ethnic Literature: Seeing the Whole Story†. Critical Approaches to Ethnic Literature. 5. 1 (1978): 2-13. Web. 21 Apr. 2012. Skyhorse, Brando. The Madonnas of Echo Park. New York: Free Press, 2010. Print. Thompson, Deborah L. and Jane Meeks Hager. â€Å"Assessing Teachers’ Knowledge of Multi-Ethnic Literature†. Yearbook of the American Reading Forum. 1990. 21-29. Web. 21 Apr. 2012. Yamamoto, Hisaye. Seventeen Syllables. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001. Print.

Roswell Speech :: essays research papers

In the summer of 1947 a series of puzzling events took place at Roswell, New Mexico. In the early days of July one of the influential and concrete UFO cases of all time evolved. It is not exactly known what took place due to various military and government cover-up campaigns.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  My proposition is that extra-terrestrial entities and their craft were found in the desert near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. There are 3 main points which will prove that this event took place. 1st: There were many eyewitness accounts of the incedent. 2nd: There were news media accounts of the incident which were silenced by the U.S. government. And 3rd: The U.S. military and government were greatly involved in the investigation of this incident. #1   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There were many eyewitnesses to the strange events that took place in Roswell in the summer of 1947. This is one of the main reasons why this has been a lanmark case in the study of UFOs. Barney Barnett, a civil engineer and an outstanding citizen, said he saw the object while out on assignment. Credible and respected sources knew Barnett, who was a retired WWI veteran and past commander of the American Legion Post, and vouched for his credibility. Barnett told of how he had spotted a bright metallic object in the distance. His first thought was that it was a plane that had crashed in the night. He traveled the one mile distance between himself and the object to discover that it wasn’t a plane at all, but rather a â€Å"metallic disc-shaped object about 25 or 30 feet across. As he stood, looking at the object, a group of archeological students arrived from the opposite direction. They were all about the wreckage and soon discovered the bodies of apparently dead aliens. Barnett described them as: â€Å"like humans but... not humans. The heads were round, the eyes were small, and they had no hair. They were quite small by our standards and their heads were larger in proportion to their bodies than ours. He went on to talk about the clothing of the aliens which â€Å"seemed to be one-piece and gray in color. You couldn’t see any zippers, belts, or buttons.† Very shortly a military officer arrived and cordoned off the are. Barnett and the others were asked to leave and told not to talk about what they had seen.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Along with Barnett there were many sightings by pilots, airport personel, and military officials. On June 24 a civilian pilot, named Kennath Arnold, was flying over the cascade mountains, in the state of Washington,

El Nino Essay -- Meteorology Weather Climate Essays

El Nino We live on an incredibly large planet. Even broader than the size of the planet are the amount of changes and relationships between humans, animals, environment, weather, and the effects of each. Many times with busy schedules and modern lifestyles we forget the interaction that goes on between any number of concepts or ideas. We fail to realize that a specific weather occurrence in the Pacific Ocean can have an effect on every day life in the United States. El Nino is one of the largest scientific phenomenons that scientists have ever explored. The main concepts of El Nino are very simple and there are many variations, causes, affects, and relationships to study. The main idea behind El Nino is that the wind changes direction across the Pacific Ocean. In a non El Nino year (normal), the trade winds blow from east to west across the ocean, from North and South America towards the tropical regions of the Pacific Ocean. In an El Nino year, the trade winds change direction and blow from Asia and the tropical Pacific towards North and South America (NOAA B, 2004). The changes in these winds, commonly called Southern Oscillation winds because the majority of activity happens in the southern parts of the Pacific, produce many other changes. In the final analysis, the winds are the root of this scheme. John Daly (2004) discussed how the winds produce major changes in the temperature of the ocean water. This is the second main concept of El Nino. In normal years, when the wind blows from east to west, the temperature at â€Å"Sea Surface† is about 8 degrees cooler in the west than in the east. During El Nino, the winds blow a certain amount of water towards the west, thus piling it up and making its depth approximately one half meter deeper. Because of the loss of water at either coast, the deeper ocean water rises to replace what is gone. The deeper/cooler water is the source of many incomes in North and South America; however, in an El Nino year, the warmer water sits on top of the ocean, which creates many tribulations relating to both income and weather. The last main point of El Nino is the weather that follows due to the changes in water temperature. Precipitation follows the warmer water, whichever direction it flows. During the normal wind patterns the rainfall in the southern Pacific islands is consistent and creates their tropical identity. Whe... ...lnino/history.asp. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Washington D.C. Last updated April 22, 2004. http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao/elnino/el-nino-story.html. (A) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA). Washington D.C. Last updated April 22, 2004. http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao/elnino/faq.html#what. (B) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Washington D.C. Last updated April 22, 2004. http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao/elnino/impacts.html. (C) Redmond, Kelly. â€Å"El Nino, La Nina, and the Western U.S., Alaska and Hawaii.† June 16, 1998. http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/enso/ensofaq.html. United States Geological Survey (USGS). â€Å"1998 California Flood.† From News Release. Feb. 3, 1998, http://ca.water.usgs.gov/archive/floods/flood98/. University of Illinois, Champaign Illinois. Last updated April, 2000. http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/eln/rcnt.rxml. USA Today, by the Associated Press. â€Å"El Nino found to affect Antarctic Sea Ice.† 2004. http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/cold-science/2002-03-06-nino-ice.htm. Williams, Jack. USA Today. â€Å"Scientists Gather Information on El Nino Impact in Antarctica.† January 8, 2003.

Harlem Analysis Essay

Langston Hughes short poem, â€Å"Harlem,† seeks to understand what happens to a dream when it is put on hold. Hughes uses vivid imagery and similes to make an effort to describe what the consequences are to a dream that is lost. He attempts to bring to the attention the life of a Negro and how so many dreams are put off to the side because of prejudice against African Americans. The tone, imagery, and diction of Langston Hughes poem, â€Å"Harlem,† will be discussed in this paper. â€Å"Harlem† was written in 1951, which was around the time where prejudice against African Americans was still present (Cummings). Earlier, the civil war â€Å"had liberated them from slavery, and federal laws had granted them the right to vote, the right to own property, and so on† (Cummings). Although these civil rights were given to African Americans, prejudice continued to be a problem in society. They were put into poorly run segregated schools, given unskilled jobs, and were not allowed to use the same â€Å"public facilities† as white people (Cummings). This background information helps define the tone of the poem. The feeling of anger and frustration are conveyed through Hughes poem. Hughes was frustrated with the fact that their skin color was holding them back from pursuing their dreams. He asks a series of rhetorical questions to build up to the last line â€Å"Or does it explode? † (Hughes 691). This line sets the overall tone of the poem by describing the build up of the anger the blacks had toward the white oppression. Hughes final message of the poem is that this resentment they have held inside for so long will soon explode causing both political and social damage. The use of imagery is prevalent throughout this poem. Hughes begins the poem by asking, â€Å"What happens to a dream deferred? † (690). From there he uses vivid imagery in the form of similes to paint a picture of someone’s dream that is wasting away. The images he uses touch on all five senses: sight, touch, smell, taste, and hearing. In the first two lines he uses the sense of taste by comparing a deferred dream to a raisin drying up in the sun. The original dream is a fresh, sweet grape but when it is put off to the side it dries up and turns into a black raisin. In lines four and five Hughes uses the sense of touch by comparing a dream to a sore by stating â€Å"Or fester like a sore/ and then run? † (609). A sore on our body is apart of us, just like an unfulfilled dream. An untreated sore will eventually become infected, just like a deferred dream will become more intense over time. The next line uses the sense of smell to describe a dream by comparing it to a â€Å"stink of rotten meat† (Hughes 690). Hughes is trying to convey that a dream that is put off will become less appealing. Lines seven and eight compare a dream to the sense of taste by stating, â€Å"Or crust and sugar over/ like a syrupy sweet? † (Hughes 690). This simile is describing that over time this dream will be â€Å"crusted† over and forgotten about. This last question then transitions into the only statement in the poem, â€Å"Maybe it just sags/ like a heavy load. † (Hughes 691). This statement is describing the heavy burden that is put on the dreamer. It creates an image of defeat. The final question uses the sense of hearing by saying â€Å"Or does it explode? (Hughes 690). This line describes that if this dream continues to be put off, it will eventually explode and chaos will spread. These images help establish the situation and setting of the poem. The oppression of African American’s dreams will ultimately cause an â€Å"explosion† of resentment and hate toward the white race. The diction of the poem seems to be very straightforward. Hughes chose his words very carefully to have a meaning that must be interpreted by the reader. In line four, Hughes chose the word â€Å"fester† to represent the anger and resentment that had been building up inside African Americans from being treated unequally. The word â€Å"explode† is used to represent the violence and chaos that will be the result of the festering anger that’s building up. The word â€Å"rotten† also has significance towards it. If you put something aside and leave it there for a long period of time, especially meat, it will become rotten. Hughes is trying to convey that putting dreams to the side will cause them to become â€Å"rotten† and forgotten about. Hughes uses the word â€Å"crust† to describe the dream being set aside for too long causing it to â€Å"crust and sugar over† making it no longer usable (690). Just like syrup that is set out for too long causing it to harden and become no longer usable. Hughes uses the term â€Å"heavy load† to describe the burden society put on African Americans by holding them back from pursuing their dreams. They must live with the â€Å"what if† weighing them down like a heavy load. Hughes use of diction is chosen very carefully to depict the anger of African Americans for having to hold back their dreams and goals because of their race. Langston Hughes uses tone, imagery, and diction to convey the deferred dreams and white oppression of African Americans. Racial prejudice caused many African Americans to lose sight of their dreams. Although they were granted their civil rights at this time period, racial discrimination was still prevalent in society and prevented them from pursuing their dreams. Hughes tries to bring to the attention the consequences of the built up resentment and thrown away dreams of African Americans to the reader in his short poem, â€Å"Harlem. †

Free Essays on Tacitus And Nero

The question posed in this essay is a profound one which has perplexed and kept scholars interested for generations. The â€Å"Socratic problem† as it has been coined, is one which is difficult in defining. Paul woodruff wrote of Socrates, â€Å"he is our model of a philosopher†. How many aspects of Socrates are there, and which one, if any, shows the real historical Socrates? This is the problem met when trying to recreate the historical mans thoughts, for the evidence is all from other parties, and so must be tainted with certain social and personal biases and opinions. There are essentially four sources to base our historical Socrates upon . Writers both of, and after his time, they have varying degrees of accuracy. Plato, a philosopher of the highest order, and an extremely close companion to Socrates himself, is the first and probably the most accurate of the sources. Aristotle, a pupil of Plato and an esteemed philosopher in his own right, would have had second hand knowledge of Socrates. Xenophon, a military general who at the time of Socrates, was probably only a casual aquaintance . The last of the sources is the comic poet and social critic Aristophanes, who wrote rather disparately of Socrates in his comedies. From these sources of the time, three Socrates emerged and it is from these which one can begin to piece together the thoughts of the historical philosopher. The first is the Aristophanic Socrates. Depicted in his Comedies as a Sophist, a natural philosopher who would teach arguments for money and denounced the existence of the gods of common opinion. For example, in Clouds by Aristophanes, Socrates agrees to teach pheidippides, strepsiades son, to win any argument, for a price: â€Å"Listen to his pronunciation – the drawl, the open mouth – did you hear? Its not going to be easy to teach him to win cases and make good debating points, which do not actually mean anything. And yet [reflectively] for 6ooo drachmas, H... Free Essays on Tacitus And Nero Free Essays on Tacitus And Nero The question posed in this essay is a profound one which has perplexed and kept scholars interested for generations. The â€Å"Socratic problem† as it has been coined, is one which is difficult in defining. Paul woodruff wrote of Socrates, â€Å"he is our model of a philosopher†. How many aspects of Socrates are there, and which one, if any, shows the real historical Socrates? This is the problem met when trying to recreate the historical mans thoughts, for the evidence is all from other parties, and so must be tainted with certain social and personal biases and opinions. There are essentially four sources to base our historical Socrates upon . Writers both of, and after his time, they have varying degrees of accuracy. Plato, a philosopher of the highest order, and an extremely close companion to Socrates himself, is the first and probably the most accurate of the sources. Aristotle, a pupil of Plato and an esteemed philosopher in his own right, would have had second hand knowledge of Socrates. Xenophon, a military general who at the time of Socrates, was probably only a casual aquaintance . The last of the sources is the comic poet and social critic Aristophanes, who wrote rather disparately of Socrates in his comedies. From these sources of the time, three Socrates emerged and it is from these which one can begin to piece together the thoughts of the historical philosopher. The first is the Aristophanic Socrates. Depicted in his Comedies as a Sophist, a natural philosopher who would teach arguments for money and denounced the existence of the gods of common opinion. For example, in Clouds by Aristophanes, Socrates agrees to teach pheidippides, strepsiades son, to win any argument, for a price: â€Å"Listen to his pronunciation – the drawl, the open mouth – did you hear? Its not going to be easy to teach him to win cases and make good debating points, which do not actually mean anything. And yet [reflectively] for 6ooo drachmas, H...

Dorthy Day Essays - Catholic Workers, Christian Anarchists

Dorthy Day Essays - Catholic Workers, Christian Anarchists Dorthy Day Dorothy Day It seems that to some people that they give more so society than others, but than there is one woman, who gave her life to society to help others though giving and sharing and helped people through a time of need. Yet there seems to be few there is. Dorothy Day, patron of the Catholic Worker movement, was born in Brooklyn, on New York, November 8, 1897. After surviving the San Francisco earthquake in 1906, the Day family moved into a tenement flat in Chicago's South Side. It was a big step down in the world made necessary because Dorothys father was out of work. Day's understanding of the shame people feel when they fail in their efforts dated from this time. It was in Chicago that Day began to form positive impressions of Catholicism. Day recalled. when her father was appointed sports editor of a Chicago newspaper, the Day family moved into a comfortable house on the North Side. Here Dorothy began to read books that affected her conscience. Upton Sinclair's novel, The Jungle, inspired Day to take long walks in poor neighborhoods in Chicago's South Side. It was the start of a life-long attraction to areas many people avoid. Day won a scholarship that brought her to the University of Illinois campus at Urbana in the fall of 1914. However, she was a reluctant scholar. Her reading was chiefly in a radical social direction. She avoided campus social life and insisted on supporting herself rather than living on money from her father. Dropping out of college two years later, she moved to New York where she found a job as a reporter for The Call, the city's only socialist daily. She covered rallies and demonstrations and interviewed people ranging from butlers to labor organizers and revolutionaries. She next worked for The Masses, a magazine that opposed American involvement in the European war. In September, the Post Office rescinded the magazine's mailing permit. Federal officers seized back issues, manuscripts, subscriber lists and correspondence. Five editors were charged with sedition. In November 1917 Day went to prison for being one of forty women in front of the White House protesting women's exclusion from the electorate. Arriving at a rural workhouse, the women were roughly handled. The women responded with a hunger strike. Finally they were freed by presidential order. Returning to New York, Day felt that journalism was a meager response to a world at war. In the spring of 1918, she signed up for a nurse's training program in Brooklyn. Her conviction that the social order was unjust changed in no substantial way from her adolescence until her death. Her religious development was a slower process. As a child, she attended services at an Episcopal Church. As a young journalist in New York, she would sometimes make late night visits to St. Joseph's Catholic Church on Sixth Avenue. The Catholic climate of worship appealed to her. While she knew little about Catholic belief, Catholic spiritual discipline fascinated her. She saw the Catholic Church as the church of the immigrants, the church of the poor. In 1922, while in Chicago working as a reporter, she roomed with three young women who went to Mass every Sunday and holy day and also set aside time each day for prayer. It was clear to her that worship, adoration, thanksgiving, supplication ... were the noblest acts of which we are capable in this life. Her next job was with a newspaper in New Orleans. Living near St. Louis Cathedral, Day often attended evening Benediction services. Back in New York in 1924, Day bought a beach cottage on Staten Island using money from the sale of movie rights for a novel. She also began a four-year common-law marriage with Forster Batterham, an English botanist she had met through friends in Manhattan. Batterham was an anarchist opposed to marriage and religion. In a world of such cruelty, he found it impossible to believe in a God. By this time Day's belief in God was unshakable. It grieved her that Batterham didn't sense God's presence within the natural world. How can there be no God, she asked, when there are all these beautiful things? His irritation

Candle Science Trick to Extinguish Fire with Carbon Dioxide

Candle Science Trick to Extinguish Fire with Carbon Dioxide You know you can put out a candle flame by pouring water on it. In this science magic trick or demonstration, the candle will go out when you pour air onto it. Candle Science Magic Trick Materials A lit candleA transparent glass (so people can see what is inside the glass)Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)Vinegar (weak acetic acid) Set up the Magic Trick In the glass, mix together a little baking soda and vinegar. You want roughly equal amounts of the chemicals, like 2 tablespoons each.Put your hand over the glass to keep the carbon dioxide from mixing too much with the outside air.Youre ready to blow out a candle. If you dont have a candle handy, you can cover the glass with plastic wrap to store the carbon dioxide. How to Blow Out the Candle with Chemistry Simply pour the gas from the glass onto the candle. Try to avoid splashing liquid on the flame, since its not exactly amazing when water puts out a fire. The flame will be extinguished by the invisible gas. Another way to perform this trick is to pour the gas that you just made into an empty glass and then pour the apparently empty glass over the candle flame. How the Candle Trick Works When you mix baking soda and vinegar together, you produce carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is heavier than air, so it will sit in the bottom of the glass. When you pour the gas from glass onto the candle, you are pouring out the carbon dioxide, which will sink and displace the (oxygen-containing) air surrounding the candle with carbon dioxide. This suffocates the flame and it goes out. Carbon dioxide gas from other sources works the same way, so you could also perform this candle trick using gas collected from the sublimation of dry ice (solid carbon dioxide). How Blowing Out a Candle Works When you blow out a candle, your breath contains more carbon dioxide than it did when you inhaled the air, but theres still oxygen that can support wax combustion. So, you may be wondering why the flame is extinguished. Its because a candle needs three things to sustain a flame: fuel, oxygen, and heat. The heat overcomes the energy needed for the combustion reaction reaction. If you take it away, the flame cant sustain itself. When you blow on a candle, you force the heat away from the wick. The wax drops below the temperature needed to support combustion and the flame goes out. However, there is still wax vapor around the wick. If you bring a lit match close to a recently extinguished candle, the flame will re-light itself.

Silent dancing by judith ortiz cofer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Silent dancing by judith ortiz cofer - Essay Example It was during this time that her father moved to the States. He got assigned to duty on a ship in Brooklyn yard. She narrates on how her father moved to the United States, and Brooklyn became his permanent home base until his retirement. This happens more than twenty years later. He went and tracked his uncle who stayed in New Jersey, and that is where he found an apartment which hosted Jewish families. A year later they followed their dad when her mother was still twenty years old (Starvans 12). The narrative then moves from the past to the present when she enters into a living room. The room is filled with people dressed up; the men had dark suits and the women had red dresses. She is here for a party where her cousin had bought a camera, and they wanted to make a movie. At the place, she meets a lot of people originating from Puerto Rico. There, she finds traditional food like kidney beans, and she felt surrounded by her language. The narrator then moves to the future where she se es herself being a secretary for a prominent lawyer as she could type the fastest in her class. She sees herself getting married to an American and doing away with the outdated Puerto Rican culture and belief system. The narrative continues in the same manner where she continues to have memories about the past and narrates about how it was like when they used to have their Christmas. The narrative moves to the present where she narrates about her future plans again. This sequence goes on till the end of the narrative as it keeps on shifting from present to past to future. Ortiz also uses the projection technique where she projects her future in a manner that makes it seem so real and certain. She projects herself and sees herself being a secretary of a lawyer because she was the fastest in typing. She projects her cousin’s girlfriend to being a good wife from the way she sat on the couch and the way she got dressed. Ortiz narrates that her cousin’s girlfriend had wore a full skirt dress, which she had tacked around her carefully. She sat on the couch formally, and her dress got pulled over and past her knees. These qualities project the girl as a humble future wife. Also, when she approached the camera she faced down as she was supposed to by her culture; this shows her humility in her actions hence depicting her as a humble future wife for her cousin. Ortiz projects herself to be an independent American girl and not a naive cultured girl from Puerto Rico. She sees herself marrying her American boyfriend whom she sneaks out on some nights to be with him. Ortiz narrates how she will have an American name, and she is so sure of it (Starvans 134). The narrative also employs the technique of different time frame and structure. The narrative moves the reader from present to past and present to the future and vice versa. The narrative begins with the narrator telling about her past, she remembers about her life when she was young in Puerto Rico. She re members about the birth of her brother and how her father moved to the United States as a navy officer. She then narrates how they moved with their mother to follow her dad in the U.S. She remembers how the dad struggled to make them adopt and become assimilated into the American culture (Starvans 101). She narrates how her dad had a difficult time in getting a house because of his origin. She remembers of their life in their first house and how the heater pipes rattled and made a lot

It's a letter to waive toefl requirements Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

It's a letter to waive toefl requirements - Essay Example During my freshmen and sophomore years, I took three of US college level English and scored straight A for those classes. The classes covered composition & reading EWRT1A, critical reading and writing EWRT 2, and reading, writing and research EWRT 1B. Furthermore, I have also voluntarily taken five intensive English classes during my junior and senior years at The Johns Hopkins University. These five classes are Business English Accuracy, Business, English business writing 1 and English business speaking 1. I am currently voluntarily pursuing English business writing 2 and English business speaking 2. In total, I have taken 8-US college level English Class. Furthermore, I can maintain with good standing grades at The Johns Hopkins University, which requires good English skills in class. All the courses that I have taken in my undergraduate studies have sharpened my English and prove that I am proficient in English. As stated on the website that I can waive for the Toefl test, I hereby express my desire to waive the Toefl

Case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 99

Case Study Example Resistance is likely, as was the case of Cisco, and unless an organization has an effective leader who can initiate and influence implementation of the organizational structure, emulation is likely to fail. The organizational structure allows for exchange of ideas among employees and executives and therefore offers opportunities for developments into competitive advantage. Product differentiation and low cost products are some of the advantages that the organizational structure may initiate. Innovation into new â€Å"product design,† product reengineering, â€Å"product innovation,† and new operational procedures for cost effectiveness are some the strategies to competitive advantages that the organizational structure aids (Lamb, Hair, and McDaniel 41). Development of models for product differentiation and niche definition are other positive effects of the innovative environment, which the organizational structure facilitate, and aid competitive advantage. With its organizational structure, Cisco is likely to attract team players as employees. Such type of employees demonstrates qualities such as reliability, communication skills, proactive, cooperative, committed, respectful, and supportive (Brounstein n.p.). This prediction does not bode well with the future, as the new generation of workers prefers independence in

The Effect of the Affirmative action Research Paper

The Effect of the Affirmative action - Research Paper Example I support affirmative action for it has proven most of the myths ton be wrong. That is, it is practically defending the powerless in the society and fight against corruption as well as injustices in the society. For instance, there is a myth that states that affirmative action has not managed to reduce gender discrimination that occurs at the workplace as well as color discrimination. Truly, affirmative action has led to reducing racial discrimination in various work places. Moreover, the racial discrimination has created numerous job opportunities for women as well as to the people with disabilities. That is, most organizations have laid down rules and regulations that defend persons with disabilities as well as women. Affirmative action has managed to educate women as well as persons with disabilities about their right as well as the position that they hold in the society. For instance, the research shows that with the implementation of affirmative action, there has been greater em powerment of women as well people with disabilities to participate economic development in various sectors of development. However, there are various responses from the respondents to affirmative action. For instance, the question was to find out the effectiveness of affirmative action programs about minority and women for job employment in the workplace. In this research, the respondents who were in favor of the favor of affirmative action were 58 and those who were opposing the impact of affirmative action were 36.

Analysis of the 260-day Value at Risk (VAR) of a portfolio of four Assignment

Analysis of the 260-day Value at Risk (VAR) of a portfolio of four shares - Assignment Example It is the level of return comprising of a given probability (usually, 5, 2.3, or 1 percent) of experiencing a return of less than that level. Value-at-Risk was first used in the late 1980’s by major financial firms to measure the risk of their trading portfolios. Since then, Value-at-Risk is widely used quantitative tool to measure market risk. According to Hull (2005), â€Å"VaR answers the question: how much can one lose with X% probability over a pre-set horizon†. More precisely VaR is an amount (say V dollars), where the probability of losing more than V dollars is over some future time interval, T days. Value-at-Risk has become widely used by corporate treasurers, fund managers, financial institutions, brokerage firms and investment funds to gauge their financial risk. In addition, bank regulators use Value-at-Risk in determining how much capital a bank should possess to reflect the market risks it is bearing (ibid). The aim of this project was to implement various VAR methods that consist of Analytic VAR, historical (Bootstrap) VAR and Monte Carlo (MC) VAR simulation as alternative approaches to calculating VAR, by using data from four portfolios namely; Johnson Matthey PLC, Kazakhmys PLC, Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC and Xstrata PLC. These portfolios are listed in the FTSE index, which are among the largest 100 UK companies by full market value. The FTSE index1 is the most widely used of the FTSE Group's indices and is frequently reported on UK news bulletins as a measure of business prosperity, because it represents about 80% companies of the market capitalization of the whole London Stock Exchange. The companies listed in the FTSE index are determined quarterly according to their market capitalization. These companies must meet a number of requirements set out by the FTSE Group, including having a full listing on the London Stock Exchange and meeting certain tests on nationality, free float, and liquidity. In the FTSE, share prices are weight ed by market capitalization, so that the larger companies make more of a difference to the index than smaller companies do. The first company is Johnson Matthey PLC. The company is world renown in refining and distribution of gold, silver, and platinum group metals in 30 countries on six continents. The company is organised in different divisions that includes Precious Metal Products division (the sole marketing arm for Anglo Platinum), Johnson Matthey's Environmental Technologies Catalysts division that produces emission control products, fuel cells, and process catalysts. The company also has Fine Chemicals and Catalysts division that make base and precious metals catalysts and chemicals. Johnson Matthey PLC has an average market capitalization of ? 43.90 billion. The second company under focus is Kazakhmys PLC. Kazakhmys PLC is a company that specializes in copper. It undertakes copper mining, processing, smelting, and refining as well as making of copper cathode and rod products . It is among the top ten copper producers in the world, with an annually production of about 350,000 tons of copper cathode that are used in computers, electric motors, automobiles, and other products. Additionally, Kazakhmys processes and sells by-products such as gold, silver, and zinc. Kazakhmys PLC has

The Effect of the Affirmative action Research Paper

The Effect of the Affirmative action - Research Paper Example I support affirmative action for it has proven most of the myths ton be wrong. That is, it is practically defending the powerless in the society and fight against corruption as well as injustices in the society. For instance, there is a myth that states that affirmative action has not managed to reduce gender discrimination that occurs at the workplace as well as color discrimination. Truly, affirmative action has led to reducing racial discrimination in various work places. Moreover, the racial discrimination has created numerous job opportunities for women as well as to the people with disabilities. That is, most organizations have laid down rules and regulations that defend persons with disabilities as well as women. Affirmative action has managed to educate women as well as persons with disabilities about their right as well as the position that they hold in the society. For instance, the research shows that with the implementation of affirmative action, there has been greater em powerment of women as well people with disabilities to participate economic development in various sectors of development. However, there are various responses from the respondents to affirmative action. For instance, the question was to find out the effectiveness of affirmative action programs about minority and women for job employment in the workplace. In this research, the respondents who were in favor of the favor of affirmative action were 58 and those who were opposing the impact of affirmative action were 36.

Exam questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Exam questions - Essay Example Furthermore, the chapter reviews the success of fixed capital requirements in terms of maintaining the relations between desired capital and risk taking. It also analyzes ways through which banks reduce effectiveness by taking to riskier assets. Capital requirements are also referred to as capital adequacy or regulatory capital. This is the amount of capital that commercial banks hold due to the requirements of the financial regulator. These requirements are necessary for the financial industry; to ensure that commercial banks do not accumulate excess leverage which leads to insolvency. Commercial banks have some behavioral preference when allocating loans to individuals. However, the capital constraints can make the banks to review the behavioral preference. This means that the financial regulator could utilize the strong constraints in capital adequacy to; review the fluctuations of the Micro economy and direct the economy to the required direction through the financial intermediaries like banks (Altunbas)1. Based on the approval of the Basel II model, this discourse defines the research question in the following way: Are rigid pressures exerted by minimum capital requirements efficient in minimizing the risk-taking behavior of banks? The framework of the Basel II structure in the subprime crisis forms the basis within which professionals question the proposals. This area covers the inadequacy of the level of capital requirements. The focus on examining the efficiency of regulatory capital requirements during the implementation of the proposals in Basel I model report executed from 2002 is part of the entire discourse. However, the discourse does not aim at testing the Basel I framework. Instead, it assess the efficiency of the regulatory pressure in relation to the degree of capital cushion in cutting down on the risk-taking behavior of financial institutions in the

Democratic Consolidation in Nigeria Essay Example for Free

Democratic Consolidation in Nigeria Essay This development was heralded as an avenue to usher in democratic stability and good governance. However, contrary to widespread expectations, the post-military regime became an avenue for the explosion of violent ethno-religious conflicts in Nigeria. As a matter of fact, since the emergence of democracy in May 1999, not less than one hundred ethnically and religiously instigated conflicts have occurred in Nigeria which resulted in loss of lives and unquantifiable material and psychological damage. Drawing from documentary research and findings, this paper probes the persistent spate of ethno-religious crises in Nigeria and its harmful implications on democratic consolidation in Nigeria. It investigates the history, causes and manifestations of ethno-religious conflicts in Nigeria and maintains that unbridled lust for power, corruption, religious intolerance and the failure of the government to deliver democratic dividends, have resulted in these conflicts between ethnic and religious groups in the country. In the light of all these then, can democracy thrive in an atmosphere of crises? Can Nigeria come out of ethno-religious conflicts? If so, what steps can the government take to rein in the menace of these crises? Finally, the paper provides submissions for curbing this social epidemic, which has become a permanent feature of the Nigerian social polity. Keywords: Nigeria, Ethno-religious, Crises, Democracy, Development Introduction Democracy could be said to be a seed: when you sow bountifully, you reap bountifully. Thus, one of the dividends of democracy, which Nigerians have reaped in abundance since the transfer of power from the military to the civilians on May 29, 1999, is the rising wave of ethno-religious conflicts with devastating and untold consequences on lives and property (Jega, 2007: 116). Nigeria is a very populous nation in Africa with diverse cultural heritage. In fact, the country has a population of over 140 million and over 400 ethnic groups belonging to different religious sects as well (Salawu, 2010: 345). Since the attainment of independence, Nigeria has remained a multi-ethnic nation, which has been grappling with the problem of ethnicity on the one hand and that of ethno-religious conflicts on the other hand. At the inception of independence, for administrative expediency the various ethnic factions were fused and merged together by the colonialists. Then, the colonial masters left and things started falling apart, the center no longer held. No ethnic group desired to see the other. Little wonder then that the former Secretary of State at the British Colonial Office (1952-1959), Sir Peter Smitters regretted the action taken by the British to merge diverse ethnic groups into one in Nigeria. According to Ali (2004) cited in Adebayo (2010: 214), he was reported to have lamented that it was extremely dangerous to force diverse radical and social entities into single rigid political structure. However, that statement was medicine after death; the deed had been done. Indeed, a conglomerate of almost four hundred ethnic groups, each having its distinct history, language, culture and political systems before the colonial rule, all preserved in mitigated forms with the British system of governance super-imposed and named Nigeria really had future implications for unity. The colonial administration, for administrative convenience, compressed and merged the various ethnic groups in their respective regions, making Hausa/Fulani, Igbo, and Yoruba the major ethnic groups and reinforced the three political/administrative divisions – the north, the east, and the west, under appropriate constitutional arrangement. At independence and post independence era, the status-quo of the colonial era was retained under that infantile freedom, with every group retaining its tradition, language, and culture while sharing the common central institutions in a federal arrangement (Adebayo, 2010: 214). As a result, these major ethnic groups, because of their opportunistic positions were seen as consistently dominating the political and economic scene before and after the attainment of independence in 1960 and this led to agitations for state creation by the other â€Å"minor† ethnic groups who saw themselves as the marginalized groups. However, the more states were created, the more the complaints of marginalization and inequality by the new minorities against the new majorities in each state (Abdullahi and Saka, 2007). Consequently, the proliferation of ethno-religious and political turbulence in the country is therefore necessitated on the one hand by cultural, communal and religious differences and on the other hand by fear of domination nursed by the minority groups. As if what constitutes the federalism is not satisfied, there have been agitations for reversing back to the old regional autonomy of the different groups for the purpose of determining the pace of their development and control of their respective resources. These pernicious phenomena of ethnicity and religious intolerance led to the incessant surge of ethno-religious conflicts, which gave birth to the many ethnic militias today like the O’dua People’s Congress (OPC) put in place by the Yoruba in the south-western part of the country to fight for the protection and defence of Yoruba in Nigeria; the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), fighting for the cessation of the Igbo ethnic tribe in Nigeria; the Bakassi Boys; the Egbesu Boys; the Ijaw Youth Congress (IYC), the Igbo Peoples’ congress (IPC); the Arewa People’ Congress (APC) and the Ohaneze Ndigbo among others. This might probably be the feeling of Elaigwu (2005: 12) when he writes †¦the violent protests in the Niger-Delta over perceived injustice in resource distribution; the Itsekiri-Ijaw violence in the Delta; the resumption of the Ife-Modakeke communal violence; the menace of Odu’a Peoples’ Congress (OPC) and the accompanying violence in Lagos and Shagamu areas; the formation of the Arewa Peoples’ Congress (APC) and the Igbo Peoples’ Congress (IPC); the MASSOB feeble attempt to resuscitate Biafra; the Sharia crisis and the demands for a confederation; the South-South demand for the control of its resources; and all the recent interethnic/religious conflicts in various states across the country are all part of the bubbles of the Nigerian federation. They are based on the historical structures of mutual fears and suspicions among Nigerian groups in a competitive process. They reflect dissatisfaction of Nigerian groups with the state of the federation. With the emergence of all these ethnic militias and the deep divide between the various ethnic groups, religious intolerance became more violent and bloody with more devastating results using the ethnic militias as the executing platforms of ethno-religious agenda. Federalism thought to be an approach to national unity, resulted to anarchy in the country. A number of steps were taken to at least mend the disunity and disarray prevalent then and promote unity among the various ethnic groups. These included the establishment of federal institutions in some states of the federation, promotion of national cultural and sporting activities, and, more significantly, the National Youth Service Programme (NYSC), just to mention a few (Adebayo, 2010). Although these steps yielded pockets of successes in achieving national unity, the â€Å"unholy† marriage of convenience of the ethnic groups still begs for irrevocable divorce. While the ethnic rivalry held sway, religious pluralism, which culminated in many crises, shook the country to its very roots. The pernicious effect of this trend is not entirely surprising given the fact that religion is so sensitive to Nigerians that many are not only ready to defend it at all costs, but are ready to die for it. Hence, religious pluralism which resulted in religious intolerance was fused with ethnic rivalry, producing the recurrent spate of ethno-religious crises. And because of the violent nature of ethno-religious conflicts, which often take the form of riots, sabotage, assassinations, lynching and maiming, kidnappings, armed struggles, guerilla warfare and secession in Nigeria, they undoubtedly pose dangerous threats to democracy in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. Yes, as Jega (2007: 116) truthfully stated, the genetically engineered seeds of democracy planted by our colonial masters and further successive military regimes have grown to mature crops for harvest. Instead of democracy yielding peace, stability and security to lives and property, it seems to have yielded a return, full circle spate of ethno-religious conflicts and violent eruptions. Thus, the discussion of ethno-religious conflicts in whatever context becomes all the more necessary given the fact that there is a phenomenal recurrence of these conflicts around the nation thereby increasing its threat level to democratic consolidation in Nigeria. It is against this backdrop that this paper attempts to probe the history, manifestations and implications of ethno-religious crises in Nigeria since the dawn of democratic dispensation. Causes of Ethno-Religious Crises in Nigeria According to Awolowo (1990: 35), the notion of Nigeria as â€Å"a mere geographic expression† was engendered by the forceful packaging by colonial authoritarian fiat of unwilling communities of diverse origin and culture under the same polity. Consequently, relations and political behavior of the peoples are characterized by mutual suspicion and invidious hatred since they are strange bed-fellows, who were only coerced into the nation-state via amalgamation. Until 1960, Nigeria was a British colony. Like most colonies, it was not constructed for internal coherence, but rather for the administrative convenience of the British (Shively, 1997: 39). Over 400 different languages and dialects are spoken within its borders, and there is also an important religious split, as the north is primarily Muslim and the south is predominantly Christian, making her not only at ethno-religious crossroads but also at linguistic crossroads. As diverse as these ethnic groups are, they are also not accommodative of each other’s religion and professions of faith. This state of intolerance has added up to fuel the spate of crises in Nigeria. It should be noted that religion has always been the platform for frontal expressions of ethnic aggressions and conflict. Hence, ethnocentric politics, sectional solidarity and primordial interests became prominent features in the nation’s political practice. Sectional and individual virtues and interest rather than collective virtues and national unity are advanced and exalted. Thus, communal orientation precluded any attachment to the state and the syndrome of the ‘son of the soil’ took preference over merit and competence in the choice of policies and leaders. Although as Obasanjo and Mabogunje (1992: 4) aptly observed, colonialism provided scaffolding of holding the different communities together, not much change was achieved in altering communal mentality and predilection. Nonetheless, the persistent military incursion into government and politics did much harm for the body polity as national issues was mostly tribalized and primordial virtues extolled. These regimes had primordial outlook and sub-national mentality under which the northern part of the country was favoured brazenly, on one hand, and the southern part was deliberately dealt with in terms of appointments, contracts, location of government establishments, political oppression and repression as well as provision of social services and infrastructures. As a result, ethnic sectarianism has left a trail of destructive violence and even threatened the territorial integrity of Nigeria (International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, 2001). Indeed, after long years of authoritarian rule, when the military clique and their civilian collaborators privatized the Nigerian state (Ukiwo, 2003), politicians in the emergent Fourth Republic were all too anxious to claim control of the state and its oil wealth as well. This thus led to an unbridled competition for political relevance and spheres of interests among politicians, especially in the context of the division of the country into geopolitical zones, states and local governments and the fact that distribution of benefits among the political class depended on the ability of each member of the ruling class to deliver his constituency. This lust for power has led to the neglect of the needs of the masses and the demand for peaceful co-existence. Instead, the rulers continue to enrich their pockets through corrupt dirty means and seek for elongation of tenures for selfish gains. In the circumstance, ethnicity, religion and other sectarian identities are exploited, resulting in avoidable violent conflicts among component units of the country. The persistence of mass poverty and increasing income inequality, largely as a result of the transformation of the fortunes of politicians and their allies from jobless neighbors to emergency billionaires in less than two years after capturing power, have deepened popular alienation. It has also called into question the legitimacy since 1999. Consequently, some of the easiest things to do in contemporary Nigeria are to mobilize an assassin, vigilante, ethnic-cum-religious militia, rioter, crowd or rented pro-government demonstrator. The result could only be imagined. The power lust of the political cliche is one of the perceived causes of ethno-religious crises in Nigeria. Another reason responsible for ethno-religious crises in Nigeria is the wrong interpretation by those who claim authority to the understanding of the holy books. If not so, one wonders why people act contrary to the teaching of the holy books (whether the Quran or the Bible) in matters pertaining to peaceful co-existence, unity and sanctity of life, and property. As it is a serious disease for someone who does not have a full grasp of the interpretation of any of the holy books to claim authority to knowledge, many of the so called ‘religious leaders’ use their shallow knowledge to put up interpretations to suit their selfish ends banking on the ignorance of their followers. Lamenting on the wide gap between the teaching and practice of religion among its adherents, Adebayo (2003) cited in Adebayo (2010: 219) identified some factors responsible for using religion as instrument of polarization, among which is leadership tussle, which also culminated in the proliferation of many denominations in the country. Also, sectarian jingoism, as well as excessive patriotism to one’s religious sect, which consequently transformed to fanaticism, is another major factor contributing to this social menace. Salawu (2010) also noted that the failure of the Nigerian leaders to establish good governments, forge national integration and promote what can be called real economic progress, through deliberate and articulated policies, has led to mass poverty and unemployment. This has resulted into communal, ethnic, religious and class conflicts that have now characterized the Nigerian nation. Poverty and unemployment have therefore served as nursery bed for many ethno-religious conflicts in Nigeria because the country now has a reservoir of poor people who warmongers as mercenary fighters. What this means theoretically is that poverty and unemployment increase the number of people who are prepared to kill or be killed for a given course at token benefit. This explains why all ethno-religious crises that ever occurred in Nigeria have a large turnout of people (including the under-aged) as fighters. Lastly and very importantly, and not the least, the ethno-religious conflicts in Nigeria also have some historical antecedent (Salawu, 2010). This is because many governmental actions during the colonial rule and after independence encouraged, to a large extent, the sowing of the seeds of ethno-religious conflicts that are found to be rampant in the Nigerian nation today. Over the years, many events in Nigeria have led to the politicization of mistrust, intolerance, violence and acrimonious relations between the mainly Moslem north and the Christian south of Nigeria. To this extent, there has been an unfortunate insertion of ethno-religious discrimination and incompatibility in the structures of the Nigerian State since the colonial period. The political events of the January 15, 1966 coup and the July 1966 counter-coup further entrenched ethno-religious configuration in Nigeria. This is because the killings and counter-killing that followed the coups which took ethnic and religious colorations as the Muslim dominated tribes in the north were set against the Christian-dominated tribes of the southern region.

British Social Realism

British Social Realism In order to fully understand the origins and ideals behind the British Social Realism movement it is important to not only explore this period of cinema history but to also study the interrelationship between film and other Art forms. Social Realism, also known as Socio-Realism, is an artistic movement, articulated in the cinematic and other realist arts, which portray working class activities. The ancestry of realism can be traced back to the 19th century art. With the decline of the Romantic Movement, artists looked to show the world in a more literal way and attempt to move closer to observation and away from the non-representational by creating objective representations of the world based on the observation of contemporary life, such as nature, society, the characteristics of the individual and the nation at large. Realism was independent, including in its subject-matter activities and social classes until that time considered unworthy of representation in fine art. The most articulate development of Realism was in French art, where it concentrated on the work of Gustave Courbet, who used the word realism as the title for a manifesto that accompanied an exhibition of his works in 1855. Ilya Repin, a famous Social Realist said that his art work was aimed â€Å"To criticize all the monstrosities of our vile society† although its influence extended into the 20th cen tury its later manifestations are usually labelled as Social Realism. The latter half of the 19th century has been called the positivist age. It was an age of belief in all knowledge which was driven from science and scientific objective methods. Positivist thinking is obvious in the full range of artistic developments after 1850 from the emphasis on the phenomenon of light, to the development of photography and the application of new technologies in architecture and constructions. The artificiality of both the Romanticism and Classicism in the academic art was unanimously rejected, and necessity to introduce contemporary to art found strong support. New idea was that ordinary people and everyday activities are worthy subjects for art. Whilst Realism in France appears after the 1848 Revolution and expressed a taste for democracy, at the same time in England artists, Realists came before the public with the reaction against the Victorian materialism and the conventions of the Royal Academy in London. Literary Gazette, described Social Realism as â€Å"the representation of the proletarian revolution†. By the 1840s both artists and scientists had come to value Realisms empirical study of nature. It was partly this interest in accurate visual records that first led to the use of the camera obscura as an aid to drawing and the development of photography as a way of fixing its image. The idea of the camera as an instrument of knowledge is a powerful assumption underlying many photographic practices, from 19th-century studies of criminality and mental illness to 20th-century documentarism. With a common ideal uniting many Artists and Scientists you would imagine that you could draw a straight line between Realism, the invention of the photographic camera and Social Realism British Cinema but photography, which was developed to bypass the inaccuracies of the human hand, quickly became ‘corrupted. â€Å"Jonathan Crary has argued that by the 19th century the camera was no longer understood as a model of objective knowledge, but had become part of a whole series of optical toys devised to stimulate subjective and embodied vision, now understood as an active and creative element of visual experience. Following Crary, Geoffrey Batchen argues that early photographers were motivated by romantic desires for traces of nature, as much as the need to know, classify, and possess it. Dr Johnson would doubtless have dismissed such approaches as philosophical hair-splitting. Photographs, after all, seem to mirror the world, or at least a fragment of it in space and time. But the photographers choices—lens, viewpoint, framing, timing—intervene between the object and its image, even when these seem natural or unwittingly made, as in snapshot photographs. Realist images are as much constructed as the most complex studio set; their illusion of transparency enhances their ability to construct and confirm conceptions of reality itself.† Patrizia di Bello As we have seen Realism is a movement that crosses art forms, forming in painting, through the development of photography and emerging again in the developing visual art of cinema. In Italy neorealism was a style of film that refelected the early French Realist ideals and told stories set amongst the poor and working class, filmed on location, often using nonprofessional actors. The films mostly contend with the difficult economical and moral conditions of post-World War II Italy, reflecting the changes in the Italian psyche and the conditions they faced in everyday life: defeat, poverty, and desperation. The neorealist style was developed by a circle of film critics that revolved around the magazine Cinema. The group included including Michelangelo Antonioni, Luchino Visconti, Gianni Puccini, Cesare Zavattini, Giuseppe De Santis, and Pietro Ingrao. The critics attacked the poor quality telefono bianco films of the time and felt that Italian cinema should turn to the realist writers from the turn of the century. The most common attribute of neorealism was location shooting and the dubbing of dialogue. The dubbing allowed for filmmakers to move in a more open mise-en-scà ¨ne. Principal characters would be portrayed mostly by trained actors while supporting members (and sometimes principals) would be non-actors. The idea was to create a greater sense of realism through the use of real people rather than all seasoned actors. The rigidity of non-actors gave the scenes more authentic power. This sense of realism made Italian neorealism more than an artistic stance, it came to embody an attitude toward life. The next development in the Realist movement was the French New Wave. This was a blanket term coined by yet another group of critics of the late 1950s and 1960s. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of classical cinematic form and their spirit of youthful iconoclasm. Many also engaged in their work with the social and political upheavals of the era, making their radical experiments with editing, visual style, and narrative part of a general break with the conservative paradigm. Again, the socio-economic forces at play shortly after World War II strongly influenced the movement. A politically and financially drained France tended to fall back to the old popular traditions before the war. One such tradition was straight narrative cinema, specifically classical French film. The movement has its roots in rebellion against the reliance on past forms criticizing in particular the way these forms could force the audience to submit to a dictatorial plot-line. Thanks to the ongoing development of film equipment the face of cinema was constantly evolving and in the same way that Cinema Verite became possible lightweight cameras, lights, and sound equipment allowed the New Wave directors to shoot in the streets, rather than in studios. This fluid camera motion became a trademark of the movement, with shots often following characters down Paris streets. The movies featured unprecedented methods of expression, such as seven-minute tracking shots (like the famous traffic jam sequence in Godards 1967 film Week End). Many of the French New Wave films were produced on small budgets, often shot in a friends apartment, using the directors friends as the cast and crew. Directors were also forced to improvise with equipment (for example, using a shopping cart for tracking shots). As with most art-film movements, the innovations of the New Wavers trickled down to the other cinema cultures. Social Realism in British films peaked during the 1960s when what is commonly referred to as the British New Wave emerged. The new wave directors such as Karel Reisz, Lindsay Anderson and Tony Richardson had made a number of documentaries before moving on to feature films, and many of these had been screened at the National Film Theatre event christened Free Cinema in the 1950s. Like the auteurs of the Italian Neo realism and French New Wave, many of the British directors were knowledgeable critics as well, affiliated with Sequence magazine. This gave them ample opportunity to promote their agenda. Free Cinema was described by Tony Richardson as â€Å"independent of commercial cinema, free to make intensely personal statements and free to champion the directors right to control the picture†. Documentaries such as O Dreamland (Anderson, 1956) about an English coastal resort and Momma Dont Allow (Reisz and Richardson, 1956) about a suburban jazz club put into practice these directors belief in â€Å"the freedom and importance of the everyday†. The themes and people discovered in these documentaries were something that the directors went on to introduce to mainstream cinema. The Free Cinema films were made without inhibitions, and led to the social realist aesthetic of putting ordinary people with problems onto the big screen. It is for this reason that the term kitchen sink drama was coined, to describe the hum drum lives of the masses, and angry young man to describe the rebellious protagonists. Amongst the many films that emerged during the new wave of social realism, there are dozens of stunning examples that continue being championed to this day. Look Back in Anger, A Taste Of Honey, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, This Sporting Life, Billy Liar, Cathy Come Home, Up The Junction and Room At The Top, to name a few. Many of these films were based on books and plays, as the social realist aesthetic was alive in literature and theatre at the time. The movement also ushered in a new wave of actors who embodied social realism in their use of colloquialisms and accents. Actors such as Tom Courtenay, Rita Tushingham and Albert Finney held up a mirror to ordinary working class Brits. In the UK, the term kitchen sink derived from an expressionist painting by John Bratby, which contained an image of a kitchen sink. The critic David Sylvester wrote an article in 1954 about trends in recent English art, calling his article The Kitchen Sink in reference to Bratbys picture. Sylvester argued that there was a new interest among young painters in domestic scenes, with stress on the banality of life. â€Å"Kitchen sink realism† was linked to the rise of the Angry Young Men, a category applied to a number of British playwrights and novelists from the mid-1950s. Their political views were seen as radical, sometimes even anarchic, and they described social alienation of different kinds. The authors included both left-wing and right-wing writers. They included John Osborne, Harold Pinter, John Braine, and Alan Sillitoe. The new wave of British film-makers captured the zeitgeist of the period, and paved the way for directors such as Mike Leigh, Stephen Frears and Ken Loach who continue to make films that shape a very regional British film industry. Films such as Riff Raff, Naked, and My Beautiful Laundrette, although made 20 30 years later, embody the same values as were inherent in the films of the New Wave The British New Wave Cinema only lasted a few years, from 1959 to 1963. Only about half a dozen films were made. Even though they were so few made, the film were very influential and Incredibly evocative, and enough to prompt critics of the time to talk of ‘a renaissance in British cinema. Coming at the end of a decade that was extensively perceived as ‘a doldrums era, based on a diet of lightweight comedies, gothic horror films and endless war vehicles the New Wave films were greeted by audiences as a breath of fresh air and paved the way for the transatlantic success that awaited British cinema in the Sixties. The main directors of New Wave cinema were Karel Reisz, Lindsay Anderson, Tony Richardson, and John Schlesinger . the majority came from the theatre, predominantly from the Royal Court Theatre, Richardson had made a name for himself by directing the plays of John Osborne, such as The Entertainer and Look Back in Anger to great critical approval. The foremost production company behind British New Wave cinema, Woodfall films, was in fact set up by Richardson and Osborne predominantly to put these stage plays on to the big screen, which they did with the likes of Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier in the leading roles. Woodfalls fortunes fared even better when Reisz and Richardson collaborated with northern realist authors and theatre writers such as Alan Sillitoe and Shelagh Delaney and took the unusual step for the film industry of those times of appointing them to write the screenplays for the films. Like with the French New Wave, taking the cameras out of the studio confines and engaging in much larger amounts of location shooting was another revolutionary idea for the industry, and was not welcomed by mainstream critics. But social realism was the vastly insperitional for new film-makers, scriptwriters, and a younger generation of actors, including Albert Finney, Rita Tushingham, Shirley Anne Field, Tom Courtenay, Alan Bates, Rachel Roberts, Richard Harris and the like. Karel Reisz had the first big commercial success with Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), while Tony Richardson made A Taste of Honey (1961) and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) and Lindsay Anderson engaged David Storey to script his own book of This Sporting Life (1963), which effectively brought New Wave Cinema to an end. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner is a challenging and inventive film from 1962, produced and directed by Tony Richardson, and starring Tom Courtenay with Sir Michael Redgrave and James Bolam in support. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner was the first British film to depict the brutality within the Borstal system later revisting in the film Scum (1979). The film caused outrage at the time and its anti-authoritarian agenda ran into problems with the British Board of Film Censors, which described its story as ‘blatant and very trying Communist propaganda, and particularly worrying for us because the hero is a thief and yet is held up to the admiration of silly young thugs. Critics also commented on how the film explored the novel features of the camerawork and editing for its time, the originality of the musical score, and debated the borrowings from the French New Wave, as well as, finally, the way in which the film continued to break new ground in British cinema of the day. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning was adapted from Alan Sillitoes first popular novel, and was about the new young working class. Directed by Karel Reisz and produced by Tony Richardson, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning stars Albert Finney, Rachel Roberts and Shirley Anne Field. The film was a revelation when it was initially released, not just for its realistic style, but also for its graphic portrayal of sex, extra-marital affairs, strong language, and, most contentious of all, abortion. Once again The British Board of Film Censors urged a general toning down of all the language and sex scenes. In particular, it required that the successful abortion scene promised in the screenplay and evident in Sillitoes original novel, be rendered ultimately ineffective and that the film-makers follow a policy of ‘social responsibility as far as possible. In conclusion the social realism fostered by New Wave Cinema made an indelible and lasting impression on British film-makers for many years, and can even be seen in such recent films as Pater Cattaneos, The Full Monty (1997), as well as Lynne Ramsays art-house success, Ratcatcher (1999). The spirit of the British Social Realist movement extended way beyond its own period and, indeed, still flourishes in British cinema today in filmmakers such as Shane Meadows. Bibliography http://www.answers.com/topic/realism?nr=1lsc=true http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_neorealism http://www.open2.net/historyandthearts/arts/newwave_p.html http://filmstudies.suite101.com/article.cfm/social_realism_in_british_film http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_neorealism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_New_Wave

anthrax Essay -- essays research papers

Could someone use anthrax for a larger attack on American cities? Unfortunately, yes-and they could also use any of a series of other germs, some more lethal than anthrax. But it’s not easy to get anthrax, and it’s not easy to deploy. The Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo tried to spread anthrax from its Tokyo office building in 1993 and failed dismally. Experts disagree on how dangerous it would be if someone sprinkled anthrax in, say, an office ventilation system or a subway car, but any larger attack would be hard to pull off. Which countries make anthrax? Government officials say America no longer has a bioweapons program, although the military continues to use anthrax for defensive purposes such as vaccine development. More than a dozen other countries may have programs that could make anthrax, including big powers (Russia, China, India), distinctly unfriendly countries (Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, North Korea, Cuba), and American allies (Israel, Egypt, South Africa, South Korea). More than 40 germ banks in the United States and around the world supply anthrax for scientific research. Has anthrax been used as a weapon before? Yes. Germany tried halfheartedly to use it during World War I. During World War II, most warring parties had biowarfare programs; Japan used anthrax in China. During the Cold War, both the United States and the Soviet Union set up large biowarfare programs. President Nixon banned the production and use of biological warfare agents in 1969. The Soviets carried on; in 1979, an anthrax leak from a Soviet weapons plant killed more than 60 people. WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT ANTHRAX The discovery of anthrax in mail sent to government offices and news organizations has Americans worried. The good news is that the disease is rare. It is extremely unlikely that children would be exposed to the disease. Junior Scholastic had these questions for U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher: Q: What is anthrax? A: Anthrax is a disease caused by bacteria. It most commonly occurs in animals such as sheep or goats, but can occur in people exposed to the bacteria. Q: How is it spread? A: Anthrax is not contagious -- it cannot be transmitted from person to person. Infection can occur (1) if spores enter through breaks in the skin; (2) through inhaling anthrax spores; and (3) through the digestive system. Q: Is anthrax treatable? A: Anthrax is very treatable. ... ...cades! Ricin, another threat, is regarded as one of the ten deadliest poisons known. There are no vaccines or antitoxins available for treatment of ricin exposure. Ricin was reportedly used in the assassination of Georgi Markov in London, in 1978, and an American, Tom Lavy, tried to import ricin into the United States in 1995. No doubt, ricin will appear again; it is a protein easily extracted from one of the world's most common crops, the Castor plant, source of the more familiar Castor Oil. Other weapons in the terrorist arsenal are as readily available. Anyone can still purchase fertilizer and fuel oil and concoct ANFO. Many biological and chemical agents can be produced or grown in simple laboratories with off-the-shelf equipment, such as refrigerators, separators, dryers, and fermentors. Nuclear bombs are not regarded by experts as an immediate threat because of the rarity of plutonium-239 and uranium-235. But other radioactive materials, such as cobalt-90, carbon-14, or cesium-137, are commonly used at industrial and medical sites. A chemical bomb laced with radiological contaminants could create widespread social disruption and achieve the attacker's central goal: terror.

Why Walk

Why walk walking as a perfect form of exercise. There are definite benefits of walking to both your physical and mental wellness. the original zero-emission transport We all know the environment could do with a helping hand, and by swapping your car for your feet you’ll be doing just that. Walking, as well as being one of the cheapest ways of getting around, is also the smartest for our planet. You won’t leave a carbon footprint, just your own. did you know? If we all swapped one car journey a week for walking instead, car traffic levels would reduce by at least 10%;We all know we need to reduce our CO2 emissions. By changing some of our travel behaviour, we all have the power to contribute and act on climate change; Local shops are easy to reach on foot and using them helps to support local business and save food miles; Less busy roads will give us safer and quieter streets – who knows, we may even see more children playing outside just like we used to. It's fre e! There's no special skill, training, or equipment needed – all you need is the right footwear Walking is free. Walking doesn’t involve bulky and expensive vehicles or dangerous fuel.Walking doesn’t produce excess carbon dioxide or fumes or cause noise pollution Walking is a more efficient use of space: 20 times as many people can move in the same space by walking as in a car Walking and public transport are perfect partners. If we all swapped one car journey a week for walking instead, car traffic levels would reduce by at least 10%. If every car driver in the UK left their car at home once a month and walked for 20 minutes instead, we could save up to 320,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, the same amount produced by 50,000 homes.Car users regularly suffer up to three times as much pollution as pedestrians because they are sitting in traffic in the line of exhaust fumes from the car in front. Walking also has indirect environmental benefits. The more we walk, the more we take an interest in our surroundings. The more people use parks, green spaces, attractive urban public spaces and the countryside, the more likely it is that money will be spent to preserve, maintain and improve them. Walking helps create better and more prosperous places to live People on foot are likely to spend more at local shops and businesses.More people out walking on the streets helps deter crime and makes places feel safer. Before industrialisation took place there were some alternatives such as riding animals, horse drawn carriages and water transport, but walking must have been by far the most substantial transport mode. The Roman roads of 2000 years ago were predominantly used by pedestrians. Conflicts between pedestrians and wheeled traffic did occur, however, especially in urban areas. For example Hass-Klau (1990) mentions that Julius Caesar banned chariots from the streets in Rome between sunrise and sunset to offer space to the pedestrian.Since the nineteenth century the development of railway and highway systems have led to dramatic changes in travel behaviour towards motorised transport modes. In addition, the bicycle became available as a possible substitute for the pedestrian. Why Not Walk? We’re all good at thinking of reasons why not to get more active, but there are many more reasons why we should. Regular walking improves your general health and reduces your risk of heart disease, some cancers, and Type 2 diabetes. It’s also a great way to lose weight, improve your fitness and your mental health and wellbeing.Read more about the benefits of walking. For those who still aren’t convinced, here are some answers to the most common excuses! â€Å"I don’t have the time. † Walking is by far the easiest exercise to fit into a busy lifestyle since you can do it anywhere at a time that suits you. Every minute you spend walking is quality time, rather than sweating on a packed bus or train or fu ming in a traffic jam. You’ll still have to make a little effort to find time, but remember active people live longer and have a healthier old age – so think of your walking time as a good investment. â€Å"I don’t know any good places to walk. Sometimes main roads don’t feel pleasant and safe for walkers. But there are plenty of quieter streets, parks, watersides and green spaces even in busy urban areas if you know where to look for them. Read more about finding good places to walk and free walking routes for beginners. â€Å"I don’t feel safe on the streets. † It’s understandable that people are concerned for their personal safety and security – but it’s a great shame if this stops you enjoying the benefits of walking. If you can, walk with a companion, or read our advice on staying safe. Also, the more people walk, the safer the streets will be. I don’t have anyone to walk with. † Why not ask your famil y, friends and colleagues if they’re interested in walking with you? Or try an organised programme or led walk. Read more about walking in a group. Where people walk Walking is a common movement in urban transport, as nearly everyone is a pedestrian for part of their trips, but walking as a means of transport is often overlooked walking should not be neglected in these countries as it also is important in connection with other modes. for example, walking from the parking place to the final destination; biking to the railway station, etc.

Family And Kinship In India

India offers astounding variety in virtually every aspect of social life. Diversities of ethnic, linguistic, regional, economic, religious, class, and caste groups crosscut Indian society, which is also permeated with immense urban-rural differences and gender distinctions. Differences between north India and south India are particularly significant, especially in systems of kinship and marriage. Indian society is multifaceted to an extent perhaps unknown in any other of the world’s great civilizations—it is more like an area as varied as Europe than any other single nation-state.Adding further variety to contemporary Indian culture are rapidly occurring changes affecting various regions and socioeconomic groups in disparate ways. Yet, amid the complexities of Indian life, widely accepted cultural themes enhance social harmony and order. Many Indian societies were organized around principles of kinship. Kinship ties based on bloodlines or marriage formed the basis of th e political, economic, and religious system. Succession to political office and religious positions, ownership and inheritance of property, and even whom one could or could not marry were determined on the basis of membership in a kin group.Social bonds with relatives must be reinforced at family events or at rites crucial to the religious community. Indian Society Hierarchy India is a hierarchical society. Whether in north India or south India, Hindu or Muslim, urban or village, virtually all things, people, and social groups are ranked according to various essential qualities. Although India is a political democracy, notions of complete equality are seldom evident in daily life. Societal hierarchy is evident in caste groups, amongst individuals, and in family and kinship groups.Castes are primarily associated with Hinduism, but caste-like groups also exist among Muslims, Indian, Christians, and other religious communities. Within most villages or towns, everyone knows the relative rankings of each locally represented caste, and behavior is constantly shaped by this knowledge. Individuals are also ranked according to their wealth and power. For example, some powerful people, or â€Å"big men,† sit confidently on chairs, while â€Å"little men† come before them to make requests, either standing or squatting not presuming to sit beside a man of high status as an equal.Hierarchy plays an important role within families and kinship groupings also, where men outrank women of similar age, and senior relatives outrank junior relatives. Formal respect is accorded family members—for example, in northern India, a daughter-in-law shows deference to her husband, to all senior in-laws, and to all daughters of the household. Siblings, too, recognize age differences, with younger siblings addressing older siblings by respectful terms rather than by name. Social Interdependence One of the great themes pervading Indian life is social interdependence.People are born into groups–families, clans, sub castes, castes, and religious communities–and live with a constant sense of being part of and inseparable from these groups. A corollary is the notion that everything a person does properly involves interaction with other people. A person's greatest dread, perhaps, is the possibility of being left alone, without social support, to face the necessary challenges of life. This sense of interdependence is extended into the theological realm: the very shape of a person's life is seen as being greatly influenced by divine beings with whom an ongoing relationship must be maintained.Psychologically, family members typically experience intense emotional interdependence. Economic activities, too, are deeply imbedded in a social nexus. Through a multitude of kinship ties, each person is linked with kin in villages and towns near and far. Almost everywhere a person goes; he can find a relative from whom he can expect moral and practical s upport. In every activity, social ties can help a person and the absence of them can bring failure. Seldom do people carry out even the simplest tasks on their own. When a small child eats, his mother puts the food into his mouth with her own hand.When a girl brings water home from the well in pots on her head, someone helps her unload the pots. A student hopes that an influential relative or friend can facilitate his college admission. A young person anticipates that parents will arrange his or her marriage. Finally, a person facing death expects that relatives will conduct the proper funeral rites ensuring his own smooth passage to the next stage of existence and reaffirming social ties among mourners. This sense of interdependence extends into the theological realm.From birth onward, a child learns that his â€Å"fate† has been â€Å"written† by divine forces and that his life is shaped by powerful deities with whom an ongoing relationship must be maintained. Social interaction is regarded as being of the highest priority, and social bonds are expected to be long lasting. Even economic activities that might in Western culture involve impersonal interactions are in India deeply imbedded in a social nexus. All social interaction involves constant attention to hierarchy, respect, honor, the feelings of others, rights and obligations, hospitality, and gifts of food, clothing, and other desirable items.Finely tuned rules of etiquette help facilitate each individual's many social relationships. . Indian Family structure . Indian family structure is believed to be the unit that teaches the values and worth of an honest living that have been carried down across generations. Since the puranic ages, Indian family structure was that of a joint family indicating every person of the same clan living together. However, this idea of elaborate living had been disintintegrated in smaller family units. The essential themes of Indian cultural life are learned wi thin the bosom of a family.The joint family is highly valued, ideally  consisting of several generations residing, working, eating, and worshiping together. Such families include men related through the male line, along with their wives, children, and unmarried daughters. A wife usually lives with her husband’s relatives, although she retains important bonds with her natal family. Even in rapidly modernizing India, the traditional joint household remains for most Indians the primary social force, in both ideal and practice. Large families tend to be flexible and well suited to modern Indian life, especially for the more than two-thirds of Indians who are involved in agriculture.As in most primarily agricultural societies, cooperating kin help provide mutual economic security. The joint family is also common in cities, where kinship ties are often crucial to obtaining employment or financial assistance. Many prominent families, such as the Tatas, Birlas, and Sarabhais, retai n joint family arrangements as they cooperate in controlling major financial empires The ancient ideal of the joint family retains its power, but today actual living arrangements vary widely. Many Indians live in nuclear families—-a couple with their unmarried children—-but belong to strong networks of beneficial kinship ties.Often, clusters of relatives live as neighbors, responding readily to their kinship obligations. As they expand, joint families typically divide into smaller units, which gradually grow into new joint families, continuing a perpetual cycle. Today, some family members may move about to take advantage of job opportunities, typically sending money home to the larger family. FAMILY TRANSFORMATION An Analytical look on various studies: by different sociologist point of views The Study of family in India centers on the debate of joint family versus nuclear family.The first authentic study on family comes from the writings of Sir Henry Maine, who was law adviser to the colonial government of India. He developed intellectual interest in family studies. He indicated that joint family is characterized by: †¢ Common property holding. †¢ Absolute authority of ‘Karta’. He considered that joint family is corporate unit where people make contribution differently but share rewards on the basis of their needs. He said that joint family sustains in India because it is considered as moral institution with the members are obliged to perform rituals for common dead ancestorsGS Ghurye considered that ‘joint family is a product of Indian culture that glorified classical values. There is universal presence of joint family cutting across caste, religion which promoted unity among people in Indian society. PN Prabhu in his analysis of family and kinship in India considers that individual association with joint family is driven by moralist, therefore when morals is replaced by individualism (when tradition is replaced by m odernity) then joint family is transformed into nuclear family.Irawati Karve offered an exhaustive definition of joint family. She writes that joint family refers to a social group where people belonging to 3 – 4 generations organically related to each other, hold property in common, share common residence, eat food prepared in common kitchen, participate in common rituals and ceremonies and they have, obligations towards the head of the family known as ‘Karta’. She considers that joint family is a product of culture and therefore despite economic transformation joint family system persists in India.It sustains itself as it is driven by cultural ideology rather than driven by economic interest. During 1960s two group of sociologist took considerable interest in the field of family study. One group conforming to modern theory looked into complete integration of joint family system whereas the other group went for empirical studies to examine regional variations in family transformation under the various process of modernity. These two theories cannot be considered as qualitatively different because there position stand vary only on the question of the degree of changes in family.MN Srinivas, SC Dubay find out that there is a strong linkage between caste and joint family. Empirical study indicates that higher castes go for joint family system and lower castes go for nuclear family. Therefore joint family is driven by economic logic rather than cultural moralist. It is also noticed that joint family is not breaking down completely under the influence of urban living. Alan Rose in a study of Bangalore finds out that around 70% of families manifest either structural joint ness of functional joint ness or a mixture of both.MS Gore in his study of Agarwals of Delhi finds out that how mother – son relationship precedes over husband – wife relationship and family operates as a strong support base to its members in matters related to se lection of occupation, financial assistance and selection of mates. TN Madan indicates how residential separation has not given way to break down of joint family. In his theory of â€Å"money order economy† he indicates that family joint ness has always been enduring in case of India. Thus these scholars concluded by saying that family transformation in India is not a replica of family transformation in the West.Therefore social change in India is Indian in character and so Western theories and models cannot explain family transformation in Indian society Household dimensions of the Family Family transformation in India has puts a fundamental question that, whether in India joint household is disintegrating or joint family is disintegrating. He finds out that proportion of joint household is more today in comparison to past. He points out the reasons for the same i. e. due to rising population; construction of house has become costly, migration in search of employment etc. Bi gger joint households are now splitting into smaller households.People living in different households have strong emotional ties therefore joint household is disintegrating but not joint family and so family should be studied from household perspective and changes in household and family patterns must be investigated to examine actual nature of family transformation in India. Classical sociologists were greatly committed to family study either by considering family as cornerstone of human society or by looking into changing nature of society. With the advent of modernity it was perceived that household is a residential space but family is a social institution.However, with the rise of feminism both as an ideology and as social movement, women's approach towards marriage has gone through a series of transformation. AM Shah in his book â€Å"household dimension of the family in India† indicate that even in traditional context, household and family do not mean similar things. Ci ting the case of India he considers that family and household were absolutely different but family studies in India immensely focused attention on the transformation of joint family into nuclear family. Household refers to residential space where people living together may or may not constitute family.Looking at household pattern one could effectively study nature and form of transformation taking place in Indian society. In recent analysis of global migration and family pattern, it has been found out that in countries like Philippines and India a large chunk of women in search of employment go out to advanced countries of the world. Though most of them are married they don't stay with their family. As a result they constitute independent household. These households may constitute many friends living together or a person living with working partner to whom he/she is not married or a person living all alone.It is generally perceived in case of India that household is less durable an alternative to family system, which gives more importance to friendship than kinship. Household offer immense individual liberty, sexual freedom, limited or no liability towards the other members of the household. Thus it can be concluded that household is evolving into a replacement for family in many developing countries including India. Therefore sociology of kinship is shifting its focus from the study of marriage and family to the study of friendship and household.Sexual Division of Labour Feminist sociologists are of the opinion that whether it’s joint family or nuclear family, in no way family transformation is affecting to the status of women in India. Therefore reproduction, sexuality, division of labour are all determined by the values of patriarchy than by principles of equality. Talcott Parson indicates that industrialisation, urbanization, migration have contributed for occupational mobility, empowerment of women and gender gap within and outside family has suffi ciently been reduced.The modernist theory also indicates that in case of India relationship between husband and wife is now proceeding over parent-child relationship. Conjugal relationship is considered as more important than obligation towards kinship. Irrespective of gender every child inherits the property from parents, selection of mates is no longer family’s responsibility and childbirth is greatly a matter of economics and mutual agreement between spouse. Therefore modernity has broken down traditional form of marriage, hierarchical form of relationship.Traditionally, males have controlled key family resources, such as land or businesses, especially in high-status groups. Following traditional Hindu law, women did not inherit real estate and were thus beholden to their male kin who controlled land and buildings. Under Muslim customary law, women can—and do—inherit real estate, but their shares have typically been smaller than those of males. Modern legisla tion allows all Indian women to inherit real estate. Traditionally, for those families who could afford it, women have controlled some wealth in the form of precious jewelry.In the Indian household, lines of hierarchy and authority are clearly drawn, and ideals of conduct help maintain family harmony. [i] All family members are socialized to accept the authority of those above them in the hierarchy. The eldest male acts as family head, and his wife supervises her daughters-in-law, among whom the youngest has the least authority. Reciprocally, those in authority accept responsibility for meeting the needs of other family members. Systems of Kinship in India Kinship is considered as the heart and soul of Indian social life. DespiteIndia's exposure to technological and industrial modernity, descent plays a significant role in the life of people. GS Ghurye writes in detail about various descent groups living together in different regions of the country carrying different names and ident ities. These different lineage groups bringing together a multi-civilization thereby making India a land of pluralism. However, all these descent groups imbibe common rules of marriage, common food behavior, common cultural, religious ideology radiating from Hinduism and that made Indian society a land of diversity.Indologists look into the role of descent in defining marriage, family and kinship in India. The people belonging to similar descent group are located in a given region where they worship to their common ancestors, follow common way of life and when the size of descent group expands, they migrate to different areas but still carry their identity. Therefore caste is nothing but an expanded descent system that maintains its boundary, distinguishing itself from the other caste.Andre Beteille indicates association of man and kinship is so strong in India that voting behavior is driven by kinship rather than on the basis of merit. In all the political parties of India kinship is the primary source of political recruitment. Thus democratic polity in India is engaged in social and cultural reproduction. In case of India family/kinship offers ideological, economic, infrastructural support to individual to determine the nature of occupation.In conclusion it can be said that the role of descent and kinship not only determines the private sphere of an individual’s life like marriage, family, household, gender role, rituals but also has great influence over his public life like occupational selection, political participation and identity formation. Therefore the role of descent and kinship has changed very little under the influence of modernity in India and so while studying social transformation one cannot afford to ignore the same.Lineage system can be divided into two parts in India i.e. †¢ Unilineal systems: a system of determining descent groups in which one belongs to one's father's or mother's lineage. Both patrilineality and matrilineality are types of unilineal descent. †¢ Non-Unilineal systems: a system where there exists multiple forms of relationship. Classical anthropologists divide descent groups into two fundamental types such as: †¢ Patrilineal : inheriting or determining descent through the male line. †¢ Matrilineal : inheriting or determining descent through the female line. Types of kinship systemsKinship is a relationship between any entity that share a genealogical origin (related to family, lineage, history), through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. The first sociologist to study kinship systems in India is Irawati Karve, she divided India into four different kinship zones such as: †¢ North Indian kinship systems. †¢ South Indian kinship systems. †¢ Central Indian kinship systems. †¢ Eastern Indian kinship systems. North Indian kinship systems This kinship system is present in Hindi speaking belt and also in areas where Aryan culture influence is subs tantive.It includes West Bengal, Orissa and Bihar. In North India kinship systems, the rules of marriage is highly exhaustive because a large body of people are excluded from alliance relationship. One cannot receive women from his mother’s group or mother's mother group, father’s mother group and from within his own village. Hence exogamy is quite exhaustive and marriage involves not intra-family ties but inter-village ties. Residential system is very Virilocal (bride lives with husband's father’s group) type . In North Indian kinship father – son relationship precedes over husband – wife relationship.South Indian kinship systems This type of relationship system is largely present in all southern states and some of its influence is also largely noticed in pockets of Maharashtra and Orissa. In southern India kinship systems, no distinction is made between patrilineal or matrilineal. In case of South India cross cousins marriage take place and so ex ogamy is not exhaustive like in North India. The relationship between husband and wife is not subdued to father – son relationship as in case of North India. Hostility of relationship between the in laws driven by suspicion is also weak in South India.Central Indian kinship systems This system is practised in case of Gujarat, Maharashtra, MP which is a mixture of elements of North and South India. In case of Rajputs marriage is greatly determined on the basis of family status of girl. Rajputs are permitted to marry any girl on the basis of their choice rather than simply follow the rules of caste. Marathas are divided into 32 clans which are put into primary, secondary and tertiary divisions and so the rules of marriage are determined accordingly between various divisions.In case of â€Å"Kumbi† of Gujarat one is not supposed to marry women belonging to first-generation from father's side and three generations from mother's side. In case of Rajasthan on the auspicious day of Akshaya Tritiyamassive marriages take place involving people belonging to different age groups and their rules of marriage is sufficiently relaxed. Eastern India kinship systems It largely includes kinship patterns followed by different tribal groups like Munda of Orissa, Manipuri of Manipur, Nagas, Kukis and Khasi. These kinship systems don't follow specific patterns .A daughter carries the name of patrilineal grandmother and son carries the name of patrilineal grandfather, divorce is common among them In conclusion these regional variations in kinship largely speaks about differential residential patterns, entitlement on the basis of gender, social status of men, women and children bringing the point back home that Indian culture is largely pluralistic in character. Therefore unity in India should not be seen as destruction of the process of diversity but rather it should respect the process of diversity.CONCLUSIONGradual changes have been ushered in by religious, social, a nd cultural reforms. Industrialization, urbanization, and technological advances have been instrumental in changing family structures, values, and lifestyles. Ganeswar Misra (1995) emphasized that middle- and upper-class families in urban areas were undergoing a dramatic transformation because the younger generation is questioning power issues, traditional roles, hierarchical relationships, obligations, loyalty, and deference for kinsmen and elderly.With changing times, Indian family structure, functions, traditional division of labor, and authority patterns have altered, favoring more egalitarian relations between the husband and the wife and also a move toward more shared decision-making patterns between parents and children. Despite these changes, the fact remains that most individuals continue to value and give top priority to the family, and families continue to maintain strong kinship bonds and ties.