The Sea People of Sulu

The Sea People of Sulu This paper will examine the lives of a small group of boat dwellers of the Philippine nation. These unusual people are found scattered abroad the insular Southeast Asia. The data for this book was collected over a twenty-four month period of field research among the Bajau, specifically with the Bajau of southern Sulu. There are only a few of these boat dwellers left within the Mergui Islands, Celebes and Sulu. This book covers, in-depth, the Tawi-Tawi Island group and the Sibutu Island group. The Sibutu Island group is found twenty miles southwest of Tawi-Tawi. These groups have been depicted as wanderers because of their movements over time. There will be some insight into this untrue notion. The Sibutu Island group has left their boats to build homes on land. These people still use boats for fishing but now prefer to live on land rather than the sea. This paper will attempt to go over these changes that the boat dwellers have faced and are facing that have made t! hem more partial to dwelling on land. This paper will also give some insight on the similarities and differences between the boat dwellers and the land dwellers. These similarities and differences include their way of life, modes of subsistence, social and political structure, roles of women, religion, kinship system and their relations with each other as well as the other moorages. There are five different moorages that are recognized by the Bajau. The Bajau represent four percent of the Tawi-Tawi population. The boat-dwelling Bajaus household consists of a nuclear family. If a nuclear family is broken a person is added to make up for the loss. This could entail the head of the household dying and another man comes into to take his place or it could be a family adopting a child to fill the gap. In a turnabout, if a family has to many children than they can afford to take care of or if th...

How to Find the Aries Constellation

How to Find the Aries Constellation The Aries constellation, one of the oldest-known star patterns, is located right next to the constellation Taurus. Discover how to find Aries and its fascinating deep-sky objects during your next sky-gazing session. Finding Aries Aries is most visible in the month of November. To find Aries, look for a crooked line of three bright stars not too far from the Pleiades star cluster. The stars of Aries lie along the zodiac, the path the Sun and planets appear to follow across the sky during the year. The stars of Aries, plus a galaxy challenge. Carolyn Collins Petersen   History of Aries The name Aries is the Latin word for ram. In the constellation Aries, two stars make up the points of a rams horn. However, this constellation has had a wide range of different interpretations throughout history. The sky pattern was associated with a farmhand in ancient Babylon, a porpoise in the South Pacific, a pair of bureaucrats there in ancient China, and the god Amon-Ra in ancient Egypt. Aries and Meteor Showers Avid skywatchers know Aries from the meteor showers that bear its name and appear to radiate from the constellation at different times throughout the year, including: Delta Arietids (between December 8 and January 2)Autumn Arietids (between September 7 and October 27)Epsilon Arietids (between October 12 and 23)Daytime Arietids (between May 22 and July 2) All of these outbursts of meteors are associated with the material left behind by comets as they make their way around the Sun. Earths orbit intersects the comets paths, and as a result they appear to flow from the constellation Aries.   The official IAU constellation chart for Aries. IAU/Sky Publishing   The Stars of Aries The three brightest stars of Aries constellation are officially called alpha, beta, and gamma Arietis. Their nicknames are Hamal, Sharatan, and Mesarthim, respectively. Hamal is an orange giant star and lies about 66 light-years from Earth. Its about 91 times brighter than our Sun and is around 3.5 billion years old.   Sharatan is a fairly young star, slightly  more massive than the Sun and about a third brighter than our star. It lies nearly 60 light-years away from us. It also has a companion star that is much dimmer and orbits at a distance that still hasnt been determined.   Mesarthim is also a binary star and lies about 165 light-years away from the Sun. There other, fainter stars in Aries, too. For example, 53 Arietis is a runaway star that was violently ejected from the Orion Nebula (at the heart of the constellation Orion) in its youth. Astronomers suspect that a nearby supernova explosion sent this star on its way across space. Aries also has a few stars that are orbited by extrasolar planets.   Deep-sky Objects in Aries Aries contains several deep-sky objects that can be discovered through binoculars or a small telescope. The spiral galaxy NGC 772 in Aries. Adam Block/Mount Lemmon Skycenter/University of Arizona. CC-BY-SA 3.0   Perhaps the most interesting is the spiral galaxy NGC 772, which lies south of Mesarthim, and its companion galaxy, NGC 770. Astronomers refer to NGC 772 as a peculiar galaxy because it appears to have some structures not always seen in regular spiral galaxies. Its a star-forming galaxy and lies about 130 million light-years away.  Its very likely that its interesting shape (with one very bright blue arm prominently displayed) is due to an interaction with its companion. A few other very distant and dim galaxies are scattered throughout Aries, including NGC 821 and Segue 2, which is actually a companion galaxy to the Milky Way.

Film Schindler's List Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Film Schindler's List - Movie Review Example chindler' Lit i not jut a biography of Okar chindler, but it i the tory of how good can overcome evil and how charity can overcome greed. (Paldiel, 2007) chindler' Lit begin with the early life of Okar chindler. The novel decribe hi early family life in the Autro-Hungarian Empire, and hi adolecence in the newly created tate of Czecholovakia. It tell of hi relationhip with hi father, and how hi father left hi mother. Hi mother i alo decribed in great detail. Like many German in the outh, he wa a devout Catholic. he i decribed a being very troubled that her on would take after her etranged huband with hi negligence of Catholicim. Okar never forgave Han, hi father, for hi abandonment of hi mother , which i ironic conidering that Okar would do the ame with hi wife Emilie. In fact Han and Okar chindler' live would become o much in parallel that the novel decribe their relationhip a "that of brother eparated by the accident of paternity." Okar' relationhip with Emilie i alo decribed in detail a i their marriage. The heart of the novel begin in October 1939 when Okar chindler come to the Polih city of Cracow. It ha been ix week ince the Ger man' took the city, and chindler ee great opportunity a any entrepreneur would. For chindler, Cracow repreent a place of unlimited poibilitie becaue of the current economic diorder and cheap labor. Upon hi arrival in Cracow he meet Itzak tern, a Jewih bookkeeper. chindler i very impreed with tern becaue of hi buine prowe and hi connection in the buine community. oon chindler and tern are on their way to the creation of a factory that would run on Jewih labor. Around thi time, the perecution of the Jew of Poland begin with their forced relocation into ghettoe. Thi turn out to be timely for chindler a now he i able to get very cheap labor. (Fench, 1995) The next few year would go well for chindler and hi factory for they turned a great profit. In fact he made o much money that he i quoted a aying, "I've made more money than I could poibly pend in a lifetime." Hi worker were alo very happy. Thi i becaue "chindler' Jew" were treated a human a oppoed to being treated a animal. For them, working in chindler' factory wa an ecape from the ghetto and from much German cruelty. They loved chindler o much that hi factory became known a a haven throughout the Jewih community. However, thing began to go our for chindler, when the German ordered the liquidation of the ghettoe. oon all of the Jew in the Cracow ghetto were relocated to the Plazow labor camp. By thi time chindler had grown o affectionate toward hi Jewih worker that he refued to hire Pole, and intead ought of a way to keep uing the Jew that he had grown o accutomed to. A the Cracow Jew were relocated to the Plazow labor camp, Okar chindler came into direct dealing with the camp' dir ector, Amon Goeth. He did not like Amon, but he tried to get in on hi bet ide in order to keep uing hi Jew in hi factory. Amon agreed to let chindler ue them, and thu aving hi Jew from ome of the harhne of the Plazow labor camp. A the war began to go badly for the German, they decided to accelerate their "final olution" by ending the Jew to more initer concentration camp uch a Auchwitz. Thi i when Okar chindler finally come to the realization that he had the power to help hi people. (Yule, 1997) The now enlightened chindler decide to ue hi entire fortune to

Environmental policies Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Environmental policies - Research Paper Example On the other hand, the rule of Mao was succeeded by a period of first even more massive suffering but also later the unprecedented turnaround in the economy with a formerly agricultural and inward-looking country economy reversing its trajectory and coming to grow into four times what it was during the time of Mao to what it ended up becoming by the turn of the new millennium. Living standards skyrocketed, and China's economic boom resulted in the creation of a large middle class who consumed products that were in line with the rapidly rising incomes of the new rich: cars and the other symbols of wealth. This in turn has led to problems with the environment, as the economic growth spurred the consumption of oil and coal to power industries that manufactured goods for the rest of the world and to power domestic consumption as well. Other manufacturing-related processes also bred other forms of toxins to the environment as well as razed some vital ecologies into the ground in the name of progress and consumption as well. A telling set of statistics on the role that China plays in the global ecology versus economic equation is that it leads the world both in the production and consumption of energy, and that out of its total energy requirements,two-thirds are supplied by fossil fuels, with a substantial portion likewise supplied by nuclear power plants. These two power sources have implications for the state of the world ecology and for the sustainability of energy generation policies relative to the environment (Central Intelligence Agency). Taking a step back, the prominent role of China in the world economy and in the way their activities impact the environment have not gone unnoticed and have attracted the intense scrutiny of those who are natural stakeholders in the state of the world ecology and the environment, and that this intense scrutiny has provided a growing body of literature on the environmental policies of China. From the state of the nation's soil s and water supplies, to the examination of how China's environmental policies have attracted investments in their laxness, to aspects of policy relating to the environment versus the rise of cities, it is clear from the academic research that the concern over the environment in China is intense and far-reaching (Wei and Yang; Dean, Lovely and Wang; Vennemo et al.. Hubacek et al.). The consensus, even inside China and among China's ruling elite, is that current environmental policies and economic activities are harming China's future and are jeopardizing prospects for a sustainable future for the country, with the state of the environment characterized by rising levels of pollution that have implications for larger realities like climate change and the very viability of the way of life of the Chinese, and the long-term health prospects of its citizens (Volcovici, Grumbine; Friedman; Phillips; Duggan; Biello; The Economist Newspaper Limited; TV Novosti). II. Environmental Policies in

Language & Gender Essay Example for Free

Language Gender Essay

MIS :: Electronic information

Electronic information is essential to the achievement of government organizational objectives. Its reliability, integrity, and availability are significant concerns in most audits. The use of computer networks, particularly the Internet, is revolutionizing the way government conducts business. While the benefits have been enormous and vast amounts of information are now literally at our fingertips, these interconnections also pose significant risks to computer systems, information, and to the critical operations and infrastructures they support. Infrastructure elements such as telecommunications, power distribution, national defense, law enforcement, and government and emergency services are subject to these risks. The same factors that benefit operationsÂâ€"speed and accessibilityÂâ€"if not properly controlled, can leave them vulnerable to fraud, sabotage, and malicious or mischievous acts. In addition, natural disasters and inadvertent errors by authorized computer users can have devastating consequences if information resources are poorly protected. Recent publicized disruptions caused by virus, worm, and denial of service attacks on both commercial and governmental Web sites illustrate the potential for damage. Computer security is of increasing importance to all levels of government in minimizing the risk of malicious attacks from individuals and groups. These risks include the fraudulent loss or misuse of government resources, unauthorized access to release of sensitive information such as tax and medical records, disruption of critical operations through viruses or hacker attacks, and modification or destruction of data. The risk that information attacks will threaten vital national interests increases with the following developments in information technology: • Monies are increasingly transferred electronically between and among governmental agencies, commercial enterprises, and individuals. • Governments are rapidly expanding their use of electronic commerce. • National defense and intelligence communities increasingly rely on commercially available information technology. • Public utilities and telecommunications increasingly rely on computer systems to manage everyday operations. • More and more sensitive economic and commercial information is exchanged electronically. • Computer systems are rapidly increasing in complexity and interconnectivity. • Easy-to-use hacker tools are readily available, and hacker activity is increasing. • Paper supporting documents are being reduced or eliminated. Each of these factors significantly increases the need for ensuring the privacy, security, and availability of state and local government systems. Although as many as 80 percent of security breaches are probably never reported, the number of reported incidents is growing dramatically. For example, the number of incidents handled by Carnegie-Mellon University's CERT Coordination Center1 has multiplied over 86 times since 1990,2 rising from 252 in 1990 to 21,756 in 2000. Further, the Center has handled over 34,000 incidents during the first three quarters of 2001. Similarly, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reports that its case load of

Does the Internet Have a Negative Effect on Youth or Does Its Use Need to Be Monitored More Essay

Does the internet have a negative effect on youth or does its use need to be monitored more? The Internet has become a major part of everyday life for most Americans especially today’s youth but some say that internet has a negative effect on youth more than a positive one. The question is: are all of the effects of the internet negative? The internet is used by most youth for entertainment, to find information and to connect with people. Unfortunately while the internet can be useful it has been known to cause negative effects on children. Social networking sites are very popular among today’s youth. In recent years cyber bullying has become a trend among youth because of the internet. There are also cases that youth have been exposed to inappropriate websites while on the internet and it had a negative effect on them. The internet has been known to cause a negative effect on youth but it can be prevented if their internet use is monitored. Social networking websites that are popular on the internet Twitter, MySpace, face book and YouTube. It is said by some t hat youth spend more time on websites like these than studying and doing their homework. While most of the young people in the study got good grades, 47 percent of the heaviest media users, those who consumed at least 16 hours a day, had mostly C’s or lower, compared with 23 percent of those who typically consumed media three hours a day or less (New York Times). Some youth can spend all day on social networking sites. Often times social networking sites can also become a distraction to youth. Most youth would much rather get on face book or twitter than study or write a paper. Most of the time youth can begin writing a paper but end up spending hours on face book. Social networking sites also have been known to cause children to be kidnapped or raped. Because of the amount of information that can be put on these sites it is easy for them to be tracked. There have also been cases where youth have chatted someone under the impression that they were someone else. There have been several cases where children have been harmed because someone found them on social netwo rking site. This can only be prevented if youth internet is monitored. So it seems that social networking sites can only have a negative effect if the time they spend on social networks is not being monitored correctly. Cyber bullying is another negative effect from the internet. Cyber bullying is using the Internet to  send or post texts or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person. It has been said that forty-three percent of teens have been victimized by cyber-bullying in the last year (ncpc.org).Cyber-bullying is a result of youth being mad at another peer or just trying to have fun. Cyber-bullying has been said to cause depression and sometimes even suicide among youth. It has become a major problem among youth in recent years. A lot of the time cyber bullying takes place on sites like twitter, face book and sometimes even YouTube. There have been cases all over the news where youth have said that they became depressed because of cyber-bullying.Most youth who have participated in cyber bullying thought that it was funny and not realized that it would have a negative effect on the victim. There have been steps taken to try to prevent cyber-bullying but there are still some cases where it is still happening. Cyber-bullying can be prevented if t he internet use is being monitored. Almost eighty percent of teens said they did not have rules for the internet or that it was not monitored. While browsing the internet the youth can be exposed to a lot of inappropriate websites that most would agree they shouldn’t be exposed to. Twenty five percent of youth had unwanted exposure to sexual pictures on the internet in the past year, challenging the prevalent assumption that the problem is primarily about young people motivated to actively seek out pornography according to youth and society (Protectkids.com).One quarter of these youth were upset by being exposed to pornography. In other cases when youth are exposed to pornography they become interested and begin watching it regularly. According to one study, when youth under fourteen years of age are exposed to pornography it is related to greater involvement in deviant sexual practice, particularly rape (protectkids.com). It has also been said that because pornography encourages sexual expression without responsibility it endangers children’s health. If a child were to see porn he/she may think that is okay to have unprotected sex which could then lead to std’s and unplanned pregnancy( protectkids,com ). Although porn can and has had negative effects on children it has been said that porn does not always have negative effects on children. Some children are exposed and it has no effect at all. In the end it seems that it may depend on the child if it has a negative effect or not. It also seems that the only way that this can be prevented is if their internet use is monitored. There are strategies that  can be taken to do this (Council). It seems to be proven that the internet can in fact have a negative effect on youth. Social networking sites can cause youth grades to drop. Cyber-bullying mostly takes place on the internet and it cause youth to become depressed. Youth can be exposed to several inappropriate websites which can damage their future development. The internet can be a very useful tool for youth to have access to but it can also have a very negative impact on youth if it is not monitored correctly. To ensure that the internet does not harm our youth in negative way parents/guardians must monitor their children’s internet use.

Child Marriage in India

To be defined at length in a later section, child marriage is most simply, for our purposes, a marriage in which the wife is below the age of eighteen at the time of consummation. The practice of child marriage in rural India is deeply rooted in cultural values and grounded in social structures. And despite laws that prohibit child marriage, the practice is still extremely prevalent in many regions. Though the statistics are contentious, it is estimated that in some parts of India, like the state of Rajasthan, nearly 80 percent of the marriages are among girls under the age of fifteen† (Gupta, 2005, p. ). In India overall, roughly 47. 6 percent of girls are married by the age of eighteen (The implications of early marriage, 2004). Despite international human rights efforts, the eradication of child marriage is greatly hindered by the intertwined social issues that often lead to and are then in turn reinforced by the practice. Various underlying social factors inform why child marriage exists, including: traditional gender norms; the value of virginity and parental concerns surrounding premarital sex; pressure of marriage transactions (or dowries); and poverty (Amin, Chong, & Haberland, 2007). The social outcomes of child marriage are also significant, and often devastate communities in which these practices take place. Societies in which child marriage takes place have higher rates of early childbearing, unwanted pregnancies, maternal and infant mortality, sexually transmitted diseases (including HIV/AIDS) and unsafe abortions. Additionally, adolescent girls placed in child marriages are often deprived of basic health care and health information, and achieve extremely low educational attainment (Mathur, Greene, & Malhotra, 2003, p. – 11; Bruce, 2007; Amin, Chong, & Haberland, 2007). Apart from these health and societal consequences, such marriages also affect girls’ individual experience as social actors. Early marriage negatively affects girls’ social networks, decision-making power, and ability to negotiate with partners—all of which do influence the health and well being of the individual (Bruce, 2007). In many ways, the social issues that emerge from the practice of child marriage also serve to reinforce it—creating a vicious cycle. This cyclical pattern is just one reason why the practice has yet to be eradicated despite international pressure and legal interventions. Each of the problems that informs child marriage intersects in complex ways and the result is an incessant and engrossing problem that impacts all aspects of the social worlds in which it takes place, from the well-being of the individual girls to the economic, political, and cultural structures of general Indian society. What is most urgent about child marriages in India, however, is the relationship between child marriage and the increasingly severe Indian HIV epidemic. The rates of HIV in India are a topic of great debate between the Indian government and both Indian and International NGOs. Yet, there is a consensus that HIV, once an urban phenomenon in India that was primarily transmitted within high-risk populations is now gaining momentum in rural areas (â€Å"Fears Over India,† 2005). These trends are alarming and suggest that the cultural contexts in which these HIV rates are climbing need to be addressed. Additionally, recent research has found links between HIV and early marriage in communities across the globe. †¦[T]he majority of sexually active girls age 15-19 in developing countries are married, and married adolescent girls tend to have higher rates of HIV infection than their sexually active, unmarried peers† (The implications of early marriage, 2004, p. 1; Clark, Bruce, & Dude, 2006, p. 79). HIV/AIDS in India The Indian HIV/AIDS epidemic is relatively new, and, once limited to high-risk urban populations, HIV is rapidly emerging as a problem for general communities within Indian society (â€Å"Fears Over India,† 2005). HIV/AIDS is becoming widespread, and as it reaches new populations, it poses new problems. As child marriage is fundamentally a rural phenomenon in India, the particular plight of HIV in rural areas must be discussed. Issues like how to educate and provide treatment for people in poor, rural areas are emerging, and new cultural pockets of Indian society must be understood in order to more effectively implement these programs. Though contentious, recent figures estimate that roughly 2-3. 6 million people in India are infected with HIV. This places India third worldwide for the number of HIV cases within a country. â€Å"Overall, 0. 36% of India’s population is living with HIV. † While this may seem low, given the vast population of India, the actual number of people who are HIV-positive is remarkably high (Overview of HIV/AIDS, 2008). And in Rajasthan, the largely rural state in which the project will be conducted, it is believed that there is a prevalence of nearly 5%–extremely high for India (â€Å"AIDS in India,† n/d). Many who work in the health sector claim that they are witnessing a rapid rise in infections to new populations. Sujatha Rao, director-general of the government’s National AIDS Control Organisation, says doctors are increasingly seeing women infected by their husbands,† a population typically not targeted by reproductive health programs (â€Å"Vast Distances a Barrier,† 2008; Santhya & Jejeebhoy, â€Å"Early Marriage,† 2007). There is also evidence that knowledge of HIV is extremely low in the rural areas where the study will be conducted, particularly among women. The National Family Health Survey reports that only 19% of ever-married rural Rajasthani women aged 15-49 had ever heard of AIDS, compared to 65% of their male counterpart. Aside from the gender discrepancy of knowledge across India, however, a rural/urban dichotomy was especially pronounced among women (2005-2006 National Family-Rajasthan; 2005-2006 National Family-India). This lack of knowledge unsurprisingly also appears to influence behavior. Among currently married rural women, aged 15-49, only 38% used any â€Å"modern method† of family planning, compared to 55. 8% of their urban counterparts. More importantly, only 3. 1% of married rural women have used a condom (the only method in the analysis that would protect against HIV), compared to 13. 3% of urban married women. Furthermore, only 14. % of ever-married rural women (ages 15-49) knew that consistent condom use can reduce the changes of HIV/AIDS, in comparison to 61. 6% of their urban counterparts (2005-2006 National Family-Rajasthan; 2005-2006 National Family-India). A recent New York Times article reports that the rural problem of HIV is made more pronounced by the difficulties that HIV-positive people in rural communities face when attempting to get tested and treated. Many patients travel long distances each month to receive government-sponsored antiretrovirals, but the cost and time required for such a journey is difficult for many to achieve. In consequence, many patients simply give up on treatment, â€Å"an anathema in HIV therapy as it gives rise to drug resistance. † One doctor notes, â€Å"Travel can affect drug compliance. Patients who don’t get family support, women who may not like to travel along will just give up† (â€Å"Vast Distances a Barrier,† 2008). Child Marriage For the purposes of our discussion, child marriage is identified as a marriage that takes place before â€Å"exact age 18†Ã¢â‚¬â€a definition adhered to by UNICEF and other international organizations (Bruce, 2007). This definition is at odds with the definition provided by India’s recent Prevention of Child Marriage Bill, which states that a â€Å"†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢child’ [is] a person who, if a male, has not completed twenty-one years of age, and if a female, has not complete eighteen years of age† (The Prevention of Child Marriage Bill, 2004). While this discrepancy will be analyzed further below, given that eighteen is largely considered the age of consent, it is this standard to which our definition will be held. It should be noted that the betrothal of a marriage can happen at any time, and often will occur at birth. But that marriage is not defined as a child marriage unless the wife is given to her spousal family, and the marriage is consummated, before she reaches the age of eighteen. Furthermore, as most child marriages take place among girls who are minors, with male partners who are of age, whenever the term â€Å"child marriage† is used in this project, it is referring to a marriage that involves a female child. Child marriage has not been ignored by Indian or international policymakers, yet enforcement of these laws has been virtually impossible. The Indian government is often portrayed as uncomfortable when dealing with personal laws within distinct communities that are not derived from grassroots movements (Burns, 1998; Yadav, 2006, p. 7). Despite this, laws have been on the books for over a decade. In 1994, a Marriage Bill was introduced which â€Å"recommended†¦the enactment of a uniform law relating to marriages and [provided] for the compulsory registration of marriages, with the aim of preventing child marriages and also polygamy in society. † Yet, this law did not pass and in Rajasthan, to this day, there is no compulsory marriage registration (Yadav, 2006, p. 0). This legislation has been preceded by various attempts to limit the practice and legislate the age at which girls are married. In the 1880s, discussions of the first Age of Consent Bill began, and finally, in 1927, it was declared that marriages with a girl under twelve would be invalid. In 1929, India began to prohibit the practice of all child marriage by instituting the Child Marriage Restraint Act. In 1978, the Child Marriage Restraint Act was amended to â€Å"prescribe eighteen and twenty-one years as the age of marriage for a girl and boy respectively† (Yadav, 2006, p. 7). Due to the illegality of child marriage, the number of girls who are put into child marriage in Rajasthan is extremely difficult to know. And particularly due to differing definition employed by researches, no consensus yet exists among those who have tried to obtain a number. Researchers claim that, in Rajasthan, the number of girls married off before age eighteen is somewhere between 55. 5% and 80% and other researchers estimate that roughly 56% of Rajasthani marriages occur with girls under the age of fifteen (Yadav, 2006, pl. 10; Burns, 1998). Therefore, there is overwhelming evidence that child marriage is occurring in Rajasthan in large numbers, despite the laws against it. Why is child marriage occurring? What social, cultural, and economic contexts inform the persistence of this practice? Some assert that Rajasthani people either do not understand the law or simply ignore it (Yadav, 2006, p. 37). In a New York Times article outlining the practice of child marriage in Rajasthan, it was stated that â€Å"Each year, formal warnings are posted outside state government offices stating that child marriages are illegal, but they have little impact. In a discussion with a village elder in Rajasthan, the elder stated, â€Å"Of course, we know that marrying children is against the law, but it’s only a paper law† (Burns, 1998). Therefore, he suggests that the law is perceived as unimportant, allowing families to simply ignore it, and often without penalty. Additionally, cultural and social contexts still highly value this practice and Indian families often turn to child marriage to help cope with social conditions in disrepair. To approach this, I will first discuss the gender norms in India. How are women perceived? What are the practical implications of these norms? Secondly, I will discuss the value placed on virginity and understandings of premarital sex. Thirdly, I will discuss the economic factors that continue to promote the practice. And finally, I will briefly discuss the major consequences of child marriage, which will move us into a discussion of the links between child marriage and HIV. Child marriage is deeply embedded in ideals about the role of women and the status of girls in Indian culture (Gupta, 2005, p. 3). Understandings of the Indian family and a wife’s role more generally give huge amounts of insight to the status of women. Within the context of a patrilocal family ideology, girls are â€Å"reared to be obedient, selfsacrificing, modest, nurturant, hardworking and home loving. † In an interview with Seymour in the 1960s, â€Å"†¦one Indian gentleman expressed†¦, ‘American girls are given too much independence. A girl should marry young, before she has the chance to develop independent ideals. † By marrying girls young (and enhancing the disparity between her and her husband’s age), the male-based hierarchy is best preserved (Seymour, 1999, p. 55). Males are quite simply valued more in Indian families. They act as the head of the household, the breadwinners and the decision makers. These values are imbued from an early age and as the transition to adulthood is marked with marriage, these gender norms become particularly pronounced (Segal, 1999, p. 216; Gupta, 2005, p. 1; Yadav, 2006, p. 1; Seymour, 1999, p. 97). A woman’s primary role in the home is to produce sons, as this will bring honor to her family, and an heir for her husband. â€Å"In a society that stresses patrilineal descent, to bear children, especially sons, is critical, and girls learn from an early age that this is their responsibility† (Seymour, 1999, p. 7). Motherhood is additionally critical in order to establish the wife as a member of her husband’s family. As Indian families take collective care of children, producing a new family member is heavily prized and brings the newlywed status (Seymour, 1999, p. 99). How do women feel about their status and role in society? Seymour writes that, â€Å"Women are the moving pieces in an exchange system that creates extensive webs of kinship. Is this a hardship for them? Yes, for they must leave the security of their own family and join a different family. Do they find it oppressive? Sometimes, but not generally† (Seymour, 1999, p. xvi). Though others argue that â€Å"cultural dictation of female role and lack of continued financial and emotional support, predominantly from spouses and other family members, were influential factors in [high rates of depression among women]† (Jambunathan, 1992). The low value of girls is also reflected in traditions of female infanticide and abortions of female children and research that shows that women are by and large â€Å"neglected† by Indian society, resulting in poor health care and a high number of preventable deaths (Miller, 1981, p. 8; Segal, 1999, p. 218-220). In one survey, 52% of Indians said that they would get a prenatal diagnosis to select a male, as opposed to 30% who would in Brazil, 29% in Greece and 20% in Turkey (Segal, 1999, p. 219). These patterns have resulted in a worsening sex ratio in Rajasthan. It is estimated that between 750 to 850 girls are born per 1000 boys, a problem that not only reinforces these negative ideals about gender, but also could potentially be devastating to the longevity of Indian communities (Indian Census, 2001; Kristof, 1991). An Indian obstetrician interviewed for The Hindu stated that these days, it is extremely rare to see a family with two daughters, and some families do not even have one. In communities like Rajasthan, â€Å"people want to pretend they are modern and that they do not discriminate between a girl and a boy. Yet, they will not hesitate to quietly go to the next village and get an ultrasound done† (Thapar, 2007). And in a statement by UNICEF, the organization â€Å"†¦[says] that for most of the female fetuses that survive, ‘birth is the only equal opportunity they will ever get’† (Segal, 1999, p. 20). Additionally, child marriage is greatly informed by ideals of virginity—a cultural notion that has huge impacts on the intersections between HIV/AIDS and child marriage. â€Å"An unmarried, chaste girl symbolizes family honor and purity and is considered a sacred gift to bestow upon another family† (Seymour, 1999, p. 55). To exacerbate the outcome of these ideals, myths supposedly abound that men can be cured of various diseases, including gonorrhea, mental illness, syphilis and HIV by having sex with a â€Å"fresh† girl, a virgin. Bhat, Send, & Pradhan, 2005, p. 17; Burns, 1998) But as much as cultural ideals are echoed in the practice, â€Å"tradition has been reinforced by necessity† (Burns, 1998). Poverty is often cited as one of the major factors contributing to child marriage (Bhat, Sen, & Pradhan, 2005, p. 15). â€Å"Child marriage is more prevalent in poor household and in poor communities. Almost all countries in which more than 50 percent of gir ls are married before the age of 18 have GDP per capita under $2000 per year† (Gupta, 2005, p. 3). For families in poverty, marrying a daughter early can mean lower dowry payments and one less mouth to feed (Bhat, Sen, & Pradhan, 2005, p. 16). â€Å"An investment in girls is seen as a lost investment because the girl leaves to join another home and her economic contributions are to that home—so the earlier she is married, the less of a loss the investment† (Gupta, 2005, p. 3). What is devastating about the child marriage problem, beyond the human rights abuses, is the way in which it impacts both the individual and the community and the manner in which the practice reinforces itself. Impoverished parents often believe that child marriage will protect their daughters. In fact, however, it results in lost development opportunities, limited life options, and poor health† (Child marriage fact sheet, 2005). Child marriage continues to be immersed in a vicious cycle of poverty, low educational attainment, high incidences of disease, poor sex ratios, the subordination of women, â€Å"and most significantly, the inter-generational cycles of all of these† (Bhat, Sen, & Pradhan, 2005, p. 21; Gupta, p. 1-2).

The Carol Ann Duffy Essay Example

The Carol Ann Duffy Essay Example The Carol Ann Duffy Paper The Carol Ann Duffy Paper Essay Topic: Carol ann Duffy Poems Carol Ann Duffy is a poet who characterizes her written poetry through carefully channelled dramatic monologues. Through her work, many themes and issues are explored, including that of loss, love, adolescence, change and being misplaced. Her propositions in this poetry are not to create a mystique or confusion, but to communicate through the usage of various personas and portray the thoughts and feelings typical to that character. In this essay, I will look at two specific poems: The Dolphins and Comprehensive. They both include elements of misplacement, which is arguably the key theme to both. I will analyze this theme in particular, exploring how Duffy creates the semblance of the character and the techniques that are employed in her poems. In The Dolphins, we are introduced to an enclosed persona of which freedom has been curtailed. The poem is spoken from the point of view of a dolphin, which has been incarcerated in an aquatic centre accompanied by others of its species. The second line claims We are in our element but we are not free, meaning the conditions in which they reside (obviously being water) are familiar, however, their habitat (the aquarium) does not allow the unrestraint found in an ocean, where they rightfully belong. There is a man and there are hoops confirms to the reader that the dolphins are being circus trained in order to satisfy audiences, further supported in the third verse with the line There is a coloured ball we have to balance till the man has disappeared. In reality, this tells us that dolphins have emotions too, that they would rather be placed back in the sea than spend the rest of their lives performing in front of people, and the man, who the dolphins monologue seems to attract an aspect of resentment toward. However, it may have taken the dolphins some time to initially identify their limited surroundings an idea revealed in the second verse: After travelling such space for days we began to translate is a sad twist of dramatic irony; people could see the marine mammals had been enclosed, yet it took themselves a while to realize that this was not an ocean, and that the space no longer stretched beyond horizons. To continue the irony, the last sentence of the first verse states that There is a constant flowing guilt, as the people working alongside the dolphins of the aquarium may feel conscious at withdrawing the freedom of such a creature, and flowing is used as a metaphor linking to the water in which they swim. This technique draws a defeated sympathy from the reader, as there is little they can do to set these dolphins free. The Dolphins ends with a devastating statement on behalf of the imprisoned There is a man and our mind knows we will die here. These dolphins will never have the God given privilege to roam the outside world again, and are resigned to becoming the focal point of public enjoyment. The poem, to a marginal degree, could also raise the argument of animal rights, depending on the interpretation of the person. The thought of staying in one place for such a long time for anyone would be highly constraining at the very least, and so to take a living being out of water for cheap entertainment provokes the question of whether such activity should even be legal. The poem explores the theme of misplacement through resigned emotion. The flexibility of freedom is valuable to the quality of life, and the dolphins persona seems to understand this very clearly. The beginning of the third verse mourns And now we are no longer blessed, for the world will not deepen to dream in, and conveys its regret that they will no longer do as they please, that they are no longer blessed. The pool in which they stay will not expand its depths for the dolphins to cover new ground, and the line also metaphorically suggests that their dreams of independence are over in these shallow depths. The poem also displays the loss of hope through means of repetition. There is is a common phrase which appears in the poem on several occasions (There is a constant flowing guilt, coloured ball, no hope, amongst others) and this augments the effectiveness of the dolphins monologue, as a picture of their lives become clearer; as does the sorrowful tone.

ELLIS Surname Meaning and Family History

ELLIS Surname Meaning and Family History One of several popular names in medieval England derived from the Hebrew personal name Elijah, or the Greek Elias (Hebrew Eliyyahu),  meaning my God is Yahweh. In Old English the name was often spelled Elis or Elys. In Wales the Ellis surname derived from the Welsh personal name Elisedd, a derivative of elus, meaning kindly, benevolent. Surname Origin:  English, Welsh Alternate Surname Spellings: ELIS, ELYS, ELIES,  ELLISS, ELIX, ELICE, ELLICE, ELIAS, ELS, ELES, ALCE, ALES, ALIS, ALLACE, ALLES, ALLESS, ALLIS, ALLISS Famous People With the ELLIS Surname Albert Ellis - American psychologistAlton Ellis - Jamaican singer-songwriterNelsan Ellis - American theater and television actorPerry Ellis - American fashion designerC. P. (Claiborne Paul) Ellis -  American Ku Klux Klan leader turned civil rights activistDonald Johnson Don Ellis -  American jazz trumpeter, drummer, composer and bandleaderGeorge James Welbore Agar-Ellis - 1st Baron Dover; British politicianWilliam Ellis -  English  missionary and author Where Is the ELLIS  Last Name Most Common? Ellis, according to surname data from Forebears, is the 1,446th  most common surname in the world. It is most prevalent in the United States, where it ranks 113th, but it is used by a greater percentage of the population in Wales (45th), England (75th), and Jamaica (66th). Within Wales, the Ellis surname is found most frequently in the North, especially Flintshire (where it ranks 12th), Denbigshire (14th) and Caernarfonshire (16th). In England, it is most common in Devon (17th). WorldNames PublicProfiler has the Ellis surname as most commonly found in the United Kingdom, with the greatest numbers of individuals clustered in northern Wales and Yorkshire and Humberside, England. Genealogy Resources for the Surname ELLIS English Surname Meanings and OriginsUncover the meaning of your English last name with this guide to English surname meanings and origins. How to Research English  AncestryLearn how to research your English family tree with this guide to genealogical records in England and Wales, including birth, marriage, death, census, military and church records. Ellis Surname DNA ProjectA central site for individuals with the Ellis or variant surname  who want to participate in Family Tree DNA testing to learn about their Ellis ancestors and where and who they came from. Ellis  Family Crest - Its Not What You ThinkContrary to what you may hear, there is no such thing as an Ellis  family crest or coat of arms for the Ellis surname.  Coats of arms are granted to individuals, not families, and may rightfully be used only by the uninterrupted male-line descendants of the person to whom the coat of arms was originally granted. ELLIS Family Genealogy ForumFree message board is focused on descendants of Ellis ancestors around the world. FamilySearch - ELLIS  GenealogyExplore over 4.5  million  historical records which mention individuals with the Ellis surname, as well as online Ellis family trees on this free website hosted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. ELLIS Surname Mailing ListFree mailing list for researchers of the Ellis surname and its variations includes subscription details and a searchable archives of past messages. GeneaNet - Ellis  RecordsGeneaNet includes archival records, family trees, and other resources for individuals with the Ellis  surname, with a concentration on records and families from France and other European countries. The Ellis  Genealogy and Family Tree PageBrowse family trees and links to genealogical and historical records for individuals with the last name Ellis  from the website of Genealogy Today. References: Surname Meanings Origins Cottle, Basil.  Penguin Dictionary of Surnames. Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1967.Dorward, David.  Scottish Surnames. Collins Celtic (Pocket edition), 1998.Fucilla, Joseph.  Our Italian Surnames. Genealogical Publishing Company, 2003.Hanks, Patrick and Flavia Hodges.  A Dictionary of Surnames. Oxford University Press, 1989.Hanks, Patrick.  Dictionary of American Family Names. Oxford University Press, 2003.Reaney, P.H.  A Dictionary of English Surnames. Oxford University Press, 1997.Smith, Elsdon C.  American Surnames. Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997. https://www.thoughtco.com/surname-meanings-and-origins-s2-1422408

Second topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Second topic - Essay Example A shift in population away from rural areas and into city areas appears to be one of the most common human behaviors in this situation, and there are many reasons why this is so. The consequences are not always positive for the people who migrate, however, and there is also an impact on those already in the cities who then have to share their urban environment with increasing numbers of immigrants. This paper explains the factors which drive this migration to cities, and enumerates the potential hazards which can arise in urban environments. The especial vulnerabilities of the poor in this situation are highlighted, along with a number of strategies which can be followed to improve the standard of living of the urban poor. This paper contends that the best strategy to address urban poverty is to invest in environmental infrastructure such as waste disposal, clean water provision, transport systems and renewable energy sources but that the detail of such a strategy will be different f or each major city in the world. . Third world countries traditionally have large proportion of people who make their living by subsistence farming. This is a hard and unpredictable way of life which wears people out and makes them dissatisfied. One important factor is the tendency of families to have many children, which ensures the security of the older generation in the short term, but creates an ever greater pressure on basic resources in the countryside like food, fuel, and water. This is what creates the so called ‘population problem’ of the third world. (Anand and Morduch, 1998) Over time it becomes harder and harder to maintain the large families and so people drift to the cities to find ways of supporting themselves and their relatives. Weather catastrophes, wars and competition for scarce resources also drive people out of rural environments and these can occur suddenly, encouraging rapid and chaotic immigration to cities. Additionally there are factors which pull people towards cities, such as the possibility of new employment opportunities, a steady wage and broader horizons for personal development. The lure of products and services from the developed world is also very powerful, but often the aspirations of the migrants are not met by the reality of urban poverty. The economic effects of migration to cities can be very severe, as for example when the number of workers in an area rises, the level of wages is driven in a downwards direction, and the overall poverty in the area for long-term urban dwellers and new arrivals increases. These demographic effects have a different effect on women than on men, with women often suffering a hidden burden because of the demand to bear children, and pressure to produce sons causing lower survival rates in girls. (Anand and Morduch, 1998) It is the men who are able to migrate and take up new possibilities in the cities while women and girls are confined to domestic roles and are less able to benef it economically and culturally. Empirical studies on megacities, defined as cities which have a population of at least 10 million in 2000, have shown that the poor are at risk from many hazards. (Cohen, 1993) Size in itself is not necessarily an impoverishing factor, since civilizations who possess appropriate technologies sustain wealthy megacities such as Tokyo and New York. In Mexico city, however, the expansion has

Branding Kony2012 case study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Branding Kony2012 case study - Essay Example The main objective of this study is to answer the question how does self branding influence consumer behavior in relation to how they respond to advertisements. Successful branding occurs when a particular product, company name or symbol is easily identifiable and common among the target group to the extent that they relate to it. Successful brands influence consumer decisions in terms of what they wear, what they eat and what they associate themselves with (Fan, 2002). This is because of the role brand advertising plays in encouraging individuals to identify with a particular company and its brands. Different approaches are often employed by companies and organizations to bring out their messages to the masses through various media and try as much as possible to appeal to their emotions and impact on their actions and decisions regarding the brand. Each person has their own natural desire to express their own feelings and identify with the things they like. With this proposition in mind, companies have learned to position themselves and their brands in a manner that they can be relied upon by the people to express their character and identity (Fan, 2002). This research study aims at examining the reasons behind self branding and the impact it has had on consumer behavior across the globe. This study makes use of the ‘KONY 2012’ campaign as the main case study from which reliable observations can be drawn and analyzed. KONY 2012 is a short film produced by Invisible Children Inc to create awareness about Joseph Kony, an African militia and cult leader who is an international criminal and a fugitive of the International Criminal Court. By creating this awareness, the Invisible Children Inc would bring to light the atrocities committed by Joseph Kony in Central Africa in relation to kidnapping children and using them as child soldiers and sexual objects. The organization would then sensitize people to come together and stop Kony’s operations i n Central Africa and bring him to justice. The video achieved unprecedented success having had over 97 million views on the video sharing website, YouTube and over 21.9 thousand likes on Vimeo. The KONY 2012 short video has been dubbed as the most viral video clip of all time. The video was released to the internet on March 5th 2012. It is one of the most successful advertising campaigns ever and largely helped invisible Children to further its mission. At the end of the campaign, about 3.7 million people across the globe had identified with KONY 2012 and the company behind the campaign and about 3.7 million people pledged their support for the campaign by purchasing action kits sold by the company. From this case study, this research observes and identifies a powerful strategy deployed by advertisers to position their brand in a way that it can be used by people who want to express certain aspects of their identity through the brand. When KONY 2012 set out to establish their brand they began by grabbing the viewers attention with an emotionally gripping story directed by Jason Russell who introduced a boy name Jacob from Uganda, Africa. He describes what he went through when the rebel group L.R.A (Lord’s Resistance Army), lead by Joseph Kony, kidnapped him and like many other children, boys and girls are captured and forced into the rebel army to